Refashioned as a lofty trifle, the classic American banana-Nilla Wafer pudding loses none of its charm. The recipe includes a foolproof method for pastry cream, the luxurious linchpin of this dessert.

What's yours is mine Literally just a copyhit iOS game accused of unauthorized HTML5 code theft Web game illicitly "wrapped in a mobile shell" climbed the paid App Store charts. Kyle Orland Mar 6, 2025 6:46 pm | 7 Like stealing gaming from a baby. Like stealing gaming from a baby. Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreHere at Ars, we've written frequently about the video game industry's ongoing problem with blatant game cloning, and the shifting legal and ethical landscape around the issue. But we've rarely seen a case of alleged game theft as blatant as the one surrounding recent iOS App Store hit My Baby or Not!, which appears to cross the line from mere cloning into outright code theft of recent indie web game Diapers, Please!.The small, five-person development team at VoltekPlay created Diapers, Please! as part of a recent one-week Game Jam. The game was posted as a free-to-play HTML5 release on itch.io on February 23, featuring simple gameplay that involves choosing a baby that matches the visual traits of two pictured parents (with a little bit of Papers, Please-style authoritarian styling to boot).Three days later, on February 26, My Baby or Not! appeared on the App Store, with screenshots and gameplay that looked not just similar but downright identical to the Diapers, Please! web release. The two games even shared the same description:Immerse yourself in an alternative 1920s world where a totalitarian state and impeccable bureaucracy conceal deep secrets. You are the Custodian of Bloodlines at a maternity ward where a fire has destroyed all records, and now your task is to manually match newborns with their parents. A portion of the itch.io page for Diapers, Please!. VoltekPlay / Itch.ioA portion of the itch.io page for Diapers, Please!.VoltekPlay / Itch.io The App Store page for My Baby or Not!, as it appeared Thursday morning. Note the identical game description and matching screenshot from the Diapers, Please! page, and the "#2 in Casual" App Store ranking. Apple / Kyle Orland The App Store page for My Baby or Not!, as it appeared Thursday morning. Note the identical game description and matching screenshot from the Diapers, Please! page, and the "#2 in Casual" App Store ranking. Apple / Kyle Orland A portion of the itch.io page for Diapers, Please!.VoltekPlay / Itch.ioThe App Store page for My Baby or Not!, as it appeared Thursday morning. Note the identical game description and matching screenshot from the Diapers, Please! page, and the "#2 in Casual" App Store ranking. Apple / Kyle Orland By Wednesday, the developers of Diapers, Please! took to their itch.io devlog to allege that the version on the iOS App Store is "literally just a copy of our itch.io version, wrapped in a mobile shell." That apparently unauthorized port was "done without our permission, and the person who uploaded it did not contribute to the development in any way," VoltekPlay writes.Viral success (for someone else)VoltekPlay writes on Reddit that it was only alerted to the existence of My Baby or Not! on iOS by "a suspicious burst of traffic on our itch.io pageall coming from Google organic search." Only after adding a "where did you find our game?" player poll to the page were the developers made aware of some popular TikTok videos featuring the iOS version."Luckily, some people in the [Tiktok] comments mentioned the real game nameDiapers, Please!so a few thousand players were able to google their way to our page," VoltekPlay writes. "I can only imagine how many more ended up on the thiefs App Store page instead."Earlier this week, the $2.99 iOS release of My Baby or Not! was quickly climbing iOS's paid games charts, attracting an estimated 20,000 downloads overall, according to Sensor Tower. Marwane Benyssef's only previous iOS release, Kiosk Food Night Shift, also appears to be a direct copy of an itch.io release. Marwane Benyssef's only previous iOS release, Kiosk Food Night Shift, also appears to be a direct copy of an itch.io release. The App Store listing credited My Baby or Not! to "Marwane Benyssef," a new iOS developer with no apparent history in the game development community. Benyssef's only other iOS game, Kiosk Food Night Shift, was released last August and appears to be a direct copy of Kiosk, a pay-what-you-want title that was posted to itch.io last year (with a subsequent "full" release on Steam this year)In a Reddit post, the team at VoltekPlay said that they had filed a DMCA copyright claim against My Baby or Not! Apple subsequently shared that claim with Bennysof, VoltekPlay writes, along with a message that "Apple encourages the parties to a dispute to work directly with one another to resolve the claim."This morning, Ars reached out to Apple to request a comment on the situation. While awaiting a response (which Apple has yet to provide), Apple appears to have removed Benyssef's developer page and all traces of their games from the iOS App Store.It could happen to youApple's App Store guidelines specifically tell developers not to "simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store or make some minor changes to another apps name or UI and pass it off as your own." But the "on the App Store" clause in that sentence seemingly prioritizes protection for games released in Apple's walled garden, and penalizes games released on the web using open standards like HTML5. Apple was slow to stem the tide of iOS App Store Wordle clones that copied the web-based original. Apple was slow to stem the tide of iOS App Store Wordle clones that copied the web-based original. We saw this difference take center stage in 2022 when the sudden success of web game Wordle led to dozens of iOS copycats that Apple took days to purge from the App Store listings. We've also seen legitimately original games removed from the App Store after copycats filed international copyrights for a title that the original developer didn't secure.Outside of iOS, GameStop's now-defunct NFT Marketplace hosted a series of unlicensed HTML5 games that had been copied wholesale from elsewhere on the web.Elsewhere in its Reddit discussion of the problem, VoltekPlay writes that its use of the Godot Engine for Diapers, Please! makes it "very easy to decompile a game and rebuild it for another platform" using open-source tools. Others in that same thread have encouraged other web game developers to make use of encryption and obfuscation tools to prevent similar code theft of their own projects.While it's unclear whether Benyssef will be allowed to retain any of the revenue derived from his now-removed iOS titles, it's clear that the original creators at VoltekPlay won't be profiting directly from this situation. "At this moment our team earned $0 and paid for a lawyer consultation," VoltekPlay writes on Reddit. "Lawyers told us that there is no chance to pursue the thief in the court..."Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming EditorKyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 7 Comments

Tis the season for a squeezin' CMU research shows compression alone may unlock AI puzzle-solving abilities New research challenges prevailing idea that AI needs massive datasets to solve problems. Benj Edwards Mar 6, 2025 6:22 pm | 5 Credit: Eugene Mymrin via Getty Images Credit: Eugene Mymrin via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers recently discovered hints that the process of compressing information can solve complex reasoning tasks without pre-training on a large number of examples. Their system tackles some types of abstract pattern-matching tasks using only the puzzles themselves, challenging conventional wisdom about how machine learning systems acquire problem-solving abilities."Can lossless information compression by itself produce intelligent behavior?" ask Isaac Liao, a first-year PhD student, and his advisor Professor Albert Gu from CMU's Machine Learning Department. Their work suggests the answer might be yes. To demonstrate, they created CompressARC and published the results in a comprehensive post on Liao's website.The pair tested their approach on the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC-AGI), an unbeaten visual benchmark created in 2019 by machine learning researcher Franois Chollet to test AI systems' abstract reasoning skills. ARC presents systems with grid-based image puzzles where each provides several examples demonstrating an underlying rule, and the system must infer that rule to apply it to a new example.For instance, one ARC-AGI puzzle shows a grid with light blue rows and columns dividing the space into boxes. The task requires figuring out which colors belong in which boxes based on their position: black for corners, magenta for the middle, and directional colors (red for up, blue for down, green for right, and yellow for left) for the remaining boxes. Here are three other example ARC-AGI puzzles, taken from Liao's website: Three example ARC-AGI benchmarking puzzles. Credit: Isaac Liao / Albert Gu The puzzles test capabilities that some experts believe may be fundamental to general human-like reasoning (often called "AGI" for artificial general intelligence). Those properties include understanding object persistence, goal-directed behavior, counting, and basic geometry without requiring specialized knowledge. The average human solves 76.2 percent of the ARC-AGI puzzles, while human experts reach 98.5 percent.OpenAI made waves in December for the claim that its o3 simulated reasoning model earned a record-breaking score on the ARC-AGI benchmark. In testing with computational limits, o3 scored 75.7 percent on the test, while in high-compute testing (basically unlimited thinking time), it reached 87.5 percent, which OpenAI says is comparable to human performance.CompressARC achieves 34.75 percent accuracy on the ARC-AGI training set (the collection of puzzles used to develop the system) and 20 percent on the evaluation set (a separate group of unseen puzzles used to test how well the approach generalizes to new problems). Each puzzle takes about 20 minutes to process on a consumer-grade RTX 4070 GPU, compared to top-performing methods that use heavy-duty data center-grade machines and what the researchers describe as "astronomical amounts of compute."Not your typical AI approachCompressARC takes a completely different approach than most current AI systems. Instead of relying on pre-trainingthe process where machine learning models learn from massive datasets before tackling specific tasksit works with no external training data whatsoever. The system trains itself in real-time using only the specific puzzle it needs to solve."No pretraining; models are randomly initialized and trained during inference time. No dataset; one model trains on just the target ARC-AGI puzzle and outputs one answer," the researchers write, describing their strict constraints.When the researchers say "No search," they're referring to another common technique in AI problem-solving where systems try many different possible solutions and select the best one. Search algorithms work by systematically exploring optionslike a chess program evaluating thousands of possible movesrather than directly learning a solution. CompressARC avoids this trial-and-error approach, relying solely on gradient descenta mathematical technique that incrementally adjusts the network's parameters to reduce errors, similar to how you might find the bottom of a valley by always walking downhill. A block diagram of the CompressARC architecture, created by the researchers. Credit: Isaac Liao / Albert Gu The system's core principle uses compressionfinding the most efficient way to represent information by identifying patterns and regularitiesas the driving force behind intelligence. CompressARC searches for the shortest possible description of a puzzle that can accurately reproduce the examples and the solution when unpacked.While CompressARC borrows some structural principles from transformers (like using a residual stream with representations that are operated upon), it's a custom neural network architecture designed specifically for this compression task. It's not based on an LLM or standard transformer model.Unlike typical machine learning methods, CompressARC uses its neural network only as a decoder. During encoding (the process of converting information into a compressed format), the system fine-tunes the network's internal settings and the data fed into it, gradually making small adjustments to minimize errors. This creates the most compressed representation while correctly reproducing known parts of the puzzle. These optimized parameters then become the compressed representation that stores the puzzle and its solution in an efficient format. An animated GIF showing the multi-step process of CompressARC solving an ARC-AGI puzzle. Credit: Isaac Liao "The key challenge is to obtain this compact representation without needing the answers as inputs," the researchers explain. The system essentially uses compression as a form of inference.This approach could prove valuable in domains where large datasets don't exist or when systems need to learn new tasks with minimal examples. The work suggests that some forms of intelligence might emerge not from memorizing patterns across vast datasets, but from efficiently representing information in compact forms.The compression-intelligence connectionThe potential connection between compression and intelligence may sound strange at first glance, but it has deep theoretical roots in computer science concepts like Kolmogorov complexity (the shortest program that produces a specified output) and Solomonoff inductiona theoretical gold standard for prediction equivalent to an optimal compression algorithm.To compress information efficiently, a system must recognize patterns, find regularities, and "understand" the underlying structure of the dataabilities that mirror what many consider intelligent behavior. A system that can predict what comes next in a sequence can compress that sequence efficiently. As a result, some computer scientists over the decades have suggested that compression may be equivalent to general intelligence. Based on these principles, the Hutter Prize has offered awards to researchers who can compress a 1GB file to the smallest size.We previously wrote about intelligence and compression in September 2023, when a DeepMind paper discovered that large language models can sometimes outperform specialized compression algorithms. In that study, researchers found that DeepMind's Chinchilla 70B model could compress image patches to 43.4 percent of their original size (beating PNG's 58.5 percent) and audio samples to just 16.4 percent (outperforming FLAC's 30.3 percent). Credit: Getty Images That 2023 research suggested a deep connection between compression and intelligencethe idea that truly understanding patterns in data enables more efficient compression, which aligns with this new CMU research. While DeepMind demonstrated compression capabilities in an already-trained model, Liao and Gu's work takes a different approach by showing that the compression process can generate intelligent behavior from scratch.This new research matters because it challenges the prevailing wisdom in AI development, which typically relies on massive pre-training datasets and computationally expensive models. While leading AI companies push toward ever-larger models trained on more extensive datasets, CompressARC suggests intelligence emerging from a fundamentally different principle."CompressARC's intelligence emerges not from pretraining, vast datasets, exhaustive search, or massive computebut from compression," the researchers conclude. "We challenge the conventional reliance on extensive pretraining and data, and propose a future where tailored compressive objectives and efficient inference-time computation work together to extract deep intelligence from minimal input."Limitations and looking aheadEven with its successes, Liao and Gu's system comes with clear limitations that may prompt skepticism. While it successfully solves puzzles involving color assignments, infilling, cropping, and identifying adjacent pixels, it struggles with tasks requiring counting, long-range pattern recognition, rotations, reflections, or simulating agent behavior. These limitations highlight areas where simple compression principles may not be sufficient.The research has not been peer-reviewed, and the 20 percent accuracy on unseen puzzles, though notable without pre-training, falls significantly below both human performance and top AI systems. Critics might argue that CompressARC could be exploiting specific structural patterns in the ARC puzzles that might not generalize to other domains, challenging whether compression alone can serve as a foundation for broader intelligence rather than just being one component among many required for robust reasoning capabilities.And yet as AI development continues its rapid advance, if CompressARC holds up to further scrutiny, it offers a glimpse of a possible alternative path that might lead to useful intelligent behavior without the resource demands of today's dominant approaches. Or at the very least, it might unlock an important component of general intelligence in machines, which is still poorly understood.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 5 Comments

On 29 January, an American Airlines flight collided with an army helicopter near Washington DCJabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesSafety concerns about flying in the US have risen after a series of plane accidents and collisions in recent months, which were followed shortly by the administration of President Donald Trump eliminating hundreds of jobs at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Aviation safety experts and former FAA employees say flights are safe now, but point out warning signs that would suggest a drop in safety.The FAA, which is responsible for aviation regulation in the US, has

2025-03-07T00:20:39Z Read in app A "Tiangong" humanoid robot running at the Beijing World of Robots in Beijing, capital of China. Ju Huanzong/Xinhua via Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Humanoid robots will compete against humans in a half-marathon in Beijing.The event aims to showcase advancements in humanoid robotics and AI.Robots must be humanoid without wheels; both remote-controlled and autonomous entries are allowed.Experienced runners will tell you it takes months to train for a half-marathon, but what if what you're racing against is literally made of steel?On April 13, humanoid robots are set to compete in the first-ever half-marathon featuring both humans and humanoid robots racing against each other in Beijing. The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, which is hosting the race, announced details for the event on Tuesday.Robots participating in the race will have a roughly three-and-a-half-hour cutoff time to complete the track, Li Quan, deputy head of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, said at a press conference. The humanoid robots will race against 12,000 human runners, with the top three finishers human or robot receiving prizes.Li said participating robots can receive awards in three categories: race completion, best endurance, and most popular robot. The robots running in the race will run in a separate lane."We hope that this event will not only showcase achievements in the humanoid robotics industry but also spark discussions and deepen the public's understanding of robot capabilities, which will help accelerate industry development," Li said.Humanoid robots are evolving rapidly and becoming a common topic of discussion in the tech world. Some companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have partnered with humanoid robot companies to test their robots on factory lines. Last month, Texas-based humanoid robot make Apptronik announced a partnership with a supply chain company to have its humanoid robots eventually build themselves.Robots entering the competition must be humanoid robots that do not use wheels, China's International Center for Science and Technology Innovation said in a release. Both remote-controlled and fully autonomous robots are eligible for entry.Li said at the press conference that participating robot teams can change out their robot's batteries or change their robots out in a relay system. Each time a team changes out a robot, they will receive a ten-minute penalty for the race.Registration for the event opens on March 11, and it is open to companies, research institutions, robot clubs, and universities around the world, the release said.

2025-03-07T00:04:35Z Read in app Starship roars through the sky atop its Super Heavy booster. SpaceX on X This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? SpaceX's Starship spun out of control and fell out of contact just as it reached space Thursday.Starship was supposed to deploy mock Starlink satellites and test its structural limits during reentry.It's not yet clear where debris might fall or how much this incident will set back Elon Musk's plans.SpaceX's Starship lost control and started spinning wildly just as it reached space on Thursday, taking Elon Musk's biggest ambitions one step back."Unfortunately it seems we lost the attitude control on the ship," Kate Tice, a webcast host and the senior manager of quality systems engineering at SpaceX, said after the ship began to visibly roll on SpaceX's X livestream.Starship was only about 20 seconds away from cutting off its engines, which is a major milestone it has passed on multiple flights and is basically the last step of getting itself into space."We did lose contact with the ship," Dan Huot, the other SpaceX webcast host, said.Some of the ship's engines went out early before it started to spin, Huot said."We have some more to learn about this vehicle," Huot said.It's not yet clear what happened, whether the ship exploded, or where its debris might fall."We've got some practice at this now," Huot said. "We've got a lot of measures in place like debris-response areas where we coordinate very closely with air-traffic control. We have a lot of measures put before we ever launch a rocket to make sure that we're keeping the public safe. Those worked last time and they're actively in work right now."The incident comes just a month after a Starship exploded and rained down huge chunks of debris in the Caribbean, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to divert aircraft in the area and triggering an investigation.SpaceX made upgrades to avoid the fuel leaks and fire in the ship's "attic area" which it pinpointed as the cause of the explosion. The company got reapproval from the FAA and flew again Thursday, only to lose Starship again.The future of SpaceX and the space industry at large is on the line.The Starship-Super Heavy launch system consisting of the lower-stage Super Heavy booster and upper-stage Starship rocket promises to be the largest, most powerful, and first-ever fully reusable orbital A screengrab from a SpaceX livestream shows Starship sitting atop its Super Heavy booster on the launchpad. SpaceX via X Its prowess could help cut the cost of spaceflight by an order of magnitude, but not anytime soon if SpaceX can't keep Starship in one piece.Starship has previously flown to space successfully, landed in the ocean with its engines firing, and seen its Super Heavy booster return to Earth and lower itself into a pair of chopstick-like arms on a landing tower.Those demonstrations were all promising for SpaceX's plans to recover and reuse both Starship and the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX had hoped Thursday's flight would take things a step further.The flight had two primary goals: to deploy its first payload of mock Starlink satellites in space and to run experiments in Starship's reentry and descent to Earth. It never got the chance.The flight was intended to test the limits of Starship's structure on its return to Earth, with some of its protective tiles removed from vulnerable areas for stress testing. By contrast, for the ascent to space, SpaceX had made upgrades to fortify Starship.Musk founded the company in 2002 with the goal of bringing humans to Mars. Starship is the vehicle that's supposed to make that happen.Musk has said that, in addition to hauling astronauts and materials to the moon and conducting rapid point-to-point transport on Earth, Starship

South Africa is facing tough environmental, social, and economic challenges. With high unemployment rates and increasing pressure on natural resources, the need for sustainable solutions is greater than ever.In this short film, part of our Of The Future film series produced in partnership with the European Union, we meet Thandisile Fatyela, a South African entrepreneur who is proving that tackling inequalities and promoting sustainable economic growth can go hand in hand.Through his company, Thandisile is taking on some of South Africas most pressing environmental challenges, while also creating green job opportunities and skills for young people, and uplifting local communities.Thandisile tells the story behind Climate Change Champs, an initiative supported by the European Union that educates young people on sustainability and environmental protection, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed for the green economy.Through Thandisiles story, we see how the European Unions partnership with South Africa is empowering young people to be the green changemakers of the future.

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we feature a story from Lightspeeds current issue. This months selection is Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library by Cadwell Turnbull. Enjoy! Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library By Cadwell Turnbull Dekar Druid lives in an infinite library. Besides Ebizenum, who is in a special category of their own, he is the only living person in the librarys single tower. Outside, a forest surrounds the tower. Theres a lake a short walk to the north and a peak to the distant south. And nothing else. The lake is easy to get to, a respite on hot summer days, but Dekar Druid has never made it to the mountains, not even close, though hes walked for miles southward, until the oppressive forest stole the breath from his lungs. Hes only tried the one time, an experience he does not intend to repeat. Truth be told, the infinite library may not be infinite. But Dekar Druid has climbed the spiral staircase up and up until, from a window, the forest lay obscured by clouds, and down and down into the dark and dank sub-basements and he hasnt found a top or a bottom. From the base of the tower, the ground appears undisturbed. The interior of the tower also shows no signs of decay. Somehow, in this peculiar place, the library has remained, inside and out, untouched by the ravages of time.So, perhaps more curiously, has Dekar Druid. He is now on the fifteenth floor of the librarycounted up from ground level, of coursesitting cross-legged on a leather-cushioned bench, bare feet drawn under him, with one book in his lap and a stack of yet more forming a spiraling, precarious tower on the table before him.He is skimming the pages of the book, his mind elsewhere. Hes read this one before, so the story hasnt caught him, and may never again. Dekar is bored often. This is, in fact, his default state, and hes grown so used to it that he can settle into the feeling for hours without the slightest discomfort. He is thinking now about lunch, what Ebizenum might prepare for him. He hopes it is a kabob of the most tender deer meat, seared to perfection. His mouth is salivating just thinking about it. Dekar closes the book and places it on the top of the teetering book tower. He stands and stretches, allows a yawn. Then he wanders up a few more flight of stairs to the ninteenth floor, a level hes been to hundreds of times, but this time he takes one of the ladders to the darkest corner, where there arent any windows. He is still thinking about seared deer meat when he climbs to the top and pulls a thick book from the highest shelf. He blows hard, stirring dust. The particulates fall around him as he descends the ladder, the motes like tiny snowflakes or feather-light glass. Why go to this part of the tower? Why grab the ladder and reach for that specific book? These are the sort of questions Dekar doesnt ask anymore. Like all things in the tower, in his life, in all known existence, the answer to those questions is simple. Whim.Distracted, he finds the table he uses on this floor, and there, too, is a tower of books. He sits in his usual spot, curls his feet back under him. He is less bored now, but like an inhale, a breathing in, he knows it will return. He opens the book and this time he doesnt skim. Immediately he knows this one is different, a book hes never read before. He reads the title: Longback Berserker. He puzzles at the name; it is quite strange, even among the number of strangely named books hes read since coming to himself within the tower. Like with all the other books, there is no author. He shrugs, his response to most things, turns the page, and begins reading.By the end of the first page Dekar is caught. When he reads like this, with his full attention, the words thunder in his ears, but inward, painting the inside of his skull with sound. And his sight, usually bound to the toweror the forest, or to the words on the pagedescends into the words, down and down, and then between the atoms of ink blots on the paper, until the world of the story appears, rising up from the quantum mist. And still he falls, through space and high atmosphere, through clouds, this now littlest Dekar forming hands and feet, a torso, a littlest mind. And just as the jelly of this littlest body sets, turning true-solid, he finds footing on the elsewhere sidewalk of this littlest world, half-crowded with people. No one notices him appearing there. Dekar looks around to find his bearings. On the street are little boutique shops: a cupcake bakery, a bread shop, a butchery, a flower shop, an antique shop, a bookstore, and at the far end of the street, a fortune tellers shop. All these buildings are painted purple, almost the same shade as the people walking along the sidewalks.As he observes all this, the words he is reading above this place thunder in his ears The truck idled at the stop sign but Estrid Orchid waited to calm her nerves. She told herself again there was nothing to worry about. She would see what he had to say about the Esket Fragment and leave once hed told her. She doubted he knew as much as he claimed, even if hed spent half his life marooned on Esket during the war. The Fragment was in a dead language that the Scattered Tribes no longer remembered, even in their stories. However, shed still have to do her duty as a scholar and talk to the man. Once the truck passed and the street was clear of cars, she took one more breath, deciding she was ready. And so, Estrid Orchid crossed the street to meet Ev Tengo . . . and with his littlest eyes Dekar sees this protagonist with her soft purple skin and curls of vibrant flowering vines falling to her back as she is crossing the street.Usually he follows his reading voice, but whimsy has taken hold of Dekar Druid again. He does not cross the street. Instead, he follows the sidewalk to the end of the line of storefronts, nudging the insistent narration to the back of his skull. He climbs the three steps of the fortune tellers shop and opens the door. There is a chime as he enters, but no one is at the front desk. Dekar is about to shrug and step back out onto the street, when a woman emerges from a back room, parting a curtain made of blue-green beads that tremble as she passes through. They dont stop even as she steps to the front desk which stands at chest height. Black vines coil atop the womans head like a layered cake, flowers of the brightest blue demarcating the five layers. And two large hoop earrings hang from each of her lobes, with a thick smudge of blue-black eyeliner running from ear to ear in a rough line that shrouds her eyes. And her eyes: crimson and sparkling and resting completely on Dekar, unblinking.Dekar smiles politely. Hello. The blue-green beads tremble lazily as the woman looks Dekar up and down for a long moment. Dekar begins to worry that he has not formed himself in the manner of people within this world. He looks down at his purple skin to reassure himself.He tries again: I was hoping I could have my fortune taken. The beads cease trembling and finally, the woman blinks. A moment, she says and disappears behind the beaded curtain again, stirring them back to life. She returns with a deck of cards shes already shuffling in her hands. She steps out from behind the front desk and Dekar is struck by how solidly shes built, broad and muscled, which shows through the wrap of cloth shes fashioned around her full body. Dekars face cools, this worlds indication of a blush. Wordless, she guides him to a side door and when he enters, he is surprised to find just a small room, a round table at its center, three chairs tucked under the table. The woman sets down her cards and pulls out one of the chairs. She invites him to do the same and he does. They sit across from each other in a delicate silence. Here she continues her vigilance, studying Dekars face. He clears his throat, readjusts himself in his chair. The woman picks up her cards and again returns to shuffling. Call me Stranger, she says, and starts whipping individual cards from one hand to the other where they slot randomly within the two halves of the deck she is holding in each hand. Dekar has no clue how she is doing this. She has five fingers on each handa boring amountbut the cards move as if she is shuffling with a hundred.Im Dekar. Stranger lets the cards scatter across the table. Not one falls off the edge, though one does balance half-on-half-off the table on Dekars side, the corner of the card aimed at Dekar himself. He watches it with suspicion. That one, Stranger says, youll have to turn yourself. But not yet. Dekar expends a great deal of energy fighting the impulse to disobey.Stranger says, My family has lived in this valley for centuries. Ive lived here a great deal longer. Dekar notices, absently, that he is not bored. Stranger flips one of the cards. On it there is a fish with fins made of slender vines covered in thorns which all point outward like the rays of a sun seen from planet-side. Stranger laughs. The Dipper is a good omen for someone like you. It means that a journey is soon at its end. She flips another card. This one is all black except for a circle at the center. In the circle is a severed hand. Stranger whistles. A Sever is a rare card to reveal itself on a second turn. Paired with a Dipper, it means that this journeys end will come with a hardship, a shattering of self.Not so absently, Dekar notices that he is feeling an altogether new emotion: not boredom, or thrill, or whimsy. This one he does not want to give power by naming it. Stranger turns another card. On it is a single tooth with a heart carved on its face. Stranger hums. When I was young to this world and I first received my own telling, this was my first card. She is watching him as she speaks; her crimson eyes burn. As a first card, it means that you will find a life-long companion. I have yet to. Not important! As a third, in a series like this oneshe runs her hands, fingers splayed, over the scatter of cardsit means that you will find a companion for a season and that this companion will usher in great change. The change that will lead to the shattering of self. Dekars skin yellows with anxiety. He bends himself in a knot to stay rooted to his chair. Two more. Then you, says Stranger. She reaches for one closer to Dekar and he flinches from the sudden action. He watches her flick the card over with one of her long bark-black nails.Whats this one? Dekar asks, his body is as tight against his chair back as he can manage. The legs of the chair have slid slightly from the table. It is . . . A distant expression and a ghost of a smile on her face, she says, I did meet someone for a time. She was a young woman from an old family in this valley town. And she loved me. We spent three years in bliss and I birthed six saplings from our love: the family I mentioned. Except for one line, theyve all ceased. We have a population problem on Elvine, and Err-Kuluxia, the galactic empire that now governs us, has restricted our reproduction. Not important! I meant to say that I knew Ellen could not be the companion from the Carving card, and that knowing eventually led to a souring of our relationship. When she died, I visited her. Her eyes were milky, her sight reduced to a small aperture out of her right eye. Still, when she saw me, she gasped. How young I mustve looked to her; she likely thought me a phantom. But I told hershe turned the next cardI told her that Id lived in this town from the beginning, that for a time I was even worshipped here. But then it became out of fashionwe are quite secular now, you seeand when they couldnt kill me, they erased me, struck me from their memory and their writings. And so, I lived. On the outside. Until her, my Ellen, and the love we built. I told her I was sorry, that I had a purposeshe gestured to the card still resting at the end of the table, the one with its edge aimed right at Dekars chest; Dekar turned the card overthat one day the creator would come to me, and I would wake him to himself. How many more of your children have you done this to, I wonder. How many of them are still waiting to be relieved from their purpose. Your face says it all. You dont know what you are or why youre here. But yet you left me with this responsibility, this endless... Not important! That card is the Drowning Fish, a Higher Dipper. Rare to get two in the same reading. That one is the Burning Birdyou get the point, see the sun depicted thereand that one, the one before you, is the Living Ash. These cards together are a trio with both a separate and a singular meaning. The secularists have revised the Tri-Una to mean you will find great and terrible knowledge, but the people that still worship the Cause Deck maintain Tri-Unas original interpretation.Do I really need to say it? Fine. Tri-Una means God will reveal himself to you, a personal visitation. And look! Youre here. Now pay me and get out of my shop. **** Lunch, as it turns out, is a ham sandwich.Ebizenum sets down the sandwich and returns with a tall glass of turmeric lemonade. Then they sit across from Dekar, copper lip-segments locked in a polite smile. Hands on the table, they stare at Dekar, waiting for another command. Dekar doesnt give one. He takes a few bites of his sandwich and chews slowly. How was your day? asks Ebizenum. Distracted, Dekar says, Fine. The android refixes their mouth to a smile. Can you Yes? Lip-segments parted, an eager rise to their copper brows, Ebizenum gestures to stand. No, no. I dont need anything. I just have questions I am hoping you can answer. I can try, says Ebizenum, copper brows creased. The chrome of their face gleams in the afternoon light. I met someone. Oh, says Ebizenum, clearly worried. From the forest? No, of course not. From one of the books. You mean you spoke to a character. Yes, though I dont think she was a character. She was off-narrative, and very much alive. Like you or me. Fascinating, says Ebizenum. They cup a hand to their chin-plate in thought. Well, this is a new development. I dont know if I can help you with questions about an off-narrative non-character that mimics sentience. This response makes Dekar hesitate. He wants to ask about the tower, about the books, but he is scared of any answer Ebizenum might give. He takes a careful breath and pushes his half-eaten sandwich away. Youre not satisfied with the ham sandwich? Im sincerely sorry I wasnt able to anticipate your desire for a kabob of the most tender deer meat, seared to perfection. Its fine. Really. Dekar stares into Ebizenums face, his only other companion in this desolate world. I want to know, that is, I hope you can tell me: Did I write all the books in the tower? An expression Dekar has never seen from Ebizenum: eyes wide, chrome lids folded completely back into their head, the segments of mouth parted so that all the plates of Ebizenums face crowd each other like fish scales. Ebizenum says, I never thought this day would come. Would you give me a moment to collect myself? Of course. Dekar takes a sip of his turmeric lemonade, the ice clinking against the cold glass. He has only now noticed that he is sweating from his armpits. Ebizenum says, The short answer is, yes, though I know that this question has many underlying ones youll also need answering. Would you like to ask them separately or would you like me to anticipate? Anticipate, Dekar says. Somehow his mouth is very dry. Yes, right. Well, you did write all the books, during your awake cycles. Thats when you are Your Exalted Self. Currently, you are in one of your lowly cycles. This time you call yourself Dekar Druid. Shall I continue? You look distressed. PleaseIm fine, please continue. Yes, right. You must be wondering how many of these cycles youve had. The number is quite long. Ebizenum provides the number of cycles. It is a very large number. You must also want to know how many books are in the tower. Well, the levels above floor 9,200 and below sub-basement 8,214 of the tower still lay empty of books, though youve not had the attention or determination so far to approach the limits of your collection, which is [another unfathomably large number] of books currently. Sir Druid, I am concerned at your distress. Perhaps we should Dekar shakes his head. Are there other living beings, like us, on this level of existence? I dont know. Neither does Your Exalted Self, Sir Druid. Please explain. Well, the forest, as you know Sir Druid, has no end. Yes, there are mountains in the distance, but if you climb to the tops of those trees, which Ive done many times with Your Exalted Self, those mountains never get closer, no matter where you reside in the forest. And then there is the dizziness and the nausea if you spend too long in the forest. There are the deer, the hogs, the rabbits, the predators of land and air. There is the fish pond. Otherwise, there is nothing, Sir Druid. No life, such as yourself or myself. Did I make you? Your Exalted Self made me. With his mind. You are quite powerful in that form, though you still cant go beyond the forest. I built the tower to house your books. And to provide you shelter. The forest frightened you and Your Exalted Self always worried what might emerge from the trees to claim you. Before me, as far as I know, there was just Your Exalted Self and the forest and those peaks in the distance. Then me. Then the first of your books. Then the tower. So many questions to be asked. So many terrible answers. Do you want me to continue to anticipate? No, thats enough. I need to lie down. Of course. Ebizenum stands and retrieves Dekars unfinished plate and drink. Ill keep this for you in case youre hungry after your rest. Ebizenums heavy departing footsteps help Dekar ignore the hard beating of his own heart. **** The next morning, Dekar rises from his bed on the fifth floor of the tower with an ache behind his eyes. He goes to the window and stares out at the still forest and its unnerving quiet. Ebizenum is at the door when hes dressed. How are you this morning, Sir Druid? Im slowly starting to remember things, Dekar confesses. Last night his dreams were a storm of memories, the headache a likely side-effect of having to find himself within that storm. Oh, thats new, says Ebizenum. Usually, Your Exalted Self returns at once. Ebizenums shoulders are too heavy to truly shrug, but they manage a minute rise. Breakfast? No, thank you. Im not hungry this morning. Ebizenum starts to leave. Wait a moment. Ebizenum returns their attention to Dekar, as open and eager as ever. I want to thank you; that is, I feel I should thank you. For all youve done to take care of me... in all my forms. It is the reason I exist, says Ebizenum simply and departs. Dekar watches Ebizenum disappear around a corner. In front of him the fifth-floor stacks, its rows of books looming. So many universes, and people, and . . . Dekar is suddenly struck by a profound feeling of claustrophobia. He desires to be outside, in the open air, but he doesnt actually want to be outside. He is now even more terrified of the waiting forest, the darkness that will stare back out at him from the clearing. Then where should he go? How can he get out? It isnt a decision, nor is it whim that has Dekar dropping back down to the street of purple storefronts. It is something more like gravity. This time Stranger is out front when Dekar enters. She stares out from between stacks of boxes. What is it now? I wanted to ask, and theres no good way to ask, so Ill be direct. Do you wish to die? I could gift that to you, if you want, that is. This isnt strictly true, Dekar knows, but His Exalted Self still is Dekar Druid, so it isnt a lie either. He can grant this. If he can convince Himself. Stranger considers for a moment. Maybe later. For now, I am leaving the planet. I want to see the universe. Find others youve abandoned and give them the good news. She stoops down where Dekar cant see and resumes packing something behind her desk. You hate me. Stranger emerges with another box. Yes. Its a childish emotion. Useless. Ill get over it. She disappears behind the desk but is soon up again with one more box, this one heavy enough to raise a vein in her neck. She says, In the beginning, when I was born, and for several years after, yours was the only face I saw. Until you left and the rest of the world began to knit itself around me. That version of you carried himself with so much confidence. And certainty. What a surprise to see you coming through that door, wearing his face, looking at me like wed never met. I knew you had changed yourself somehow, become someone else, and yet here I was, unchanged, compelled to perform my one purpose just as you said I would. But you know what Ive come to realize, having met you in that form and as you are now? Her crimson eyes flare within her smear of blue-black eyeliner, and for a moment it feels like she can see him, peel back this reality and see the other Dekar above this littlest self. You are empty. There is nowhere for you to go. No up or beyond. You can only go down. Or backwards. Not me. I want to go another way if I can. He wants to say something, but what is there to say? A moment more of Dekar staring dumbly before Stranger turns away from him. As she disappears into the back room, the clatter of beads accompanying her departure, she doesnt spare a glance his way or offer another word, not even a gesture of goodbye. Nothing left to do here, Dekar knows, yet he lingers a moment longer. Absently he observes that hes not bored, hasnt been since yesterday. Minutes later, as Dekar descends the steps of the fortuneteller shop, Stranger turns the sign on the door, which reads: closed, and below, scrawled in blue marker, indefinitely. Dekar returns his attention to the words on repeat at the back of his skull: And so, Estrid Orchid crossed the street to meet Ev Tengo for the first time, the Err-Kuluxian scholar who emerged from the Ash Trail War with the nickname Longback Berserker. And with more words singing in his skull, and a sleeping god rousing in his belly, Dekar Druid follows Estrid Orchid to see where her story will take him. About the Author Cadwell Turnbull is the award-winning author ofThe Lesson,No Gods, No Monsters, andWe Are the Crisis. His short fiction has appeared inthe Verge,Lightspeed,Nightmare,Asimovs Science Fiction, and several anthologies. His novelThe Lessonwas the winner of the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Award in the debut category.No Gods, No Monsterswas the winner of a Lambda, a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Manly Wade Wellman Award, and longlisted for the PEN Open Award.We Are the Crisis was a finalist for the Manly Wade Wellman Award and an Ignyte Award. Turnbull grew up on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Adamant Press Please visitLightspeed Magazine to read more great science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared in the March 2025 issue, which also features short fiction by which also features short fiction by Jake Kerr, Anya Ow, Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Adam-Troy Castro, Sunwoo Jeong, Rachael K. Jones, and more. You can wait for this months contents to be serialized online, or you can buy the whole issue right now in convenient ebook format for just $4.99, or subscribe to the ebook edition here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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Fish Tail Tea Room / Pablo Luna StudioSave this picture! Tommaso RivaArchitects: Pablo Luna StudioAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:70 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Tommaso Riva Lead Architects: Pablo Luna More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Fish Tail Tea Room is an integral part of Intaaya Retreat, a project designed and built by Pablo Luna Studio on the cliffs of Nusa Penida, Bali. Conceived as an architectural response to its surroundings, it integrates seamlessly with the landscape while prioritizing sustainability. Every design decision was made to minimize environmental impactadapting the construction to the terrain and using locally sourced materials.Save this picture!Intaaya Retreat is self-sufficient in water, drawing from a deep well, incorporating rainwater collection, efficient water appliances, and low-irrigation landscaping. Waste Water Gardens, developed in collaboration with the Biosphere Foundation, treat wastewater for garden irrigation. A Sustainable Construction Plan was in place to prevent pollution, control erosion, and manage waste. A large portion of the project's electricity demand is met by photovoltaic solar panels.Save this picture!The Fish Tail Tea Room is designed for introspection and connection, embodying Intaaya Retreat's philosophy of creating serene spaces in harmony with nature. The structure is entirely built with Dendrocalamus asper bamboo, treated and crafted in Bali. The walls are composed of rammed earth, using limestone from the site, while the floors are finished with locally sourced lime. Overhead, the handwoven bamboo ceiling enhances the artisanal texture.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The building's floor plan consists of a central oval with two semicircles. The longer sides of the oval shape the front and rear faades, opening to the landscape through large reclaimed wood windows from old Indonesian joglos. The central space, designed for tea ceremonies, meetings, meditation, and reflection, fosters openness and contemplation. Along the elliptical curve, the two semicircles house the bathrooms.Save this picture!The roof morphology responds to the spatial arrangement. In the center, its elevation creates a sense of expansion, reinforced by the structure's verticality and ocean views. Toward the lateral sections, the roof subtly descends, transitioning to intimate spaces and intuitively defining the entryway.Save this picture!Structurally, the Fish Tail Tea Room follows its oval floor plan through six King Post trusses. At both ends, where the semicircles are located, two support pointseach with four bamboo columnsallow for the roof's extension. Curved purlins, formed by bamboo trios, establish the organic design flow.Save this picture!The interior design maintains a cohesive chromatic palette, reinforcing the relationship between space and materiality. The laminated bamboo doors, with an outer bamboo "bone" layer, add texture. Unlike other structures within Intaaya Retreat, the Fish Tail Tea Room was designed with greater enclosure, balancing seclusion and connection.Save this picture!This posed a challenge in thermal comfort, solved through passive design. The building faces south, slightly inclined east, optimizing ocean views while ensuring ventilation. Pivoting windows regulate airflow, while rammed earth walls and an insulated bamboo roof stabilize indoor temperatures.Save this picture!In essence, the Fish Tail Tea Room embodies craftsmanship, nature, and spatial experience. Every detailfrom the bamboo framework to the woven ceilingreflects a commitment to building by hand. Within Intaaya Retreat, it serves as a space where architecture bridges human presence and the natural world.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Nusa Penida, IndonesiaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officePablo Luna StudioOfficeMaterialWoodMaterials and TagsPublished on March 07, 2025Cite: "Fish Tail Tea Room / Pablo Luna Studio" 06 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027573/fish-tail-tea-room-pablo-luna-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream