For the first time, the team is pushing data to #FathomVerse while an expedition is still underway. If you play FathomVerse right now, you will see images from the Designing the Future 3 expedition on R/V Falkor (too). Highlights include a galaxy siphonophore and Solmissus jelly!
Members of the Bioinspiration Lab at MBARI are on an expedition with Schmidt Ocean Institute to use advanced imaging systems to visualize delicate deep-sea drifters.
Led by Dr. Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, a multidisciplinary team of researchers is deploying a diverse suite of advanced technologies to study the biodiversity and ecology of midwater communities. They are making data from this expedition available in the FathomVerse mobile game to engage a global community of ocean enthusiasts and accelerate analysis of expedition observations.
Play now: www.fathomverse.game
Join the FathomVerse Discord: https://discord.gg/QZ2wtPBpxa
A recon mission gone wrong traps you and Carlos in a broken elevator. With steel groaning and time ticking, trapped in an elevator after an explosion rocks the building, Carlos panics—but not for the reason you expect. With time seemingly running out, he confesses the one thing he thought he'd take to his grave: his feelings for you.
💥 Trapped together. Tension rising. And a confession that might just change everything. 💥
📩 Taking requests now for TVD, TO, Genshin, and Resident Evil game fanfics!
You hadn’t expected a simple recon mission to spiral into a full-blown disaster. One moment you and Carlos were sweeping the upper floors for survivors, and the next, the building trembled beneath your feet. A deafening blast roared from somewhere below, sending tremors through the concrete. Debris rained down, alarms screamed, and the elevator you had just stepped into lurched violently before screeching to a halt. The lights flickered as the emergency brakes slammed into place.
Now, you were trapped in a half-collapsed, groaning elevator shaft, pressed shoulder to shoulder with Carlos Oliveira. Sparks danced overhead. The metal creaked ominously with every vibration, and dust trickled through fine cracks in the walls. The emergency light buzzed, dim and flickering like a dying firefly. The silence between you pulsed with tension, broken only by your shallow breaths and the distant clangs from above.
"We’re gonna be fine," you whispered, more to yourself than to him.
Carlos gave a dry chuckle. "You always say that when we’re definitely not fine."
You turned to shoot him a playful glare, but his smirk had already faded. His jaw was set, and his gaze was fixed on you—not with fear, but something far more vulnerable. He wasn’t just tense. He was unraveling.
"Carlos?" you asked, softening your voice, searching his face.
He met your gaze, eyes wide and raw. "If we die here," he murmured, the words catching in his throat, "I need to tell you something."
Your heart stuttered. "Carlos—"
"I know, I know. It’s not the time. It’s the worst time. But I’ve been holding this in for too long—through every mission, every close call. I can’t go out without saying it."
The air in the elevator grew heavy with unspoken emotion.
Carlos inhaled sharply. "I like you. No—that’s not enough. I’m in love with you. I think I have been since that first mission in Raccoon. You cracked a joke about zombie etiquette, and I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my rifle. That was it. I was gone."
You stared at him, stunned. His words clung to the silence like a final breath.
He looked away, then back again, hesitating. "I know it’s probably one-sided, and I’m sorry if this makes things awkward, but—"
"Carlos," you cut in, reaching out to take his hand. His head snapped up.
You smiled, breathless but steady. "We’re not gonna die. But even if we were... you deserve to know. I’ve been in love with you too. Since day one. You just never noticed, idiot."
He exhaled a shocked laugh, eyes glistening with disbelief and something dangerously close to hope. And right on cue, the elevator jolted—then began to slowly rise. You both looked up as the movement steadied.
"See?" you said with a soft laugh, your nerves spilling out in a wave of relief. "Told you we’d be fine."
Carlos blinked, dazed. Then that crooked, boyish grin bloomed across his face. "Okay, but when we get out of here... first date. Non-negotiable."
You chuckled. "Dinner. Somewhere safe. No zombies. No explosions."
"Deal," he said, voice low and warm.
The elevator dinged. The doors slid open to reveal a dimly lit, debris-littered hallway. Neither of you moved right away. For just a moment longer, you stood there, hands still entwined, hearts still racing—not from fear, but from something far more dangerous: hope. And just like that, the mission changed.
Sorry for the late update! Kind of was a bit out of it, but anyways, here we go!
Unfortunately, we didn't quite meet our goal of 9K words, and I apologize for that. I even pulled an all-nighter, but it seems it just wasn't enough (that's what she said 😔 ). The most I managed was 8.2K words, which is pretty good, but not quite as great as I'd hoped. However, I promise you all that I'll double down and give it my all next week! :D
On top of that, my university is starting again, but no worries, folks! I have a schedule in place that will ensure I write twice as much as I do now!
So, here's the official word count update: 4K words were written in the short story, and 4K words in the main book, bringing the main book's total to 125,214 words and the short book to 14,023 words.
In other news, I've also commissioned character art for a cute 19-year-old character who you'll be training with in my upcoming femboy dating simulator book (available on Patreon). I'll be sharing all the character art once we hit 20K words or once the demo for the second book is created, haha!
That's about it for now. See you all next week, and I hope you have amazing days until then!
Today, FathomVerse is releasing a suite of new features, including a brand new mini-game called Filter, to expedite community-driven analysis of underwater imagery and accelerate ocean discovery. 📱🙌
Developed by MBARI and partners in the FathomNet Program, the FathomVerse app engages ocean enthusiasts around the world to help improve the artificial intelligence tools researchers use to study the ocean.
In Filter, FathomNauts can quickly review a set of images and remove all the images that don’t match their mission, filtering out what doesn’t belong. Denizen Mode within Filter will relieve bottlenecks slowing down the FathomVerse annotation pipeline by enlisting the most experienced FathomNauts to verify community annotations.
The new version of FathomVerse empowers FathomNauts to work alongside experts to quickly put images annotated by the FathomVerse community into the hands of scientists.
Dive in, learn, and discover with FathomVerse.
Did you get a kick out of shouting “acorn worm” at your phone? If so, you might enjoy playing #FathomVerse, a game where you can identify ocean animals and help improve the AI models that researchers use to study marine life. This month, you can find acorn worms by playing FathomVerse and earn a special badge!
Acorn worms are known to biologists as “enteropneusts” (pronounced ‘entero-noosts’—the ‘p’ is silent). Named for their acorn-shaped front end, enteropneusts are actually more closely related to humans than to worms. They have a rudimentary nerve cord similar to ours and breathe oxygen using structures similar to a fish's gills.
Marine biologists know very little about deep-sea acorn worms, partly because their bodies are so soft and gelatinous that they are usually destroyed by the dredges and other collection tools used to study deep-seafloor animals. Researchers at MBARI and our collaborators have been using advanced robots and time-lapse cameras to learn more about these wonderful worms.
A new mobile game launching today allows anyone with a smartphone or tablet to take part in ocean exploration and discovery. Now available for download on the App Store and Google Play, FathomVerse allows players to interact with real underwater images to improve the artificial intelligence that helps researchers study ocean life.
Scientists are collecting massive amounts of images and video to study marine life and assess ocean health. AI can help researchers analyze this deluge of visual data more efficiently. Before AI can be used for ocean exploration, machine learning models need to be trained to identify ocean animals.
FathomVerse seeks to address this challenge by engaging ocean enthusiasts around the world to help review and label images so AI can correctly recognize ocean animals. The game combines immersive imagery, compelling gameplay, and cutting-edge science to inspire a new wave of ocean explorers. Learn more on our website.
