Whut

I play consultant to high-tech start-ups, which means I have weird schedules and I'm connected my every single waking second. I eagerly follow all news pertaining to direct brain-to-internet implants. Why do I mix my science and science-fiction here? I feel people who're already interested in science naturally gravitate to science blogs. It's those who don't THINK they're interested in science that need an occasional reminder of what's neat out there. Thus, I liberally mix my fandom favorites with my science favorites.

[artsyneurotic]

Facing the Future Together

Tron and Alan, post-Legacy, on the Grid and looking to the future as the new User/Protector duo. (Thought this turned out okay :)  Prolly gonna update my tumblr/twitter headers with it!)

[dw-t]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF -

omg, Alan

omg, the T on Alan’s suit

omg, Alan and Tron together

OMG, SUDDENLY ALL THE FEELS AGAIN

*swoons*

[alecc-bane]

[lushthemagicdragon]

Graves’ face is hilarious in this scene if you remember that this is Grindelwald and he’s trying to act like Graves would act and can’t possibly know everything that Graves knows. Why are there pastries in this case? Are pastries illegal in this country? Are they cursed pastries? How should I react? I actually know very little about american magical law enforcement. Maybe let Tina talk first, play it cool Gellert. Who’s the boss? You’re the boss.

[whatistigerbalm]

@dw-t

[dw-t]

aas;difj;owaiefj;aije;flkjae; lfkaje i’m crying so hard

(dun care if I haven’t logged in in like 3 years cuz I’m recently <3 <3 <3 over Graves’ sartorial choices and this is worth resetting my password in order to reblog)

[adventuresinartrage-deactivated]

Kaidu from Assassin’s Creed: Dynasty. I love 13th ct Mongolian haircuts!

[dw-t]

Aaaaaaaaa I can’t even 

<33333333 This is omg inspiring. I’ll finish the rest of the outline this week, finish all my work deadlines next week, and then it’s writing times, woo!! \o/

[adventuresinartrage-deactivated]

Dominikos from DragonWarden’s Assassin’s Creed: Dynasty which I will recommend to everyone for the research and the amazing action.

[dw-t]

OMG ILU 5EVER <333333333333333

so spot on just like Bayan you need to post Bayan too *clings*

[dw-t]

Day 6: The Eagle and the Fish

As part of the words-for-every-day challenge ...

Day 6: The Eagle and the Fish

The eagle would perch upon the urn's rim, deadly talons clicking against the fired clay, but they never reached down into the water, only the soft, soft feathers flicking playfully at the surface. The fish, meanwhile, would circle within the eagle's shadow, unafraid, even flirting with an occasional splash of water and forcing the bird to hop aside.

[dw-t]

Day 5: The Gatekeeper

As part of the words-for-every-day challenge ...

Day 5: The Gatekeeper

Old machinery squealed and clunked, ponderous mechanics eventually revealing a ten foot gap. Through it, one could see the rest of the wall's thickness - twenty strides deep - a narrow strip of yellowed earth beyond, and something glittering bright and diamondine in the distance, like a spill of jewels.

[dw-t]

Day 4: The Captain

As part of the words-for-every-day challenge ...

Day 4: The Captain

"For the record, we are gathered here today in the six-hundred-twenty-third year of branch 06 to make a final decision upon the viability of Terrance Bayer after we have reviewed the possible life events."

[dw-t]

Day 3: The Mermaid

As part of the words-for-every-day challenge ...

Day 3: The Mermaid

There was a fitful groan of something settling into the silt, a muffled crack as one more thing gave into the merciless pressure of the deep. She flicked her tongue out to taste the murk that had bellowed up with this latest addition to the ocean floor.

[dw-t]

Day 2: The House

As part of the words-for-every-day challenge ...

Day 2: The House

Excerpt: The house was a museum, a closet, an attic; a place where things and memories were left or packed away to be forgotten, but not exactly lost. There were only visitors to the house, no residents ... they were all eventually evicted, one by one, often sooner rather than later.

[whatistigerbalm]

So dw-t bought me a beautiful sketchbook for my birthday and as thanks I promised her I would draw something every day. This is the first thing that came to mind! (Or rather, I started drawing to see where it goes.) Thanks, DW! <3

[dw-t]

<3! And now I shall join you in your 365 day challenge by shamelessly using your pic as a launching point:

Day 1: The Magicker-In-Waiting

"This is the end? My next test begins here?"

The maester leaned back, tail crooked warily, eyeing the wand's cheery crown with trepidation. But, awake, the boy at least had the presence of mind now to keep it at a dignified angle, and the grunling reminded, "You've not yet finished this test to begin another already. What will you do if you pass?"

[dw-t]

Fic: The Bunny or the Egg

TRON I HAVE NOT FORSAKEN YE YET

Oh hey look I totally forgot to post this ... I did a Tron fic! \o/ A belated bday present to Winzler:

[ The Bunny or the Egg ]

Even if the answer to life, the universe, and everything isn't as easy as Douglas Adams made it out to be, at least there's still beer. Sort of.

[dw-t]

Assassin's Creed: Dynasty - Chapter 4

[ Chapter 4 ]

Luo twitched, and Ying wondered with distant panic if he could not simply kill the man and forego an interrogation when one of the intruders hissed, “Marco, are you certain he’s asleep?”

Ying startled. Badly. Enough that he was suddenly glad of Luo’s restless movements as a cover. Because the intruder had spoken in flawless Veneto, and Ying had only understood by dint of his father’s training.

The intruders were western foreigners.

Summary: It started with revenge, as so many tales often do. But in the half-mythical Middle Kingdom of Marco Polo’s famed tales, Ying finds that the wrong he is trying to right is a mere drop in the conspiracy spanning two dynasties of the largest empire the world has ever seen - one that could very well become the ONLY empire the world will know if the Templars get their way.

[whatistigerbalm]

The new Assassin’s Creed game looks amazing.

[dw-t]

I'MA TOTALLY GONNA FANFIC THIS

[dw-t]

[Fic: Assassin's Creed Unity] Finding Brotherhood

Well, that went by fast. It may have ballooned out to twice as long as I had expected, but it also went much quicker than I expected too, even while I was haring all over the Northwest - 4 parts, all complete now:

AC:Unity - Finding Brotherhood

In which the axeman finds the Assassins and the Assassins find the axeman.

On the third day, the bureau head called on Mathis, except the man paused in the act of pressing the message into Mathis’ hand and pinned him with a sober look. “Watch him. And watch yourself. If you encounter trouble - you may abandon at will.”

Mathis stared, then suddenly clenched his hand tight around the slip, unwittingly crumpling the missive.

Watch the bearded man, perhaps to show others the man was being watched. Watch himself, in case others decided to intervene. The bearded man was apparently the assassins’ stalking horse, a decoy - Mathis asked in measured tones, “Does this message matter at all, then?”

The bureau head glanced down at the wrinkled slip, then met Mathis’ eyes and said, “No.”

[dw-t]

[Fic: Assassin's Creed] Finding Brotherhood

I ... I couldn't help myself. This was just too adorbs for me not to do something about all my axe man feels, especially after my 300th viewing of the Unity trailer.

[Fic: Assassin's Creed] Finding Brotherhood (part 1 of 2)

He will arrive at the wharf by sundown. Once he gives you the message, tell him to return in three days. You will have another to give him by then.

In which the assassins find the axe man and the axe man finds the assassins.

[dw-t]

So, I was going to wait until I posted the next chapter to show these off but welp my self control lasted for all of TWENTY SECONDS (maybe).

I was trawling the internets for more AC: Unity images when all these variations for AC logos kept flashing across my screen and I thought - hey, I should make one for my fic. As it so happened, I had stumbled across the Mongolian flag in the past and thought there were pieces I could use, and when I looked up what the Yuan Dynasty flag was supposed to look like, lo and behold, it shared a core symbol with the Mongolian flag that fit BEAUTIFULLY into the standard AC symbol. I then played around with creating some Chinese-style clouds like what's supposed to border Ying's hood and outer coat, and in short, things turned out amazingly well, and now I have a custom chapter header and section dividers for my AC fic:

Assassin's Creed: Dynasty

Symbology: The flame, sun, and crescent moon symbol is supposedly derived all the way back from the ancient nomadic people Xiongnu (whose core territories lie around central Mongolia). Fire is a general symbol of growth and wealth, with the three tongues of the flame representing the past, present, and future. The sun and crescent moon represent Mongolia's eternal existence.

[dw-t]

Assassin's Creed: Dynasty - Chapter 3

[ Chapter 3 ]

A leap of faith, his adoptive father had called it, that first true test of his mettle. A lesson in how hesitation can be more costly than commitment, that trust was just as important as strength and skills. The bird trusted that its wings would catch the wind when it leapt into the air.

Ying ran, felt the hard line of the roof's edge bite into the sole of his foot, and leapt.

Summary: It started with revenge, as so many tales often do. But in the half-mythical Middle Kingdom of Marco Polo’s famed tales, Ying finds that the wrong he is trying to right is a mere drop in the conspiracy spanning two dynasties of the largest empire the world has ever seen - one that could very well become the ONLY empire the world will know if the Templars get their way.

Fun facts:

- By some estimates, Hangzhou really was the largest city on Earth at that time, and was so dense that several devestating fires swept through before a complex system of firefighting crews and watchtowers were set up explicitly to curb them.

- The imperial examination system was a method of selecting civil servants based on meritocracy, but was focused primarily on one's knowledge of the classics (such as Confucius) rather than on technical expertise. Thus, it contributed to the rise of the scholar-officials, off-setting the influence of the military, and contributed greatly to the unification of thought and culture within the empire.

- In Chinese architecture, there is an emphasis on bilateral symmetry, which symbolizes balance, and of horizontal breadth. Tall pagodas, of course, are an exception, but they were limited to religious complexes. In "higher class" construction, the roofs are supported through complex bracketing systems such that there are no, or almost no load-bearing walls necessary, thus allowing the internal division of a space to be quite arbitrary. In fact, this type of construction is a point of pride for architects of certain periods.

- It was believed that evil spirits and ghosts could only travel in straight lines. There is a version of a Chinese "zombie", where reanimated corpses could only "hop" continuously forward with their arms raised like a sleepwalker. Thus, all it took to escape one was to make sure there was a wall or other obstruction in front of them - they would simply get stuck there, constantly hopping and never being able to get past. That, along with other general wisdoms from the principals of Feng Shui (such as "trapping" good fortune if it comes in through the front door), influenced certain aspects of architecture, such as never having a front and back door in line with each other.

- The traditional greeting made to the emperor in a formal court audience is "Ten thousand years (of age)" repeated (approximately) 3 times, where ten thousand is the largest denomination that can be stated with one word/character: "wan". In essence, they were wishing the emperor a long life and reign. In Chinese, it would sound like: "Wan sui, wan sui, wan wan sui!"