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justkenlivin · 4 months ago

Text

Wax Wings Always Melt in the Sun

Introduction and warnings to the fanfiction here, (WWAMIS)

[Chapter 2]

ACT I: The Labyrinth

Chapter 1: Meeting the Kid

Let it be known that Anthony “Tony” Edward Stark, son of Maria Stark, had no clue what he was doing a good portion of the time.

Don’t kid yourself; he’s a genius, a man of three doctorates, count ‘em. He possessed endless information and was really a hub for any and all new-age, life-changing inventions. Any positive movement in technology in the past decade had Stark Industries plastered somewhere on it.

The man built a high-tech prosthesis (shove that up your ass Senator Stern) in a cave, with a box of scraps, shrapnel hurtling toward his chest, and all under the noses of the Ten Rings. Still, somehow, in the process, shifting a previous invention into a power source that had untapped potential.

They had privatized clean energy.

Yet, as he stood outside of the little apartment in Queens, he had no fucking clue what he was doing.

Tony could fiddle his life away, pushing out the endless ideas that were constantly building palaces in his mind. He thought in Blueprint Azure and white lines, statistics firing off at rapid-fire paces. The process of creating inventions and confirming plausibility happened in mere seconds. He could throw away the mantle, hide away when the next invasion comes knocking, and still live a life where he helped people.

And with all that. He stood there, in the honestly concerning yellowing walled halls, climbing up three flights of stairs and coming outside a creaky-looking cracked door. The A part of 3A was missing, leaving behind a dirty sticky underneath that collected grime in the shadow of the lost letter.

Absolutely and utterly fucking lost as to what he is doing.

Look, Tony was vividly aware of the moments that led up to this.

The Cave.

The Arc.

The Suit.

The Avengers.

Loki.

The Wormhole.

Wanda.

Ultron.

Sokovia.

Wanda again.

The council.

The explosion.

The soldier.

The accords.

He knew it, okay, every small moment that built up to this exact point, where he was knocking on the door of some one-parent family in the rough side of the city. He was the one sporting a black eye from the almost bullet, thank you very much.

After Ultron, after Wanda, Tony made sure to keep an eye out on the city, watching for people who popped up. People like them.

There were a couple: a man in a red suit in Hell’s Kitchen, the school that Fury had mentioned once in Westchester, some type of winged guy in Manhattan (he was cool)—though that one tended to branch out all over the city—and, of course, the arachnid in Queens.

It hadn’t been easy to find the kid. No one without the tech he had would have found him. It was his early stuff that had gotten him caught; something within month four of him being out and about made him change his habits. If Tony had to guess, he had some kind of close call. His patterns turned erratic after that, yet the two months of keeping the same schedule had kicked the boy in the ass in the end. With that, he was able to narrow him down to a Midtown school, a bit of dumb luck and stalking later, and ding-ding-ding, Peter Benjamin Parker, Midtown School of Science and Technology. Impressive. Tony knew a lot of funding went into that school from his pocket, and happily, it was practically a pipeline to the Ivy Leagues and big Tech companies like Stark Industries. Shaping the minds of the future and all that.

The first time he’d seen a video of the kid, he’d been helping some cat out of a tree. Tony had a laugh about that, really. The panicked yelps as the cat tackled some tacky red ski-masked figure in overly big bright sweats, and Sharpie really had him going there for a moment. In the end he'd shoved the kid to the side, not overly dazzled. The billionaire had brushed him off, figuring he would fizzle out like a lot of vigilantes. Yet when not even a month later, the figure now monikered as Spider-Man caught a bus. Then, he was a little more than intrigued.

The webbing had been the crux of his interest, though; he was excited at the premise of whoever’s mind was behind it. The work was genius, and that is high praise coming from him. Synthetic spider-silk, the first ever of its creation—light-years ahead of anyone else.

Only for Friday to inform him brightly that she’d unmasked the bug boy, and Tony was confronted with a chubby-faced fourteen-year-old with glasses so thick you could start a damn bonfire and a shy smile. All stuffed into a collared shirt with some nerd-pun tee over it.

He had a diagnostics test run on Friday after that one.

So he’d let it go, swept the idea of the kid under the rug. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that. Sure, he kept alerts on, making sure he didn’t get into something too serious. And, of course, Tony had meddled with the idea of a suit; honestly, the long johns this kid was sporting were an affront to superheroes alike. He needed an upgrade severely. So Tony had… dabbled with the idea of a suit. One particularly vicious fight between him and Captain Frozone had caused the engineer to retreat to his lab, and with nothing else to focus on, he'd spent 56 hours in his lab until a fully fleshed Spider-Man suit had come to fruition.

It was a stupid thing, with overtly protective protocols and, of course, an AI, because what 14-year-old genius wouldn't want an AI? But still. He'd locked it in that idiotic silver case and shoved it deep in a corner of his lab.

Out of sight. Out of mind.

Then the accords happened, and Rogers had been so damn stubborn.

So he picked up the fucking file again, and now here he was, knocking on the door and destroying some kid's life.

God, he really was the fucking worst, wasn’t he?

Stark men aren't fucking iron; they're poison. Destruction. Merchants of Death.

It opened, the wood creaking pitifully on its hinges as an attractive mousey woman opened the door, mouth slightly gaping as she pushed wide oval frames on her nose. “Tony Stark?”

The tone was slightly hysteric but well-contained, like when he did something stupid, and Pepper walked in. Trying to ignore the stab of guilt that consumes his stomach, he plastered on a paparazzi smile. “Mrs. Parker? Tony Stark, nice to meet you. Is Peter home?”

It is startling how fast the awe-struck smile slips from her face, a guarded hard mask in place as burning eyes meet his. “What do you want with Peter?” The door whines lightly as she pulls inward, gripping it.

He's caught off guard a moment, sincerely underestimating the vicious care that sprouted from her. The protection. Unsure if it was due to the loss they shared or if this is how every parent is supposed to react, he moved on.

“I’m here about his grant application?” Yeah, that sounds like a normal thing for him to be involved in. He is technically the owner. “Stark Industries is clearly impressed,” Tony laughs, gesturing toward himself. “I would like to discuss an upcoming conference opportunity.”

He was sure it would take Friday seconds to create the necessary paperwork, something that looked official enough to keep her off his ass. Unless, of course, she knew her kid—nephew—was dressed in red and blue sweats every night, facing muggers, robbers, and carjackers…

Somehow he didn’t think that was the case, but he'd been proven wrong by this kid before.

“Oh!” May gasps, gesturing him deeper into the apartment, a cozy thing, warm despite its surroundings. lemon-painted walls, corduroy-like mismatched furniture, and a plush gray-green couch pointed toward a small television. Pictures plastered the walls. Most of Peter at different stages of life, May, and another man, who had the same nose and ears as the kid. “Welcome in. Sorry for the mess.” She flusteredly apologized, waving her hands at the basket of half-folded laundry, and two mugs sat on the coffee table, one empty, the other long cold.

Tony gave a charming grin as he maneuvered in, walking past the little rack for shoes at the door and narrowly missing a pair of cheap, beaten Converse sitting smack-dab in the center of the walkway. His eyes catch a familiar branded heel that he'd expect to see in Pepper's closet, nevermind in the Parker's apartment. May Parker did not seem like a red-bottom type.“Please, you should see my workshop.”

His workshop is actually very clean, with sleek StarkPad surfaces, holo screens, and, of course, his bots. Sure, there were cluttered projects here and there, but he was as much of a scientist as a mechanic; he needed order to work.

The relieved smile that worked the way up on Mrs. Parker’s face was well worth the fib. Tony had read the damn files, seen that Peter was on scholarship, and followed the trail of loss that propelled the young boy forward in his life. The death of his parents as a kid, up to the abrupt demise of his Uncle, his last biological relative.

An orphaned genius turned to superheroism; where did that sound familiar?

Tony’s heart ached at the kid's story, really. It was a shit hand. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. No one deserved it, least not some kid in pajamas helping old ladies bring groceries into their houses.

The guilt sat hard in his throat as he sat down on the surprisingly comfortable couch, May fluttering around, grabbing the dirty cups from the table. “Would you like some coffee? I made walnuts and date loaf. Would you like a slice?”

Nodding happily along with her, he watches her retreat, followed by the whirr of a coffee pot and clang of silverware. Pulling his phone from his suit jacket, he smiles at the small notification seated at the top of the screen.

Friday… 1423

File Uploaded: title: Peter Parker Grant Permission Forms

A silent, atta-girl, fell from his lips as May came back in the room, a small plate and two new mugs filled with the strong aroma of cheap coffee. Still, Tony wasn’t particularly picky about that. Sitting down, Tony took the drink gratefully, “You know, I’m surprised.” He mentions casually, the confusion dotting across the woman’s face. “That you’re old enough to be an aunt, wow.” He flirts playfully, a huff and amused eye roll answering him.

“So, you said something about a grant application?” Her voice was low, “Peter didn’t tell me about an application.” It wasn’t an accusation, but there was an undercut to it that Tony couldn’t decipher, and panic set in.

Scrambling a moment mentally, he paused. Words sprouted from the corners of his mind; he hadn’t accounted for that, and yeah, kids with good parents usually told them when they applied to things. Support and all that mushy stuff. “I’m sure he didn’t want to get your hopes up.” He tried smoothly, picking up the crumbly and hard bread that had a weird texture with an undercut of way too much salt. Still, he hummed, “That’s wow.” He noted, hoping to dispel whatever had been built. “Delicious.”

It works, May smiles brightly, “Thank you!” She sang happily, “So what is the conference?”

Tony waved off-handedly, placing the rest of the bread down hastily. “A small gathering for scientists in the clean energy business.” He explains, trying to keep details vague but not noticeably lacking. “It’s an overnight weekend trip, and I have a team of interns going. Peter would be with some like-minded peers, a chaperone (Haha, Happy), and myself. It’s a grant, all paid for, in Germany.”

“Germany?” May spouted quickly, consternation etching on her face, “Peter’s never been on a plane.”

Ahh, yes, a quick reminder, his parents died in a plane crash, asshole. “Yes, this is a big opportunity, Mrs. Parker, and I will be overseeing him every step of the way.”

Before they could continue the conversation, the sound of keys hitting the lock clanged throughout the room. The front door swung open, and a boy with his earbuds in and head ducked down wandered in.

Peter both did and did not look like his photo. Here he stood taller, not as hunched in on himself, lithe but strong muscle hidden away under a thin baggy sweater unzipped to a pun t-shirt, of course. This Peter had bags under his eyes, even as he let out a cheerful, “Hey Aunt May!” As he closed the door.

Still not looking up, the kid waved his hand around, the one that wasn’t holding a beat-up DVD player, plopping down a bright orange bag on a chair as he directed himself toward the kitchen. “Hey,” May called fondly, sending Tony an amused look, “How was school today?”

The kid smiled brightly, perking his head up as if to tell her good news, “Okay! There’s this crazy car parked outside.” Ahh, yes, his Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé quattro, thank you Mr. Parker. At that moment, Peter looks up as if to discuss more before he’s left in complete shock at the sight of Tony perched on his beat-up couch, hard and crumbly homemade bread in hand. He freezes, and Tony is able to appreciate the similarities from his picture: big, unbelievably round eyes and curly hair that seemed untamable. A boyish smile that tugged at both sides of his cheeks, leaving his teeth fully bare in excitement.

May quirked her head to Tony as she looked at Peter over the back of the couch, Tony inclining his own to the boy. “Hello, Mr. Parker.”

“Uhm,” Peter breathed, pulling his earbuds from their spot slowly, fiddling with them as he took in the billionaire. A shaky hand pushes up as he advances toward the duo, “What are you …?” He gasped, head swaying in disbelief, realizing he was pointing and pulling his arms into his chest with a blush. “Hey!” The boy greets, “I’m, uhm, I’m Peter!” He stutters out as if Tony hadn’t just said his last name. It was awkward. It was charming. Very ‘baby colt stumbling its way about in the snow for the first time’ esque.

Cutting him a break as he takes a few more steps forward, “Tony,” he gestures toward himself with the bread.

Peter blinks at him, “What are you, uh, what are you… what are you doing here?”

Tony smiles at him, “It’s about time we met; you’ve been getting my emails right?” He tries to throw a wink at him and is quickly reminded of the pulsing ache above his cheekbone, and switches to the other. A double wink.

“Yeah!” Peter agrees quickly, shooting his eyes at his Aunt and then back to the man, “Regarding the–”

May’s voice took over, “You never told me about the grant?”

“About the grant.” Peter chimed in lamely. God, was this kid a bad liar. How the hell did he keep Spider-Man from her?

Picking up the overly large mug with little yellow sunflowers, he drew the attention to himself again. “The September Foundation.” Tony reminded lightly, come on, pick up the trail already. A quiet ‘right’ followed, “Remember when you applied?” He prompted, May splaying her hands out in exasperation beside him. “I approved. So now we’re in business.” Tony widens his eyes at him as he takes a sip of the coffee.

“You didn’t tell me anything about the grant,” May accused, shooting a look at Tony, “what’s up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?” What had meant to be playful fell short. Now that Peter was here, the lingering sound from before was much more apparent, and Tony had to grind his teeth down to suppress a wince; it was hurt.

Obviously, the teen also caught that as his lips tugged down, frowning and shifting from foot to foot slightly. “Well,” Peter admitted, and Tony held his breath a little, “I just, I know how much you love surprises,” he grabs his hand behind the small of his back and rocks on his heels. “So I thought I’d let you know…” He trails off, and May smiles softly at him. “Anyway, what did I apply for?”

Rushing in, Tony raised a hand, “That’s what I’m here to hash out.”

“Okay, hash out? Okay.” Peter breathed the words, awed as he really took Tony in. The hero worship was something Tony was semi-used to, but it still made him slightly itchy to be the receiver. Capsicle was much more the cuddly type than he was. The guy was a golden retriever when it came to praise, with bright eyes and a wagging tail.

Trying to segue, Tony nodded to May, “ It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt.” He says conspiratorially; he is especially amused as Peter’s face pitches downward at that, a scowl on his face looking not nearly as ferocious as he may seem.

“Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?” May snarks back, a smile as she does it.

Continuing on with his little game, he nods toward the honestly inedible rock. “This walnut date loaf is exceptional.”

Peter crossed his arm, “Let me stop you right there.” Tony paused in interest as the kid cut him down with an analytical stare, “Is this grant, like, got money involved or whatever? No?”

The billionaire, let me reiterate, the billionaire, could laugh. “Yeah,” he agrees brightly, and when Peter echos him, fiddling his hands shyly, he gives the kid a look. “It's pretty well funded,” Tony says snarkily, ignoring the awed sound the teen lets out. “Look who you're talking to.” Turning to May, he nods at Peter, “ Can I have 5 minutes with him?”

Instead of answering right away, May sends a look to Peter, who nods, and then she nods. “Of course.”

“We’ll go to my room, May; Downton Abbey is on in ten.” The woman lets out a curse, looking at the clock and springing for the remote as Tony is led down a tiny hall and outside a blank door.

Opening the door, he is dropped into what he is sure is a very nerdy teen boy’s room. Light powder blue walls plastered with Star Wars posters, a few scientific diagrams, and random other keepsakes. A rickety bunk bed is pushed against one end of the room, followed by a desk littered with gutted scrap metal, sheet paper, blueprints, and textbooks. There was a corkboard, covered in flyers, sticky notes and polaroid photos of him, a round-faced boy who was mid-laugh, and a blonde girl with wide eyes and a pretty expression.

Quickly spitting out the mouthful of walnuts he’d had earlier, he deposits it in the trash can. “As walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad.” He trails over to the desk, poking at a half-constructed circuit board. “Whoa, what do we have here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?” It was impressive, far too advanced for High School if he was reading the schematics correctly.

An embarrassed sound left the kid, “The garbage.”

Wandering around, Tony ignores the little Avengers memorabilia scattered across surfaces and surveys the kid's space.Trying to find any obvious places the ‘suit’ may be. Not the closet, which had no door unless it was stuffed inside. “You're a dumpster diver.” He remarks, and it isn’t meant to be malicious. Tony has always grown up with money; he wasn’t really sure what to do in its absence. The fact that this kid was able to scavenge what he did and produce the quality he did? Impressive.

It wasn’t meant to be an insult, but the look on the kid’s face told him it was received as one. “Look, I didn’t apply for a grant.” He confronted Tony, the worship wearing off as he came across as a little more than miffed yet still polite.

Humming, Tony begins to pull out his phone, “Ah-ah! Me first.” Peter lost his frustration at once, head quirked, “Quick question of the rhetorical variety…” A hologram of Spider-Man immediately lit up the room, “That's you, right?”

Shock overwhelmed the kid as his head bops between Tony’s smug face and the projection. “Um, no.” Peter denies hotly, “What do you … What do you mean?” The video shows the kid webbing some car thief up and shooting slightly out of frame, black goggles fully on display.

“Yeah,” Tony cuts in, with false sympathy as he flips the screen. A new video queued up, Peter having caught a car before it sped into an oncoming bus. “Wow, look at you go!” He cheered, watching the video again. Even if the amassment was exaggerated, there was definitely truth to it. “Nice catch. Three thousand pounds, 40 miles an hour. That's not easy.” Tony placed the phone on Peter’s desk, his eyes catching the entrance to the attic hidden amongst the ceiling paint. “You got mad skills.”

The kid’s mouth opens and closes like a goldfish before he pushes past the older man defiantly, “That's all. That's all on YouTube, though, right?” The way the teen says it is condescending sass. All the marks of a teenager. “I mean, that's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake. It's all done on the computer.” Peter explains it slowly as if Tony was in kindergarten, and that is the moment that the billionaire realizes this kid is also a little shit.

Tony plays the game as the kid turns his attention to the holograph, obviously interested in it. Humming in agreement, Peter carries on with his spiel, not noticing the wooden stick being pulled from its spot leaning against the wall and desk. “It's like that video. What is it?” Peter mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?” As soon as the teen sounded relieved, Tony pushed the door up, a bundle of bright red and blue falling before it was immediately snatched from his view and into Peter’s hands across the room. “Oh, what have we here?” He sings, watching the kid scramble to hide it amongst a row of flannel, leaning to block Tony’s sight.

With his shoulder on the doorway of his closet, Peter lifts his chin up slightly, trepidation flooding through him. “Uh … that's ah.”

Ignoring the half-assed tussle for some kind of plausible excuse, Tony latched on. “So. You're the Spider … ling. Crime-fighting Spider… you're Spider-Boy?” Each sounds awkward on his tongue as he fights around with the terms thrown about in the papers. Walking in front of the boy, hoping to get his hands on the suit.

Arms crossed petulantly; Peter grunted, “S-spider-Man.”

It was like Tony could hear the kid pronouncing the hyphen. “ Not in that onesie, you're not.”

Glaring at Tony, Peter put distance between the duo again, “It’s not a onesie.” He muttered angrily as he passed by. The billionaire fought his grin the entire time. Picking up the bundle, he flips it around in his hands to look at the details. “ I don't believe this,” the teen gripes, his hands falling to his desk. He grabs his screwdriver, waving it around as Tony tosses looks between him and the fabric. “I was actually having a real good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. Didn't miss my train, this perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there and . . . Algebra test. Nailed it!” His eyes stayed on the chunky desktop computer while Tony tilted his head.

“Who else knows? Anybody?” A stricken look across the boy’s face, unsure and hesitant.

Whatever came out of his mouth next was definitely a lie, but the way the kid signed out ‘Nobody’ like he was Atlas and the entire world spun across his shoulders… didn’t sit right with Tony.

So he tilted his head; someone knew, “ Not even your… unusually attractive aunt?” Tony tries because it’d be easy if it were. Then, the man could leave the kid to his own devices, under the watchful eye of someone who was good and cared for the kid. Someone to stop Tony from dragging a fifteen-year-old to an avenger’s intervention.

Not that he thinks it’ll escalate. Hopefully, the show of face will stop Rogers long enough to fucking talk.

Tony can fix this; he really can. Amend the damn accords, and push Ross out of office, it just takes time, and it takes power, and he can’t do that with America’s golden boy running off with a terrorist-war-criminal-assassin.

But he has seen what the people think, the unrest, the helplessness. They needed some form of accountability; they weren’t infallible, they made mistakes, and who was going to answer for them?

“No!” Peter’s almost-yell was enough to draw him from his mind, listening to the babbles as Tony sat himself in a desk chair.“No, no. No, no. If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out.”

So, not his aunt then. Damnit.

Fidgeting with the little metallic dispensers for kids' webs, he popped the glass cartridge out, playing with it between his fingers. He still wasn’t able to get the damn makeup. He’d need it for the kid’s suit. “You know what I think is really cool? This webbing.” He throws the bottle at Peter, trying to sus out his awareness. The teen seemed to have amazing reflexes in videos, and this did not disappoint. Does not even glance as he flicks his hand up, catching it with blinding speed. “That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?”

“I did.” Impressive. The kid chucks the tube with disinterest, landing somewhere across the room. Picking up the gloves, he pries the other one out and places it in his suit pocket before splaying his fingers over the gloves.

Not acknowledging the genius of it out loud, Tony continues his hounding, all the questions he’d had before bubbling to the surface. Another thing about the genius is that he’s a mechanic, a scientist, and an inventor. He liked—no—needed to understand how things worked. Things rarely kept his interest for long, usually a few hours, and some coffee was enough for even the most stubborn of issues. Yet, Spider-Man was an enigma. “ Climbing the walls, how are you doing that? Adhesive gloves?”

“It’s a long story—” Peter begins when Tony pushes the goggles up to his eyes, the room dimming dramatically.

“Lordy! Can you even see in these?” The billionaire let out a strangled sound when the suit was pulled from his hands.

Peter is letting out flustered and embarrassed protests, obviously overly tired with this exchange, not quite used to the eccentricity of it all. “Yes, I can! I can. I can-I can see in those. Okay? It's just that, when whatever happened, happened, it's like my senses have been dialed to 11. There's way too much input, so they just kinda help me focus.”

Tony did know, Cap Attack had similar issues when he came out of the machine. It was written in Howard’s notes. Even in the 20th century, press conferences could get too overwhelming. If the kid was anything like him, he understood. “You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom. 100-point restoration. That's why I'm here.” Tony finally reveals, like a last hoorah. Peter sat on the bottom bunk across from him, his fingers dancing between one another in a nervous shuffle. “Why you doing this? I gotta know. What's your MO? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning?”

That really was the question. He knows why he does it, originally as a means to make amends. Getting his company's weapons out of the hands of evil. Then it was to quiet the echoing ‘Don’t waste your life’ that followed him into the quietest of dreams.

And now?

God, he didn’t even know.

Yet, this kid, this fifteen–year–old looks up at him with so much conviction. His words were slow, deliberate, and careful. It is as if he is truly trying to pick apart the smallest of details and hopes the amassment will be enough to please the great Iron Man.

Hero worship.

And what a hero this kid chose.

“Because.” Peter begins, dropping his eyes to his hands, “Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for nine months…” Tony nods encouragingly, “ I read books, I build computers, and–and yeah. I would love to play football. But I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now.”

Tony nods, “Sure because you’re different.” If there was anything he understood, it was being different.

“Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not. When you can do the things that I can, but you don't…” Tony catches himself leaning in, enraptured by the explanation, “And then the bad things happen; they happen because of you.”

It was astonishing how someone so young can be so selfless and so full of good. Good nature, good intentions … just good. It’s refreshing, someone who wanted to help because he was able. Not for gain of fame or recognition. No one to give him a pat on the back when things went right or hold him when things went wrong. “So you wanna look out for the little guy? You wanna do your part? Make the world a better place, all that, right?” Tony surmised, not at all disappointed with the answer he’d been given.

“Yeah,” Peter sighs, brushing off whatever had weighed down on him, “yeah!” He stated brighter, a smile, “Just looking out . . . for the little guy. That's--that's what it is.”

Tony lifted himself from the chair, ignoring the creak in his knees as he placed the suit down in his spot, walking over before shooing away the kid’s leg playfully. “ I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg.” He gestured to the outstretched limb that immediately snapped inward as Tony settled, hesitating before clapping Peter on the shoulder, the kid was feeling something, and the mechanic wasn’t that big of an asshole. “You got a passport?”

“N-no!” Peter laughed, looking down at his lap, “ Uh, no. I don't even have a driver's license.”

Right, Tony sighs; the kid just turned fifteen, and he wasn’t even old enough for a permit. “You ever been to Germany?”

“No!” He kept his hand on the kid’s shoulder for a moment before he pulled back, shrugging.

“Why?”

It was like watching a kid who had been called on in school when he wasn’t paying attention. “I’ve got homework.”

This supposed genius was real rough in the lying department. “I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that.” Tony decides for him, sweeping himself up as he makes his way to the door, ignoring Peter’s protests.

“I'm—I'm being serious! I can't just drop out of school!”

Tony neared the door, “Might be a little dangerous. Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip.”

As his hand goes to grip the door handle, a sticky substance flattens it to the door with a quiet thwip. Peter stood, chest puffed in what he was sure the boy was an intimidating pose. “Don't tell Aunt May.”

Still awesome. Tony thinks, eyeing the way the webbing spreads across his flesh, wrapped so tight he couldn’t wiggle his fingers. The way it fractured off of itself in the pattern of an honest spider web.

He was inspired by the kid’s moxie to his moniker, that was for sure. “Okay, Spider-Man.” Tony conceded, holding Peter’s excited gaze before nudging his head down impatiently. “Get me out of this.”

You can almost see the moment the teen is knocked from his self-assured stupor because his face falls in the shock that can only come from the realization that he had, in fact, webbed his childhood hero to his bedroom door. “ Sorry, I'll get the…” Peter gestures to his desk before he makes his way over. Grabbing a vile of an almost clear solution, a light blue sheer to it. “So… what’s in Germany?” Peter asks, walking over to Tony.

The billionaire watched as the dropper dipped into the solution before slowly spreading across the tendrils of white. “You know the accords?” It was public information, after all, but he didn’t know how much kids knew about politics.

Peter half-focused on his hand. “It’ll take a couple of minutes,” The boy’s nose scrunched in a dissatisfied manner. Tony was sure it was a formula the kid was still tweaking, “It’s just not instant. And yes, I read about it in Advisory. We cover current events.”

The hero surmised that it must be a class as he felt the webs begin to loosen. “Well, Cap and Co won't sign. He thinks he’s right; it makes him dangerous. There won't be fighting, but I’m hoping to get them to listen,” Tony admitted slowly as his hand peeled up from the wall. Peter focused on dropping a few more on the wall to clean it up.

“They won’t even sign a preliminary document to show their support if changes are made?” Peter asks, and Tony looks at him in surprise, not realizing how in-depth this reading must have gone. At his resounding head shake, Peter sighed, nodding. “I’ll go to Germany.”

“Great!” Tony said brightly, “I’ll have Happy pick you up Friday after school. Be packed for the weekend; we leave the airport at six sharp. Happy is a grump if you’re late.” He shakes his head fondly as he goes to leave.

Peter seems to have overcome an internal debate and puts his hand on the door. “Wait!” he shouts, shocking himself and Tony. “Why me?”

Tony blinks once, twice, and then a third. “You’re a smart kid, useful, and you've got a lot of potential,” he confessed brusquely, hoping that explanation would be enough.

It is because Peter nods, “Yeah, okay. I’m just surprised you didn’t go to Ica.”

And hold up.

Record scratch.

What?

‘I'm surprised you didn’t go to Ica.’

Ica.

Peter Parker knew Icarus?

Tony freezes, his mind instantly flipping back to the person he'd originally tried to track down instead of Spider-Man. Not that the billionaire hadn't wanted the arachnid on his team, but Icarus wasn't new to the game. He's been around for almost two years now, having taken down large threats around the city. Gritty shit, like people pushing humans and drugs alike. He was ninety percent sure that it was due to the vigilante that a mutant auction was busted, and thirteen kids were freed and got to go home or to the campus. He had also stepped up to clean up after the riots that had taken place following Sokovia, keeping an eye on protests and supporting where he could, with no clear stance for either side.

Yet, Tony wasn't able to get near him. He seemed to just appear in places, blackened wings tipped with gold, a signature that caught on early in his career, gifting him the moniker 'Icarus.'

The news article said that it seemed like his wings were dripping with gold, like melted wax.

Honestly, Tony was kinda irked that he'd received such a cool name. Iron Man had caught on like a house fire, and even if it was a misleading title, Stark hadn't tried to re-brand. And no offense to the kid, but Spider-Man? There with Iron Man in the 'Wow' department. Granted, from what Tony could see from Parker, the name was more befitting. Well, not the man bit, but definitely the spider part. Maybe he should re-brand. The amazing Spider-Boy, Spiderling, Spidey.

Eh, he'd buff it out later. "Wait, Ica, as in Icarus, like the Manhattan vigilante who took down that sex trafficking ring in Brooklyn?" Tony's eyes narrowed at the deer-in-headlights look the kid adopted, big brown and yet staring brightly into his. His mouth dropped in a shocked gape as if he hadn't realized what he'd done. Hell, he probably hadn't. The words seemed to have rushed from his mouth in half-hearted mumbles. A bashful and self-deprecating blush to boot, but still, muttered nonetheless.

Tony hadn't expected the vigilantes to know one another. He should have. If he were Icarus and someone had sprouted up, he'd have done due diligence and scoped it out. Hell, he had scoped the kid out! “No,” Peter says out of breath, “I don’t know them.”

“Yes, you do.” Tony points at him, “And that is information I need.” Settling back in his sneakers, he crossed his arms, “talk Spider-Boy.”

Peter bit his lip, looking from his suit to Tony, to his computer, to his window. Honestly, it looked like the kid was going to throw up or bolt. “Look,” the teen said, “I can contact them tonight if you want. I can meet you with him, at the cafe, Delos. Tomorrow, after school. If he wants to.”

Watching the kid for a second, searching him for some kind of crack in the bravado, he finds none. So, Icarus was someone who knew his identity, and vice versa, it seems. “Not gonna break on this one, huh?”

“Look, Mister Stark, Ica has been helping me.” Peter says, “I finally gained his trust, and I can’t lose it.” The stress on his words was staggering, and Tony couldn’t help but yearn for the same loyalty.

“Deal, we'll meet at Delos at four. Be there, Spiderling.”

And Tony leaves, hoping and praying that this wasn’t the biggest mistake of his life.

#iron man #irondad and spiderson #iron dad #spider man #spiderman #spider son #fanfic #ao3 #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #tony stark #fem oc #tony stark daughter #spider man homecoming

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xtruss · 2 years ago

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The First Light of Trinity

— By Alex Wellerstein | July 16, 2015 | Annals of Technology

Seventy years ago, the flash of a nuclear bomb illuminated the skies over Alamogordo, New Mexico. Courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory

The light of a nuclear explosion is unlike anything else on Earth. This is because the heat of a nuclear explosion is unlike anything else on Earth. Seventy years ago today, when the first atomic weapon was tested, they called its light cosmic. Where else, except in the interiors of stars, do the temperatures reach into the tens of millions of degrees? It is that blistering radiation, released in a reaction that takes about a millionth of a second to complete, that makes the light so unearthly, that gives it the strength to burn through photographic paper and wound human eyes. The heat is such that the air around it becomes luminous and incandescent and then opaque; for a moment, the brightness hides itself. Then the air expands outward, shedding its energy at the speed of sound—the blast wave that destroys houses, hospitals, schools, cities.

The test was given the evocative code name of Trinity, although no one seems to know precisely why. One theory is that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the U.S. government’s laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the director of science for the Manhattan Project, which designed and built the bomb, chose the name as an allusion to the poetry of John Donne. Oppenheimer’s former mistress, Jean Tatlock, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, when he was a professor there, had introduced him to Donne’s work before she committed suicide, in early 1944. But Oppenheimer later claimed not to recall where the name came from.

The operation was designated as top secret, which was a problem, since the whole point was to create an explosion that could be heard for a hundred miles around and seen for two hundred. How to keep such a spectacle under wraps? Oppenheimer and his colleagues considered several sites, including a patch of desert around two hundred miles east of Los Angeles, an island eighty miles southwest of Santa Monica, and a series of sand bars ten miles off the Texas coast. Eventually, they chose a place much closer to home, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on an Army Air Forces bombing range in a valley called the Jornada del Muerto (“Journey of the Dead Man,” an indication of its unforgiving landscape). Freshwater had to be driven in, seven hundred gallons at a time, from a town forty miles away. To wire the site for a telephone connection required laying four miles of cable. The most expensive single line item in the budget was for the construction of bomb-proof shelters, which would protect some of the more than two hundred and fifty observers of the test.

The area immediately around the bombing range was sparsely populated but not by any means barren. It was within two hundred miles of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and El Paso. The nearest town of more than fifty people was fewer than thirty miles away, and the nearest occupied ranch was only twelve miles away—long distances for a person, but not for light or a radioactive cloud. (One of Trinity’s more unusual financial appropriations, later on, was for the acquisition of several dozen head of cattle that had had their hair discolored by the explosion.) The Army made preparations to impose martial law after the test if necessary, keeping a military force of a hundred and sixty men on hand to manage any evacuations. Photographic film, sensitive to radioactivity, was stowed in nearby towns, to provide “medical legal” evidence of contamination in the future. Seismographs in Tucson, Denver, and Chihuahua, Mexico, would reveal how far away the explosion could be detected.

The Trinity test weapon. Courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory

On July 16, 1945, the planned date of the test, the weather was poor. Thunderstorms were moving through the area, raising the twin hazards of electricity and rain. The test weapon, known euphemistically as the gadget, was mounted inside a shack atop a hundred-foot steel tower. It was a Frankenstein’s monster of wires, screws, switches, high explosives, radioactive materials, and diagnostic devices, and was crude enough that it could be tripped by a passing storm. (This had already happened once, with a model of the bomb’s electrical system.) Rain, or even too many clouds, could cause other problems—a spontaneous radioactive thunderstorm after detonation, unpredictable magnifications of the blast wave off a layer of warm air. It was later calculated that, even without the possibility of mechanical or electrical failure, there was still more than a one-in-ten chance of the gadget failing to perform optimally.

The scientists were prepared to cancel the test and wait for better weather when, at five in the morning, conditions began to improve. At five-ten, they announced that the test was going forward. At five-twenty-five, a rocket near the tower was shot into the sky—the five-minute warning. Another went up at five-twenty-nine. Forty-five seconds before zero hour, a switch was thrown in the control bunker, starting an automated timer. Just before five-thirty, an electrical pulse ran the five and a half miles across the desert from the bunker to the tower, up into the firing unit of the bomb. Within a hundred millionths of a second, a series of thirty-two charges went off around the device’s core, compressing the sphere of plutonium inside from about the size of an orange to that of a lime. Then the gadget exploded.

General Thomas Farrell, the deputy commander of the Manhattan Project, was in the control bunker with Oppenheimer when the blast went off. “The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun,” he wrote immediately afterward. “It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse, and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined. It was that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately.” Twenty-seven miles away from the tower, the Berkeley physicist and Nobel Prize winner Ernest O. Lawrence was stepping out of a car. “Just as I put my foot on the ground I was enveloped with a warm brilliant yellow white light—from darkness to brilliant sunshine in an instant,” he wrote. James Conant, the president of Harvard University, was watching from the V.I.P. viewing spot, ten miles from the tower. “The enormity of the light and its length quite stunned me,” he wrote. “The whole sky suddenly full of white light like the end of the world.”

In its first milliseconds, the Trinity fireball burned through photographic film. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

Trinity was filmed exclusively in black and white and without audio. In the main footage of the explosion, the fireball rises out of the frame before the cameraman, dazed by the sight, pans upward to follow it. The written accounts of the test, of which there are many, grapple with how to describe an experience for which no terminology had yet been invented. Some eventually settle on what would become the standard lexicon. Luis Alvarez, a physicist and future participant in the Hiroshima bombing, viewed Trinity from the air. He likened the debris cloud, which rose to a height of some thirty thousand feet in ten minutes, to “a parachute which was being blown up by a large electric fan,” noting that it “had very much the appearance of a large mushroom.” Charles Thomas, the vice-president of Monsanto, a major Manhattan Project contractor, observed the same. “It looked like a giant mushroom; the stalk was the thousands of tons of sand being sucked up by the explosion; the top of the mushroom was a flowering ball of fire,” he wrote. “It resembled a giant brain the convolutions of which were constantly changing.”

In the months before the test, the Manhattan Project scientists had estimated that their bomb would yield the equivalent of between seven hundred and five thousand tons of TNT. As it turned out, the detonation force was equal to about twenty thousand tons of TNT—four times larger than the expected maximum. The light was visible as far away as Amarillo, Texas, more than two hundred and eighty miles to the east, on the other side of a mountain range. Windows were reported broken in Silver City, New Mexico, some hundred and eighty miles to the southwest. Here, again, the written accounts converge. Thomas: “It is safe to say that nothing as terrible has been made by man before.” Lawrence: “There was restrained applause, but more a hushed murmuring bordering on reverence.” Farrell: “The strong, sustained, awesome roar … warned of doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous.” Nevertheless, the plainclothes military police who were stationed in nearby towns reported that those who saw the light seemed to accept the government’s explanation, which was that an ammunition dump had exploded.

Trinity was only the first nuclear detonation of the summer of 1945. Two more followed, in early August, over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing as many as a quarter of a million people. By October, Norris Bradbury, the new director of Los Alamos, had proposed that the United States conduct “subsequent Trinity’s.” There was more to learn about the bomb, he argued, in a memo to the new coördinating council for the lab, and without the immediate pressure of making a weapon for war, “another TR might even be FUN.” A year after the test at Alamogordo, new ones began, at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. They were not given literary names. Able, Baker, and Charlie were slated for 1946; X-ray, Yoke, and Zebra were slated for 1948. These were letters in the military radio alphabet—a clarification of who was really the master of the bomb.

Irradiated Kodak X-ray film. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

By 1992, the U.S. government had conducted more than a thousand nuclear tests, and other nations—China, France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—had joined in the frenzy. The last aboveground detonation took place over Lop Nur, a dried-up salt lake in northwestern China, in 1980. We are some years away, in other words, from the day when no living person will have seen that unearthly light firsthand. But Trinity left secondhand signs behind. Because the gadget exploded so close to the ground, the fireball sucked up dirt and debris. Some of it melted and settled back down, cooling into a radioactive green glass that was dubbed Trinitite, and some of it floated away. A minute quantity of the dust ended up in a river about a thousand miles east of Alamogordo, where, in early August, 1945, it was taken up into a paper mill that manufactured strawboard for Eastman Kodak. The strawboard was used to pack some of the company’s industrial X-ray film, which, when it was developed, was mottled with dark blotches and pinpoint stars—the final exposure of the first light of the nuclear age.

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zaraxkumar · 6 months ago

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— BASICS

Name: Zara Kumar Age / D.O.B.: 39 / January 5th 1985 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: CisFemale, She/Her, Heterosexual Hometown: Queens, NY Affiliation: Civilian Job position: Global Head of Cybersecurity at Goldman Sachs Education: Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Standford Relationship status: Divorced Children: 1 daughter, Saira Positive traits: Intelligent, Resilient, Kindhearted, Persuasive, Sentimental Negative traits: Secretive, Stubborn, Self-Indulgent, Compulsive, Obsessive

— BIOGRAPHY

Early Life and Education

1985: Born in Queens, New York, after her big brother Rahi, was a very happy child.

1990-2003: Attended a competitive public high school: The Bronx High School of Science, excelling in STEM subjects, particularly math and computer science. Participated in programming clubs and cybersecurity competitions.

College and Early Career

2003-2007: Attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Focused on network security and cryptography.

Interned at a leading tech company, IBM, in cybersecurity during summer breaks.

2007-2009: Completed a Master’s Degree in Computer Science at StanfordUniversity, specializing in cybersecurity, machine learning, and ethical hacking. Published research papers on innovative methods for detecting and preventing cyber threats.

Professional Career

2009-2012: Joined CrowdStrike as a Junior Threat Analyst. Worked on high-profile cyber incidents, earning recognition for her work in preventing major breaches.

2012-2015: Returned to New York and worked at IBM’s X-Force Red Team, focusing on penetration testing and enterprise-level security.

2015-2020: Hired by Goldman Sachs as a Cybersecurity Specialist. Quickly promoted to Senior Analyst, then Vice President of Cybersecurity, spearheading initiatives to protect the firm from financial cybercrime.

Managed a team addressing large-scale phishing attacks and ransomware threats.

Developed and implemented a zero-trust security model for internal operations.

Personal Development and Achievements

2020-2024: Recognized as an industry leader. Regular speaker at conferences discussing the intersection of finance and cybersecurity.

Awarded accolades such as the Forbes 40 Under 40 in Technology and Cybersecurity Professional of the Year by ISC2.

Present Day

2024: At 39, she is the Global Head of Cybersecurity Operations at Goldman Sachs, overseeing teams worldwide.

Lives in Manhattan.

Actively mentors young women in STEM, emphasizing opportunities for underrepresented groups.

#wb.intro #about

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paradiserottttt · 2 years ago

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— INTRODUCING , 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗 “𝐇𝐄𝐗” 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍 .

* ◟ : 〔 laura harrier , non-binary + she/they 〕 PHOENIX ROBINSON , some say you’re a THIRTY YEAR OLD lost soul among the neon lights. known for being both PROMETHEAN and PIGHEADED , one can’t help but think of REBEL GIRL by BIKINI KILL when you walk by. are you still a JUNIOR CODER at STONEAGE INDUSTRIES , even with your reputation as the HACTIVIST ? i think we’ll be seeing more of you and LACQUERED FINGERNAILS DANCING ACROSS A CUSTOM KEYBOARD , VIRTUAL SHRINES DEDICATED TO YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY , TREATING YOURSELF TO A CHERRY COLA AFTER TAKING DOWN A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR EMPIRE , although we can’t help but think of ABBY SCIUTO (NCIS) , NOMI MARKS (SENSE8) , RAVEN REYES (THE 100) , whenever we see you down these rainy streets.

— STATS . FULL NAME . phoenix gaia robinson NICKNAMES/ALIASES . nix, hex (her hacktivist persona, which is a secret to the majority of the outside world) BIRTHDAY . april 27th AGE . thirty-three GENDER . non-binary PRONOUNS . she/they ORIENTATION . bisexual biromantic FAMILY . demetria robinson (mother), lester robinson (father), phaedra robinson (sister) OCCUPATION . junior coder at stoneage industries ; self-employed hacktivist working under the pseudonym hex MARKINGS/TATTOOS . a tattoo of a phoenix behind her ear and inside of her wrist, a code tattoo on her other wrist PIERCINGS . triple earlobe piercings, an assortment of other ear piercings, nose ring on both nostrils, belly-button ring, smiley piercing, HEIGHT . 5’7

— PERSONALITY . POSITIVE TRAITS . promethean, assertive, quick-witted, captivating, passionate, adaptable, altruistic, protective NEGATIVE TRAITS . pigheaded, dogmatic, moralistic, hotheaded, mischievous, obsessive, nihilistic LANGUAGES . english, some spanish EDUCATION . m.a. in computer science MBTI . e/infj ENNEAGRAM . type 1 (the reformer) MORAL ALIGNMENT . chaotic good (verging on neutrality at times) DEADLY SIN . wrath HEAVENLY VIRTUE . charity ZODIAC . taurus sun, aries rising PARALELLS. abby sciuto (ncis), raven reyes (the 100), nomi marks (sense8), jadzia dax (star trek: deep space nine), beverly katz (hannibal), nairobi (money heist)

— BIOGRAPHY . 【ＬＯＡＤＩＮＧ… 】

【ＰＨＯＥＮＩＸ　ＧＡＩＡ　ＲＯＢＩＮＳＯＮ】

【Ｐ　（Ｈ）　Ｏ　（Ｅ）　Ｎ　Ｉ　（Ｘ）】

【（Ｈ）（Ｅ）（Ｘ）】

YOUR STORY BEGINS IN A TWO-BEDROOM MANHATTAN APARTMENT. You’ve carefully divided the room between you and your sister Phaedra, even providing exact measurements to ensure the space was allocated equally. You have just enough space to fit your twin bed and computer desk, something you declare necessary when you’re gifted your first P.C. at the age of nine. It’s all you’d really wanted for your birthday. Where your older sister would eventually flourish in the field of psychology, you’d always been drawn to technology, especially computers. The vastness of the internet draws you in. At first, you use it solely for entertainment purposes. Computer games, funny videos, chatting with your friends— you utilize the computer like other children your age do.

Eventually, your attention is carried in different directions. No longer is it purely an entertainment device— you want to understand every aspect, down to the technology that makes its existence possible. You take it upon yourself to take it apart, to your parents' dismay and put it back together long before they can drum up a suitable punishment. You even managed to include a few enhancements. Your parents no longer questioned you regarding computers— they knew your intentions were only purposeful regarding technology. When you grow weary of learning the device inside out, your interest is shifted to what a computer could do for you. You learn that technology has a language of its own— and spend much of your adolescence and young adulthood learning inside and out.

Your first brush with hacking occurs when a friend is bullied at school. One of your friends is being mercilessly bullied online by an anonymous user and someone suspected to be one of your classmates. You knew enough about phishing attacks to orchestrate one of your own, and before long, the bully takes the bait, allowing you access to the bully’s I.P. address and account information. You pass on the information to your friend, letting her decide what action should be taken against the bully. After helping your friend, you are enthralled by the idea of achieving vigilante justice through cyber attacks. Your skills don’t go beyond that of any other script kiddie new on the scene. Still, by the time you’re entering your computer engineering bachelor’s program as an undergrad, you know enough about hacking to carry out minor ransomware and malware attacks.

Your progress with hacking progresses alongside your degree. As your skills increase, so do the stakes of your attacks. You primarily work solo, eventually working under the pseudonym Hex. The only evidence of your existence exists in the signature hidden in the programming of your various attacks. Your targets range from high-ranking politicians to multimillion-dollar companies and their high-ranking employees. While Hex manages to amass an online following, your true identity remains hidden, even after you graduate and begin working within your field. Numerous bounties exist for even a sliver of your information, but you continue to evade capture. Ironically enough, you’d spend nearly ten years in the field of ethical hacking, using your abilities to ensure companies could prevent cyberattacks from people like you.

Despite the excellent pay, you grow weary of working in this field. It never thoroughly thrills you, but eventually, what little thrill it does give you disappears entirely. Something else you incorporated as you got deeper into the world of hacking is an untraceable website that allowed anonymous users to submit tips for potential targets for Hex to look into. You receive a string of fascinating leads, all of which appear to occur in New York. And so— you decide to move to the city, accepting a job as a junior coder at STONGEAGE as a cover as you begin your trek into New York’s virtual webs. Like a virtual Dante, you venture lower and lower into New York’s digital underworld. You understand that the further you descend, the higher the bounty you’re putting on your head becomes— better yet, Hex’s head. With a hidden smile, you continue your descent— unwavering in your efforts to purge the city of its varying pockets of corruption.

— FUN FACTS .

Phoenix’s been in New York City for a year now. Before that, she was settled in New Orleans. She’s visited the city numerous times and even had extended stays, but this is her first time living in the city permanently.

Loves dressing in black and red, with layered gold and silver chains, belts, rings, necklaces, earrings, and beyond. Is particularly drawn to things with spikes and large crosses (though she’s been an atheist since her childhood.) Loves heeled boots, vinyl, lace, and velvet. Spices up her work outfits similarly (through makeup and accessories.) Witchy and/or vampire-esque vibes. (Very Dolls Kill-esque... idk fashion words y'all)

Has a half-bombay black cat (allegedly, according to a rumor started by Phoenix herself) named Charon. He wandered into her window one day in New Orleans, declaring her apartment his new residence. She adopted another black cat named Edgar Allan Poe from a nearby shelter for them to keep each other company.

Phoenix is rather outgoing, notorious for being chatty, yet revealing nothing personal about her in her interactions. She spends a lot of time out, engrossing herself in the city’s nightlife partly for information-gathering purposes, partially to keep herself occupied when she’s not at Stoneage, performing Hex’s duties, or engrossing herself in her other hobbies. Lighthearted, provocative, and frequently flirtatious, Phoenix lives for those fleeting interactions.

— ; TLDR Seasoned hacker settles in New York City with the intention to extort/expose New York City’s most corrupt parties. She’s not choosey— she’s been looking into the various Mobs, Government, and Red Eyes (She admires the Executioners' work (; ). Her hacker persona, Hex, is rather popular in the virtual space, but to the general public, they’re just a civilian junior coder working at Stongeage Inc.

— ; CONNECTIONS

Potential marks. What is a hacker without the people to launch virtual attacks on? Open to anyone in any of the mobs, red eyes, and members of the government. The severity of the attack, success of the attack, and time is something we could plot individually, but for the most part, I’ll leave it up to your discretion (though I can definitely make suggestions for potential attacks!)

Someone suspicious of them. Something’s off about Phoenix, and your character can’t quite put their finger on why! If she managed to stumble across this knowledge, she’d definitely try to make a game of it. A bit of a cat-and-mouse game, perhaps?

Friends/Enemies/Acquaintances/Hookups. People they’ve met while visiting New York over the years, or people they’ve met after settling there. I’m open to an assortment of dynamics!

TBD

#— introduction : phoenix .#(~:

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dweemeister · 1 year ago

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Robot Dreams (2023, Spain/France)

There exists an assumption that one has to be an animator in order to direct an animated film. While most cinephiles might reflexively point to Wes Anderson (2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2018’s Isle of Dogs), I think Isao Takahata (1988’s Grave of the Fireflies, 1991’s Only Yesterday) the exemplar here. Even so, a non-animator taking the reins of an animated movie is rare. Into that fold steps Pablo Berger, in this adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel Robot Dreams. Moved after reading Varon’s work in 2010, Berger acquired Varon’s “carte blanche” permission to make a 2D animated adaptation however he saw fit. Like the graphic novel, Berger’s Robot Dreams is also dialogue-free.

Beginning production on Robot Dreams proved difficult. Berger originally teamed with Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon (2009’s The Secret of Kells, 2020’s Wolfwalkers) to make Robot Dreams, but these plans fell wayside when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. His schooling in how to make an animated film would come quickly. Despite an increased appetite for Spanish animation worldwide (2019’s Klaus, 2022’s Unicorn Wars), poor distribution and marketing of domestically-made animated movies has often meant Spanish animators have roved around Europe looking for work. With a pandemic sending those Spanish animators home, Berger and his Spanish and French producers set up “pop-up studios” in Madrid and Pamplona, purchased the infrastructure and space needed to make an animated feature, and recruited and hired animators. Berger’s admiration of animated film fuses the lessons of silent film acting (Berger made a gorgeous silent film in 2012’s Blancanieves; in interviews, Berger cites Charlie Chaplin’s movies as having the largest influence on Robot Dreams, alongside Takahata’s films) to result in one of the most emotionally honest films of the decade thus far – animated or otherwise.

Somewhere in Manhattan in the late 1980s in a world populated entirely of anthropomorphized animals, we find ourselves in Dog’s apartment. Dog, alone in this world, consuming yet another TV dinner, is channel surfing late one evening. He stumbles upon a commercial advertising a robot companion. Intrigued, he orders the robot companion and, with some difficulty, assembles Robot. The two become fast friends as they romp about New York City over a balmy summer, complete with walks around their neighborhood and Central Park, street food, trips to Coney Island, and roller blading along to the groovy tunes of Earth, Wind & Fire. At summer’s end, an accident sees the involuntary separation of Dog and Robot, endangering, for all that the viewer can assume, the most meaningful friendship in Dog’s life and Robot’s brief time of existence.

youtube

If you have not seen the film yet, let me address a popular perception early on in this piece. Set in a mostly-analog 1980s, Robot Dreams contains none of the agonizing over artificial intelligence or automatons in fashion in modern cinema. There is no commentary about how technology frays an individual’s connections to others. Robot is a rudimentary creation, closer to a sentient grade school science project than a Data or T-1000.

So what is Robot Dreams saying instead? Principally, it is about the loving bonds of friendship – how a friend can provide comfort and company, how they uplift the best parts of your very being. For Robot, the entirety of their life prior to the aforementioned accident (something that I, for non-viewers, am trying not to spoil as Robot Dreams’ emotional power is fully experienced if you know as little as possible) has been one of complete estival bliss. Robot, in due time, discovers that one of the most meaningful aspects of friendship is that such relationships will eventually conclude – a fundamental part of life. And for Dog, Robot’s entrance into his life allows him to realize that, yes, he can summon the courage to connect with his fellow animals, realizing his self-worth. Perhaps Dog gives up addressing the accident a little too easily, but the separation of friends has a way of complicating emotions and provoking peculiar reactions.

On occasion, Robot Dreams’ spirit reminds me of Charlie Chaplin’s silent feature film period (1921-1936) – in which Chaplin, at the height of his filmmaking prowess, most successfully wove together slapstick comedy and pathos. On paper, pathos and slapstick should not mix, but Chaplin was the master of combining the two. No wonder Berger fully acknowledges the influence of his favorite Chaplin work, City Lights (1931), here.

Across Robot Dreams, Berger inserts an absurd visual humor that works both because almost all of the characters are animals and despite the fact almost everyone is an animal. A busking octopus in the New York City subway? Check. The image of pigs playing on the beach while sunburnt to a blazing red? You bet. A dancing dream sequence where one of our lead characters finds himself in The Wizard of Oz performing Busby Berkeley-esque choreography on the Yellow Brick Road? Why not? Much of Chaplin’s silent film humor didn’t come from his Little Tramp character, but the silliness, ego, and/or absentmindedness of all those surrounding the Tramp. In City Lights, humor also came from the rough-and-tumble edges of urban America. Such is the case, too, in Robot Dreams, with its blemished, trash-strewn depiction of late ‘80s New York (credit must also go to the sound mix, as they perfectly capture how ambiently noisy a big city can be).

Amid all that comedy, Berger nails the balance between the pathos and the hilarity – pushing too far in either direction would easily undermine the other. The film’s melancholy shows up in ostensibly happy moments and places of recreation: a realization during a rooftop barbeque lunch, the emptiness of a shuttered Coney Island beach in the winter, and an afternoon of kiting in Central Park. It captures how our thoughts of erstwhile or involuntarily separated friends come to us innocuously, in places that stir memories that we might, in our present company, might not speak of aloud.

As the film’s third character, New York City (where Berger lived for a decade) is a global cultural capital, a citywide theater of dreams, a skyscraper-filled signature to the American Dream. To paraphrase Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But it tends to grind those dreams into dust. The city’s bureaucratic quagmire is lampooned here, as is its reputation for mean-spirited or jaded locals. Robot Dreams also depicts the visual and socioeconomic differences between the city’s boroughs. With such a jumble of folks of different life stations mashed together, Dog’s people-watching, er, animal-watching during his loneliest moments makes him feel the full intensity of his social isolation. With Robot, however, Dog has a naïve companion that he can show the best of the city to. Robot has no understanding of passive-aggressive or outright hostile behavior (see: Robot hilariously not understanding what a middle finger salute is – the only objectionable scene if you are considering showing this to younger viewers). Within this city of contradictions, Dog and Robot’s love is here to stay.

Though he is no animator, his experience in guiding Spanish actresses Ángela Molina, Maribel Verdú, and Macarena García in Blancanieves through a silent film was valuable. In animated film, there is a tendency towards overexaggerating emotions. But with Robot Dreams’ close adaptation of the graphic novel’s ligne claire style and the nature of Robot’s face, the typical level of exaggeration in animation could not fly in Robot Dreams. Berger and storyboard artist Maca Gil (2022’s My Father’s Dragon, the 2023 Peanuts special One-of-a-Kind Marcie) made few alterations to the storyboards, fully knowing how they wished to frame the film, and hoping to convey the film’s emotions with the facial subtlety seen in the graphic novel. Character designer Daniel Fernandez Casas (Klaus, 2024’s IF) accomplishes this with a minimum of lines to outline characters’ bodies and faces. Meanwhile, art director José Luis Ágreda (2018’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles) and animation director Benoît Féroumont (primarily a graphic novelist) visually translated Sara Varon’s graphic novel using flat colors and a lack of shading to convey background and character depth (one still needs shading, of course, to convey lights and darks of an interior or exterior).

Robot Dreams’ nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature this year was one of the most pleasant surprises of the 96th Academy Awards. In North America, Robot Dreams’ distributor, Neon, has pursued an inexplicable distribution and marketing strategy of not allowing the film a true theatrical release until months after the end of the last Oscars. The film was available for a one-night special screening in select theaters in and near major North American cities the Wednesday before the Academy Awards. And only now (as of the weekend of May 31, 2024), Neon will release Robot Dreams this weekend in two New York City theaters, the following weekend in and around Los Angeles, with few other locations confirmed – well after interest to watch the film theatrically piqued in North America.

Alongside Neon’s near-nonexistent distribution and marketing of Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated documentary Flee (2021, Denmark), one has to question Neon’s commitment to animated features and whether the company has a genuine interest in showing their animated acquisitions to people outside major North American cities. This is distributional malpractice and maddeningly disrespectful from one of the most acclaimed independent distributors of the last decade.

In Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger and his crew made perhaps the best animated feature of the previous calendar year. Robot Dreams might not have the artistic sumptuousness of the best anime films today, nor the digital polish one expects from the work of a major American animation studio. By film’s end, its simple, accessible style cannot hide its irrepressible emotional power. Its conclusion speaks to all of us who silently wonder about close friends long left to the past, their absence filled only by memory.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#Robot Dreams #Pablo Berger #Sara Varon #Fernando Franco #Daniel Fernandez Casas #Benoît Feroumont #José Luis Ágreda #Maca Gil #Ibon Cormenzana #Ignasi Estapé #Sandra Tapia Diaz #Best Animated Feature #Oscars #96th Academy Awards #My Movie Odyssey

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denimbex1986 · 2 years ago

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'The hype is building for Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer," which premieres on July 21st. The film boasts an A-list cast and comes from the director responsible for "The Dark Knight," "Inception" and "Memento."

Based on the novel, "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," the film follows the story of Julius Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) a theoretical physicist and director of the laboratory responsible for the development of the atomic bomb.

But for those unfamiliar with atomic history (or maybe those more familiar with the characters in the upcoming "Barbie" movie, instead), here’s what to know about the man on which the film is based, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.”

Where was Oppenheimer born?

Oppenheimer was born in New York, in 1904 to German immigrant and wealthy textile importer, Julius Oppenheimer and painter Ella Friedman Oppenheimer, according to the National Parks Service, which described him as a quiet child, studying mineralogy and writing poetry.

Where did Oppenheimer go to college?

Oppenheimer was admitted to Harvard University but postponed his enrollment due to illness, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

After enrolling in 1922, he studied physics, chemistry, Latin, Greek and eastern philosophy at Harvard before traveling to the University of Cambridge where he studied two terms, per the school. He then transferred to the University of Göttingen where he earned a doctorate in physics, according to the nuclear museum.

He then returned to the United States to teach physics at the University of California at Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. There he conducted research on black holes and neutron stars. He worked alongside experimental physicist and Noble Prize winner Ernest Lawrence, played by Josh Hartnett in the film.

Oppenheimer's wife, children

He married Katherine “Kitty” Puening (played by Emily Blunt in the upcoming movie) in 1940 and had two children, Peter and Toni, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

What role did Oppenheimer serve in the Manhattan Project? What was Los Alamos?

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico, a key location in the "Oppenheimer" movie, was a lab responsible for the top-secret design and production of atomic bombs. Part of the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos (or Project Y as it was known at the time) was greenlit in 1942, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It was then that General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project (played by Matt Damon), selected Oppenheimer to lead the project, and the pair began planning.

They selected a remote location surrounded by mountains to build a secret town where scientists and their families could live, according to the National Parks Service. There, hundreds of scientists and engineers developed the Gadget (the world’s first nuclear test device), Little Boy (the uranium-fueled atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan), and Fat Man (the plutonium-fueled atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan).

The Oppenheimer hearing

In 1954, during the era of McCarthyism, the Atomic Energy Commission called Oppenheimer to testify on his past involvement with communist organizations, due to fears that he was a Soviet spy.

It is unclear if Oppenheimer was ever a part of the Communist Party, but he was sympathetic to communist goals, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation's nuclear museum. He became acquainted with leftist politics through his turbulent love affair with communist and medical student Jean Tatlock (played by Florence Pugh in the film) and was fueled by anger toward the oppression his Jewish relatives were suffering in Nazi Germany. Oppenheimer’s brother, Frank Oppenheimer, joined the Communist Party in 1937.

Oppenheimer’s communist ties were scrutinized when he was selected to partake in the Manhattan Project, but he was approved with the support of General Groves, the museum notes.

Oppenheimer testified for 27 hours in 1954 to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. In the end, his security clearance was revoked.

Sixty years after his hearing, the U.S. Department of Energy released the full, declassified transcript of the hearing.

Oppenheimer: Hydrogen bombs vs. atomic bombs

After the Soviet Union successfully tested nuclear weaponry in 1949 and U.S. turned attention to advancing its nuclear arms, Oppenheimer resisted the development of fusion weapons (like the hydrogen bomb) instead of fission weapons (like the atomic bomb) for concerns that the weapons would only be used on human populations, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

J. Robert Oppenheimer death

In 1967, Oppenheimer died in Princeton, New Jersey, of throat cancer, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

What to know about other 'Oppenheimer' characters in real life

Leslie Groves Jr.: Played by Matt Damon in the film, Groves was appointed to head the Manhattan Project in 1942 and worked alongside Oppenheimer. He was reportedly known for his stubbornness, egotism, intelligence, and abrasive nature, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. He fiercely defended Oppenheimer during the AEC hearing.

Jean Tatlock: Played by Florence Pugh in the film, Jean Tatlock (1914-1944) was an American psychologist and Communist Party member. For several years, she maintained a relationship with Oppenheimer, who she met while studying at the Stanford University Medical School. Oppenheimer proposed to Tatlock twice, although she declined both times, according to the nuclear museum.

Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer: Played by Emily Blunt, “Kitty” Oppenheimer married J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1939. She was a trained botanist forced to put her career on hold when moving to Los Alamos with her husband. She served as an important confidant for Oppenheimer, per the museum.

Lewis Strauss: Played by Robert Downey Jr in the film, Lewis Strauss was appointed chairman of the AEC by President Truman. He led the push for the development of thermonuclear weapons after the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb. He was a vocal opponent of Oppenheimer, as the two disagreed starkly on nuclear weapons and Strauss viewed Oppenheimer as a threat to American security, the museum notes.'

#Oppenheimer #Lewis Strauss #Robert Downey Jr.#Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer #Emily Blunt #Leslie Groves #Matt Damon #Florence Pugh #Jean Tatlock #Cillian Murphy #Christopher Nolan #American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer #Kai Bird #Martin J. Sherwin #Peter Oppenheimer #Toni Oppenheimer

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cleverhottubmiracle · 1 month ago

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Welcome to Refinery29’s Why I Code, a Changing Face series where we ask inspirational, tech-disrupting trailblazers in computer science 29 questions about what fuels them on and off the clock. New York-based artist and designer Anya Karolyn never thought her longtime hobby of creating different types of art could turn into a full-time career. One dream art studio in Manhattan and successful print and apparel business later, it’s safe to say that she’s singing a different tune. As a mixed-media artist, Karolyn weaves together her passion for creating on a physical canvas with Photoshop-level computer editing and coding. You might call her a modern renaissance woman, constantly innovating via graphics and code. Growing up, Karolyn considered herself an “art kid,” but always thought it would just be something she enjoyed quietly. “[Art] was the thing that first gave me confidence in my identity because I wasn’t really identifying with anything else in school,” says the 26-year-old Boulder, CO native. “In art class, I just felt this weird sense of confidence that I didn’t have in any other aspect of my life, but I never thought it could be a full-time career — I didn’t even go to college for art. It was very much a fun talent I had.” Now, she’s fully immersed in KARO, her very own ever-evolving art project and business — but her journey to get there wasn’t always a straight line. “It’s [been] years and years of tiny baby steps, nuanced realizations, and breaking out of self-limiting beliefs,” she shares. “There have been so many sleepless nights, all-nighters on projects that I never got paid for, projects that never saw the light of day, or things that I felt were just a waste.” She started growing KARO on the side in 2018, but at the time, she was working as an in-house creative in the music industry at a major label, doing anything from directing music videos to animating lyric videos and GIFs to shooting single covers to editing concert recaps. “I was constantly working to make other artists’ visions come to life, and I kept asking myself, Why can’t I bet on myself like that? Am I going to live my whole life feeling like I’m in the wrong role? I was working at this job close to 50 hours per week, and then staying up every night working on art for KARO,” she says. “I couldn’t take it anymore eventually and saved up enough to give myself a chance and quit. The momentum built really quickly and it hasn’t stopped, which I’m super thankful for.” As Karolyn prepares for her first solo show in NYC, she’s incorporating coding into the experience in a unique and interactive way — another example of her layered approach to art. Although she doesn’t code in her daily life, she finds innovative ways to shape code to create anything her heart desires. DashDividers_1_500x100 What’s the first thing you’ve ever coded? “The first thing I ever coded was a ‘choose your own adventure’ game in Python, which I think, is a pretty simple first project. It allowed a player to navigate different story paths, and it was really cute. It was my first experience structuring logic [in coding].” What’s a project that was the most challenging for you? “The one that I’m doing right now in terms of coding integration because I’m learning how to do projection mapping for my next art show. I have so many ideas for it and I want it to be really special and custom. Projection mapping is so cool in the art world because you can enhance a piece of art by creating animations around it to supplement it. “I’m first using [TouchDesigner] to create animations of motifs, poetry, and visuals of my work, then using [MadMapper] to do custom projection mapping onto the gallery space. I have some time — which is good — but it’s a multi-step process that I haven’t done before. It’s a great way to merge nontraditional coding and technology with art, and I love being very much in the weeds with everything that I do for KARO.” What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? “I have to start my espresso machine. I also like to physically rise as soon as my alarm goes off. Because, once I’m up, I’m up. I used to have the bad habit of snoozing my alarm all the time. So now, I need to physically shake myself around, defrost my brain in the morning, turn on my espresso machine, and make myself a little latte.” What’s the last thing you do before going to bed? “I have my little nighttime routine and the biggest anchor of that is journaling. I love journaling. I really believe in it — I think it’s so powerful. I’ve been journaling nearly every day for years and years. I’ll go periods without it, but even since high school, I’ve been keeping a journal ,and it just helps decompress my brain and get me calm for the night.” When does inspiration strike for you? “100% at night — never once in the morning. I’m such a night owl. My brain takes a couple hours in the morning to defrost. I’ve always wanted to be a morning person that wakes up really early and is super productive, but I just had to accept that I’m more productive, creative, inspired, motivated, and energetic at night, and I can’t change it. That’s why I started talking about this on my YouTube channel. I made a video about it. I have a day shift and I have a night shift. My night shift is where the actual magic happens.” What does your workspace look like? “My studio is honestly a perfect reflection of myself. It’s my inner self materialized as a physical space. It’s kind of artistically messy. It’s very playful and it’s fun. There are lots of colors, but there’s a lot of intention behind the little knick-knacks everywhere. It’s like a showroom of my brain.” What do you do when you’re stuck in a rut? “I’ll journal or I’ll go for a walk. Going for a walk always resets my mental health — I love walking around in New York. Dancing in my studio [also helps]. I’ll put on a song that I love dancing to — it’s one of my greatest joys. That will really get me out of a rut [because it helps] to physically move myself. Also, sleeping. If I’m stuck in a rut, it’s likely because I’m getting burnt out. I tend to work myself to burn out pretty easily. Then, I’ll cancel plans and I’ll sleep because sometimes I just really need a mental reset. I need to sleep in without an alarm and I’ll feel so much better the next day.” What’s one thing you wish to accomplish? “A solo show in New York City! That one’s easy for me, because I’m already planning it right now, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. What’s your favorite piece of advice that you’ve gotten? “Leap and the net will appear. I just got LEAP tattooed on my hand [laughs].” Who inspires you the most? “A mix of all of my New York City artist friends that I spend my time with. There’s this very beautiful, artistic, creative community that I feel so giddy to be a part of. I see their journeys and I see what they’re up to and how they keep going. As an artist in my 20s in New York, I just love being a part of that; they inspire me so much. I feel like I’m kind of a mosaic of these people that are around me.” Who, if anyone, do you try to emulate? “I almost want to be a person that’s emulated — which I have seen when I start getting tagged in things and people would say, “This is so KARO.” It’s honestly the biggest form of flattery.” What’s something people ask you for advice about often? “People always ask me how to quit their job that they’re not happy with when they have artistic passions. I hear that all the time and that’s my favorite conversation to have. You can put me in a room with someone for an hour who’s on the brink of quitting their job and I’ll make them quit [laughs].” What’s a piece of advice you felt proud to give? “Definitely the above advice. It’s wild because a couple of years ago, I was on the other side of it, and wondering, How do I quit my job? It’s the most terrifying thing in the world. I had to ask myself: Are my passions legitimate? Or are they just this silly hobby? I had so many self-limiting beliefs and so many things that I was worried about. [It’s great] to be in a position where, I know for a fact, that I made the right decision. There’s no doubt or anxiety in my head, and I feel very thankful.” What is your most-used app on your phone? “It was StreetEasy until I finally found my dream apartment recently. I was using StreetEasy like it was Instagram — I was refreshing it every day. But now, it’s probably CapCut because I edit nearly everything on it. I spend so much time on there — my screen time goes way up because of how much time I’m working on it.” What do you do when you feel yourself burning out? “I will cancel all of my plans to give myself time to be alone, journal, exercise, and sleep. I need my alone time. I’m a very social introvert, but I need to recharge by myself.” What’s something you consider a secret weapon? “I think I have a couple. First, it’s the fact that both of my parents are immigrants. I grew up multiculturally and my stepfamily is also from a completely different culture than my own. My mom is from Peru, my dad is from Germany, and my stepfamily is Lebanese. I was raised trilingual with Spanish and German. My German isn’t that great, though. Growing up with an immigrant family really influenced my worldview, work ethic, and appreciation of diverse experiences. It feels like a superpower. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a much more open mind and a much bigger world view. I think that’s a huge privilege: to be able to see a bigger map of the way people live. My other secret weapon is that I know how to do all the parts of KARO that I’m doing — the business stuff, the software, the Photoshop editing, and the animations. I don’t have to rely on other people all of the time and I can be independent in a lot of respects. People can be intimidated and think they need to hire people for everything — which isn’t always true especially when you’re just starting out.” Where are you, compared to where you thought you’d be at 12 years old? “I’m light years beyond where I thought I’d be when I was 12 years old! My 12-year-old self could not even fathom where I could possibly be today. I just did not have any self-confidence at 12 years old, and I totally didn’t think that what I’m doing was even an option. I just kind of saw my life going in a very traditional, nuclear [direction] like everyone around me.” What’s been your biggest piece of support, helping you get to where you are? “My friends and loved ones in my life just loving me and always being supportive of my ideas and not making me feel weird about them. I know a lot of people that try and put themselves out there, and their friends are just like, ‘Why are you doing that?’ The judgment can be a major block. My friends would always like my posts on Instagram when I had zero followers and they would share them. Also, the people who follow me and have been supporting and talking about my art in person to other people. And anyone wearing my work or putting it in their home. That is what makes it possible for me to have this as a full-time career — that kind of support. I’m extremely grateful that I have an audience now. I would be doing this regardless, and I have been doing this my whole life, but the only difference now and why I can make it a career is because I have an audience that listens now.” If you could change one thing about your professional life, what would it be? “I wish I had more free time. It’s astounding how quickly a day goes by because my to-do list is never-ending, and it’s mostly filled with things that I’m really excited about and want to do. I love what I do. It’s just that there’s no time.” What do you do to start your workday? “Timeboxing. I block out my day because I’m very scatter-brained and all over the place. I have a never-ending to-do list, and it forces myself to pick three top priorities for the day, and then I can brain-dump in another section [of my planner], and then I can time-lock another section. It helps my brain immensely. I cannot go through a day without a time box or else the day is going to be a mess and I’m going to feel terrible.” What do you do to end your workday? “I’ll journal again. I like to exercise and take weird workout classes. By weird, I mean, I’ll just try new things. There’s a studio right next to my studio that does really fun pole classes, hoop classes, trapeze, and aerial art. It’s really cool.” Why do you code? “[I code] when there’s a specific effect I want to achieve with my art like projection-mapping. It gets me where I want to go and is the tool to get me there.” What’s one thing you’d change about your industry? “[I wish there was] more support and representation for women — women in higher positions and more female voices. I love the initiative that certain companies are taking now. Computer Science is Everything especially, with its efforts to empower women. I love that initiative, and that’s so much of what I want to have for my own brand, too. I’ve seen so much misogyny in the industries that I’ve worked in. So, continuing to put myself out there is hopefully a little tiny piece of that change. We need more female voices in these industries.” What are you hoping the future of tech will look like? “Definitely to see more representation and more female-led businesses.” Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Source link

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norajworld · 1 month ago

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brookemedbil · 2 months ago

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Top Medical Billing Schools in NYC: Launch Your Healthcare Career Today!

Top Medical Billing Schools in NYC: Launch Your Healthcare Career‍ today!

If you’re looking‍ to get started in the healthcare industry, enrolling in⁢ a medical billing program is one of the most rewarding paths. The demand for skilled medical billing professionals in New York City⁤ is ever-increasing, making it a great place to embark on your healthcare career. In this article, we ⁤will explore ‌the top medical ⁣billing schools in NYC, the benefits of pursuing this field, and practical tips for success.

Why Choose a Career in Medical Billing?

Before we dive into the top schools, let’s look at the reasons you might want to consider a career in⁤ medical billing:

high Demand: With⁢ the healthcare industry expanding, there is a continuous need for trained medical billers.

Flexibility: Many medical billing positions offer remote work ⁣possibilities, allowing for a better work-life balance.

Competitive Salary: Medical billers can earn a decent salary, especially with experience and certification.

Career Growth: The field offers various avenues for advancement, including supervisory roles and specialization options.

top Medical Billing Schools in NYC

In NYC, several ⁤reputable institutions offer medical billing programs. here’s a detailed overview of the top schools:

School Name

Program Length

Certification Offered

Location

City University of New⁤ York (CUNY)

1 year (Certificate)

Medical ⁤Billing Specialist

Multiple Campuses

New York Institute ⁣of Technology (NYIT)

1-2 years (Associate’s)

Associate in Applied Science

Manhattan

Pace University

6 months (Certificate)

Medical Billing & Coding

Lower Manhattan

Berkeley College

1 year⁤ (certificate)

Medical Billing & Coding certification

Midtown Manhattan

Herzing University

1 year (Certificate)

Medical Billing and Coding Specialist

Online & Campus

benefits ⁢of Enrolling in Medical Billing Programs

Here are some‍ compelling reasons why you should consider thes programs:

Expert Training: Learn from experienced instructors who can provide insights into the⁤ industry.

Networking Opportunities: Gain connections that may help in finding job placements.

Hands-on Experience: Many programs offer practicums that⁤ provide real-world billing⁣ experiences.

Certification Preparation: ⁣most schools prepare you for⁤ various industry certifications.

Practical Tips for Success in Medical Billing

Once you’ve decided to pursue medical billing, consider the following tips ‌to ensure your success:

Stay Updated: Healthcare laws ⁢and regulations change frequently. Make sure to stay updated on the latest changes in medical billing.

Use Online Resources: Utilize online platforms and communities for additional learning and support.

Practice Coding: Familiarize yourself with coding systems like CPT and ICD-10 to enhance your practical skills.

Build⁣ a Resume: ⁣Document your skills, certifications, and any practical experience to create a strong resume.

Case Studies: Success Stories from Graduates

Real-life examples can provide inspiration and insight into what you can achieve after graduation.Here are two success stories from graduates of reputable medical billing programs:

Jane Doe – City University of New York

Jane graduated from CUNY’s Medical Billing Specialist program and quickly landed a job in a large ⁣hospital⁤ in NYC. With her strong foundation in billing procedures, she advanced to a supervisory role within two years.

John Smith – Pace University

After completing his certificate ⁤in Medical ⁤Billing & Coding at Pace University, John started as a billing⁤ analyst at a healthcare firm. His attention to detail helped his team reduce billing errors considerably, leading to a promotion in less than a year.

First-Hand Experience: what to Expect from a Medical Billing program

Students enrolling in medical billing programs can expect:

Coding Techniques: You’ll learn how to accurately code medical diagnoses and procedures.

Billing Software⁢ Training: Training will often include familiarization with industry-standard software.

Ethics in Healthcare: Understanding the ethical considerations in healthcare billing practices will be emphasized.

Conclusion

Pursuing a career in medical ‍billing can open many doors in the ⁣healthcare industry. With the increasing demand for skilled professionals in this field, now is the perfect time to start your journey. Explore the top ‌medical billing schools in NYC, enroll in a program, and equip‌ yourself with the skills needed to thrive in this rewarding career.Whether you go for a certificate ‍or an associate’s degree, investing in your education will provide you with a pathway to a prosperous future in healthcare.

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https://medicalbillingcodingcourses.net/top-medical-billing-schools-in-nyc-launch-your-healthcare-career-today/

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oliviaphleb · 2 months ago

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Leading Phlebotomy Technician Schools in NYC: Your Guide to a Rewarding Career in Healthcare

**Meta Title:** Top ⁢Phlebotomy Technician Schools in NYC: Your Guide to a Rewarding Career in Healthcare **Meta Description:** Discover teh‌ top phlebotomy technician schools in NYC. Learn about programs, career benefits,‍ and⁣ tips for‌ a prosperous ⁣career in healthcare.

—

# Top Phlebotomy Technician Schools in NYC: Your Guide to a Rewarding Career in Healthcare

Phlebotomy ⁣is an essentialfield in the healthcare industry, focusing on drawing blood for tests, transfusions, research, ⁣or blood donations. As medical technology advances and the demand for these skilled professionals grows, pursuing a career as⁢ a phlebotomy technician coudl be ⁤a smart move, especially in a bustling city like new York City⁣ (NYC).⁢ If‌ you’re considering this career path, this comprehensive guide will introduce ⁤you to the top phlebotomy technician schools in NYC and everything you need to know‌ about‌ starting your journey in the healthcare sector.

## Why Choose a Career in Phlebotomy?

Before diving into the specifics of phlebotomy schools, let’s explore the reasons to‌ consider this rewarding career:

### benefits of ⁤Becoming a phlebotomy ‍Technician:

– **High Demand**: With ‍a growing healthcare ⁢industry, skilled phlebotomists are ⁤in high demand. – **Short Training Programs**: Many phlebotomy programs can be completed within a few months. – **Flexible Work Schedules**: Phlebotomists frequently enough have flexible work hours,allowing for ⁣a better work-life balance. – **Opportunity for Advancement**: ⁢experience in phlebotomy can lead‍ to further opportunities in healthcare, including roles in nursing or laboratory technology.

## Top Phlebotomy Technician Schools in NYC

When choosing a⁣ phlebotomy school, it’s essential to consider accreditation, curriculum, clinical⁢ experience, and job placement rates. Here are the top schools in NYC ‌to kick-start your phlebotomy career:

### 1. **City College of New ⁤York (CCNY)**

#### Overview – **Location**: 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031 – **Program Length**:⁣ 12 weeks – **Accreditation**: National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS)

####⁤ Curriculum Highlights – Introduction to‍ Phlebotomy – Patient Interaction - Laboratory Procedures

#### ⁤Clinical Experience Students will participate in hands-on training at affiliated healthcare ‍facilities.

###⁤ 2. **New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)**

#### Overview – **Location**: 1855 Broadway, New ⁣York, NY 10023 – **Program‌ Length**: 1 semester – **Accreditation**: Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)

#### Curriculum Highlights – Phlebotomy Techniques – Infection Control – Anatomy and Physiology

#### ⁣Clinical Experience NYIT offers clinical placements to provide real-world experience.

### 3. **Eagle Gate College**

#### ‍Overview – **Location**: 1950 W. 4500 S. Suite 140, Salt Lake City, UT 84129 (with NYC Online Options) – **Program Length**: 6‌ months – **Accreditation**: Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES)

#### Curriculum ⁢Highlights – Blood Collection Techniques -⁣ Venipuncture and Capillary Draw – Safety and Compliance

#### Clinical Experience Includes externships in local hospitals and⁢ clinics.

### ‌4. ⁣**Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC)**

#### Overview – **Location**: 199 Chambers St,⁤ New York, NY 10007 – **Program‌ Length**: 15 weeks – **Accreditation**:‌ New York State Education Department

#### curriculum Highlights – Phlebotomy Fundamentals – Ethical &⁣ Legal Issues in Healthcare – Basic‌ Laboratory Techniques

#### Clinical Experience Hands-on ⁤training through a capstone project at a local facility.

### 5. **The Institute of Health Sciences**

#### overview – **Location**: 31-00 47th Ave, Long Island City, ‌NY 11101 – **Program Length**: 9‍ weeks – **Accreditation**: Legitimate State ⁤approvals

#### Curriculum Highlights -‌ Patient Care⁤ Techniques – Medical Terminology – Practical Lab Skills

####⁤ Clinical Experience Includes thorough ‌fieldwork in various healthcare settings.

## Practical Tips for Aspiring Phlebotomists

1. **Research‍ Schools**: Evaluate schools based ⁣on their curriculum, accreditation, clinical placements, and student reviews. 2. **Prepare for Hands-On Training**: The clinical portion is essential; ‌actively engage in all practical assignments. 3. **Stay Updated on ⁢Industry Trends**: Follow⁢ industry news and stay current ⁣on new technologies and methods in phlebotomy. 4. **Network**: ⁣Connect with professionals in the field to gain insights and potential job leads.

## First-Hand Experience: A Day‌ in⁣ the Life of a Phlebotomist

To truly understand what it’s like to be a phlebotomist, here’s a‌ brief outlook ‌on a typical day:

– **Morning Shift**: Arrive ‌early, review⁤ lab requisitions,‌ and prepare for the day’s appointments. – **Patient Interaction**: Greet patients,⁣ ensure they are comfortable, and explain the blood drawing process. – **Blood Collection**:⁣ Utilize various techniques (venipuncture, capillary, etc.) to collect blood samples efficiently⁣ and safely. – **Record Keeping**: Maintain⁢ accurate records of samples collected,‍ label accordingly, and assist⁢ in preparing samples for transport to laboratories. – **End of the day**: Wrap up by cleaning equipment and discussing any challenges faced with a supervisor.

## Conclusion

Pursuing a career as a ⁢phlebotomy technician⁢ in NYC can be an exciting and fulfilling choice. ⁣With the right education,⁢ hands-on experience, and a ‍passion for ‍helping others, you ‌can embark on a rewarding journey in healthcare. Consider the⁤ phlebotomy schools listed in this guide to kick-start your career. Remember that being a⁤ phlebotomist⁣ is not just about⁤ collecting blood; it’s about‍ providing patient care, ensuring ‍safety, and making a difference in people’s lives.

### Call to Action

If you’re ready to ‍take the first step toward a rewarding career in healthcare, explore the‍ programs at the top phlebotomy technician schools‍ in NYC and enroll‌ today! The healthcare industry needs compassionate and skilled⁢ professionals‍ like you.

—

this ⁤article is designed to provide valuable insights into ‌phlebotomy education while ‍seamlessly integrating ⁢SEO-focused keywords and a ⁣well-structured format, ensuring it attracts the right ‌audience ⁤searching for information on this essential career path.

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chilimili212 · 2 months ago

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Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and some surprising data from Mrs. Meghan Sussex and her new ShopMy beauty picks. Included in today’s issue: Alleven, Alpyn, Augustinus Bader, Beauty Creations Cosmetics, Beekman 1802, Bliss, Carolina Herrera, Charlotte Tilbury, Estée Lauder, Fenty Beauty, Granado, Haus Labs, Hourglass, Hppy Skin, Ilia, Kopari, Laneige, Hourglass, Manicurist, Neutrogena, Ouai, Paris Hilton, Pat McGrath Labs, RMS, Scentbird, Subtl, Toty, Victoria’s Secret, Voesh, Yensa, Ziip and Emil the goat. But first… My college education was jammed with beauty lessons, but they happened in dorm rooms, not classrooms. On the syllabus: Practical Applications of MAC Lipglass, thermal physics and the GHD flat iron and the psychology of rave eyeliner.Caitlyn Miller, 20, is getting more legit training. A junior at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Miller is pursuing a degree in the Business of Beauty and Fragrance, a program launched in 2018 to better prepare students for careers at cosmetics brands and perfume houses. Caitlyn’s course load includes “Retail Buying Simulations” and “Product Design for Customer Experience.” In December, she traveled to Seoul and Tokyo with 16 other students to join several Allure editors for beauty branding workshops, and to visit the offices of Shiseido and Amore Pacific. “We learned about the customer journey and how it’s changed because of AI, and how ‘conversational selling’ uses authenticity and storytelling to elevate the appeal of luxury brands on social media,” Miller said, sounding more like a marketing manager than an undergrad. According to Jessica Cruel, the editor-in-chief of Allure and Self, this is partly the point. “The study of beauty is the study of business,” said Cruel, who gave class project feedback to SCAD students on the Asia trip, and again in Savannah last month during a “Beauty Unlocked” program that led 300 students through beauty career panels with L’Oréal and Rare Beauty executives. “When colleges and universities include beauty in their curriculum, they are highlighting science, marketing, economics, anthropology, art.” Cruel said it’s gratifying to see beauty embraced by academic institutions on the same level as political science and finance. “There are so many career paths in the industry. ... Universities are now giving their students direct pathways to them.”Those pathways include a cosmetic science program for potential product chemists at Spelman College in Atlanta, a Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan, a Beauty Marketing and Project Development Associate’s Degree at Arizona State University’s FIDM campus in Los Angeles and a Beauty Entrepreneurship course at London’s University of the Arts.Programs in Fashion Merchandising and Buying have been around for decades, training talent at major apparel retailers (and helping retain them). A similar beauty track doesn’t exist — yet — so schools like SCAD fill in the blanks with guest mentors like Cruel, partnerships with brands and a 98 percent employment rate for graduates, who have gone on to work at companies including Estée Lauder, Summer Fridays and Tatcha. Meloney Moore, the associate dean who leads SCAD’s beauty endeavours, explained the school’s goal is to create “the next generation of creative leaders.”It makes sense why universities, for which tuition is a primary revenue stream, would be interested in attracting highly engaged students in a specialised program. But why should brands be paying attention, and potentially paying money, to be part of beauty curricula? College campuses are living sample pools of target emerging markets, featuring the highest concentration of under-25 consumers per square foot. When Allure let SCAD students test products for its annual Readers Choice Awards, it built additional content for the magazine while exposing young shoppers to new, and potentially beloved, everyday products and tools. For many young people, college is also where brand loyalty for luxury brands gets deep. Embed your logo in a brain that’s still developing its frontal cortex, and you might make a neural pathway straight to the next fragrance juggernaut, as LoveShackFancy has proven with their wildly popular collegiate pop-ups and corresponding fragrance sales. There’s also an HR benefit. Training students to be beauty grenadiers gives all facets of the industry — chemistry, economics, design, storytelling — a stronger foundation. At SCAD, for example, Moore asks recruiters and CEOs what skills their employees don’t have yet, then creates new course units and assignments to build them. Lately, that’s included pitching products under stressful situations, which SCAD students refine by practicing their skills in small rooms meant to resemble elevators, boardrooms and, in one exercise, even the business-class section of an airplane. Parsons School of Design has a similar course geared to fashion and beauty startups, and another that explains influencer metrics and casting strategies. “We’re really being taught to think like executives and founders,” said Miller, the SCAD beauty major, who finishes her degree in 2026 and will likely become a lip gloss zillionaire soon after. After serving as a final project mentor for SCAD students like Miller last month, Cruel agreed. “Some of these student-created brands were as ready for ‘Shark Tank’ as the brands on the real show,” she said. “During several presentations, I was wondering, ‘Wait, are these kids taking investors?‘” She laughed. “Maybe we should talk.” What else is new…SkincareIn January, Bliss hired comedian and “elder Millennial” avatar Iliza Shlesinger to chide Sephora Kids in an ad for “adult skincare.” On Mar. 21, they launched a complete acne system that seems geared to those same teens and tweens, including a toner, spot treatment and spray. Of course, 40-somethings also deal with zits, but this feels like a youth play. It was a busy week for Beekman 1802: On March 21, the goat-milk skincare brand from Schenectady, NY rescued Emil, the imperilled kid (that’s baby goat) of Lumon (that’s from “Severence”). On Mar. 25, it launched aluminium-free deodorant sticks for $20 each. The moisturising formula is mysterious and important.I’m kind of scared of Ziip’s new Dot device, which looks like a tiny neon life preserver, zaps acne with macro and nano currents and comes with a clear conducting gel. If you are not freaked by (lab-tested and safe) gizmos like this, it’s available as of Mar. 24 online.On Mar. 25, videos about Kopari’s Sunglaze Sheer Setting Mist hit 50 million views on TikTok. The brand said that the spray’s viral “glassy skin” effect has bumped up their social media following by 600 percent and caused the $34 product to sell out at Revolve Beauty, but it’s still available on their DTC website.Estée Lauder just did something… cool. On Mar. 25, the brand dropped a new campaign with Kristen Bell that reframes its storied, and somewhat staid, Advanced Night Repair Cream as a “sleep dupe.” This term is a.) smart b.) fun c.) likely making other brands mad.(“Sleep dupe” seems so simple, but coming up with a tagline like that is super hard!) Unsurprisingly, the creative agency Shadow — which also handles E.l.f. and body care label Eos — was involved. Alpyn’s Super Sculpt Serum hit Sephora on Mar. 25. It’s a “face and neck” formula that claims to cover everything, and instead of a neck cream’s heavy texture, this one boasts a cool gel formula. Last month, Neutrogena unveiled a Tate McRae sponsorship. On Mar. 26, they announced a partnership with the World Surf League and pro athlete Caroline Marks. Wavy-haired blondes, you seem to have the upper hand on $14.99 sunscreen tubes…We can finally talk about the worst-kept secret in beauty: Augustinus Bader’s The Mineral Sunscreen, an SPF 50 formula that hit shelves on Mar. 26 after it was pumped through the Mark Hotel at a lush cocktail party in January, and then landed in every beauty editor’s kit this month. The $140 formula promises both anti-aging and sun protection benefits, with a silky texture that’s nearly identical to the brand’s signature moisturiser.Would you drink a black tea and rosé cocktail? Would your skin? On Mar. 26, Voesh poured one out for its Exfoliating Body Wash, a $19 black tea and rosé formula that’s also available in hinoki, fig and neroli scents. You know how in France, they flash-freeze fruits and veggies at their ripest so you can enjoy super-fresh produce all year? Hppy Skin is aiming to do the same thing with its Shelf-Stable collection, a skincare sextet that “preserves and enhances whole-food antioxidants at peak potency.” It debuted on Mar. 26.Toty’s Reversa Retinol serum hit embattled indie retailer Thirteen Lune on Mar. 27, with niacinamide and tranexamic acid, which is also used to encourage blood clotting after an injury or medical procedure. It’s $89 and promises to calm skin instead of irritate it — a rare but welcome claim for a retinol. (“Huge if true,” etc.) This is cool: Paris Hilton gave the first peek of her skincare line, Parívie, to Linkedin. On Mar. 27, the Beverly Hills blonde announced a line “that reflects my journey, my philosophy, and my vision of timeless, iconic beauty.” Like most things on Linkedin, these words are meant to sound powerful despite their lack of actual info. But the brand site reveals a wisp of blonde hair and a pink bedazzled mirror that looks like it could be super-fun. MakeupOn Mar. 19, Alleven introduced Instant Glow, a pearlescent liquid highlighter that can double as an eye glaze. It’s sheer, buildable and so unbelievably pretty, I’m afraid it was once mean to me in high school. Flower power, but make it eyeshadow. On Mar. 21, Pat McGrath Labs debuted Petalmorphosis, a $128 compact with 10 shades, including a deep matte emerald called Nocturnal Bloom that might be a cult favourite if they sell it separately. Subtl’s stackable Lip Glaze pots rolled out on Mar. 21. They come in five shades, including a nipple-pink called “undone” (cute) and retail for $15 each.We knew it would happen: After pistachio conquered the fragrance aisle and the runways, it hit the nail salons. On Mar. 21, Manicure introduced its latest Deauville collection, a pastel trio with creamy pink, ceramic blue and the same muted light green as a La Durée macaron. Yensa’s Beauty Bronzing Drops dropped on Mar. 24, with a satiny finish and a formula that includes chia. Boomers, Gen-X and Millennials will begin singing the infomercial song; Gen-Z will fondly remember the ingredient from an Erewhon smoothie. Haus Labs launched its Power Sculpt Velvet Bronzer on Mar. 28. It’s a powder-to-creme formula available in eight shades. Pro tip: Double up on these buildable formulas and use them as eyeshadow too.RMS dropped a Cashmere Matte version of its Eyelights cream shadow on Mar. 26. The formula has a matte pearl finish and comes in eight nearly-neutral shades, including a pallid grey that founder Rose-Marie Swift said is inspired by a shade she used to paint on Gisele’s eyelids.If you would like another lip gloss — and even if you wouldn’t — Fenty Beauty is here to tempt you. Its Gloss Bomb Oil launched three new shades on Mar. 26, including a lilac shimmer and a rosy brown that’s the stuff of ‘90s school dance dreams.The brown mascara offerings continue! Last week, Lisa Eldridge did the honours. On Mar. 26, it was Ilia’s turn with a chocolate-coloured version of its Limitless Lash Mascara. Beauty Creations Cosmetics debuted a Barbie collaboration on Mar. 27, which fascinated me because #Barbiecore is waning, to the point where someone is unloading all their hot pink Christian Louboutin inventory on The RealReal. When I asked founder Esmeralda Hernandez what would make Barbie merch sell in 2025, she said, “We see this collaboration as an opportunity to tap into both Barbie fans and beauty enthusiasts” and cited the brand’s “strong nostalgic appeal and its evolution towards diversity, inclusivity and empowerment” as elements that might create staying power. The collection includes 10 beauty items like lip oil, sponges, shadows and “pink setting powder,” all priced under $20.Gracie Abrams is the new face of Hourglass Cosmetics. Starting Mar. 27, you can see her glowy cheekbones on digital and print ads. To announce the partnership, she did a video for The Zoe Report and tight interviews with Bazaar and Vogue — quite a change from just a few years ago, when celebrities would do 10+ chats for a campaign launch, which was often structured like a movie press junket, with separate looks pulled by top stylists. On that note: Kim Cattrall is Charlotte Tilbury’s latest face, representing the Pillow Talk Soul Mates collection of heart-shaped compacts and gilded lipsticks. Cattrall is beloved, witty and hot — all the things Tilbury’s brand represents — and the fact that she’s 68 years old brings home the point that unlike Mad Happy crop tops, makeup doesn’t have an “age out” date, and neither do the bombshells who wear it. Cattrall’s chosen chat site was Elle.com, where her accompanying interview and Dolce Vita-esque photos will likely fuel more social media chatter around a future “White Lotus” role. (Can she be Tanya’s sister, investigating her gruesome death?)On Mar. 28, Armani Beauty finally released its Vertigo Lift Mascara ($32) with a proprietary “Infinity Loop” brush that was apparently road-tested at the recent Oscars on winners Mikey Madison and Zoe Saldaña. Laneige will unpack two fresh Glaze Craze shades, the deep purple Blueberry Jelly and the light pink Strawberry Sprinkles, on Mar. 29 — but technically, they debuted on influencer Golloria’s TikTok page on Mar. 22. Their shine is mesmerising. HaircareOuai launched a St. Bart’s leave-in conditioner on Mar. 27 that merges its best-selling scent with a super-effective detangling formula. Founder Jen Atkin calls the franchise “a vacay to stay” (smart) and has lots of insights into how and why her brand keeps winning on Chrissy Rutherford’s “Fwd Joy” podcast.FragranceHappy Birthday, Victoria’s Secret Bombshell! On Mar. 21, the fragrance turned 15, the same age as its most devoted customer. To celebrate, they threw a model-packed bash in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District that doubled as a packaging reveal: The $60 scent is now available in a substantial crystal bottle that looks more than a bit like Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle. “Grosse Point Garden Society” is a new NBC drama that feels like “Pretty Little Liars” crossed with a British reality show about orchids. It stars Aja Naomi King and Anna Sophia Robb, and now Scentbird has “a trio of fragrant elixirs” to celebrate it. They debuted on Mar. 25, along with perfume bundle boxes inspired by each character. Naturally, one of them includes Juliette Has a Gun.Even if you don’t know the name Quentin Bisch, you’ve definitely smelled his work. The Givaudan nose created Carolina Herrera’s runaway hit fragrance Good Girl, along with Parfums de Marley’s best-selling Delina. On Mar. 26, he introduced Brasilis, a citrus-based scent for the South American heritage label Granado with mandarin, mint and lemon. The packaging is old-school to mirror Grandao’s roots as a traditional Brazilian pharmacy — think C.O. Bigelow, but with açaí. And finally…What is the Meghan Markle Effect on beauty now that her ShopMy page is live? It’s still very early — as of this writing, we’re two days in — but let’s look at some numbers. The beauty page was thoughtfully curated to include lots of indie labels with female founders, including Thrive Causemetics and Summer Fridays. The formulas she recommends are excellent; she has amazing taste. But so far, none of the name-checked ShopMy brands are sold out, and none are getting any notable lift on Google Search. Contrast this with the more niche, more expensive fashion brands that told The Wall Street Journal’s Chavie Lieber they saw an immediate lift in sales after appearing on “With Love, Meghan." Of course, a Netflix appearance is different from a ShopMy page, and because Mrs. Sussex is naturally beautiful, it’s trickier to say, “I want that blush” when you look at her. A striped La Ligne sweater has more visibility. But here’s where things get wild: After Mrs. Sussex recommended a light pink Beyond Polish gel lacquer, the colour got nearly 12,000 clicks to its landing page, according to the site’s own visible counter. Per that same counter, the average Beyond Polish bottle gets 135 clicks, which means Meghan spiked their engagement by over 8,000 percent. That means even if Mrs. Sussex isn’t directly driving immediate sales, she’s creating a new customer pathway that is instant and pretty extraordinary. The gap lies between that brand excitement and the click-to-buy model of ShopMy, which is what will presumably send direct cash to the Sussex house. Another snag: When People and E! report on Mrs. Sussex’s ShopMy picks, they use their own affiliate links, so if you’re learning about her Saie highlighter preference on InStyle.com and not on M.S.’s direct page, the media outlet gets the cash instead. Meanwhile, in a stroke of wild luck, the killer Clare Waight Keller x Uniqlo trench coat recommended by Mrs. S. is still available online in every size — and it’s on sale. Score.Sign up to The Business of Beauty newsletter, your must-read source for the day’s most important beauty and wellness news and analysis. Source link

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