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neopronouns-in-action · 5 months

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Neopronouns in Action #074: The Hitchhiker

(This is #074 despite #073 not being posted yet because #073 is done being written, but not done being proofread yet.)

Neopronouns:

zig/zag/zog/(zogs)/zagself,

that one/that one's/that one's own,

ae/aeth/aetherself

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself."

becomes:

"Zig is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as zig gets a fence set up around zog yard so the puppy can go outside without zag having to walk it. Zog uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting zag use, since zig lost zogs. Zig's going to buy toys and train the puppy zagself."

"That one is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as that one gets a fence set up around that one's yard so the puppy can go outside without that one having to walk it. That one's uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting that one use, since that one lost that one's. That one's going to buy toys and train the puppy by that one's self."

"Ae is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ae gets a fence set up around aeth yard so the puppy can go outside without ae having to walk it. Aeth uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ae use, since ae lost aeth. Ae's going to buy toys and train the puppy aetherself."

= = =

“Will you promise me that you’ll be careful, Aemil? I want you to promise me, seriously, that you won’t take any risks.” Grandy’s voice was serious, and their concern came through the videocall loud and clear, even if the picture itself wasn’t cooperating. Aemil could hear Grandy’s black and white zanda parrot familiar, Zanifrayd, clucking worriedly to herself in the background.

Rather than being able to see either of zog grandparent’s faces, all there was to be seen on the phone screen was blank grey, with the blue and yellow dog mascot for the videocall app sadly blinking up at zag.

Grandy’s concern was touching, but entirely misplaced. “I promise.” Zig said, grinning reassuringly just in case the video part of the call decided to start working again, “You know how I am, Grandy, I’m always careful, and you know I really am, I’m not just saying that like Brandie does.”

Grandy and Zanifrayd’s combined exasperated sighs were audible over the phone, but they held back any further comments on Brandie’s driving habits The two of them had already had that conversation more times than could be counted.

Fortunately, just last week Brandie had voluntarily given up its driver’s license, since even it admitted it wasn’t safe behind the wheel anymore.

Aemil was now going to be driving cross-country to pick Brandie and Drayden up and help them move back home. They needed help packing things up and moving them to the truck, and hadn’t wanted to risk the twelve hour drive.

“Did you pack blankets? Water, snacks? A phone charger and battery?” Grandy’s voice came again, and Zanifrayd interjected in her higher voice, “Do you still have the hand-crank radio and candles I got you last year?”

Zog Grandparent-One had once gotten stuck on the highway in a snowstorm, and had never let anyone drive anywhere without being prepared for the worst since.

This time, Aemil let Sky, zog raccoon familiar, answer, as they hopped up onto zog shoulder, leaning down to put their mouth level with the phone’s speaker: “Yes, yes, we’ve got them all, and I made sure to get some matches and a lighter. I’ll send you a picture when we get out to the car so you can see for yourself, and I’ll send you pictures every time we stop for a break. I’ve got the navigation set up for the whole trip, with rest stops and gas stations already added to the list so we’re not driving for too long at a time.” They chattered happily to show how confidant they were in their plans.

“Oh!” Aemil said suddenly, almost forgetting to ask, “Do you want any actual post cards, or souvenirs? I’m sure at least one of the rest stops will have something interesting.”

“I always need more mugs! Big ones I can use for soup if they have any.” came Grandy’s cheerful reply.

This was immediately followed by Zanifrayd calling, “And make sure you remember to get my popcorn!”

Sky laughed, still balancing on Aemil’s shoulder, “I plan to buy every bag I see, just for you!” They chirped.

“It’s a crime they don’t sell it here!” Grandy exclaimed, “A crime, I tell you! Well--I don’t want to keep you too long, I’ve got to go and record Doctor Omega, it’s almost time for the new episode to air! So I’ll talk to you later.”

Aemil didn’t need to be told twice. Zig had checked and triple checked that zog DVR was going to record the new episode for zag. It sucked that zig wouldn’t be able to watch it live with zog friends like zig usually did, but sacrifices had to be made. They were going to be throwing a belated sleepover in celebration once zig got back with Brandie, who was sworn not to reveal anything on the drive over, since it would be able to watch the show tonight.

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later when I get to the first rest stop, cya, Grandy!” Zig called, waving zog free hand at the camera just for the sake of it.

“Drive safe!” Grandy commanded, and then the call ended.

“Let’s go!” Sky said, jumping down off zog shoulder.

Aemil packed the rest of what zig was bringing into the car, sent a picture of the emergency supplies to Grandy, and started out, putting on the first of the many old, radio plays zig’d downloaded from the Web Archive to pass the time. To actually listen to a radio play when you had ADHD, you needed to be doing something else, otherwise you’d just get bored out of your mind and stop being able to listen. Aemil and Sky had found that driving was a great time to listen.

The ominous, familiar bells of CBS’ “Suspense” series tolled, and the time flew by for Aemil and zog familiar.

Zig followed the navigation’s instructions, and made perfect time getting to the first rest stop where zig had decided to take a break, two hours after starting what would be the very long drive.

Zig used the restroom, Sky used the grooming station, they got hot dogs, fries, and slushies, bought the first of many mugs for Grandy, and sat for a while at a nice covered table outside to eat at a leisurely pace, heads tilted back to watch the various birds flying far overhead.

It was a little more than half an hour after zig had gotten back on the road that zig noticed the hitchhiker on the road in front of zag.

They were standing on the side of the bridge that crossed over part of the river, leaning back against the railing, a green and white baseball cap pulled down over their eyes, a black and white dufflebag on the ground at their feet. They wore a grey sweatshirt and formerly white, (now conspicuously stained with dirt at the ankles and knees) pants, and their shoulders and part of their chest were darkened with the sprinkling rain that had passed by a few minutes earlier.

Their familiar was presumably the turkey vulture perched on the same railing just a few feet away, wings spread open to catch the sun and let the feathers dry. Either that was their familiar, or it was a very brave, or very foolish bird.

This was far away from any city or town, out in the middle of nowhere if you were going by foot. The easy half an hour Aemil’d just driven to get to this point from the rest stop would take this poor stranger almost half a day of non-stop trudging.

Zig slowed down, and let the car come to a gentle stop a few feet past the hitch-hiker so if they felt threatened, they’d see that Aemil would have to back up before zig could get to them again. Zig rolled down zog window, then leaned out the side to look back, calling invitingly, “Can I offer you a ride?”

If they were trying to get back the way Aemil’d come, zig would be more than willing to backtrack for them. There was no way zig was leaving someone out here to trek 35 miles at best without even stopping to ask if they wanted a ride. And if they were going the same way as zag, well, all the better!

The road was long and empty, so the hitch hiker approached the driver’s side door without fear of being hit. The vulture stayed where they were at first, but had turned their bright pink head to watch in curiosity. Sky rolled down the passenger window to wave one little raccoon hand at them, and called out in a friendly voice, “Heya!”. The vulture bowed their head in return, then hopped down from the railing with a noise flutter, and hop-walked over to talk to them.

By that point the hitch hiker had reached the driver’s side window, and Aemil smiled up at them, trying to appear friendly and not like a serial killer. “Need a ride?” Zig repeated the same question from before in case they hadn’t heard.

The hitch hiker glanced up the road, the way zig had been going, frowning a little below their cap. Their skin was light brown, paler than Aemil’s, and below the sunglasses they wore that reflected Aemil’s twinned face back at zag in a disconcerting way, zig couldn’t see much of their face.

“Well, I think you’re going the wrong way for me.” The hitch hiker said, sounding disappointed. “I don’t want to be a bother, but I was hoping to go that way. I’m trying to get to Port Freehaven.” They gestured back the way Aemil had come. “Thanks anyways, though.” They started to back away, like that was the end of it, but Aemil held up a hand to forestall them.

“Hey, wait, I don’t mind a little backtracking,” Zig reassured them, “It’d take you the whole rest of the day to reach the nearest gas station, I can’t let you walk that far on your own. Hop on in and at least let me give you a ride to the gas station about forty miles back – I’m not in any hurry, I mean it, I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Aemil had specifically given zagself two days of leeway for the way to Brandie’s old appartment, and two more on the way back, just in case anything went wrong. There was no point in planning down to the wire if a single problem would ruin everything.

This situation wasn’t a problem, but it just proved that zig had been right to plan for extra time.

On the passenger side of the car, Sky seemed to have become best friends with the vulture, and the two were chatting away like they’d known eachother for years. Sky tended to have that affect on people. Aemil usually had less success.

But it was apparently very hard to turn down an offer of a ride when your only alternative was walking for the next half a day, because the hitch hiker asked, clearly relieved but trying to be polite, “Are you sure you don’t mind? It’s not too far out of the way?”

“It’s not problem at all,” Aemil assured, “Hop on in!”As the words were leaving zog mouth, Sky was already opening the passenger door to let the vulture in.

Zig turned back in to look at the back seat to double check that nothing had suddenly gotten in the way since zig’d started the car as zig hit the button to unlock the back doors.

Fortunately, everything was organized just as zig had sorted it before zig left. Both The driver’s side and center seats were clear, the passenger side had the bin of snacks on it, with the blankets, pillows, and sunshield stuffed into the footspace.

“This car came with automatic child-safety locks,” Zig warned as the hitch-hiker climbed in, “So the back doors lock automatically once we start moving, but you’ll be able to unlock them manually once we stop.” Zig just really did not want them to think the doors locking was some ominous thing like a horror movie.

It was only after the hitch hiker shut the door, fastened their seat belt, and sat their bag on their knees that Aemil realized zig hadn’t introduced zagself.

“I’m Aemil,” zig said, “My pronouns are zig/zag/zog/zogs/zagself.” Zig gestured towards Sky, where they were sitting with the vulture in the passenger seat like they’d been best friends forever. “And my better half is Sky, they use they/them/their/themself.”

The vulture, sitting by the window, said happily, “I’m Calaris, my pronouns are ae/aeth/aetherself.” Ae gestured with aeth beak back towards aeth other half, “That one doesn’t have a name, and uses that one/that one’s/that one’s own pronouns.” Ae ruffled aeth wings in a way that was unmistakably happy if you’d grown up in a household with no less than three familiars who’d settled as birds. “Thank you for stopping to pick us up! I can glide for a long time on the thermals without a problem, but they’re really high up, and that one’s feet were getting tired.”

“I’m happy to help.” Aemil said, double checking again that the road was clear before zig did a U-turn to start heading back to the rest stop. “I’d want someone to stop if it was me, so it’s only fair I return the favor.”

“Hey, you want something to drink?” Sky asked invitingly while Aemil kept zog eyes on the road, “We have a cooler in the back with cold off-brand cola and water.”

“A soda would be awesome.” That one said. “Me too!” Calaris added. Sky expertly clambered into the back seat and leaned over the trunk area so they could pry open the lid of the cooler, visible in the rear-view mirror when Aemil instinctively glanced up to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves somehow.

Zig heard the clink and whir of the partly melted ice cubes being shoved around as zog familiar fished out two glass bottles of soda, then snapped the lid of the cooler shut again with a puffing click. “Here you go!” They said. Aemil didn’t check the mirror, and assumed they were handing one of the bottles to that one.

“Thanks.” That one replied, proving the guess correct.

On the road ahead, recognizable more by gut feeling than anything else, Aemil was dismayed to see a dead raccoon on the side of the road. It was bad enough to see roadkill, let alone roadkill that looked like it could have been the other half of your soul.

“We’ve got snacks too, in the bin there.” Aemil said to distract zagself as Sky climbed, three-legged, back into the front seat, holding another bottle of soda in one of their front paws. “Twizzlers, a bag of grapes, some apples, cookies, pretzels, and other stuff. Help yourself to anything you like! I made sure to bring extra to share.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.” That one said from the back seat, “You’ve been too kind already, I don’t want to trouble you further.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Aemil said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. Out of the corner of zog eye, zig could see that Sky had opened the bottle of soda, poured some into the pop-up bowl, and was holding it so Calaris could dip aeth beak in to drink.

“Oh, eat something won’t you? I’m starving.” Calaris said when ae’d tilted aeth head back to swallow the soda. That one just grunted wordlessly in response. Somehow the noise sounded reproachful, like that one thought that one’s familiar was being rude by accepting what zig was offering.

“Seriously, we’ve got plenty.” Zig said again, just to reinforce that zig wasn’t just trying to be polite.

Zig sent Sky a mental nudge to politely but firmly go back, pull open the snack bin, and offer that one some snacks once they were done holding the bowl for the vulture familiar. Zig got back a wordlessly amused agreement nudge in return.

For a minute or two there was quiet in the car, with the only sounds the wind going past, the tires on the pavement, and the fizzle of incarnation.

Not wanting things to get awkwardly silent, zig hovered one hand over the play dial, and asked, “So, hey, you wanna listen to a radio play?”

“Oh, I love those!” That one said, in probably the first enthusiastic tone zig’d heard.

Smiling, Aemil pressed play, and the next audio story in the playlist began, once more tolling out the iconic, ominous bells of Suspense.

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webmasterae · 1 year

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jcmarchi · 11 hours

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Using art and science to depict the MIT family from 1861 to the present

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/using-art-and-science-to-depict-the-mit-family-from-1861-to-the-present/

Using art and science to depict the MIT family from 1861 to the present

In MIT.nano’s laboratories, researchers use silicon wafers as the platform to shape transformative technologies such as quantum circuitry, microfluidic devices, or energy-harvesting structures. But these substrates can also serve as a canvas for an artist, as MIT Professor W. Craig Carter demonstrates in the latest One.MIT mosaic.

The One.MIT project celebrates the people of MIT by using the tools of MIT.nano to etch their collective names, arranged as a mosaic by Carter, into a silicon wafer just 8 inches in diameter. The latest edition of One.MIT — including 339,537 names of students, faculty, staff, and alumni associated with MIT from 1861 to September 2023 — is now on display in the ground-floor galleries at MIT.nano in the Lisa T. Su Building (Building 12).

“A spirit of innovation and a relentless drive to solve big problems have permeated the campus in every decade of our history. This passion for discovery, learning, and invention is the thread connecting MIT’s 21st-century family to our 19th-century beginnings and all the years in between,” says Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology. “One.MIT celebrates the MIT ethos and reminds us that no matter when we came to MIT, whatever our roles, we all leave a mark on this remarkable community.”

A team of students, faculty, staff, and alumni inscribed the design on the wafer inside the MIT.nano cleanrooms. Because the names are too small to be seen with the naked eye — they measure only microns high on the wafer — the One.MIT website allows anyone to look up a name and find its location in the mosaic.

Finding inspiration in the archives

The first two One.MIT art pieces, created in 2018 and 2020, were inscribed in silicon wafers 6 inches in diameter, slightly smaller than the latest art piece, which benefited from the newest MIT.nano tools that can fabricate 8-inch wafers. The first designs form well-known, historic MIT images: the Great Dome (2018) and the MIT seal (2020).

Carter, who is the Toyota Professor of Materials Processing and professor of materials science and engineering, created the designs and algorithms for each version of One.MIT. He started a search last summer for inspiration for the 2024 design. “The image needed to be iconic of MIT,” says Carter, “and also work within the constraints of a large-scale mosaic.”

Carter ultimately found the solution within the Institute Archives, in the form of a lithograph used on the cover of a program for the 1916 MIT rededication ceremony that celebrated the Institute’s move from Boston to Cambridge on its 50th anniversary.

Incorporating MIT nerdiness

Carter began by creating a black-and-white image, redrawing the lithograph’s architectural features and character elements. He recreated the kerns (spaces) and the fonts of the letters as algorithmic geometric objects.

The color gradient of the sky behind the dome presented a challenge because only two shades were available. To tackle this issue and impart texture, Carter created a Hilbert curve — a hierarchical, continuous curve made by replacing an element with a combination of four elements. Each of these four elements are replaced by another four elements, and so on. The resulting object is like a fractal — the curve changes shape as it goes from top to bottom, with 90-degree turns throughout.

“This was an opportunity to add a fun and ‘nerdy’ element — fitting for MIT,” says Carter.

To achieve both the gradient and the round wafer shape, Carter morphed the square Hilbert curve (consisting of 90-degree angles) into a disk shape using Schwarz-Christoffel mapping, a type of conformal mapping that can be used to solve problems in many different domains.

“Conformal maps are lovely convergences of physics and engineering with mathematics and geometry,” says Carter.

Because the conformal mapping is smooth and also preserves the angles, the square’s corners produce four singular points on the circle where the Hilbert curve’s line segments shrink to a point. The location of the four points in the upper part of the circle “squeezes” the curve and creates the gradient (and the texture of the illustration) — dense-to-sparse from top-to-bottom.

The final mosaic is made up of 6,476,403 characters, and Carter needed to use font and kern types that would fill as much of the wafer’s surface as possible without having names break up and wrap around to the next line. Carter’s algorithm alleviated this problem, at least somewhat, by searching for names that slotted into remaining spaces at the end of each row. The algorithm also performed an optimization over many different choices for the random order of the names.

Finding — and wrangling — hundreds of thousands of names

In addition to the art and algorithms, the foundation of One.MIT is the extensive collection of names spanning more than 160 years of MIT. The names reflect students, alumni, faculty, and staff — the wide variety of individuals who have always formed the MIT community.

Annie Wang, research scientist and special projects coordinator for MIT.nano, again played an instrumental role in collecting the names for the project, just as she had for the 2018 and 2020 versions. Despite her experience, collating the names to construct the newest edition still presented several challenges, given the variety of input sources to the dataset and the need to format names in a consistent manner.

“Both databases and OCR-scanned text can be messy,” says Wang, referring to the electronic databases and old paper directories from which names were sourced. “And cleaning them up is a lot of work.”

Many names were listed in multiple places, sometimes spelled or formatted differently across sources. There were very short first and last names, very long first and last names — and also a portion of names in which more than one person had nearly identical names. And some groups are simply hard to find in the records. “One thing I wish we had,” comments Wang, “is a list of long-term volunteers at MIT who contribute so much but aren’t reflected in the main directories.”

Once the design was completed, Carter and Wang handed off a CAD file to Jorg Scholvin, associate director of fabrication at MIT.nano. Scholvin assembled a team that reflected One.MIT — students, faculty, staff, and alumni — and worked with them to fabricate the wafer inside MIT.nano’s cleanroom. The fab team included Carter; undergraduate students Akorfa Dagadu, Sean Luk, Emilia K. Szczepaniak, Amber Velez, and twin brothers Juan Antonio Luera and Juan Angel Luera; MIT Sloan School of Management EMBA student Patricia LaBorda; staff member Kevin Verrier of MIT Facilities; and alumnae Madeline Hickman ’11 and Eboney Hearn ’01, who is also the executive director of Engineering Outreach Programs.

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dental1234 · 20 days

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carrusidae · 2 months

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* ─ goddess tags.

✧ ─ ( ic ) 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.

✧ ─ ( aes ) 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅.

✧ ─ ( thoughts ) 𝒐𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚.

✧ ─ ( about ) 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆.

✧ ─ ( realm ) 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆.

✧ ─ ( domains ) 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊 𝒅𝒐!

✧ ─ ( friends ) 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅.

✧ ─ ( rivals ) 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔.

✧ ─ ( wardrobe ) 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒑.

#✧ ─ ( ic ) 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.#✧ ─ ( aes ) 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒂��𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅.#✧ ─ ( thoughts ) 𝒐𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚.#✧ ─ ( about ) 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆.#✧ ─ ( realm ) 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆.#✧ ─ ( domains ) 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊 𝒅𝒐!#✧ ─ ( friends ) 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅.#✧ ─ ( rivals ) 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔.#✧ ─ ( wardrobe ) 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒑.#tagging;

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akindofmagictoo · 7 months

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there is logic for both of them but i'm asking about the VIBES. the reasoning is my domain. and @copper-dragon-in-disguise who kindly helped me trace my logic :)

this does not cover whatever people call it day-to-day, this is like the formal name for the stuff ... which Isi uses as its name day-to-day because she's like that.

if you want to know more about the mutagen, more details HERE

Dragonsong's Taglist:

@isherwoodj @metanoiamorii @lilmissravingwriter @weekofwednesdays @the-unwrittenwriter @talesofsorrowandofruin @little-boats-on-a-lake @teriwrites @magicalwriting @magic-is-something-we-create @writingbyjillian @waysofink @perditism @thehellinsideyourhead @calicowrites @vellichor-virgo @google-plexed @therecouldbecolorsandlove @the-orangeauthor @ellatholmes @happyorogeny @ladywithalamp @ashen-crest @authortango @strangerays @moononherwings @nikkywrites @ambersky0319 @ambsthom @talesfromgringolandia @wickerring @wizardfromthesea @diphthongsfordays @e-lisard @enchanted-lightning-aes @emscribblings @teardropsandtherain @lowslore @fablewritten @dirtybarkshark

Copper you are not here but i can add you if you like! @zmwrites you aren't here either but i value your opinions <3

#wip dragonsong #dragonsong world #zoe does worldbuilding #i may not keep the results of this if i decide i don't want to #it's like the coin flip #but i'm curious to see what you all think #and i've never made a poll before

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inscrutable-shadow · 3 months

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@painful-pooch requested: "Thanatos for snoozeville" from this ask game! (incredibly late i am so sorry lol)

contains: toothaching fluff and m/m romance

Snoozeville - Thanatos falls asleep somewhere that isn't his bed.

The first thing Than saw when he awoke was white. His first groggy thought was that he'd died and gone to heaven, but that was rapidly debunked by two facts: one, he had never been Christian (if he were to go anywhere, it would almost certainly be Hades) and two, that vampires didn't go to heaven (that being the point of the curse, immortality and all). He also didn't feel particularly dead. At least, not more than usual.

He looked up a little further and saw red. Literally, not metaphorically. The red silk of the Archfey's robes peeled from his face as he turned his head and rubbed his eyes. "What... happened?" he asked, as was all too frequent between them.

The Archfey smiled down at him affectionately. "You fell asleep."

"Obviously. I mean how did I get here?" He was having trouble remembering anything at all. Had he been drinking? Ae laughed and carded aer fingers through his hair, making him shudder and cuddle closer to aer. "I brought winter to the domain, remember? So that we could play in the snow? I had such a good time." Oh, yes. He'd probably overdone it on the mulled wine. "We were making those... what did you call them? Snow angels? And I was talking to you, of course, and then you stopped talking back. I was quite worried, but when I brought you inside and put you in my lap to warm you up, well... you began purring, so I knew you must be all right." "No..." Surely he hadn't... Vampires were borderline cold-blooded and therefore tended to become sleepy in the cold. Before the Archfey, like many others he would spend the winter months holed up somewhere sleeping in a dark box and barely coming out to eat. It probably contributed a good deal to particular vampire legends. The combination of the cold weather and being tipsy might have resulted in... embarrassing lapses. "Yes," the Archfey giggled, and kissed his forehead. "You do look quite sweet when you sleep like that. I had no desire to wake you."

Heat crept into his cheeks, which still tingled with cold. "How humiliating."

"Humiliating how? There is no one here but me, my love, and you need not hide yourself. I am not fooled by your suave vampire mask, Thanatos. I know you. You are kind and you write poetry when you are drunk and you like to watch the stars." If anyone else had said those things, he would have died on the spot, but as it was Thanatos was too embarrassed to respond, so he merely yawned and pressed himself more firmly into aer side. "Sleepy still? Good. Shut your eyes, dearest. I will wait for you. I always do."

The Archfey ran aer fingers through his hair again eliciting a low moan that tapered off into a purr, and for once, he let it. The rumble of safe contentment increased in volume with his exhales and spoke to a level of vulnerability he would almost never show, but here with his Archfey was the safest place in the world to him, both physically and emotionally. When he'd warmed up and woken up, they could both have another glass of wine, and perhaps he would read aer the latest detective story in the Strand, but until then, Thanatos would let the snow fall outside and be happy right where he was.

taglist: @athenswrites, @albatris, @crash-bump-bring-the-whump

#request fill #wip: rwtv #thanatos iuventus #the archfey reality #original fiction #my writing #writeblr #coy writes #fun fact: that same vampiric voice box mod that lets them get that deep chest growl also lets them purr :)#you will almost never hear it because it's incredibly embarrassing #like i don't think any of the ones i have would let you get away having heard it without at least trying to kill you XD #also i feel like the archfey's love for crime serials goes back at least as far as the original holmes stories #so there's that #got inspired to finish this all of a sudden #see i am working on requests i promise

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deepdreamnights · 2 months

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Screaming in Pain(t)

Make some noise.

The image(s) above in this post were made using an autogenerated prompt and/or have not been modified/iterated extensively. As such, they do not meet the minimum expression threshold, and are in the public domain. Prompt under the fold.

Prompt: a pair of cartoon characters with red, blue and yellow faces, in the style of dracopunk, action-packed scenes, canon ae-1, dinocore, strong lines, mythological references, hd:: colorful paint splash from the mixing of colors, in the style of mike campau, graphic fluidity, black paintings, victor moscoso, photorealistic pastiche, paul barson, richly colored

#unreality #midjourney v6 #generative art #ai artwork #public domain art #public domain #free art #auto-generated prompt #dripping paint #paint splatter #promptsmash

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understandingactivedirectory · 8 months

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Exploring Kerberos and its related attacks

Introduction

In the world of cybersecurity, authentication is the linchpin upon which secure communications and data access rely. Kerberos, a network authentication protocol developed by MIT, has played a pivotal role in securing networks, particularly in Microsoft Windows environments. In this in-depth exploration of Kerberos, we'll delve into its technical intricacies, vulnerabilities, and the countermeasures that can help organizations safeguard their systems.

Understanding Kerberos: The Fundamentals

At its core, Kerberos is designed to provide secure authentication for users and services over a non-secure network, such as the internet. It operates on the principle of "need-to-know," ensuring that only authenticated users can access specific resources. To grasp its inner workings, let's break down Kerberos into its key components:

1. Authentication Server (AS)

The AS is the initial point of contact for authentication. When a user requests access to a service, the AS verifies their identity and issues a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) if authentication is successful.

2. Ticket Granting Server (TGS)

Once a user has a TGT, they can request access to various services without re-entering their credentials. The TGS validates the TGT and issues a service ticket for the requested resource.

3. Realm

A realm in Kerberos represents a security domain. It defines a specific set of users, services, and authentication servers that share a common Kerberos database.

4. Service Principal

A service principal represents a network service (e.g., a file server or email server) within the realm. Each service principal has a unique encryption key.

Vulnerabilities in Kerberos

While Kerberos is a robust authentication protocol, it is not immune to vulnerabilities and attacks. Understanding these vulnerabilities is crucial for securing a network environment that relies on Kerberos for authentication.

1. AS-REP Roasting

AS-REP Roasting is a common attack that exploits weak user account settings. When a user's pre-authentication is disabled, an attacker can request a TGT for that user without presenting a password. They can then brute-force the TGT offline to obtain the user's plaintext password.

2. Pass-the-Ticket Attacks

In a Pass-the-Ticket attack, an attacker steals a TGT or service ticket and uses it to impersonate a legitimate user or service. This attack can lead to unauthorized access and privilege escalation.

3. Golden Ticket Attacks

A Golden Ticket attack allows an attacker to forge TGTs, granting them unrestricted access to the domain. To execute this attack, the attacker needs to compromise the Key Distribution Center (KDC) long-term secret key.

4. Silver Ticket Attacks

Silver Ticket attacks target specific services or resources. Attackers create forged service tickets to access a particular resource without having the user's password.

Technical Aspects and Formulas

To gain a deeper understanding of Kerberos and its related attacks, let's delve into some of the technical aspects and cryptographic formulas that underpin the protocol:

1. Kerberos Authentication Flow

The Kerberos authentication process involves several steps, including ticket requests, encryption, and decryption. It relies on various cryptographic algorithms, such as DES, AES, and HMAC.

2. Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) Structure

A TGT typically consists of a user's identity, the requested service, a timestamp, and other information encrypted with the TGS's secret key. The TGT structure can be expressed as:

3. Encryption Keys

Kerberos relies on encryption keys generated during the authentication process. The user's password is typically used to derive these keys. The process involves key generation and hashing formulas.

Mitigating Kerberos Vulnerabilities

To protect against Kerberos-related vulnerabilities and attacks, organizations can implement several strategies and countermeasures:

1. Enforce Strong Password Policies

Strong password policies can mitigate attacks like AS-REP Roasting. Ensure that users create complex, difficult-to-guess passwords and consider enabling pre-authentication.

2. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide multiple forms of authentication. This can thwart various Kerberos attacks.

3. Regularly Rotate Encryption Keys

Frequent rotation of encryption keys can limit an attacker's ability to use stolen tickets. Implement a key rotation policy and ensure it aligns with best practices.

4. Monitor and Audit Kerberos Traffic

Continuous monitoring and auditing of Kerberos traffic can help detect and respond to suspicious activities. Utilize security information and event management (SIEM) tools for this purpose.

5. Segment and Isolate Critical Systems

Isolating sensitive systems from less-trusted parts of the network can reduce the risk of lateral movement by attackers who compromise one system.

6. Patch and Update

Regularly update and patch your Kerberos implementation to mitigate known vulnerabilities and stay ahead of emerging threats.

4. Kerberos Encryption Algorithms

Kerberos employs various encryption algorithms to protect data during authentication and ticket issuance. Common cryptographic algorithms include:

DES (Data Encryption Standard): Historically used, but now considered weak due to its susceptibility to brute-force attacks.

3DES (Triple DES): An improvement over DES, it applies the DES encryption algorithm three times to enhance security.

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard): A strong symmetric encryption algorithm, widely used in modern Kerberos implementations for better security.

HMAC (Hash-based Message Authentication Code): Used for message integrity, HMAC ensures that messages have not been tampered with during transmission.

5. Key Distribution Center (KDC)

The KDC is the heart of the Kerberos authentication system. It consists of two components: the Authentication Server (AS) and the Ticket Granting Server (TGS). The AS handles initial authentication requests and issues TGTs, while the TGS validates these TGTs and issues service tickets. This separation of functions enhances security by minimizing exposure to attack vectors.

6. Salting and Nonces

To thwart replay attacks, Kerberos employs salting and nonces (random numbers). Salting involves appending a random value to a user's password before hashing, making it more resistant to dictionary attacks. Nonces are unique values generated for each authentication request to prevent replay attacks.

Now, let's delve into further Kerberos vulnerabilities and their technical aspects:

7. Ticket-Granting Ticket (TGT) Expiry Time

By default, TGTs have a relatively long expiry time, which can be exploited by attackers if they can intercept and reuse them. Administrators should consider reducing TGT lifetimes to mitigate this risk.

8. Ticket Granting Ticket Renewal

Kerberos allows TGT renewal without re-entering the password. While convenient, this feature can be abused by attackers if they manage to capture a TGT. Limiting the number of renewals or implementing MFA for renewals can help mitigate this risk.

9. Service Principal Name (SPN) Abuse

Attackers may exploit misconfigured SPNs to impersonate legitimate services. Regularly review and audit SPNs to ensure they are correctly associated with the intended services.

10. Kerberoasting

Kerberoasting is an attack where attackers target service accounts to obtain service tickets and attempt offline brute-force attacks to recover plaintext passwords. Robust password policies and regular rotation of service account passwords can help mitigate this risk.

11. Silver Ticket and Golden Ticket Attacks

To defend against Silver and Golden Ticket attacks, it's essential to implement strong password policies, limit privileges of service accounts, and monitor for suspicious behavior, such as unusual access patterns.

12. Kerberos Constrained Delegation

Kerberos Constrained Delegation allows a service to impersonate a user to access other services. Misconfigurations can lead to security vulnerabilities, so careful planning and configuration are essential.

Mitigation strategies to counter these vulnerabilities include:

13. Shorter Ticket Lifetimes

Reducing the lifespan of TGTs and service tickets limits the window of opportunity for attackers to misuse captured tickets.

14. Regular Password Changes

Frequent password changes for service accounts and users can thwart offline attacks and reduce the impact of credential compromise.

15. Least Privilege Principle

Implement the principle of least privilege for service accounts, limiting their access only to the resources they need, and monitor for unusual access patterns.

16. Logging and Monitoring

Comprehensive logging and real-time monitoring of Kerberos traffic can help identify and respond to suspicious activities, including repeated failed authentication attempts.

Kerberos Delegation: A Technical Deep Dive

1. Understanding Delegation in Kerberos

Kerberos delegation allows a service to act on behalf of a user to access other services without requiring the user to reauthenticate for each service. This capability enhances the efficiency and usability of networked applications, particularly in complex environments where multiple services need to interact on behalf of a user.

2. Types of Kerberos Delegation

Kerberos delegation can be categorized into two main types:

Constrained Delegation: This type of delegation restricts the services a service can access on behalf of a user. It allows administrators to specify which services a given service can impersonate for the user.

Unconstrained Delegation: In contrast, unconstrained delegation grants the service full delegation rights, enabling it to access any service on behalf of the user without restrictions. Unconstrained delegation poses higher security risks and is generally discouraged.

3. How Delegation Works

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how delegation occurs within the Kerberos authentication process:

Initial Authentication: The user logs in and obtains a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) from the Authentication Server (AS).

Request to Access a Delegated Service: The user requests access to a service that supports delegation.

Service Ticket Request: The user's client requests a service ticket from the Ticket Granting Server (TGS) to access the delegated service. The TGS issues a service ticket for the delegated service and includes the user's TGT encrypted with the service's secret key.

Service Access: The user presents the service ticket to the delegated service. The service decrypts the ticket using its secret key and obtains the user's TGT.

Secondary Authentication: The delegated service can then use the user's TGT to authenticate to other services on behalf of the user without the user's direct involvement. This secondary authentication occurs transparently to the user.

4. Delegation and Impersonation

Kerberos delegation can be seen as a form of impersonation. The delegated service effectively impersonates the user to access other services. This impersonation is secure because the delegated service needs to present both the user's TGT and the service ticket for the delegated service, proving it has the user's explicit permission.

5. Delegation in Multi-Tier Applications

Kerberos delegation is particularly useful in multi-tier applications, where multiple services are involved in processing a user's request. It allows a front-end service to securely delegate authentication to a back-end service on behalf of the user.

6. Protocol Extensions for Delegation

Kerberos extensions, such as Service-for-User (S4U) extensions, enable a service to request service tickets on behalf of a user without needing the user's TGT. These extensions are valuable for cases where the delegated service cannot obtain the user's TGT directly.

7. Benefits of Kerberos Delegation

Efficiency: Delegation eliminates the need for the user to repeatedly authenticate to access multiple services, improving the user experience.

Security: Delegation is secure because it relies on Kerberos authentication and requires proper configuration to work effectively.

Scalability: Delegation is well-suited for complex environments with multiple services and tiers, enhancing scalability.

In this comprehensive exploration of Kerberos, we've covered a wide array of topics, from the fundamentals of its authentication process to advanced concepts like delegation.

Kerberos, as a network authentication protocol, forms the backbone of secure communication within organizations. Its core principles include the use of tickets, encryption, and a trusted third-party Authentication Server (AS) to ensure secure client-service interactions.

Security is a paramount concern in Kerberos. The protocol employs encryption, timestamps, and mutual authentication to guarantee that only authorized users gain access to network resources. Understanding these security mechanisms is vital for maintaining robust network security.

Despite its robustness, Kerberos is not impervious to vulnerabilities. Attacks like AS-REP Roasting, Pass-the-Ticket, Golden Ticket, and Silver Ticket attacks can compromise security. Organizations must be aware of these vulnerabilities to take appropriate countermeasures.

Implementing best practices is essential for securing Kerberos-based authentication systems. These practices include enforcing strong password policies, regular key rotation, continuous monitoring, and employee training.

Delving into advanced Kerberos concepts, we explored delegation – both constrained and unconstrained. Delegation allows services to act on behalf of users, enhancing usability and efficiency in complex, multi-tiered applications. Understanding delegation and its security implications is crucial in such scenarios.

Advanced Kerberos concepts introduce additional security considerations. These include implementing fine-grained access controls, monitoring for unusual activities, and regularly analyzing logs to detect and respond to security incidents.

So to conclude, Kerberos stands as a foundational authentication protocol that plays a pivotal role in securing networked environments. It offers robust security mechanisms and advanced features like delegation to enhance usability. Staying informed about Kerberos' complexities, vulnerabilities, and best practices is essential to maintain a strong security posture in the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity.

#cybersecurity #active directory #kerberos #windows os #cyberattack

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sabraeal · 8 months

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A Fire's Light From Far Away

[Read on AO3]

Obiyukiweek 2023, Day 5: Woo

It was on four legs that Obi had run to Sereg, and it was on four that he left it, the ever-night sky bright with its new constellations. Not the ones his mistress has taught him— the hunter with his shield and sword aloft, the vain queen turned on her head, the two plows that carving Boann’s furrow through the stars. None of those hang in this night, so new that the air still smells of smoke and steel, beeswax and lethe but a fading memory.

But his hound nose scents it still, strong enough that he could follow it around in circles, spiraling closer and closer to where the enemy of his master’s master laid broken on the castle floor, cursing the day that the Wisteria line dropped from its branch. He’ll be taken soon, away from this knowe that only savors faintly of honey and deep into one steeped in it, forced to submit to a punishment fitting his crimes. What His Majesty will see fit to inflict him, only the gods can say; the aes sidhe are hard to kill as a rule, and the daoine harder still, but to revolt against a liege like this, against the high king himself—

Ah, well. It’s a good thing it’s not him who must swing that axe. Or pluck the bough from the rowan tree or whatever else kind of torture these half-gods can devise. No, his only duty is to his mistress, and it is to her that he races beneath this strange sky.

Beneath his fur, the wound itches. A four inch gouge torn into his side, not by iron or steel but by tooth alone. A glancing blow from a grinning mouth, a message writ deep in his skin. A man more mortal than he would not have weathered well, but copper had flooded his mouth and knit it true, and a few weeks care and rest had seen it healed, better than new. Save for the scar, of course, but he had not just been teasing when he told Sir that lasses loved a man with a little character carved into him.

Most did, at least. His mistress…well, she’d like the way it healed more.

What took days on the journey to takes mere hours from. The knowe’s shadows no longer resist his call, folding over his fur like a well-missed blanket. Sereg is no small domain, but with the blessing of his master and the surety of the shadows beneath his feet, Obi crosses it with no more trouble than a sleeping child draws breath.

He only slows when he feels that first tug of the veil on his fur, tendrils of awareness curling itself deep. Miss always shivers at this stage, telling him it’s spiderwebs against her skin, but to him— to him it is a caress, a promise. A seductive song that makes his magic sing, even as his geasa squeeze tight.

It’s then that he shifts, pelt ripping along his spine, ebbing up his legs in great, heaving waves until arms and flesh are bared. There’s no pain, not to return to himself, but iron and copper floods his mouth, so thick he has to spit to dull the taste. Obi rises from his crouch, brushing the last bit of wiry fur from his trousers. There’s miles left to go, ones crossed better with four legs rather than two, but well—

Obi takes his first step and nearly tumbles into the scattering leaves below him. Haah, it’d been a long while since he’d walked the earth in man’s shape. If he was going to see his mistress, better to practice, to look like he’d been a man more often than monster these past few weeks. He’d hate to slip in front of her, to show her just what sort of beast he could become if the right hand tugged on his lead.

She’s take Master to task, for one. It brings a wolfish grin to his lips, imagining the wag of her finger, the flush on her cheeks. What a lark it would be to see his cunning girl stand before an aes sidhe and accuse him of misusing his most versatile tool, his most loyal hound.

Or it would be, before she’d turn all that fire on him, each of her words rattling the chains lashed across his body, delivering their delicious sting. The air may be cold, but oh, a warmth flushes beneath his skin, stirring parts of him best left slumbering.

Haah, and that would be before she saw the scar. Oh, how the skin between her brows would pucker and furrow, the soft touch of her fingers tracing along the straight slash across his abdomen—

His muscles there tense with delicious anticipation, heart fluttering beneath the cage of his ribs. Only a few more miles now, he knows, tucking his hands deep into the pockets of his coat. His chin lifts, eyes tracing the shimmering cowpath across the heavens. Soon, soon.

With the shine of familiar stars washing over him, Obi turns, setting himself on the path he’s always been meant to walk. To the road that will bring him to his miss.

“Ho there!” A squat palm raises in greeting as the gates swing open, a squatter man following behind it, a bulldog made from human parts. “Is that our Good Neighbor’s best hound trotting home?”

“Careful there, Jirou,” Obi warns as the man ambles out to meet him. “There’s no hand holding this lead. You’re liable to get bitten if you play too rough.”

“Aye, aye, I know well enough.” With a fonder smile than a beast like him deserves, one of those broad hands claps his back, warmth burning through even the heft of his jacket. “It’s good to see you, boy. You’ve been well-missed around these parts.”

His tongue tangles around the taunt he’d meant to sling from it. “Ah, me?”

Jirou squeezes his shoulder, falling into step beside him. “Aye, you, lad. Thought Hiro might well pass away from the pining. Be glad the younger lot took the third watch tonight, otherwise you’d have no hope of getting to your bed before morning.”

Ah, but it not not his bed he longs to see, not when the embers smoldering in his chest flare to flames, burning with the same intensity they have since Miss fasted their hands at dawn’s first light and drew his oath from him, since she swore with all the power in her bones, you are mine. She’s here, somewhere, among the market’s press, and he—

“All right then,” Jirou chuckles. “I can see well enough that I won’t be getting a good word from ye until it’s done. Hie ye back to your mistress then, I trust ye remember the way?”

A laugh scrapes up from the depths of his chest, singed by the blaze within. “The hills could take my eyes and ears both, and I could still find my way to her.”

The guardsman may roll his eyes, may sigh like he’s a man lost, but his mouth twitches all the say. “You young men. Of with ye already, and spare me from the embarrassment of ye lovemaking.”

There’s a protest in him, a denial worn to its familiar shape, but there’s no patience left in him to still his feet long enough to give it. Not when that fire in him burns with so singular a purpose, not just a hazy glow at his edges, as it should be, but something that reaches out to him even as he reaches toward it, a different beast entirely—

He has only a moment to ponder it, to wonder at this new shape before it pulls his attention up the road, right to where the path draws to a small crest, and atop it— ah, he would know that color red anywhere, that taste of apples that washes over his tongue, spice making his nose sting. His hand rises with his heart to great her—

“Stay there!” His muscles clamp before his ears catch the command, rooting him to the spot. Oh, how sweet it is to be stung by her in this way, for his blood to rush and bring pleasure rolling over him, head to toe. He couldn’t move even if he wanted to, but haah, with his veins humming like this, he could hardly care.

At least until he realizes how complete the command is, how easily he submitted to it— too much, even for the pleasure of it. As if the compulsion had grown stronger in his absence, as if his body missed having her will hold him. As if something had changed.

It’s not until he sees how she runs, breathless and wild, that he realizes: perhaps it isn’t him who has.

Her hands clasp around his forearms, so hard he’s surprised his bones don’t creak from the pressure. She might even leave a mark, and ah, that’s best not thought about when he can feel her heat burning through his sleeves, when she’s so close that the scent of her magic clogs his nose. It doesn’t so much brush over him as swallow whole, enveloping him as firmly as she once had. Years ago now, back when His Majesty had first sent her to Lyrias, but it seems his body has not forgotten the feel.

And yet the physical distance remains. Already this is too close; copper must flood her mouth to touch him so, a bite so bitter most flinch, but not his miss. No, she just stares at him as if she wishes she could close this space between them, as if she were a woman lost and left to thirst, and he her first glimpse of water.

“You can be at ease, my lady.” It’s too breathless for his liking, but he cannot bear to raise his voice, cannot dare to find the strength. “Your sweet prince is tucked back in his knowe, safe and sound. The Lady Kiki and Sir as well.”

He might have slapped her for how she flinches, jaw slack as her sense comes back to her. “Oh, Zen…? I…ah, good. That’s…good to hear.”

Her grip eases, though it does not remove itself. No, instead her thumbs rub where they lay against his arm’s soft underbelly, tickling the skin at his wrists.

“Miss,” he breathes, confusion turning to mist between them. “It’s late. You should be abed.”

“I couldn’t…” Her lips press together as she looks up at him, just as lost as he. “I couldn’t sleep. Not when you were coming home.”

“How did you know that I would be…?” He shakes his head. “Did Sereg send word?”

“No.” Her brow furrows so sweetly his lips tingle. “I just…knew.”

His ribbon weaves through her hair, his awareness of it throbbing with the beat of his heart. She just knew. The way he’d just known in Tanbarun, her presence so bright and obvious the moment he’d fallen through Umihebi’s knowe.

Miss sits back on her heels, staring up into his eyes with an intensity that commands him as thoroughly as he words ever have. “Welcome home, Obi.”

The warmth that floods him is nothing like her sting. His breath catches, eyes blowing wide.

“Oh!” Her gaze drops to where she holds him, hands slipping from where they rest. “Sorry, I—”

“Miss,” he manages, but there’s no words that can convey the joy that pulses through him, no action that can dispel this lightning in his body save lifting her in his arms. He spins her, giddy, laughter flinging from his lungs with abandon, and—

“Ah!” And, yikes, that’s more than a sting. “That’s a lot of pain.”

“Obi.” She struggles against him until he sets her down, but then she does not flee, oh no, she bends closer, gloves probing at his side. “Did you—?”

“Ah, Miss, just a little flesh wound.” He waves a hand. “Nothing to worry yourself about. Didn’t even tear a stitch.”

“Stitches?” Her mouth pulls into a thin line. “I think I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Now, now.” His head fly up, placating. “There’s no sheep gut still strung through me! I promise I took good care of it. Let them sew it up real nice an everything.”

“Hm.” She’s hardly convinced. “Take off your shirt.”

It’s a concerted force of will to keep his hands off his jacket, but he fights it, if only to tease, “My lady, your wish is ever my command, but surely you don’t mean to ravage me in the marketplace.”

Her gaze rakes up him like nails on flesh, and ah, maybe she does.

“Fine, keep it on until we get to the exam room,” she tells him, a small smile on her lips. “Then we’ll see just how well you’ve behaved.”

“Oh, Miss,” he hums, following after her. “I’m sure you’ll find I’ve only been the best boy.”

#obiyukiweek23 #day 5 #obiyuki #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #fae au #my fic #ans #i debated quite a bit about just which part of this i wanted to do for obiyukiweek #and originally this was supposed to be for bingo and a part right after for this #but i ran out of time and this worked best #it was a nice little break in a week of some very long and taxing fics 🤣

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webnamesae · 19 days

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ae domain, .ae domain, ae domains, uae domains, uae domain name, buy uae domain, buy .ae domain, buy ae domain, register .ae domain, buy ae domain name, premium domains, ae domain registration, purchase ae domain, ae website domain, domain name, buy domain, domain checker, domain search, what is domain, domain registration

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neopronouns-in-action · 5 months

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Neopronouns in Action #073: With a Smile

(The title will make sense if I ever actually get around to writing out this whole novel)

11,000 words long. This one will actually be under a read-more because it's so long, lol.

(Archived Read-More Link)

(Read More started here)

- - -

The characters and their pronouns:

Andi: ero/ilas/danajei, used like it/its/itself pronouns:

Replace it with ero, Replace its with ilas, Replace itself with danajei

Example:

"It is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as it gets a fence set up around its yard so the puppy can go outside without it having to walk it. Its uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting it use, since it lost its. It's going to buy toys and train the puppy itself."

Becomes:

"Ero is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ero gets a fence set up around ilas yard so the puppy can go outside without ero having to walk it. Ilas uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ero use, since ero lost ilas. Ero's going to buy toys and train the puppy janadei."

- - -

8301B (pronounced eight-three-oh-one-bee) : she/her/(hers)/herself

"She is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as she gets a fence set up around her yard so the puppy can go outside without her having to walk it. Her uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting her use, since she lost hers. She's going to buy toys and train the puppy herself. "

- - -

Proffessor Starfield: hea/ler/(lers)lerself, used like she/her/(hers)/herself pronouns:

Example:

Becomes:

"Hea is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as hea gets a fence set up around ler yard so the puppy can go outside without ler having to walk it. Ler uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ler use, since hea lost lers. Hea's going to buy toys and train the puppy lerself."

- - -

Lera: ido/eis/eiself, used like it/its/itself pronouns

Example:

Becomes:

"Ido is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ido gets a fence set up around eis yard so the puppy can go outside without ido having to walk it. Eis uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ido use, since ido lost eis. Ido's going to buy toys and train the puppy eiself."

- - -

Echo: zal/az/azself, used like it/its/itself pronouns

Example:

Becomes:

"Zal is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as zal gets a fence set up around az yard so the puppy can go outside without zal having to walk it. Az uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting zal use, since zal lost az. Zal's going to buy toys and train the puppy Azself."

- - -

Freedom: ae/ryn/(ryns)/rynself, used most closely like she/her/(hers)/herself pronouns

Example:

Becomes:

"Ae is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ae gets a fence set up around ryn yard so the puppy can go outside without ryn having to walk it. Ryn uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting ryn use, since ae lost ryns. Ae's going to buy toys and train the puppy rynself."

- - -

Drew Morgan: sia/lia/lis/liaself, used like he/him/his/himself pronouns

Example:

Becomes:

"Sia is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as sia gets a fence set up around lis yard so the puppy can go outside without lia having to walk it. Lis uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting lia use, since sia lost lis. Sia's going to buy toys and train the puppy liaself."

- - -

Andi was in pain. Which really, wasn’t anything new.

You’d think ero’d be used to it by now. Wasn’t that how these things were supposed to go?

Turns out you can’t actually get used to pain. It just keeps hurting. You can ignore it sometimes, if you have a million other things to think about, but it doesn’t magically disappear just because you want it to and are desperately telling yourself you’re ‘used to it’.

The one exception to this rule seemed to be the scars Andi still had on ilas neck from Freedom’s teeth. That had hurt at first, but over time, the pain had actually faded, until ero had felt nothing except relief, since it meant they could finally stop walking, if only for a few minutes. It wasn’t that ilas feet hurt, because ero hadn’t been able to feel ilas feet. It was just that walking non-stop became boring and even more literally-mind-numbing than the rest of the universe already was, so doing something different--even if it was just standing still-- had become a reprieve.

But it wasn’t the scars across ilas neck that were hurting Andi right now. No, it was the probably bruised ribs in ilas chest, the definitely dislocated fingers, whatever the hell was wrong with ilas forward left knee and forward right ankle, the all-encompassing squished feeling in ilas thorax, the fact that ero hadn’t been able to sleep properly in three days, and last but certainly not least, the severe dehydration.

Andi could, in fact, remember the last time ero’d had anything to drink. It was the orange juice ero’d ordered at the diner Starfield had taken them all to for breakfast. Or lunch. Dinner? It was impossible to keep track, and none of them really cared.

They went to the diner to get bacon and eggs, or waffles, or other breakfast-y items like that, because Lera hadn’t ever had them before, and by that point they were all starting to get tired of the lack of texture that went with the nutrient-dense capsules 8301B could manufacture. (Thought they were, of course, always delicious).

8301B had landed them in the morning, before the sun had even properly risen, to fit the theme of breakfast, even if morning no longer meant anything to any of them. There was only so much time you could spend in a time machine, hopping from place to place and time to time, before your body was forced to develope a circadian rhythm all its own. By Andi’s level of wakefullness, they’d gone to the diner around “mid-day”.

From the clock on a billboard by the road a short distance away, it was just past 6AM, but that was okay, because the diner was apparently open 24 hours a day, every day of the week (which just seemed unfair) so they didn’t have to wait.

They all put on the masks Starfield insisted they needed to wear during this time period (there was, apparently, a pandemic going on, but Starfield had given all of them species-appropriate vaccines against it, and 8301B would disinfect their clothes when they were done. And 8301B had disinfected the 100-ft area around herself as they landed, and would keep disinfecting it until they left. And Starfield was carrying a dozen different forms of vaccinations that hea was planning to give to the staff.) They just strolled right in, and then a server then lead them right back outside to some tables and chairs that had been set up on the sidewalk next to where 8301B had been parked, currently invisible, and projecting an aura to pervent anyone from running into her by accident.

Apparently there were multiple signs on the diner’s door that asked patrons to wait outside (to prevent the spread of the virus going around), but neither Andi nor Starfield could see them, and Lera and the kids couldn’t read them. The staff were very accommodating, though, and didn’t seem upset once they understood the problem. It helped that Andi and Starfield both had their new white canes with them.

The only reaction their server had to Lera was to compliment eis on eis makeup. That was the usual reaction people who didn’t know about aliens had when they met Lera, assuming that ido was wearing extensive makeup, or a costume. Ido received far more compliments than ido ever did fearful reactions. The rest of the kids had their appearances hidden through the same sort of trick that let 8301B appear to be invisible, their part-human / Idolun-matrix and actual direct Idolun ancestry helping to cement the illusion, which would never be able to work for Lera.

The only time people figured out ido was really an alien was when they’d already been dealing with other aliens for several hours, or were aliens themselves, and it suddenly dawned on them that maybe, just maybe, the color-shifting person covered in scales and horns wasn’t just wearing a complicated, high-tech outfit just for the fun of it.

The waiter had helpfully listed off the choices of drinks available when Starfield explained that Lera and the kids were still learning to read English, and that they would need help with the menus.

Starfield and Andi both ordered orange juice, Lera ordered hot chocolate, and the kids ordered an assortment ranging from root beer to chocolate milk to lemonade to water.

And the rest, after that? ...That was all a bit blurry. And what Andi could remember clearly, ero’d rather not think about.

The important thing now was that they all were back in 8301B, and for now at least they were safe. The doors were locked, and not even a van full of heavily-armed extremists would be able to get them open.

Starfield was still in a healing trance, but hea was in the medical bay where hea was safe if anything went wrong, and the last time Andi had checked, Lera was watching over ler.

Andi was in the entreance room, draped across one of the floor cushions on ilas back, wishing 8301B could just magically teleport ero to ilas master bathroom so ero could take a nice, long bath to rehydrate and relax in without actually having to move.

It had rained at one point the day before while they were outside, and they’d gotten completely soaking wet, which was the only reason Andi was still conscious and able to function at the moment, if only barely.

Their captors had given them water, but not enough, and Andi wished they had more ablebodied adults on board 8301B with them, if only so ero could ask someone to bring it some water. Or to find a hover bed so ero could get to ilas room.

Freedom was aboard, of course, and so were the younger children children, but they were asleep, or at least Andi hoped they were, and ero didn’t want to wake them, or let them realize just how badly hurt ero and Starfield were. They’d had enough stress to deal with in their short lives so far, and Andi would rather get kidnapped again than add to that list. Not that getting kidnapped would help the situation at all. Freedom, of course, didn’t sleep, and was far more aware of the perils of their life than Andi wanted, since that had been unavoidable. But ero wasn’t going to increase that stress if ero could help it.

So what was Andi’s plan? Ilas plan was to lie there on the floor, and not move, and hope Lera decided to wander back to the interface room sometime soon.

::You know, I can get eis attention for you…:: 8301B said softly, just a whisper in Andi’s mind.

8301B’s voice, even her mental voice, was still raspy and hoarse, and Andi could feel the effort that she had to put in to say even that much.

Well now Andi couldn’t just say no, could it? Not when 8301B was going through this much effort to help.

“Oh, alright,” Ero relented, slumping further into the large cushion, “But only if ido’s sure Starfield’s not going to wake up and wander off before ler memory has rebooted to who knows where as soon as ido leaves the room. I’m sorry, but I’m in no condition to be trekking around in your halls looking for ler for hours on end.”

::Yes, I can see that. Don’t worry, I’ll put an alarm on the door, that should alert me if hea decides to go for a walk.::

Should being the operative word there. It should alert her if Starfield decided to leave the room. But 8301B still wasn’t fully recovered from what had happened to her, and maybe she never would fully recover. Andi knew ero sure wouldn’t. Starfield might, because hea could always connect to the Idolun genetic matrix and heal lerself, but there were no guarantees that would be able to fix anything.

These weren’t normal injuries they’d all been inflicted with, and most physicians - - mechanical, organic, and sympheric alike - - couldn’t even see that anything was damaged at all, let alone figure out a way to heal it.

According to all the hundreds of scans they’d tried before giving up, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Andi’s eyes, or ilas brain. According to all rules except for the ones being expressed by reality, both should be working perfectly fine. There was no physical change to explain why all ero could see, even with ilas eyes closed, was white static.

The machines couldn’t even scan ilas insectoid thorax. It just showed up as blank on all the scanners they tried. Just ilas torso, and nothing else. Like ero was just a human from the chest upward, with nothing to support it in the air. Some species had trouble even looking at Andi now, it gave them a headache if they tried.

Fortunately (and unfortunately, sometimes, like yesterday), humans were not included in this category.

Andi was busy trying to imagine what it would be like to actually go home and meet ilas parents again, talk to ilas si--ilas siblings--again, when 8301B suddenly shocked ero.

It wasn’t painful, but Andi heard the spark, and ilas hand, the one hand that had been touching the floor, jolted numb for half a second as Andi gasped in surprise and confusion, bolting upright with strength ero didn’t know ero still had.

“Wha⏤”

::Hide! Andi, hide! Someone is breaking through the door, and I can’t stop them! They’re moving quickly, they’re going to be through in less than a minute! The energy I’ve given you will wear off soon, you must use this time to hide!::

There was panic in 8301B’s voice, and Andi suddenly found danajei on ilas feet, energized like ero wasn’t about to pass out from physical and mental stress.

Ilas head whipped around, struggling to reorient danajei in the room so ero could find somewhere that would shield ero from view from the door.

::Forward and to your left, two steps each, the tall bookcase--!:: 8301B said frantically, her voice devolving into static on the last word.

Andi lunged to follow the directions, two steps forward, and two steps to the left, and ended up knocking into the edge of the bookshelf in question, but ero found the back panel of the floor-to-ceiling shelf and shoved danajei behind it, flattening danajei against it, counting the touch of ilas toes against the wood so ero could be sure all of ero was hidden.

Ero couldn’t hear any noises coming from 8301B’s door, but ero could feel 8301B humming anxiously beneath ero, and knew ero wouldn’t have to wait long for whoever or whatever was out there to get in. Whoever they were, they were terrifyingly efficient. 8301B hadn’t picked them up on any of the scanners until they were literally about to break down the door. The door that not even a ship full of Vikings could break down. Well, the good news was this probably wasn’t a ship full of Vikings.

It only took a few seconds, though those two seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as Andi’s mind frantically raced through the possibilities, wondering what ero could do, what ero should do, how long this boost of energy would last, what would happen when it faded, how this wasn’t fair, Andi’d thought ero’d at least get a chance to rest before the next disaster - -

The door opened with a soft creak as the only sound to give away how hard 8301B was trying to keep it shut, and a voice outside gasped in what Andi could only assume was wonder.

“Oh - - oh my, Professor, what have you done with the place…” A deep voice said as their footsteps echoed on the floor with sharp clicks like metal against stone. “This is - - I can’t believe he’s hid this from me this whole time!” the voice was growing louder as it came further into the interface room, approaching the center interface.

8301B’s humming increased in pitch.

Andi needed to act fast, before whoever this was did anything. Ero couldn’t let them get to the interface, ero needed to stop them. If 8301B were capable of speaking to direct ero right now, she would have done it by now, so ero needed to figure something else out.

Where had ero put ilas telegogs? Ero could still hear the person walking, the tapping ringing out clearly. Like they were circling the interface, like they were wearing heels or something. Where had ero put ilas telegogs? Ero’d sat them down somewhere, but where - -

Andi wracked ilas brain, trying to remember the sequence of events. Ero’d come in, and Lera had carried Starfield to the medical bay. Andi’d had only enough energy to trudge to ilas favorite cushion. The telegogs had teleported to ero as soon as ero set foot in the door, but ero hadn’t needed or wanted them, so ero’d tossed them - -

Yes! Ero’d tossed them towards the bookshelf, the same bookshelf ero was hiding behind now. They would just teleport back to ero whenever it passed through a doorway, or the halfway point of a room, so ero hadn’t bothered with keeping them on ero. Ero hadn’t been expecting someone to break into 8301B not even an hour after they got back to her.

Could Andi get to the telegogs without whoever was in the room seeing ero? They didn’t bother to keep as many light sources active these days, since Andi didn’t need them, they weren’t much help to Starfield, and Lera and most of the kids could see in the dark just fine. And Freedom of course didn’t have eyes to begin with.

But that would require getting around to the front of the bookshelf, and then taking the time to feel around to find them, and if the intruder turned to look, they’d see ero. It was too risky.

There wasn’t any more time to think. The person, whoever they were, had stopped at the interface, and Andi needed to stop them. If ero didn’t, there was no telling what sort of horrible things would happen to them all.

In a split second, Andi decided, almost purely on instinct, that ero wasn’t going to bother trying to get the telegogs. Ero could hear where the person was, and that was all the information ero needed. You didn’t need to be precise to tackle someone. If they just so happened to be covered in poisonous barbs or spines, then Andi would find that out the hard way after 8301B was safe.

8301B heard what ero was planning, and managed to think through her panic enough to help. The humming beneath Andi disappeared, but now ero could feel it thundering in the center of the room, concentrated -- Andi was guessing -- right below the feet of whoever was standing over there.

“What in the world?” The intruder yelped, “What are you doing, you silly old - -”

Andi didn’t hear the rest of that sentence, because ero was too busy tearing out from behind the bookcase and sprinting across the room towards the souce of the noise as quickly as ero could, praying ero didn’t crash into any tables or shelves. Ero did slam partly into the arm of a large cushioned chair, but ero was moving too quickly to let that stop ero.

The thundering in the floor was suddenly directly in front of ero, and the voice gasped again, the sound of it changing as though they’d spun to face Andi, right as ero reared onto ilas back four legs, and swung as hard as ero could with ilas front two.

Ero felt the impact as first ilas left, then ilas right foreleg collided with something hard, and barely a moment later, there was a thudding sound as something crashed to the floor.

And then Andi fell to the floor as ilas front legs seized in pain, and that squished feeling in ilas thorax from before? Had now been promoted to a sharp, stabbing pain in ilas side that made ero thank every god ever worshiped that ero didn’t actually have any lungs that could be punctured down there.

Which just made the stabbing pain in ilas chest, where ero definitely had lungs that could be punctured, all the more concerning. But ero would deal with that later.

Andi lay there on ilas side for a few stunned moments, trying to catch ilas breath from where it had been knocked out of ero, wincing when each inhale came with a small spike of pain, trying to figure out if they were still in danger or if they were about to all die in a fiery explosion or if the person had been covered in poisonous barbs and ero’d been fatally poisoned and just hadn’t noticed yet.

8301B had stopped humming, so the only sounds Andi could hear was ilas own ragged breathing and the rush of blood in ilas ears.

Ero didn’t think ero’d been poisoned, and no one was attacking ero, or screaming, or attacking 8301B, or doing any other horrible things, so after a few moments where nothing horrible happened, Andi guessed that it was safe to assume ero’d succeeded in knocking the intruder out.

Okay.

Now what?

“Are you okay?” Ero asked, starting to cautiously push danajei into a sitting position - - then ero remembered what 8301B had said about the boost of energy only lasting a few minutes, and laid hastily back down so that when the energy wore off - - and ero could only assume it would do so abruptly - - ero wouldn’t fall over again.

Unable to think of any better options, ero sighed and began pulling danajei slowly across the floor, trying to move away from the hopefully-unconscious intruder. If Andi was going possibly to pass out any second now, ero’d rather do it away from the person with hostile intentions rather than right next to them.

One of ilas feet brushed what ero assumed was the person’s fallen body as ero started to crawl away, and Andi recoiled instinctively. Then, when nothing happened, gently poked them again, this time on purpose, with one claw, hoping to get at least a little bit of information.

Ero could feel what might have been fabric, and something with a bit of a give beneath, like skin, but nothing helpful. A lot of species wore clothes. A lot of species had squishy skin. That didn’t tell Andi anything helpful at all besides that this person was maybe not an insectoid. But then again, if you poked Andi in the shoulder, you wouldn’t have any way of knowing ero had the lower half of an insectoid either, so even that didn’t really tell ero anything for sure.

Andi army-crawled along the floor, trying to put distance between ero and the intruder, glad the stone floor was cushioned by overlapping rugs.

The room was wider on one side than the other, so the interface wasn’t actually in the middle of the room. Andi had to go just a little bit further, and - - ahaha! Andi knew ero’d crossed the middle point of the room, because the telegogs had teleported to ero, and were now perched on ilas forehead.

Knowing ero was probably going to regret this later, Andi reached up and pulled them down over ilas eyes, and felt the tiny pin-pricks of familiar pain as the small nodes along the frame connected with ilas mind.

It took half a second for the images to form, and then suddenly Andi could see, the images projected directly into ilas mind from 8301B’s sensors. It wasn’t the way ero would have seen with ilas normal eyes had they not been blind, because 8301B didn’t see with human eyes, she saw with mechanical sensors that had been created by Cawfroans and Idoluns. But Andi had used these often enough by now that ero could almost perfectly understand what they showed ero.

The floor beneath ero was glowing dark blue, the table ero was behind was orange, and every book on every shelf was a myriad of colors as ero turned ilas head back towards the interface.

There was a figure sprawled on the floor right where ero’d thought they’d be. Andi could see the fabric of what appeared to be a dress, and long, curly hair. They weren’t moving, which was good, and with a thought, Andi set the imager to show ero an internal scan.

Ero’d done this more than enough times now that ero didn’t jump when the person’s internal organs and veins suddenly became visible, the fabric of the dress fading into background noise, but ero did feel ilas heart rate spike when ero saw not one, but two hearts beating slowly in the figure’s chest.

No, no, Andi didn’t need to panic, there were lots of species in the universe who had two hearts. Ero’d met many of them. There was no reason to assume this was an Idolun just because they had two hearts.

Except, of course, for the fact that they had terrible luck, and it probably was an Idolun bounty hunter just because the universe wanted to spite them. The universe really should be more grateful, they’d saved its life after all...

And 8301B still hadn’t responded in any way to Andi’s question, so that probably wasn’t a good sign.

Andi told the telegogs to analyze the intruder’s lifesigns, and a moment later, a transparent box popped up to inform ero that the person was, both in fact and unfortunately, an Idolun.

But the good news was they were unconscious, and by 8301B’s estimates, wouldn’t wake up for at least half an hour.

Knocking an Idolun unconscious wasn’t as dangerous as knocking out a human or any other non-genetically-enhanced species, because an Idolun would automatically go into a healing trance to heal the damage.

Sometimes, like when it was Starfield being knocked violently unconscious by a blow that would have killed a human for sure, that was a good thing, because hea would probably be right as rain as soon as hea woke up.

Sometimes, like right now, that was a bad thing.

8301B didn’t recognize this Idolun’s current iteration, but Andi could see through the telegogs that 8301B was busy calculating their age so they could at least guess if this one in particular was going to be causing problems.

Well, more problems than they had already caused by breaking in and trying to kidnap them all, which didn’t bode well for anyone.

[[They’re thirty Earth years.]] 8301B finally reported through the telegog’s interface, the words appearing as text rather than sound. It was easier for her to communicate this way, but unfortunately, this wasn’t as easy for Andi. Ero could only wear the telegogs for short intervals, no longer than an hour at a time, otherwise ero would get a splitting headache.

Which wasn’t how they were supposed to work, but ever since Andi had fused with Starfield, and then been torn apart and stitched back together by the Phiartins, things tended not to work the way they were supposed to when it came to ilas physiology.

Andi took a moment to actually digest what 8301B had said, confused and alarmed. They’re thirty Earth years…

“But - -” Ero started, “But for an Idolun, that’s - - that’s just a child, isn’t it? Did I just knock a child unconscious?”

[[A child who broke down my door and was about to kidnap me.]] 8301B reminded ero. [[A child that could be working for the Celestial Intervention Agency[!], or worse. I wouldn’t put it past them, and neither should you. Don’t feel bad, they’ll be fine, they’re already healing.]]

To prove it, 8301B faded out the rest of the room to show Andi a more detailed scan of the unconscious Idolun child, with bars showing the damage ero had done, and the rate at which that damage was healing. Andi’d had done quite a bit of damage, and seeing it up close would probably have sickened ero if ero were younger and less well-traveled. Ero could actually see the pieces of the person’s brain and skull and spine knitting back together.

Andi didn’t regret hitting them. Ero did’t. Ero couldn’t let anyone kidnap 8301B, or take them to who knows where. But this was a child, and ero couldn’t help feeling guilty, even if 8301B enlarged the map of their brain to show that they would be perfectly healed within less than thirty minutes to make doubly sure ero had seen it.

“We need to get some stun guns or something to keep in here.” Andi said, as 8301B let the detailed scans fade away so the rest of the room became visible again. “I wouldn’t want to kill someone by accident.” Not to mention it felt like ero’d broken something using ilas front legs like a battering ram. Or those twin stabbing sensations that still hadn’t gone away.

Ero especially wouldn’t want to kill a child by accident. Especially not a child this young. Starfield had told ero about ler species, and about being genetically engineered on top of that, had answered ilas questions, so Andi knew that for an Idolun, 30 years old was...was…

Ero put ilas head in ilas hands, and told the telegogs to turn off everything except 8301B’s communications. The world returned to its normal white static, and ero groaned to danajei in aggravation.

Ero didn’t want to be sitting here trying to figure out how to articulate the differences in life spans and ages between species when the differences didn’t translate over.

The human equivalent of an Idolun who was 30 years old was an infant who couldn’t even walk yet, let alone break into and try to steal a living ship. It didn’t translate exactly, because the species weren’t interchangeable. But that didn’t change the fact that this was a child, who should be at home, or at school, somewhere safe being watched over by adults.

They should not be on Earth of all places, breaking into living ships they weren’t welcome in and trying to kidnap them!

“Where are your parents?” Andi muttered angrily, dropping back down to lie flat on the floor. Ero could feel the very beginnings of a headache coming on on top of all the other pains, and could only guess that the boost of energy 8301B had given ero for the emergency was about to wear off, and...

Oh, shit. Ero bolted upright. “The doors!” Ero cried, “Are they still open?” Ero swung ilas head, and set the telegogs back on and told them to show ero 8301B’s exit doors.

They were shut, but they weren’t locked. And 8301B couldn’t lock them herself, which meant either Andi had to get over there and lock them, or just anyone walking down the street could come over and walk in if they had enough Idolun-matrix in their makeup to resist the illusion and be curious enough to investigate. That had happened more than a few times.

[[Echo is on az way to the interface room.]] 8301B reassured ero, [[I’m not detecting any other life signs in the immediate area besides the normal wildlife. You should lie down, we don’t want you falling again when the energy I gave you wears off. Echo can lock the doors and secure the prisoner.]]

Andi resisted the urge to groan again, and not just with pain this time, and 8301B knew why. And even if she hadn’t already known why, she could see the resulting spike in Andi’s hormone levels. She said, since there was nothing else she could say, [[I’m sorry.]]

“It’s not your fault.” Andi said back, waving a suddenly-numb hand to dismiss the apology. It wasn’t 8301B’s fault, and there was nothing that could be done about it, so there was no use in complaining.

Except for the part where Andi enjoyed complaining, of course. Ero had had ilas fill of holding ilas tongue long before they escaped the lab they’d been imprisoned in by Valor Nosliar, and ero wasn’t planning on going back any time soon.

Andi would rather have ilas legs cut off all over again than ever interact with Echo again for as long as ero lived, but...well, there wasn’t really any way for ero to avoid that just at the moment.

Normally, when Echo was out, Andi would leave the room, or go to the opposite side of 8301B, or lock danajei in ilas own room, but that wasn’t an option right now.

“If I pass out,” Ero grumbled, knowing ero didn’t have the strength to pull danajei any further away from the interface. “Don’t let az even look at me.”

[[I’ll make sure zal doesn’t.]]

And sure enough, Andi could feel ilas perception fading as the extra energy began to dissipate, leaving ero feeling even more exhausted than ero’d been before.

The world slowly faded to black, the only other color ero could see naturally these days, as ero lost consciousness.

[[INSERT LINEBREAK HERE]]

When Andi next awoke, ero found that ero was lying on ilas favorite floor cushion again instead of the floor, and for a few, hope-filled moments, ero wondered if ero had just been a really annoying dream, so that ero could forget about it and go back to sleep.

But the telegogs were still over ilas eyes, and when ero activated them on the lower setting, ero saw 8301B’s message, which read, [[The intruder has been tied up and is still in a healing trance. You were only asleep for twenty minutes. Freedom followed Echo here to make sure you were alright, and lifted you to the cushion. Ae went to check on Starfield when Lera came out, but ae’ll be back soon. Lera went to get water for you.]]

Andi wanted to go back to sleep. Ero really wanted to go back to sleep. Especially because the headache that had been brewing from using the telegogs was still there. It wasn’t to the point where ero would need to take them off right this instant, but it was still pain, however slight, and ero would rather not have to deal with it, especially since it knew it would only get worse the longer ero wore them.

But ero didn't have much choice right now.

Why did it seem like Andi never had a choice in anything?

Ero sighed and cautiously, slowly sat up again, feeling the still very much present stabbing sensations in ilas human chest and insectoid thorax, and the bruises that were most certainly forming on ilas front legs. Ilas entire body hurt, some of it quite a bit, but as long as nothing got worse, Andi was pretty sure ero would be able to stand, as long as ero knew Lera was going to be back with water some time soon.

And once Lera was back, there would be nothing stopping Andi from just actually going to sleep for the next day. Or two. Or three. Ero could hope. Lera hadn’t been physically injured during the last incident, so, naturally it was eis turn to stand watch with 8301B while Andi and Starfield slept.

Well, Starfield wasn’t sleeping, hea was in a healing trance, but it was pretty much the same thing for an Idolun. Andi knew that at some point soon ero would need to find danajei in the medical bay as well, so that 8301B and hopefully the awake and healed Starfield would be able to check over ilas injuries and make sure nothing was going to cause permanent damage.

The stabbing sensation in ilas chest whenever ero breathed in was very ominous, and Andi would only be able to ignore that for so long.

But hopefully it would only be a little bit longer.

Andi switched the telegogs to the normal setting and looked around, realizing belatedly that ilas favorite cushion had been moved to where ero was, rather than the other way around.

Andi was only six or so feet away from the center interface, which was worrying, until ero realized that the intruder-child had been moved to the far side of the room. Ero could see them easily, because 8301B had highlighted them in bright yellow with a black shadow to make them stand out. Andi set the telegogs to zoom, and saw that they’d been tied to one of the arm chairs with restraining cable.

The reactive cable would keep them safely secured without cutting off blood flow or restricting their breathing...Assuming they didn’t have some way of deactivating the cable the way they’d cut through 8301B’s other defenses like they didn’t exist.

[[They should be waking up any minute now,]] 8301B said, [[They’ve finished healing.]]

Right.

Andi should probably go over there so ero could interrogate them. Or at least find out where their parents were.

Maybe this was all just a misunderstanding. They were just a little kid, after all, maybe they’d thought this living ship was friends with their parents, maybe they’d come here trying to find their parents…

Except a kid who was looking for their parents wouldn’t go breaking down the door on a living ship. It was impossible to mistake 8301B for anything else, not even another crystal-form, because her exterior was just too unique. No one else had fallen through that rift in space and survived, no one else bore the mind-bending scars of that journey. There was no way you could think 8301B was another ship. The pieces just didn’t add up to this being an innocent misunderstanding.

Andi couldn’t remember what the kid had said when they came in, but ero remembered that it sounded overly familiar, like they already knew 8301B, but were expecting something different. It was always possible, of course, when you lived in a ship who could travel through time...

Andi pushed danajei to ilas feet, feeling like ilas bones were weighed down with bricks, and began the slow and painful trudge over to the other side of the room, using the telegog’s display to navigate around the tables and chairs, wishing ero had ilas cane. That at least didn’t give ero a headache.

But ilas cane had been stolen, again, and ero got the feeling that this time, no helpful bystanders were going to be kind enough to find and return it. There were more in 8301B’s storage room, but that was up a flight of stairs that Andi didn’t have the time or energy to climb right now.

Hopefully before the next disaster struck they would be able to get those automatic furniture alarms Starfield had been speculating about. They would be placed on each piece of furniture, and would have a sensor field, and when Andi or Starfield or whoever else needed them got within that sensor field, the alarm would inform them of how close they were to it, and what it was.

But they’d already been interrupted from going to get those twice now, so Andi wasn’t going to hold ilas breath about getting them anytime soon.

Thankfully, there was another floor cushion not far from where the child was restrained, and Andi gratefully sank into it. 8301B didn’t even need to be asked before she set the cushion so that it radiated a gentle heat that helped chase away some of the aches and pains. Andi flopped over onto ilas side and curled into the warm pillow, promising danajei ero would sit up and act serious once the kid actually woke up.

Ero didn’t mean to fall asleep again, but ero must have, because the next thing Andi knew ero was startling awake, and the kid was yelling at ero at what had to be the top of their lungs.

“Who do you think you are?!” they shouted, voice so loud it seemed to peirce straight through Andi’s head right to where the headache from the telegogs usually formed, “How dare you! Do you have any idea who I am? Untie me at once, I demand it!”

They continued yelling similar things in what appeared to be a American accent of some kind, but that wasn’t useful information either, because Starfield had an australian accent despite not being from Earth at all, let alone Australia.

8301B’s translation circuits tended to give people any kind of accent Andi was used to hearing, either on the radio, television, or the people ero had interacted with before leaving Earth. Even Echo and Lera seemed to have British accents, though of course they didn’t really. That was just impossible.

With the telegogs, Andi could see that the kid was struggling against the restraining cable, which ero decided to take as a good sign that they weren’t actually capable of disabling it easily. If they could, they probably would have done that before they started yelling so they could have the element of surprise on their side.

Unless they were just too impulsive to plan ahead that far, which was possible, considering this was a kid.

Andi pressed ilas hands over ilas ears to block out the shouting, and snapped, “Enough of that! I’m the one who should be asking the questions around here!”

The telegogs were showing that the kid had closed their mouth and was now glaring rather than shouting, so Andi lowered ilas hands from ilas ears, and ground out, “Now, no one here wants to hurt you, but you broke into 8301B and were going to kidnap her. We had no choice but to restrain you. But if you tell us who you are, and where your parents are, we will bring you to them, and you’ll be free to go, no harm done.”

Andi was making this all up on the fly, still hoping against hope that this would be an easy problem to solve, born not out of malice, but just a simple, innocent misunderstanding, or maybe a prank.

Even though ero knew that the odds of an Idolun child being on Earth for any good reason was slim to none. And it was absurd to think you could mistake 8301B for anyone else. And their luck wasn’t that good to start with. But Andi could at least pretend to be optimistic.

The kid scoffed loudly, then did it again. Then scoffed a third time. They seemed to be at a loss for words. Or maybe they just enjoyed scoffing incredulously.

Now that the kid was awake, and Andi didn’t feel like ero was going to pass out, ero actually had the chance to finally get a good look at the child currently tied to the chair.

The telegogs distorted the colors, but ero could see that they had long, very curly hair that hung out around their head like a halo, and they were indeed wearing a dress, one that was sleeveless, with thin straps, and a long skirt as the lower part.

So either they’d come from a party, or they just enjoyed getting all fancy before they went around trying to kidnap people.

Or rather, their parents made them dress all fancily before they went around trying to kidnap people.

It was just starting to occur to Andi that someone might use a child like this as bait. There was every possibility that this kid’s parents weren’t looking for them, but rather knew exactly where they were, and this was where they wanted them to be.

The child was now just staring at Andi, and if ero could trust the telegogs to translate their expression correctly, they were incredulous and angry.

Andi was starting to get a headache in earnest now, and mentally shut the telegogs off, and set them to only turn on to the lowest power setting if and when 8301B had something to say.

The familiar white static took over the world again, and the pain in ilas head lessed by a tiny fraction, but not by enough. Ero shouldn’t have slept with the telegogs on, even for a few minutes. That had been a mistake.

A few moments passed in silence, and the child still hadn’t answered the question at all.

“If you just tell me where your parents are,” Andi repeated, trying to keep ilas voice gentle and reassuring despite the pounding headache taking up residence in ilas head, “We’ll bring you to them, and we can just forget this whole little misadventure. We won’t even tell them you tried to kidnap 8301B.”

“I’m sorry,” The child said, not sounding sorry at all, “How old, exactly, do you think I am?”

Oh, Andi should have known they’d try to pull this. “I know you’re an Idolun.” ero said firmly, not in the mood to humor them and let this conversation drag out needlessly. Even normal Cawfroans had longer lifespans than humans.

“And I know you’re thirty.” For someone who didn’t know how Idoluns or Cawfroans worked, they would appear to be an adult human. But that was simply not the case. Regular Cawfroans could live for up to 200 years, and many lived to be 300! As for the genetically-engineered Idoluns, there was no known limit to their natural lifespan yet. Starfield was over a thousand years old, hea’d said, give or take a few centuries.

(Andi couldn’t fault ler for not knowing the exact number – at this point, ero wasn’t sure how old ero was either. That was one of the many consequences of traveling through time nonstop.)

The child scoffed again and exclaimed, “Alright then! Yes, I am thirty! So why, exactly, are you acting like I’m a child? I’m probably older than you are!”

(Now that was a statement that would have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic)

Apparently Andi hadn’t been blunt enough. “You are a thirty year old Idolun.” Ero repeated sternly, unintentionally slipping into the voice ero used when ilas kids were throwing tantrums, “You are a child. I know how your species works, don’t bother trying to convince me you’re an adult because we both know you’re not.” Another thought occurred to ero, suddenly. “Are you - - look, are you running away from home, or something? Because if you are, we don’t have to take you to your parents, you can give us directions to some friends of yours or other adults you trust, or - -”

“I am an adult! What is wrong with you?” Again the child was shouting, and again they were trying to pull this trick that wasn’t going to work. Which was odd in and of itself, because that meant they’d been around humans, or at least other species with shorter-than-Cawfroan lifespans long enough to know they could fool people into thinking they were an adult.

Andi closed ilas eyes in sheer exasperation, though that didn’t have any effect on the white static. “8301B, could you please display for this person their age next to a Cawfroan’s expected lifespan, please? Just so they can see it, I've already got a headache.”

8301B made a clicking noise to signal affirmative rather than reactivate Andi’s telegogs, and ero knew she had created a display where the kid could see it.

“Look,” Andi said, while the kid was hopefully busy reading the display, “My name is Alexandra, but you can call me Andi. What’s your name? Will you at least tell me your name? My pronouns are ero/ilas/danajei, and 8301B here uses she/her/hers/herself.”

There was a pause, then the kid replied, sounding exasperated, “My name is Drew Morgan. My pronouns are sia/lia/lia/lis/liaself.”

Alright, now they were getting somewhere. They were speaking civilly. That was a good start.

Andi tried to remember what questions ero should be asking besides the obvious ‘where are your parents’, and came up blank.

Thankfully, Drew Morgan decided to ask a question of lia own. “Where is Professor Starfield? This is his timeship, I know it is.”

“8301B is Starfield’s friend, hea doesn’t own ler.” Andi corrected automatically, “And Starfield uses hea/ler/lerself pronouns right now.”

“Really?” There was amusement in lia voice. “That’s pretentious.”

Oh, Divergence, help me.

Andi was rescued from where that conversation was heading by the arrival of Freedom, thank gods.

“Mama, I’ve brought you an entire tub of water!” Freedom called out as ae entered the interface room, keeping up a steady undercurrent of humming that allowed Andi to track ryn progress through the room.

Ero could hear the quiet slosh of the water in the tub as it was carried closer, and could only imagine the expression that had to be on Drew Morgan’s face at what it had to look like for someone who could see.

“Thank you, Freedom,” Andi said as ilas daughter came to a stop just over ilas cushion, “You can set it down next to me here, there should be enough room.”

“There is, I made sure before I brought it!” Freedom replied cheerfully, and Andi heard the soft thunk as the tub was set down on the stone floor.

Andi reached out a hand in the same direction, and sure enough, ilas fingers found the warm side of the largest of the plasticrete bathtubs. Ero could tell which one it was because each of them was engraved with a different pattern. This one had a repeating pattern of cross-thatches that were familiar under ilas hands, since this one was ilas favorite. It was big enough that it could practically be considered a swimming pool.

“Do you want me to lift you in?” Freedom asked in a whisper, hovering so close that Andi heard ryn voice like it came from ilas own head. Ae clearly didn’t want Drew Morgan to hear, incase Andi was embarrassed.

Andi contemplated the question only for a moment. Yes, ero could probably climb into the tub by danajei. No it wouldn’t be fun. And there was nothing embarrassing about needing help moving. “Yes please, and thank you.” Ero said.

Ero felt Freedom wrap around ilas chest and thorax like a gentle blanket, and a moment later the floor disappeared.

It would have been frightening, if Andi hadn’t been long used to this. There had been many situations where Freedom had had to carry ero, and sometimes Starfield as well. And sometimes ae just did it for fun. Freedom enjoyed the fact that ae was bigger and stronger than both ryn parents combined.

They’d never actually tested the limits of ryn strength, mainly because neither Andi nor Starfield wanted to risk Freedom getting hurt if ae over-exerted rynself. But ae had no trouble lifting Andi.

Andi was lowered gently into the warm water and released when ilas feet touched the bottom. Ilas thorax immediately began filtering the water, pulling it in to rejuvinate dehydrated cells, and using it to flush out the accumulated stress hormones and waste products of the past three days.

It tasted like oranges, which meant Freedom had added one of Andi’s flavored nutrition tabs.

They’d gotten them from a hospital in the year 5B24-ALE on New Earth, which was also one of the first placed they’d gone after sneaking back into the universe. The hospital in New53.5 Hamshir was one of the highest regarded facilities in all of history across all of the universe, and that was saying something.

But they still hadn’t been able to scan Andi’s drex half or ilas brain. The only reason the staff had been able to create nutrition tabs for ero at all had been because ero and Starfield (but mostly Starfield) had memorized the chemical and molecular formulas the drex scientists had provided for them. And as soon as they’d had the opportunity, they’d written them down and added them to 8301B’s databanks.

Andi now had a permanent device implanted in ilas arm that could be scanned by any relatively advanced scanners when ero had it set to open signal, and it would list off for the scanner what ilas nutritional requirements were, as well as a basic list of what not to do, like leaving it in a dry or cold room. It was the high-tech version of a medical bracelet.

Drexi needed to submerge themselves in water preferably at least once a day, and could go for five days without, though that was the equivalent of a human going three days without drinking any water.

If Andi ever went more than five days without submerging danajei in water, ero would die from blood poisoning from the toxins that naturally built up as a byproduct of, well, being alive.

Humans and other species on Earth had solved this problem by evolving to have a liver and kidneys. Ancient drex ancestors had opted to outsource for the solution.

And while Andi’s human organs still worked fine as of the last time anyone had checked, they just weren’t capable of filtering the toxins created in ilas drex half, not only because of the sheer volume, but also because ilas human organs just wouldn’t know what to do with them.

Andi sank down until the warm water was up to ilas neck, smiling in relief. The pain in ilas front legs was already beginning to fade, now that the healing process could finally begin. Ilas chest still hurt, because the water couldn’t do anything to heal ilas human half, but the stabbing sensation in ilas thorax already felt noticeably better.

Andi still had no idea what had caused it, but this was probably a good sign. Maybe it had simply been caused by dehydration. Ero could hope.

They hadn’t exactly had time to stop and have an in-depth talk with the drex scientists that had rescued them. 8301B had managed to escape for a few seconds, and had materialized in an attempt to get their help, but was recaptured almost immediately, before any of them could do more than lurch in her direction.

Andi still felt guilty for not being able to rescue her.

8301B never talked about what had happened to her, not to Andi, at least. Ero hoped she at least talked to Starfield, or someone. At least Andi had Lera to relate to, they’d both gone through the same horror. 8301B had no one.

Andi didn’t know as much as ero should about the drex half of ilas biology, but ero knew enough not to die, and that was pretty much as good as it was going to get. It wasn’t like they could call the drexi up and just ask. Not anymore.

Andi knew that the longer ero went without immersing danajei in water, the slower and weaker ilas body’s responses would become. Ero wouldn’t be able to heal as quickly, ero wouldn’t gain as many nutrients and calories from food, and sleep wouldn’t be as restful.

Ero knew that the water wouldn’t make ilas headache magically disappear, since the headache was caused by divergent-human/Idolun incompatibility issues, not human/drex incompatibility issues.

Andi also knew that ero got colder now more easily than a human would, and that ero needed to sleep less often now than ero had before, though there wasn’t any guarantee that that was an effect of it being part drex, rather than the fact that it was also part Idolun now.

It was only when Drew Morgan asked, “Excuse me, I’m sorry, what is happening right now?” that Andi remembered sia was even there. Ero’d started falling asleep again.

Oops.

Andi was very easily distracted when ero had nice, warm, fruit-flavored water to bask in.

Especially when it had been several stress-filled days since ero had last been able to bathe.

Thankfully, Freedom came to ilas rescue again so ero was free to continue lounging in the water as ae explained, “Mama has had a very stressful last few days, and wasn’t able to get to any water, which is very bad for ilas health.” Ryn voice grew darker, higher, threatening, “They just got back to 8301B when you broke in, so I hope you have a very good explanation for your behavior, because I don’t take kindly to people threatening my parents, or their safety.”

Uh-oh, that was coming on a little strong.

Andi resurfaced enough to protest, “Freedom, you- -”

“No!” Freedom snapped, raising ryn voice to drown ero out, “No, it’s not fair! It’s not fair! You and daddy got hurt, and duunei is tired and upset, and you only just got back, and now this one’s here, trying to kidnap everyone, and it’s just not fair! You didn’t even get to sleep yet!” Freedom was flying rapidly in circles overhead, Andi could hear the agitated movements and the echoes of specific sounds that signaled that ilas daughter was sad and angry and afraid.

This was exactly how Andi felt about the situation, but ero had been trying to avoid actually saying any of that out loud. Ero had to set a good example, keep up the semblence of normalcy for ilas kids.

“You know,” Drew Morgan’s voice interjected suddenly, “If it’s all the same to you, I can just go. Just untie me, kick me out the door, and I’ll leave. I don’t want to be here, you don’t want me to be here, I think it’d be best for everyone if you just stick me right back outside and we pretend like this never happened.”

That suggestion was too ridiculous to even contemplate, which Freedom vocalized with a derisive snort of, “Don’t be an idiot.”

Drew Morgan gasped in offense. Sia seemed to do that a lot.

Andi sank back down beneath the water until ilas head was fully submerged, muffling the sounds of the argument now raging between the two children, and decided rather abruptly that ero wasn’t in the mood to deal with this situation right now.

But, unfortunately, ero was still the adult here, so ero didn’t really have a choice. But it could take a break for a little while anyway.

Andi stayed submerged for a minute or two, relying on the filters in ilas thorax to replenish the oxygen in ilas blood, and just let danajei bask in the warm, citrusy water, pretending for just a little while that there was nothing to worry about and nothing that needed to be done.

And then ero resurfaced, determined to get this situation over and done with so that ero could bathe properly so ero wasn’t actively dying, eat before ero passed out, check on the rest of ilas kids to make sure they were okay, check on Starfield to see if hea had gotten any of ler memories back yet, and then go to sleep for about a week.

“Alright, listen up.” Ero snapped, interrupting a snide comment from Drew Morgan, “I am not going to argue with you, so just tell me, right now, either why you broke into 8301B, or where I can find an adult to drop you off with, or we drop you off with the Interstellar Alliance, and they’ll be in charge of finding your guardians, how does that sound?”

Not that Andi knew how to get to the Interstellar Alliance, but 8301B could probably help, and so could Starfield once hea woke up. Hopefully.

Drew Morgan seemed even angrier than before, which Andi wouldn’t have thought possible. “The Interstellar Alliance? The Interstellar Alliance?!” Sia yelled, even going so far as to stamp one foot on the floor, which was a feat, considering sia was tied to a chair, “You can’t take me to the Interstellar Alliance! Do you want me to be arrested? Why not just drop me off in a jail cell? That’s as much as you’ll be accomplishing if you leave me with those jumped up bureaucrats!”

Yep. That was starting to sound like a very nice plan.

Andi tried to remain patient, “They don’t arrest children, and they aren’t going to put you in a jail cell. They don’t even have jail cells, or jails for that matter. I don’t know which iteration you’re thinking of, but it’s not the one we’d be bringing you to. They have their own time travel agency, and they have an entire chapter dedicated to reuniting families through time and space. They’d be able to find your parents, or a friend, or whoever is best suited to caring for you.”

“You can’t⏤” began Drew Morgan again.

“Yes we can, and don’t complain.” Andi interrupted, “It could be worse, we could just bring you back to Cawfro. Though I suppose if you’re a proper Idolun you wouldn’t consider that to be a bad thing.”

“Alright, now I know you’re mad!” Drew Morgan snapped, “You can’t go to Cawfro, it’s gone. Either you think I’m an idiot, or you’re an even bigger idiot that I already thought you were!”

Andi resisted the urge to go back under water and just stay there for the rest of eternity. “8301B,” Ero said, “Will you please ask Lera if ido would like to take over for me here? I’m not getting anywhere, and I really don’t feel like arguing around in circles with a child for the rest of the night, or day, or whatever it is outside.”

Then ero went back under the water so any more outbursts from Drew Morgan would be muffled.

The telegogs activated to the minimum amount, and 8301B replied, the long wall of text scrolling down Andi’s field of vision slowly enough that ero could read it easily.

[[I already called eis again, ido’s on eis way. I think you’ll be happy to know that Starfield is awake, and coherent, though hea has lost quite a sizeable chunk of ler memories. But don’t fret, I’m certain they’ll return shortly, the effects of that weapon are only temporary.

[[As it is, ler memories have regressed to a point several iterations back, so hea won’t remember you, or Lera, or any of the children, but hea will still be able to pilot my controls until hea recovers.]]

“Is hea alright?”

[[I have explained the situation, and hea has accepted it well enough. Aside from the amnesia, there don’t appear to be any negative side effects from the weapon. Ler injuries healed with the healing trance, but hea is still dehydrated and malnourished, as is Lera, and you, for that matter.

[[Before anything else happens, everyone is going to sit down and eat. And then you will sleep, and then you will deal with this problem.

[[Drew Morgan can be moved to a secured room, where sia will be safe, and we don’t have to worry about lia hijacking any more of my systems.

[[This is non-negotiable. Once Starfield pilots me to a safer location, you are all going to eat and sleep. We will return Drew Morgan to wherever sia came from after everyone has slept properly.]]

There was a finality conveyed even through the simple text that Andi didn’t doubt, and wouldn’t have argued with even if ero’d wanted to.

Ero couldn’t reply while underwater except through ilas thoughts, which 8301B read easily when Andi was trying to project them. Ero was still getting the hang of telepathy.

[[You’re welcome.]]

And Andi was definitely staying underwater until the food was ready.

[[I encourage it. You need a break.]]

Yes, yes ero did.

1 note · View note

rjalker · 1 year

Text

Neopronoun flags for each category and explanations for what they mean!

[Plain text: Neopronoun flags for each category and explanations for what they mean!]

All flags here except the neopronoun flag were created by me today, November 28th, 2022!

They are all public domain, meaning you can use them for literally anything you want, no credit necessary, though I will ask that you provide image descriptions whenever possible, and direct people to an basic (not an emoji or art or anything) version of the flag whenever possible!

If you want to change the brightness or contrast, you are welcome to! I did my best to make them accessible, but I'm only nonhuman, so they won't be perfect for everyone!

You can find the Super HD (8000x6410 pixels because these are the templates I use for Redbubble designs) Versions of these images here on the web archive to download and save:

"https://archive.org/details/Neopronouns-categories-flags-and-explanations"

Neopronouns

[Plain text: Neopronouns]

[ID: The neopronouns flag, with stripes of pastel green, cyan, white, pale yellow, and orange. This is followed by another version of the neopronouns flag, now with black text added over top that reads: "Neopronouns (neo + pronouns!) are any pronouns not in 'mainstream' use in the language being spoken! Some examples are: star/stars, ze/hir, it/its, ae/aer, xey/xem, rot/rots, they/them, sky/skys, and ve/ver. End ID.]

Neopronouns is the umbrella term under which all of the following terms reside as more specific categories!

All the following flags keep the five stripe layout as above, with the white stripe remaining in the center to represent community, solidarity, and commonality!

===

Nounself pronouns

[Plain text: Nounself pronouns]

[ID: The nounself pronouns flag, with stripes of: orange, red, white, sky blue, and purple.

This is followed by the same flag, now with black text that reads:

"Nounself pronouns (noun + self + pronouns!) are pronouns like sun/suns/sunself, or wa/wave/waves/waveself.

If the pronoun set is based heavily on existing words, they're nounself pronouns!"

End ID.]

The colors were chosen to be colorful and fun!

Nameself pronouns

[Plain text: Nameself pronouns]

[ID: The nameself pronouns flag, with stripes of grey, sky blue, white, black, and berry red.

The first version is blank, and the second reads:

"Nameself pronouns (Name + self + pronouns!) are when someone's name replaces all pronouns! Like: 'That's John! John uses nameself pronouns, so instead of he, she, or they, you'll just call John 'John'. That's John, John's over there, John's trying to get back to John's home planet.' If the pronouns are the person's name, they're nameself pronouns!"

End ID.]

Colors were chosen because I associate them with Farscape, and I decided John Crichton uses nameself pronouns...before I even knew those were a thing! Lol.

===

Ectopronouns

[Plain text: Ectopronouns]

[ID: The ectopronouns flag, with stripes of: purple, dark blue, white, green, and yellow. This is followed by the same flag, now with text over it that reads: "Ectopronouns (ecto + pronouns) are pronouns like: it/its/itself, or ŝi/ŝin/ŝia. Pronouns that exist, but aren't normally used for people in the language being spoken, are ectopronouns!". End ID.]

The colors were chosen because if you invert the flag, it'll be upside down with a black stripe in the center, which I thought fit the theme pretty well! They/them pronouns also fall into this category of neopronouns, since it's still relatively new for them to be used for singular people rather than groups!

The pronouns ŝi/ŝin/ŝia are from Esperanto!

===

Novapronouns

[Plain text: Novapronouns]

[ID: The novapronouns flag, with stripes of berry purple, dark magenta, white, very dark violet, and purple. This is followed by the same flag, now with text over top of it that reads: "Novapronouns (nova + pronouns!) are pronouns like ae/aer/aerself or ze/hir/(hirs)/hirself! Any set of pronouns not based heavily on existing words are novapronouns!" End ID.]

The colors were chosen because I love purple, and associate it with space!

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Supernova pronouns

[Plain text: Supernova pronouns]

[ID: The supernova pronouns flag, with stripes of: gold, copper, white, silver, and dark grey. This is followed by the same flag, now with text over it that reads: "Supernova pronouns (supernova + pronouns!) are pronouns like: xiy/rik/ix/sirav ('sirav' replaces the usual _-self ending), or aix/(aed)/arix/aiv/aixelf ('aed' replaces contractions: instead of 'aix's going too', you say, 'aed going too'). If the pronouns use a different gramatical structure than usual, in whole or in part, they're Supernova pronouns!

The colors were chosen based on metals, which can only form inside a supernova! Gold, copper, silver, and iron!

Supernova pronouns can also be used as one long word, "supernovapronouns"! I just figured I'd put a space in there to make it easier to read and write!

I will be making pronoun pins and icons with these flags as backgrounds once I'm done my current project, so if you want to see those (or the other pronoun pins and icons I make) check out @custom-pronoun-pins!

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jcmarchi · 14 days

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Professor Emeritus Jerome Connor, pioneer in structural mechanics, dies at 91

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/professor-emeritus-jerome-connor-pioneer-in-structural-mechanics-dies-at-91/

Professor Emeritus Jerome Connor, pioneer in structural mechanics, dies at 91

Jerome J. Connor ’53, SM ’54, ScD ’59, professor emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the MIT faculty since 1959, died on March 31. He was 91 years old.

Over a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades at the Institute, Connor was a prolific scholar and highly respected mentor to several generations of students, many of whom now hold notable positions in academia and industry around the world. His earliest research contributed to the pioneering numerical methods widely used today in structural engineering, such as the finite element method, and was also an early pioneer of the boundary element method. In addition, Connor was the lead proponent of the technical discipline referred to as motion-based design, which is based on limiting displacements against earthquake effects by means of structural control. His leadership role in the application of numerical methods to structural engineering led to significant advances in the numerical simulation of structural and material behavior.

“He was well-known for his intellectual leadership, exceptional dedication to the department, and extraordinary mentoring of students, faculty, and staff,” says Oral Buyukozturk, the George Macomber Professor in Construction Management, who first met Connor when he was an adjunct associate professor at Brown University and was invited to lecture at MIT.

Connor led the department in new teaching and research directions, advocating the importance of materials research and of design education in the civil engineering curriculum. For over 20 years, Connor led the high-performance structures track in the Master of Engineering (MEng) program as faculty advisor. In addition to classroom teaching, he helped MEng students think outside of the box in their design of skyscrapers and bridges. He often accompanied students on weeklong national and international visits to prominent construction sites during MIT’s Independent Activities Period. With his wife Barbara and their family, he regularly entertained students at their summer home on Cape Cod. His dedication and development of the program contributed to its success and recognition at peer institutions as one of the best professional MEng programs in the nation — eagerly sought out by students in structural engineering.

“Connor was truly devoted to our students and he was passionate about the field of structural design. He introduced a number of pedagogical innovations that we still use today, such as semester-long design projects as well as on-site visits to innovative, signature projects together with their design engineers,” says John Ochsendorf, professor of architecture and civil and environmental engineering, who taught with Connor for 10 years and currently leads the structural mechanics and design track of the MEng program.

Adoring mentor and visionary

Connor was a beloved mentor, and from 2007 to 2014 organized and managed MIT undergraduates’ participation in the National Steel Bridge competition. Buyukozturk recalls how “he was always coming up with new and innovative concepts for the competition; several times his team was selected as top in the nation and year after year his students were placed in the top three.”

MIT professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering Eduardo Kausel, who was a graduate student of Connor’s and then later a colleague, remembers him fondly as an incredible teacher and colleague.

“Jerry was an excellent teacher and I enjoyed taking his advanced computational mechanics class. He was brilliant in computational mechanics and excelled in everything he did,” says Kausel. “As a colleague, he was always kind and had a gentle demeanor; I never saw him getting angry or voicing harsh words. He also had this fantastic ability to mentor students who would go on not only to become very successful as outstanding professionals, but also very wealthy,” Kausel says.

Kausel also remembers Connor’s uncanny ability to look into the future and know where the next big trend occurred in the field. Connor was one of the first researchers to work on the boundary element method in structural engineering. The method is effective in understanding how fluid interacts with structures to ensure its stability, safety, and efficiency. Connor also experimented with artificial intelligence well before it became popular and played a significant role in leading a team of MIT researchers in the development of the STRUDL computer code, which became a highly influential software package for structural analysis and design.

In addition to structural mechanics, he pursued computational fluid mechanics, helping develop early finite element analysis in both the time and frequency domains. His models had applications to offshore engineering, including tidal circulation, and the behavior and design of marine structures for resiliency in withstanding extreme events, including those related to climate change.

Buyukozturk credits the way the department has evolved into what it is today because of Connor’s direction and vision. “Priorities for research change over time, but Jerry set forth a basic roadmap for prioritizing research in computational mechanics, engineering design, and the development of sustainable materials that cut across the entire department in a wider scope,” he says.

Influential wide-ranging career

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on May 19, 1932, Connor attended Boston College High School and received his bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in civil engineering from MIT. Before he returned to MIT to become a faculty member, he went to work at the Army Materials Lab in Watertown, designing missile systems during the Vietnam War. While on sabbatical in 1983, he served as the dean of the Department of Engineering at Northeastern University and the director of the MIT Sea Grant Program.

Over the span of his career, Connor’s research in structural mechanics attracted the interest of the international community. He spoke at conferences around the world and consulted on many engineering projects, including the Hancock Tower glass crisis, the Twin Towers in New York, and the Parthenon in Greece, among many others. His papers were cited and published among the top engineering journals, and he was honored with numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He authored many books on structural engineering, the boundary element method, motion-based design, and computational fluid mechanics. His books have been used in doctoral programs at universities around the world.

Connor led a rich and adventurous life outside of his academic one. Known as “Jerry” to his friends and colleagues, Connor traveled to more than 25 different countries around the world with his wife, Barbara, but was especially fond of the Provence in southern France. Some of his memorable adventures included taking the family by Volkswagen bus throughout Europe during the holiday periods and, during a sabbatical from MIT in 1970, sailing to England on the Queen Elizabeth 2 with his then-young children.

Connor is survived by his wife Barbara, and by his six children: Patricia and her husband Richard, Stephen and his wife Madeline, Brian and his wife Michele, Michael and his wife Christine, Mark and his wife Kathy, Tracy and her husband Maurice, and 14 grandchildren. Gifts in Connor’s memory can be made to Boston College High School.

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mistfallengw2 · 8 months

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Further design notes on Aurelia's design (and some backstory infodump)

[previous notes on non-armor design changes here (not entirely up to date)]

(Everything under read more because it's a lot of screens and text oops)

Legions, before 1320 AE Her gear changed often during her 12 years of active service, especially since she tinkered in armorsmithing as a hobby, but this one was more or less her favored setup: simple design that protects while still allowing movement + lots of spiked parts to ram into enemies, especially the helm's horn that compliments her own.

Mists, 1320-1324 AE Long story short, Aurelia ended up in the Mists while fighting the first wave of branded that followed the creation of the Brand, specifically after smashing assorted human artifacts while trying to take down a big branded griffon. After dealing the killing blow, she then wandered the Mists for ??? (time in the Mists is weird), hoping to find a way out while injured and failing not to panic, till she stumbled upon the spirit of a certain crystalline dragon. A pitifully short fight later, Glint admitted she saw something in the charr, then offered her the powers of a dragon to do what had to be done: go back to Tyria and finish the wounded Kralkatorrik.

When Aurelia accepted, desperate to get out of there and see her family again (if they were still alive), she was given one of the dragon's facets, which bound itself to her damaged armor and magically transmuted it (golden and crimson, reflecting her own aura, with the facet itself in the center), as well as granting her a direct connection with Glint's spirits and her draconic powers.

Still, before Aurelia could go and do her task, she needed to hone her powers as fast as possible. Initially a hard deal because Aurelia had never used magic in her life, but it seemed to proceed well... until it backfired spectacularly. Glint's cryptic words whenever she inquired about her family had made her worry grow too much, far beyond making meditation hard, and when it was time for her to try and make her very first rift, it spat her out in buttmist nowhere, as her focus was elsewhere (she had unknowingly aimed for the Domain of the Lost, where most of her warband was). She tried to follow Glint's instructions, but other voices had accidentally entered her mind, and subsequent attempts to go back to where she started went progressively worse as she messed up again and again, stumbling in other places until she ended up in a forgotten corner of the Mists, where [data corrupted], something no mortal mind was ever meant to witness.

Against all odds, Aurelia managed to escape, thoroughly traumatized and wounded deeply by what she had experienced, but the facet had stopped working like before and turned dim, having taken the brunt of the corruption while shielding her. Aurelia struggled to contact the real Glint again, but she only found her echo to add to the others in her head. Still on the brink of corruption, she wandered aimlessly, fighting her way through fractal after fractal, her mind slipping away as her armor turned darker and darker, facet's powers and her memories fading as any thoughts beyond survival became drowned out by the constant whispers of echoes. It was a long time spent in that nothingness before she realized she had gotten stuck in an anomaly fractal for who knows how long.

Vigil, 1324 AE After popping out of the Mists thanks to a friend's "sacrifice", she had no memory of what happened in the Mists beyond having had it rough. Farm shenanigans happened, remembers some of what happened to her, then found out what happened to her warband and that her son was AWOL, so she pulled herself back together in hopes of finding him. Powers came and went, got a bit better after she got used to the constant voices in her head. After a brief stay in the Black Citadel to sort out some Legions' matters, she officially joined the Vigil and became a Crusader, relying on some old friends there, including Almorra. Thankfully an exception to the uniform code was allowed: Aurelia just can't separate herself from that weird enchanted chest piece with the glowy thing, mostly because she feels safer and overall better when wearing it... but especially because, even if she leaves it locked in a chest somewhere, it just reappears in her close proximity. The fact that it forms itself around her torso is just a nice added bonus.

Orr campaign, 1325 AE Very glad to find out that Adamas was alive and well in Lion's Arch and working for another Order, very much not glad that she didn't get to enjoy their reunion before a whole other dragon started wrecking stuff too close for comfort. Not too keen on the whole Pact Commander role for herself because she's not used to being in a leadership position of any sort, but trusts Trahearne and she'll do what she has to. Some memories start coming back thanks to a new friend's help, but while she's not that eager to rediscover more, it does seem to make her powers a bit more reliable, and killing a dragon helps a bit too. Swapped the pauldrons for something lighter and more flexible.

Season 1 and 2, 1326-27 AE Being constantly busy is nice, because you can't think about your own trauma when you gotta prevent or fix trauma-causing events, right? Right? All the stuff with Glint's aspects charges her armor up and makes her memory clear up more. However, visiting Glint's lair sure was a trip for her, one she could have done without, given what she remembered afterwards. At least she's convinced herself to make and wear charr armor again, which feels a bit like the "home" she'll never have again. Small progress, but having her son by her side and a growing support net does help her stabilize.

Heart of Thorns, 1328 AE When Aurelia touched Aurene's egg for the first time, her armor had reacted and... turned slightly lighter? Not that she had time to really understand what was happening, busy as she was being chased through the jungle by a murdertree. Maybe it's the contact with Exalted stuff that's inherently linked to Glint and the egg being Glint's own, but her powers did get more reliable after all that, so she's not complaining. Also, uh, when did her pauldrons become "part" of the chest piece?

Season 3, 1329 AE Swapped out damaged parts of her armor, went for matching colors to her chest piece. When Aurene hatched, Aurelia's armor reacted again... and again she didn't get the chance to figure it out right away, but it seemed just another case of it lighting up a shade. The bond with the dragon hatchling opened a clearing in her mind, and the more time she spends with her, the better she feels, the more stable her powers seem to become. Might also be all that unstable magic she's coming in contact with, but she doesn't turn crazed like other people do (seeing weird luminous things was quickly resolved and does not count), so it's fine.

Path of Fire, 1330 AE

By the time Aurelia leaves for the desert, her armor had shifted to a slightly lighter color again (she had to repair/remake her armor periodically anyway), and the facet was glowing brighter. In the fight with Balthazar where she died, his sword easily tore through the enchanted metal and shattered the facet. When she came back to life, the armor was inert and severely damaged, but to her surprise, her powers were not tied to the facet or armor, but her own and strong like before (actually stronger, as dying removed some of the corruption). She repaired it as she could before setting out to slay a god and save Aurene, but she left the hollow space where the facet used to be untouched.

Season 4, 1330-32 AE When Aurelia had drawn on Aurene's powers during the final fight with Balthazar, a small crystal had formed itself in the facet's place, and she kept it, thinking it was a shard of the original facet. After a few days, while Aurelia was repairing and upgrading her armor (it wasn't enchanted anymore, so she went all in and used orichalcum as well), the crystal started glowing blue. To humor herself and the curious voices in her head, she tried placing it in the breastplate's empty slot, and to her surprise it bound itself to it. The whole armor slowly became enchanted by the new facet, turning stronger than normal despite not being indestructible, at least until Aurene ascended. She does start wearing a shawl occasionally, be it to hide the facet's glow or to have more shielding from the weather.

IBS and onwards, 1332+ AE Turns out that Aurelia had apparently been slowly enchanting the gear she crafted/repaired (ask her skyscale how she found out that could happen). She doesn't know since when, since it was excess magic latching onto things, but she has now figured out how to willingly channel magic into her gear, so now her armor is almost as shiny as Aurene. She can also do more things with it thanks to Aurene's magic, even on the go!

Casual Overall she gets little proper downtime so she's more often than not in armor, but she's been enjoying more "multicultural" clothes since coming back from the Mists. She particularly likes comfy shirts that leave her guns arms out or have wide sleeves, but she will wear anything as long as it doesn't feel too tight and restrictive (and still allows her to carry the facet comfortably).

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Assorted notes

- The original facet only served as a conduit for Glint's magic, as without help Aurelia (or any mortal) wouldn't have survived the sheer amount of it, especially since she wasn't magically trained at all.

- After enduring the corruption, the facet pretty much acted as a "life support" against its effects, filtering it out just enough to allow Aurelia to recover from what happened when she was corrupted. The anomaly fractal's own "nature" actually helped her survive the worst part of the process, as there was still a chance of succumbing to the corruption anyway or being killed if she stumbled in the wrong place in that state.

- Her memories faded and became blocked off entirely during her time in the Mists post-corruption (became progressively more like how in a dream you can't remember most of your real memories, then stayed like that other than random bursts of remembrance and awareness in the anomaly fractal) due to the trauma and the corruption's influence. For the first few days out of the Mists she barely knew her name (also as a result of her escape, was exhausted to the point of acting nearly feral), then they slowly came back to her as she made the effort and the corruption was cleansed. With the exclusion of what her mind couldn't process at all (mostly things that happened while she was on the brink of corruption), by EoD she remembered pretty much everything of her life, while what happened in the Mists pre-[data corrupted] is still a bit dubious even with Aurene's help due to its inherent mistfuckery and the limitations of Aurelia's own understanding at the time.

- The corruption also irreversibly messed with her powers, specifically not allowing her to create traversable portals to the Mists. She can create ones in the superficial layers of the Mists (the ones used in attacks), but anything beyond that spits her back (as if the Mists rejected her) and gives her a very unpleasant feeling close to pain (partially works on others as well, and she uses it tactically at times). She can traverse other portals just fine, although being in the Mists does give her anxiety.

- The friendly being bound to the anomaly fractal was ultimately the one who managed to send her back to Tyria. While she had gotten better in there to the point of coherency and relatively frequent awareness, her escape had taken a lot out of them both, and she only "remembers" flashes of her time in there and that she misses whoever they were.

- Rytlock is still the first revenant by technicality, as Aurelia only had Glint's powers in the Mists and then didn't have the full array of rev powers until Aurene hatched. In a way, she was a failed first attempt.

- While it was a very necessary crutch during the initial times after getting out of the Mists, later Aurelia only used the blindfold on occasions when the voices get too loud and confusionary for her to handle (echo-migraine). She also doesn't use helms anymore.

- The new facet is a mix of Aurene's magic and her own, which is why she has much more control over it compared to Glint's facet.

- While the corruption is like 99.99% gone thanks to the bond with Aurene filtering it away, it still has left a mark on Aurelia. Whether Aurene was ever aware of what it originated from or not, she only mentioned it in a vague comparison to the Dragonvoid. P****a is the first to openly notice it and be quietly unnerved by it, but she didn't mention it again.

- With the last upgrade of her armor and the link with Aurene strengthening after her ascension, she is able to summon crystalline wings fully on her own (just for gliding, requires a lot of concentration/magic). While they still show some of the lingering corruption and its damages in their opaqueness, they shine with her aura (first pic). If she had been able to do it at any point before then, they would have shown the corruption far more heavily (second pic).

#my ocs #rambles #design notes #Aurelia Dragonwings #Aurelia #Mistfallen #I rewrote portions of this a dozen times and proof-read it even more but I'm still not 100% happy with it and I'm sure I forgot SOMETHING #plus there's already stuff that had to be left out because not enough directly related to the armor and this was long enough already :')#I just gotta repeat to myself that these are mostly design NOTES for her future ref x-x #*throws it out into the world*#this feels very “I'm cringe but I'm free”

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