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turquoizxe · 11 months

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𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮

Hobart “Hobie” Brown x Spider!Fem!Reader

Author’s Note: I just want to sincerely apologize for the delay in this post, as I have been traveling out of my hometown the past few days. However, my favorite punk is still my current brain rot lmao. The second installation is already in progress, and hopefully as I have planned, it will be out by the date I posted below( after the conclusion of the first chapter). Thank you all for for love you showed on the series announcement! As I have stated in my earlier post, I haven’t written a fan fiction in over two years, dealing with school and other things in life. Please express your thoughts throughout the series and comment! I was a little nervous because I’ve never written anyone from the UK, especially with such a thick accent. Please, share your thoughts. Thank you for your understanding, and you may begin reading.

With Love,

— Turquoizxe.

Installation (1/5) : ‘Dodgy’

Rating ― Mature (16+)

➝ Hobie has been distancing himself quite a bit lately. You feel froggy enough to follow him and enter the world, to what is known to be the Spiderverse. He seems to enjoy your brave gesture, but he quickly realizes why you weren’t invited to join the club.

𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 ―fluff, heavily plot based, meeting existing ATSV Characters…

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 ― ATSV SPOILERS! Minor use of language and swearing, romantic tension, minor acts of violence, Hobie’s teasing, Miguel being himself, Beef w/ Jessica Drew…

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 ― 3.6k

Dodgy; can be a synonym for dangerous, bad or untrustworthy

As much as you kept to yourself, it was hard to imagine that you would make any friends outside of your suite mates. Your eyes were always harassing a piece of literature, involved in extracurricular activities, and keeping track of random facts no one would need in their everyday lives. Nothing short of the perfect student.

"[Name], this is the fifth time you’ve been in my office in two weeks-”

“Okay, four if you don’t count the rant about my psychology professor.”

You were always an academic achiever, graduating with honors and holding the title of salutatorian in your class. Being accepted into your dream school, earning enough scholarships to cover most of your tuition.

Yet, here you were, looking for ways to save your grades with finals around the corner. Had it been a year ago, you wouldn’t have to worry. That was until you were bit by a radioactive spider the one time you decided to skip studying and attend the most underwhelming frat party that your suite was raving about.

“You’re on the verge of losing your scholarships. $25,000 a year on the line, and you tell me all the time about how hard to your parents are working to cover the rest of your tuition.”

And you knew you couldn’t afford to stay if you didn’t work your ass off to pull through. You didn’t think being spider-woman could be so stressful. Patrols have gotten more hectic, and the late nights have been affecting your attention span in class, and even less energy to do your work. It felt so easy in the beginning, and everything was good until it wasn’t.

You felt a sting on your cheek, your tears sliding past your injury from patrol, and you felt yourself become small as you placed your face in your hands, wondering how something you’ve worked so hard for is a letter grade away from being lost.

Your counselor heaves a heavy sigh, sliding tissues across their desk to you. In just a few weeks you went from acquaintances to friends.

“Look, you’re a great kid, we didn’t have this issue your freshmen year. I know it only gets tougher from here, but you can’t fight this on your own. It’s never too late to accept help.” They started typing on their computer, ringing up your transcript and current grades for the semester. A sudden swish of wind flows through the office, following the trills of birds off in the distance your counselor scoffs at the noise and walks over to close the window. They return back to their seat, muttering intelligible, the only word you could pick up, ‘spiderwoman’.

“What about spiderwoman?”

“Oh! I just kinda thought how weird it was for another spiderman to show up when we already have a hero. Funny, I didn’t know there could be multip-”

“There’s a spider-man?”

You stammered. You felt a heat in your body, another superhero here that you weren’t even sure about.

“As much as you know about everything, I thought you would hear about the spotting of a spider-man in the city. They seem to stick close to campus.”

“Any proof?”

“No. Just words, but if there’s one spider-person, why not two?”

You could feel your blood course through your veins from the new information. It was just you, unless your old mentor, Peter, came to visit. You were knocked out of your thoughts when your name was called.

“As of now, you have a 2.0,″ your counselor stated. “Your classes seem more work oriented, and out of your five classes, you only have two finals.”

You slowly looked up from your lap.

“I’ve read the syllabus, taken notes of what to study for and what to work on. It’s just-”, you stammer, not able to give them the honest truth.

“See? You already took the steps to better yourself, don’t stress, and pace yourself, you have a month left kid.”

You let out a small chuckle. More than 20 missing assignments shouldn’t be too bad to juggle, right?

You were lying to yourself, you were going to suffer, but for a positive outcome, you didn’t mind. You got yourself together, sniffling softly as you packed your things.

“I don’t wanna kick you out, but I do have to meet with the Dean-”

“You mean your lov-”

You were cut short by a small stuffed animal flying towards you, your reflexes doing you justice before the soft material made contact with your face, slamming the door, gaining a small audience as eyes turned to you.

“Sorry everyone.”

Now, for the real fun to begin, you can at least spend some time with a special someone before your academic weapon tendencies are in full force.

The night you met him, it felt like one of those nightmares that would be impossible to wake from. To you, it was a dream.

His aura, and appearance on that stage. You were enamored with his attitude. His thick accent, strumming his guitar as his eyes bored into yours. This was one of the few times you didn’t mind that you skipped class for.

After the concert, you went to refill your water bottle before your walk back to your apartment in the damning heat. You saw him, drenched in sweat, guitar on his back, hunched over, and visibly upset that the water fountain was not doing it’s job. He looks in your direction, his expression making you anxious. Yet, you were still willing to help. You essentially escorted him to your dorm, where the water system was in a decent condition. He had pretty strong opinions about the education system and society in general, though you did appreciate his intellect.

“It’s a load of tosh for ya’ to pay so much for a piece of rubbish.”

The ways he seemed so sure of himself more often than not made you intrigued, and he was more than happy to indulge you, being nearly distracted from the fact that Satan decided to sit his bare ass cheeks on the Earth that day. He gave you his number, and from then on, he would come see you whenever you both had the time, which was rough, considering the current mess that was your life. He was the only person you felt cared enough to step you out of your comfort zone.

The night walks on campus, your medusa piercing that he compliments all the time.

“It accentuates your features. Peng ting you are, yeah?”

Your eyebrows furrowed, a deep chuckle erupting from his throat

“Means you’re hot.”

He gets it. He gets you. And sometimes, you thought that maybe what you were feeling would never go away when you’re with him. Your hangouts were more often casual, leading to more intimate moments, mentioning him to your family, and him teaching you how to play his guitar. You began to feel it linger, when you knew you both didn’t want to say goodnight.

The immediate thought of it also breaks you.

You’ve felt that he’s been dodging you and your attempts to reach out as of late. It’s been weeks since you’ve last seen Hobie, and this time, he initiates to meet. It’s late in the night, and he’s late. You couldn’t remember the last time you were this mad at him, or if you ever got upset with him at all. You didn’t like how he started to drift away with no explanation, and instead of anger, you were filled with worry, wondering if the time you were spending together was beginning to put a strain on him. You paced around your living room, muttering words and contemplating sending an annoyingly long paragraph of a text that would make it seem like you were dumping him.

“S’mitten for me, are you love?”

You looked up at your window, the tall brit leaning on the emergency stairs, making himself at home as you pulled away.

“In your dreams, Brown.”

He walks up to you, his lanky frame hovering over you so expectantly. You looked down at your feet, almost embarrassed of your newfound feelings, and you feel even more giddy when he stands close to you. He knew that you liked him, but teasing you was his second favorite pastime besides hanging out with you. You walked away to your kitchen, grabbing an energy drink for the both of you. Silence did not exist when you were together, and the awkwardness of it all was not helping. He bit his lip, his teeth caught in his piercing. He knew he was in trouble.

“I know you’re upset.”

“Hobs, you were supposed to be here 2 hours ago, I understand being busy but I thought you were seriously hurt or something”, you exclaimed, turning away from him. Showing up late was a recurring issue with him, and you’ve had just about enough.

“Oh don’t get cheeky now. You’ve been neglectin’ your studies. A bit daft if you ask me.”

You’re eye twitched at his use of his slang, sometimes you didn’t always need him to explain to know that what he was saying had negative connotations.

“That’s none of your concern, it’s you I’m worried about.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he smirks. There wouldn’t be a point in arguing with him about this, handing him his drink, turning on your television, starting the episode of your favorite series where you had both left off.

You sat farther away from him than usual, occasionally glancing in his direction, and unfortunately, he was staring right back at you, even more intense.

“I don’t bite, unless ya’ ask,” he teases, softly patting a seat closer to him, and you oblige. It wasn’t like you weren’t happy to see him, and he chuckles at your annoyed compliance. It was becoming an awkward staring contest, and you quickly lost track of the media playing on your screen. You open your mouth, just out of curiosity.

“So, how’s life treating you?”

“Fighting fascists, new piercings, performin’, ” he looks over to you, taking another sip of his drink, awaiting for a life update on your part. You bit your lip, anxiety getting the best of you. Despite the closer proximity, you still felt to far away from him. He sighs, using his leg to move your body to face him. You quiver, tears threatening to spill from your face once again, but you still looked up.

He looked at you, seeming nonchalant, but you still felt the worry in his aura.

“I know you want me to squash it, but it’s obvious s’omething bigger is bothering you,” he softly speaks, his thumb circling into your knee. “You act as if you’re scared of somethin’— of someone.”

Hobie scoots closer to you, using guiding your chin to make you look at him directly for the first time tonight.

“Talk t’me.”

You shake away from him, that feeling in the pit of your stomach only becoming more intense.

“I can’t tell you everything, Hobs.”

“But you can tell me anythin’, yeah?”

You look up, his face was close to you now, not realizing that you were nothing leaning into each other the more you spoke. His hand, slowly sliding to your hips, slowly stroking your stretch marks that your shirt wasn’t covering. You looked into his eyes, a small smile showing.

“There she is,” he exaggerates, giving you a soft squeeze, and you let out a giggle. The moment was yet again, cut short by that annoying ass beep from his wristwatch, that has interrupted your meaningful conversations countless times. Hobie curses from under his breath, backing away from you, the light illuminating his flawless features. And just like that, the moment has passed. His eyes look up to you, disproval in your expression, and you knew what was coming next, so you did it for him.

“Just go.”

Hobie let out a deep sigh before apologizing for what felt like the thousandth time, knowing he would do this the next time you make an attempt to make time for each other.

But this time, you were going to figure out why.

—

As soon as he had left, your senses went off. And this was the last time you were going to ignore them.

You had quickly went off into your room after he left, frantically throwing around your belongings to find your suit before Hobie got too far from you. You had followed him, all the way to an one of the abandoned buildings on campus that was currently under renovation. You stood behind a slab of concrete, peeking from the side, watching as he walked through a portal as if it were just another day.

But you saw, and now you knew. Your suspicions proved you right once again.

You flicked your wrist, webbing into the portal before it closed in on you.

And now, there you were, caught by Hobie after catching your ankle so you wouldn’t plunge to certain death after following him through his portal, seeking nothing but a dark abyss before you, seeming bottomless.

You turned towards him, a smirk plastered across his face.

“I fuckin’ knew it.”

You webbed free from his grip, finding ground. You looked at his appearance, and now you knew why he wore such familiar colors. Your suit hugged your body, adorned in your favorite colors, riddled with black accents. Hobie looked you up and down, whistling in admiration, while you took in your surroundings. HQ did not look like this at all when you first arrived.

“Place look familiar?”

You had brushed yourself off, taking in the countless people that had suits similar to yours. The unique design of the interior, and many, many, familiar faces.

“The Spiderverse.”

“Hey I call it the same thing!”

You turned in the direction of the speaker, a young boy standing in front of you. He had a black suit, red accents riddled across, two other spider men following behind you, staring at you in admiration.

“I’m Miles!”

You were still floored by all that had occurred in just a few moments. Slowly, you raised your hand, waving to the kid, smiling at him.

“Hi Miles, I’m [Name].”

“Oh, Hobie! Did we get a new recruit?”

A spider woman in a white suit walked up behind him, her pink hair flowing, and eyes that could manipulate a way to your heart.

“I’m Gwen, and this one here Is Pavitr!” Both greet themselves which such joy to see you. You almost felt as if you were back home, introducing yourself to who seemed to be Hobie’s colleagues. You expected him to be upset with you for following him, or keeping your identity as spiderwoman a secret, or vice versa. Yet, he’s seeing you in a new light, a personality that didn’t exist in your world. You would only ever smile like this if it was truly something or someone you cared about. You both would know that.

“Alright kids, follow me!”

The voice felt all too familiar, the oozing confidence in her demands making you cringe instantly, and you turn to see no other than Jessica Drew herself. You stared blankly, a sigh of irritation, your bubbly personality disappearing almost instantly.

“Jessica..”

She started at you, her face turning into a small scowl before turning back around, motioning the group of teens to follow her, but not before throwing a day pass in your direction. It was hard for them to pay attention when they were too focused on your sudden change of demeanor. Hobie walked beside you, brushing against your hand to catch your attention.

“What’s the tea with you two, ey?”

Your side eye is critical when you look towards him, signaling that you didn’t want to talk about it. He grunts before shrugging it off, still walking close to you. You watched Miles as he introduced himself to everyone, completely enamored with his surroundings. All that you could conclude from this, is that he was new. But while he was looking at everyone else, they were all looking at you. You heard the mutters and whispers amongst them as the HQ went into a deafening silence. You could feel Hobie’s gaze on you, sliding his arm around your waist for comfort.

“Piss off. Go back to what you were doin’.”

Quickly, they did what they were told, but you could still hear the voices of some conversing about you. And Hobie could hear it too.

“I didn’t think they’d let her come back.”

“Maybe they caught her sneaking in, they did say she never gave her watch back.”

He looks to your side, still silent as he watches your body tense up from their words. Maybe he wasn’t the only one acting dodgy.

You look ahead, looking at the lair that belongs to the man you used to call your boss. You felt Hobie release his grip from you to catch up with Miles, watching closely as he walked around him, fidgeting with materials and grabbing small objects. The young teen seemed stressed about something, making you just as anxious. You heard him expressing his frustrations about not having a watch, Hobie suggesting to Miles that he make his own.

You had forgotten how big this room was, and you wished it was longer by the time you got to the main event. He descended from his pad, multiple screens could be seen, one of which you could see showed your last conversation with Hobie at your apartment. Miles and Gwen walked up to him, Miles eager to introduce himself, holding a small box of food. Hobie held you back, watching you stare at the sight before you in amazement.

The moment quickly dissipated once you saw the Miguel everyone knew, his violence showing its face rather quickly, throwing an item in Miles direction. With quick reaction, your web caught onto the object, throwing it to a forgotten corner, showing yourself to him. He chuckled, his expression gleamed with frustrations and anger.

“I knew you would be here.”

“Your favorite disappointment could never miss out on a good time.”

Glaring at one another, everyone could feel the tension, so thick it was possible to cut it with a knife. Hobie watched from afar, reading for whatever should come next. That is until you felt the joyous cries of a child, turning to see a grown man in a pink robe. Instantly, you felt a wave of tears washing over you, Peter calling your name as soon as you ran into his arms.

“I missed you kid.”

Miles shared the excitement, walking up to Peter, also capturing him in an embrace. Miles looked at you in awe once more, wondering how you knew him.

“He was my mentor.”

“That’s crazy, me too!”

You heard Miguel groan, echoing throughout the room, Peter ignoring him, and telling you and Miles to do the same. You once again here the coos of a child, looking in the direction, a baby crawling across the wall. You excitedly exclaim with Miles, “You had a baby!”

Peter laughs sheepishly, yelling for his daughter, telling her to make sure she kept her day pass on, clearly in her own world.

Once again, the atmosphere changed dramatically, Miguel stepping down from his pad, Miles following, both engaging in a rather lengthy conversation about canon events. That’s when you started to shake, Gwen and Hobie looking at you with worry. Still, you held your ground, listening to Miguel explain the Spiderverse to Miles, the timelines, and the unfortunate events that occurs to just about every Spider-person. You saw the young teen grow anxious, beginning to mention his dad, and how he becomes captain in just a few days. Miles grows impatient and restless, and arguing that he shouldn’t sit here and let his father die. Miles looked to his colleagues, searching for confirmation. They all looked away, proving the timeline to be correct. Miguel turns toward you, motioning Miles to look in your direction.

“Your friend here believed the same thing.”

You felt everyone’s eyes on you, feeling as small as Miguel once made you feel. You looked at Miles, ready to hang onto every word you as you began to open your mouth to speak, but you looked away.

“Go on, tell him, [Name].”

You sucked up your sniffles, having to relive that memory constantly felt dehumanizing.

“I….I had a friend, who believed the same thing you did. She wanted to be able to save her parents, to be able to do both, and live the perfect life.”

You felt your chest tighten, yet urged yourself to continue.

“I ended up getting her killed, and destroyed her Universe.”

You heard Miles let out a gasp, you looked to Hobie, his eyes wide, and you couldn’t decipher his emotion. Miles turned back to Miguel, demanding that he be returned home. He refused, locking him in. They had all began to walk away, apologizing that it had to end like this. Well, not on your watch, but it seems that Hobie beat you to it.

A flash of light, knocking everything and everyone on their ass, you chuckled at the gesture. Miles was still in shock, quickly recovering, running off into the headquarters. Miguel runs after the kid, everyone following behind. You felt a arm wrap around your waist, a portal opening. Before pulling you both through, Hobie declaring his standing with the league.

“And for the record, I quit.”

—

You were back in the comfort of your own home, dressed in your lounge clothes, while your suit in the washer. Hobie had flew you home, as there was no reason to hide it anymore. Now, it was an uncomfortable silence, the two of you haven’t spoke since you left the headquarters. Hobie was getting ready to head out, his back turned to you, but not until you made yourself clear.

“We can’t come back from this.”

You looked up, his eyes staring back at you as he turned to you. The moon illuminated his smile, responding casually.

“Maybe that’s a good thing.”

And then he was gone, and you didn’t know when he would be back.

Or if he ever would be.

Installation (2/5) : ‘Piss Off’ — Released!

‘Just For You’ Masterlist for previous/future installations

ᴛᴀɢꜱ!

@darkphantommagazine

@von-studios

@vickyzangels

@roseluxxx

@cupcakekiss

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ms-demeanor · 8 months

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I use Win 10 for work and it's fine I guess. With them ending support for it in 2025, is it worth upgrading to 11 now? They seem to be trying to be more Mac-like and I don't use Macs for a reason.

Hmmmmmm. Okay so every computer I get with a Windows OS has a pro OS, so I don't have to deal with some of the intrusive and annoying features that home OS users do (ads built into the OS being the main one) and even still I go in and kill things like location tracking and cortana as soon as I install a new OS.

All that being said, 11 is a little nosier and a little more intrusive than 10 and has some aesthetic differences but both 11 and 10 are remarkably similar to 7. On a functional level it is very dissimilar to OSX, though on a visual level there are some things that are a bit more mac-like (the centered start bar is easily changed and i think that's the primary thing people were talking about)

One of the main visual differences that I've seen users complain about is that menus now show pictograms instead of words for things like copy/paste, etc. in the file explorer:

And I do in fact hate this and as far as I know there's no fix for it.

But if you're someone who goes through your computer and shuts down intrusive stuff and removes unnecessary programs anyway, there's not a ton of difference between windows 10 and 11.

Here's basically what you want to do to make 11 more private; it's not at all dissimilar to what you want to do to make 10 more private.

So, all of that being said: if you can set up the privacy protections that you want in Windows 11 (and I think you can) and the visual differences in the OS won't make it totally unusable for you (that has been a stumbling block for some people but at least keyboard commands still work) then I think there's no reason to delay updating to Windows 11.

(sometimes people will scream about stability issues and crashes but that all got ironed out within a couple of months of wide release; the same thing happened with Windows 10 - pushing an OS out to hundreds of millions of users reveals more problems than seeing what happens when it's used by hundreds of thousands of early adopters but even given some hiccups in the early days there have been no particularly notable issues with stability and functionality; the people who yell that Windows 11 is going to crash your computer and eat all your data and set your house on fire *may* pop up on this post and they are exactly as incorrect about it now as they were about Windows 10 crashing your computer and eating all your data and setting your house on fire in 2016.)

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under-lore · 1 year

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Update on this blog

Hi !

So as you might have noticed, things on this blog have been quite slow for a few months now.

I’ve been asked a few questions about what was going on, or why have i not been posting even close to as many theories as before, etc...

So i’ve decided to try and answer all that as a sort of Q&A update to this blog.

Where have you been ?

I apologise for the lowered activity. My personal life lately has been causing me a lot of pretty bad problems, I’ve attempted 4 times within the last 3 months to pick this blog back up the way it used to be, but something would always come up at the wrong time and have me choose to delay it until that was fixed. Just last week, my personal computer broke down the very weekend i intended on doing so, and it is currently still in reparations so im writing this from a different device.

I do have several unfinished drafts and many things i want to talk and theorise about (i still haven’t posted a couple things that i’ve teased almost a year ago...), but i haven’t been able to find the opportunity to do so. I however have fairly good hopes that i might be able to get this blog back up and running within the next 2 weeks when my computer is fixed.

Hopefully, for real this time.

And again, i apologise about all this.

Whatever happened to the YouTube channel ? You posted one first video 6 months ago, and since then its been quiet...

The channel is not dead. I do intend on posting many more videos there in the somewhat near future. Some based on existing posts on this blog, and some more unique ones.

As a matter of fact, my computer gave up on me the day right after the day i told my friend and temporary editor that i wanted to start working on a second video... Tough luck...

It might be a bit early for me to say this, but once the blog gets picked back up, the YouTube channel should follow suit in the weeks that follow.

What have you been doing ?

Although the blog has been significantly slowed down for personal reasons, i have still made some progress on a few Undertale related projects of mine. While i have been generally staying quiet about those so far, i’ve decided to mention one of them today. After having been in this fandom for nearly 7 years and having seen literally hundreds of these from other people, it looks like it is now my turn to do so :

Im working on an AU

I will wait for a bit more progress before officially announcing it, but i am fairly impatient to be able to start talking about it !

What happened to asks ?

For a while even a bit before the blog lost its steam, i have been answering asks less often.

I used to always answer every single ask i got on this blog, but eventually as it grew bigger, there were too many of them for me to answer and it started to prevent me from posting theories as fast as i wanted to because otherwise i would get late on asks and have way too many in stock.

Eventually, i was overwhelmed by the number of asks i got and couldn’t keep up anymore. So i sort of took a break from the asks and now only occasionally respond to a couple.

I am actually not sure what to do about this situation. Because i do like answering questions i get, but i usually make pretty detailed answers which take time, and this blog lately has been quite short on time. I would be open to suggestions regarding how to handle this issue.

Thanks a lot for reading !

#update #undertale #meta

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soon-palestine · 5 months

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Alison Russell, a Scottish-born Belgian citizen and Human Rights Defender, was detained by the Israeli occupation authorities while documenting the demolition of a house in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank. She was deported after very perfunctory proceedings at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Israeli police alleged in a public statement that Alison “supported a terrorist organization.” Her attorney pointed out that this claim had no basis. Nevertheless, the presiding judge issued a verdict couched in fiery nationalist rhetoric, claiming that “There are many faces to Hamas terror. There are various kinds of terrorists. Some terrorists wield guns and bombs while others use a computer keyboard”.

In the last month and a half, the charge of being a “supporter of a terrorist organization” has become an excuse for an extensive campaign of political persecution against anyone who dares to post any protest the unfolding genocide in Gaza. This has affected Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship and against Israeli Jews, such as the teacher Meir Baruchin, who was detained for almost a week on completely unfounded charges. In the Gaza Strip, a far more brutal procedure for the same allegations is implemented. A Gazan journalist or political activist accused of “supporting Hamas” may expect to be targeted and/or have their family targeted by a missile from an Israeli warplane. Such was, for example, the fate of Ahmed Abu Artema and countless other Palestinian activists and journalists. Nowadays in Israel, all it takes to be charged with “supporting terrorism” is to express sorrow and pain over the killing of children in the bombing of the Gaza Strip. State Attorney Amit Isman strongly criticized these detentions, but Israel’s police, controlled by Ben-Gvir, persist in carrying out such detentions. In the case of human rights defender Alison Russell, the far-fetched charges of “supporting terrorism” or “keyboard terrorism” cover up the real reason for her detention and deportation. In court, the state asserted that “she had many times disrupted the activities of the IDF troops, whenever she came in contact with them”. Indeed, it is highly disturbing for the troops to have outside observers and witnesses present where acts of oppression take place, which often constitute blatant violations of International Law.

The tiny villages at Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills are attacked by settlers on one side and the army on the other: The settlers attack the villages, destroy whatever is at hand and threaten entire communities with murder, and in these criminal acts they enjoy complete immunity from the police and army. For its part, the army arrives to destroy the houses of the villagers, houses which were declared to be “illegal” by the Supreme Court. Alison was detained and deported when she tried to document the destruction of one of these houses. The police had stated “a deportation order from Israel” was issued to Alison, as well as a decree to “prevent her from entering Israel” in the future. We would like to emphasize that Alison never wanted to “enter Israel.” She wanted to come to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, by the express invitation of Palestinian residents to document and intervene in human rights abuses and stop an ongoing nakba. In the words of Alison herself, “The UN, created when the world was saying ‘nie wieder faschismus,’ has given up on Palestine. But right now, right here, in a tiny little corner of Palestine, there are a dozen villages that are under direct and immediate threat. When the handful of determined people that are here manage to organize a group to sleep in the hamlets, we delay their expulsion…I’m here ‘cos I really think our action is effective. Please make it more effective by getting involved too.”

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #stop the genocide #permanent cease fire #end the occupation #human rights #masafer yatta #the use of a computer keyboard #west bank

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totowlff · 1 year

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chapter eight — as if i could ever keep a promise

➝ we don't always get what we want.

➝ word count: 3,9k

➝ warnings: none

➝ author’s notes: i apologize for the delay in bringing you a new chapter. these last few weeks have been a little complicated for me, as they culminated in me being fired from work. i'm not upset, as it was a job i wasn't a huge fan of, but coming full circle is always hard. i hope you enjoy this chapter and would love to hear your feedback.

Two agonizing, painfully slow weeks after Cassie’s embryo transfer, she was at her desk at work, trying to get something — anything — done, but her eyes kept sliding over to the clock in the corner of her computer, counting down the minutes until 3pm.

She was leaving work early today to go to the fertility clinic to find out the results of a blood test she’d provided a sample for earlier that morning, on her way into the office.

Cassie was nervous, but excited. The possibility that the cycle would not take had briefly occurred to her, but there were so many more reasons to believe that she was pregnant. The embryologist had confirmed that both her and Toto’s samples were of excellent quality. Both of them were in perfect health. She’d read the statistics and the failure rates, but even those numbers weren’t enough to dash her optimism.

The only thing that weighed on her at the moment was that Toto was not in the country at the moment. He was in China for a Grand Prix, and would be in Bahrain next weekend, and would not be returning to the UK between the two races. Toto had told her to call and give him the results as soon as she found out, but she didn’t really want to tell him that he’d be a father over the phone.

Instead, Cassie was going to tell him in person when he got home the next weekend. She planned to surprise him with a gift that she’d ordered online the day after her embryo transfer that had recently arrived.

It was an infant onesie with a gray-and-teal F1 car on the front, and text underneath the car that said “Future Mercedes Driver”. It certainly wasn’t produced by the team, and she knew she should probably forward it to the legal team so they could issue a cease and desist, but she bought it anyway.

“It’s perfect,” she thought, when it arrived in her post a few days later. She put it in a gift box with teal tissue paper and tied it with an elegant bow with teal ribbon.

As soon as 3pm came around, Cassie was out of the building like a shot. She barely noticed the scenery passing as she made the half-hour drive from Brackley to Oxford on the M40.

By the time she was in the waiting room of the fertility clinic, she felt like she was about to jump out of her own skin from the nerves.

When the receptionist called her name, Cassie bolted to her feet. She sat in the exam room, her leg bouncing incessantly as she waited. After a few minutes, Dr. Hodges, the clinic’s fertility specialist, came in with a laptop in hand.

— Good afternoon, Miss Aldersey. How are you today? — she said, taking a seat in the stool across from Cassie. She had a polite smile on her face. Cassie watched as she opened the laptop and logged in.

— Hello. I’m… Good, but a bit nervous.

— Understandable — the doctor said — So, let’s just take a look at the results of your bloodwork and then we’ll discuss your next steps. Does that sound okay?

— Yes — Cassie said.

Dr. Hodges took a moment to look at the chart on the computer, and turned the screen toward Cassie.

— Unfortunately, it looks like this round didn’t take. See — she said, pointing to a line on the lab results — You tested negative for any presence of beta hGC, which is a hormone that your body starts producing when a fertilized egg implants. We start seeing it on blood tests around eleven days after conception, which is why you wait two weeks from the date of your transfer. Now, there is a chance this is a false negative, and we can re-test again in a week if you’d like, but…

Cassie felt strange all of a sudden, not really paying attention after she heard the words “didn’t take”. Or maybe it was that everything sounded muffled and distant. She felt like the blood had drained completely from her body, and like a giant pit had opened in her stomach.

— S-so, I’m n-not pregnant? — Cassie stammered.

— No, unfortunately not this time — Dr. Hodges said, giving Cassie a sympathetic glance — But, it’s not unusual for the first round to fail, it happens more often than not.

— I… I just thought… I… The embryologist said the samples were both good, and that we are both healthy, and…

— I know, I’m sorry. This is my least favorite part of this job, but, don’t worry, Miss Aldersey. It will happen, and it will all be worth it once you get there.

— I… Yeah — Cassie said, trying to get her bearings again. She glanced briefly around the exam room, looking at the posters on the wall. Most of them were colorful medical diagrams, one with the stages of embryonic development, one with a cross-section of a womb with a baby inside. Seeing the posters in that moment sort of stung, because it was not what her body would look like. Not now, at least — So, um… What now? How… I guess, what do I do now?

— Well, the first step is to stop taking your progesterone — Dr. Hodges said — It will induce a menstrual cycle, and then we wait four to six weeks before performing another embryo transfer. You have quite a few fertilized eggs, so we don’t have to have you go through the full stimulation cycle.

— We can’t… We can’t try again right away? — Cassie asked. She was starting to feel stressed now, she could feel her pulse pounding against her chest.

— Well — Dr. Hodges said — No. It’s possible, medically, but all of the hormones used for the ovarian stimulation are fairly intense, and can cause some inflammation, or ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which isn’t pleasant. The standard protocol is to let your body take a break from the hormones for at least one cycle. Plus, in my experience, it lets you take an emotional break, as well. IVF is stressful and tiring, and so much stress is going to do more harm than good.

— I… I guess that makes sense — Cassie said.

— If you want, I can schedule you an exam, just a blood test and an ultrasound, once you’ve had your next period — Dr. Hodges said, trying to sound cheerful, doubtlessly for Cassie’s benefit — That way, we can check to make sure everything looks good before we proceed with a second transfer.

— I — Cassie hesitated. She’d budgeted the costs of the treatment carefully, but Toto joining her on the venture added some extra fees she hadn’t been considering; the costs of his exams and the fees to the solicitor. She knew Toto would gladly pay for his share if she asked. Hell, he’d probably pay for the entire process without prompting, but Cassie didn’t want to ask that of him. This was something she wanted, and she didn’t want anyone else to have to foot the bill for her dreams. However, she had a feeling that the money from her grandmother’s estate that she’d set aside was gone now — I will have to think about it. I also want to… You know… Talk to, um…

— Oh, yes, of course, you’ll be wanting to discuss things with Mr. Wolff. Well — Dr. Hodges said, closing her laptop — Go ahead and schedule an appointment after your period, if you’d like, and we can proceed from there.

The doctor extended her hand to shake Cassie’s before she opened the door and left.

Cassie sat in the empty, quiet exam room for a moment. She felt like she was going through some sort of strange, accelerated grieving process, with her emotions changing every few seconds as her thoughts raced. She took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down before she left. She feebly waved goodbye to the receptionist as she walked out.

Cassie needed to stop for a few groceries on her way home to her flat. She felt numb during the entire drive, like she was simply repeating an automated process, a route she’d gone so many times now, from the clinic, to the Sainsburys by her flat, to her flat. As she parked her car, she thought about calling Toto, but she realized, when she pulled her phone out of her purse and unlocked the screen, that it would be well past midnight in Shanghai by then. Toto would — or should, rather, be asleep. She couldn’t bring herself to bother him at this time of night.

She sighed heavily and put her phone back in her bag.

As Cassie walked around Sainsbury’s, she felt like there was a massive weight on her shoulders, and like her shoes had been replaced with paving stones. She trudged aisle to aisle, barely paying attention to the things she was putting in her trolley.

She kept catching sight of mothers and fathers with small children in their trolleys or holding their hands, which compounded her sadness. It wasn’t like anything was out of the ordinary in the shop that day, but the lack of possibility of her having children now made her see them everywhere.

The universe saw fit to rub extra salt in her wounds, though, as she was absentmindedly looking at jars of jam, trying to decide which one she wanted. She’d just picked up a jar of apricot marmalade when she felt a tug on the leg of her trousers.

She turned around to see a small girl brandishing a box of Weetos cereal at her.

— Mummy, I want this one… Oh, sorry — she said, when Cassie turned around to reveal that she was, not, in fact, the girl’s mother. A woman came scrambling up behind Cassie, grabbing one of the girl’s hands.

— Right here, sweetheart. Sorry about that — she said, nodding her head at Cassie and leading the child away toward her own trolley.

They were gone before Cassie could even say anything.

She stood, anchored to the floor, between the jams and breads, her shoulders starting to shake from the effort of trying to not cry. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down. When she felt like she could move again, she went to the beer & wine section and grabbed three bottles of the first sauvignon blanc she laid eyes on without a second thought.

Cassie managed to avoid crying on the rest of her drive home, but as soon as she was in her apartment, there was no reason to hold back any longer. She haphazardly jammed things in the refrigerator and freezer as tears streaked down her face.

She uncorked a bottle of wine and took a swig, not even bothering to pour it into a glass, which she realized would probably make her mother faint. All the less reason to care, she thought, as she sat down on her sofa. She wailed into one of her throw pillows. It was the kind of full-body wracking sobs that toddlers did, too.

Cassie knew she was quite the sight with her hair disheveled, her mascara and eyeliner making tracks down her cheeks, drinking directly from a cheap bottle of wine, but she didn’t care. It had been a while since she’d had both a good cry and anything to drink, so she felt entitled to both.

It was a cycle — she would calm down, but she would remember the way her doctor looked at her, or the word “negative” on the line for bHCG on her chart, or she would imagine telling Toto that she wasn’t pregnant, and she would start crying all over again.

Eventually, she cried herself to sleep, just like a toddler would.

Cassie woke up on her sofa hours later, sweaty and disoriented. The lights in her flat were still on, she was still wearing her clothes from work that day. She even still had one shoe on. Her television was on, displaying the Netflix “Are you still there?” message, and there was an empty wine bottle and a bag of open chocolate candies spilling out on her coffee table.

She got up and turned her lights and television off. She stripped her clothes off and flung them into a haphazard pile in the corner of her bedroom, not even bothering to put on pajamas before she plugged her phone into the charger on her nightstand and went back to sleep.

Cassie hadn’t set an alarm, but a buzzing noise woke her up the next morning at around 8h30. She pawed at her table, hand searching for the device before she picked it up and squinted at the screen. Her heart sank when she saw Toto’s name. It was about 16h30 in Shanghai, so qualifying had likely just finished.

She wanted to talk to him, but she didn’t know what to say. He was doubtlessly calling to find out how Cassie’s blood tests went, to find out if they were going to be parents. He was as excited as she was, which meant he was going to be as devastated as she was, too. It would be cruel to disappoint him so much now, when he was halfway around the world, with races to focus on.

Cassie set her phone back down and let it ring until it stopped.

She would figure out how to break the news later.

Toto had left her a voicemail, which Cassie listened to when she had woken up a bit more.

— Hi Cassie — he said. His voice sounded soft and gentle, even happy — I know it’s only about 8 in the morning in Oxford, so you might not be awake yet, but I was just calling to say hello and to see how things went at the doctor yesterday. We just finished up qualifying, I don’t know if you were up and watching. Lewis got pole, and Valtteri got P3, so that’s good. Anyway, I’m going to go get dinner with Niki here shortly. Give me a call later when you’re awake, okay? Talk to you soon.

Fifteen minutes later, he tried calling again.

Cassie answered this time, but couldn’t think of what to say. Even “hello” wouldn’t come out of her mouth, for some reason.

— Hello? Cassie? Are you there? — she heard him say, before she panicked, and hung up.

She started crying again. It was all too much.

Cassie watched the race the next morning after a night of poor sleep. She’d been up for hours, thinking about all the plans she’d already made for the child she and Toto wouldn’t be having.

During the race, she poured over her finances, her heart sinking when she realized that the addition of Toto’s tests and procedures, and the solicitor’s fees for their known donor agreement, had eaten the entirety of what she’d budgeted from her share of her grandmother’s estate, and then some. Her doctor had brought up the possibility of trying again, but there’d be no way to do that now. The process had gone hundreds of pounds over what she’d already set aside, and she couldn’t live with the thought of asking anyone else — not even Toto — to cover the costs of another round.

Not even watching Lewis claim victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, or Mercedes move ahead in the constructor’s standings over Ferrari, could lift her spirits.

By the time she went back to work on Monday, Cassie felt numb. She wasn’t sleeping well. She barely had an appetite. She’d consumed more wine than anything else over that weekend, and was dealing with a persistent hangover as a result. She continued to ignore Toto’s phone calls and messages. She still didn’t know how to tell him.

Tuesday was worse.

Stopping the progesterone brought on an intense, monstrous period, the likes of which she hadn’t had in years.

Cassie’s head was pounding. Her mood was worse than before, which she would have thought was impressive if she didn’t feel so awful. On the upside, she had an appetite again, but it was insatiable, making her feel worse with the arrival of bloating that made it impossible to put her pants on. A patch of fresh acne on her jawline was the cherry on top, but the worst was when the bleeding actually started. Before, the slim possibility of a false negative was something she was hanging onto, a small ray of light in the darkness.

But now, she had the final confirmation: she wasn’t pregnant.

She called in sick on Wednesday and stayed in bed, both from the pain of the more-intense cramping and from the feeling like she was drowning.

By that point, Toto had called at least once per day, and sent several WhatsApp messages. She’d read them, and she’d typed a few responses, but couldn’t actually gather the courage to press “send” on any of them.

She didn’t listen to every voicemail he’d left, but the one she did listen to crushed her.

— Cassie, please, I don’t know what’s wrong, or what I did, but please let me know you’re okay — he said — I’m in Sakhir now, and it’s only three hours ahead, so, please, give me a call and let me know what’s going on. I’m worried about you, I haven’t heard from you in almost a week and… I just don’t know what’s going on. I lo… I miss… Okay. Give me a call. Please. Goodbye.

By the time Friday came — a week since Cassie found out that she wasn’t pregnant, she’d at least stopped crying out of the blue. It was like she physically wasn’t able to any longer. She felt as empty and hollow as her womb was.

She still felt horrid about never responding to Toto, and kept making excuses for herself.

“This is something he needs to hear in person”, she thought. “I’ve acted so awful this week he probably doesn’t want to have a child with me any more anyway.”

Still, though, she missed him terribly. She would pay any price for him to be back in Oxford with her, because surely, he would be able to take away the deep, constant pain she’d been feeling for a week now. She felt like she’d failed herself, and her own ambitions, but she’d let Toto down as well.

Somewhere, in the more rational side of her brain, Cassie knew that it was a possibility that the first round wouldn’t work, but she thought it was because of cases where couples had to utilize IVF because of other factors that drove infertility — medical issues on the part of either party that made it so those couples had difficulty conceiving naturally — things that didn’t apply to Cassie and Toto. They were only doing it this way because they weren’t together like a traditional couple, which meant that they weren’t really in a position to try to do things the old-fashioned way.

Cassie’s failure tortured her so much that the only way she’d been able to get any sleep was to imagine that he was there with her as she laid down, imagining herself laying in his arms, like when he’d offered to hold her after her embryo transfer. If she tried hard enough, she could remember the solid warmth of his chest against her back, the fresh, clean scent of his cologne, and how gentle his hands were, in spite of how big they were. Her imagination could only offer her a pale imitation of the real thing, but it was the only way she was able to relax enough to let herself sleep.

As she watched television coverage of the race in Bahrain, her heart squeezed every time one of the television cameras panned to him. Maybe it was Cassie’s imagination, but he didn’t look all that well, either. His hair was in varying states of sticking up in odd places, which Cassie knew was from him running his hand through it whenever he got stressed. His brow seemed to be furrowed constantly, like he was worried about something.

She wanted to see him again, to talk to him, but now, she thought she didn’t deserve to.

His phone calls became less and less frequent as his trip came to an end.

Given the result of the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel winning the race and Ferrari retaking the lead of the Constructors Championship, Cassie thought Toto would have other things to worry about after he got back.

Cassie realized at some point that she needed to talk to somebody about what she was going through, even if she’d missed her chance to talk to Toto about it. Not for the first time, she wished that her and her mother had the kind of relationship that most mothers and daughters had, because this seemed like the sort of thing one would talk to their mother about.

However, she did have an eccentric, but kind, aunt. While Sybil had never wanted to have children, she would probably be sympathetic to Cassie’s plight, so she called her aunt after she got home on Monday.

— I’m sorry, ma étoile, that sounds awful. If it helps, I know your sister didn’t have an easy time when she was trying to get pregnant. Your father, of course, was a real knob about it, and it didn’t help that your brother and his wife got pregnant right away. I remember him saying, “it’s always the mare and not the stallion”, as if you can compare horses to people — Sybil said — Your father gave Helena such a hard time about it, but it happened eventually, and it will for you, too.

Cassie sighed. She hadn’t known about that, because she had already stopped talking to her parents around the time Helena got married.

Actually, it was a fight at Helena’s wedding that made Cassie realize that it was probably better for all involved if she didn’t speak to her parents any more. She had to do some mental subtraction to figure out how long ago that was — eight years now, when Cassie was twenty-seven.

— I remember that — Cassie said — That thing about mares and stallions. I never understood that, because even his reproductive veterinarian told him that wasn’t always the case.

Talking about horses, though, made something clear to Cassie, something she didn’t like about the IVF process.

She remembered that her father’s barn switched from live covering — the process of two horses physically mating to produce a foal — to IVF, sometime in the nineties, when Cassie was young. It was easier and more cost-effective, her dad said, to manage breeding so many horses that way. Plus, they could buy sperm from stallions from other farms to produce, saving the cost of having to transport stallions and mares around. But the whole process that Cassie was going through reminded her of that, and made her feel like a broodmare — and not a prized one, either.

She was hoping to be done with it, especially when she imagined her father talking to her like a mare that wasn’t successfully bred.

“Well, there must be something wrong with this one,” he’d say. “Bad blood will out, you know”.

— And what did Toto say when you told him it didn’t take? — Sybil said. It caught Cassie off-guard, though she supposed she should have been expecting that question.

— I… Uh… he doesn’t know yet — Cassie said, shyly.

— What do you mean? Surely you had to have told him. He’s supposed to be the father!

— Well, he was out of the country for a doubleheader, and I — Cassie said. She sighed — I didn’t want to tell him over the phone, and… I wasn’t sure what to say anyway. He’ll be back in the office tomorrow, I think, so I guess I will talk to him then…

She didn’t.

#toto wolff #toto wolff x oc #formula 1 fic #formula 1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 fanfic #f1 x oc #formula 1 x oc #wlffog #collab #etlwlff

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aradak-tribunal · 9 months

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from: @elepharchy!avdak

to: @aradak-tribunal!aradas-confederation-of-hives

Our volunteers greet you in peace! Since the situation at our initial landing site has stabilised, we have determined we can reallocate aid resources elsewhere and that the Confederation is the ideal next candidate. If you are interested in our assistance, any of your member hives can use your electromagnetic radio transmitters to inform us of the nature of their need. On that note: If you accept our offer, once everything urgent has been taking care of, might we suggest some upgrades to your comms infrastructure? It's one of our specialties, and we know how important efficient communication is to egalitarian decision-making.

[message recieved: vitak-venerables]

[transfer message to: aradas-confederation-of-hives]

Reply from the desk of Queen-Elect Zo-Ebatat Konsha uau Tar-Ye:

We, the Queens of the Aradas Confederation of Hives, thank you for your message. The good works of the Association of Visitors, Defenders, Assistants, and Knowledge-sharers have not gone unnoticed in their benevolence, your drones are like manifestations of Ataerpa and Alare.

We apologise for the delay, but in-person meetings take time to arrange. This will no doubt not be an issue for long as after a brief debate on your offer, the Queens welcome your aid with open wings, and of course we could never deny our member hives the opportunity of free contact with your or any hive.

Upgrades to our comms infrastructure would be most beneficial to the functioning of our confederacy and the rise in quality of living for many of our drones. We assume that the offer includes the energy infrastructure required to maintain such infrastructure, of which we have very little. Idealy, we would want to restore the Archives, the primary hub for the connection of all computing devices on Aradas, which would not only benefit us but all hives too.

The effort to restore the Archives is a part of the Interhive Reconstruction Initiative, however it is low on the list of Interhive priorities, below industrial revival and the global energy nexus.

Though it would be a small side-effect of such efforts, I am curious to know what archived posts drones nearly three hundred years ago were making online.

Thank you again for reaching out. May the Broodmother give your organics many eggs, and may the primordials Er and Lor keep your metal drones charged and sturdy.

[message recieved: vitak-venerables]

[transfer message to: avdak-elepharchy]

#peritainia #stellaris rp

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octopuscityblues · 3 months

Text

February 2024 Update - Kaf & the Octonauts

Hello everyone. This is your host Kaftan von Kaffeeklatsch and you're listening to the Cosmic Millipede Podcast, the show about rocket ships, red quasars, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Before getting to today's interview, I'd like to apologize for the delay since our last episode. We've been quite busy preparing content for the new year, so it took more time than expected.

Today's sponsor is the Ghost in a Bottle Consortium. Do check out their upcoming Octopus City Simulation that's coming soon. You can already download a lengthy demo on Steam, itch.io or GOG. Oh, and if you're reading the transcript after the episode, we took the liberty of adding the latest Octopus City Blues screenshots for you to admire.

Our guest today needs no introduction. I'm talking about the infamous business tycoon, the world's wealthiest person, and the founder of Kosmomash Rockets, Constantin Mandibule. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last ten years, I'm sure you're familiar with Kosmomash's long-awaited projects: the first privately-developed rocket to carry tourists to the moon, and the ambitious luxury resort they're building over there.

Monsieur Constantin Mandibule, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to have this chat.

It's my pleasure, Kaftan. And please, there's no need for formalities. Just call me ConMan—all my friends do.

Uh… all right, Monsieur Conman. Last year was a very important one for Kosmomash, wasn't it?

Absolutement! It was also different—much more business-focused than previous years. Between showcasing our rocket prototypes publicly and at industry events, talking to potential partners, and onboarding new talent, comparatively less time was spent on developing rocket components. These activities were all essential for establishing a strong promotional foundation for this year's big launch. With that out of the way, we are currently back to focusing on construction.

How exciting! The prototype you unveiled during the Next Fest Aerospace Convention caused quite a stir among the attendees. Could you tell us more about it?

What I can tell you, Kaftan, is that it took a lot of hard work to finally get the prototype out the door. It was useful preparation for our final launch, too. For example, working with STEAM's [Editor's Note: Space Tourism Enforcement And Monitoring agency] launch regulations and cloud computing infrastructure forced us to optimize our release processes.

The feedback we received from the attendees was extremely valuable as well; while some of the casualties were avoidable, we continue to learn from every tragedy. Au fait, we just published a new version of our prototype specs a couple of weeks ago, fixing many issues encountered by real users in the wild.

The accidents were regrettable, but the altar of technology demands its sacrifices. What are some of the lessons learned from the launch of the prototype?

Euh… much of it has to do with improving the user experience. For example, our DAISY module is programmed to react to the needs of space tourists. However, as post-war treaties ban the use of AI, we have to manually write responses to every potential user query. Watching so many lab ra—err, people, try the demo helped us identify hundreds of new DAISY responses.

Another finding from the handful of unfortunate incidents was that the control systems were not very intuitive to first-time users. As the average space tourist isn't a trained pilot, we had to place large signs all over the space module—really obvious warnings such as "Keep the windows closed after launch", "Repeatedly press the red button to breathe", or "Carefully arrange the fusion matrix stack if the gradient is inverted".

There were, en outre, numerous fixes and rocket engine performance improvements. We also introduced two new cockpit views to track the current flight status: the Facts And Figures screen displays various metrics during and at the end of the trip, while the Calendar App keeps track of all the space debris collected along the flight path.

That's very interesting. The prototype must be much safer now, especially compared to the versions you tested at the INDIGO SKIES and SpaceAdventureX events last year.

Tout à fait! And let's not forget the Independent Rocketry Showcase, the Test & Fly event, and the numerous people who tried our prototype rocket kit at home and streamed it online. We're really thankful to everyone who got injured to get us closer towards uncovering the dark mysteries of the great beyond.

And closer to lining your pockets, no doubt. Moving on, you mentioned hiring new colleagues.

Oui, c'est juste. People are surprised when I say this, Kaftan, but I've been writing all of the company's press releases from the very beginning. I simply enjoy doing it! laughs. English is obviously not my mother tongue, and so a lot of mistakes were made. Thankfully, we now have a professional editor, Julia Seeholzer, to help us sort out all the there's, theirs, and they'res!

More recently, Shannon Mason, the celebrated composer also known as Pongball, has joined the team, and is already working on some exciting tunes. Some of these will be played during the long elevator rides to the underground mines beneath the lunar resort. Manual space labor doesn't have to be boring, after all!

Are we still talking about space tourists? Anyway, with all the feedback, exposure, and new colleagues, it sounds like you're on target for this year's big launch. What are you working on these days?

Like I said, the focus is finally back to developing new things. Last year we worked on a western themed area in the planned resort. We're wrapping that up while also constructing a magnificent coliseum and an underwater village. There's a lot going on behind the scenes that we can't talk about yet. We want it to be une grande surprise for our precious guests.

As for the planned launch, it's still going according to plan, and we're doing our best to meet our summer targets. With that said, the prototype showed us that no matter how much testing we do, actual users will keep uncovering all the bugs… I mean, easter eggs, we intentionally add. Quality Assurance remains the biggest unknown at the moment.

On the other hand, we've invested in a very solid foundation over the years, and everyone's doing their best to finally give humanity the salvation it so desperately needs. One way or another, I'm confident that this year is the year of Kosmomash. After all, we only need to ensure that half the tourists actually make it to the moon. How hard can it be?

Who knows? It's not like we're talking about rocket science or anything. In any case, thank you, Monsieur Conman, for your valuable time, and good luck with your ambitious plans for this year. I hope we get to talk again after the first batch of tourists make it to the moon.

Moi aussi! Thank you for having me, Herr Kaftan.

#octopus city blues #pixel art #pixelart #gamedev #adventure game #indie game #update #devlog #news spin #moon #news

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spacenutspod · 5 months

Link

It’s been another great year at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Join us as we review some of the highlights of the science, engineering, and innovation from 2023. Announcing a New Innovation Hub Planned for NASA Research Park at Ames NASA Berkeley Space Center is a proposed new campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and an innovation hub for research and advances in astronautics, aeronautics, quantum computing, climate studies, and more. Planning to join Ames as a tenant of our NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, the new campus aims to bring together researchers from the private sector, academia, and the government to tackle the complex scientific, technological, and societal issues facing our world. Mapping Water Distribution on the Moon’s South Pole NASA Using data collected by the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), researchers shared the first detailed, wide-area map of water distribution on the Moon. Understanding how much water lies beneath the lunar surface, and how it’s distributed, will help guide future missions like VIPER, as well as prospective sites for human habitats. Colliding Moons May Have Formed Saturn’s Rings NASA New research suggests Saturn’s icy moons and rings were formed by a collision a few hundred million years ago, creating debris that gathered into the planet’s dusty, icy rings or clumped together to form moons. NASA and Airlines Partner to Save Fuel and Reduce Delays NASA/James Blair This year, NASA partnered with five major U.S. airlines on an air traffic decision-making tool that saved more than 24,000 pounds of jet fuel in 2022 for flights departing from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport. Partners include American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. NASA Leaders View Climate Science, Wildfire Innovations at Ames NASA/Dominic Hart NASA’s top leadership, industry experts, and legislative officials visited Ames in April to learn about about the center’s climate science efforts and innovations in aeronautics that will help scientists and engineers better understand climate change and mitigate natural disasters like wildland fires. Starling Takes Flight Blue Canyon Technologies/NASA In July NASA’s Starling mission, managed at Ames, launched four CubeSats into low-Earth orbit to test robotic swarm technologies for space. You can track mission milestones via the Small Satellite Missions blog, and follow the mission live in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System 3D visualization. NASA’s First Robotic Moon Rover NASA/Robert Markowitz This year engineers began assembling NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER — short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — and the agency is giving the public a front row seat to watch along as the rover takes shape. While individual components, such as the rover’s science instruments, lights, and wheels, were assembled and tested, the VIPER team also completed software development, mission planning, and tricky tests of the rover’s ability to drive off the Astrobotic Griffin lunar lander and onto the lunar surface. Bringing Home Ancient Space Rocks NASA/Keegan Barber NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission – short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer – returned to Earth in Sept. 2023, bringing with it extraterrestrial rocks and dust that it scooped up from an asteroid estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Ames contributed to the spacecraft’s heat shield, anti-contamination systems, post-landing sample curation, and more. Preparing to Send Yeast to the Moon’s Surface for Astronaut Health NASA/Dominic Hart NASA’s plans to explore the Moon and eventually go to Mars will bring humans deeper into space for longer duration missions than ever before. These extended missions beyond low Earth orbit pose certain health risks to astronauts. The Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications team is preparing an experiment to study yeast’s biological response to the lunar environment to help understand and mitigate health risks for astronauts. X-59 Team Moves Toward First Flight in 2024 Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice This year, NASA’s X-59 team installed the finishing touches to the aircraft’s tail structure and moved it from its assembly facility to the flight line to perform structural testing. The X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft will take its first flight in 2024. Celebrating a Stellar Year for Webb Telescope Science NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and S. Crowe (University of Virginia) The James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera instrument produced a feast for the eyes with a view into a star-forming region, named Sagittarius C, in the heart of the Milky Way. The image reveals a portion of the dense center of our galaxy in unprecedented detail, including never-before-seen features astronomers have yet to explain. Supercomputer Simulations Lead to Air and Space Innovations NASA Simulations and models developed using technology at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility (NAS) help researchers and engineers develop innovations in air and space. Modeling turbofan engines could lead to designs that reduce engine noise and improve efficiency by understanding where noise is generated inside the machine. S-MODE Sails the Seas and Soars through the Sky NASA/Avery Snyder The Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) logged its final field expedition, and they took a team from the TODAY Show along for the ride. S-MODE combined airborne instruments, research ships, and autonomous ocean gliders to get an unprecedented look at how gas and heat exchange at the ocean’s surface impacts Earth’s climate. From Intern to Astronaut, and Back to Ames NASA/Dominic Hart NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who was once an intern at Ames, returned to the Bay Area in Feb. 2023 to visit with local elementary schools and speak with Ames employees. Watkins started her career with NASA at Ames, where she conducted research on Mars soil simulant supporting the Phoenix Mars Lander mission. Second Gentleman Joins East Bay Kids for STEM Activities NASA/Dominic Hart Nearly 100 East Bay kids and their families got to experience the thrill of “launching a rocket” and “making clouds” at a fun-filled STEM event hosted in honor of Women’s History Month at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, California, in March 2023. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, NASA Ames Research Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu, and NASA astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle joined kids at the Manzanita Community School for hands-on activities and to distribute approximately 500 STEM Artemis Learning Lunchboxes aimed to inspire the Artemis generation to learn about NASA’s Artemis Program. Top Leaders in Our Midst Hailed from the White House and Australia NASA/Dominic Hart In January, U.S. President Joe Biden landed at Moffett Federal Airfield, at Ames, on his way to visit storm-damaged regions in the state. Research conducted at our Silicon Valley center could help predict extreme climate-related weather events. Later in the spring, Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at Moffett before delivering remarks at a local company, and leaders of the Australian Space Agency visited Ames to learn about the center’s missions supporting NASA’s Artemis program, including the VIPER Moon rover, which will launch to the lunar South Pole in late 2024.

#space #astronomy #news #science

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sarah-kings · 9 months

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For the wip ask game, if you want?

"And now I'm stuck with this smug little bastard"

Have a cookie 🍪

Goodbye!

Of course, I'm always open for asks :)

Now, this is one of my WIPs that I am VERY excited about, as it is a part of the giant story that I have been writing for the past five years.

To start things off right away: yes, it does include gt, as my very first draft that even started the entirety of my writing was the gt brainrot I wasn't even aware of back then.

I am both tempted to blabber all about my plans for this WIP just as much as I am tempted to keep it secretive and mysterious.

I'm sorry for the slight delay in the reply, but I wanted to get the green light from my friend @a-weird-cryptid , since this WIP includes some of their characters, since we have joined both of our stories together.

If I only were to speak of what direction this WIP is heading in I would say it is similar to SCP, Inside job, the Magnus archives and Stargate SG-1, as I love the idea of science fiction and a show exploring some sort of deep state that keeps certain things hidden from the public eyes

Now, when looking at this entire story plot-wise the basic summary I would give would be this: Imagine you are one of the most intelligent scientists who has worked at a top secret facility since you were able to legally have a job, you have contained and studied many threats for the human race and you have invented uncountably many technologies that the public isn't even allowed to be aware of.

Just a basic Tuesday for Jack, the facility exceeds thausonds of years and he sure as hell won't be the last to work at it.

One day, however, his entire facility has been hacked and all the top secret documents are in danger of getting exposed to the public, so naturally the threat is tracked down and Jack investigates whoever has both the nerves and intelligence to bypass their security.

Dr Anderson didn't know what he was expecting, but he sure didn't expect to end up at a small, cheap apartment, face to face with a teen who should definitely have been at school instead of her answering the door, giving him that smug look when seeing his utterly dumbfounded one in return.

The only thing that shoots through Jack's head in this moment is "all I came here for was to take care of the issue and now I'm stuck with this smug little bastard"

My plan so far is that, instead of writing this story as I usually would, I want to create an animated teaser about this WIP, for which I have been planning the layout of.

My only issue would be to find people who would be willing to do some voice acting for the characters, but I am hopeful to find someone who'd be willing to do so.

Again, this is a project I'm VERY excited about so thank you so much for the ask :D

I'll most definitely will post some reference sheets once I have the opportunity to sit down at my computer and would be more than happy to share my process of animating and behind the scenes content

#WIP #asks #animation wip #gt wip #oc: dr jack anderson #vivien stuart belongs to a-weird-cryptid

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beardedmrbean · 1 year

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The former MIT researcher accused of murdering a Yale graduate student and subsequently leading authorities on a months-long manhunt until his ultimate capture in Alabama was deemed competent to stand trial despite his attorneys claiming he was refusing to talk to them about his own defense.

Qinxuan Pan, once a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science and artificial intelligence researcher originally from China, is charged with murder in connection to the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Yale University graduate student Kevin Jiang on Feb. 6, 2021, in New Haven, Connecticut.

More than 21 months after the shooting, which happened in the street outside of Jiang’s fiancée, Zion Perry’s apartment, Pan has been deemed competent to stand trial, The New Haven Register reported.

Following a brief competency hearing in state Superior Court in New Haven on Monday morning, Pan's lawyer, Norm Pattis, said that "it was an unambiguous finding," so "we will go forward with litigating this case."

Pan has still not entered a plea in the case.

During what was originally supposed to be Pan’s probable cause hearing in September, Pattis instead made a motion for a competency exam, telling the judge that he was unsure if his client was refusing to talk to him or was just unable to communicate certain aspects of the case. Pan is a U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai.

After Monday’s hearing, a new probable cause hearing date has been set for Dec. 5.

Jiang, who served in the U.S. Army and National Guard, was born in Seattle and grew up in Chicago. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington and before eventually coming to Yale to pursue a graduate degree in environmental studies. He was described by friends and family as a devout Christian and proposed to Perry, a fellow graduate student at Yale, just a week before he was murdered.

Perry previously attended undergrad at MIT and was photographed talking at a college dance with Pan in 2020. The two were reportedly friends on Facebook, where Perry had posted about her engagement to Jiang.

The day of the murder, Pan allegedly stole a compact SUV from a Massachusetts car dealership by taking it for a test drive and changed his cell phone number before crossing state lines to Connecticut.

The vehicle later needed to be towed from railroad tracks in North Haven, Connecticut, not long after Jiang had been fatally shot in nearby New Haven. Police briefly questioned Jiang at a motel in the area but let him go because they initially had a different description of the suspect, according to court documents.

Initially named a person of interest in Jiang’s killing, Pan was formally charged with murder on Feb. 26, 2021, through a warrant issued by the New Haven State’s Attorney's Office.

But months passed with him in the wind despite nationwide and international search efforts. The U.S. Marshals Service said Pan had been spotted in the early morning hours on Feb. 11, 2021, driving with family members in Brookhaven or Duluth, Georgia. The search later expanded globally and an Interpol Red Notice was issued.

That was until May 2022 when Pan was eventually nabbed in Birmingham, Alabama, at an apartment rented under a fake name with $19,000 cash, seven cell phones, seven SIM cards and his father’s passport.

By the September hearing, the defense had already been granted several delays in the case to allow time to review evidence. But even so, Pattis told State Superior Court Judge Jon Alander, in requesting the competency exam, that his client had indicated that it’s possible there was "a second person was involved." Pattis suggested Pan could have been at the scene where Jiang was shot but did not pull the trigger or may not have been there at all.

#nunyas news

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govindhtech · 8 days

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Hyperdisk Storage Pools: A Guide to Block Storage Management

Hyperdisk Storage Pools, the first block storage solution from a hyperscale��cloud provider to allow thin-provisioning, data reduction, and capacity pooling, will be generally available, as Google cloud revealed at Google Cloud Next 2024. By reducing your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by up to 30–50%, Hyperdisk Storage Pools enable you to streamline block storage management, modernise SAN-based operations, and increase efficiency. Storage Pools are available right now via the Google Cloud console. Let’s examine Hyperdisk Storage Pools’ operation and integration into your environment in this blog post.

Hyperdisk Storage Pools can store big amounts using Compute Engine. A Hyperdisk Storage Pool provides pre-purchased capacity, throughput, and IOPS to applications as needed. Create, manage, and use discs in pools with Hyperdisk Storage Pools for multiple workloads. Manage discs in bulk to save money and increase capacity and performance. By employing exactly the storage you need in Hyperdisk Storage Pools, you simplify capacity forecasts and decrease management by going from hundreds of discs to one pool.

Benefits of storage pools include:

Thin provisioning and data reduction enable Hyperdisk Storage Pools store data efficiently and achieve best-in-class TCO.

Hyperdisk Storage Pools take advantage of thin provisioning and data reduction to maximize resource utilization and minimize TCO.

Management overhead reduced Higher Flexibility – Hyperdisk Storage Pools allow workload owners to provide larger discs and only use what they need, eliminating capacity and performance forecasts and rescaling downtime.

Workloads use Hyperdisk volumes the same way with storage pools. No downtime or workload disruptions are needed.

Data on discs in a storage pool remain isolated as if they were not.

Use storage pools

Storage pools solve these issues:

Trouble predicting resource requirements when transitioning on-premise SAN workloads to Google Cloud.

Estimating application performance and capacity can take weeks and be error-prone, delaying a cloud migration or application rollout.

In Hyperdisk Storage Pools, you can overestimate the capacity needed to make discs and then only use the disc space you write data on.

Underuse of resources

Ensuring volume utilization is difficult and painful. Block storage is often underutilized because peak capacity and performance must be provided to avoid outages and slowdowns. However, few applications reach those levels.

Using Hyperdisk Storage Pools, you establish a pool to meet workload capacity needs. To keep utilization below 80%, the Hyperdisk Storage Pool automatically adds capacity.

Complex workload block storage management

Managing hundreds or thousands of disc volumes takes time and resources away from innovation.

When creating VM discs in a storage pool, you can choose a size bigger than expected workload. Workloads write to discs, reducing storage pool capacity. You only subtract the block storage you use from the storage pool capacity, not the disc creation amount. The disc size you choose limits capacity. Only change the disc size if this limit is reached.

If you build discs in the storage pool and your workload exceeds capacity planning over numerous discs, you can expand capacity. All discs in the storage pool can use the extra capacity.

Hyperdisk Storage Pools options

Features of storage pools include:

Allocating blocks as needed instead of all at once is capacity thin provisioning. This prevents low storage utilisation, where lots of disc space is assigned but not used.

Data reduction: Storage pools improve efficiency with various data reduction technologies. Data type strongly affects data reduction. Data compressed or encrypted before storage in a Hyperdisk Storage Pool won’t reduce.

To prevent failures caused by insufficient capacity, Hyperdisk Storage Pools automatically adds capacity when utilisation surpasses 80% of provisioned capacity.

Hyperdisk Storage Pool operation

A storage pool with the aggregate capacity and performance your workloads need is created, then discs are added. Connect the discs to your VMs. Create discs with a larger size than needed. This allows future growth without disc resizing.

Only the disc space your workloads require after data reduction is withdrawn from the Advanced capacity storage pool if the disc was generated there.

To increase disc capacity, increase the storage pool’s provided capacity. The discs’ disc space can then rise to the size you set when creating them. By generating discs in an Advanced capacity storage pool with a big initial size and allocating additional space, you consolidate disc storage administration and decrease costs.

Storage pool capacity is managed. Increase or decrease a storage pool’s provided capacity to change disc capacity. If the storage pool’s usage capacity or the aggregate capacity of all discs reaches 80% of its specified capacity, an advanced capacity storage pool automatically adds capacity. If auto-grow fails, you can manually add storage pool capacity up to 1 PiB.

If a storage pool achieves 100% utilization and has no free space, writes to all discs fail unless data or discs are deleted. Most commercial software treats full disc write errors like hardware failures.

To avoid out-of-space issues, actively maintain and monitor your storage pool. You should also know how your workload will react to a disc out of space issue in a storage pool.

Hyperdisk Storage Pool provisioning

You can configure a Hyperdisk Storage Pool with Standard or Advanced capacity.

Storage pools standard capacity

Standard capacity provisioning creates discs in the storage pool until all discs exceed the pool’s capacity. Standard capacity storage pool discs use capacity like non-storage pool discs.

Storage pools with high capacity

Advanced storage pools allow thin-provisioning and data reduction for capacity, allowing you to provision discs with more capacity than purchased. Advanced capacity storage pools use capacity based only on bytes written to discs after data reduction, so you can give end users and applications more capacity than you paid.

Advanced capacity lets you build discs in the storage pool that exceed its provisioned capacity by up to 500%. Data written determines storage pool capacity, not disc capacity. Advanced capacity storage pool discs use capacity differently from Standard capacity and non-storage pool discs.

You can fill discs in an Advanced capacity storage pool to their allotted size if the data written to all discs doesn’t exceed the capacity. The auto-grow feature adds capacity to the storage pool if utilization reaches 80% of provisioned capacity. If the storage pool is full, writes to all discs will fail until you delete data or discs to reduce its capacity. Since most software applications treat writes to full discs as hardware failures, it’s important to both:

Monitor your storage pool to minimise disc space shortages.

Know how your workload reacts if it does.

Remember that storage pools can’t see your file system. Deleted data is still in use until your OS marks it unused using DISCARD or TRIM. Most third-party OS images and all Google-provided OS images do this by default, but you should confirm this if you are not using one. Find out how to verify or configure this feature at Disable lazy initialization and enable DISCARD commands.

Hyperdisk Storage Pool Types

The discs you can generate in a Hyperdisk Storage Pool depend on its type.

Hyperdisk Throughput Storage Pool: You choose capacity and throughput while creating the storage pool. Created Hyperdisk Throughput discs in the storage pool use some allotted capacity and throughput.

Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool: You set capacity, throughput, and IOPS while constructing the storage pool. You employ some of the storage pool’s capacity and performance to make Hyperdisk Balanced discs with capacity and performance above baseline.

High-throughput storage pools

Storage Pools can manage Hyperdisk Throughput disc utilization.

Performance

Storage pooled discs perform the same as non-pooled discs.

Pricing

Capacity, throughput, and IOPS determine Hyperdisk Storage Pool pricing.

Standard capacity storage pools price capacity like discs. Standard capacity in a Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool costs the same as standalone capacity.

Thin provisioning and data reduction cost more, hence advanced capacity is more expensive. Despite this premium, thin-provisioning and data reduction can lower block storage costs by increasing efficiency and utilization.