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jpitha · 1 year

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A Matter of Scale

The issue with the humans is that it's a matter of scale. Deathworlder or not, a single human - while intimidating - isn't that dangerous.

All of them is another story.

We had thought us the pinnacle of evolution. A species beyond compare. Why would we think otherwise? with our hard carapaces, sharp vision, and powerful weapons, the small furry forest creatures that called themselves 'K'laxi' were no match. They had only a small handful of planets colonized and a scant dozen starbases between them. They had a toy empire of only themselves. We took their own warp gates and started attacking them slowly, methodically. They presented no threat, so we saw no need to hurry.

Occasionally, our scouts heard of another species that was friendly with the K'laxi, calling themselves Humanity. We only heard descriptions from captured K'laxi. Taller than they were, no fur, bipedal, mammalian species from a world larger and wetter than their own. Supposedly they had massive strength and a strong constitution. Some had said that they were deathworlders, but we know that was just propaganda. Deathworlds looked nice from a distance, but were inhospitable to sapient life.

Everyone knows this.

We weren't worried about the humans. Just another species to subjugate. After we crush the K'laxi, we'll move on to them.

Since everyone uses the gate system, we are able to attack with complete surprise. It was different at this planet though. This planet was a small, lighter world like the others, but also had a strange starbase at a Lagrange point. It was very large and not of K'laxi design. Much heavier looking, it was made of huge rings interlocking in a spiral shape. An officer guessed it must be a human starbase. Assuming we found the humans laughable military, we turned to attack the starbase after locking the gate.

As we approached the starbase, two small ships detached from it and ran headlong towards us! Our commander laughed, thinking it was a suicide run and ordered everyone to attack. The two ships dodged and juked around the missiles and energy weapons we fired. They used small shaped charges which slid the ship out of the way of our missiles at the last second and were able to withstand the relentless fire of our weapons.

A few minutes after the attack started, both ships did something that surprised all of our analysts. With missiles and shots all around them, they both generated wormholes and left the system.

They escaped.

Our scientists knew about wormhole generation, but everyone knew it was much too dangerous for sapients to use! It was a death sentence. At best, you could send goods through it, but the energy costs were enormous. Better to just use the warp gates.

Still not understanding the monumental mistake we had made, we turned back towards the starbase. The distraction of the ships leaving bought time and it had begun to change. The concentric rings of the starbase had slid together and moved around, revealing massive batteries of anti-ship weapons, missile racks containing hundreds of missiles and the rings had become like thick armor.

The battle was very difficult. We lost many ships to the missiles and fire from the starbase, but we reached the docking ring, forced our way on and began to sweep the station, attacking everyone we met and claiming it for our own.

The humans fought back.

In one report, a single human female held off more than two dozen warriors by attacking with makeshift weapons while her K'laxi colleagues ran to escape ships. She was killed, but not before she took out 10 of our finest warriors.

In another, two human security agents held an entire platoon of warriors off while more K'laxi and Human adults and children escaped. Their human firearms subjected our warriors to withering fire while the humans just stared blankly, firing and changing targets. When they ran out of ammunition, they took their rifles, and started swinging them like clubs into whoever was left. Our shots almost did nothing! They'd take a hit, wince, and continue to fight. They were finally killed by a heavy weapon platform that was brought in.

Still more used surprise and trickery. They would hide in the common areas and throw trash and junk to make it sound like they were somewhere else. We'd turn and they'd attack our backs.

It took more than a week to take the station and in that time, the humans helped nearly all the K'laxi onto escape ships which streaked towards the planet.

As they retreated, the humans denied us use of their own weapons and devices. They'd destroy them, they'd trap them to explode, they would ruin computers and servers and even the star base's AI itself fought us. It would slam pressure doors down when we walked under them, it would randomly expose parts of the starbase to vacuum, blowing warriors out into space.

We could take the starbase, but could not hold it.

Less than 3 days after we declared the station taken, there was a massive spike of energy, and more than one thousand human ships linked into space though their infernal wormholes. All different sizes, all a riot of garish colors including 3 'dreadnoughts' that were easily three times the size of the already huge starbase.

However, instead of attacking immediately they sent out a signal.

"It's done. Stop fighting now. Save yourselves."

Fleet Command puzzled over the message for hours. Some minor commanders figured it was some kind of trick and rushed the human flotilla. One of the dreadnoughts fired once and the ship was just...gone.

At that, Fleet Command declared the cause hopeless, and ordered us to stand down and surrender.

And then something amazing happened. The Humans came on board, first in their polished black pressure suits with their massive rifles, and then, with no armor and no pressure suit, their commanders came aboard. They wanted to meet and see what we needed. "What?" We cried. "You could destroy us with a whisper. Why are you trying to help us?"

"We are offering to help you because you need help."

They had learned about the trouble we had back on our homeworld, how we were in the process of ruining our home with industry and pollution and with a wry smile they said "Yeah, we had that problem a while back too. We can help."

With humans, it's a matter of scale.

#humans are deathworlders #humans are space orcs #humans are warriors #humans are humane #sci fi writing #writing #humans are space australians

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chickenpeep77kirbyau · 5 months

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Fecto Elfilis

Elfilin's natural species, Idrelian, lives in a high magic world and fly around with levitation. This allows the males of the species to have absurdly big and fancy display features, since weight isn't as much of an issue. The females (lower left) are more plain, with smaller ears, lack of horns and side of face structures, and reduced caruncles, along with lack of neck floof and a more faded belly marking. Since it wouldn't be good for a species to laser blast rivals to death constantly(too risky for both combatants), the males settle for display features and posturing to compete with each other.

I believe Facto Forgo is some version of a zeroid ish lifeform. Elfilin/Elfilis(?) (Was that even his original name?) seeked power and made an alliance with it, increasing his power. This life form fused with Elfilin. Its then wanting to consume everything leads me to believe that its method of power increase is similar to Marx's, using absorbed energy to stabilize and increase magic amount pulled in from micro rifts. Their journey began a relatively short time ago, and, coming from a low tech planet, he saw a low magic planet and assumed it would be an easy first conquest, but did not yet understand the power of advanced technology. How else would you explain how the Forgotten Land civilization was able to capture it at their apparent technological level? ("Ultimate Life Form". "The Great One". Lmao settle down buddy you're nothing in the grand scheme of things.) If not stopped, they presumably would have eventually returned to the Idrelian home world and absorbed them all after it became strong enough to fight them all.

Forgotten Land's civilization (It's Earth, but a parallel universe version of it), due to the nature of magic and their low to none magic world, are unable to actually learn its worm hole magic, but by studying its effects, are eventually able to duplicate it with technology. This time at Lab Discovera fractured his mind, resulting in the separation of Elfilin and Fecto Forgo/April I I'd old self. Elfilin manifested as a form resembling a juvenile Idrelian(ears are on the big side for his apparent age). Fecto Forgo is unable to remain stable for long without a host soul and began reverting to its base physical form. They put it in stasis somehow. Idk. At their technological level and not knowing much about magic I'm not sure how they figured it out. Or maybe in my au it was just a blob in the tank. They believed the wormholes could take them to higher realms, so they all left for this supposed realm. Where they went and what happened to them is unknown. Elfilin had a hard time after his magic ran out(no Forgo so no magic generation), so its a miracle he survived. Luckily the cities were pretty safe and well stocked with food.

The Forgotten Lands world actually fluctuates in magic amount over time, and if the civilization had waited a while longer, they would have seen the reoccurrence of a higher magic period. Many lifeforms were able to rapidly readapt due to old hidden genes reactivated(there's a scientific term for the reactivation of old ancestral genes but I don't remember what it is). Elfilin was able to levitate again. He has kept some of the abilities he had during his time possessed by Forgo. Also that spear is still around.

Forgo escapes into a pocket dimension. It seems to have features of both physical reality and mind reality. Its also technically part of Forgo, as a semi physical manifestation of Forgo's mind. It is spreading out Leongar's soul to make him a suitable host. Kirby stops that. Forgo, in a weakened state, is predated upon by a type of soul absorbing entity. It tries to carry out Forgo's last wish to destroy Kirby. Its defeated, allowing Forgo to turn the tables on who's absorbing who and reassert control, becoming Chaos Elfilis. Kirby wins again, and Forgo is destroyed once and for all.

I'm thinking after he reunited with the small portion of his old self that wanted forgiveness, he started growing again, in age and in power as he ages. Maybe he can relocate his home world, though how would they react to this child so advanced in skill at his apparent age?

He can still GET you

#Kirby au #kirby forgotten lands #elfilin #fecto elfilis #au #Spec bio

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watsondcsj · 1 year

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History of the Hypercube and How it Saved Jon Kent From a Volcano

Superman (2016)

#8 & 9

After a vivid dream, Jon Kent constructs a device that when completed assimilates Kryptonian knowledge and reconfigures itself into a cube.

Krypto attacks the cube and it warps Clark, Jon, Krypto, and itself to Dinosaur Island. It is a place outside of time where they find countless extinct species and Captain Storm, a Golden Age war comic character from Our Fighting Forces that ran from 1954-1978.

They spend the next issue finding the cube so they can return home. Captain Storm sacrifices himself so the Kryptonians get home safely.

Superman Reborn

Mr. Mxyzptlk warps reality around the Kent family causing the timelines of Post-Crisis Superman and The New 52 Superman to merge into one.

The next few issues of Action Comics would explain how this all works and moves Jon Kent’s birth to Earth-0, but later in Infinite Frontier #0 The Spectre, God’s Hand of Vengence, would reinforce Jon’s original origins from the Convergence Earth and hint that this teen may become like a tyrant.

Special #1

The final issue of the run sees Clark use the cube to open another portal to Dinosuar Island to rescue Captain Storm.

They assume the cube itself came from Manchester Black as he had technology that was controlling the beasts of the island and on monsters he used to attack Hamilton County.

Adventures of the Super Sons

In the final two issues, Jon and Damian are trapped inside the cube by the main villain of the series, Rex Luthor. Inside is a white void, not dissimilar to how The Source has been protrayed. The Source is more or less DC’s in-universe mythos of the paper its stories are printed upon. Earth 2 Society and Dark Crisis Young Justice are some examples of The Source being manipulated.

The Hypercube itself manifests in the place and explains to Jon and Damian that it has existed in one form or another since the dawn of time in the DC Universe. Finally unable to stand being used as a prop for someone else’s story, it began to move and create under its own command.

Cube admits it created the galaxy the villains of the series came from, and it seems to imply it has knowledge of all things that have happened and will happen as well as that they are in a comic book but spares the boys of that burden.

Cube takes The Puppeteer, a villain killed earlier in the series, and brings him into itself with Jon and Damian alive as if nothing had happened to him. The boys use his technology to break out of the cube. It seems the only limitation to Cube’s phenomenal cosmic power is his box-shaped lamp.

The Flash #797

Apparently, moments after defeating Rex Luthor, Jon and Damian find themselves in the future on another Earth to help Jai and Irie West and Maxine Baker beat some multiversal baddies.

I assume Cube was attempting to save the boys from the events of Teen Titans 2018, Superman 2018, and beyond into what was going to be 5G by skipping them past it. The boys return to their proper time, however.

Action Comics #1054

In chapter 4 of "Lois & Clark 2," Jon is badly burnt by a flame. This story takes place between the handoff from Jurgens, Tomasi and Gleason to Bendis in Superman and Action Comics. This is somewhat of a discrepancy if this Jon is intended to be the same Jon who survives in a volcano for 5 whole years.

Injustice #1

The Joker nukes Metropolis killing Lois Lane and her unborn child.

Cube takes this child from the currently unknown Earth-49 and recreates the abandoned Superman: Reborn composite timeline for this version of Jon and Lois to live and grow.

The Man of Steel 2018

Jor-El picks up Jon and Lois for a little space road trip.

Superman 2018

Everything Jon explains to his father about his experience happened to him, however the Jon that returned to Earth-0 is truly the Jon from Earth-49 the alternate timeline from "Superman Reborn" with most of the memories of Earth-0 Rebirth Jon in place including those up to Cube’s wormhole the black hole. The amount of time Jon was out with Jor-El as described by in Superman #8 is now a completely useless measurement of time. Jon and Jor-El may truly have only been in space for three weeks by the Earth-0 clock before encountering the wormhole.

Jor-El tracked the only Jon Kent in the known multiverse through time and space to Earth-3 in the universe and hypertime he now found himself where Cube placed him five years in the past. Earth-0 Jon would fall through Cube’s time and space wormhole to a world that was currently uncharted but known to exist, Earth-49 the world of Injustice.

Having scanned all possible futures, Cube opens a portal for Rebirth Jon to escape through. This is why Jor-El thinks that Jon ran from him before they fell through the black hole. A version of him did, just not the one he ended up with.

Superman: Son of Kal-El

Jon is shown on a world that does not conform with the reader’s knowledge of past events in multiple flashbacks. His birth in the Fortress of Solitude is similar to the events in Action Comics #978 but not the same. Dick is wearing his New 52 outfit at a time when he should be presumed dead and acting as a secret agent or back in blue. Jon claims he was able to fly at age 9 when the bare minimum amount of reading comprehension would tell you he couldn’t fly until he was 10. Jon remembers his grandparents farm house after its destruction in a way the audience has never seen before. Not only were his grandparents not alive when that book was published, but these panels are reminiscent of the New 52 Superboy’s origin story.

Pa Kent would later describe the events of Superman 2016 #1. This is notable because it seems to again reinforce that this world was not changed during Superman Reborn and that Jonathan Samuel Kent was not the one to reiterate these events.

Superman & Robin Special

As Jon and Damian remind the reader of Superman 2016 #8&9 and Adventures of the Super Sons, Cube demonstrates its power once again by opening a door through space for an alien that ages years in minutes and through time for a platoon of Nazi soldiers.

This serves a double purpose to show the reader what is in store for these two. Damian is no longer destined to become like Hitler. Teen Jon will find his double and return with him to where they came from. Teen Jon has a younger double lost out there somewhere.

Adventures of Superman Jon Kent

Jon states it is easy for him to see when someone is from another universe by looking closely at their molecules.

Val-Zod states that time moves at a constant rate. Jumping from one multiverse to another alone would not throw the traveler through time as well. More importantly, Val-Zod then states that in the whole multiverse, there are many Jon Kents that are children and only two that are old enough to be able to assist with their mission.

Ultraman recognizes Jon confirming the volcano imprisonment did happen.

Injustice Clark makes a double-take at Jon and claims he has his mother’s eyes, implying that this Jon is his own biological son.

This mini should see the Earth-0 Jon perhaps around age 12 at most appear on this Earth.

In the final issue of the mini, Jon states that he has practiced sneaking up on Damian for years while holding the Lasso of Truth, yet for this would be a stretch to be fact. Jon met Damian at 10 and left Earth at 11 making their friendship truthfully less than a year in length before Jon became much older.

#dc #dc comics #super sons #jon kent #jonathan samuel kent #superman soke #superman son of kal el #injustice #the flash 797 #adventures of superman jon kent #man of steel #adventures of the super sons #dinosaur island #mister mxyzptlk

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autumn-foxfire · 1 year

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I can't sleep so I was watching American Dad (I know, crucify me) and I'm struck how it actually handled an issue I've had with a relationship in an anime better than the anime does T-T

I've discussed before how I dislike Shinichi's and Ran's relationship as it is now built upon lies due to what happened to Shinichi. In trying to protect her, he's lying to her constantly and one of the biggest lies I think he tells her and and himself is that he'll come back.

He has no idea when he will return to his real body. Yes, there is an antidote in the works however it's imperfect and doesn't last long and can't be used to determine he will return to his body anytime soon.

Now, what this has to do with American Dad?

In the series, the husband of the daughter of the main family is lost in space for a long time, trying to search for a way home. His wife waited for him for a long time, until she met someone who she liked and started dating him, however, in a twist, through an old CB radio she once again gets into contact with her lost husband.

She begins to ignore her new love interest in favour of talking to her husband, her first love, much to the worry of her family who are afraid she'll waste away waiting for the man's return instead of living her life. Conflicted, the wife gets back in contact with her date and he offers them a life together.

She returns to the radio to inform her husband she doesn't think she can live a life of waiting for him but before she could, he informs her that he found a way back home by travelling through a wormhole. However, it turns out not to be true, he does get back home but it took him 60 years to do so, 60 years his wife waited for him, forsaking any other chance at happiness waiting for a man she didn't know when he would return.

Realising the pain he put his wife in, the husband goes back through the wormhole and this time tells his wife not to wait for him, because he doesn't know when he will get back, if he will, and he didn't want to keep causing her so much pain.

How a cartoon that rarely takes itself seriously manages to actually acknowledge how it would hurt both him and his wife to ask her to keep waiting for him when he doesn't know when, or if he can return while an anime based on this plot can't do the same honestly really shocks me.

Shinichi keeps making Ran waiting for a person who might never return and strings her along with these false moments of hope. He ruins any potential relationships she could have with other people because he's too selfish to let Ran be happy with anyone other than him and forces the both of them to wait for a future that might not even be possible. That's not even to mention all the other lies he's told her as well.

I know Ran also chooses to wait but you can't say that's not because Shinichi tells her to do so. He's clinging to the relationship he once had with her and it's so unhealthy and heartbreaking for the both of them.

It would hurt to let Ran go, and it would hurt Ran to let Shinichi go, but honestly speaking, I think it would be better and more healthy for them to do so. It would remove the burden of having to wait for someone you don't know will ever return for Ran and remove the guilt of causing this person pain because you can't return for Shinichi, they're both suffering so much in this mess of a relationship.

I'm just rambling at this point because Ran and Shinichi's relationship upsets me so much, especially because it's so romantized by both the author and by shippers when it's such a tragic thing.

#personal

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2024idpgroup14 · 3 months

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Developing the Experience

Angelique Shelley (MA Concept Art)

Blog Post # 5

After our feedback with Ian and Neil about surrealism, I thought about changing the planets to eyes. Eyes can be often be found in surrealist work, such as The False Mirror, 1928 by Rene Magritte.

Fig 1. The False Mirror, Magritte, 1928.

On describing the effect of using eye(s) outside of their usual context, renemagritte.org (n/d) describe the effect of her particular work as such:

"The image jolts the viewer by removing the eye from its usual context, presenting it without the face to which it belongs. It further disrupts expectation by placing a circular sky inside the otherwise ordinary oculus. Sometimes called magical realism, such juxtaposition of normally unrelated objects within a seemingly incongruous context is characteristic of much of Magritte's oeuvre. For Magritte and Surrealists working in a similar mode, these surprising, even bizarre combinations were considered the products of their unconscious minds. By visualising them, the artists believed, they might also touch the unconscious minds of their viewers."

Other notable surrealist artists that enjoyed using eyes in unsettling ways were Salvador Dali, and Max Ernst.

I picked up the Maya project where I had left it off because of technical reasons. I found a free model of an eye on Sketchfab (see fig. 2), because it was modeled in Blender, I had some difficulty assigning the textures in Maya for the Arnold renderer, the main issue was the transparency mask for the cornea. I got the mask working with a Phong material (see fig. 2), but Arnold didn’t read it properly. In the end I retextured it using an Arnold material and assigned the bubble preset material to the cornea faces, the effect wasn’t as nice as the masked Phong though.

Fig. 2 I first textured the 3D model, Eye Blend, Vinny Passmore, 2019, with a Phong material.

After duplicating the eyes along the camera path that I had set up earlier I realised that they looked too static and thought that it would be more engaging for them to aim to look at the camera. Again, before this project my existing skills in Maya was limited to basic modeling so after looking through various forums and tutorials I found how to create aim constraints for the eyes to follow the camera. From an outside view of the camera zooming down past the eyes, it looked great and far more interactive (see fig. 3).

Fig. 3 A Playblast showing the aim constraints programmed onto the eyes.

During this time, I also played with different camera settings. I ran a test render of the spherical camera (see fig. 4), but that would be a lot of wasted render time after cropping into it. In the end, I chose an Arnold Fisheye camera.

From inside the camera, and in my render, I thought the always-tracking-you eyes looked almost 2D and fake like sprites from old 3D games that always faced the camera and the result was less impressive than I had hoped.

Fig. 4 A still from the spherical render with aim constraints on the eyes, I would need to crop into it too much for it to be efficient.

I then decided to leave some eyes not looking at you which looked more 3D but I still wanted it to look more unsettling. I rendered them off but had trouble getting the alpha channels out of Maya into a png. I troubleshooted to no avail then noticed a few forums telling people to use a white surface shader to act as a layer mask in After Effects. I applied this to an alternate Maya save file and set it so that the eyes were white on a black background, rendered it, googled how to apply alpha masks in After Effects using a luma matte layer mode (something that After Effects must have changed this year as it was no longer a drop down menu item but rather a toggle button that I had to find).

This is the result with added blending:

Fig. 5 A GIF showing the eyes composited into the wormhole.

I could not have them at the same speed as the wormhole as they would pass by far too fast. The motion blur that I added to them in Maya did help embed them slightly more though.

I was still not totally happy and thought that it would be more visually engaging to have the eyes blink open at you in space. Having recently learned about the surface shader luma matte workflow I figured that if I duplicated the eyes, split them across the middle, applied a black surface shader, and keyframed both hemispheres to open and close that I could get it to work in After Effects. Unfortunately duplicating the eye broke the black eyelids from aim constraints towards the camera. I again did some more digging and found that duplicate special and duplicate input graph made the eyes face the camera again. Unfortunately this duplicated the camera too so I tested it on duplicate input connections and it worked fine.

Fig. 6 A GIF showing the eyelid animation

Maya would crash reliably after “duplicating special” for each animated eyelid, but as long as I saved it each time I could progress. After adjusting the keyframes so that they would blink open at you just before passing I rendered them off again as an image sequence and applied them over a precomposition of the existing eyes so as to not interfere with the existing luma matte pass.

I was much happier with the result:

Fig. 7 A render of the final wormhole with blinking eyes.

References:

Magritte, R. (1928). The False Mirror. [Painting].

Passmore, V. (2019). Eye Blend. [3D Model]. Available at: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/eye-blend-a8259f43d41e4204a7e9746dfd112c30 [Accessed 09 February 2024]

renemagritte.org (n/d). The False Mirror, 1928 by Rene Magritte. [Online]. Available at: https://www.renemagritte.org/the-false-mirror.jsp [Accessed 09 February 2024]

#angelique shelley

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youtwitinmyface · 1 year

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NEWMEN #1

Written by Eric Stephenson and Rob Liefeld Drawn by Jeff Matsuda Published by Image Comics The Newman was a group of superheroes introduced in a crossover storyline called Extreme Prejudice, which ran through several issues of Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios comics that were published by Image Comics in 1993. The concept is not exactly original to be honest. They're basically the New Mutants, the comic that launched Liefeld to superstardom. It was revealed that some humans are born with the "Nu-Gene", which eventually manifests various superpowers in them. And for this there are many humans who fear and hate all people who are "Nu-Gene Positive." So wise adult has gathered a group of Nu-Gene Positive teenagers to train them how to use their powers.

Yeah, like I said, not exactly original. John Proctor is their leader/mentor. He had a connection to the original group of Newmen who existed back in the 1960's, but eventually disbanded. The kids on this team are the children of the originals, who Proctor assembled to face a supervillain called Quantum, who was basically the Extreme Studio's equivalent of Magneto.

In this first issue, which was published in April 1994, the team are living in a house in Seattle. The story opened with the teenagers playing basketball in the backyard. This is an effective way to introduce the characters and display their powers for the audience. We've got REIGN, a boy with various telekinetic powers which are focused through some type of emerald that he wears on his forehead. DASH, a girl who can run at super speed. BYRD, a boy with wings on his arms who can fly. EXIT, a boy who can create mini-wormholes in the air which allow him to transport himself and other objects instantly from one place to the next, like teleportation. And KODIAK, who's a big strong bear-like creature. The kids engage in a lot of trash-talking and horseplay, with Kodiak, in particular, being the butt of most jokes. After the game ends, Proctor calls them inside to lecture them on the need to improve their teamwork. Just then a story on the news saw an unnamed supervillain as attacked Washington University, and erected a wall of dirt around the campus. So Proctor has them suit up and head to the scene. The villain causing the ruckus calls himself Elemental, and he has the power to manipulate the ground...and air, and stuff. He's searching for something on the campus, but can't find it. and was actually ready to leave when the Newmen show up. They fight, they defeat him, and that's that. And it ends with a slight cliffhanger, which hints at the next threat the team will face. Overall it's a pretty generic book. As a teenager who bought everything Image published at the time I'm sure I loved it, but looking back at it as an adult I can see its weaknesses. I think this was Eric Stephenson's first full series as a writer, and I can see what he was going for, but as yet the characters weren't fully developed beyond creative names. It's hard not to compare this to Wildstorm's Gen 13, which debuted a couple of months earlier and also featured five teenagers born with superpowers who were led by an older man. That book was much better and would go on to become one of the biggest hits of the original Image Comics line-up. I believe this was also Jeff Matsuda's first professional work as an artist, and you can see the raw talent he possessed, but his work here is still very...90's. NEWMEN #1

#image comics #rob liefeld #extreme studios #jeff matsuda #eric stephenson #newmen #rob liefeld's newmen #comic books #comic book reviews #J.R. LeMar reviews comic books

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ffxivfisher · 2 years

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Echinos

Panic Jig !! Timings Triana - up to 12 Echinos: 18 - 28 (most likely 21 - 26) Space Bishop: 24+ (most likely 29+, very rarely before 28s) Alyketos: N/A

Versatile Lure !! Timings Triana: up to 17 Echinos: 19 - 29 (most likely 21 - 27) Space Bishop: 27+ (most likely 29+) Alyketos: 22+

Stardust !! Timings Triana: up to 15 (most likely up to 13) Echinos: 17 - 25 (most likely 18 - 22) Space Bishop: N/A Alyketos: 20+ (most likely 24+)

Two methods: 1. Slap-PC-IC-PC 2. Patience II and IC

Slap-PC-IC-PC: - Panic Jig is most efficient. It has the least amount of overlaps with other !! fish and the highest bite rate Slap targets. - Slap Wormhole Worm (! until 17, overlaps with Biomass for most of its window) or Triana if not getting it (don't spend a lot of time focusing a slap), then PC, ignore all bites until Echinos, then IC-PC it. - Cancel Cast by 28s if you don't get a bite. - Use Thaliak's Favor and Hi-Cordial as needed.

P2 and IC: - Versatile is the best due to bite rate. It has more overlaps and longer bite times but they're not that important due to the low bite rate of Echinos and uncommonness of the overlaps. - Alyketos is uncommon and Space Bishop as well and also is not likely to bite in the last 2 seconds of the Echinos window. - Can maintain 100% P2 uptime and use IC on most Echinos bites after AA is built up and while using Hi-Cordials.

Echinos' bite rate isn't great so PC ends up being more efficient in terms of both scrip gain and Hi-Cordial use.

Echinos is 38/47/75 purple scrips.

From 20 hours of testing: Panic Jig using Slap-PC-IC-PC: 2325 - 2625 scrip/hr Versatile Lure/Panic Jig using P2+IC: 1800 - 2100 scrip/hr

- May get some non-tier 3 when using PC method if the first bite after doing the combo is an Echinos but it still works out better. - I only ran into a GP issue (couldn't IC) when, at the start of an hour before I could build AA, I got 3 natural Echinos bites very quickly.

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cyphershieldtech · 1 year

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Top 5 of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts in history

Hundreds of millions of dollars missing: the five biggest heists in cryptocurrency history.

Cryptocurrency is the ideal target for cybercriminals: there are many ways to steal it, and it is very difficult for victims to get it back. And some hackers go on outright killing sprees: they make tens or sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars from a crypto exchange attack. In this post we analyze the 5 biggest thefts in the relatively short history of cryptocurrencies. And there is a final bonus: the incredible story of a cryptocurrency heist worthy of a Netflix series…

5. The master key

Victim: KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange

Date: September 26, 2020

Loss: about $285 million

On the night of September 25 to 26, 2020, security officers of the Singapore-based company KuCoin detected several abnormal transactions from different hot wallets . To stop suspicious transactions, they transferred all remaining assets from the compromised hot wallets to cold storage . The entire incident took approximately two hours from detection to completion. During this time, the attackers managed to withdraw approximately $285 million in various cryptocurrencies.

The investigation revealed that the cybercriminals had accessed the private keys of the hot wallets. One of the main suspects is the Lazarus group, a North Korean APT cyber gang . This is because the attackers used a multi-stage algorithm to launder the loot, similar to the schemes used in previous attacks by the Lazarus group. First, they ran equal amounts of cryptocurrency through a tumbler , or mixer, (a tool for mixing cryptocurrency funds with others to hide the trail), then they transferred the cryptocurrency through decentralized platforms .

Despite the scale, this attack was not the end of the cryptocurrency exchange. The next day, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu, during a live broadcast, promised to repay the stolen funds. Lyu was true to his word, and in November 2020, he tweeted that 84% of the affected assets had been returned to their owners . The remaining 16% was covered by the KuCoin insurance fund.

4. Money out of thin air

Victim: Wormhole Cross-chain Bridge

Date: February 2, 2022

Loss: $334 million

The next number in our Top 5 is a heist that used a vulnerability in Wormhole, the cross-chain bridging protocol . Cybercriminals benefited from the fact that the developers of the platform made the code of their program public. But first things first...

Wormhole is a mediator tool for cryptocurrency transactions. Specifically, it allows users to move tokens between the Ethereum and Solana networks. Technically, the exchange works like this: tokens are frozen on one chain, while so-called “wrapped tokens” of the same value are issued on the other.

Wormhole is an open source project with its own repository on GitHub. Shortly before the theft, the developers put code around to fix a vulnerability in the protocol. But the attackers managed to exploit the vulnerability before the changes took effect.

This bug allowed them to bypass transaction verification on the Solana side and issue 120,000 “wrapped ETH” (worth around $334 million at the time of the attack) without freezing the equivalent collateral on the Ethereum blockchain. The cybercriminals transferred two-thirds of the total amount to an Ethereum wallet and used the rest to buy other tokens.

Wormhole publicly appealed for the attackers to return the stolen funds and detail their actions for a $10 million reward . Cybercriminals ignored this generous offer.

The day after the robbery, Wormhole tweeted that all funds had been restored and the bridge was working as before. The financial hole was closed by Jump Trading, the company that had bought Wormhole's developer six months before the incident. Judging by open source information, the culprits are still unknown.

3. Theft three years

Victim: Mt.Gox Crypto Exchanges

Date: February 2014

Loss: $480 million

Mt.Gox's story begins in 2007, when it was a trading platform for the game Magic: The Gathering . Three years later, amid the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, Jed McCaleb, an American programmer and owner of the site, decided to turn it into a cryptocurrency exchange , but later sold the service to French developer Mark Karpelès in 2011. Just two years later , Mt.Gox traded about 70% of the world's bitcoin.

This rapid climb was followed by a crippling crash. On February 7, 2014, the exchange suddenly blocked all bitcoin withdrawals. The company blamed it on technical problems. Outraged customers rallied outside Mt.Gox's Tokyo headquarters, demanding their money back. His protest fell on deaf ears.

What is notable about this story is that the Mt.Gox heist began in 2011. Back then, unknown hackers got hold of the private passwords of a hot wallet on the exchange and gradually began siphoning bitcoins. By 2013, cybercriminals had deposited 630,000 BTC into their accounts.

Mt.Gox was ultimately delisted on February 28, 2014, when Karpelès filed for bankruptcy and apologized for “weaknesses in the system” that had removed approximately 750,000 BTC of client funds, as well as 100,000 Own BTC. The amount of stolen funds is usually estimated to be around $480 million; this is the value of the total amount of tokens stolen at the exchange rate of one day before the exchange filed for bankruptcy on February 27.

However, keep in mind that in the time after Mt.Gox went out of business and before it filed for bankruptcy, the price of bitcoin fell considerably. If calculated at the February 6 exchange rate (the day before the stock market closes), the loss would be around $660 million. However, both figures are provisional: they do not take into account the three-year duration of the heist, during which time the exchange rate fluctuated wildly. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact amount of damage.

How was the attack possible? According to former employees , the company's management was quite negligent in several important matters. For example, Mt.Gox had serious problems with financial reporting. In addition, there was never a proper audit of code quality and security: for example, there was no version control system.

Prosecutors charged Karpelès, owner of Mt.Gox, with embezzlement of approximately $3 million worth of customer funds. But this could not be proven in court. In the end, Karpelès only received a suspended sentence of two years and six months for data manipulation and was cleared of other charges.

2. Almost half a billion

Victim: Coincheck Cryptocurrency Exchange

Date: January 26, 2018

Loss: $496 million

Coincheck is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan. In 2018, cybercriminals managed to steal more than 500 million NEM tokens worth about the same dollar amount.

The company claimed its security system was robust and did not disclose exactly how the intruders carried out the attack. That said, some experts believe that cybercriminals may have gained access to the private passwords of Coincheck hot wallets with the help of malware embedded in a computer at the company's office.

The attackers also created their own site where they sold NEM tokens for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at a 15% discount. As a result, the NEM exchange rate fell sharply and Coincheck lost around $500 million, however this did not force the exchange to shut down. Furthermore, the criminals could not be traced. The exchange had to suspend operations for a while and promised to compensate clients with their own funds

1. Surprise job offer included

Victim: Ronin Network Blockchain Platform

Date: March 23, 2022

Loss: $540 million

Ronin Network was created by Sky Mavis for the game Axie Infinity , which allows players to purchase Smooth Love Potion (SLP) in-game currency . In late March 2022, unknown attackers stole a record $540 million worth of cryptocurrency from Ronin. They were aided by spyware and the magic of social engineering.

The targeted attack targeted Sky Mavis employees, one of whom took the bait (probably on LinkedIn). After going through a “selection process”, one of the senior engineers received a “job offer” in the form of a PDF file with spyware inside. This allowed the thieves to take control of four of the network's validation private keys .

To gain access to company assets, they needed to compromise at least five of the nine validators. As we mentioned, the spyware helped them get four keys. The fifth was achieved due to an oversight by the company itself, which had authorized the Axie DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to sign transactions to help Ronin Network mitigate user volume, and then they forgot about it. revoke permission.

However, Sky Mavis quickly recovered from the incident. In June 2022, it relaunched the blockchain platform and started compensating affected players.

Bonuses. A hack with refund

Target: Poly Network cross-chain protocol

Date: August 10, 2021

Loss (later recovered): $610 million

As a side story, let's end with another major cryptocurrency heist, which ended with every penny of the loot being returned. This is what happened…

Poly Network is yet another protocol for implementing blockchain interoperability. In the summer of 2021, he witnessed one of the biggest heists in cryptocurrency history. An unknown hacker, exploiting a vulnerability in the Poly Network, stole over $600 million worth of various cryptocurrencies .

Poly Network appealed to the perpetrator on Twitter to return the stolen tokens. To everyone's astonishment, the hacker got in touch and agreed. They proceeded to transfer the stolen tokens bit by bit, dividing them into several unequal parts.

The online exchange between the hacker and the Poly Network went on for quite some time. During it, the attacker stated that he was not interested in the money and that he had only carried out the robbery for "ideological reasons." As a token of gratitude, the Poly Network dropped the claims against him, guaranteed his anonymity, offered a $500,000 reward, and even invited him to become his top security consultant. He also launched a $500,000 bug bounty program .

There is no moral as such, but...

We have listed the top 5 major cryptocurrency heists, where they all targeted major organizations. But, sure, many minor incidents affect common users all the time. Therefore, all investors must take steps to protect their assets. Here are some useful tips:

Choose your platforms for trading and other operations carefully: check comments and reviews and, if possible, consult with experienced users you trust.

Do not give your exchange account login details or wallet credentials to anyone. Remember to keep secret not only passwords and private keys, but also your seed phrase .

Keep your main cryptocurrency savings in cold wallets : unlike hot ones, they don't need to be permanently online and are therefore more secure in general.

If you're using a hot wallet, make sure you enable two-factor authentication.

Beware of phishing.

Use a trusted solution that protects your financial transactions, prevents malware from stealing your wallet password or private key, and warns you about fraudulent sites.

Conclusion

As vulnerabilities exist in the web3 spaces, Cypershield is one of the kinds of Security and Smart Contract audit company rendering exceptionally professional smart contract auditing services for varied Crypto projects. In the process of rendering your projects, full-on auditing services help you come over your smart contract vulnerabilities and reach a higher scale in the market.

#smartcontractauditcompany #smartcontractaudit

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timbarrus · 1 year

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Washing Kree’s Hair

I used to give Kree baths in the kitchen sink. Hold still. I’m washing your hair.

Dirt Bike Town is bursting with kids.

They all want a bike. They all get one. All drugs are free. Yes. All of them.

I get to decide what happens to characters I invent. They would be my heros and my victims. The only power I have in life is the power to create characters you will remember, and the whole dog and pony shows comes with.

It’s a novel. It’s a novel. It’s a novel.

That means it’s fiction.

I am making it up and any relationship in this book is conflicted. Because we are all conflicted. If not with one issue, then it’s another issue. It’s set in the not so distant future.

You can’t go back. In time. The physicists who are insinuating that time travel backwards is possible, are not being honest.

Most of them have blogs about theoretical physics. With tens of thousands of followers. They steadfastly consume this stuff In order to travel back in time, physics would have to become something it has not yet confronted with the enormously warped mass any wormhole worth the name will be imbued with all the miscalculation, the stereotypes, the cultural myths speaking in warning shots across the bow. All species are up for grabs. In the past, we lost a few. Now, we are losing everything because our respect for life is manifestly an illusion. We shit where we eat. We are unable to fundamentally change. The inability to deal with change will be the end of us.

How DO you get out of Dodge.

I know this. You won’t. Discover. How. We are in this struggle to survive, together. Even if I loathe you. Even if I know in my heart that you are evil.

Evil. Is. Us.

I used to give Kree baths in the kitchen sink. Water was a result of the handpump at the bottom of the hill. You ran down there with your empty pails, and you filled them up, lugging them, and losing half the water in the bucket, you were intent to bring the pails one at a time to the kitchen where the nerve center of the house pulsated with survival and stamina.

I will never forget this farm of sheep and goats and horses and cows and wildlife everywhere you looked. The river was thick with fish. There are none of those rivers left. The wild tamed out of them to what end.

Has anyone been to Lake Powell recently. I made a detour there on my bike. The extent to which we have turned Lake Powell into a sewer is a show stopper. I almost could not breathe. I have been here so many times, but today, Lake Powell and the Rio Grande are skeletons. The Rio Grande gave Scottsdale pools.

You have abused it. All of your toxicity dumped into it without a thought. In Ohio, a carmaker dumped its chemical waste down a water drain pipe. Please do not turn your faucets on. Fire could come out of them. You could roast some hot dogs.

They just do not care. Not about you. Not about me. Not about anyone. The Normals are focused on one thing that is the myth greed. Greed is not a fortress. You could hold out a bit.

But the Roman soldiers are scaling the rock. The same men who raped your women and boys, and how is it that they are always left out, boys expunged from the gender stories we live by as to who we are and what we are and what motivates us to be the top dog of anywhere, anywhere. Your water is at risk. You are not immune. It will all happen to you, too, in fact, it’s happening as we stand around going duh.

An ICBM is about more than a message. They rape us. We rape them. We know where it all begins -- war -- but we have no idea how it will end.

We are still blowing families up. We are still supporting genocide. We are raping entire Indian Nations -- such as Columbian Deep Jungle native tribes -- in our wide-spread insatiable greed for energy, and if they leave their culture’s sitting in the ruins of their lives, digging for gold in the toxic mud, we are the whip that draws their blood.

The issue is always rape. You can rape Homo sapiens with impunity. But raping an entire planet is suicide. Why are you here.

I learned to drive at ten. Tractors were an obsession. I would drive down to the Grand River with my dog, and sit there and watch the river travel to eternity. We would sneak into the showers at the state park. It was not allowed because we were not camping there (how is it that you get to camp in a bus the size of France). I would towel Kree off. Bite toes. Laugh. What a vile species we are. I pray hard that we will never find aliens. Tomorrow, I will wash Krees hair again.

#tim barrus #tim barrus novel #dirt bike town #novel #fiction #environment #climate #toxicity

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venomous--fics · 3 years

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Anonymous asked: just read ur peter b parker imagine and loved it and please feel free to ignore this request if you want but maybe where the multiverse thing happens again and the reader zaps and meets all the other spiders with peter b??

a/n: here it is! Sorry about the delay, our wifi went out and it someone awhile to come and fix it. and then my phone screen died and i had to have it repaired, so i really had to wait to be able to write anything again.

The last thing you ever thought would happen to you has just happened. You were walking home from the store, after telling Mj that you'd pick up some things for her. Didn't seem like that big of an issue.

You'd later eat those words as a bright glowing, believe it or not, portal opened above your head. You tried to back away from it, but it seemed to follow you, like it was meant for you and only you.

It was so obnoxiously bright, too. You shielded your eyes a little bit and you tried to make sense of it all. And just as you thought it was going to make sense, it didn't again. You could hear people talking.

"C'mon, man, you're weirding them out."

"Okay, okay."

You recognized that last voice. You stared up in disbelief, "Peter?!"

"The one and only," his voice said, almost amused.

"What the h- What's happening."

"Just jump into this wormhole thing and I'll explain."

"Wor- No!" You ran over to the nearest lamp post and hugged it tightly, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine." Peter sighed, "Be a party pooper."

The small portal closed and you let go of the lamp post, relief washing over you. Before you could relax any further or gather your bearings, it opened again and an arm reached out and pulled you through with a, "Sike!"

You clamped your eyes shut and let out an elongated yell as you felt yourself hit some sort of hard surface. Your hand flew to cover your eyes as you curled up and continued yelling. This was it, this is how you die and it's all Peter's fault.

"Are they okay?"

"Do they do this often?"

"More importantly, Do they do this every time they get sucked into an interdimensional wormhole?"

You felt a hand pat you on the back and you slowly lowered your voice into nothing as you unshielded your eyes. You looked up at Peter and immediately shot up into a sitting position, "You- You!" you then registered the fact that other people were talking an dyou looked around the room, seeing like...five other people there- Well four...And a pig?

You kept looking around, noting all the suits in cases, and the expensive cars and buggies, and the string and webs and photos everywhere. You pushed yourself off the ground, "What is going on."

"Now, don't freak out." Peter said, walking over to the others, "This is going to sound weird, I know. I didn't believe it when I first experienced it-"

"First?" you shouted, "This isn't your first time?"

"Yeah?" he shook his hands a little, "Y/n, focus. Look, this is Spider-Man, and that's Spider-man, and-"

"What."

"Actually, just call me Miles." he held hand up to identify himself, "I'm only Spider-man sometimes."

"I'm Gwen."

"I'm Peter Porker."

"I'm Peni."

"I'm also Peter Parker."

"What." is all you could say anymore.

Miles pushed a chair over to you, "You look like you could use a seat."

You looked at him and then at your Peter.

"How cool is this? It's a little spider reunion. For me, at least. Not sure about you."

"Let me guess....And this is the Spider-Lair?" you asked, slowly sitting down in the chair that Miles had provided you.

"Close." Peter said, "Cave. Spider-cave. Pretentious, I know. Think we should invest in one? We do have the basement."

Your brain had gone into autopilot. There multiple spider themed heroes here. You and Peter weren't alone. How many more were there, if any at all. Why were you here? When could you go home?

"You must be Y/n," the one named Gwen said, trying to ease the tension, "You must be like us, considering that you're here too."

"Oh," you said, dumbfounded, "Oh, right. Yeah. I'm like you guys."

"You have any cool powers?" Miles asked, "Like, can you fly or turn invisible or shock people?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure."

Your eyes landed on the giant mech just chilling in the back, "What's that guy's story."

Peni seemed so excited that you asked, "This is Spider. My father built him."

You looked back over at your Peter, "So you didn't bring me the first time this happened?"

"To be fair, you weren't.. y'know, back then. But you are now."

"Okay, so, I assume you had a reason to meet them to first time? World ending?"

"Multiverse, actually." he replied, "It was a whole thing."

"So, do we have a reason to meet up this time? Please just say no."

"No, we just like to hang out sometimes."

"Nobody's trying to murder us?"

"Not yet!" Porker said with too much enthusiasm.

"Anyways," Gwen said, "Like I said earlier, I'm Gwen Stacy. I'm one of the only rational ones here."

"And I'm Miles- You knew that. Morales. Miles Morales." he stood awkwardly as you stared at him. Did you expect more out of him? "I like to draw...?"

You glanced at the overly dramatic guy dangling from a web, coat blowing in the nonexistent breeze.

"I'm Peter Parker." he said, beginning his monologue, "And I love punching Nazis."

Everyone seemed to get comfortable sitting somewhere. Did he do this all the time? How long was it going to take.

"How long do you guys normally hang out for?" you asked, immediately realizing that that must've sounded rude, "I just mean like...Do you willingly get to go to and fro or like..."

"Not too sure how it really works yet." your Peter said.

"You drag yourselves through a portal not knowing if it'll take you home?"

"Yeah."

"Why."

"Always seems like a good idea to do at the time, but now that you've brought it up, I should be more careful with it."

"You think?"

After awhile, you never checked your phone for the time, but you were sure it had been a few hours, a set of the familiar portals opened up. Everyone said their goodbyes, and reassured one another that they'd see each other again. You almost didn't want to leave. You kinda liked them all.

"Coming?" Peter asked as he stepped through your guy's portal.

You quickly followed behind him, not wanting to accidentally get left behind.

Thinking it'd be like walking through a door, you were expecting to just step right back onto the pavement. Instead, you fell downward and wound up tumbling onto the pavement. You laid facedown on the sidewalk as you heard Peter's phone make a shutter noise.

"Delete it."

"No can do." he laughed, "Already sent it to everybody."

You whined as you remained facedown on the pavement.

"Oh! Let me add you to the groupchat."

"Please don't."

You felt your phone begin to vibrate nonstop in your pocket.

#marvel imagine #marvel x reader #into the spiderverse x reader #into the spiderverse imagine #peter be parker imagine #peter be parker x reader #miles morales imagine #miles morales x reader #gwen stacy imagine #gwen stacy xreader #peni parker imagine #peni parker x reader

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banditthewriter · 3 years

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Intensity - Loki

Here we have a Loki fic. That came out of nowhere, I’ve only ever written drabbles for him. It’s not long but hopefully it’s not bad?

Enjoy!

*gif not mine*

*****

Unlike most people, the mutant gene didn’t show up when you were a kid. You could be grateful for that at least. Because of that little grace, your childhood had been completely normal. No worries, no fears, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then you started to notice changes.

People seemed calm around you for the most part. If your emotions were out of control, you realized that others would be that way too. It took a while to understand that it was more than just the environment, more than just coincidence.

It took a disaster.

It was a fight with your dad when you were a teen. You didn’t even remember what it was about, what caused the issue, but you were angry enough that you were told to go to your room. Your mom had come in to sit with you for a while to try to calm you down.

The next thing you know, she went into the living room and tried to attach your dad with a butcher knife. He was okay but he did have to get sixteen stitches. And your mom was traumatized, not understanding why she tried to kill the man she loved.

That’s what had them put it all together. The little things they’d noticed but had brushed off had come out in a big way.

You could influence other people’s emotions. Oddly enough, anger was easier than the nicer emotions, but you’d had a pretty laid back life so you didn’t feel anger a lot.

Maybe that’s why it was so potent when you did feel it.

Emotion manipulation could be dangerous without proper training so in college, after a few years of trying to pretend you were normal, you left to find someone to train you. Therapists, doctors, military people all tried their hand to get you trained. All of them had the same thing to say.

You were undisciplined at best. At worst? You’d never be able to be completely in control.

Over the years it became harder and harder to keep in contact with people, including your family. It wasn’t like you could have an actual relationship that way. You could never be sure if you were influencing someone’s emotions, even when you tried to get control of your powers.

The military had a bracelet that worked for other mental powers. It didn’t work flawlessly, but it helped. It dampened your emotional field so that it took touch to influence someone for the most part. That and a steady regime of keeping calm, you got a better grasp on it.

Better didn’t mean perfect though. You still sometimes affected people when you didn’t mean to. You still hated it when you did it.

One of the things you did learn while working with various therapists was that there was more to your power than just emotion manipulation. To a lesser degree, you could read emotions on people. It didn’t work as well when you had the bracelet on, dampened that power as well, but sometimes...sometimes you could catch bits and pieces off of the people closest to you.

While you traveled from military base to military base to try to figure out a way to work on your powers, you didn’t expect to get a call from the Avengers.

Well. It was less of a call and more of Iron Man dropping down in front of you and one of the generals so that he could offer you a place to stay at his tower.

“How’d you hear about me?”

Although you couldn’t see his eyes, you knew that Iron Man—Tony Stark, it was Tony Stark in front of you—was looking at you.

“Fury. He has a way of getting information on lost souls that need a little help. What do you say? Wanna be a part time Avenger? Use your mojo to make some people really docile so that we don’t have to keep wrecking New York City every time some supervillain decides to stop by?”

You shifted a bit and looked at the general beside you. He just shrugged.

You weren’t a prisoner of the military. It had been very evident that you were there voluntarily. It was up to you.

“I’m working on a better dampener for mental powers. Maybe I can make one that’s specific to your power and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

And just like that, you didn’t need to hear anything else.

------

The tower is bigger than you thought it would be. Which is a good thing. Especially when you realized it’s not just the Avengers that frequent the tower but other members of Shield.

“This area is all yours,” Mr Stark says as he shows you to your room. Suite. Apartment. “The walls are made from the same dampening material as your bracelet so it’ll contain your powers.”

“My powers aren’t that powerful,” you said softly as you touched the bracelet in question. “Thank you Mr Stark. I...I want to help people but I am scared of what my powers might do. I want to protect people from me.”

He turned to look at you and dropped some of that rich man bravado he’d been sporting since he escorted you onto his private jet.

“You don’t have to be scared of yourself here. I promise.”

That’s not the last time you see him either. He explains that you should call him Tony and although it’s weird at first, you do.

“Tony, aren’t you scared I’ll influence you?”

He looked up from where he was typing on a tablet, his feet up on the table in your kitchenette.

“Pretty sure you do,” he said casually as he looked back down at the tablet. “It’s only ever small things though. Calm sometimes, tired sometimes. Hungry that one, that’s why I ordered pizza.”

You felt your heart start to beat fast at the thought of you accidentally influencing him, but he must have caught on to that.

“Anxiety and I are old friends,” he explained as he put the tablet down and crossed over to you. “I’m not worried about it. Your influence doesn’t last if I’m not around you so once I leave, I’m back to myself. But honestly? Your influences are a lot simpler than some of the things I’ve felt.”

You thought about everything you knew about Iron Man and the Avengers and decided, yeah, he was probably right. Anything you could make him feel would be pretty tame compared to flying a nuclear warhead into a wormhole without knowing if you were coming back.

------

The first time you meet Natasha Romanoff, you spill orange juice on your shirt. She just smirked and grabbed a napkin to hold out to you.

It was the first time you’d let yourself out of your rooms. The new bracelet was supposed to be more effective, but Tony said he wouldn’t know if he was on the right track until you let yourself be around people.

People meaning Shield agents. You didn’t expect to be face to face with Black Widow.

Her grin wavered for a second before it came back even brighter.

“You have better control than I thought you’d have,” she admitted as she leaned against a nearby table. “Stark said this new bracelet would still let you influence, but you stopped it pretty quick.”

“I didn’t even realize what I was doing,” you confided as you gripped your half full glass of orange juice. “I just want to hold it all in when I’m around people.”

Natasha tapped her fingers on the table before she crossed over towards the door.

“It’s not good to hold it in. You might end up like a grenade without a pin.”

With that helpful piece of advice, she left.

Later, in Tony’s lab rather than your room, you told him what she said. He nodded as he made a few adjustments.

“She’s got the right idea at least. You stretch your wings with it every now and then, that’s one thing. You don’t work it at all and the muscle will atrophy. Who knows what a gift like yours can do if it degrades and you don’t have control over it?”

It took a while to come up with a plan. A few Shield agents, volunteers specifically, would work with you and let you influence them. Under supervision in case you lost control.

It was a step. You just wish you knew if it was in the right direction or not.

------

“This is Thor and that’s his...brother Loki. Don’t worry, he’s on his best behavior these days.”

You nearly swallowed your spit when you turned around and sure enough, you were faced with Tony, Thor, and Loki. This was somehow your life but you hadn’t really figured it out yet. You were a few feet away from literal Gods.

Thankfully Tony couldn’t read your thoughts because he’d think you lumped him in with that group.

“Uh, hi,” you said as you introduced yourself.

“Ah, another Avenger? Welcome.”

You smiled at Thor and shook your head, but Tony moved over and draped his arm over your shoulder.

“Definitely an Avenger, just with training wheels. Probationary,” he explained at Thor’s uncertain look. “We’re working on the kinks.”

You wanted to elbow Tony to get him off of you, especially as you could feel your heart start to race in your chest. This was nerves, anxiety building into a spike in your chest. Only Tony didn’t seem to react. He usually would at least look at you if he felt you influencing him.

And he didn’t seem to feel anxious or nervous in the least. Neither did Thor who was talking to Tony about...something about a bridge, you weren’t sure.

But Loki. You hadn’t paid much attention to him after the initial greeting, but you met his gaze now. He was staring straight at you, an intrigued look on his face as he watched you.

Tony and Thor might not have noticed your influence, but it seems Loki had. Great.

“I should get back to the lab,” you said as you stepped out from under Tony’s arm. “It was nice to meet you both. Bye.”

You heard Thor’s farewell at your back, but you could still feel Loki’s gaze on your as you turned the corner.

------

Any other time that you ran into Thor in the tower, he always put you at ease. Tony had explained your powers and how you were coming to grips with them. Thor asked questions about it, always careful to never put you on edge, but he didn’t seem concerned for himself.

“It would be hard for a human such as yourself to influence an Asgardian mind,” he said with a smile when you asked him about it.

That didn’t explain Loki then. Besides your first meeting, every time you were around the dark haired God you’d turned into a nervous, babbling mess. The look on his face was always intrigued, but it wasn’t cruel. It seemed almost clinical.

Although you’d heard a lot about that particular God’s abilities. Maybe since he had some mind control abilities himself, he could feel it in you.

And didn’t that just put you on edge. You weren’t sure how you felt about having something in common with Loki, God of mischief.

Although you weren’t entirely sure that was the only reason you felt nervous around Loki. Most people talked about how attractive the God of thunder is, with reason, but there was just something about the dark haired God that caught your attention.

So of course you would find yourself alone with the God in question while you waited for Tony. The Avengers were off Avenging and you didn’t like to be holed up while you waited for them.

You weren’t sure why you expected Loki to be off with them, but he wasn’t. He was in a chair in the room, a book on his lap that he flicked through lazily. When you walked in, his eyes lifted up and met yours.

There was a challenge in his gaze. Normally you’d make an excuse and turn to leave. He was challenging you to see if you’d do it now that there weren’t other people around.

Instead you crossed over and went to the kitchen area.

“Is it because of my past misdeeds? Is that why you’re nervous around me?”

You hadn’t heard him speak before right then, but his voice fit him. You tapped your fingers against the fridge door that you had pulled open even though you weren’t hungry.

“I’ve heard a few stories about you, sure. But you’re a God. It’s...intimidating.”

You heard the chair creak. When you looked over your shoulder, he had stood up and crossed a few feet to be closer.

“Regardless of my past, you have nothing to fear from me.”

Slowly you shut the fridge door and turn to face him completely. The look on his face made you believe him. But it was more than that. You could feel something from him, an emotion buried in the haze from your bracelet.

Honesty.

“Okay,” you whispered as you met his eyes. “I’ll...keep that in mind.”

------

The lower library wasn’t exactly your favorite, but it was usually empty. You walked through the first few aisles and froze when you saw that you weren’t alone.

“You come here to be alone,” Loki guessed as he looked around the room. “It’s one of the few places that’s technically public but usually void of people.”

You wrapped your arms around yourself and nodded.

“I’m supposed to be in public for a few hours each day but sometimes it gets to be a bit too much. So I come here.”

He nodded as if he understood that. Then he turned to face you head on.

“How powerful are you?”

You almost laughed at that, but held it in.

“I’m not powerful, I’m untrained. Dangerous,” you added as you looked away from him.

One of the Shield agents had to be sedated when you’d made her feel too many things at once on accident. You weren’t sure how she was doing.

Tony was still calibrating the new bracelet, but you wore it anyways. You just hoped...hoped it was enough.

“I can help you. I’m skilled with mind control of stronger beings than humans.”

You fingered the bracelet you wore and thought about the Shield agent, your parents, all the people you’d influenced over the years that had bad results.

“I’ll think about it,” you said softly. Then you sighed. “I should go back to the lab. Tony will be looking for me.”

“Ah, yes, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

You smiled and looked away. You weren’t sure you could handle for Loki to pick up on how charmed you were by him just then.

You really needed to get better at keeping your feelings a secret.

------

The lab was in disarray. You stumbled from where you’d fallen, the debris mostly away from you.

Even in his panic, Tony hadn’t hurt you. He’d flung himself as far away as he could, kept his robots from hurting you, but he’d nearly destroyed his lab in the process.

“Tony?”

It was quiet for a moment but then you heard a rasping breath. You climbed over a fallen stool and went to your knees next to where he was crumpled on the floor.

“Tony, are you...what can I do?”

He let out a gasp, his eyes on your face for a moment before they slammed shut tight.

“JARVIS, get Pepper,” you called out, unsure of what else to do.

The mechanical voice said it would be a moment and then said that Miss Potts was on her way down. You slumped on the floor next to Tony, careful not to touch him.

Your anxiety about this test, about how long it had been since there had been any progress, had bled over to Tony. Only it was heightened somehow, the anxiety and worry causing a full blown flashback for him. You’d caught glimpses of it, almost-images of the wormhole and falling through the air.

It’s why you asked for Pepper. He hadn’t been able to talk to her before...before.

When she came in, she gave you an understanding look before she went to his side. Since he was being cared for, you got up and stumbled away from them. Your bracelet was still on the receiver so you grabbed it and hooked it on, grateful for the dullness you felt afterwards.

Then you left the lab. All you wanted to do was go to your rooms, to bury yourself under your blankets and wish it all away, but instead you headed in a different direction.

The room that Loki had been given was in the same hall as Thor, but you thought Thor was away on a mission with Steve and Sam. Loki’s door was shut, but when you raised your hand to knock, it came open.

“I need help.”

Loki came from across the room in a hurry, probably thinking you meant you were being chased. When he was sure the issue was less immediate, he nodded and met your eyes.

What he saw there made him let out a breath. He reached for you, slow so that you wouldn’t pull away. He unhooked the bracelet and set it to the side.

“This might be a bit uncomfortable,” he said softly as he raised his hands to your forehead.

In an instant you were no longer in the tower, no longer in New York. You were in your childhood bedroom, your mom helping you make your bed while your dad laughs at the two of you. It was such a distant memory, something you had forgotten.

As more and more of those happy memories come to the surface, you sense something from Loki. A bitter tang on your tongue.

He had hoped that your childhood would have been like his. He had seen you and imagined that you’d been set apart as well. To see a loving, happy childhood had almost been a disappointment for him.

That faded away as the next memory appeared. He watched from your own eyes as your mother, in a rage not of her own, tried to kill your father. He sees your best friend yelling that she can’t trust you, teachers telling you that you can’t come to class, job and job firing you after only days.

He sees relationship after relationship burn hot and bright at first and then the horror sets in, the worry that they didn’t want you like you wanted them, the anger from them, the apathy. You felt it all in spirals, in such quick succession that embarrassment started to well up inside you.

“Shh, it’s alright,” he promised as he continued to dig inside your memories. “You’re not there. They don’t matter.”

There’s something like a tug and then suddenly, like a dam breaking, you're overwhelmed with emotions. They seem to come from every direction like the room is crowded.

You open your mouth to say his name, to ask him for help, but instead there’s nothing but darkness as you give in to the pain.

------

The medical wing is new to you. When you sit up, there’s a hand on your shoulder to help you ease up the rest of the way.

“It’s been two days,” Natasha says in a tone you can’t quite read. “Thought we were going to have to take turns kissing you, Snow White.”

“Thanks for…not doing that,” you said as you reached up to rub at your forehead.

Loki. You had been in his room, he was in your mind. He was trying to help you, going through your memories. There had been...oh the emotions you’d felt before you’d passed out.

“Where’s Loki?”

Natasha doesn’t say anything, just reached out to grab a cup of water from next to your bed. As she held it out to you, you pushed it away.

“Natasha, where’s Loki? Tell me.”

She sighed and put the cup down.

“Steve and Thor had him put into a holding cell for attacking you.”

You were shaking your head before she even finished.

“He didn’t though!”

A tablet was on the table. After a brief hesitation she grabbed it and navigated through a few things.

“Watch this and tell me he didn’t attack you.”

You watched the recording from his room. The two of you were in front of each other, his hands on your head. There didn’t seem to be anything at first but then you saw what looked like a surge of magic go from his hands to your head.

You shook your head as you rewound it and watched the same spot.

“I need to see him,” you said when you finally looked up at her. “Now, Natasha.”

Although she obviously didn’t want to let you, she gave you a nod. You were already in sweats for comfort while you were unconscious, so you just slid on some too big slippers and let her lead the way to the holding cells.

Steve immediately raises his hands once you enter the hallway.

“What the hell Romanoff, I said–”

“Yeah, when’s the last time I listened to you,” Natasha snarked with a smirk. Then she gestured at you. “She wants to talk to him.”

Steve was just about to say no, but Thor came from down the hall with a frown.

“I think she should. I know what we saw, but we don’t understand it. It’s possible the only one that can understand it is her. Besides,” he added with a sly look in your direction, “Loki is on his best behavior when she’s around.”

You didn’t know how to take that, but thankfully it seemed to persuade Steve. He told you he’d buzz you into the cell once you were there. They had a camera so they’d see and hear everything and, if you needed it, could come and save you.

You really didn’t think you’d need it.

In the cell, Loki seemed different. He ignored you when you came in, just threw a ball against the wall and caught it over and over again.

You wished you could use your powers to read Asgardians as well as humans, but...wait.

There was nothing. From Natasha, from Steve, from the nurse who had released you. Usually you felt something, a low hum of their emotions, but there was nothing.

“The force of it was too much for you, but it’ll come back.” He caught the ball and let it rest beside him on the bench. “You felt too many emotions at once. Your mind was adapting to having mine in there when it happened and it overloaded.”

You nodded and sat down beside him, a few feet away just so that Steve wouldn’t bust in. You really didn’t need observers with this, but you knew you didn’t have a choice.

“It felt so weird. It was like I could feel the emotions of everyone in the tower at once.”

Loki looked over at you in surprise.

“In the tower? That was everyone in the city at once.” At your surprised look, he offered a smile. “I knew you were powerful when we first met, I just didn’t realize how powerful.”

You sighed and leaned back against the wall.

“Holy shit,” you breathed with another laugh. “No wonder I’ve been asleep for two days.”

And here you thought you couldn’t really surprise the God of mischief more than you already had.

“Two days? So that’s...why you haven’t come to set the record straight.”

Oh. Had he thought that you believed the story that he’d attacked you? Or did he just think that you were letting him suffer?

“Just woke up. Saw the video, heard you were down here, came to rescue you.”

He laughed at that, a sound that both surprised and pleased you.

“How do you feel?”

You thought about it. The emptiness in your head was blissful. So was the fact that you didn’t need to worry about making people feel your emotions.

“I hope it never comes back.”

His hand closed around yours and, with a gentle tug, he pulled you a little closer to him.

“You shouldn’t hope for that. The gifts you have don’t have to be a burden. You can learn to control them, learn to use them.” He smiled at you, his eyes locked on yours. “I said I knew you were powerful and I meant it. I could feel it in you.”

You rubbed a hand over your wrist where your bracelet usually sat.

“Maybe I should be the one in the holding cell.”

Loki’s face became more serious as he looked you over.

“It could happen one day.”

The memory of Tony curled up on his side after your influence made you think about what had happened in Loki’s room. Your mind had reached the entirety of the city. If you could push your influence that far…

“I have to…”

You didn’t bother saying more, just tore from the room in a rush. Steve was outside and he nodded when he met your eyes.

“We saw. We believe you. We’ll let him out.”

You nodded because that was good, but that wasn’t the only thing on your mind.

You needed to talk to Tony.

------

“You sure you don’t feel anything?” At your baleful look, Tony shrugged and looked back at the scan. “Your brain is unusually active.”

“I’ll try not to be offended,” you said with a laugh.

Tony crossed over to where you sat. He looked good for a man who just a few days ago had been basically curled up under his table in a panic. And he had forgiven you for that.

“Make me feel something. Something small, please,” he added with a grin.

You drummed your fingers on the table for a moment before you nodded. Then you focused on Tony and a new feeling.

“God I could eat a cheeseburger,” he commented as his hand went to his stomach. “Wait. Was that it? Was that you?”

You started to smile but then you focused on him some more. There was surprise, under the surface, but you had to actually look for it. It didn’t come out of nowhere.

“I have control?”

Tony clapped his hands together. Then he reached out for your bracelet and tossed it into the trash can.

“It was a prototype anyways. We’ll get one together just in case, but I think we can say you’re off the bench for now.”

You laughed and tossed your arms around his neck.

“Thank you Tony.”

“Yeah, yeah, now let’s get something to eat. Seriously, I’m starving.”

------

A few days after his release, you found Loki in the library. He looked up as you entered as if he knew it was you.

Maybe he did.

“Thank you. Because of what you did, I have control now.”

“I know,” he said with a smile. “Thor said you’ll be going on a mission with them soon to celebrate.”

Yeah, you’d heard that as well. It was exciting, if a little daunting.

“It might do you some good to continue to train with me, if you wish. To perfect your talents.”

You smiled. Then you moved over to sit beside him. Now that you had control, you let your mind open to try to read him.

Silence. You frowned and tried again.

“Because of my powers, I can protect myself,” he said with a tap of his fingers to his temple, a grin on his lips. “I do appreciate the effort though.”

You laughed and looked down at your hands. Nervousness settled over you.

“I just thought if I could read your emotions, I could know if…”

If he was interested in you. If your feelings had influenced him at all.

“You could never influence me, I promise.”

You opened your mouth to ask how he knew that’s what you were thinking, but then you remembered. He’d been in your head. Besides seeing just how horrifically all of your past relationships had ended, he would have felt how you felt about him.

He was putting you at ease. Your nerves started to rise and either he could tell, or he just knew you that well already.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

You met his eyes and smiled, a little breathless as you thought about the possibilities.

“Not uncomfortable. Just...nervous.”

He leaned in towards you, his grin nearly blinding until his lips met yours.

You didn’t need to be nervous anymore.

Thanks for reading!

#loki #loki x reader #loki imagine #loki fanfic #my writing

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awellboiledicicle · 2 years

Text

Still kinda wish i’d somehow been able to talk someone into letting me write about the dystopia version of NYC for my senior project.

Just because the protag of that one is basically Connecticut Clark levels of Some Dude that i pushed my hallucinations on because i didn’t know what to call them at the time. He was also technically dead and only not because a time displaced dimension hopping alien accidentally made him juuuuust miss being ran over by a truck. Which also means 10 years later after he’s dealt with most people forgetting he exists if they don’t interact with him every day, the alien basically breaks into his state issued apartment and tells him she accidentally made him the one thing that can stop the apocalypse. She also eats all his yogurt and keeps killing people that break into the apartment. She avoids arrest expressly because no one can agree on if she’s actually the one who did it--since her cloaking To Look Human works weird on earth and scrambles almost all info on her they try to take down. John Doe, the Dude, is only not blamed for it because the police literally forget why he’s in the squad car by the time they start the damn thing.

He also really liked his coworkers because they didn’t forget him, and that was largely because they were insectoids running a smuggling operation through a wormhole in the basement of the office building and they just kinda assumed his existential vagueness was like theirs and rolled with it. Thir, the alien, informs him that since the timeline of earth’s dimension deeply does not like alterations from its set path it sort of smoothed over his impact and made it extremely hard for big events to make ripples if he’s involved. She’s less saying he’s The Chosen One and more using him to blunt force her way through a realities spanning mechanized millipede melting this version of reality. Because it physically cannot see him as a human being to be deconstructed.

Averting the apocalypse largely involved pushing him into dimensional anchor sites around the globe before things synced up again and Thir decides to use him against the millipede and he really has the choice of either going with her to do the thing, or undoing all the work they just did by staying in his reality and causing the timestream to keep pushing in on itself.

I didn’t fully grasp the concept of like, most of what i wanted to write about there, but boy did i sure have fun writing about how there’d been a totalitarian uprising that razed a bunch of the country’s bigger cities and converted most things into factories/stark row housing, followed by an overthrow of that regime and people trying to figure out what to do after all that. Also megacorporation's had a hand in forcing policy through to the point that the reinstated US government was largely funded by them and a constant threat that something worse than nuclear weapons was being developed was the only thing that kept the other countries of the world from capitalizing on the vulnerability of the US. hahaha glad none of that could possibly be realistic. eh..heh...

But it did dovetail into another story about nanobots and fucked up lab conditions that turned into a fugitive storyline involving an extended time of the protags living under the ice in the great lakes, breathing through the cultivation of algae under their skin until they could thaw.

Highschool me had two things: massive depression and massive creativity and my god

#mok thoughts #Donit reblarg

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alirhi · 3 years

Text

WF chapter 18

Title: Winter's Frost Chapter: 18/? Fandom: MCU Rating: R to be on the safe side Pairing: Loki/Bucky Summary: Loki never told anyone the real reason he became so obsessed with Midgard. Much better to let them think he wanted to hurt his brother than draw their attention to the one thing in the universe that makes the God of Mischief truly vulnerable.

"If I hadn't carefully orchestrated it myself, I'd be deeply embarrassed that I was defeated by this band of buffoons!"

Bucky shook his head, hiding a smile as he ran his fingers through Loki's dark hair. "Just because you're a genius doesn't mean they're idiots. They might prove helpful."

Rolling his eyes, Loki grumbled, "It took them three days and the deaths of eighty innocent people to even bother trying to assemble a team."

"And who killed those people?"

He tensed. "A building collapsed on them! It was hardly my fault. Though they were quick to assign the blame to me, of course."

"If a building collapsed on them, can you really blame The Avengers for not rallying in time to save them?"

"James?"

"Hm?"

Shaking his head, he framed his lover's infuriatingly pretty face with both hands and kissed him. "Do be a dear and shut up."

Bucky smirked. "Put my mouth to better use, then."

"Haven't I already?"

"Alright, that's enough!" Stark chose that moment to burst through the door he'd locked them behind so he and the other Avengers could argue uninterrupted. "Frosty, Manchurian Candidate, you're up. And quit slobbering all over each other! I didn't put you in here to make a porno."

"I didn't ask you to film us," Loki shot back, his playful smirk turning into a grin when he felt Bucky tense and shake beneath him with suppressed laughter.

"Can he even consent?" He glanced at Bucky. "Can you even...? Do you even know what sex is? Just how scrambled is your brain?"

"I've got a kid," Bucky reminded him, all amusement gone from his suddenly steely expression. "I think I've got a pretty good handle on the process, yeah. My memory's spotty at best, but I'm not a robot." Under his breath, he grumbled, "Just make sure Natalia-sorry, Natasha – sticks to English, and we'll be fine."

"No one will ever use those words against you again," Loki swore, letting out an irritated huff at Stark's pointed look and making a grand show of his reluctance to comply as he peeled himself off of his beloved's lap. "Well? What is it you need?"

"Information. What this Thanos guy is after, where he's going, how long we've got... We need to know what you know."

"In general? We haven't that much time." Bucky pinched his arm and Loki rolled his eyes again. "Pertaining to the issue at hand, I'm afraid I've very little to offer." Still, he and Bucky followed Stark back out into the main room, hand in hand, to face the rest of the rather tense people who still believed Loki had been trying to kill them only a week earlier.

"Why should we trust you?" Banner asked him point-blank before he'd even reached the table the others were seated around.

Loki snorted. "Oh, heavens, don't! Never trust anyone."

"Loki..."

Sighing, he gave Thor a snarky look and went on, "If I think there's even a chance your deaths will save my family, I will not hesitate to push any one of you in front of a blade or blast. My partner and daughter are my priority, first and always."

"For the record," Bucky piped up somewhat timidly, even adorably raising his hand like a schoolchild. He cast Rogers an apologetic look and mumbled, "Same. I love you, Steve – I barely remember you, but I love you like a very annoying kid brother. But if it ever comes to a choice between saving you or Eira, you're a human shield and I'm running very far away with her."

To his credit, Rogers laughed and ruffled his childhood friend's hair. "Even without your memories, you're still the same protective, pragmatic Buck. I wouldn't have it any other way. Anyone here take issue with parents prioritizing their child's life?"

Thor chuckled, looking uncomfortable. "I'll happily smack some sense into anyone who does. She's a baby; there should never be a second's hesitation."

"Speaking of shields," Loki cut in, hiding a surprised smile at the unexpected support and attempting to get the conversation back on track, "are we going to address the issue of HYDRA operatives within SHIELD's ranks as a group, or am I left to indiscriminately annihilate them all myself?"

"What?!"

"HYDRA infiltrated SHIELD?!"

"I keep telling you not to trust those shady government types."

"Fury's one of those 'shady government types' and he saved your ass, Stark!"

"Oh, did he? Is that what you call firing a nuke at New York City?"

"Fury didn't do that and you know it!"

"Um, no. I don't know that, actually. What I know is that your bosses tried to level Manhattan and I almost died on the wrong side of a wormhole to space, so trusting them? Not high on my list right now."

"For Frigga's sake!" Loki shouted, dropping his head into his hands. "No bloody wonder you people needed my help to 'defeat' me!"

Five incredulous stares – along with one embarrassed and one greatly amused – met this exclamation. Grateful that the stares at least came with silence, he began ticking points off on his fingers as he spoke. "Creating a scene in Germany so I'd be easy to find, allowing you to 'capture' me..." ensuring Thor's relative safety while getting him out of my way. Even with their gradually mending relationship, he'd never admit that aloud. Allowing the thought to pass by unvoiced, he skipped to the next: "Keeping that vessel you were on from falling apart or crashing before you could repair the turbine, setting up the portal in the most painfully obvious place on your little planet! Waiting around for you to catch up, ensuring Stark had safeguards in place before ejecting him out of a window so he wouldn't die – I quite like you, Stark. I would truly have hated to see you splattered on the pavement."

"Um... Thanks?"

Romanov was still staring at him as though he'd grown another head. He was tempted to do so, just to see if the saying proved true, or if her expression would actually change. "So you're saying you lost on purpose?"

"Oh, did you think five little humans actually brought down a God?" The mocking smile he gave her, and her sour look in return, brought him such immense joy that for a brief, shining moment, he almost forgot that the entire universe was in mortal peril. "That is adorable."

For the briefest of moments, he'd also forgotten about Banner. He cringed when from the other end of the table he heard a quiet, "Should I let the other guy out to play and see how 'adorable' you still think we are?"

"Even the beast won't be able to stand against Thanos," Loki pointed out, hiding his discomfort and getting back to the main topic. "And now that you have two of the artifacts he's hunting for, he'll be coming straight for you."

"No, we don't." Barton's tone started out casually dismissive, but grew more concerned as he went on. "I mean, they're here on the planet, but we don't have them."

Everyone seated around the table seemed to realize the full implications of the shit storm ahead of them at once. As expressions crumbled from bored or concerned to alarmed and then to an odd combination of panicked and weary, Romanov groaned. "SHIELD has them."

Loki was beginning to think he should simply glue his hand to his face. "I hate you all."

___________________________________________________

Next Masterlist

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gospelofme · 3 years

Text

Super Nova

Chapter 2: The Offer

A year after that encounter with Master Tarrek, Sayriel would find herself on a transport leaving the atmosphere of Yavin IV, all of her possessions fit into a backpack. She didn’t have much, so it didn’t take her but minutes to pack.

A grand total of 15 years had passed since that encounter now. A 32 year old Sayriel stood under a stream of hot water, the steam of her shower fogging up the refresher. She had been too tired to shower the night before, so she made a point to get up early and wash up. Dried blood and dirt flowed off her body and swirled down the drain. She had found herself thinking back to that conversation with Master Tarrek. She still had issues with meditation, but it was most likely because she didn’t practice it much anymore. There were some thoughts she didn’t want to confront and areas of her mind that she refused to explore. She briefly wondered if she had made the right decision regarding leaving the sect on Yavin IV. They were pushing you out more and more every day. They wanted you to leave, they were practically showing you to the door. She reminded herself as she turned off the water. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her now clean body. She bent over the sink and twisted excess water out of her long, dark brown hair.

After finishing her morning routine, Sayriel got dressed and checked her datapad for any messages. She frowned when she noticed one new notification. She didn’t really feel like seeing him today, but he was often associated with credits, which she did feel like accumulating more of. She already had a job she needed to complete today, so his message would need to wait. She dressed in dark grey pants and a white shirt. She paired this with black boots that hugged her mid-calf securely. They had seen better days but they were sturdy and still did their job. The thick soles protected her from broken glass to semi-molten metals. Plus they were fun to kick people with when she needed to. She secured her blaster to the holster on her thigh and her lightsaber was securely hidden in a pocket on her pant leg. After downing some caf for breakfast, and left her small apartment. Corellia was still largely asleep, but some businesses were starting to open up. The sun was just beginning to show itself at the horizon.

She walked in the direction of the landing pads where her ship was parked and hopefully awaiting the shipment of it’s cargo. She passed a few businesses on her way, some still securely locked up and others being set up for the customers that would eventually arrive. She knew a couple of the shop owners, a few of the market vendors, and the guy who ran the shipyard she used, but that was it. She didn’t want to be too known. Besides, she didn’t know how long she’d call Corellia home. Once at the shipyard, she typed in her access code and the gate slide open slowly. She found her ship on pad D4 and sure enough there was a Twi’lek male waiting for her with a stack of crates and a service droid. Sayriel smirked, at least he was on time this morning.

“Is this my shipment of Burra fish?” She inquired once she was closer in range.

“Yup, packed with the industrial ice packs as requested.” The Twi’lek responded. “I just need you to sign for them and I’ll have my droid load them onto your ship.” The vendor gestured to her Allanar N3 freighter, The Revenge. Sayriel took the datapad he held out for her and inspected the manifest and then opened one of the crates. Sure enough the fillets lay neatly wrapped surrounded by plenty of the industrial-grade ice packs. She checked all 10 crates and was pleased with all of them. She signed for the shipment and the Twi’lek’s droid set to work loading them onto her ship.

“So where are all these crates going?” The Twi’lek asked, making small talk. Sayriel hated small talk.

“Somewhere.” She replied with a “that’s all you need to know” smile. The man took the hint and didn’t try to continue the conversation.

Once the crates were securely loaded, Sayriel settled herself into the pilot’s seat and started her ship up. Within moments she was soaring through the atmosphere of Corellia and soon after that she was out among the stars. It was her favorite place to be truthfully. After a few calculations, she jumped to hyperspace and settled in for the two hour journey. She decided to try her hand at meditation again, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing. A quick series of beeps jolted her awake, it was time to drop out of hyperspace. She must��ve fallen asleep during her attempted meditation. Honestly that wouldn’t be the first time that has happened. Nar Shaddaa loomed in her viewport and Sayr piloted her way through the atmosphere to Wormstew Town. She had always wondered how that place got its name, but felt that she didn’t want to truly know the answer.

“This is Nova, I’m in route to Wormstew with your shipment of Burra fillets.” She commed her contact’s frequency. There was a crackle of static and then a reply for her to land on platform C5. She did as instructed and disembarked once she landed. She was met by a human male and a Rodian with a datapad. The Rodian scanned the cargo once it was unloaded and gave a nod to his human counterpart

“Looks like everything is in order,” the man said, lifting the lids on each crate and inspecting the contents. He pulled out of the ice packs and held it between his hands. “The hospital will be most pleased with this generous donation from your benefactor. Now if you come with me, I’ll get your delivery fee sorted.” He added, gesturing for Sayr to follow him to a small building near the platforms. The man tossed the industrial-grade ice pack from hand to hand casually.

Upon entering the small building, which was essentially 4 walls, a ceiling, and a desk, Sayr was greeted by a female Twi’lek. She was dressed in hospital garb, but Sayr could spot the outline of a blaster under her white coat. The man handed the woman the ice pack, who then carefully opened it along one edge. She took a test strip out of her coat pocket and dipped it into the substance that was starting to soften. The test strip emerged blue and the woman smiled.

“The bacta is still viable. This will help immensely. The Hutts have cornered the market on this stuff and are charging much more than we can ever afford.” The woman explained. Sayr found it disgusting how one life form could withhold live-saving equipment or substances from another. Bacta was an essential hospital tool and to charge an insane amount of credits for it just because they can was monstrous. This shipment of about 240 total frozen Bacta packs wasn’t a lot but at least they’ll be able to have some at the hospital here and send some to the smaller clinics they were affiliated with. She felt good participating with these causes, as she felt it helped balance out the unpleasant ones that also found their way into her calendar.

The credit transfer took place and Sayr took her leave of the pair, passing by the crates on their way to the hospital. She noted a male Zabrak leaning against the edge of her ship, she knew who he was. As she got closer she could make out the stupid smile on his stupid face. She had hoped he would’ve waited for her to answer his earlier message, but no. He felt the need to follow her here instead.

“What do you want Varex?” She asked with a weary tone. The Zabrak pushed himself off the side of her ship and scrambled up onto the loading ramp to block her way. Sayr tried to side-step him and he moved to match her. She stopped and gave him a glare.

“I just want 15 minutes of your time. I have an offer that I think you’ll be interested in.” Varex said, he sounded excited but that could just be a ploy to get her to agree.

“And what if I say no?” She countered, trying to side step him. He moved to still block her.

“Then I’ll follow you until you say yes.” He replied, Sayr knew he was serious and gave a weary sigh. She didn’t have any other job lined up right now anyways. She didn’t have to say anything, the look she gave the Zabrak pirate told him she agreed.

“Great!” He jumped off the edge of the landing ramp and back onto the platform. Sayriel made sure her ship was secured tightly and followed the pirate into town.

She followed him to a cantina fittingly dubbed The Wormhole. They walked through the small crowd at the front and settled in a back booth. A waitress came over and gave them both menus and said she’d be back in a bit to take their orders. Sayr folded her arms on the table top in front of her as Varex made himself comfortable in the seat across from her.

“So, it’s been a couple months.” He noted, Sayriel smirked.

“Is this a business proposition or a catching up meeting? Because time started when we walked through that door. You have 12 minutes left.” Sayr responded, sitting back and crossing her arms across her chest. She wasn’t interested in talking about the “old days” or what she had “been up to”. The Zabrak raises his hands in mock surrender and was about to get down to business when the waitress returned. Varex ordered the house-made Ale and Sayr got herself a Sparkling Stardust. Their drinks arrived quickly and Sayr took a sip of the sweet glittery drink. Varex shook his head amusedly.

“What?” Sayriel asked with a raised eyebrow, “a woman like myself can’t enjoy a girly drink?” She added with a teasing smirk.

“It’s just odd to see a woman like you sipping a glittery drink, I’ve seen you do some very unladylike things.” Varex explained, Sayriel shrugged in acknowledgement. The Zabrak then got down to the reason why he had followed her to Nar Shaddaa.

“A collector on Coruscant contacted me with a very intriguing job opportunity. He is a purveyor of ancient artifacts and has heard of some items of a Force-like nature hidden in caches on a few different planets.” Varex began. Sayr narrowed her eyes at the term “Force-like”. She had a feeling she knew why Varex had contacted her.

“What are these items of a Force-like nature?” She asked, eyes still narrowed at Varex. The Zabrak looked around to make sure no one was paying too much attention.

“I can’t say here, but I can tell you that they’re very old and very valuable.” Varex said, leaning forward. Sayriel stayed with her back against her booth seat. She wore an unimpressed expression on her face.

“What are they? Master Yoda’s bedtime slippers?” Sayriel asked sarcastically. Varex gave her a confused look in return.

“I don’t know who that is…but you can’t wear these I don’t think.” Varex replied, Sayriel rolled her eyes and leaned forward.

“So are you asking me because you value my company and think I make a wonderful work partner? Or is it because I have some tricks that will make these things very easy for you to find?” Varex didn’t hesitate with this reply.

“Both, but mainly the second thing.” Sayriel frowned and leaned back in her booth again, Varex quickly adding, “but also the first thing. You are a delight to have on the ship.” Sayriel held his gaze for a couple beats more and then turned her attention to her drink. She did appreciate his honesty and she did find his offer interesting. He drank his ale quickly and waited for her to finish her drink, which didn’t take long. Sparkling Stardust was always served in a small, delicate, wide-rimmed glass. But it was worth it.

“Okay fine, what the kriff. You were right, this sounds interesting.” She answered, Varex smiling in relief. Her joining his crew, even if on a temp basis, would make this mission so much easier. The two left the cantina, Varex paying for Sayriel’s drink on the way out. Varex gave Sayriel the coordinates to the current safe house. They both then parted ways and Sayriel found herself back out in space, surrounded by stars and silence.

Tag list

@jgvfhl @nelba @leias-left-hair-bun

@baby-queen-zen @halzore @escapedthesarlacc

#star wars #star wars fanfics #star wars fanfiction #original grey Jedi character #clone trooper kix #clone medic kix #post order 66 #zabrak #smuggling is fun #smuggler #good intentions #bacta

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n5md · 3 years

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Cloudwalker

In our newly relaunched "Learn more about..." interviews, we switch up the continuity slightly and focus on just one release: Gimmik's Cloudwalker. Martin kindly agreed to answer a few questions to kick off what we'll refer to as v2 of the "Learn More About..." blog.

While Entre Les Chambres was the actual return of Gimmik to the public eye, Cloudwalker is more of a return to form. It is undeniably Gimmik; however, Cloudwalker treads some new ground for you. Can you shed some light on how the creative process changed from Entre Les Chambres / Deux Nouvelles and how those two albums might have influenced Cloudwalker?

Very well observed - they did influence Cloudwalker! Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were both produced under technically limited circumstances. On top of that, I thought that no one will ever hear this material. Luckily it was not the case, and I got the chance to become a member of the n5MD family. When you produce with the idea that the material will never get released, it gives you a lot of room and space. You are not concerned about expectations. The music can flow and evolve freely. The calm nature of those albums helped that process. It was research where I experienced myself more as a witness than a composer. For me, that is a new approach. This approach was still the same when I produced Cloudwalker. That is the reason why the tracks are so diverse. Short Wave Memories and In My Family do not have anything in common, but that is the way they evolved, without me constructing anything. The most significant difference is that Cloudwalker was produced in a proper studio environment. Plus, I took a step into eurorack, which brings a very unpredictable element. And yes, that is Mutable Elements "Rings'' what you hear on In My Family. I was working on a self-generative patch with "Marbles'' when all of a sudden, the melody appeared...

I think you sent me In My Family shortly after you finished it, and it was one of the darkest days of the early pandemic; where our local government-issued curfews and such. It was the track that I needed at that moment; it brightened my day. It's very cool that the melody was a generative experiment gone right. I seem to remember you have quite a bit of the Mutable Instruments modules. Modular, to me, seems like a bit of a wormhole of experimentation. So, how do you stay focused when experimenting with new sounds and textures to bring, say, one of your Modular Nature tracks, which you have on your Youtube channel, to life.

Working with a modular system is entirely different. My approach is always a question. What will happen if I connect this with that and modulate with this? Then you start patching, and the results are entirely different from what I expected - a lot more exciting and better! In the beginning, I thought modular was about rebuilding synth voices. So I started emulating the signal-flow path of a 101 for a start. I missed the whole point of modular... A system has a life of its own and takes you to completely different places, and sometimes I do not even understand the results. (-: But that is not important. The decision to work with modular is to avoid walking down paths I have taken too many times when composing. What keeps you focused is your ear. The trick is to learn when to stop. In the beginning, I lost a lot of great patches when the result was already at 90%. When trying to reach 100%, my tweaks destroyed that patch's beauty, and I never found a way back to 90%. That happened a lot of times in the beginning. A modular system really helps to learn when to let go… (laughing). I chose Mutable Instruments because those modules are very focused on musical and harmonic results.

So, going back to Cloudwalker, how did it feel getting back to basics as far as Gimmik goes. People may not know that Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were made for very personal listening. Care to shed a little light on those two, and more importantly, what made you want to go past those themes and bring Gimmik full circle for Cloudwalker?

Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were NOT a conscious decision. Those were a necessity! The title Entre Les Chambres means "between two rooms", the space that is between two rooms. That is nowhere! It mirrors how I felt at that moment. There were many significant changes in my life, luckily nothing concerning my family, but still major changes. In order to cope with it all, I started making ambient tracks. It was the only thing that helped me to cope and focus again. The tracks happened by themselves. Listening to them and working on those albums was a calming experience. When they were finished, I played them to Chris, and he convinced me that he liked them. That led to the decision to make those first tapes. Later I sent them to you. Your reaction was very motivating because the music got released. With that motivation and getting back into a studio environment, the Cloudwalker tracks just poured out of me very quickly - it felt terrific to go back to the studio. My family gave me the time to work in my studio, and you and Chris gave very motivating feedback! From my perspective, this makes Cloudwalker my most important album so far, and I am very thankful for this chance! Another key element is that you gave me total freedom regarding artwork, choosing tracks, and their order. Just great!

Well, I knew going in that you know what you are doing. So I shouldn't have needed to step in and manage such details. For release prep, I'm available to take care of the details that an artist doesn't have access to or the working knowledge. You and Chris ran Toytronics, and you are a graphic artist as well, so I knew that you know the drill. If something was glaring or didn't work under the n5 stylistic umbrella, it is my job to say something, but I was pretty confident that wouldn't happen. I also know that after you completed the tracks, you took a great deal of time to get them to flow perfectly and also fit on four LP sides—your care in craft shows, and it's been great to work with you.

You brought up Chris, and there is an Abfahrt Hinwl remix on Cloudwalker, so; I'm going to ask. Are we going to hear some new Abfahrt Hinwl soon?

Thank you, as I said, that means a lot to me. And I still think that it is a fortunate situation. The AH RMX of Sailing Everest on Cloudwalker was just me, to be honest. That is why I used an abbreviation - AH. It is more a hint. It has a lot of the Abfahrt Hinwil ingredients. We tried to revive the project and realized that working over a distance via the internet does not work for either of us. The key of Abfahrt Hinwil was that we worked in the same room, at the same time, with the same equipment - listening to what the other one does - giving an immediate reaction. The most important point is communication, which has to happen immediately - you need to respond straight away, not with a delay. Today we find ourselves in two different life situations. We both would like to continue. After an online experiment, we realized it would be only possible when we visit each other and then work in the same studio. That is not possible at the moment, and Covid plays a significant role in that.

Ah, I see; Abfahrt Hinwil was you and Chris basically feeding off one another; also, there are cheques and balances, which is great to have. I completely understand why it would not be feasible to do it from a distance effectively. So, I'd like to pivot to these little builds I see on your Instagram. You recently sent me a pic of a peculiar little box that looks to be a synth. Assuming this is something you built (loving the stickering, by the way). What is this, and does it appear on Cloudwalker?

(laughing) That is a drone box handmade by a guy in Russia. Six oscillators, each one with a kill switch. Three standard range oscillators and 3 Sub. A very rough-sounding machine, great for drones. The filter sounds very nasty, just great. There is a little bit in the track Cloudwalker itself but washed out by Big Sky. The downside is that there is no midi, trigger gate, or voltage control. It is more of an experiment tool. The important parts of the track Cloudwalker have Mutable Instruments: Plaits and Tides 1, using the Sheep mode. Both outputs went into Warps, modulated by Stages. The little melody was played live on the Yamaha DX Reface, going into the Big Sky. It was all recorded live onto tape to 4 tracks to a Tascam 234. Then it was mixed the classic way, patchbay, fx, analog mixer main out to digital. 75% of the album was recorded to a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II.

It sounds like your Big Sky gets some action! Strymon makes some exceptional pedals. It seems like you can almost entirely make music out of the box if you needed to, which is excellent. So one last question: When we collaborated on the Cloudwalker one sheet text, you added something about the production tools "representing technology from 1958 to 2019," and I asked if 1958 was a type-o that needed to be corrected to 1985 when it was not. When people read that, I think they will be very curious as to what technology you utilized from that far back…

Yes, it is a great pedal, I love the sound and the fact that you get nice results very quickly.

1958- (laughing) There is an on oscilloscope from Russia, which can be seen in some of the videos on HIDDEN REALITY, and 2 vintage function generators. I got those old function generators from a close friend, he is an electronic engineer and professor for physics at a university. They got rid of all their old equipment, and he asked if I wanted to have something. He could not throw those old machines away, so he rescued them to his cellar. He changed the connections for me, so I can use them with the modular environment, using my standard patch cables. I used them a lot as modulation sources, as they can modulate extremely slow (like MI tides). But I have to admit that I got them for their looks in the first place…(laughing) - Those machines look like the machinery you see in Qs research center in old James Bond movies...

Order Cloudwalker now: US / UK / EU

Learn even more about Gimmik

#Bandcamp #mutable instruments #IDM #experimental electronica #gimmik #toytronic #Abfahrt Hinwl #n5MD #Austria #ambient

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