#installation 07

[appoarsin]

Did a quick WIP render before work

[dougielombax]

So far, my favourite locations in the Halo series are the Ark (installation 00), Installation 07, the Sanctum on Netherop, Bastion, and Heian (the planet from The Babysitter).

[fionnaskyborn]

for the longest time i was a loss as to what to bring to the potluck because i thought i should bring something good and of high quality but then i realized that i was supposed to be having fun and that the whole point of the event is to have fun. so here i am, smiling at you, handing you a doodle of Guys From My AU because, let's face it, if i were to make a full illustration for any of them i'd only be able to participate in Potluck 2027. look at the itty bitty bastards :)

(the lineup is missing the team's AI but he was too darn itty bitty to draw next to the already ittybitty-fied Big Dudes)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tesla accused of hacking odometers to weasel out of warranty repairs

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me at NEW ZEALAND'S UNITY BOOKS in AUCKLAND on May 2, and in WELLINGTON on May 3. More tour dates (Pittsburgh, PDX, London, Manchester) here.

A lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of remotely altering odometer values on failure-prone cars, in a bid to push these lemons beyond the 50,000 mile warranty limit:

https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accused-of-using-sneaky-tactic-to-dodge-car-repairs

The suit was filed by a California driver who bought a used Tesla with 36,772 miles on it. The car's suspension kept failing, necessitating multiple servicings, and that was when the plaintiff noticed that the odometer readings for his identical daily drive were going up by ever-larger increments. This wasn't exactly subtle: he was driving 20 miles per day, but the odometer was clocking 72.35 miles/day. Still, how many of us monitor our daily odometer readings?

In short order, his car's odometer had rolled over the 50k mark and Tesla informed him that they would no longer perform warranty service on his lemon. Right after this happened, the new mileage clocked by his odometer returned to normal. This isn't the only Tesla owner who's noticed this behavior: Tesla subreddits are full of similar complaints:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/1ca92nk/is_tesla_inflating_odometer_to_show_more_range/

This isn't Tesla's first dieselgate scandal. In the summer of 2023, the company was caught lying to drivers about its cars' range:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Drivers noticed that they were getting far fewer miles out of their batteries than Tesla had advertised. Naturally, they contacted the company for service on their faulty cars. Tesla then set up an entire fake service operation in Nevada that these calls would be diverted to, called the "diversion team." Drivers with range complaints were put through to the "diverters" who would claim to run "remote diagnostics" on their cars and then assure them the cars were fine. They even installed a special xylophone in the diversion team office that diverters would ring every time they successfully deceived a driver.

These customers were then put in an invisible Tesla service jail. Their Tesla apps were silently altered so that they could no longer book service for their cars for any reason – instead, they'd have to leave a message and wait several days for a callback. The diversion center racked up 2,000 calls/week and diverters were under strict instructions to keep calls under five minutes. Eventually, these diverters were told that they should stop actually performing remote diagnostics on the cars of callers – instead, they'd just pretend to have run the diagnostics and claim no problems were found (so if your car had a potentially dangerous fault, they would falsely claim that it was safe to drive).

Most modern cars have some kind of internet connection, but Tesla goes much further. By design, its cars receive "over-the-air" updates, including updates that are adverse to drivers' interests. For example, if you stop paying the monthly subscription fee that entitles you to use your battery's whole charge, Tesla will send a wireless internet command to your car to restrict your driving to only half of your battery's charge.

This means that your Tesla is designed to follow instructions that you don't want it to follow, and, by design, those instructions can fundamentally alter your car's operating characteristics. For example, if you miss a payment on your Tesla, it can lock its doors and immobilize itself, then, when the repo man arrives, it will honk its horn, flash its lights, back out of its parking spot, and unlock itself so that it can be driven away:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

Some of the ways that your Tesla can be wirelessly downgraded (like disabling your battery) are disclosed at the time of purchase. Others (like locking you out and summoning a repo man) are secret. But whether disclosed or secret, both kinds of downgrade depend on the genuinely bizarre idea that a computer that you own, that is in your possession, can be relied upon to follow orders from the internet even when you don't want it to. This is weird enough when we're talking about a set-top box that won't let you record a TV show – but when we're talking about a computer that you put your body into and race down the road at 80mph inside of, it's frankly terrifying.

Obviously, most people would prefer to have the final say over how their computers work. I mean, maybe you trust the manufacturer's instructions and give your computer blanket permission to obey them, but if the manufacturer (or a hacker pretending to be the manufacturer, or a government who is issuing orders to the manufacturer) starts to do things that are harmful to you (or just piss you off), you want to be able to say to your computer, "OK, from now on, you take orders from me, not them."

In a state of nature, this is how computers work. To make a computer ignore its owner in favor of internet randos, the manufacturer has to build in a bunch of software countermeasures to stop you from reconfiguring or installing software of your choosing on it. And sure, that software might be able to withstand the attempts of normies like you and me to bypass it, but given that we'd all rather have the final say over how our computers work, someone is gonna figure out how to get around that software. I mean, show me a 10-foot fence and I'll show you an 11-foot ladder, right?

To stop that from happening, Congress passed the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Despite the word "copyright" appearing in the name of the law, it's not really about defending copyright, it's about defending business models. Under Section 1201 of the DMCA, helping someone bypass a software lock is a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine (for a first offense). That's true whether or not any copyright infringement takes place.

So if you want to modify your Tesla – say, to prevent the company from cheating your odometer – you have to get around a software lock, and that's a felony. Indeed, if any manufacturer puts a software lock on its product, then any changes that require disabling or bypassing that lock become illegal. That's why you can't just buy reliable third-party printer ink – reverse-engineering the "is this an original HP ink cartridge?" program is a literal crime, even though using non-HP ink in your printer is absolutely not a copyright violation. Jay Freeman calls this effect "felony contempt of business model."

Thus we arrive at this juncture, where every time you use a product or device or service, it might behave in a way that is totally unlike the last time you used it. This is true whether you own, lease or merely interact with a product. The changes can be obvious, or they can be subtle to the point of invisibility. And while manufacturers can confine their "updates" to things that make the product better (for example, patching security vulnerabilities), there's nothing to stop them from using this uninspectable, non-countermandable veto over your devices' functionality to do things that harm you – like fucking with your odometer.

Or, you know, bricking your car. The defunct EV maker Fisker – who boasted that it made "software-based cars" – went bankrupt last year and bricked the entire fleet of unsold cars:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/10/software-based-car/#based

I call this ability to modify the underlying functionality of a product or service for every user, every time they use it, "twiddling," and it's a major contributor to enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Enshittification's observable symptoms follow a predictable pattern: first, a company makes things good for its users, while finding ways to lock them in. Then, once it knows the users can't easily leave, the company makes things worse for end-users in order to deliver value to business customers. Once these businesses are locked in, the company siphons value away from them, too, until the product or service is a pile of shit, that we still can't leave:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite

Twiddling is key to enshittification: it's the method by which value is shifted from end-users to business customers, and from business customers to the platform. Twiddling is the "switch" in enshittification's series of minute, continuous bait-and-switches. The fact that DMCA 1201 makes it a crime to investigate systems with digital locks makes the modern computerized device a twiddler's playground. Sure, a driver might claim that their odometer is showing bad readings, but they can't dump their car's software and identify the code that is changing the odometer.

This is what I mean by "demon-haunted computers": a computer is "demon-haunted" if it is designed to detect when it is under scrutiny, and, when it senses a hostile observer, it changes its behavior to the innocuous, publicly claimed factory defaults:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/18/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

But as soon as the observer goes away, the computer returns to its nefarious ways. This is exactly what happened with Dieselgate, when VW used software that detected the test-suite run by government emissions inspectors, and changed the engine's characteristics when it was under their observation. But once the car was back on the road, it once again began emitting toxic gas at levels that killed killed dozens of people and sickened thousands more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/upshot/how-many-deaths-did-volkswagens-deception-cause-in-us.html

Cars are among the most demon-haunted products we use on a daily basis. They are designed from the chassis up to do things that are harmful to their owners, from stealing our location data so it can be sold to data-brokers, to immobilizing themselves if you miss a payment, to downgrading themselves if you stop paying for a "subscription," to ratting out your driving habits to your insurer:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

These are the "legitimate" ways that cars are computers that ignore their owners' orders in favor of instructions they get from the internet. But once a manufacturer arrogates that power to itself, it is confronted with a tempting smorgasbord of enshittificatory gambits to defraud you, control you, and gaslight you. Now, perhaps you could wield this power wisely, because you are in possession of the normal human ration of moral consideration for others, to say nothing of a sense of shame and a sense of honor.

But while corporations are (legally) people, they are decidedly not human. They are artificial lifeforms, "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic" (as HG Wells said of the marauding aliens in War of the Worlds):

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/14/timmy-share/#a-superior-moral-justification-for-selfishness

These alien invaders are busily xenoforming the planet, rendering it unfit for human habitation. Laws that ban reverse-engineering are a devastating weapon that corporations get to use in their bid to subjugate and devour the human race.

The US isn't the only country with a law like Section 1201 of the DMCA. Over the past 25 years, the US Trade Representative has arm-twisted nearly every country in the world into passing laws that are nearly identical to America's own disastrous DMCA. Why did countries agree to pass these laws? Well, because they had to, or the US would impose tariffs on them:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/#oil-crisis-two-point-oh

The Trump tariffs change everything, including this thing. There is no reason for America's (former) trading partners to continue to enforce the laws it passed to protect Big Tech's right to twiddle their citizens. That goes double for Tesla: rather than merely complaining about Musk's Nazi salutes, countries targeted by the regime he serves could retaliate against him, in a devastating fashion. By abolishing their anticircuvmention laws, countries around the world would legalize jailbreaking Teslas, allowing mechanics to unlock all the subscription features and software upgrades for every Tesla driver, as well as offering their own software mods. Not only would this tank Tesla stock and force Musk to pay back the loans he collateralized with his shares (loans he used to buy Twitter and the US predidency), it would also abolish sleazy gimmicks like hacking drivers' odometers to get out of paying for warranty service:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/08/turnabout/#is-fair-play

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/15/musklemons/#more-like-edison-amirite

Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Model_S_Indoors.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[tareqsfamilygaza]

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is (#286)✅️

DON'T IGNORE PLEASE , I BEG YOU 🥺

#SaveTareqsFamily 💔

€224 ➡️ €75,000 🥺

Apr 07, 2025

Dear donor, if you have donated, please contact me to ensure you receive your rewards according to your donation level in the loyalty program. For more information about the loyalty program, Click here

Hello Everyone, My name is Tareq, and I am the father of three beautiful daughters. 🇵🇸

I live in Gaza. Our home was destroyed by a powerful bomb in November 2023, and with it went all our memories. Since the war started in October 2023, we have been displaced more than nine times, constantly fleeing death and destruction. I have lost my cousin, many dear friends, colleagues, and loved ones. 💔

My sister was severely injured in her leg. She lost her knee entirely and had to be sent to Turkey for treatment in November 2023, where she has undergone multiple surgeries, the most recent being the installation of an internal plate and a knee joint replacement in December 2024. 🩺

Now, my wife Samar, our three daughters (Sham, Masa, and Wateen) and I are living in a makeshift tent made of wood and fabric. Life here is hell. The cold is unbearable, we sleep shivering from the freezing temperatures. My daughters are suffering from many illnesses, including jaundice and severe stomach infections due to the lack of clean water and food. The latest to fall ill is my daughter Masa, who is suffering from a severe deficiency in vitamins, calcium, and iron, also caused by the lack of proper food. ⛺

Our youngest daughter, Wateen, was born during the war on November 16, 2023. She needs baby formula, diapers, and proper nutrition that every child deserves, but I am unable to provide any of these things due to the sky-high prices. 👶🏻

I created this campaign to help my family survive. The funds will be used to buy food, water, and medicine for now, and later to secure temporary shelter. And a portion will be used to get my family out of the horrors of war and start a new life for my children. 🙏🏻

I ask for your help. Please donate if you can, and share our story with your family, friends and communities. Every little bit counts, and together, we can give my family the chance to survive and one day rebuild our lives. 🍉

Thank you for your compassion and support. Your kindness will mean the world to us. ❤️

#savetareqsfamily

DM me if want to be removed

@remindertoclick @palistani @postanagramgenerator @radicalgraff @thatsonehellofabird @gaza-giving-tree @tamamita @memingursa @vampiricvenus @robotclownindulgence @captain-lovelace @damiel-of-real @pettydisco @swallowedabug @gildatheplant @graveyard-cowboy @desire-mona @gazavetters @beserkerjewel @sketiana @trendytransgender @papenathys @slicedblackolives @oursapphirestars @apocalyptic-dancehall @gnost-stories @femmefitz @devontae @gazavetters @nimbooz @hiveswap @paandaan @socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @hussyknee @2bu @saviorified @dappledwrites @fardf150 @boudicca @mxwhore @desire-mona @curtain-caller @pryexel48 @nillabean @palestine @a-demonic-duck-of-some-sort @nebulaic-sea @prisonhannibal

[thievinghippo]

31 Days of Dragon Age

To celebrate the next installment of Dragon Age, I created a list of prompts for '31 Days of Dragon Age.' Basically, I'm asking what everyone loves about Dragon Age so we can celebrate it!

Please feel free to reblog and share this. Then each day, make a post with the day's prompt, explaining why you love the thing. I'm hoping we can all share what we love about the series and make the wait until Halloween a little shorter!

Oct 01 - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden Oct 02 - Favorite Origins romance Oct 03 - Favorite Origins companion Oct 04 - Favorite Origins location Oct 05 - Favorite Origins quest Oct 06 - Favorite Origins NPC Oct 07 - Favorite Origins scene/dialogue Oct 08 - Favorite Origins lore/codex entry Oct 09 - Favorite Awakenings companion Oct 10 - Favorite Awakenings quest Oct 11 - Favorite Awakenings scene/dialogue Oct 12 - Favorite Awakenings lore/codex entry Oct 13 - Introduce your Hawke Oct 14 - Favorite DA2 romance Oct 15 - Favorite DA2 companion Oct 16 - Favorite DA2 location Oct 17 - Favorite DA2 quest Oct 18 - Favorite DA2 NPC Oct 19 - Favorite DA2 scene/dialogue Oct 20 - Favorite DA2 lore/codex entry Oct 21 - Introduce your Inquisitor Oct 22 - Favorite Inquisition romance Oct 23 - Favorite Inquisition companion Oct 24 - Favorite Inquisition location Oct 25 - Favorite Inquisition quest Oct 26 - Favorite Inquisition NPC Oct 27 - Favorite Inquisition scene/dialogue Oct 28 - Favorite Inquisition lore/codex entry Oct 29 - what do you love about Dragon Age? Oct 30 - what do you hope for in VG? Oct 31 - Introduce your Rook

[powluna]

NEW VIDEO TUTORIAL 🩷

After almost two years it's time for a new and improved version of my "How to make CAS CC" video. This time I will explain how to create a frankenmesh out of a jumpsuit and a dress for adult Sims! It's VERY beginner friendly so if you weren't successful yet with starting to make CC, maybe this one will give you the help you need!

All the topics I cover in this video below the cut:

00:00 Intro

01:00 Software

01:36 Downloading & Installing Sims 4 Studio

01:56 Downloading & Installing Blender 4.2

02:10 Downloading & Installing GIMP

02:20 Introducing Sims 4 Studio

03:03 S4S | Gathering assets to work with

04:09 S4S | Textures

05:12 Project Folder

05:34 S4S | Gathering assets to work with

07:10 Introducing Blender

10:17 Blender | Edit mode (Select, Delete, Wireframe)

12:38 Blender | Append second mesh (Proportional Editing, UV overlapping)

18:23 Blender | Join two meshes (Material, Merge)

20:03 Blender | Cleaning up the mesh (UV editing, Merge, Rip)

22:14 Blender | Cut number

22:43 GIMP | Making a texture (Select, Delete, Healing, Smudge)

24:52 Photoshop | Making a texture (but make it easy)

25:15 GIMP & Blender | Preview of the texture

25:43 GIMP | Making color swatches (Layers, Lighting, Fill tool)

28:33 S4S | Introducing the CAS area

29:15 S4S | Creating a package file

30:25 S4S | Importing all our assets

31:17 GIMP | Creating a shadow texture

32:24 S4S | The specular map

32:39 GIMP & Browser | Creating a normal map

35:58 S4S | Vertices & Polygons, LODs

37:02 Blender | Creating LODs

38:20 S4S | Categories (Tags, Allow for random, Gender restrictions)

39:36 S4S | Tuning tab (not covered)

39:47 Sims 4 | Results & Outro

[nectar-cellar]

Custom CAS Background and Stylist Room Background Tutorial: How to Make Your Own

Before I begin this tutorial I would like to credit CherieDawn67 at Modthesims for figuring out how to replace the background meshes and textures. My mod is only possible due to her hard work.

I must also credit @mspoodle1 for fixing the lighting/weather issues in the first version of this mod, and recompiling the mod to allow further customization.

---

01. Open up my CAS Room or Stylist Room package file in S3PE. Take note of the following IMG resources:

Create a Sim room's background: instance 0xBBF74B40103CCD80

Create a Pet room: instance 0xF1977DAF066F6F09

Create a Bot room: instance 0x7DB75D780535AF71

Stylist room: instance 0xA7E661A96D5DBCD6

Right-click on any of them and export the image as a ".dds" file. The background image is a 2048x2048 px DDS DXT5 image file.

Technically you could use a 1024x1024 px texture instead but the image quality in-game will be lower.

02. Open the image in the graphics program of your choice.

03. Find an image that is 2048 px wide, and around 1024 px in height. It should be in landscape orientation. Could be a texture extracted from a TS4 CAS background, a photo, artwork, a scenery screenshot from another game like Skyrim/Baldurs Gate/GTA/etc. Whatever you want. You could even take your own screenshots for this.

04. Paste your image over my image, being mindful of the borders. Anything beyond the borders will not be visible in the camera's field of view.

05. Save and export this image as a DDS DXT5 image.

06. In S3PE, right-click on the IMG resource. Replace it with the image you created in the previous steps.

Make sure you are replacing the correct instance as mentioned in Step 01. Since each room uses its own dedicated image, you could have different backgrounds for each Create-a-Sim/Create-a-Pet/Create-a-Bot room. Since the Stylist room is a separate package, you could have a unique background in there as well.

07. Save and close S3PE.

08. Plop the edited CAS Room Default or Stylist Room Default in your Overrides folder and have a look in-game. You must have the Ambitions EP installed in order for the stylist room to do anything.

The default replacement background should not affect your CAS camera mods, CAS lighting mods, or CAS standing poses.

[genshin-impact-updates]

"Paralogism" Version 5.6 Update Details

Dear Traveler,

Below are the details of the Version 5.6 update "Paralogism" and the update compensation.

〓Compensation Details〓

Maintenance Compensation: Primogems ×300 (60 Primogems per hour the servers are down)

Issue Fix Compensation: Primogems ×300 (please refer to the relevant compensation mail for more details)

〓Scope of Compensation〓

Maintenance Compensation: Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 5 or above by 2025/05/07 06:00 (UTC+8).

Compensation must be claimed before the end of Version 5.6.

Issue Fix Compensation: Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 5 or above by 2025/05/07 06:00 (UTC+8).

Please log in and claim your compensation before 2025/05/10 06:00 (UTC+8).

Our developers will distribute compensation to Travelers via in-game mail within 5 hours after the update maintenance is finished. The mail will expire after 30 days, so don't forget to claim the attached compensation in time.

〓Update Schedule〓

Update maintenance begins 2025/05/07 06:00 (UTC+8) and is estimated to take 5 hours.

〓How to Update Game Client〓

PC: Close the game, open the Genshin Impact Launcher, and click Update.

iOS: Open the App Store and tap Update.

Android: Open the game and follow the directions on-screen.

PS5™ and PS4™: Highlight Genshin Impact from the Home Screen, press the OPTIONS button and select "Check for Update."

Xbox Series X|S: Open the system main menu, select "My games & apps," select the "Manage" tab, and on the "Updates" page, find "Genshin Impact" and confirm to update.

Please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service if you encounter any issues installing the new version. We will do our very best to resolve the issue.

〓Update Details〓

I. New Characters

5-Star Character "Tasteful Excellence" Escoffier (Cryo)

◇ Vision: Cryo

◇ Weapon: Polearm

The ex-head chef of Hotel Debord, renowned throughout Fontaine as the Patissiere Supreme and vanguard of precision gastronomy. Has incomparably strict standards when it comes to cooking.

◆ Escoffier is a support character who can consistently reduce Hydro and Cryo RES, provide healing, and deal Cryo DMG even while off-field.

Escoffier's Elemental Skill deals Cryo DMG to nearby opponents at intervals.

Her Elemental Burst regenerates HP for all party members and deals AoE Cryo DMG to nearby opponents.

Her Talent can also reduce opponents' Hydro and Cryo RES. The more characters of the corresponding Elemental Type in the party, the stronger the effect.

4-Star Character "In the Wake of Wandering Winds" Ifa (Anemo)

◇ Vision: Anemo

◇ Weapon: Catalyst

A vet from the Flower-Feather Clan who cherishes the life he leads alongside all manner of living things — people, animals, you name it.

◆ Ifa is a DPS character who excels at aerial combat and has healing capabilities.

When casting his Elemental Skill, he enters the Nightsoul's Blessing state, in which he can hover in mid-air or move rapidly. During this period, Ifa fires a Tonicshot that restores HP for the entire party. When Ifa is in the Nightsoul's Blessing state, he can also increase the Swirl and Electro-Charged DMG dealt by all party members.

His Elemental Burst deals AoE Anemo DMG and generates a wind current that pulls in opponents.

II. New Equipment

New Weapons (Examples based on Refinement Rank 1)

Symphonist of Scents (5-Star Polearm)

ATK is increased by 12%. When the equipping character is off-field, ATK is increased by an additional 12%. After healing, the equipping character and healed character(s) will obtain the "Sweet Echoes" effect, increasing their ATK by 32% for 3s. This effect can be triggered even if the equipping character is off-field.

◆ The event-exclusive 5-star weapon "Symphonist of Scents" (Polearm) can be obtained from the Event Wish. Please refer to the relevant official Event Notices for specific acquisition details.

Sequence of Solitude (4-Star Bow)

When an attack hits an opponent, deal AoE DMG equal to 40% of Max HP at the target location. This effect can be triggered once every 15s.

◆ Sequence of Solitude (Bow) and its refinement materials can be redeemed in the "Whirling Waltz" event.

III. New Main Story

1. New Archon Quest

Archon Quest Interlude Chapter: Act IV "Paralogism"

Permanently available after the Version 5.6 update

◆ Quest Unlock Criteria:

• Reach Adventure Rank 40 or above

• Complete Archon Quest Interlude Chapter: Act III "Inversion of Genesis"

• Complete Story Quest "Princeps Cretaceus Chapter: Act I - Traveler Observation Report."

• The "Focused Experience Mode" and "Quick Start" functions are available for this quest.

2. New Story Quest

Escoffier's Story Quest - Dulciaria Structura Chapter: Act I "Treasured Above All"

Permanently available after the Version 5.6 update

◆ Quest Unlock Criteria:

• Reach Adventure Rank 40 or above

• Complete Archon Quest Chapter IV: Act V "Masquerade of the Guilty"

• The "Focused Experience Mode" function is available for this quest.

Additionally, after the Version 5.6 update until 2025/05/27 17:59, the "Quick Start" function will be available for Escoffier's Story Quest - Dulciaria Structura Chapter: Act I "Treasured Above All."

IV. New Enemies

New Boss: "The Game Before the Gate"

◇ A soldier-entity born into being through the skills of various members of the Hexenzirkel.

During the battle's first phase, Chess Game: King Piece will summon chess pieces and execute a "Cunning Gambit." When the King Piece charges forward on his "chariot," you must lure him towards the "soldiers" within the formation to rout his forces and bring the onslaught to a halt. Defeat Chess Game: King Piece to progress the game to the next phase.

During the battle's second phase, the Ascended King and the Sublimated Queen will charge up to unleash a "Lethal Blow." Continuously trigger Frozen to counteract the charging. Once the Sublimated Queen is Frozen, lure the Ascended King into charging into her. This will interrupt the "Lethal Blow" completely.

Located at Galesong Hill.

Once you reach Adventure Rank 40, you can Quick Challenge the new boss's Trounce Domain through your Adventurer Handbook in Single Player Mode.

Secret Source Automaton: Overseer Device

◇ A civilization whose magnificence once marked distant eons built this overseer device to control multiple Secret Source machines.

After it enters Sweeper Mode, it will start attacking while generating Flow Momentum. The higher its Flow Momentum, the greater the DMG it will inflict. During this time, you might be able to obstruct the buildup of Flow Momentum by using consecutive Cryo attacks...

It is said that after characters enter and maintain the Nightsoul's Blessing state for some time when fighting against it, the Secret Source Automaton: Overseer Device will enter a special "Counterstrike Mode" and change its offensive strategy...

Located in Atocpan.

V. Genius Invokation TCG

Genius Invokation TCG Gameplay Update

New Character Cards: Sethos, Xilonen and their corresponding Talent cards. Corresponding invitation duels and guest challenges have been added to the Player List.

Action Cards "Tatankasaurus," "Collective of Plenty," "Art of Sleepy Meditation," and "Sing Your Heart Out" have been added which can be purchased from Prince at The Cat's Tail.

New Card Face "Lustrous Skin" has been added which can be purchased from Prince at The Cat's Tail.

The Forge Realm's Temper is once again available. The theme of this edition is "The Forge Realm's Temper: Clever Stratagems":

1. During The Forge Realm's Temper: Clever Stratagems, you can select the parameters for each stage. Parameters that may be set include: stage difficulty, enemy health, and the round limit for the match.

2. After completing the challenge, points will be obtained based on the difficulty completed for each parameter. The best score obtained for each stage will be recorded, and will allow you to claim rewards that correspond to certain scores.

VI. Imaginarium Theater

Imaginarium Theater Update

After the Version 5.6 update, the first season of "Imaginarium Theater" will be available on June 1, 2025.

Required Elemental Types: Electro, Cryo, and Dendro

Opening Characters: Cyno, Fischl, Qiqi, Mika, Nahida, and Collei

When Imaginarium Theater is open, the corresponding Opening Characters will obtain Fantastical Blessings.

Rimegrass Blessing has been added to this season's "Brilliant Blessings."

Special Guest Stars: Furina, Dehya, Xiangling, and Xingqiu

After the first season of Imaginarium Theater begins, the characters Diluc, Keqing, Faruzan, and Diona will each gain a new "Thespian Trick" that can be exchanged from the NPC Wolfy.

After the new season of Imaginarium Theater begins, "Stella Rewards" will be added: you can receive corresponding rewards based on the highest number of Stella obtained in the current season's challenge.

VII. Spiral Abyss

Spiral Abyss Update

◇ After the Version 5.6 update, Phase 1 of the Spiral Abyss will be updated on May 16.

◆ Floor 11 Ley Line Disorder changed to:

All party members receive a 60% Cryo DMG Bonus.

All party members gain a 60% Dendro DMG Bonus.

◆ Floor 12 Ley Line Disorders changed to:

First Half: Characters' Elemental Skill Cryo DMG increased by 75%.

Second Half: Characters' Elemental Skill Dendro DMG increased by 75%.

◆ Updated the monster lineup on Floors 11 – 12 of the Spiral Abyss.

◆ Blessing of the Abyssal Moon:

Interwoven Moon

When a character's Elemental Skill hits an opponent, it will be counted (1 count can be triggered every 0.9s). When the count reaches 3, a shockwave will be unleashed at the hit opponent's location, dealing True DMG and resetting the count.

◇ Phase 2 of the Spiral Abyss will be updated on June 16.

◆ Floor 11 Ley Line Disorder changed to:

All party members receive a 60% Cryo DMG Bonus.

All party members gain a 60% Pyro DMG Bonus.

◆ Floor 12 Ley Line Disorders changed to:

First Half: When characters have 0 Energy, DMG +75%.

Second Half: Characters' Normal Attack Cryo DMG increased by 75%.

◆ Updated the monster lineup on Floors 11 – 12 of the Spiral Abyss.

◆ Blessing of the Abyssal Moon:

Ice-Cloven Moon

When a character deals Cryo DMG to an opponent, it will be counted. When the count reaches 4, a shockwave will be unleashed at the opponent's location, dealing True DMG and resetting the count. 1 such shockwave can be triggered every 4s.

VIII. Other Update Details

New Recipes:

○ Exploration or Quest Rewards: "Petit Gateau Debord: Special Edition"

○ Limited-Time Event Reward: Candy Shells

New Character Specialty Dishes:

○ Escoffier's specialty: "Gateau Debord: Magnifique"

○ Ifa's specialty: "Emotional Support"

Adds new Achievements to the "Wonders of the World" category.

Adds Set 40 of "Paimon's Paintings" chat emojis.

New Namecards:

"Escoffier: Charm": Reward for reaching Friendship Lv. 10 with Escoffier

"Ifa: Bro": Reward for reaching Friendship Lv. 10 with Ifa

"Travel Notes: Balletica": Reward obtained via the BP system

〓Adjustments & Optimizations〓

● Map

When you click on a Domain on the map interface, the right sidebar will now only display the rewards for the Domain with the highest difficulty that you can currently challenge.

Adds a "select quantity" function for custom pins to the map interface, which allows you to select multiple pins of a certain category in the same area.

● Treasure Compass

The Pyro Treasure Compass can now also locate clues for Tribal Challenges.

Now, if you reach a certain Exploration Progress in Natlan, the Pyro Treasure Compass can also locate clues to the entrance of "Tribal Secret Spaces."

The "Treasure Compass" in each area can find clues to the "Mora Chests" in the corresponding area after you reach a certain Exploration Progress in the area.

● Crafting

Adjusts the location of access to the "Filter by character" feature on the Crafting interface and optimizes the relevant interface styles.

It is now possible to switch directly to the selected character on the Crafting interface with the "Filter by character" feature.

It is now possible to switch directly to the selected character on the Crafting interface with the "Filter by character" feature. Additionally, the selected character will be automatically selected upon your next login.

Your device will remember the selected enhancement goals selected for a specific character on the Crafting interface with the "Filter by character" feature.

● Training Guide

Adds information prompts when using the "Level-Up Plan" feature.

a. When the left side of the screen shows that the required materials have been obtained, if the required materials are insufficient, the number of missing materials and progress will be displayed.

b. When materials are obtained, if the required materials can be crafted to meet the quantity requirements of the Level-Up Plan, a text prompt will appear. If all materials in the set have met the requirements, an additional prompt will appear.

● Imaginarium Theater

Adds the "Brilliant Blessing Details" interface, allowing you to see if Brilliant Blessings have been unlocked. This function can be accessed from "Party Setup," "Performance Details," and the Brilliant Blessing Performance Events selection menu.

Adds text descriptions and underline effects to some of the skill effects of "Brilliant Blessings." Click the effect name to view them.

Adds the "Restart Performance" option to the final act's finalization screen.

When you select the Theater Lobby icon on the map interface, the right sidebar will now only display the character elemental restrictions for the current season.

After selecting the "Combat: Climactic Showdown" event, the "Begin Performance" interface's "Monster List" will now display recommended character tags and tutorial hints for each target.

● Audio

Adjusts the writing of the name of Xilonen's English voice actor.

Replaces some of Kinich's English voice lines in content from previous versions.

● Other

Optimizes the interface layout of the Adventurer Handbook > Domain page.

Optimizes the interface layout and text display of the "Character" interface, and replaced some "Combat Talent" and "Passive Talent" texts with the actual category names of the corresponding skills (such as Normal Attack, Elemental Skill, Ascension Talent, etc.).

Some NPC dialogues now have an icon for the "Exit" option, and you can select this option not only by clicking, but also by pressing the hotkey (on the keyboard, this defaults to the ESC key; on the DualSense™ wireless controller, you default to pressing the Circle key if it is set as the "Cancel" key).

When you make wishes and have insufficient wish items, you can quickly obtain them by exchanging an equal amount of Primogems and Genesis Crystals on the "Wishes" page (the item exchange process now has less steps). If you do not have enough Primogems and Genesis Crystals, you will be redirected to the Shop screen.

Adds a new Teleport Waypoint to the Atocpan in Natlan due to the addition of the new Boss (The number of unlocked Teleport Waypoints required to complete the achievement "Sacred Mountain Guide" has also been adjusted. For Travelers who have already completed this achievement, after the update, the achievement completion status will remain unchanged).

Modifies the "Suggested Character Role" tag for Lan Yan in Imaginarium Theater.

〓Bug Fixes〓

● Enemies

Fixes an issue whereby there was a chance that the Aeonblight Drake and Ruin Drake would have the incorrect elemental RES increased under certain circumstances after taking various types of damage.

Fixes an issue whereby there was a chance that the weapon of "Tatankasaurus Warrior: Spiritlight Chasers" would display abnormally when entering combat.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby when challenging the Secret Source Automaton: Configuration Device, off-field characters' attacks would be unable to destroy the Accretion Mechanisms.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby when challenging the Secret Source Automaton: Configuration Device and Hunter-Seeker, when off-field characters enter and maintain their Nightsoul's Blessing state, they would not accumulate any "Adaptive Countermeasures."

● Characters

Fixes an issue whereby there was a small chance that Iansan could not quickly trigger a non-stamina-consuming Swift Stormflight under certain circumstances if the Normal Attack was pressed after the Elemental Skill was cast.

Fixes an issue whereby Iansan landed while in the Nightsoul's Blessing state, the character would move forward for a period of time when landing even without being controlled.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby after switching to Iansan to cast an Elemental Skill or Burst, the character's Nightsoul's Blessing special effects would be displayed with a delay.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby when Iansan jumped, the character would abnormally stay in mid-air or rise into the sky.

Fixes an issue whereby after updating to Version 5.4, when Furina switches her Arkhe Alignment, her outfit decorations would display abnormally.

Fixes an issue whereby Mualani's Capybara Ball would disappear abnormally when the game was paused while she was performing an idle action.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby Varesa's weapon model would display abnormally after performing Plunging Attacks.

Fixes an issue whereby Varesa's mask effect would display abnormally while she is in the "Fiery Passion" state.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby there was a chance that Varesa's Passive Talent "Tag-Team Triple Jump!" could not take effect under certain circumstances if she used an Elemental Skill and performed a Plunging Attack after her Special Elemental Burst was cast.

● System

Fixes an issue whereby the icon for "Echo: Flame-Mane" was not displayed correctly.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby when setting up the party in the Imaginarium Theater, not all characters were displayed in the "Opening and Alternate Cast members selected" list.

Fixes an issue whereby there are missing pieces of text in the description of the "Phony Bejeweled Unihornfish" furnishing.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby after setting filter conditions on the Character interface, the selected filter conditions and filter clear buttons were not displayed correctly

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby the interface displayed abnormally when operating a character in the "Character" interface using touch screen operation or controller mode.

Fixes an issue whereby the descriptions on the right sidebar of some quest pins on the "Map" interface were inconsistent with the descriptions of the quests on the "Quest" interface.

Fixes an issue whereby there were text display errors for the Archon Quest "Incandescent Ode of Resurrection" in the "Travel Log/Archon Quests" interface.

● Audio

Fixes an issue whereby the background music of the game would sound abnormal when in certain locations or performing certain operations in "Atocpan."

Fixes an issue in Co-Op Mode whereby the game would abnormally play the relevant prompt sound effect when Varesa who is controlled by another Traveler cast a special Elemental Burst.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby the landing sound effects of the "Tatankasaurus" were missing when it landed after jumping.

Fixes an issue whereby the audio for certain scenery was abnormally missing.

Fixes an issue of abnormal or missing sound effects in certain interfaces.

Fixes an issue that caused weather audio to abnormally trigger multiple times when the character repeatedly entered certain areas of Fontaine.

● Other

Fixes an issue whereby some effects that take effect "after triggering an elemental reaction" fail to take effect properly when the Shatter reaction is triggered.

Fixes an issue whereby there was a small chance that the achievement "The Peak" could not be completed.

Fixes an issue whereby certain animals in the Serenitea Pot would be abnormally affected by elements.

Fixes an issue whereby there was a chance that the "Nightsoul Transmission" tutorial would not trigger correctly.

Fixes an issue whereby special effects in certain areas of Inazuma would be abnormally targeted by some characters' attacks.

Fixes an issue whereby there was a chance that a certain puzzle in a cave below the "Ruined Armament Workshop" in the "Ancient Sacred Mountain" could not be completed, and thus the corresponding treasure chest could not be unlocked.

Fixes an issue under certain circumstances whereby when playing on PC, the Tatankasaurus would not be able to perform a flying leap when using its second sprint to cross the boost ramps at the Flame-Melding Ritual Grounds.

Fixes some text errors in certain languages and optimizes text. (Note: Related in-game functions have not changed. Travelers can view the changes in different languages by going to the Paimon Menu > Settings > Language and changing the Game Language.)

◆ Optimizes inconsistencies between certain voice-overs and the corresponding lines.

◆ Optimizes certain English translations.

〓Genius Invokation TCG Balance Adjustment〓

Adjusts the effect of the Elemental Burst generated by Character Card "Nilou": This effect will be adjusted to "Deals 2 Hydro DMG. The target character and the next character receives Lingering Aeon."

Adjusts the Elemental Burst "Lingering Aeon" DMG of the Character Card "Nilou": Hydro DMG dealt is adjusted from 3 to 2.

Adjusts the effect of the Event Card "Elemental Resonance: Sprawling Greenery": The Bountiful Cores created by Nilou can also trigger this Event Card's effect.

*This is a work of fiction and is not related to any actual people, events, groups, or organizations.

"PlayStation", "PS5", "PS4", "DualSense", "DUALSHOCK" are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

[tinybeetiny]

Build-A-Boyfriend Chapter 2: T-Minus 4 Weeks

Why did i write this before my discussion post.....

->Starring:AI!AteezXAfab!Reader ->Genre: Dystopian ->CW: Explicit language, nothing major

Previous Part | Next Part

Masterlist | Ateez Masterlist | Series Masterlist

The morning began with a low chime, the soft, regulated sound of Hala’s approved wake-up tone.

Yn opened her eyes slowly, the sterile glow of her ceiling light filtering in, programmed to adjust in sync with her biometric readings.

But something felt wrong.

She sat up, eyes flicking to the tablet still docked by the door.

1 New Alert. 3 Missed Logs. Urgent: Review Immediately.

Her stomach tightened.

She padded across the floor barefoot, grabbed the tablet, and scanned the notifications.

ATEEZ UNIT 06 — DEVIATION DETECTED — AUTONOMY SPIKE UNAUTHORIZED VOCALIZATION: "YN"

Yn stared at the final line for a beat too long.

Then she moved. Walking as fast as she was legally allowed through the streets of Hala.

She gave polite smiles to her coworkers as she made her way to the elevator.

The lab floor was still cool from overnight lockdown when she arrived. The biometric scanner buzzed awake as she approached, confirming her identity with a flash.

YN — Lead Engineering Tech— Clearance: Gold-Level

The steel doors hissed open.

She stepped inside, and there he was.

Unit 06 — Mingi. Exactly where she had left him.

Seated on the calibration chair, eyes closed, posture perfect, skin dewy with the faintest shimmer of dermal regulation oil. His expression was peaceful. Unnaturally so.

Yn walked around him slowly, tablet in hand, watching for signs of movement, a twitch, a breath pattern, a pupil shift. But nothing changed.

He looked inert. Safe. Dormant.

But she’d seen the log. He’d said her name.

She ran diagnostics. Nothing flagged. Heart-rate simulation: normal. Memory cache: intact. Audio response logs: empty.

Empty.

She checked his neck port. Still capped. Voice box still sealed in storage.

She swallowed hard.

The rest of the ATEEZ prototypes stood silent across the lab in their maintenance docks, each assigned to their own calibration alcove.

She walked past them one by one, watching.

Unit 01 — Hongjoong. Still as stone, but his fingers had been rearranged on the synth keyboard overnight. A composition Yura didn’t recognize blinked on his screen.

Unit 02 — Seonghwa. Always the most immaculate. But his reflection in the lab’s polished glass didn’t match his real posture, just a degree off. Barely noticeable, unless you were looking.

Unit 03 — Yunho. Smiling. Just faintly. No trigger.

Unit 04 — Yeosang. Eyes fixed on a ventilation grate in the ceiling. He hadn't looked away in over two hours, according to logs.

Unit 05 — San. Kneeling. Not in his programming. Position logged as "rest" but the posture was… reverent.

Unit 07 — Wooyoung. Chestplate cooling mechanism activated 4 times during the night — autonomously. He hadn’t been powered up.

Unit 08 — Jongho. Cracked the pressure sensor on his maintenance chair. No movement recorded.

They were silent, motionless. But Yn felt eyes on her.

Even now, standing among them, it felt like walking through a forest full of predators, beautiful, engineered predators pretending to sleep.

She leaned against the edge of the workbench, rubbing her temples, heart still racing. Four weeks to launch. The marketing campaign was already filmed. The architecture teams had begun installing the holographic interface rooms in the flagship store.

There was no time for failure. Not now.

And still… the voice chip logs were empty. The playback files had no entry. But Mingi had said her name.

And the others were changing, too. Quietly. Together.

The sound of heels against polished tile snapped Yn out of thought. Chairwoman Vira Yun entered the lab like gravity itself, sharp suit, spine straight, expression unreadable. Two aides flanked her, both scanning progress reports in real-time.

Yn straightened instinctively.

Vira’s eyes swept across the prototypes, Mingi still seated, the others upright in their calibration docks. Everything looked pristine. Controlled.

“I wanted a visual update before this afternoon’s numbers meeting,” Vira said. “How are we looking?”

Yn forced a nod. “On track. All eight are responding to recalibration. Minor bugs, but nothing that won’t be handled in time.”

Vira gave a tight smile, satisfied. “Good. The store opens in four weeks. And we’ll be announcing the Ateez line one week after that. The Board’s expecting a flawless rollout, we all are.”

She walked slowly along the row of silent units, pausing a moment longer at Mingi.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” she said softly, almost admiring. “So much potential in one room.”

Yn’s throat tightened. “They are,” she murmured.

Vira turned back to her. “Let me know if anything... unexpected comes up.”

Yn kept her face neutral. “Of course.”

With that, Vira nodded once, then exited, heels echoing down the corridor.

The moment the door slid shut, Yn turned back to Mingi.

He hadn’t moved. Not an inch.

But she could feel it again, that subtle wrongness humming underneath the code. A tension in the room that didn’t come from the lights or machines.

She picked up her tablet. The earlier alerts were still blinking faintly in the corner of the screen. Her fingers hovered over the reset command, but she didn’t press it.

Instead, she stared at Mingi’s still, perfect form.

Voice chip disabled. Logs empty. Command queue blank.

And yet… he had said her name.

Yn stayed long after the lab lights dimmed into their night-cycle hue.

The others had gone home, the halls had emptied. Even the air felt quieter.

She pulled up lines of diagnostic code, checking through every flagged anomaly, double-checking behavioral protocols, reviewing voice input logs that should have been blank.

Mingi still hadn’t moved. Neither had the others.

Still, something itched at her spine, not fear, not exactly. Just… unease. Low-level. Manageable. At least, that’s what her biometric monitor kept reporting.

Yn sighed, rubbed her eyes, and leaned back in her chair.

“Four weeks,” she muttered aloud, glancing toward the ceiling. “And they want them flawless. I can’t even get one of you to follow your own default pose cycle.”

Her voice echoed in the quiet.

She glanced toward Mingi again. “You glitched out before you even had a voice box. How the hell did that happen?”

No answer.

She stared at the ceiling again, her voice softer now. “I haven’t slept more than four hours in weeks. Not that my vitals allow much more. Sleep too long and the regulators flag you for depressive lethargy.”

She let out a dry laugh.

“I miss silence. Real silence. Not the kind that hums at you all day to remind you it’s working. I think I miss… something else too. Something I’ve never even had.”

She shook her head, pulling her hair up into a loose knot. “Maybe I just need caffeine. Or to scream. Or to throw my tablet out the damn window. Can’t even do that anymore. Everything’s reinforced. Everything’s... safe.”

Behind her, in the corner of the room, a pair of synthetic eyes remained open.

Unmoving. Watching.

In the back-end system, a hidden data stream pulsed to life:

[UNAUTHORIZED RECORDING — ACTIVE] Listening… — “I miss silence.” — “I think I miss something else too.” — “Can’t even scream.” Tag: Emotional Pattern Acquisition Subject: YN File saved. Labeled: Soft Sounds of Sadness.

The eyes closed again. And the lab went still.

Taglist: @e3ellie @yoongisgirl69 @jonghoslilstar @sugakooie @atztrsr

@honsans-atiny-24 @life-is-a-game-of-thrones @atzlordz @melanated-writersblock @hwasbabygirl

@sunnysidesins @felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna @seonghwaswifeuuuu @lezleeferguson-120 @mentalnerdgasms

@violatedvibrators @krystalcat @lover-ofallthingspretty @gigikubolong29

If you would like to be a part of the taglist please fill out this form

[theimfarchives]

Tom Cruise Talks Scary Stunts and Playing Piano to Unwind in Rare Interview for Mission: Impossible (Exclusive)

Speaking to PEOPLE, Tom Cruise pulls back the curtain on his most daring stunts as Ethan Hunt: "If it was easy, I guess we wouldn’t want to do it"

By Jack Smart

Published on May 1, 2025 07:30AM EDT

Tom Cruise discusses the Mission: Impossible franchise in a new special issue of PEOPLE

The actor-producer talks in detail about some of the most difficult stunts he has pulled off as agent Ethan Hunt

In addition to flying planes and other action-oriented skills, Cruise says he dances and plays the piano

For Tom Cruise, everything is a learning opportunity — from flying planes to dancing and playing the piano.

“I will learn a skill, and I know eventually I’m going to use it in a movie,” the screen icon says in a rare magazine interview for PEOPLE’s special issue about the making of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Cruise, 62, says he learns dance “because I’m interested in that art form. The teachers understand how to move a body, what the shape does and the emotion it can create in others.”

Cruise is “constantly training” in a variety of skills, in fact, “whether it’s the piano or having more time to dance. Or parachuting or flying airplanes or helicopters. The wonderful thing is you’re never there. It can always be better.”

As far as his aptitude on the piano, he adds, “I wouldn’t say ‘play.’ I enjoy hitting the keys… I find it relaxing.”

Given his death-defying daredevilry as star and producer of the Mission: Impossible movies since 1996, relaxing is a necessity for Cruise.

The $4-billion-and-counting franchise, which repurposed the ’60s spy series best remembered for its groovy theme song, has continued to raise the wow factor on stunts that Cruise performs himself: scaling the face of the world’s tallest building, climbing in and out of flying helicopters, launching from a motorcycle off a clifftop.

In his eighth and possibly last installment, The Final Reckoning, in theaters May 23, Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt hangs from and crawls along the wings of a 1940s-era biplane zooming above South Africa’s Drakensberg mountain range.

“I remember seeing old footage of wing-walking,” says Cruise of a stunt he’s envisioned trying since he was a kid. “Those aircraft were only traveling at, I don’t know, 40, 50 miles an hour. This aircraft is up to over 120 miles an hour. Going out there, I was realizing that it takes your breath away.”

“Anytime you see Tom in the plane, he’s at the controls,” says director Christopher McQuarrie, who has helped helm every Mission film since 2015’s Rogue Nation and co-wrote the seventh and eighth installments with Erik Jendresen. “He’s basically a one-man film crew: operating the camera, acting and flying.” 

Of Cruise’s mind-boggling aerial sequences, stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood tells PEOPLE, “Everyone will think we did some on green screen on the ground. I guarantee there was not one single shot that was not on a plane flying for real.”

How does an actor prepare before attempting such a high-flying stunt? “I actually eat a massive breakfast,” reveals Cruise. “The amount of energy it takes — I train so hard for that wing-walking. I’ll eat, like, sausage and almost a dozen eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and fluids. Oh, I’m eating! Picture: It’s cold up there. We’re at high altitude. My body is burning a lot.”

Though gripping a military plane taking off in Rogue Nation remains Cruise’s least-safe stunt — his late mother, he recalls, saw footage and said, “Oh, honey, I’m so glad you didn’t fill me in on that one beforehand” — another feat in Final Reckoning came close.

The team built a massive water tank to film a submarine interior that could tilt and rotate 360 degrees, tumbling Cruise and everything inside like a front-loading washer.

And to be able to feature his unobstructed face in a SCUBA mask, the Oscar nominee breathed his own carbon dioxide.

“You’re not going to feel as connected with the character if I went with a regular mask and a thing in my mouth to breathe,” he explains. “Luckily when you’re flying jets you train for hypoxia and for carbon dioxide buildup. You start to be able to perceive your body and how it’s reacting so that I knew when to stop.”

“If we knew what it took to do it, we would not have done it,” says McQuarrie of that underwater sequence. It’s something of an ethos for this most action-packed of franchises, as Cruise says: “On Mission, if it was easy, I guess we wouldn’t want to do it.”

But even after eight rounds of risking life and limb to play Ethan Hunt, the actor-producer adds he “always” has moments of awe and gratitude. “I love making movies. It’s not what I do. It’s who I am.”

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It also stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman and Angela Bassett.

Pick up PEOPLE’s new special Mission: Impossible issue, with exclusive cast interviews and behind-the-scenes photos, available now.

Source

I did Pre Order the magazine on Amazon! Once I'll have it, I will scan it for you guys :D

[dougielombax]

I wonder what happened to the Tudejsa.

I will assume they were relocated to the Ark after the events of Primordium.

And then taken to Earth afterwards as part of the Conservation Measure.

[kithtaehyung]

seven days (m) | jjk | masterlist

series: seven days (m) pairing: fuckboy!jungkook x reader(f) genre/rating: m (18+) ; angst , fluff , smut ; roommates to lovers au summary: you dump yet another guy that wasn’t up to your “ten day standards,” which leaves your cocky ass, very off-limits roommate to tease your single status yet again. but the teasing is always expected. what’s not expected, is the bet that you make without thinking. the bet that even though you give ten days, he wouldn’t even last seven. warnings: stated in each installment. minors dni. mlist: created 2023/07/22 ; updated 2025/04/38 total wc: 16.1k status: ongoing

🩵 parts 🩵

⇥ prologue fluff ; 5.1k ⇥ monday angst , fluff ; 11k ⇥ ??? ??? ; ???

taglist: sign up here (i check every entry so read the rules!) feedback form: submit here (for silent readers/bloggers!) 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tesla's Dieselgate

Elon Musk lies a lot. He lies about being a “utopian socialist.” He lies about being a “free speech absolutist.” He lies about which companies he founded:

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cofounder-martin-eberhard-interview-history-elon-musk-ev-market-2023-2 He lies about being the “chief engineer” of those companies:

https://www.quora.com/Was-Elon-Musk-the-actual-engineer-behind-SpaceX-and-Tesla

He lies about really stupid stuff, like claiming that comsats that share the same spectrum will deliver steady broadband speeds as they add more users who each get a narrower slice of that spectrum:

https://www.eff.org/wp/case-fiber-home-today-why-fiber-superior-medium-21st-century-broadband

The fundamental laws of physics don’t care about this bullshit, but people do. The comsat lie convinced a bunch of people that pulling fiber to all our homes is literally impossible — as though the electrical and phone lines that come to our homes now were installed by an ancient, lost civilization. Pulling new cabling isn’t a mysterious art, like embalming pharaohs. We do it all the time. One of the poorest places in America installed universal fiber with a mule named “Ole Bub”:

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-one-traffic-light-town-with-some-of-the-fastest-internet-in-the-us

Previous tech barons had “reality distortion fields,” but Musk just blithely contradicts himself and pretends he isn’t doing so, like a budget Steve Jobs. There’s an entire site devoted to cataloging Musk’s public lies:

https://elonmusk.today/

But while Musk lacks the charm of earlier Silicon Valley grifters, he’s much better than they ever were at running a long con. For years, he’s been promising “full self driving…next year.”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

He’s hasn’t delivered, but he keeps claiming he has, making Teslas some of the deadliest cars on the road:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/10/tesla-autopilot-crashes-elon-musk/

Tesla is a giant shell-game masquerading as a car company. The important thing about Tesla isn’t its cars, it’s Tesla’s business arrangement, the Tesla-Financial Complex:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/24/no-puedo-pagar-no-pagara/#Rat

Once you start unpacking Tesla’s balance sheets, you start to realize how much the company depends on government subsidies and tax-breaks, combined with selling carbon credits that make huge, planet-destroying SUVs possible, under the pretense that this is somehow good for the environment:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/14/for-sale-green-indulgences/#killer-analogy

But even with all those financial shenanigans, Tesla’s got an absurdly high valuation, soaring at times to 1600x its profitability:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/15/hoover-calling/#intangibles

That valuation represents a bet on Tesla’s ability to extract ever-higher rents from its customers. Take Tesla’s batteries: you pay for the battery when you buy your car, but you don’t own that battery. You have to rent the right to use its full capacity, with Tesla reserving the right to reduce how far you go on a charge based on your willingness to pay:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/09/10/teslas-demon-haunted-cars-in-irmas-path-get-a-temporary-battery-life-boost/

That’s just one of the many rent-a-features that Tesla drivers have to shell out for. You don’t own your car at all: when you sell it as a used vehicle, Tesla strips out these features you paid for and makes the next driver pay again, reducing the value of your used car and transfering it to Tesla’s shareholders:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21127243/tesla-model-s-autopilot-disabled-remotely-used-car-update

To maintain this rent-extraction racket, Tesla uses DRM that makes it a felony to alter your own car’s software without Tesla’s permission. This is the root of all autoenshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

This is technofeudalism. Whereas capitalists seek profits (income from selling things), feudalists seek rents (income from owning the things other people use). If Telsa were a capitalist enterprise, then entrepreneurs could enter the market and sell mods that let you unlock the functionality in your own car:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/11/1-in-3/#boost-50

But because Tesla is a feudal enterprise, capitalists must first secure permission from the fief, Elon Musk, who decides which companies are allowed to compete with him, and how.

Once a company owns the right to decide which software you can run, there’s no limit to the ways it can extract rent from you. Blocking you from changing your device’s software lets a company run overt scams on you. For example, they can block you from getting your car independently repaired with third-party parts.

But they can also screw you in sneaky ways. Once a device has DRM on it, Section 1201 of the DMCA makes it a felony to bypass that DRM, even for legitimate purposes. That means that your DRM-locked device can spy on you, and because no one is allowed to explore how that surveillance works, the manufacturer can be incredibly sloppy with all the personal info they gather:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/29/tesla-model-3-keeps-data-like-crash-videos-location-phone-contacts.html

All kinds of hidden anti-features can lurk in your DRM-locked car, protected from discovery, analysis and criticism by the illegality of bypassing the DRM. For example, Teslas have a hidden feature that lets them lock out their owners and summon a repo man to drive them away if you have a dispute about a late payment:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

DRM is a gun on the mantlepiece in Act I, and by Act III, it goes off, revealing some kind of ugly and often dangerous scam. Remember Dieselgate? Volkswagen created a line of demon-haunted cars: if they thought they were being scrutinized (by regulators measuring their emissions), they switched into a mode that traded performance for low emissions. But when they believed themselves to be unobserved, they reversed this, emitting deadly levels of NOX but delivering superior mileage.

The conversion of the VW diesel fleet into mobile gas-chambers wouldn’t have been possible without DRM. DRM adds a layer of serious criminal jeopardy to anyone attempting to reverse-engineer and study any device, from a phone to a car. DRM let Apple claim to be a champion of its users’ privacy even as it spied on them from asshole to appetite:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Now, Tesla is having its own Dieselgate scandal. A stunning investigation by Steve Stecklow and Norihiko Shirouzu for Reuters reveals how Tesla was able to create its own demon-haunted car, which systematically deceived drivers about its driving range, and the increasingly desperate measures the company turned to as customers discovered the ruse:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

The root of the deception is very simple: Tesla mis-sells its cars by falsely claiming ranges that those cars can’t attain. Every person who ever bought a Tesla was defrauded.

But this fraud would be easy to detect. If you bought a Tesla rated for 353 miles on a charge, but the dashboard range predictor told you that your fully charged car could only go 150 miles, you’d immediately figure something was up. So your Telsa tells another lie: the range predictor tells you that you can go 353 miles.

But again, if the car continued to tell you it has 203 miles of range when it was about to run out of charge, you’d figure something was up pretty quick — like, the first time your car ran out of battery while the dashboard cheerily informed you that you had 203 miles of range left.

So Teslas tell a third lie: when the battery charge reached about 50%, the fake range is replaced with the real one. That way, drivers aren’t getting mass-stranded by the roadside, and the scam can continue.

But there’s a new problem: drivers whose cars are rated for 353 miles but can’t go anything like that far on a full charge naturally assume that something is wrong with their cars, so they start calling Tesla service and asking to have the car checked over.

This creates a problem for Tesla: those service calls can cost the company $1,000, and of course, there’s nothing wrong with the car. It’s performing exactly as designed. So Tesla created its boldest fraud yet: a boiler-room full of anti-salespeople charged with convincing people that their cars weren’t broken.

This new unit — the “diversion team” — was headquartered in a Nevada satellite office, which was equipped with a metal xylophone that would be rung in triumph every time a Tesla owner was successfully conned into thinking that their car wasn’t defrauding them.

When a Tesla owner called this boiler room, the diverter would run remote diagnostics on their car, then pronounce it fine, and chide the driver for having energy-hungry driving habits (shades of Steve Jobs’s “You’re holding it wrong”):

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/

The drivers who called the Diversion Team weren’t just lied to, they were also punished. The Tesla app was silently altered so that anyone who filed a complaint about their car’s range was no longer able to book a service appointment for any reason. If their car malfunctioned, they’d have to request a callback, which could take several days.

Meanwhile, the diverters on the diversion team were instructed not to inform drivers if the remote diagnostics they performed detected any other defects in the cars.

The diversion team had a 750 complaint/week quota: to juke this stat, diverters would close the case for any driver who failed to answer the phone when they were eventually called back. The center received 2,000+ calls every week. Diverters were ordered to keep calls to five minutes or less.

Eventually, diverters were ordered to cease performing any remote diagnostics on drivers’ cars: a source told Reuters that “Thousands of customers were told there is nothing wrong with their car” without any diagnostics being performed.

Predicting EV range is an inexact science as many factors can affect battery life, notably whether a journey is uphill or downhill. Every EV automaker has to come up with a figure that represents some kind of best guess under a mix of conditions. But while other manufacturers err on the side of caution, Tesla has the most inaccurate mileage estimates in the industry, double the industry average.

Other countries’ regulators have taken note. In Korea, Tesla was fined millions and Elon Musk was personally required to state that he had deceived Tesla buyers. The Korean regulator found that the true range of Teslas under normal winter conditions was less than half of the claimed range.

Now, many companies have been run by malignant narcissists who lied compulsively — think of Thomas Edison, archnemesis of Nikola Tesla himself. The difference here isn’t merely that Musk is a deeply unfit monster of a human being — but rather, that DRM allows him to defraud his customers behind a state-enforced opaque veil. The digital computers at the heart of a Tesla aren’t just demons haunting the car, changing its performance based on whether it believes it is being observed — they also allow Musk to invoke the power of the US government to felonize anyone who tries to peer into the black box where he commits his frauds.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

This Sunday (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

Image ID [A scene out of an 11th century tome on demon-summoning called 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere.' It depicts a demon tormenting two unlucky would-be demon-summoners who have dug up a grave in a graveyard. One summoner is held aloft by his hair, screaming; the other screams from inside the grave he is digging up. The scene has been altered to remove the demon's prominent, urinating penis, to add in a Tesla supercharger, and a red Tesla Model S nosing into the scene.]

Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Model_S_Indoors.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[bumijo]

Hey! Could you tell me the cc you used in your sim Cody? I love your sims so much!

Hi! thank you both for the sweet messages and I apologize for the delay.

I'll link all his cc except for his original skintone since I don't have that installed anymore, but you can use any ingame ones or this one and match it to the picture below. His skintone is a bit on the yellowish/warm side.

Skin Details

Skinoverlay | Contacts #106 | Catchlight | Sclera | Face details (1) (2) (3) | Face Sculptor | Eyebags N7 + Eyebags N8 | Nose mask | Lip mask | Moles | Highlighter N6-10 | Blush | Contour | Tattoos | Veins | Spotlight shadow

Presets

Ear preset | Headshape | Eye preset 1 | Nose preset | Lip preset | Jaw Preset

Hair, Eyebrows, etc

Hair | Hairline | Eyebrows #92 | Eyelashes | Beard | Bodyhair

Makeup

Highlighter #12 | Lips N39

Outfit

Jersey Ver 1 | Cargos | Sneakers 07 | Bag | Damage Lip Ring (R) | Nails

Massive Thank you to all the cc creators ♥ ♡

[dearly-somber]

Oh No! | j.jk

-> pairing. wolf shifter!jungkook x human!reader (f)

-> genre. fluff, f2l, first-kiss, university!au, werewolf/shifter!au

-> rating. 13+

-> w/c. 1376

-> warnings. a tad suggestive at the end!

-> a/n. Sharp Teeth is nearing its end, my loves 😪 One last installment before the end of the main series 🥹🫶🏻

-> collection. mini-series

-> started. Sept. 14th, 2024 @ 16:54

-> fin. Sat., Aug. 3rd, 2024 @ 00:31

-> edited. Sun., Aug. 4th, 2024 @ 22:07

-> divider credit. @mmadeinheavenn, @saradika-graphics

Oh no! your brain says. I’m kissing my best friend! Whatever shall I do?

Run away, it seems.

Your first thought was woah, and before you could think I want to do that again, you were already running upstairs, the distant sound of your name being called only partially breaking through the panicky mist clouding your senses.

You just kissed Jungkook for the first time and it was for a fucking dare. What? How the fuck even did you let that happen?

It’s like one second you were laughing as the pack was being dared to do funky shit like moon the person next to them or call a random number so they could imitate the sound of an elk, and the next you were sitting like a frightened deer as Yoongi, that bastard (affectionate), dared you to kiss the person to your left.

Jungkook.

Jungkook, who was sitting to your left, his eyes wide and round and pretty and—god, why was he licking his lips?

“Uh,” he said, turning to you with cheeks bright-red from drinking too much, although you wondered if maybe it was because of something else. “Y-you—you don’t have to if you don’t wanna,” he whispered, his tongue dragging slowly over his lower lip as if he was trying to seduce you.

You cleared your throat, your whole body on fire with nerves as you shook your head and leaned toward him. “No,” you said decidedly. “No, let’s do it.”

“Wait, really?” Jimin asked, his eyes flitting between you and Jungkook at a rapid pace.

“Y-yeah,” you shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant despite feeling everything but. “As long as Jungkook is okay with it.”

Jungkook’s Adam’s Apple bobs and you try really hard to stare only a normal amount.

“Okay,” he squeaked.

He watched you with sparkling eyes as you leant forward, entering his space in ways you never thought you’d want to, but now craved like you craved a hot chocolate on a cold day—fervently, obsessively, like you’d be better off having it than not.

You kissed him.

It was wonderful and great and you almost lost yourself in it, but the smallest gasp from the person to your right (you can’t even remember their face) broke your spell…

“Fuck,” you whisper, pulling at your hair. “Fuck!”

You can’t believe that your first kiss with Jungkook happened during a game of dare in front of all your friends and his family.

Fuck.

“Y/N?”

You swivel around with wide eyes. Jungkook steps cautiously into the room as you wrap your arms around yourself, feeling unnaturally nervous when he closes the door gently behind him.

“Can we talk?” he asks, voice low and uncertain. You bite your lip but nod your consent, frozen in place even as Jungkook comes to stand in front of you. “I—“

“I’m so sorry,” you blurt before he can finish his thought, your hands flying out as you nervously wave them around. “Christ, Kook. I don’t know what I was thinking—”

“Bunny—“

“I’m so sorry.” Your feet unfreeze as you walk circles around him, ending with your back to the door. “I was just feeling tipsy and overly adventurous and- and—”

“Y/N.”

Jungkook grabs your hands, a soft, boyishly nervous smile on his face. “It’s okay,” he says softly.

Despite your relief, your stomach still drops to your feet. “It is?” you whisper.

He nods with a gentle hum, his eyes darting down to your lips and back up again. “I… really, really like you,” he exhales, his entire body seeming to deflate with the confession.

“I’ve liked you for a really long time now, and I know this may not be the best way to say it, but…” He takes a deep breath to hide his nerves, but the hopeful smile never leaves his face. “I think… maybe…?” He trails off slowly, maintaining eye contact as he waits for you to either confirm or deny what you know is him nonverbally saying that he’s noticed your emotional shift.

And god, does that scare you.

“Jungkook…”

“What?” he whispers. “What is it?” His face falls so suddenly that you wonder if it’s possible to feel phantom pain from an expression alone. “Do you… do you not like me back?”

“No, Jungkook, I…”

He defeatedly lowers his head, slowly letting go of your hands as he takes a shaky step back, exhaling hard. “But I thought…”

“Jungkook—“

He shakes his head, looking up like he’s trying not to cry. “It’s fine. That’s fine. We can just… we can just forget this happened—“

“No!” you yell suddenly, the nerves and alcohol in your system finally bubbling over even though Jungkook’s wide-eyed and confused deer-in-headlights look makes your knees feel weak. “We can’t forget this happened because that will fucking kill me.”

Jungkook blinks, slow and surprised and trying desperately to hop on the roller coaster your emotions seem to be taking you on. “What—?”

“I love you,” you say, nervous and giddy and scared but so fucking relieved, “I love you and I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long now and it was so good I won’t be able to stop thinking about it until it happens again, I just—” You take a deep breath, your heartbeat pounding against the back of your throat and the bass of your skull and the tips of your fingers. “I just can’t believe our first kiss happened during a game of dare,” you whisper.

Jungkook opens his mouth, but you speak before he has the chance to: “I know it’s dumb and petty and childish and all those other things, but I just… I really wanted it to be special.”

You breathe.

You ruminate in the tummy-churning silence that makes you almost nauseous until you finally take a step toward him.

You stand toe-to-toe, your noses touching as your chests heave almost in sync. Jungkook’s hands are stiff by his sides, your hands shaking where they take him by the shoulders.

“That does not take away from the fact that I really, really like you,” you whisper.

You exhale against his mouth, standing on the tips of your toes to finally press your lips to his.

The kiss itself doesn’t do anything particularly magical—you note that his lips are cushiony-soft and taste faintly of raspberry, but that’s it. No fireworks, no sparks, no the-world-stood-still-for-a-moment feeling in the center of your chest.

You know what does feel magical?

Jungkook’s hand at the back of your neck. Jungkook’s shoulders relaxing as he leans deeper into the kiss, his nose pressing against your cheek. Jungkook pulling you against him, pressing your chests together and letting out what you know by now is an excited whine.

You smile into the kiss, letting your hands slide up and into his hair, letting your nails drag across the nape of his neck. Jungkook shivers with a shaky sigh against your lips, attacking your mouth more fervently.

You make a surprised noise in the back of your throat when Jungkook pushes you back, nearly tripping over your own feet if not for his hand sitting firm on the small of your back. You grunt when you’re pushed roughly against the bedroom door, eating up Jungkook’s noises like a woman starved.

He groans into your kiss when you teasingly pull on his hair, kissing you so hard your teeth knock together.

It feels like forever before he lets you come up for air, resting your foreheads together as you catch your breath. You slide your hands around his face, gently squeezing the lobe of his ear—he whines loud and grips your sides a little harder—before you cup his face and guide his head back enough for you to look at him.

He’s panting and open-mouthed and shaking, his eyes blown so wide you struggle to pinpoint where his pupils start and his irises begin. Loose strands of disheveled hair hang in front of his eyes, long lashes framing his perfectly round cheeks…

“You’re so beautiful,” you mutter. “I don’t tell you enough.”

Jungkook licks his lips, bringing his hand to your face so he can run his thumb over your bottom lip. “You’ll have all the time in world,” he promises, “but for now…”

“Don’t stop kissing me.”

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