#web rope access

[websysteminternational]

We specialize in hanging scaffolding & suspended access platforms at Access Systems UK. We offer work positioning solutions for safe and efficient access. At WEB Systems International, we provide innovative, safety-focused access and dropped object protection systems that are vital across a range of industries. Our solutions, including the WEB Deck®, WEB Net®, and WEB Catch®, are designed to enhance safety, improve efficiency, and streamline maintenance, inspection, and repair activities in even the most challenging environments.

[mtandtgroup]

WEB Deck™ Under Bridge Access Solution.

WEB Deck is an innovative clip-on modular system which provides a stable and strong working platform for under-decks. It is suitable for a variety of work tasks and can be used by regular tradesmen without safety lines. The system is quickly installed to the underdeck of bridges, viaducts, jetties and oil platforms.

Fast Installation: Only seven days to install and fully encapsulate 300m2 of bridge under-deck.

Safe: fewer hours working at height; rope access is statistically safer than scaffolding.

Low cost: Efficient install leads to lower labour cost and lower total access cost.

Low self-weight: Suitable for weaker structures.

Full containment: The system includes side containment and full encapsulation where necessary.

[hanasnx]

knuckle up

MINORS DNI 18+ WARNINGS: gn!reader | dom!hobie | kinks: size | breathplay: choking | finger sucking

HOBIE BROWN's got big hands. For a guy his size it's natural to have, and you're fixated on them. You're entranced when he ropes his webbing around his palm; how his nimble fingers traverse the neck of his guitar; and you become weak when he puts them on you. Even a touch as simple as a stroke of his knuckles against your cheek elicits a whimper out of you. "You like that, eh?" he murmurs with amusement, tenderly cupping your cheek as you lean into it. Experimentally, his hand slides over until the pad of his thumb can stroke your jaw on the other side, tucking the webbing under your chin. It involuntarily pouts your lips, and he knows you're putty in his hold. He steals a kiss from your pliant mouth by inclining you towards him. So tall you have to stand on the tips of your toes to comply.

"Aren't you a pretty thing? Bein' so sweet f'me." he croons, yet it's said to call attention to how uncharacteristically agreeable you're being.

You squeeze your eyes shut as your delicate countenance skews. "Don't make fun of me."

"D'aw," he sympathizes in a feigned manner. "Wouldn't dream of it, bug." His thumb strokes at your skin, and you suck in a breath. "I like you like this." Curiously, his grip slacks to travel down until your larynx is against his palm. He idles, giving you time to expect it before his hand stretches around and flush against you. Your throat is enclosed in his grasp, your veins lovingly and expertly squeezed. In a merciful moment, he lets your feet relax, landing flat onto the ground as he raises his free hand to you. You keep your eyes closed, focusing on your heart beat, hearing your breathing. The pads of two fingers tap at your mouth, and obediently you part your lips, allowing him access inside. Eager tongue welcomes them by cupping them while your lips form around the first knuckle, until he pushes further in. Long fingers, long fucking fingers sliding over your tongue, narrowly avoiding your gag reflex as he pumps them in and out only halfway. You feel his grip around your neck tighten marginally, his own arousal getting to him as he makes you suck his fingers.

[witchpassing]

notable categories of wing restraint

type A: elaborately adapted shibari ties, designed to showcase as much as restrict. true virtuosos of the art display their subjects in intricate midair suspensions, wings drawn out and set like the work of a taxidermist, birds hung in the hardpoint-to-hardpoint webs of unseen tarantulae. red rope is, as ever, a popular choice, complimenting or contrasting the plumage of most common morphs.

type B: gear, paired or monowing sheathes in canvas, latex, leather; claustrophobic, and thus best suited for punishment. harness-style binders are also available, if tactile access or an unpanicked angel is a concern.

type C: ratchet straps. you know, those things they use for lashing cargo to flatbeds? you can get them at any hardware store; some angels just don't deserve better.

[thehatboxwitch]

breeding kink with hsr

fem!reader, under the cut

blade doesn't so much have a breeding kink than he likes finishing inside you. nothing feels better than your warm wetness gushing around him as he fills you up, your walls milking him relentlessly as your entire body shudders and jerks beneath him.

he growls in satisfaction every time the curve of your ass hits his abs, his balls slapping wetly onto your skin as he pounds you from behind. a pillow rests below your hips, but blade opts to raise your ass himself; he knows what angles you like best, after all.

"come on, come on..." he isn't sure what he's saying anymore. but his eyes are fixed onto his dick, so thick compared to your tight little hole, sliding in and out of you at the feverish pace he's set. his legs are dripping in the cum that you'd sprayed all over him before, but he hasn't given you a break yet.

your body twitches from overstimulation, your hips jerking up to give him better access and jerking down when it's too much. you're babbling nonsense at this point, the words lost in your pleasure.

the full length mirror shows your breasts rippling with each thrust, and blade fucks you harder. you can't see it, but his eyes are alight, glowing as his orgasm edges nearer.

he grabs at handfuls of your flesh, his moans getting louder and louder at the drag of your walls against his dick. oh, imagine how pretty you'll be when he's done with you, those breasts, that stomach, your adorable, fucked out face covered in his cum as he lays his claim. your tiny little pussy made just to hold his cum, to squeeze him and make him feel so good-

blade orgasms with a loud, long groan, thick, hot ropes of cum shooting out onto your g-spot, driving you over the edge. you cum too with a cry, your hips desperately stuttering to get every bit of friction you can, blade not even slowing down as he works you both through your highs.

there's so much of him a white ring begins to form around the base of his dick, cum dripping out in globules, and only then does he slow down and pull out. no, he's not done with you at all - he's just pushing his seed back into you with his fingers. his sweetheart is so good to him, surely you can take it, right? :)

general jing yuan is more than capable of taking care of the consequences of most of his actions - even if those consequences include babies. how could he help himself? you'd look so adorable when that bump from his cum swells into children of your own. it's just another way people get to know you're his.

he makes sure to finish on your inner thighs first before sliding in. that sticky web of yours and his cum together sends a buzz to his head, every time his fingers work your legs apart or his skin makes contact with yours.

you're so needy tonight, having finished already, but still whimpering and moaning like you haven't. jing yuan rubs slow circles into your clit, pulling all the way out before slamming back in.

"ah~! yuan, please, inside, please, please, please, i want you, ah~"

oh, begging like that, how can he say no? jing yuan picks up the pace, pressing down your back with one hand and raising your hips with the other, earning himself another wave of praise.

"does that feel good?" he murmurs into your ear, leaning over so his warmth envelops you.

"mm, ah, so good, so good- ah~" he hits a particularly sensitive spot and your eyes roll, back arching so far your nipples brush against the bed. the extra simulation has you whimpering like an adorable puppy, and jing yuan kisses your shoulder.

his thrusts remain deep, making sure you feel every inch of him, making sure every inch of you gets filled up, but he speeds up. the wet sounds are almost too much to bear, knowing that the two of you are interconnected in so many different ways...

"so cute, so cute, filling you up, gonna make you mine..." his dick twitches and twitches, oozing precum that sticks to your insides, the curve of the shaft pressing it into your walls.

"yours," you cry. "all yours, only yours-!"

[scribblestatic]

Question about Spider SY village. With Spider silk, which are so much stronger than even chain, smooth as Silk, beautiful like pearl rainbow, being so readily available for a story, how much of the village is covered in it? How much of that sillk is being used in utilities? Clothes? Rope replacement? Beds?

Because that would be strange as hell for outsiders.

Oh, yeah, Xiaoshan Village has replaced quite a number of things with silk, though they tend to use it as a core for some things rather than replace it completely.

So, like, steel core ropes have been somewhat replicated for non-stone bridges, and, having learned of its fire-retardant nature, they have the beginnings of fire safety practices by having a fire sheet.

Because, while they appreciate the use of the silk, they understand that access to it may not be forever. Gods have come and gone, their favor ebbing and flowing. There's many a story of a faithful follower not being heard by the one they dedicated their lives to.

Moreover, Shen Yuan is his own being. They were saved by him and protected by his webs, but it's not as though he's purely benevolent or prefers them. They were simply fortunate. Fortunate that Shen Yuan arrived in the nearby forest.

They don't know exactly how long that fortune will last, so as much as they greatly value the silk, they tend to stock it rather than always use it for everything. They hope, of course, that they'll be able to trade with Lulin Zhizhu for as long as they live, but few things are certain and it's best to plan ahead.

At least, that's how they view it.

So, while they do show off some stuff, in the end, they also ration its use.

[dungeonmalcontent]

So, I'm looking to migrate from 5e to Daggerheart. I'm not gonna rant about which is better if either, but I know I'm disaffected by the OGL screw up and the implementation of 5e'24. I'm ready to move on from 5e, even though I have a lot of homebrew ideas for it burning through my skull.

I like DH so far, it feels like a fun and interesting system and it's got the social momentum that I can actually rope a group in on a game.

This next part is sort of a rant though.

However, I will say that DH does not have the tools available for virtual play. In order to run Daggerheart seamlessly on a VTT (any vtt) you tend to want three things: 1) virtual character sheet, 2) virtual minis, and 3) virtual dice rolling. And these resources are just not available.

For the character sheets, you can do pdfs, and that works fine... if you can manage to figure out how to make a modifiable character sheet pdf that saves information between uses. You might also know about Demiplane Nexus, which has a sort of DNDBeyond thing going, they make character sheets and have player integration for a lot of TTRPGs. Except their website (and it is just the web app, no mobile compatibility so far as I can find), insofar as the DH character creator and other utilities, is very badly laid out. They don't have good economy of space and the page just feels bad to look at. But, hey, at least you can make a character... right? Kind of. If you aren't paying for anything extra, they don't provide support for about half of the character classes. You can't even select them. Same for the sub-classes too. And it's not a matter of whether they're in the SRD or not. They're arbitrarily restricting content. But, hey, if you actually buy the book through them you get access to all the content, that way if you wanted to run a group with the game, you could share the content and you could all use the Demiplane. Except no. You also have to pay a subscription fee to share the content you've purchased.

So what about virtual minis? Are there any VTTs that support Daggerheart? There are a few that claim you can use them for DH, but I can't verify all of them. FoundryVTT says it can, and seems to be quite popular, but it isn't free and I can't find a way to just test it in the demo they provide. Then there's roll20, which I've used a lot for games, but their only support for Daggerheart is done through Demiplane. You can still do minis generally on roll20, because you can do minis generally with pretty much any VTT, but roll20 is at a serious disadvantage by only having support through Demiplane (and I'll give more reasons later). And there are others, but they only offer basic token manipulation and no systems.

And then there's dice rolling. And I'm just going to drop the formalities and pretense here. There's absolutely no virtual dice roller that handles duality. Except, technically, Demiplane does handle dice. Kind of. Demiplane rolls dice the same way that Roll20 rolls dice (there's probably more than just export integration going on there, they're partnered to some degree probably). But it's probably the closest you can get to a system that actually rolls duality. The readouts for these virtual dice rolls on both Demiplane and Roll20 (because the integration results in the same product) look like this:

And, now, maybe you can tell me what's wrong with this readouts. If not, I will preface this by saying that what we are seeing is progress. You can see that it rolled 2d12, labeled them correctly as hope and fear, and shows the bonus applied to the roll. And if you can't figure out the problem, I'll show you another readout, this time with advantage.

If you still haven't figured it out, its the total. Using the duality system, you roll 2d12, one of which is the fear dice and one of which is the hope dice. You use the higher of the two, granting you a hope point if the hope dice is used, or granting the GM a fear point is the fear dice is used. If you have advantage, you roll a d6 and add the result to your roll, or you reduce your roll by 1d6 if you have disadvantage. And then you add the modifier for the action you are taking (+2 in the case of this attack roll). But what the readout is doing is essentially /roll 2d12+1d6+2 (as you might do on Roll20) and then adding extra graphical elements. And this isn't the worst thing in the world, but it can and will likely confuse a lot of people that aren't paying close attention. And apart from this, there are other badly implemented elements. The reroll option literally just returns the same result you just got. So if you think that, for whatever reason, a roll needs to be done again because the result doesn't fit, you're out of luck because you'll just get the same result. The dice roller also lets you add more than one disadvantage or advantage, it also lets you roll with both advantage and disadvantage (all things which the rules specify aren't possible). So, it's a start, but it's also real dumb.

So what's my takeaway here? Use paper sheets and physical dice, even if you're going to use a VTT for character tokens and such. It'll work. But it isn't ideal. There aren't any digital resources built for Daggerheart. And it could really use them.

[kirby-obscure-sexyperson-tourny]

Round 1 has come to a close! Here are the sexy contestants that have made it through to Round 2!

Matchup 1’s Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe(the entire game) and Another Dimension

Matchup 2’s meta knight's spare sword he uses when disarmed during his Colosseum battle with kirby (distinct from Master, as it is clearly a mundane ordinary sword and not a magic one like the one utilized from Kirby's Adventure to Kirby & The Amazing Mirror) and Dark Meta Knight’s Feet(various)

Matchup 3’s the audio of MK yelling “COME” from smash bros and The Kiwi Flavored Soda Elfilin Has In The Forgotten Land Credits Alivel Mall (Staff Side Image)

Matchup 4’s Those Things Sticking Out of the Ground in Dream Land and Mr. Dooter

Matchup 5’s Fecto Elfilis’ Spear Antares (submitter’s wife btw) and Milky Way Wishes map theme

Matchup 6’s Noddy and The Nut Tower (Nutty Noon)

Matchup 7’s Kirby Super Star OST: Run, Kirby, Run! and Metal General’s Missiles

Matchup 8’s kirby’s epic yarn wii disk and Taranza’s Dream Friend jingle

Matchup 9’s YOU (from Kirby Canvas Curse) and Kabula

Matchup 10’s Miracle Matter’s silly little overstimulation room and the fountain of dreams

Matchup 11’s the pre-Kirby Mouthful Mode car and Magolor’s Leitmotif

Matchup 12’s The Treasure Chest Dark Nebula Was Trapped in and the first heavy lobster that kirby "fights" at the beginning of revenge of meta knight that gets destroyed when the halberd takes off

Matchup 13’s the fish that kirby catches that gooey eats in the beginning of kirby's dream land 3 and the glitched version of the credits you can get in Kirby's Adventure

Matchup 14’s Joe and the big scifi pyramid from kirby’s Dream Land 3

Matchup 15’s Susie’s helicopter drone and Super Waddle Doo

Matchup 16’s the gamer keyboard on the lor starcutter and the censored thing adeleine draws in k64

Matchup 17’s the green greens leitmotif and The Poppy Bros. Jr. at the beginning of Spring Breeze that due to a placement error, almost always immediately kills itself with a bomb by throwing it at the wall right next to it as soon as it's scrolled onscreen

Matchup 18’s The Wheelies That Flee The Halberd When It Starts To Crash and one of the contestants from our first tie-breaker round, between blue-ray boxset of the kirby anime or The little web trap attack thing Taranza makes in the clash games I don't remember what it's called

Matchup 19’s the first ever waddle dee and Warp Star

Matchup 20’s The first Sir Kibble we see in the first level of Kirby Star Allies and pubic hair (kirby's dream land 2)

Matchup 21’s The doors in Epic Yarn that take you underneath the fabric and one of the contestants from our second tie-breaker round, between the color pink and The Lor sprite the poll runner redrew to have human teeth

Matchup 22’s Meta knight’s mask and Wiz

Matchup 23’s Galacta knight’s shield and The hidden room in Kirby Super Star Ultra that you access by going through the moon above the door to the Krako battle

Matchup 24’s The train you can get hit by in Kirby Fighters and The hand that tries to wake kirby up during a game over (several games)

Matchup 25’s the giant death crystals in Another Dimension and Nova's Globe (this is for you op)

Matchup 26’s That pocket watch with teeth in it from KPR (this is also for you op) and THE ROCKS THAT KILL PYRIBBIT

Matchup 27’s End of level doors and The eels in the halcandran water supply

Matchup 28’s Simirror and city on fire in the background of the fight with master crown

Matchup 29’s The puzzle that's in basically every game where you need to hit stumps to break blocks but you can only hit the first two stumps, and if you hit the third stump it CREATES blocks that stop you from getting the collectible (almost all games. One of these puzzles appears in level 5-2 of Return to Dreamland) and Burning Churning Power Plant

Matchup 30’s the reflective floor of the stage that you fight Void Termina on and Gem Apples

Matchup 31’s Mario and matthew.

Matchup 32’s Cutter puzzle where if you cut the rope while standing under the thing you die and the jambastion

Matchup 33’s Bottomless Pit and the robot that controls the entirety of the shiver star factory (this is not a submission for the factory as a whole)

Matchup 34’s Daroach’s Hat and Mr. Sandbag

Additionally, here are a few fun little statistics!

MOST PROPAGANDA: Elfilis’ Spear, Antares!

LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF VOTES: 43.6%, recieved by That pocket watch with teeth in it from KPR (this is also for you op)

LEAST SEXY: Moto Shotzo, Shockcreepa, Dacooga, Punc, Tookey, Flotzo Borg, Triple Star, Air Curtain, Freezing Temple, Hack, Cloudy, and Octopeas all received 0 votes!

UNSEXIEST MATCHUP: Matchup 12 and Matchup 25 both had two options that received 0 votes!

POLL RUNNER’S TASTE: Of the 34 matchups, I voted for one of the winners in 16 of them! In the court of public opinion, my taste is JUST BELOW AVERAGE!

Announcements

Tomorrow at 2PM I will start the two 24 hour tiebreaker polls. They will be scheduled to be reblogged once after 10 hours.

At 3PM on Friday there will be also a bonus Sexiest Unsexy Competition poll that will last a week— as there were exactly 12 options that received 0 votes, they will be getting a bonus round to see who the sexiest unsexy submission from Round 1 is because I think it would be funny! Feel free to start sending in propaganda for the sexiest unsexy submissions now.

Round 2 will begin at 4PM after the tiebreaker polls end, though the exact day is TBD as it depends on my irl availability. Round 2 matchups will have 4 options each, and this time only one winner will progress from each! There will be 17 polls total, each lasting a week. Since that’s a weird number, there will also be a guaranteed bonus poll to choose one additional winner to progress from the top 4(may be more if there are ties) second places in Round 2.

I have decided not to start using images until Round 3, but hey, that means propaganda can be as simple as submitting a picture!

[stevenbasic]

Growing into the Job, Post 430: Out from the Crowd

“Can you believe all these people?” marveled Kori Kleinman in a covert aside to her co-worker as they stood, in most part head-and-shoulders above the gathering crowd of press, eager future patients, and random Melissa ‘fans’; the parking lot was just teeming with them. The two had been out here, on this atypically bright November day, preparing them all for the press event.

“Yeah huh,” Lexi replied, a smug look on her face. Alexa Samuels had her MBA in marketing, but her classes at Michigan had certainly not taught her to deal with anything like this. Still, she was a smart and competently charismatic girl who, maybe as a result of the few treatments of Program she’d had in her days at Evolution and now the more subtle enhancements she’d enjoyed since being assigned here at Far Horizons, was doing a good job of handling the situation. At least, she thought she was. The ribbon-cutting for the upgraded facility was slated for 13:45 , about an hour from now. Many local TV stations were on the scene, though Channel 5 would have the exclusives. 

“Katie should really be out here helping us,” Kori complained through her perfectly practiced smile, showing off her pearly whites as she fielded yet another round of inane questions, this time from a group of goggle-eyed, pimply twerps that looked like they should be in school. Questions about Melissa, of course. Still, she continued to try to beam through her forced smile. “And where the heckin’ heck is Bianca?”

“Yeah, Katie’s doing that job interview, with their old boss,” Lexi answered, handing her card to a sticky-looking guy from Channel 5 who’d wanted to talk about their camera access at the opening gala in the atrium tonight, “and Bianca’s…I dunno where Bianca is.” Though  a witch could come in really handy right about now. I'm sure they would have more than a few ways to quiet these people down. 

Kori just nodded behind subtly clenched teeth as she continued ushering people as best she could away from the front doors and the velvet-roped sections they’d set up. There were a few of the guys from the basement - Melissa’s ‘monkeys’ - that were arranging chairs behind the makeshift podium and trying their best to remain unseen. Cameras were already being assembled in place. Kori knew someone from the mayor’s office would be arriving soon, probably with their own team of people. As part of the Communications team, she knew it’d be partly her job to make sure everyone knew the deal. Lexi, though, was the one really running the show. 

Lexi Samuels, aka Agent 0FHMA011, had been placed in her position in large part to lay the groundwork for this event and to usher in what would soon follow: the aggressive marketing and expansion of Far Horizons Evolution Center into a nationwide brand of medical facilities that would prepare and serve the women of the upcoming new world order in the US. This, today, was ostensibly just a local press event, a silly ribbon-cutting to a new doctor’s office, but Lexi knew the plan was to have this ‘little event’ picked up nationally through the Movement’s burgeoning media empire. Their influence spanned an increasingly extensive web that already boggled Lexi’s mind, and the Movement’s power was only continuing to grow. Similar medical facilities had been successful in other countries where the Movement was more advanced, and had started carrying out their purpose. There was no reason that, with KOLECTV’s help, Far Horizon Evolution Centers couldn’t spring up in every major city from coast-to-coast in the next 12-18 months and from there help spread the Movement's agenda. That was the goal at least, and Lexi knew that her job security partially rested on how well things went today and tonight.  She had the support and guidance, of course, from higher-ups at Evolution, as well as Nexifem and KOLECTV, but boots-on-the-ground moments like these were really in her lap. 

Kori, a naive and semi-recent Communications grad from Syracuse, had actually been a big help. She seemed pretty committed to the cause and, without the benefit of the partial immunity to Melissa’s pheromones that Lexi’s exposure to Program had given her, Kori was also a dedicated Hive member and Melissa fan. That, for now at least, was fine. Also, her tits had recently gotten huge. 

Those pimply twerps from before were ogling them as we speak. 

“Scram you little creeps.” With a sheath of papers that held today's itinerary and logistics, Lexi shooed them away. After they scurried, a young blonde girl was left, and stood facing them seemingly undeterred. 

“Hello there,” Lexi greeted her, smiling her big smile. The young girl had caught her attention.Tanned, busty in a low-cut blue tee. Short-sleeved in the nice weather. She was fresh-faced as all get-out.

“Hi, Ms. Samuels?” the girl asked.

“Yes?” Lexi answered. If the girl knew her name, she’d done her research. 

“My name’s Tia,” she replied, “and I was wondering how I might go about applying for a lifeguard position.”

 Lexi nodded silently. There was something about this one that got her antennae up. Not in a bad way, necessarily, just up. Now, she knew they were still looking for lifeguards for the underground clinic pool. Would they hire teenagers?  “I'm afraid that’s really not my department, but…”

She looked at the girl. Young, really young. Something shimmered inside her, though. Lexi motioned her closer, speaking softly. “You’re on treatment, aren’t you?”

The girl froze, hesitating a bit. But after a quick sideways glance she replied. “No, but my teacher is. She’s in an experimental, like, study. She comes here for treatment, and it’s been working. On all of us,” she said, “so all us girls in her class have been…”

Her voice trailed off. Lexi knew what she meant to say. As natural a beauty as this girl appeared, her height, figure and composure were remarkable. 

“And the boys have been-?“  Lexi prompted, glancing and nodding at the pimply twerps that were now huddled over their phones several yards away. Her classmates, apparently. Here on a class trip? Suddenly they reminded her of small, shrunken little rodents.

“Yeah…they are.” Tia bit her lower lip as she glanced over at the little twerps, “…getting smaller.”

Lexi studied the girl’s reaction, putting it together: a high school teacher, a patient in the Product study clinic here probably, was building a hive of her students. The higher-ups, and the study-coordinator Gianna, were pretty picky-and-choosy about who they brought into the trial. This teacher must have some some sort of connection. Now it was Lexi’s turn to hesitate. She liked the girl well enough, but didn’t know what would transpire if a budding bee from another hive came to work here. What might happen if she was also exposed to Melissa’s pheromones, even if just for a few hours a week?

Could be cool.

“Tell you what,” Lexi said, “I’m going to take your pic, so I remember how adorable you are: smile…”

Tia smiled for Lexi.

“Here’s my card. Send me your stuff, if you have a resume or whatever. I’ll see what I can do about that lifeguard job…”

Lexi regarded her again, thought for a moment.

“Y’know what?” she asked, “We’re having a little gala event here tonight, celebrating the new opening.”

“Yeah I heard,” Tia answered.

This girl has done her homework, Lexi thought again. “How about you drop in, I can introduce you to a few people.”

“For real?” Tia squealed, suddenly belying her youth, eyes wide with enthusiasm.

“Yeah, for real,” Lexi smiled, seeing how the promise of such a fancy, ‘adult’ event was so exciting to the teen, “I’ll get you on the list. Seven o’clock here, tonight. Let me know if you need a dress…”

====================================

thx to ItsThePitts for providing inspiration for the Tia character. We'll see how she...develops. And, of course, RiF for edits.

[sjsmith56]

The Duality of Nature, Chapter 18 - Understanding

Summary: After several weeks of avoiding Noelle, Winter finally admits that he loves her but doesn’t trust himself around her. In the vibranium universe Bucky reawakens and is able to communicate better with the One, via a surprising interface.

Length: 5.9 K

Characters: Winnie, Winter, Noelle, Bucky, emissary of the One.

Warnings: Unrequited love, display of painful memories, fear of the Winter Soldier.

Author’s note: The scientific discussion regarding the plans to go to the vibranium universe is based on online research but should not be considered as definitive. I wanted Thor to be the leader of the project as too often he gets portrayed as a simpleton. I think he’s much smarter than what he’s been allowed to display and this project has become his chance to prove that. The One doesn’t understand emotions although it feels something similar when it is intact; like a sense of belonging that is familiar. Now that there is a singular emissary it will begin its own journey of understanding what it is to be human. In many ways it mirrors the journey that Winter is already on.

<<Chapter 17

It had been two weeks since the attack on the compound and since then, Noelle had seen Winter only once, walking away from her while he was with Sam.  She called to them, and they stopped then Winter excused himself and hurried away, saying he was late for a meeting.  Even though she had asked Sam what was going on he had been reluctant to say anything concrete.  Instead, he admitted that Winter was dealing with something personal that he wanted to work out on his own.  Considering how much she had advocated for him to make his own decisions; she knew she really didn't have a right to feel left out by that.  But Winnie missed him, and more than once asked Noelle to get him to read her a bedtime story.  The normally pleasant and cooperative little girl had even experienced a few tantrums when Noelle had to explain that Winter needed some alone time.  What was certain was that he was definitely avoiding them.

It wasn't until Winnie went missing, during a morning outing from play school to find autumn leaves for an art project, that Winter willingly showed up with several others to go looking for her.  All the children in the compound wore a tracker, in the form of a bracelet that shouldn't have been removable.  When the play school teacher found the broken bracelet near the reservoir she immediately called the alarm.  Sam, Joaquin, and Tony flew over the vast grounds of the compound, searching for the little girl's heat signature but were unable to find her.  As the fear that Winnie had been abducted began to take root in Noelle's mind, the teacher admitted that Winnie had always wanted to explore an abandoned limestone quarry at the end of the property.  Several staff had gone out there, using the site as the subject for their art, and she had used their artwork as story starters with the children.  There were caves everywhere, and somehow Winnie got it into her head that there were faeries living there, as all of her story suggestions involved finding a faerie family.

As the search crew, that included Sam, Joaquin, Tony, Carol, Winter, John, Peter and Yelena made their way there they realized the magnitude of the search, since the ground was pockmarked with sink holes.  There were also caves in the face of the quarry walls, accessible only to those who could fly.  As the flyers concentrated their search there the others began to explore the ground caves, one by one.  It was trying work, as some of those caves were deep.  For John, Winter and Peter it wasn't so bad as they could easily make their way down to the bottom but for Yelena, she had to set up ropes to rappel down then take everything apart when she got back out.  Peter offered to pair up with her, as long as she didn't mind being lowered by spider web.  By noon, they still had numerous caves to search. 

As Winter was just about to leave one of the caves, he heard a little whimper and turned, flashing his light in the direction of the sound.  Although he had called Winnie's name before, she hadn't responded and even though he listened when he first entered, he was unable to hear her heartbeat.

"Sweet pea?" he called out, knowing she liked that nickname.  "Was that you?"

"No," said a small voice.  "I'm not here."

He smiled and walked towards where the voice came from, stepping further into the cave dominated by the sound of dripping water and full of sharp edges.  When he passed by a large column he found a tiny alcove behind it.  Winnie sat on the floor; her knees drawn up to her chin.  She was frowning at the light he carried, so he aimed it to the side.  Sitting on his knees in front of her, he tried to determine visually if she was hurt.

"Why are you hiding?" he asked gently.

"I'm not hiding," she replied.  "I'm having alone time."

He nodded.  "Everyone's looking for you.  We thought you were lost."

"I'm not lost.  Why don't you like me anymore?"

"I do like you.  You're one of my friends."

She sniffed and wiped her nose with her fingers, struggling not to cry.  "Then why don't you come over and read stories to me at bedtime?"

"I'm sorry."  He shifted so he was sitting cross legged.  "I've been trying to understand something and maybe I tried too hard to do it by myself."

"What's wrong?"  She looked at him with concern.  "Are you sick?"

"No, I don't get sick.  I've been kind of sad."

"Why?"

He sighed.  How could he explain to this little girl that he loved her mother and wanted her to love him back, but knew that it was impossible?  She would think he was trying to replace her beloved Papa and the guilt he felt for that was almost too much for Winter to bear.  He swallowed, realizing the truth would be best.

"I think I love someone, but she can't love me back because she loves someone else.  It's wrong that I feel that way about her and that makes me sad.  So, I've been trying to talk to someone to help me not love that person that way anymore."

"Is she married?"

"Yeah, she's married.  She's my friend, too, and I don't want her to stop being my friend."

Winnie nodded her head.  "Well, if she's your friend, she'll unnerstand.  I love Papa, and I love you and even though I call you Papa Winter, I know you're not my Papa, and that's okay, because I know you love me, too."

"I wish I was your Papa, for real, because I do love you, Winnie.  But you're right.  I'm not your Papa."

"But someday you'll be a papa for real."

"You think so?"

She smiled, and he felt all of her love in that moment.  "Ablosutely."  She leaned forward.  "I hads a movie in my head when I sleeped.  You were married and you hads a little girl, just like me.  It made me feel good that when Papa comes back you can be a Papa, too."

"Well, thank you telling me, Winnie."  His voice wavered for a moment, and he coughed to control his emotions.  "I look forward to being a Papa for real.  Now, did you climb down here, or did you fall?"

She stood up and pointed to a part of the cave that had a ledge.  "I jumped to there, then down here.  I was looking for faeries but there aren't any.  It's just an empty cave."

"Okay, I can carry you like a koala bear where you hold on really tight to me, and I'll jump up to the top."  She nodded and he stood up, picking up the light and clipping it to his belt, then hitting the comms in his ear.  "I found her.  She's alright.  We're coming out."

He unzipped his jacket, picked her up and made sure she held on tight.  Then he zipped his jacket up to enclose her, making her giggle that they were so close together.  Walking to where the light from above shone down, he had a better look at the ledge and decided it was probably safer to jump there first, then up through the hole. 

"Ready?" She nodded, then grasped his shirt tightly.  "Here we go."

The first jump was easy, then he jumped up again, to where John was waiting with an outstretched hand.  He grasped it, letting the other super soldier pull him away from the edge, then he unzipped his jacket and lowered Winnie to the ground.  The others were soon there and all of them made a big fuss over her, that actually did make her cry.  She clung to Winter, and it took him a few moments to calm her down. 

"Well, how would you like a ride back to the compound with your uncle?"  Sam smoothed her hair as she nodded.

He looked at Winter and mouthed thank you to him, then picked Winnie up and lifted into the air.  Joaquin took Yelena, while Tony offered to carry Peter and John.  That left Carol with Winter, who made no move to join her.

"You have to talk to her sometime," she said, sympathetically.  At the look on his face, she smiled.  "It's kind of obvious how you feel about Noelle and Winnie.  They call it the elephant in the room.  Sometimes, it's better to acknowledge it and talk about it, so that you don't isolate yourself from a solution.  You're an honourable man, Winter.  The fact that you are experiencing guilt about your feelings for Noelle is proof of that.  Don't shut them out."

"I'm afraid," he admitted.  "I worry that I'll do something inappropriate.  It's overwhelming sometimes."

"Yeah, it can feel like that."  She smiled.  "For starters, don't ever be alone with her.  Maybe, you should take part in some of the extracurricular activities that the compound staff have going.  There's a basketball league, badminton, bowling, chess club, and a bunch more.  Make more friendships.  I head out to town once a week to shoot some pool.  You're welcome to come with me.  It is a gay bar, but we accept everyone."

"Thank you, those are all good suggestions," he smiled.  "Alright, let's go back."

She wrapped an arm around his waist, while he held onto her shoulder.  She raised herself up in the air then sped back to the compound where there was another large group of people gathered to greet Winnie as a crying Noelle held her.  As Carol landed, Winter smiled at the reunion, then turned to go back to his quarters.

"Winter?"  Noelle called to him.  He turned towards her.  "Thank you."

"You're welcome.  She was looking for faeries then decided to have some alone time."

Winnie held on to her mother, then whispered in her ear. 

"I think that's a good idea," Noelle answered.  "Why don't all of you in the rescue group come to the party room for a pizza party.  My treat."

He looked at the others, specifically Sam and Carol, who both nodded.  So did the others, agreeing to come.

"Alright, I'll be there," he said.  "I better go wash up."

Peter went with him, and the others drifted back to their quarters.  When the pair showed up at the party room, it was already full as everyone was there.  They gathered some pizza from where it was laid out on several tables, then a beer each, and looked for a place to sit.  The mood was quite genial, and Winter found that several people wanted to know the details of how he found her.  There was talk of either declaring that part of the property off-limits or to hiring a contractor to fill the sinkholes in, but the second suggestion was seen as likely costing too much plus they would have to go through the state to submit that many changes to the landscape. 

Finishing his pizza and draining his beer, Winter stood up to leave, getting just outside the door when he heard his name.  Turning to Noelle he waited for her to approach him.

"You don't have to leave so early," she said.  "Why don't you come over to watch a movie."

"I'm not sure that's appropriate anymore," he replied.

"Has anyone said anything?" She looked confused.  "Winnie misses you."

"I know.  I miss her, too."  He sighed and looked at his hands before daring to look her in the eyes.  "I can't be alone with you, anymore."

She looked even more confused, then her eyes widened as she understood his subtext.  "Oh.  When?"

He shrugged.  "I felt it after you and Winnie returned from your refuge.  I finally understand this."  He pressed his clenched fist into his chest.  "I've been talking to someone about it, but I don't trust myself if I'm alone with you.  It's better that I don't come over, at least not if I'm alone."  He turned to go away then turned back.  "I'm going to start going out with other people, as part of a group outing.  I won't do anything that would violate the physical bond between you and Barnes.  I'm sorry."

He left her there, and she watched him walk away until he turned a corner and was no longer visible.  She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Sam, with an understanding look in his eyes.

"Did you know?"

He nodded.  "Friday told me he was experiencing some distress after you two came back from your hiding place.  He was upset, with himself more than anything.  Said he was in love with you."  For a moment Sam recognized a moment of betrayal in Noelle's eyes.  "It wasn't for me to share.  I respected his privacy when he said he would bring it up himself."

"What do I do?  Winnie misses him but he won't come over alone anymore."

"That's good.  He's trying to respect the boundaries of your friendship.  Give him his space and let him work it out." 

He hugged her, then drew her back to the party room, noticing Carol nodding her head at him.  It was good that she told him about her brief conversation with Winter before returning from the quarry.  If anything had happened between the pair, whether it was intentional or accidental, it would have torn everyone apart.

The following day there was a meeting of the team working on a virtual probe to access the vibranium universe.  Tony's protégé Harley Keener had successfully miniaturized a small projection device, down to a cube shaped unit that measured a cubic cm in size.  Inside he and Bruce Banner had developed a full operating system that was configured to activate once it viewed Bucky's face.  The power source was still causing issues because it had to work in a zero Kelvin environment and not be warm enough to set off the vibranium in the other universe. 

"What's the upper limit of the temperature differential?" asked Thor.

"1 degree K, we think." Harley shrugged.  "We're kind of working in the dark here.  We can't use nuclear energy because that generates heat.  Cold fusion has been a goal for scientists for a long time but it's room temperature so that's definitely too warm.  All known forms of power generate heat.  We're also looking at laser cooling to bring the operating temperature down but that means we'll need a bigger device to hold the cooling unit."

"We've considered developing a power source that uses vibranium, since that is plentiful in the other universe but so far, our tests haven't come close enough to that 1 K temperature goal."  Shuri looked tired as she explained the different issues they had encountered.  "On another note, we have a Dora Milaje recruit who has displayed some shaman abilities.  She hasn't undergone her ritual in the living vibranium cave yet.  I thought we could use her abilities to talk to it and find out if it is part of that other universe.  Perhaps, if its genetic memory is developed enough, it can help us find the right power source."

"Alright, keep us advised on how that goes," said Thor.  "Tony how goes the development of the virtual projection unit?"

"It's all done," he replied.  "We have sound and picture working at room temperature when the probe is connected to traditional power sources.  We used Winter to test the activation, as we uploaded all different images of Bucky in his various incarnations.  The sound quality was good as was the picture, at least at our room temperature.  The sound and picture quality may be affected by the low temperatures, but I think we can compensate for that once we begin testing in a controlled temperature environment.  Of the two, we need sound to work more than picture because the goal is to communicate after all."

"Delivery system, Peter?"

"A breakaway projection unit, taken to the edge of a portal into the other universe, probably by Carol, since she can withstand that environment better than any of us," he began.  "Just before it enters it will drop off the probe, which will then glide into the vibranium universe under its own trajectory.  Since it isn't a vacuum in there it should eventually slow down and stop due to friction with the atmosphere.  The covers on the projection unit will be thin plates of solid vibranium and should adjust to the temperature differential, plus we figure since it's a living consciousness there it will recognize it and appreciate the return of part of its solid form back to its fold."

"So, everything is ready except for the power source," he said, frowning slightly.  "Dr. Strange, is it possible to use magic to power it?"

He pressed his hands together, then held the Time Stone while he went through several permutations.  When he was finished, he had a hopeful look in his eyes.

"I would have said no, but there are some of my colleagues who have backgrounds in the field that may be interested in working on this.  I will bring them in on the problem and see if they can come up with something.  It's not guaranteed as the living vibranium is the real issue."

"Good, now about the protective suit," said Thor.  "With all that's happened have we come up with anything that will allow the transfer of Bucky's essence into the suit with his living body in it, without compromising the integrity of the suit?"

"Yeah, we're running into roadblocks there," said Tony.  "The suit has to be self-contained, have its own environmental controls, but have a way to allow for the input of a ... what element would you call a person's soul?  I wonder, if we get the communications probe done soon, we can send it and ask the vibranium consciousness for its input.  I mean, they took his soul out of his body.  They must have a way to put it back, even through a one-way vent or something."

"We'll keep working on it," said Bruce. 

After calling for any more ideas or input of any kind, Thor wrapped it up and people returned to their workspaces to continue on with their tasks.  It had been two months since Bucky was taken.  Even though it had been some time since they last had a vision from him, no one thought that they were doing this in vain.  The life of their friend and colleague was still important to them, and they would do all they could to return him.

Bucky

He didn't know how long he had been asleep this time.  He was awake now, wandering in the grey.  Without his watch, Bucky had no concept of time.  He felt no hunger, or thirst, or the need for certain bodily functions.  Now that he knew he was alive he wondered how they had kept him that way and for how long.  It was a strange existence, that was for sure.

Although there had been some changes in the texture of the grey, he never approached them, thinking that perhaps they were working on something to improve communications with him.  So, when he suddenly felt the presence of someone, by the way the hair on the back of his neck suddenly became sensitive, he was surprised to see a figure, slowly forming.  It had more detail than the shadowy forms he had seen before.  When a face finally appeared, he stepped back unsure of what he was seeing, as it shouldn't have been possible.

"Steve?" he asked, speaking to the face of Steve Rogers as he was when he was 18, small, pale, and fragile looking. 

It was a ghostly image, different shades of grey but it was definitely him.  Its mouth opened. 

"Steve," it repeated, in a voice that didn't sound like him, but Bucky could understand him.

"You're not Steve," insisted Bucky.  "You were an old man when I last saw you, when you brought the shield to Sam."

"Not ... Steve," it replied, it's voice still stilted.  "Friend."

"Yeah, you were my friend," said the Avenger.  "Where are we?"

"Here," he replied.

Bucky smirked.  "No shit.  Where's here?"

The being turned its head slightly and looked into the grey, where Bucky could discern some change, as if the grey had thickened and darkened somewhat.  Then it looked at him again.

"Somewhere."

"Yeah, I'm not stupid," grinned Bucky.  "But where is somewhere?  Is it a planet, a plane of existence ... what?"

The face frowned, as if it was trying to understand Bucky's words.  Might as well start big and work his way down but keep it simple since they were probably still working on trying to comprehend.

"Are we in my universe?"

"No," said the Steve face. "Different."

Okay.  "My universe is vast, with galaxies of stars, nebulas made up of gases, solar systems with planets orbiting around stars.  My planet is called Earth.  Is this place a planet?"

"No, it is the One."

Bucky had read some cosmology books after regaining his freedom, some Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan mostly but had still struggled with the understanding of how the universe came into existence.  He knew there were other universes, some of them similar to his own, so it stood to reason that some would be very different.  This one certainly was. 

"Is the One your god?"

It looked puzzled, turning to look past him as if it was waiting for someone to help.

"What is god?"

"Well, I don't believe in a single god, but I do know a real god, Thor.  He's just a man with powers over lightning and stronger than almost anyone I know.  In my world, people tried to make sense of the things they didn't understand.  They believed a supreme being created the universe, gave them form, thought, speech, laws to live by.  They call that belief religion, and some religions believe in a single god, while others say there are many gods."

"No gods, just the One."

Fuck, that didn't help.  The being extended its hand towards him and at first Bucky stepped back, but it smiled, in that shy way that Steve had before the serum and gently, with one finger touched Bucky's vibranium arm.  Instantly, he felt the cold from the touch, and jerked his arm back, looking at a small frozen spot, the size of a fingerprint on the metal.  The face studied him carefully before speaking.

"How?"

Bucky's mind whirled with what just happened.  The being had touched him with a cold so intense that it overloaded the sensors in his arm.  It left a frozen spot on the small piece of metal that still looked like it was already warming up.  Then the one-word question was obviously about the arm.

"How did I get the arm?" he asked.

"Yes."  There was a definite sense of excitement on the being's face.

"I had a different arm that was destroyed," replied Bucky.  "A place called Wakanda, made me a new arm with a metal they have in their ground, called vibranium.  Do you know about vibranium?"

"Yes ... here."

The being gestured to all around him.  Then it made a fist, squeezing it tight.  When it released the fist, there was a small pebble in its palm.  Bucky reached for it, but it withdrew its palm, keeping it away from him.

"Cold."

"Okay, it's too cold for me to touch," said Bucky, looking at the face for confirmation.  "It's vibranium?"

"Yes," was the reply, as the being smiled again.  It dropped the pebble onto the surface they were standing on.  "Wait."  After several long moments it spoke again.  "Now."

Bucky picked the pebble up, examining it.  It was still cold but not painfully so.  Placing it between his vibranium thumb and forefinger he tried to press into it, but it didn't work, and he frowned.  If his body was here, then it should have allowed his strength to form the raw product.  Examining his hand and arm again he noticed, for the first time, that it wasn't quite the same as he remembered.  It was almost his arm, but it wasn't.  Raising his eyes to the being he spoke, maybe a little harshly.

"Why is my body different?"  It looked to the side, extending its fingertips which seemed to dissolve, as if he were seeking permission to speak.  "Who are you talking to when you do that?"

Quickly, it looked back at him.  "Friends."

"Of you or me?"

"Here." The being gestured to all around him.  "The One."  It looked like it was contemplating how to explain to Bucky.  "You ... alone.  Us ... the One."

"A group consciousness," stated Bucky, grasping that the term The One referred to the grey.  "My body, is it real?"

"Yes ... made from ...."  It pointed at the pebble in Bucky's hand. 

"A copy, this body is a copy, made from the vibranium that is here."

That could explain why he didn't feel hunger or thirst, or the need to ....  He thought back, to something he had only heard about in Wakanda.  A cave, where only Dora Milaje were allowed and only under rigorous conditions.  It was part of a ritual they underwent that involved them being exposed to living vibranium, a substance so volatile that the combined body heat of too many people inside the cave could set it off.

"All of this grey substance is living vibranium?"

The Steve face smiled broadly.  "Yes.  The One lives."

"Why are you so cold and I'm not?"

The being was silent for a moment.  Then, it lifted its hand, and Bucky watched, fascinated again as the hand began to dissolve.  For a moment, it reminded him of when he began turning to dust after the fight against Thanos in Wakanda, but the being seemed to be in full control of the process. 

"The One is cold."  It began to reform its hand shape.  "Warmer." Then it pointed at Bucky.  "Warmest."

Bucky waved at the grey all around him.

"This is the coldest.  That's why I feel a chill all the time.  When you formed your body shape, you are still cold enough to make me freeze if you touch me, but you are warmer than the One.  My body is the warmest.  Is that how I am alive?"

"Yes.  Organic being need warmer."

"You're speaking better.  Are you learning from speaking with me?"

"Yes.  Communication is thought and voice."

Okay, so they learned from his mind and now they were learning from speaking with him.  This wasn't his body he was in; it was a vibranium copy.  So how did he get here?

"Where is my body?  Is it back on my world, in a coma, or in cryosleep?" 

How could he have dreams of himself in the other universe if his consciousness was here?

"Alive.  It functions with the Other."

What the hell did that mean?  What did he mean by the Other?  Was someone else inhabiting his body?  There was no one else, no one.  There had been only one other to inhabit his body and he was destroyed when Shuri neutralized the trigger words.  Right?  He looked at the being, feeling his anxiety increase.

"Who is in my body?  Is it the Soldier?  He's a killer!  You have to send me back.  He's too dangerous to leave there." 

It put its hand out, as if trying to placate Bucky but he was having none of it.  His fists curled and he began to rave, as all sorts of scenarios played itself out in his mind.  In desperation the being faced him full on and suddenly yelled in a voice that seemed to push the grey back like a shock wave.

"Stop!"

Bucky stopped, looking at the Steve being, who seemed to be in communion with the One as his hand was unformed again.  It took several moments before he retracted his hand from the grey swirling around it.  An opening appeared, just like the one he had seen Winnie in before, sleeping in her daycare.  He looked through it, seeing himself, but with his hair longer, and his face unshaven, like it often was when he was the Winter Soldier.  He wore black combat gear and was armed, but he was with the other Avengers on a mission, except it was obvious they were at the compound.  There was no sound, but it was clear that he had taken on Bucky's duties, as he provided covering fire against a hostile force.  Bucky's anger slowly left him, but it was replaced by something else, a sense of loss that the Soldier was living his life.  The being, who looked like Steve, put himself next to Bucky, the cold radiating off of him, as surely as his own body heat did many times.

"They think he's me?"

"No.  Winter."  The being pointed at Bucky then gestured all around.  "You here, mistake.  Winter stay inside ... body."

"You took me by mistake and left Winter in my body.  So, he's been there all along."  He ran his hand through his hair.  "How long have I been here?"

The being looked to the others then turned back with a resigned look on its face.  "October now."

"It's October there?  I've been here two months.  You're sure they know I'm alive?"

"Yes."

"How do they know?  Have you been in communication?"

The Steve face opened three viewing holes in the grey.  One showed Winter, one showed Noelle and the other showed Winnie.

"You ... share.  With thoughts and more."  It pressed its fist into its chest, looking at him hopefully as if he could understand what that gesture meant.  "Explain."

"My body has internal organs.  This place has my heart.  It pumps blood through the body, but it also is connected to my brain, my emotions and feelings." He pointed to Noelle.  "She is my wife, my mate.  I feel her in my heart.  We're together and share everything.  Winnie is our daughter, created from our love, and we take care of her."

"Winter?"

Bucky frowned.  "I was forced to be a killer for some very bad people.  Winter is who they turned me into to kill.  I thought he was gone.  But he's always been there.  The killer has always been there.  Why did you take me?"

"The others, attack us, for The One.  We ... protect The One.  Bring others here."

"They didn't survive because your universe is vibranium based?"

"Yes, but more.  The One is cold.  Your world warm.  Too much warm destroys The One."

Bucky thought for a moment.  "You took the people from the Cerberus facility after they formed the portal looking for vibranium.  They killed some of you in the process, you defended yourself and when we came to stop them you thought we were with them.  The portal and the beam were your way of trying to get our world to stop."

"Yes, to take The One back."  He gestured to the environment.  "We defend.  Attacking mistake.  Taking Barnes mistake.  Wanted Soldier."

"So why was taking me a mistake?  Why did you want the Soldier?"

"Fist of HYDRA.  Dangerous."  It looked at the others.  "The One was wrong ... Winter good."

"What do you mean, he's good?  He's a killer."

"Serum makes good man ... better.  Bad man ... worse."

"Yeah, I know that.  It's why they had to keep brainwashing me because the real me kept coming out.  They created the Soldier to do their dirty work.  I still did it, but it wasn't me."

The Steve being sighed then shook his head.  He looked to the side at the others then came back to Bucky and the grey in front of him coalesced into an image, a memory, that filled him with fear.  Unlike the other images this one had sound.  It was him, seated in the memory processing machine and he watched, horrified, as he was sent through the process again.  When he was asked who he was he stated his name, rank, and serial number.  Then he was shocked repeatedly, over and over again, until he was exhausted with the pain and trauma, before they began asking him who he was.  The process was repeated multiple times.  As he watched it, with the Steve being watching him, he was just about to ask them to stop the replay when he was asked one more time who he was.

"I'm who you want me to be," he said, in a drained voice, looking as if he gave up.

"You are the Soldier," said the voice of the HYDRA doctor.

"The Soldier," repeated the man that used to be him. 

They left him there, alone, with no guards and he began to talk.

"It hurts too much," he said, as tears streamed down his face.  "I can't fight them anymore."

"It's alright Barnes," said another deeper voice coming out of his mouth.  "I'm here now.  You don't have to do their bidding.  I will do it for you.  You can sleep while I take over."

"Who are you?" asked Bucky, in his voice.  "Are you real?"

"I'm real," the other voice replied.  "I'm part of you, the part that will keep us alive by doing what they want you to do.  I'm sorry it took me so long to come out."

"I don't want to be a killer," whispered Bucky.

"I know but if you don't, they will destroy you.  This way will still hurt but something of you will stay alive.  When the time is right, we will turn against them and be free.  I promise.  Now, rest brother.  I'll take this watch."

The scene faded and Bucky stood there, his whole world shaken by what he had just seen.  The being that looked like Steve turned to him; his face full of sympathy. 

"Pain ... so much pain.  You ... good.  Soldier ... good.  Both live."

"I don't understand."

"Winter chose to kill, protect Barnes."

The scene faded and the Steve being stood near him. 

"He's always been there.  Why haven't I felt him?"

"When HYDRA fell, both free.  Winter chose to help."  The Steve being looked to the grey, as if he were debating to say something more.  "Cerberus attack home.  Winter and others defend."

"That's what you showed me, isn't it?"  Bucky looked desperately at the being.  "Cerberus came after us.  My wife and daughter?"

"Safe.  All children safe.  Cerberus did not win."

Bucky's lips trembled, as he realized that the being he always thought of as evil had been there, protecting his family while he was marooned here, in this other universe.  Winter was him; created by him out of his own mind, not an alternate personality grafted onto him by HYDRA.  How would he get home?  Could he even get home?  It had been a long time since he felt this helpless.  What was worse ... there was nothing he could do about it.

Chapter 19>>

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[mtandtgroup]

WEB DECK INSTALLATION DEMO ACCESS SOLUTIONS.

WEB Deck is an innovative clip-on modular system which provides a stable and strong working platform for under-decks. It is suitable for a variety of work tasks and can be used by regular tradesmen without safety lines. The system is quickly installed to the underdeck of bridges, viaducts, jetties and oil platforms.

Fast Installation: Only seven days to install and fully encapsulate 300m2 of bridge under-deck.

Safe: fewer hours working at height; rope access is statistically safer than scaffolding.

Low cost: Efficient install leads to lower labour cost and lower total access cost.

Low self-weight: Suitable for weaker structures.

Full containment: The system includes side containment and full encapsulation where necessary.

[b1ackbaccara]

to peel back the edges of the universe

Bombardier. Mercury. It wasn't a glamorous, sprawling metroswathe like much of the rest of Cradle's fulcrum worlds, but instead something more reminiscent of a weed pushing itself up between faults in asphalt, stubbornly growing out of necessity than careful cultivation.

There was something to be said for it, for humanity's proclivity to scrabble and grasp for survival, to flourish in the face of challenge and adversity--and while her younger mind couldn't grapple with all the complex particulars, that driving necessity took root early in the wake of their purpose here; the anchor for humanity's very first Dyson web. Without access to the sort of energy it provided, the crises across the galaxy would be catastrophic. Catastrophic.

It should have scared her, young as she was, but with how often her parents repeated their responsibility to their station, to Cradle, to humanity spoken with such reverence every time she lamented their absence without fail (until she stopped asking altogether)--how could it?

She'd say she understood, but she didn't, not until she saw the web. Really saw it.

While the only residential hub on Mercury, Bombardier's passages and facilities were still largely industrial, perfunctory spaces. There weren't windows and atriums and greenery--save for the hubs through which Union's officials would pass most often--as most of Bombardier was below ground, given Mercury's climate on the surface.

There was a passage, though, near her family's apartments. A long corridor that opened up like the elbow joint of a drain pipe, branching down into other residential passages. She remembers a few scattered tables, once-plush, curved leather benches lining the walls with grooves where people had sat on and off for decades, vidscreens with the latest station news alternating with programming beamed across the Omninet from Cradle.

She remembers the concrete flooring was shinier down the main thoroughfare, that she'd spend her limited amount of free time occasionally tracking up and down, playing at filling the shoes of her parents or their colleagues on some important mission or another for the Anchor (like defending it from invading mutant astronaut dinosaurs who she'd inevitably convince of the error of their ways and she'd get to ride up and down the hallways).

On one of those days, though, something had possessed her to lay out in the center of the little concrete plaza, staring up at a ceiling that vaulted far higher than she'd ever really noticed. Reinforced steel beams were criss-crossed by thick ropes of tied up cabling, recycled air hissed through slats in the massive, squared rows of ducts that spliced down the junction of each hallway. Electricity buzzed in the artificial lights, flickering almost imperceptibly, while the TV blathered on at a low drone.

She didn't notice any of it, though, peering up into what she'd always thought was a shadowy ceiling that terminated not in darkness, but light. It was high up enough that it didn't really cast light down, not below the artificial industrial lighting lining the hallways and the edges of the room in a harsher, off-white glow, but it was a massive porthole to what must have been the surface.

She could see the outline of thick bolts the size of her six-or-seven year-old head lining the edges, and whatever glass was up there was so thick that it cast a foggy haze over the sights beyond, blowing out the flickering strands of the Dyson web so each lit section looked more like a glowing bulb on a strand of holiday lights.

Like she was seeing cracks in the black expanse, fingers of gold trying to peel back the edges of the universe.

It was that moment, that spark of wonder and of terror that spurred her along the path her life would eventually take. Her parents might have planned to have her take up engineering, but while she internalized the responsibility and importance of caring for the Anchor on behalf of all humanity, she would eventually fly straight past it.

[clipglitch]

Hey neocities community! I'm a freelance illustrator and game artist dipping my toes into web design for the first time. My ambition is to create a portfolio site with a point-and-click game vibe, using the most simple code I can put together. I would love to create a unique space that feels interactive and endlessly exploreable. The site will feature my various art projects, and there are already some (small) playable games up for download. I'm aiming to add more animated elements later down the line, but I'm currently learning the ropes of html and the site is still very bare bones. For now, please enjoy the fun visuals of my cave as I continue digging the tunnels deeper and deeper..

These are some of my current goals i'm seeking more resources/tutorials for: -Find a suitable way to add buttons and text on an image -Play animations when hovering and on button press -Layering images -Create a photo gallery with filters/tags in the style of the site -Make the site more accessible and scale everything consistently -Build a simple dressup game using drag and drop pngs -Find a new guestbook host, as 123guestbook.com is going away

[memento-morianon]

rune lights

(image description: labeled sketch diagrams of two different styles of magic light. both primarily function by having a written symbol on top that's divided between moving parts. the light labeled as dwarven made is a hollow crystal orb with moving concentric circles on top and a switch mechanism on the inside to turn those circles. there is also an extension piece attached to the switch, making it stick out beyond the hold at the base.

the other light is labeled as centaur made, and it is crafted from a rectangular block of wood. there is a sliding panel in the center, held in place with a peg in a slot, and the panel can be moved up and down to break or align the magic symbol. end description.)

rune lights with moving parts to turn them on or off have become commonplace in this world, even in the isolated forest homes of the centaurs! though they do not have such easy access to a broad variety of materials due to their isolation, centaurs have become master wood workers in their own right. these sliding panel lights are very smooth and fit into an adult centaur's hand with ease, often being made with a wrist strap for convenience.

wood is not very effective at channeling light when compared to the crystals that dwarves use, but they work well enough. even so, once the centaurs begin to open up more and even venture to trade resources with other people, they will probably start using the crystal lights alongside their wood lights.

another resource centaurs do not have access to is drow silk, which is an organic fiber that can channel light without magic, similar to modern fiber optic cables. this material has become a very common way to make even dwarven rune lights more efficient! drow light their caverns with whole webs of silk ropes extending from the nearest outside entrance.

[randomperson99sworld]

Hope

~ Chapter 28 ~

Summary: Dean and Sam Winchester save a young woman —Natalie Johnson, from a coven of witches who are after her deceased grandmothers spell book. At first Dean doesn’t trust her, will he ever? Natalie is just simply a woman who gets roped up in the supernatural world from a mistake her grandmother made.

Pairing: Dean x OC

Warning: Age gap, slow burn, smut, language, gore.

Word Count: 1,307

A/N: Are we enjoying the story so far? Please feel free to leave comments, I enjoy reading them :) Happy reading! ♥️

Back at the motel, Sam scrolled through Natalie's phone, his eyes narrowed with determination. He had been searching for hours, trying to piece together anything that might lead them to her, anything that could give them a clue. Dean paced in the background, his nerves fraying with every second that passed. The guilt was eating him alive—he should have gone with her. He should have been there.

Suddenly, Sam froze, his eyes widening as he stumbled on something. "Dean," he called out, his voice tight with urgency, "I think I found something."

Dean rushed over, looking over Sam's shoulder at the screen. "What is it?"

"It's not a monster," Sam said, his voice filled with disgust and anger. "It's some sick bastard selling human body parts... to monsters."

Dean's jaw tightened, fury bubbling up inside him as he processed what Sam was saying. "What?"

"Natalie must've found this right before she left the bar," Sam explained, his fingers moving quickly as he pulled up more information. "There's this guy—a man in his late forties who's been getting into trouble on the internet. His latest search? Selling female body parts to monsters on the dark web."

Dean's eyes darkened, his hands balling into fists. "And she didn't tell us..."

"She probably didn't have time," Sam said, scrolling through the last few things Natalie had accessed on her phone. Then, he froze again, his breath catching. "Look."

Dean leaned in, his heart pounding as he saw what Sam had found. A location—a damn location—that Natalie had saved on her phone. It was a house, tucked deep in the Appalachian Mountains, isolated from any help. The more Sam dug into the data, the clearer it became that this was their guy.

"That's where she is," Dean said, his voice hoarse with determination.

Sam nodded, already moving. "Let's go."

Meanwhile, deep in the mountains, Natalie was trapped in that nightmare basement. Her body ached from being thrown around, and her head pounded with every beat of her heart. She tried to steady her breathing, tried to keep the panic at bay, but the fear was overwhelming. She had just watched the man butcher someone in front of her, and she knew she was next if she didn't get out.

As she lay in the cage, her mind racing for a plan, she suddenly heard more crying. Her heart sank as she saw another young girl being dragged into the room, naked, terrified, and strapped to the same table the previous girl had been on. The man was silent as he strapped her down, preparing her for the same gruesome fate.

Natalie's adrenaline spiked. She couldn't watch another person die—not like this.

The man left the room again, probably to sharpen his tools or prepare whatever sick ritual he had in mind. As soon as he was gone, Natalie's eyes darted around the cage, desperate for something—anything—she could use to escape. And then, her eyes landed on a small, thin metal bar near the bottom of the cage door. She reached for it, her fingers trembling as she twisted and bent it, trying to pick the lock.

After what felt like an eternity, the lock clicked open.

Natalie nearly cried with relief as she quietly pushed the cage door open. She rushed over to the girl strapped to the table, her hands shaking as she worked to undo the straps. "I'm getting you out of here," she whispered, her voice trembling but determined.

The girl sobbed quietly, her eyes wide with terror. Natalie's heart broke for her, but she didn't have time to comfort her—they needed to get out now. Natalie was working quickly.

"Get out of here," Natalie whispered fiercely, her voice trembling. "Now. Run as fast as you can."

The girl blinked, her eyes filled with confusion and fear, but she nodded, her breath hitching as she realized what Natalie was doing. Just as Natalie released the last of the restraints, the door at the top of the stairs creaked open. Her blood ran cold as she saw the man standing there, his butcher knife gleaming in the dim light. His eyes locked on her.

"You shouldn't be out of your cage," he seethed, his voice low and menacing, like a predator sizing up his prey.

Without thinking, Natalie charged at him, her body surging with adrenaline. She needed to buy the girl time — any amount of time she could. She slammed into him with all the strength she could muster, catching him off guard just enough to give the girl a fighting chance. The girl bolted up the stairs, her bare feet slapping against the cold wood as she fled out the door.

For a moment, she thought she had the upper hand. She managed to knock him off balance, and she delivered a swift kick to his gut. But he was too big, too strong. He recovered quickly, grabbing her by the shoulders and slamming her down onto the cold, concrete floor. Her head smacked against the floor, and stars exploded behind her eyes as pain shot through her skull.

Staggering to her feet, Natalie  stumbled toward the stairs, half-blinded by the blood dripping into her eyes. She could see the door — her way out — just a few more steps. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her body screaming in protest, but she wasn't giving up. Not yet.

But before she could reach the top, she felt a cold, iron grip wrap around her ankle.

"No!" Natalie screamed as the man yanked her down the stairs, her body slamming against each step as she tumbled back to the bottom. She hit the floor with a painful thud, her entire body aching from the fall.

Dazed, she tried to get up again, but the man was on her in an instant. He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her effortlessly, Natalie screamed trying to claw at him but it was no use. He slammed her down onto the butcher table,the same one where the girl had just died. Her back hit the hard surface, the air rushing from her lungs as she gasped for breath, her vision swimming with pain.

Her heart pounded in her chest, terror clawing at her insides as he grabbed the thick leather straps and bound her ankles to the table.

"You costed me money." He snarled

"Let me go!" Natalie yelled, her voice cracking with fear.

"I don't think so." He growled, grabbing the butcher knife and setting it down beside her, its blade gleaming too close to her face. The sharp edge glinted in the dim light, and Natalie's breath came in ragged gasps as she stared at it.

The man methodically strapped down her wrists, binding her tight to the table. He leaned down, his breath hot and rancid against her face. "This just got personal," he muttered darkly before turning and heading back up the stairs, leaving her alone with the tools of her demise.

Natalie's heart raced in her chest, panic surging through her veins. She yanked at the straps, but they didn't budge. She was trapped. And this time, there was no one left to help her.

Meanwhile, back on the road, Dean gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white as he sped through the winding mountain roads, the Impala roaring beneath him. Sam sat beside him, anxiously double-checking the coordinates on Natalie's phone.

"This better be right," Dean muttered, his voice thick with fear and anger. "We don't have time to waste."

"It's gotta be," Sam replied, his voice grim. "We're close."

Dean's heart hammered in his chest, the fear of losing Natalie gnawing at him. He pushed the Impala faster, desperate to get to her in time.

They weren't going to lose her. Not today.

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Sombra lore

In our next deep lore dive, we explore the hacking Hispanic, the empathetic white hat, the brilliant and sassy shadow of Talon, Sombra!

Like many younglings in the aftermath of the Crisis, Olivia Colomar was an orphan. She was left alone and without parents, with only a stuffed bear named Arturito for company. With so many records of the dead lost in the chaos of the Crisis, Mexico was unequipped to deal with the amount of young children now flooding the streets.

Mexico had relied on the god programs too heavily, and as a result, its infrastructure was destroyed. People now had to survive on intelligence, scavenging, and rebuilding the skeletons of technology. Olivia discovered her talents with hacking, and began her journey of self education. She charmed and swaggered her way around, and caught the attention of the Los Muertos gang.

As is usual with a power vacuum, crime exploded. The Los Muertos gang styled themselves as the last vestiges of Mexican culture and government, revolutionaries seeking to rebuild an omnic-free Mexico. This is in strict contrast to their actual criminal activities, especially considering the presence of omnic members among their ranks, and so they were able to suck in a young girl who needed a family and structure.

Olivia Colomar blossomed. She resonated with the primary mission of Los Muertos, and began mobilizing against the remnants of Mexico’s government using the crisis to line their pockets. After all, a cute kid could get into a lot of places with a charming smile. She talked her way into a certain Commissioner Rivers’s office with a basket of bread, gaining access to his computer. Emboldened by her schemes, and with her skills sharpening by the day, Olivia began building databases.

The true currency of power wasn’t money, or guns. It was knowledge. Olivia built massive databases, compiling information on everyone she could get her fingers on.

As usual, if one gazes into the void too long, the void will also gaze back into you.

In developing her skills, Olivia stumbled upon a massive global conspiracy. It linked Overwatch, Talon, LumeriCo, the defunct Omnica Corp, even Volskaya and Vishkar. Caught looking too deep into the web, Olivia withdrew. However, she was caught. Her security was compromised, and she withdrew from the net entirely. She deleted all traces of her identity.

It was clear that, to touch the deepest entanglements she had discovered…she would need more power, and not power that was stationary. No, she would need power that she could take with her.

Using her information trading, Olivia implanted cybernetics into her central nervous system. After all, the human brain is estimated to process 2.5 petabytes of data (or 2.5 million gigabytes). That’s a lot of memory for someone with a mystery to unravel. The last vestiges of the talented young girl with no name or power vanished, and re-emerged as Sombra.

Now she had the power to break into organizations previously inaccessible, and her data mining earned her the eye of Talon. Talon began carefully courting Sombra, offering her resources in return for the use of her skills. Talon, being massively well funded and with the strong-willed Doomfist at the helm, was just as attractive to Sombra. She relented, but made it clear that she was only in Talon as long as Talon was useful to her. She was no slave or dog, but a contractor. She followed orders that suited her, and no further.

Sombra’s curious nature, independence, and willingness to subvert authority gained her the friendship of a young combat medic from the Caribbean named Baptiste. The pair were close friends until Baptiste left Talon, and Sombra continues to keep a close eye on him to this day…just to see what he’s up to.

However, Doomfist had a job for her. Moira had adopted a shattered old soldier from the wreckage of Overwatch, and it was time to test the new dog. Sombra, amusedly, accepted the chance to show Reaper the ropes. They were tasked with freeing the famous physicist Siebren de Kuiper from a facility in New Mexico. Reaper’s lack of humor, bad temper, and rigid by-the-book attitude clashed with her freewheeling attitude, and she took full advantage. She purposefully triggered the alarm to gauge Reaper’s response, and used him as a distraction while she hacked the base.

Reaper and Sombra successfully reached Dr. De Kuiper, but Sombra lingered. She wanted data here as payment for her services. Reaper, nervous about staying too long considering the delicate nature of their package and the US Army hot on their heels, drew his weapon on her. Sombra responded in kind. The two bristled at one another until another Talon strike team arrived, led by Widowmaker.

As they loaded Dr. De Kuiper up, Sombra sassily remarked that Reaper would soon find his feet in Talon…even if it was on his knees.

Later, Sombra used her resources in Talon to rejoin with Los Muertos to hack the LumeriCo corporation. The corporation had leveraged their power supplies in Mexico to bring the government under its heel, and wouldn’t stop until Mexico was under control of a single company. Sombra made this information public, catching the attention of Mexican law enforcement. Most importantly, she exposed their ties to Vishkar…and considering Vishkar’s questionable human rights record in Rio de Janeiro, caused a firestorm. LumeriCo was furious both that their schemes had been uncovered and that Sombra had informed them one of their own had been using the company as his own personal piggyback, sending the leadership into a tailspin.

Unfortunately, the Mexican government, dependent on LumeriCo for power and jobs, labeled Sombra’s actions as criminal. Even the media labeled it as an attack by the “Sombra Collective”, mistaking her for a hacker group. However, the damage was done. The people of Mexico rebelled, and pro-Sombra graffiti plastered the streets of Dorado and Castillo. LumeriCo’s CEO stepped down in disgrace, but by that time Sombra had a new target.

Volskaya was another entangled in the web she had found. Since Talon had a vested interest in getting rid of Volskaya’s CEO, Katya Volskaya, Sombra volunteered to tag along. However, at the critical moment, where Widowmaker lined her sights up to kill Katya, Sombra triggered the alarm. Katya was more useful to Sombra alive, and while Talon wanted her dead, Sombra needed her for information.

Sombra trapped Katya in her office, and threatened to make it public to the Russian people that Volskaya had collaborated with omnics on its defense designs. Such a scandal, considering the anti-Omnic attitude of the Russian people, threatened to destabilize Russia and collapse Volskaya. Defeated, Katya grudgingly accepted Sombra’s “friendship”.

However, in true Russian fashion, Katya wasn’t going down without a fight. She sent a Russian soldier named Aleksandra Zaryanova to dispatch Sombra for good, with the help of an omnic cyber criminal by the name of Lynx Seventeen. They managed to track down Sombra, and Zarya angrily revealed Sombra’s true name and demanded her surrender. Sombra reassured Zarya that she still wanted Katya in power, as long as her new little friend didn’t want her secrets revealed. Seemingly, Zarya and Lynx had the hacker trapped.

Sombra, however, was ten steps ahead of them. Unbeknownst to the omnic, she’d infected Lynx with a virus. By the time Zarya was able to incapacitate Sombra…Lynx collapsed. In order to save the omnic, Zarya let Sombra live.

Sombra also participated in the Casino Monaco scheme, helping Doomfist monitor the casino and needling Widowmaker about her failure to kill Katya. She later helped Doomfist rebel against fellow Talon member Vialli, cementing his control. She met her match in Numbani when attempting to help Doomfist attack the airport under the pseudonym 344X-Azúcar, but when she attempted to hack omnics at a nearby Axiom facility, Efi was able to stop her.

Sombra’s reveal was one of the best in Overwatch’s history. She had been hinted at from the beta, but it took a keen eye to spot the newspapers in Dorado asking “who is Sombra?”. Other newspapers replaced an article about Roadhog with “global hacking spree” headlines still seen to this day, and screens in the LumeriCo plant on the Dorado map slapped “UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS: SOMBRA PROTOCOL” across the screens.

However, Blizzard had something even more fun up their sleeves. Sugar skulls made of lines of code popped up on Volskaya’s map, and when translated read “It seems you like these little games…why don’t we play a real one..?” and “she who has the information has the power”. Blizzard even hid little coding hints in the Summer Games splash screen…hiding code in Tracer’s blue streaks as she raced across the screen.

Needless to say, gamers had a fantastic time following the little messages Sombra left for them, and the release of Sombra was an unmitigated success.

Sombra holds deep ties to her culture, and several skins referencing her history in both hacking and Los Muertos tell pieces of her lore. Her skins center around her sassy, secretive personality, comparing her to legends of cat burglars, face changers, and vanishing creatures.

Sombra wears her hacker personality on her sleeve, commenting to Bastion about his good encryption and playing a game with Echo trying to get through her firewalls. She adores a good puzzle, and seems to enjoy hacking Overwatch members to read their diaries and poetry (even poking Brigitte about her terrible writing). Oddly, she seems to be collaborating with Illari, fulfilling information requests for her. Sombra’s interactions with her fellow Talon members are full of lore…she chastises Moira for “frying” Sigma’s brain, and seems universally protective of him.

With Sigma, she shows a gentle and friendly side, calling him her viejito (“little old man”) and reminding him of where they are. She has the most map interactions with him out of anyone, reminiscing visiting Maximilian and reminding him to come to her if Talon hurts him. Funny enough, she seems to have more patience with the older teammates, rolling her eyes at Reinhardts ineptitude with his phone but not taking advantage of him.

Sombra’s main enemy in Talon seems to be Widowmaker, who openly despises her.

Overall, Sombra embodies the gray line of morality. She seems to want to help the disenfranchised and shows a marked disgust for large corporations, while at the same time using one for her own ends. She aids Talon, but sees no problem stabbing them in the back if it furthers her goals in finding out who runs the show.

Her protectiveness and close friendship with Siebren de Kuiper shows a soft and sweet side of her that is all too often hidden behind a sardonic sense of humor.

Sombra has the best character reveal in Overwatch history, and while her presence in the game is certainly controversial at times…I absolutely have a soft spot for a hacker with a heart of gold.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)