#what are hall effect sensors

[jpitha]

Simple Solutions

There were many reasons Zil hated working on a human ship. They hated how everyone went into one big room to eat. Consuming calories for life was a private thing for the Xerilan; an unfortunate side effect of life that was better done out of sight of everyone. The humans did it all together, all sound and smells and noise. Going into the canteen at lunchtime was an assault on their senses.

They hated how the deck plates felt. Xerilan ships used a polymer covering for the floors, nice, soft, quiet. The humans used whatever alloy of iron they acquired from the lowest bidder. It was cold, and loud, and hurt their heels when they walked.

But, what they hated the most were the alarms.

Human alarms were loud, brash, violent affairs. Lights would flash, horns would honk, and some even added elements of vibration. When asked, the humans told them they wanted to make sure that everyone reacted to the alarm. Zil practically went catatonic at the noise. They received special training before taking their post on the human ship and still they had to fight the urge to roll into a ball every time the alarm sounded, and it sounded a lot.

There were alarms for battle - which was fortunately infrequent - alarms when the reactors ramped up, alarms for when they would need to secure for maneuvering, for when gravity was going to change. Zil was almost sure they heard an alarm for the start of a new day.

Zil was leaving his quarters, heading down to the greenhouse to begin his shift when the alarm sounded. This time, the alarm was different. Even they had to admit this one worried them. It sounded dangerous. It was high and trilling with a mid range warbling and even a brassy low range which made their own sounding plates vibrate unpleasantly. As soon as it started, literally everyone dropped what they were doing - some literally - and began to run.

It was the fire alarm.

As much as Zil hated all the human alarms, they at least understood why the fire alarm was so annoying. Fire aboard a starship was a potentially lethal affair, and everyone had to work together to find and extinguish the fire as quickly as possible. They ran to their assigned station and came upon the deck chief, Tanner.

"Zil! You're one of the first. Nice to see someone was paying attention at drills." He said, smiling quickly as he flung open lockers built into the walls. "Put on your gear."

Zil methodically put on his firefighting gear. Everyone aboard had some, and they were surpsied when they learned that the humans took the time and effort to consult the Swarm for plans and measurements for gear that would fit their bodyplan. It was almost like a spacesuit, but not airtight, made of a very thick cloth. There were tanks of breathing gas that the humans wore on their backs, but Zil's were strapped to their legs, like other Xerilan suits. They slid the helmet over their head and their feelers were blown around by a blast fresh air. It was annoying, but they knew that it wasn't something that could be adjusted. The humans needed their air to be fresh and in large volumes when they were under stress.

As soon as they were dressed, Tanner - also in his turnout gear - handed him a broom.

Even in the midst of an emergency, Zil regarded the broom curiously. "Uh Tanner, why did you give me a broom?"

"It's a hydrogen fire Zil, we don't know where it is."

Zil's hind-legs started twitching, preparing to launch themselves meters in the air and escape, just like their ancient ancestors. They suppressed the feeling. "What do you mean you don't know where it is?"

"Hydrogen fires are invisible and odorless. We can't see them." Tanner explained as he got his own broom. "We're going to walk the halls with the broom sticking out in front of us."

"How... will that help?"

"As soon as the broom bursts into flame, we know where the fire is!"

"We're going to walk until the broom bursts into flame? Don't you... don't you have sensors for this!?" Zil exclaimed as they began to follow Tanner. He would walk with his broom sticking out, angled towards the wall, and he moved Zil's broom so that it was pointed opposite his. Behind them two others from the deck team had their brooms out to the side.

"We do," Tanner said, not looking at them, "But they're never that accurate. Nothing like a physical indicator of an issue to find the leak fast. It's a simple solution, but that means it's robust and works even if there's a power outage or in some other kind of danger."

They methodically walked the halls of their deck, brooms out, with the alarm thankfully silent, but the lights still flashing annoyingly. They rounded a corner and came upon the other deck team, going the other way. As they approached, Zil saw one of their brooms flare to life, the fire orange and oily as the brushes caught.

"Found it!" One of the others shouted, and everyone dropped their brooms. Tanner signaled command to isolate the deck, and the pressure doors slammed down around them. Someone from the other fire team opened a cabinet and took out a fire extinguisher, and Zil ran over towards the pipe that was leaking and activated his comm. They did have a moment of thanks that the humans labeled everything. All they had to do was read off the location to command so they knew where to shut the line down.

"H2 line WES56.7, port side," he called over his comm. "Just aft of valve-" They glanced to the right, "-6769."

"Aft of valve 6769 copy." The voice on the other end crackled. Almost as soon as he called in the location, he could hear the whirring of machinery and the presumed jet of flame shrank until the only sign left was the smouldering broom and the smell of smoke and suppressant in the isolated hall.

"Nice work Zil!" Tanner said, and went to pat his back, but stopped, remembering that Zil hated being touched. "See? When you follow the training, you remain safe, and protected everyone and the ship."

"Yeah, but..." Zil opened his helmet and the hurricane if air thankfully stopped. "Brooms?"

"Simple solutions are the best ones, Zil." Tanner said, laughing. "Come on, it's up to maintenance now, we need to get back to our posts.

[amuromi]

★ ₊ ⊹ ⋆˙ ┈ 𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐎 𝐓𝐎𝐉𝐈 X ᶠ!ᴿᴱᴬᴰᴱᴿ

✦ ⋆˙ 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 ┈ 5.3k

✦ ⋆˙ 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒 ┈ NSFW! mamaguro!reader, tipsy/drunk sex, unprotected sex, established relationship (married), pet names (mama), oral (f!receiving), postpartum/baby weight insecurities, implied safe word (not used, just mentioned)

✦ ⋆˙ 𝐀!𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ┈ According to Gege, Mamaguro was what got Toji on the straight and narrow for a little while. I wanted to explore the thought a bit.

✮ 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐒 & 𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓!! ✮

The familiar beeping of the keypad cuts through the droning static of the night, trilling crickets and passing cars, as Toji punches in the passcode. The little light seems to hesitate before flickering green and blinking its acquiescence to his presence. With a dull click of the motion sensor the entryway blooms with a stark wash of fluorescence bright enough to make him squint, eyes stinging after wasting hours in the dimness of some club. His pockets are lighter and his head is fuzzier for it, the taste of alcohol still burning on his tongue as he kicks off his shoes and pads deeper into the apartment. The entryway goes dark without him to trigger the automatic light and the hall offers no light to replace it but he’s familiar enough between these walls to find his way towards where he needs to be, stumbling only once as a toy finds its way underfoot, squeaking as he kicks it away. 

The room is illuminated by the faintest light leaking through the slightly parted curtains. The thread of faded yellow light slants across the bed, finding shapes in the darkness. The parted lips of his wife and the fluttering lashes of his son. He’s a tiny thing even after all these months–still a wisp of a person–but bigger than the last time Toji saw him. His face has started falling into place, fledgling features beginning to take shape. So strange that this little thing could look so much like him. Familiar black hair falls across his forehead like streaks of ink and his face is screwed up into a scowl even as he sleeps, legs kicking and arms twitching. 

Toji’s shadow cuts through the beam of light as he stands over his son in his nest of pillows–“to keep him from rolling,” he vaguely remembers you saying. Toji’s hands are rough, calloused and scarred, but he can’t deny the urge to touch his son. He presses a dimple into the baby’s cheek, and his skin is plump and warm like a dumpling beneath the pad of his father’s fingertip as he begins to stir in earnest at the disturbance. He stretches like a cat, grape-sized fists reaching out above his head before his eyes blink open with a yawn. Twin pairs of deep blue eyes meet in the darkness. Toji expects the tears that ensue as his son’s sleepy gaze lands on the hulking silhouette standing over the bed. At first it’s only the whisper of a sound, short garbled whimpers that slowly work up to a volume loud enough to wake you. The reaction is immediate, platitudes ready on your tongue even as your voice slurs with exhaustion. 

“What’s wrong, Megumi?” The raspy drawl of your voice is enough to soothe the baby’s tears as you sit up to hold him. It takes you so long to acknowledge Toji that he has to wonder if you’re purposefully ignoring him as you fret over the crying baby. A curt “welcome home” is all you can muster towards him as you dote on your son, shushing and cooing until his little whimpers turn into snores. The nursery is at the end of the hall–the farthest room from the front door at your insistence–and you shoulder past Toji to take Megumi to his room. He lets you, stepping aside because you’d never actually be able to move him even if you used all your strength. He’s as movable as a brick wall even if there’s a bit of alcohol numbing his reflexes and you know it. Knocking into him is as effective as a dog growling at a wolf. 

While you’re gone, he tosses the extra pillows to the floor along with his shirt. It’s laced with the scent of cigarettes and folded pride after spending the day whittling away his earnings on what were supposed to be sure things. Easy money made by taking low stakes bets that all unraveled one after the other. The money is wasted now and maybe he needs a fight, some kind of outlet, to expel the lingering frustration. He’s waiting for you at the foot of the bed when you return from putting Megumi down. Like a moth to a flame you come fluttering over to him looking to get burned. You stand between his spread legs and Toji can’t find it in himself to keep his hands off you. 

The tank top you wore to sleep is already rucked up your waist from sleeping and his thumbs find the exposed skin of your stomach, kneading against the new softness of your waist. It’s waning with each day as your body slowly reknits its shape after having Megumi but Toji finds himself somewhat enthralled with the lingering baby weight. You’re always quick to catch an attitude the moment he starts clinging around your extra weight. Smacking at his hands and telling him to leave you be like he cares if you’ve gotten bigger from carrying around his kid for nine months. It shows in your hips and your breasts, makes you look real good even when you moan about how long it’s taking for your body to “snap back.” It’s not like you’re a stretched rubber band to be shrinking once the tension’s gone but he keeps the thought to himself. It’s been made abundantly clear you’re not trying to hear his reassurances anytime you get to berating the body he loves so much. As if you aren’t everything he wants and more. 

“Missed you.” The words sting worse than the alcohol. It isn’t in him for Toji to be saying things like that often. But both of you already know he hates being away from you, and now Megumi, too. His hands tighten around your waist as you try to pull away, pulling you closer even as your feet drag until he can rest his face against the lingering roundness of your stomach. He got you like this. Everything about you in this moment, the tired drawl of your voice and the added softness of your body is all his doing and he’s damn proud of himself. His pretty little wife that suffers his erratic presence and pitiful parenting with little more than patient sighs. Sometimes you’re upset and he always deserves it but even when your face is lined taut with anger he can’t help but marvel about how lucky he is. Makes him want to straighten up, be better. Makes him want to do right by you like a proper husband should. You’ve given him all your time and energy. Your name and everything. It’s the least you deserve but here he is, face smushed happily into the soft warmth of your tummy as you card through his hair, waiting for an explanation for his absence. After all, he said he’d be home two days ago. 

Toji has been gone for nearly a month, having fed you some lies about freelancing on a construction contract a few prefectures over. It’s something simple, easy to swallow. Because he can’t very well tell you about what it is he really does to keep a roof over your head. It’s selfish, lying to you the way he does, but Toji has never claimed to be a particularly altruistic man. He’s selfish and greedy. Doesn’t want anything bad coming near his girl, tainting the charitable image of him she has in her mind. If you wise up too much you might up and leave him and then where would he be? Nah, he’ll keep telling you he’s out doing grunt work, manual labor. The type of strenuous work that pays well because you don’t need to know what it is the hands he touches you and your son with are truly capable of. 

“You mad at me?” He asks when you take too long to answer him. It’s not meant to sound so teasing, so mocking, but Toji is sardonic by nature and his tongue is plied with too many shots. It makes him sound like he’s trying to rile you up. And maybe he is. Hadn’t that been his original intention before you came back to him all soft and sweet, looking so perfectly tired. He shouldn’t push you but he wants to. It’s clear you’re exhausted but he’s wide awake and pumped full of liquor and audacity. It curls around him like armor, makes him want to poke and prod until you stoop to his level and entertain his excess energy. He needs something to help him work through the high of coming home to you. His teeth find a soft spot to land above your navel and you yelp out a sharp quit it! before smacking the back of his head as his tongue tastes the place his teeth had been. 

“What do I have to be mad about?” Comes your pragmatic answer as your fingers tangle in his hair, tugging at the roots to get his mouth away from you. It doesn’t work. He’s stronger than you, won’t move unless he wants to and what reason would he ever have to leave the soft warmth of your body? You smell so good in a way you probably hate. There’s no trace of perfume on your skin. No lingering scent of soap or detergent. You smell wholly like yourself. Like sweat and something sweet and it makes him want to taste every inch of your skin. You squirm as Toji pushes your shirt higher until it’s tucked up under the swollen weight of your breasts heavy with milk. 

“Nothin’.” Toji decides even though he’s sure there’s a thousand things you could be mad at him for. He was gone two days longer than he said he’d be and wasted one of those days blowing his money on spoiled bets. He was late and still had the audacity to come home far past midnight, in those dark hours that linger just before sunrise, after you’ve been dealing with a newborn all day. Yeah, you should be mad, but he’s glad you’re not. When he looks up there’s the faintest hint of annoyance lingering on your face, pinched between your brows and weighing at the counters of your mouth. It’s a pretty look on you as his eyes begin to adjust to the muted darkness. Mussed hair, tired bruises under your eyes, and disheveled clothes. It’s a look only he gets to see because you’d never leave the house looking like you’ve just gotten into a fight. But fuck if you don’t make it look so good. 

It’s enough to make Toji smile. Something mean and wanting as he stands to get in your face. He can hear it in your voice, that aloof attitude that you get whenever he’s in one of his moods. You’re trying your hardest not to rise to his prodding and it’s almost annoying how fucking perfect you are. The kind of woman that only exists in movies. The kind of woman that deserves more than him. But Toji won’t let anyone else have you. He made that decision a while ago. Marriage and a baby. A ball and chain to tether you to him. He watches the realization dawn on your face as he presses in until you’re nose to nose, a nervous “not tonight, Toji” whispering over his lips as you try to pull away from him again. He wants it to be tonight. And every night after. How can you be so perfect and expect him not to be panting after you like a dog every second of the day?

“Let me do it,” he asks, voice toeing the line of begging as his hands find your waist again. “Let me have it, mama.” Toji loves the way you squirm and pout and look away from him whenever he calls you that, like you aren’t the mother of his child. He kisses the corner of your mouth, a habit he picked up from you always pressing sweet little kisses to his scar. You fluster and shake your head, trying to pull out of his arms. He lets you just to see what you’ll do, frowning when you tug your shirt down over your stomach and go to lay back down. He watches you settle on top of the sheets, curling up on yourself like he won’t be able to see you if you make yourself small enough. Your breath comes too quickly for you to be sleeping, body lined with too much tension as you wrap yourself around his pillow like he’s not standing right here for you. His fingers wrap around your ankle, pulling you loose from the ball you’ve curled yourself into. 

“The fuck are you hiding for?” Toji snaps as you try to fix your top after his pulling rolled it up your back again. He hears you whine his name, small and petulant like you have something to be embarrassed of. It takes a moment for the realization to click into place, for Toji to fully accept the idea that his pretty little wife might not be feeling so pretty after all. Toji isn’t big on manners, doesn’t wanna stoop to saying please and begging for what he wants but he just might with the way you’re acting. It’s clear you want it. He can tell by the way you’re rubbing your thighs together. You want it just as bad as he does and yet here you are, covering yourself with the sheets and murmuring about not yet. Toji’ll be the first to admit he hadn’t paid much attention to anything the doctors were going on about when you were laid up in the hospital, sweating and crying as you held Megumi for the first time, but he does vaguely remember being advised against sex for awhile. 

“Does it still hurt, mama?” He asks because he can’t be too sure you’ve fully healed from the ordeal of pushing a little person out of your body. When you shake your head and throw your arms over your eyes, Toji frowns. He’s been gone for three and a half weeks, hasn’t fucked you in just as many months, and yet here you are mumbling over excuses to keep your clothes on. Too tired, too late, Megumi might wake up again. As if he won’t do all the work to make you feel good. 

Toji can’t help but scoff. “What are you on about?” 

As if he hasn’t answered calls while he’s balls deep inside you. If his son wakes up he’ll go see what he needs and come back to finish what he started. You don’t even need to move. All you gotta do is lay back and spread your legs while he takes care of the rest. His fingers hook into the elastic of your waistband, keen on pulling those baggy pants off. He knows what to expect. Your thighs got thicker to match the new weight of your hips. He’s expecting the plushness as he wrestles the pants off your legs even as you weakly bat at his hands and whine about him waiting a minute. All it earns you is another bite to the softness of your thigh because why would he wait even a second more after he’s already waited this long. 

He’s nearly delirious with desire. There’s no more time for waiting and your pitiful little protests aren’t doing much to convince him that you actually want him to stop. You need this. Need your man to bully you out of your clothes and prove how much he’s missed seeing your body because clearly Toji’s words aren’t enough to get it through your thick skull just how gorgeous he thinks his wife is. But fuck do you look beautiful even in the darkness. He spares a second to turn on the bedside light, ignoring your feeble attempts at protest as the dim light washes over you. He watches you try to roll away, grasping at the sheets to cocoon yourself out of sight. 

“Stop fucking runnin’, mama. Lemme see my girl. Already said I missed you.” Toji groans as he grabs you by the waist, reveling in the way you squeak as he moves you where he wants. Little thing always thinking you can run from him like he won’t pull you back every time. He’s greedy, wants to keep you to himself. You’re his. His wife, mother of his son. His, his, his. And yet you’re acting like he’s exaggerating how desperately he wants you after so long. Maybe it’s the alcohol turning him mean, but he wants to prove himself beyond a shadow of a doubt in your mind. It’s all he ever wants. To prove himself worthy. He knows he not but it’s the least he can do to pretend that one day he might be. You just have to let him. 

He takes pity on you as you squirm, grasping for the edge of the sheets Toji’s already tossed out of reach. 

“S’okay, mama. I got you.” His hands pet over your hips, fingers playing at the edge of your panties. He wants them off of you, wants to get his mouth on your cunt ’cause he can clearly see the wet spot seeping between your legs. You’ve always loved how big he is, how easy it is for Toji to move you how he wants, and yet here you are trying to play at being bashful like you don’t want his head between your legs. 

“Don’t be gross,” you whine as he works you out of your panties and brings them up to his nose. Toji doesn’t miss the way you lift your hips to help. All this huffing and puffing when you want it just as bad. It makes him want to be nastier just to get under your skin, and just like he wants you to, you whine something about him being such a nasty weirdo as he tongues at the wet spot your pussy has left in your panties. The taste has his cock swelling in his pants, twitching to be inside you after months of only using his hand. It’s nearly painful the way his dick throbs at the sight of you spread underneath him. Wet and neglected as you try to tug your shirt down over your lap. Fuck, he’s glad he married you because Toji can’t stomach the thought of another man ever being in his place and getting to see you just like this. He hears the sound of your hand smacking his shoulder more than he feels it as you try to get him from between your legs. It doesn’t work, just makes him nip at your thigh again as he shoulders your legs apart and pushes your stretched shirt out of his way. 

Toji isn’t doing it for you when his tongue licks a broad stroke up your pussy but you sigh like he is before thinking better of it and going back to pulling at his hair, trying to get him from between your legs like anything could part him from your fat little cunt. The feeling prickles over his scalp and sings down his spine in a way that has his hips grinding against the bed. He’s not worried about you as he sucks your clit into his greedy mouth, tongue tracing the shape of his name over the sensitive bud. It’s his, you’re all his. 

He can barely hear you whining over the sound of how wet your cunt is in his mouth. “Toji, get up. M’gonna squish you, stop it!” You’re not saying anything important and he tightens your legs around his head, trying to drown in the warmth of your thighs smothering him. When you don’t get your way he feels the hand not gripping his hair pressing against his shoulder. Not trying to move him, but using his immovable nature to your advantage as you try to scoot up the bed. He doesn’t care until you get far enough that his mouth pops off your cunt. There’s a shining mess of spit and arousal strung between the two of you and he’s eager to make you even messier. An arm is tossed over your wiggling hips, heavy as a steel beam to keep you from running from his mouth again. 

“Stop movin’, lemme eat in peace.” He groans as his nose nuzzles against your clit while he tongues at your fluttering hole. His eyes watch you over the soft curve of your tummy. Your eyes are wet with tears as you whimper over the feeling of his hot tongue on your pussy. You’ve been suffering just as much as he has but you’re still acting like you don’t want him to fucking ruin you, like you don’t deserve it. You do. Of course, you do. Everything and more. He feels you relax into it, hand loosening to softer tugs in his hair as your lashes flutter and lips part. This is how he likes you, soft and happy. Quiet little moans filling the room as he makes a mess between your legs. He can feel you getting close as your pussy drools down his chin. Your thighs are tensing around his head, shaking in the way they always do when you’re close to cumming. It makes him laugh, and the deep sound sings through your pussy. It’s enough to push you over the edge. 

Finally, finally, you drop the shy act and pull his mouth closer, hips grinding against his face like you’re trying to mark him up with your wetness. He can feel it glossing over his cheeks and chin, smell it as he watches you ride his face. Two fingers find their way inside your fluttering walls, hooking against that sweet spot until you squeal and he gets to hush you like that’s not exactly what he wanted to hear. Because weren’t you the one worried about waking the baby? Now listen to you. This is what he wanted and you were being all stubborn acting like he couldn’t have it. It’s not until you’re running again that he eases up. He could keep going, keep eating you until you’re all out sobbing and shoving at him to get his greedy mouth and thick fingers away from your pussy, but he’ll be nice just this once. Toji sits back on his knees and watches you cringe at the sound his fingers make as they slip out of your soaked cunt. Webs of your arousal cling between his fingers and he makes a show of dragging his tongue between them like he’s still eating you out. 

“Felt good, huh?” He knows it did. You made such a big mess and you’re still dripping onto the sheets. Makes him eager to get you on his dick. It’s still straining in his pants, painfully hard from tasting you and hearing all your little noise. He gets up just long enough to strip off his pants, ignoring the mess he’s made just from getting his head between your legs. Toji eyes your shirt, still pulled defiantly low. 

“Take it off.” You grab at the hem, fiddling with nervous fingers. “Take it off or I’ll rip it off.” He amends. You mumble something that sounds like “don’t wanna” as you cling to the fabric like it’ll keep him off you. 

Toji scoffs, “You know what to say if you don’t want to.” He reminds you as he grabs at the collar of your shirt. It’s damp with sweat as is the rest of your body. You look shimmery in the low light, eyes glittering with tears as he works you out of that last piece of clothing with a quick jerk of his arms. The shirt doesn’t put up a fight, ripping like paper so he can shove it away from your chest. Your body comes spilling out without the tight fabric clinging to you. Tits swollen with milk and tummy still holding on to that last bit of baby weight. You look like a mother and it makes his balls tighten. His mama, his girl. He got you like this and fuck if he isn’t gonna enjoy it while it lasts. He’ll leave your tits alone only ’cause you’ve been complaining–and he’s happy to listen–about how sore breastfeeding is making you. You’ve gone up a couple cup sizes and your tits look gorgeous but he won’t bother them if it’ll hurt you. 

“Toji.” You’re pouting. He can hear it in your voice and see it in the way you’re squirming as he kneels over you, fisting his cock as he stares at your body. 

“What?” Right about now he doesn’t really care about what you’re whining about unless you’re gonna start begging for his cock. His free hand finds your waist again, kneading at the softness he finds there. So plush and warm. Fucking you like this is gonna feel like he’s fucking a cloud. He hears you muttering about being too big and tells you to shut up. 

“Don’t be fucking dumb. Acting like it’s the end of the world. Shut up and let me fuck you.” Usually he’d try to be more tactful with his words. It’s only right that you get to complain about how your body changed, but right now he really doesn’t want to hear it. You’re talking down on the body that’s driving him insane like you can’t see his cock twitching at the sight of you sprawled out beneath him. Toji tosses your thighs over his, pulling you up into the cradle of his lap, remembering only vaguely to shove a pillow under your back. You cover your face as he stares at your pussy, like he didn’t just get real up close and personal when he had her in his mouth. She’s still drooling real pretty for him as he ruts against you, wetting his dick with the mess you’re making. He feels your thighs jump every time the head of his cock catches against your clit. He pulls back the hood so he can really love on it, listening to the way you choke on your breath as he grinds over the sensitive little bud. 

“Gonna let me inside, mama?” Toji asks and you nod eagerly, hips bucking in his lap. Fuck. You’re cute when you stop worrying so damn much. Acting like he isn’t dying to get his dick inside you. He can feel you clenching as he presses in, pussy gripping him so good as he drags you down on his cock. You take it so well. Inch by inch you let him inside until you’ve swallowed him down to the base, already wetting his hips with your excitement. The clenching heat is enough to stun him and Toji has to hold you still with clenched teeth to keep you from milking him to the edge too soon. You’re already trying to ride him with little bucks of your hips, hiding a smile behind your hands as you lay back against the pillows and act like you weren’t just trying to keep him off you. 

“Not so shy now, huh?” Toji asks, squeezing at your thighs as he pulls back just to fill you up again with another deep stroke. You make a pretty little noise as he bottoms out, wet lips parting around a moan even as you try to catch it with your shaky hands. He’s got you good. You’re making enough noise for the both of you as Toji stirs up your insides, keeping you locked on his dick even when it starts to get too much for you. He can feel you trying to squirm away when he gets too deep inside you, hands grabbing at his wrists, trying to pry him off you. He’s mean about fucking you now, thumb rubbing quick circles on your clit as you wail about it being too much. 

“S’not enough if you don’t cum, mama. Lemme feel it.” You’re already clenching so tight around him, pussy milking his cock like you want another baby. He’s lucky you’re on the pill because the way your body is rippling with every thrust is getting him weak. There’s no way he’d be able to pull out even if he can barely handle the one kid he’s already got. It feels too good to stop even when you’re trying to get away from the feeling of him spreading you open. 

Toji can’t help but laugh between his panting. “This is your dick, mama, stop running from it.” 

“Yeah, it’s mine.” You agree, tongue getting loose the closer you get to cumming. “Want it. Want you.” He can feel you tightening up as you babble about him being yours. Your thighs start to shake again, trying to knock shut even with his legs keeping you nice and open for him. 

“Get me wet, mama. I know you want to.” You cum hard, clit twitching under his thumb as you cream on his dick, getting him all sticky with your cum. Selfish as he is, Toji keeps you on his dick for a little while longer. Milking himself dry inside you while he keeps a quick pace on your clit. You’re crying and wailing–real loud like you don’t have a kid and neighbors–by the time he eases up on you. Your pussy is flushed and swollen around his cock when he pulls out. His dick is shiny with wetness, dragging out a mess with his softening cock. You’re leaking his cum in a frothy mess onto the sheets, pussy hot and twitching from how hard he fucked you. Toji can’t help but thumb through the mess, smearing the mix of your releases over your puffy pussy and circling your clit just to hear you whine about it being too much. So fucking pretty and all his. 

His hands rub at your thighs as he lets you off his lap, trying to work the soreness from your muscles while you catch your breath. He watches you relax as the fatigue slowly creeps back in. He kept you up far longer than he should’ve but it was worth it for the way you seem so content to let him rub on you. An hour ago you would’ve been batting his hands off of you and cowering like you didn’t want him to see you. Now you’re content to stretch out across the bed and let him squeeze anywhere he pleases. This is what he prefers. It’s his body you were berating anyway. You belong to him. You’re not allowed to act shy and be mean like he won’t remind you just how much you’re worth. He thinks about getting his mouth on you again as he watches you cuddle back up to his pillow and decides you won’t mind too much. He can taste himself leaking out of your pussy as he drags his tongue through your folds. You whine and shift but the hand you slip into his hair is gentle, letting him have his fun as long as he goes slow. He only parts from you when a sharp cry crackles through the speaker of the baby monitor. 

“I got him.” Toji says easily. You’re barely awake and it’s the least he can do after being gone for so long. “Go pee.” He reminds you as he slips back into his pants. You mumble something that might be an “okay” as he goes to see what Megumi needs. The little spud is squirming in his crib, snotting and crying like he needs something but he quiets the second Toji picks him up. He doesn’t want his bottle, doesn’t need to be changed, he’s just making noise ’cause he woke up wanting attention. Toji is content to give it to him, walking around the nursery until Megumi falls asleep again. Toji holds him a little while longer, basking in the sweet scent that seems to cling to him. Like milk and lotion as he rests a hand on his son’s back. When he gets back to bed where you’ve already changed and fallen back to sleep, Toji considers a career change. 

[nemoofunknownparadigm]

Last of Humanity

A hellish blizzard screams across the devastated landscape of Copper9, only the mad and the desperate would ever consider traveling during such a massive storm…and the two figures hidden by the veil of ice and snow are both.

Khan and Nori were out scavenging when the weather took a turn for the worse and devolved into the current helwinter storm. The atmosphere irrevocably altered by the collapse of the core, struggling to stabilize, now prone to swift and often destructive shifts.

The two are huddle together beneath a thick tarp, their back laden with overstuffed packs filled with various supplies gleaned from the ruins left behind by humanity. Trudging through the waist high snow, with the snow burden wind obscuring their optics and roaring winds filling their audio sensors. They were effectively blind, deaf and mute. Relying on internal maps of the local area drafted during previous scavenging runs as their only means of navigation. With luck, it’ll lead the two to a cluster of still standing buildings they could take shelter in.

Against the odds, they make it. Almost throwing themselves into the frozen building, they quickly shed the protective tarp and their packs but even now being protected from the storms they still aren’t out of danger. Khan internal temperature sensors report dangerously low temperatures, teetering on the very edge of his system’s tolerance. Meanwhile, Nori is in somewhat better shape. The ravenousness demon instead of her causes her systems to run hotter than the baseline drone. Yet still, a source of warmth is needed if either of them want to see the next day.

Khan: A basement.

Nori: What?

Khan: We should see if this building has a basement. It’ll be warmer since it’ll be insulated by the earth. We can bunker down there.

Nori: Sounds like a plan.

With a quick search the pair discovers foreboding stairwell leading to the sublevels, the double door blocking access denoted with warnings of “authorized personnel only” and “unauthorized access will punished”. Without a word and with a flick of her wrist, Nori briefly activates the solver. Crushing the heavyset doors into scrap, Khan slips his lockpicking set back into his pocket.

Descending down into the dark, Khan produces a miniature flashlight from one of his many coat pockets. It’s weak beam of light cutting through the darkness. Nori let loose a short giggle.

Nori: What don’t cha got in those pockets?

Khan: The cure for all mortal affliction but I do have these!

From another pocket Khan produces a handful of scrumptious bolts, he offering some to Nori who gladly accepts the snack.

Finally reach the bottom of the stair, the pair is greeted by a long hallway. Having no other choice they begin to move down it. Lined along the hall are various doors, some locked with others flung wide open. The easily accessible rooms are briefly explored, yielding skeletons, various types of medical equipment and tools. A chill pierces through Nori’s circuits as memories of cabin fever labs bubble up to the surface, noticing her discomfort Khan squeezes her hand in reassurance and offers her a gentle smile. She smiles back.

Reach the end of the hall they find another set of heavy double doors emblazed with a label reading, “Cryogentic Storage”.

Khan: Cryogentics? Huh, that could work.

Nori: How so?

Khan: Thermodynamics, to keep things cold you have to redirect heat to somewhere else. Usually, for freezers it bleed off into environment.

Nori: And those cryogentic pods are literally just big freezers.

Khan: Exactly! Are you familiar with them?

Nori: …somewhat.

Khan: If it’s about those labs then you don’t have to-

Nori: No, no! It’s fine. I- back in cabin fever whenever a subject is proven too unruly for normal cells then they’re stuck in one of those pods to be dealt with later…I was shoved into one once. It frickin sucked.

Khan: Huh, too badass to be contained? You must’ve struck fear into those human’s little hearts?

Nori let lose a weak laugh

Nori: Hell yeah, left them quaking in their little boot.

A moment of silence settled between them before Nori points at the door.

Nori: I’m going to crush the door now.

Khan: Oh! You sure? Doesn’t using your robo-demon power mess you up?

Nori: I’ll fine! Besides, I got the last one.

Khan: Exactly, why I should handle this one. I have my lockpicking kit on me.

Nori: If you think you can handle it.

Khan: Nothing can resist the ol’doorman charm!

Khan kneels down before the doors before producing the lockpicking kit from one of his pockets. Quickly getting to work, Nori settles in next to him to watch him pick the lock…also to dig through his other pockets for snacks.

The lock proves to be more stubborn than Khan originally thought. Time begin to tick away as 1 minute becomes 5, then 10 then 20 and finally 30. Khan sets down the tools and stands up, frustration evident on his face.

Nori: It’s alright dude, let me handle this.

Khan then rips a service pistol from the holster on his hip, firing 3 successive shots into the lock. The sudden gunfire causes Nori to stumble back in surprise. He then kicks the door once, then twice and on the third blow it blows open. A wicked smile graces his faces

Khan: The ol’doorman charm! Never fails.

Nori steps forwards, a hand on her audio sensor.

Nori: Damn, dude. Give me a warning next time!

Khan smile becomes a sheepish one, as he holsters the pistol

Khan: Hehe, sorry.

With the door now open, the duo peers inside. It’s a large storage area lined with dozens of cryopods. Dark and inert, save for one. At the far end of the storage, one pod glows with faint blue light. Making their way to the pod, the temperature steadily increases much to their relief but that relief is short lived as the both stop dead in their tracks at what is in the pod.

Khan: It’s…it’s a human

Nori: It’s a freakin baby!

Khan: A human baby.

They inch closer to the pod, leaning forward to get a better look at the frozen child. Dressed in a purple onesie with a bat plush at their side, the child had brown skin and a peach fuzz of hair.

Khan turned his attention to the data at the side of the pod.

Khan: The pod was activated the day the core collapsed.

Nori: Her parents must’ve shoved her in here to save her…

Silence fell over them, an aura of apprehension surrounding them. Unsure in what to do. Khan clenched his fist.

Khan: I think…we should leave her.

Nori: Khan?

Khan: She’s human, Nori! She can’t survive here! Plus, we fought to be free of humanity! Why would we release her?

Nori: She’s a child, a baby.

The bluntness of the statement rattled Khan.

Khan: S-… She’s a baby.

Nori: I get where you’re coming from but calm thy titties.

Khan: I’m sorry, it just…I don’t what what came over me.

Nori places a hand on his shoulder, Khan looks over to her.

Nori: I know, we both been hurt by humans but that isn’t her fault.

Khan nods, “it not her fault.” He echos

Khan: Still, there isn’t much we can do. She’s too small, even an adult wouldn’t survive in this cold for long. Hell, we can barely survive!

Nori: She’s stuck in there. Never even got to live her life.

Khan: …yeah, it’s…unfair.

They both gaze at child frozen in time, melancholy weighing down on them.

Nori: Does she have a name?

Khan turns to consult the data panel again, finding nothing but numbers.

Khan: No, nothing.

Nori: Huh…the pod is still on.

Khan: Must be a back up generator or a reserve of emergency power. Whatever it is, it has to be temporary.

Nori: So, she’s going to wake no matter what we do.

Khan: She will.

Nori: …I meant…we could take her?

Khan: How would we even take care of her? She would need to eat and drink, food would be in short supply.

Nori: There has to be at least some stockpiles somewhere on this planet! Doomsday preppers and all.

Khan: I meant, maybe? We’d have to find them first before we get her out of the pod. We don’t know how long the power will hold. It’s a nigh impossible situation.

Nori: We beat the odds before, Hell the fact we’re standing here in the first place is testament to that!

Khan: You’re right about that…it’ll be hard.

Nori: Backing down from a challenge, Khan?

Khan: Ha! Never. But she’ll need a name.

Nori: You right, how about Naruto?

Khan: Naruto? The ninja?

Nori: It’s a cool name!

Khan: Yeah, but Naruto?

Nori: Then what do you suggest then?

Khan: Uhhhh, shoot…Uzi?

Nori: Like the gun?

Khan: Yeah, the Uzi submachine gun!

Nori: …shit, that’s cool.

Khan: Yeah! …Our little Uzi.

Nori turns back to the pod, she places her hand against the glass. Khan follows suit and places his hand beside hers.

Nori: Our little Uzi.

[agoodfictitle-shadowban]

From Vormir, With Love - Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Tags: strangers to lovers, love in space angst on earth, slavery mention, alien abduction, post Endgame, will add as we go on

Summary: As you're being chased you crash on Vormir. So far, so bad. But things take a turn when you come face to face with a marooned Black Widow.

Word count: 2.2k

A/n: The number of words get progressively shorter sdhbfuihfui welp hope you still like it guys!

It takes little time to tell everyone that Carol Danvers is on her way, and they look so happy. Tim's ears are all perked up, and the Mantis lady's eyes are all bright with… joy you guess, not knowing better. Even June grumpily admits that she's glad they're out soon. She's been feeling uncomfortable staying here; not because of the accommodations, mind you, but because of the constant rounds around the room from the soldiers that made her feel more in prison than anything else. It was understandable, but you keep reassuring her it's probably an effect of her trauma, and that you were safe.

Afterwards, and once you're sure your friend is feeling better, you go back to simply waiting, sitting next to Natasha who is keeping her cool facade but you can feel that she's impatient to get home too. You talk a bit, and share a meal with everyone when food is brought to you - along with the other people. You feel relaxed for the first time in five years, if you have to be honest, and your laugh when Tim dances around to catch his bread after losing his grip on it manages to get a small smile from Natasha. 

But those good times don't last when three soldiers approach you. You can see how tense they are, the way one of them has their hands hovering their weapon, and the others have no warmth in their voice. Maybe it's just your imagination, but one look at the others tells you it's not.

"We've seen Captain Marvel's heat signature on our sensors, she'll be there soon, please come with us."

You feel like you don't really have a choice, so with a nod, you agree. Before you can pick up your weapons, they signal to you.

"Leave those, you won't need it."

You share a worried look with Natasha, and she shakes her head to signal you not to grab it. She knows something is wrong too, but with all the civilians around, she also knows better than to put them in danger.

With that in mind, you all stand up and follow the soldiers. They guide you away from the mess hall into corridors until you reach one of the numerous landing bays. There, more soldiers are waiting for you and some train their weapons on you as soon as you walk in. A few feet away from you a woman in a suit and with blond hair was standing up proudly, also with weapons trained on her.

That was Carol Danvers, you guessed.

"See, your friend is here," the general said. "Now, surrender to us and no harm will come to them."

The brown eyes examine your group and upon falling on Natasha goes wide. There is a question in her eyes, and the answer comes in a nod from the redhead. It's her, she's alive. She's back. There are a lot of emotions in the eyes of the blonde, but mainly she stays serious, and nods back.

"What's going on?" You whisper towards Natasha after their silent conversation, and with the whole situation.

"Best guess? Carol and those guys aren't on the best of terms." This is rather obvious.

"And here I thought they were best buddies," you nervously joke.

"Just get ready to fight." You're about to protest that you're barely a fighter compared to those guys, but she shakes her head. "Just do what you did when we met."

Slowly, you nod. You held your own that day, and the past five years. You know you can be dangerous when provoked. You can do it.

Meanwhile, Carol is being her usual cocky self.

"You know, I could pulverize all of you easily, why should I surrender?"

"You could, but one of us would have the time to put down one of your friends."

"I barely know them," she shrugs, and Natasha knows it's a stratagem to destabilize them.

"Not even her?" One of the soldiers comes behind Natasha and pushes her forward with his weapon - something that resembles a rifle. Danvers frowns as the Avenger is brought in front of her. You can see cogs turning in her head, and she eyes your group before she makes a decision.

"Okay, I surrender." She puts her hands up in the air, just as her eyes stop on you, like she was talking to you, and you nod. You don't know what you agreed to, but you did. You exchange a look with Tim. You're both on each side of the group. If things go south– no, when things go south sounds more likely, you'll have to disarm three soldiers or at least make sure they can't shoot anyone. You just need a signal.

They put cuffs on Carol. Not yet. You hear the click. Not yet. The soldiers relax in a collective sigh of relief.

Now.

Natasha turns and kicks the rifle from the soldier behind her in the air, and you charge with all your strength against the closest guy, his rifle flying away, before kicking the weapon of another one away. Tim takes one of the soldiers in his massive hands and throws him in two others, stopping them from retaliating.

In this time, the redhead grabs the rifle she sent in the air and shoots the handcuffs from Carol's hands.

From there, it was a debacle for the enemy. Carol was shooting with her powers left and right, causing damage not only to the enemy but to the structure too. In the chaos, it was easy for you to grab a weapon and take care of any threat coming your group's way. When no one is left standing, Carol turns to Natasha.

"Where's your ship?"

"Bay E-12!" She answers and quickly you start making your way there. Now that you're armed, and with Carol, it's easy to make your way through the station. Although, as you pass the mess hall, Tim stops and look in the direction of your bags.

"We should grab our stuff before we leave!"

"We don't really have the time for that," Natasha protests, and Carol groans.

"You go to the ship, I'll grab your stuff. You, with me!" She points at you, and you can only straighten your back before you follow her. People are avoiding you and even make themselves small as you advance. Once there, you get your backpack and Junes, and then help move everyone else's. Luckily, no one had a lot.

You bring back everything to the ship, where Natasha already started the flight procedures. Apparently she could also learn just by watching. Still, when you arrive, she gives you your seat.

"Alright everyone, buckle down, we're going 0 to a 100 in a second."

"A 100 what?!" Tim asks at the expression, and you almost find yourself explaining before Natasha focuses you on the command board in front of you.

When the ship leaves, you're followed by Carol outside, guiding you. She's easily as fast as the ship. No wonder she barely took any time to reach you. It takes little time for the ship to get to the hexagonal door, and luckily, no one is following you when you get through and arrive somewhere you've never been, according to the star chart. You stop the ship a bit further away from the arrival point and June takes care of letting Carol inside via the depressurized locker. She is barely in when she throws herself around Natasha.

"You're alive! How?" She takes a step back and looks at the redhead, making sure she's not hallucinating.

"I don't know. I woke up… I was at the bottom of the cliff."

The exchange tickles your curiosity; you still had no idea what Natasha was doing on Vormir at the time, nor how she ended up there alone. You frown, but don't interrupt as you listen with rapt attention.

"I have so much to tell you, you need to know what happened." The joyful reunion suddenly feels much more serious, and like you're intruding. You turn to everyone and grab the bags Carol brought back inside.

"Okay everyone, get yourself set up," you half order everyone to disperse them and give Carol and Natasha a bit of privacy. You give them one last look before you leave them alone.

-

You are en route to the next jumping point and after your adventures most of everyone is sleeping. Carol and June are awake, swapping stories in hushed tones - turns out Carol is immune to June's caustic remarks -, so you decide to go to the cockpit to check on the ship. When you arrive there, you're surprised to find Natasha sitting in the pilot seat, her knee under her chin and her eyes red from crying. You approach slowly, like you would with a predator, and gently grab her shoulder with a soft hand.

"Natasha?"

"Y/n. Sorry, I didn't see you there." She starts unfolding her body to stand up, but your hand makes itself firmer and forces her to stay in place.

"Don't worry about it." You let go of her, only to sit in the co-pilot chair. "How are you doing?"

She snorts and sniffles. "I think it's obvious."

"I don't know, you could be overjoyed," you joke, and she rolls her eyes before you ask more seriously:

"What's happening?"

"There was a battle for the stones, and Tony sacrificed himself." You only vaguely understand what she was talking about, if you have to be honest, but you feel for her. "He is such an overzealous idiot. Or was, I guess." She snorts. "But I'm one to talk."

You have no idea what she means by that, so you simply take a deep breath and slowly rub her back. "I'm sorry." Your hand moves from her back to her shoulder and she takes it without thinking much.

"Thank you. It's hard to wrap my head around it."

"Of course. Is there anything you need?"

She shakes her head. "No. Just… stay her?"

You nod and adjust your hand position so you're slightly more comfortable. Her grip tightens, and you get the type of support she's looking for; silence, understanding, kindness. Someone's simple, soft presence.

And you do your best to be that someone.

-

It only takes 24 hours to arrive at the next jumping point, the one leading the Earth. Before you press the button that would make you go through the hexagone, you turn to Carol.

"C-53. You're sure?"

"Let me think." Her eyes squint and she pretends to think. "Yep, pretty sure it's the good one."

"Okay. Everyone takes a seat, we're taking the door." You take a deep breath and gets the ship to speed before you go through the jumping point.

And see Earth appear in front of you.

A tear rolls on your cheek.

After five years, you're finally home. You power the ship to approach the blue planet, emotions swelling in your chest. You hear people talking in the background but all you can focus on is the approaching land, until Natasha puts her hand on your shoulder.

"I know a place where we can go."

You nod and take the coordinates she gives you, following them until you're above the trees' limit. There you're able to see a house next to a barn and from there it's easy to find a place to land. Once you land, you turn to everyone with a smile.

"Welcome to Earth."

An unusually emotional June wraps her arms around your neck and you hug her back with a smile.

You are finally home.

Natasha smiles at the display, in that brief, tender way she reserved only for some special people. You notice, your heart skipping a beat, and mouth a 'thank you' to her with emotion in your eyes before June releases you. Without her, you would still be looking around in space. You could kiss her. You want to kiss her, you realize, and look away.

Oh no.

You want to kiss her.

-

Carol is the first one to touch the ground, followed by you. When you do, you notice a man approaching the ship with his arms pointing at it.

"Carol! What is this in my backyard? Who is this in my backyard?!"

"Sorry birdie, not my fault." She smiles and looks back towards the ship, Natasha finally appearing in turn after almost everyone came out.

"Then who–" he starts before he can stop, and Natasha is in front of him.

Natasha, who he thought he had lost. Thought he was responsible for losing. But no, she was right there. Right in front of him like nothing had happened, like he didn't lose his most important battle on that cliff.

"Nat–" he can't even manage her name before he runs at full speed towards her and crashes in her arms. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, it should have– should've been me. But you're here. How are you…?"

"I woke up on Vormir, I don't know…" She hugs him back, without a hint of hesitation.

"Tony, he tried to bring everyone back. I guess it worked to some degree." He finally let go of her, his eyes red with unshed tears. She doesn't look any better, only imagining what it must have felt like for him. "Shit… Tony–"

"I know. Carol told me everything."

He nods, then finally looks at everyone else. You give a small wave as a form of hello, as a chorus of mumbled hellos come from the rest of the group.

"We're going to have to bunk, won't we?" Natasha asks jokingly.

He looks at her and smiles. "Yeah. Come on everyone, let's get you settled."

[honourablejester]

Blades in the Dark Character Concept:  Mad Scientist Leech

Because I was talking about how much the crafting and specifically inventing rules of BitD excite me. The gadgets and rituals especially, but let’s focus on gadgets for a moment, because I’ve got ideas. Let’s get some mad science up in here!

So. Our playbook is Leech. And we’re going to want the Artificer special ability: “When you invent or craft a creation with spark-craft features, you get +1 result level to your roll (a 1-3 becomes a 4/5, etc.). You begin with one special design already known. Follow the Inventing procedure with the GM (page 224) to define your first spark-craft design.” Straight out of the gate, that gives us one design we’ve already invented, with no need to study it, although we still have to successfully craft said design in-game.

And I think I want that design to be for … In Dishonored, there’s a power called Dark Vision, which allows you to see glowing orange outlines of people even through walls. Which, in Blades, probably should come under ‘Arcane’ rather than ‘Spark-Craft’, except that almost all spark craft is based on plasm, which is condensed life energy. So it should be possible to calibrate a sensor, to somehow treat a lens to place in some goggles, to react to the presence of plasm in living beings. To sense, via the ghost field/ether, their presence regardless of physical obstacles.

Now. Potential downsides? It would also react to ghosts and demons, which would both show up much stronger, so if it’s calibrated to the much lower concentrations found in living humans, unexpectedly staring straight at ghosts or demons could have bad effects. Which I think under the invention rules would be classed as the ‘Volatile’ drawback (‘troublesome side effect’). Perhaps we could refine the design further later, to provide shielding? But for the initial prototype design we’re working with here, there may be some kinks to work out.

I think this item might be somewhere in the Tier IV/V ballpark. If we give it a range of a small building and a duration of a few minutes per activation. We might add on another drawback of ‘Consumable’ in that to activate the coating on the lenses involves burning through some electroplasm, hence why it has a duration.

Anyway. Pulling back a touch. This is our Leech’s pet project. Because she just has itchy tinkering fingers. She wants to make things. And then try them out. And yes, she could go for the official route, there likely is a military application there that someone would gladly have paid her for, but she doesn’t want her work to wind up in Imperial hands. She wants it for herself, and her chosen people, not the government. But that means she has to fund her own work. Which, well. What’s a putative supervillain to do but turn to a life of crime?

Her background is academic. Sparkwright Tower. She has a grounding in this stuff, an education. Natural talent, sure, but also study. But her heritage …

I think she’s Skovlan. She really doesn’t want the government, the Empire, to have her work. To rip something else from Skovlan minds and Skovlan hands and use it to oppress them all over again.

Getting into Charterhall University and Sparkwright Hall involves being sponsored to it. And she’s a kid from Charhollow, parents working the factories in Coalridge. Where’d she get the sponsorship? But she had a talent. A fierce, burning, oh-so-visible talent. So I’m wondering if the families of Charhollow, as well as possibly some of the union-agitators of Coalridge and/or the Skovlan independence movement, rallied enough to get her into the university despite her background. They paid for her to get in, to get at least the grounding of her education. But for a kid from Charhollow, that’s an uphill fight all the way, even before you get to her own fierce paranoia about letting Imperial forces use anything of hers. She didn’t play nice. Oh, enough to get a few years out of it. Enough to get a nice good glimpse at the science of the Sparkwrights. But not enough to graduate. Not enough to become a Sparkwright. She got drummed out well before then.

And turned to a life of crime. Because the taste she got … there are so many possibilities. Not just lightning barriers or etheric batteries. Anything. All those things considered ‘arcane’, the province of Whispers and sorcerers. Anything magic can do, science can equal. Surpass! See into the ghost field? Manipulate life energy? Those are the basics. Darling, we can do anything!

She’s gotten a little sidetracked. She was sent to the university on the assumption that she’d help her own people, Charhollow and the Skovlanders. In university, it was assumed that she’d help the Empire, the Sparkwrights. But she just. She got distracted. The work is its own reward, you know? She just wants to know how to do things. To try things out. To experiment.

And that requires money. And materials. And, too, some testing grounds. Which, in this city, can’t be in that short of a supply?

(And there’s nothing to say that she won’t share her research, once she has more of it, with the Skovlan independence movement. She does still believe in that. She’s just got to have something to share with them first, you know?)

So. A Skovlan Academic Leech. Her vice is her work, which I think would class as either Weird or Obligation? I’m leaning Weird. She wants to take the arcane and match it scientifically. That’s going to involve digging her hands into everything magic is capable of. She’s going to learn things, and take what she’s learned, and build things from it. Scientifically!

Enemies and allies. I think Jul, the blood dealer, is going to be an excellent ally. She needs plasm. And leviathan blood is a good source. She’s made sure to be friendly with him. And enemies … Let’s go with Malista, a priestess. Science vs magic, fight!

For her action dots, she gets two in Tinker and one in Wreck from Leech. For her Skovlan heritage, we’ll give her a dot of Finesse, from growing up in the crime hubs of Charhollow and Coalridge. For her Academic background, obviously we’ll go Study. And then for the two free dots, one more in Study, for science! And one in Attune, for digging into magic to make it science.

Her name is Sethla Kilscovan. She’s a tiny, compact, energetic woman with a self-cropped shock of bright red hair, hands stained with unknowable fluids, and a rather intense, wild-eyed expression pinned to her exuberant features. Her alias is Gleam, for the mad light in her eyes. She’s got ideas. So very many ideas! All she needs is just a little more money and a little more time, and maybe a test subject or two, and she be happy to show you them! Heh.

Yes. A mad scientist Skovlander Leech. Because inventing is a lot of fun in this game.

[catiecat1320]

Sonadowtober Prompt 16: Treasure Hunting

Continuation of Paranormal (Prompt 7)! Part of my Ensouled AU

Team Dark goes on an emerald hunt for their paranormal problem

Read Below🔽

After weeks of being cooped up in his room, Shadow stepped outside again. It was… too bright, in all definitions of the word. Too colorful, too cheery. It shouldn’t be this way, not when the sun has died. Not when he had the ghost of it wrapped around his shoulders.

Tails had brought Omega back to the Dark apartment after Rouge requested his help with the paranormal oddity they’d seen in the mirror. Perhaps the whole weeks of grieving thing could’ve been avoided if they had exposed Shadow to the robot earlier, for Omega nearly smite him on the spot after not recognizing him— an irregular chaos signature’s doing, confirmed by Tails to be the ghost of Sonic interfering with the robot’s sensors.

The fox had asked for a chaos emerald to do further testing, unable to draw any conclusions as to what this was without one. Team Dark happily obliged to his request. 

The only problem? They had no idea where to find one of those damn rocks.

“This thing’s pretty handy,” Rouge commented, holding up a little device. Emerald radar, courtesy of Tails. “I wonder if the boy would let me keep this.”

“DOUBTFUL,” Omega replied, his robotic voice as patronizing as he could get it.

“Rhetorical question,” Rouge huffed, rolling her eyes. She glanced at Shadow, who had his arms wrapped around his middle, completely silent since they left the house. “Are you alright, hun?”

He looked over, gaze distant. In the absence of a response, Omega piped, “IS THAT A RHETORICAL QUESTION AS WELL?”

“Omega!” Rouge exclaimed, but Shadow just waved her off.

“It’s fine.” His voice is quiet, barely audible over the ceaseless whirring of Omega’s robotic parts. “I just…” Unconsciously, he reaches up over his shoulder, where the invisible ghost rests. 

“Oh, sweetheart.” Rouge takes his other hand, patting it in reassurance. “We’ll figure this out, don’t worry.”

“AFFIRMATIVE. WE WILL KILL YOUR SADNESS. WITH FIRE.”

“Omega,” Rouge makes the Cut it out gesture. The robot prepares another snark, but before he has the chance to voice it, Shadow perks up.

A familiar feeling, a tugging on his body. “Radar.” He grabs at the device in Rouge’s hand, which beeps as soon as it comes online. The bat looks down at the glowing dot on the screen and smiles.

“Emerald hunt is on track, boys.”

The radar leads them into an sprawling abandoned complex. The emeralds’ hideaways are always abandoned or uninhabited for some reason or another. Shadow supposed it did make sense given their elusive nature. Less people, less interference, less chance of being abused.

Being abandoned, the interior of the building had no electricity, leaving the team relying on their own light once in the depths of it. Shadow could glow on his own— albeit not as effective as Omega’s flashlights— so he made the decision to run off on his own.

…Much to the chagrin of Rouge.

But no matter. He had an emerald radar practically built into him; he was entirely self-sufficient in this mission. It’d be faster to explore the labyrinthine building when they were split anyway, he reasoned. Faster is better in this scenario. The sooner they get the emerald, the sooner this mystery gets solved.

It’s not because the quiet winding halls remind him of the ARK. Of Maria. Of Sonic. Of death.

Shadow clenches his teeth and turns a corner just a little too fast, causing him to collide with the opposing wall. Groaning in annoyance, he picks himself up and dusts off.

Luckily, right down the eerie hall is the treasure Team Dark has their sights on, casting a soft blue glow on its surroundings.

…Did it have to be that color?

He pings his other two teammates to tell them that he found the damn thing, then approaches it. It’s nestled in something undetermined, pulsing with light. It's beautiful.

The problem comes when he contacts it.

Perhaps he should’ve considered the consequences of having a literal chaos ghost attached to him. Tendrils of energy rush down his arm in a spiral, simultaneously leaving him cold and sending a hot jolt through his body. He drops the emerald instantly with shudder, watching in shock as blue envelopes blue.

The blob pulls and stretches, forming… something. Someone.

Bright green eyes stare at Shadow, then himself, wide with confusion. He lets out a chirp, though he has no mouth. The chaos emerald sits where his heart would be, pulsing in his translucent chest as he moves his hands like he can’t believe he has them.

“S-Sonic…?” Shadow murmurs.

The ghost waves.

[melishade]

I'm sorry that I'm asking a lot of questions but

In the "War Timeline",

When the Nemesis has the full possession due to the Dark Energon running inside it,

What will be the Nemesis's objective instead of finding the Iacon Relics?

Will the Decepticons inside the Nemesis go through the stasis lock?

Will the stasis lock also affect Eren or any Titan Shifters?

Previous ask in the War Timeline Additional Previous Ask

Oh you're fine. You haven't violated any of the ground rules, you wait until I've actually answered your previous question before asking a new one, and you don't spam my inbox asking about spoilers. You're doing great.

As for the story:

Flying Mind. My favorite TFP episode. How will you be interpreted here?

To recap. Megatron got duped by a bunch of humans, the Nemesis is down, Breakdown is assumed to be deceased, and he got jumped by an organic Sharkticon. Not in that particular order, but it pisses him the hell off. Zeke is infected with dark energon, but there is still resistance on Zeke's part and Megatron doesn't know why.

Now obviously, Megatron can't keep the ship on the ground because they'll all be vulnerable to attack, and he also wants to go to Paradis to fight Optimus and also get the Founding Titan. So he gets the bright idea to inject the ship with dark energon. Knockout tries to protest but Megatron is extremely pissed right now so it's quickly shut down. But instead of the ship looking for the relics from the Iacon Hall of Records, it combs through the data and decides to search for the remaining titan shifters.

Now the good news is that the Nemesis doesn't have information on what Lara and Eren look like. It does have Ymir, so that is a problem. The bad news, the ship is now going rampant on the mainland trying to find said titan shifters. Megatron tries to gain control once he realizes the ship is getting out of control in terms of burning down cities and resources to get what it wanted. The ship at the moment, believes targeting Lara and Ymir is the better option, so it speaks and turns on Megatron and the Decepticons, immobilizing them, and continues it search on the mainland for Lara and Ymir, which goes on for about...say a few days to a week.

Meanwhile, the B team, consisting of Arcee, Bumblebee, Eren, Marco, Sasha, Armin, Petra, Oluo, Levi, Porco, Pieck, and Yelena make it to the mainland and are trying to find out where Mikasa, Jean, Historia, Ymir, and Mike are. Mike is dead but they don't know that yet. After a few days on the mainland, they find the ship causing havoc on another town. Arcee, Bumblebee, and even Pieck are able to ID the Decepticon Warship, scaring everyone else, because that meant that the Decepticons were on that thing. But their friends were there too so they had to go.

They storm the ship, but Arcee and Bumblebee are detected by the ship's sensors and hit with a stasis beam. They crash into the ground while the humans get on the ship. Now the thing about the ship sensors is that it can't detect regular humans just yet, but it can detect titan shifters. Even so, everyone is dodging the sensors while seeing the faces of the frozen Decepticons. They all don't really know what to do here. Sure, they can get their friends out, but how would they even stop the ship. They do find Knockout frozen in a room, and next to him are a bunch of energon serums on the table. They decide to steal a few for Hanji and the Autobots to study. They obviously don't want to take the serum now without knowing the side effects.

After some searching and investigating, they do end up finding Zeke chained up in one of the rooms, looking deathly sick from the dark energon in his system. Pieck and Yelena cry out for him and immediately try to get him down. However Pieck transforms into a titan, which automatically activates the sensors and alerts the ship to their location. Everyone immediately starts flying as the ship is doing whatever it can to immobilize and capture them. Pieck has to get out of her titan form while she, Yelena, Porco, and Zeke have to be carried by the other Survey Corps members. They manage to find a hiding spot in the vents away from the ships sensors as Yelena immediately gives Zeke all her water and food which he weakly consumes due to the increased torture and the dark energon in his systems.

Zeke weakly explains who he is and the Survey Corps begin to hound him with questions. Did he see their friends, Bertholdt and Annie?! Any of them?! Does he even know how to stop the ship?! Zeke does bring up the fact that he did see Mike on the ship and begged him to save him, but he had left him behind. Levi justifies it as a possibility that the others were in danger and that he went to save them. Mike wouldn't willingly leave someone behind like that.

But there is still the matter of finding a way to stop this thing. Sasha begins to surmise that if this thing is a living organism, then it must have a heart and they need to get to the heart in order to kill it. Zeke makes a comment that any time Megatron comes near him, he's able to feel it in his chest due to the dark energon. Zeke surmises that Megatron no doubt wanted to regain control of the ship, so if they find him, then they might be able to find out how to shut down the ship. They jump out of their hiding spot and fly down the corridors, dodging blaster fire and attacks from the ships, using the frozen vehicons as shields.

With Zeke's help, they are able to make it to the engine room, and Zeke and Sasha are both trembling in terror at the sight of Megatron. Pieck says that this is him, confirming the Survey Corps fears and suspicions. Armin notices Megatron's hand on the lever and realizes that Megatron was trying to stop this madness too. And surmises that they need that lever to be pulled down.

However the ship uses the claw just like in the main TFP show to attack them. Eren feels like he has no choice and transforms into his titan form, causing some damage to the main engine room and distracting the ship. Eren is able to pull Megatron and thus the lever, shutting down the ship. As the ship purges the dark energon and Eren pulls himself out of his titan form, but as he stumbles out, he accidentally bumps into Zeke. The two end up going into the Paths for a brief moment and see the tree, but both are terrified at the sight that both immediately say they want out. Both are brought back to reality yelling, confusing everyone. Eren is panting in confusion, demanding what that was, and while Zeke doesn't know that Grisha is Eren's father, he does have enough context from Ksaver and his research.

"You...you hold the Founding Titan?" Zeke weakly spoke in disbelief.

Everyone turned to Eren, but Eren just looked flabbergasted.

"I...I-!"

"Eren Jaeger." Everyone froze in terror at the sight of Megatron on one knee, looking down at them with malicious intent. His optics fall to Eren, and Eren's mouth trembles at the sight of Megatron's sadistic grin.

(I'm gonna leave things here for right now but I hope you enjoy. Sorry this took so long to answer. Also I'm going to have to split this into two parts.)

[daisiescomelate]

Cellar

Prompt: villain!ReaderxAizawa. Reader is a prisoner of Tartarus. Aizawa needs Reader’s help solving an ongoing crime.

masterlist

“You have visitors.” The guard’s voice made you jump from your place at the corner of the cell –a small room of white walls, ten steps wide and twelve steps in length counting the space that took the metal bed. You put down the pen and paper you were fidgeting with and looked straight at the narrow horizontal slit close to the top of the barricaded door.

“What do you mean visitors?” You asked in a condescending tone. Who on Earth can be out there coming all the way to Tartarus for a visit? Your family was never that dedicated and most of your friends wouldn’t step on this place for dear life.

“What I just said. Now get up, we have to move you to the next quarters.”

You racked your brain, thinking about who this one person might be. It was useless to ask anything to the guard, they either didn’t have the information or would never give it willingly.

“Step back.” He said, and you sat up from your place at the end of the mattress and walked to the wall opposite to the door. You stayed there with both arms raised up to show that you were empty handed.

“Don’t try anything funny.” The guard warned before you could hear the cling of keys and the sound of admission followed by the heavy noise of the door unlocking.

The guard pulled the door open and gave a step back, one hand over his weapon in his waist. You stepped out of your cell and were signaled to stop. The first guard motioned to the side where two other guards held open a white shirt with long sleeves and leather straps. A strait-jacket.

“Put it on.” The guard ordered and you complied –not that you had the chance to say ‘no’.

Guards number two and three wrapped the sleeves around you, crossing your arm at the front of your chest and tying the end of the sleeves to the back of the jacket. The effect was claustrophobic.

Once they had you restrained, guard number one pushed you from behind with one hand to order you to walk down the hall. You almost tripped, and resisted the urge to send them a poisonous look over your shoulder.

The halls of Tartarus were covered in steel, in all walls, floor and ceiling. The metal of the corridors seemed to suck all the lights of the bulbs, a dark hole at the end of every hallway. Without the need of a trained eye, one could see the lasers of the ever present sensor and cameras in every corner above.

In the distance you could hear the cacophony of voices of those that conversed with their neighbour. Most ended up reaching out to the cells near and the people inside of them to avoid losing their minds.

One of the cellmates screamed to ask where they were taking you, another screamed to curse at the guards, but mostly they stayed quiet when they saw you passed, escorted by your three new friends.

You saw a few of them taking a sneak peek at the hall through the slit on their doors.

They didn’t worry you. Yes, Tartarus was a prison made for those who the system labeled as a high security risk and who pose a serious threat to both national and international security. However, even inside the premises the prisoners were distributed according to their crimes. Ones, such as yourself, were in the outer rings of the ground floor of the prison, still heavily guarded but nothing like the deps of the prison.

Like the seven rings of hell, one would have to be… extremely careful with what they could find at the very center of it, five hundred meters below sea level.

You shook your head, placing the thought of those other prisoners in the back of your head. It wasn’t thrilling to think about what other things you were trapped in with inside this metal tumb in the middle of the ocean.

“Move.” The guard behind you ordered and pushed you to keep going forward, making you trip with your toes. You held back a curse on the tip of your tongue and picked up your pace.

You walked all the way to the common area and the next block, to fall into a section of the prison you hadn’t seen since the last visit of your lawyer almost a year and a half ago. The guards seemed to have deemed it funny to push you again every few steps or every time your pace seemed to linger for a fraction of a second.

After you passed the living areas flooded by inmates, the halls became painfully quiet and the sound of your steps over the metal floors echoed heavily with the sounds of the iron boots of the guards.

With every push to your back you felt the constraints more and more with the wish of being able to turn around and give back to the idiot behind you.

Finally, the guard signaled you to stop in front of a double door and walked to be in front of you. He picked up a card from his belt and slid it through a sensor, to then press his right palm over a small screen to the side. The door bipped in acknowledgment and a small red light turned green.

“Get in.” Guard number two order, getting a voice of his own.

You entered the visitors room. It was just as you remembered it. Small, with white tile on the walls and marble-like floors. In the middle of it there was a big dark metal chair in front of a glass panel, and to the side there was what you guess should be a two-way mirror, replicating your image on one side but see through on the other opposite to you.

Number Three held you by the shoulder moving you forwards while Number Two pushed you downwards so you’ll sit on the chair. They both work on the leader straps that would tie you to the chair while Number One waited for them at the door.

Once you were in place, both guards left the room and you heard the metal door locking behind your back and the rustling of those people stepping away.

Then, quiet.

You tested the strength of the jacket again to find no improvement. The wait was long, maybe too long. The jacket became itchy and your muscles sore. You moved your neck around in an attempt to get rid of some of the pain. You used the dead time to wander about who this secret visitor might be. Other than your lawyer, there was no one who had set a foot in this place just to see you, but your lawyer would have contacted you beforehand.

The wait stretched to what felt for –tortuously boring– hours, to the point you were about to start smashing your head against the back of the metal chair just to do something.

Finally, the door at the other side of the glass opened.

The image of the person on the other side wasn’t clear at first. The person seemed to be entertaining themselves with a conversation with someone behind the door, yet the microphone that connected both rooms was off so you couldn’t hear what they were discussing.

A moment later, the person entered the room carrying a folder with a stack of papers inside in one hand. Tall and haggard, dressed in all black clothes and a ragged scarf with messy hair that passed his shoulders and a two or three days beard, looking like the world had naked him in the face relentlessly since that very morning.

He sat in front of you in the middle of the room on the other side, letting the folder rest on top of his lap. 

You stared, because what else were for you to do?

Then a flicker of noise let you know that the microphone had been turned on. You waited.

“I’ll go straight to the point,” said the man, “The band you were a part of, one of the members you used to work with started working for an organization that calls themselves ‘the league of villains.’” He used both hands to grab the folder and slid away one of the sheets of paper from within. He held a picture towards you and you recognized the person immediately: blond hair, big teeth, small frame.

“We need to know where to find this person,” the man continued, “what are his habits, who is he friends with.” He lowered the picture and looked straight into the eyes, “Every member of your former group is either in prison for robbery or dead by now, except for him. This person,” he said motioning to the folder in his lap, “has been out of the map for two weeks. We have already searched every location that had been linked to him that we know. We got nothing.”

“So…” you said, straightening your back to get some more movement to take away some of the soreness in your body, “I am your only clue.”

The man ran his gaze across your features, probably trying to analyse your reactions and trying to determine if you would cooperate willingly or if he would have to make you cooperate unwillingly. His words were slow, almost dragging his words when he said,

“Unfortunately, yes.”

‘Unfortunately’, why? Was he trying to tell you you weren't nice company? A little bit rude, to be honest.

“Then–” You cocked your head to the side and returned that look, “What is in it for me?” You asked the obvious question.

“Do you recognize the person in the picture?” He asked instead.

Recognize the person? Minato was hard to forget. Ruthless, sour, and dangerously quick-witted. Minato was a man that you wouldn’t like as your enemy, nor your friend, knowed to pull up tricks with everybody. You had reluctantly accepted his presence in the team back then, because like him or not, he was smart. But truth be told, he wasn’t someone you missed on a day to day basis.

“I do.” You offered as a free sample. You needed to play your cards right. Every bit of information they’d get out of you would have to come with a price.

You didn’t struggle with things like camaraderie or long forged trust for having worked together. You knew if it were Minato the one sitting in this chair, he would sell you in a heartbeat. Most of the band would, after all the whole thing had torn apart because of situations similar to this one.

“Where can we find him?”

“Answer my question first.”

“If you give us information about the subject,” the man said with a dead voice, “we can give you the chance to review your sentence.”

“By how much?”

“That’s for the judge to decide.”

“I walk out of here by the end of the mission.” You intended for it to be a statement more than a question. You looked at the man, dark bags under blood shotted eyes. His demeanor a walking mess, his clothes wrinkled. He looked tired as hell. Whatever the case that had him like this was clearly important and you needed to use that in your favor.

“As I said—”

“I won’t say a word until—”

“You might think,” he interrupted you, “that you have an upper hand because I had to come all the way here, but it had to be that way precisely because you’re trapped in here without a way out for the next couple of years.” The man bent closer just slightly while maintaining eye contact and added, “If you don’t give me this information there are other ways for me to find it, while this might be your only opportunity for something like this.”

You bit the inside of your cheek, rage creeping up your throat and a wakening desire to tell that man to go to hell with that deal of his. You licked your lips with the tip of your tongue and tried again.

“I just want to make sure you’re not gonna screw me over with false promises.”

“The deal can be arranged with your lawyer.”

“And what do you plan to do with the guy you are looking for?”

“Do you even care?”

“I’m just asking because I might also be of use for that too. Useful for something bigger, even.”

“How so?” Despite the question, he didn’t look interested in the slightest.

“You need that guy for information, but you have no way to know if he’s going to collaborate with you then. I can be the one pulling the information out of him.”

The man stared, and you came to feel the weight of his dead eyes over you. It was hard to tell what he was thinking by his lack of expressions. You stopped for a moment and considered your words.

“Imagine this,” you said, “I escape this place and come back to the city and I look for refuge with an old colleague...”

“Who is going to believe you escaped the most secure prison in the entire country?” He stopped you.

“All that I need is a small mistake from the guards that I can make into an exit. I am smart, as part of the gang I was the one in charge of the ‘slipping out’. If we do it right he won’t question it.” The statement wasn’t wrong, and it wasn’t like you had already started to think and plot something of an escape. It had just been a tiny bit hard for you to find that small slip that could take you out of here, but he didn’t need to know that.

“You want to stage an escape.”

“Or let me out through the door and make up some rumors.” You tried to move forward to mimic the man at the other side but the straps of the chair kept you in place. You fidget with the clothes of one of the sleeves from the inside and wondered if you’d be able to pick a hole in it if you played with it enough with your nails. Now that a golden ticket out of here sat at the other side of the screen waiting for you, you couldn’t stop thinking of how much of a relief it would be to get out of here and not having to use this dam constraint anymore.

Maybe the man was right, maybe there would be other ways to get that guy’s location and habits, damn, there were two other members of the band that were imprisoned and wouldn’t hesitate to sell the information they had. But no one knew Minato as you knew –no one that was still alive. So maybe you weren’t the only option, but you were without a doubt the best option.

“Have you already asked the others?” You inquired. ‘The others’ were the other two newbies that had fallen into the hands of the police at the same time you did during that night at the underground pub.

The expression on the man’s face flinched slightly, a sign of discontent.

“I assumed they jumped at the opportunity, but nothing they had was of value.” You ventured to guess.

“All information we can collect now is valuable.” He bit back.

“But not as valuable as the details I can provide.”

Silence.

“I’m offering to be your pawn, how is that not tempting to you?”

“How is it not tempting to trust a person with a criminal record two times the size of the average prisoner?”

“You said the key word,” you lifted your nose at the man, “trust. I am the one who has more to lose here, as you already pointed out. If I don’t do you this favor, I’m going to rot in this hole. C’mon, I’m not a dangerous citizen, life forced me into some odd habits, that’s all.”

Yet another long silence. The man seemed to be studying you, running his eyes over you from head to toe, probably trying to shake some information out of you somewhere. You attempted a poker face.

The man suddenly stood up from the chair, file in hand.

“I will consider your offer,” he said, and you felt a rush of adrenaline filling your system. He moved to the door behind him and you couldn’t help but bend closer, as if you could stop him from leaving the room until he told you his final answer.

“Wait—” You tried to speak.“Until then,” he interrupted you, “have a good day.” He said before slipping out of the room and leaving you with the words in your mouth. The door at the other side closed with a deep tud and you were left with the itchy sensation of the jacket over your skin.

[mechimplants]

cw: being ordered to die, asphyxiation in space, mind-melding

When a shock trooper or deckhand dies, they're respectfully stripped of augments and shipped home, cold-storage, for a closed-casket funeral. Their family weeps, and somebody in charge speaks about how these times call for bravery and sacrifice.

No such grace is given to pilots. A high-strung thing who's seen too much action gets the call, and you just stop seeing them at mess hall. If you're lucky, they get the news delivered in the bunks, so you can hug them tight and say goodbye.

Everybody knows the name: Autophage Process. We don't talk about it. But she knew it was only a matter of time, after that disastrous last deployment. Nothing to be done now.

Her comm chimed at 1100 hours. "Report to August Bell, effective immediate. Initiate Autophage Process." Took them long enough. There was nothing to be done, no place to hide on a light carrier like this. She took the stairs, avoiding the bunks. Better not to talk to anybody.

There was the Bell in its hanger, as beautiful as the day she'd first been given it to pilot. A Gratia-class air-mobility frame: four 130mm railcannons and shoulder-mounted batteries of smart-missiles. Trailing streamers of smartcloth for preternatural grace in atmosphere, dual thruster banks for unmatched power in space.

Bell extended a hand and opened its cockpit. It won't be so bad, she thought. Midshipmen tell lots of stories about pilots--why should this one be any more truthful? She slid into the harness, clipped her boots onto the footpetals, and slammed the hatch shut.

Darkness.

"August Bell, this is Pilot Cantrell. Initiate connection!"

And then the blinding light of sensors, of being, blazed across her nerves. Her legs twitched against their docking clamps, her smartcloth wings ached to soar. Fuck.

In her mind, the mech's voice. Pilot Cantrell. We will begin the Autophage Process soon. Perhaps you would like to run one more training exercise first, to calm your nerves?

She signaled assent, though she knew the frame would be reading her confusion and desperation as well. There's no point putting on a brave face to a mech.

I'm gonna miss you, Bell. A stupid thing to say. A billion times too small to say what she meant.

A training program loaded on her HUD, a simple maneuverability exercise. Ten gates, get through them all as fast as possible. The docking clamps released, the launch sequence began, and then the Bell threw itself out of the hangar and into null-G.

She forgot the dread in an instant, as she focused everything on the practiced movements. Through gate one, then kick off the carrier's hull to redirect to gate two.

It wasn't until gate 3 that she realized anything was wrong. Distantly, her base implants chimed. Oxygen. Oxygen. Oxygen. Confused, she mismanaged the thruster banks and nearly overshot the gate.

She tried to pick out her original senses amidst the sea of Bell's analytics. There were... stars? Shit. The cockpit hatch was open. She was--yes, the senses from her body were returning now. The air was being pulled from her lungs. Her tongue was swollen and tasted of blood. Her eyes--

Pilot Cantrell. Focus on the mission.

She wanted to scream, but no air came. She struggled with her harness, but her fingers were swollen and clumsy. Fuck.

It is critical that you focus on the mission. The mech said it with such certainty. She wanted to believe it.

Hell, she reasoned. It's not like i could do anything at this point.

30 seconds of hard vacuum and you were done for--a fact every recruit knew. Frostbitten hands gripped the joysticks and she dove back in, searching for the August Bell's sensorium.

They were cruising towards the fourth gate, picking up speed. She reoriented, curving a smooth arc towards the fifth. Focus on the mission. She trusted Bell.

Distantly, she felt her hands twitching, her neck lolling in the seat in response to the g-forces. Her legs were reduced to a prickling pins-and-needles sensation. Gate six. Gate seven.

There was no sensation from her body anymore. Idly, she wondered how long her brain would stay linked before it, too, was too frozen and oxygen-starved to function. Could she at least get the satisfaction of completing the exercise?

Without knowing why, she pulled up short of the next gate.

Her mech spoke. The mission is complete. There is just one thing left to do.

She understood. She reached gently into her cockpit, and pulled out her pilot--an ugly, swollen thing, blood quickly turning an ugly color under the skin. A body that was not built for vacuum like she was.

But it had served her well, in an ungainly way, hadn't it. She had fought for that body, and it had taken her through school dances, through basic training, through a few disastrous and short-lived relationships. It hardly seemed right to abandon it without ceremony.

The others--she was starting to feel them now--assented, and she ripped a small piece of her smartcloth to enfold the body. Pilots don't get funerals, she knew. But she could offer that body some grace, at least. They watched it drift away in silence.

.....

The new pilot was tense. E clutched the joysticks tightly, and they could all feel that e was shaking. E tried eir best to keep a steady voice on the radio. "August Bell, ready for atmospheric entry!" Then, the sudden roar of noise and light as they slammed into the atmosphere, plasma lighting up their smartcloth.

Somebody needed to calm em down. She spoke.

Pilot Das, there is no need to be worried. We're going to be incredible.

The lanky novice let out a shaky breath, but relaxed eir grip. "This is going to take some getting used to."

E doesn't know the half of it, she thought.

[lagblowz]

7 sins 7 demons 7 robots out to make sure you have a great time in Vegas

You thought Manny was the only robot in Vegas? Naturally, with The 7th Circle being hell themed, they went all in with demon themed robots to populate the hotel and casino, each given a name corresponding to their roles, and the seven deadly sins (though how much it seems to apply to each of them seems to vary).

LORE DUMP TIME

Mammon: Manny is the main operator of The Circle, acting as host, and filling in where needed. He was originally designed and intended to manage the gambling hall and deal tables, however, once able to freely think for himself, he quickly became averse to gambling after witnessing its effects. He can still cut cards, but he refuses to play for anything material, he'd much rather focus on hospitality. Is currently in a loving relationship with Amie.

Lucifer: One would reasonably assume the one named for the great king of evil would be the leader of the robotic band of demons, and up until some time ago, this was true. Luci, despite his robotic body, mostly exists as a server bank in a back room, tasked with managing and somewhat controlling the other robots, and this he does. Save for Manny, who is far more independent due to legal reasons. Of course, if Luci were to crash or otherwise become inoperable, The Circle's operations would be severely impacted, and it is because of this very real threat (which has occurred at least once) that it was agreed Manny should be leader, as he would be relatively unaffected, and thus the one most able to take action. Luci continues to manage the hotel and casino, a role he's always felt suited to, and takes pride in seeing guests being happy.

Asmodeus: Modes can often be found serving drinks from behind the bar. If you happen to find yourself on that "night on the town" sort of situation, he does have what he'd call his "wingman protocols", and while he can't slip anybody a mickey, he can back you up. Now, of course as somebody who can and does facilitate quite a few hookups, he's not gonna let you leave to the rooms upstairs without some... essentials. While he can't ever actually get drunk, he does act like it from time to time if he really wants to, less to encourage people to indulge more, and more to get them to cut themselves off.

Leviathan: Lev, in his snazzy bowtie, works the front desk, checking people in and out, handling guest issues, and taking orders for room service. He has been known, on many occasions, to be a bit pushy; deftly persuading guests to upgrade rooms or get more food or drink from room service. Never to the point where guests go massively out of their budget, and always making sure guests get what they want, ensuring a good impression, and them coming back. His earpiece is entirely non-functional, and is really only there for decoration, though he has used it as part of an excuse to ignore or handoff anyone being particularly rude.

Beelzebub: As one can imagine, Bee spends a lot of time in the kitchen. The only robot with the ability to taste and smell thanks to added sensors (accessed via openable slots in his cheeks), he has a great passion for food. Some of his more experimental dishes can be hit or miss, but the rest of his menu is lauded for its quality and taste. Be warned though, he has an affinity for chocolate, the dessert menu is full of it, and he can go a little bit overboard sometimes. He wears a chef hat to contain as much of his hair as he can while cooking, though has trouble with gloves and aprons, as very few are actually his size.

Satan: S is very no nonsense, and as head of security, he has to be. If you don't see him out on the floor, that's generally a good thing. If you do, it's best to not get in his way. If you find him going up to you, just cooperate, if you don't, or he's concluded you're a problem, god help you. He almost never goes further than kicking someone out and/or calling the police, but he does have the strength to crush bone if it were to come to that. Thankfully, it hasn't, as most troublemakers and punch drunks are intimidated into ceasing their activities. He can be quick to anger sometimes, but is generally kind to those who don't cause issues, and can be a bit of a softie if you actually get to know him.

Belphegor: Bel is often the least appreciated of the seven, and outside of the group of robots, his name is rarely spoken. Ironically for the one named for sloth, he is practically always on his feet, running up and down throughout the building as room service. He's quite efficient, having developed the best routing and shortcuts through the casino hotel, both to keep service fast, and (hopefully) so he can go back to being on break as quickly as possible. If you find anything the 245th and 246th page of the local travel guide (the book provided in most of the hotel's rooms), leave it, guests leave things for him there.

If you managed to get all the way through that, sorry for the massive text dump, and thanks for reading it all the way through

[asyncmeow]

hall effect sensors be like: *notices ur magnet* owo whats this

[lovelanguageisolate]

Nothing I love more, and nothing that less inclines me to commit acts of domestic terrorism, than when I'm trying to fill out health insurance intake forms and both my insurer and the provider add fun little surprises to the web UX like turning the control key into a reload button or using JavaScript to keep my group ID extra secure from ne'er-do-wells who want to trick me into copying and pasting it.

Honestly, I've never had so much faith in the ingenuity, fearless willingness to tackle challenging technical problems in the service of me the user, and sense of mission of my fellow software engineers, nor so much confidence in the thoughtfulness and humanity of large organizations a badly confused person might mistake for the point at infinity where the parallel lines of greed and sheer incompetence finally meet.

And, lest this all be so easy that it feels boring, in the same way that playing tic tac toe is, I can always count on the track pad of my contracting employer (whom I'm not taking insurance from since they understandably thought defaulting a six figure professional into an ACA-complaint plan that actually covers things like catastrophes was rather austentatious indeed—what next, flying around on Air Force jets on the taxpayer dime like John fucking Sununu?) operating in some truly interesting ways that challenge both the process of filling out said forms and my understanding of just what sorts of properties human beings have been able to wring out of things like the Hall effect and capacitive touch sensors.

[mo0l]

its interesting how much room it feels like there is for improving mouse tech for gaming,,,,, obviously we have what very much seems like end game tech with the wooting using the hall effect sensors on their switches, unless some big surprise tech comes out, it really seems like any improvements beyond that is just gonna be minorly perfecting whats almost already perfect,,,, but when it comes to mice, aside from knowing it should be as light as possible, it feels like nothing else is being optimized regarding mice. Most popular brands dont seem to focus on the switches they use other than just generally hyping up whatever switches they use as epic!!!!1 obviously cuz they gotta, but i feel like mouse switches could be improved more, or there could be better traction or something. Not to mention like custom keyboards is a pretty common field for tech hobbyists but you don't see the same for mice. I've seen some talk here and there that people maybe even think the future isnt in using a mouse, that it could evolve to something else, maybe equivalent to like a drawing tablet and pen kind of controller of some kind, which sounds quite bizarre but with tinkering and relearning who knows! Either way I do find it interesting how mice products seem to be at kind of a dead end, meaning theres just nowhere for improvement in the current market of how theyre sold and designed for consumer interest, other than making it lighter lol Like for keyboard enthusiasts wooting is pretty obviously king at least in terms of switches but the only hipster choice i see consistently praised for mice is the end gamer gear xm1r but even the xm1r is not the most consistent piece of hardware there was apparently a ton of double click issues on launch and stuff,,, idk! untapped market n all that

[iviarellereads]

Network Effect, Chapter 2

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we catch up on some of what happened between books.

Murderbot tells itself that it's not as bad as it could have been, as a first mission not pretending to be human (or faking the existence of one). Everyone's alive, all their samples and scans were complete, they just left a few days earlier than expected.

But we’d been lucky, and I hate luck.(1)

MB sets its drones to more or less standby, and Arada tells MB to get to Medical, since it was shot. MB had sort of forgotten about needing treatment for that, but confirms by turning up its pain sensors, the projectiles are definitely still in its wounds. Ratthi is in Medical, and lightly bullies MB into doing the whole system instead of the patch job.

Arada agrees that MB needs to do the whole treatment bit, but asks if it thinks there was any other way, besides her shooting the leader. MB says he'll likely survive, if they give him treatment too. (Arada had to force herself to learn to shoot, and still doesn't like the idea of hurting people. MB considers how many of its shooting wounds have been from clients trying to help.) She asks if it's trying to make her feel better, and it tells her she knows it wouldn't do that.

Arada's expression turns sentimental, and MB reminds her, no hugging,(2) and asks if she needs emotional support so it can summon someone. She says no, she's fine, and MB should make sure it's fine too, just as the MedSystem indicates it's prepped. She leaves, and turns on the privacy filter for MB as she does. It strips its clothes into the decontam bin, then gets into MedSystem's platform. It only takes three minutes to do the basics, and MB cuts MedSystem off as it suggests post-treatment options.

MB leaves Medical, to find Thiago waiting in the hall. He looks angry, and asks if it killed all those people. MB takes an aside to think how it could have, it kind of wanted to, but it hacked its governor module so that it wouldn't have to kill if it didn't really want to. To Thiago, it says it's reported to its designated supervisor, instead of any of the other true answers, like that SecUnits aren't really murder machines, that it even risked Thiago's life by not using kill shots because it knew Arada, in particular, wouldn't want it to.

Thiago says it can ask her. MB suggests he go do that. Thiago looks angry, but he hesitates and says he didn't mean for MB to get shot, and apologizes. MB thinks if he'd intended for it to get shot, this would be a different conversation. Still angry, it says the security protocol everyone on the team agreed to is available in the feed. Thiago says he made a mistake, but he had no reason to assume they were hostile.

MB takes a long paragraph to say it had reason, and could have put together a Threat Assessment Report, but it doesn't answer to Thiago. They don't like each other and that's fine. So it walks away.

HelpMe.file Excerpt 1 (File detached from main narrative.)(3)

Stepping back in time a little, MB catches us up on what it did since the last book.(4) On one occasion, Mensah asked it to escort her planetside for an "Art Festival / Conference / Religious Observation" with lots of live performances, which MB looks forward to. It watches or records with drones thirty two plays and musicals, but one experience is cut short by Mensah asking it to come get her. It's so out of character for her that MB uses a code phrase they came up with, in case she's in real trouble, but she says she's just tired, which worries it even more because she never admits that.

Leaving a drone to record the rest of the play, MB makes its way through the thinning street crowds, finding Mensah talking to Thiago and Farai, one of Mensah's marital partners. When it stops next to Mensah, she grabs its hand. MB is startled, but takes it as "Mensah needs saving from this situation" and not just grabby hands.

Thiago expresses that he wants Mensah to just talk to her family, and Mensah says she's told him why she can't.(5) Fortunately, Farai intercedes to say if Mensah needs space, she gets space, and herds him off, shooting MB a polite smile and leaning in to kiss Mensah and say a see-you-later. Mensah drags MB away, and MB asks if she needs a medic. She says she's just tired, again, and MB requests a ground vehicle known locally as a "go-cart"(6) at the nearest transport station.

In the car, heading back to the camping house they're staying in, Mensah apologizes for interrupting MB's evening. MB isn't sure how to interpret Mensah's earlier distress, and asks if she wants to watch the plays it recorded. She perks up, asking if it got a particular one, and it says yes. It's sure something is bothering her, and not just that her family is as weirded out by it as it is by them.(7) Well, it believes the adults are. It's trading media downloads with three of the kids illicitly over the feed.

It suspects that the main issue with the family is that it's not a normal, naive bot. It is what it is, accustomed to moving through human circles as if it could be one of them, and fending for itself. When it tells Bharadwaj about this later, helping her research for her documentary, she wishes she could say it's wrong about that assumption.

Farai, at least, seems to be an exception. When they first met, Farai expressed the family's gratitude for returning Mensah to them. MB doesn't know what to say, and before it can find a response, Farai asks it what its relationship to Mensah is. MB knows Farai wants a real answer, but all it has is "I'm her SecUnit." When Farai asks what that means, MB says it honestly doesn't know, but wishes it did. Farai thanks it, and that's that.

The other issue with the family might be that MB is providing security for them, and they worry it will scare off legitimate visitors. Its risk assessment module might be faulty,(8) but its threat assessment record is a solid 93%, and most of the negative points come from assuming good intentions from Wilken and Gerth until it was almost too late.

Still, Mensah's family don't think they need security, and they're right that they didn't before GrayCris. But, MB up to the point of taking Mensah to the camp home, it has had to ward off journalists and recording drones, as well as chasing away someone Amena wanted to spend potentially irresponsible time with under false pretences, since the not-a-gentleman misrepresented himself and had several other suspicious behaviours which MB observed on its drone surveillance. Instead of notifying her parental units, it intervened, potentially driving a wedge between itself and her but at least acknowledging that it didn't go as well as it could've hoped.

Back on the trip from the festival to the camp home, lots of description I can't hope to really do justice, but it mentions all sorts of things, from the architecture that's arisen from the colony's lifestyle, to mobility devices in use instead of augments.(9) When they arrive, Mensah suggests MB go back to the festival, and catch some more plays live. MB, against everything it's ever been comfortable with, asks what's wrong.

Mensah is surprised, but tells MB not to start. MB says it's for accurate threat assessment purposes. Mensah says it never mentioned that on the survey contract. MB admits it was half-assing at the time. Mensah almost says she wishes she could see it at its prime, but then says she probably did, referring to the rescue mission. MB recognizes that it's led them down an awkward conversation path, and wishes it was Art, who's good at manipulating conversations.(10)

MB says she didn't answer the question. Mensah says it sounds worried, and it says it is worried. Mensah admits she's been having nightmares about her time as a captive. It's normal and expected. MB has never seen much trauma recovery outside the serials, but there are a couple of programs Mensah's let her family believe she's taking advantage of, though MB knows she hasn't enrolled.

In an uncharacteristically observant moment, MB asks if that's why Mensah is afraid to leave the station without it.

Most of the population of Preservation believe Mensah should not need protection unless she goes on a visit to somewhere in the Corporation Rim. Crime stats in Preservation territory are incredibly low. However, MB, and everyone who knows the real story of what happened with GrayCris, know that she's been a target and could again, and agree that she needs security. GrayCris assets have been destroyed in suspicious accidents, and their executives found dead in various plausibly accidental (and not so much) ways. Once their structure started to crumble, threat assessment dropped off, but Mensah still wants MB's security. MB has started to become suspicious that it's something more than giving MB practice in a setting where it's not a tool or deadly weapon.

Mensah says it must have been obvious. MB says, no, though it thinks about how it suspects Farai and Tano know. Mensah says it's not a surprise that she feels safe with it, and it's easier to be around people who understand. She just can't quite explain to her family why she needs different support in this than she used to.

MB says Mensah needs the trauma treatment. She says she will, once she's finished a few things. And she really does want MB to go on the mission with Arada, it's a great opportunity. MB looks skeptical, so Mensah adds that with Amena and Thiago going, she'll appreciate MB keeping them safe for her. MB asks, what about Mensah?

Mensah almost brushes it off, but finally, admits she hates feeling weak, and she wants to stop needing to lean on MB. It's not fair of her to monopolize it like this. MB still isn't used to humans taking fairness toward itself into account.

It also sounded vaguely like the break-up part of the romance scenes on the shows I watched, most of which I usually skimmed over. I said, “It’s not me, it’s you.” She huffed a laugh. And then I sort of blackmailed her.(11)

Back in the present, on the ship, part of the current problem is that Mensah told Amena that she asked MB to keep an eye on her, which Amena didn't take well.(12) Thiago, who ought to know better, takes it as an affront that Mensah doesn't trust him, alone, to protect his niece. Amena tries to recruit Farai and Tano, but they just loop Mensah in and back up their spouse. Not even MB wanted to watch that call to find out exactly what happened.

So that was what had happened before the survey. Now we’re here, ready for the next major disaster. (Spoiler warning.)

=====

(1) Luck is not reproducible. I'm with Murderbot. I'll take it when I get it, but I wouldn't want to rely on it. (2) NO TOUCHY! Nooooo touchy. God, what a mood. (3) Whaaaaat is this? MB doesn't comment on receiving a file or anything. Detached from main narrative indeed. Curious that we get such a distinct marker between the present and the flashback, though. (4) Technically, it leaves out some things, like the events of the next book on my schedule, Fugitive Telemetry. (Side note, I'm not leaving present tense for this, despite being a flashback, because past tense is hard for me to write, even though it's what I'm reading, and this goes on a while.) (5) One assumes, some combination of not wanting to horrify them with what she's been through, and being worried that they can't understand because nobody else here has been through anything near what she has. (6) See, my assumption here is that it got shortened from "golf cart" but "go kart" is so much funnier of a concept to slot in here. (7) I wonder just exactly how true that really is, or if MB's tendency to self-deprecate and assume the worst is taking over its interactions here. (8) I recently saw a compelling theory that the risk assessment module is not broken, it's accounting for MB's competence in a way it doesn't give itself credit for consciously. Food for thought. (9) This is a nice touch, even if we don't see a lot of it in the stories. People just casually using mobility aids, instead of being "fixed". I like Preservation a lot.

(10) Once again, I offer an alternate interpretation: MB dances around its feelings, and that's a contributing factor to why it's so bad at guiding conversations the way it wants them to go. It's not jealous that Art is such a manipulative asshole, it's jealous that Art knows how to be vulnerable and engender vulnerability. Art has a lot more processing power and has spent a lot more time watching humans interact in normal conditions, if it has whole families traveling on it for science purposes as it once said it carried kids normally as well as adults. MB wants to be good at being a person, including conversation, it's just stuck in its own head and hasn't really tried to make the empathy in its unconscious, into a conscious series of choices. It's easier to keep interacting with the world as it has, until it has to break out of its patterns to accomplish its next goal. (11) What's that about, now? We don't get context this chapter. (12) MB attributes it to some hormone-related thing, which, rude and ageist, but in-character for MB. I personally think it's more that Amena probably assumed this meant MB had told Mensah about the encounter.

[7thboss]

QMK Projects

Hello QMK Community,

I've been an amateur mechanical keyboard user for years and an even more amateur electrician for even longer. I had learned about the existence of a Dactyl Manuform keyboard and had to make one for myself. With a few trials and helpful guides I eventually made two pairs, one for work and one for home. I named them Enki and Namma after the Sumerian creation gods. They were made with Gatreon Green and Kaith White switches respectively.

Pictured: Wiring process top, Enki left, Namma right

I even went so far to make my own keyboard layout combining the "Workman" layout and the "M-system" layout to make a keyboard optimized for English and Japanese typing.

Pictured: Workman / M-system Hybrid Layout

All of these projects above would not be possible without QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) an open source firmware used in hobbyist mechanical keyboards. Despite all of that, QMK currently has no support for my next ambitions. There are two primary features I am looking for: -Analog Hall Effect Switches -PS/2 Support

The first feature I would like to implement is analog hall effect switch support. Hall effect switches are switches that utilize the "Hall effect". Basically, they are a sensor that can detect when a magnet is moving over them. In keyboards, this means you can create a switch that is literally just a magnet on a spring. This simplicity makes the switch very durable. These switches can even be analog meaning they can detect the intensity of a key press and be adjusted in software. The one downside for most consumers is that they are only offered as linear switches, in other words, switches with little or no click. Personally, this is not a downside because I'm looking to move to linear switches anyway.

Pictured: Hall effect sensor left, Hall effect process right

Hall effect switches already have support to a certain extent. Hall effect sensors can be digital instead of analog, meaning the switch can be used as a normal switch plugged in the normal way. I see this as wasted potential and will not be using these for my project. Only one analog Hall effect QMK keyboard exists to my knowledge, the Keychron Q1 HE. I do not intend to buy this keyboard but may reach out to Keychron to see how they pulled this off.

Pictured: Keychron Q1 HE

The second feature I want to implement is PS/2 support. I imagine very few of you know what I'm talking about, some of you think I'm trying to make a keyboard compatible with a 25 year old games console, and the ones who do know what I'm talking about probably think I'm crazy.

Pictured: PS/2 Port

Above is a PS/2 port, a standard introduced by IBM in 1987. Now I suspect the entire audience is on the same page of thinking I am nuts. Hear me out, there is a reason you can still find computer's made with this port today. When using this port with a keyboard or mouse, the device interfaces directly with the hardware of the machine. USB devices have a polling rate, they effectively send their data by waiting for the bus. With a PS/2 port, there is no waiting so the speed of data is dramatically increased. There are several other features exclusive to PS/2 but the latency decrease is my primary objective

Pictured: Passive PS/2 Adapter

Some of you may find a device like the one pictured above and think there is no need for this direct support, you can just plug the keyboard into this adapter and it will just work. You are wrong. Only certain keyboards play well with these adapters. There is a protocol built into a normal keyboard's firmware that can detect if it's plugged into an adapter like this. This protocol does not currently exist in QMK to my knowledge. My intention is to introduce this protocol into QMK's firmware for use with these passive adapters. This way, I don't need to introduce a new port to my existing keyboards or get PS/2 wires and plugs.

I'm intending to make another two keyboards with both of these new features named Gilgamesh and Enkidu because what good is a theme if you don't stick to it? I'll post updates as I continue along this journey and hope you are interested in how this project develops. If you have any insights or knowledge please feel free to reach out.

[office-sunrayled]

Indoor LED Screen: The Future of Visual Display Technology in Gujarat and Nearby Cities

The digital world is advancing at a rapid pace, and so is the technology behind visual displays. Among the most significant advancements in this area is the development of indoor LED screens. These screens offer vibrant, high-quality displays that have become a staple in various sectors such as retail, corporate environments, events, entertainment, and more. In this blog, we will explore the significance and benefits of indoor LED screens, particularly in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar, and their surrounding regions.

What is an Indoor LED Screen?

An indoor LED screen is a flat panel display that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to produce bright, clear, and high-resolution images. These screens are typically used for indoor applications, such as in corporate offices, retail stores, shopping malls, airports, exhibitions, and public spaces, where clear and bright visuals are necessary to capture attention and communicate messages effectively.

LED screens are known for their impressive brightness, energy efficiency, and long lifespan. The ability to display high-quality graphics and videos makes them the go-to solution for businesses looking to enhance their indoor spaces.

Why Choose Indoor LED Screens for Your Business?

1. High-Quality Visuals

One of the main reasons to invest in an indoor LED screen is the visual quality it provides. With LED technology, you get clear, bright, and vivid images. The colors on an indoor LED screen appear more dynamic and sharp compared to traditional displays. Whether it’s showcasing your business advertisements, live events, or interactive content, an indoor LED screen ensures the message is delivered with high visual appeal.

2. Energy Efficiency

LED screens consume significantly less energy compared to other display technologies like LCD or plasma. As businesses increasingly seek sustainable solutions, the energy efficiency of indoor LED screens can make a considerable difference in reducing electricity consumption and costs. This makes LED technology not just a practical solution but also an environmentally friendly choice for businesses in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and other regions.

3. Durability and Longevity

Indoor LED screens have a longer lifespan than many traditional display options. With minimal maintenance required, these displays can function optimally for many years, providing long-term value to businesses. This makes them a great investment for business owners in Surat, Rajkot, and Bhavnagar, who want a reliable and lasting visual display solution.

4. Versatility

Indoor LED screens can be customized to fit various settings, from corporate offices in Gandhinagar to event spaces in Vadodara. Whether you need a large digital sign for a shopping mall or a compact display for your office reception area, indoor LED screens offer unmatched flexibility in terms of size, shape, and layout. You can even create curved or interactive displays, enhancing user engagement in spaces such as exhibition halls and retail stores.

5. Customization for Different Needs

Businesses in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and nearby cities can also take advantage of customizable features on indoor LED screens. The technology allows for integration with sensors, cameras, and interactive touch interfaces, enabling businesses to offer personalized and interactive experiences for their customers. This is especially beneficial for retail businesses and public spaces that need to engage with customers in a more dynamic way.

Applications of Indoor LED Screens in Gujarat and Nearby Cities

1. Retail Spaces

In retail environments, indoor LED screens play a critical role in attracting customers. Stores in Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vadodara can use these screens for digital signage, promotions, and advertisements. LED screens have the ability to display dynamic content, such as videos, images, and animations, capturing the attention of passersby and enticing them to explore the store. Retailers can also integrate interactive displays to allow customers to browse products or access information in a seamless manner.

2. Corporate Offices and Conference Rooms

For businesses in Gandhinagar, Rajkot, and Bhavnagar, indoor LED screens offer an ideal solution for presentations, meetings, and conference rooms. These screens ensure that all attendees can view presentations clearly, even from a distance, thanks to the brightness and sharpness of the display. In addition, the screens’ flexibility allows them to be used for video conferencing, digital communication, and real-time data presentations, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of corporate communications.

3. Educational Institutions

Educational institutions in Gujarat and nearby cities, such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, are also adopting indoor LED screens to enhance learning experiences. Whether used in classrooms, lecture halls, or auditoriums, LED screens provide clear and bright visuals for teaching, presentations, and multimedia lessons. This makes learning more engaging and helps educators present complex subjects in a more visually appealing manner.

4. Events and Exhibitions

For events and exhibitions in Rajkot, Gandhinagar, and Bhavnagar, LED screens are indispensable. These events require large-scale, high-quality displays to showcase information, advertisements, and entertainment. Indoor LED screens ensure that the content is visible from every angle, making them perfect for trade shows, conferences, product launches, and other large-scale events. The flexibility of these screens allows event organizers to create unique and immersive experiences that leave a lasting impression on attendees.

5. Transportation Hubs and Public Spaces

Airports, bus stations, and train stations in Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot are increasingly using indoor LED screens to communicate important information. These displays can show real-time updates on flight arrivals, departures, or train schedules, making it easier for travelers to navigate busy transportation hubs. Moreover, LED screens can also display advertisements or entertainment, keeping passengers engaged while they wait.

Indoor LED Screens: A Step Forward for Businesses in Gujarat

As the demand for innovative, efficient, and visually appealing display solutions increases, indoor LED screens are becoming an essential technology for businesses across Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Gandhinagar, and Bhavnagar. With their versatility, energy efficiency, and exceptional visual quality, they are helping businesses in these regions stay ahead of the competition and deliver engaging experiences to their customers.

At Sunray Display, we specialize in providing high-quality indoor LED screens for various applications. We understand the unique needs of businesses in these cities and are committed to delivering state-of-the-art solutions that help businesses enhance their brand presence. Whether you need a display for retail, corporate, educational, or event purposes, we have the perfect solution for you.

Visit our website Sunray Display to learn more about our products and services.

Summary

Indoor LED screens offer businesses in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Gandhinagar, and Bhavnagar a powerful tool to improve their visual displays. From providing high-quality visuals and energy efficiency to offering customizable and versatile solutions, these screens can revolutionize how businesses communicate with their customers. With applications across retail, corporate offices, education, events, and public spaces, indoor LED screens are quickly becoming a must-have technology for businesses in these regions.