#not me taking the designs from every single adaptation and merging them together in my own unholy canon

[still-snowing]

oh the blood and the treasure

and then losing it all

#wei wuxian #jiang cheng #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #my art! #not me taking the designs from every single adaptation and merging them together in my own unholy canon #also I’ve never drawn wei wuxian the same way twice and you know what that’s okay #these lyrics remind me so much of this section of the story #please join me in my yunmeng shuangjie feelings

[ginanosakka]

Let It Go

Masterlist

Mistakes Were Made | Next

Your mother was an acquaintance to you; someone who you bonded with on the meer coincidence of them being in the same room as you. There was faint memories of her in your head, most of them blurring together because you two did one thing when you were together: shop. After she married your dad, she became a stay at home mom that was never home once you were no longer breast fed. Jun, your personal maid, was your primary caretaker as you grew up despite the fact that she hated children. Often, you’d forget you even had a mother until you find your way around the house to the common room where she might be on her way to her next adventure and invite you.

Still, when the dust settled after your pregnancy she showed you that she was more on your side than you thought. Not much, but enough to be able to call her when you needed answers only she could give you.

“You’ve become so fragile, I have no idea where all this anxiety you have stems from, but it couldn’t have been your father and I.” Your mother stated bluntly as you let her into your home.

You chuckled dryly but couldn’t rebuttal — your face was puffy from crying and there were bags under your eyes from lack of sleep. It looked like you could drop at any moment, so her observation was fair. It wasn’t like you expected anything less than brutal honesty from her, she had been criticizing you since you were a kid. If it wasn’t for her, you probably never would have put up with Katsuki’s behavior. You still wondered if she had you to have an occasional shopping partner, or just to appease your father.

“Where’s the child?” She asked as she examined your house for signs of him coming.

“If he was here I wouldn’t have invited you. You know that.” You said pointedly, plopping down on your couch and letting her run her fingers across the wall to soak in the minor details of your house.

The most contact she had with you since your absence was the rare phone call or text, but you never invited her into your home. You always believed that would be inviting your past back in and letting it hurt you again.

Obviously, the past refused to be kept under wraps whether you willingly invited it to your door or not.

Your mother sighed, “you’ve grown so much but so little. I’m going to assume that boy came back, right? The one that caused all this mess?” You only nodded in response, holding yourself tightly on the couch as if you were trying to keep all your pieces together. “Frankly, I’m disappointed. . You raised a bastard child on your own, you went from running around like some street urchin to creating a company designed to create opportunities for those quirk freaks, and yet you still can’t let go of such a small-“

“It was my life, mom. I wanted to be all of their friends and love them for who they were: kids who just wanted to save people and help the ones they cared about. Bakugou meant everything to me, and you both had to know that to bribe him to stay with me for so long. You love people the way you want them to love you, that’s something I learned on my own, and I applied that to every single person I could.” You looked her in her golden eyes with your own glistening with the tears you thought had run dry long before she got here.

“You know what he called me? A spoiled princess who didn’t know what it was like to not get what she wanted, like me wanting him to love me back was a car or a new purse,” you let out another dry laugh as a tear fell. “That’s what it felt like to be your daughter too, you know. That’s what it felt like to be alive and in dad’s shadow. So when I had Ryu. . this little baby boy who I had to fight tooth and nail to keep. . I did everything I could to show him that I loved him, because I didn’t want him to wake up one day and realize no one in this world loved him as much as he loved them like I did. It isn’t fair that all it takes is Katsuki showing up to turn him against me! None of this is fair!”

You’d never seen your mother cry, she was always smiling, either snarkily or cheerily, and if not she was capable of showing neutrality. Not even as she watched you be dragged into your doorstep did she even frown, and she barely twitched your lips when you were in the hospital. Maybe it was because you rarely saw her in the first place, but you truly believed she swore off certain emotions.

It was no surprise that she could listen to you pour your heart out about the emotional abuse and neglect you faced; she wasn’t capable of feeling sorry for you. That fact hurt when Katsuki left and she didn’t care to comfort you, it hurt when you told them you were pregnant and she only looked away when your father dragged you out onto the lawn when you refused to abort it, but there was no more pain left for you to feel from her. No, you needed her to be this way in this moment.

Your mother paused before she spoke again, but when she found the words she was looking for she wasted not another second. “I don’t know what your father taught you exactly, but I know for sure he taught you that nothing in this life is fair. Things will never go your away unless you make them, or have you forgotten that time he made three small businesses go bankrupt when they refused to merge with his company?”

“I-“

“I’m not here to listen to you whine about your simple-minded father, Y/N! You said you wanted to be better than us and give him better, but where is he now? You prattle on about how I didn’t love you and how I wasn’t there for you, but your son needs you now and you’re sitting in this garage of a home crying about your childhood.” She lectured you with her voice so even and condescending that you flinched slightly.

‘Is she right? . . I always say I’m moving on from my past, but I always keep it in the back of my mind and let those memories play in mind instead of accepting it as something I’d never be able to change. . I treated Katsuki and Mina with the past in mind, and that lead to all of this. What happened to me wasn’t fair, but she’s right: nothing in life is fair. The best thing I could do for me and my son is to move on even if you still don’t trust them.’

You stood from the couch and wiped your tears away, moving past your mother down the hall to your bedroom to change. “Excuse me, I have to go get my son. You can show yourself out,” you waved her off.

Your mother watched you walk away with a warmth filling her chest that she hadn’t felt in years. A small — real — smile was on her lips, but she’d never tell you how much love she had for you now. It was too late for her to turn back the hands of time and be a real mother, the one you deserved, but it wasn’t too late for you.

“There’s nothing like a mother’s love,” she chuckled as she walked out the door.

“I really can’t believe it,” Kirishima said as he watched Ryu run around Katsuki’s apartment without pause.

It took some time for Ryu to stop crying when Katsuki finally got him to his apartment — mostly because he didn’t know what the hell to do to calm him down — but when he finally took his mind off of Y/N, he became focused on asking Katsuki questions again. From how he beat certain villains, to what his favorite color was. Katsuki somehow kept calm with the miniature version of himself, letting him talk and answering all his questions while making them both dinner. His natural observant nature helped him pick up on small things Ryu would do that would indicate what he wanted when he was too preoccupied to tell him, like how he unconsciously rubbed his stomach when he got hungry.

When he finally got tired, Katsuki took him to one of his spare bedrooms in his large apartment, helping him get comfortable on the large bed after changing him into the pajamas he had packed himself. Ryu still didn’t let him leave to get his own sleep, asking him to stay until he was fully asleep, and he couldn’t say no and risk him crying all over again. So he stayed well into the night until he was sure that he was asleep and slipped into his own bed, long after what he usually would every night.

Katsuki could remember his mother yelling about all she had to put with when he was little, but he never imagined he’d be doing these things himself. Especially not getting up early to exercise before his son woke up so he could make him breakfast, or watching a miniature version of himself sleep to make sure he was breathing.

It scared him how easily he adapted, but most of all, it scared him how happy he was to be doing it all. His world centered around him only just a few days ago, now Ryu and you occupied his thoughts. It was clear to Bakugou, and to everyone who had the displeasure of getting too close to him, that there was no room for a domestic lifestyle, but here he was with the son he never wanted taking care of him as if he’d been there since birth.

Kirishima had come over awhile after Ryu had finished eating — a much harder task than Bakugou thought of it would be due to the fact that Ryu thoroughly enjoyed making a mess with syrup and eggs — when he found out his friend had taken off work for an unforeseen amount of time, which was highly unusual since Katsuki usually worked beyond what he was asked too. Often overshadowing other smaller heroes by taking down small crime.

He expected for his best friend to be sick to the point where he couldn’t stand — the only reason he wouldn’t put his hero costume on — but instead he was greeted by two Bakugous when the door opened; both healthy and unscathed.

It was safe to say that Eijiro was more than a little surprised to hear the explanation to how Katsuki had constructed another version of himself. Even more so surprised to find out that it wasn’t some robot, and Katsuki actually had actually touched another human being in a non-harmful way to create human life.

“You trying to say I’m some freak who can’t have kids?” Katsuki hissed, but the threat was barely there since he was more focused on watching Ryu’s every movement than fighting Eiji.

Kirishima laughed, “of course not. It just didn’t seem like something you ever wanted. You never expressed any interest in ladies, not even when Y/N was around, but I guess you’re just a private guy.” His smile faltered as a he thought, “I wish you would have told me something though, I didn’t even know you and Y/N still talked.”

“Because we don’t . I found out about him a few days ago, and I only just met him yesterday,” Katsuki stated simply.

“... Huh?!”

Katsuki sighed, realizing he’d have to explain this story a lot. “It’s a long story, I’ll explain later with the rest of those shitty friends of yours.”

Eiji sweat dropped, “they’re your friends too.”

“Dad doesn’t have friends! He’s too busy saving people and kicking butt!” Ryu suddenly interjected, coming between Kirishima and Bakugou since they sat on separate couches. “Everyone knows heroes like you guys only have time to do hero work!” He leaned forward towards Kirk and whispered, “I heard you don’t even have time to poop.”

Once again, Eiji sweatdropped.

“I don’t know about all that, little man. . but where’s your mom?” He decided to ask the child himself, but quickly realized that was a bad idea by the angered face of Katsuki behind the child.

“She-“

A knock at the door interrupted the child and his attention was instantly shifted to who was behind it, running as fast as he could to the door with Katsuki behind him warning him not to open it since he didn’t know who it was. Ryu waited beside Katsuki as he opened the door, and watched as his father’s resting anger face turned puzzled.

“Sorry I didn’t warn you that I was coming, but I think you’re babysitting hours are over.”

A/N: If you guys continue to be so nice to me and my story I will have no choice but to kiss you all on the forehead. I hope you enjoy, and I love all your comments🥺❤️! This will be your last chance to added tot he taglist before it’s closed, make sure to tell me before the next chapter!

Taglist <3 : @fandomgirllover @cloudsgathering @that-bipolar-renegade-romantic @jazzylove @that-chick212 @bonbonthedragon @misssugarless @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @bakugous-bakahoe @pinkykookie17 @animexholic @arielting @samkysnks @simpforeveryone @damnirina @fireworkemoji102 @deneuves @tsumuuumiyaaaa @ladybeautiful18 @vintage-teddyxo @regalmigraine @samvmgh @iamagalaxy @officialtrashbusiness @xwackk @videogameboiwhowins @marajillana @ellasdilemma @plutoneu @saucey-kneecapzz42020 @thestarsanctuary @dewdropwifu @star-light-imagines @kritiiiii @bakugosbottombitch @the2ndl @candybabey

#bakugou x reader #bnha bakugou #bnha #x reader #bakugo x reader #bnha fanfiction #katsuki bakugo x y/n #bnha x reader #bnha angst #anime x reader #mha katsuki #bnha bakugo katsuki #my hero academia fanfiction #boku no hero academia fanfics #reblog #bnha au #aged up

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

Raclis

(Rah-ck-lee-s): a list of intelligent species that are made up by me, both alien and fantasy. This is Episode One, where we gonna see some of the races from the A litera.

(PS: I have a list of 203 fantasy/alien races and most of them are my own creation, while the others are the classical elves, centaurs, orcs and et cetera. The list is arranged in alphabetical order and for now has only the shortest descriptions: these posts will be something like a description paper for every single race. I would love questions asked and will answer them with pleasure.)

Abyss Elves

Once technically normal elves, a large group of them was sent into the Abyss (also called Aumenel) for crimes they didn’t commit. Locked here for eternity, they slowly forgot most of the information about their past. They praise the myths about the sun, the sky, a world where there is no pain and darkness. They started calling each other Foariar (Those who are without sunlight). And slowly evolved into their modern looks. Dark skin, tints of green and purple, turquoise glowing eyes, whitish pink hair. Their blood is dark purple and has an odd scent of mashed tulips.

Fast facts:

- Super good climbers and parkourists due to the terrain of the Abyss.

- Are mostly always ripped athletes. 

- When cut off, their hair will glow a pretty bright light for nearly five hours.

- In sunlight they go into an euphoric state which they hardly resist.

- Are incredible hunters and gatherers: farming in the Abyss is almost impossible.

- Abyss Elves have migrated to many other realms, especially the Spring World.

- They name their realm, Aumenel, means “without sky” in quenya.

Onomasticon: 

(for Spring World Abyss Elves)

Gender-reversed modern european and ancient greek names. (Aurorus, Eugenia, Xenis, Anastasius, Agath)

Anagrams from spanish. (Roucos, Roeherr, Cadoraz, Jerichoter, Viona)

(for Abyss inhabitants)

Quenya and latin hybridisation (Hravai, Ilmarinorum, Incatrix, Terrandil, Indos)

Ada’klo

One of the species from the realm of Emiare, which is bound to the very fabric of time. Ada’klo - as all the other races from the klo family - have something called a cycle: a period of time when they exist. Their cycle is ten years long. Thus, they live for ten years, and afterwards disappear only to appear again after the same ten years without aging anyhow. 

Fast facts: 

- Due to their cycle length they gather at the great Adakloan Temples, where their place of disappearance is kept safe.

- Ada’klo look pretty much like humans, but are slightly different on the inside, anatomically and chemically.

Onomasticon:

Use old english and european names. (Alcott, Demelza, Borden, Terrel, Sacrifice)

Ain’klo

One of the species from the Emiare realm, these members of the klo species family have a one thousand years long cycle. 

Fast facts:

- Have an incredible ancient culture which has many customs, like forced marriage (from both sides), child labour, extreme xenophobia.

- Are dangerous and non educated, will fight to death only to keep their traditions.

Onomasticon:

Use ancient babylonian names and their imitations. (Akki, Marnabu, Nazarat, Buvalu, Irigibel)

Aliquenar

A race which somehow combined all of the main features of elves, dwarves, orcs, humans and halflings. Slightly greenish skin, pointed ears, not-so-long beards, big hairy feet, no need in sleep and the ability to see over the horizon. Like jack of all trades, they have a wide set of talents and opportunities, but are masters of none. Hated among all of the species they combined in themselves, they try to live peacefully in their cities, not willing to make any conflict.

Fast facts:

- Due to the discrimination directed at them from the other races, they have a trait of being shy, polite and quiet.

- Are able to learn magic on the same level as humans.

- A legend has it that they came from a city trapped in the mountains, where all the five races met and after a long long time merged into one by breeding.

- Some may have more standing out traits of a specific compound race: as, orc tusks, elven lack of facial hair and eyelids, dwarvish height or beards, strange sexual dimorphism and others.

Onomasticon:

Use the languages and names of the humans, elves, dwarves and hobbits (orcish names are way more rare), and then, if wanted, merge them together, imitate them. (Legoli, Aiwenson, Thurwise, Kurumiel, Indis)

Alfers

Species of semiquadruped lizards with telepathic minds, which are able to evolve fast, adapting to the stressful situations. Tall two and half meters in the withers (8’2 feet) and long nearly five (16’4 feet), they are agile, omnivore and strong.

Fast facts:

- Alfers evolve fastly not only biologically, but linguistically. Their language changes so fast no one will never understand what they are saying, except some separate words, taken from other languages.

- Alfers are able to speak telepathically, but only talk: not reading thought but hearing the inner monologue of someone, thus communicating.

- They have a high regeneration factor, and are hard to kill.

Onomasticon:

Any possible names, words, abbreviations and anagrams. (Villaissa, Gerdan, Menttor, Seba, Lmne)

Anciento

Race of stickman-like, three eyed beings with high power and unreachable wisdom and intelligence. Can reproduce by giving any other living thing something they call “open intellect”, and then teach them how to turn into an anciento. Well, traditional reproducing is possible too.

Fast facts:

- While reproducing they, ironically, do not know how to turn back into their original state.

- Know a wide spectrum of using life energy for different purposes.

- Are able to fall into an anabiosis state for a long time.

- Are almost instinct.

Onomasticon:

Names are mostly two syllables, unisex, and have no meaning, because of their proverb “You mean nothing at birth: give your name a meaning by yourself”. (Koni, Jaro, Neho, Mibta, Vere)

Androids of Binarica

Robots made by the techno-magic goddess-planet Binarica. Are unique from other robots by their design: solid parts are slowly merging into soft ones, and they look humane but have slightly object-like heads.

Fast facts:

- Were being enslaved for many centuries by other races of Binarica.

- All of them by custom have light-blue photosensors (eyes).

- Follow directives, which can be changed by hacking.

- Feel emotions and have souls.

Onomasticons:

Leet, deites on abbreviations, scientifical termins, or even all at once. (M45 T4R, G3x2x2, S5Z2, Tetratom, Cleleven Zero)

Anmanibes/Ri’be’li

Species from a far realm of jungles and plains, anmanibes have some unique features. First of all, they have no arms. At all. Down to the shoulderblades - no arms. But thye have a compensation for this flaw: the ability for telekinesis, and many other paranormal abilities. Anmanibes (which means “armless”) call themselves Ri’be’li - “the second born children of the gods”. They are digitigrade and have a pretty long lizard-like tail they use for balance. 

Fast facts:

- Ri’be’li are one of my favourite races.

- The paranormal abilities they are known to posess are: channeling (speaking with spirits and other paranormal deities), levitation, telekinesis, telepathy, biolocation, materialisation, atmokinesis, aeromancy, pyromancy, thermokinesis, teleportation, television, precognition, and other.

- Have two pairs of eyelids: one for blinking and one for “television”, or also called telescopic vision.

- Have ears which are suspiciously pointed, like those of elves.

- One myth from their culture says that the ri’be’li were born from the us’ib’tor’tor: a firstborn race in their world. The first ri’be’li was called A’ud’ca, and he was born without arms. His parents abandoned him, but A’ud’ca had the power to bend wills of other people, and slowly he made it so other us’ib’tor’tor could give birth to ri’be’li, and then he somehow, after a long time, made the us’ib’tor’tor race vanish into the sands of history, giving place for ri’be’li to rise.

- Most of them are disgusted by arms and hands in general, calling any creature with arms an a’us’cla (limited).

Onomasticon:

Use latin, then take every syllable and put them in reverse order, placing apostrophy between each syllable. Most names are gender neutral. (Pha’al, Ta’del, Ta’be, O’di’gla, Ra’tet)

#fantasy worldbuilding #writeblr #worbuilderblr #fantasy world #fantasy #sci-fi #alien #alien species design #alien species #fantasy species #fantasy races #fantasy race #fantasy species design #alien races design #alien races #worldbuilding lore #worldbuilding design #worldbuilding species #worldbuilding writing #worldbuilding species idea #worldbuilding ideas #racdes #worlbuilding #worldbuildin #worlbuilders guil #onomasticon #onomastiocon world #pseudolang #name generator #name generation

[savrenim]

To Stare Into Darkness: The Infestation Incident Of Black Lotus Labs

As Told By Four Letters Unsent, Three Letters Sent, And The Official Report Drafted By Acolyte Consecrate Iria Strell

For those of you who have been following the gay murder elf bachelorette campaign (official title, In Their Footsteps We Shall Follow) (or have not been following but have become interested considering the number of memes I've been spanning of Book 5 of it), it has the backstory and narrative crafting of a full series of novellas more than a DnD campaign, and the fourth book recently came to its magnificent conclusion. (hence the Book 5 memes). Which means, of course, that I have to write a novella about it.

gay murder elf bachelorette tells the story of Iria Strell, a Caedic elf and solid villain of this setting considering the Caedic Empire is an aggressively expansionist empire whose magic is fueled and religion is centered around blood sacrifice. It is equal parts Iria Strell being evil doin’ her cool evil things and Iria Strell falling in love with every pretty girl who crosses her path, so a lot of fun.

there exists a Book 2 and a Book 3 summary as well, if you haven’t read them either feel free to read them or just have fun here with context clues, this one stands alone pretty well and is a lot more readable than the others because I had to actually seriously think about what parts of it made a Good Story out of the....nearly 33 hours of recording that were made of the six chapters. and I think a Good Story did come out! so if you’re willing to stick with me, boy do I have a wild ride for you consisting of: friendship, gayness, twisted emotions of wondering if you’re good enough, coping with the slow loss of mobility from an old injury while adjusting to civilian life, mad science, more gayness, and the friends you make and bonds you forge while dealing with a surprise zombie-coral-crystal-parasite-fungus attack together at your mad science lab.

(tw very mild body horror-- third paragraph of the first (unsent) letter to Talvus, midway through second to last paragraph of the first (unsent) letter to Maldai Varricon, and third paragraph of the official report. also a mild amount of stabbing scattered throughout, but this came from DnD so what do you expect, and a large amount of stabbing in the final battle, which hopefully should be fairly obvious when it begins, also in the official report.)

_______________________

Dear Talvus,

There’s no way I’m going to send this letter, considering you disappeared without saying goodbye, let alone leaving a mailing address; but I’ve been stuck in bed for three days with a broken leg and am supposed to stay put for another two, which means I’ve really got nothing better to do than write.

So I left for Black Lotus Labs, in Insul. I work for the Department of the Craftsman now. I’m a junior researcher in Summer Division, which I was a little confused about at first, considering Winter Division is the Division doing all of the research regarding developments for the Army, but it immediately became very clear that I was assigned to Summer. I’m like a dragon amongst lizards—a scientist, not someone in the guard division, but who has active combat experience. The expedition that I was assigned to certainly was dangerous enough to merit that, hence the broken leg, although the fight with the dryad may have been the least dangerous part.

There’s something here called the Misery. It’s strange and fascinating—not magical in and of itself, we don’t think, just a stage in the life cycle of the moths. It starts out as a cloud of thick mist, although you can see the maggots on the trees before you get to the mist proper. The maggots materialize on color, and leech it away to a stark white. That’s why we had to wear these large, unwieldy full-body suits with a breathing apparatus and mask that filtered air through black cloth; otherwise, the maggots would form in our lungs. They eventually transform into moths, which eat flesh. Very unpleasant, but not particularly deadly, they don’t travel in large numbers and they die when you swat them same as normal moths.

But what the Misery was caused by—well, we call it the Catalyst. It was an artifact in some ancient temple; Talvus, the temple alone is something worthy of years of study. It had working magical wards in the walls and the floors, and it must have been abandoned for centuries. Think of what we could do if we could store spells in objects—powerful spells—that showed little to no decay, that activated on a trigger without needing a mage to activate them.

(I know, my motives are painfully clear. Can’t let the mages have all the fun. One day technology will catch up with you, just you wait.)

But the temple—two or so years back, an expedition found it, and they found the Catalyst in the center of it. They did something, and it exploded. Lux Maelius, our Senior Research Lead, and Ovir Arbutus, a Research Lead now but he was only a guard at the time—they were the only two survivors, because they were outside in a courtyard when it happened. So they managed to make it out. Then there was a hurricane of magical energy that raged for months, then it settled down into the Misery.

We set up makeshift labs in the heart of the Misery, near the ruins. We spent a few days studying it, running tests. I was able to figure out some things about Green magic and life magic that might be adaptable into better healing potions. Two researchers joined us partway—Vennikus, you remember her from when she visited us on the front?, and a friend of hers, Chaera Canth. I tried to jump in a little bit on some of the bugswarm intelligence projects Vennikus was doing, because it seemed slightly more exciting than staring at mist, but I was making more progress staring at mist so eventually I went back to that. This sort of research isn’t really my forte and I was thrown right in with barely an hour to drop my stuff off in my rooms before I was told the expedition was leaving, and I was informed about the Misery as we walked through it. It’s not like it was a waste of time, by any means. I did contribute some things. Suggest some experimental setups. But the real reason we were here became evident when Arbutus and Lux started arguing. Arbutus wanted us to bring the Catalyst out of the Misery, so that it could properly be studied. We took a vote on who would be willing to risk themselves to fetch it. I, of course, volunteered. I know she said why would you seek it, but, well, the Wolf said that to the both of us together and you weren’t here. Besides, it was Serae that was half blown off the map, not Insul.

So we went into the ruins and we set up another makeshift lab around the Catalyst. It is not particularly impressive in appearance: a large, dark, opaque crystal, perhaps the size and shape of a forearm, floating above the pedestal. More notable was how it felt, even to me, rooms away. Like something was just off. Like that twinge in your stomach right before you get nauseous, and it only got stronger the closer we got. And if that was my reaction, well, I’m sure you’d hate it. It has these sparks that seem to interact in my favorite way with life and magic and the stability of energy, namely, by exploding. We’ve tested it against leaves and small bugs—it will annihilate them completely. Felt a little bit dangerous to be doing all the tests considering we weren’t sure what made it explode into the Misery in the first place, but we managed to conclude “don’t let it touch living things and it won’t explode too much.” And we had to, in order to properly design the container to take it back. Arbutus argued and won that we couldn’t just leave it. We made a makeshift case and packed it up with the rest of our stuff to head back to the main labs.

The dryad attacked us a little bit after we got out of the Misery, so at least we could breathe properly again and had the suits half off. It made these golems that went for the carts, but we had three other ex-military folks of some kind or another on the expedition, so I left them to deal with that and leapt straight into the grove of trees and thorns that it summoned around itself, and then we just…fought it out. I was close, I was so close to taking it down. But it got a really good hit in that cracked my femur and then decided it wasn’t worth it and booked it, and delivering the Catalyst to Black Lotus Labs was more important than going after a single native resistance fighter. Although I still have no idea whether or not it was attacking us for the fun of attacking us, because we’re Caedic and this island has decided it hates all things Caedic, or if it actually knew something about the Catalyst. I tried asking it—her, maybe?—you know how chatty I get when fighting—but I’m pretty sure she didn’t speak our language, as all she did was scream incomprehensibly back at me. So now I’m here after my first successful week sitting around in the med bay with a philosophy book Vennikus brought me and some security reports and a couple of interesting research papers, killing time until I’m allowed up and about and back to the labs where I can start working on the healing potions and merging of Green magic and ritual magic properly.

Let’s see, what else is there. I’ve been making friends. There’s Arbutus, who first told me that I didn’t need to act all formal because we weren’t in as strict a hierarchy as the military when I gave him a whole rundown before the expedition about my combat abilities and drawbacks and what I’d be like in a fight because I let Silvanus down when we were attacked on the way from the ships to the labs by a satyr—Saren according to the report the guards here have on him—and these great terrible lizards called dinosaurs he had gathered, because I fainted when I shouldn’t have. After the fight where I kicked all their asses but, well. I still went down. So Silvanus has seen me faint but she was on the “let’s get the Catalyst” side and does seem to at least give me credit for my skills. She has a spear, she’s really cool. I’m still really gay. I think she thinks I’m cool. Please don’t make fun of my attention span. Anyways, Arbutus might be mad at me because a few days after his whole speech about there being no ranks here I gave a fairly impassioned rant in front of the whole expedition about how if we were going to bring the Catalyst out, we couldn’t bring it back to the labs, a separate bunker had to be made until we knew what made it explode or we’d be putting all the Empire’s research at risk, and he told me that first of all, I was right and they’d build a bunker, and second, okay there still kind of were ranks here and I should never speak to him like that again. 

Who else. Vennikus is here, and possibly flirting with me. She has a friend, as I mentioned, Canth, so hopefully that’ll go over fine, Canth seems to tolerate me without any problems. And I met Lia Bassus and Talia Aurelia on the ship over, Lia Bassus is trying to do magical transportation and so came with us into the Misery, and Talia’s working on this project that looks into other planes. As in entirely other realities superimposed over our own. There's this weird strange grey realm that she showed me, (perhaps the Arcane Other?), and though it was full daylight when she ran the experiment, through the window of the little room her team had cobbled together, I could see the distant stars of a different sky. Neither her nor Lia Bassus seemed particularly impressed by my altar when I mentioned it on the boat, so I’m pretty sure I’m not at all exceptional for what the expected level of creativity and craftsmanship is here. I guess I’ll be joining everyone for normal day-to-day research as soon as this leg heals.

I miss you, a lot. I hope you’re having just as much fun as me, wherever you are. Hopefully not with the broken leg. Still, totally worth it.

Love, Iria

———

Dear Talvus,

So I work in Winter Division now. Remember Galen Torus? The Exarch who was there when we were presenting the delayed explosive designs to Professor Acari? He showed up and requested me and just me for a special secret Winter Division project. And then promoted me to Senior Researcher on the spot because he was annoyed that I wasn’t being immediately given full access to things for the project because of my Junior Researcher status, which is one way to climb the ranks here, I guess.

There was this…mechanical contraption, found wrecked in the jungle. Some sort of war machine, we think. It looks like a humanoid—it has arms, and legs—but its interior entirely consists of clockwork. Galen and I have spent a few days examining it and nothing magical animated it. It’s just metal. But it moved and it fought and we’re going to figure out what made it tick.

He says that this work is of upmost importance to the Empire, and he’s stayed at the labs to work on it himself, but he still hasn’t pulled anyone but me for the project. I don’t know if it’s because it’s more efficient to work alone, or if the project is more secret than it appeared to be, or if I’m more useful at these kinds of things than I thought. Mechanics make sense to me.

I’ve been working as hard as I can to try not to disappoint him. I stay in the labs the entire day, except unlike you, I grab extra rations at breakfast so I can go through lunch without skipping the actual eating part. I hope that you’re remembering to eat.

Love, Iria

———

Dear Talvus,

So everything’s gone to shit, as it does.

It was just another normal day at the labs, and then the dryad and the satyr and a whole bunch of dinosaurs made the first actually organized attack. Galen and I were working on the construct when it happened. We heard it first. I had a prototype of a weapon from the construct that I was able to strap on in time for the first dinosaur that burst into the room, which at this point I was very efficient in dispatching of. Then the dryad that came after it, which I had a bit harder of a time dealing with. I fought it to a standstill, but it wasn't enough without a proper pair of weapons to gain any sort of upper hand, and all it took was a stumble for the thing to slip past me and attack Galen. I stared in horror as blood spurted from him and he was pushed backwards—only he didn't fall, and the blood didn't flow, it condensed into the shape of a sword and he flicked it out and it cut with no resistance through a large portion of the dryad's hand. She stepped back, in shock, and then turned and fled. Galen turned to me, his back straight, his face hard, his eyes bright. He tossed me the sword. I caught it.

"Finish it," he said.

I grinned and turned to chase the thing.

The rest was...it was both crystal clear and a blur to me, Talvus. I've never gone so deep, so cold, there was something bubbling inside of me like some sort of rage, a perfect insanity. The only thing that remained in my mind were Galen Torus's orders, echoing, Finish it. I know that this sounds like...like there was some sort of compulsion associated with those words, but there wasn't. It's just—he's been this untouchable, unreachable figure. I've worked with him day in and day out for over a month and I haven't been able to get any sort of read on him, or on whether he thinks my work has at all been adequate. I was so ready, Talvus. I was so ready to be responsible, to stay and guard the construct, to admit that it was no longer my role to bring enemies of the Empire to the sharp end of my blade. But in my heart of hearts, I wanted to fight. And there was Galen Torus, showing the closest thing I had seen to an emotion from him in the vicious tilt of his smile, throwing me a sword made of his own blood and ordering me to do the one thing that I wanted to do more than anything else.

In that moment, I would have done anything for him.

I tore through two—maybe three?—of the smaller raptors sprinting along the destruction the dryad had left in its wake. They barely slowed me down. I was getting to a part of the facility that I was unfamiliar with. The dryad's path led to a larger open room with cots, almost like a medical bay, which was strange, because there already was a medical bay and not really enough people getting hurt here day to day to need another. Some guards were off in one corner fighting off more dinosaurs. The dryad was in the other corner, and I lurched forwards, ready to Finish it, when someone in Senior Research Lead robes and a cane got absolutely mauled by one of the larger dinosaurs across the other entrance. I absolutely would not have cared, except with one motion of his hand he magicked his guts back together, finished speedwalking across the room, threw healing on me (which in hindsight, was much appreciated), then wheezed, "I trust from the look on your face that you're rather more of a fighter than I am. I'm going to stand behind you now, if you don't mind."

I absolutely did mind, there was now a very large dinosaur between me and my intended target, but it seemed rude to abandon the Senior Research Lead right after he'd healed me, and besides, the combination of his rank and the power he'd so casually wielded made me think that there was a slight chance that he was an Exarch too, and I couldn't risk disobeying an Exarch's orders. So I tore through the dinosaur in four angry hits, and then as there were no more dinosaurs on my side of the room, abandoned the maybe-Exarch in the corner and finally closed the last of the distance to attack the dryad.

It was a difficult fight. But it—she—could not stand against me now that I was properly armed, and certainly not with the maybe-Exarch throwing magic of every kind at me to strengthen me as I cut her to pieces. And then, as I could still feel that strength roaring in my blood, I caught sight of the satyr Saren halfway up the wall on the other side of the room and just charged him. I had to jump, leveraging myself up a wall to reach him and I plunged the sword into his gut, impaling him. He lost his grip on the wall and the two of us slammed into the ground, driving my—Galen's—blade even deeper into him. He pushed up, scrambled back, tried to run away, and had his back to me, a cowardly death, as I whipped Galen's sword around again and decapitated him. It gets a bit hazy after. I'm pretty sure I charged the remaining live dinosaurs across the room, but at that point I'd put Bishops know how much strain on my injury, and I blacked out.

I awoke in the same room, on one of the cots, with the Senior Research Lead standing over me. Up close I could see he was nowhere near as old as I'd assumed; the cane was some sort of tool of the trade. Looking at his face, he couldn't be much older than you.

He spoke first.

"I must say, you might be the best person to hide behind in a fight that I've ever met. It doesn't really take much hiding when everything goes down in a spray of blood in a matter of seconds."

I wasn't quite sure what to say back, so I just replied, "Happy to be of service."

"You should be fine to stand. I've fixed all your injuries, and that old wound, well, your muscles have cleared for the moment. It's been long enough that they've unlocked."

His robes were still in tatters, and there were bodies of guards and dinosaurs still in the room, so not much time could have passed. His wounds were totally healed, although with his robes in pieces instead of buttoned up higher than most people around here wear them, a huge, roughly circular scar across his throat was visible, which would explain the wheeze. He helped me up.

"What's your name?" he said.

"Iria Strell," I said. It felt weird to introduce myself without rank, but what was I supposed to say? My robes denoted me as Senior Researcher. Consecrated Acolyte—right, Galen Torus consecrated me, I guess he decided that I'd done enough work—still, Consecrated Acolyte didn't really seem to apply, we didn't really...go by clergy rank here. Even though it's been months since we left the Army, I settled with, "I was a Corporal Specialist before here." I guess old habits die hard.

He wasn't wearing enough jewelry for me to judge where in the nobility he would lie, and the Black Lotus Labs uniforms don't include pips on the collars, so I had no idea where in the clergy he ranked, but he was wearing gold, so he was nobility, which meant no matter what I was bowing, and he'd been throwing around a ridiculous amount of power so even if he was too young to be an Exarch, well—he'd totally saved my hide, so I went with the deepest waist bow. I know you don't care, but then he said:

"Qaedius Galseii."

Galseii.

I had nearly snubbed someone Bishop family and had just... luckily guessed that I should do the most respectful possible bow that someone from my station would give someone from a station above me because he'd been good at healing and I didn't recognize that he was Bishop family and just. Thank the Bishops, Talvus, I nearly snubbed a Galseii, I know you really really couldn't care less but that moment was more terrifying to me than the entirety of the fight had been, in an instant of ignorance I could have made enemies of someone who now I think has a great deal of professional respect for me from the abilities that I demonstrated and I didn't because I was lucky enough to guess that hey, maybe I should show more respect than might be necessary to someone with such powerful magic. Well. It was really fucking necessary.

(We've actually been professional acquaintances since, I made the mistake in our second interaction when he politely asked me about how I was and I thought he meant my research not how I was healing and I got overly excited when delving into an explanation of the mechanics of the hand razors, because the hand razors are cool! which he shut down with an "oh just because I'm personal with my patients as my patients doesn't mean we should be overly familiar in any other context" and I just wanted to die but I held my tongue and apologized at the end of the conversation with a "sorry I just get super excited about research" and I think he indicated that he understood and Talvus, it is a snakepit ever having to interact with any other noble ever. I'm bad at this. I'm bad at it and I hate it. But at least I don't think I messed this one up. And either way, I'm still the best person to hide behind in a fight that he's ever met. Haven't lost that yet.)

But anyways. Woke up in the cot, not dead. Qaedius continued, "And, well, I don't know what lab policy regarding this information is going to be going forward, but now that you're conscious, it's probably best if you left Spring Division."

Which I suppose answered the question of where I was. We have a secret Spring Division, not just Summer, Autumn, and Winter. How fun is that!

Things have settled down again. I couldn't move at all the next day because of the strain I'd put on my injury, but the day after I was walking again. I went back to research with Galen. Well, of course, because I couldn’t not, I asked Galen as politely as I could where he learned to make a sword like that from his blood and where I might try to learn it because I would never assume that I could ask him to teach me but maybe if I knew where I could study it I could figure it out on my own. He said it was a technique that only he and the person who developed it—a mysterious her—knew, so it wasn’t something I’d be able to learn or find easily. I thought it that was that, and then I came the next morning to find him clearing tools off of tables. I was worried for a moment that our project had ended; I asked if he was leaving, and he said no, this was maybe the most important work we could be doing for the Empire, just that he needed the space if he was going to teach me. Which just flabbergasted me of what, I was worth an hour off of the most important work we could be doing for the Empire? We’ve been practicing ever since. It’s hard, I can barely make my blood take a shape, let alone reach the metallization stage, but maybe one day I’ll be able to make a sword out of my own blood. Never catch me unarmed at a party again.

And now things are back to normal around here. The rhythms of research. Spring Division, which was entirely secret, has been joining us in the mess hall considering most to all of their buildings were destroyed, and now they’re somewhat less secret but we’re all quietly pretending we don’t notice for the time being and until someone higher up decides what to do about the whole involuntarily declassified thing. I’m working with Galen every day on the construct. Qaedius usually sits with me at meals. As I said, professional acquaintance, but an acquaintance enough that I can talk about my research sometimes because he's actually sitting with me and that is the only thing that is discussed at tables because we're all nerds. Vennikus thought that it was very impressive that I fought as well as I did. She always sits with me. It’s fine. Everything is fine. I wish it were fine.

It took me a day before I could walk again, Talvus. I couldn’t get up the morning after. I can walk again now but it feels worse. Like something in my back has torn. All I can think of is there’s going to be a fight that’s going to be the last time I’m able to fight in any serious capacity, I don’t know when it’s going to be, I’m probably not going to know until after the fact, I just…it feels like I should be weighing every battle I go into with an “is this worth it, is this worthy of being the very last time I’m ever able to fight,” and under that scrutiny a dryad and a satyr that the guard could have dealt with themselves—I don’t know if it was worth it. I don’t want this to be the last time I ever fight. That Galen is wasting his time on me teaching my how to shape my blood into a weapon because how much longer am I going to be able to use weapons? What would you do, if you knew that every spell that you cast might be the last needle you had the power left to thread? How would you…stay you? How do I stay me when the one thing that I was really good at, the one thing that I ever really wanted to do, is not only irresponsible for me to keep doing, but one day it’s just…going to be gone. I don’t know if I can handle it being gone.

I’ve been doing some pretty fantastic science, though. I keep developing things. The hand razors I mentioned. Qaedius didn’t think it was cool. You probably wouldn’t care much either, but the mechanical contraption we found, it had weapons hidden in its arms. I’ve been able to make modifications to these bracers with hidden blades in them, combat spurs that I can use for interception and different vectors of movement. It’s…it feels like hope. This thing has to move so much differently than we move, it weighs so much more, but if I can adapt bits of its structure, maybe I can come up with a different fighting style. One that I’d be able to keep at, even as more and more bits of me start to fail. There are all the official parts of my projects that I’m working on. Trying to make mechanical magic and all that. But I can keep hoping for an entirely new way of approaching combat in the spare time that I have.

I bet Lex will think that my hand razors are cool. He actually answers my letters. He actually told me where to send letters in the first place. You better not be dead.

Love, Iria

———

To Vilum Lex Department of the Doctor Veteris

Dear Lex,

You’ll never guess who showed up out of the blue today. Our mage friend. The big dummy, he didn’t warn me he was coming, I don’t even think he knew I was here. I still missed him so much that I can’t  be mad at him. I totally rescued him from some raptors before he even got to the lab proper, so things are back to normal. Just as stressful sitting next to him wondering who he’s going to terribly offend today, although he’s high up enough in the pecking order that I no longer have to worry about him getting in too much trouble for it. And he’s doing what he always does. He immediately jumped onto Talia’s project just hearing it described at lunch—still partially bleeding from wildlife ambush wounds, mind you, but hey, at least he was eating lunch—elbowed his way in past the project supervisor to run his own test and impressed absolutely everyone by pulling a breakthrough out of thin air. And didn’t get in trouble because it was such a great breakthrough. It’s like something has been righted in the world, I can breathe freely again, I know that he’s alive and well and still…him, and he’s back next to me.

So you’ve got to take my side on this, you appreciate sharp pointy things. I have made these absolutely revolutionary bracers that look perfectly normal, you could probably even get them to look decorative, I’m working on a new pair with lined backsides so you can’t even immediately tell if someone takes them off to examine them what the payload is, and all it takes is a directed wrist gesture and out pops a concealed, specially sharpened blade. No one here cares. And then our mutual mage friend got here and he also could not see the appeal of it other than oh, another sharp thing! Like, does he have any idea how much work went into miniaturizing the mechanical contraption to get that all to fit in a bracer? And the spring-loading, in a manner that you don’t have to take it apart to re-load it? And the way you have to temper the metal so that it’s just as strong as a conventional blade, and the attachment mechanisms of the bracer have to be such that it’s just as steady as if it were something that’s being held the way you hold weapons, which let me tell you, was a non-trivial problem to solve. And did I mention I came up with a new sharpening technique? Which I’ve been applying to everything, including the hand razor blade. That’s cool, right, and useful? It’s already saved my life once because the corridors here are too small for it to be reasonable for me to carry around a pair of scimitars all the time, but bracers are easy to just wear and don’t interfere with range of motion when doing research and anyone who thinks I’m paranoid can tell that to the trail of dead dinosaurs and Fae I’ve been carving through here. But you think they’re cool, right? Please tell me you think it’s cool. I am surrounded by scientists who only appreciate things that stab when it’s all that’s between them and toothy death, but it is objectively cool. I will show you my new knife-sharpening technique if you tell me you think it’s cool.

Unfortunately, Vennikus and I haven’t gotten any further in testing the health potion, but I do think it’s still an active project? I’d have to check with her, I’ve been moved to another division. Actually, I’ve been working on another project that might eventually make its way to the Department of the Doctor, there are these mechanical seals that are a bit hard to prepare, but once you’ve got them prepped it’s foolproof, slap them on a wound and they’ll automatically deploy: it’ll both physically bind to the body and act as a bandage, as well as it imparts magical healing. I haven’t had time to test them in the field yet but I’m pretty proud of them, they’ve worked in all the lab trials I’ve run. I’m working to try to develop them further, make them easier to store, easier to prepare, less expensive to prepare, that sort of things. Right now the design includes rubies, and I don’t think there’s an easy way to get rid of that without disrupting the energy flow of the whole thing, but, of course, that’s a significant barrier to mass production. If you have any ideas, I’m all ears.

I hope things have continued going well for you. Let me know if there’s any interesting Capital gossip. It’s all very quiet here, everyone is extremely friendly and gets along with no drama whatsoever, because drama would be a distraction from research; which is great, it means no petty fighting that gets in the way of progress, but I hate being out of the loop. I spent three years in the Army being out of the loop, I have so much catching up to do.

With sincerity, Iria Strell

———

To Celsus Strell The Strell Estate Veteris

Dear Celsus,

I refuse to fall out of contact with you just weeks after I finally got to see you again. Black Lotus Labs is a touch far for visiting, and I’m doing such important work here so I’m not sure the next time I’m going to be home—which means letters it is. I’m a Senior Researcher already. And a Consecrated Acolyte. I am doing absolutely fascinating research here, a lot with military applications, because of course, that’s my specialty, but we’re not really supposed to talk about research much.

But by the Bishops you would not believe how much drama has been going down.

So there’s a researcher here—well, I guess technically she’s an Instigator, she is in charge of starting new projects, she was a Senior Researcher when I met her out when I was in the Army—there was a Fae font that we discovered while mapping out land near the Surrian border, and she came to take samples, and we hit it off, killed a Fae construct together, and I made a joke about if she had any more potions that she wanted to test in the field, well, I’d be happy to test them for her because she gave me a really cool potion that let me shoot fire from my eyes while we fought the thing and then even though it was totally a joke and that was not a good week for trying to get Arcadia to laugh at my jokes, anyways I joked that if she had any other potions I was happy to be a test subject and she just…handed me another potion she’d been working on and said yeah great I should write and tell her what it does. So I guess it did kind of fall flat. The joke. The potion worked great, it helped me and Talvus get a lot less injured than we might have when we were ambushed by a party of Rat Clan orcs coming back from the Highlands. Anyways, I wrote to her and she wrote back and I wrote to her again and she sent me this really cool beetle that let me see magic that was absolutely instrumental in trying to test my altar designs and she was just a really good friend, so I was excited that I was going to be at Black Lotus Labs because even if everything else was horrible, at least I was going to have one friend here, right? Vennikus Callo, my brand new friend. Right?

Wrong.

Well sort of right, I’m pretty sure we are friends, she was waiting by my bedside for me to wake up after I broke my leg in a fight with a dryad and she lent me her favorite philosophy book to read so that we could talk about philosophy together and she’d said that she was really glad that I was a researcher even though she originally thought I was here as a guard because she thought I was smart and could do a lot of good doing research here and she was actively nice to me in all of our written exchanges before I got here, like, really really nice, she didn’t have to be, I was just the soldier that led her to the Fae font and did my job of stabbing the thing that tried to attack her and nothing remarkable beyond that. And then here I was an entry-level scientist with absolutely no background in magic or higher schooling, and she still finds me interesting and wants to spend time with me. Which makes us friends. I think. It’s sometimes so hard to tell, I guess I still have trouble trusting if people really are my friend. But I’m pretty sure that Vennikus Callo is my friend. Actually, I think people don’t really make friends too much here, they don’t tend to socialize out of their research groups, but I’ve been pulling anyone and everyone who wants to come to morning practice to either spar with me or I’ll teach them how to spar—so I’ve gathered Talia Aurelia, whom I met on the ship ride over and has been a morning practice and mealtime buddy ever since, Vennikus, of course, Alexis Corinthian, who is great and ex-Army so by default the most reliable to spar with—and then the breakfast table is sometimes joined by Chaera Canth and some friends from another department, which I think means that my table is the single most cross-divisional table in the mess hall. It’s a really great table. Plenty of friendly acquaintances to go around for everyone.

Anyways. Vennikus Callo. I don’t know how to describe her to you. She’s really sharp, and has an incredible wit. Her memory is insane, she can recite entire passages from books and I’ve seen her listen to information being recited at her and have it down all in one go. She’s really good at fighting, she practices with me sometimes, and she’s holding back, I can tell. Maybe not a trained soldier, but she’s fast. And she just…holds herself with this poise. She conducts herself in a manner around the labs that seems…approachable. Amiable. Easy to work with. But there are tiny bits and places where you can tell that is a conscious choice, that she would have no trouble navigating the highest circles of nobility; I suppose she just does not see it necessary, or perhaps not efficient, to run a lab like that. She is an incredible project manager. She’s actually made a couple of jokes about starting projects in areas that I have expressed interest in, which on the one hand I do think they would be interesting projects but on the other hand I was too busy at the time to jump on anything else, and it felt a little bit like trying to use my friendship to get an advantage, which, also, while she technically wasn’t my personal supervisor when I was in Summer Division—that was kind of Canth, we were partners on a project but I was the Junior and she was the Senior Researcher—but she was still kind of my superior. Although there totally was a time where I had just figured out this way to combine Caedic blood magic and Green magic in this ritual that drained the life force from a plant and then could be used for various things and we were all talking about it at dinner and she seemed really really interested in it and I was like “listen, why don’t I show you, it’s only half an hour or so” and she was like “right now? after dinner?” and I was like “unless you have evening plans?” because there are usually a few hours after dinner before sleeping and people don’t always go back to their labs and she said great and we finished eating dinner and were heading out of the mess hall and she was like “sooooo….my room?” and I was like “oh does your room have plants in it? because we need a plant?” and we just. stared at each other for a moment. As I realized that I was a fucking idiot and Vennikus was definitely interested in me and I’d just been propositioned to and Vennikus realized that I had been 100% serious about just showing her the plant thing and hadn’t been propositioning to her. And it was terrible and before I could say “your room is also fine” she said “right, we should probably do the lab.” Which she also really was interested in the plant thing, we went to the lab, she only had to see me do it once before she was able to reproduce it herself which was pretty incredible and it was definitely not an evening wasted, we both had fun.

So I ended up transferring to another division and for a while I was taking meals in the mess hall less, like, just grabbing food at breakfast to take me through lunch and then a late dinner from the kitchens, which meant we were only really seeing each other at morning practices, I hold those before breakfast. Still can’t shake that Army scheduling of rising with the sun. Anyways, so Vennikus was coming to a number of those, and there was a blood magic thing that my….supervisor? mentor, maybe? —okay this is a total aside, but there’s an Exarch who took interest in me during the Trials at first because of a delayed explosive that Talvus and I developed but then he said that he looked forward to what I was going to do with my altar so I had to do something cool with my altar which was most of the reason why instead of just trying to design a functional altar I designed an altar with bronze needles physically threaded with blood that could cast arcane magic—and I’m pretty sure that he was the one who got me the job at Black Lotus Labs. Apparently it’s not that common around here to get recruited directly after passing the Trials. I guess I showed enough promise? He also had me transferred from Summer division because there was a project he wanted me working on and I’ve been working under him and it’s—it’s great. I’m doing so much more here than I was doing before. It’s just the two of us on this project, and we’ve made so much progress. I couldn’t be more exhilarated. I am serving the Empire here possibly more meaningfully than I have served anywhere else in the entirety of my life, and that’s what matters, you know? I just can’t help but feel that I owe everything in my career to this Exarch. I wouldn’t have done anything special with my altar if it weren’t for him encouraging me, I wouldn’t be here at Black Lotus Labs if I hadn’t been noticed by the Department of the Craftsman for that even if he didn’t specifically recommend me for the job, he was the impetus behind the altar and that had to be what got me noticed. And I was…mediocre at best in my previous division. And now I’ve been promoted to a Senior Researcher and I’m working on something that I’m really, really good at but I wouldn’t have been pulled for this project if he hadn’t specifically pulled me. At least in the Army with Varricon once it became obvious that they were going to keep me in their unit, well—Maldai was Dad’s friend. And I knew what they were training me for, to be a tactician, to continue a career in the Army. I have no idea what this Exarch has singled me out for, or if I’ve even been singled out as much as it was just I was the person at the facility who had the most relevant skillset and was working on the least important things and none of it is supposed to mean anything. But it still sort of feels like he’s mentoring me. Let’s stick with my supervisor because it’s safer and that bit I’m sure about. So— there was a piece of blood magic that my supervisor gave me to practice, mostly to build up my skills because I’m not particularly experienced in that regard, and I was just getting up a quarter of an hour early to practice exercises on that before morning practice. And Vennikus, who didn’t always come to morning practice, did start coming to those because she’s good at blood magic because she’s good at everything and just. She was there to give me tips and spot me, I guess, make sure I didn’t mess up horribly and hurt myself. I was using my own blood, after all. Anyways it was just one morning like any other and we were going through the exercises and Vennikus said, “Hey. Strell. We should hook up.”

And so of course my concentration breaks and there’s blood on the floor and I tried to play it all cool and I think I said something like, “Yeah, sounds good to me.”

And then she maybe said “Great” back and all I could think of was how utterly ridiculous and not suave I was sounding so I tried to re-gain control of the situation by, like, leaning back against the wall to look cool and I tried to say “your room or mine?” except my blood was still on my floor and it was slippery and I definitely slipped in it and fell flat on my ass. And she just. Came over and looked at me. And said “you know, if I weren’t already decided on the matter, you wouldn’t be doing a very good job at convincing me right now.” And I just sat there gaping in a pile of my own blood until Talia came in the room for morning practice and Talia was like “what happened?” and I was just. Still staring after Vennikus and had a moment of oh shit, what do I do, because I had no idea how public Vennikus wanted to be, and I had no idea what Talia’s feelings for me were either, like, I think I’m her closest friend? Outside of my morning practice and thus meal group, I don’t really see her interacting much with anyone? and I wasn’t really sure what my feelings for her were because, like. She’s a really sweet person. A bit shy. Really passionate about her work. And we’d gotten close. Just, I knew Vennikus and I knew I really liked Vennikus and Vennikus just…has this way of being so bright and sharp and multifaceted and makes everyone look graywashed in her wake. But also I…my feelings towards Vennikus weren’t really the romantic sort? Just. She was someone who was already my friend. And I already liked. And she is really really hot.

So I didn’t want to hurt Talia’s feelings but I also didn’t want to lie to Talia, you know? So I just kind of. Kept staring after where Vennikus had left, and then finally got out, “it’s fine, I’m just a gay mess” because that was vague enough that it didn’t actually pin anything to Vennikus if she didn’t want to be associated with me but it was also entirely the truth. And Talia stared at me, and then turned and looked to the corridor Vennikus had gone down, and then turned to me again, and said, “Oh,” and I really couldn’t read the expression on her face but at least she didn’t look….actively upset? And then we just continued morning practice and it was fine.

Oh, the answer was Vennikus’s room, which led to my second big question of so am I supposed to dress up and try at all to look pretty, or do I just go right after I get out of the lab in my uniform and not care? And I was really torn because I have been given solid advice from several sources that I should really try harder to actually look like a noble and bother caring about my appearance, but also, we were all really busy researchers and was Vennikus going to care whether or not I bothered to waste my time and hers trying to put on makeup and I decided screw it, Vennikus had known me for a few months, she knew what a complete mess I was and what she was getting into and if I thought a little bit of eyeliner was going to change her opinion now, I was definitely being stupid, and that the wasted time bit would have been a bigger insult. Which, thank Bishops, was finally something that I was right about, this wasn’t a “put on something a little bit pretty after work and we’ll go on as best a date as we can make happen” thing, she’d already changed into her nightwear, it was a fling, pure and simple. And that bit I can do. Behind-closed-doors flings seem to be my specialty.

And then, just through—bits of conversation, I guess, who’s passing who in hallways, allusions, maybe just instinct—over the two weeks, I became almost positive that Vennikus was also seeing Chaera Canth.

So Chaera Canth. I met Canth on my first week, when I was working on a project out in the field and Vennikus and Canth came to join a few days in. She and Vennikus seemed pretty close? They had exactly the sort of “why are you doing this dangerous thing” “because I’m me? next” dynamic that you only get when you are actually legitimately fond of someone. So I figured that Canth and Vennikus were at the very least pretty good friends if Canth was watching out for her like that, and I really didn’t want the same thing to happen with her that happened between me and Impera Casque during the Trials—namely, Impera Casque decided the moment that I met her that she absolutely loathed me and everything I did, and I’m still not sure why, because I didn’t get up and leave when she and Helena sat at my table or something?—anyways, if Canth and Vennikus were already friends I wanted to make sure that I was playing nice with Canth so that I didn’t have a co-worker who hated my guts next to someone that I was trying to spend time with. And then we were assigned to work on the same project about the connections between Caedic magic and Green magic and we were cooperating just fine as co-heads and I genuinely liked working with her. I invited her to my morning practices when it looked like we were trying to develop a combat application for one of the things we were working on, and she has the background of a ritualist and cleric, not that of a warrior, and so she had been showing up to those every once in a while. She was pretty good, too. And she was one of the regulars at my table during mealtimes. And she’d sometimes catch me and pass on messages to me after morning practice even when she didn’t come when I was hurrying off to get a head start on research skipping breakfast, because that’s the sort of reliable, solid person she is, who would look out for her colleagues. But anyways. We worked together for a while. She apparently really liked my altar design for Craftsman, we had a conversation one morning in our lab with her slamming down papers in front of me and going “Strell, what is this!” and I was really terrified for a moment and this was before Vennikus so I didn’t even know what I did to make her mad except maybe flirt terribly too much and then realized that it was just notes on my altar from the Trials and I kind of shrugged and went “my altar?” and she was all “why didn’t you tell me?” and I shrugged again mostly because everyone here had been working on things and didn’t really seem to care so I didn’t think she’d find it interesting and she went “how did you even do this it’s impossible” and I was like “because I didn’t know enough about arcane or ritual theory to know it was supposed to be impossible?” and she laughed and knocked me on the shoulder and said okay, fair, that was how a lot of discoveries were made, and I really thought we were friends. Think we are friends. I still do. Think that, I mean.

But she’s a good person. She’s a fantastic researcher and an accomplished ritualist and genuinely considerate and at this point it really wasn’t “I want to suck up to Vennikus’s friends so that I can spend time with Vennikus without it being awkward” anymore, I really liked her. And she and Vennikus clearly knew each other and clearly had history from well before I came into the picture even though I definitely did not know that they were seeing each other when I started seeing Vennikus and it was one thing if casual flings were the sort of thing that happened at Black Lotus Labs, I was fine with that, but if it wasn’t—I didn’t want to ruin a long-term serious relationship that Vennikus had if she was serious about Canth and Canth didn’t know about me, but also, I couldn’t help Vennikus cheat on someone who was a genuinely good person, which means I had to try to track down Canth and see if I could…subtly ask, or something?

Celsus I am so bad at subtle. I regret so much skipping out on those tutors that Mom and Dad got for us about polite interactions, because maybe I would have figured out how to be even slightly subtle. Of, you know, tracking down someone out of the blue in a corridor that definitely wasn’t in my segment of the labs to ask “soooo how are you doing” like it was just normal smalltalk and I hadn’t obviously tracked her down for something instead of catching her at or before breakfast and when that only got a “fine,” to “sooooo how have things been going in the division” to which I got a quick update on how the research projects were going fine to “soooo how is everyone doing?” which still didn’t get me the answer of whether or not she and Vennikus were a thing or a thing-thing and at this point I’d already made a scene so I just kind of went “so, you and Vennikus?”

To which she said, “Oh, Vennikus didn’t tell you about it yet? I thought she had weeks ago. Yeah, don’t worry.” I think. Might have been worded slightly differently. That gist got across. I was already retreating (okay, fine, running away) down the hallway blurting something along the lines of “ohgreatthankBishopsIjustwantedtomakesureIwasn’thelpingcheatonyou”. Which also probably was the worst thing to say. I have stared death in the face multiple times and I don’t think any of that was as terrifying as the moment before Chaera answered that question when she was just. Staring at me. Slightly quizzically. And I had no idea whether or not I had just detonated the biggest interpersonal bomb the labs and ever seen and was about to ruin absolutely everything within the tentative web of friendships I had formed or if it was all okay and turns out it was all even more okay than I thought, she knew about us from the start.

So anyways. I think me and Canth are still friends. She’s been acting like we’re still friends. The same table of us all usually get meals together. Nothing has changed, me and Vennikus are still seeing each other and it’s still great. Quite frankly Vennikus might have actually been dropping hints on purpose of “this is not an exclusive thing, I’m seeing Canth too, you get it, right?” and I accidentally signaled that I got it but it just went completely over my head because I’m so new to this. Big exciting false alarm. I wonder if Talia and Alexis think that I’m flirting with them still. Honestly just Vennikus is enough in terms of sheer time management, there’s just so much work to be done with our research. But yeah. Me and Vennikus Callo. Score for Iria Strell. Well. More score for Vennikus Callo, I was pretty useless in the entire process.

Don’t tell Mom and Dad, or rather, specifically, don’t tell Grandmother, I don’t want her getting any sort of expectations that I’ve been forging some sort of web of social connections or Bishops forbid any ideas about me marrying up. It’s just so nice to have friends my age again. I had Talvus in the Army, but Talvus was Talvus and my best friend and that’s never going to change, but is also a guy, and even if it wouldn’t be weird to like Talvus in all his Talvusness I don’t think I like guys in that way, and here I am surrounded by a group of like-minded geniuses who do the coolest science, are down to give morning defense practices a try, even if I’m teaching more than sparring with half of them, and are also all so pretty. So pretty. It’s great. I would happily spend the rest of my life here, if it’s how I can best contribute to the Empire. I guess I had Arcadia in the Army too. I have no idea what we are to each other. Did any letters from her arrive for me at the family estate?

Anyways, I know it probably sounds like I haven’t been getting a lot of work done, but I assure you, I have been making a lot of fantastic progress on a lot of fronts and I will do our family proud. I should probably get back to said work, I feel like I’m on the cusp of a huge breakthrough. Although it’s all so new and exciting that everything is the cusp of a huge breakthrough. I hope that your work has been exciting and fulfilling as well.

Love, your sister, Iria

———

Dear Maldai,

I've been working at Black Lotus Labs, for the Department of the Craftsman. I mean, I guess you know that I've been working here. Or at least as much as I could tell you in my last letter. The letter that I actually sent. Or I guess that actually reached you. I know that I cannot send this letter for a lot of reasons, but I wanted to write it all down, before I forget a single detail.

I met the Bishop Lucan.

There was a fairly serious attack—a dryad and a satyr stirring up some local forces—and I played an instrumental role in fending it off, I killed a number of their forces then both of them—but the damage to the facility had been enough that the Department of the Architect was taking personal interest in helping us rebuild. There were rumors that the Bishop was coming. And then one morning there were rumors that She had arrived. I made sure that I was wearing the best clothes that I had, but more than that, what do you do when there is the chance that you might run into a Bishop in the hallways of your workplace? Prostrate yourself on the floor solidly out of the way when She is walking down an adjacent hallway turned out to be the answer.

(Talvus…tried to copy some of Her needle design. While She was still in the hallway. She paused for a moment and I thought we were both going to die having utterly disgraced ourselves and our names because Talvus couldn’t keep it together for one minute when we were passing one of the Eleven Bishops and then She kept walking.)

The morning went much of the same way, Galen and I continued working on the research we had been working on, which at this point I had managed to develop mechanical wands that mages could store simple spells in. After an hour or so, he sent me away. I went to make myself useful in Summer Division, as I knew my way around their main labs, and I kept myself busy for another hour. Then there was a message spell, red light and Galen Torus's voice, telling me to return to our lab.

I could feel it before I got there, radiating through the door, the air, my veins. The Bishop Lucan — She was there. I had been ordered to enter, so I entered. She was sitting in a throne-like seat woven of red light, the same needles that had been around Her that Talvus had tried to copy, I couldn't — not that I would try to look at Her, but I couldn't see Her, couldn't see any more than a silhouette and the raw radiating power.

Galen was standing off to one side. I dropped prostrate on the ground, and then She — She looked at me.

It was like my mind, my soul, my self was a knot and there was a tug and it unraveled. Every — every memory, every smallest aspect of me laid bare, there wasn't even a me anymore and I could feel Her looking through it. I do not know how much time passed. It stopped rather abruptly. I was still on the floor, trembling. I could tell that She and Galen Torus were exchanging words, but I couldn't catch what the words were. I saw Galen Torus walk over to our workbench, and put the prototype of my — our — mechanical wand down. He turned back to Her.

Everything snapped and I was — I was more myself again.

The voice resounded, thrumming, around me, inside me, everywhere.

"A promising project."

Then She rose and the throne unravelled, shifting and fading into the larger network of Her magic that Talvus said had been suppressing Her full power and who-knows-what-else, and She moved past my prone form and out of the lab.

I met the Bishop Lucan, She looked at my mechanical wands, and She said "a promising project."

I—I knew that I was in over my head, working with Galen Torus. I knew that—that the project I was working on was of vital interest to the Empire. I knew how lucky I was to have caught the attention of someone so important, to work on something so important. But everyone here is doing important things. Talvus is the one—Talvus always was the one—who knew how to do important things, who was supposed to be doing the important clever things. I was supposed to be in the Army, training to maybe be a Captain, maybe a Legionary Captain one day. I was learning to be a Captain one day. This is—it's so beyond anything I ever thought I'd be doing, and while the politics are beyond me, the science, it seems, is not. I'm good at this. I'm as good at this as I ever was at tactics. Maybe not as good as I was at fighting, but a Captain can't decide that the solution to a tactical situation is that they go and fight the entire enemy army themselves because they're the best fighter and I—I guess I never really learned not to do that. So maybe I wouldn't have made a good Captain. Maybe it's better that I'm here now, working on science, technology, weapons for the Army to deploy. Galen Torus is still the mastermind behind this project, and I might not be a soldier anymore, but I know how to be a good specialist, a good tool, I know how to be wielded to do incredible things. And I can't say that it's mine, but some of it was mine. Some of it came from the delayed explosives Talvus and I developed in the Highlands. And not just the wands. The Arcanum cannons. We've—I've—successfully adapted it, created our own. The Rose Gun, we call it. Lined with rose gold. It's smaller, more compact than the Surrian Arcanum Cannons were. Enough that one strong soldier alone could carry it. The payload is not quite as powerful, I'm not sure if we'll ever make it quite as powerful, we're still in the most preliminary of testing stages—but the tactical applications are entirely different. This doesn't need to be planted on top of a hill on a battlefield and defended because it's too large to move. This—this is far more versatile.

There's a part of me that's just waiting for another disaster to happen. Talvus is here too, which means—well, you never got the letter, where I told you about the Wolf of Ears Eyes and Hands, or what she said. How scared she was of us, and not for killing her. I don't think there's anything related to anything she saw here, nothing matches any of the charcoal drawings we took from her tent, but it's still—it's too quiet. I keep waiting for something to ambush us. At least in the Trials, things kept going wrong. There was no letting down your guard. Maybe I just...got too used to war, but I don't trust that the fighting is over. I can't trust that it's over. Things have been quiet since the dryad's attack, and it feels wrong, but there's nothing to indicate that anything is at all wrong. I guess one of the researchers in Autumn Division committed suicide a fortnight ago, and people have been a bit shaken up about that. He dug out his own teeth, which means every time I wake up with my teeth even slightly aching, I get paranoid all over again. I'm running morning practices still, same as I did during the Trials and the journey before that. Alexis Corinthian shows up to nearly all of them, she's a friend of mine from Winter Division, ex-Army, so she's good to practice with. Vennikus Callo comes mostly to watch and sometimes to test a move or a spell, but she's a much better fighter than she's letting on, I don't know why she's hiding it. Talia, who's been practicing with me from the very beginning, literally since the ship we took out here—well, she's alright, but she's not good, it's clear that the way that I'm showing her to move isn't natural to her. Which is—I mean it's to be expected, she's a civilian, and she's more a mage than a fighter. She's improved, but I don't think I'd tell her to do anything in a fight other than stand behind me or run. Not that I'm expecting anything horrible to happen, it just seems...overdue.

My injury is getting worse. It's the natural progression of things, and I have to accept it. I'm learning to accept it. It’s not like I can’t still do important things to serve the Empire. I hope yours are getting better. I hope that if—when—the Rose Guns go into production, maybe then I’ll be able to tell you it was me, I was the one who figured out how to meld magic and mechanics, I was the one who built the first prototype, I was the one who developed the theory. I hope that you’ll be proud of me.

Be well, Iria Strell

———

To Maldai Varricon 3rd Legion’s Meridionalis Barracks Serae

Dear Maldai,

I am writing because your blades have been lost. I cannot tell you why or how, just know that it was in decisively defeating an Enemy of the Empire the likes and scale of which were unprecedented. As I still have the ability to fight, I was hoping to gain from you the knowledge of how you had them specially balanced, that I might commission my own pair.

I hope that you have been healing well, and that the Empire is triumphing on the Surrian front.

May that you be well, Iria Strell

———

Official Report On The Black Lotus Labs Infestation Incident Drafted For Filing Iria Strell, Senior Researcher Acolyte Consecrate

The following is a report of the attack on Black Lotus Labs by the Infestation, and the actions taken by myself, Senior Research Lead Talvus Zhale, Senior Research Lead Qaedius Galseii, and Instigator Vennikus Callo to contain it. While the end result was rather extreme, it remains my tactical opinion that the measures employed were matched to the severity of the threat this Enemy presented; not just to Black Lotus Labs, but to the Empire as a whole. I include at the end of this report all relevant information from the months prior that might pertain to this Enemy, such that a proper assessment can be made.

On the night of the incident, I had stayed late in my lab to work on a personal project as many of the researchers do. As such, I did not take the fastest route back from Winter Division to the sleeping quarters, but rather a more roundabout way that passed near the kitchens, that I might grab rations to make up for a skipped dinner. I mention this because the route passed a corridor which connected to Autumn Division, and it was in this corridor that I encountered my first instance of an infested body. I could see a figure lurching towards me, half falling against a wall as its stumbles extinguished a candle. All behind it was darkness.

I hurried forward to try to help, and I first perceived what I thought to be Senior Researcher Lia Bassus of Autumn Division. I caught her before she fell to the floor. It felt like she was shivering in my arms. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness that I assumed had been accidental in her wake; the first sign that something greater was at play. What the dimness of the remaining candlelight revealed was as if from a nightmare: the back of her head had been caved in, as if by a blow that I would presume to be fatal or near-fatal on a battlefield. Her hair matted with blood. One of her eyes—part of her face—was gone, and there was a strange, bone-like structure growing from the cavity in its place, spines curling into the flesh of her cheek. Some of her teeth had been dug out, much like Hieronymus Acari's body had been found—the Autumn Division researcher who had apparently committed suicide a few weeks prior.

Bassus raised an arm and struck me, cutting into my shoulder, and it became clear that her hand had been replaced by crystalline spurs jutting from her forearm, a strange shade of teal that seemed greenish-black in the flickering candlelight. I could not tell whether or not she was dead; it had felt like she was still breathing. As such, I did not want to harm her if there was a way to extract this thing without killing her. Yet I could not leave her alone and run and fetch a medic, lest she wander somewhere unknown, or cross the path of another without the advantage of my combat training. So I began to lead her towards the common room off the sleeping quarters, where even at this hour it was likely I might find someone I could send running for help. She shambled after me mindlessly, all I had to do was walk slowly enough for her to keep pace.

I abandoned this plan as I reached an intersection with a corridor that led to Summer Division; there was a shout, and I saw a guard running before he stumbled and fell, and was immediately overwhelmed by three creatures that were more bone-like crystalline growth than mismatched corpse. I immediately updated my assessment of the situation: that this was not an isolated incident affecting only Lia Bassus, but rather a full-scale attack. I left what I now believe to be Bassus's corpse to run to my sleeping quarters and retrieve my weapons and armor, that I might better respond to the crisis.

When I exited my room, armed, I nearly ran into Senior Researcher Chaera Canth, woken by the distant but rapidly spreading sounds of fighting and shouts of panic. As she was a non-combatant, I instructed her to stay behind me as I escorted her to the common room as established by the new emergency procedures. There, I decided, I could take stock of which researchers had made it to relative safety. We encountered none of the crawlers or infested along the way. However, in the common room, I noticed several prominent researchers missing, and resolved to comb the living quarters armed as I was for more survivors. Senior Research Lead Talvus Zhale of Spring Division caught me before I could go and agreed to come with me. We had served together in the same specialist unit in the Army, and as such we were familiar with fighting side by side. He was not nearly as enthusiastic as I was about returning to the unsafe territory of the sleeping quarters or corridors beyond, but we encountered no enemies to or from the sleeping quarters, nothing save the last living stragglers who were evacuating. None of the researchers that I wished to find were in their rooms, so we returned to the common room, Zhale attempting to talk me out of searching Summer and Autumn Division labs alone for those who were missing.

As we turned into the common room, my senses began to fail me. Zhale said something that I could not comprehend, yet I could hear whispering across the room with perfect clarity. The walls seemed to re-orient to a tilted frame. All I could concentrate on was what felt like a point of gathering focus on the opposing wall.

Then all hell broke loose.

A thing burst through the wooden barrier, trailing infested corpses and crawlers in its wake. Everything seemed to emanate around it, to warp from it. I leapt into action, running across the room even as Zhale shouted something at me that I could not understand. The Thresher was humanoid—a strange silhouette, with the jagged bonelike spikes coming from it, the unnaturally long and thin limbs, the crystalline spikes growing everywhere, but especially at the end of its claw-like arms, its deep purple coloring in the dim lighting, a triangular armored head with no eyes but dozens of small clicking feelers beneath it—but it was humanoid and it was moving so I assumed that it could bleed; and I was not yet used to my blades failing me.

The Thresher ripped through a researcher in a single blow, and the crawlers fell upon others. I attempted to join the melee, and an old injury affecting my spine that I had received in my tenure in the Army flared, and I collapsed. A few seconds later I was able to push myself to standing, and tried to attack again, and it flared again. I blacked out. When I came to, the room was partially evacuated, and there was a crawler over me. I shoved it off, and joined those who were fleeing, the guards forming a line behind the researchers as they held a defensive retreat.

As I wasn't running particularly fast anyways, I joined the guards without hesitation. The infested caught up with us as we held out in the hallway. I had dropped both my blades as my injury had dropped me, but I was wearing a prototype of a swift-deploying hand razor within a bracer, so I activated that. The things were upon us. I turned to fight. Yet as I lunged to strike my first blow, there was a sharp twist of pain within me, and I could feel something tear in my back. Guard Captain Saturninus Strabo leapt over my prone form, and struck the blow that I could not. Another guard dragged me back and along with the civilians, and so I was delivered to the Winter Division central complex, as Winter Division seemed to be the least infected and thus the safest place we could barricade ourselves. He deposited me in a chair, then joined the guards who were fortifying the room.

Guard Captain Strabo and most of the guards who remained in the hallway did not return.

After about a minute, I attempted to stand and found that I could not. I could still feel my right leg, but it was limp, and it could not hold my weight. I fell to the ground. This caught the attention of Senior Research Lead Qaedius Galseii, amongst those who had escaped the carnage and had gathered for holdout of evacuation here. Senior Research Lead Galseii had treated injuries of mine in the attack on the labs by Saren and the dryad's forces a little over a month prior, and was familiar enough with it to immediately locate a detached muscle and perform impromptu surgery to return me to my feet.

Research Lead Ovir Arbutus took command of the situation with the poise and authority that his prior experience as Guard Captain proffered him. We did not have the manpower, weapons, or fortifications to hold out against this infestation in any room within the labs, even the relatively unaffected Winter Division central laboratory we were in, for any substantial period of time. He ordered the full and immediate evacuation of the laboratories; to move all personnel to the docks and vacate the island, until the Army could return in force. He asked for volunteer runners to attempt to locate any other survivors in the laboratory and spread the news of this evacuation, and the rest of us would make our way out through corridors we believed to be least overrun, with all who could fight holding the edges of the formation. I could not run; it was a testament to Galseii's skill as a surgeon that I could stand at all, so there was never any question of which of these two groups I would be traveling with. I had the time to duck into the private lab where I had been working, to grab the most important of my notes, and prototypes of mechanically deploying bandages (both standalone and the lightweight underarmor woven of them that I designed). My second generation hand razor prototypes were not near enough ready for combat to be of worth taken, and the partially inlaid barrel of the Rose Gun prototype was too heavy to carry in my injured state, so I left them.

The group was already organized into its leaving formation by the time I returned. I joined the makeshift collection of combatants along the rear. Zhale and Galseii were within the group. We made it a large portion of the way out through emptier corridors, but there were too many of us to move swiftly enough to avoid confrontation, and these things seemed to be tracking us through more senses than our own. They came from the back and from the sides: the crawlers, partially consisting of scattered bits of corpses and held together with wild crystalline growths. The guards and volunteers began to fight them, and it became evident that these things could rapidly regenerate, that cutting them apart did little to slow them down.

Recalling that the corpse of Lia Bassus had been putting out candles, I suggested that we use fire against these things. After a brief scramble to get a torch from the center of the group to the fighters on the outskirts, we tested my hypothesis to great success. We pushed forward with no casualties until another Thresher burst through one of the walls. Research Lead Arbutus moved to cut it off, and I to support him, when a huge crystalline monster, well larger than the largest of the dinosaurs that attack, smashed through another wall. The Thresher's aura was warping my perception of reality, but I saw it slit across Arbutus's throat, and Arbutus fall; so I leapt forward and slapped one of my mechanical bandage prototypes across the wound. The crystalline monster was simply too large and too strong to fight. I was able to kill the Thresher that had attacked Arbutus, but its warping field did not disappear; it instead felt as if to strengthen more as more Threshers began to attack the back of the column. There was no hope fighting, I lost sight of everyone but Arbutus and the guard to his right. We hoisted his body between us, and ran.

We made it outside, as did a number of the others. I blacked out shortly after from the exertion. I came to on a makeshift cot a few hundred feet away from the laboratory complex, with Senior Research Lead Galseii standing over me and tending to my injuries. A brief assessment of the surroundings indicated that Senior Researcher Alexis Corinthian had taken over organizing the survivors to move to the ships at the docks, as Research Lead Arbutus remained alive but unconscious.

Senior Research Lead Talvus Zhale and Instigator Vennikus Callo were the two who had noticed, and were discussing, the larger implications than immediate escape. There had been strange, small, coral-like growths that had appeared extremely intermittently in various locations around the laboratories over the past few months, and Callo alone took the chance to study some instead of immediately purging them. They had seemed to grow from nothing, in a sealed and sterilized container, and Callo had discovered little more than that they must have been feeding upon some outside source, and that they were remarkably resilient, before the worry of contamination led her to dispose of the samples in fire. She made the connection that these growths had been precursors of the Infestation, and that they were not merely feeding upon and incorporating all living things that they could consume, but that there must be a larger unidentified force, presumed magical in nature, supplying them with the power to expand exponentially and with nothing material to feed on. By her calculations, they would overrun the entire island well before the Army would be able to return, and the evacuation itself might still be in imminent danger.

The mention of an outside force supplying the energy for growth gave Senior Research Lead Zhale the idea: that he might be able to erect something based on the principles behind the Warding Wall, that could keep the Infestation from drawing on this power. It would be an immense undertaking, and for it to work, he would need both to lay a ritual anchor and cast the spell separately. As he did not have the raw power and blood magic expertise to lay the ritual anchor in full, he turned to Senior Research Lead Galseii, a frequent collaborator of his, for assistance in this plan. Instigator Callo indicated that she believed she could invert a Green Magic spell she had reverse-engineered over her studies in Summer Division in order to mask the life force of the casters, which she concluded from her research was what the Infestation was using to see and track its surroundings, allowing the casters to recuperate overnight. She suggested the bunker where the Catalyst was being separately kept and studied, far enough away from the main laboratory complex to ensure it would not be threatened in the case of another Misery event, as the ideal place to spend the night; after all, even hidden from the Infestation, the jungle held many dangers.

After ensuring that what I had salvaged of my research notes would make it to the ship, I volunteered to stay behind and provide martial support to the casters. No other guards could be spared. Corinthian agreed after a brief conversation with Callo that she would hold the ships from leaving until the next morning, but longer than that if she had not received a signal from us she would not risk the lives of the other survivors.

The laying of the ritual anchor went essentially as planned. Despite my injured state I was able to hold off the onslaught long enough for Zhale and Galseii to finish. I blacked out again briefly during our escape and retreat to the Catalyst bunker, and came to safely laid in a cot.

The mages—Zhale and Callo—slept immediately. Galseii and I discussed our options, as there is a stiffness in my injury that develops after extended periods of rest, and it was likely that if I tried to sleep I would wake up the next morning immobilized for hours. We concluded that it was priority that I be able to provide emergency support for the casters in the case of Callo's charm wearing off during the laying of Zhale's Warding spell or during our final retreat through the jungle, and that the two of us would remain awake. Under his supervision, I performed a number of exercises to ward off the stiffness, and in the intervening time, I finished incorporating the mechanical bandages into the underarmor I had brought along, and Galseii a series of bloodrunes that he would apply to himself to cause a continuous damage to all surrounding enemies the next morning.

Zhale and Callo arose a little after dawn. In the light, it was clear that one of the stationary growths that had precipitated the arrival of the Infestation had appeared in the corner of the bunker. Upon its pointing out, Callo stated to the group that she worried that the makeshift Warding Wall spell would not do enough; that it would cut these things off from magical continued growth, but only within the radius of the spell, and that it would mean nothing for that which was already here and could consume naturally the life around it. Furthermore, that if any remained in any corners of the island when the Army came back in force, that it might come back, again and again, never truly eradicated. And that was assuming it did not manage a way to get off the island before then.

I was the one who suggested it. After all, we were right there, and I do not believe that I ever saw the Catalyst as anything other than first and foremost, a weapon. It seemed tactically relevant to think of all possible ways to make a thing explode.

"What about the Catalyst?" I said. "Can we set it off? Make another Misery big enough to destroy this thing?"

The idea stopped Callo short. Of all of us, she had been following the research on the Catalyst, and could speak to how it worked: that it disassembled life, and the energy field from that disassembly, if it encountered more life, would destabilize in a further chain reaction, expanding until there was no life left within the field. If it were set off in the heart of the Infestation, the deepest point within Black Lotus Labs, the growth-density ought to be enough for the explosion to reach the treeline, and the blast would overtake the entire island, giving a guarantee that units of soldiers fighting through the underbrush could not of the ending of this threat for good.

As a military strategy, I recommended it to the others as perhaps the only way, given Callo's modified calculations, to secure the island even after casting Zhale's Warding Wall. But for the potential of loss of knowledge and unique abilities of those gathered within this room was also a great consideration, not when all that was needed was for one to wait behind until the others had reached the ships, push their way as deep into the complex as they could, and detonate the thing as they were overrun. Callo was just expressing doubt that any one of us four would not be able to make it in deep enough to trigger a large enough chain reaction, when Zhale woke up.

"There's another way out," he said. "Deep in that building. Deep, deep in that building, there happens to be a window into a probably-not-going-to-explode arcane realm. Big enough for a person to get through, or several persons if they're not dead."

After that, it was unanimous amongst the four of us. With the Warding Wall cast, the Infestation would lose its regenerative powers. With my fighting abilities, emergency support and alchemical prowess from Callo, consistent healing from Galseii to prop me back up, and Zhale conserving his energy for the portal to the Arcane Other that he believed using the scaffolding Autumn Division had created, he could cast — the four of us judged the likelihood of our success and our survival to be well worth the risk of the undertaking.

It was our duty.

As there was little more to discuss, we set out to return to the main labs, the Catalyst with us in its portable protective casing. The first sign that this occurrence was different than originally judged became evident as we reached the clearing in front of the complex where we had laid the ritual anchor: despite the rapid spread of growth the night prior, there was no sign of the Infestation having spread beyond the buildings.

The immediate priority was the casting of Zhale's Warding Wall spell. I can report no technical details on what he did: he wove large and incredibly complex three-dimensional needles, using his own blood to stabilize the structure, then asked that the rest of us first hold magic in place, then contribute blood to increase the complexity of the spell. Callo added her blood first. I added mine second. Galseii added his third. Upon adding my blood to the needle, I could feel a connection to the spell, and could indeed both feel and see the increase in complexity that Zhale spoke of; upon the casting, I could feel a pressure, something outside trying to push itself in, but the spell held strong and Zhale's Warding Wall cut it off.

Callo and I plotted what we believed to be the most efficient route to Autumn Division, given what had been observed the night prior with the route taken to escape through Winter Division; what Callo had seen when she had volunteered as a runner; the assumption that the Infestation had started and was concentrated in Autumn Division and had spread evenly throughout the facility; and prioritizing routes with fewer ambush points or connecting hallways so that the casters would remain as safe as possible and could rely mainly on my martial expertise to push forward, instead of dealing with attacks from multiple directions. This route ensued entering through Summer Division. The assault went with few hitches. That which is notable, I report here: besides the infested corpses, Thresher, and crawlers we had fought the day before — we did not encounter another crystalline Destroyer — we encountered crawlers with tendrils that they used to attempt to grapple, pin, and pull in prey; infested corpses of the local fauna, namely raptors and dinosaurs, indicating that the Infestation had spread the night before then pulled back to the facility; and Threshers with vine-like appendages with a reach of well over thirty feet that they used to attempt to snatch and pull in their prey while fighting. There were also stationary growths on the floor that made no active attempt to engage in the fighting nor did they show any sentience or signs of moving, but remaining standing on these growths one would begin to sink into them, become ensnared, and their insides contained both an acidic substance and many small spines. Zhale's Warding Wall cut off the ability of all of these things to regenerate, but it otherwise did not seem to slow them down. We must have fought between a dozen and a dozen and a half of all of these creatures, myself taking the brunt of the attacks but Callo protecting Galseii and Zhale with a remarkable aptitude from behind, Galseii providing healing and some magical support, and Zhale carrying the Catalyst and conserving his energy to cast for our escape.  

In the final room between Summer and Autumn Divisions, we encountered our third sign that the Infestation was being guided by some form of overarching intelligence. The ground was covered by a swarm of strange beetles. Upon lighting and sweeping a torch near them, they scattered somewhat, but more poured from cracks in the wall and the floor until we were wading through them. We stuck as close as we could to the edges of the room, when we were struck by the strong mental pressure against going right; so we eased around the left side of the room. We had gotten perhaps halfway across the room in these conditions when the beetles suddenly swarmed together to form a massive column in the center of the room. The column lashed out and specifically targeted Zhale, and pulled back with the case containing the Catalyst, leaving Zhale on the floor. I had to leap into the column myself to grab and retrieve the case; otherwise the Catalyst and the entire plan would have been lost.

We were very close to Autumn Division once we had made it through the laboratory that had been overrun by the bugs. We turned into the final hallway, to which we saw a humanoid figure, slumped slightly; its weight somehow wasn't right on its feet.

Zhale moved forward and the small light spell he'd been holding cast away the gloom. It was Talia Aurelia.

I was standing in front, so it saw me first.

"Iria?" it said.

"Talia. Rough night?" I asked. 

"Not terribly," it said. "It all went well, all told."

At that point, I readied my blades, and drank a refined prototype of a potion for increased strength and speed that Callo had given me. Zhale pushed the light further into the hallway, and it became clear why it was slumped strangely: it wasn't putting any weight on its feet because extending from its back and arching over its shoulders were articulated pointed growths and limbs made of the strange mix of crystalline outcroppings and pieces of corpses. Some were lumpy but many were jointed, clean — an enormous form, something between a centipede and a mass grave.

"So did the Infestation get you, or was this you the whole time?" I asked it.

"There never was a Talia Aurelia. There is only us," it said.

Beyond it, the room was dug out, which huge, person-sized insectoid creatures crawling constantly over and around one another, a roiling sea filling the pit of their own making. The room that we needed to get to, the metal chamber, for Zhale to cast the spell that would allow us to escape — it was more than forty feet up a sheer vertical wall.

"What was it that you thought you were going to accomplish?" I asked the thing in front of me.

It lunged, sweeping with two huge claws that loosed a spay of crystalline needles.

"To pave the way."

Galseii cast something on me as I kept fighting, kept trying to hold its attention so that the others could go around and begin to set up for our escape.

"What for?"

I got three good, solid hits in, but it did not nearly slow the thing down — it plucked me up with one of its claws, articulated spines piercing into me where it grabbed me.

"Come on, we're friends, you can tell me," I said, and thrust up through the chest where the heart would be and ripped the blade out. It looked down at me, smiled, a bit of blood dotting the side of its mouth, and flung me into the pit.

Callo took over the more martial aspects of the fight at this, pulling out a silk scarf that she began to whip around, magic sharpening the end. It took me a few seconds to climb out of the pit, at which point the thing had begun to attack Galseii, and was trying to peel his head apart. I dismembered the limb that was holding him, and took the attention of the Infestation once more.

It was at that point that I was hit by Callo's blade. Her eyes were open wide and shaking, as she slashed it across my throat, resisting but failing to resist some sort of telephysical control. I was impaled twice partially through my torso by the monster. Zhale barreled across the room, as fast as he could run still carrying the Catalyst, and tackled Callo, making up for lack of skill with pure momentum.

She came to again, and shouted, "Legs! Go for the legs!"

I turned away from the front of the thing and ripped underneath it, cutting out five or six legs' worth of musculature. Callo pushed herself up and severed another leg.

That which had called itself Talia, its body tattered and ripped to pieces, chunks of lung and the remains of what was a heart mixed with other viscera, leaned over me.

"I know you though, Iria," it said.

It slammed another of the limbs that it had been trying to use against Galseii into me, knocking me onto my side, and a row of teeth dug into my back and ripped into connection points of the musculature of my spine. The places that were weakest from my injury.

It ripped.

I regained consciousness about twenty feet in the air, in a cradle of silk carried by a massive summoned spider. Galseii and Zhale were next to me. Callo was single-handedly holding the monster off, severing leg after leg with her scarf. The three of us made it to the door in the wall, and tumbled into the compartment. Once we were safe inside, Callo started climbing.

"I need more time!" Zhale said.

Recalling once more these things' original distaste of fire, I dragged myself to the edge and set the webbing that remained on the wall on fire, and the silk hammock that had carried me as well, to throw at the monster. Callo easily dodged the burning bits on the wall, and made it through and into the room. We shut the metal door, and there was immediately a great force slamming into it, spines piercing partially through. Zhale finished his preparations, using my discarded sword to smash through the glass window that had previously been used for viewing in this chamber, and cast the spell. Galseii finished doing something that allowed him at least to prop me up.

The original plan had been for me to be the last through the portal; the one who waited, who could wait and hold fighting who-knows-what while the others got as far through the portal and away from a potential blast radius as they could. This was no longer possible. Galseii and Zhale took me, an arm around a shoulder each, and half-carried me through the portal. Callo stayed behind. When we had hobbled far enough to hopefully be safe; or perhaps when it became clear that the chamber door would hold out for no more abuse, Callo kicked the door open, opened the protective casing, threw the whole thing out, turned and dived through the window, and began sprinting towards us.

There was a booming roar, although muffled; everything was muffled in the Arcane Other, gray, strange. There was the strange sensation of the ground shaking, yet far away, or perhaps a concussive front from the mass explosion occurring right through the window reached us before the eruption of the strange flickering red and green sparks that characterized the destabilization field, blooming out like a poisonous cloud. In its initial expansion it was faster, covering the distance Callo had covered much more rapidly, and it seemed as though all would be lost; but in the Arcane Other, there was no life to fuel this outcropping of the reaction, and it seemed as though all might be well; but the cloud clipped Callo and threw her forward with a force as it began dissipating. The window snapped shut.

Galseii left me with Zhale and ran towards Callo's prone form, even as she shouted for him to stay back; but the red and green sparks that sunk into her were not quite enough to set off a new reaction. She lost her eyes, as she stabilized. Galseii tried to pull from the Caedis healing magic to treat all damages to her, but could not reach anything. Callo waved him off and stood on her own, and without her eyes, pointed us in a direction.

We walked, for what must have been nearly an hour, Callo giving small corrections when necessary. The distance felt similar to the distance that we might have walked from the laboratory complex to the ships; although I am not sure if I could report more exact details, as the exhaustion of nearly two days' without sleep, the exertion of the previous night and morning, and the injuries that I bore meant that remaining upright and moving forward took most all of my attention.

Finally, Callo stopped us. Zhale took several attempts to pull and stabilize a needle, but he did, and we saw through once more into our world: the deck of a ship, for Callo's navigation had been flawless. Galseii all but dropped me through the window, and he and Callo followed. Zhale attempted to step through as well, but had been so exhausted by the amount of casting he had done that he lost hold of the needle, and the portal closed before he was fully through, severing a part of his leg. Galseii moved to cast healing, and Zhale to stop him, but Zhale was a moment too late—alterations that Zhale had made to his blood during the Trial of the Architect to allow him to use it more freely in needles meant that it reacted poorly to the healing spell and lashed out, destroying the hand that Galseii had used to summon the magic. Healing magic was cast on Galseii, and mundane means to stop Zhale's bleeding were employed. The ship, now with all expected passengers, departed with haste to carry the survivors and this news back to Veteris. This concludes my report of the events surrounding the Infestation incident.

I believe that this Infestation represents an unprecedented threat to the Empire. It has not been eradicated, it has been pushed back, and we have no measure of how much this defeat cost it. Its advance force had in-depth research on the Empire, enough to create and impersonate a noble, infiltrate Black Lotus Labs, and to know enough about our language, culture, sciences, and magic to fit in seamlessly in both social interactions day-to-day for months and in its research team. The appearance of Talia Aurelia could not have been a magical construct whatsoever, as it sat and interacted multiple times with Senior Research Lead Zhale, who has perhaps the most sensitive passive magical senses in the Empire and would have immediately picked up on any magical influences in the appearance of its body. It cast simple Caedic needles needed for its research multiple times, and once in front of Senior Research Lead Zhale, indicating that it was not merely parroting but had discovered how to fully reproduce Caedic arcane casting. It knew beforehand of the Capital and the protections in the Capital such as the Warding Wall; Talia Aurelia attempted to engage me in conversation about the mechanics of the Warding Wall when we first met, as well as the research and capabilities of the Academy, and was only thwarted by the fact that I knew little on either topic.

The mechanism with which it used to invade Black Lotus Labs is unknown, other than that it was partially blocked by a spell based on the Warding Wall. The reason why Black Lotus Labs was targeted is unknown; it is my instinct that the project that Autumn Division was researching that Talia Aurelia personally joined was perhaps something that the Infestation planned to use to more completely manifest in this dimension. This postulate is drawn from the facts that Talia Aurelia did choose to focus on the project involving dimensional observation for months and actively contributed to research for the team, that Black Lotus Labs was targeted despite being a well-guarded Caedic stronghold instead of some easier unoccupied place to manifest, and that within the labs most of the concentration and actions of the Infestation were in Autumn Division near the viewing room of Project that Talia Aurelia had been researching and that Senior Research Lead Zhale used to construct the portal for our escape. However, I do not believe there is any evidence present that could lead us to assume that the room and project were needed in the first place for the Infestation to invade, just that it was necessary for the second stage of the invasion.  

We must face the very real possibility that we do not know how many other Caedic elves are currently being impersonated or have been created entirely by the Infestation, or that might be in the future. We must assume that the Infestation has the ability to begin a second invasion anywhere in the Empire or in the world that is not currently protected by a Warding Wall, and its advance force alone—that which was sent to pave the way—was enough to destroy in near entirety a high-security Caedic stronghold with a large military-trained guard force specifically present and on the outlook for foreign threats.

I can still feel the connection to the Warding Wall spell Zhale erected. All four of us can. The force that was pressing against it remained pressing against it, with purpose, after the detonation of the Catalyst; it was only hours after the destruction of the advance force that the pressure withdrew. If anything tries to enter the island of Insul with Black Lotus Labs, we will be able to alert to Empire immediately. Senior Research Lead Zhale states that he expects the spell to hold for the span of a month to a few months. The Catalyst now lies in the center of a storm of magic. If its last event is anything to be judged by, the storm will stabilize within the year, allowing for the Catalyst to be fetched or secured at the Will of the Bishops. As for this Enemy and the threat it represents, the actions taken by myself, Senior Research Lead Zhale, Senior Research Lead Galseii, and Instigator Callo put an end to this incident. I can only re-iterate the words that it spoke to us: that it was here to pave the way for something greater. There is more of it out there, more which survived, which ostensibly now also has all of the research that Talia Aurelia collected for months on the very thing it needed to more fully invade. We merely stopped this outcropping, and we know not when it will be back.

———

to do list before reaching Veteris

-- check report one more time for anything missing. make sure no bias. they don’t want your opinion, just the facts. -- reconstruct rest of notes of Project Pendulum for Galen. do not assume any excuses will be accepted. cannot return empty-handed, especially not after destruction of the construct and prototypes. -- Talvus prosthetic design work in mechanical wand parts so can be used for spell storage too worried it might explode (coward). work in snack secret compartment instead -- work on possibility of designing Qaedius a working magic-mechanical hand prosthetic? probably impossibly/ beyond any theory work on it anyway. mechanical anchor based on construct—try non-magical scaffolding version first to model. if works, ask someone who knows better if offering to design with Qaedius would be insult -- visit Vennikus? would she want to see you she has Canth with her, not like she’s alone. still visit, make quick, show no pity or guilt you wouldn’t want anyone to pity you -- take notes on pain in exercises every morning. mobility in attempts to get through sword forms is improving. do not push or strain. not worth it. -- practice being better noble. greetings, dialect, personal presentation. do not write off any aspect. will need.

#gay murder elf bachelorette #dungeons and dragons #my writing #we finally did it folks I've finished writing up Book 4 #I'm very tired so I hope it comes across as coherent

[possiblypeachy]

manufactured.

--; summary: The XK-100 model was designed to be many things: charming yet brutal, elusive yet blunt, gentle yet commandeering. What she wasn't designed to be was deviant. But, being so advanced can come with a cost.

You decide what that cost is.

> part two

[determinant factors are in italics]

[warnings that apply to this chapter are in bold]

--; pairings: connor x xk-100, captain allen x xk-100

--; word count: 2.1k

--; themes: slow burn romance, angst, violence, platonic fluff, eventual smut

--; warnings: depictions of violence, death, suicide

--; note: hola mis amigos! this is the first piece of writing that i’m actually putting up here so go easy on me please and thank you! pardon any horrendous mistakes and/or terrible explanation of plot points :( 

in places this story will deviate (haha deviate) from canon. this allows me to weave my lovely little xk-100 model into scenarios that can help shape her personality for future installments. also, it gives me a chance to dabble with her interacting with minor characters that don’t get enough love!

if all goes well, i’d like to make this into a kind of ‘choose your own story’ type read bc i love me a good challenge and i want to give it the true d:bh feel. it’ll take a while to fan the options out but i’m a fast worker when inspired ;)

anywho, feel free to shoot me a message to ask me questions about this or give me suggestions! i’m also open to requests for now so hit me with your best shot, kiddos.

without further ado, enjoy!

[apolgies if this looks shit on mobile/anything really. i'll clean it up later :)]

—————

The first thing she felt was something clicking to the back of her head. Streams of code filled black vision: a start-up process. Lines upon lines of binary were read at a speed that was inhuman, registering her programming and purpose. Though a crucial process, the small camera watching her saw nothing of what was going on behind those white eyelids-- not even a twitch to signal that she was functional.

Then, narrow eyes flickered open, much like a light bulb turning on after years of no use. Pale irises were revealed to the room, intricate patterns of ice and frost weaved around her pupil. They were shadowed by a line of dark lashes, removing the possibility of deducing what she was thinking by way of looking into her eyes. Yet the contrast between the light and dark made her hold an aura of allure. Even he, someone who had prepared for her to look like this, was momentarily hypnotised. Nevertheless, a pang of discomfort was felt when his gaze finally fell to her static form. She appeared detached from the world -- cold. She would be perfect for her job.

From his seat, her overseer leant down to a microphone. “Can you hear me?” A male voice reached her sensors and the LED on the side of her head sprang to life, glowing a calming blue. Tentative eyes watched her through the camera. His heart rate increased when her LED began circling-- processing. This was make or break. They'd tried to make models like her far too many times before but failed; she hadn't looked intimidating enough, she couldn't make sense of her own complexity, her thirium pump hadn't been wholly compatible. God, he'd seen so many of her previous attempts shutdown before they were even able to speak.

Anxiety. Worry. Tension. “Yes. I can hear you.” All those emotions dissolved-- cascaded from his conscience like the most beautiful waterfall he could ever witness--  and he leant back in his chair, instead filled with relief. A sigh that could've praised God itself left him before he moved to look at the live feed of her again. She was completely unmoving-- no blinking, no twitching of her eyes, no breathing. Instead, she was waiting.

“What's your serial number and model name?” The worry rose in him again as his sight glanced to the tablet before him, filled to the brim with information on her. All his team's plans for her, her I.D. and registration codes, who she was going to be given to, her abilities, her materials-- all of it-- stored on one tablet. Everything had to be checked. She had to confirm that all of her components were functional. If she said one wrong thing, she would be deconstructed and analysed.

The android's voice was smooth and unwavering-- unaware of the pressure placed upon her. Perhaps one could describe it as scheming. Hearing it laid a blanket of unsettling calm across those around yet it was beguiling-- mysterious. “#572 236 091 – 31. My model name is XK-100.” Her expression still showed nothing. Good.

The robotic arms whirred around her and created gentle streams of wind as they welded white plastic parts together, ensuring that her body was sturdy; she needed to be as durable as possible. Two of them spun on their pivots to receive an arm-- already constructed and able to move when tugged in a certain direction and therefore, hopefully, functional. Rather than screwing it into place, it clicked as though it was a dislocated bone being fixed. When the arms let go of it, it hung at her side-- lifeless.

He wasn't lifeless, however. Oh, quite the contrary. Having been working on this project for near to seven years now, he felt like a little clap and chuckle wouldn't be deemed all too unprofessional. They'd been planning an android like this for almost a decade: an android who was capable of taking down an entire riot single-handedly if the need arose. Her team had programmed tiny aspects of her day in, day out. Many sleepless nights were spent animating her custom expressions, blueprinting the structure and materials of her frame, weaving code into her artificial mind. By admittance of the former CEO of CyberLife himself, she was perhaps the most intelligent android they had yet made-- and that was Kamski's words from years before. Now, if she didn't possess that whirling LED on her temple and her posture wasn't so stiff, people could peg her as more life-like than some humans.

He spoke again. She picked up on the thrilled waver to his voice and committed it to her short-term memory stores. “Move your head.” As asked, her head craned from one side to another-- eyes yet to follow the direction of movement naturally. Then, she stopped rather suddenly back at the centre. The camera swerved to the front of her and lifted itself to her eye level. “Now, move your eyes.” Her eyelids jolted into motion and she blinked erratically-- even her brows furrowed. He felt as though he was intently watching her trying to remove something from the surface of her eyeball; it was uncomfortable, yes, but inevitably natural. Then, her sight began to sweep across the sterile room, recognising the area as Manufacturing Room 2462-B in the CyberLife Tower. Blinking was rhythmic yet not too unnatural. She was beginning to appear more human. Uncomfortably so.

The team working on her understood that she would be some of CyberLife's best work but, from what he could gather, they hadn't expected her to look so... alive. At least, he didn't.

“Good. Now, tell me your introductory text.”

“Hello. I am a first generation XK-100 android. I am designed to assist Special Weapons and Tactics units in high-risk cases. Alongside being much more durable than humans, I am able to process and successfully predict reasonable outcomes for scenarios-- if given enough verbal or physical queues. I am familiar with S.W.A.T training programs and have an accuracy rating of 96% when in optimal conditions.”

Cases of deviancy had been on the rise and more and more police cases were being taken over by S.W.A.T units. Their only downfall was that they were a mainly human organisation, thus making it more and more difficult for them to track ever developing deviant androids. With her on missions, their success rates would soar-- or so the team who had made her hoped.

“My battery allows me to work autonomously for 212 years and I do not require food or water to survive. Due to the nature of my programming, I am required to make frequent reports to my higher-ups on the condition of my software and, every 2 years, I must undergo a renewal of my permit to bypass the 'American Androids Act, subsection 544-7'-- which allows me to carry weapons as long as I have human supervision.” Her speech paused for a moment and her overseer watched with baited breath. Had her vocals malfunctioned? They couldn't have. She wasn't supposed to stop speaking. Fuck, fuck, fuck! They'd almost had--

“Would you like to name me?” An exhale. Thank the Lord. Perhaps she was already developing mannerisms? She was designed to integrate into a team-- to be adaptable-- and humans didn't take well to stiff androids. It would help her fit in; they'd aspired for her to be like this yet she seemed to be learning quickly-- faster than they'd suspected.

Her other arm clicked itself into place before he spoke and pale skin began to bleed across her plastic body, coating her in practically human layers of pores and tones. Black hair sprouted from her scalp and flopped down into its default style: short, gently waved, and middle-parted-- convenient for her designated career yet not unfamiliar or strange to humans. She began to exude a strange type of stern attractiveness-- every colour that she possessed merging together to create an amalgamation of, what he could only say was, foreign beauty.

“Yes. Your name will be set to...” His eyes flickered down to the tablet before him, “Kassandra.”

Unnervingly, her icy eyes stared straight into the camera. It was as though she was maintaining eye contact with him. Then, her lips twitched somewhat before forming an ever-so-slightly lopsided smile. The smile was charming but seeing it painted across the features of a half-built android was concerning to him. It didn't put him at ease. Rather, his expression tightened. But he couldn't look away from her, seemingly caught in the frost that built in her irises.

“My name is Kassandra. I am pleased to meet you.”

He shivered. All his previous excitement appeared to have dissipated and nothing came through the speakers installed in the ceiling for a few moments. The camera was stationary, positioned before her. He almost felt a degree of sympathy for her; she-- Kassandra-- looked, sounded so... real. Out on the field, she would develop her own habits, her own ticks, her own sense of humour-- just like a human. Yet, her only goal was to detain people-- to kill, on occasion-- and he knew that would never change, no matter how alive she appeared. They programmed her to be like this. He programmed her to be like--

One of her legs were put into place, the socket being filled with an echoing 'clunk!' noise. Said sound made the overseer cough and return to his own mission, watching skin spread over her newly installed limb. She was simply an android. The morality of it all didn't need to come into the equation. “Can you move your arms?”

As Kassandra mindlessly followed his requests, new limbs being added and her programming being tested, he couldn't help notice her becoming smarter even here. Her gaze conveyed emotion-- enquiry, determination, amusement. She had begun to tap her fingers together while waiting for her next instructions. The LED on the side of her head would circle and flicker to yellow more often-- as though she took things into more consideration than the average android.

Finally, she stepped off of the podium. Bare feet padded across the sterile floor of the manufacturing room and paused to allow their owner to briefly scan the room. Now, she had full access to her files, his files, CyberLife's files-- everything. Her LED circled yellow once then returned to blue. She looked back to the camera. “What should I do now, Stephen?”

Stephen-- his name. God, she was analysing him and he wasn't even there. Kassandra likely knew where he was in the building, his age, his annual salary, the millions of possible things that he could do within the next few seconds.

Possibility #762: he turned his microphone back on and cleared his throat to hide his rising stress level. “The conveyor belt to your right will transport you to a specially designed loading bay. A small team of S.W.A.T members will pick you up and take you to your base of operation. You should be working under an... 'Allen'-- 'Captain Allen', so report to him as soon as you arrive.” There was a pause. The half-blue half-yellow LED on her temple was accompanied by a mildly confused expression. “Good luck out there, Kass. I'm glad you're finally functional.”

“I, too, am glad that I am able to move, unlike my predecessors.” Kassandra gave the smallest nod to the camera before leading herself to the conveyor belt. Behind the lenses of the camera, Stephen laughed-- the kind of tired laugh that came through your nose. For him, it was kind of like watching his really unsettling child go off to university, despite the fact that she'd only been operative for two hours at most. Maybe it was because he was one of the few constants in the team as they planned her out. Perhaps she'd already enraptured him with her strange, otherworldly charm. Either way, a sense of bittersweetness resided in his heart as he watched her pick her way into the outside world.

Kassandra took a mindless step onto the belt and it began to whir. “Goodbye, Stephen.” Click, click, click. Slowly, it lurched into motion, reeling her away from the room.

SEARCHING . . . . . .

       'Appropriate ways to say goodbye'

LOADING RESULTS . . . . . .

     i.   “I hope to see you again soon.”

       ii.  “Have a nice day.”

      iii. “Say 'Hi' to your kids for me!”

  iiii. “I'll miss you.”

Then, she disappeared from sight-- shipped off like trained-to-kill merchandise to that... Captain Allen guy. Stephen continued to stare at the camera for a small while, absently bringing his flask of coffee up to his lips and taking a long sip.

His lips pursed.

“I'll miss you too, Kass.”

#detroit become human #dbh #detroit: bh #dbh x oc #dbh connor x oc #connor x oc #dbh captain allen x oc #captain allen x oc #dbh fanfic #dbh writing #writing #rk800 x oc #dbh imagine #xk-100 #fanfic #dbh connor x reader #dbh captain allen x reader #captain allen x reader #connor x reader

[rvb-happens-here]

Comics

Comics. Oh comics.

The artists' Magnum Opus. The series where things get really popular. Where you don't necessarily have to make it detailed as long as it's funny, easy to read, and easily accessible.

How do I publish a comic?

Do I do it page by page, on Tumblr?

Should I look into webtoons?

All this and more on Cobalt's 12AM existential crisis

You know, 10 days ago, I decided that I was going to adapt a fanfiction by flamethrower into a comic. 10 days later, I'm still o the design faze. There's the perfectionist and strategist in me that tells me to get everything ready before jump starting the project, but I know that I have to get it on before I lose interest.

A professional comic has 5 panels per page, and releases 22 pages per month.

I average 8 panels a page. How the hell am I going to balance final year of (the equivalence to 16 y/o grade) school, another fandom, and this?

I can't upload once a month! My 10 followers will kill me!

Solution: separate each issue into 3 parts. Upload them every two weeks. Have like a small funny chibi comic in between or like otehr fanart.

Cool, so I'm putting it on Tumblr first. I'll probably upload the complete Chapter 1 to Ao3 later (or maybe I'll do it like Tumblr uploads for the break in parts.)

But, what if I want to make a proper comic book? Which also has little tidbits between the 3 parts like mini comics, bonus art, other fanfiction fanarts, a little dabble in writing myself, stickers, etc-

And also, what if I want a graphic novel? There's a reason why I stack my layers and folders in this bottom to top order: background, sketch 1, sketch 2, panel 1 folder, panel 2 folder, panel 3 folder- and so on.

And then I would have things be separate in the folders. Take a look at panel 1 (single character) folder, top to bottom:

lineart

shading (clipped)

colour

background

I'd have merged the lineart, shading, and colour layers together to save storage, and then I could move my guy freely across teh screen. I'm also well versed in photoshopping to create edits. Proper edits. not just effects slapped onto art but master pieces that use a lot of tweening techniques (and puppeting, but I have no programs that could do that. yet)

So how should I do it?

I have no idea I haven't researched it yet-

But I do know this. If Tapas isn't satisfactory to me, nor the Panda publishing site- I'll have to make my own website.

Is wix.com still a free site? Or do I have to use Google sites?

The reason why I want such a thing is because

I have no patience in dealing with DeviantArt's 1 page per upload UI. It's messy for the reader and time consuming for the creator. I have no idea whether they've changed it but not a lot of people have DeviantArt accounts

I want people to be able to zoom in into my art. Because I've built it in such a way that it's best enjoyed with a 30% (or 70%? I dunno how to describe this) zoom, because I made the pages large to fit more panels.

That's like my main reason.

Oh but Cobalt, why don't you use Reddit? Or Imgur?

Well, I hate those sites with a passion. And I don't really know where I'd post it to. Maybe the rvb subreddit but I'm always faced with cringe culture culling from there. Maybe I can make my own subreddit, but then I'd need mods other than me because all my time would by focused on creating.

I was pretty good with reddit and gaining a reddit following, hence I don't wanna actually start over with a fresh account because my old account has like 1.2k reddit followers- but they're not of the same fandom

I don't like how Imgur looks and feels.

Anyways time to stop complaining and try testing now, see ya.

- C, 7 hours before this post will be viewable.

#artists on tumblr #dear artists #art question #crimson rambles #crimson updates #rant #vent #please let me stress #it's my way of dealing with problems #it gives me motivation #it gives me drive

[webbygraphic001]

Why AI & Automation Are Actually Friends to Design

Artificial intelligence. Just hearing the phrase has been a trigger for many in the technology world since that creepy Haley Joel Osment film circa 2001. But more recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning strike fear into the hearts of skilled workers for an entirely different reason: job security, or lack thereof.

Smart-home devices, streaming services, self-checkouts, even Google searches are ways that artificial intelligence has seeped into everyday life, exemplifying the abilities of computers and machines to master both simple and complex tasks. In some instances, these technological advancements make our lives easier, but for some people, their proliferation has meant job loss and skill replacement. There’s no wonder that when artificial intelligence starts being mentioned along with web design and site creation, the spidey senses of designers all over the world start tingling.

designers think outside the box, something that AI just can’t do

But let’s get real about what AI and automation really mean for designers for a second. Talented designers with busy schedules should view these advancements as virtual assistants. For some small businesses on a limited budget, the websites that artificial intelligence can pump out might be fine…for a while. However, as businesses grow, change, require updating and customization to adapt to their customer base, the expertise of creative and talented designers will always be needed. Even the best AI that we see today is limited by evaluating, replicating, and revising what already exists. It may be able to mix 1,000 different color schemes into 10 million potential combinations, but great designers think outside the box, something that AI just can’t do.

In fact, rather than being scared of automation, designers ought to embrace automation and artificial intelligence as a way to unleash their creative thinking. Delegate repetitive, straightforward tasks to the right software, and suddenly you have time to bring your best ideas to the table and push the boundaries of your own innovation. 

Where AI has Failed in Design

The ultimate goal of artificial intelligence and automation in design work is a grand vision that has yet to be realised.

Consider the case of The Grid, which began as a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. The “revolutionary” product posed itself as an artificial intelligence solution for building thoughtfully, yet automatically, designed websites in five minutes. Research “Reviews of the Grid” in any search engine and you’ll be met with scathing criticism with only some small praise sprinkled in. Most of the initial users cite underwhelming results, the feeling of being duped by the Grid’s marketing tactics, nonsensical placement of text, and ultimately, the Grid being a complete waste of money for the resulting product. Even at the low cost of $100, compared to hiring a talented designer, most users felt their investment was wasted.

For the AI capabilities that exist now, most small business owners, or those looking to put together a simple website, are better off using drag and drop site builders (Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc) that have been around for ages. Even so, there are plenty of businesses still willing to hire designers to take this simple task off their plate due to a lack of technical expertise or lack of time. And let’s be honest, are there even enough talented (keyword here!) designers out there to keep up with the millions of websites created every year, without each one working themselves to death? 

Where Automation Shines for Designers

Fortunately for good designers, it appears for now that the days of artificial intelligence completely taking over their jobs is a fantasy. However, what AI and automation do offer designers is a solid starting point for success, eliminating much of the lower-level grunt work that most designers would rather skip anyway.

Even well-received AI website builders like Firedrop still require a basic eye for design and specialised knowledge to produce truly unique, high-converting, and user-friendly websites. Tools and practices that designers should adopt are the artificial intelligence and automation resources that will help them do their jobs better, faster, and leave them with more time to focus on project elements that AI cannot accomplish on its own.

Bridging the Gap Between Designers and Developers

Well-established brands are likely to already have design systems in place that guide the creation of new elements across their digital profiles whether on social media, various mobile apps, or different sections of a website. But even in large corporations — excepting those who have perfected the process — there’s often a breakdown between a designer’s vision and resulting product from the developers. It stems from the basic difference in how they each approach their work and the limitations of the systems they use.

While component libraries — or even full design systems for that matter — won’t reconcile every question, they provide both developers and designers a source of truth to work from that both parties can understand. Design collaboration tools like Invision and Visme, specifically, keep designers and developers on the same page with automated version saving and code-friendly workflows.  

Understanding the Consumer

I don’t suggest using artificial intelligence to produce content for your site

Digging into and understanding the behaviours and habits of site users is a relatively new component of site design, but offers invaluable insights. Tools like HotJar, Mouseflow, or Smartlook make it simple to see holes or leaks in your conversion funnels, detect which page elements users are interacting with, and which they’re not interested in to refine the look and feel of a page for maximum conversions. Even though these tools provide the data, it still takes a keen eye and understanding of design to implement the right changes to improve site performance.

Site content is another way that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve our understanding of customer behaviour and improve site performance for individual users. I don’t suggest using artificial intelligence to produce content for your site, no matter how much the results have improved. However, static landing pages or a single set of further reading recommendations are unlikely to appeal to the majority of site visitors. Artificial intelligence tools like CliClap and Personyze instantly collect and analyse consumer data to provide dynamic, personalised experiences that drive more leads and encourage conversions. Creative designers will also learn from this data to improve customer experience with other pages or elements throughout the site.

Removing Distracting, Time-Sucking Administrative Tasks

Because “artificial intelligence” has become a term with such negative connotations, we often overlook the simple way that AI actually makes our work lives better and easier. Machine learning in email filtering is a great example of this. Consider a simple interface like a Gmail inbox. We have the option to mark certain senders as spam or as important, and our inbox learns that type of communication is and isn’t useful to the user. Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and more all take cues from the user behaviour of liking a certain song, artists, or genre of music to build customised playlists. There are a myriad of ways that artificial intelligence and its branches of disciplines merge with our everyday lives. 

Some of the most useful automations for business, and especially for designers, are related to the administrative tasks that frequently take time away or distract from more pressing projects. A perfect example of automation that can relieve stress and cut down on mindless work is an email autoresponder. I’ve always found that having time blocked off in my calendar to tackle complex or important projects helps me to focus on the task at hand and be more efficient. In order to more effectively block out my time, closing my email and setting an autoresponder to reply to all incoming emails serves two purposes: 

Lets those trying to get in touch with me know that I only check my email at certain times of the day and that my response may not be immediate — tempering their expectations of when they might hear from me.

Relieves my personal stress of being tethered to my inbox, splitting my focus, and also saves the time of having to initially respond to each email individually. 

This is just one simple way to use automation in your email, although there are many others to explore.

While Zapier isn’t the only workflow automation service on the market, it’s probably the most well known. Workflow automation reduces time spent on mind-numbing, repetitive tasks and helps designers connect apps that might not natively work together. Do you keep a task list in Todoist? Set up a Zap, then create a task in Todoist anytime someone mentions you on Asana or assigns you a task in Trello.

This is especially helpful for freelance designers who work with multiple clients across various project management platforms. The potential for automation to relieve unnecessary mental overhead for designers is nearly limitless.

Don’t be Afraid of AI, Embrace It

The bottom line of this brief overview of artificial intelligence and automation in design is that this emerging technology isn’t something designers should be scared of. In fact, it’s something to welcome with open arms because ultimately it can make our jobs, and our lives, better. Leave the monotonous tasks of collecting and analysing huge amounts of data or administrative minutiae to the machines; they can handle it.

Save the interesting, creative, abstract work for the talented designers who can turn AI recommendations into unique and intuitive digital experiences. Making the relationship between artificial intelligence and design symbiotic will yield the best results for every entity involved: the business, the AI, and yes, even the designer.

  Featured image via Unsplash.

Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/33fQUXJ from Blogger https://ift.tt/3cL7x0G

#Blogger

[megamikethomson]

Ravencoin — ASIC Considerations — Cycle Two

lnnosilscon A10 ETHMaster

It is apparent that there are ASICs mining Ravencoin. As I've expressed ordinarily, there is nothing amiss with particular equipment mining on the Ravencoin arrange. Truth be told, a case can be made that specific equipment adds dependability to the hash rate in light of the fact that their equipment isn't valuable anyplace else. This makes a kind of lock-in to the coin.

lnnosiliscon A10 ETHMaster

Things being what they are, the reason the anxiety about ASICs? Since the Ravencoin's whitepaper talked about ASIC obstruction and the craving to keep ASICs off the system. For what reason was that in the whitepaper? Since there's likewise a solid contention that wide dispersion of a coin (RVN) is sound for the system. Envision if everybody on the planet had one RVN. That would be a close flawless dispersion, and by then, every individual could conclude whether to hold, spend, or exchange their RVN. Permitting shopper grade equipment (CPU or GPU) to mine is nearer to the dissemination perfect.

Now, we have these two beliefs in pressure. We have devoted equipment, which is useful for pledge to the Ravencoin organize in pressure with the wide circulation standards of beneficially mining RVN on customer grade equipment.

An explanation I'm not excessively worried about the current CPU/GPU/ASIC mining proportion and mining trouble. Is anything but an existential danger to the Ravencoin environment. For contention, suppose that the algo never shows signs of change from here. The most dire outcome imaginable is that Ravencoin begins to look progressively like Bitcoin with some convergence of mining power in the hands of information ranches with particular equipment and low force rates. These business activities are for the most part worried about benefit, so they will sell the RVN on the open market. This includes descending value pressure more so than GPU excavators that hold, yet on the other side, it permits anybody to economically get a stake in RVN in these early days. What might you provide for have the option to return so as to 2011 and get Bitcoin knowing what you know now?

lnnosilicon A10 ETHMaster

To start with, let me address the past algo change. The expectation was initially to have something more ASIC safe, however there were different conditions that required quickening the change to address two basic bugs. For anybody that missed it, more information is in the update here. https://medium.com/@tronblack/ravencoin-redesign review 705707b4b51

Alright, so shouldn't something be said about changing the mining algo once more? We have an enormous network of excavators and most are GPU diggers that might want to mine productively. Things being what they are, how might we make mining productive on GPUs? All things considered, there are various good natured people that express it is difficult to keep ASICs off the system. They might be correct, however I'm persuaded that there are calculations that utilization a sufficient GPU's capacities and qualities, that creation an ASIC for the calculation will make it look, and perform particularly like a GPU. So how about we set that as our objective.

Another issue to consider is the practicality of the algo for a versatile wallet that must approve squares. There are two alternatives: 1) Ensure the algo can be actualized for versatile (iOS and Android), or; 2) lose oneself approving SPV wallet choice. The present portable wallet checks each square to ensure that the squares are substantial and fastened together. This is incredible for security and a best practice, however may not be carefully fundamental. In the event that a versatile wallet is satirize, it prompts an awful encounter yet doesn't permit falsifying of RVN. Most versatile wallets are Programming interface based and don't have to approve hinders by executing the mining calculation. The two exemptions I'm mindful of are tZero Wallet and the RVN Wallet which do approve each square. The iOS rendition of tZero wallet has been changed over to a Programming interface based wallet to improve client experience.

There are different pundits that point out that its absolutely impossible to take out FPGAs or ASICs, and that with enough motivator, they are fit for everything that a CPU or GPU can do. I concur with this, however as a calculation pushes the limits of the CPU or GPU, the ASIC loses its preferences as it resembles a broadly useful PC or a designs card. The objective at that point is to fix the extraordinary favorable circumstances of exceptional fabricated equipment.

I have likewise gotten analysis, some private and some open, that the current proposition in the #algos channel of the Ravencoin People group Friction is to a great extent driven by those with FPGA-driven inspirations. From my viewpoint, that doesn't appear to be the situation, however it is hard to vet an untested calculation and how well it would oppose the building endeavors of FPGA engineers.

Alright, so we should accept that we change the versatile wallets to Programming interface based or evacuate obstruct and open most extreme adaptability for an elective mining calculation.

Moving to a CPU-just algo is an alternative, however most of the Ravencoin people group is GPU, so consequently, the objective is to support GPUs.

Which calculation to utilize?

Keep x16r variation (roots and marking)

Decrease ASIC to be like GPU.

Have a calculation that isn't indistinguishable from another coin to forestall coin bouncing and diminished security

Considering these objectives, a couple of choices ring a bell. One is to coordinate a current GPU agreeable algo into x16r. There are two different ways of doing this. One is to swap out one of the current calculations with something GPU inviting like progPOW or Ethash. The main issue with this is there is a huge speed dissimilarity between the current 16 algos and something like Ethash. This can prompt gaming of the framework by just settling obstructs that do exclude the Ethash in the 16 bytes that decide the algos for the following square. This can be effectively settled by utilizing x16r as-is and afterward continually swapping out one of the algos for Ethash. To build security and forestall pre-reserving of the Ethash arrangements, we could embed Ethash into algo 2 through 15 (when checking beginning at 1).

Bitmain E3 ASIC — 190MH/s @ 760W

Innosilicon A10 ETHMaster — 500MH/s @ 850W — $5000

1070–30MH/s @ 150W

1080Ti — 50MH/s @ 250W

Titan V — 75MH/s @ 250W

At present, the best open ASIC is the Innosilicon A10 and is what could be compared to around 10 1080Ti. This outperforms GPUs

Mining details: https://minerstat.com/coin/RVN

1070Ti 20MH/s @ 150W

1080Ti 35MH/s @ 250W

OW1 182MH/s @ 1400W

Talk 680MH/s @ 800W

As far as anyone is concerned, there at present isn't any cover between the x16r ASIC makers and the Ethash ASIC producers and they appear to utilize changed innovations (Xilinx chips versus custom silicon). I'm available to being remedied on this.

Alright, there are a large number of opportunities for consolidating algos. I will propose one that meets the objectives laid out above.

Codename: x16rE

It starts with the first x16r. x16r is very much recorded.

The main stage is x16r, yet before the hashing starts, the 16 snack are summarized, giving a number somewhere in the range of 0 and 256. Take the mod 14 of this number, which will give a number somewhere in the range of 0 and 13, and afterward include 1, giving a number X somewhere in the range of 1 and 14. At that point supplant the calculation in position X with Ethash.

So there will be 16 hashes tied, and one of them will consistently be Ethash, and it will never be the first or the last hash.

It is a basic merging of two known ASIC safe calculations which powers the FPGAs/ASIC to execute the two calculations where they are just marginally increasingly productive in it is possible that one. The qualities of each (x16r and Ethash) are notable, while the ASICish answer for every ha been extraordinary.

I invite input on this proposition.

Soon after distributing this, there was criticism on twitter and Message addressing why it wasn't progPOW rather than ethash. My reaction was that I had heard that progPOW wasn't as ASIC safe as recently suspected and without a more drawn out reputation, I'd need proof that it is an improvement.

The proof was sent. Here it is:

Hence, progPOW may be a superior decision. The entirety of this accept, obviously, that we lose the immediate square confirmation for the SPV wallets, or add some extra information to permit quick square hash approval. We are investigating the last mentioned.

I've likewise gotten private criticism on Alterhash and why it would be better than progPOW or ethash. Nonetheless, Alterhash was benchmarked by @and we ran into an issue that we got just 66 hashes/sec on a really quick Linux box (single-strung). We figured it out and it would include hours to adjust time a quick machine and conceivably days on a more slow machine just to appropriately approve squares.

At present, we are trying different things with progPOW which is more like 1500 h/s on a quick Linux box. There are a few conversations about including the break hash discovered during the memory-serious bit of the mining so that SPV wallets can confirm squares.

Don't hesitate to DM me  on Friction. I'm searching for reasons that the first proposition (x16rE) is preferable or more terrible over x16r+progPOW (x16rP), or Alterhash which likewise coordinates the two and is passing by xdag16r.

#Innosilicon A10 ETHMaster

[recentanimenews]

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Anime of 2019

Welcome to the third post of our annual “Staff Picks,” in which the Ani-Gamers team selects some of our favorite anime, manga, and video games of the past year. This time we’re covering anime!

If you’re strictly looking at the anime output of 2019, it was yet another great year. An ambitious second season of Mob Psycho 100, highly anticipated CG productions like Promare and Beastars (still not available on Netflix!), a new music-focused series from Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop), and Netflix’s big US-Japan co-production of Cannon Busters, among many others. On top of that, Evangelion made its triumphant return to North America thanks to Netflix, stirring up some new controversy along the way.

Unfortunately, all that good stuff was clouded by the worst anime news in decades: a brutal arson attack at Kyoto Animation that left 36 people dead, 33 more injured, and many of the studio’s production materials and digital backups destroyed. The attack represented not only a major tragedy for the anime industry, but the worst mass murder in post-war Japanese history. The victims included acclaimed veterans like Yoshiji Kigami and countless young artists, many of them just out of college and eager to begin work at their dream job. KyoAni was one of the few studios with a reputation for treating their workers with the dignity that they deserve, making the loss of their talented, passionate staff all the more painful. Thankfully, KyoAni has managed to gather a huge number of donations from fans to support the victims’ families and the studio has resumed production, with the new Violet Evergarden movie scheduled for April 2020.

Below, Ink and Evan have listed some of their favorite anime titles of 2019, covering TV series and movies, action series and comedies. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own 2019 picks in the comments.

Ink

#3: The Magnificent Kotobuki

It’s not that I see this title qualifying as one of the best anime of the year, it’s just that, as a WWII plane otaku and airshow enthusiast, The Magnificent Kotobuki (TMK) is one of my personal favorite anime from this past year. Watching TMK is like watching someone play Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge but with much more attention paid to the planes’ mechanical details and exterior wear as well as some very convincing weight dynamics applied to the dogfights. (The dogfights, by the way, range from intimate 1-on-1’s to squad based to air force against air force (and everything in-between) – all presented in loving detail with so many different angles and approaches that they are definitely the stars of the show.) The characters, save Captain Dodo (the stone-faced badass pictured above), are superfluous, but there’s a fair amount of comedy (mostly stock but some original gags) that works well because of the characters and how they’re used that keeps the show entertaining even when not in the air. The only downside, and it isn’t much of one, is the 3DCG animation used most noticeably for the characters; it stands out like a sore thumb against more organic backgrounds, but not so much as to make the show unwatchable. I looked forward to each episode release every single week.

#2: Wasteful Days of High School Girls

I stand by my original description of Wasteful Days of High School Girls (WDoHSG) as Teekyu x Azumanga Daioh with a load of wit via well-placed running gags and impeccably timed, snarky one-liners. It’s cast is a large ensemble, and the show does well via piecemeal introductions that eventually allow the characters’ traits and tendencies to be expressed and received differently depending on which characters are present – the depiction thereof, as someone prone to excessive compartmentalization, I appreciate quite a bit. Watching people bounce off of other people to varying degrees is great, and the aforementioned timing, crucial to any comedy, is spot-on, but WDoHSG also leverages repetition of animation and situational cuts to great effect. I’d be failing the show completely if I did not mention its AOPOTY (Anime OP of the Year), which consists of an all-female (VA-sung), almost nonsensical, gag-filled rap/pop track ("Wa! Moon! dass! cry!") that initially backs the narrative of a photo-bombing Tanaka as she takes candids of her friends (the cast) and later delves into visual gags and welcome randomness that gets more fun as you get to know the characters. WDoHSG is nothing deep, but it’s a show that consistently makes me belly laugh, and that’s exactly what I needed this year.

#1: Carole & Tuesday

After watching the initial trailer for Shinichiro Watanabe’s new music-focused joint, I was skeptical; the guitar playing animation seemed loose, how much could you do with a keyboard, and something just felt off in general. (Watanabe has said he doesn’t like loose depictions of music being played — one of the reasons Kids on the Slope was so intricately animated.) I was very happy to put my initial impressions behind me, however, very soon after I started watching the series proper. It’s a title with a ton of heart that wants to resolve issues stemming from socio-economic disparity through the creation of art. The topic of privileged creator vs. struggling artist is addressed too lightly and almost dismissed via casual acceptance in the first season; resolutions come a little too easily, and arguments that should be had are, for the most part, laughed off in the face of loneliness/desperation. That, however, feeds into the show’s main focus which is healing and growth through friendship and creation/expression — coming together to be something more than yourself by being a part of something greater to which you personally contribute. And that really sets up the second cour. The pacing is rushed but no unacceptable, and the characters are as charming as they are amusing (and vice-versa), but the main reason why this is my favorite of the year is simply that it got me to watch an in-series version of a reality TV show that was, itself, fun, funny, and increasingly tense.

Evan Minto

#3: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind

The hits keep on coming for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Following up on last year’s excellent Diamond is Unbreakable, Golden Wind takes us to Italy to check in on Giorno Giovanna, the son of infamous vampire Dio. Golden Wind’s cast lacks the easy charm of Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi, and Rohan, and it’s hard to hold a candle to Yoshikage Kira in the villain department, but at least for me the leads aren’t the real stars of this show. In Golden Wind, Araki’s overactive imagination seems to get a bit of a power-up, as everything from the costumes to the Stand powers becomes even less plausible (and thus, better). Characters walk around wearing entire outfits riddled with holes for fashion reasons. Enemy stands can do things like accelerate the aging of everyone in a train or — get this — spawn a baby assassin out of a briefcase. David Production, too, are at the top of their game on this latest adaptation, continuing their strong command of Araki’s unique character design style while bringing in new animators to craft dazzling action and effects sequences. Stone Ocean is on the horizon and I couldn’t be more excited.

#2: Mob Psycho 100 II

When it comes to anime adaptations of ONE manga series, I was always a One-Punch Man guy — there’s nothing quite like watching the coolest action concepts crumble into dust under the scrutiny of ONE’s sardonic, anticlimactic sense of humor. But 2019 brought us second seasons for both of his big series, and let’s put it this way: I didn’t even bother with the second season of One-Punch. Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 is a stellar follow-up to what was already an excellent first season (it was one of my Staff Picks back in 2016). The season picks up thematically where the previous one left off, as psychic middle-schooler Mob seeks self-improvement and greater self-confidence. Sometimes the show’s character arcs feel like retreads (the faux-psychic con man Reigen is as devious and manipulative as ever), but then it unexpectedly dives down dramatic avenues that push the characters to their breaking points. More than anything else, however, Mob Psycho is worth watching for the dazzling artistry on display in nearly every frame of every sequence. Action scenes crackle with energy, and the animators spare no expense detailing the supersonic whiplash and earth-rending force of the series’ many psychic battles. What has always set Mob Psycho above the rest, though, is the fact that even the scenes of daily life are beautifully animated, full of loose, expressive, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny character acting. This is one of the best-looking shows in years, and highly recommended for any fans of great animation.

#1: Promare

No anime experience of 2019 can compare to sitting in the largest ballroom at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, cheering and hooting along with the crowd as I watched Promare for the first time. Studio Trigger’s first feature film plays out like a compressed version of Kill la Kill and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; it’s one magnificent set piece after another, strung together by a series of unlikely twists and betrayals. The gags are fast and exceedingly dumb, the characters are larger than life, and oh yeah, it’s about gay firefighters duking it out with eco-fascists. On top of that, the film’s eye-popping, candy-colored world is powered by a groundbreaking 2-D/3-D hybrid production, utilizing the best talent at both Trigger and their sister studio Sanzigen and merging their two styles into a unified whole. Promare may not be my favorite from its creative team (Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann are tough acts to follow), but it provided me with more pure, unpretentious fun than anything else this year. I liked it so much I made a whole damn website to celebrate it!

Check out our 2019 Manga Staff Picks and 2019 Video Game Staff Picks too!

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Anime of 2019 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 9, 2020 at 2:47 AM.

By: Ink

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

[artcenterstories]

The Future Looks Bright: Meet propelland founder Hugo Giralt

ArtCenter: What are you working on right now? Hugo Giralt (GradID '12) founding partner/CEO of propelland: As a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers and strategists, we're working on projects that merge digital and the physical experiences — our “super power” is to bring them to life. Our current roster of projects includes helping to reduce single-use packaging by reimagining hydration solutions and redefining behaviors around recycling, looking at the future of mobility and how it will add value in our lives, and designing a more human experience for people with cancer.

AC: What’s the most unique thing you’ve designed? HG: We have designed very unique solutions during these last seven years. But one that we especially celebrate is a telecare platform that connects a new category of smart devices. I'm lucky to still enjoy time with both my grandmothers who are in their 90s. These 24/7 telecare solutions will add phenomenal value by helping combat loneliness as a key driver in the aging process we go through as humans.

AC: How do you define success? HG: Bring your dreams to life by doing what you love, surround yourself with great people, and create extraordinary things that add value to people’s lives.

AC: Do you have any superstitions? HG: I'm strangely connected to the number 23. In school, I was always the 23rd in the class list year after year; it didn't matter the number of students. Since I was a kid, 23 became a good friend and keeps appearing in plane seats, hotel rooms, apartment numbers… and of course best NBA player of all time, Michael Jordan.

AC: What’s the design cliché you’re most tempted to use? HG: “Less is more," searching for minimalism and simplicity in everything we create, from architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or highly admired industrial designer Dieter Rams. We live in a time where problems are becoming more systematized and we must find more systematized solutions. "Less is more” truly has a deeper meaning on the environmental impact of the solutions we design. As designers and architects of the future, we need to have a circular economy mindset and understand the importance of sustainability with purpose.

AC: What’s the one tool you can’t do without? HG: My sketchbook with Kuretake Zig Mangaka fine black pen and the smallest set of water colors I have on hand. On several occasions, these have sufficed to win a new project by visualizing in front of the client.

AC: What’s the first site you look at when you open your computer in the morning? HG: Slack. It's a super useful and inspiring aggregator of research, collective intelligence and team communication on project deliverables. With studios in San Francisco, Madrid and México City, the time difference makes it really exciting to see the whole universe of things that have happened while we were sleeping.

AC: Where do you go (online or offline) when you’re taking a break? HG: I like to walk to grab a hot chocolate (I don't drink coffee as I am already very caffeinated) and sketch on my sketchbook or on any napkin within reach.

AC: What do you do to detox from media and screens? HG: When I'm in San Francisco, I go to Fort Funston beach to walk for hours, take photos and save some crabs from sea gulls by throwing them back into the ocean. As I travel quite often across our three studios and for projects, I really like to get lost discovering museum exhibitions, meeting new people and discovering hidden corners in cities. In winter, my passion is skiing, having Lake Tahoe close by is a gift. And in the day to day, I like to read physical books - love their colors, smells, textures. I collect the things I find in my travels to use as bookmarks.

AC: If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day who would it be? HG: I would choose a day with Bill and Melinda Gates. They are such an inspiration of innovation, commitment and perseverance in bringing to life solutions for some of the largest problems humanity faces. There's so much to learn from them; we look forward to having the opportunity to collaborate with their team in the near future on some projects.

AC: What book is on your bedside table? HG: I tend to read several books at the same time on strategy, design, history, biology, technologies... I'm chasing the goal of finishing one or two per month - which would be 12 to 24 a year, or 120 to 240 in 10 years. Can you imagine how much the brain can evolve? One that I would definitely recommend is Magellan by Stefan Zweig, such an epic adventure! 

AC: Who are the most interesting designers working today? HG: Some of my favorites are Naoto Fukasawa, Neri Oxman, Oki Sato, Marc Newson, and the gone-too-soon Zaha Hadid. There are so many incredible teams of multidisciplinary designers, collectives and academic institutions creating the extraordinary that it's hard to focus on just a few individuals.

AC: Describe a moment in your childhood when you first identified as a designer. HG: When I was 4 years old, my teacher gave the class some paper and asked us to draw things round like a circle. Everyone started to draw a wheel, eye glasses, human eye, a clock, the sun, a planet. After 15 minutes, students started to look to each other to get more ideas or at the ceiling thinking what else they could draw. I kept drawing the whole day: spaceships, space battles where laser beams where continuous circles, robots, vehicles, space suits, space stations, engines... The school’s director ended up calling my mother to pick me up; I guess that was the first.

AC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be? HG: As I feel so curious about how we can use our history to help create our future, I would choose time travel for sure. Can you imagine? Endless possibilities to learn and make things better at so many levels.

AC: What’s your most irrational or rational fear? HG: Some nights I dream I've forgotten to finish a deliverable for a class at ArtCenter and then suddenly I wake up. Do you know the feeling? Does it happen to you?

AC: What’s your most prized possession? HG: The great memories with so many great people throughout the journey.

AC: Where is your happy place? HG: The countryside. We have a small house in El Olivar, a tiny, old town an hour from Madrid. All houses are made of stone with moss growing wild on their roofs; there's the smell of wood-burning fireplaces and plants after the rain; the sound of the wind playing with the leaves and hundreds of sheep in the far inland gradients of greens and other earthy colors. Timeless place.

AC: How would your closest friend describe you? HG: This is the toughest question to answer by myself… Probably my closest friend (I've just asked her) would describe me as loyal, curious, creative, passionate, motivated, energetic, shy but social, persuasive, analytical, stubborn, tenacious, a perfectionist and risk-taker.

AC: What’s your best piece of advice for an ArtCenter student who’s interested in following your career path? HG: Personally, I believe that the future is for “expert generalists," which means that the more hybrid we are, the larger impact we will generate. For instance, I studied business first and expanded with industrial design after having worked in corporations over 15 years. We're in the era of learning to learn; we must see ourselves as a toolbox we will constantly fill. There are many disciplines and professions that will be created and we'll need to adapt, fast.

I'll share something super useful I learned from my boss, mentor and great friend after years together in the corporate world. One day, he asked us to bring a “next 15 years resume” as a way to help us envision and guide our future. I remember looking at that blank page, feeling so lost. What to write? This will help. Think of yourself in 15 years; think of your passions. I would structure your resume in sections of people, projects, companies, skills.

First, start with “the people," what type of people do you want to create projects with? What are their backgrounds? You might know them personally or not. Choose people from whom you can learn a ton.

Second, continue adding the types of projects you'd like to work on with these extraordinary people and the impact you'd like your work to have.

Third, what are the companies you'd like to to work for? Also, what are the companies you'd like to build as an entrepreneur?

Last, but not least, add the skills you'd like to learn.

Now, you have a vision of you 15 years in the future. Congrats! Feels good, right? People, projects, companies and skills. Now, the question is what to do next to achieve all that.

Back-engineer the path from the future to the present by breaking it up in five parts of three years each. You now have your hands on the future. You can review this exercise every 6 months to a year to refine and add what you are discovering along your journey.

I hope you find this tool useful — it was for me. Any questions, email me. And if you pass by San Francisco, come say hi, propelland is your home.

#propelland #artcenter #artcenter college of design #Hugo Giralt #industrial design

[kmalexander]

Braun: A Free 16th Century Urban Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy City Maps

Many fantasy cartographers were excited when I launched Gomboust, my first brush set focused on the urban environment. I immediately starting making plans to release a second set. After all, what’s a fantasy setting without a wondrous city to explore?

Today I’m proud to release Braun, a 16th-century urban cartography brush set based on the incredible work of Georg Braun take from Civitates orbis terrarum—easily one of the most significant volumes of cartographic antiquity featuring bird’s eye maps of over five hundred and forty Renaissance cities. As you can imagine, this was a massive project, and it involved many more artists and cartographers. (A more extensive list is on Braun’s wiki page.) Georg Braun was the principle on the project, so the naming honor goes to him. Most of the signs extracted for this set came from the prints of Lyon, Ghent, Utrecht, and a bit from Paris. Every map was a little different, and I focused on making sure the size, print quality, and line work all worked seamlessly together. With so much more out there, I could see a Braun supplement coming in the future as well.

I really like the density represented in these symbols. Every little building is rendered no matter how mundane, and the added detail gives an extra layer of texture to a map. It feels vibrant and alive and has a “lived-in” quality that’s perfect for the right fantastical city map.

As I mentioned when I launched Gomboust, wielding these brushes is more advanced than topographical sets. To capture your vision, you’ll want to plan or at least have a decent knowledge of your tools. Spend some time with the brushes, learn what’s available. Be willing to edit and adjust them, it’ll allow you to make critical decisions and help fully realize your vision.

Braun isn’t enormous, but it’s effective. Its simple style and strong linework make repetition harder to spot, especially if symbols are merged and edited together. It includes the following:

20 Single Homes

20 Groups of Homes

40 Small Blocks

30 Large Blocks

35 Unique Blocks

20 Churches

10 Small Bridges

5 Large Bridges

20 Dead Trees

30 Leafy Trees

20 Unique Points of Interest

20 Windmills

10 Crosses

10 Walls

10 Wells

10 Fountains

10 Shadoofs

10 Boats

The button below links to a ZIP file that contains a Photoshop brush set (it’ll also work in GIMP) as well as a set of transparent PNGs in case you’re using a program that doesn’t support Adobe brush files. I’ve separated them by type: City Blocks and Points of Interest & Flora. They’re black, and they’ll look broken if viewed in Chrome, but trust me, they’re all there.

DOWNLOAD BRAUN

As with all of my previous brush sets, Braun is free for any use. I distribute my sets with a Creative Common, No Rights Reserved License (CC0), which means you can freely use this and any of my brushes in commercial work and distribute adaptations. (Details on this decision here.) No attribution is required. Easy peasy!

Enjoy Braun? Feel free to show me what you created by sending me an email or finding me on Twitter. I love seeing how these brushes get used, and I’d be happy to share your work with my readers. Let me see what you make!

 Braun In Use

Want to see this brush set in use? I put together a sample map using Braun. There are three versions, a black and white version, one colored, and a decorated sample. Click on any of the images below to view them larger. Perhaps this will inspire you in your projects!

         Supporting This Work

If you like the Braun brush set (or any of my free brushes, really) and want to support my work, instead of a donation, consider buying one of my speculative fiction novels. The first book—The Stars Were Right—is only $2.99 on eBook. I think you’ll dig it. You can find all my books in stores and online. Visit bellforgingcycle.com to learn more about the series. Tell your friends!

Not interested in my books but still want a way to support me? Buy me a coffee.

 More Map Brushes

Braun isn’t the only brush set I’ve released. You can find other free brush sets with a wide variety of styles over on my Free Stuff page. Every set is free, distributed under a CC0 license, and open for personal or commercial use. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that works for your project.

Ogilby: A Free 17th Century Road Atlas Brush Set

Taken from John Ogilby’s 1675 book Britannia, Volume the First, this set allows the creator to recreate road atlas from the 17th century in stunning detail, placing the traveler’s experience front and center. With over 800 brushes, this is my most extensive set to date and useful for a variety of projects. Several bonus downloads are also available, as well.

Van der Aa: An 18th Century Cartography Brush Set

This regional map set is based on a map by Dutch cartographer and publisher, Pieter Van der Aa. It’s a beautifully rendered version of the Mingrelia region of northwest Georgia. While not as extensive as other sets, the size of the map allowed for larger brushes that helps highlight the uniqueness of each symbol. It also features a failed wall!

Gomboust: A 17th Century Urban Cartography Brush Set

My first brush set to focus on creating realistic maps for fantastical urban environments! Gomboust is a huge set, and its symbols are extracted from Jacques Gomboust’s beautiful 1652 map of Paris, France. His style is detailed yet quirky, isometric yet off-kilter, packed with intricacies, and it brings a lot of personality to a project.

Harrewyn: An 18th Century Cartography Brush Set

Based on Eugene Henry Fricx’s “Cartes des Paysbas et des Frontieres de France,” this set leans into its 1727 gothic styling and its focus on the developed rather than the natural. It’s hauntingly familiar yet strikingly different. If you’re looking for more natural elements, Harrewyn works well alongside other sets as well.

Popple: A Free 18th Century Cartography Brush Set

This set has quickly become a favorite, and it’s perfect for a wide variety of projects. The brushes are taken from 1746’s A Map of the British Empire in America by Henry Popple, and it has a fresh style that does a fantastic job capturing the wildness of a frontier. Plus, it has swamps! And we know swamps have become a necessity in fantasy cartography.

Donia: A Free 17th Century Settlement Brush Set

While not my most extensive set (a little over one hundred brushes), Donia boasts one of the more unique takes on settlements from the 17th century. If you’re looking for flora, I suggest checking out other sets, but if you want to pay attention to your map’s cities, towns, castles, churches, towers, forts, even fountains, then this is the right set for you.

Blaeu: A Free 17th Century Cartography Brush Set

Based on Joan Blaeu’s Terræ Sanctæ—a 17th-century tourist map of the Holy Land—this set includes a ton of unique and varied signs as well as a large portion of illustrative cartouches that can add a flair authenticity to any fantasy map. Elegant and nuanced, everything works within a system, but nearly every sign is unique.

Aubers: An 18th Century Cartography Brush Set

An 18th Century brush set based on a map from 1767 detailing the journey of François Pagès, a French naval officer, who accompanied the Spanish Governor of Texas on a lengthy exploration through Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico. A unique southwestern set with a few interesting deviations—including three volcanos!

L’Isle: An 18th Century Battlefield Brush Set

A departure from the norm, this set is based on the Plan Batalii map, which was included in a special edition of The First Atlas of Russia in 1745. A detailed view of a battle during the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739. Canon! Units! Battles! Perfect for mapping out the combat scenarios in your fantasy stories.

Widman: A 17th Century Cartography Brush Set

A 17th Century brush set based on the work of Georgio Widman for Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi’s atlas published in 1692. A fantastic example of Cantelli da Vignola’s influence and a solid set for any fantastic map. This is the workhorse of antique map brush sets—perfect for nearly any setting.

Walser: An 18th Century Cartography Brush Set

An 18th Century brush set based on the work of Gabriel Walser with a focus on small farms and ruins and a robust set of mountains and hills. This is a great brush set to see how Vignola’s influence persisted across generations. It was etched over 80 years after the Widman set, but you’ll find a few familiar symbols within.

Lumbia: A Sketchy Cartography Brush Set

A sketchy style brush set I drew myself that focuses on unique hills and mountains and personal customizability. My attempt at trying to channel the sort of map a barkeep would draw for a band of hearty adventurers. It includes extra-large brushes for extremely high-resolution maps.

Lehmann: A Hatchure Brush Set

Named after Austrian topographer Johann Georg Lehmann creator of the Lehmann hatching system in 1799, this is a path-focused brush set designed for Adobe Illustrator that attempts to captures the hand-drawn style unique 19th Century hachure-style mountains. This set works perfectly in conjunction with my other sets from the late 18th century.

Want to stay in touch with me? Sign up for Dead Drop, my rare and elusive newsletter. Subscribers get news, previews, and notices on my books before anyone else delivered directly to their inbox. I work hard to make sure it’s not spammy and full of interesting and relevant information.  SIGN UP TODAY →

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[aurelliocheek]

Making Euclidean Skies on my own

Miro Straka, the creator of Euclidean Skies and Euclidean Lands, talks about developing games on his own and gives tips and tricks on a successful game release for solo developers.

Euclidean Skies is a successor to Euclidean Lands, an award-winning turn-based puzzle game that was released on iOS. Both games combine the manipulation of marvelous architecture and turn-based combat to create a beautiful world with mind-bending puzzles. Compared with its predecessor, Euclidean Skies evolves this principle into extremely complex and intricate levels, which ensured its release beyond mobile devices. Euclidean Lands was released in early 2017, received Apple Editors’ choice, and praise from mainstream media, which guaranteed a need for a sequel. Euclidean Skies was released in late 2018 on iOS and early 2019 on Steam, where it merged both games together for a more extended experience.

I am not a game developer I was born in 1990 in Slovakia, studied architecture in Vienna, during which time I’ve developed Euclidean Lands. I went to school, then to work, then home to work on the game, and I did that pretty much every day. My girlfriend lived in Prague at that time, and the apartment I was renting did not have an internet connection. I think these two factors were the biggest boosters of my productivity, and without these conditions, I would have never finished Euclidean Lands. The other push towards a successful release came when I signed with a publisher because from that point on I had fixed deadlines that I had to meet.

To be clear: I am not a game developer. I have neither programming nor art background, and I did not have any experience with game development before Euclidean Lands. Yet I managed to develop and release two successful videogames, and I want to share my main takeaway from this experience. It might not be helpful or even applicable to all of you, but just maybe it might help someone who is dealing with similar problems I was dealing with over the past couple of years. Let’s start with the actual tips that helped me with the development of both games, keeping my sanity, and surviving the release. I tried to select points that are not too case specific, but rather more of a general approach, with an applied case study.

Euclidean Lands (left) vs. Euclidian Skies – a jump in complexity, gameplay and design.

Focus on your passion I am an architect by trade. This makes me very proficient at designing structures, objects, and hard surface modeling. Euclidean Skies is a game about architecture. I enjoyed designing it tremendously and obsessed about every little detail of geometry, about how shadows fall on the curved surfaces, about how the geometry adapts with every new shape, and million other details that are seemingly unimportant. However, it was essential for me – and it kept my spirits and motivation high during the development. The point is: You should take something you are really passionate about, and make the game about it. Are you into web design? Great, make a game with lots of perfected UI. Motion design? Tight gameplay mechanics? Whatever rocks your boat. If you feel burn out during the development, you can always go back to that favorite part of the game, and make it better, iterate and experiment, until you get excited about the project again.

Acknowledge your weakness and find a way around it I can 3D model pretty good, but I’ve never animated a thing. During early development, I used colored cylinders for the game characters; however, a game with placeholder objects is not presentable. This was at first solved by stationary figures – easy to model, no need to animate, and I had some presentable materials ready. The game is turn-based, so the majority of the time the characters would be still, on in an “idle” animation state. This meant that the poses itself were most important – the transition between them would be barely seen.

Each character has a set of poses; each pose is a unique 3D model. The models get switched during the motion when the character moves from one tile to another, and because the transition is quick, our brain interpolates between the poses. It looks like the characters moved, but really they did not. This also enabled me to have each pose super polished – a rig might produce strange deformations in places, or geometry overlaps, and since the character is stationary a lot, it might be noticed and ruin the polished image of the scenery.

Are you developing alone or perhaps in a small team. Chances are you don’t have everything covered – maybe you aren’t the most celebrated artist, sound designer, or perhaps your programming skills are a bit lacking. It is important to realize where your strengths and weaknesses are, plan accordingly, and turn a problem into a feature, rather than having a half-baked solution. Players would know, trust me, I’ve tried.

Take a break and experiment Sometimes it will be too much. You will not know what to do next, what to fix sooner, how to do it, or why are you even doing it. We have all been there. And yes, it is okay to take a break and recharge. Some of the best parts of Euclidean Skies came when I took a break and did something different for a while – the single-camera across level transitions came into my mind during playing God of War – something I’ve been putting off because I needed to work on the game for a long time. However, this idea reinforced the game’s presence and fluidity, and this small feature changed the user experience and his emotions while playing the game dramatically. Moreover, it would not happen if I didn’t give up a little and let myself have time off from the project. Maybe you should work on a smaller experiment for a while, something to take your mind from the daunting task at hand so that your brain can relax a little and regain much-needed energy and enthusiasm.

Augmented reality mode places castles in your living room.

Develop features based on your (future) interests I was always fascinated by the prospect of augmented reality. To have something imaginary projected on the real world, to alter your world with the impossible and unthinkable, was always a very appealing prospect to me. When Apple announced the release of ARKit, I knew I had to try to use it. It was hard, but it paid off very much. I pushed myself to create a mode for Euclidean Lands that would be playable in AR – this was before the release of ARKit, with a developer beta, and there was almost no help or whatsoever on the forums, and no tutorials at all. Because I am not a programmer, using this technology was incredibly hard for me. However, augmented reality seemed to be everywhere and became “the topic of the year,” and I knew it was a chance to stay relevant, so I worked extra hard. On the launch of iOS 11, Euclidean Lands was one of the few AR ready games on the App Store. This resulted in great features, the sales more than doubled, and it was in a lot of prominent news articles. Thanks to that, I received interview invites from the biggest companies in tech, and it helped Euclidean Lands in popularity so much that I’ve decided to make a sequel. Each of us has a unique skill set. Also, each of us knows what topics they would like to explore more. Very often, your interests could be easily incorporated into the development, help you with the game tremendously. Because, in the end, it comes down to the single thing – do you enjoy making this?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help While I work alone, none of my projects would exist without input from others – mostly friends, but often strangers. My friend Rene Vidra did the character poses – he is a great animator, and because I only needed about 6 different poses with no animation, and it was a matter of minutes for him to get that stuff done. For me, it would have taken days, probably weeks  He was glad I asked and enjoyed doing something a little bit different for a moment, and seeing the result in the game was a lot of fun for both of us. Same goes for my publisher, kunabi brother. They are in Vienna (and now we actually share an office), so nowadays we often meet and talk about the product. They have different views and opinions compared with mine, and talking about my ideas with experienced people helps me filter out the wrong ideas. Yes, maybe you don’t have a publisher, but you can still go to local game shows and show it to strangers, or make a little session with your friends where you talk about it (and drink beer and have some fun!).

Another important part is asking a stranger for help – the worst that can happen is that they don’t reply to your email, but more often than you’d think they will try to help. Early on in 2015, I had a prototype of Euclidean Lands, but no idea what to do with it. So I emailed the biggest Slovakian gaming company – Pixel Federation – asking for some input and guidance. Pixel Federation is one of the most successful companies over here, with over 200 employees. Still, the CEO took the time to reply to my request, looked at the prototype and shared some excellent business and gameplay advice that helped me incredibly. Not everyone you meet will be eager to help you, or even like your product, but you need to ask to get something in the first place. Also, an email doesn’t cost anything.

Don’t be afraid, but realize first that you can fail Making games is hard. Not only hard but very risky. There’s a good chance your game will not make it. No one will notice it, maybe the launch will collide with a big surprise hit, maybe you fail to convince journalists to talk about it, and perhaps you will run out of power and never release it. Regardless of the outcome, the journey is worth it – if only just for the learning. However, you shouldn’t drop everything you do and start working on your dream exclusively – there’s always a way to make it work otherwise. I developed Euclidean Lands after school and after work. Yes, my social life sucked for a while. Yes, it took way too long. Yes, maybe the game would have been better if I worked on it full time – but I knew that nothing bad would happen if I failed. I would still go to work, receive my Master, and continue with life without any dramatic change. Even after the success of Euclidean Lands, I did not stop working at my job for more than another year, and I only stopped once my daughter was born, to spend more time with her and work from home. Euclidean Skies was partially developed full-time, and you can feel it in the visual polish, but even so, Euclidean Lands remains a slightly better game in my opinion.

Learn to Google properly Unity forums, Stack Overflow, Reddit, Blender exchange and many other forums have most (if not all) the answers you need. Chances are someone already had the same problem as you in the past and found a way to solve it. You just need to find it. Learn proper googling practices, it’s not that hard, and it helps you in everything you do. Crawl forums tirelessly if you are stuck, and if you cannot find the problem you have, try breaking it into smaller problems and search those. If you absolutely cannot find it, post in the forums, but be sure to post correctly to raise the chances for a response. Forums are full of people willing to help if you ask nicely and precisely for a direction. Do not expect people to write your code, but most of them will gladly help you. I wrote shaders for Euclidean Skies with a lot of help from strangers on the Unity forums, and I try to return the favor to other anonymous developers whenever I can.

My mistakes and regrets after the release I think my biggest regret, for both games, was not getting enough outside input – especially for Euclidean Skies, which was developed in a stealth mode in hope to generate more press on the release day ( which did not really work out any better than Euclidean Lands).

Due to not having the game announced, I did not participate in any shows or conferences and therefore had almost no feedback from other people playing it. There is a big chokepoint in the first 30 minutes of the game that many people found frustrating, including editors and reviewers. This problematic level was designed because it fit the game format visually, but game development is not only a visual art, and the most essential part of the game, the gameplay, was neglected. I noticed this on my own after the game was released, and I could immediately tell it would be troublesome for other players, too, but it was already too late though. With the appropriate feedback from testers and other people, I could have noticed and solved the problem earlier, and that annoyed me a lot afterward.

The other point, in both games, was the audio. I did it myself, and you can hear it. In the second game, people are actually complaining about it. For Euclidean Lands, I did not have any funds to hire someone better than me to do it, but for Euclidean Skies, I really have no excuse. I thought that if I did it for the first game and it was fine, I can surely do it better for the second game. This was very wrong, as the sound is a vital part of the overall experience, and in this case, it almost ruined it.

My conclusion The release of Euclidean Skies and Euclidean Lands was a success for me. I sometimes think it was because of my hard work and dedication, but it was absolutely not. Sheer luck has more to do with this than anything else – meeting the right people, finding the right resources, getting the right inspiration, having the right people read and answer your email. It‘s a thousand little things, and all of them out of my own sphere of influence. Contributions of other competent people, like my publisher, play an enormous role in the release. Doing a game about something I love – architecture, plays a significant role in actually holding on long enough finish it. So the bottom line is: Do what you love, don’t be shy to ask for help, but don‘t count on success.

  Miro Straka is the creator of Euclidean Skies and Euclidean Lands. Before developing games, Miro studied and worked as an architect.

The post Making Euclidean Skies on my own appeared first on Making Games.

Making Euclidean Skies on my own published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[stephengamemaster-blog]

Prototyping and Content Creation: Together in the Dark postmortems

In Month 7, I worked together with my classmates on a multiplayer horror game called Together in the Dark. Here is my individual postmortem for the project, as well as the team postmortem below: Stephen Rodrick Individual Postmortem

I found myself in a producer role this month in Prototyping and Content Creation class while working on Together in the Dark. Lester Frederick, our instructor for Project and Team Management, has a saying that rang true for me throughout this project. “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” I used all three of these methods when I felt they were appropriate. Our team has three members who were development focused. I filled in the gap on the administrative side by taking lead on creating necessary team documents. I organized team meetings, including initiating availability conversations, scheduling the meetings and reminding the team about them over Discord.

The story I will share now and in the future about this project focuses on how the six of us came together as a team. We are all talented individuals. Each of us has strong-willed personalities and in most cases, we value and voice our strong opinions. In some cases, this can give rise to long-winded debates where a few team members are passionately discussing how to do a certain thing or what would be best. One of my strengths is that I know when to politely interrupt these and suggest a compromise that will result in us continuing our work. In these cases, I try to consider the strengths of each person’s perspective. My goal is to merge these viewpoints into a course of action I can succinctly articulate to the group. I then ask if we can all “slap the table” (one of Riley’s phrases) and move forward.

An example of this was when the group was deciding whether to continue developing networked multiplayer for Together in the Dark. The team member focusing on networking shared his experience and voiced some reasons why it would be good to continue developing this system. Other members voiced their concerns about time constraints. After ten minutes of discussion, I chimed in with my suggestion for moving forward. What I said was something like, “[Team member who worked on networking] you have done an awesome job learning about networking and applying it to our game. Unfortunately, with the time we have left in this class it is unlikely we will have it completely working. Is it ok if we table networking for now and switch over to split-screen multiplayer? We can always bring networking back in to the project for month 9 if we revisit this game.” Thankfully our team member was understanding and we focused on having split-screen multiplayer ready to go for our final deliverable.

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Together in the Dark Team Postmortem

Written by Blakeny Pittman, Chris Melton, Marc Schodorf, Mehmet Holbert, Riley Thompson and Stephen Rodrick

Three Aspects That Went Well

The brainstorming phase was cooperative and smooth. We spent fifteen minutes dishing out ideas. Then we weeded out the weak ideas and expanded on the interesting ones. It was a strength that we combined our favorite ideas into a single concept. We incorporated hide and seek, monster horror, and tag. Since this phase went seamlessly, we could quickly jump into prototyping our concept.

We are proud of our physical prototype. Rather than using pen and paper or our prototyping kits, we took an innovative approach. We created two Google Draw documents: one for the Monster and one for the Survivors. Both documents had the same map. Two team members were designated as facilitators for a playtest session. They would update the boards will relevant events and player character positions. The Monster player would search through rooms on their document. The three Survivor players would run around the map on their document, hoping to evade and hide from the Monster. If a Survivor was caught by the Monster, they were converted to another Monster. That player would switch to the Monster document and try to hunt down Survivors. The prototype allows for the users to fully understand the concept and theme of the game. Our team has members of different trade skills, who came together to make this virtual prototype. The initial stages set us up nicely for creating the digital version.

Our digital game captures the suspense and excitement that we were hoping for. When playing the game as a Survivor, there is a feeling of dread that the Monster is close by. The Survivors can hide in the cabinets or under the beds. However, being out of sight only provides momentary respite. If the Monster comes into the room, Survivors often dart out of hiding and try to run away to a safer location. From the Monster’s perspective, there is a feeling of power and a desire to hunt down the Survivors. This mindset is contagious, as a Survivor who is caught by the Monster and converted into another Monster adopts the same attitude and behaviors. At this point, teamwork arises as the Monster players work together to corner the remaining Survivors. As our game stands, we believe it captures the fun and engagement milestones we set for ourselves.

Three Aspects That Could Have Been Better

We faced networking issues. For this game to play as we hoped it would we needed multiplayer. Our first shot at multiplayer took us down the road of networking. We agreed that there was a large amount of risk in taking on the networking feature, but still thought it was worth giving it a chance.  Not having anyone with an in-depth understanding of networking, we     assigned this feature to one person who felt up to the task. It took a     good amount of research and after building a few test projects with simple networking, we thought we were ready to integrate it into the project.     This is when we realized the problem we made for ourselves. We originally had two different player controllers built by two different people. One controller was simple and easily integrated with the networking feature. The other controller was more complex and when integrated into networking began to crash the engine, due to lag. After giving some more time to the player controllers, it ultimately was decided to do away with networking for now. We ended up swapping over to a dual monitor split screen system. While this turned out to be a fun way to keep the multiplayer aspect of the game it was a challenge to design. We spent a lot time working in multiplayer. In hindsight, it would have been wiser to develop split-screen from the beginning. That would have freed up one of our stronger coders for more important gameplay features.

The Player controller had many issues. During the planning stage, the consensus was to have two different controllers because of the two different player modes (Monster and Survivor). Because of this, we decided to have two different controllers built by two different people. In retrospect, this was a bad decision. The two controllers that were made were very different. One was an extremely elaborate state machine controller driven by enums and built to cover every situation. The other controller was extremely basic and did only what was needed. Having two controllers was good in that we were able to try both out and see which one felt better. After testing, we found that the simple controller felt better. However, this controller was way more prone to bugs. Because of this, we decided to combine the two. The goal was to try and get the movement of the simple controller with the modularity of the complex one. This worked initially. However, as soon as more than one controller was running at a time, the messages would get crossed and players were influencing each other’s movements. The complex controller was breaking our networking processes as well. Ultimately, we reverted back to the simple controller. This controller adjusted variables based on if the player was playing a monster or a survivor. This worked and is now how we control the players.

Our team meetings tested our game to the limit. In week three our team started mandating once-a-week, in-person meetings. Although these meetings were short, they were focused and driven. A lot of work got done during these meetings. However, since this was the main time we implemented everyone's work it made it the number one time for everything to break. There were several times that we had to completely cut some work that people had been working on for several hours or even several days to revert to a simpler style of doing the same thing. Though this is part of the design process it is still a challenge that we, as a team, needed to overcome. Luckily, in this team we are very good at adapting and making sure everything is done right (and on time) so that's exactly what we did.

 Three Actions for the Future

Implement networking. Moving forward we would like to be able to get full networking implemented for the game. Doing this will help in moving it away form a split-screen game that is on two monitors and help us achieve the immersion we wanted with sound and people playing on their own machine. The main issue with this right now dealing with latency that causes the game to lag. Networking will be a focus moving forward as we feel our game is meant to be played without the possibility of screen watching and really gives the feel of survivors being alone.

Multiple levels will give our game variety. Currently, we are working on the second level of the game that is designed around the original brainstormed level of a castle. It is much larger than our prototype level and it is designed to allow for the survivor to have more agency than before. The layout allows for multiple exits in some rooms, dead ends in others, and more hidden passageways. We are also anticipating that with the larger environment size, will be able to add more gameplay features to the level. This will allow us to expand the current gameplay experience beyond its original scope. We hope that the game will become more replayable and fun. Additionally, we would like to expand beyond the Castle level and into other settings.

Full functionality. Our team would like to finish the full game loop and all the intended features. One such feature would be that of the Character Creator. Players are to be able to choose from a variety of monster and survivor characters. They would also have the ability to make some customizations to their appearance. We would also like to add additional levels for players to choose from. After finishing the entire castle, there’s an opportunity for us to create an entirely new setting for the game. This would offer the players with more variety and gameplay options. This would also allow us to add more mechanics to make the game even more interesting. A feature we would like to bring back to the game is online and network play. With additional time we can create the experience of multiplayer that we intended for the players. This would also help with some of the immersion features designed to scare players. Currently, the environmental polish is lacking, but can be improved to meet our standards.

[me-more-y]

Concept and Research

In this project, art works as a cathartic element that helps cope and deal with extreme emotions. As a way to deal with vital matters-concerns that provide relief through the representation of these emotions. Opposite to Design, used to solve problems, Art is all about questions, to propose those and the look for the answers in a very personal way.

Me|more|y benefits from the Design Thinking and Human Centred methodologies used in the creation of digital products and services. Different activities were held in through the creation process. These are the phases: Discovery (Define the challenge, research, observe people, Insights...), Define-Describe (Hypothesize), Design, and Iterative Delivery (Prototype, deliver, re-describe, re-discover, test and learn).

The project started with the Discovery phase, diving and absorbing all the information related to the memory in a very broad sense. Reading materials available from very different fields: science, literature, novels, mnemonic techniques, movies, art specific material through the time… Researching on social media as on how people perceive and visualise memories. The field of memory is huge, very broad in the different topics.

In the art field of memory, these are some of the artists and pieces that influenced my work. From the autobiographical documentation work of life and memories by Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits to Tracey Emin autobiographically based works, or Nan Goldin albums to Christian Boltanski recreation of IIWW memories  (“Contemporary Art and Memory - Images of Recollection and Remembrance by Joan Gibbons) to specific pieces as:

Cesar Kuriyama documenting his life and creating a video with a recording of a second of every single day in his life. 

Chloe Meineck with her music box to help dementia sufferers to retrieve memories through music. 

David Szauder, creating glitch images to represent fragmented memory and the imperfect nature of human memory. 

LaMen. The image Memorability project. The largest annotated image memorability dataset. Using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), to create memorability maps of images. 

The work commissioned by Swarovski to Troika: Hardcoded memory: “Digital crystal: memory in the digital age” 

The full list of artist can be found on the References section.

From the beginning there was a clear strategy, the decision was to develop different tasks to exercise the memory,  becoming the process as important, if not more, as the outcome. Every task would help to retrieve and analyse different aspects of memory.

The work echoes insights from one hundred and seven responses to a proposed survey during the research phase. The questionnaire was answered by 46 in Spanish and 61 in English all from very different nationalities and backgrounds. Some of them I met before, some were friends, other relatives, friends of friends I’ve never meet… The power of social media. The survey touched different aspects for the memory: earliest memories, specific memories in time, random memories, possibility to chose memories to forget in case of dementia…

Following the research, the next step was to create individual prototypes that would touch a specific area.

Me|more|y is a representation of different aspects of the memory. These are broad, complex, sometimes overwhelmed. The project is divided into three main parts, similar to theatre acts. In this case, no specific order was required. The particular sections were defined at the beginning of the project and adapted lately to the gallery space. The sections were: an interactive piece with different experiments, a physical representation (transparent printouts) and the infographic mapping all the people meet in a life’s time.

The project is purely visual, as my personal memories are. In the process of designing the outcomes, I’ve made the conscious decision to avoid other senses as the hearing, smell, touch… The reason why is that I cannot recall any olfactory, tactile memories...

Physical space: The room was set up to create an immersive experience. Each wall holds a different outcome. In the center of the room, a plinth. Where the spectator interacted with the main section. The place was divided into two areas with two different wall colours. They represented the lights and shadows where we move when we try to remember. Two walls were painted in dark grey color (Deep Space Echo http://m.valsparpaint.com/color-detail.php?id=103537&g=100037). This colour enhanced the graphics on the screens. The other two walls were painted in white. One of those was the receptacle of a marvelous window gallery. The room was not illuminated. During the day the natural light passed through the transparent printouts evoking religious echoes as a spectator defined in his visit. When the sun was set, the only light in the room was the one from the screens and a small light on the floor is hidden on the window that created a dramatic light through the transparent acrylics.

Interactive Piece - P1

The first piece (from now on P1) is an interactive screen-wall consistent of six 22” monitors. It displays four different representations of aspects of the memory. These themes are:

Retrieve memories. When trying to remember something the memoirs appear blurry, cloudy fuzzy… This exercise represents how our brain tries to retrieve these images. They seem close, they merge, they connect, once they seem connected, they become undone, dematerialized for a moment to become an image again. In the original survey one of the questions was: in the hypothetical case you would lose your memory, could you list the things you would like to remember? Each of these six images represents what I want to remember: my partner, my family, my travels, family/friends together around a nice meal, the place where I came from, and my favourite hobby (reading).

Unveil memories. Our brain stores all our memories, all the possible combinations, everything is there waiting to be retrieved. Sometimes we have flashbacks, and memories appear randomly without ourselves recalling them, sometimes in a more structured way. These animations represent all the possible memories that exist stored in the brain. But they are blurry, hidden, waiting for the right moment to appear. Is there, where images became sharp and they get the meaning.  In the first part of the animation, this appearance is structured. In the second part, the retrieval happens randomly. Sometimes we cannot control what it comes to our mind, in uncontrolled flashbacks. 

Digital Memories. In the creation of the different prototypes, I used all the digital photographies I have. In total 16.758 digital photographies. Since the very first digital image, I took to July 2017. My family scanned also photographies taken where I was a child. The arrival of digital photography works as a support of our memory, as an extended mind. Everything is recorded, and experts study how this affects the neuroplasticity of our brains. Different composition with all these digital files was created, following machine learning categorization methods. Each of the six images shows a different area of one of the compositions. One that categorize ALL the images: Food - People - Landscape - Nature/Flowers - Buildings - Night.

Non-digital memories.  What happens with the non-digital recorded memories? How can we retrieve them? Memories are recreation, the imagination of that what really happened in the original moment. These six animations represent six memories only existing on my brain (my first memory, the only tactile one, the awareness of the possible loss of a beloved one, the first time my grandmother did not recognise me…)  and how they fade until they disappear. Creating in the process new words that have not existed previously.

Collective memories. One of the questions of the survey was to name the first thing that came to one's mind related to a theme (a place, a meal, a historic event, a book, a movie and a song). After that, the request was to take some time to reflect on the favourite place, meal etc. The exercise consisted in identifying how the first impromptu thought differs to the ones that require more time. Some of the answers were a surprise: a big percentage of people from different backgrounds and nationalities have the same answers related to food. Same books in different languages appear as an answer, probably influenced by school literature and popular culture...

Ergo Sum. Infographic - P2

The idea for the second piece (from now P2 and titled Ergo Sum), it started a couple of years ago. It is an allegorical representation of all the people I met in my life. A video shows a 2D view of the infographic with all the names visible at the same time and a 3D render of the same datasheet displaying a 3D shape for each of the people I met.. The look and feel are aquatic, reminiscence of the deep waters where I come from.

The process reveals itself to be just as important as the outcome of the whole work. The datasheet to create the list was done manually by choice and it is chronologically created. Family, primary school, secondary, university, different job roles… There were cases in which I exhausted the names for a period, so I contacted someone to help me to remember. That created a chain of connections and refresh of old relationships. Everyone was keen to help. In other cases, I used the help of technology. For instance, I could export the full list of my LinkedIn connections (1020 people at this moment) in a couple of seconds. But instead, I copied manually one by one every single name to help me to exercise my memory, because that was the project is about. This process took several days instead of seconds. Again I am reflecting about how the brain works compared to a machine.

Physical Representation - P3

The third component (from now P3)  is the physical representation of memories: translucid, complex. From the very beginning, I decided that the final outcome will be displayed in a transparent material and would be hanged from the ceiling. Through the months, different experiments were created to test different memory concepts and technologies. Finally, four were the representations chosen to be printed. All of those created specifically for that medium and not represented in the computational animations. A 76x76 segment of a representation of all the images stored digitally in all my devices in a grid mode. A 50x50 image of images in a cloud model, a 50x50 and negatives and positives of eye detection algorithm... It is really interesting to see how the machine needs different trials and adjustments to get accurate results and has a “similar” behaviour as our brain. The human needs to supervise the computer’s outcome for an optimal result. In this specific piece, both positive and negative results for eye tracking are displayed. The last small piece is an early test from the P2 Unveil memories.

#Artists and Memory

[rachelmorris305]

A Long Townhouse Sets the Right Flow for Modern Living (Part 2)

While renovating their Brooklyn brownstone, Nazli and Larry discovered the merits of a dark, painted pantry and that heated floors were indeed worth fighting for

We’re back again this week with Part 2 of Nazli and Larry’s historic Brooklyn brownstone renovation in Bedford-Stuyvesant. If you missed it—check out Part I where Nazli walked us through their planning process and showed off the foyer and guest suite. Here, she shows off the rest of the parlor floor, including the kitchen, the dining room, and the powder room. Nazli explains the challenge of merging modern and traditional within the confines of a townhouse’s long and narrow configuration. Read on for her thoughts on powder rooms (wackiness is key), decorative mantels (rather pointless), and coming to terms with the budget required to achieve the renovation you want (very tough).

Guest post by Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowner Nazli

  Front parlor/foyer entry

I think the biggest challenge to any renovation is…the renovators obviously. There will always be a push and pull between the architect, the contractor, and the owners. And most of the time, that will yield a better product than any single entity could have envisioned (but not always). I think our Sweeten architect was fantastic in coming up with some great solutions to space challenges–especially on the parlor floor, where I insisted we needed a half-bath that was nowhere near the kitchen (because, gross), a hall closet, and a kitchen pantry. She really provided a lot of help in making sure the house was up to code and that the spaces flowed. Our contractor (and my husband’s best friend), did an awesome job of value engineering so we could get the most bang for our buck. The decorating of the spaces was left mostly to me and it was interesting trying to figure out my own taste.

We, like all imperfect clients, wanted this Brooklyn brownstone renovated on a contractor’s-grade budget. Obviously, we were being silly and went way over budget (and right at what our contractor told us it would cost; we were just deeply in denial about the cost of construction in NYC). The mechanicals in a home are so expensive that basically most of the money was gone before we made a single design choice. And for me, I care deeply about the fixtures, finishes, and materials and I wasn’t about to cheap out on the things we had to see and use every day. So just be honest with yourself about what you want and what you’re willing to pay or give up for it.

Standing in front parlor looking through the kitchen into the dining room

I was most excited about the kitchen—if that hasn’t already been made clear. I love throwing huge parties and dinners, and I like to spend my alone time cooking. It’s also a natural gathering spot, so it was exciting to think about getting the most out of the space. Turns out the space configuration of a Brooklyn brownstone made it hard to do that, but it still served us well—I am super happy with a long island (11 feet long!), a BlueStar stove, and the different stations for cooking, eating, making coffee, or baking.

The kitchen is my happy spot and I’ve spent years thinking about what makes a good kitchen. Is this ideal space planning? Nope. Is this my idea of a good time? For sure. The challenge was how to devise an open-plan area that was going to take up so much of the parlor floor without making it feel like a separate room. My solution was to forgo upper cabinets so there’s a clear line of vision from the front of the room all the way to the dining room. This created a storage challenge for me, of course, which we solved with a kitchen pantry. I wanted the pantry to be open so that I could see and access all my ingredients easily, but I also didn’t want a lot of visual clutter. I painted the cabinets and shelves a deep gray (same color as the island cabinets), which makes the whole space disappear once I turn out the light. I found a piece of scrap marble at the stone yard which I used for the kitchen backsplash and the countertops along the back wall closest to the pantry. Marble is expensive and hard to maintain, so my thought was to use it in low-use areas to give the look and feel of the material throughout the kitchen without spending that much. For the island and other countertop, I used poured concrete, which is a material I love. Surprisingly, it’s also pretty delicate, but it’s subtle and earthy and I like how it ages. The kitchen is, again, more traditional than I would have preferred, but I think the concrete and the open shelving give it a more modern touch. Also, I fought to get a second sink in the kitchen and am so happy I won that battle. It’s handy to set up a water station so people can grab water or rinse out cups without interrupting my cooking space.

I can’t say enough about how much I love these herringbone walnut floors. We splurged on these floors and went with the less costly white oak for the upstairs floors because…well, just look at them. My original vision was to have the tile floor in the kitchen, but it made more sense to continue the wood on the whole parlor floor and save the tile for the back extension. We mocked up the island with plywood and adjusted it until I was happy with the dimensions—how it felt to go from sink to stove, or how easy it was to take food out of the fridge and place it on the counter. That kind of stuff is important to me, and this was the first time I really got to design my own kitchen for myself. Everything is a bit taller and it suits me just great.

A note on accessibility: I’ve had friends and families with different mobility and impairment issues—whether wheelchair-bound, deaf, or arthritic—and time spent with them has made me very conscious of what it means to design well for many. A landmarked Brooklyn brownstone is a nightmare for anyone with a wheelchair, a walker, or a stroller, and I also saw firsthand some of the challenges that my design choices presented. The first set of cabinet pulls in the kitchen were a lovely set of straight, minimalist tab pulls. I loved that they gave the kitchen a more modern look. Cue my mother and mother-in-law coming over all the time and struggling with the pulls. They couldn’t grasp the straight pull with their arthritic fingers. I switched them out right away for pulls with a fully curved handle. Now they can just stick their finger under the pull, and a small motion opens the drawers. People keep talking about their “forever homes,” but really think about how you, your guests, and your children will have to adapt to the spaces as everyone starts to get older.

Dining room/bar

On the other end of our Brooklyn brownstone, and connected to the kitchen, is the dining room and bar. We love this room. We really felt like this room, a back extension added in the 1910s, was the reason we bought this place. Then we sadly rebuilt the entire room, but somehow, it’s still our favorite space in the house. So that was a great surprise—buying a house because of one room and then recreating it and still having that be the best spot in the house. It’s our dining room and bar, but we also have space under the dining bench to store all of Nacho’s gear so that he can draw and play at the table while I am cooking.

From being in other friends’ homes, I knew that extensions were always freezing cold and hard to heat. All I wanted was Moroccan tile for this room (in fact, for the whole house, but we just didn’t have the budget for that). Everyone fought me on adding radiant heating to the subfloor, but it’s by far the warmest room during the winter. Larry and I often come home and lie down on the floor and accidentally fall asleep! During the summer, this is the room we hang out in while kids run in and out of the house to the backyard. The best surprise? That giant Tiffany stained-glass window, which was hidden by a crappy 1970’s bookcase on the inside and vinyl siding on the outside. As soon as we bought the house, we ripped down the bookcase hoping we’d find a window, and lo and behold, we did. It was in near perfect condition. We completely sealed it with clear glass on the outside to avoid damage and heat loss, as we did with all the other stained glass details around the parlor floor. There was a large fireplace in this room, but I couldn’t figure out how to fit the mantel and Larry’s bar, and after much cajoling, I finally convinced Larry to agree to rip out the fireplace. The mantel has a new home in the living room, where the original had been removed previously. I will say, to the horror of preservationists everywhere, that I wish we didn’t have our mantels—they don’t work, they take up too much space, and they create artificial focal points in every room. Maybe if they were marble, I’d appreciate them more. It’s form without function, which I have no love for.

The powder room was a tough one to figure out. I hate the idea of guests having to go upstairs to use the bathroom, and with a small child, it’s great to have a bathroom on every floor. I think powder rooms should be wacky. This one is tiny, so doing a fun wallpaper or paint color was relatively cheap. I love the electric Cole & Sons Palms wallpaper—it adds a touch of fun to an otherwise formal dining room. I also love the pop of color from the door to the powder room. We hated having the stained glass window facing a dull orange wall because it cast a weird orangey glow into the room. Rather than fight it, though, we decided to paint the door an amped up version of that wall to tie the colors together in a fun way.

Thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous parlor floor spaces with us, Nazli and Larry! We can’t wait to see the rest of the home next week.

KITCHEN RESOURCES: Cabinets: custom. Cabinet pulls: Rejuvenation. Knobs: myknobs.com. Sink: Kohler. Fridge: Gaggenau. Range: BlueStar. Dishwasher: Bosch. Poured concrete countertops: Oso Industries. Marble countertops: PR Stone. Chelsea Gray paint color: Benjamin Moore.

DINING ROOM/BAR RESOURCES: Tiles: Cle Tile. Sconces: Rejuvenation. Abyss trim color: Benjamin Moore.

POWDER ROOM RESOURCES: Sink: Duravit. Faucet, toilet paper holder, hooks, and soap dispenser: Grohe. Wallpaper: Cole & Sons.

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Jerry and Janet gut renovated a historic Brooklyn brownstone with an exterior that was in desperate need of a facelift and a virtually unsalvageable interior. The results are a perfect marriage of modern and traditional.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, and scope, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.

A post from originally from Sweeten

[halletmek]

The Practice of “Halletmek”

As designers, in order to answer a need we follow a long process: researches, mind maps, analysis, sketches, mockups… Oppositely in real life, in the street, people solve their problems in an impulsive way. When they need something, they fix it, they adapt it, they modify it, they build it, and they solve it without even thinking. I refer these series of practices as “Halletmek” which is a Turkish word commonly used in daily life. “Halletmek” can mean to solve, to deal with, to figure out, to handle, take care of, makeshift or to bodge.

My interest in this topic started when I noticed a single simit seller’s cart in Gümüşsuyu and observed it closely. What impressed me about this cart was how much problem solving it inheld just by basic modifications and fixing methods in such a small area. As inhabitants of Istanbul, these kind of carts are a part of our daily lives, we pass near by these carts so often that we don’t even see them anymore. We normalize these kind of practices of solvings and they end up being invisible to the eye.

While these practices are everywhere, they are not yet formalized or discussed as a part of today’s design and production scene. Researching on these practices of everyday living; exploring the differences and intersections between solving and designing can be inspirational. Why can’t we think on the possible implementations of these practices, the practical details and solutions into designer culture? Concept of “halletmek” can become guide source, even a design approach for designers and makers.

One important concept that reflects to the issue is “Bricolage”. This concepts turns into “Jugaad” in Hindi culture. “Kludge” is the term used for these act of bodges; dirty, clumsy and quick solutions in the fields such as computer science, aerospace engineering and neuroscience. This is something I find highly interesting; even in the most delicate fields of science this kind of practices exist and formalized, yet we tend to displease or take offense at the issue being discussed inside the field of design.

With this motivation, I started to walk around; walk around the streets in a more conscious way, searching for these makeshift practices. While doing so, I discovered that being a flaneur, not having any certain route to follow or place to go, is a great way of field researching. When you are the flaneur, you observe things that you didn’t pay attention before, you start to understand the details, the stories and the motivations underlying in these solved objects/situations.1

The more I walked around and collected stories, the more I was excited about the practices of “halletmek”. The more I started to chat with people about their bodges and builts, I started to understand the problems and motivations behind these situations/objects better instead of making assumptions coming from distant observations. It is the practicality of them that motivates me. The comfortable attitude that is free of aesthetic concerns, which I believe it normally makes things harder for designers. I couldn’t name that feeling properly until reading the introduction text of the “Pet Architecture Guide Book”. The book examines the buildings that are stuck in tight areas in the urban space of Tokyo and their creative solutions.2  It was the feeling of a certain “relief”, just like it was referred in the book. Having these objects around comforted me as a designer.

“Halletmek” practices appear in the street in many states; fixing broken objects, modifying objects or spaces, merging things together, up-cycling found/old objects and making interventions in the urban space. They mostly occur in order to domesticate the public space, to provide needs that occur in the everyday life and most interestingly, to overcome the municipally rules and prohibitions. While some objects repeat themselves very often in the city - fixed or strengthen stools, cat houses built nearly in every neighborhood, street seller stalls- yet some of the examples result as instant inspirations and remain completely unique for it’s creator/user.

After collecting a certain amount of data, patterns of these practices start to become more visible. Materials, problems and actions repeat themselves in these practices. There are certain common materials used such as packaging tape, ropes, discarded fabrics, wooden and plastic fruit cases. Key point for these practices is that they are carried out by the materials available within the environment. Existing materials has to be redefined to answer possible needs. In some cases, materials need to be decontextualized in order to re-use. Sometimes, one material can solve different types of problems, while a certain problem can also be solved by various materials. To sum up, materials are the limiting factors of “halletmek” and the determinative factor of the outcomes. They are never the ideal fit to the requirements of the problem.3  This way of material usage is the most main differentiation point between “halletmek” and designing.

Another point that can be mentioned is that every material is referring to certain actions. For example, fabric refers to covering and packaging tape refers to attaching. In that case, it won’t be wrong to say that “Halletmek” is the most natural state of making that directly comes from the relationship between the material and its sign actions.

In some cases, one practice of “halletmek” becomes the most practical and easy solving to that certain problem, it starts to be used by different groups of people and creates it’s own know-how in a way, just like in design and making practices. Wooden stands of fishers from the Galata Bridge, carrying bags of hamals made from old rugs, wooden simit seller stands are examples of this case. This spread of information may start from the neighbor next door, begin to used by everyone and constitutes the image of the city by generating anonymous object in the end. These objects form an archetype for their field and have an important place in the texture of the city.

When the issue is investigated from a deeper perspective, there may be some serious social and cultural impacts that cause these kinds of makeshift situations/objects. There are also some social and urban consequences occurring and effecting the society by the expand of these practices. Some people may say it is wrong that I accept and normalize these illegal and “anesthetic” objects. Yet, it is unignorable that these practices are a big part of the everyday living culture. Maybe I am looking at the issue in a naive and romantic way, but I still find it very inspirational to see how basic and easy it actually is to build a displaying area in front of a shop or how an old plastic fruit box can be re-used in so many ways. This approach of immaterialist and low-tech production, the practice of getting something out of nothing and making objects working but not aiming more than that is relieving. “A quick fix will do the rest of the tricks”.4

Notes:

1  References from Michel de Certeau, 1984, “Walking in the City”, The Practice of Everyday Life “The ordinary practitioners of the city live “down below,” below the thresholds at which visibility begins. They walk - an elementary form of this experience of the city; they are walkers, whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban 'text' they write without being able to read it." 2  References from Atelier Bow-Wow, 2010, Pet Architecture Guide Book Quote that inspires me in the introduction text is: “Most of those buildings are cheaply built, and therefore they are not spectacular in design and they do not use the forefront of technology. However we were attracted to them. It may be because their presence produces a relaxed atmosphere, and made us feel relieved.”

3  References from Lévi Strauss, 1966, The Savage Mind and Panagiotis Louridas, 1999, “Design as Bricolage: Anthropology Meets Design Thinking”

4  Quote taken from Max Borka, 2010, “An Istanbul Manifesto”, Spagat!: Design Istanbul Tasarımı