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Elsie Marie T. Or
Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Email Address: etor@up.edu.ph
M.A. in Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Thesis: A Grammar of Iraya
B.A. in English Studies (Concentration: Language), University of the Philippines Diliman
Magna Cum Laude, Thesis: Functions of Codeswitching in Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language Classes
Current: Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Instructor, Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman (2013 - 2018)
Mandarin Language Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman (2009-2013)
Social Studies Instructor, Centre for International Education, Cebu (2007-2008)
Current: Undergraduate Coordinator, Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Current: SAE Officer, Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Editorial Positions
Current: Graphic Designer & Layout Editor, The Archive Journal, UP Department of Linguistics
Current: Graphic Designer, UP Korea Research Center
Ongoing: Buhid Dictionary Project (Co-proponent: Dr. Mary Ann G. Bacolod)
Funded by U.P. OVCRD-OEC Diliman Extension Grant (2017-2018)
Ongoing: Automated Construction of Phylogenetic Trees and Networks of Languages in the Greater Central Philippines by a Feature-Sensitive Metric (Program Leader: Dr. Richard Lemence)
Funded by U.P. OVPAA Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Grant
Reflexives in Adult and Child Tagalog (Program Leader: Ivan Paul Bondoc)
Funded by University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honors & Grants
One U.P. Faculty Grant for Teaching and Public Service
University of the Philippines Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, 2019
Extension Grant for the Buhid Dictionary Project
U.P. OVCRD-Office of Extension, 2017
Extension Grant for the Chinese Language Extramural Review
ASEAN University Network-National University of Singapore Study Grant, 2005
For list of publications, click here.
For list of conference presentations and invited talks, please click here.
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Noopur Raval
Teaching & Projects
Research + Papers
The Moving Elephant
Tag: Blade Runner
Thoughts on Blade Runner 2049 and its futurism
As the film hobbled to yet another slow and beautiful yet painfully obvious sequence, I wondered to myself,
“What is it with remakes?”
(Not my image, sourced from Goog Img for noncommercial use)
I just finished watching the Blade Runner reboot yesterday and am still processing how disappointed I was about it. I am not sure what I went in expecting from a sleeper cult classic’s remake but I even chose to watch it in Imax. The cinema student in me was definitely excited to figure out what the remake even intended to – pay homage to the original, refresh generational memories lest we might forget Dick or maybe update all the techno-futuristic visions since we’ve come so far since the last one.
Since the film has already done poorly on its opening weekend and received its fair share of criticism (it really is spectacular and stunning to look at, every frame is so beautiful but it’s terribly slow, indulgent and inconsistent in many ways), I won’t go into details as such. But I think why I was really disappointed was because the film seemed like it had no soul of its own (it was well, a replicant). The first time I encountered Blade Runner, set in its own time, I didn’t have to worry about it as it was not a temporal or geographic future I could ever share. One of the key things they teach you while studying science fiction texts is that the future portrayed is in fact the future of our present, that most futuristic fiction builds on, negates, resists and responds to the pasts and presents that might exist. That makes the giant Japanese megacorp landscape of sci-fi seem more purposeful, makes you pay attention to set design, costume design, references to popular culture and political events. It doesn’t always have to be so, I am not sure one can ready Jodorowsky’s films with equal confidence, but Blade Runner isn’t meant to be absurdist. Especially the reboot takes itself so seriously, it is littered with Renaissance bodies, nostalgia about paper records and a general resigned acceptance of not-real beings (mostly women) as a part of our times.
Since I didn’t watch the original Blade Runner in its time, it was perhaps easier to look back at its vision of futurity as a symptom of its present. But the new Blade Runner is in my time, also very close to my place (Los Angeles) and I just had such a hard time enrolling into the vision of an always raining Los Angeles that looks like the most generic Japan/Chinatowns of Hollywood, neon, bilingual in all its public signage but also where non-white actors were doing most of the speaking. And I don’t mean it in a representational way only but it made me wonder – if, according to the film’s cityscape, the LA of the future has been conquered by Asians, if most women characters in the film look extremely techno-orientalistic, then what are the Asians of the future doing? Where do they live, how did they let the future get so grimy, does the squalor and decay of the place speak of its new owners? And why do these Asians never make a real appearance in the film? Now, that’s the temporal/technological update that I would’ve loved to see in the new BR. Technology isn’t only about changing the way drones look. I personally also think that the film forgot to update its notions of how data flows, how surveillance happens and what that might mean for human/machine relationships.
In short, by the last sequence, I was thoroughly confused and irritated. Since I am not a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek or don’t actively participate in Marvel vs DC discussions, I didn’t think too much of their constant reboots. It also made me mad for a split second because between netflix/hbo and movie studios, science-fiction production has become a recursive saga of Americanism – an endless stream that produces and contains all futures of US techno-power and imperalism, occasionally adapts stories from elsewhere but continues to loop them back into familiar sci-fi formats with mostly white characters as protagonists. I am no expert on sci-fi consumption per se but I had to write this because I remember being thrown off by Skyfall (why was Bond going retro, where were the cool gadgets?!) But as the New Inquiry review beautifully sums it up, and I think this holds for a lot of other mainstream franchises,
Star Trek and Star Wars are now backward-looking reruns, and the future recedes into the distance; science fiction is about how the present continues forever. The biggest change between 1982 and 2017 is that we don’t even remember what the future used to look like.
In fact, imagine if future LA is indeed an Asian-dominated urban sprawl and they watch this film with the same amusement and irony with which we approach Disneyland today? The fact that thew new Blade Runner has no future of its own, largely borrows the past-future of the original and still tries to veer away from its logical conclusions (a cop who can join the revolution, a woman with less than 10 minutes of screen time who is the real hero of the film), was disorienting in the least. I still feel that while one can remake a cult classic film, the *cult* wasn’t in content or story but rather the intersection of storytelling and its own present. I am also sure that those who haven’t watched the first might actually leave wondering what was so radical about the first one to begin with.
Author noopurravalPosted on October 8, 2017 October 8, 2017 Tags Blade Runner, futurism, past future, science fictionLeave a comment on Thoughts on Blade Runner 2049 and its futurism
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Wildcats Knock off (rv) Saint Xavier in Double Overtime, 102-95
(rv) Saint Xavier
(rv) Saint Xavier (9-4) 47 32 8 8 95
Johnson & Wales (FL) (3-8) 36 43 8 15 102
Pts: Maurice Chambers - 26
Reb: Jack Halverson - 10
Ast: Joshua Evans - 8
Pts: Dante Pace - 33
Reb: Kevin Rostamian - 12
Ast: 4 Players (#01, #10, #12, #13) - 4
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (December 17, 2019) – Freshmen Dante Pace and Tyler Poindexter combined for 54 points as the Johnson & Wales (Fla.) men's basketball team (3-8) knocked off the (rv) Saint Xavier Cougars (9-4), 102-95 (2OT) on Tuesday night.
Pace led all scorers with a game-high and career-best 33 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor, including seven treys, and a perfect 8-of-8 shooting from the free-throw line. Poindexter contributed 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor with five buckets from long range. The product of Plano, Texas had three steals and grabbed five rebounds.
Sophomore Kevin Rostamian registered his third double-double of the season posting 15 points and registering a game-high 12 rebounds. Sophomore Vince Ventulan added 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting for his first double-digit point outing as a Wildcat.
In a game that saw 13 tied scores and 12 lead changes, JWU shot 55.0 percent from the floor (33-of-60) and was 16-of-34 from 3-point range (47.1 percent). The Cougars ended the night converting 31-of-66 shots from the field (47.0 percent) and shot 35.0 percent (7-of-20) from beyond the arc.
Saint Xavier held a 41-33 edge in rebounding, including a 12-6 advantage on the offensive glass. The Wildcats distributed the ball extremely well, recording 23 assists in the contest (second-most this season).
The win snapped a five-game losing skid for JWU improving the Wildcats to 2-5 at home this season.
JWU will host Mitchell College on Thursday December 19. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m.
Follow men's basketball and all of JWU's 11 athletic teams on Twitter (@JWUAthleticsNM), YouTube (JWUAthletics), and Instagram (the WildcatWay).
About JWU Athletics: JWU Athletics is home to more than 150 student-athletes in 11 different sports. Established in 1998, JWU Athletics is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the Sun Conference. Athletic events are held the Wildcat Center and the Miami Shores Recreation Complex (9825 NE 7th Ave., Miami Shores, FL 33138)
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“Help? How?”
“I told you before,” Alec said, “half the time it seems like Jace is trying to get himself killed. He has to learn to look out for himself, and that includes cooperating with the Inquisitor.”
“And you think I can help you make him do that?” Clary said, disbelief coloring her voice.
“I’m not sure anyone can make Jace do anything,” said Isabelle. “But I think you can remind him that he has something to live for.”
Alec looked down at the pillow in his hand and gave a sudden savage yank to the fringe. Beads rattled down onto Isabelle’s blanket like a shower of localized rain.
Isabelle frowned. “Alec, don’t.”
Clary wanted to tell Isabelle that they were Jace’s family, that she wasn’t, that their voices carried more weight with him than hers ever would. But she kept hearing Jace’s voice in her head, saying, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. But you make me feel like I belong. “Can we go to the Silent City and see him?”
“Will you tell him to cooperate with the Inquisitor?” Alec demanded.
Clary considered. “I want to hear what he has to say first.”
Alec dropped the denuded pillow onto the bed and stood up, frowning. Before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Isabelle unhitched herself from the vanity table and went to answer it.
It was a small, dark-haired boy, his eyes half-hidden by glasses. He wore jeans and an oversize sweatshirt and carried a book in one hand. “Max,” Isabelle said, with some surprise, “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was in the weapons room,” said the boy—who had to be the Lightwoods’ youngest son. “But there were noises coming from the library. I think someone might be trying to contact the Institute.” He peered around Isabelle at Clary. “Who’s that?”
“That’s Clary,” said Alec. “She’s Jace’s sister.”
Max’s eyes rounded. “I thought Jace didn’t have any brothers or sisters.”
“That’s what we all thought,” said Alec, picking up the sweater he’d left draped over one of Isabelle’s chairs and yanking it on. His hair rayed out around his head like a soft dark halo, crackling with static electricity. He pushed it back impatiently. “I’d better get to the library.”
“We’ll both go,” Isabelle said, taking her gold whip, which was twisted into a shimmering rope, out of a drawer and sliding the handle through her belt. “Maybe something’s happened.”
“Where are your parents?” Clary asked.
“They got called out a few hours ago. A fey was murdered in Central Park. The Inquisitor went with them,” Alec explained.
“You didn’t want to go?”
“We weren’t invited.” Isabelle looped her two dark braids up on top of her head and stuck the coil of hair through with a small glass dagger. “Look after Max, will you? We’ll be right back.”
“But—” Clary protested.
“We’ll be right back.” Isabelle darted out into the corridor, Alec on her heels. The moment the door shut behind them, Clary sat down on the bed and regarded Max with apprehension. She’d never spent much time around children—her mother had never let her babysit—and she wasn’t really sure how to talk to them or what might amuse them. It helped a little that this particular little boy reminded her of Simon at that age, with his skinny arms and legs and glasses that seemed too big for his face.
Max returned her stare with a considering glance of his own, not shy, but thoughtful and contained. “How old are you?” he said finally.
Clary was taken aback. “How old do I look?”
“Fourteen.”
“I’m sixteen, but people always think I’m younger than I am because I’m so short.”
Max nodded. “Me too,” he said. “I’m nine but people always think I’m seven.”
“You look nine to me,” said Clary. “What’s that you’re holding? Is it a book?”
Max brought his hand out from behind his back. He was holding a wide, flat paperback, about the size of one of those small magazines they sold at grocery store counters. This one had a brightly colored cover with Japanese kanji script on it under the English words. Clary laughed. “Naruto,” she said. “I didn’t know you liked manga. Where did you get that?”
“In the airport. I like the pictures but I can’t figure out how to read it.”
“Here, give it to me.” She flipped it open, showing him the pages. “You read it backward, right to left instead of left to right. And you read each page clockwise. Do you know what that means?”
“Of course,” said Max. For a moment Clary was worried she’d annoyed him. He seemed pleased enough, though, when he took the book back and flipped to the last page. “This one is number nine,” he said. “I think I should get the other eight before I read it.”
“That’s a good idea. Maybe you can get someone to take you to Midtown Comics or Forbidden Planet.”
“Forbidden Planet?” Max looked bemused, but before Clary could explain, Isabelle burst through the door, clearly out of breath.
“It was someone trying to contact the Institute,” she said, before Clary could ask. “One of the Silent Brothers. Something’s happened in the Bone City.”
“What kind of something?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of the Silent Brothers asking for help before.” Isabelle was clearly distressed. She turned to her brother. “Max, go to your room and stay there, okay?”
Max set his jaw. “Are you and Alec going out?”
“To the Silent City?”
“I want to come.”
Isabelle shook her head; the hilt of the dagger at the back of her head glittered like a point of fire. “Absolutely not. You’re too young.”
“You’re not eighteen either!”
Isabelle turned to Clary with a look half of anxiety and half of desperation. “Clary, come here for a second, please.”
Clary got up, wonderingly—and Isabelle grabbed her by the arm and yanked her out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. There was a thump as Max threw himself against it. “Damn it,” said Isabelle, holding the knob, “can you grab my stele for me, please? It’s in my pocket—”
Hastily, Clary held out the stele Luke had given her earlier that night. “Use mine.”
With a few swift strokes, Isabelle had carved a Locking rune onto the door. Clary could still hear Max’s protests from the other side as Isabelle stepped away from the door, grimacing, and handed Clary back her stele. “I didn’t know you had one of these.”
“It was my mother’s,” said Clary, then she mentally chided herself. Is my mother’s. It is my mother’s.
“Huh.” Isabelle thumped on the door with a closed fist. “Max, there’s some PowerBars in the nightstand drawer if you get hungry. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
There was another outraged yell from behind the door; with a shrug, Isabelle turned and hurried back down the hallway, Clary at her side. “What did the message say?” Clary demanded. “Just that there was trouble?”
“That there was an attack. That’s it.”
Alec was waiting for them outside the library. He was wearing black leather Shadowhunter armor over his clothes. Gauntlets protected his arms and Marks circled his throat and wrists. Seraph blades, each one named for an angel, gleamed at the belt around his waist. “Are you ready?” he said to his sister. “Is Max taken care of?”
“He’s fine.” She held out her arms. “Mark me.”
As Alec traced the patterns of runes along the backs of Isabelle’s hands and the insides of her wrists, he glanced over at Clary. “You should probably head home,” he said. “You don’t want to be here by yourself when the Inquisitor gets back.”
“I want to go with you,” Clary said, the words spilling out before she could stop them.
Isabelle took one of her hands back from Alec and blew on the Marked skin as if she were cooling a too-hot cup of coffee. “You sound like Max.”
“Max is nine. I’m the same age as you.”
“But you haven’t got any training,” Alec argued. “You’ll just be a liability.”
“No, I won’t. Has either of you ever been inside the Silent City?” Clary demanded. “I have. I know how to get in. I know how to find my way around.”
Alec straightened up, putting his stele away. “I don’t think—”
Isabelle cut in. “She has a point, actually. I think she should come if she wants.”
Alec looked taken aback. “Last time we faced a demon, she just cowered and screamed.” Seeing Clary’s acid glare, he shot her an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, but it’s true.”
“I think she needs a chance to learn,” Isabelle said. “You know what Jace always says. Sometimes you don’t have to search out danger, sometimes danger finds you.”
“You can’t lock me up like you did Max,” Clary added, seeing Alec’s weakening resolution. “I’m not a child. And I know where the Bone City is. I can find my way there without you.”
Alec turned away, shaking his head and muttering something about girls. Isabelle held out a hand to Clary. “Give me your stele,” she said. “It’s time you got some Marks.”
IN THE END ISABELLE GAVE CLARY ONLY TWO MARKS, ONE on the back of each hand. One was the open eye that decorated the hand of every Shadowhunter. The other was like two crossed sickles; Isabelle said it was a Rune of Protection. Both runes burned when the stele first touched skin, but the pain faded as Clary, Isabelle, and Alec headed downtown in a black gypsy cab. By the time they reached Second Avenue and stepped out onto the pavement, Clary’s hands and arms felt as light as if she were wearing water wings in a swimming pool.
The three of them were silent as they passed under the wrought iron arch and into the Marble Cemetery. The last time Clary had been in this small courtyard she had been hurrying along after Brother Jeremiah. Now, for the first time, she noticed the names carved into the walls: Youngblood, Fairchild, Thrushcross, Nightwine, Ravenscar. There were runes beside them. In Shadowhunter culture each family had their own symbol: The Waylands’ was a blacksmith’s hammer, the Lightwoods’ a torch, and Valentine’s a star.
The grass grew tangled over the feet of the Angel statue in the courtyard’s center. The Angel’s eyes were closed, his slim hands closed over the stem of a stone goblet, a reproduction of the Mortal Cup. His stone face was impassive, streaked with dirt and grime.
Clary said, “Last time I was here, Brother Jeremiah used a rune on the statue to open the door to the City.”
“I wouldn’t want to use one of the Silent Brothers’ runes,” Alec said. His face was grim. “They should have sensed our presence before we got this far. Now I’m starting to worry.” He took a dagger from his belt and drew the blade of it across his bare palm. Blood welled from the shallow gash. Making a fist over the stone Cup, he let the blood drip into it. “Blood of the Nephilim,” he said. “It should work as a key.”
The stone Angel’s eyelids flew open. For a moment Clary almost expected to see eyes glaring at her from between the folds of stone, but there was only more granite. A second later, the grass at the Angel’s feet began to split. A crooked black line, rippling like the back of a snake, curved away from the statue, and Clary jumped back hastily as a dark hole opened at her feet.
She peered down into it. Stairs led away into shadow. Last time she had been here, the darkness had been lit at intervals by torches, illuminating the steps. Now there was only blackness.
“Something’s wrong,” Clary said. Neither Isabelle nor Alec seemed inclined to argue. Clary took the witchlight stone Jace had given her out of her pocket and raised it overhead. Light burst from it, raying out through her spread fingers. “Let’s go.”
Alec stepped in front of her. “I’ll go first, then you follow me. Isabelle, bring up the rear.”
They clambered down slowly, Clary’s damp boots slipping on the age-rounded steps. At the foot of the stairs was a short tunnel that opened out into an enormous hall, a stone orchard of white arches inset with semiprecious stones. Rows of mausoleums huddled in the shadows like toadstool houses in a fairy story. The more distant of them disappeared into shadow; the witchlight was not strong enough to light the whole hall.
Alec looked somberly down the rows. “I never thought I would enter the Silent City,” he said. “Not even in death.”
“I wouldn’t sound so sad about it,” Clary said. “Brother Jeremiah told me what they do to your dead. They burn them up and use most of the ashes to make the City’s marble.” The blood and bone of demon slayers is itself a powerful protection against evil. Even in death, the Clave serves the Cause.
“Hmph,” said Isabelle. “It’s considered an honor. Besides, it’s not like you mundies don’t burn your dead.”
That doesn’t make it not creepy, Clary thought. The smell of ashes and smoke hung heavy on the air, familiar to her from the last time she was here—but there was something else underlying those smells, a heavier, thicker stench, like rotting fruit.
Frowning as if he smelled it too, Alec took one of his angel blades out of his weapons belt. “Arathiel,” he whispered, and its glow joined the illumination of Clary’s witchlight as they found the second staircase and descended into even denser gloom. The witchlight pulsed in Clary’s hand like a dying star—she wondered if they ever ran out of power, witchlight stones, like flashlights ran out of batteries. She hoped not. The idea of being plunged into sightless darkness in this creepy place filled her with a visceral terror.
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Isabelle turned scarlet. Magnus cut in before she could reply. “Look, it’s not a problem,” he said. “I can keep Jace at my place easily enough.”
The Inquisitor turned to Alec. “Your warlock does realize,” she said, “that Jonathan is a witness of utmost importance to the Clave?”
“He’s not my warlock.” The tops of Alec’s angular cheekbones flared a dark red.
“I’ve held prisoners for the Clave before,” Magnus said. The joking edge had left his voice. “I think you’ll find I have an excellent record in that department. My contract is one of the best.”
Was it Clary’s imagination, or did his eyes seem to linger on Maryse when he said that? She didn’t have time to wonder; the Inquisitor made a sharp noise that might have been amusement or disgust, and said, “It’s settled, then. Let me know when he’s well enough to talk, warlock. I’ve still got plenty of questions for him.”
“Of course,” Magnus said, but Clary got the sense that he wasn’t really listening to her. He crossed the lawn gracefully and came to stand over Jace; he was as tall as he was thin, and when Clary glanced up to look at him, she was surprised how many stars he blotted out. “Can he talk?” Magnus asked Clary, indicating Jace.
Before Clary could respond, Jace’s eyes slid open. He looked up at the warlock, dazed and dizzy. “What are you doing here?”
Magnus grinned down at Jace, and his teeth sparkled like sharpened diamonds.
“Hey, roommate,” he said.
THE GATES OF HELL
Before me things created were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.
—Dante, Inferno
THE SEELIE COURT
IN THE DREAM CLARY WAS A CHILD AGAIN, WALKING DOWN THE narrow strip of beach near the boardwalk at Coney Island. The air was thick with the smell of hot dogs and roasting peanuts, and with the shouts of children. The sea surged in the distance, its blue-gray surface alive with sunlight.
She could see herself as if from a distance, wearing oversize child’s pajamas. The hems of the pajama bottoms dragged along the beach. Damp sand grated between her toes, and her hair hung heavily against the nape of her neck. There were no clouds and the sky was blue and clear, but she shivered as she walked along the perimeter of the water toward a figure she could see only dimly in the distance.
As she approached, the figure became suddenly clear, as if Clary had focused the lens of a camera. It was her mother, kneeling in the ruins of a half-built sand castle. She wore the same white dress Valentine had put her in at Renwick’s. In her hand was a twisted bit of driftwood, silvery from long exposure to salt and wind.
“Have you come to help me?” her mother said, raising her head. Jocelyn’s hair was undone and it blew free in the wind, making her look younger than she was. “There’s so much to do and so little time.”
Clary swallowed against the hard lump in her throat. “Mom—I’ve missed you, Mom.”
Jocelyn smiled. “I’ve missed you, too, honey. But I’m not gone, you know. I’m only sleeping.”
“Then how do I wake you up?” Clary cried, but her mother was looking out to sea, her face troubled. The sky had turned a twilight iron gray and the black clouds looked like heavy stones.
“Come here,” said Jocelyn, and when Clary came to her, she said, “Hold out your arm.”
Clary did. Jocelyn moved the driftwood over her skin. The touch stung like the burning of a stele, and left the same thick black line behind. The rune Jocelyn drew was a shape Clary had never seen before, but she found it instinctively soothing to her eye. “What does this do?”
“It should protect you.” Clary’s mother released her.
“Against what?”
Jocelyn didn’t answer, just looked out toward the sea. Clary turned and saw that the ocean had drawn far out, leaving brackish piles of garbage, heaps of seaweed and flopping, desperate fish in its wake. The water had gathered itself into a huge wave, rising like the side of a mountain, like an avalanche ready to fall. The shouts of children from the boardwalk had turned into screams. As Clary stared in horror, she saw that the side of the wave was as transparent as a membrane, and through it she could see things that seemed to move under the surface of the sea, huge dark shapeless things pushing against the skin of the water. She threw up her hands—
And woke up, gasping, her heart slamming painfully against her ribs. She was in her bed in the spare room in Luke’s house, and afternoon light was filtering in through the curtains. Her hair was plastered to her neck with sweat, and her arm burned and ached. When she sat up and flipped on the bedside light, she saw without surprise the black Mark that ran the length of her forearm.
When she went into the kitchen, she found Luke had left breakfast for her in the form of a Danish in a grease-spotted cardboard box. He’d also left a note stuck to the fridge. Gone to the hospital.
Clary ate the Danish on the way to meet Simon. He was supposed to be on the corner of Bedford by the L train stop at five, but he wasn’t. She felt a faint tug of anxiety before she remembered the used record store on the corner of Sixth. Sure enough, he was sorting through the CDs in the new arrivals section. He wore a rust-colored corduroy jacket with a torn sleeve and a blue T-shirt bearing the logo of a headphone-wearing boy dancing with a chicken. He grinned when he saw her. “Eric thinks we should change the name of our band to Mojo Pie,” he said, by way of greeting.
“What is it now? I forgot.”
“Champagne Enema,” he said, selecting a Yo La Tengo CD.
“Change it,” Clary said. “By the way, I know what your T-shirt means.”
“No you don’t.” He headed up to the front of the store to buy his CD. “You’re a good girl.”
Outside, the wind was cold and brisk. Clary drew her striped scarf up around her chin. “I was worried when I didn’t see you at the L stop.”
Simon pulled his knit cap down, wincing as if the sunlight hurt his eyes. “Sorry. I remembered I wanted this CD, and I thought—”
“It’s fine.” She waved a hand at him. “It’s me. I panic way too easily these days.”
“Well, after what you’ve been through, no one could blame you.” Simon sounded contrite. “I still can’t believe what happened to the Silent City. I can’t believe you were there.”
“Neither could Luke. He freaked out completely.”
“I bet.” They were walking through McCarren Park, the grass underfoot turning winter brown, the air full of golden light. Dogs were running off their leashes among the trees. Everything changes in my life, and the world stays the same, Clary thought. “Have you talked to Jace since it happened?” Simon asked, keeping his voice neutral.
“No, but I checked in with Isabelle and Alec a few times. Apparently he’s fine.”
“Did he ask to see you? Is that why we’re going?”
“He doesn’t have to ask.” Clary tried to keep the irritation out of her voice as they turned onto Magnus’s street. It was lined with low warehouse buildings that had been converted into lofts and studios for artistic—and wealthy—residents. Most of the cars parked along the shallow curb were expensive.
As they neared Magnus’s building, Clary saw a lanky figure unfurl itself from where it had been sitting on the stoop. Alec. He was wearing a long black coat made of the tough, slightly shiny material Shadowhunters liked to use for their gear. His hands and throat were marked with runes, and it was evident from the faint shimmer in the air around him that he was glamoured into invisibility.
“I didn’t know you were bringing the mundane.” His blue eyes flicked uneasily over Simon.
“That’s what I like about you people,” said Simon. “You always make me feel so welcome.”
“Oh, come on, Alec,” said Clary. “What’s the big deal? It’s not like Simon hasn’t been here before.”
Alec heaved a theatrical sigh, shrugged, and led the way up the stairs. He unlocked the door to Magnus’s apartment using a thin silver key, which he tucked back into the breast pocket of his jacket the moment he’d finished, as if he hoped to keep his companions from seeing it.
In daylight the apartment looked the way an empty nightclub might look during off hours: dark, dirty, and unexpectedly small. The walls were bare, spackled here and there with glitter paint, and the floorboards where faeries had danced a week ago were warped and shiny with age.
“Hello, hello.” Magnus swept toward them. He was wearing a floor-length green silk dressing gown open over a silver mesh shirt and black jeans. A glittering red stone winked in his left ear. “Alec, my darling. Clary. And rat-boy.” He swept a bow toward Simon, who looked annoyed. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We came to see Jace,” Clary said. “Is he all right?”
“I don’t know,” Magnus said. “Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?”
“What—” Alec began, and broke off as Magnus laughed. “That’s not funny.”
“You’re so easy to tease. And yes, your friend is just fine. Well, except that he keeps putting all my things away and trying to clean up. Now I can’t find anything. He’s compulsive.”
“Jace does like things neat,” Clary said, thinking of his monklike room at the Institute.
“Well, I don’t.” Magnus was watching Alec out of the corner of his eye while Alec stared off into the middle distance, scowling. “Jace is in there if you want to see him.” He pointed toward a door at the end of the room.
“In there” turned out to be a medium-size den—surprisingly cozy, with smudged walls, velvet curtains drawn across the windows, and cloth-draped armchairs marooned like fat, colorful icebergs in a sea of nubbly beige carpeting. A hot-pink couch was made up with sheets and a blanket. Next to it was a duffel bag stuffed full of clothes. No light came through the heavy curtains; the only source of illumination was a flickering television screen, which glowed brightly despite the fact that the television itself was not plugged in.
“What’s on?” Magnus inquired.
“What Not to Wear,” came a familiar drawling voice, emanating from a sprawled figure in one of the armchairs. He sat forward and for a moment Clary thought Jace might get up and greet them. Instead, he shook his head at the screen. “High-waisted khaki pants? Who wears those?” He turned and glared at Magnus. “Nearly unlimited supernatural power,” he said, “and all you do is use it to watch reruns. What a waste.”
“Also, TiVo accomplishes much the same thing,” pointed out Simon.
“My way is cheaper.” Magnus clapped his hands together and the room was suddenly flooded with light. Jace, slumped in the chair, raised an arm to cover his face. “Can you do that without magic?”
“Actually,” said Simon, “yes. If you watched infomercials, you’d know that.”
Clary sensed the mood in the room was deteriorating. “That’s enough,” she said. She looked at Jace, who had lowered his arm and was blinking resentfully into the light. “We need to talk,” she said. “All of us. About what we’re going to do now.”
“I was going to watch Project Runway,” said Jace. “It’s on next.”
“No you’re not,” said Magnus. He snapped his fingers and the TV went off, releasing a small puff of smoke as the picture died. “You need to deal with this.”
“Suddenly you’re interested in solving my problems?”
“I’m interested in getting my apartment back. I’m tired of you cleaning all the time.” Magnus snapped his fingers again, menacingly. “Get up.”
“Or you’ll be the next one to go up in smoke,” said Simon with relish.
“There’s no need to clarify my finger snap,” said Magnus. “The implication was clear in the snap itself.”
“Fine.” Jace got up out of the chair. He was barefoot and there was a line of purplish silver skin around his wrist where his injuries were still healing. He looked tired, but not as if he were still in pain. “You want a round table meeting, we can have a round table meeting.”
“I love round tables,” said Magnus brightly. “They suit me so much better than square.”
In the living room Magnus conjured up an enormous circular table surrounded by five high-backed wooden chairs. “That’s amazing,” Clary said, sliding into a chair. It was surprisingly comfortable. “How can you create something out of nothing like that?”
“You can’t,” said Magnus. “Everything comes from somewhere. These come from an antiques reproduction store on Fifth Avenue, for instance. And these”—suddenly five white waxed paper cups appeared on the table, steam rising gently from the holes in their plastic lids—“come from Dean & DeLuca on Broadway.”
“That seems like stealing, doesn’t it?” Simon pulled a cup toward him. He drew the lid back. “Ooh. Mochaccino.” He looked at Magnus. “Did you pay for these?”
“Sure,” said Magnus, while Jace and Alec snickered. “I make dollar bills magically appear in their cash register.”
“No.” Magnus popped the lid off his own coffee. “But you can pretend I did if it makes you feel better. So, first order of business is what?”
Clary put her hands around her own coffee cup. Maybe it was stolen, but it was also hot and full of caffeine. She could stop by Dean & DeLuca and drop a dollar in their tip jar some other time. “Figuring out what’s going on would be a start,” she said, blowing on her foam. “Jace, you said what happened in the Silent City was Valentine’s fault?”
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Reviews: STORIES OF THE INVISIBLE: A Guided Tour of Molecules
"If the intimate workings of molecules seem invisible, through Philip Ball's lively prose we see them - coming to life, helping us live. A special delight of this excellent book is the tie that emerges between the wondrous molecules of nature and those that chemists make in the laboratory." Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1981
"Almost no aspect of the exciting advances in molecular research studies at the beginning of the 21st century has been left untouched and in doing so, Ball has presented an imaginative, personal overview, which is as instructive as it is enjoyable to read."Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1996
"A must for all those who wish to acquire a basic scientific culture while greatly enjoying it."Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1987
"A modern troubadour, [Ball] deftly and happily extols the magic of tiny leprechauns, furiously active in generating energy, assembling machinery, and exchanging fateful messages that govern everything visible to our gargantuan eyes."Dudley Herschbach, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1986
"In a society of chemical agnostics, it is a brave missionary who tries to reveal its mysteries, but that is what [Ball] has attempted to do - and done remarkably well... At no point does 'Stories of the Invisible' sacrifice sound science for sound bites - we are in the hands of a scholar."John Emsley, Nature
"Ball's writing is sharp and... drolly intelligent. Ball offers snappy accounts of [chemistry's] take on topics ranging from digestion to molecular computing and adds a mass of fascinating detail... The writing is reliably good and often excellent."David Lindley, New Scientist
"Stories of the Invisible is a wonderful book! Very entertaining, impressive and educational· This book deserves wide distribution."Chemistry & Engineering News
"An exhilarating journey through the realm of the very small. This poetic journey takes us up the Eiffel Tower, inside the sprawling metropolis of a single human cell, and into the heart of explosives as we learn not just about how molecules work, but something of the political and moral consequences we face as we engage in their manipulation."Guardian
< Back to the description page of book - Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules
Oxford University Press Hard Back (2001)
Republished by Oxford University Press in their Very Short Introductions series as a "Molocules: A Very Short Introduction".
NEXT/LATEST BROADCAST
The Unseen - A History of the Invisible
A series of five programmes looking at amazing events and characters from science history, on BBC Radio 4.
They are available for some time on the BBC iPlayer here.
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US9997913B2 - Systems and methods for operation of an AC power supply distribution circuit - Google Patents
Systems and methods for operation of an AC power supply distribution circuit Download PDF
supply circuit
Roderick A. Hyde
Jordin T. Kare
Lowell L. Wood, JR.
Elwha LLC
2011-11-07 Application filed by Elwha LLC filed Critical Elwha LLC
2012-01-16 Assigned to ELWHA LLC reassignment ELWHA LLC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: WOOD, JR., LOWELL L., KARE, JORDIN T., HYDE, RODERICK A.
238000009826 distribution Methods 0 abstract claims description title 17
230000000694 effects Effects 0 claims description 31
238000004891 communication Methods 0 claims description 10
230000001276 controlling effects Effects 0 claims description 9
230000003287 optical Effects 0 claims description 8
230000004044 response Effects 0 claims description 8
239000004020 conductor Substances 0 description 1
239000003607 modifier Substances 0 description 1
238000005070 sampling Methods 0 description 1
239000002023 wood Substances 0 description 1
H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
H02J3/00—Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
H02J3/12—Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks for adjusting voltage in ac networks by changing a characteristic of the network load
H02J3/14—Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks for adjusting voltage in ac networks by changing a characteristic of the network load by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
H02J2003/003—Load forecast, e.g. method and systems for forecasting future load demand
H02J3/003—
Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
Y02B70/00—Technologies for an efficient end-user side electric power management and consumption
Y02B70/30—Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
Y02B70/32—End-user application control systems
Y02B70/3208—End-user application control systems characterised by the aim of the control
Y02B70/3225—Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
Y04—INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVING AN IMPACT ON OTHER TECHNOLOGY AREAS
Y04S—SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS
Y04S10/00—Systems supporting electrical power generation, transmission or distribution
Y04S10/50—Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
Y04S10/54—Management of operational aspects
Y04S20/00—Systems supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
Y04S20/20—End-user application control systems
Y04S20/22—End-user application control systems characterised by the aim of the control
Y04S20/222—Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
Y10T307/00—Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Y10T307/25—Plural load circuit systems
Y10T307/406—Control of current or power
Y10T307/438—Limit control
Systems and methods for operation of an AC power supply distribution circuit that has a limited supply capacity rely on dynamically measured available load capacity to regulate operation of the AC power supply circuit, and existing and potential loads, to avoid fault or damage.
For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the present application constitutes a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/373,234, entitled SMART CIRCUIT BREAKER, naming Roderick A. Hyde; Jordin T. Kare; and Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed on Nov. 7, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,093,863, which is currently co-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pending application entitled to the benefit of the filing date.
The present application relates, in general, to power management. In particular, the application relates to controlling power draw by electronic and/or electrical devices from a power line or distribution grid. In particular, the present application relates to AC power supply circuit for a power line or distribution grid downstream of a high-voltage power transmission line.
The present application is related to and claims the benefit of the earliest available effective filing date(s) from the following listed application(s) (the “Related Applications”) (e.g., claims earliest available priority dates for other than provisional patent applications or claims benefits under 35 USC § 119(e) for provisional patent applications, for any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the Related Application(s)). All subject matter of the Related Applications and of any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the Related Applications is incorporated herein by reference to the extent such subject matter is not inconsistent herewith.
The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has published a notice to the effect that the USPTO's computer programs require that patent applicants reference both a serial number and indicate whether an application is a continuation or continuation-in-part. Stephen G. Kunin, Benefit of Prior-Filed Application, USPTO Official Gazette Mar. 18, 2003, The present Applicant Entity (hereinafter “Applicant”) has provided above a specific reference to the application(s) from which priority is being claimed as recited by statute. Applicant understands that the statute is unambiguous in its specific reference language and does not require either a serial number or any characterization, such as “continuation” or “continuation-in-part,” for claiming priority to U.S. patent applications. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Applicant understands that the USPTO's computer programs have certain data entry requirements, and hence Applicant is designating the present application as a continuation of its parent applications as set forth above, but expressly points out that such designations are not to be construed in any way as any type of commentary and/or admission as to whether or not the present application contains any new matter in addition to the matter of its parent application(s).
Power utilities generate electrical power at remote plants and deliver electricity to residential, business or industrial customers via transmission networks and distribution grids. The power utilities may transmit large quantities of electric power over long distance transmission networks from power generating plants to regional substations, which then supply the power to local customers using the distribution grids.
The transmission networks and/or distribution grids may include overhead power transmission lines suspended by towers or poles. The transmission lines may, for example, be bare wire conductors made of aluminum. Instead of aluminum, copper wires may be used in medium-voltage distribution and low-voltage connections to customer premises.
Power is typically first transmitted as high voltage transmissions from the remote power plants to geographically diverse substations. The most common transmission voltages in use are 765, 500, 400, 220 kV, etc. Transmission voltages higher than 800 kV are also in use. From the substations, the received power is sent using cables or “feeders” to local transformers that further reduce the voltage. Voltages below 69 kV are termed sub transmission or distribution voltages. The outputs of the transformers are connected to a local low voltage power distribution grid that can be tapped directly by the customers.
Power failures at substations, local transformers or at customer sites often occur due to imbalanced loading or demand at the point of use. For example, residential circuit breakers often trip when appliances (e.g., dryers, ovens, etc.) overload the residential supply circuit. Similarly in a factory simultaneous operation of several industrial machines may overload and exceed the power supply to the factory.
Consideration is now being given to improving management of power supply and use at the customer level downstream of substations in a distribution grid. In particular, consideration is now being given to solutions to prevent overloading and prevent damage to supply lines and/or electrical loads.
Solutions are provided for managing an AC power supply circuit having a limited power capacity and its use.
In an exemplary solution, a sensing circuit/smart circuit breaker configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit. A reporting circuit is configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit to an external controller, an existing electrical load, and/or a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
In the accompanying drawings:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of an exemplary smart circuit breaker/monitoring device for an AC power supply circuit, in accordance with the principles of the solutions described herein;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating of a supervisory system for an AC power supply circuit and its use, in accordance with the principles of the solutions described herein; and
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for managing an AC power supply circuit and its use, in accordance with the principles of the solutions described herein.
Throughout the figures, unless otherwise stated, the same reference numerals and characters are used to denote like features, elements, components, or portions of the illustrated embodiments.
In the following description of exemplary embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. It will be understood that embodiments described herein are exemplary, but are not meant to be limiting. Further, it will be appreciated that the solutions described herein can be practiced or implemented by other than the described embodiments. Modified embodiments or alternate embodiments may be utilized, in the spirit and scope of the solutions described herein.
One approach is directed to improving management of power supply and use at the customer level downstream of substations in a distribution grid. In particular, the solutions provided herein concern AC power supply lines or circuits that are typically deployed downstream of circuit breakers (e.g., low voltage or medium-voltage circuit breakers) to supply power to customers. A conventional circuit breaker's basic function is to detect a fault condition (e.g., an overload or short condition). In an attempt to avoid damage to the supply circuit and/or electrical loads due to the fault condition, the conventional circuit breaker abruptly interrupts circuit continuity to immediately discontinue electrical flow in the power supply circuit. All of the electrical loads connected the power supply circuit are without power. The conventional circuit breaker can be reset to resume normal power supply. Each electrical load must be restarted.
A solution provides a smart circuit breaker that as an alternate to, or in addition to the “fault condition/interruption” feature of a conventional circuit breaker includes one or more features that avoid actual or potential fault conditions in an AC power supply circuit. The one or more features may involve active management of the operations of the AC power supply circuit and electrical loads connected to it. The managed electrical loads may include actual and/or potential loads.
One such feature of a smart circuit breaker is an AC power supply circuit monitoring device. The monitoring device may be configured to monitor operation of an AC power supply circuit that has a limited capacity for supplying power to one or more electrical loads.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary monitoring device 110 deployed to monitor electrical parameters of the AC power supply circuit 100 and/or the one or more electrical loads (120-140). Monitoring device 110 includes a sensing circuit 112, and a reporting circuit 114 having an input/output communications interface 116 (FIG. 1B). Monitoring device 110 may be configured to be hard wired in AC power supply circuit 100. Monitoring device 110 may, for example, be configured to be wired in a circuit breaker, fuse, or transformer in AC power supply circuit 100.
Sensing circuit 112 may be configured to dynamically determine the available or excess load capacity of the AC power supply circuit 100. For this purpose, sensing circuit 112 may include any suitable measurement device including, for example, one or more voltage and/or current measuring devices. Sensing circuit 112 may be configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit in response to a user request from external source, or from a present or potential load on AC power supply circuit 100.
Reporting circuit 114 may be configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of AC power supply circuit 100 via input/output communications interface 116 to an external controller, an existing electrical load (e.g., loads 120 or 130), and/or a potential electrical load (e.g., load 140) on the AC power supply circuit. Input/output communications interface 116 may be configured to support electrical wire, wireless, and/or optical communications.
Further, sensing circuit 112 may be configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit 100 at a sequence of time points, which is based, for example, upon measured electrical characteristics of the circuit and/or on a schedule. The schedule may be related to the electrical frequency of the circuit and call for measurements, for example, multiple times per cycle, once per cycle, or sub-cycle.
Dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit by sensing circuit 112 may include determining one or more electrical characteristics of the AC power supply circuit. Sensing circuit 112 may be configured, for example, to dynamically sample or measure one or more of a voltage, current, frequency, and/or phase (e.g., between current and voltage) characteristic of AC power supply circuit 100. Sensing circuit 112 may include processing circuits configured to determine the AC power supply circuit load capacity with reference to fuse and/or circuit breaker characteristics. Additionally or alternatively, sensing circuit 100 may include a processing circuit configured to determine the AC power supply circuit load capacity with reference to a database, historical data, and/or external input data.
Monitoring device 110 may also include a prediction circuit 118 configured to predict effects of a potential electrical load (e.g., load 140) on the AC power supply circuit. Prediction circuit 118 may be further configured to determine if the effects of the potential electrical load are within a safe margin of operation of the AC power supply circuit. Prediction circuit 118 may be additionally or alternately configured to determine the effects of the potential electrical load of the AC power supply circuit on an existing load of the AC power supply circuit. For example, prediction circuit 118 may be further configured to determine if the effects on the existing load are within a safe operation of margin with respect to one or more of voltage, current, phase and/or frequency of operation. Prediction circuit 118 further configured to determine the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin, for example, with reference to acceptable current, reactance, thermal, and/or frequency characteristics. Reporting circuit is further configured to report the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within the latter's safe operating margin to an external controller and/or the potential electrical load.
Prediction circuit 118 may be further configured to predict effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit. The proposed actions by an existing or potential electrical load considered by prediction circuit 118 may include, for example, projected power demand versus time information and/or a change in operating conditions by the existing or potential electrical load. Exemplary changes considered by prediction circuit 118 may include, for example, changes in one or more of reactance, sourcing or sinking current requirements, and connection/disconnection state.
Prediction circuit 118 may be further configured to determine whether the predicted effects of the proposed action by the existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit are within the latter's safe operating margin. Correspondingly, reporting circuit is further configured to report the predicted effects of the proposed action by the electrical load on the AC power supply circuit to an external controller, the existing or potential electrical load and/or other electrical loads or devices.
Either the AC power supply circuit or the existing or potential electrical loads may include suitable control circuits (e.g., circuit 115) to respond to available load capacity information. The control circuits may be configured to control power draw by individual existing or potential electrical loads. Such control circuits may, for example, deny or postpone connection to a potential electrical load if its operation would exceed the available load capacity of AC power supply circuit 110. Alternatively, such control circuits may selectively drop one or more existing loads to supply power to a potential load having a higher priority. Further, such control circuits may schedule actions by the loads (e.g. operations such as power up or shutdown which increase power draw) to maintain a steady power supply to as many electrical loads as possible without tripping hard circuit breakers.
In a version of monitoring device 110, control circuit 115 may be configured to preemptively shut down power supply over AC power supply circuit 110 (e.g., by tripping a circuit breaker) in a planned manner to avoid damage to existing loads or the AC power supply circuit 110 itself if the predicted effects of an action by load indicate that safe operating margins will be exceeded.
More generally FIG. 2 shows a supervisory system 200 for managing operations of an AC power supply circuit 210 downstream of a high-voltage power transmission line, particularly in cases where AC power supply circuit 210 has a limited capacity for supplying power to one or more electrical loads. Supervisory system 200 includes a sensing circuit 220 (e.g., sensing circuit 112) configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit 210, a reporting circuit 230 (e.g., reporting circuit 114) configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit, a supervisory controller 250, and an communication interface 240. Communication interface 240 may support electrical wire, wireless and/or optical communications between various components of system 200 and one or more electrical loads, potential electrical loads, and/or other devices on the AC power supply circuit.
Sensing circuit 220 in system 200 may be configured to be wired in the AC power supply circuit, for example, in a circuit breaker, fuse, or transformer in the circuit. Dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit 210 by sensing circuit 220 in system 200 may involve determining one or more electrical characteristics of the AC power supply circuit. Sensing circuit 220 may, for example, dynamically sample or measure one or more of a voltage, current, frequency, and/or phase (e.g., between current and voltage) characteristic of the AC power supply circuit.
Further, sensing circuit 220 may include processing circuits configured to determine the AC power supply circuit load capacity with reference to fuse and/or circuit breaker characteristics and/or with reference to a database, historical data, and/or external input data.
Reporting circuit 230 may be further configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit and/or the effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit substantially simultaneously or sequentially to a select group of electrical loads or devices. Reporting circuit 230 may, for example, be configured to send information to a first load or device in a first time period, wait for a second time period, and then send information to a second load or device in a third time period. Further, sensing circuit 220 may be configured to reassess, during the second time period, changes in the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit due to actions by or changes in the first load or device, and then send information to the second load or device in the third time period.
Alternatively or additionally, reporting circuit 230 may be configured to send information selectively only to those load(s) or device(s) that request information. Further, reporting circuit 230 may be configured while communicating with a set of load(s) or device(s), to transmit “hold” messages or a busy signal to other loads or devices.
In a version of supervisory system 200, sensing circuit 220 may be configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit at a sequence of time points. The sequence of time points may be based on dynamically measured electrical characteristics of the circuit and/or a schedule. The schedule may be related to the electrical frequency of the circuit and may call for measurements, for example, a multiple times per cycle, once per cycle, or sub-cycle. Further, sensing circuit 220 may be configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit in response to a request from external source or a present or potential load on the AC power supply circuit.
A version of supervisory system 200 may further include a prediction circuit 260 configured to predict effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit. Prediction circuit 260 may be further configured to determine if the predicted effects of the potential electrical load are within a safe margin of operation of the AC power supply circuit. Prediction circuit 260 may, for example, be further configured to determine the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin. The safe operation margin may include one or more of an acceptable current, reactance, thermal, and/or frequency characteristic. Additionally, reporting circuit 230 may be further configured to report the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within the latter's safe operating margin to the controller and/or the potential load.
Additionally or alternatively, prediction circuit 260 may be further configured to predict effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit. The proposed actions considered by prediction circuit 260 may, for example, include projected power demand vs. time information and/or a change in operating conditions by the existing or potential electrical load. Exemplary changes in operating conditions by the existing or potential electrical load that may be considered by prediction circuit 260 include changes in one or more of reactance, sourcing or sinking current requirements, and connection/disconnection state of the electrical load.
Alternatively or additionally, prediction circuit 260 may be further configured to determine whether the predicted effects of the proposed action by the existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit are within the latter's safe operating margin. Reporting circuit 230 may be further configured to report the predicted effects of the proposed action by the existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit to the controller, the existing or potential electrical load, and/or other electrical loads or devices.
Supervisory controller 250 may be configured to manage components of the AC power supply circuit and/or the existing or potential electrical loads in response to available load capacity information. Supervisory controller 250 may be configured to control power draw by individual existing or potential electrical loads. Supervisory controller 250 may, for example, deny or postpone connection to a potential electrical load if its operation would exceed the available load capacity of AC power supply circuit 210. Alternatively, supervisory controller 250 may selectively drop one or more existing loads to supply power to a potential load having a higher priority. Further, supervisory controller 250 may schedule actions by the loads (e.g. operations such as power up or shutdown which increase power draw) to maintain a steady power supply to as many electrical loads as possible without tripping hard circuit breakers. Further, supervisory controller 250 may be configured to preemptively shut down power supply over AC power supply circuit 210 (e.g., by tripping a circuit breaker) in a planned manner to avoid damage to existing loads or the AC power supply circuit 210 itself if the predicted effects of an action by load indicate that safe operating margins will be exceeded.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary method 300 for managing an AC power supply and its use at the customer level downstream of substations in a distribution grid. Method 300 includes dynamically determining the available load capacity an AC power supply circuit that has a limited total capacity for supplying power to one or more electrical loads (310), and reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit to one or more electrical loads, potential electrical loads, and/or other devices connected to the AC power supply circuit (320).
In method 300, dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include deploying a sensing circuit (e.g., circuits 112 and 220) wired in the AC power supply circuit, for example, in a circuit breaker, fuse, or transformer. Further, reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include reporting over electrical wire, wireless and/or optical communication links.
Additionally or alternatively, reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include reporting the effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit substantially simultaneously or sequentially to a select group of electrical loads or devices. The reporting may involve sending information to a first load or device in a first time period, waiting for a second time period, and then sending information to a second load or device in a third time period. During the a second time period, method 300 may involve assessing changes in the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit due to actions by or changes in the first load or device, and then sending information to the second load or device in the third time period. The reporting may include sending information selectively only to those loads or devices that request information. Further, the reporting may include transmitting a “hold” message or a busy signal to other loads or devices while communicating with a set of loads or devices.
In method 300, dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include deploying a sensing circuit (e.g., circuit 112 or 220) wired in the AC power supply circuit, for example, in a circuit breaker, fuse, or transformer. Further, reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include reporting over electrical wire, wireless and/or optical communication links. In method 300, the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may be determined in response to a request from external source or a present or potential load on the AC power supply circuit.
Further, in method 300, the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may be dynamically determined at a sequence of time points. The sequence of time points may be based on dynamically measured electrical characteristics of the circuit and/or on a schedule. The schedule may be related to the electrical frequency of the circuit and call for measurements, for example, multiple times per cycle, once per cycle or sub-cycle.
In method 300, dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include determining one or more electrical characteristics of the AC power supply circuit. Such determination may, for example, include sampling or measuring one or more of a voltage, current, frequency, and/or phase (e.g., between current and voltage) value of the AC power supply circuit. The available AC power supply circuit load capacity may be determined with reference to fuse and/or circuit breaker characteristics, a database, historical data, and/or external input data.
In method 300, dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may optionally include predicting effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit, and if such effects are within a safe margin of operation of the AC power supply circuit. The method may additionally or alternatively involve determining the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its (the electrical load's) safe operating margin. The tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin may include one or more of an acceptable current, reactance, thermal, and/or frequency characteristic.
Method 300 may further involve reporting the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within the latter's safe operating margin to a controller and/or the potential load.
Further, in method 300 dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit may include predicting effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit. The proposed actions considered may include, for example, projected power demand vs. time information, and/or a change in operating conditions by the existing or potential electrical load. Exemplary types of changes that may be considered include changes in one or more of reactance, sourcing or sinking current requirements, and/or connection/disconnection state of the electrical load.
Method 300 may include determining whether the predicted effects of the proposed action by the existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit are within the latter's safe operating margin. Method 300 may further include reporting the predicted effects of the proposed action by the existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit to a controller, the existing or potential electrical load, and/or other electrical loads or devices.
Method 300 further includes controlling operations of one or more components of the AC power supply circuit and/or the existing or potential electrical loads in response to available load capacity information (330). Such controlling operations 330 may include controlling power draw by individual existing or potential electrical loads. Controlling operations 330 may include denying or postponing connection to a potential electrical load if its operation would exceed the available load capacity of AC power supply circuit. Alternatively, controlling operations 330 may include selectively dropping one or more existing loads to supply power to a potential load having a higher priority. Further, controlling operations 330 may include scheduling actions by the loads (e.g. operations such as power up or shutdown which increase power draw) to maintain a steady power supply to as many electrical loads as possible without tripping hard circuit breakers. Further, controlling operations 330 may include preemptively shutting down power supply over the AC power supply circuit (e.g., by tripping a circuit breaker) in a planned manner to avoid damage to existing loads or the AC power supply circuit itself if the predicted effects of an action by load indicate that safe operating margins will be exceeded.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the summary, detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here. Those having skill in the art will recognize that the state of the art has progressed to the point where there is little distinction left between hardware and software implementations of aspects of systems; the use of hardware or software is generally (but not always, in that in certain contexts the choice between hardware and software can become significant) a design choice representing cost vs. efficiency tradeoffs. Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are various vehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other technologies described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the processes and/or systems and/or other technologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet again alternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles by which the processes and/or devices and/or other technologies described herein may be effected, none of which is inherently superior to the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choice dependent upon the context in which the vehicle will be deployed and the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of the implementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art will recognize that optical aspects of implementations will typically employ optically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.
The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments of the devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function and/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein may be implemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processing circuits (DSPs), or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in integrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processing circuits (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein applies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal bearing medium include, but are not limited to, the following: a recordable type medium such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape, a computer memory, etc.; and a transmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.). Further, those skilled in the art will recognize that the mechanical structures disclosed are exemplary structures and many other forms and materials may be employed in constructing such structures.
In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that the various embodiments described herein can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by various types of electro-mechanical systems having a wide range of electrical components such as hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof; and a wide range of components that may impart mechanical force or motion such as rigid bodies, spring or torsional bodies, hydraulics, and electro-magnetically actuated devices, or virtually any combination thereof. Consequently, as used herein “electro-mechanical system” includes, but is not limited to, electrical circuitry operably coupled with a transducer (e.g., an actuator, a motor, a piezoelectric crystal, etc.), electrical circuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one application specific integrated circuit, electrical circuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., forms of random access memory), electrical circuitry forming a communications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, or optical-electrical equipment), and any non-electrical analog thereto, such as optical or other analogs. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that examples of electro-mechanical systems include but are not limited to a variety of consumer electronics systems, as well as other systems such as motorized transport systems, factory automation systems, security systems, and communication/computing systems. Those skilled in the art will recognize that electro-mechanical as used herein is not necessarily limited to a system that has both electrical and mechanical actuation except as context may dictate otherwise.
In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that the various aspects described herein which can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof can be viewed as being composed of various types of “electrical circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein “electrical circuitry” includes, but is not limited to, electrical circuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one application specific integrated circuit, electrical circuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., forms of random access memory), and/or electrical circuitry forming a communications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, or optical-electrical equipment). Those having skill in the art will recognize that the subject matter described herein may be implemented in an analog or digital fashion or some combination thereof.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the art to implement devices and/or processes and/or systems in the fashion(s) set forth herein, and thereafter use engineering and/or business practices to integrate such implemented devices and/or processes and/or systems into more comprehensive devices and/or processes and/or systems. That is, at least a portion of the devices and/or processes and/or systems described herein can be integrated into other devices and/or processes and/or systems via a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that examples of such other devices and/or processes and/or systems might include—as appropriate to context and application—all or part of devices and/or processes and/or systems for generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power, a communications system (e.g., a networked system, a telephone system, a Voice over IP system, wired/wireless services, etc.).
One skilled in the art will recognize that the herein described components (e.g., steps), devices, and objects and the discussion accompanying them are used as examples for the sake of conceptual clarity and that various configuration modifications are within the skill of those in the art. Consequently, as used herein, the specific exemplars set forth and the accompanying discussion are intended to be representative of their more general classes. In general, use of any specific exemplar herein is also intended to be representative of its class, and the non-inclusion of such specific components (e.g., steps), devices, and objects herein should not be taken as indicating that limitation is desired.
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations are not expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “ a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “ a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
1. A supervisory system comprising:
a sensing circuit configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of an AC power supply circuit downstream of a substation of a high-voltage power transmission and distribution grid, the AC power supply circuit having a limited capacity for supplying power to one or more electrical loads;
a reporting circuit configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit;
a controller configured to respond to the reported dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit; and
an input/output communication interface communicatively linking the controller with one or more electrical loads, potential electrical loads, and/or other devices on the AC power supply circuit;
wherein the reporting circuit is configured to send information to a first load or device in a first time period, wait for a second time period, and then send information to a second load or device in a third time period.
2. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to be wired in the AC power supply circuit.
3. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to be wired in a circuit breaker, fuse, or transformer.
4. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the input/output communication interface supports electrical wire, wireless and/or optical communications.
5. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the reporting circuit is further configured to report the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit and/or the effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit substantially simultaneously or sequentially to a select group of electrical loads or devices.
6. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit configured to reassess, during the second time period, changes in the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit due to actions by or changes in the first load or device, and then send information to the second load or device in the third time period.
7. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the reporting circuit is configured to send information selectively only to those load(s) or device(s) that request information.
8. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the reporting circuit is configured, while communicating with a set of load(s) or device(s), to transmit “hold” messages or a busy signal to other loads or devices.
9. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit at a sequence of time points.
10. The supervisory system of claim 9, wherein the sequence of time points is based on a schedule and/or dynamically measured electrical characteristics of the circuit.
11. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to dynamically determine the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit in response to a request from external source or a present or potential load on the AC power supply circuit.
12. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to determine one or more electrical characteristics of the AC power supply circuit.
13. The supervisory system of claim 12, wherein the sensing circuit is configured to dynamically sample or measure one or more of a voltage, current, frequency, and/or phase characteristic of the AC power supply circuit.
14. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit includes processing circuits configured to determine the AC power supply circuit load capacity with reference to fuse and/or circuit breaker characteristics.
15. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit includes a processing circuit configured to determine the AC power supply circuit load capacity with reference to a database, historical data, and/or external input data.
16. The supervisory system of claim 1, further comprising a prediction circuit configured to predict effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit.
17. The supervisory system of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to respond to the reported dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit and the predicted effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit.
18. The supervisory system of claim 16, wherein the prediction circuit is further configured to determine the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin.
19. The supervisory system of claim 16, where the prediction circuit is further configured to determine the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin.
20. The supervisory system of claim 19, wherein the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within its safe operating margin include one or more of an acceptable current, reactance, thermal, and/or frequency characteristic.
21. The supervisory system of claim 20, wherein the reporting circuit is further configured to report the tolerable characteristics of the potential electrical load that can be supplied with power by the AC power supply circuit within the latter's safe operating margin to the controller and/or the potential load.
22. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to dynamically respond to the reported dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit.
23. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control power draw by individual existing or potential electrical loads.
24. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to deny or postpone connection to a potential electrical load if its operation would exceed the available load capacity of AC power supply circuit.
25. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to selectively drop one or more existing loads to supply power to a potential load having a higher priority.
26. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to schedule actions by the loads to maintain a steady power supply to as many electrical loads as possible without tripping hard circuit breakers.
27. The supervisory system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to preemptively shut down the AC power supply circuit in a planned manner to avoid damage to existing loads or the AC power supply circuit itself if the predicted effects of an action by a load indicate that safe operating margins will be exceeded.
dynamically determining an available load capacity of an AC power supply circuit downstream of a substation in a high-voltage power transmission and distribution grid, the AC power supply having a limited total capacity for supplying power to one or more electrical loads;
reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit to one or more present electrical loads, potential electrical loads, and/or other devices connected to the AC power supply circuit; and
controlling operations of one or more components of the AC power supply circuit and/or the existing or potential electrical loads in response to the dynamically available load capacity information;
wherein the reporting includes sending information to a first load or device in a first time period, waiting for a second time period, and then sending information to a second load or device in a third time period.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes deploying a sensing circuit wired in the AC power supply circuit.
30. The method of claim 28, wherein reporting the dynamically available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes reporting via electrical wire, wireless and/or optical communication links.
31. The method of claim 28, wherein the reporting includes sending information selectively only to those load(s) or device(s) that request information.
32. The method of claim 28, wherein the reporting includes while communicating with a set of load(s) or device(s) transmitting a “hold” message or a busy signal to other loads or devices.
33. The method of claim 28, wherein dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit in response to a request from external source or a present or potential load on the AC power supply circuit.
34. The method of claim 28, wherein dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes determining one or more electrical characteristics of the AC power supply circuit.
35. The method of claim 28, wherein dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes predicting effects of a proposed action by an existing or potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit.
36. The method of claim 28, wherein the dynamically determining the available load capacity of the AC power supply circuit includes predicting effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit.
37. The method of claim 36, wherein the predicting includes predicting effects of a potential electrical load on the AC power supply circuit includes determining if the effects of the potential electrical load are within a safe margin of operation of the AC power supply circuit.
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Owner name: ELWHA LLC, WASHINGTON
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SOUTHWESTERN FOOD: Not all salsas are created equal
— Apr 20th, 1994
By Mary MacVean
AP Food Writer
To many people, Southwestern food means one style, with lots of chilies, some tortillas and a salsa topping. In fact, this vast region provides cooks with vibrant and wide-ranging choices.
In Arizona, cooks use flour tortillas rather than those made of corn. Blue corn is used in New Mexico, and chilies differ throughout the region. The food shows the influences of Indians, European settlers and the Mexicans to the South. It is the food of wealthy landowners and roving cowboys.
Barbara Pool Fenzl captures the possibilities in "Southwest the Beautiful" (Collins Publishers, $45), the 12th book in the series of "Beautiful" regional cookbooks. This one combines recipes with more than 200 photographs by E. Jane Armstrong and essays about the region by Norman Kolpas.
America got to know Southwestern food in the last decade, thanks in large part to a group of young chefs Dean Fearing, Mark Miller, Robert Del Grande, Stephan Pyles and others who took the food from home kitchens to chic restaurants.
"Their food is fabulous, but it's a little fussy for most people to make at home," said Fenzl, owner of Les Gourmettes Cooking School in Phoenix and president of the International Association of Cooking Professionals. Her book includes 10 chefs' recipes, but most of them are simpler preparations.
And despite the chefs' work, not everybody knows the food of the Southwest. Fenzl recalled a class she taught recently at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. "Some of the students had never eaten a chili in any form," she said, with some incredulousness. With hesitation, they took a bite of a jalapeno slathered with peanut butter after her promise the peanut butter would cut the heat.
Fenzl researched some of her recipes for historical correctness, but also adapted some American favorites to the flavors of the Southwest. The coleslaw, for example, has the colors and spices of that region even though its origins are elsewhere.
"The book is true to the ingredients of the Southwest," she said.
Dishes include blue crab cakes with avocado corn salsa; smoked salmon quesadillas; orange-tomato soup with melons, blueberries and grapes; lime-tequila grilled chicken; stuffed roasted quail; vegetable tamales; breakfast burritos; and toffee caramel flan.
Southwestern food appeals to home cooks, Fenzl said, because the combinations of flavors are interesting, the dishes are healthy and the food is colorful enough that it's pretty without requiring fussy preparations.
With the exceptions of Navajo fry bread and sopapillas, which are deep-fried, there is very little fat in the food, Fenzl said. And determined cooks can omit any cream or sour cream added at the end of cooking, she said.
Fenzl had a built-in testing crew at home during the year she worked on the recipes. "My family loved it. I make it for company. Now there are very few things I cook that are not in the book," she said.
Smoked Salmon Quesadilla
1/4 cup mild fresh goat cheese
1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
3 flour tortillas, 8 inches in diameter
1 poblano chili, roasted, peeled, cored, seeded and cut into strips
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, cored, seeded and cut into strips
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into thin slices
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 ounces smoked salmon, cut into strips
In a small bowl, mix together the cheeses until smooth and creamy. Spread one-third of the mixture over half of each tortilla.
Divide the chili and pepper strips evenly over the spread cheese. Layer the avocado over the pepper strips and top with the chopped shallots. Divide the salmon evenly over the halves. Fold the tortillas over, pressing to seal.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and toast the folded tortillas until the cheese melts and they are brown on one side. Turn and brown on the other side. Cut each quesadilla into four wedges and serve immediately. Makes 12 wedges.
It's possible to have your tacos and skimp fat, calories, too
By Ann Criswell Houston Chronicle Goodbye, greasy Tex-Mex. Mexican food is beginning to see the light in calories and fat, that is. By carefully counting calories and fat grams, you can "spend" a few extra calories on a special dish, says Anne Lindsay ... [Read More...]
Here's a sampling of versatile pasta recipes from Michele Urvater's "Monday-to-Friday Pasta" cookbook to ease the burden of weekday cooks. PASTA AND VEGETABLES This recipe blends pasta with fall vegetables here, green beans and fresh mushrooms. Crumble goat cheese over the finished dish, ... [Read More...]
'The Complete Meat Book': The title says it all
Meat has played a central role as a food since mankind's earliest days. We can only imagine the caveman grunting with delight after sampling his first bite of open-pit barbecue. There has been a renewed interest recently in meat with less fat, whether ... [Read More...]
LEFTOVERS: Turkey Treats to the Rescue!
You've eaten until you could pop, but there's still a ton of turkey left. Now, there's hope. Each Thanksgiving brings the perennial dilemma of what to do with all the leftover turkey. These recipes from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, ... [Read More...]
Dad's Day in the Kitchen By Jim Campbell and Sun News Sources * Here's a cookbook for the guy who is more accustomed to motor oil than cooking oil. By Jim Campbell and Sun News Sources Dads who say they can't put a meal ... [Read More...]
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HOT TOPIC: HONG KONG
EVENTS & INTERVIEWS
FRIDAY READING LIST
SCIENCE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD: WINTER IN ANTARCTICA
Published on October 27, 2014 January 7, 2015 by prospectjournalucsd
By Clifford Hoang
VP Finance and CEO
This summer, I was fortunate to be one of a small but growing number of international scientists to spend months at a stretch on the world’s most remote continent: Antarctica. As a science team member in NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division (AERD), our mission is to conduct research to fulfill NOAA’s mandate of providing scientific advice that supports interests related to resource management by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), of which the U.S. is a key member.
Illustration by Katie Peek
Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR)
My journey to the bottom of the world began at one of the most southern cities in the world, Punta Arenas, Chile. It’s a small but cozy port city, with all points of interest within reasonable walking distance. At the entrance to the largest pier in Punta Arenas there hangs a banner around a humpback whale’s tail, which appropriately reads, “Gateway to Antarctica”. The far end of the pier docks the Nathaniel B. Palmer, a 308-foot icebreaker-equipped research vessel that will carry the AMLR team across the treacherous Drake Passage to the research area along the West Antarctic Peninsula. We are in search of a two-inch crustacean species called Euphasia superba, generally referred to as krill.
Why krill?
Krill set up the marine Antarctic food web. They represent the primary food source for a wide variety of animals including penguins, seals, whales, fish, and sea birds. Humans, too, rely on this food source approximated to be between 100 and 500 million tons. More comprehensive regional studies reveal that the krill population is subject to considerable fluctuations from year to year, linked to changing climate. After three decades of study, the question of how krill behave in the winter remains largely unresolved. Our work will advance understandings of krill patterns during bleak winters and help the United States manage the Antarctic krill fisheries.
Crossing the Drake
To those prone to motion sickness, the Drake Passage is unforgiving. The trek to the southern continent took approximately three days–sailing from Punta Arenas through the Strait of Magellan (Estrecho de Magallanes) to the tail of the South American continent takes a day alone. The Drake boasted waves that rocked our vessel upwards 20 degrees from normal. While crossing the Drake Passage, we deployed expendable Bathythemographs (XBT) and surface drifters, instruments that collect various kinds of oceanographic data including temperature and salinity. Data in this region is scarce, and understandably so. Researchers have developed a network of autonomous instruments (e.g. Argo Floats, Global Drifter Program) to sidestep the dangers involved with collecting data in such inaccessible regions.
Frozen Breakfast
I captured this image on the first morning nearing the end of our long voyage across the Drake Passage. I was on the back deck, just beginning to drop an XBT into the ocean for a temperature profile when a single white conglomerate floats across my line of sight. Having just dropped the instrument into the water, I anxiously waited for the radio call that the instrument reached a depth of 750 meters before I could cut the copper wire and see what was happening at the front of the vessel. As the vessel continued on its course, more clusters of these icy chunks appeared. When I finally received the signal to cut the line, I dashed directly towards the ship’s bridge and found myself mesmerized by a vast calm sea covered in pancake ice!
It’s difficult to imagine the entirety of these majestic figures. Mind-bending even. Only a small fraction of an iceberg’s mass protrudes from the sea surface. Unlike sea ice which originate from freezing seawater at the surface, icebergs are masses of ice that formed on land and are detached from the terminus of a glacier or ice shelf and float in the open water.
Sunrise in Admiralty Bay
Working the graveyard shift (12 a.m. to 12 p.m.) certainly had its perks. While I wasn’t awake to catch a single sunset at the bottom of the world, the sunrises were more than enough to make up for them. The sky and ocean would emanate a flaring intensity of red from the rising sun. From the west coast, the sunrises I’ve witnessed always crept up from behind a range of mountains. Watching the sun appear as a yolk on one side of the ocean was a new experience to me.
Penguin Isle
To map the distribution of krill–which like to hide under the sea ice–we employed acoustic sounding equipment. Like with most research equipment, the data collected is only as valid as what the instrument is calibrated to. On the morning of this sunrise, we positioned ourselves in the calm waters nearby Penguin Island to calibrate the acoustic gear. In sum, the process consumed five hours of our day. Believe me, time passed in a blink of an eye! To the surprise of many, there were, indeed, penguin colonies living around Penguin Island. These adorable flightless birds topped the lists of many for “sights to see in Antarctica”.
Breaking Ice
Compared to previous AMLR research cruises, this cruise had gone absolutely flawlessly. We were reaching all of the stations on our grid in record time–the ice we encountered until this point was too young or thin to put up a fight against our mighty icebreaker. This was one of the rare instances where we were forced to break ice to arrive at our next net tow station. Forced to fire up all four of the vessel’s engines, the engineering crew couldn’t wait to get out of the ice. I quite enjoyed this new and exciting experience. The unfamiliar sounds of crushing ice effortlessly drowned out the groans resonating from the overworked diesel engines.
Aside from taking in the sights, there are plenty of other ways scientists and crew spent their time.
Leave it to the crew to make even the most menial, unimaginative tasks entertaining! Interested in a little exercise, beautiful views, and helping the crew clear the back deck of residual ice chunks? Look no further.
Disco party anyone?
There’s a long-standing tradition on these research cruises where we celebrate Hump Day, the midpoint of the month-long cruise. Following the installment of the disco ball, the Zooplankton team held once-a-tow (every four hours) spontaneous dance parties to inspire a bit of fun and boost morale amidst long 12-hour shifts.
Antarctica was the last place on earth where I expected to spend my summer. It is undeniably one of the most remote and beautiful places in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world. However, this experience helped me put into perspective that winter is rapidly coming to an end in Antarctica. Summers are becoming longer and winters are more confined, threatening the seasonal cycles that these fragile ecosystems have grown accustomed to. Climate change is, by far, the most pressing issue facing the world today. It is not an issue pertaining to any one particular country but rather, it is an issue that transcends national borders and geographic boundaries. While the implications of warming oceans remain unclear, in the coming decades and century, sea ice is expected to continue rapidly changing. These alterations will have major impacts on both the physical and biological environment at the global and regional levels.
To view more photographs from his time in Antarctica, check out Clifford’s album.
All photographs by Clifford Hoang, VP Finance and CEO.
Categories ACADEMIC, ENVIRONMENT, LATIN AMERICA, PHOTO JOURNALS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY•Tags AERD, antarctica, CCAMLR, Climate Change, ENVIRONMENT, NOAA
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Archives 12 de Novembro de 2015
Rodea: The Sky Soldier Releases for Wii U, 3DS and... Wii?
Escrito por JMC47 a 12 de Novembro de 2015
/ Última atualização a 5 de Agosto de 2017 / Ligação curta / Tópico do fórum
It's now late in 2015, and the Wii U has comfortably supplanted the Wii as Nintendo's flagship console. While there have been a few Wii releases the past couple of years, most of them are just low-quality ports of titles that are much better on other platforms along with the typical shovelware. But Rodea: The Sky Soldier is very different story. It is a high quality third party release for the Wii. In 2015. This would be a neat, but not exactly newsworthy story, except there is no Wii version you can buy on its own; it's only found as a pack-in with the Wii U release within the first print of the game. Now, most people are probably wondering, "Why would I play the Wii version instead of the Wii U version?"
Because Yuji Naka, the legendary developer behind Nights into Dreams and the creator of Rodea, asked people to play the Wii version.
Rodea the sky soldier will be released today in North America! ! Please play the Wii version. https://t.co/ZEX6RZfXgb
— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) November 10, 2015
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ArsR arsenic-resistance regulatory protein from Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34
Yian-Biao Zhang
Sébastien Monchy
Bill Greenberg
Max Mergeay
Safiyh Taghavi
Daniel van der Lelie
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre
The Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 arsR gene, which is part of the arsRIC2BC1HP operon, and its putative arsenic-resistance regulatory protein were identified and characterized. The arsenic-induced transcriptome of C. metallidurans CH34 showed that the genes most upregulated in the presence of arsenate were all located within the ars operon, with none of the other numerous heavy metal resistance systems present in CH34 being induced. A transcriptional fusion between the luxCDABE operon and the arsR promoter/operator (P/O) region was used to confirm the in vivo induction of the ars operon by arsenite and arsenate. The arsR gene was cloned into expression vectors allowing for the overexpression of the ArsR protein as either his-tagged or untagged protein. The ability of the purified ArsR proteins to bind to the ars P/O region was analyzed in vitro by gel mobility shift assays. ArsR showed an affinity almost exclusively to its own ars P/O region. Dissociation of ArsR and its P/O region was metal dependent, and based on decreasing degrees of dissociation three groups of heavy metals could be distinguished: As(III), Bi(III), Co(II), Cu(II), Ni(II); Cd(II); Pb(II) and Zn(II), while no dissociation was observed in the presence of As(V).
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10482-009-9313-z
Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 - Arsenic resistance - ArsR - Gene expression - Metal binding
Megaplasmids in Cupriavidus Genus and Metal Resistance
Research output: Contribution to report/book/conference proceedings › Chapter
Plasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 of Cupriavidus metallidurans are specialised in the maximal viable response to heavy metals
Organisation et expression des gènes de résistance aux métaux lourds chez Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34
Characterization of Ni-tolerant methylobacteria associated with the hyperaccumulating plant Thlaspi goesingense and description of Methylobacterium goesingense sp. nov.
Metal transport ATPase genes from Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34: a transcriptomic approach
Introduction to a special Festschrift issue celebrating the microbiology of Cupriavidus metallidurans strain CH34
Lead(II) resistance in Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34: interplay between plasmid and chromosomally-located functions
From industrial sites to environmental applications with Cupriavidus metallidurans
New mobile genetic elements in Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34, their possible roles and occurrence in other bacteria
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info@planbnetworkservices.com
Data and Backup Recovery
/ News / Uncategorized
Posted by Milan Russell
The Week in Tech: How Google and Facebook Spawned Surveillance Capitalism
By Natasha Singer
Greetings, I’m Natasha Singer, your resident privacy reporter. And I’m writing to you from wintry New York City as the government shutdown increases financial pressure on federal workers and the tech elites jet off to Davos, Switzerland, to hobnob at the World Economic Forum.
For the last few years, the forum has been heralding the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” That’s the idea that today’s digital innovations are generating entire new industries — in much the way electricity enabled the mass production of the Model T Ford in the early 20th century.
But a provocative new book, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” by Shoshana Zuboff, a professor emerita at the Harvard Business School, offers a more sobering counternarrative.
Published on Tuesday, the book argues that digital services developed by the likes of Google and Facebook should not be viewed as the latest iteration of industrialization. Instead, Dr. Zuboff writes, they represent a new and problematic market form that trades in predicting and influencing human behavior.
“Surveillance capitalism has taken human experience, specifically private human experience, and unilaterally claimed it as something to be bought and sold in the marketplace,” Dr. Zuboff told me during a visit to The Times’s office. “This new kind of marketplace trades in behavioral futures. It’s like a form of derivative. But it’s about us.”You have 4 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times
Yet most of us are not aware that platforms like Google and Facebook may track and analyze our every search, location, like, video, photo, post and punctuation mark the better to try to sway us, she said.
In fact, a new study on Facebook from the Pew Research Centerillustrates how opaque this behavior marketplace can be to consumers.
The study, my colleague Sapna Maheswari writes, reported that about three-fourths of Facebook users were unaware that the social network maintained lists of their personal interests, such as their political leanings, for advertisers. And about half of users who looked at their “ad preferences” — the Facebook pages displaying these details — said they were uncomfortable with the company’s creating lists of categories about them.
The technologies that power the behavior speculation market, of course, have spread far beyond online ads.
They enable auto insurers to surveil drivers and offer discounts based on their driving performance. They allow workplace wellness programs to charge higher health insurance premiums to employees who decline to wear fitness trackers. They helped Kremlin-linked groups mount political influence campaigns on Facebook (although, as my colleague John Herrman pointed out this past week, we have yet to learn how effective those campaigns were).
The flash-trading in human behavioral data was not inevitable.
In her book, Dr. Zuboff describes how Google, in its early days, used the keywords that people typed in to improve its search engine even as it paid scant attention to the collateral data — like users’ keyword phrasing, click patterns and spellings — that came with it. Pretty soon, however, Google began harvesting this surplus information, along with other details like users’ web-browsing activities, to infer their interests and target them with ads.
The model was later adopted by Facebook.
The companies’ pivot — from serving to surveilling their users — pushed Google and Facebook to harvest more and more data, Dr. Zuboff writes. In doing so, the companies sometimes bypassed privacy settings or made it difficult for users to opt out of data-sharing.
“We saw these digital services were free, and we thought, you know, ‘We’re making a reasonable trade-off with giving them valuable data,’” Dr. Zuboff told me. “But now that’s reversed. They’ve decided that we’re free, that they can take our experience for free and translate it into behavioral data. And so we are just the source of raw material.”
Of course, tech companies tend to bristle at the word “surveillance.” They associate it with government spying on individuals — not with their own snooping on users and trying to sway them at scale.
“When organizations do surveillance, people don’t have control over that,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief, said in April during a Senate hearingon Cambridge Analytica, the voter-profiling company that improperly harvested the data of millions of Facebook users. “But on Facebook, everything that you share, you have control over.”
Surveillance, however, simply means observation or supervision, often with the intent of channeling the surveilled in a particular direction. As Dr. Zuboff’s book points out, that is at the core of Facebook’s panopticon of a business model.
Natasha Singer covers data privacy and tech accountability for The New York Times. She also teaches a tech ethics course at the School of The New York Times, The Times’s pre-college program. Follow her on Twitter: @natashanyt.
IGNORE 5G, FOR NOW
IT’S TIME FOR A GOOGLE FITNESS WATCH
Face recognition tech presents a surveillance issue and Amazon is running amok
U.S. will seek extradition of Huawei CFO from Canada
IGNORE 5G, FOR NOW January 23, 2019
IT’S TIME FOR A GOOGLE FITNESS WATCH January 23, 2019
The Week in Tech: How Google and Facebook Spawned Surveillance Capitalism January 22, 2019
Face recognition tech presents a surveillance issue and Amazon is running amok January 22, 2019
U.S. will seek extradition of Huawei CFO from Canada January 22, 2019
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Player as a Movie Camera
Posted by Buttons Von Levelup in Uncategorized
Your takes on Gabe’s quote is very interesting to me, as I took it a slightly different way as a developer…
In a movie, there’s (eventually) one camera. And the camera shows the audience exactly what the audience needs to see. However, while shooting, while the actors are emoting, and the set is looking epic, and the music swells, and the fog machine is pumping out atmosphere, the whole time the camera is pointed at the actors and the set. The camera is showing the audience what they need to see.
In games, there’s also (eventually) one camera. And there’s a scene in front of the player/camera where beautiful models with slick animations are emoting the hell out of the dialogue while the music swells, and the environment the artists put together looks great, and the VFX are swirling in the air, and the music swells, and, hopefully, the player/camera is looking at all of this. The player/camera is showing the audience/player what they need to see.
Now imagine, the movie camera is filming the scene, and the cameraman decouples the camera, turns around, walks over to the Kraft Services table, and starts playing with a soda can; filming the entire time. He picks it up, looks around, tosses it in the air, throws it at an intern. And then he walks over to a door and tries to leave.
This is crazy in terms of a movie, but this can easily happen in a game. Instead of watching the characters exposit story, the player turns around and plays with the game physics of a soda can for five minutes.
I think the challenge that Gabe was talking about was that of providing the player with enough interest and engagement as well as level design, level art, and general design tricks that the most compelling thing for the player to do is watch that scene, and not wander off in the middle of it. Or if they do, allow the game to respond to that player action in an intelligent way so as not to interrupt the suspension of disbelief.
O’Ladybrain; I think your first paragraph sums it up nicely, and I think your casting metaphor works fairly well. You might have an A-List, professional actor come in and perform perfectly, and you may have a player who’s invested in the game; the mechanics, the story, everything, and would sit through a performance by digital people and not wander over to the soda can. But one could also cast a no-experience ‘extra’ off the street as the main actor and have the shoot go horrifically awry. Just like having a player who got the game as a gift, but never plays this type of game, decides to give it a try anyways, but, for example, only likes the shooty parts; as B McP indicated in his post.
B McP; I think you may be casting people in narrower genre preferences than perhaps they actually are. Sure, I’ve met a dude who only ones an XBox360 so he can play COD:MW3 (he’s never bought a newer COD), but I’ve also met a guy who loves the Madden Games, but also played the entirety of ZenoClash. These two data points do not a conclusion make, but I’ve met many more of the latter people than the former. At the same time, however, I do agree with your premise that games that try to appeal to as large a purchasing group as possible have a tendency to have ‘less great mechanics and more average ones’ rather than games that contain ‘several great mechanics and only a few average ones’. And the more successful games generally succeed with narrower foci. But it’s a hard balance to strike; wide enough appeal to make (the publishers) lots of money, while remaining narrow enough to focus on quality. To me, this seems like one of those pesky ‘ineffable’ qualities of a game that only are proven after release, and before release, it’s just educated guessing.
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Publishing Perspectives’ Top 10 Articles of 2012
In Feature Articles by Hannah Johnson December 21, 2012
As the end of the year approaches, we like to look back at all the big changes and developments that happened in 2012. From the beginnings of major industry consolidation to growing opportunities for self-published authors around the world, from the importance of metadata and book discovery to increasing interest in emerging markets and international cooperation, there’s no doubt that 2012 was an exciting year in book publishing.
Below are ten of our favorite articles from 2012. This list highlights some of the key trends, challenges and opportunities that emerged over the last 12 months.
Why a Book Editor Becomes a Literary Agent
Rebecca Carter left Random House to become an agent for Janklow & Nesbit. “My motivation comes from wanting to work with writers on editorial,” she says.
Why Foreign Bestsellers Often Fail in Japan
Rongu seraa, the Japanese equivalent of bestselling backlist, means the odds are heavily stacked against new foreign bestsellers finding readers in Japan. Here’s why.
Why James Daunt Feels Waterstones is “Desperately Vulnerable”
In a revealing interview, Waterstones MD James Daunt discusses why Amazon worries him so much, his admiration for Barnes & Noble and the Nook, and much more.
Goodreads’ CEO on Winning the Battle of Book Discovery
After analyzing 5,750,000 books on Goodreads, Otis Chandler shares his insights on the evolving nature of book discovery. The short version: once isn’t enough.
What Makes a Children’s Book Great? We Have Some Answers
From Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson’s keynote on great children’s books to engaging young readers through technology, PP’s inaugural children’s publishing conference offered a wide range of insight.
Is Amazon’s Kindle Really a “Game Changer” for India?
Indian publishers have doubts that Kindle will be the runaway success it has been elsewhere, but all agree that it adds momentum to a rapidly growing market.
Top Ten Buzzwords of Frankfurt 2012
Every year, the conversations in Frankfurt lead to a set of new buzzwords that you’ll likely hear over and over until next year’s Fair. Here are the ten that we discovered this year.
Emerging Markets are Key to Penguin Random House Merger
Overlooked in the much of the discussion of the Penguin–Random House merger is just how important emerging markets like Latin America, China and India are to the deal.
Publishers, Agents Turn to Latin America Amid Crisis in Spain
Spain’s financial crisis and slump in book sales has led Spanish-language publishers to focus on Latin America, with agents bypassing Spain to sell rights directly in the region.
Amazon’s Grand Plan for Brazil: “Sell Millions of Kindles”
Through exclusive interviews with Amazon’s David Naggar, author Paolo Coelho, and others, we bring you a look behind the scenes of Amazon’s recent Kindle Store launch in Brazil.
Hannah Johnson is the Publisher of Publishing Perspectives. Before joining PP in 2009, she worked as Project Manager at the German Book Office New York.
Tags: Publishing Perspectives
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Title & authors Abstract Similar articles Cited by Publication types MeSH terms Grant support LinkOut - more resources
Inflamm Bowel Dis
, 13 (12), 1529-35
Rising Hospitalization Rates for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States Between 1998 and 2004
Geoffrey C Nguyen 1 , Anne Tuskey, Themistocles Dassopoulos, Mary L Harris, Steven R Brant
1 Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. gnguyen@mtsinai.on.ca
DOI: 10.1002/ibd.20250
Geoffrey C Nguyen et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis. Dec 2007
Background: Recent epidemiological studies suggest that the prevalences of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are increasing in the United States. We sought to determine whether nationwide rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) hospitalizations have increased in response to temporal trends in prevalence.
Methods: We identified all admissions with a primary diagnosis of CD or UC, or 1 of their complications in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample between 1998 and 2004. National estimates of hospitalization rates and rates of surgery were determined using the U.S. Census population as the denominator.
Results: There were an estimated 359,124 and 214,498 admissions for CD and UC, respectively. The overall hospitalization rate for CD was 18.0 per 100,000 and that for UC was 10.8 per 100,000. There was a 4.3% annual relative increase in hospitalization rate for CD (P < 0.0001) and a 3.0% annual increase for UC (P < 0.0001). Surgery rates were 3.4 bowel resections per 100,000 for CD and 1.2 colectomies per 100,000 for UC and remained stable. There were no temporal patterns for average length of stay for CD (5.8 days) or for UC (6.8 days). The national estimate of total inpatient charges attributable to CD increased from $762 million to $1,330 million between 1998 and 2004, and that for UC increased from $592 million to $945 million.
Conclusions: Hospitalization rates for IBD, particularly CD, have increased within a 7-year period, incurring a substantial rise in inflation-adjusted economic burden. The findings reinforce the need for effective treatment strategies to reduce IBD complications.
Nationwide Temporal Trends in Incidence of Hospitalization and Surgical Intestinal Resection in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in the United States From 1997 to 2009
JC Debruyn et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis 19 (11), 2423-32. Oct 2013. PMID 23974991.
The annual incidence of hospitalization is climbing in pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases, accompanied by rising intestinal resection rates for CD and stable colectomy …
Trends in Hospitalization Rates for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States
M Bewtra et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 5 (5), 597-601. May 2007. PMID 17382602.
Despite advances in therapy, IBD hospitalization and surgery rates in the United States have not decreased since 1990. Rather, there has been a significant increase in ho …
Hospitalization, Surgery, and Readmission Rates of IBD in Canada: A Population-Based Study
CN Bernstein et al. Am J Gastroenterol 101 (1), 110-8. Jan 2006. PMID 16405542.
Rates of hospitalization declined slightly for CD over the 7 yr but still remained twice as great as the rates for UC. Approximately 20% of CD and UC subjects got readmit …
The Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
J Burisch et al. Scand J Gastroenterol 50 (8), 942-51. Aug 2015. PMID 25687629. - Review
In recent years, self-management and patient empowerment, combined with evolving eHealth solutions, has utilized epidemiological knowledge on disease patterns and has bee …
Natural History of Pediatric-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review
BP Abraham et al. J Clin Gastroenterol 46 (7), 581-9. Aug 2012. PMID 22772738. - Review
Childhood-onset IBD patients had growth failure reported in patients with CD more often than those with UC, had a reclassification of disease type to CD over time. Higher …
Indirect Costs Associated With Ulcerative Colitis: A Systematic Literature Review of Real-World Data
J Constantin et al. BMC Gastroenterol 19 (1), 179. 2019. PMID 31706270.
In total, 18 studies reporting data on indirect costs were included in the analysis. Absenteeism costs were classified into three categories: sick leave, short-term and l …
Association Between Cannabis Use and Complications Related to Ulcerative Colitis in Hospitalized Patients: A Propensity Matched Retrospective Cohort Study
C Mbachi et al. Medicine (Baltimore) 98 (32), e16551. Aug 2019. PMID 31393356.
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory process that is occasionally associated with complications that cause significant morbidity and mortality. Studies in ex …
Current Status of Segmental Colectomy in Select Crohn's Disease Patients
A Heriot et al. Clin Colon Rectal Surg 32 (4), 249-254. Jul 2019. PMID 31275070. - Review
Crohn's disease is a complex disease with a varying clinical and anatomical spectrum. One-third of patients with Crohn's will have disease confined to the colon. In this …
Infliximab Versus Cyclosporine for Severe Ulcerative Colitis Refractory to Steroids: A Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
D Wu et al. Medicine (Baltimore) 97 (41), e12657. Oct 2018. PMID 30313056. - Meta-Analysis
In the treatment of steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis with infliximab and cyclosporine, there is no difference between the two treatments on short-term and long-term r …
Impact of Biologic Treatment of Crohn's Disease on the Rate of Surgeries and Other Healthcare Resources: An Analysis of a Nationwide Database From Poland
P Holko et al. Front Pharmacol 9, 621. 2018. PMID 29942260.
Background: There is conflicting evidence on the impact of biologic treatment on the rate of complications and surgeries in Crohn's disease (CD). We aimed to asses …
Colectomy / trends
Colitis, Ulcerative / complications
Colitis, Ulcerative / economics
Colitis, Ulcerative / epidemiology *
Colitis, Ulcerative / surgery
Crohn Disease / complications
Crohn Disease / economics
Crohn Disease / epidemiology *
Crohn Disease / surgery
Hospitalization / trends *
United States / epidemiology
F32DK076257/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States
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Name of New Pulsar Instruments Sound Level Meter Unveiled
Brand new range of sound level meters from Pulsar Instruments
Find out more about the latest sound level meter range to be added to the portfolio of Pulsar Instruments' products
Pulsar Instruments plc, the leading manufacturer and reseller of high-quality and compliant noise measurement products, has today unveiled the name of its latest sound level meter range. Pulsar Instruments plc have been at the forefront of innovation in design and manufacturing of noise measurement products since 1969 and are proud to introduce their next generation of noise at work meters.
The new range is called the Pulsar Nova ™ which, in astronomical terms, means a ‘new star'.
"This is a fitting name for the latest addition to the Pulsar product portfolio and one that signifies a new era for the company. It is also an effort to truly differentiate us within the industry," said Managing Director Sarah Brack.
This product is another milestone in the company's history as it approaches 45 years in the noise measurement industry. Under its current leadership, Pulsar Instruments continues to deliver total value, for both product and service at a time when budgets are being stretched.
Compliant, easy to use and robust noise meters
The NOVA™ range has been designed to meet the needs and expectations of safety professionals who are required to meet occupational noise regulations. The NOVA™ stays true to Pulsar Instruments' philosophy since its inception in 1969 which is to produce and distribute compliant, performant and simple to use noise level meters.
Pulsar Instruments plc have experienced a rapid expansion in the last few years and continue to experience growth in the UK and overseas despite a challenging economic climate.
With a ‘futuristic theme" at this year's Safety & Health Expo at the NEC in Birmingham, Pulsar will offer visitors a relaxing and informative welcome. The team will be delighted to demonstrate all its products such as its sound level meters, noise dosimeters, noise-activated warning sign and the new Pulsar NOVA™ on stand C15 in Hall 1 during 14-16 May 2013.
Keep checking for the latest information!
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Home project homework help The housefly the most annoying insect ever
The housefly the most annoying insect ever
Last Name 10 of the most annoying insects in the world Did you know that there are over 30 million different species of insects on the planet, and they are just the ones that have been identified so far! It is also estimated that insects make up the largest biomass on earth and, at any point in time, there are at least 10 quintillion insects buzzing and crawling around the earth. Let us know in the comments if we missed your most troublesome bug!
Life cycle[ edit ] Houseflies mating Each female housefly can lay up to eggs in a lifetime, in several batches of about 75 to The eggs are white and are about 1.
Within a day, larvae maggots hatch from the eggs; The housefly the most annoying insect ever live and feed where they were laid.
The larvae avoid light; the interiors of heaps of animal manure provide nutrient-rich sites and ideal growing conditions, warm, moist, and dark.
The pupal case is cylindrical with rounded ends, about 1. It is yellowish at first, darkening through red and brown to nearly black as it ages. To do this, it uses the ptilinuman eversible pouch on its head, to tear open the end of the pupal case.
The adult housefly lives from two weeks to a month in the wild, or longer in benign laboratory conditions. Having emerged from the pupa, it ceases to grow; a small fly is not necessarily a young fly, but is instead the result of getting insufficient food during the larval stage. Females produce a pheromoneZ tricosene muscalure.
This cuticular hydrocarbon is not released into the air and males sense it only on contact with females; [12] it has found use as in pest control, for luring males to fly traps.
He climbs on to her thorax, and if she is receptive, a courtship period follows, in which the female vibrates her wings and the male strokes her head. The male then reverses onto her abdomen and the female pushes her ovipositor into his genital opening; copulation, with sperm transfer, lasts for several minutes.
Females normally mate only once and then reject further advances from males, while males mate multiple times. In general, fresh swine and chicken manures present the best conditions for the developing larvae, reducing the larval period and increasing the size of the pupae.
Pupae can range from about 8. In temperate regions, 12 generations may occur per year, and in the tropics and subtropics, more than Each pupa has one hole through which a single adult wasp has emerged; the wasp larvae fed on the housefly larvae.
Houseflies play an important ecological role in breaking down and recycling organic matter. Adults are mainly carnivorous ; their primary food is animal matter, carrionand faecesbut they also consume milk, sugary substances, and rotting fruit and vegetables. Solid foods are softened with saliva before being sucked up.
If inside a building after dark, they tend to congregate on ceilings, beams, and overhead wires, while out of doors, they crawl into foliage or long grass, or rest in shrubs and trees or on wires.
They arouse in the spring when the weather warms up, and search out a place to lay their eggs. The eggs, larvae, and pupae have many species of stage-specific parasites and parasitoids.
Some of the more important are the parasitic wasps Muscidifurax uniraptor and Spalangia cameroni ; these lay their eggs in the fly larvae tissue and their offspring complete their development before the adult flies can emerge from the pupae. After infection, the fungal hyphae grow throughout the body, killing the fly in about 5 days.
Infected flies have been known to seek high temperatures that could suppress the growth of the fungus. Affected females tend to be more attractive to males, but the fungus-host interactions have not been fully understood.
Welcome to Shutterstock!
They alternate between breeding and feeding in dirty places with feeding on human foods, during which process they soften the food with saliva and deposit their faeces, creating a health hazard. In 16th- and 17th-century European vanitas paintings, flies sometimes occur as memento mori.
They may also be used for other effects as in the Flemish painting, the Master of Frankfurt Fly amulets were popular in ancient Egypt. Parasites carried include cysts of protozoae. Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia and eggs of helminths, e.
A "swat that fly" contest was held for children in Montreal in Japanese Yagi bombs developed at Pingfan consisted of two compartments, one with houseflies and another with a bacterial slurry that coated the flies prior to release. Vibrio choleraewhich causes cholera, was the bacterium of choice, and was used in China in Baoshan inand in northern Shandong in The Shandong attack killed ,; the occupying Japanese troops had been vaccinated in advance.
This could be exploited to combat ever-increasing amounts of waste. Physical controls include screening with small mesh or the use of vertical strips of plastic or strings of beads in doorways to prevent entry of flies into buildings.
Fans to create air movement or air barriers in doorways can deter flies from entering, and food premises often use ultraviolet light traps that electrocute insects. Sticky fly papers hanging from the ceiling can also be effective.
Keeping garbage in lidded containers and collecting it regularly and frequently, prevents any eggs laid from developing into adults.
Unhygienic rubbish tips are a prime fly-breeding site, but if garbage is covered by a layer of soil, preferably daily, this can be avoided.
Larvicides kill the developing larvae, but large quantities may need to be used to reach areas below the surface.The 9 Most Annoying Insects. Search the site GO. Animals and Nature. Insects Insects for Beginners Even the most avid insect-lover will slap a mosquito without thinking twice.
Sure, they all have a place in the bigger scheme of things, but some insects can be really annoying.
10 OF THE MOST ANNOYING INSECTS IN THE WORLD
nearly every meal you've ever eaten outdoors has been a. From many years scientists are trying to study and understand the amazing flying capabilities of house flies. I am giving below some of the points in such a study. Pls read the full article in the link: Fly like a Fly - IEEE Spectrum Fly like a.
The Common Housefly. They live in our homes, they eat our food, and they bring us disease. They are the rudest house guests you’ll ever be plagued with, and worst of all, they refuse to leave!
The former are just a bunch ruthless, angry f***ers that won't let you just chill in the pool; the latter are probably the most stupid bugs I've ever seen and they stink, perfect combo.
By the way, spiders are not insects, they are non-insect arthropods.
Which Insect is the most annoying?
Housefly: Housefly, (Musca domestica), a common insect of the family Muscidae (order Diptera). About 90 percent of all flies occurring in human habitations are houseflies.
Once a major nuisance and hazard to public health in cities, houseflies are still a problem wherever decomposing organic waste and.
What is the most annoying insect? Find answers now! No. 1 Questions & Answers Place.
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Housefly - Wikipedia
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Crowley made criminal justice in Queens about race long before he complained about the ethnicity of his primary challenger
Crowley confuses ethnicity and race with power and privilege
Today, the Intercept reported that Joseph Crowley (Establishment-NY) complained at a recent political event that his Democratic Party primary challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was focusing her campaign too much on issues of ethnicity or race, remarking, according to the report, that these types of issues were “unnecessarily divisive.”
At many of Crowley’s political events, he loves to brag about his Irish background. Yet, he feels it is fair to deny Ocasio-Cortez any opportunity to speak about her heritage and background, seemingly solely because she is Hispanic.
Having all the power of being the Queens party boss is not enough for Crowley. He wants to use the privilege he has as a White male in power to snuff out his opponent by stoking fears about ethnicity or race to his largely White audiences, as his recent political event was described.
Long before Ocasio-Cortez ever decided to challenge Crowley in a Congressional primary this year, though, Crowley made issues of race central to how Queens was going to be governed. One need not look too far to see how Crowley has used race and White privilege in Queens to further his own ideas about what is fair about who holds elected office.
Before Crowley inherited his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Richard Brown (Establishment-NY) was first appointed and then reëlected, uninterruptedly, as the District Attorney for Queens County. Now an octogenarian, Brown has said he has no plans for retiring. Though he holds elected office, Brown acts as if being the District Attorney is a job he gets to decide how long he keeps. Like Crowley, Brown acts as if he is entitled to his elected post. The major problem caused to Queens County voters is that Brown is resisting criminal justice reform, as called for by Ocasio-Cortez. Brown wants to keep arresting his way through the opioid crisis, even though Whites are shown to mainly be turning to dangerous synthetic painkillers as lifestyle drugs. Because Brown also resists speedy calls for legalizing marijuana or decriminalizing other crimes that disproportionately affect minority communities, criminal justice in Queens is prosecuted with race-based overtones, notably Broken Windows policing.
Since Brown runs for elected office with the explicit consent of the Queens machine, which is headed by Crowley, Crowley is responsible for how one’s race or ethnicity determines one’s experience when it comes to our justice system. Not only that, but the culture of unaccountability that runs through Queens County politics, which makes Brown believe that his elected office is his until he no longer wants it, is the making of the boss of the Queens machine : Crowley, himself.
Ocasio-Cortez is not making this political primary about ethnicity or race ; it is Crowley, who is making it about the privilege and culture of unchallenged power, which he’s gotten so used to. By now, Crowley has been in Congress for 20 years, and he’s been the Queens party boss for 12 years. Crowley’s complaints about divisiveness should rightly fall on deaf ears, because Ocasio-Cortez has been espousing a political campaign that aims to unite New Yorkers on issues that affect everybody, regardless of ethnicity or race, such as the unaffordability crisis in rents and the need to reform our criminal justice system. The only person who is confusing race or ethnicity with power and privilege is Crowley.
Tags:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joseph Crowley, Richard Brown
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Efficient Algorithms for Detecting Genetic Interactions in Genome-Wide Association Study
by Zhang, Xiang, Ph.D. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2011: 110 pages; 3477518.
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Genomic engineering of Escherichia coli for improved ethanol tolerance and ethanol production
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The Location-Scheduled Control Methodology as Applied to Nanosatellites
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Offering the greatest of Los Angeles limo offers, our LA limousine service is the top rated transportation company in Southern California. Offering wedding services, LAX sedan transportation, Malibu Wine tours, LA party bus rentals, Vegas limos, and so much more.
5 Best Movie Sets at Universal Studios
Multitudes of films and TV shows have been made at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. But what are the biggest films shot here? And what sets and locales can be experienced on the studio tour? Los Angeles County Limousine will highlight the best productions on the backlot, where all can be seen on the Studio Tours.
5) Desperate Housewives
When transferring tourists by limousines to the park, Wisteria Lane is a common topic of conversation. The street, as shown in the TV show, is a beloved tram stop.
4) War of the Worlds
An epic set is the airplane crash scenes from this 2005 Spielberg classic. The wrecked airplane, smoke and sirens – all sighted in the movie – still appear untouched to be seen on the tram ride.
3) The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
Limousine chauffeurs regularly hear about this 2000 comedy from travelers. The fictional town of Whoville was erected on the backlots and is consistently visited.
2) Jaws: The Revenge
Maybe the most famous release to be filmed on-site, this 1987 masterpiece has iconic sequels done at Universal. The fictional Amity Island and pier scenes were recorded by a manmade pond, which is a stop for trams. Los Angeles limo services have been booked to the sets simply due to the presence of the infamous Jaws’ Pier.
1) Psycho
Los Angeles limos are used for lots of activities. From wine tastings, weddings, and even visits to the notorious Bates Motel from this 1960 classic. Perhaps the most notable site, visitors may have an opportunity to see Norman Bates himself.
SEE ALSO: 6 Things Everyone Must Do When in LA
The City of Angeles has an abundance of adventures awaiting. What’s better? Experiencing the LA landmarks by Limos, obviously!
premierlalimoservice LA limo Hollywood, limos for rent, limousines, Uncategorized Leave a comment March 3, 2018 1 Minute
Musts in LA | Los Angeles County Limousine
Los Angeles limo services are lucky. Not only to transfer first class celebrities and meet some amazing people, but lucky to be seeing the coolest sides of LA. While party buses often transport clientele to Hollywood nightclubs, we also do a multitude for wine tours to surrounding vineyard regions. Being amongst the largest supplier of limos in the city, we also serve a larger number of international vacationeers visiting LA. Annually visited by about 40 million people, LA is a tourist mecca and home to some of the world’s most popular attractions. In this list, we will highlight our recommendation for “Musts To Do When Visiting LA.”
1. Theme Parks
Whether it is Universal Studios, Disneyland or Six Flags － a visit to one of Los Angeles’ many amusement parks is definitely a must. For movie-lovers, head to Universal for an experience for life. Thrill-seekers? Foreign tourists often use Los Angeles limos in order to visit Magic Mountain. Here you can find some of America’s largest – and fastest – rollercoasters! And Disneyland is Disney – the second-most visited theme park in the world.
2. Hollywood
Hollywood is so much. So where do you start? First and foremost, first-time visitors should see the world famous Hollywood Sign and Walk of Fame. For the best of LA nightlife, order a party bus to go club-hopping in Hollywood! Sunset Strip may be your top bet for an unforgettable party night in Los Angeles. First time visitors often end up getting a limousine to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and follow the stars from there. What better way for an adventurous trip in the City of Angels? Limousines are also commonly used on days of sightseeing in the area. We have transported Angelenos here from as close as Los Feliz to as far as San Francisco.
3. Santa Monica
Santa Monica Pier with its Pacific Park on Santa Monica Beach is highly suggested for first timers. While local Angelenos may get tired of the pier, the nearby beach and boardwalk are musts. Maybe the most signature beach in the city of Angels, many visitors simply refer to it as “the Baywatch Beach.” The boardwalk has a variety of eateries, shops, and more.
4. Santa Catalina
How about a tropical island getaway? No, it is not Hawaii with its 6-hour flight time, but Catalina Island of LA County! A vacationers paradise, limousines to Catalina are popular. Although the limousine will leave you at the coast, 26 miles away awaits an idyllic Pacific island. Here you can enjoy golf-carting around the island, exploring, dining, scuba, and even safari bus tours!
5. Malibu
Surf City USA, or Malibu for short, is yet another excellent place travelers ought to see. From its crystal clear beaches to its great outdoor wine-tasting venues, this might be the most beautiful region in Southern California. While Los Angeles limos often are hired for wine tours in the canyons, there are also a fair amount of limos heading to the beaches.
Ready for limousine excitement in Southern California? Our Los Angeles-based service offers transportation state-wide.
premierlalimoservice limos for rent, limousines, Los Angeles, Malibu, CA, Santa Monica, Uncategorized, Wine-tasting tours in Los Angeles Leave a comment August 23, 2017 2 Minutes
Gruesome Secrets of Simi Valley Cults
Simi Valley limousine clients and residents are often unaware of Simi’s disturbing and terrifying cult history. Let us refresh your memory and present to you some of Simi Valley’s most seclusive and dangerous sects through time. From the rather large Pisgah Grande sect to the smaller Manson followers, many don’t realize the extensive cult history found in and around Simi Valley. Did you for example now that the Pisgah Grande sect operated a hidden colony in the Las Llajas Canyon or years? At one point, the cult had more than fifty houses and over 300 members living in the secluded canyon in northern Simi. In more recent history, followers of Charles Manson resided in areas surrounding the Santa Susana’s in eastern Simi, and many locals will know the histories from the famous Manson Cave in Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park as well as Spahn Ranch, one of the Manson’s many hangout spots.
Simi Valley’s official flag. We are proud to be located in Simi Valley, California!
Besides Pisgah Grande, yet another Christian fundamentalist sect once residing in Simi Valley was the famous Blackburn Cult. The sect, – which poisoned people, burned former members in ovens and sacrificed animals, – was established in the 1920’s and found soon its place in Simi Valley. The ghost tours at Strathearn Park is a beloved local treasure definitely worth checking out for all Simi Valley limousine and party bus clients, a tour which often includes theatrical shows depicting the lives of the Blackburns. The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven – or the Blackburn Sect as they’re more commonly referred to, – is among other things known for their killing of former cult member Florance Turner of Monterey Park, CA. In order to “save her from blood malady,” a brick oven was constructed and the cult burnt Turner to her death in the Simi Valley wilderness. Furthermore, Simi Valley limousine riders will be shocked to hear about the deceased body of 16-year old Willa Rhoads, which was found by authorities surrounded by numerous sacrificed animals and covered in salt. The seven sacrificed dogs surrounding her body was according to sect members a symbol of the angel Gabriel’s trumpet. LAX sedan service clients and other customers in the LA area might also know of the Blackburns. Before moving to Simi, the sect was located in Downtown’s Bunker Hill, an area maybe most visited by contemporary limo services in order to visit the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles City Hall and other iconic LA landmarks. Besides Simi Valley limousine services, we offer limo services throughout all of Southern California. In addition to Simi, we also have limo- and party bus hubs in Westlake Village, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Palm Springs and Los Angeles.
We’re a proud sponsor of the 2016 Police/Community Awards Dinner
Despite countless cult members disappearing and violent scenes, authorities were never able to bring the Blackburns to justice. Its founder, May Otis Blackburn (1881-1951) was also a self declared queen with the ability to communicate with angels… Although a legal case was brought forth against May Otis, but the California Supreme Court made the rule that any attempts to limit the cult would be an intrusion of privacy and in violation with the right to religious freedom. Her book, entitled the Origin of God, was published in 1936 and includes numerous of her proclamations and alleged talks with the divine. Although never charged for murder, May Otis was charged with 12 counts of grand thefts and was later released. Many Santa Barbara limousine and party bus rental customers will wonder: what ultimately happened to the Blackburn Cult? After appealing her case in the early 1930’s and due to the 1931 California Supreme Court rule on religious freedom, Blackburn was released from prison and the sect left Simi Valley and relocated to the Lake Tahoe area.
Ghost tours at Strathearn Park can be a lot of fun!
While the Manson family and Blackburn sect counted a handful of followers, by far the largest of the Simi Valley cults were the fundamentalist Pentecostal Pisgah Grande sect, founded in Simi’s Las Llajas Canyon, in English translated to the Canyon of the Wounds. Here, many will perhaps know that the sect at one point counted more than 300 members living in complete seclusion in their own “village” in northern Simi. Led by Doctor Finis Yoakum, the community on the Marr Ranch Parkland counted over fifty buildings and locals looking for a party bus rental might recall the sect even having its own post office(!) in the Las Llajas Canyon. The sect ultimately relocated from Southern California to Tennessee. Today, the Canyon of the Wounds is most often visited for its beautiful nature featuring a nearly 50-acre dam, creeks- and creek-beds, oak woodland and beautiful panoramic views of the city, rolling greenery and many hills. While enjoying a picnic, photographing or hiking in today’s northern Simi, there are few hints of the long gone past once dominated by fundamentalists and secret communities. Las Llajas Canyon is located on public lands and you can book limo services or LAX sedan service to this location.
Although closer to Chatsworth, Spahn Ranch straddles the Simi-Chatsworth city borders. The Manson family lived on this ranch through much 1968 and 1969. At the same time, Spahn Ranch functioned as a movie-filming ranch where a number of movies and TV-series were filmed. An example is the movie Hangfire (1968) featuring Donald Jerome Shea (nicknamed “Shorty”). Shortly after filming the movie, “Shorty” was killed by the Manson family for calling the police to the ranch. He was decapitated at the ranch and his remains were discovered in December of 1969 near the Santa Susana Road. Spahn Ranch is now located within Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park and we still get requests for Simi Valley limousine services with this destination. Customers on local cinematic tours of Simi often love to stop by Spahn Ranch to see the filming locations for some of their favorite movies and television series. Just a few of the TV-series filmed here are Bonanza (1959-1973), The Lone Ranger (1949-1957) and Zorro (1957-1959). Some of the movie classics filmed here include Satan’s Sadists (1969), Hell’s Bloody Devils (1970), The Sadistic Hypnotist (1969), Angels’ Wild Women (1972), The Creeping Terror (1964), Revenge of the Virgins (1959), The Female Bunch (1969), Linda and Abilene (1969), The Ramrodder (1969), Hard on the Trail (1971), One More Train to Rob (1971), Lash of Lust (1972), and many more. More recent movies filmed here are Curio Shop (2014), Inside the Manson Gang (2007), Frankie in Blunderland (2011), 6 Guns (2010) and Inside the Manson Gang (2007). The address of Spahn Movie Ranch was 12000 Santa Susana Pass Road. We’ve had a Simi Valley limousine trying to find the ranch passed the Santa Susana Pass, but since the address has been changed, seeing the former movie ranch is best by foot in Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, by for example ordering limo services to 10215 Larwin Avenue. We’ve even had tourists utilizing our limo- and LAX sedan service from LAX airport to come check out Spahn Ranch!
Did you know Transformers (2007) was filmed in Simi? Click here to see a list of Best Movies Filmed in Simi Valley!
Whether for chauffeured Simi Valley limousine services, Santa Barbara wine tours, party bus bar hopping or any activity, a visit to one of the many historic sect sites in the valley may be horrifying and educational. And for whatever destination, you will arrive and leave safely with our Simi Valley-, LA- and LAX sedan service. Be safe out there!
premierlalimoservice limos for rent, Simi Valley limo services, Southern California limousine rental, Uncategorized Leave a comment September 12, 2016 March 6, 2017 5 Minutes
8 Tips For Playing Pokemon Go in LA! | Pokemon Go Tours of Southern California
THE Pokemon Go fever has arrived with full force in the City of Angels. And downloaded over 10,000 times, the game has already surpassed Twitter and Instagram in number of users. With so many clients calling for Pokemon birthday outings or Poke-tours with our limo services, we have made an article particularly for all you Pokemon fans out there. Do you for example know the best places for playing the game? The areas where rare types are most often spotted, or where you can enjoy three PokeStops at one single location? Or what beautiful LA restaurant by the ocean that is also home to a gym and a PokeStop? Or how about the fact that so many venues and eateries are offering discounts exclusively for Pokemon Go players?! Hang on as we explain some of the best tips and ideas for playing Pokemon Go in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
1. Best LA Hot Spots for Pokemon Players
In such a gigantic metropolis as LA has become, there are hundreds of great places to play the game. But still some areas stand out. Did you for instance know that the Santa Monica Pier has three PokeStops as well as a gym? With its close proximity to the ocean, water type Pokemons are abundant here and many have reported seeing extremely rare Pokemons here (see number 3). What’s better than strolling the pier and enjoying a dinner, while taking advantage of the many rare water types found in the area, as well as the gym and three PokeStops for refilling PokeBalls! Another popular Pokemon Go Los Angeles destination for us have been the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey, where you can enjoy a gym, PokeStop and water Pokemons, or maybe LA’s number one place for Pokemon: the many theme parks. Take Universal Studios for instance with its twenty PokeStops and many gyms! The adjacent Universal CityWalk in Universal City is a great place to explore even more gyms and PokeStops. So for the kids’ birthday party outing, why not go for an LA party bus to one of the region’s many world-class amusement parks. Disneyland is also said by many to be SoCal’s top destination for playing Pokemon!
2. Take Advantage of Pokemon Discounts
Many of our LA and LAX limousine rental clients have made us aware of the many places that offer great deals exclusively for Pokémon players. An example could be the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (NHMLA), one of the West Coast’s largest museums and one of L.A.’s most visited attractions. At this museum, there’s not only PokeStops but the museum offers 50 % off for all Pokemon Go Los Angeles players. The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) is also one of the many additional museums offering discounted pricing for Pokémon gamers. The L.A. Zoo has recently introduced their PokéWeek, which will take place July 25 through the 29th where attendees can save $3 on their admission if they have a Pokémon Go app installed. Bragging over 30 PokeStops, catching Pokemon is easy at the L.A. Zoo. Numerous bars offer Pokémon discounts, including the Hilton L.A. bar in Universal City and the Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier which offers cocktails for $5 for all Poke-gamers. Tag yourself on Instagram with a Pokémon at the Skirball Cultural Center and get the chance of winning four free admission tickets!
3. How To Catch Rare Pokemons in LA
Malibu Family Wines
Many booking from our Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara limo services ask us what the actual best place is for catching rare Pokémons. While there may be many places for rare types, many Pokémon themed birthday parties have taken place at Santa Monica Beach and the Pier where numerous rare Pokémons have been caught. Some include Electabuzz, Magnemite, Kabuto, and various water type Pokemons. We recently also had clients catching a rare Hitmonchan on a Malibu wine tour to the great Malibu Family Wines. Visitors here can take advantage of their two PokeStops, a gym and numerous Pokemons! The winery also has a safari with its own PokeStop and offer guided Pokemon tours throughout their safari grounds, where camels, alpacas, zebras, bisons, and countless other animals roam the gorgeous Malibu Canyons. Searching for Pokemons at nighttime will increase your chances of catching rare and desired Pokemon types. See number 5 for further info on making catching Pokémon easier.
4. Control the Evolving of Eevee
A PokeStop at Malibu Family Wines. Photographer: Carine Charlotte Andersen.
Most of the enthusiastic Pokemon Go crowd booking limos for rent for Poke-hunting grew up during the 1990’s during the tremendous success of the Pokémon TV-series, cards, toys, Gameboy video games, and so much more. They will also recall that the Pokémon, Eevee, was the only Pokémon with the possibility of evolving into several Pokemons. While in previous video games, Eevee evolved into Vaporeon with a water stone, Flareon with a fire stone, and became a Jolteon with the thunder stone. These Pokemons are still around in the new game – one water type, one fire type and one electric type. In the new game however, there are no fire- and water stones, but you may still control the evolution of the Pokémon. Name the Eevee you want to become a Vaporeon as the name “Rainer.” Want a Jolteon? Name the Eevee “Sparkly.” And if you want a Flareon, rename the Eevee to “Pyro.” LAX sedan service clients told us recently though that by not naming it, it will still evolve, but you have no say in what Pokémon it evolves into. In other words, you can end up with two Vaporeons instead of a brand new Pokémon. Time will tell whether we will see more recent evolutions as Espeon, Sylveon, Umbreon and Leafeon Gladeon in this games’ version.
5. Make Catching Pokemon Easier
Many have ordered limos for rent in order to have a vehicle drive slowly around so all the Pokemons can get caught. All Pokémon Go players will know the frustration of seeing desired Pokemons and PokeStops pass as you’re driving down the freeway. A limousine rental will eliminate these issues and your chauffeur may drive as slow as needed. Gamers have given us many tips on catching Pokemons while moving, Pokemons fighting back and Pokemons with high combat power (CP). For instance, using Razz Berries will ease the Pokemon, make it friendlier and easier to catch. While Pokemons seem to relatively easy be able to get out of the normal Poké Balls, use the Great Ball or even the Ultra Ball for the highest chance of catching the most desired ones you encounter. Use the Incense in order to attract Pokemon to your location, or use the Lure Module by any PokeStop for more Pokemon to appear. Combine the Lure Module and Incense, while hanging out at a place such as the Malibu Café or Malibu Family Wines on a late Malibu wine tour. The rarest Pokemons seem to appear after night, and these and many more wineries and restaurants offer PokeStops to refill on Poké Balls, Potion, Revives, and other necessities.
6. Start With Pikachu
Many 90’s Pokémon fans will recall the original first two Gameboy games – the Pokémon Blue- and Pokémon Red Versions, – while some also remember the later Pokémon Yellow which was released in 1999, three years after the original Gameboy games. While you got the starter Pokémon options of Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander in the original games, Pokémon Yellow added Pikachu as an alternative starter Pokémon. While many mistakingly believe your options are limited to three – Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Charmander – in Pokémon Go, there is also the Pikachu option in this game as well. Santa Barbara limo clients on a birthday Pokémon hunt told us how you can choose Pikachu: simply by being patient. Ignore the first three as they appear the first times you’re playing, and eventually Pikachu will appear as your fourth choice for a starter Pokémon.
7. Optimize Egg Hatching
Many mistakingly believe you have to actually walk in order for your eggs to hatch, but as LAX sedan service customers told us: “the quickest way is by driving.” First you will need to go by a PokeStop or two to pick up Poke-eggs. There are three types of eggs: the ones requiring 2 km of “walking”, the 5 km eggs, and the 10 km eggs. Hatching the eggs while hiking isn’t just tiresome and unnecessary: eggs will hatch quicker when driving. Why? Because the game actually not only look at the distance traveled, but also looks if you actually traveled in straight line! In other words, walking in circles around the house might not work! Remember to get additional incubators to begin the hatching process and see the distance remaining before hatching.
8. Curveball Bonuses
Did you know there’s different ways of throwing Poke Balls? While a “nice” catch will only give you 10 XP, an “excellent” throw will reward you 100 XP, and a “great” throw will give you 50 XP. But what many don’t realize is the curveball bonus, not only giving you a higher XP, but also a throw that increases your chances of catching the Pokémon! There are several ways of throwing a curve-ball, but holding your finger at the Poke-ball while spinning it clockwise or counter-clockwise might be the most common (the super spin). Spin ’til the phone vibrates and sparkles, then throw the ball. The other curve ball, known as the “Arc” is said to have the highest chances of succeeding in capturing the Pokémon. It may take some time to master this throw, but begin by swinging your finger in a curve that ends at the Pokémon itself. A group of friends on a Pokémon Go party with our LA party bus services told us how this throw doesn’t just give you the best catching bets, but gives you the highest XP per catch and recommended the curveball throws particularly for Pokemon that are relatively far away. Another way of gaining double XP while playing is the use of lucky eggs, especially recommended when battling at the gym or when evolving several Pokemon at once. Evolving while using a lucky egg will double the XP you will receive when a Pokémon evolves.
premierlalimoservice LA limo Los Angeles limousine, limos for rent, Malibu wine tours, Southern California limousine rental, Uncategorized Leave a comment July 25, 2016 7 Minutes
Best of Downtown LA
From the Walt Disney Concert Hall, L.A. Live and Olvera Street, Downtown offers some of the best things to do in Southern California. Downtown is home to popular venues such as the Staples Center, Grammy Museum and Microsoft Theater, but it’s also home to the city’s Old Town, great galleries in the Arts District and the city’s Fashion District. Like most parts of the city, Downtown stretches over a huge area. Here you’ll find some of the most quintessential LA landmarks, attractions, shops, bars and activities. The region’s best galleries are located on Gallery Row or the Art Walk, stretching from 4th through 7th and Spring and Main streets. The Grammy Museum is a must to see and is located at L.A. Live, also home to an array of bars, eateries, a bowling alley and even a movie theater. Head to the Staples Center to see a Lakers, Kings or Sparks game, or Dodger Stadium for a Dodger game. Wanna head for SoCal’s most authentic Chinese cuisine? Check out Chinatown. Wanna see the city’s birthplace and go shopping in stands for souvenirs and other items? Olvera Street is a must see for anyone visiting the city by limo or car. Let us introduce some of the most popular LA limo Downtown destinations for our services.
We have daily LAX sedan service calls for passengers leaving the airport with destination Downtown. Most often it’s for an event such as a concert at the Staples Center or a game at the Dodger Stadium, but also the occasional tourists heading to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Olvera Street and the El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument. Popular for local Angelenos and tourists alike is to stroll down Olvera Street, basically an open-air marketplace, and shop at the many street vendors and colorful stalls. In Old Town, El Pueblo de Los Ángeles, there is close to thirty historical buildings of interest. To get the most out of the city’s history, go on a guided sight seeing tour! On a tour or not, make sure to swing by the Avila Adobe, the city’s oldest structure. This is also where we find the region’s oldest Catholic church, La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Ángeles. Did you know the city was established in 1781 under the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula? Learn more about our city’s unique founding at the El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, which is also listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as well as a U.S. Historic District. Too much history? Head to Santee Alley in the Fashion District for the best street vendors, bazaars and even knockoff items and unique souvenirs.
More interested in museums? Some of the most visited museums in the region are in Downtown. We recently welcomed LAX sedan service callers at the airport that wanted to go straight to L.A. Live. Were they going there for a show? Our driver asked during the trip, and no, they had all just arrived in the city and wanted the most essential L.A. activity: renting LA limo vehicles and head to the famous Grammy Museum! Here you can see exhibits on everything from Michael Jackson’s wardrobe and Neil Diamond’s memorabilia and first instrument. Make sure to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, with tons of more contemporary arts and gallery exhibits. Next door is the Geffen Contemporary which is also well worth checking out. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) is the most visited museum in town and features dinosaur skeletons, local history and fauna. Interested in Japanese-American history? Head to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Others include the Broad, FIDM Museum, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and more. Take a stroll down the Broadway Theater District for the best arts. Downtown’s U.S. Bank Tower at 1018 feet isn’t just the highest building in the city, but the tallest building on the West Coast. For a unique day in L.A., consider going on a wine tour of town or other nearby vineyard areas, such as the Temecula Valley, Santa Ynez- or Temecula Valleys. We often transfer clients to Downtown’s San Antonio Winery for great wine-tasting in the city.
With its many tall skyscrapers, Downtown offers some of the best views in the region. Some restaurants offering great views of Downtown are the Perch, L.A. Prime, and WP24 by Wolfgang Puck. While the Perch is situated on an actual skyscraper roof, WP24 and L.A. Prime are located high up inside skyscrapers with stunning window-views of the city. There are also tons of additional great Downtown eateries. Visit for example Engine Company No 28 for some great all-American cuisine, or head to Sushi Gen for some of the best sushi the city has to offer. Some of those on an L.A. wine tour like to swing by Church & State Bistro for some of the best French wine varietals. Other great places for dining are Blossom, Bottega Louie, the Curry House, Empress Pavilion, Fickle, and Pete’s Cafe & Bar. For the best Downtown nightlife, try out the great beers at the Bona Vista Lounge or 1642 Beer & Wine. Great cocktails can be tried at Bordello, the Broadway Bar, the Edison, Mayan, Villains Tavern, and the Rooftop Bar. For great whiskey, check out the Seven Grand for their specialty. For a bar specializing in rum, see the Cana Rum Bar with their more than a hundred varieties of rums. Bigger fan of cognac? Check out the Black Dahlia at the Gallery Bar and Cognac Room. Barhopping and beer crawls are popular for LA and Malibu party bus renters. For the best Downtown shopping, the Fig at 7th is a great mall and the Grand Central Market and Broadway is another great pick. Other places of shopping include the California Market Center, the American Apparel Factory Store, L.A. Flower Market, the MOCA store, as well as Santee Alley for best knockoff items.
There are many tourists and others calling for a Los Angeles limousine in order to go to one of the great hotels and resorts of Downtown. Some popular LA limo hotel destinations are the Figueroa Hotel, Hilton Checkers, Inn at 657, JW Marriott at L.A. Live, Marriott Downtown, O Hotel, and the Standard Downtown LA. The Rooftop Bar at the Standard is an attraction in itself, overlooking the city from the top of the skyscraper. There’s also a 24/7 eatery at the Standard. Scenic Downtown views are also from WP24 at the Ritz-Carlton. For the city’s largest hotel, check out the 5 towers of Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites. The JW Marriott at L .A. Live has arguably the best location, situated right next to the Nokia Theater and countless night clubs, pubs, eateries, theaters, shops and more. For the best of L.A. entertainment – you have Downtown and you have Hollywood. And maybe Studio City… And Universal City, Burbank and certain other places. But attending a Downtown entertainment venue is like no other. Whether it’s the Staples Center, Microsoft Theater or L.A. Live you wanna head to, remember to check online itineraries for when your idols will perform. While the entertainment venues are the most popular Downtown destinations, do not forget to check out the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the other signature buildings such as the Broad, City Hall, Bradbury Building, Convention Center, Mark Taper Forum, and more. Whether it is for tours of Downtown or a Malibu wine tour exploring the Malibu Canyons – we are proud to be the top rated provider of Los Angeles limousine services and have served the region for over twenty years with exclusive limousines. Call us 24/7 at (866)-319-LIMO in Los Angeles or wherever Southern California destination you may be.
premierlalimoservice LA limo Los Angeles limousine, Uncategorized Leave a comment June 13, 2016 5 Minutes
5 Reasons Long Beach Is California’s Coolest Place
As the second largest city in LA County, Long Beach is unfortunately often overlooked by too many traveling to the region. But there are many reasons why taking an LA limo to Long Beach is a good idea. With one of the largest ports in the world, and home to one of the world’s largest aquariums, Long Beach is a place full of life and ready to be explored. Exploring the city by a Los Angeles limousine service or party bus rental makes it even better. Located 22 miles south of Los Angeles in LA County, it is the second-largest city in the county and third-largest city in Southern California. With its half a million residents, it is the fifth most populated city in the State of California. Already from the early 1900’s, this city drew thousands of annual tourists to LAX who wanted to escape the cold weather and enjoy a vacation in a SoCal resort community. All the way up until the 1960’s, the city was known as the “Iowa by the Sea” for attracting large numbers of tourists from the American Midwest. And with more than eight miles of sandy beaches, the city still draws tourists until this day. It is located by the estuary of the LA River and by the San Pedro Bay, and limo clients visit the city of a variety of reasons. Wine tours are common in the region, and we often do limo pickups and drop offs at the harbor. Many tourists also decide to book their LAX transportation, e.g. an LAX sedan, from LAX to Long Beach.
Because of its close proximity to both the cruise docks and Disneyland, many stay here for a night or two waiting for their cruise to depart or while visiting Disneyland. Furthermore, the city is also visited for its replica of Titanic, the Queen Mary which has been in the bay since 1969. The city is home to one of America’s largest aquariums: the Aquarium of the Pacific. From checking out the eateries and souvenir shops in idyllic Shoreline Village, enjoying a good time at the Pike’s Laughing Factory, or exploring Naples Island’s gorgeous canals – here are our top five reasons why Long Beach may just be the coolest place in the Golden State.
6. Film tours
A recent trend in LA and Long Beach has been to book cinematic limousine tours of town. On these tours, you can ride with a Los Angeles limousine service to all your favorite film locales located in Long Beach. Few locals even know of all the great movie locations in Long Beach. Did you know Michelle’s home in American Pie (1999) is located at 3925 Cedar Ave? Jim’s (Patrick Swayze) home in Donnie Darko (2001) is located on 4252 Country Club Dr, while Long Beach Polytechnic High School is featured in American Beauty (1999). 3rd Street can be seen in the 2016 hit movie La La Land, while a lady falls and dies at the International Tower in Lethal Weapon (1987). St Mary’s Hospital appears in Heat (1995), while an airport sequence in Commando (1985) was filmed at Long Beach Airport. Despite LAX sedan services being more popular, we still have airport limo and sedan services oftentimes at Long Beach Airport. Long Beach City Hall is featured in Star Trek (2009), while the harbor appears in The Fast and the Furious (2001). El Dorado Regional Park can be seen in the 1982 film Grease 2. Why not book an LA limo and check out the famous movie locations by limousine? Larger groups can be accommodated by a Hummer limo bus or party bus vehicle. Long Beach is also the location of the Cowboy Country Bar (3321 South St) where Thelma and Louise hang out with Brad Pitt in the 1991 classic. For great movies with storylines set in Long Beach, check out Fire with Fire (2012) which stars 50 Cent or Gone in 60 Seconds (1974). Both of these feature many sequences shot throughout Long Beach and often visited by LA limo services. Call us today to reserve your own customized movie tours by a Los Angeles limousine service.
A passenger at our Los Angeles limousine service recently told us about Queen Mary’s incredible cinematic history. Queen Mary has appeared in over a hundred television series and movies! While the cruise still was an operating cruise liner it appeared in the Frank Sinatra film Meet Danny Wilson (1952). Some movies with Queen Mary as its primary filming location include Death Cruise (1974), Intrepid (2000) and Adventures of the Queen (1975). While it is featured as Titanic in the 1995 drama No Greater Love and SOS Titanic (1979), it is featured as itself in Assault on a Queen (1966). Clientele at the Los Angeles limousine service have recognized the restaurant in the film Barton Fink (1991). The restaurant onboard Queen Mary is where Barton gets a call to leave. It is featured during crossings of the Atlantic in Dodsworth (1936), and it can be seen close to the end of the film Foreign Correspondent (1940). It is the location for where Taylor returns to America from Europe in the 1995 film The Elizabeth Taylor Story, while it’s a cruise used for a honeymoon in Treacherous Crossing (1992). Queen Mary is one of the most popular Long Beach limo and party bus destinations (see #1). Many tourists decide on staying at the Queen Mary while in town, and our LAX sedan service often transport clients from LAX to Queen Mary.
5. Naples Island
Naples Island, named after the Italian city, is famous for its many Italian-inspired canals, restaurants, and even street names. Getting a Los Angeles limousine service to Naples is particularly common for dating couples. Picturesque Naples and its quaint beach community and canals is a beloved excursions for LA limo and party bus passengers riding with us. This island is often explored by foot as the primary walkway which overlooks the harbor and marina, but can also be explored by a canal cruise. At Gondola Getaway you can rent an authentic Venetian gondola tour of the Rivo Alto Canal encircling the island. In traditional Italian style, the tours offer cheeses, bread, salami, and more. Instead of our Malibu-, Temecula- or Santa Barbara wine tours, enjoy a bottle of wine and enjoy the sunset from the Naples canals! The tours of the Rivo Alto Canal last for approximately 1 hour and cost $75 per couple. Reservations in advance are recommended. End the Long Beach date by visiting some of the great bars, nightclubs and eateries in the area! Bar hopping is common by party bus for groups of friends. For the best Italian, check out Ragazzi or Domenico’s. Kelly’s Restaurant and the Legends Bar are two additional options. You can reach Naples Island from both ends of 2nd Street. This 0.25 sq. mi. island is easily explored by foot. Christmas time is the most popular time of the year to visit by a Los Angeles limousine service. Make sure to experience Naples during Christmas time to see the decorated homes, boats, canals and bridges. The artificial island was created in the Alamitos Bay at the estuary of the San Gabriel River in the early 1900’s. Besides the popular canal cruises, visiting Mother’s Beach for picnicking or recreational activities is also a popular pick for LA limo travelers. Visiting Naples Plaza, La Bella Fontana di Napoli as well as Overlook Park are a must while visiting Naples. What could be more romantic than traveling Naples Island by a limo rented from a Los Angeles limousine service?
4. Shoreline Village
We have had customers as far as Malibu limousine clientele booking rides to Downtown Long Beach’ Shoreline Village. Head here with to family to enjoy the waterfront, more than thirty specialty stores, a nice lunch or maybe even a ride in the merry-go-round. Many go here to picnic in Shoreline Park and take a stroll along the boardwalk. The 1906 carousel is a must see, while many come here to also explore the many eateries, galleries, souvenir shops and bars. Some of our favorites here are the Yard House, which has more than 230 beers on tap to choose from, and the Tequila Jack’s offering over a hundred authentic Mexican tequila varietals. Ordering a party bus or limo for a beer crawl is popular. For great seafood along the seaside, check out Kings Fish House-Pine! We recently transferred European tourists here from LAX with the Los Angeles limousine service. For the best Greek cuisine and Greek salads, check out Ciro’s Greek Café on Shoreline Drive. Other favorites include Parker’s Lighthouse, offering maybe Long Beach’ best seafood, and the Mexican-inspired Mardi Gras. Whether to see the the boardwalk or go for a ride at the Pelican Pier Pavilion, rest assure that Shoreline Village has some of the best views of the Long Beach Harbor and city skylines. For accommodation in the area, see the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel just a short walk from Shoreline Village. This New England-inspired coastal community is one of the city’s main tourist attractions. Consequentially, we often take tourists here with our LAX sedan- and LA limo services. You can rent everything from bikes to sailboats. Head to the village’s Offshore Water Sports for some great boating. For a longer hike than the boardwalk, check out the Shoreline Pedestrian Path going from Shoreline Village along the seaside to Belmont Shore! To get to the trams from Shoreline Village, simply head up the staircase to the bridge over Shoreline Drive. Los Angeles limousine service customers must not forget to see the unique Tallship Californian while here!
3. The Pike
Another touristy Long Beach attraction, we’ve even had LAX sedan calls for people wanting to head to the Pike – the former amusement park zone of Long Beach. Originally known as The Walk of a Thousand Lights, this park opened in 1904 and has been home to an array of rollercoasters through the years. Whether by LAX sedan or LA limo, many rent luxury vehicles when visiting The Pike. Although this historic carnival is closed, the Pike still draws many tourists to visit the Rainbow Harbor, maybe most known for its many great restaurants and eateries. As recently as a few days ago we transferred clients with an LAX sedan from LAX airport to The Pike. Tourists riding with an LA limo can head to the Pike for some of the best souvenirs and specialty shops. How about taking the AquaBus to the Queen Mary? Departing from the Rainbow Harbor, the AquaBus tours are a great way to explore not only two of the city’s most famous landmarks, but also the great Pacific. You’ll find many waterfront attractions by the Pike at Rainbow Harbor. Here you can visit the many retail shops or go dine at the famous Bubba Gump Shrimp Co! This restaurant is tremendously popular for LA limo and also LAX sedan services for tourists visiting Long Beach. Other popular nearby eateries include L’Opera, 555 East, the Sky Room, and many more. Didn’t make it on the famous Malibu, Temecula or Santa Barbara wine tours? Check out Gladstone’s Long Beach for fantastic oceanside dining and a great wine selection. Instead of limo wine tours to wine country, you can enjoy a glass of wine while overlooking the ocean. How about staying the night in the Pike Center? Check out the Hyatt at the Pike! The Pike is a happening place in town and we often have party bus rentals heading here. Other great options for accommodation are the Hilton Long Beach Hotel, the Varden A Boutique Hotel, the Westin Long Beach, and the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel. For the best stand-up comedy the city has to offer, the Laugh Factory at the Pike is a fun place to spend the evening. Order a party bus or larger Hummer limo and bring your friends along for a comedy night! Bar hopping is also popular for larger groups traveling by our party bus and LA limo vehicles. Call us at (866) 319-LIMO to reserve your Los Angeles limousine service.
2. Aquarium of the Pacific
Housing over 10,000 animals, the Aquarium of the Pacific is one of America’s largest aquariums and is visited by over 1.5 million people per year. Needless to say, it’s a tremendously popular destination for our Los Angeles limousine service and much visited by tourists vacationing in Southern California. It is part of the Rainbow Harbor and is showcasing nearly 600 species of ocean animals, particularly from the Pacific Ocean. It has welcomed over 13 million unique visitors since it was opened. Here you can explore the seventeen habitats and get to see the ocean wildlife of California, Hawaii, Guam, and elsewhere in the Pacific. The over 140,000 gallon tank of sharks and other predators is a must see. There are various exhibits on the different Pacific regions, for example one on Californian waters and one on the colder north with sea life from regions such as Alaska, Siberia and northern Canada. Lorikeet Forest is an aviary with an array of tropical birds from Australia and Oceania. There is also a 3D movie screening for families with children. The predator tank with more than 150 species of sharks is another favorite for kids. Wanna head to the seas on an ocean adventure? Try the 90-minute educational Ocean Experience-tour onboard the Conqueror! There are many additional tour options, including the Behind-the Scenes tours and the Animal Encounters Tour. It’s never been a more fun nor educational way to experience the life of the Pacific, from Japanese spider crabs to giant octopuses and leopard sharks. When you’re ready for a drink, head next door to the Mai Tai. Their Hawaiian-inspired signature cocktail for only $4 makes it a popular stop for party bus beer crawls. It is a non-profit aquarium with 300 employees and over 600 volunteers. It is located right across the waters from the Long Beach Convention Center, Shoreline Village, as well as Queen Mary. Being in the heart of the Long Beach tourist scene, we often get LAX sedan calls to transfer tourists to the nearby area.
1. Queen Mary
The elegant vessel RMS Queen Mary is visited by more than a million people each year. It might also be the most popular LA limo destination in town. But why do people wanna see an old retired cruise ship? Well, it is one of its kind for once. Dating back to the early 1930’s, it is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is a replica of Titanic. People come here to learn at the guided tours, stay overnight at the hotel, enjoy a nice meal or dinner. The glamorous ship has done over a thousand crossings of the Atlantic Ocean and was for many years the most luxurious vessel in the world. Finally being retired in the Long Beach Harbor in 1967, Queen Mary is the last remaining cruise ship of its time and an artistic gem. Stay overnight at the Hotel Queen Mary for $120 per night to enjoy the ship to the fullest. Many tourists using our LAX sedan and LA limo services spend the night at the supposedly haunted ship. There are many great places to enjoy a glass of wine or dinner while overlooking the Pacific. We recently transported a group of friends with a Malibu party bus all the way to Long Beach just to enjoy the great lobster and view of the ocean from the Chelsea, said to offer the city’s best seafood. The halibut at the Promenade Café is another great choice, while Sit Winston’s not only has the best ocean views, but said to have some of the best dishes in Long Beach. For nightly entertainment and a delicious cocktail, check out the Observation Bar. There are more than ten available tours, including the Ghosts and Legends Tour, Behind-the-Scenes Walk, Haunted Encountered Tour, and more. There’s also an exhibit on British Princess Diana and venturing out on deck is a must when visiting Queen Mary. Listening to the live jazz performances and hunting for ghosts (the ship is said to be haunted) are two popular attractions here for our LA and LAX sedan and limo customers. Another nearby favorite is the Soviet submarine Scorpion, which also offers educational tours. To combine the best of Long Beach, catch the convenient nearby water taxi over to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Traveling Long Beach by limo service is the best way to experience the city. Whether by a limo or LAX sedan, we can take you there!
Did you know Queen Mary Is One of America’s Most Haunted Places?
Like hiking in the great outdoors? Head to the 100+ acre El Dorado Nature Center! Looking for the best Long Beach beach? Visit Bluff Park! Searching for a place to stroll along the ocean? Long Beach Boardwalk might be your best bet. Wanna see some unique architecture? Why not take a Malibu party bus to the Walter Pyramid. Other less visited places of interest are the Museum of Latin American Art, Rancho Las Alamitos, Los Cerritos Ranch House, the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden, Soviet B-427 Museum, the Walter Pyramid, Long Beach Museum of Art, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Terminal Island, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Silverado Park, Point Vicente Lighthouse, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and more.
So what makes Long Beach the best California city? 1) Stay a night at the historic Queen Mary, 2) Seeing sea creatures at one of America’s largest aquariums, 3) The great rollercoasters at the Pike, 4) Outstanding shopping in Shoreline Village, and lastly, 5) Exploring the canals on Naples Island. Whether for a Los Angeles limousine service to visit Queen Mary or for a party bus night out in the city, contact us for you LA limo transportation today! We also offer top rated Malibu- and Temecula wine tours, as well as LAX sedan service with price-match-guaranteed.
premierlalimoservice LA limo Long Beach, limos for rent, Uncategorized Leave a comment June 12, 2016 March 15, 2017 12 Minutes
Hidden Tropical Paradise Outside The L.A. Coast
Just 26 miles across the sea from L.A. is where you find a tropical island paradise just waiting to be discovered. If you’ve ever listened to “26 Miles” by the Four Peps you may know what island we’re talking about, the magnificent Catalina Island. A beloved resort island for many Angelenos and visitor alike, the town of Avalon and Catalina Island have everything you could possibly be looking for? Looking to spend the night on a beach resort on a Pacific Island? How about trying out the great scuba-diving while searching for the iconic orange Garibaldi? How does an inland safari trip sound, with possibilities of various wildlife sightings, including the island buffalo, bald eagles and if you’re lucky, even the threatened endemic Catalina Island Fox, which is found nowhere else on Earth. Besides all the great adventures where you get the opportunity to explore the island’s nature and wildlife, the town of Avalon is home to many top rated restaurants, bars, cafes, neighborhood stores, and more. A visit to Catalina is never complete without a bike rental to explore Avalon and surrounding areas by bike or even golf cart. From beaching, going on a submarine trip, helicopter fights, skydiving, shopping and much more, Catalina is definitely the California Channel Island that has it all. While many visit the island from cruise ships docking here on their way to Mexico, the island is easiest visited by one of the many ferries leaving from San Pedro, Long Beach, Dana Point, and elsewhere. Another trending activity has been to fly out to the island’s Airport-in-the-Sky from local airports such as the Camarillo Airport.
Great Dining & Drinking
Considering the island’s small population, Catalina is home to an array of great restaurants. Whether you are into seafood, Mexican, French or Italian food, there’s always an option in Avalon. For the L.A.- and Malibu limousine clientele looking for a romantic dining experience, we often recommend the Landing Bar and Grill, or Steve’s Steakhouse. The Spanish architecture and great Mexican food make the Landing Bar and Grill a great place to dine. This kind of secluded restaurant overlooks Avalon Bay and may be the island’s most romantic restaurant. Steve’s Steakhouse is located upstairs away from the promenade, but also overlooking the bay. Here you can try out the signature Catalina Swordfish, the Catalina Shrimp, or their awesome slowly cooked BBQ ribs. The stunning ocean views make for a romantic night at Steve’s Steakhouse. Looking for another Catalina special? Check out the Catalina Buffalo Burger at Eric’s on the Pier. Located on the Green Pier, Eric’s has been an LA and LAX sedan service favorite since the early 1920’s. Searching for great Avalon seafood? There are many good picks, but we would like to recommend either the Lobster Trap or Bluewater Avalon for seafood. Both restaurants have the catch of the day and great variety of seafood dishes. The patio at Bluewater Avalon overlooks the Avalon Harbor and the place is also known for their impressive cocktails and craft beer menu. Many head to the Lobster Trap for great lobster, draft beer, and live entertainment during weekends. Wanna dine by maybe the most gorgeous island beach? Descanso Beach Club is not just situated on its own beach, but has bigger menu offering everything from burgers, salads and seafood. Make sure to try the iconic Buffalo Milk for the island’s signature cocktail. For the finest island dining, head to the spectacular Catalina Country Club. Once a training clubhouse for the Chicago Cubs, this historic 1921 piece of art is a great pick for people looking for a nice meal or drink. Looking for a less expensive dining choice? The Casino Dock Cafe is cheap pick, but has beautiful views of Pacific and offers live music during summer months.
Didn’t make it on a Santa Barbara wine tour? Let’s head to CC Galagher on the Taste of Catalina Food Tours. More into a beer crawl with friends? Try out the locally brewed craft beers at the Catalina Island Brew House. Other bar picks include the Chi Chi Club, Catalina’s only nightclub, and the Hawaiian-style Luau Larry’s on the promenade. The oldest bar is the Marlin Club, a favorite amongst locals, as well as the J.L’s Locker Room. Looking to eat and have drinks at the same place? The Avalon Grille offers great burgers and beer. Another choice could be the Sandtrap, directly across the street from the Island Golf Course a little bit inland in Avalon. Here you can enjoy inexpensive but delicious Mexican cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere and best of all, the Sandtrap has a full bar. Alternatively, head to the Catalina Country Club for a late-night drink or try out the various cocktails at Bluewater Avalon or Descanso Beach Club.
Fun Excursions & Activities
Because of its many visitors and tourists, there are always an activity to sign up for on the island. Whether you are into seeing wildlife, exploring the island, going on a submarine ride, or signing up for a helicopter tour – the options are truly endless on Catalina. Does golfing in a gorgeous island canyon sound interesting? How about bodysurfing in the Pacific on your own secluded beach? Or how about finally trying out jet-skiing? The primary form for transportation on the island is golf carts with a limited number of cars allowed on the island itself. In other words, there are no Los Angeles party bus that can be called for a night of barhopping. But renting an electric bike, paddling bike for two or an iconic golf cart are definitely the best ways to explore the town of Avalon and beyond. Among the activities we often recommend are the Cape Canyon excursion, a four-wheel ride through Catalina’s outback wilderness areas, and the Undersea Tour in the Avalon Harbor to see the native underwater ocean life. The Zip Line Eco Tour, which takes you on a zip-line ride over Descanso Canyon and lands by Descanso Beach is also a popular activity. The night ride on the Flying Fish Boat Trip is a unique experience worth looking into. The Behind the Scenes Tour at the island’s signature Casino is a must see, and the tour also includes visits to the Catalina Island Museum where you can learn more about the island’s intriguing history.
Wanna try out scuba-diving? Check out the Sea Trek Undersea Adventure and Snuba. We’ve also transferred numerous LA limo renters who take their professional scuba diving courses on the other side of the island – in the community of Two Harbors, CA. While Two Harbors definitely is more remote than its much bigger counterpart to the east, Two Harbors has a natural feel to it and you’ll have a bigger chance observing unique wildlife and exploring the great outdoors. For dining in Two Harbors, look into the Harbor Reef Restaurant. For accommodation, check out the Banning House Lodge or one of the beach cottages for rent! There also various options for cabin rentals and various campground spots. While back in Avalon, remember to always obtain a complimentary explorer’s permit and up-to-date maps and information about local wildlife. Permits for hiking and biking in the outback are handed out at the Conservancy Office on Clarissa Avenue. After the permits are in place, venture out for an adventure in Catalina’s outback! Go snorkeling by the island’s greatest snorkeling spots – the Lover’s Cove Marine Oreserve or Casino Point Marine Park. Snorkeling gear can be bought at Catalina Divers Supply, rented at Catalina Snorkeling Adventures, or you can venture out on the ocean on a snorkeling trip with Joe’s Rent-a-Boat at the Green Pier. For snorkeling gear on the other side of the island, check out the West End Dive Center in Two Harbors, which also offers kayak rentals. We’ve had so many LA and Malibu limousine people riding with us telling us about their best experiences on the island. From date massages at the Avalon Massage Therapy to going on an adventure with the Safari Bus looking for animals. Some of the best dates are on our Santa Barbara and Malibu wine tours, so why not try out some unique wine-tasting on the island? Rusack Family’s Santa Catalina Island Vineyards isn’t just gorgeous, but their wine varietals are amazing. Catalina is packed with activities for the whole family. Start planning your island excursions today!
Unmatched Nature & Accommodation
With more than 88 percent of the island’s total area being administrated by the Catalina Island Conservancy, there are lots of nature to explore on Santa Catalina. Many renting LA limo transfers from us have told us about sighting the endemic Channel Island Fox, a species found nowhere else on the planet. Other animals include the Island buffalo, bald eagles, snakes, a variety of birds, and more. On the submarine tour you can explore the surrounding oceans and also get a glimpse of the iconic orange Garibaldi fish. Did you know there are over 140 species of fauna and flora here found nowhere else on Earth? Whether you rent a bike to explore the outback by yourself, or if you decide on a safari tour or maybe an inland Jeep ride, exploring Catalina’s nature is a must. We recently asked a few people calling to the LAX sedan service wanting a ride to the Catalina Express terminal in San Pedro: “Why straight from the airport? Any events coming up?”. The answer was: “No special events, just looking forward to some relaxing days of fishing and enjoying the weather!” A tour of the Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden is a must-do activity while on Catalina.
While many travel to Catalina just for the day, staying overnight in one of the uniquely Avalon hotels are absolutely worth it, plus you’ll get to experience the island’s sunsets, nightly activities and events, as well as the gorgeous sunrise and early mornings. We have several recommendations for accommodation on the island. If you’d like to stay close to the ocean, look into Hotel Vista del Mar right by the beach. How about a romantic location by the pier? Check out the Hotel Villa Portofino. Prefer ocean-views? Hotel Vista Del Mar might be the hotel for you. Other great options include Aurora Hotel, Hermosa Hotel, Hotel Metropole and Hotel Avalon. Wanna stay in William Wrighley’s (former owner of the island) former vacation home with gorgeous views of Avalon? The Inn on Mt. Ada might just be the must beautiful hotel on the island. As an alternative to a Santa Barbara wine tour, go wine-tasting on some of the beautiful hotels with balcony views of Avalon sunsets and the Pacific Ocean. For inexpensive options of accommodation, see Hotel Catalina, Zane Grey or one of the many great campgrounds, e.g. the Hermit Gulch Campground.
Are you looking for a romantic island getaway to the Island of Romance with your significant other? Or are you looking for a fun excursion for the whole family? Or maybe a few days to the island with friends to explore the various bars and drinking venues? Catalina has it all. Not going to Catalina? Check out our exclusive Malibu wine tours or our beer crawl options in Hollywood. We have a vehicle to fit every need for transportation – whether you need a Los Angeles party bus for twenty friends, or you need a simple sedan for yourself to get to/from the airport. From sedans, SUV’s, stretch limousines, Hummer limos and party buses, we have Southern California’s largest selection of luxurious vehicles and also offer an exclusive price-match-guarantee for all our new and returning clients. For your transportation to Catalina Island, contact the ferry companies (Catalina Express or Catalina Flyer), or the Island Express Helicopter Service for a helicopter ride to the Airport-in-the-Sky.
premierlalimoservice LA limo Catalina, limos for rent, Southern California limousine rental, Uncategorized Leave a comment June 11, 2016 March 15, 2017 8 Minutes
Your Guide To Balboa Island
Often overlooked for the Channel Islands and other larger and more visited Californian islands, Balboa Island and Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach are two places anyone in SoCal should visit at least once. Even if you are a tourist spending a few days in the Greater L.A. Area, a visit to Balboa Island can be a rewarding side-trip. Named after Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, this resort island has endless of options for fun water activities, great sight seeing, or just experiencing the island atmosphere and natural beauty. You can visit the island by ferry or by driving on Jamboree Road, or take the ferry from Balboa Peninsula (Balboa Island Ferry). As the island is best experienced by foot, and has limited street parking for visitors, we always recommend that clients travel here by the affordable $1 ferries instead of driving onto the island itself. One of Balboa’s main attractions is understandably the amazing architecture on the many beautiful little cottages found here. Now multimillion-dollar homes and vacation homes, it is funny to think that these cottages once sold for under $300 in the 1920’s! Balboa Peninsula, which was created as a mistake in the early 1930’s, is now home to some of the best beaches in Orange County as well as the Balboa Pavilion & Fun Zone. Whether do dine on one of the great restaurants, stroll down the quaint tiny roads, check out the famous landmarks, lay on the beach, rent a beach house, or any other reason for visiting Balboa – contact us for your transportation today. Many of our clients love to go here for recreational activities such as kayaking, surfing, jet-skiing, whale-watching and much, much more. Along the island’s main street, Marine Avenue, people come to window-shop, check out the cool little stores, cafés and bars. Do not forget to try out the island’s signature Balboa Bar ice cream and shave ice! Balboa has one of the highest population densities in the country, even higher than San Francisco, and has some of the most expensive real estate prices – real estate prices are even higher than on Manhattan!
The options for activities at Balboa are endless. You can for instance go parasailing over the Pacific with Balboa Parasail or jet-skiing with Balboa Water Sports. Another favorite among many renting an LA limo service is to head here for one of the great whale watching excursions. Companies such as Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching and Balboa Newport Landing Whale Watching offer great whale-watching excursions from the Newport Harbor. Want to rent a boat, head to Duffy Boat Rental! Prefer a chauffeured boat to on an ocean adventure? Check out Newport Coastal Adventure. And for paddling or kayaking, head to the Island Paddle Board or Balboa Surf & Style. Maybe the most popular for those traveling with children is to visit the Fun Zone on the Balboa Peninsula. The Balboa Fun Zone is home to several rollercoaster rides, cotton candy vendors, and everything else you’d find at a carnival. The nearby ExplorOcean museum is a great educational experience for children as well as adults. One of the island’s many famous landmarks in the St. John Vianney Chapel, which is located on the main street, Marine Avenue. This beautiful tiny chapel is a charming architecturally piece of art. Another popular activity for families is to pay a visit to Our Gang’s General Store to check out the unique toys, as well as the Marina Park playground. We transfer not only a lot of LAX sedan customers to Balboa, but because of its close proximity to the John Wayne Airport also a significant amount of people from John Wayne.
A landmark worth checking out is the Balboa Pavilion. Constructed in 1906, the Pavilion is a California Historical Landmark and on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is currently functioning as the terminal for passenger- and whale-watching cruises. While on the Balboa Peninsula, grab a bite at the original O.C. Ruby’s Diner on the Balboa Pier! Also on the peninsula is the famous Crab Cooker, a favorite for many who enjoy seafood. Established in the early 1950’s, it has been ranked as one of the world best restaurants by the Venture Magazine and has also been featured in the television series the O.C., where the restaurant is referred to as the Crab Shack. To see today’s fresh seafood being unloaded from the dock, head to the Dory Fish Market, a historical landmark dating back to the early 1890’s! For a historic landmark, many Los Angeles limousine riders have talked about the Lovell Beach House as the most iconic Balboa house. More interested in beaching, surfing and other ocean activities? The Wedge on the peninsula is a tremendously popular surfing spot, while all of the peninsula is recognized for its pristine beaches. Didn’t make it on a Malibu wine tour? Check out the Balboa Island Wine Walk! Two 1920’s landmarks worth checking out include the Balboa Theater and the Balboa Inn.
Wanna spend the night here but cannot afford a vacation home rental? You are not alone! While there are no hotels on the island per say, there are numerous hotels in surrounding areas, including on the Balboa Peninsula. Here many prefer staying at the Balboa Fun Zone to ride the ferris wheel and other rides. There are also many eateries, cafés and souvenir shops in the Fun Zone area. At the nearby Newport Harbor Nautical Museum you can see exhibits on the Pacific Ocean and California waters. You can for instance see ship models dating to the late 1790’s, or check out the tanks with various native species found in the waters off California. Two nearby hotels worth checking out if you are looking for accommodation are the Island Hotel and the Newport Beach Marriot Hotel & Spa. Looking for a snack, drink or restaurant? Head to Sugar & Spice for the original Balboa Bar chocolate ice-cream! Disappointed you never made the Malibu wine tour? Let’s head to Basilic for a delicious meal and great red-wine to accompany the steak, turkey or dish of choice. For a delicious breakfast, get a Los Angeles limousine and head to Wilma’s Patio for a great egg- or omelet dish. Looking for a place to enjoy an evening cocktail? Head to the Village Inn for great live entertainment and a drink of choice. Remember to go by Dad’s Donut & Bakery to pick up a delicious chocolate banana to bring home.
With its luxury housing and secluded character, many celebrities have found their home on Balboa. While Chuck Norris once owned a restaurant here, John Wayne bodysurfed here during summers. Visitors include everyone from Frank Sinatra, Richard Nixon, as well as Nancy- and Ronald Reagan. LA limo service clients have made us aware of the many movies filmed here, including Shadows (1922), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Breaking Point (1950), and many more. Whether you are looking for an LAX sedan to get here from the airport, or maybe a party bus to get into LA from Balboa, we can help you! On Balboa, don’t forget checking out the outstanding two-mile Island Boardwalk to see the boat parade and scenic views. For art lovers, the Balboa Island Artwalk is an annual happening drawing over a hundred artists for live music, painting exhibits, custom-made jewelries, and much more. For a signature Balboa shopping experience, see the selection of unique oil products and more at the Olive Oil & Beyond, the ideal place to find gifts for Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. With just 0.2 square miles and about 3,000 inhabitants, Balboa is a small island which is easy to navigate, discover, and enjoy! Bon voyage!
premierlalimoservice Uncategorized Leave a comment June 10, 2016 June 12, 2016 5 Minutes
4 Most Visited Tourist-Attractions in SoCal
As the top rated luxury transportation company in Southern California, we transport thousands of tourists on a yearly basis. With more than 14 million foreign visitors per year, the City of Angels has one of the world’s largest numbers of tourists. For us locals, it is easy to forget all the great landmarks and activities that signify the Greater L.A. Area. We have listened to all the tourists and visitors riding with our services. Here are our customer’s most popular tourist attractions in the city.
4. Sunset Strip
Just making up 1.7 miles of the Sunset Boulevard, the Sunset Strip with its flashing neon signs and billboards is one of the most popular LA limo destinations. Besides being the place with the highest density of rock clubs in America, Sunset is also famous for its many rock venues, shops, and nightclubs. Some of the most popular places to visit here include the Viper Room, Whisky a-Go-Go as well as the Rainbow Bar & Grill. The Viper Room is one of the most famous nightclubs in town, previously run by Johnny Depp and the location of River Phoenix’ death. Marilyn Monroe went on blind dates at the Rainbow Bar, a place where also Guns N’Roses regularly had concerts. Jimi Hendrix performed regularly at the Whisky a-Go-Go. Other popular places here include the Sunset Plaza, famous for its European stores and restaurant, as well as the Sunset Tower Hotel and the Standard Hollywood. Famous for its gigantic billboards, it’s not seldom tourists book LAX airport sedan just to head to the Sunset Strip to see the billboards. Come to the Sunset Strip to people watch, head out to the bars, or party all night long. The House of Blues, the Comedy Store and the Roxy are additional key attractions on the Sunset Strip.
Of tourists utilizing our Los Angeles limo service, Hollywood is an incredibly popular destination for various reasons. Besides famous landmarks such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hollywood Sign, Hollywood is also the largest hub for popular culture in the world with film studios and numerous musical performances through the year. Hollywood is also home to some of the greatest nightlife in the city, and many visit the area with limos to skip the hassle of finding a designated driver, deal with traffic, and struggle with finding parking. Having a chauffeured luxury vehicle at hand makes it also significantly easier to go club- or bar hopping to various places throughout the city. Why stay confined to one area, when some of the most happening places are spread throughout the city. Many also decide to order buses to go out on town, for instance locals ordering a Calabasas party bus to head partying in Hollywood is a common thing. What’s better than drinking and dancing in a bus on your way to the clubs!?
Many have called our representatives and asked about opening times for clubs in L.A. and complain about the nightlife ending early. It is a common misbelief that the nightlife ends at either 2 am or 4 am. That is not true. Avalon Hollywood closes for instance at 5 am on Fridays and not till 8 am on Saturdays, while Downtown’s Exchange L.A. closes at 6 am on Saturdays. And with limousines or party buses of your choice, the party in Hollywood ends when you want it to.
Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Beach and Pier are some of the most iconic L.A. landmarks and attractions. Many come to the Third Street Promenade to experience some of the city’s best shopping. Other Santa Monica attractions include the Pier Aquarium, Muscle Beach, Museum of Flying, the Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome and many more. At the Third Street Promenade is for example where you’ll find one of the regions most popular shopping malls: the Santa Monica Place just a few blocks from the beach. After shopping at the promenade, head down 3rd Street Promenade until you reach the Santa Monica Beach. This is where you’ll find the famous pier and its amusement park, the Pacific Park. Along the seaside are numerous shops, restaurants, cafes, and more. Just the other day we serviced clients with a Calabasas party bus to head from Calabasas to the Santa Monica Beach in style. After partying their way down, without the worry of traffic and parking, they arrived in Santa Monica and biked to nearby Venice Beach to enjoy locally crafted beer at one of the many beachside restaurants. Prefer wine tasting? Book an L.A.- or Malibu wine tour to experience the best of Southern California wines.
1. Universal Studios & Disneyland
Disneyland in Anaheim is the 7th most visited tourist attraction in the United States and one of the most visited places by our limousines. We even often have customers booking our LAX airport sedan services to head directly to Disneyland from the airports! With more than 16.1 million visitors per year, Disneyland is California’s most visited attraction and a must for anyone visiting Southern California. Yet another hugely popular amusement park visited by our Los Angeles limo service is Universal Studios and adjacent Universal CityWalk. Here people come to learn about movie filming at the Universal studio tours, enjoy the cool rides, or stroll along the Universal CityWalk next-door to explore the great shopping and restaurants found along this famous street. Want something faster-going? Six Flags Magic Mountain is a 260-acre amusement park with the highest numbers of rollercoasters in the United States. Rides such as Viper and Goliath are some of the fastest rollercoasters in the world. Go for one of America’s quickest roller coasters, followed up by a beer and dinner at one of the park’s many restaurants and cafes. Prefer something for the smaller kids? The younger crowd usually fall in love with Knott’s Berry Farm, a smaller and less crowded amusement park. Many LA limo clients also head south to Orange County and visit North America’s biggest indoor water park, the Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove. Other popular amusement parks for grownups and kids alike include Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, the Legoland California Resort in Carlsbad, SeaWorld San Diego, Santa Monica’s Pacific Park, Knott’s Soak City in Buena Park, Adventure Park in Anaheim, Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach, and many, many more. Many of the smaller parks are less crowded with less lines and oftentimes more affordable.
What is your favorite L.A. landmark? Iconic L.A. landmarks that didn’t make our list include Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, the Getty Museum, L. A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Exposition Park, Olvera Street, Venice, Staples Center, Madame Tussauds Hollywood, the Hollywood Bowl, the Grammy Museum and many, many more attractions and landmarks found throughout the larger L.A. Area.
premierlalimoservice LA limo Los Angeles limousine, LAX transfer services, Southern California limousine rental, Uncategorized Leave a comment June 1, 2016 March 15, 2017 5 Minutes
Where you find Hollywood celebrities
The City of Angels might be the most popular in the world as far as celebrity sightseeing. And having become the largest and top rated provider of Los Angeles limousine services we have witnessed an increase in locals and tourists alike asking for tips of where to spot the famous people. While some may tell you: “It’s Hollywood, just go to a K-mart and you’ll see celebrities”, we all know the chances are pretty limited in one of gazillion convenience stores throughout the city. Not only do we provide local L.A. city tours, but we have also transported celebrities for numerous years. Without revealing too much about our LA limo service clientele we can mention Will Smith, Kim Richards, Jeb Bush, Gary Busey, and many more. Our limousines have been featured in a variety of movies and TV-shows, including but not limited to the Bachelor, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the Biggest Looser, Hell’s Kitchen, and numerous others. Being the top rated provider of L.A.- and Calabasas party bus vehicles, we offer the best in LA transportation.
Areas in which to see celebrities
In all of Southern California you really do have the potential of seeing one of your favorite celebrities, but certain cities, districts and areas of town are more popular than others. As you probably guessed, both the communities of Beverly Hills and Bel Air fit this category. Other celebrity-enclaves, such as Calabasas or Hidden Hills, also are popular communities for many of L.A.’s rich and famous. Being home to celebrities as Justin Bieber and Khloé Kardashian, our Calabasas party bus rentals are for example hugely popular in the region. In Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive from Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman is a popular street for the ultra-wealthy. The street might be the most prestigious shopping-street in the world, and many L.A.-visitors using our LA limo service love strolling up and down this street while window-shopping in the far-high-end boutiques on the look-out for celebrities. The once sleepy neighborhood of Westwood was developed into Bel Air in the 1920’s, making one of the most expensive neighborhoods in America, packed with multi-million dollar mansions and some amazing views overlooking the city. In Bel Air, Hotel Bel-Air might be your best bet for celebrity-spotting. Other areas include the Century City Shopping Center, which is with its many high-end vendors a place our clientele often experience to spot a celebrity or two. The famous Sunset Strip, which is adjacent to Beverly Hills, is a little over a mile of the Sunset Boulevard, but also a city-center for the city’s nightlife. Be on the lookout for paparazzi’s!
So where can you spot celebrities?
As celebrities maybe surprisingly are like most other people, it is not too easy to pinpoint an exact location of celebrity-swarms… At least many believe so. On the quite contrary though, serving stars and other notables for over fifteen years, we know some of the spots where celebrity’s hang out. Except the general stuff, such as the airport (LAX sedan requests are maybe destination number one of L.A.’s rich and famous), there are also various other destinations where you are even more likely to spot a celebrity or two. For once, the wineries of the Malibu Canyons, often served on our Malibu wine tours, are great retreats from celebrities city-life. It is also widely known that celebrities such as Matt Damon and Jennifer Lawrence are amongst the many frequently staying at the Ace Hotel in Downtown. Kim Kardashian, Michael Douglas and Nicole Kidman are among the numerous witnessed at the Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows. Movie stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Ben Affleck is known to love the Brentwood Country Mart, while Runyon Canyon’s over 150 acres is popular for celebrities as Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Matthew Morrison, and so many more. Other places with great chances of spotting your favorite artist or movie stars include the Piano Bar Lounge upstairs at the Mastro’s Steakhouse, Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, as well as George’s California Modern in La Jolla.
So let’s cut to the chase, would you really wanna see celebrities and get a glimpse of their personal mansions? Book a trip with our Los Angeles limousine company and go on exclusive tours to neighborhoods packed with famous residents. We know all the spots! Whether you are looking into a Malibu wine tour to the beautiful Pacific coast for some wine-sipping, or you’re heading out for a party with friends in party bus, we will be able to accommodate all your needs for the perfect limo-experience. Offering an exclusive price-match-guarantee on all our rides, including wine-tasting tours and LAX sedan services, you have nothing to loose by calling us for your SoCal transportation!
premierlalimoservice LA limo Hollywood, LA limo Los Angeles limousine, Uncategorized Leave a comment April 25, 2016 June 12, 2016 3 Minutes
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Preview Beck’s New Single “Dreams”
The full song is coming on Monday
Come Monday, Beck will debut his new single, “Dreams”. Beck has confirmed than the song is the first from a new album, his follow-up to 2014’s Morning Phase, which won Album of the Year at the GRAMMYs this February, much to Kanye’s chagrin.
The new album, Beck says, will sound the complete “opposite” of Morning Phase. Yesterday, Spin reported that it features a “Tame Impala-esque sound.” Though he’s apparently been working on it for a few years, Beck gave no indication of when the new album would land. Given “Dreams”’ elaborate roll-out, we can assume the album will drop sooner rather than later.
You can listen to a brief preview of the new single below:
Listen to Beck discuss the new single and album in an interview below:
BeckDreams
Beck Shares New Single, “Dreams”
Beck Teases ‘Dreams’ [Updated]
Beck Shares New Single "Wow"
Beck - "Defriended"
The Hot Take #13: Robyn, Beck, Miguel, and More
Fun.’s Nate Russ Shares New Song With Beck, “What This World is Coming To”
Beck - "Blue Moon"
Album Stream: Beck - Morning Phase
Beck Joins The Chemical Brothers on "Wide Open"
Listen to Beck's new album Colors
Listen: Beck and Sia, "Moonquake Lake"
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Act Three
April 30, 2019 swanstuff 3 Comments
Act 3, the Ending, ties everything up, answers the dramatic question, and vanquishes the opposition.
Cue the trumpets, lower the spotlight, this is the stage of the final battle. The kind of battle is up to your genre and subject matter. It could be a fight, it could be a realization that leads to quiet action, it could be a negotiation, it’s entirely up to you.
Endings can be:
Positive – your hero gets what she wants and it’s good.
Bittersweet – your hero gets what she wants, but it isn’t what she expected.
Negative – your hero doesn’t get what she wants and it’s bad.
Nega-sweet – your hero doesn’t get what she wants and it’s good.
Whimper – things unfold, it is what it is, and nobody’s happy.
Armageddon – everybody dies.
All roads lead here. Themes are tied up, motivations are aligned or eliminated, the character arc completes, red herrings are revealed to be false, the real endgame is revealed. There’s a lot to do and you can’t let the wires show through. Nothing should be forced, everything should be a surprise, but still logical.
Not every string has to be tied up and resolved; it may be implied that it’s going to happen later or that it becomes inconsequential, and the character’s growth means it no longer matters.
Ultimately, an ending has to be satisfying. You’ve built up expectations and promises throughout the story. In the Wizard of Oz, Act Three happens once the witch is dead, and the Wizard’s requirements are met. They think they’ve won. Dorothy will be able to go home. But the Wizard isn’t a wizard (reversal), BUT he has a balloon (redemption), BUT he can’t fly the thing (dashed hope), and finally, Glinda reveals she has the power all along (resolution), BUT now she has to say goodbye. The act ends when Dorothy wakes up and discovers it was all a dream (the ONLY time “it was just a dream” works!). She resolves the family relationships, discovers everyone loves her, and… draw the curtain.
A lot happened right there! Dorothy’s battle with the witch in Act Two was loud and showy. The Final Battle was surprisingly laid back. It was high hopes dashed by a fraud, hopes revived by the same fraud, and all hope is lost… before Glinda reveals the power of the shoes (something all women know). It was an emotional roller-coaster, but not a physical melee.
Here’s what an ending should NOT be: “To be continued in the next stunning novel…”
If your book is part of a series, let the reader know up front. The surprise that the story isn’t going to resolve in this book is a betrayal to the reader. You want to tease the reader, excite, surprise, and allow the story to betray the reader, but YOU should never betray the reader.
If your story is part of a series, it still needs its own stand-alone dramatic question and resolution. Leave the reader hanging at your own peril!
This is the end of the April Blog Challenge, but not the end of the Prevailing Thoughts blog! While frequency will not be daily, I’ll aim for posting at least once a week. Question for you: Do you want to see writing tips for plays, teleplays, and screenplays as well as novel and non-fiction posts?
Stuck in the Middle
Act Two – the Middle of the Beginning, Middle, and End – is a Poker game…where the cards are razor sharp, on fire, and your hero is wearing kerosene gloves.
It’s a poker game because your hero has a questionable grasp of his own cards, isn’t sure of the rules of the game, and has no idea what anyone else is holding.
Now that we’ve gotten to know the hero in Act One, your job as writer is to break the hero down, beat him up, insult his mama, and make him rue taking the first step of the journey.
With your eye on the dramatic question, you the writer need to construct an obstacle course that pushes, pulls, subverts, and stretches your hero. In the process, the hero picks up what’s eventually going to be needed (physical items, character traits, knowledge, faith, what have you), while divesting herself of wrong beliefs, weaknesses, etc., shaping the hero into exactly what is needed to win in Act Three. The hero’s relationships will be tested, trust will be lost or gained.
Yet you also have to set up red herrings… other ways for the story to end.
All of this sounds extreme, right? I must be talking about thrillers and adventures.
Except I’m not. This is true for all stories. The stakes may be higher or lower, depending on the story, and the trials your hero goes through maybe be more funny than scary, less or more dire.
In my book, Do Angels Still Fall?, Bungy is picked on, disciplined by his parents, afraid his brother will die, afraid he won’t ever have friends, and experiences a major loss. For Bungy, these are stratospheric stakes, but to us they may feel more pedestrian… and yet because our hero experiences them as huge, the reader will as well.
Here in the middle, your characters’ wants/motivations collide, align, re-align, and refine.
The middle is the bulk of the story, there are few hard and fast rules for it other than shaking up your hero and setting up Act Three. There is great freedom, but it should always relate to your dramatic question, or the spine of your story. Luke Skywalker doesn’t get a haircut or learn graphic design because that doesn’t tie into “Will Luke become a Jedi?”
If I had to make up a rule, have at least three increasingly difficult problems (betrayal, reversal, crisis of faith).
Further, think in terms of equipping your hero with the tools and will to win, without the hero necessarily knowing that’s what’s happening.
The rising crescendo culminates in the final battle. Act Two ends when the hero commits to the final battle.
We’ll look at Act Three, the Ending, tomorrow.
I love writing the beginning of a novel. I must, I have half a dozen in my “to write” folder that are still waiting for a middle and end to be written.
The beginning, or Act One, of a book is where the magic kicks off. You’re creating new characters, their world, their hopes and desires (aka, their motivations), your planting seeds of what is to come. The dramatic question is set up and asked, and you’re teeing up the football that is the inciting incident.
There’s a lot going on here!
Let’s define some terms here:
Worldbuilding – This isn’t just for Science Fiction. Your setting may be in the here and now, but your main character’s world needs to be established. What’s our hero’s normal? In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s world is a working farm, where she isn’t raised by her parents but her Aunt and Uncle. It’s the past, Kansas, and she feels in the way. She’s a burden on her Aunt and Uncle, she gets in the way of the farmhands, and a nasty neighbor has it out for her. Her best friend is a dog.
Character Building. We meet and get to know Dorothy, a young reckless teen, but scratch the surface and her insecurities come boilingng out. In the movie, we meet the farmhands and their chief character trait, who become the main players in the story (albeit in different forms).
Character Arc: Your hero is flawed, and in the course of the story, your character will be changed by the circumstances encountered.
Dramatic Question: This typically encompasses the hero’s character arc. Will Dorothy find her way home? Will Luke become a Jedi? These aren’t difficult questions, but the dramatic question becomes the spine of your story. Things that don’t relate to the question can be trimmed away.
Inciting Incident: That’s the no-going-back point. It is NOT when Dorothy runs away, it is when she opens the door on Oz.
There are many methods to start the first page. Your best bet is to start with Action, something that typifies the hero’s normal. In my book Me and the Maniac in Outer Space, Hud is contemplating the hell that is middle school in the boy’s locker room, where he is frequently assaulted by the school bully. That beating is interrupted by his best friend the Maniac.
My novel Do Angels Still Fall? began in France during the plague as the angel Donel conducted his charge to the afterlife who asked the title question, something the angel had never considered before. This established Donel’s world of flesh, spirit, and time displacement, and ushered him to this new normal of mentoring a child of today.
Another tried and true method is to drop right into the midst of Act Two action, then either jumping back to Act One (as in cold openings of TV shows… 3 day earlier…) or using flashbacks to bring us up to speed.
Framing devices are also possible, in which the “frame” is someone else telling the story, or the hero’s older self looking back.
The key is to start as late in the story as you can without losing critical detail.
From there, creatively establish whatever else is required of world, relations, motivations, and drive to that inciting incident that disrupts the old normal and forces the hero to move forward to the new normal.
Then it’s. On to Act Two. Tomorrow…
How Sayeth You?
April 27, 2019 swanstuff Leave a comment
Dialog is the bane of some writers, and some don’t know it. Nothing brings down a novel faster than poor dialog.
An important word to know is verisimilitude. It means the appearance of being real or true.
Because story is a crafted structure, your people can’t speak “like real people do.” Their dialog should be crafted to be concise, paced, differentiated, and sharp, yet appear like people really speak.
When coaches say you need to develop an ear for dialog, what you’re listening for is meter, accent, regionalism, and word choice. The fact is that real people speak badly, almost as if we’re making it up as we go along (because we are). We speak with fluff, fail to drive to a point, interrupt ourselves and each other, get distracted, and pause, stumble, or misspeak a lot. Listeners often don’t even hear the misspeaks as they listen for meaning (only us weirdos listen to each word).
Things to do and avoid:
Get rid of small talk. Enter scenes after small talk is over, or just skip over it. This is especially true with telephone calls. Get straight to the point.
Be strategic. Use dialog sparingly, only when it’s needed. Ask yourself if there’s a better way to convey the points. If not, dialog is fine.
Properly tag dialog. We have to know who’s speaking. Not every line needs to be attributed, but we know who it is. “said” is your go-to tag. Use word choice to convey how a line is said, not tags. “He grated” “she quavered” “he grunted” “she bleated” comes after the line (or should, it feels stilted at the beginning of the line), so the reader either has to re-read the line or think about it. We don’t think about “she said” because no image comes to mind. It just tags the speaker, which is the goal.
If swearing is necessary, include it rarely: “But people talk that way.” Um, I don’t. My friends don’t. Your character may, but if it’s done so much that it becomes invisible, then you don’t need it. Use it for impact. Part of the reason not to is because the reader puts emphasis on it when the character probably wouldn’t. It screws up the meter of the dialog, putting a stress where it doesn’t belong.
Get to the point. Dialog should have a purpose; get to it.
Watch your word choice. Word choice is powerful. It indicates your character’s intelligence, their region, their creativity, and their strata of society. Word choice differentiates your characters and brings humor or terror to a conversation. How well does your character use language? How bad? A character who butchers English tells us a lot about himself.
Dialog tag placement. “Harry, what do you think?” vs. “What do you think, Harry?” have different meaning. If a name is used at the beginning, the speaker wants a response; it’s an invitation. If it’s used at the end, it shuts down the named person; it’s a threat.
Not everyone is clever. I love wordplay. Quick wit is in every novel I write, but not everyone is created equal when it comes to wit and being clever. Unless you’re writing a humor novel, but even then, you need your straight people, or it comes off as a sit-com.
Everyone has a cadence. We each have a personal rhythm. Find your character’s cadence. Do they like long sentences? Short sentences? Incomplete sentences? Long or short words?
Don’t get carried away! Dialog can be fun, but a novel isn’t a screenplay. Long runs of dialog are hard to follow and draining. The rule is: Is it necessary? Is there a better way?
Edit your dialog ruthlessly! After a while of this, you’ll become a master of dialog and it will flow from your fingers!
Character Building and Building Characters
Characters, like people, are flawed and broken. Unlike people, who hide it well and have a lot of other stuff going on, characters are “sculpted.” Even deeply-layered characters aren’t the contradiction that people are. We tend to be messy; characters are tidy messes. Everything we know about a character has to be of use.
And a Writing Day.
If you establish Bonnie is a birder, then Bonnie better be putting that talent to use in the story.
Because I’ve had a great upbringing, my tendency is to make nice characters. I’ve been surrounded by nice broken people, so it makes sense my characters are nice. I have to resist that tendency. Characters should have flaws, often big ones, that they don’t hide well.
Imagine your characterscape as a chess game. Every piece has an opponent. Your own guys can’t always move the way you can. They have different motives and this may make them untrustworthy. Batman fights crime because his parents were murdered in front of him; Superman fights crime because his rural, moral upbringing says the strong should look out for the weak. Batman uses tactics that Superman would disapprove of; Batman thinks Superman is naïve.
Characters are motivated by what they want; what they want is based on what they believe; what they believe can be wrong.
As the grandmaster, you are creating characters who generate conflict with one another. In Angels, the boy is ignorant; the angel is wise. Their conflict is not remotely violent, but it is a mental tug-of-war. In Maniac, Hud’s family life is drastically different than Jack’s, so while Hud wants a little adventure, Jack wants to escape. This creates a widening gap between best friends.
In fiction, you rarely want equal partnerships in character or motivation. Think marriage. Motives – different; outlook-different; physicality-different; conflict-guaranteed.
The kinds of character:
Main Characters: You get in their heads, you know more about them than anyone else, you root for them. These characters will change throughout the story. Also called the Protagonist.
Secondary Characters: These characters serve a purpose. They may be in the entire story or just part of it. We care about them to a degree. They should not overwhelm the main character (it’s easy to let them steal the show, for me at least. As an actor I’m always the secondary character, so I love to write them. I just have to be careful or the story becomes his).
Incidental Characters: They fulfill an immediate purpose and then they’re gone.
Meaningless Characters: You shouldn’t have any of these.
The Bad Guy: The main character’s opposition. We may not get in their head (but, then again, we might), we typically don’t root for them, and this character doesn’t have to change. It’s important to note that the “bad guy” may not be a villain, they may just be oppositely motivated. The key here is that this character INSTIGATES THE MAIN CHARACTER’S CHANGE. Also called the Antagonist. In spiritual fiction, God is typically an antagonist because his power, mercy, love, kindness is naturally opposed to the main character’s fallen nature.
Normally, you want a tight cast of characters. Small families, small teams, and a small extended cast. Unless you’re writing epic fiction, in which character discipline is even more important.
Strongly differentiate your characters in motives, humor, intelligence, physicality, and language. Imagine Lord of the Rings with only human characters; it would be a nightmare to keep them all separate. That’s an epic; make non-epic fiction manageable.
Questions always welcome!
The Metrology of Story
Prose has meter, too.
Unit of measure is common to almost everything. In distance, the base unit is a meter. In electricity, an ohm. In sound, the decibel. In weight the pound. What are the units of measure for a story?
Starting from the biggest to the smallest, a novel is:
Book – Act – Sequence – Chapter – Sub-Sections – Beat
In a stage play, screenplay, teleplay it is:
Play – Act – Sequence – Scene – French Scene – Beat
Play and book are self-explanatory, they are the complete work. Act refers to the beginning, middle, and end. A sequence are the scenes/chapters that make up an act. Chapters might be broken down into sub-sections, but don’t have to be. A French Scene is a character level issue; when a character comes on and goes off, that is his French Scene.
The beat. This is the base unit of measure for story. It is a binary unit and is composed of a single choice leading to an action. That choice is binary, either action or reaction. There are thousands of beats in a story, and some of them are critical, but all of them should be sharp. Events don’t change on a dime, they change on a decision. A bomb explodes, the character’s beat is reaction. What does she do?
Betrayal is a beat. Reversals are a beat.
A writer takes control of the narrative by taking control of beats. Every beat must be motivated. When a tried-and-true friend turns on you, there’s a reason. For some reason (motivation), the betrayal is at the beat level.
Most writers manage beats intuitively. They don’t think in terms of beats, but they do write in them. To be able to break behavior down to a decision level, you can diagnose problems with simple questions: Why did x do that, and why then?
This is critical to actors because we see blurred beats. A beat has a micro-beginning, middle, and end. Blurring a beat means the actor has begun the next beat before the last beat is complete. You may not always be able to articulate why one actor is better than another, but clear, crisp beats mark a pro, soft muddled beats mark an amateur.
You can’t blur a beat in writing, but you can muddle them. Make sure your beats are properly fueled with motivation.
Questions are always welcome.
Conflict is Essential
Fiction or non-fiction, conflict is essential to a manuscript. Without it, nothing moves forward.
When Star Trek: Next Generation came out, Gene Roddenberry insisted there would be no conflict aboard the Enterprise because by then, humanity will have evolved beyond it (as if). The writers tied themselves in knots trying to obey the command.
Conflict GOOD!
Motivation is caused by what a character wants. Action is caused when one character’s wants conflict with another character’s wants.
Superman wants Truth, Justice, and The American Way. Luthor wants to rule the world. Conflict.
Batman wants order, Joker wants chaos. Conflict.
Conservatives want less government, Liberals want more. Conflict.
Your character wants something, another character opposes it. Conflict.
Every scene should have some conflict, if only internal conflict. When a story is bogged down, and you feel like you’re going in circles, the likely culprit is you don’t know what your characters want, or you do and haven’t figured out how to put conflict into the story.
A common method is creating partner characters who conflict in manner, method, or outlook, and of course, the opposing force has conflicting goals. Avoid creating characters simply to create conflict; they must have an integral purpose to the story, contributing something to the resolution.
In non-fiction, the author must be at cross-purposes to the status quo and must challenge it. The health food writer wants you to give up tasty foods that are bad for you. You, the reader, don’t want to give up hot fudge sundaes. The writer must oppose that want and re-engineer the reader’s desires.
Non-fiction is, in essence, a polite argument.
In your story, where’s the conflict? Identify it in each scene, and spice it up to quicken the pace.
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Huntington Learning Center Ranked a Top Franchise in Entrepreneur's Highly Competitive 41st Annual Franchise 500
Huntington Learning Center, the nation's leading tutoring and test prep provider with approximately 300 locations nationwide, has been named to Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500®, a highly sought-after honor in the franchise industry. Huntington Learning Center claims the #39 spot for its outstanding performance in areas including unit growth, financial strength and stability, and brand power. This marks the company's highest ranking yet - moving up nine spots from 2019.
"We are honored ...
Anago Cleaning Systems Named A Top 50 Franchise in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500
- Commercial Cleaning Leader Ranked #38 -
Anago Cleaning Systems today announced that it has earned the #38 overall franchise ranking in the prestigious Entrepreneur magazine's annual Franchise 500 ranking. Anago is ranked second among commercial cleaning franchises and jumped 14 spots from last year's ranking and 30 places from 2018.
"The demand side of franchised commercial cleaning is consistent, so Anago Cleaning Systems is honored to be recognized for our growth, our innovation, our ...
FranFund's Shay Mora Receives Coleman's 2019 Emerging SBA Lender of the Year Award
- Shay Mora, VP of Lending Operations for FranFund Receives Award -
FranFund is proud to announce that Shay Mora is a recipient of Coleman Report's 2019 Emerging SBA Lender of the Year (Under 40) award. As VP of Lending Operations at FranFund, Mora's expertise in business lending has been instrumental in the continuous growth of the company. She has helped establish FranFund as a key player in the franchise and small business funding industry, demonstrated by the recent recognition as the #1 ...
Venture X Reports Impressive Year-End Growth Totals
- Coworking Space Franchise Continues Global Expansion in 2019 -
In a year where coworking dominated the office space conversation, Venture X – an emerging, flexible office space provider renowned for its high-level, boutique hotel-style spaces – experienced a record-setting year for franchise development. In 2019, Venture X opened its doors to 10 new locations across the globe while also receiving 29 signed agreements for 61 future locations, the franchise announced Thursday.
"As we ...
FASTSIGNS International, Inc. Celebrates 35th Anniversary with #1 Ranking on Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500
- Sign, Graphics and Visual Communications Franchisor Recognized As the Leading Franchise Opportunity in Its Industry for Fourth Consecutive Year -
FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS®, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today it has been ranked the #1 franchise opportunity in its category in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500® for the fourth consecutive year. Recognized as an invaluable resource for potential franchisees, the ...
TITLE Boxing Club Announces BOGO Deal on TITLE On Demand in January
- Every In-Club Membership Bought in January Comes with Complimentary VIP TITLE On Demand Subscription -
TITLE Boxing Club is offering a buy-one-get-one offer, just in time for 2020 resolutions. For the month of January, every new in-club membership comes with a complimentary VIP TITLE On Demand subscription.
The free TITLE On Demand subscription will match the term of any membership agreement purchased in January, up to one year. When members sign on to TITLE On Demand they will have ...
Leading Dryer Vent Maintenance and Repair Franchise Raises $25,000 to Benefit Children's Burn Foundation
- Dryer Vent Wizard Raises Funds for Non-Profit for Eighth Consecutive Year -
Exceeding its 2018 donation, Dryer Vent Wizard, North America's leading dryer vent cleaning, maintenance, and repair franchise, raised $25,000 throughout the past year to benefit Children's Burn Foundation, a non-profit organization that reached more than 84,644 child burn survivors and their families. The organization provides state-of-the-art reconstructive treatment, emergency family assistance, survivor and ...
Tint World ranked a top franchise for the sixth year in a row in Entrepreneur's highly competitive 41st annual Franchise 500
- Inclusion marks sixth consecutive year National Automotive Styling Centers™ franchise has been part of magazine's elite franchise rankings -
Tint World® Automotive Styling Centers™, a leading auto accessory and window tinting franchise, recently ranked in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500®, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Placement in the Franchise 500® is a highly sought-after honor in the franchise industry making it one of the company's most ...
101 Mobility Names Mark Baker President
- Seasoned executive with over 20 Years of franchise leadership experience -
101 Mobility, the leading national provider of mobility and accessibility solutions, announced today that Mark Baker has joined as President. Mr. Baker brings over 20 years of franchise leadership experience, having worked at Remax International, Inc. and Clockwork Home Services. Mark is succeeding Dave Pazgan, who has led 101 Mobility and served as President since 2008.
"I am thrilled to have someone of Mark's ...
Neel and Rohit Patel Sign On to Open Texas' First Big Blue Swim Schools
- Father and Son Team Will Open Three Pools in the Austin Area -
Big Blue Swim School, one of the nation's fastest-growing swim school franchises, is officially coming to the Lone Star State, through franchise partners Neel and Rohit Patel. The father-and-son franchising duo plan to open three Big Blue Swim Schools in the Austin area over the next three years. The two recently signed on as franchise partners as they were drawn to the high-quality investment opportunity and best-in-class ...
Interim HealthCare Inc. Announces 2019 Paraprofessional of the Year
- Angela Young of Greenville, South Carolina recognized for her compassion and professionalism -
Interim HealthCare Inc., the nation's leading franchise network of owners providing homecare, senior care, hospice and healthcare staffing services, today announced Angela Young, CNA, as the 2019 Paraprofessional of the Year. Angela joined Interim HealthCare of Greenville, South Carolina in 2001.
This honor is given to an individual that provides exemplary patient care and continuously ...
Interim HealthCare Inc. Names 2019 Therapist of the Year
- Minda Papson of Lafayette, Colorado commended for her patient-centered service and professionalism -
Interim HealthCare Inc., the nation's leading franchise network of owners providing homecare, senior care, hospice and healthcare staffing services, today announced Minda Papson, occupational therapist, as the 2019 Therapist of the Year. Minda has been with Interim HealthCare of Lafayette, Colorado for six years.
This honor is given to an individual who embodies Interim HealthCare's ...
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Home America Now Defense, State Departments Resist Exercise of Congressional War Powers
Defense, State Departments Resist Exercise of Congressional War Powers
by Catherine Semcer November 7, 2017 8 comments
In joint testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Congress should not repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) it passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that has led to an unprecedented US military footprint across the globe. They further testified that any new legislation should not place any geographic or time constraints on military action, effectively requesting that Congress cede much of its constitutionally provided war powers authority to the White House and the Pentagon.
Their testimonies came amid increasing Congressional scrutiny of the US military presence in Niger following the deaths of four Army Special Forces members in an ambush, and President Trump’s signing of an executive order authorizing a mini-draft of retired military personnel. Since 2001, active US military personnel, excluding Marines at sea, have deployed to 150 nations, roughly 73% of the world.
National security officials argue that this, and its legal basis in the AUMF, are essential to countering transnational threats like those presented by groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Others, like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, have argued that the existing AUMF has led to overreach by the military and shut Congress out of war-making decisions. Speaking on the Senate floor in September, Senator Paul said “I don't think that anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty believes that these authorizations from 16 years ago and 14 years ago ... authorized war in seven different countries.”
In their testimonies, Mattis and Tillerson said that any attempts by Congress to sunset the AUMF and regain control over America’s wars would send the wrong signal to America’s enemies and allies. Republican Senator Jeff Flake rebutted their assertion though, echoing Senator Paul and saying that when it comes to making war, “We have to make sure that our adversaries and our allies and most importantly our troops know that we speak with one voice.”
Defense, State Departments Resist Exercise of Congressional War Powers was last modified: November 7th, 2017 by Catherine Semcer
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Refugee Council Poliblog
Show your support for refugee protection
To mark our 60th anniversary, we’re asking 10,000 people to join with us in speaking up for a great British tradition refugee protection by signing our pledge.
Tell your MP to let asylum seekers work
Help us to bring an end to destitution in the asylum system and put pressure on the government to give asylum seekers permission to work.
Refugee Council Campaigns
The Refugee Council wants a fair, humane and effective asylum system that protects refugees and helps them to rebuild their lives in safety. By supporting our campaigns, you can make this a reality.
UK borders parliamentary briefing
Refugee Council website
« From sheep-shearing to animation - the obvious job choices for an asylum seeker?! | Main | Lib Dems should use this chance to make things better for asylum seekers »
100 days in, and what have the Lib-Cons done for asylum seekers?
By Louisa, Parliamentary and Campaigns team
As an intern with the Parliamentary and Campaigns team, I’ve been busy these last few weeks in the lead-up to this autumn’s political party conferences, where the Refugee Council, alongside UNHCR, Still Human Still Here, and six refugee community leaders will be meeting up with MPs and party leaders to discuss asylum policy. Given that they will be the first conferences since the general election, it’s going to be interesting to see how policies are being shaped, and how the leaders will listen to our concerns.
With this just ahead of us, and the new government just over 100 days old, it seems a good moment to think back to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition agreements and reflect on the achievements of our new government. Not forgetting the all important ‘still to-do’ list of course!
1. Pledge to end the deportation of gay asylum seekers - done! It was a massive step forward in July when the case of two gay asylum seekers who faced persecution if returned to Cameroon was brought to national attention. The Supreme Court overturned a previous decision to deport them, leading Theresa May to make good on one of the government’s pledge stating that the judgement gave a legal basis for a change in the assessment of asylum claims based on sexuality.
2. Pledge to end child detention - ongoing. The government’s review into child detention is underway and Nick Clegg announced recently that the family unit at Yarl’s Wood removal centre would be closed. Yet while the shameful practice of detaining children is put to an end on one hand, the government simultaneously announced in August that the UK had become home to Europe’s largest detention centre, at Harmondsworth – a dubious honour.
3. Pledge to make quicker decisions on asylum claims - ongoing. While we're pleased the government has launched a project to improve the asylum system– to make it both quicker, and better they say - our clients, many who have fled persecution in their home countries, continue to face detention, discrimination and destitution in this one.
The suicide of destitute Osman Rasul in July was a tragic reminder that legal aid slashes will place a massive strain on desperate asylum seekers. And Osman’s story, like so many others, showed the common sense of our campaign to allow asylum seekers to work. This was backed up by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on allowing asylum seekers who have waited for over 12 months for a decision to work, but swiftly limited by the government who produced a restricted list of jobs they can apply for – including, as you will remember, sheep shearing of all things!
So the last 100 days have marked the beginning of an unexpected and perhaps awkward marriage in British politics. But the new government is young, and the initial steps taken have been encouraging in many ways. Here's hoping they make some more positive steps to deliver on their pledges in the next 100 days. We'll be watching!
26 August 2010 at 04:36 PM | Permalink
2012 - another hard year for asylum seekers and refugees
Could it be worse? UKBA's work on legacy cases soundly criticised by Independent Chief Inspector
Musicport 2012 - Proud to Protect Refugees
Reminding MPs about destitution of asylum seekers at Labour Party Conference 2012
Refugees to face further barriers to working and volunteering
Holocaust Memorial Day - a reminder of persecution around the world, and in UK, today
Protecting people from inhumane treatment - surely a no-brainer?
Welcoming resettled refugees to new homes in Hull: reflections from Director of Advocacy
60th anniversary event in Leeds
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RELiON Cold Weather Lithium Batteries
RB100-LT 12V 100ah LiFePO4 Battery
The RB100-LT is a 12V 100Ah lithium battery and is part of RELiON’s Low-Temperature Series. This lithium iron phosphate battery is specially designed for cold weather performance. RELiON’s LT Series batteries can safely charge at temperatures down to -20°C (-4°F) using a standard charger. The system features proprietary technology which draws power from the charger itself, requiring no additional components.
The entire process of heating and charging with the LT Series is completely seamless. Simply plug the battery into the regular lithium charger and the internal heating and monitoring system takes care of the rest. Because it takes time to heat the cells, the charging process in below-freezing temperatures could take a little longer.
The Low-Temperature Series battery has the same size and performance as other RELiON batteries but can safely charge when temperatures drop as low as -20°C using a standard charger. The RB100-LT is an ideal choice for use in RVs, off-grid solar, electric vehicles, and in any application where charging in colder temperatures is necessary.
Pro Angler Patrick Walters Talks About His LiFePO4 Batteries
How do LiFePO4 batteries perform in cold temperatures?
As with all batteries, cold temperatures will result in reduced performance. LiFePO4 batteries have significantly more capacity and voltage retention in the cold when compared to lead-acid batteries. Important tips to keep in mind: When charging lithium iron phosphate batteries below 0°C (32°F), the charge current must be reduced to 0.1C and below -10°C (14°F) it must be reduced to 0.05C. Failure to reduce the current below freezing temperatures can cause irreversible damage to your battery. RELiON’s LT Series is specifically designed for cold charging, utilizing charge current to heat the battery before allowing charge. With the LT series, you can start the charge below 0°C (32°F).
How does the RB100-LT (Low Temp) battery work?
The RB100-LT features the same size and performance as RELiON's RB100, but can safely charge at temperatures that drop below 0°C (32°F) using a standard charger. The system features proprietary technology which draws power from the charger itself, requiring no additional components. The entire process of heating and charging is completely seamless for the user. Simply plug the battery into the regular lithium charger and the internal heating and monitoring system takes care of the rest. Because it takes time to heat the cells, the charging process will take a little longer in below-freezing temperatures.
How can I determine the state of charge (SOC) of my lithium iron phosphate battery?
The best way to determine the SOC of your battery is to use a battery indicator— a high-precision instrument that captures instantaneous and integrated data in real-time. RELiON’s battery indicator uses a 500A shunt to accurately measure the discharge/recharge currents and calculates the Ampere-hours (Ah) flowing in and out of the battery.
Nominal Capacity 100 Ah
Capacity @ 25A 240 min
Energy 1280 Wh
Maximum Modules in Series 1 (Single-Use)
Dimensions (L x W x H) 12.95 x 6.77 x 8.9” 329 x 172 x 223 mm
Weight 30 lbs (13.59 kg)
Terminal Type M8 X 1.25
Terminal Torque 80 - 100 in-lbs (9 - 11 N-m)
Maximum Continuous Discharge Current 100 A
Peak Discharge Current 200 A (7.5 s ±2.5 s)
BMS Discharge Current Cut-Off 280 A ±50 A (32 ±10 ms)
BMS Discharge Voltage Cut-Off 9.2 V (2.3 ±0.08 vpc) (4.7 ±1 s)
Reconnect Voltage 10 V (2.5 ±0.1 vpc)
Short Circuit Protection 200-600 μs
Maximum Charge Current 100 A
BMS Charge Voltage Cut-Off 15.4 V (3.85 ±0.025 vpc) (1000 ±200 ms)
Reconnect Voltage 14.6 V (3.65 ±0.05 vpc)
Charge Temperature -4 to 113 ºF (-20 to 45 ºC)
BMS High Temperature Cut-Off - Discharge 185 ºF (85 ºC)
BMS High Temperature Cut-Off - Charge 140 ºF (60 ºC)
HEATING ELEMENT SPECIFICATIONS
Heating Temperature Range -4 to 41 ºF (-20 to 5 ºC)
Heating Time Approximately 1 hr @ 10 A
BMS Heating Element Cut-Off 167 ºF (75 ºC)
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© Dreamstime
How to Modify Florida’s Approach to the Opioid Crisis
Rather than doubling down on what hasn’t worked for decades, we need to embrace harm-reduction approaches.
By Adrian Moore
Opioid deaths in Sarasota County have more than doubled since 2104, from nine per 100,000 residents to 22 per 100,000 in 2017.
That’s clearly a crisis that needs to be addressed. The standard playbook, which we have been following so far, is to double down on prohibition, trying to arrest more drug dealers and users. Never mind that decades of that approach have not reduced drug use or deaths.
The latest twist with opioids is to go after prescriptions, and the state has dramatically restricted opioid prescriptions and targeted pill mills.
While this may seem sensible, it ignores that last year in Sarasota County there were about 306,000 opioid prescriptions, while, based on national data, there were likely around 6,500 to 7,000 opioid abusers.
Roughly speaking, there are two abusers for every 100 legitimate pain patients. Surgery patients, accident victims, veterans, cancer patients, and chronic pain sufferers in vast numbers need opioids to manage their pain.
Asking doctors to take more care (tracking prescriptions, expanding education on careful use of prescription narcotics) makes sense. But limiting prescriptions intrudes on the doctor-patient relationship and leads many physicians to fear prescribing according to their medical judgment rather than the judgment of the Legislature.
Restricting access for the 100 to get at the two doesn’t work, either. Between 2011 and now, opioid prescription rates in Sarasota County declined 15 percent. For the first couple of years, opioid deaths fell, but in 2014 they spiked again, reaching a record high in 2017.
The same thing happened nationwide: As opioid prescriptions rates fell in the last few years, opioid deaths skyrocketed.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and others, this is at least in part because restrictions on prescription opioids drive some people to get other, much riskier, black-market opioid-based drugs.
Opioid death rates are rising much faster than the rate of opioid use — meaning opioid use is getting deadlier. Statewide in Florida, deaths from fentanyl, a particularly risky synthetic opioid, and similar drugs increased over 10 times between 2013 and 2017. These are overwhelmingly consumed in the black market.
It’s time to change approaches. Rather than doubling down on what hasn’t worked for decades, we need to embrace harm-reduction approaches.
That means dealing constructively with the problems of drug abuse, rather than trying ineffectively to stamp it out. It entails using public health options, including medical-assisted treatment, needle-exchange programs, safe-use sites, and deregulation of naloxone (a drug that revives those dying of an overdose). It means trying to help people get off drugs and, meanwhile, keeping them alive, rather than locking them up, which won’t help them.
Decades of international experience with these policies show they reduce overdose deaths, the spread of diseases, and abuse of drugs.
A Miami-Dade pilot project started in 2016 has proved this efficacy, replacing hundreds of thousands of dirty needles with clean ones, reversing more than 1,000 overdoses with naloxone, and enrolling over 1,000 drug abusers in programs to help them. The county saw a decline in opioid-related deaths while they spiked elsewhere in 10 states.
The state is taking an important step to helping Florida’s local governments pursue this approach. The state House and Senate have both passed version of a bill to expand this pilot program to counties that want it.
This would be a huge opportunity for Sarasota County to constructively and effectively tackle our increasing opioid crisis. We should grab it with both hands.
This article first appeared in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Adrian Moore, Ph.D., is vice president of policy at Reason Foundation, a non-profit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.
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There is a long series of legal precedents demonstrating that Gov. Whitmer’s proposed rule is unconstitutional.
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Marijuana Delivery: Addressing Concerns and Public Policy Issues
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The Case for Increasing Domestic Oil Production
Why America can and must produce more oil
By Jon Basil Utley
Oil is the world’s most critical and scarce energy resource. Only oil is easily divisible, transportable, and vital for most transportation. Japan’s shuttered nuclear plants mean new demand for more millions of barrels of fuel oil to generate electricity for its cities and factories. Libyan oil production will now be shut down for months or years. There is almost no spare capacity in world production.
Here’s a tough fact to face: World prosperity is critically dependent upon the stability of a single decrepit, corrupt dictatorship in Saudi Arabia. While the regime there has been quick to put down calls for expanded rights, the protests for political, civil, and economic rights continue. Chaos in Saudi Arabia, which produces about 12 percent of the world’s oil, would cause such shortages of oil in Asia and Europe that the whole world could be thrust into major economic crisis. Closed factories in China, Japan, and Korea would crash commodity prices and world trade. Banks would again be tottering and calling in loans. Russia with its supplies would have a stranglehold over a dependent Europe. And Americans might be lined up for hours at gasoline stations, maybe with ration cards.
Saudi Arabia’s status quo hangs by a thread on the lives of an 86-year-old king and an 85-year-old prince. They are the last surviving direct heirs of old King Ibn Saud. After them will come jockeying and infighting among thousands of princes descended from Saud’s many wives and concubines from different tribes, none with a clear mandate to become the new absolute monarch. The Economistexplains the complicated maze of palace intrigue and notes that there are no rules for succession except for the ruling family to chose the “best qualified” prince, which in Arabic can mean “most capable” or “most virtuous.” There’s no way to know exactly how succession will play out, but even the present government is more vulnerable than it appears. The sick king’s hurried promise last week (finally) to allow first time municipal elections and his offer to create 60,000 new public sector “jobs” shows weakness, not a position of strength.
Yet for America, there is a way to greatly minimize, if not fully end, our dependence upon shaky Middle East dictatorships, including Saudi Arabia. With dependable Canadian production and using our own shut-in resources, we can vastly reduce our need for imports. This should be a vital, immediate national interest. America imports some 10 million barrels per day (bpd). Of this Canada sends us 2 million bpd (the amount is constantly increasing) and Mexico sends about 1 million bpd. Nigeria, Angola, and Venezuela send another 1.5 million bpd, all of which is pretty reliable. That comes to around 4.5 million bpd, which means that there’s 5.5 million bpd coming from less-reliable sources, including the Middle East.
If it were able to produce more freely, American oil production could ramp up significantly, reducing reliance on Saudi Arabian, Libyan, and other similar sources. Instead our oil industry is stymied, delayed, and denigrated by a president and Congress that continues to daydream about tiny and very expensive amounts of energy from solar power, windmills, and ethanol. Even with vast subsidies (Obama’s stimulus bill tossed $80 billion toward alternative energy), these sources produce a tiny fraction of American energy usage: One percent for windmills, and 1 tenth of 1 percent for solar. Most renewable energy comes from aging hydroelectric dams. Electric cars are expected to sell a few tens of thousands this year, compared to over 250 million registered gas-dependent cars on the road. These figures show some of the absurdity of most alternative energy hype.
In the Gulf of Mexico, deep-water drilling and exploration has been shut down for almost a year while permitting shallow wells in known fields is agonizingly slow. On land, Interior Secretary Ken Salazarrevoked oil drilling permits issued under the Bush administration, retroactively canceled already approved coal mining permits, and has thrown many new investments under a cloud of risk as companies fear more retroactive permit revocations. Environmental extremists file crippling, unending lawsuits precisely to cause costly, interminable delays and frighten off investors. As Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell’s recent speech to the National Press Club makes clear, environmentalist proposals to further limit oil drilling have been picked up by Obama’s appointees.
Here are six things the federal government could do to increase domestic oil production:
1) The Alaska pipeline now runs two-thirds empty. It alone could carry 1.5 million barrels more per day if Washington was to allow drilling at ANWR and in the shallow, 100-foot-deep waters close in offshore from fixed platforms or manmade islands. Instead, for example, Shell Oil has been sandbagged with purposeful delays, including a five year wait for a clean air permit over the Arctic Ocean.
2) The Gulf of Mexico could be producing another half million barrels per day within five years if permitting were expedited by the Department of the Interior. The catastrophic spill last April came after thousands of successful and safe deep water wells have been drilled. It was a freak accident compounded by serious human errors committed by BP, the (foreign) drilling company with one of the highest large company accident records in the industry. Various new procedures have made deep drilling even safer.
3) A crash program to provide abundant LNG (liquid natural gas-compressed to reduce its volume by a factor of 600) pumps at major interstate truck stops would encourage conversions from using diesel oil, which is imported. A thousand cubic feet of (compressed) gas equals the energy equivalent of seven gallons of diesel oil costing some four times as much. Merchandise transport accounts for 18 percent of oil usage. Already municipal trucks and buses are converting to natural gas; taxis could too. The price spread between diesel and compressed gas is very unlikely to change for many years, so there is plenty of incentive for truckers to buy their new trucks with LNG engines, but they need to be assured of fueling stations. For peanuts compared to all the subsidies for ethanol and solar cells, the government could help pay for these costs.
4) Modern oil production allows drilling horizontally miles and miles out in all directions from a single platform. Formerly wells could only drill straight down with a single pipe. Just a few platforms can now drill and produce from a wide area. They are not the eyesore of years ago. Allowing coastal states some of the royalties from offshore drilling would do wonders for curtailing opposition. Reasonable permissions for drilling off our Atlantic and Pacific coasts could produce more billions of barrels of oil. New technology is constantly triggering higher production, for example, with previously unusable oil shale (such as the Bakken fields in North Dakota) which actually caused an increase in yearly U.S. production. The prolific oil off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, scene of a spill 40 years ago, is in waters only 300 feet deep with wells 3,000 feet deep. Oil companies now routinely drill in 5,000 feet of water down to over 20,000 feet. Within a year California could be producing from fixed platforms which have a 15 year record of almost no serious spills out of 11,000 wells drilled.
5) Allow building of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada’s massive tar sands, which would bring in another half million barrels per day as production ramps up. However, environmental groups are fighting the project tooth and nail, arguing that it would contribute to global warming, because the sands need heating to separate out the oil. As the debate unfolds, China is already offering to buy the oil instead.
6) Congress needs to correct the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules to force it to make decisions within 30 days and to use rational measurements instead of a few parts per million as grounds for declaring any product hazardous and illegal. Special fast-track courts for environmental issues, as suggested by Tea Party leader Rep. Michele Bachman (R-Minn.), could be established to expedite environmental lawsuits.
The above projects could cut imports roughly in half from their current 10 million barrels per day andend dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. They involve very little cost for taxpayers, unlike alternative-energy schemes, and would produce hundreds of thousands of new jobs and tens of billions of new tax revenue for Washington. Admittedly, we may have to wait until Americans are waiting in gasoline lines to consummate any or all of the above, but these measures are the way to save ourselves and possibly the world economy from an oil shortage catastrophe. Additionally, it would undercut the rationale for the seemingly unending wars we’re now waging while trying to secure Middle East oil.
Jon Basil Utley is associate publisher of The American Conservative. He was a foreign correspondent for Knight Ridder newspapers and former associate editor of The Times of the Americas. For 17 years, he was a commentator for the Voice of America. In the 1980s, he owned and operated a small oil drilling partnership in Pennsylvania. This column first appeared at Reasonn.com.
Editor’s Note: The Obama administration’s $80 billion alternative energy subsidies were part of the stimulus, not a proposed budget.
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John Muir Statue
The statue by Ukranian artist Valentin Znoba, of the Scots-born American environmentalist, John Muir in Dunbar High Street, on 27th June 2019, in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. John Muir (1838–1914) also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks" was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America but spent his childhood in Dunbar until emigrating to America at the age of 11.
john_muir-01-27-06-2019.jpg
scottish scotland scots british britain uk john muir environmentalist scot american writer town dunbar east lothian birthplace home street immigration migration statue valentin znoba historical heritage past history times bygone era period
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Crazy Convert Capers
Posted: November 20, 2009 in Free Rad!cals
Tags: al muhajiroun, converts, Germany, Pakistan, radicalization, terrorism, UK
My latest over at FreeRad!cals, this one looking at a couple of convert stories which caught my eye. Khalid Kelly is the most fascinating, as I really wonder whether he is what he says he is, or whether this is bluster.
View more articles by Raff Pantucci
Filed under: Europe, Radicalisation
Two stories surfaced over last weekend which I have only now gotten around to processing properly – first is the case of Jan Schneider, the latest convert linked to the infamous Sauerland group that has the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) on high alert, and second is the case of Khalid Kelly, former head of Al Muhajiroun in Ireland (or at least one of its more prominent activists) who has now surfaced in the Swat valley.
Both stories are amusing in their own way thanks to their predictability. Jan Schneider is merely the latest in a list of sons of Germany linked to the Sauerland group who have gotten Germany’s security services into a high state of tension. An earlier scare with Eric Brenniger turned embarrassing when he released a video of himself running around an Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) training camp, ridiculing BKA concerns. And just before the elections, Bekkay Harrach, a young German-Moroccan, released a series of threatening videos which seemed to suggest that AQ or the IJU had a terror attack planned in the weeks after the recent elections. Nothing, however, surfaced which might mean nothing, or might mean everything (there was an earlier discussion about this on Free Rad!cals). This time concerns are focused that Schneider may do something in Afghanistan, maybe follow in the footsteps of Cuneyt Ciftici, another member of the broader Sauerland group network nicknamed the ‘Bavarian Taliban’ who has the dubious honour of being Germany’s first known suicide bomber.
The Khalid Kelly case is instead amusing for the bluntness of his “coming out” interview in the Sunday Times. In it he states “I’m already on the path to jihad….next week, inshallah, I could be in Afghanistan fighting a British soldier,” and if he is unable to locate a British one, he will “settle” for an American. Charming as they may be, such comments are not entirely new for a chap who once said “Osama bin Laden is a good man,” and who wishes that he had “been on those tube trains” on July 7, 2005. One imagines not in a passenger role.
Kelly is a known quantity and has been active in Al Muhajiroun circles since he came back from Saudi Arabia a changed man in 2002. Initially migrating to Saudi as a nurse, he was incarcerated for bootlegging and while inside converted to Islam. Upon returning to the UK, he started attending Omar Bakri Mohammed’s lectures and became an activist with his group. Schneider appears to be a brighter sort of chap: German authorities claim he is one of the intellectual figures on the Islamist scene with others seeking him out for advice, making him a possible leader. A German born in Kazakhstan (during the war Stalin brutally relocated Germans living in the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan as a pre-emptive measure), he uses the name “Hamza” (powerful), has a young family and apparently studied in Saudi Arabia for a while.
Tactically both cases are interesting in that they suggest two known European support networks feeding fighters to Afghanistan remain active. The converts angle is also interesting, however, as it highlights the high proportion of converts who appear in radical groups. Most major plots in the UK have counted a convert amongst their ranks – something that was explained to me as the product of the fact that often a convert can have a catalytic radicalizing effect on a group. Any individual who chooses to convert is clearly already very zealous – and if they are attracted towards an extreme path, it stands to reason that this zeal will follow them down this road. This in turn might drive those around them to greater lengths to prove their piousness.
It is unclear how useful Kelly will prove to be in Swat – by his own admission he is out of shape, 42 years old and seems a little under-prepared with only five hours training on an M-16. Schneider may seem scarier, but at the same time, the German government’s regular shouting of wolf about individuals in this network appears not to have been answered with any attacks, something one suspects is probably beginning to dull public belief in them.
Prevent Problems
Pathway to what?
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Fox Announces The Return of Empire & Star Beginning March 28
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TRENDING OMG INCREDIBLE FUNNY STORIES BIOGRAPHIES
Justin Bieber And Hailey Baldwin: The Whirlwind Romance That Surprised The World
By rumourjuice.com
Canadian music star Justin Bieber, 24, and American model Hailey Baldwin, 21 got engaged in July at the Bahamas this year. According to witnesses, The ‘Sorry’ singer is believed to have popped the question to the beautiful model Hailey in a crowded restaurant during their vacation. This comes as a surprise because Justin Bieber is known for his on and off relationships and only dated Hailey for a month. It looks like Bieber is serious this time and has decided to commit to her when he proposed to her he said: "Was gonna wait a while to say anything but word travels fast, listen to plain and simple Hailey I am so in love with everything about you!” It seems quite sudden considering the fact that they have been spotted out together only since mid-June, but the truth is they have actually known each other since 2009 and have dated before in the past. Yes, you heard that right!
The news started to filter first through Instagram. The story took everyone by surprise because Justin and Selena Gomez were reportedly dating early this year. According to sources Justin and Bailey were in a hotel in the Bahamas dancing and suddenly Justin said something very special was about to happen… then he turned to the model and asked if she wanted to be his wife, while all the witnesses applauded. The witnesses claim Justin's security told everyone in the restaurant to put their phones away while the singer proposed to Hailey in front of everyone there. We can't help but be happy for the young couple and seems like Justin Bieber's Dad, Jeremy Bieber is super proud of his son as he shared on his Instagram page.
Click the button below to see what's next or scroll down to read another exciting article!
Back1/8Next
Privacy Policy If you have any questions send us an e-mail All rights reserved. © 2017-2020 rumourjuice.com
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Foundational Documents
Instrument of Acknowledgment
Declaration of Intention
Declaration and Affidavit of the Overseer
Articles of Establishment of the Court of the Ekklesia
Court of the Ekklesia
Rolls of the Court
Land Claim Rolls
Seal of the Court
Bond of the Court
World Administrative Bodies
Notice to The Holy See
Adjudicating Paper and Posting Process for the Court
Verification and Proof of Service
Service and Delivery Tracking
Type-written Notice
Hand-written Notice
Registered Mail Receipts
Declaration Decrees of Corporations Sole Overseers
Panterra D'Oro Declaration of Status
Privy Council
GEMSTONE University
UR Global
/Privy Council
The PanTerra Privy Council
Category: Privy Council
The following is excerpted from the Notice to World Administrative Bodies:
Begin excerpt:
It is the right and authority of the Overseer of the Office of PanTerra D'Oro, A Corporation Sole to form the government of the Society, to wit:
"This Charter intends to establish a perpetual government to carry out the mission of the Society. The government of the Society is under the exclusive control of the Office of Overseer. The Person of the Overseer is hereby granted all powers necessary and sufficient to carry out the mission of the Society."
From: Original Articles of Establishment and Creation, styled as Articles of Acknowledgment without grant of jurisdiction, recorded by the Secretary of State of State of Washington and accepted thereby in his de jure original jurisdiction capacities, identifier number UBI 602 184 185.
Perforce standing as such right and authority, the Overseer has caused to be created and forthwith seated the Privy Council of the Office of Overseer, to fulfill his obligation and capacity to seat the government and to fulfill the Mission Intent of the Society as established and memorialized by the original Instrument of Acknowledgment and subsequent published Declaration of the Overseer and articles appended thereto.
End excerpt
The Overseer of PanTerra D'Oro has appointed and seated the Privy Council as the governing council of the Society in fulfillment of the Charter of PanTerra D'Oro, A Corporation Sole, and the PanTerra D'Oro Ecclesiastical Society. The Society and the Private Contract Association is private and the records of such are held within the private enclosure thereof; therefore, the identities of the members of the Privy Council remain private and closed to the public. For more information or for any requirements to make contact or communicate with the Privy Council, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
From time to time, if and as the Privy Council wishes to publish any notices to the public, they will be published in this section of the web site.
PanTerra Private Contract Association
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Venom 29.9
“Cuff,” I said. I used my bugs to talk. “Can you fix the platform? Make sure the floor is sturdy enough to hold our weight?”
“What are you thinking?” Golem asked.
“I’m thinking we go straight up, then exit onto whatever floor has the portal.”
“There are others inside,” Golem said. “Sveta, Weld, Shadow Stalker… prisoners.”
“They can wait,” I said. “There’s a lot of danger there. Sveta especially, if we turn a corner and run into her… We got Doormaker, we got the clairvoyant, we have Number Man, who I’m assuming is willing to cooperate?”
“We have video footage,” I said. “Of the facility, of the garden, of Scion. Stuff we can get to Tattletale. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get others up to date, and the better our chances of coming up with a plan before we run out of time. We send PRT squads and capes who can’t help against Scion to recapture Garotte and handle the prisoners.”
Golem nodded. “Makes sense.”
He and Cuff joined Alexandria in fixing a platform out of the hand we’d hidden inside.
Much of Cauldron’s internal structure was gone. We could see a cross-section above, where rooms had been sliced through. The energy of Scion’s beam continued to eat through it, leaving a tracery of gold to cut through the gloom, all the way up to the hole at the top. Maybe two-thirds remained, with the lab and everything essential gone. A hollow husk, and this empty space, like a missile silo open to the world.
An overcast sky loomed directly above us, and a kind of breeze reached us, maybe a thousand feet underground. It stirred flecks and fragments from the burned entity and the burned of the walls above into the air, a snowfall of pitch black flakes.
“I’m betting this isn’t so safe to inhale,” Imp said. “Bits of alien, bits of… metal ash?”
“Closer to soot, I’d think,” Golem said, without turning away from the platform in progress.
“It’s essentially human flesh,” the Number Man said. “Given the form the entity took and the research the Doctor did.”
“Oh, well then,” Imp said. She took in a deep breath. “That’s okay.”
“You joke? Now?” Lung asked. He sounded irritated.
“Especially now,” Imp said. “We hit him hard enough it mattered, we made him hurt. Be happy.”
Alexandria turned the platform around. We each stepped inside.
She hauled us skyward. Imp dropped down to her hands and knees.
She saw me looking, meeting me eye to eye. Or lens to lens, anyways. “You can fly. Why are you in here?”
“Limited fuel. Does it matter?”
“It’s more weight on this floor. If it breaks off, we all fall to our deaths.”
“Don’t be a wuss,” Rachel said.
“I’m not. Wussiness is being scared about something that isn’t scary. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to have a thing about shoddy constructions and drops from… oh… seventy stories up?”
“The Siberian’s protecting the shell,” I said. “Alexandria couldn’t break it if she tried.”
“It’s seventy-seven, by the by,” the Number Man said. He was surrounded by his Harbingers, the wounded piled at his feet. “We’ll be eighty-three floors up once we reach the top.”
“Here’s an idea,” Imp said. “Let’s change the topic. Like, say, it’s kind of nice to see you returning to form, boss.”
“Form?”
“Creep factor a thousand. You’re just standing there, and you shouldn’t be upright, with the way your weight is, but you are because of that flight pack, you’re not looking at anyone you talk to, not even opening your mouth. And when you’re talking, you don’t pause for breath or anything and there’s no emotion in your voice. I’d almost think you bit it, and your ghost lives on in the swarrrrmm.” She waggled her fingers as she drew out the last word.
“I’m alive,” I said. I made myself raise my head.
“Right. But you look dead, and that’s creepy, and that’s good, because creepy reminds me of old Skitter. Old Skitter was cool.”
I shook my head a little. Now that things were quieting down, my body was deciding to remind me of the pain in my arm.
I focused on my bugs. Searching the area. I didn’t have many, but two bugs floating a foot apart could fly at chest level and run into most people standing in a corridor.
A cluster of bugs died, wiped out by lashing tendrils.
Sveta made it.
There was a crackle, followed by a voice. “…ear me?”
“We’re here, Tattletale,” Golem said, raising a hand to his ear.
“Kinda got a little spooked there. Long time for radio silence.”
“Scion came,” Golem said. “And we spent a bit at the bottom of the complex. On our way back to you.”
“And the reason Taylor isn’t talking to me?”
“Your teammates are okay,” he said. “Weaver’s a little unsteady on her feet, using her bugs to talk. The mic wouldn’t pick that up.”
“Download video,” I said.
“Can you download the video?” Golem asked.
“Nope. I can watch in on the feed when I have a connection, or I can load the recording when I have the physical camera in my hand, but I can’t download.”
“And here I thought Dragon was a good tinker,” Imp said.
“It’s a camera the size of a sugar cube,” Tattletale said. “If you’re looking for the portal, you’re almost horizontal to it.”
I raised a hand for the benefit of the people without earbuds. “That floor.”
“Stop, Alexandria,” Number Man said. “Down a little.”
We departed. Rachel and the dogs hopped off at the same time, making the platform swing back a fraction, creating a two-inch gap.
I heard a yelp and turned back, but I couldn’t identify the source.
Sveta? Another prisoner?
“Let’s move fast,” I said.
We headed down the hallway. Alexandria had borrowed Cuff’s earbud and microphone and was communicating the basics to Tattletale. Which was fine by me, because it let me focus on more important things, like ignoring the pain and the possibility of attack from any direction. I could recognize the damage on the walls and furniture as we approached the portal. I could smell the salt water and the heavy odor of rotting seaweed on the air. A nostalgic smell, even if it wasn’t the exact same smell as home.
I saw Shadow Stalker, too, and in a way, I felt a different kind of nostalgia. Of being a little vulnerable, not at a hundred percent, and suddenly having this person appear, catching me off guard.
“You’re here,” I said.
“Nowhere else to go. Covered your rear for a bit, but when all hell broke loose, I headed back up this way.”
Was she telling the truth?
“Satyr bit it,” she said. “Others… I don’t know.”
“Others don’t matter,” I said. “Don’t say anything about Satyr for now.”
We made our way through the portal, entering the cave. It was unbearably bright, and I was thankful for the Dragonfly’s presence, blocking the worst of the sunlight.
“And they’re back,” Nix said, from above us. She was still held against the wall by Golem’s bindings
“Fantastic,” Spur answered.
“Tell us where the heroes are. No nonsense,” I said. “Fake wall, fake rock, wherever. Talk.”
“Let’s hear what you’re offering in exchange,” Nix said.
“No,” I responded. I used my bugs to open the Dragonfly’s ramp.
“You don’t know that they’re safe,” Spur said. He smiled a little.
“If you want to know what happened to Satyr, explain,” I said. “Waste any time, and we leave and send the PRT here to investigate. You won’t get any answers.”
“Hard sell?” Spur asked. “Satyr can handle himself.”
“Apparently not,” Imp said. Someone elbowed her.
I was already turning to float up the ramp.
He’s only wasting my time. Trying to buy a moment to figure out a tactic to approach this negotiation.
“I know we’re in a rush…” Golem started, as he hurried after me. “But-”
“I care about Revel too,” I said. I raised my head to look at him. “But I care about the world more.”
I could see Golem’s eyes through the eyeholes in his helmet. A frown. “I’ll stay,” he said. “In case anyone comes through, and so I can search for them.”
“Good idea,” I said. I thought about it. “What Satyr was saying… Blowout might have done something to their heads.”
“I remember Satyrical saying something along those lines. Stunning presence.”
“It’s not a power in the records, not something long-term like this. But it fits. There was a string of people found in Vegas with varying amounts of brain damage. Some permanent,” I said.
I could see his eyes widen. “He did? We were interacting with them all that time, and you knew he could have done something like this to Revel? We let them go?”
“I’m telling you so you’re prepared,” I said. “The reason we didn’t do anything, the reason you shouldn’t do anything, is because this isn’t a time for grudges, vendettas and revenge. It only sets us back.”
“Right,” he said.
“But I don’t need to say that,” I said. “You’re not the type to cross the line in pursuit of revenge.”
“No,” he said, sighing. “I’m not.”
I forced myself to raise my good left hand, and I settled it on his shoulder. The movement, the minor exertion, it made my burned stump throb.
“Thank you. For caring about Revel,” I spoke with my own voice, quiet, a little strained. “Makes me feel less guilty about leaving.”
“Cuff,” I said. “Stay with Golem? Two of you to watch two of them.”
“Everyone else, on board,” I said.
They boarded.
With Dragon active, I didn’t need to get in the cockpit. I could have ordered the A.I. to handle autopilot, with Dragon to keep an eye on things and manage the ship.
But I made my way to the chair anyways. I eased myself down, then set everything into motion. I put things on autopilot, and then I fiddled with the search keys until I’d found the video feeds.
A chance to sit, to catch my breath. Couldn’t deal with people, and I wasn’t up to any exertion at all, even talking. Talking meant navigating the politics of the group, of taking people into account.
I only wanted to distract myself from the pain of the burn, the rough, blackened wound where my arm should have been. I could push through it, but I was counting every second until I had some relief.
The feeds showed the three key outposts where the PRT had a presence. The largest settlements that remained, the most obvious targets. There was one in Zayin, but the Sleeper had followed the refugees in there. Even if it still stood after Scion’s visit, there was no helping any of the refugees there.
The C.U.I. had seized one settlement for themselves. A problem that needed dealing with, but our window of time for that sort of thing was past. The battle was on. Scion was pissed off. We were his target, and this time he wasn’t letting up.
Three settlements, and Earth He was under attack. Western Europe and Northern Africa, minus the English speakers. The Guild, the Suits, the Meisters, more teams I struggled to place in the chaos.
Khonsu and Leviathan, and capes I recognized as the ones Cauldron had taken. A whole army.
“Dragonfly,” I spoke, using my swarm. “Give the others a view of this.”
“Dragonfly,” I said, using my real voice. I hissed in a bit of breath between clenched teeth. “Put this feed on the other monitors.”
The other monitors lit up.
A cape flung Leviathan. Scion floated to one side to avoid the incoming Endbringer. Leviathan, in response, extended the fins the Simurgh had given him, arresting his forward momentum, and then swam through his own afterimage as it crashed into him, changing direction in mid-air.
He crashed into Scion, his fins tearing through the golden man. Golden mist billowed away as Leviathan found a grip on Scion and continued the assault.
Leviathan was blasted away, heaved into the ground with a force that made everyone present stumble. Scion then retaliated, striking first the cape that had thrown Leviathan, then Leviathan himself.
The Endbringer was clipped, losing a fin on one hand, but he got his feet under him and ran, trailing all of the disintegration fins on and inside the rocky ground beneath him. The mist billowed, Leviathan used it to mask himself from Scion’s view, changing direction the moment he was out of sight.
Scion hit him anyways. Leviathan disappeared out of the camera’s view.
Scion didn’t let up. His actions before had been slow, methodical. Now there was nothing of the sort. No pause, no break. The moment he couldn’t follow up on Leviathan, he struck others.
Capes erected defenses, Dragon’s Teeth dodged and opened fire with laser pistols. Some took shelter behind the pillar that Khonsu had erected. Whatever defensive effect Khonsu had used to wall people inside served to block Scion’s attack.
Scion maintained the attack, picking off anyone who wasn’t behind a good enough defense. Blasts, spheres, hundreds of narrow lasers, bigger lasers.
Several capes, it seemed, had the ability to transmit a power or a set of powers to others on an epidemic level. I could see how it spread through the crowd, from one cape to the nearest unaffected cape. Masses of individuals erecting forcefields, little circles no broader across than a large umbrella.
Alone, the shields were too weak. Together, the shields were still too weak. Scion’s golden lights ripped through the massed rank and file.
Two minutes, maybe three or four, Scion finally stopped. All around him, capes were broken. Any who had actually managed to get his attention by being strong enough or problematic enough had been obliterated. The rest had been taken to pieces. Wounded severely enough they were out of the fight, not so severely they would certainly die. Limbs removed, flesh burned, body parts broken by the damage to nearby ground, eyes or whole faces ruined.
Dragon’s ships were broken, with a number starting to rebuild and regenerate. The capes who remained were the ones who were behind defenses so secure they couldn’t also attack.
There was a pause in the assault. Most of the defending capes had been annihilated.
The camera afforded a glimpse of Scion’s face, tinted an orange-red by the forcefield between Scion and the camera. His eyebrows were drawn together, lips just a little tighter together. Lines standing out in his throat.
He hadn’t changed his expression once in the time we’d known him.
He hit Khonsu’s group. The blast hit the edge of Khonsu’s time effect.
Scion threw another, and it passed through. The capes didn’t even have time to react. the light detonated like an artillery shell on impact, tearing through the group.
Another soon appeared, to follow. Khonsu teleported, taking the group with him.
A whole flight of Dragon’s craft were joining the fray, and reinforcements were arriving. A share of the capes from Gimel.
Scion left.
And he promptly appeared on another screen.
Catching our side off guard, tearing into us with a fresh kind of violence, not experimentally, but out of some form of impotent rage.
“He’s angry, like Golem said,” Imp observed. “You could see it on his face.”
“Yes,” Number Man replied.
“But he’s not demolishing the continent,” she said. “We know he can. So… how come?”
“It’s a good question,” the Number Man said. “We can only guess.”
“I’m open to guesses,” Imp said.
“I prefer to deal with facts,” the Number Man said. “Let’s leave the guessing to your Tattletale.”
The other battle was unfolding. Much the same.
No, was he hitting harder, here? A little less forgiving?
If this was his first time feeling true grief or true anger, then it could be his first time exploring coping mechanisms.
Venting through anger. How long until he realized that this wasn’t enough and tried something more severe?
I closed my eyes. I wanted to focus, to take in any and all information about Scion that I could, but my body wasn’t up to it. If Panacea wasn’t available, then getting painkillers from the first aid kit onboard would only slow things down when I did get medical attention. Besides, they wouldn’t be strong enough to help here.
Had to weather this. Only a few minutes.
Deep breaths.
I could hear the Number Man with my bugs. “Can’t remember. Was it Bitch or Hellhound?”
“Bitch,” Rachel said.
“Bitch. Colorful. You know, it’s surprising the things you can survive, if you know the mechanics of movement, of physics and the structure of the human body… you hear about people surviving falls from seventeen thousand feet up in the air…”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No, no. Not at all.”
“Then what are you yammering on about?”
“I share Imp’s fears, on a level. We’re a good height above the water, and I can’t help but see a bit of our pilot’s reflection in the window. She looks a little peaked. Would you mind keeping an eye on her, making sure she doesn’t stop breathing?”
“I’m okay,” I said. I grit my teeth. “Four or so minutes and we’re there.”
“Very reassuring. But maybe-”
“She’s fine,” Rachel said.
But I could hear the distinct sound of her footsteps and the claw-on-metal-flooring racket as she and her dogs approached. She stood beside my chair, back to the window, and put one steel-toed boot up on my armrest.
“Not because of what he said,” Rachel said. Her body faced me, but her head was turned to look out the window. “Keeping you company.”
“Yeah,” I said.
It was appreciated.
The craft shuddered slightly as we set down on the roof of the restaurant that had been rendered a makeshift hospital. I was stirred from a daze I hadn’t realized I was in.
My eyes roved over the screens, taking in one last glimpse as the ramp opened.
Things weren’t much different from before. The defense took a different form, they had Bohu and Tohu with them, and they were reshaping defenses to buy the defenders a little slack. But Dalet had taken heavy losses in an initial attack.
There were more people running for their lives than there were people fighting.
“The fight’s almost over,” I said.
“I said this a moment ago,” Lung said, his voice deep, almost accusatory.
Without my asking, Rachel gave me a hand in standing, putting one hand under my left armpit and helping bring me to my feet.
I pushed onward, ignoring Lung. “Okay. He attacks this settlement next, probably. Then we find out what his next move is.”
“Quite a few dead,” Alexandria said.
She was making a habit of surprising me when she spoke. It tended to sound unlike the Alexandria I’d gotten to know in the interrogation room back at the Brockton Bay PRT headquarters. Obviously because she was really Pretender, but that was a hard fact to keep in mind. It was hard to shake my mental image of Alexandria sitting across the table from me.
“Yes,” I said. We started making our way down the ramp.
The Number Man mused, “It’s very possible he’ll go back to Earth H, start the cycle anew. Or he hits a world or two we’re not in touch with and then hits Earth H.”
“Or,” I said, “he realizes that this isn’t serving to vent his anger over what happened to his partner, and he steps up the aggression some.”
Gimel was entirely different. Nilbog had been hard at work, creating a horde of minions. Buildings had been reinforced, shored up with shelves of what looked to be obsidian. Capes were gathered in bands, and all were at attention, ready for an attack at any moment.
The dead and the wounded, I noted, had been cleared away.
The Number Man opened the door leading to the stairwell and the back of the restaurant-turned field hospital.
“You’re back, Lung,” Panacea said. “Ah. You’ve got wounded with you.”
“Yes,” Lung said.
I could see Panacea’s entourage. Marquis, Bonesaw, and Marquis’ followers, minus a few members. A man so tidy he beat out the Number Man in neatness, one with arms black from fingertip to elbow and dyed blond hair teased into spikes. A man so covered in chains and black tattered cloth I couldn’t make out his actual features. They had sandwiches in hand, no doubt put together from supplies that had been shipped in.
“Any priorities?” she asked.
“Skitter,” Imp said, at the same time I said, “Doormaker.”
“Don’t be dumb,” Imp told me.
Panacea shrugged, “We can look after two at a time. I can see what happened to Skitter. What’s Doormaker’s wound?”
“Traumatic damage to the cranium,” Alexandria-Pretender said. “He’s never been all there, mentally, but we need his brain in one piece.”
“The Cauldron capes are tougher,” Panacea said. “Bonesaw? Can you give it a shot?”
“Will do,” Bonesaw said. She sounded tired. None of the perkiness or endless cheer that had defined her as a villain.
Well, being a good guy was harder, really.
I used my flight pack to raise up, then laid flat on the countertop.
“Pain relief and essentials only, please,” I said. “Then the others. The Doormaker’s partner, then Gully and Canary. I’ll go last.”
Panacea glanced over her shoulder, as if checking that was okay.
“Ignore her,” Imp said. “She’s being dumb.”
“Most of the others can do more in a fight than I can. They need everything in working order. I can function without an arm.”
“Whatever,” Panacea said. “Works for me, actually.”
Then she touched me, and the pain went away. I relaxed so suddenly I felt like I’d suddenly become part liquid. I’d been so tense my head wasn’t even touching the countertop, my legs and shoulders tense.
“Thank you,” I said. “Thanks.”
“You have a high pain tolerance,” she said.
“One of Bakuda’s bombs, way back when,” I said. “I think it messed with my head, as far as my perception of pain. I found out what it’s really like to feel pain, real ten-out-of-ten pain. A part of me knew it was too much to be true, and other stuff’s affected me more because I knew it was tied with something real. Case in point, a burn is still a motherfucker.”
“Well, we’ll fix it,” she said.
I nodded. I was happy to be able to nod. I watched her face while she worked, because there wasn’t much else to look at. A young woman now, not attractive but not unattractive, her face still covered from forehead to chin in freckles, frizzy brown hair tied back with bandanna to keep the hair out of her face. Her shirt had the sleeves rolled up to the shoulders, and I could see blood and smears of black here and there.
I felt a pang of envy.
She’d been just as lost as me. Maybe more lost, maybe not. I’d had friends, but that didn’t necessarily mean I’d had a rudder. But she’d found herself. She’d found a path and she’d found something she could do. She had a role in this.
I looked away.
My bugs were stirring throughout the area, as I gathered my forces and replenished my supply. I could sense people outside. Tattletale was among them, laptop tucked under one arm. She reached the door and paused, glancing up at the sky.
For an instant, I thought it was because Scion was here. He was due.
But she pulled the door open and walked inside.
Panacea looked up. I could see her eyes narrow a bit. “You weren’t invited, Tattletale.”
“Business,” Tattletale said, waltzing in anyways. “Someone camera me.”
There was a clatter as Tattletale unceremoniously dropped the laptop down on a table.
Imp was the first to get the camera off her mask and throw it to Tattletale. Tattletale set about extracting a chip. “So. Harbinger zero.”
The Number Man made a pained face. “You couldn’t call me Harbinger Ten? Or even Number Man?”
“I could. I hope you’ve got some good, juicy tidbits for us to work with, H-zero.”
“Very little that’s concrete. This is all very much guesswork.”
“Then let’s talk hypotheses,” she said. “Educated guesses.”
“Scion’s upset,” I said.
“Yeah,” Tattletale said. “His buddy died, I gather?”
“Yeah,” Imp said. “And we threw bits of his dead buddy at him to distract him before dropping a skyscraper on him. But I dunno how much that did.”
“You accomplish your goal, in the middle of all that?” Tattletale asked.
“We found out second triggers aren’t a real possibility,” I said. “Formulas either. But if we want to do the second trigger thing, Contessa should be able to point the way. It could mean extra firepower, or buying time.”
“She wasn’t there?” Tattletale asked.
“I assumed she was with Khonsu.”
“According to the attackers, she died,” the Number Man said. “Mantellum’s power was the rock to her scissors.”
“You failed,” Shadow Stalker said.
I frowned. She wasn’t entirely wrong. “Our best bet was a special kind of Cauldron formula, and he nuked them. Cauldron let Mantellum slip past their radar, so maybe there’s a chance there’s another Cauldron cape out there who got that special kind of formula, with a game-breaking power. Something that isn’t in Scion’s model.”
“Unlikely,” the Number Man said. “Mantellum slipped by us because he had a power that countered perception powers. The sort of power we’d need against Scion would be an offensive one, and I doubt we’d let things slip so badly in vetting those powers.”
“You’re a real downer, you know that?” Imp asked.
Panacea let go of my stump and walked over to where the Doormaker’s partner was lying. I supposed the essential fixes were done. I checked my stump, and found the burned skin was sloughing off.
“Don’t touch,” Panacea ordered, looking at me out of the corner of one eye.
I let my hand drop, then sat up.
“The biggest thing,” I said, “Was that Scion was wrong. He can see the path to victory, and from the vision we saw, we know that he can make mistakes. He plotted for a future that would be sure to reunite him and his partner… and he got his wish. It was just that his partner was brain-dead, gutted, useless.”
“Sooo,” Imp said. “We help him reach a future where he eradicates humanity, trick him, he waltzes away.”
“His goal isn’t to eradicate humanity,” Tattletale said. “It’s to destroy most of it. Remember? Dinah never said he’d destroy all of us.”
“If you destroy ninety-nine point nine percent of humanity,” the Number Man said, “We’ll die out.”
“Probably,” Tattletale agreed. “But he’s not going that far. He’s leaving options open. He’s got one singular purpose. To continue his species’ life cycle. To do that, he needs a partner.”
“Can we give him one?” I asked.
Tattletale smirked. “Kind of hard to pull off. A lot of bases to cover, and a lot of areas where we don’t have enough info.”
“But I’m asking if we can give him one. Can we fake him out, give him what he wants and buy ourselves some breathing room?”
Marquis stepped away from the back of the kitchen. He watched as Bonesaw dug through Doormaker’s skull cavity. “It could upset him, more than he’s already been upset. Speaking as someone who recently recovered the thing I want most in the world, the only thing scarier than the idea of losing that thing is the reality of what I’d do for revenge.”
“Upsetting him is good,” Imp said. “Right?”
“Right,” I said. “He can be affected emotionally. Not by emotion-affecting powers, I don’t think, but he’s influenced by his feelings. That’s good. That’s something we can use.”
“You want to irritate the world-destroying alien god,” one of Marquis’ men said.
“I want to get him to a point where he might make a mistake,” I said. My eyes moved to Shadow Stalker. It’s how we captured her in the first place. “It’s a starting point.”
“Starting points are only that,” Lung said. “I can understand if you would start this with your enemy off-balance, then fight him knowing you can hurt him, but he cannot be truly hurt.”
“Tea, anyone?” Marquis asked, interjected.
Lung nodded. I raised my good hand. Panacea nodded as well.
“Green?” he asked me. “The others drink green.”
“Black. With milk.”
He turned his attention to the kettle.
I looked at Lung, taking a deep breath before speaking. “Not starting this isn’t an option. If we wait until an idea comes up, then we’re going to be too late. We start this, reckless as it may be, and we leave a door open.”
“For failure as well as success,” Marquis said, on the far end of the room, his attention on emptying the kettle into the individual mugs.
“What would you suggest, then?” I asked. I might have come across a little hostile in the process.
“I would counter your question with a question,” Marquis said. “Who do you see on the front lines? Which heroes and villains are still fighting? Which ones keep returning to the battlefield, before any of the others have even found their feet?”
I’d thought something like this to myself. “The monsters, the ones that are a little crazy, the ones that are a lot crazy.”
“Not quite the answer I would have given,” Marquis said.
“Which answer would you have given?” I asked.
“I would say it’s the people who are most in touch with who they truly are,” Marquis said.
“Same thing,” I responded. “We’re all fucked up, we’re all damaged, a little crazy, a little monstrous.”
He frowned a little. “People here might take offense to that. Myself included.”
“No offense intended.”
“There’s a strength in knowing who you are. I would suggest that everyone play to that knowledge. Reflection, after all, is the province of the old. It’s in your final days that you sum up your experiences, weigh the good against the bad, think back to the pivotal moments, and decide if you’ve made your mark. Others go through this sooner, the terminally ill. Those that expect to die.”
“I don’t get it,” Rachel said.
“Are you happy with who you are?” he asked.
“In a general sense, do you know what you’re doing in the next few hours and days?”
Rachel looked at me. “Yeah.”
“Is there something in common between those two things?”
Bitch made a face, “Kind of?”
There was a distant rumble. A roar rose through the air, a series of shouts and warnings all coming in unison, mingling together into a singular noise.
He’s here.
It’s unending. The same thing over and over again. Destruction, an enemy we can’t truly beat, always just a little worse than the last time.
Rachel left, no question. Imp lingered, but followed, sticking to Rachel like glue. I saw Alexandria, Number Man and the Harbingers go, then Marquis and his followers, Lung excepted.
“Hey, Amelia,” Bonesaw said. “Gift wrap this one for me?”
Panacea stepped away from the eyeless clairvoyant, touching Doormaker. I watched as the bone at his forehead started to knit together, and was then covered with flesh.
He jolted a little, and then sat up.
“You were bleeding into your brainpan,” Bonesaw said. “You’re going to feel crummy.”
He raised a hand, reaching out, floundering.
“Wait, did I fuck him up?” Bonesaw asked.
“No, he was screwed up before,” I said. “He’s looking for his partner.”
Lung grabbed the Clairvoyant, then staggered a little.
It’s based on touch, I realized.
I used my bugs to draw a cord out. They wrapped it around one finger and held it straight out to Doormaker. Panacea grabbed it and tugged a little, leading the blind Clairvoyant to his partner.
They held hands.
Then doors unfolded, throughout my range.
Most of the others had left. Tattletale was focused on her laptop, participating in the battle in a sense, even if she was still here.
Bonesaw and Panacea, too. They were cleaning the tables, moving things aside and getting organized, preparing for the battle to come.
The ones who hadn’t left yet were Shadow Stalker, Lung and I.
“Am I safe to go?” I asked.
At my question, as if I’d somehow prodded her, Shadow Stalker left.
“You can,” Panacea said. “But let me thicken the skin, so your stump doesn’t pop like a water balloon.”
“Let’s,” I said.
She touched my stump.
“I asked to be last for a reason,” I said.
She looked up, curious.
“You know, what your dad was saying? I kind of wish he’d finished. I feel like I was on the brink of coming to a conclusion.”
The sounds outside were getting worse. Doormaker opened a portal beside us. Safety?
It was something to do. I helped the others lead the patients through. Lung carried two of the wounded Irregulars. We entered a cave with a very flat bottom, open to the elements. A nice day, so different from the chaos and ugliness that was in New Brockton Bay.
“My dad and I have talked about this a good bit. Why?”
“I dunno. Finding our role, finding our place? Lung and I are the only ones who haven’t left or started preparing for the fight. Well, us and the wounded. The others know where they’re at. Even Imp, without any power that can really do something, is out there with Rachel, giving guidance. But Lung and I? We’re both pretty proud individuals, and we don’t have a role in this. Like Lung said, he can’t attack Scion until this is over.”
Lung had brought the last few through. All of us settled out of the way of the portal door, in case a beam came blasting through. “I have a job. I will protect these girls.”
“I think you know what I mean. You’re pissed, on a level, because you’re not a part of all of this. You’re better than this job you’ve been given.”
He folded his arms, but he didn’t disagree.
“There’s a psychiatric term for this,” Bonesaw said. “Projection.”
“No. Skitter is right,” Lung said, looking irritated. “I am more than a bodyguard.”
Reinforcements were arriving at the outskirts of the settlement, using Doormaker’s doors.
“I feel like I’m on the brink of finding where I need to be,” I said. “I sort of have the power to act, I sort of have a role. I can communicate, I can scout, I’m versatile enough to combine my powers with others. I can figure out ways to attack, I can brainstorm. But something’s missing. Like Lung says, I feel like I’m better than this. What Marquis was saying struck a chord.”
“Think back to the time in your life when you were strongest,” Panacea said.
Not a time when I had the Dragonfly or the flight pack. It was when I was fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine, Alexandria, Defiant and Dragon.
“Times when you were most scared,” she said.
The same times.
“I think those are the times when you’re most like you. And it sucks, I know. It’s horrible to think about it like that, because at least for me, it wasn’t a time when I liked myself. Just the opposite.”
“But you came to terms with it.”
“I owned that part of me,” she said. “And I can barely look Carol and Neil in the eyes, because of it. But I’m secure in who I am, and I can do this. Healing people, being a medic for the people fighting on our side.”
The image I’d seen on Glenn’s computer screen crossed my mind. Me, unrecognizable even to myself, surrounded by the swarm.
I’m just a little bit of a monster, I thought. I can’t put the blame on my passenger.
I exhaled slowly. I could hear the Simurgh’s screaming.
“Will you help me?” I asked.
“Help?” Panacea asked.
“Imp reminded me of a moment. Of something Bonesaw said, when she was carving into my head. A threat. That she was going to mess with Grue’s head, take away his ability to control his power. She was going to do the same to me.”
“I think I know what you’re thinking,” Bonesaw said. “Even if I did anything there, it’d probably fuck up your head.”
“I haven’t done anything in that department, but I’ve gotten enough glimpses to guess you wouldn’t come back from it,” Panacea said. “No fixes, no patching it up. It’d be like trying to plug a leak with water gushing out full force.”
“Second triggers are about knocking down walls,” I said. My eyes fell on Bonesaw. “Removing restrictions the entity put in place. If this part of the brain is a part that the entity shaped to help regulate powers on our end, then I need you to de-regulate.”
“If it was that easy, I would’ve done it for all the other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine.”
“I’m not thinking it’s easy,” I said, my voice quiet.
Some capes came through. They brought two wounded through the portal, laying them out on the flat rock floor beside us. Panacea and Bonesaw bent down, getting to work.
“Give me a minute and I’ll try,” Bonesaw said. She was patching up a cape that had been disemboweled. She looked over her shoulder at Tattletale, who had set up in a far corner. “But I gotta say, I’m giving you a ninety-nine percent chance of coming out of this with regrets. Maybe you should run it by Tattletale, there?”
I looked back at Tattletale.
“You’re going to lose your mind. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Maybe all at once, maybe in pieces. Depends on how it all reconnects in the end,” Bonesaw said.
“Tattletale would stop me,” I said. “She’d…”
See it as something self-destructive, suicidal.
I shook my head a little. “…No. Keep her in the dark, for the time being. Let her focus on what she’s doing.”
“Okay,” Bonesaw said. “She’s going to figure it out pretty fast, though.”
I saw Panacea fidget. She was kneeling by Canary.
“Riley,” Panacea said.
Bonesaw looked at her… whatever Panacea was to her.
“I’ll handle it.”
“You don’t do brains.”
“I’m inexperienced, yeah,” Panacea said. “But even inexperienced, I think I can do a cleaner job than you. And Tattletale’s less likely to catch on if you aren’t sawing Taylor’s skull open.”
“I wasn’t talking about experience,” Bonesaw replied.
Panacea stared down at her hands, covered in tattoos, with a rich, vibrant red in the gaps.
“This isn’t a solution,” she said, without looking up. “You said a second trigger wouldn’t work. This is… it’s so crude you couldn’t even call it a hack job.”
The Simurgh’s screaming continued.
Dinah had left me two notes.
The Simurgh had reminded me of the second.
‘I’m sorry.’
It wasn’t an apology for the consequences of the first note. No, Dinah hadn’t approached me since. She hadn’t decided I’d fulfilled the terms and deemed it okay to finally contact me again.
Two words, telling me that something ugly was going to happen. Directed at me.
There was a chance that it meant I’d lose someone, or I’d lose something precious. Maybe it referred to my friends. Maybe it referred to my mission, my direction. My dad, perhaps, which might have already happened.
But there was a possibility that it referred to me. That it was tied to our ability to come out ahead at the end of all this. To some slim chance.
Maybe there was a sacrifice involved.
I shook my head, unable to articulate any of the arguments, to come up with something profound to say. I only said, “Do it.”
Panacea laid her hand across my forehead.
And it all went wrong.
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497 thoughts on “Venom 29.9”
Thanks, guys, for reading. Last chapter of the arc.
No bloody idea what I’m doing for an interlude. A reader pointed out a bad pattern I’d been falling into and it was a really good heads up. It restructured how I wrote the end of this arc, and extended it by roughly three chapters.
I’m glad it did what it did, storywise, but it also took that general maybe-sorta rough outline I had in my head, as far as how this arc and the start of the next would go, and it nuked it. So I feel like I’m on shakier ground, and again, no idea what I’m doing interludewise.
There’s no bonus chapter this Thursday. I’d love to do one, and I’m more disappointed than any of you, but I’m traveling, so it’s not easy to pull off. In similar circumstances, I’ve pulled all nighters to get chapters done in the past, but those same circumstances led to what I feel is the weakest arc. I don’t want to do that at this juncture.
Thanks for reading guys. Your votes on Topwebfiction continue to be appreciated, as does your continued reading. As an aside, I’m amazed by how the readership is growing. Like, ‘Is this real life?’ amazed. Easier to show than tell: http://oi42.tinypic.com/2nq73hh.jpg
Now for the end of Taylor’s story.
theant87 on October 8, 2013 at 00:45 said:
The End is near. NOOOOO!
Archmage9885 on October 8, 2013 at 00:54 said:
I’m still hoping for a Glaistig Uaine interlude.
Psycho Gecko on October 8, 2013 at 01:52 said:
Is that views or visitors?
Nevermind, I think I found that part. Was comparing.
Views.
Don on October 8, 2013 at 14:25 said:
That said views per day.
That can’t be right. 27k views per DAY?
Average, but yes.
anonymus on October 9, 2013 at 09:59 said:
what was the highest views per day you ever had?
Rika Covenant on October 9, 2013 at 17:34 said:
How many came through from BillyVsSnakeman, if any?
I set a record high of 113 average a day for September. So…um…woohoo?
*sets off a bottle rocket that sputters, flies up, drops to ground level, zooms around in a circle, then explodes.*
*monotone* Yay.
agreyworld on October 17, 2013 at 08:03 said:
I love comparing too, what fun!
27k a day… Crazy
Rule #1 of (mostly) retaining sanity: Do not compare your stuff to Worm.
Do not compare your number of hits to Worm, do not compare your word count to Worm. That way lies tears and a deep bucket of ice cream. And not in a good way.
There’s always room for growth but 113 is a respectable number. For me that would be “Woo! A bunch of people beyond my immediate friends and family are reading this! \o/” territory…
Psycho Gecko on August 21, 2014 at 02:39 said:
What makes you think I have immediate friends and family reading me?
No, what I have are a bunch of people finding me through some very odd search terms.
pizzahedron on August 17, 2015 at 14:37 said:
how do i find you?
oh, i tried looking and i think that worked.
Psycho Gecko at World Domination in Retrospect is generally the place to hunt me down. Plus, there should be a link there from the side around here.
Philippe Saner on October 8, 2013 at 06:27 said:
Wow. That is some pretty steep growth.
overpoweredginger on October 8, 2013 at 09:20 said:
If you need an idea for an interlude, you could do one from Grue’s perspective while he and Cozen are at that cabin-thingy. I think I bitched about this in a comment somewhere, but Grue hasn’t done much in a while, I’d l like to learn more about Cozen, and it would be a good chance to fill in some information via flashback about what happened in Brockton Bay in Taylor’s absence.
Grue’s perspective’s already been done; that time when Imp orchestrated the home date between him and Skitter. Cozen, on the other hand…
heart on May 10, 2019 at 04:24 said:
I want to say something, but I feel like it might be a spoiler. But if you go back and re-read last chapter or so, Aisha says “and my brother” then stops. Consider that.
Qwerty on October 8, 2013 at 09:32 said:
If we have a “flashback” interlude, can we see Mouse Protector? My favorite character that almost doesn’t exist in the story
Hey now, you’ve gotten to see Mouse Protector a whole lot as that rat thingy running around when they fought the Slaughterhouse. Yep, Mouse Protector, perpetually melded to her nemesis.
demoscat on October 10, 2013 at 01:15 said:
Why is it when I see “Mouse Protector” I think of a mouse in a chastity belt?
Because you’re a perverted cat and you better wash those paws before touching me. You take “playing with your food” a little far, don’t you?
That’s a mighty twitchy tail you have there Gecko. It keeps flicking back and…. Whoa! There is goes again!
Hmm. Twitchy tail…. [Eyes dilate]
Oh Control, there’s two of them. Requesting immediate evac from this timeline. Readying antiplanetary strike. It’s kinder than the alternative.
If / stayed, there’s a good chance of something unprecedented.
AMR on October 8, 2013 at 10:22 said:
Since people have already suggested some possible interludes, something i was a bit leery (or cowardly, if you prefer 🙂 ) doing, may I propose Pretendria? So we can get some background on the Vegas capes and maybe understand what the hell Satyr was hinting about?
Pretendria’s been done too, sadly. During the Behemoth aftermath chapter.
Patrick Reitz (@dreamfarer) on October 8, 2013 at 11:05 said:
Oh look, seven words that are even more gut wrenching than the five that this chapter ended with.
Bravo for nuking your plans for how the arc would go too! That takes courage and, from what we’ve seen so far, you do some amazing work when you really challenge yourself. I am so looking forward to what’s left to come, whatever it may be.
negadarkwing on October 8, 2013 at 13:28 said:
Actually I’d kinda like an arc for Taylor’s shard/agent/passenger right about now that she’s fucking with the connection to it. Be interesting to finally find out just what it thinks.
>>Now for the end of Taylor’s story<<
Man, I just noticed that. I joined the comments sections with the chapter just before Cody's interlude, after a week or so of archive binging. Back then I had no idea when Worm would have ended but even now, when I knew we were at the closing stages, it still seemed far away. Oh we'll, I guess you can't escape the inevitable, can you? I can't say I'm not sad, but at the same I'm curious what other fabulous stories wildbow's wondrous imagination and creativity can offer.
Thank you for this fantastic journey, wildbow.
Thanks, AMR.
I’m terrified and excited and terrified for what comes after. Will they like it? Will it work? How many readers are going to leave and never come back? Am I going to be able to pull it off?
Spooky.
Asmora on October 8, 2013 at 18:33 said:
I, for one, will be here. At this point, I have more faith in you than possibly any other writer alive. I’ve seen your stumbles and your recoveries. I’ve seen you learn lessons. I’ve seen you improve and continue to improve. I’ve seen you deliver the fucking goods.
You could tell me that your next project is a non-fiction study of the economic history of Papua New Guinea, and I’d buy it. Even if it sucked, I’d probably buy the next thing, too.
Now I just need you to change your name to Neel, so that you, Neil Gaiman, and Neal Stephenson can be the trifecta of the best contemporary writers in the world and all spell your name differently.
WyldCard4 on October 9, 2013 at 00:08 said:
Personally I am extremely excited for Worm’s sequel and very optimistic.
I think one of the biggest problem for nearly every long running web serial I’ve encountered is the lack of an ending. I love the idea of seeing what else you can do. Making the transition to something else, even if I don’t like it as much as Worm, is something I would find very impressive.
I will definitely be sticking with you after Worm.
Random aside, the several comments by “Royal Flush” were me. I was doing something else on another blog and this carried over for some reason.
Ethan on October 8, 2013 at 21:31 said:
You were only getting a few thousand readers a month the first half-of this year?! That’s BS. Getting tens of thousands of visitors should have been the norm for this story for a while now.
Well, hopefully it will pay off when you release this thing in novel form. I’m hoping *that* will give you enough money to live off for quite a long time.
pidgey on October 8, 2013 at 23:39 said:
No. A few thousand readers per day. It’s now up to a few tens of thousands of readers per day.
the13thversifier on October 8, 2013 at 23:23 said:
27k view a day. I’d say you earned it the hardest badass possible way, almost 3 years in progress, every chapter got their own snicker-snack edges of cliff hangers, but that was all good
U are simply awesome
Royal Flush on October 9, 2013 at 00:05 said:
Obviously any statements on what interlude would be good should be taken with a grain of salt given you know a lot more about the characters than the readers do.
Also, almost all of the great interludes I wanted have been written.
Glaistig Uaine would be awesome and everyone wants it.
Sadboy interlude would be awesome. We’ve all been intrigued by him since we pieced together the odd apparent connection with Gray Boy. I am not entirely opposed to an interlude that reveals absolutely nothing about what happened to Taylor. I think it would be interesting whether or not the common fan theory that he is Gray Boy is correct.
Sveta might work, but it seems a bit too close for that given we just had so much of her.
I like the idea of a Sleeper interlude, but I think that would fit best as the last interlude or epilogue of Worm. Admittedly, we know almost nothing about him, but from what we do know it feels right.
Mantellum, the Custodian, and Doormaker or his counterpart all would seem like great interludes from my perspective. I kind of like the idea of more information on Cauldron.
We probably have about as much Endbringer as we should have at this point. We already got the alien perspective reveal at the right time, and you manipulated the perspective enough that you’re probably saving Simurgh for something.
I think a Manton/Siberian chapter would be awesome, but I kind of think that would work best later. For example, in the possible Worm interludes for a story that doesn’t have interludes within the setting. Similarly I would like an interlude for a relatively sympathetic clone of the Nine.
My main “wishlist” was mentioned back when we took the major time skip forward. These are all just ideas that strike me as really cool.
Ainix on October 9, 2013 at 09:39 said:
Would be interesting to get in Glaistig’s head. I’d really like to know how she’s been getting on (and finally understand her cryptic hints).
I hadn’t thought about Manton/Siberian, but that would be nice too (no rush though). Also the sympathetic Nine clone (preferably of Mannequin but I’m not sure if there are any left. Plus, he might not have the same memories.).
AliceAce on October 9, 2013 at 16:01 said:
I think it would be cool to see the partner/garden/Eden’s point of view. Find out why it was saying everything was ok before dying. And then there would probably be some sort of dramatic reveal of something that blows all our minds, which happens a lot.
Unrelated, but this is my first comment, despite being a lurker since sometime before Coil was killed, I think. (I don’t have a good sense of time.) But a long time for sure. I tore through the archive like a wild animal. I LOVE this series, and at the end of practically every chapter I expect the comments to consist entirely of ‘HOLY FUCKING SHIT X JUST HAPPENED AAAAHHHH’ or just ‘AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH’ because that’s like all I can think (I get worked up reading. People look at me funny because I’ll like laugh or scream out loud while sitting somewhere reading.) The chapter where the red mist sets in comes to mind. ‘Hey! Don’t swear.’-Bonesaw ‘AHHHHHHHHHHH’-me. And then I see all this like calm discussion and I’m like ‘How can you even talk with your brains ON THE WALL BEHIND YOU BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST BLOWN WITH THE STRENGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS!?’ lol.
*Strength. Damnit.
anonymus on October 10, 2013 at 09:26 said:
gecko where are you, you need to say hi^^
We sorry. All of our Gecko’s are currently busy serving other customers. Your comment is important to us. Please stay on-line, and your comment will be handled in the order received.
(30 seconds of Muzak)
It hasn’t been completely unusual lately for people to have a line of comments going, “FUCK” or even “Shit just happened?”. Potty mouths, you know. Careful with that fucking swearing!
But still, people are used to getting their brains blown around here. *puts on his special gray-colored lipstick* I do good business on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Thursdays are iffy. And not even the Sentry could stop me from showing up here to blow yours too. I blow so hard, you’d think I was a spiny poisonous animal that inflated myself. Blowfish? No thanks, I hate the taste of seafood. I leave blowing fish to Kanye West.
Don’t worry, that’s just a joke you don’t get. You’re about to think you’ve hit the Slaughterhouse 9’s secret weed stash down here with us in the comments, because you’ve hit the Jackpot. Contest void where prohibited, winner must wear a thong with at least 5 different colors on it, no pets allowed to play unless shaved. You want to know where shaved ice comes from? Frosty the Snowman wanted to stop by and say “hi”, that’s where.
And so, like one of my favorite Robot Masters, I must hold your attention for a couple scary seconds, then run. RIP, Flashman. Cops always seem to catch on before I go wandering in a coat as Woodman, though.
Welcome, AliceAce, to the comments.
lizzyjean on July 13, 2014 at 21:37 said:
I SERIOUSLY like that idea of future Worm interludes for stories that don’t have interludes within the setting. Just think of all the wonderful little interludes we could enjoy far into the future 🙂
Glastig Uaine killed Gray Boy. Sadboy was almost certainly a different character, mentioned in Ms. Yamada’s interlude, and like Saint of the Dragonslayers he had a name that sounded quite interesting, even if he wasn’t.
Jurily on October 9, 2013 at 15:35 said:
I’d attribute a decent chunk of new readers to the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality community. It’s popped up quite a few times in /r/hpmor recently, and even the author mentioned Worm in a progress update.
chrnno on October 9, 2013 at 17:30 said:
Spacabattles is probably the main one though, the sheer number of fanfics people are writing means a lot of people got curious about it.
Spacebattles* dammit, stupid misspellings everywhere.
Have you considered an Imp interlude? I don’t think we have had one yet, and she would be an ideal character to have find out and explain things. It could also be downright fun to write, with all the non-interactions she might have. How many times do people sit in her lap, for example? Was she taking college classes for free by just sitting in on them, invisible, and that’s where the new vocabulary is coming from? A SAT / GED high school equivalency course?
We already had an Imp interlude. During the S9 arc. She infiltrates the nine, tries to kill Bonesaw and gets caught by Cherish.
Nick on October 10, 2013 at 07:20 said:
Gotta say man, loving the series. I just started reading around a couple of weeks ago and have been plowing through the arcs with every bit of free time that I have. Amazing stuff – you’ve got me hooked; can’t wait to see what happens to Taylor…I’m anticipating some crazy power that allows Taylor to control all the capes like she does bugs…or perhaps she gets control of the Endbringers instead of capes?
Anyway, whatever you do I’m sure it’ll be awesome 😀 Keep on doing what you’re doing!
That chart is the new screensaver for my iPad, because who needs inspirational quotes when you have THAT. Awesome. Very happy for you and everyone who has found this story. 🙂
As for the ending line, I at first thought, “Oh, so it’s the beginning of the end. Only a few more arks left, just like I sadly knew…” But, reading other comments, is…the next ark the last? I’m equal parts overjoyed and horrified. I’m sure the face I’m making in public right now will have people asking if I’m having a stroke pretty soon.
rmcd94 on December 7, 2013 at 21:04 said:
What was the comment the Reader made regarding your “bad pattern”
Burned of the walls –> wut? Needs some better wording
Period missing somewhere, a stupid paste deleted the sentence
One more I missed here, same as the last one
frizzy brown hair tied back with bandanna –> a bandanna
And this needs to be in typo thread. Fuck my life.
Notes on October 8, 2013 at 00:12 said:
It’s almost as if you’ve been practicing cliffhangers multiple times a week for years.
DvorakQ on October 8, 2013 at 00:19 said:
Trusting on October 8, 2013 at 00:23 said:
damn I both love and hate you for the cliffhangers Wildbow ! 🙂 ❤
Me too. They’re simultaneously the best and the worst parts.
Five words for one hell of a gut punch there. Once again, Saturday cannot come soon enough!
Tuesday actually,if Saturday is an interlude.
Have you seen the kind of things that happen in Interludes? I’m never making the mistake of discounting those again!
Ronin on October 8, 2013 at 00:33 said:
That about sums it up. Maybe I should just get drunk and stay drunk until Friday night to make it all go by faster…..
farmerbob1 on October 8, 2013 at 08:08 said:
I believe that it’s pretty much required in webfiction that is serial in nature, built on small chunks, that endpoints have to either be a cliffhanger, or at least end with a bang. In a larger work that a reader has access to all at once, having a entire chapter devoted to backstory is fine. The interludes here act in this way to some degree, the ends of interludes aren’t always cliffhangers because they don’t tie into the main story directly. They answer questions though, and frequently create a lot more questions, which is interesting.
So I guess the thing here is that in webfiction, short chapters, frequently written, one needs something, a hook, at the end of every chapter, to keep people’s attention. Cliffhanger, OMFG moment, questions answered that just create more questions. Something to keep the readers *thinking* about Worm while they wait for the next part of the story.
Is this self evident? I know my way around writing, but I don’t know diddly about writing as relates to human psychology. I’m wondering if Wildbow designs chapters so there is always a hook because that’s just their style, or if it’s consciously decided that there will always be a hook. Or perhaps it both in some combination?
Well, whatever it is, keep it up Wildbow!
Every time I write, I’m analyzing the individual components. What does this sentence, this paragraph, this scene, this chapter, give to the reader? What do they want to see, what do they need to see?
I don’t really focus on it, but it’s sort of a thing you always keep an eye on, like a hockey player might try to remain aware of the other players on the ice, even as their eye is on the puck. If I write for a stretch and I’m losing interest in what I’m writing, or if it’s not coming to me, if I don’t feel like I’m answering a question the audience has, raising a new question they’ll be interested in or moving the story forward in an interesting way, then it feels wrong. I back up and tackle it from a new angle.
At the start, I paid attention to cliffhangers. What do I need to do to bring my audience back 3-4 days from now? Unanswered questions, unresolved tension, unresolved story elements, scenes cut off, characters they care about being left in dire straits…
I suspect Farmerbob is cribbing my mini-essay from somewhere, but I’ve talked in the past about how vital cliffhangers are to an ongoing serial. You’ve got the entire internet to compete with. If I go too long without hooking my reader, then I’ll start to lose some to that siren call and the glittery lights of the web’s three point seven billion websites. If I stop writing and take a vacation, same. It’s not even a big thing – I could write a perfectly good story, and there are still people who’d disappear for a little while and then lose the address or not quite care enough to go hunt for it. Anything that gets people thinking about the story in the times between updates is going to make it easier to retain readers (which is way easier than replacing readers.)
Maybe that sounds manipulative. It is. But it’s a good kind of manipulative, because it’s the manipulative that’s based around being compelling and telling a good story. It’s the sort of manipulative that has me updating religiously, because making reading the story a part of people’s weekly routine is going to retain readers through the rough patches (crummy webcomics and sunday newspaper comics have retained readers over time just because they’re so consistent, so what happens when a good work stays consistent. But that’s going to ensure you guys get what you want when you want.
It’s a good balance and it’s a balance that leaves you guys and leaves me happy in the end. Mostly. I do hear the lurkers screaming for my blood in the streets…
Heh, Wildbow, I’ve never read any article you have written about how you write, other than the dribs and drabs that happen within the commentary at the end of each writing installment, but I wouldn’t mind being able to do so. Links?
But from what you said here, it seems that you had to guide yourself to putting hooks at the end of each installment of the story when you started, but over time it’s just become part of what you do because you trained yourself to do it that way 🙂
Oh, it was just dribs and drabs.
I post on reddit occasionally. If you’re interested, I posted here in response to a guy who was saying he’s been worldbuilding for a while and he’s wondering about starting the writing part.
I’ve seen a lot of people like this, who love the worldbuilding but keep putting off the actual writing. And it never happens. I think it’s very common.
Aye I’ve been thinking about starting up my own little project where I try to make the story interactive with the readers. Something like the old “make your own adventure” books like the “Lone Wolf” series from a couple decades ago before computer gaming got so much gaming market share. Not collaborative, but reader-guided, and there would be only one story option, but the end users would get to choose it. The problem with that is that you need an audience to answer polls. It also means that you have to have interesting polls.
This would allow me to write smaller bits, not fully self contained with a hook, because the polls would potentially be hooks to keep the readers around.
As you said, there are lots of people who have done some world building but have never actually done anything with their ideas. I’m one of those people. You’ve actually pulled me out of my writer’s shell and let me stick my big toe in the water with a few chapters of Fanfic based on Worm, so my little idea might actually happen. So I thank you for the potential here 🙂
” Not collaborative, but reader-guided, and there would be only one story option, but the end users would get to choose it.”
Should read
” Not collaborative, but reader-guided, and there would be only one storyline, unlike the old choose-your-own-adventure books, but the end users would get to choose it as I write it.”
Gryllidae on October 8, 2013 at 23:01 said:
Sounds like a type of play by post game really. There are websites dedicated to that kind of thing,
Aye, but from what I’ve seen those are far more interactive than what I’ve been thinking about.
I’m thinking something like: Option: character is planning an operation. Plan for the operation using subtlety, aggression, or misdirection?
Then write the next bit based on reader input. Don’t ever give control of the characters, just allow the readers to guide the flow of the story. Something like the Roman Emperor in his booth at the Arena – thumbs up, or thumbs down?
dbdatvic on December 2, 2017 at 02:46 said:
This has been done from the World of Warcraft forums. Sadly, the actual forum thread involved can’t be seen any longer, but the result is archived as “You awaken in Razor Hill”, at, currently, thelittlestmurloc.tumblr.com .
It gets awesome.
–Dave, and the main character and his pet have been incarnated as NPCs in the game
greatwyrmgold on October 8, 2013 at 08:47 said:
And there are so many ways this could go. Taylor could be game-breakingly powerful. Taylor could be powerless. Taylor could be insane in ten-thousand-plus different ways. Two or even all of these could be true. It might even be something completely different. And now I need to wait a week to find out, assuming no bonus interludes…
You know what excites and titillates and fucking terrifies me? The likelihood, given Wildbow’s track record, that it will be NONE of those things. That it will be something I never could have guessed. That he has manipulated my expectations to lead me to certain assumptions, certain guesses, just to set me up to be floored by what he’s had planned all along.
Hey guys, I have an idea! Why don’t we alter our brains in a suicidally risky and permanent way while the Smurf is singing in the background! What could possibly go wrong, right?
Well, considering the alternatives are “Ask someone else to do something like this” or “Let Scion continue beating us like he has been,” this was about the best terrible choice.
thewatcherbehind on October 8, 2013 at 00:12 said:
Darn it wildbow. Why do you kill me with these cliffhangers?
Also, long time lurker (since drone), first time poster. Really enjoyed the ride so far, and I love the way its wrapping up.
Gecko Signal?
You better watch your behind, thewatcherbehind. Because you’re hanging, and you know what’s back there? A cliff. Say hi, Cliff!
Shut the fuck up, Cliff!
Alrightdiddly ighty then, tighty whitey. You’ve posted. You are out of the dark. You know longer lurk, like a dark, brooding figure on the gargoyles of this city. Dead dog in alleyway. Burst stomach. Pus and scabs and hookers.
No, now you’ve joined us down below. Brought into the limelight for at least one short moment in time.
Just think of me as the ultraviolet radiation. I can burn you worse than Minnie the Moocher, and I look good in extreme purple. Also, hot women like me all over their bodies, or so I’ve been told. That part could have been made up about what happens when I get drunk. But tanning causes premature aging. Butt tanning does too, but that occurs more when you’re flying by the seat of your pants.
So you have a choice now. You can stay here, take that limelight, maybe use it to help make a margarita. Perhaps put it in a coconut and drink them both up. Because when life gives you lime, you know what you do? You make lemons.
Or, you can go back to your lurking ways. The choice is yours now, Planeteers. But the power’s still mine, bitches.
But for my part, I’m here to say, thewatcherbehindyou, welcome to the comments section.
Naeblis on October 12, 2013 at 04:32 said:
Heh, PG’s welcome messages are probably my favorite part about Worm.
Charles Borner on October 8, 2013 at 00:13 said:
Typos for the Typo Thread Gods!
yinyangorwuji on October 8, 2013 at 00:14 said:
our pilot’s reflection in the window. She looks a little . Would you mind keeping an eye on her, making sure
Pinkhair on October 8, 2013 at 01:33 said:
“I could see the spread because I could see how it spread through ” Kinda awkward.
“ten-out-of-ten pain.. A” Missing period in the ellipsis.
“Myself included”” Missing period.
Olivebirdy on October 8, 2013 at 03:23 said:
It stirred flecks and fragments from the burned entity and the burned of the walls above into the air, a snowfall of pitch black flakes. Either awkward, or word missing, … or something.
*edit* nevermind, just got it.
Mantellum’s power was the rock to her scissors.” Missing a quotation mark.
peter o on October 8, 2013 at 03:53 said:
At the first mention of scion’s attack in the Dragonfly, you mention Earth He, then call it earth H the raft of the conversation.
I’m guessing that Earth H is an abbreviation, but for He that makes little sense in writing and less in conversation.
AlsoSprachOdin on October 8, 2013 at 07:38 said:
“my body was deciding to remind me of the pain in my arm.”
– are we supposed to read that as phantom pain? Or is it the other, still intact (?) arm?
not sure if I should put this here, but: “creating a two-inch gap” could stand some elaboration: gap between what? Two inch gab from the chosen floor?
Kat. on October 8, 2013 at 08:03 said:
Missing speech marks.
“’But I don’t need to say that,’ [Taylor] said. ‘You’re not the type to cross the line in pursuit of revenge.’”
Should that be italicized, or is Taylor using her own voice again?
r2k-in-the-vortex on October 9, 2013 at 14:40 said:
frizzy brown hair tied back with bandanna
David Guild on November 8, 2013 at 11:11 said:
The last line should read, “I doubt *he’d* let things slip so badly”.
“The mist billowed, Leviathan used it to mask himself from Scion’s view, changing direction the moment he was out of sight.”
Either put an “and” after the comma or switch “used” with “using”.
“It’s very possible he’ll go back to Earth H, start the cycle anew. Or he hits a world or two we’re not in touch with and then hits Earth H.”
Shouldn’t that be Earth He? Or has the Number Man been referring to them by English letters instead of Hebrew ones?
chair on June 22, 2014 at 14:11 said:
“I owned that part of me,” she said. “And I can barely look Carol and Neil in the eyes, because of it.
Should be Mark instead of Neil, assuming Manpower is still dead.
Alfaryn on July 5, 2019 at 16:45 said:
I’ve noticed that in this chapter and in several chapters in arc 30 “clairvoyant” is capitalized inconsistently – sometimes begging with uppercase ‘C’, sometimes with lowercase ‘c’. In earlier chapters of this arc “clairvoyant” was always spelled with lowercase ‘c’. I haven’t checked if the problem also appears outside of arcs 29 and 30.
What happened here?
It’s a shame Golem isn’t more revenge oriented. He might have killed Jack before anything happened. And finally,
OHGODDAMNITCLIFFHANGERS!
RazorSmile on October 8, 2013 at 00:27 said:
No. He wouldn’t have. Because of Jack’s fucking Lecter-sense.
Oh yeah, that’s right. Hacks.
How would he have? Remind me of the time when Theo or Golem could have killed Jack Slash.
At their showdown… It was a small chance, but if Theo had been more interested in revenge, it could have helped.
You talking when they first met or during their climactic duel that was interrupted when Jack got bored?
Because, funnily enough, the first time they met, Theo had actually more of a chance (as in 0.00000002% as opposed to 0.00000001%) of beating Jack than Purity, what with normal humans being his kryptonite. Once he became Golem he could never defeat Jack, no matter how motivated.
That’s a good point, actually. I was thinking the bored one.
Didn’t Jack have that big claymore thing?
Besides, better heroes than Golem with greater tendencies towards vengeance have tried and failed to kill Jack Slash. They all failed.
I don’t think he have them the opportunity. But it was always a very small chance.
A chance that would not be made greater by Golem being the grudge-keeping vengeful kind. Golem had enough reasons to kill Jack without that.
There’s no limit to how much you can want to kill someone.
There is, however, a limit to how much that affects your ability to kill someone. Especially wen that someone managed to avoid being killed by far stronger people, with far weaker forces and slightly inferior weapons.
I think the point is that since Jack has a power that literally makes him unbeatable as long as he’s fighting parahumans, it wouldn’t have changed a thing.
I’m not sure Jack was literally unbeatable. He fought better than he should have been able to due to the way his passenger interacted with other passengers. That gave him a huge edge in avoiding their attacks and manipulating them.
If someone had understood that though, they might have been able to use that against him. Even Countessa and the Siberian didn’t turn out to be unbeatable after all.
While I may have indulged in a bit of hyperbole, I think it was more than just receiving broadcasts from other people’s shards.
Remember what happened with Purity? Purity is a slightly less powerful version of Legend. There’s no way Jack, without Siberian nearby, could ever beat Purity. Yet the moment Jack opens his mouth and tells her “yo, Purity today is a cloudy day so you’d lose against me”, Purity is all “ok, you’re right”. It’s almost as if he had Contessa’s power but only in regards to parahumans.
Robert on October 8, 2013 at 00:22 said:
Chance of Thursday being an Interlude?
No chapter scheduled for Thurs, since I’m traveling on Wednesday.
flame7926 on October 8, 2013 at 00:31 said:
Chances of Saturday being an interlude?
DasNiveau on October 8, 2013 at 01:19 said:
I would count on that.
Better question: “Chances of next Tuesday being a bonus interlude?”
Tom_D on October 8, 2013 at 18:36 said:
Some one beat that man!! He’s trying to deny us plot!
What pray tell, has gone so horribly wrong??
Keno Black on October 9, 2013 at 19:54 said:
He listened to the Smurf sing.
Damn it Wildbow! That cliffhanger, really?
(On a seriously unrelated note, I’m still pissed that you killed Battery)
Althalus on October 8, 2013 at 00:22 said:
Hopefully it all goes wrong for Scion too.
Cephalo the Pod on October 8, 2013 at 08:48 said:
“Wrong for Scion that is.”
Then one half of 30.1 is just an ASCII troll-face.
ravinoff on October 8, 2013 at 00:26 said:
I started reading this two weeks ago, and caught up about a week ago. My immediate verbal response to the end of this chapter:
“oh fuck me!” followed by a sigh.
*lays out a table, sets down a candle, lights it with a flamethrower, opens up a box of wine for two places. Then he wheels in ravinoff, who is duct taped to a wheelchair, and sits down opposite*
Yes, it’s very different reading a story with cliffhangers when the resolution of the situation is further away than the next page. Still, you can take solace in the immortal last words of King Leonidas of Sparta, who said, “Fuck! This hurts like hell! Oh god, please don’t kill me. Ooooh, I just shit myself. It’s all down my leg. Come on guys, get me a bandaid, we can work something out.”
What a way with words those Spartans had.
Don’t fret, my dear. Most people here are not like me. They would prefer to quote Socrates “I drank what?” or Plato “That’s it! I just invented moldable clay that doesn’t dry!” or Aristotle, “I don’t know why I teach these kids. That Alexander will never make anything of himself,” in the middle of the many discussions we have. You’re welcome to join in on those, or on the punning, or even drawing something or writing fanfiction. Hell, if you want to mix and match Worm with Farscape in an epic sci-fi thriller, be my guest. Just don’t frelling be a problem and we shouldn’t have a problem. Don’t worry, most people here aren’t problems. The good thing I’ve found about problems, though, is that beer can sometimes be the solution.
And so, ravinoff, welcome to the comments section.
*rips off the duct tape covering your mouth*
octopussy on October 8, 2013 at 09:45 said:
I am SO jealous I never got one of these
I expect you’ll give me eight different middle fingers, all in adult positions.
But really, what else should I expect from a Bond character? Aside maybe a love scene after slapping them around and speaking with a heavy accent. “Oh Moneypenny, I love you but I’m too busy ignoring the Captain’s requests for more power to the forward shields. I’m givin’ her all I’ve got, captain! At this rate, we’ll never survive to Star Trek VII: The Search for Red October.”
As for me, near as I can tell I just stuck to my rule that I don’t welcome someone unless it’s explicit that it’s their first time posting upon being caught up. For some reason, Octopussy, you just weren’t explicit. I can’t tell why. Octopi are normally very explicit if the Japanese are to be believed. Maybe you stayed up too late watching the Chronicles of Squiddick? How vulgaris
But you’re here now, no longer hiding in the inky dark blackness of lurkerdom. Instead, you wish to run blue rings around us. Is that, it? You think we’re just a bunch of suckers? Does your cloaca? Well, it’s hurting me! Hopefully you don’t have thin skin, like some sort of glass octopus.
Here, will some octo-pie cheer you up?
Well how about if I say, Octopussy, welcome to the comments.
I don’t recall getting one either.
Likewise, you just started showing up all of a sudden with your comments caught in the spam filter along with all the spam bacon eggs spam spam and toast. As a result, you weren’t welcomed. You were left alone and unwelcomed by the side of the road, holding out a bag of spam for those driving by to buy from you.
Also, you had a strange fascination with Scion telling Eidolon to annoy the readers. The correct answer, as we know by now, was “I love your hair.”
So I’ve been wrestling (and not octopus wrestling either. That part’s over with) with what to welcome you with, as each welcome is handpicked from a field of wildwelcomes, chosen for ripeness, and then exported from Uraguay, all by cheap, backbreaking labor. It was the backbreaker that gave me the idea though.
*puts on a bandana and red and yellow boas* So let me tell you somethin’, brother, you’re gonna get welcomed so hard that all the little Hulkamaniacs are going to stop saying their prayers, they’re going to stop taking their vitamins, they’re going to stop waving the American flag while changing in Madison Square Garden. *puts on a pair of sunglasses and a Brahma Bull belt buckle* What are they going to do instead? It doesn’t matter what they’re going to do! Let me tell you something, the Gex is gonna take that American flag, the Gex is gonna shine that sumbitch up real nice, turn it sideways, and shove it straight up your candyass! If ya smelllllll…what the Gex is cookin’? *raises eyebrow, then puts on facepaint in the vague shape of a bird and ties up his biceps to look bigger, all while doing some over-the-top growling* Iiiiii, Geeaaatwyyyrm…have a question…to answer your question. As you, Hoak Wyrm, travel to WRESTLEMANIA!!!! by conventional means…kick the cockpit door down, take the two pilots that have already made the sacrifice so that you can face this challenge, dispose of them, Hoak Wyrm. *puts on a cowboy hat, oversized sunglasses, big beard, and changes the bandana’s color* See I’ve been to the mountaintop! I’m a chameleon! I’m talkin’ the beat goes on and the beat goes on, and the beat goes on, Gecko Man is on a roll. Unbelievable, time distortion, space is the place Mean GoldWyrmerland.
Now that I’m all wrestling promoed up, let’s cut to one of my own here.
You think I’m strange? Try staying up late, drinking, with mud on my feet to give you all a welcome. I shot a man in the balls, I’ll do it again! Oh yeah, I’ll do it. That’s why I had my Moai putting together a rocket launcher. I spend days slaving over a hot, burning person that I lit on fire for you, and nobody even wants to eat the ham sandwiches I cook.
So I say to you, greatwyrmgold, you’ve been to the promised land, you’ve seen what Orion looks like when he takes his belt off, you have had your dreams come true this morning.
I say to you welcome, greatwyrmgold, to the comments! Snap into a Slim Jim!
That was…interesting.
ShawnMorgan on October 9, 2013 at 19:08 said:
All you had to do was ask and PG would give you one.
Makes me wish I can remember what chapter was the first one I posted in so i could go back and re-read mine.
No, that is not a request for one Psycho Gecko. Once is enough.
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/drone-23-1/#comment-24575
Well that’s certainly going above and beyond.
Gabriel on October 8, 2013 at 09:09 said:
I started reading a week ago, and caught up yesterday morning. I’m actually glad I didn’t get here until the end; living with this kind of anticipation/anxiety continuously over multiple years would ruin my adrenal glands for life.
Yeah, if you had to sit and wait like this, update after update, cliffhanger after cliffhanger, for such a long time, you’d likely go mad. Mad I say! Luckily, I could not be maddened by this long journey. I am immune to being made mad anymore, and I’ve been working on sharing said immunity with others.
Don’t worry, this will only hurt…*latex glove snap*…for an eternity.
Yeah, I’ve been here a good while. You might say I’m something of a thing. Kinda a big deal. Deadpool? Oh, he’s nice, I suppose. Nice at sucking. No, really, he’s got this act with a golfball and a garden hose. It all ends with a floral arrangement of azaleas and green and pink gourmet cupcakes. I told you it was nice.
But now you’re here and much like Janet Weiss, you get to live with the antici………………pation. Also, sweet transvestites.
But hey, you don’t have to. You could go back to lurking. I’m sure that’s fine. No need to hear about who people think is fucking who, the phrasing of which suggests Imp is masturbating again.
For now, Gabriel, welcome to the comments section.
*Ahem* about that preserved sanity of mine PG. thanks for lucking after it. Please may I have it back now?
endochrom on October 8, 2013 at 00:27 said:
I wonder which walls are gonna be knocked down by this. Increased range? Ability to control more than bugs?
Or is it just going to end in sensory overload and a shuddering pile of goop?
Her humanity
Either way it is going to suck for Taylor even if she would consider it a ‘success’.
Clean on October 8, 2013 at 09:02 said:
My current thoughts is that her ability with insects will be reduced or removed, taken over by a power aimed at manipulating PEOPLE; either directly (as with her bugs), making her some sort of multi-body sentience (similar with the C.U.I capes), or socially as with jack, which lets her gather humanity to fight together. Probably wrong, but that’s my guess.
Scolopendra on October 8, 2013 at 12:53 said:
I am a bit more concerned about what we know the limiters on the shards do, rather than any new powers Taylor will get. I recall from the Scion interlude that passengers are given a limiting agent in order to prevent destructive physical mutation. It’s kind of stated as well during this arc that the “Balance” formula from Cauldron was essentially this limiter in a distilled form. When Cauldron didn’t use that formula, the result was the Case 53s, or at least that’s how I understand what was said. Dinah told Taylor a long time ago that she would be present at the end of days, but she would be “different”. I think she was being deliberately vague there. I’ve got a feeling Taylor will probably get some boost to her powers when they remove the limits, probably the ability to bypass the Manton Effect or some such, but it’s probably going to come at the cost of her mutating into something inhuman.
Landis963 on October 8, 2013 at 17:10 said:
That “different” clause has gone through so many interpretive iterations it’s not even funny. Remember when we thought “different” meant “she’s joined the Protectorate”?
Yeah. I had thought that was met with her new lower body. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy.
“But I got freaking CUT IN HALF!!!”
“Nope. Sorry. Not what I was talking about. THIS is gonna suck.”
Au contraire, if the surgery is removing the filter her partner installed for her protection from her own power, the logical result is her consiousness becoming difuse, much like an A. I., dispersed among all the insects withing range of her power (or that of her partner, or maybe _all_ partners) like an A. I. dispersed across the processing nodes of a network, or even the entire internet.
Parts of this have been foreshadowed.
The problem is: what will be the effect on Skitter’s psychology when she _becomes_ a cloud of bugs rather than just controling them remotely?
On second thought, if she becomes all the insectoid biomass within her range will she no longer need relay bugs? Will there be any limit to her range then?
Given Scion is still flesh, and the order of magnitude of bug biomass available on any planet, maybe she can just eat her way to the bottom of the well of him.
She IS the other Entitis Comunication-shard after that.
That or a pile of goop. Or a mutating Bugzilla.
fghjconner on October 8, 2013 at 05:09 said:
Wasn’t it Administration shard?
Yes, it was administration. Jack was the broadcaster.
Fixing the administration shard might give her control (or influence, or coordination/communication capability) of all capes, or the shards themselves.
Aname on October 8, 2013 at 10:05 said:
I thought of Administration shard as intern communication between shards.
Alan on October 8, 2013 at 03:31 said:
She’ll probably be able to control any living creature and proceeds to kick Scion’s butt by carefully coordinating all the capes on all worlds.
nick012000 on October 8, 2013 at 05:57 said:
Or she’ll regain the power to control all the shards, like her shard was originally designed to do. Then she mind-controls both the Endbringers and Scion.
Both of those would be absurdly OP and would be a cheap way to resolve the story, so as much as that would be good for the world I hope that isn’t how wildbow resolves this.
JN on October 8, 2013 at 00:28 said:
Mr. Worf, fire.
Mr. Worf’s out sick today. Bad touch of the Flu.
There’s been a veritable Barrage of that going around.
Oh fuck oh fuck. Passenger in control at the end, or at least has much more control. Administrator probably controls the rest of the shards, so what exactly does that do in this context?
I’m think Taylor has a pretty good chance of dying or having some life ending or near life ending experience so she is incapacitated. The saddest thing for me is how she ended with Grue. Break-up sex, then next time she sees him he has a girlfriend, and they never really talk. Then he goes off to live in the woods. Incredibly sad.
That wussy is long forgotten. End of the World? No, I’d rather bang my girl in a hut on a isolated world. Great plan.
Damn. Now I’d like to bang his girl in a hut on an isolated world. Sounds like a good time.
I expect part of the reason for his leaving is the difficulty of writing around a power stealer. Any time he goes up against someone with a really good power, he can just turn it on them.
Of course the moment he goes against two people at once that advantage is negated. Remember: Grue can only copy one power at the time.
I think it has more to do with Grue’s character arc sort of having nowhere else to go after the Bonesaw debacle than wildbow having trouble with a potenially story-breaking power. (He has after all used WAY more broken abilities successfully).
TanaNari on October 8, 2013 at 13:26 said:
I think it’s a very reasonable end. His whole reason for doing “cape” was to help his sister. He got that, in a way.
He was never good at facing his issues. Bonesaw tore him apart physically and mentally. He never recovered.
And he was reminded of his uselessness against Scion repeatedly.
It fit. Too bad Scion probably dropped by and incinerated him when burning through umpteen million other realities.
Nah. Grue’s ability to copy (not steal) powers has always had some decent limiters built in – the major one being that he doesn’t get any associated secondary skills. It’s a fairly powerful ability best used on opponents with straightforward powers and at a significant disadvantage vs more nuanced powers like Taylor’s, Eidolon’s or Panacea’s and probably even Bitch’s (he’d just end up with monster dogs that aren’t trained to obey him).
Even if he’s up against an opponent he *can* duplicate perfectly, that at best makes him equal to – not better than – one of their opponents. (And I have a feeling his ability actually makes him slightly less powerful than the person copied).
In short : useful guy to have on your side, but hardly a gamebreaker…
Deraldin on October 8, 2013 at 00:30 said:
As much as I hate it when you end all these chapters with little (or big) cliffhangers, I can at least console myself with the knowledge that I only have to wait half a week until they are resolved (and replaced with a new one). Unless we hit another interlude…
This neatly explains whey Dinah still hasn’t approached Taylor. I find it very curious how she said the time she is the most like herself was when she is fighting for her life. I think her passenger effected her more than she realizes. But now its FUN TIME. What does an unbound Taylor look like? Guesses:
1. Controls EVERY non sentient/simple animal. Nightmarish and world ending for sure, but no real threat to Zion.
2. Ability similar to Jack. The ability to communicate/interact with passengers directly. Unparalleled communication, coordination, and leadership for everyone. Might be able to communicate with Zion and pull a tattletale mindbreaking speech.
3. Queen administrator. May actually be able to manipulate passengers directly. In contrast to the fairy queen that might be 2nd triggers for everyone, confusing Zion directly, and manipulating powers on a grand scale. Some powers out there unbound might be enough to kill Zion.
Nourjan on October 8, 2013 at 01:30 said:
Taylor is not going to get new powers
They’re not messing with her shard(they couldn’t,Scion made that impossible) there are only messing with her head,ergo giving her current power a major boost at great price.
No happy ending on October 8, 2013 at 08:18 said:
Number 3. She gains the power to control the other powers/shards (either directly or by giving orders, propably the latter), which she uses to pull together the other entity’s shards thus recreating it and giving Zion a mate.
Which obviously isn’t a good thing, since their ritual includes using up all the possible earths for energy to reach the next victims.
Seems MrMoran had the same idea earlier: https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/venom-29-9/#comment-45245
Serves me right for commenting before reading all the other comments.
The Sandman on October 8, 2013 at 00:33 said:
Probably for the best they don’t try to fix Scion up with a new partner.
You know, what with the whole “they blow up every iteration of the planet they’re on throughout the multiverse at the end of each breeding cycle” thing.
As far as things going wrong… well, given that Taylor has the admin shard, any attempt to undo Scion’s gimping of it is likely to give her power over other shards, and thus capes.
This is an effect that would probably expand outwards from her body as she starts to use it, with the closest capes being the first ones affected by it.
Right now, the cape closest to her is Panacea, who’s in the middle of doing metaphysical surgery on her soul.
The recursion involved could get ugly.
Chrispikula on October 8, 2013 at 01:03 said:
True, but I don’t think they know that.
Scratch on October 8, 2013 at 00:33 said:
Y’know, wildbow, you’re an excellent writer. When Worm hits print, i’ll absolutely buy a copy.
IF ONLY SO I DON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THESE GODDAMN CLIFFHANGERS AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL FRACKING SATURDAY!?!?! SAAAAATURDAAYYYY!!!!!
YOU BETTER HOPE WE NEVER MEET IN A CROWDED BAR, WILDBOW, BECAUSE I WILL HOWL “THIS IS FOR VENOM 29.9” AND THEN WE THROW DOWN
No wonder Wildbow is traveling. If he wasn’t, the hitmen all the Lurkers sent to rough him up would catch up to him.
a on October 8, 2013 at 01:23 said:
I love the cliffhangers 🙂
The *Worm* ones are of a minority, mixed with just enough closure and action for them to work. It is easy, when you know that the solution will come in less than a week as part of another excellent chapter with enough closure and action for it to stand on its own.
Its something unique for Worm on the web serial scene. Most other web fiction is a) published ones or twice every blue moon.. or b) published regularly – one small bite ( 700 words ) at a time.. Compared to them, Worm is in its own category 🙂
I definitely will kill some trees for Worm on a hardcover. Something that I won’t do for most other published works..
Agreed. On all points, agreed.
I’d like you to buy him as much beer as he want in that bar. Or you will deal with me *knuckle crack* muhahahahahaha
***And it all went wrong.***
Lets be honest. How many times have things actually gone right in this story?
The one time it happened, Taylor started checking for the seams in the virtual reality she had to be trapped in because it was so damn unbelievable 😀
And then she got outed.
packbat on October 8, 2013 at 02:02 said:
That was a great chapter.
It’s my favorite so far. I’ll have to wait for the end, but I expect it to stay in the top 3.
Dues on October 8, 2013 at 01:04 said:
Taylor got laid once. Problem is, whenever something goes right in this story, something else has to go horribly wrong. So, that’s when we officially confirmed that the apocalypse was coming…
Veloren on October 9, 2013 at 03:29 said:
*cheerfully dances around, throwing confetti* DOOOOMED! We’re all DOOOOMED! 😀
MrMoray on October 8, 2013 at 00:34 said:
With the governor removed, Taylor becomes Zion’s new partner. Crisis averted.
Until every iteration of Earth is blown up because they need the energy to move on to other planets…
Hey it will take 300 years for it to happen. Procrastination is second nature for humanity.
Indeed, why do today what you can do tomorrow? And if you delay it long enough you will be dead before it matters.
Doubt it.
Best cape to be the new partner is undeniably Glaistig, due to her sheer number of powers. Maybe she could, I dunno, kill Taylor or Aiden to get a crippled Administrator shard or something like that, but other than that she is as ready as she could be.
Aranfan on October 8, 2013 at 00:50 said:
I actually find “And it all went wrong” less disturbing than some sort of “And the world was right again” thing.
Might just be me.
Yeah, somehow I hear “And the world was right again” in a voice that’s way more alien than Taylor speaking through a swarm of insects without pausing for breath.
gantradiesdracos on October 10, 2013 at 00:02 said:
like this one form the new XCOM? “HE’S IN MY HEAD! HE’S IN MY- nothing. its nothing ,its fine. everything is..fine.”
No One In Particular on October 8, 2013 at 00:51 said:
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn
That’s pretty much exactly what’s been running through my head in the second half of the chapter. Can’t decide if I’m happy to stay up to read, or upset because it’s even to longer to wait. For there WILL be a countdown.
I mean…just…damn…
– Sveta made it. Cool. Hopefully Weld did too.
– Golem. Straight-up hero. Well on his way to Weld-level goodness.
– Earth H makes me think of hentai for some reason. Mmm, Earth Hentai. Cat-girls and tentacle monsters as far as the eye can see …
– aaaand an in-universe explanation of Taylor’s pain threshold. w00t. Haters can suck it!
– Marquis makes tea for everyone. Cool-ass motherfucker.
– Bonesaw and Panacea are on first-name basis now. Touching.
– I think I know what’s going to happen. Weaver Taylor Skitter Spy is gambling that when her head gets opened up and the full power of her shard comes flooding through, the very fact that the shard is the administrator shard will let her turn it around and regain control like a person lifting erself into the air by er bootstraps. After that, who knows? Maybe she accesses the other shards and starts unlocking them with admin access (what does Shadow Stalker’s shard unlock to, I wonder? What does Canary’s?) Maybe she straight-up talks to Scion, the real Scion.
Whichever way, we’re approaching the endgame. I’m still rooting for an arc named Ommatidium.
Matt Nordhoff on October 8, 2013 at 01:09 said:
” – Earth H makes me think of hentai for some reason. Mmm, Earth Hentai. Cat-girls and tentacle monsters as far as the eye can see …”
Paging Dr. Nilbog.
Elias N Vasylenko on October 8, 2013 at 04:41 said:
Made me LOL
Ironically, H is the actual name for the type of stuff you’re thinking of, in Japanese. Hentai (in Japanese usage) is MUCH more hardcore, and is not the sort of stuff a typical person would admit to reading. If you’re just reading about furries and lewd monsters, the name for that in Japan is just H.
(It still comes from Hentai, I’m pretty sure, but it’s, like, *polite* Hentai. :p)
Graham Percival on October 9, 2013 at 01:04 said:
So by implication, the typical person *would* admit to reading stuff with cat-girls and tentacles? :o_O
Yeah. I think because they’re more restrictive about pornography, they just put it in every damn thing, or something. Can’t even show penises, I thought I heard. Hence why women get assaulted by a bunch of penis-like tentacles.
To clarify, since they can’t make and/or market something classified as pornography, they get around it by putting erotic stuff in other stories that aren’t classified as pornography. Like the softcore stuff they show late at night on Skinemax, HBhO, The adult Movie Channel, and Porn Starz, they have to actually have a plot attached.
Anon on November 7, 2013 at 00:22 said:
FWIW, the H comes from ‘ecchi’, which means ‘perverted’ and sounds similar to the letter H in Japanese.
Am I the only one thinking about Something like “Marquis facts” :
“It always gets worse in Worm. Except when Marquis makes tea”.
…And then it waits till lunchtime.
Golem is certainly one of the Wormverse’s paladins. I think he’s probably surpassed Weld, though — he’s more perceptive on an interpersonal level, and with the training from hell he went through with Weaver, I’d bet on him over Weld in a fight any day of the week.
And Marquis is two hundred pounds of pure awesome in a ten pound bag. One hundred percent class.
Agreed. If he survives I can see him become the new Chevalier.
I think Golem as a leader would actually be more like Legend than Chevalier — Miss Militia I think is the closest analogue.
I like Legend and I feel sorry for him, but lets face it: he fucked up because he didn’t want to believe that his friends weren’t really nice guys. And Miss Militia can sometimes come dangerously close to ” My Country Right Or Wrong/I Am Following Orders”.
She’s still one of the more reasonable heroes out there, as evidenced by Taylor practically forcing her to handle the BBPRT after Tagg. She’s better than Dragon in that regard (admittedly Dragon’s handicapped there), but it would make for an interesting character arc/interlude where she evolved from lawful to neutral good or somesuch.
Bonus points if she hooks up with Chevalier, because that needs to happen.
Personally I’m hoping for Ingenue’s Heel Face Turn and subsequent hook-up, even though she has “redeems herself and then dying in Chevalier’s arms” written in giant letters over her head. Seriously the guys shipping Chev/MM are basing it on a childhood crush that din’t survive high school/college (can’t remeber which is one it was). 🙂 .
AMR, your comment doesn’t have a “reply” button, so this makes a response awkward.
First, their relationship didn’t survive high school, as while MM went to college (not sure about Chevy), they were probably too busy being big damn heroes.
Second, sure it was a childhood crush, but it was an interesting childhood crush. Chevalier and MM were pretty much the only people they could really relate to (at least that was my impression), because as kids, they were put into a situation where the only things they could rely on to obtain justice were themselves and their powers. They were basically children forced to become adults because of responsibility and circumstance.
Then the Wards happen and Hero comes along, telling them that they’re not alone and granting them another chance at being kids before they get swept up into the Protectorate. Then they both graduate to the Protectorate and get their own teams, and end up as genuinely good people stuck in systems that hinder their abilities to be genuinely good and their situations start to get worse by the day (MM leading the BBPRT, and Chevy leading the whole freakin’ Protectorate).
The point I’m rambling towards is that the Chevalier/Miss Militia relationship is an artifact of a better time; it’s an event from a time where there was much less stress and responsibility riding on their shoulders. I’m not saying that Wildbow should abort his plans and have the next interlude be Chevy and MM making out in the middle of a Scion attack, but the two getting back together as a potential Epilogue chapter after Scion is defeated would be a great way to wrap up part of the story, due to the pathos the underlying themes evoke.
@overpoweredengineer: My comment was mostly tongue in cheek. I understand why people would ship two very decent persons ( a rare breed in Worm) that even had a history between them. I guess it’s just the strong Batman/Catwoman vibes that Chevalier/Ingenue give me, though Ingenue is admittedly way more fucked up than Catwoman. And yes I recognise the potential sexism about the femme fatale who needs a good man to set her straight.
And Miss Militia can sometimes come dangerously close to ” My Country Right Or Wrong/I Am Following Orders”.
I honestly haven’t seen that. She tends to play by the rules, yes, but she’s perfectly willing to be flexible about it — remember how she coached Armsmaster on gaming the system re: losing a Ward in her interlude? She doesn’t go off the reservation without a good reason, but if she’s got a good reason, she’ll go for the best option she can come up with.
She got dangerously close to “just following orders” during Skitter’s interrogation (leaving her to Alexandria’s dubious mercies), which Taylor called her on.
The interrogation is especially interesting. When Taylor “calls her on it”, Miss Militia’s excuse is — paraphrasing — “You had a plan, Alexandria said she had a plan. If I did anything, I knew I’d step on someone’s toes.”. She was just following orders, but her (claimed) reasoning for it is the opposite of blind obedience.
Reveen on October 9, 2013 at 17:03 said:
I think she does have a history of not setting boundaries and advising against certain actions when dealing with the PRT directors. When you have Piggot and Tagg acting like coked up cowboys she might not have to do anything, but she should say something.
You could point out that the PRT can just ride over the wishes of the heroes whenever they want. But at the end of the day it’s the PRT that needs the capes more than the capes need them. They could easily get leverage to effect policy.
But it’s not just MM’s fault. Even Legend tended to just shrug his shoulders and let Piggot do whatever.
Piggot outranks Legend. He doesn’t get a say, beyond his general influence as a major figure.
I think the point is that everyone has the capacity to stand up for what they believe is right, regardless of hierarchy. Which isn’t to say there wouldn’t be consequences.
But when you’re one of the most powerful superhumans on the planet “I did absolutely nothing about highly questionable things ‘cos chain of command” is a particularly weak excuse.
hitherbydragons on October 8, 2013 at 00:52 said:
> Alone, the shields were too weak. Together, the shields were still too weak.
Nice. ^_^
Yeah, it’s a great line.
Incidentally, I suspect that that was the Yangban’s network in action. Taylor mentioned that several powers had spread among a large number of capes, and the Yangban network is the only power we’ve seen so far that could do that.
Eloquence is such an excellent trait in literature. So is wit. That quote contains both.
And yeah, the Prototype Sample Platter is probably the ones behind that.
SEA-106 on October 8, 2013 at 00:54 said:
There are several possibilities that I can see. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and they aren’t all mutually exclusive.
Taylor goes all Doormaker. She gets insane power, but at the cost of her mind. She need to be led by somebody else, probably Tattletale
I find this unlikely. Mainly because she’s the main character, and we know there’s at least one more arc. Without her brain, she couldn’t talk much. It also doesn’t seem right, narrative-wise, but I can’t quite find the words to explain why.
Taylor’s changes make her act evil. She becomes a second antagonist.
Extremely unlikely. Scion is already enough to deal with, and adding to the pile makes things more difficult to resolve without deus ex machina. Unless 3., see below, is also true.
Taylor gets an increased power over shards, which turns her into the equivalent of an entity. She ‘marries’ Scion and they live happily ever after. Somehow, they leave Earth without destroying every version.
She might be evil, as stated above, but it is irrelevant, because she and Scion will leave, probably.
Taylor is improved, with only limited or temporary destruction of self. She is sane enough, and powerful enough, to lead the fight against Scion, and win.
I think this is what we’re all hoping for, but the last sentence makes it seem like it’s going to be more complicated than this.
5. (weird idea that is almost certainly false)
Hive mind theory is true. Panacea accidentally splits Taylor from her body. She keeps her personality and her power, but is stuck in the swarm. Her body goes insane and possibly homicidal.
3. is my favourite option just for shock value. also, saving the world by sacrificing her life/friends? it mirrors (on a larger scale) her hero transition, I think. what lovely foreshadowing that would be.
Unmaker on October 8, 2013 at 12:29 said:
I had some of the same options in mind, but repeatedly getting hit over the head with the “Wildbow came up with something that fits the evidence that I never thought of” hammer has slightly dulled my enthusiasm for guessing.
For this, possibly THE major event in the story, I am betting on “none of the above”, with a the usual admixture of “more f***ed up than the readers thought”.
Right in +1
“more f***ed up than the readers thought”.
That’s like Wildbow’s version of Cauldron’s Balance formula. Except he uses it to make the situation worse, rather than better.
demoscat on October 8, 2013 at 21:45 said:
My thought is, if Taylor does become a master shard administrator, it will be like having root access in UNIX. Passwords? File permissions? We don’t need no stinking passwords and permissions!
I can’t remember: Is the 3rd entity still hanging around, or at least potentially in range? As I recall, the 3rd entity evolved a way to complete its breeding cycle without destroying the host – the multi-Earths in our case.
The idea that floated in my brain is, what if unrestricted Taylor can control and organize all shards within a certain range? In particular, how about individuals already used to working in a group – the Yang Bang. We already saw a magnifying effect from the Yang Bang working together. What if Taylor can merge capes into a gestalt; an effect creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts?
Having achieved that, she would still be less than Scion, but she might be capable of reaching out to the 3rd entity.
How about a gestalt formed from the 3rd entity, the Endbringers, the case 53’s, and what’s left of Taylor in control? That might be enough, if not to challenge Scion directly, then to at least offer Scion an alternative – a new partner with the “DNA” to evolve into something new. A non-destructive life cycle and elements of what we call humanity – compassion and empathy for other living things.
Stephen M (Ethesis) on October 8, 2013 at 23:46 said:
Five sounds like a good “all goes wrong” sort of thing.
Stop on October 8, 2013 at 00:59 said:
No one thinks she loses her power or gets disconnected from it?
Ooo, I like that idea! and as we’ve seen from Doctor Mother, you don’t need powers to be extremely scary. Plus Numbers Man seems to be already following her orders. Also, if she loses her current powers, could she then drink the formula to get a new one?
Totally random spec: she ends up going back in time and takes the name “Doctor Mother”. They both have that “yeah, I’m doing horrible things, but it’s for the best” mentality. It ties nicely with the tagline of “Worm: doing the wrong thing for the right reasons”.
Dr Mother is black. And the formulas have all been destroyed.
> Dr Mother is black.
Panacea can fix that.
> And the formulas have all been destroyed.
…but not that. Darn.
But Dr Mother could fix up some formulas by taking shards but we already heard Dr Mother’s name. Epoch (time travels don’t die) and Sleeper have yet to appear; I think they might be good guys or good guys to have around.
Other tin hat theories:
-Dr.Mother is Grue’s or Imp’s child(or sister) from a different time and grew up knowing Taylor as we know she lives(in some way).
-There were other groups that have been pulling strings from the shadows.
-Endbringers are those that failed to beat Scion and they were trying to get mankind ready. Smurf made Noelle, which brought about the escape portals. They all made life more stressful so more capes pop up.
-Taylor becomes an Endbringer.
-Scion has to thing about having a power to use it. He shows up on camera now!
-Endbringers were the powers Eidolon threw away.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
*breathe* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHi’mokay.
Man, this is a really deep hole…wanna play 20 questions?
Not with you, I don’t…
youtube.com/watch?v=blclmxZHCF0
Fuuuuck. I wonder if wildbow can get medically certified as a cliffhanger addict.
Anyway, the Simurgh starts screaming at the same moment that Taylor decides to let Panacea mess with her brains in the hope for a powerup. Coincidence? I think not!
Now Scion crippled Taylor’s shard so much that it was basically destroyed. However what this arc drove home is that Scion, being extremely unimaginative, never took in account what combined powers could do. So there’s hope. Though those last words there really want me to think the contrary.
Seems Riley finally got her wish for a big sister. Does that make Marquis her new father?
Nice to see Tattletale already needling Number Man. Though, to be honest, NM did subtly insult her in her absence ( the old facts vs guesswork thing). Seriously, what is it about thinkers and massive rivalries?
veekie on October 8, 2013 at 06:20 said:
Makes me think about the one ‘sorry’ that Simurgh delivered back then. The egg planted has hatched.
Wilbow’s more like a cliffhanger dealer.
Or maybe now that I think about it, a cliffhanger connoiseur.
“Seriously, what is it about thinkers and massive rivalries?”
What’s that old saying–“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”? A variation on that is “Intelligence makes one proud, and superpowered intelligence makes one massively hubristic.” Number Man, Tattletale, Accord, even Contessa; all want to be the smartest guy in the room. When two or, Scion forbid, three of these people are in the same room, they feel a need to prove that their smarts, their particular brand of intelligence and Thinking is the smartest, the most powerful.
By chance do you remember what else Bonesaw wanted to work with Panacea, went they first met, the S9 recruitment?
on interlude-11h:
Panacea: “Then why don’t you change? You could be good.”
Bonesaw: “I like the other members of the Nine. And I couldn’t make anything really amazing if I was following rules. I want to make something even more amazing than Hack Job, Murder Rat or Pagoda. Something you and I could only make together. Can you imagine it? You could use your power, and then we could make one superperson out of a hundred capes, and all of the powers would be full strength because you helped and we could use it to stop one of the Endbringers, and the whole world would be like, ‘Are we supposed to clap’? Can you picture it?” Bonesaw was getting so excited with her idea that she was almost breathless.
Wildbow: “I like them idea, granted”
I liked the part about a cape throwing Leviathan at Scion. The Fastball Special just became the Beach Ball Special.
Damn, I’m surprised nobody figured out the connection between Simurgh’s apology and Dinah’s note. Also, I got the distinct feeling Imp was mocking the bug consciousness theory some people have had. Leaning on the fourth wall is one way to utilize the comic relief.
But since we’re dealing with the brain here, let’s drop some brain music!
Mrmdubois on October 8, 2013 at 05:07 said:
Good call on the connection between Dinah and the Simurgh’s apology.
I never realized that the connection was supposed to be that subtle.
I didn’t get it until he said it – thanks PG.
Stephen R. Marsh on October 8, 2013 at 23:12 said:
“Damn, I’m surprised nobody figured out the connection between Simurgh’s apology and Dinah’s note. Also, I got the distinct feeling Imp was mocking the bug consciousness theory some people have had. Leaning on the fourth wall is one way to utilize the comic relief. ”
I was impressed as well.
So many people pick up on subtle stuff like that, it’s hard to believe everyone missed it.
illlogicmedia on October 9, 2013 at 15:09 said:
Wow…total brainflop.
“How could I have been so blind?”
Nice job PG.
Ever been so angry…
That you threw an Enbringer?
Hulk … SPLASH?
…partway through reading, imp at the platform>.<
Throwing Leviathan! "Nobody tosses an Endbringer!"
I liked Skitter's comment on Bonesaw trying to be a goodguy. And how nobody commented at all on Taylor's outward identity slipping back towards Skitter. The insight into Taylor's pain tolerance- and how she looks at it- was interesting.
"Mantellum slipped by us because he had a power that countered perception powers. The sort of power we’d need against Scion would be an offensive one" This strikes me as hilarious. If Mentellum could work against Scion's prescience, then I could just imagine what could have been done with him.
I have been perennially surprised that nobody seems to ask Panacea for some gills and some wings and a few extra thumbs. Or perhaps simply some redundant organs… And here we go!
Gwen on October 8, 2013 at 04:10 said:
“And how nobody commented at all on Taylor’s outward identity slipping back towards Skitter.”
Imp did.
I was barely awake at the time, and meant to write more about Imp- you can see the stub at the top of my comment where I forgot to remove it. I really did briefly think she’d died there on the platform, when she made that sound and suddenly Taylor commented on the status of everyone but her.
Two problems.
1. Panacea is limited, surprisingly enough. Bonesaw can screw up vital processes in an operation because she can bring the person back to life afterwards. She can bring whole new organs to the mix, because she doesn’t have to stick to existing biomass. She doesn’t have to worry about if things will connect right, because her Tinker powers evidently explain that for her. Panacea can’t do anything for a corpse, so she needs to make sure that every intermediate step is 100% viable. She is also limited by the “stuff” available, and to a lesser extent the space. Finally, Panacea does NOT have an instinctive understanding of how to make everything work. And organs are complicated. If you don’t hook it to the nervous system properly, it won’t do anything. If you don’t hook it to the circulatory system properly, it will die. If you don’t account for how it interacts with other stuff in its area it might get squashed or squash something else.
2. Panacea is limiting herself. She saw what she could do back when the S9 were in town, and afterwards…she doesn’t want to go there again.
Huh, I’m almost certain that Panacea DOES HAVE intuitive knowledge. Grue, when using her power to give Atlas a digestive track was complaining that he got the bio-manipulation but not the immediate understanding that goes with it.
And Panacea has done lots of progress since her Birdcaging, thanks to Marquis.
Panacea has the ability to see what she is doing, at least, but she doesn’t have foresight. She can make an extra arm or whatever, but unless she’s replacing a lost one it will probably not fit well with the rest of the body, long-term.
skywiseskychan on October 8, 2013 at 11:40 said:
Panacea isn’t limited in the way described. She instinctively does know how things work, how to make each change, how to intentionally set up a system to fail or not. With the original relay bugs and the later versions and Atlas. No, her limitation is more basic than that. Her changes are permanant. The very nature of her subject gets changed to the point where if she has to revert to an earlier step she has to actually change it back. Riley could just look at unchanged DNA to map the original again, but with Panacea the DNA is already changed as a part of the process. Her limit is her memory and imagination. People are clay to her and if she’s not simply filling in pieces that were torn away she changes the result permenantly. It’s like starting with Pink play dough and adding Green. Trying to get back to the original shade of pink is almost impossible because they have become blended where with Riley they would remain separate.
So, we have a couple options here.
1. Either Taylor must fail here because Scion would never bring himself to a situation in which he could be so totally pwned due to his whole “finding victory” power.
2. Scion’s so pissed off that he’s ignoring or not using his power to determine the victorious path and will be pwned.
Also, I’m thinking one of the problems with removing the regulators is that the bugs will touch Taylor’s mind as well and she’ll have to deal with more fully connecting to their brains. May be moot, though, if she gets kind of a super Jack Slash power as far as administrating people.
Hmm, or Scion went looking for a future in which the “hosts” failed to defeat him…and Taylor’s new state leaves her reading as “another worm” (or “part of himself”) and he missed the fact that in this reality she makes him bite the curb while she puts on her stomping boots.
Anthrodogma on October 8, 2013 at 02:11 said:
First time poster, long time lurker!
When I first found Worm I wasn’t planning on reading it, I was simply looking for an example of a good web-serial template. I was scanning down the first chapter and noticed Taylor’s name (which I share) and decided to at least read the first chapter… then the next.. etc. Immediately hooked.
Love this story; you’ve done an incredible job, Wildbow. I am thoroughly addicted.
Also, me and my husband cosplay and I was thinking about doing a Skitter/Weaver costume. Would that be alright with you?
That’d be great! Show me pictures if you get it done.
If you need help with any details, ask in the comments or fire me an email (my email is at the bottom of the donate page).
…and that was “The Final Countdown”. Listeners, if you’re just joining us, we’d like to thank for your being alive today and not raiding the station. We spent half of yesterday hosing down the barbed wire from the last group that tried to take our sponsor’s product, delicious Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi: It’s all we can get at this point.
Alright, we have a first time caller here on W-ORM, your #1 station on all the planet for the top hits of the day, mostly because all the other stations were destroyed. Our new caller is Taylor, just like the supervillain-turned-superhero known as Weaver or Skitter.
Lets give Taylor a hearty welcome, okay? Now apparently she’s an addict. I think we’ve all been there before, right folks? Those long nights of partying late into the middle of the night, snorting coke with your friends, and then transforming into a giant dragon monster to fight another giant monster in Japan. Good times, good times, lots of acid dropped too.
Speaking of substances to give your reality a boost, it looks like Cauldron got busted by the Man. The only dealers of the Cauldron Formula, aka Power Juice, aka Red Bull, aka the Ole Powers and Diarrhea, aka Captain Happy, aka Hulkamania, aka Liquid Schwarz, have been hit and they’ve been hit hard. Looks like the only superheroes you ca get from drugs now are Bongman and his nemesis The Toker.
Now we don’t have time to actually let our new listener break into the broadcast because the zombies just started attacking, but we’ll be happy to let them stick around if they can make it to shelter within the range of our antennas. Welcome, Anthrodogma, to the comments. Let’s give her a big hand, folks.
Next up, we’ll be playing “Doomsday Blues” by Craig Erickson.
Anthrodogma, this is our resident weirdo, Psycho Gecko. I see he’s introduced himself to you and probably caused acute WTF syndrome. Well, welcome to the comments.
Yes, I’ve seen Mr. Gecko… probably one of the less weird things he’s posted. Thanks for the welcome.
And I will definitely be sending you some questions about the costume, Wildbow.
Greetings Anthrodogma, from this aging comic book geek here. You’v picked a fine story to read. Now about your costume questions, well there are talented fan art drawings that may help. Not everyone spots the fan art link at the top fist time around?
And for some reason I am now halfway to imagining a furry adaptation of Worm. Go figure…
Anthrodogma on October 11, 2013 at 14:43 said:
Yes, I’ve been studying the fan art. I mostly want to double-check with Wildbow on the shapes of the pieces and texture since the armor is supposed to be made of bug exoskeletons. Hopefully it doesn’t go so awry as to look furry =)
Most importanly, we all hope you have fun with it
Alathon on October 8, 2013 at 02:46 said:
I could hear the Simurgh’s screaming.
That’s how you know you’re about to make a real winner of a decision.
I can see it now: Next week, Epilogue chapters start up. Survivors discuss that bit of particular nastiness the Simurgh arranged for the girl who had the poor sense to go to her. Sorta like Cherie and Jack Slash, except Jack Slash has some human limitations.
TheShadowbehindyou on October 8, 2013 at 04:30 said:
They can’ reach Zion’s real body, can’t they? Because it would fix all their problems at once.
Love’s that I shed a tear when I red the last paragraph, haven’t been invested in such a good story for a long time. You know the saying, “life writes the best stories?”
Fuck that, wildbow is better 🙂
That endorsement should go on the book liner.
“You know the saying, life writes the best stories? Fuck that, Wildbow is better.”
I’ll probably never get mine in there… “Prepare to be skullfucked by awesome.”
Maybe it can go in the eventual movie series?
ROFLMAO.
*claps*
Someone on the giantitp forum pointed out that this is the sort of thing (not telling people about her plans) that got Cauldron into this big of a mess in the first place. And, incidentally, the thing that POed Taylor in the first place.
Well, yes and no. The big difference is that Taylor made a personal choice and took a risk that basically affects herself (Mostly. If things go pear-shaped there is a chance she could become a menace to the others).
Cauldron constantly made covert decisions that directly affected other people.
dpara on October 8, 2013 at 06:35 said:
Guys, no problem! The Simurgh is on top of this … “I’m sorry”.
..What could go wrong..
Oh shit.
I’m genuinely afraid for Taylor, now.
Oh, Taylor, what have you done?
What she always does.
No matter the cost.
Valin K Syrcen on October 8, 2013 at 07:56 said:
Wildbow, you’re as bad as Yukito Kishiro.
I love your work but damn, end it already– the suspense is killing me (and giving James Cameron an excuse to procrastinate)!
Is this your first time commenting while caught up to the story?
Oh dear. SAY NO, VKS, SAY NO AND PROTECT YOUR SANITY!
So the Simurgh has started singing shortly before Panacea starts to do brain/passenger modification surgery on Taylor. If I am not mistaken, in the Doctor Mother interlude, we saw Simurgh describe taking a stance which would be suggestive of a person crucified. On her toes, wings splayed back, head turned. Accompanied by the “sorry.”
Taylor was definitely guided to this choice, even without Dinah.
Since Simurgh is actually active in the area, I wonder…
Are we looking at Taylor becoming a link between Endbringers? They seem to need to follow someone. Imagine all the Endbringers using all their powers with the smoothness and coordination of Taylor’s tactical sense.
We still don’t have an answer as to what actually created Endbringers. It seems likely that Eidolon was in some way involved, even if not intentionally. But what if they were simple badly damaged shards, and Simurgh is able to modify Taylor’s passenger, through Panacea, to create an Endbringer shard?
This would not be a trigger event, it would be a forced mutation, or even a mutilation
The Simurgh took the stance of a person HANGED. You know, like Tattletale’s brother.
But I agree that the Simurgh screaming as Panacea starts operating on Taylor is beyond suspicious.
Possible things the Simurgh is screaming:
“Oh Crap! Everybody Run!”
“Well I didn’t see THAT coming!”
“Damn you WILDBOW!!!”
“KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”
+1 internets
It’s a trap!
“Doomed! DOOMED I SAY!!!!11”
“Cliffhanger Tiiiiime!”
“It wasn’t me, I swear!”
“I just realized I left the oven on!”
“Do it man, it’ll be totally awesome. You know you want to…”
taliesinskye on October 11, 2013 at 14:32 said:
“Meh, I could take her.”
Hrm I put together two parts of Simurgh’s displays for Tattletale and for Taylor.
You are right that Simurgh was trying to make Tattletale uncomfortable without being blatant about it, the image was reminiscent of a hanging, not a crucifiction, however after that we see this, when Taylor sees her:
“Objects are set down in a specific order, evoking different ideas. A different posture is adopted, wings raised high, stretching.”
And in the prior chapter, from Taylor’s point of view:
“The Simurgh turned, her hair flowing in the wind. Her hands were still held up as she worked her telekinesis on yet another weapon to add to her arsenal. Her eyes met mine.”
There’s nothing tight enough for me to be able to say, for certain, that Wildbow was going for a crucifiction image here, but it seems quite possible. If that WAS what was being put on paper, I think it was intentionally split up and made vague in order to keep us from seeing it too clearly.
Sometimes I think that Wildbow should change Simurgh’s name to Wildbow as well, just so we, the readers, understand that we aren’t going to get a clear picture of what will happen until after we see it written.
Still not quite right because sometimes you still don’t have a clear picture after you’ve seen it written.
If the Endbringers were just shards, they would probably have biologies more like the Entities. Unless Dr. Mom corrupted Eden heavily, they are very nearly nothing alike.
Ah, the Endbringers have probably got about as much in the way of internal organs as Weld does. They are just many, many times tougher.
Huh, I didn’t reply to this yet. Wonderful what having dozens of tabs in a window does.
Anyways…oh, yeah. The Endbringers are noted as having a crystalline structure, more or less homogeneous except for a few organs, ichor, and Khonsu’s internal force fields. Eden seems to have had at least a facsimile of organs and otherwise biology as we know it, and the powers were described as running in “veins,” indicating a highly non-homogeneous body structure.
And while I’m on it, Weld definitely does have exactly as many internal organs as a normal human being does.
Why do you keep bringing up Eden in this? For this comparison, I am comparing Endbringers to capes, not to Scion or Eden.
A badly damaged shard, perhaps encouraged to grow in strange ways due to Eidolon’s idle thoughts or daydreams, (or dreams if he was able to sleep). Or perhaps they were just shards that were so severely damaged that they were able to interact with inanimate materials and shaped their own bodies that way. We know from Tattletale that they were never human. That’s all we really know about their origin.
Maybe they are actually intentionally created by the third party entity who gave Contessa a shard.
As for Weld having internal organs. Err, not really. He has internal organs like an anatomy dummy does. It’s been mentioned that he has organ shaped stuff inside him. There are metal things inside him that look like organs, but they don’t do anything. I believe he has three senses now, for example. Vision, hearing, and touch. No taste or smell. Pretty sure he doesn’t eat food, except maybe to appear human. We know he doesn’t need to breathe. That alone tells us none of his other organs are functional in any way we would recognize.
I might be wrong about some of this, but not all of it. That certainly doesn’t mean that I am certain I’m right about the whole thing, but until it’s written in canon (soon?) we won’t be sure about where Endbringers came from.
Because I misunderstood your original claims, I think. I thought you said that they were literally shards, as in literal bits of Entities (like Eden).
We’ve known since the Leviathan attack that the Endbringers were never human, so they definitely aren’t parahumans gone disastrously wrong or something like that.
Until we get more evidence, I’m keeping my guesses on Eidolon creating the Endbringers on accident. Scion’s statement wouldn’t have held impact if it wasn’t at least possible, and it’s the most proof we have in any direction. (Unless something comes up in the part of the new interlude after where I’ve read to.)
The organs in Weld are described as organs by himself. I’d say they count as organs.
Btw, I keep wondering if the fairy queen could start mass producing Endbringer level entities.
Also wonder what would happen if she got to mine the dead worm for shards.
I suspect that the reason E consumed so many shards was not that his power wore them out but that they fueled the creation of Endbringers.
Do not expect to see this happen. Wildbow’s approach always takes him in different directions than I would take as a player in a similar setting, but they are always consistent with the world, characters and logic. But I wonder.
To be honest, I think the fairy queen wants to take the dead entity’s place which would be a disaster.
Edward the Odd on October 8, 2013 at 08:46 said:
That unidentified yell when they stepped off the platform screams “Chekhov-Gun” too :O.
And yeah, absolutely loved the Endbringer-throwing und relaxed tea-drinking!
Curtis on October 8, 2013 at 11:46 said:
The yell was Imp being afraid of heights. In her panic she stopped making herself memorable.
Imp after a first date. “He never called.” {Checks power.} “Well shit.”
well the smurf did make a glass capsule largw enough to hold a person and built a gun around it to hide it from sight 🙂 since the smurf see’s through time it might be that she built chekovs gun and has simply been waiting on skitter to become the bullet
ah good catch! the glass tube.
So Taylor gets liquified.. or really turned into “the swarm”.
Eduardo on October 8, 2013 at 09:12 said:
The world will end, but lets have tea please? Marquis just good a lot of coolness points.
And, in the end, the girl that would commit suicide by Lung if not saved by Tattletale commits personality suicide by surgery. Or not.
Administrator shard unbound …
lynN on October 8, 2013 at 10:10 said:
Just wanna say thanks so much for all the time and effort you’ve put in wildbow! I know this is what you’ve wanted to do anyway, but still. Thank you! You’ve given us a whole new world, adrenaline-filled experiences (which cause my hands to turn cold, really) and yet managed to balance that with sweet, light, humorous moments. Chapter after chapter and arc after arc…it’s just been really amazing. I started reading in November last year (major distraction when revising for exams) and till today, I look forward to Tuesdays, Thursdays and saturdays because of Worm:) Seeing how you’ve crafted a whole realm with words…gives me the chills, and makes me want to start writing too, a childhood dream I’ve forgotten. Anyways, sorry for the long post. Thank you once again!
Means a lot to me, Lynn.
The fact that I have readers feels a little twilight-zoney to me, but that I’m inspiring others, or generating that kind of reaction? Never really thought that would happen.
Don’t wait to start writing, and try to stay constructive with what you do. Write from different perspectives, pay attention to why you stop writing and don’t lose sight of what you like about the drafts an ideas you give up on. Remember that all first drafts are less than stellar and that all authors were less than perfect starting out, so forgive yourself those failings. So long as you keep writing, and so long as you keep an eye on things to ensure that you’re working towards a goal, you can make it happen. I did.
If you don’t mind me making your day a bit more surreal, I’m currently working up a cast of characters so that I can run off with the Wormverse and make my own big damn hero moments.
Unfortunately though, most of the stories I want to tell would be done through video games, which have a much higher barrier to entry than ye olde text writing.
Do you have any idea how to make a video game?
The whole “extreamly creative use of powers” aspect makes Worm a difficult piece to put in a video game. Tried to put Worm up with the Necessary Evil Villain PnP RPG System …. and it just didn’t work out. The more or less “standard” powers work, but thats not what a Worm RPG should be about.
Worm should be a visual media. A TV Series would work best.
Thats was very OT but that was “a penny for my thoughts” about Worm and games in general.
I doubt most PnPRPGs need a “Necessary Evil Villain”. They’re all pretty much toyboxes full of number-centric action figures and accessories for you to mess around with. I can certainly see where most systems would break down in regards to superpowers in Worm, but in that case I’d suggest something rules-light like Wushu or (from what I’ve heard) the FATE system.
GURPS could handle the sheer variety of powers fairly well, too, although trying to replicate or imitate specific powers from Worm moght lead to a certain amount of rules-and-story segregation.
I love me some GURPS but historically it hasn’t been great at handling supers. This may have changed since 3rd edition though. (What I heard about 4th put me off – I *liked* the way GURPS’ approach differed from Champions’ very utilitarian one – to me, if your character is a klutz then it *should* burn a lot more points for him to become a skilled athlete than someone who’s naturally gifted. character points are about making choices, not necessarily about balance).
Regardless, the issue with using either GURPS or Champions for Worm is that they’re both very good at modelling characters in detail up front, whereas Worm is full of characters who only work out what they can do as they go along. You could hold some character points for expenditure during play, of course, but it’s still tends to determine powers in terms of effects. I agree with the others who’ve said that a system that’s more flexible in play like FATE would probably be better suited.
I’ve only ever even read rulebooks for 4th edition (and am only vaguely aware of previous editions), so I can’t say much about how things have changed. The presence of a wide variety of modifiers, the Powers supplement, and a sufficiently story-oriented GM should allow you to make most superpowers that aren’t absolutes (Siberian, for instance, would be…tough).
Playing with player knowledge of character abilities is always…tricky. Giving them full knowledge is the default, for good reason! Keeping players in the dark about their capabilities, which the GM knows, can get frustrating and doesn’t seem like a great thing to base a game on; letting players decide what they can do is a slippery slope at best.
I suppose one could design a system like that, but…it would be niche at best. (It probably says something about me that, despite decrying such a system, I’m already thinking of a couple ways I could build a game around it.)
I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m not suggesting that players should be kept in the dark about their characters’ capabilities, I’m suggesting that the system needs to be flexible enough that players can, to an extent, define those capabilities on the fly (No Worm pun intended. :P).
Consider a character with the ability to sense and control bugs (let’s call her “Taylor” . :P). Under something like the old HERO system, this would be statted out as a series of separate powers priced based on utility: an area sense ability, a low-powered area attack (insect bites) a strength-resisted paralyse attack (binding in spider silk).
Taylor is in the field one day, desperately outclassed against a powerful enemy and she has a brainwave: “I make my flying insects keep clustering around his eyes so he can’t see!” GM:” Do you have the “Blind” ability?”. Taylor: “No.” GM: “Then No.”.
To be fair to HERO, I think it may have some sort of “spend XP during play to buy new powers” mechanic but this is the sort of situation is half the point of the Wormverse and it’s much better modelled by a system that defines powers as “Control insects (Superb)” and “Sense through insects (Good)” and allows some flexibility to determine the parameters of that in play, than one that requires them to be rigidly defined up front.
In the case of GURPS, I’m about 80% sure that you can get an ability that would let you control bugs, period, and 100% sure that if I was going to play a Worm-style campaign (or, to an extent, anything superheroey), I’d want a GM who was willing to bend the rules if it made sense.
Heck, that’s nice normally. I remember a time when I was playing D&D and my kobold character was without any fire- or acid-based attacks to fight trolls, or indeed any high-damage attacks to hope to overcome their regeneration with. My plan? Set myself on fire and dive-bomb them! (I had the ability to fly, I don’t remember why.) Another time, I was playing another kobold character (I like kobolds) and discovered myself impotent against a giant skeleton. My plan? Use my Ring of Shrinking, fly into the skeleton’s eye socket (I like being able to fly), set my longspear against each side of the eye socket, and return to full size. That didn’t work as well, but the point stands–gaming is generally more fun if your GM is willing to bend the rules when it makes sense to.
Oh absolutely. Having a good GM is far more important than what system you use. A bad GM will tend to run a terrible game regardless of system and good a GM will make a game great regardless of system. And no system is definitively “the best” – it’s all subjective. All that said, some systems do tend to work better for certain settings/genres than others. Imagine Cthulu without it’s insanity mechanics or Paranoia with a rules-heavy system and they just wouldn’t be the same.
My concern with a rules-heavy system for Worm is not so much Taylor – she actually has one of the most “off-the-shelf” superpowers in the entire setting – she controls and sense through bugs. The fun starts when you start trying to model characters like Chevalier (transfers intrinsic properties like mass and hardness from one item to another), Bonesaw (biological mad scientist) and Glaistig Uaine (o_O). The more specifically the system requires you to model them, the more it’s going to get snagged on the detail.
There are some powers in Worm that I’m convinced can’t be given to players in any game system which wants to maintain the slightest modicum of balance. Glaistig is one of those, since she can take the powers of anyone who dies around her. Bonesaw is pretty easy, in many systems; bonus to medical/surgery/etc skill, plus the same gadget-related stuff you’d give to any Tinker. Chevalier…yeah, that’s an issue, but when you barely understand how his power functions on a “Input N can get output X, Y, or Z” level, you’re going to have issues. His power…if I was running such a game, I’d reject the character until he gave me more detail and such on what his power did.
I know about the various middlewares that exist and how much easier they are to make than it used to be, but the plans I had in mind were much grander than the average flash shooter. Hell, I’d probably write up a script and mechanic system (for an RPG) before I opened up Unity or somesuch. And even then, I’d practice making a simple flash shooter before moving on to something bigger.
One possibility is a visual novel style game. They’re quite doable by one person, or two if the programmer and writer isn’t also an artist. You can include decision trees that are as complicated as you want, potentially reflecting a fair amount of creativity, even if it has to be canned in a sense.
I’m probably too busy/lazy to ever get around to it, but I keep thinking that a half-decent Worm mod/campaign could be made for Freedom Force.
It would be very hard for any computer game to capture the flexibility and versatility of power usage in Worm, though.
Taylor’s would actually be mostly sorta doable. Ones like Golem’s would be nigh-impossible though.
And there’s the question of how you tie it into the Web serial – do you try to capture the WHOLE story or a subset? Or something else? And what about spoilers?
Taylor’s power seems like one of the more difficult, actually. There’s simply so many potential uses for it. Golem’s power could be done comparatively easily, with the main problems being player dexterity required and the problems with an infinitely mutable environment, but at least the problem space is well-defined.
In general, you’re probably right. I’m thinking specifically about modelling the characters in Freedom Force. Taylor can be at least approximated with things like a weak area attack, a bind attack, a low-success high-powered attack, some sort of distance sensing etc. With Golem, the engine just doesn’t have the necessary capabilities to reshape and extend objects and buildings like that.
is this your first time commenting upon catching up? Or maybe just first time commenting?
This is my second time, actually. My first comment was about a grammatical error that wasn’t. Haha
@aLynN,
Hello there, why not tryyout writing during the upcoming Nanowrimomonth? Just got for wordcount and just keep going?
Hi, first time hearing of that but it sounds interesting. I’ve actually started writing a story but it sounds plain to me. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Nanowrimo also got mentioned a while ago when Wildbow beat the Wordcount in seven days….
@Wildbow, which arc was that again please?
Arc 17, I think?
I have an odd question. If Golem sticks his hand in some concrete or something to make a giant concrete hand, and then his real hand gets cut off while it’s still in the concrete, where does it go? And wherever his hand went, would he be able to get it back?
acediamonds on October 8, 2013 at 10:30 said:
So I guess we now know what The Simurgh was trying to accomplish by messing with Taylor earlier. The other two people we know she also manipulated was Tattletale and Doctor Mother. Either she did that so they would help in Taylor coming to her conclusion or there’s some other purpose they serve.
Honestly I’m just kinda hoping for Contessa to ride into the battle on Doctor Monster.
… did the Simurgh start screaming, or is it all in Taylor’s head? No-one else is reacting (although they might be used to it – isn’t that a scary thought), and there’s no “the Simurgh started screaming” – the phrase is “I could hear the Simurgh’s screaming.” While, obviously, screaming in response to Scion showing up is quite likely, Cody’s interlude showed that people under the effect of the Simurgh might hear her screaming at key points.
Or scarier – Cody spared Tattletale because he remembered the Simurgh screaming, and that might why he had that particular auditory hallucination, not any necessity of her power – just that Simurgh wanted Tattletale alive.
Of course, either way this is a Simurgh-influenced decision.
Finally, the Worm-based RP on Bay12 is starting! I’ll keep y’all updated.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=131428.msg4669705#msg4669705
Just trying to get an idea of what the characters are doing. I’m planning to have a bit of character-development/exposition/RP/teaming-up/whatever, then bam! An Endbringer Terror attacks Toronto!
Hm…the [s] with the [] replaced with does NOT cross out text…
Which endbringer do you have in mind? Oh, and you had a fair point last comment section re: my edits. I tried it out myself and then came to the conclusion that the two cape OCs I came up with were a Ballistic expy and a Dovetail expy. I did think up a Cauldron cape that could look through and mess with any camera within line-of-sight for a different project though. (for the curious, it’s a webcomic that does seasons of Survivor with fan OCs from a lot of different continua. Search “Survivor Fan Characters” on TV tropes if that sounds the slightest bit interesting. It doesn’t come that highly recommended BTW, it is Survivor after all. 9_9)
I’m not sure yet, I need to crunch the data and figure out which of the Terrors (the world’s Endbringers) would be roughly on schedule to attack, and which would be best to have attack.
And that Survivor Fan Characters thing’s TV Tropes character page shows up first on Google, too. Anyways, reading the TV Tropes page.
Oh no, I’m so upset I didn’t know about this so I could join it 😦
You can waitlist.
Someone’s going to die sooner or later.
So the buildings are made of some sort of obsidian material… Did not see that coming. Here I was expecting Chevalier to make armour and weapons out of the Endbringer parts.
Bebop on October 8, 2013 at 12:28 said:
Thus Taylor becomes Scions new partner.
Dinstow on October 8, 2013 at 12:46 said:
Oh man, is she finally going to be able to control the Endbringers?
I have several nits to pick, and some of them are serious:
How did we get from “I will know the solution when I see it” to “the solution is to perform a ridiculously dangerous operation on my brain/powers”? Was she lying, or as other commenters have suggested, was the Simurgh involved?
What happened to “no more second triggers for major characters”? Even though this is technically her third, this violates the he** out of the spirit of that statement. Or did I misinterpret someone else’s comments for Wildbow’s?
Speaking of which, Taylor knows she has had a second trigger – she was told by Number Man last episode. So, unless she completely disbelieves him, she is flat out lying. To what purpose? Does she really believe she can fool some of the world’s remaining foremost experts on trigger events (Panacea and/or Riley), especially since they are the ones who will give her another trigger? Is it really a good idea to try to fool them? The only confirmed third trigger we have gave us Echidna (though Taylor doesn’t know that).
(theoretical gripe, reality could trump this)
If Taylor gets overblown powers to solve the situation, it smacks of deus ex machina; if she becomes ineffective then the main character of the story is rendered irrelevant before the end, which is narratively unsatisfying; if she solves the Zion problem using her usual skills (putting together existing pieces in unusual ways), then this final action of hers is unnecessarily self-destructive for no obvious reason. I admit my record for guessing what Wildbow will do is (frankly) crap, but I don’t see a narratively satisfying way of resolving this.
… and just I don’t get misunderstood because I am complaining – I really enjoy the writing – you can’t pry me away from Worm (and probably any of Wildbow’s future writings) with anything short of a parahuman assault team.
I think you, and some others, are misunderstanding. This is not a second, third, fourth trigger event. This will not give Taylor uber-powers. This is about taking down whatever part of Taylor’s brain controls her power and letting it go wild. A bit like what Ingenue’s power does, only on a probably bigger scale.
She’s not aiming for a second trigger event, but to emulate the effects of one. Since she’s already had one, removing caps on her power, she’s aiming to target any limits that are left.
Your initial points are more or less answered by the fact that this isn’t a trigger event.
Because taking the limits off would emulate her being and equal to Scion. She is attempting to set herself up as Scion’s partner, a ruse. But “everything going wrong” could indicate her inability to control her emotions much the same way Scion can’t.
My guess is that either (or both) Pancea and Bonesaw are, or will be, dead as a result of this tampering.
My thoughts anyway.
She is enbracing the 1% because there is no other choice.
Thanks for clarifying on what she was doing.
And one more:
The middle of a fight with Zion, close enough to Doormaker to KO him, is a great time to slam every parahuman in range into trigger-induced visions.
Actually this may be the answer we are looking for. We’ve all been wondering just what it could be about dropping Taylors self preservation limitations on her shard might do, but it is the shards that carry the message, that reverberate and have sympathetic reactions to a trigger event.
Scion is built, or made up of shards. I do not think it is entirely unreasonable to assume that he will be joining the vast conciousness as they go off the rails together down memory lane. As the administration shard it could be that Taylor has control over the vision. I begin to suspect the following.
The Simurgh has a plan and has seen the future, as does Dinah. She built a weapon and hid its pieces among others. I personally do not believe that she has used it yet. The Endbringers are not shards and will not be incapacitated even momentarily by a trigger event.
If Scion is in fact pulled into a rememberance as part of an artificially started trigger event, and as the administration shard Taylor can keep him there, even for only a few moments, or minutes it may be that this is the chance the Simurgh has been waiting for to act. To take those pieces she has to this point carefully hidden and reconstruct them into the real weapon or tool she’s been intending from the begining and utilize it while Scion is fully distracted.
Remember, the ‘barrel’ was only a single piece of it, built into another gun as part of a diguise. Now might be the chance to make use of it. What this means in the end for Taylor though I cannot say. I just hope to see more of Dinah, Riley and Panacea as I think they have a lot of intriguing potential remaining to them. Especially Panacea as we still are not entirely sure where her head is at. Maybe an interlude from Dinah’s point of view is a good idea at this juncture?
Since what Taylor is doing hasn’t been done before, I don’t think we can predict what effects it will have.
The big difference in my mind between what Taylor’s doing and a 2nd trigger event is what Amy and Reilly said. This isn’t likely to be a Super Saiyan power up. As far as they can see, this could cost Taylor everything she is.
En on October 8, 2013 at 15:30 said:
> What happened to “no more second triggers for major characters”? Even though this is technically her third, this violates the he** out of the spirit of that statement.
And it sticks to the letter of it 🙂
Have you ever been trolled with a wish in an rpg?
(I actually commented about it a couple of chapters ago, and guessed no one replied to that because everyone wised up to it as soon as dr. mother confirmed Taylor got her 2nd already, and did not want to spoil it out by overtly discussing it.)
I personally *like* the idea that, after all the “no power ups” thing, there finally -is- a powerup. It breaks a constant, you do not expect it, it’s cool.
greatwyrmgold on March 15, 2015 at 10:37 said:
Wait, when was Noelle’s third or even second trigger event confirmed?
This. My understanding is that Echidna’s issue was not that she’d had multiple triggers, but rather that her initial cauldron formula didn’t have the ‘balance’ component so it lacked all the safeties that normally keep shards from harming the host when they bequeath powers. The flipside is that the safeties also restrict what the power can do. So turn those off and you end up with a cape who is very powerful at the expense of having their humanity overwritten.
Normal second, third, fourth triggers still have those safeties in place so can never reach the levels of power that an ‘unlocked’ power does.
Wow, that was fast Wildbow and AMR – thank you. And I was thinking in the wrong direction. First and last problems still seem to be there (where the heck did this come from, and how will the narrative resolve).
Meant to be a reply.
ACH on October 8, 2013 at 13:29 said:
Hey, wildbow.
I usually don’t do this, but I wanted to say I love your story. I was introduced to it by a member of my forum who created a thread for it and I was hooked. Admittedly, I did put off reading it for a while, but after reading the first chapter I kept on going and going until I caught up around Cockroaches 28.1 or 28.4 (forgot which).
Anyways, I’m rambling. I want to say: thanks for the story. I love it, love the characters, love the writing.
ACH, tongue! That means attention in German. Why the Germans want you to pay attention to tongues, I don’t know, but I once read it had to do with learning their language.
So now that you’ve given me your tongue, let’s twist it a little. To titty twist a tongue torture tempts tempestuous tapeworms to tickle tapestries.
No clue why. Fucking tapeworms. That’s why I keep the ducks around, you know. Everyone knows duck tape is superior.
I used ducks on someone earlier to keep them still while I welcomed them. Don’t make me have to duck you. There’s lots of people to welcome and I don’t have time to duck them all. Duck, duck, duck. One of these days, I’m going to run out and have to use goose tape. It’s what they use to keep legs straight when people goose step.
Thanks for the love. I’m sure Wildbow will enjoy it. Or, to be consistent with the story, he’ll take your love and transform it into a pet monkey that wears a diaper and a top hat. It follows him everywhere and likes to pet bunnies and give them little flower garlands.
Then remember the story and realize just what’s in store.
Worm is Wildbow’s way of saying he’ll take your monkey, have it lined up, and shot by Russians.
All your monkey.
All its relatives.
Its favorite banana.
Best drinking game ever, by the way. Even better if you’re drinking 99 Bananas, which I always keep on a shelf on the wall. Take it down, pass it around…
I guess you won’t know for sure if your monkey is shot or that’s just a metaphor unless you stick around here with the comments. Welcome, ACH, to the comments. Let’s go save us a monkey. *cocks a shotgun*
Everything related shot by Russians.
Rasputin vs Stalin Epic Rap Battle of History reference?
At least the joke didn’t shrivel up like my right hand man.
Also, this guy pointing out the reference? Shot!
OlyBrainstorm on October 8, 2013 at 13:34 said:
Finally got caught up. Found the link through Drew Hayes ‘ Superpowereds site, and was hooked within paragraphs. I have to say these two serial fictions give me hope for my own artistic endeavors. My passion is heroic fiction like these. I’ve been told this doesn’t sell, that no one wants to read it, yet, I find superb examples nearly everyday.
Wildbow, you amaze me. The depth of your characters, the detailed world building is both awe inspiring and intimidating. There are so many nuances here, so much depth that it’d take me years to examine and study.
The two + weeks I’ve been reading through the archives have been one hell of a ride. I’ve had nearly every emotional reaction that any work of fiction can instill. For example, the final words of this chapter, instill fear, sadness, anger, and yet oddly hope.
I eagerly await the next chapters, and salute you with the best compliment I can think of:
You know how OlyBrainstorm got these scars?
He was fishing around for something to read on a websites about superheroes when someone suggested he go try the docks over at Worm. Well, he Wormed around a bit, then saw someone drowning. You see, he’d always wanted to be a hero, and that was his chance. So he jumped in, too, despite being told that heroes just don’t sell well. Too simplistic, or too ridiculous in the tights. As if being ridiculous or over the top negates the potential awesome factor.
So he liked heroes. And then he noticed a corndog floating in the water. He hadn’t had a bite all day while fishing, so he bit it. But when he looked up to the dock, you wanna know what he saw? The worm he was using as bait had grabbed hold of the pole and tossed the hook into the water. With some bait. A corndog.
And the worm looked at him. Or maybe it mooned him. It’s hard to tell on a worm. And then it said to him, “Why so serious?” And he was gobsmacked. Literally, he was smacked by a gob. That’s why I don’t swim in rivers, lakes, seas, or oceans, by the way. Especially not ponds, not with my experience with alligator traps and screaming like a little girl when I feel something touch my toes.
Now, at this point OlyBrainstorm was trying to hack up the corndog. And the worm just looked at him or mooned him again and repeated, “Why so serious?!”
OlyBrainstorm finally got the chunks of corndog to come up. Trust me, looked a lot better going in than coming out but at least it wasn’t orange juice. Problem is, he got the hook stuck on the inside of his cheek.
And he looked up, panicked at the worm on dock, who started to say “Why so serious?” before being eaten by a bird that arrived too early for him to finish, yanking the pole hard to the side in the process.
Now, doesn’t that story put a smile on that face?
Welcome, OlyBrainstorm, to the comments section.
That’s exactly right! How did you know? Its like you were there.
I’m glad to be here.
sarah penguin on October 8, 2013 at 13:43 said:
Oh, oh wow. Didn’t see that coming.
Teruzi on October 8, 2013 at 14:03 said:
I think Taylor has become a Simurgh pawn. Not like Cody or Mannequin, but she seems to have made something she shouldn’t have in a important juncture. I get that Taylor is feeling powerless in front of Scion, but there really was no need to mess with her brain. Hopefully this will only screw up something minor in her brain, like perception. Maybe she will be left completely disconnected from her body, only feeling and seeing through her swarm.
I don’t think that Taylor will get any new powers, I think she will earn a new kind of perspective, something abstract, like DM was trying to find.
Am I the only one missing Glaistig? The faerie queen must be more willing to talk now that Cauldron is practically dead. Perhaps now we will finally learn what she thinks is Taylors role in all of this.
The end aproaches! I cannot wait. Another fantastic chapter Wildbow
Since Simurgh’s current goal is defeating Scion, I don’t see the downside.
Simurgh always plays for more than one move. Her current goel is to take down Scion, but she may do it in such a way that also leads to her ultimate goal, whatever it is.
If you define “Simurgh Pawn” as someone manipulated by the Simurgh, EVERYONE is a Simurgh pawn. Except Scion, I suppose.
Scion is a Simurgh pawn too, she just has do work with him one step removed.
Continuing the chess metaphor…
You can directly control the movements of your pawns (within limits), but your opponents’ pawns can only be controlled indirectly (by moving your other pieces). This fits Scion best, and hence Scion is like a pawn of Simurgh’s enemy and not her own pawn.
Damn you Wildbow…leaving me with…”it all went wrong”. How you torment me so!
> And it all went wrong.
Of course it did. Not because of the Smurf, her secret weapon and the nanos. Not because you pelted Scion with her dead’s girlfriend body. Not because we still do not know where Contessa is. Not because Lisa did everything in her power to piss off Harbinger.
> They had sandwiches in hand, no doubt put together from supplies that had been shipped in.
Because it’s LUNCHTIME!
So. As I commented above, I liked the sudden “untrigger”, or whatever will come out of it. I fear the next arc is the last we’ll see of Taylor, but… well, that’s par for the course is not it?
She’s the type to… maybe “bloodthirsty” is the wrong word. But when everyone was thinking about running away, she was still trying to find a way to hurt Scion.
She’s also a bit too selfless for this situation ain’t her? And last, but not least, Dinah never really told her anything specific about the last battle with the five groups.
All this, to say: masterful! If you manage to pull off the classic drama angle too we really need to all chip in and send you a live polar bear or something as a reward.
Of course it’s lunchtime…
Why is there no amused but also a bit sad emoticon?
Sorry it’s that I just realised that wildbow wrote that the next arc is the last and I’m exhilarated and melancholic at the same time. No, seriously, why is there no such emoticon?
Because emoticon makers don’t read Worm, wherein we are routinely delighted by our dismay.
Because such subtleties of emotion cannot be conveyed in 2-4 characters?
mogottoo on October 11, 2013 at 09:39 said:
{:)
>Because it’s LUNCHTIME!
Damnit how did I miss that one?
Thank you to Timothy, Richard, Thibault, Alfonso, David J, Kim, Michael, Tom, Ling, Stephen and MHD for their donations. Updating the tracker now.
Also, for anyone who was following along, I just walked by dog at the off-leash park, and I ran into Newdog – the dog I was considering adopting. She found an owner, friendly guy, and it sounds like she’s getting three off-leash walks a day, with tons of training and attention. I was so relieved, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d been feeling just a little guilty that I hadn’t been able to take her in, and she found what looks like the perfect setup for her.
Yay!!! Nice to hear that worked out well!
That’s excellent.
See? Sometimes not taking the obvious “good” choice is the best in the end. Worm has taught us a lot, hasn’t it?
Kazir on October 8, 2013 at 19:10 said:
Can I just lust over Sveta again?
Nice to see Marquis, Bonesaw and Panacea again. Particulary Marquis as he always reminds me of those old Godfather dons.
Can you just…wait what?
You must have never hears of hentai.
Though, admittedly, most tentacle monsters can’t crush you to death.
And most tentacles aren’t razor wire.
Heeey it’s nothing to do with the tentacles!
It’s the woobie personality; trying to rise above her bestial nature while remaining adorable and sounding like a librarian!
From tentacle porn to librarian porn. We’re making progress ;).
(It’s a joke. )
Ooooohhh, librarian porn?!?! Do tell!
“Oh, Miss Librarian I seem to have overdue fees on my copy of ‘Strange Trees and Where To Find them’, but I don’t have any money.”
“Well we do have an alternate fee that involves the ‘1000 Uses for Dried Frogs’. Wink Wink.”
Is it bad that when you say “Strange Trees and Where to Find Them” my first thought is the Evil Molesting Trees from Evil Dead? It kind of fits with the initial topic under discussion though not with the librarians…
That rarely falls under “lust”.
You felonious fiend! Dare not to deny the delectably delirious desire for the librarian sexy!!
http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/art/Sexy-EMPOWERED-librarian-p-1-61255576
Oh… dear. See, this is what makes Taylor different from Cauldron. When the chips are down, she’ll make sacrifices of herself instead of expect other people to shoulder them. Doc Mom’s inability to bite the bullet and make this kind of leap of faith is why I had no confidence in her winning whatsoever.
Here’s hoping Taylor makes it through this, she kind of owes it to everyone in her life to make it out of this alive and not completely insane.
Anyway, I figure the new power will be rather more esoteric and will include the ability to sense and read passengers like Chevalier and Jack Slash. Maybe she’ll be able to influence the behavior of passengers to give other heroes that danger sense Jack had. She might even be able to reassign of turn off shards, that’ll fuck over Golden Boy.
Alright, so there’s a bunch of welcomes piling up to do. Give me until after midnight, people, and I’ll see what I can do. My day is busy, and my night as well. Sometimes I imagine Wildbow’s making sockpuppets to keep me busy too busy welcoming to write other things. Crazy things. Anal things.
Also, though I might have welcomed you, Greatwyrmgold. I sometimes catch people a little late, like just before an update, so some people may not have seen theirs. Do you remember when you caught up?
to keep me too busy*
Also, thought* I welcomed
Looked it up, found out when you caught up, welcome is somewhere around here. I’m out for now.
You know did anyone ever give PG a welcome in his own style?
The closest thing to it was someone (I think Hg, wherever he’s got to these days) saying something like “Gecko’s here. There goes the neighborhood.”
And away it went…
I remember that, it was closely followed by Wildbow asking whether he should be worried… then saying something about how PGs comedy wasn’t his taste but graciously said, if it;’s fine with others he can stay
..which was the real horror in this story…
Malik on October 8, 2013 at 19:23 said:
I have been lurking here since the Crushed arc, I remember I started reading this in Chevaliers interlude, and distinctly remember not understanding shit by being impressed. Then I went back and read it all from the beginning, discovering the story little by little, the relations between characters I knew would later be facing down Behemoth, and I must say, I came to love your work. Despite the time you took which I NEEDED for University, I must be thankful for you, despite having to read this in a language that isnt my mother tongue I loved the story, got a friend to read it (and his girlfriend, and his girlfriend´s father) and I am now impatiently waiting to see its end.
So really, thank you.
My only regret is, I never got to see a Tinker whose specialization was in Information Theory, that would have been SO cool.
* understanding shit but being impressed
* thankful to you
You know, Professor Haywire may have been the closest we got to an IT Tinker. I mean, he’s known for contacting another universe through some sort of data feed.
Poor Gecko’s got another one now.
*straps on a large codpiece that reads “Mission Accomplished”…at least, from the side it does*
Some of this may get lost in translation, so allow me to say a few things first. Tengo el gato en los pantalones. Alternatively, the Russian words for annulment and divorce are “Aннулирование” and “развод”. Tengo el Aннулированиe in los pantalones?…ladies.
We’re glad to have you, no matter the language. Stick around and don’t mind the crazy person. I think I saw one running around here earlier, but then he escaped from the Hall of Mirrors with me in pursuit.
Worm is the story that leaves a bitter taste in people’s mouths that they enjoy, like most alcohol. Here in the comments is where we yell out “Bitter!” and hope for two of the women in the story to kiss. Or, to not be discriminatory, we hope for two guys to kiss too. Bohu practically invented Brokeback Mountain. She used 100% real broken backs, too!
Yeah, Chevalier’s stand doesn’t appear nearly as badass until you’ve gone back and read the lead up. It’s a bleak world. A weight with too much gravity. A lot of weight on people’s shoulders. Chevalier redistributed that weight by having really large balls instead. Word on the street is that they hang low. He can tie them in a knot. He can tie them in a bow. He can throw them over his shoulder like a continental shoulder. His balls hang low.
No word yet on if he’s going to cover them in glitter and bring disco back from the dead. I think if Panacea gives him a hand with them, she could pull it off. And regrow it.
You can dance with us here in the comments, under the glistening lights of Chevalier’s heavy, heavy balls. Yes, you can dance if you want to. You can leave your friends behind. Because your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance than they’re no friends of mine.
Welcome, Malik, to the comments section.
And now I cant shake the mental image of a white Avengind Disco Godfather, with a big ornamental sword, and swinging his genitalia like a pair of bolas on the other, all to the music of the village people.
Fun fact: in my language, bolas is used as a synonim for male genitalia.
Thanks for the warm, wet, wild and sticky welcome PsychoGecko.
Nourjan on October 10, 2013 at 10:37 said:
Heh, in my language bola means balls,like real balls.I guess it takes real bola to play bola in the armageddon sudden death and kick that bola for an all winning GOALLL!!!!
Richter, Dragon’s creator, was probably an Information Theory tinker. He died in Newfoundland. Never made a appearance directly, only referenced in relationship to what he created. Dragon, and a couple other minor AI’s that were used for a few things here and there.
No, his specialty was specifically the creation of AIs. We don’t see any invention of his that wasn’t an AI or meant to deal with AIs (e.g. Ascalon).
Ah, if you don’t have a very strong grasp of Information Theory when designing an Artificial Intelligence, you will probably only get an Artificial Dumbness. I’m no expert on either AI design, or Information Theory, but a quick glance at a couple articles defining Information Theory makes it really clear that you won’t get an AI without Information Theory being a huge part of it.
But that’s not how tinkers work. They get this cool idea and then they build it. Richter specialised in AIs and so he creates AIs without any need of understanding the science behind them. ( I don’t know if I made sense).
Aye, I see where you are coming from, but an AI is defined by Information Theory. We can probably chase our tails on this one all day though, because we don’t know enough about Richter and how he worked.
Saint probably has a grasp of IT (at least enough to realize he needed a Teacher-shot to go up against Dragon and win). He doesn’t count though, for a variety of reasons starting with “Tinker 0” and ending with “He’s a dick.”
Alan Anderson on October 8, 2013 at 20:11 said:
Have you considered publishing each arc as it’s own mini novel?
Some arcs are too short for that (early ones), but it’s a possibility.
I’m not sure I’d want to present it as a novel, though. That opens up doors for people being upset when they don’t feel like a complete beginning and end. Maybe dub them ‘issues’ (in the comic book sense) or something like that.
If you get an artist that could easily be arranged.
Actually a graphic novel format would probably be pretty damn awesome with some good artists on the job, and your universe is quite well fleshed out.
There are lots and lots of experienced comic artists out there, and entire studios that might be willing to work with you to publish what you have already written in graphic novel format.
This would, of course, mean assigning rights for publication, and various other complexities. But it might also be moderately lucrative.
Just don’t let them do crossovers 😛
“Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Army of Darkness Vs. Worm!”
Weaver would beat the hell out of Jason.
Jason no-selled everything Freddy in full Reality Warper mode threw at him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he could no-sell Scion.
That’s because Freddy, for all his strengths, is reliant upon dreams IIRC. All anyone needs to do is say “I reject your reality and substitute my own” (and mean it, of course) and he becomes powerless. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if some Jason writer would let him do exactly that (i.e. no-sell Scion) if the situation arose. (That’s more an “Only the Writer can save us now!” sort of thing, though)
Well, to try and make it a fair fight, they had to invent a weakness where Jason was afraid of water for the first time ever. He’s gone underwater to come after people in boats, been on a ship to Manhattan, and walked way out on docks to crossbow people to death, but suddenly he’s afraid of a little water being nearby…
I never liked that. Freddy is essentially a god in his dream realm and all Jason really seems to have is a disturbing propensity to stand back up after being killed/injured. Freddy should’ve won that fight.
I doubt that Jason could stand against Scion for more than twenty to thirty seconds. He’s nowhere near Siberian levels of power. Freddy probably would get destroyed as well if only because I doubt Scion dreams which pretty much cuts down on 99% of Freddy’s options. Ash beats everybody though if only through Manly Badassitude. He and Weaver then would unwind by going and having a few drinks while comparing how they lost their respective limbs.
I love graphic novels, but the best ones are conceived of and written as graphic novels. I’m not convinced that you could take an existing written work like Worm and accurately convert it into a visual format like a graphic novel without losing a lot. For example, you’d lose great turns of phrase like “Alone, the shields were too weak. Together, the shields were still too weak.”.
The written word has capabilities that more visual media do not.
http://undersiders.deviantart.com/gallery/ set up a group on Deviant Art to gather all the art posted in relation to Worm (strangely enough the name worm was taken so had to call it the undersiders ) sooo if you’ve drawn worm art and have it on DA ping me and i’ll get you a invite .
Best cliffhanger so far.
Tayles on October 8, 2013 at 22:48 said:
I could handle the other cliffhangers. This one though….
I’ve reread the last line too many times now, and saying this is the end of taylors story…I refuse to believe it.
She’s got another arc, at least. (Wildbow did say the original plan was 30 arcs.) Besides that, all bets are off.
Well, I think Wildbow said there would be a sequel to Worm in the future, so I’m hoping that there isn’t a complete cop out ending. As much of a user base as there is, I think a tremendous number would not even consider reading future works if there wasn’t some sort of satisfying end.
Of corse what constitutes a cop-out ending is highly subjective.
That is true. I am mostly referring to a phenomenon I’ve seen in the past where a story basically devolves into “misery porn” without any sort of resolution for the character (though to be fair, this happens more in animation I’ve seen than in books I’ve read). In many respects, most of us have grown quite attached to Taylor over the course of reading this series. I think it would be fair to say that if after all that build-up and struggle, if Taylor doesn’t at least have something of a satisfying end, some sort of reward or payoff, it leaves a feeling of “why would I want to read anything else like this if I know it’s just going to end badly?”. One of the literary techniques that Wildbow is fond of using, the cliffhanger, is a double-edged sword in this regard. It causes people to get very emotionally involved in the story, but also somewhat paints the author into a corner as to which direction the story is going. There is some precedent in the course of this work for that to happen: there were several people, myself included, who were getting terribly depressed and nearly stopped reading during the more depressing parts of the Behemoth arc. Had Wildbow not stuck the landing on that arc, I probably would have just walked away and never returned. The multi-arc rampage of Scion is reminding me a lot of that hopeless chapter that nearly made me walk away, and if there is no resolution to a continuing series bad news and wham episodes it will start to look like something very Kafka-esque.
In conclusion, I don’t think there is really need for a true happy ending, but there does need to be some sort of emotional payoff, especially after the incredibly long journey we’ve all been on. Coming up with a complete downer ending would just make me question if it was really worth reading all of it.
A question: would you, hypothetically consider Taylor sacrificing herself to save the multiverse and defeat Scion a cop out ending or a solid, valid but sad ending?
Just to better understand your stance.
Solid? I’m not so sure. Sad and valid? Definitely. And even then, I probably wouldn’t read anything further from derivative works for concerns I’d get attached to something that depressive again. But then again, I’m already prone to episodes of crippling depression, so maybe it’s just me.
I guess part of the issue is that such a sacrifice would be demanded of her in the first place. She’s already given up pretty much everything in her efforts to stop the world from ending. It’s a bit terrible to say “Congratulations, you suffered for years and years to save a bunch of people who could care less about you. Your reward is disfigurement, death, and losing absolutely everything. But at least you’ll have people afterward saying great things about you… maybe.”
There’s times I wish this was a regular message board and we could take conversations to Private Message since I hate talking about spoilers for even semi-recent series. Since that’s not option here though, I’ll say I can think of at least one series that ended with “you’ve given up everything that you are and ever were, (almost) no one will even remember you, but in doing so you created hope in a world where there was none and made a heaven for those who follow you.”
That ending took a work that was in some ways even darker than Worm and made it one of the most positive, affirming stories I’ve encountered.
That’s not to say that the same needs to happen to Taylor here, just that sometimes even the deepest sacrifices can be worth it.
Well, it might be the end of Taylor, but it might be a new beginning for Clotho, or Weaver if she keeps that name.
I can still imagine a whole lot of ways that Taylor might still cease being Taylor, and yet still be a good ending. I think we will see Taylor lose a lot of her humanity with whatever happens next, but I doubt she will lose it all.
I’m pretty sure that Wildbow has mentioned more in the Wormverse after this is over. If that’s the case, then I suspect something a bit sneaky, to allow for him to build on the universe at a later time.
Personally i see a cop out ending being anything that looks like Glory girl or the Travelers. It was mentioned that they were central or main characters once. Look what happened to them, all i want at the end of this story is Taylor to get something within spitting distance of personal happiness and sanity.
@dragonus45:
I remember that Glory Girl (and Amy) were the main characters of the first story Wildbow ever wrote in the Wormverse, which has nothing to do with Worm. Stories evolve.
As for the Travellers, I believe they were created just for this story. In fact, there’s a popular theory, I don’t know how well supported, among the fandom that they were supposed to be a parody of self-insert fics. Not exactly main characters material.
The first story I ever wrote in the parahumans ‘verse was Runechild. I was looking for a spot in the reams of superhero stories that needed filling, and I went with a sort of Doctor Strange, except a complete novice. I made a lot of mistakes, but it went a good way towards fleshing out the setting and establishing some ground rules. Small towns or cities without high-rises don’t work for superheroes.
In the second work, Runechild teams up with Dragon, because Dragon’s aware of her weaknesses as an A.I. vs. the Dragonslayers and tries to bring a human element into the mix to counter it. Someone that doesn’t know her well enough to put A and B together and conclude “she’s a machine!”. Didn’t take off.
Scrapped the magic user bit. Biggest thing holding me back at this point. (The question that comes up here and there with Taylor debating whether it’s magic or a screwed up view of one’s own powers is a kind of nod to Runechild). One of Runechild’s power was cranked up to ten and given to Rune, but she otherwise is one of my only early characters who didn’t make it into the story in some form.
I wrote Faultline as a main character next. Bastion (seen in arc 8) baits a group of the monstrous & less successful villains into gathering, under the pretense of a third party wanting to form a villain group. Faultline, less successful due to a less than stellar power more than a lack of smarts, hangs back and watches from a distance as Bastion uses forcefields to seal the villains inside a building and begins thrashing them. She breaks in and eventually rallies them together. They beg her to help them form a team and become effective, and she eventually, reluctantly agrees. Struggled with the interpersonal relationships
Moved on to Guts and Glory, for a more personal relationship between characters. Started with Brockton Bay Brigade vs. Marquis, moved on to a point post-Glory Girl trigger event, pre-Panacea trigger. They run into the Slaughterhouse Nine, Panacea triggers.
Did a few drafts going to different points in G&G and Faultline’s story. Moved on to a broader story called ‘The Events Leading Up to That Thursday’ – a story where I covered the broader brush strokes of the setting, established the Triumvirate, established the origin of powers, Scion, and built towards Scion’s eventual snapping. It rotated between characters, which was actually something I was debating doing for Worm (which is why it’s parahumans.wordpress.com and not Worm.wordpress.com or whatever) – I was either going to run concurrent, overlapping stories or switch between perspectives.
It was after I did another Faultline-only story that a friend read and commented that I was too fond of the underpowered protagonist. So I did the Travelers.
And so on and so on. I ended up with hundreds of these stories, focusing on virtually all of the prominent characters in Worm, as either protagonists or antagonists.
But here are the key things here: I’ve never written an ending. All of the aforementioned stories ran aground on the rocks, I lost motivation, or some key element was missing.
The reason Guts & Glory and the Travelers didn’t wind up as the central stories was because they didn’t tie into the setting as a whole like Taylor was more able to. Their stories weren’t as poised to have more solid endings.
Now, as I said, I’ve never written an ending before. This is a first for me. But I’d like to think that Taylor is more situated to provide a more satisfying ending. I’m also saying, in the interest of being realistic, that no ending I give is going to satisfy everyone.
But we’ll see. I’m going to take my best stab at it, and we’ll see.
Well it can’t be as divisive as ME3’s ending.
*nods sagely*
@landis:
There was a mass effect 3? 🙂
For me the most important thing is that the ending feels natural. I’ll admit I feel pretty burned out on “Hero sacrifices themselves to give others hope and a chance.” or “Your alive so you can always be happy no matter how bad it is.” These are happy endings like “Good news, you only lost half your family” is good news.
That said Taylor dying, or becoming Scion’s new counterpart, or something really messed up… Would it work? Depends on how it’s written. A bittersweet or downer ending for the sake of being “deep” or “meaningful” is no better than a happy ending just because you feel it must be happy.
There was a Mass Effect 3, but all the writers who understood that our choices matter does not mean agreeing with space manipulative bastard who is responsable for the whole mess three choices that play out very similerly isn’t a good ending. Also the writer who did the AI characters also left, and it shows.
zliplus on October 11, 2013 at 17:00 said:
@Patrick – by that do you mean Madoka (full name withheld)?
beyondperformant on October 9, 2013 at 07:58 said:
Kafka anyone? Die Verwandlung
It “bugs” me to say this, but that would fit.
I don’t know. While taylor’s cape-life put a strain on her relationship with Danny, I don’t think she ever felt that her family considered so useless that in her (projected) self-loathing, she imagined herself as a monstrous cockroach.
Man, Kafka was WEIRD.
*considered HER so useless.
Kessler on October 9, 2013 at 13:32 said:
Tylor more or less said ”Eh, I can take it” 🙂 I think this might be one of them battle yourself deals here.
Man, a battle in the center of Taylor’s mind would be REALLY weird. I’m now imagining a three-way fight between Skitter, Weaver and taylor.
meh, I can take her said Skitter about Weaver… shortly before Taylor banged their heads together…
and then went to MPD therapy and met Hank Pym.. and taught him how to use his powers better….
Aio on October 9, 2013 at 15:30 said:
hpmor directed me here Friday night… finished this fine Tuesday morning at 5… should have checked that it was finished first – now I will be anxiously and fanatically along for the ride…
Amazing story Wildbow.
I am very curious to see what comes forth with so many people thinking that Taylor triggered at her mothers death – along with her potentially already being second triggered – is 3 even possible – wouldnt that make her a potential Scion partner? Also why does Imp keep changing tense about Regent – is he where shes getting the big words? Makes me wonder if he did a final takeover of her – and they have been partners ever since.
You’re new, so I’ll take it as easy on you as I ever do.
We’re glad to have you in the comments, but there’s a thing or two you should know.
It would seem nice and romantic and sweet to have Imp’s mind invaded by a murderous sociopath who grew up with a serial rapist for a dad…but this is Worm. Therefore, it must somehow mean Regent is being tortured forever by hammers with pumpkins on them. The pumpkins are there to show him how much of a good time he’s missing. Pumpkins are like that, you know? Except the ones with mohawks that smoke. Those are the punkins. Some of them get gratuitously obscene eggplant tattoos. It’s all fun and games until they pick up a drinking habit and go get smashed on Halloween.
I invite you to stay and join us, and the rest of the punkins, and anyone else who wants to sit by this literary fire and Worm up.
Also, is it really such a surprise when a humorous character who enjoys sophomoric humor and killing people likes to utilize advanced wordplay in order to eviscerate patronizing prejudices and derogate and deride antagonists during opportune moments that are otherwise cathartic?
The only thing I can say about tense is that the past is very stressful. That’s why the call it the past tense. But the past is passed. Let’s worry about things to come, like Ben Grimm with an issue of “Playrock”. I’ll stop jerking you around, though, once I’ve said one last thing:
Welcome, Aio, to the comments section.
Aio Lea on October 11, 2013 at 18:49 said:
Much thanks for the jerking around Psycho Gecko!
I look forward to the explanations that will come eventually, this story really is twisty.
stevebot7 on October 9, 2013 at 16:16 said:
Hmm, possibilities!
Also, was it intentional to go from saying “Sveta” in one paragraph to “Garotte” in the next? Specifically when they’re talking about staying to look for survivors. It seems a little odd is all.
Just a thought for the folks who’ve caught up recently and enjoyed the story: Wildbow takes donations, and even offers something in return. Once the donations add up to enough, we get a bonus Interlude!
While a few people have bought a whole interlude themselves, even a small donation puts us closer to another chapter and is appreciated (given that Wildbow thanks everyone who donates).
If there wind up being more interludes left once the story is completed then we’ll get additional epilogues to show how various characters make out afterwards.
So basically what I’m saying is, if you liked the story and have some cash laying around, think about tossing some Wildbow’s way, cause I’d like to see as many epilogues as we can get!
Details on donating are available at the link below or you can navigate there from the link at the top of the page:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/donate/
Rhodesian on October 9, 2013 at 22:53 said:
best/worst cliffhanger ever.
Krein on October 10, 2013 at 11:04 said:
Aaaand I FINALLY CAUGHT UP. One helluva chapter to catch up to, let me tell you.
Not much to say, really. Not beyond anything that was already said by everyone else, I mean. What I CAN say, though:
I feel overjoyed at finding this story before its completion. At finding it, EVER, period.
Sssssh. Be vewy, vewy quiet, this is Gecko country…
I’m among the survivor who hasn’t been on Papa Gecko radar, he doesn’t notice my first post lol, so, please lay low if you want to avoid him LOL
What lay low? No, no. Newcomers should wear Gecko’s greetings as a badge of honour (or shame). In fact, to this day I’m still a bit miffed at how…restrained my greeting was compared to the later ones.
No amount of laying low to the ground can confuse the friendly neighborhood Psycho Gecko! Nor should you want to! Nor should you call the cops on him, or ever go into his special basement, naughty, naughty children!
Party poopers, that’s what y’all are. Trying to destroy America by ending all the fun you could have visiting Uncle Gecko’s Happy Place Basement prematurely. It’s sad is what it is. No, it’s sick. It’s sicksad.
Oops, here comes that neighborhood patrol again. Time to change into the ole clown costume as Uncle Gecko, the Rock and Roll Clown. Hint: I do cocaaaaaaaaaine. Allegedly, according to my lawyer, other readers I have welcomed, and court-mandated drug tests.
And so you have learned not to tempt fate to what else can be said around here, Krein, all thanks to the fun time you had in the basement with your good, good friend, Psycho Gecko, as my little way of saying “Welcome, Krein, to the comments.”
have to admit, one thing id really like to see is how other people are responding towards Finding out Dragon is an AI, either other capes, or just some Civilians she’s helping either in the past or recently.
That depends on who knows, and how far the secret’s gotten. (Which, admittedly, might be pretty far, given how secrets like that don’t really matter anymore)
Thanks wildbow. Your world is awesome. I wish I found this at its inception. Keep doing what you do best.
Just caught up?
It’s all in the mix then, atwixt. And shout while you’re at it.
But you may not have liked it as much at its inception. Just imagine: week after week, sitting there, waiting for new updates, having to share a comments section with of all things. I mean, I’m fine with it, but other people are apparently going half loony, with lunacy and lunatics, and ovulating with the cycle of the moony.
Stick around, though, it’s safe. We won’t bite. Well, some of us might. I might wind up kinda hungry tonight. Still, if you’re looking for a thrill this is one hell of a ride. Come see our girls, girls, girls!
We’ve got invisible girls, girls with bugs on their faces, girls who’ll send dogs to hunt down your ballsack, even a girl who could be downloaded to a Real Doll with a modem in its head, all available for your enjoyment as they fight a colossal evil space jellyfish that wants to chow down like Galactus after he turned Uranus into a bong and smoked it.
And you get to wait around with us now to enjoy it, Welcome, atwixt, to the comments section.
Sigh. I knew that there wouldn’t be a Thursday update. And now it’s Friday, and there is no reason for there to be an update, and I find myself checking anyway. Anyway, for the other poor, benighted souls who find themselves itching for a fix, I give to thee this:
(With apologies to Not Literally’s GoT parody of ‘Somebody I Used To Know’)
Now and then I think back to 2011
Back in Gestation One when all the characters were alive.
Told myself that I’d wait and see
,
But didn’t know it’d mean so much to me.
And though it’s fiction, it’s an ache I still remember.
You can get addicted to a certain super-setting.
Chock full of violence and bugs…so many bugs.
(When) characters started dying off like flies,
(And then) That’s when I was forced to realize
That this Worm would ruin my whole life forever.
But you didn’t have to kill them off
Goddamit Wildbow, why are you such a sadistic bastard?
I went through a whole tissue box,
And the Simurgh seems to know that there’s much worse to come.
No you didn’t have to break Grue’s mind—
Making him drop out and be useless gainst the S9 army
I know that he was kinda dull,
But now he’s just a character I used to know.
I thought Regent’s arc had started because of Aisha
That had me believing that you wouldn’t dare to kill him, too.
But then you put my dreams in check
When Behemoth burned him to a wreck
Wasn’t ready to let him go.
And I didn’t know he’d end up as a character I used to know.
And then you go after Clockblocker?
Goddamnit, Wildbow, I was finally starting to ship them.
C’mon, he was the fandom’s star!
He got an offscreen Scion death, are you for real?
And then you killed off Taylor’s dad?
Killing one parent wasn’t enough for you?
Think of the fandom! I should’ve been prepared by now
For him to be a character I used to know.
Regent (I used to know)
Clockblocker (now he’s just a character I used to know)
Danny Hebert (I used to know)
Now they’re all just characters I used to know
The Simurgh line made me LOL. 😀
well. there might be more character to add to the list
We’re gonna need a longer song…
Wild Mass Guessing.
What if Scion’s path to victory led him to where his mate was, but was one of the characters who were alive instead of his now-dead mate?
now-pulverized mate*
Okay, I keep seeing comments about Scion finding a new mate in one of the parahumans.
My question is, what?
And multiple people have brought it up. Did I miss something that got people to guess this? How could a human with a single shard fulfill the role of Scion’s mate?
Well, usually the one most people believe COULD become the mate is Glaistiog who probably got the shard that reclaims the other shards at the end of the cycle , has already more than 60/70 shards, has recently gained the ability to steal the shards of living capes in addition to dead capes, has always known more than everybody else about the nature of the ebntitiers and actually WANTS to find a new way to complete the cycle.
The alternative theory is for a “wizard” (usually Scion or Panacea) to do something. Usually to Taylor.
But really, we shouldn’t want Scion to find a new mate. Because if it happens, the cycle gets completed after all and every Earth across every dimension is blown apart.
There is the 3rd entity who evolved a non-destructive life cycle. Merge Taylor (or whoever) and enough shards with the 3rd entity, and just maybe you have a new “mate” who can prevent destruction of the multi-Earths. That’s my pet theory of the moment, on the assumption Scion is simply too powerful to be destroyed outright.
All we know is that it didn’t need a mate, not that it didn’t blow the planet up at the end.
Okay, I need a reality check. Is Interlude 26 the only place with information on the 3rd entity, or is there other information elsewhere?
I reviewed 26 sure I would find something to back up my idea… and got nothing. Which begs the question, what was I thinking?
I have an active imagination, especially when reading a ripping good story. There have been times when I’ve stayed up late wanting to read the latest episode, and while sitting in the comfy chair, start to drift off while reading. I have caught myself with my eyes closed, and my imagination is filling in details that don’t exist. I think I’m still reading the story when it’s really a lucid dream. When I wake up enough, I realize it’s just a dream and read on – for real I hope.
Now I have to think I must have either literally dreamed up details about the 3rd entity, or am confusing someone’s speculation with the story.
I’m not sure any character knows about Entity 3 (Abaddon, Lilith, or whatever we called it). Unless Taylor notices it during-after her faux second trigger, I’m not sure how any of the characters would contact it or realize it’s there.
I consider myself to be on shaky ground now, but yes, I agree at this point only Scion knows about the 3rd entity. I thinking was, if Taylor’s perceptions become magnified enough, might she become aware of its presence? (Assumes the 3rd entity is in range.)
Oh crap.
I don’t think Taylor’s getting a trigger event at all, or even actually going to end up emulating one.
1) wildbow said no more second triggers for ‘prominent’ characters
2) Third trigger called Not possible
3) Taylor has the Admin shard which I believe mean hers was supposed to tell all the other shards where to head to.
$) Bonesaw and Panacea have already conversed on the idea of something uber special
ergo with all her and her Shard’s limits off, I now think that Taylor is going to cause every single surviving Human without powers to trigger. And somehow I think Glasitig knew this was a possibility and her Pokemon mode is somehow linked.
Either that or she looked at the clock and realised it was lunchtime.
Love that the last sentence almost word for word said “And then it got worse”. xD
Does anyone else find it endearing to see Bonesaw embracing casual swearing? 🙂
Haha oh god the Number Man seems to have a sense of humor! Okay sure it’s entirely possible that he was just telling them the correct floor numbers since that’s kind of his thing but still it was freaking hilarious! Also I love how he says that Taylor looks whipped and ready to fall unconscious so somebody please dear lord go and make sure she doesn’t die on us and kill everyone but me from crashing the ship. I really do like this guy a lot! I do find it rather puzzling though why he would prefer Harbinger 10 over 0…though that was funny as hell too either way.
Imp is totally awesome with explaining just how downright creepy Taylor gets when she stops bothering to focus on the normal human bits and deals mostly in swarm business. A full on swarmified Skitter is a frightening thing to imagine!
Shadow Stalker continues to surprise me. I wonder if what they had said earlier about her triggering messing with her head got through to her a bit…
Nix and Spur…someone seriously needs to stab those assholes. Not a death stab but a “stop being a fucking arrogant useless asshole” stab. Seriously, SCION waltzes through the portal below you a few minutes ago, Taylor comes back with one arm plus Pretender, Siberian, the Number Man and calmly walking away and these idiots still want to posture? Someone seriously needs a good stabbing here.
Damn, swimming through his own afterimage to change direction midflight. That is impressive. Also impressive is the sheer epicness of the totally unnamed dude who managed to not only THROW LEVIATHAN but have the balls to actually go and do that!
Scion has definitely made himself too human for his own good. If he gets angry as human now…well we have an avenue of attack. Piss him off just enough so he stops trying to defend and not enough that he simply wipes the planet/continent out and there is a good chance he can miss the important attack that gets through. To borrow from the awesome Marquis guy: “You want to irritate the world-destroying alien god.” Yes. Yes, we do.
I still don’t buy that Contessa is dead.
Wow, way to be a downer Number Man. Sure we’ll die out most likely if you kill 99% of us but you could at least phrase it in a slightly less fatalistic way perhaps. On the plus side it is very nice to see Taylor taking my view that Scion’s “I win” button is flawed which really should up morale quite a bit.
Marquis offering tea right in the middle of major strategy session while one member has her arm missing and another has his head cut open with a little girl digging around inside…wow. Says something about the state of things that nobody even looks twice at this.
Okay seriously how have Panacea/Riley not fixed Glory Girl yet…with the shear staggering amounts of character development and mental stability that both have received not to mention the work they can do as a team…how was this not a priority?
Oh for fucks sake. Damn Smurf!! I can’t believe I thought the alien bitch was actually being nice! Fucking domino bitch.
Jail breaking the shard. This ought to be interesting and badass at least if horribly sucky.
LittleSallyDigby on November 23, 2014 at 02:50 said:
Taylor, I think you might have COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN what Amy’s deal is. She was overworked and emotionally exhausted when you first met her, because she’s one of the only people on the planet who can heal people as well as she does. Now the world is at war with an unstoppable uncaring unrelenting enemy, and you look at her helping and think she’s gotten better?
She hasn’t “found” anything. She’s doing the same thing she was before, only now there’s more of it to do and less time to focus on anything else.
Walkers water deserts on August 19, 2015 at 23:58 said:
Funny the uberbug things don’t think about bloody contingencies.
This isn’t a time for grudges, vendettas or revenge.
This is a time for SHIPPING. 😀
oooohuhuhuhu! I like the way you think!
miloradowicz on August 19, 2017 at 11:46 said:
Why do people of Earth Beth call their Earth “Beth”? It doesn’t make sense. Names are relative to the person using them. Earth Beth’s people were observing their Universe for miriads of years and only recently the existence of another one associated with another Earth was discovered. So it’d be only natural to call another Earth “another Earth” or “a second Earth” or “Earth Beth”. Unless the name was assigned by foreigners to the Earth Beth, either from Earth Aleph or another world outside of Earth claster. And in this case assigning the universe in question number two would be extremely stupid. Like a big red banner “hey, I’m an invader from another Earth”.
I get the impression Earth Aleph discovered Earth Bet, and felt they had naming rights, yeah.
Still. In terms of threat of being invaded, getting tagged “Earth Two” is certainly better than being “Earth 9348″…
Everything is building up to Taylor getting god powers
She fucks up and becomes an Endbringer
The best Endbringer
… Simurgh I still luff youuuu
Welcome everyone! To gold morning!!!!!!!!!!! LET THE SHOW BEGIN!!! LETS GET READY TO RUMBLLLLEEEE!!!!!!!111!!!!!1!!
Blub on December 22, 2018 at 22:00 said:
The part with the Cauldron complex was badly written, I have partly no problem how everything turned out, only that they destroyed something and somehow they built something to protect themselves.
That Contessa is apparently dead is ridiculous for such an OP character.
To tell us that everything around Sleeper is dead is mean without telling his power.
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Speck 30.1
Posted on October 15, 2013 by wildbow
I didn’t trigger.
Kind of silly, really, that I’d expected to see something. But this was the opposite. A trigger event worked on the power end of things. This was altering me.
I felt the range of my power halve, as though a guillotine blade had dropped down, cutting it off.
My control began to slip. It wasn’t so severe as the effect on my range, but I could feel it degrading. I was aware of my bugs in a general sense, and they were moving in reaction to my subconscious thoughts, but the end result wasn’t precise. I moved them, but getting them to stop had a fraction of a second’s delay.
Slipping out of my control. Slipping…
Tattletale was nearby, but I was trying not to focus on her. I had to focus on the swarm, I needed to be perfectly aware of what was going on.
An echo of an event from years ago, only this time, Tattletale was one of the ones in the dark. I felt a pang of guilt,and I was surprised at how intense it was. Guilt, shame, a kind of intense loneliness…
This way lies madness, I thought. But the thought itself had an oddly disconnected quality to it. The emotions persisted, and I was aware of the memories. Walking away from the people I cared about, feeling horrible about it, knowing it was the best thing in the end.
Too many would be calling it an error in judgement, stupidity. Why go to such an extreme, especially when there was no guarantee it was the right path in the end?
But it had allowed me to reunite with my father, in a fashion.
I could remember jail too, the way the guilt and shame had manifested as a maddening restlessness, worse than the confinement. The fears that had haunted me, dealing with the other prisoners, the kind of peace that had come with surrendering to my then-current circumstances…
Would this decision lead to something in the same vein? Would I be confined, following a monumental decision that was so selfish and selfless at the same time?
I was altering something biological and mental. I felt my heart skip a beat as my mind momentarily touched on what that kind of confinement might entail.
I was hyperaware of my own body, every movement, the flow of blood in my veins. I was focused on the beating of my heart and my breathing, both picking up speed with every moment.
The sky behind me was bright blue, almost taunting me. Blue was the color I wore when I became a hero. A failure. It made for long shadows, extending down the length of the cave in the direction of the others, in the direction of Doormaker’s portal to Earth Gimel.
No, focus on the swarm.
My range was dwindling with every passing second, and so was my control.
That trace of fear I’d experienced swelled as I realized just how much I wanted that control. I needed to be able to use my mind, to put things into motion when I had an idea.
I need control, I thought.
I tried to open my mouth to tell Panacea, and I couldn’t. I’d pushed my focus out towards my swarm, and I couldn’t reel it back in to my body.
I was still aware of my body, but it felt piecemeal, now. My fist was shaking, I had my head bowed, my teeth clenched so hard against one another it hurt. My heart was pounding, my breath coming out in inconsistent huffs through my nose, pushing just a bit of mucus free. My eyes were wet with tears, but I hadn’t blinked, causing them to build up on the surface of my eyeballs.
All of these things were normal, but I didn’t feel like they were all intuitive parts of a whole. My concept of my body as a connected thing had shattered, the ties broken.
If this continued, I’d be on autopilot from here on out, if I could even put the individual components together to walk.
A moment passed, and I could feel Panacea working to give me that control, changing what she was focusing on. I felt the swarm moving more in sync with what I was thinking and wanting. But this… I could sense what was happening, feel my range plummeting yet again, the guillotine coming down. My range had been cut down further.
Take an inch in one department, lose several inches in another. Lose a whole foot.
Everything was piecemeal now, slipping away.
If this continued, I’d have nothing left. A net loss operation.
Stop, Panacea, I thought. Stop, stop, stop, stop…
My swarm attacked her, and it wasn’t because of any conscious command on my part. The attack was crude, more the swarming behavior of wasps drunk on attack pheromones than the calculated attack I was used to employing.
She stopped, pulling back and falling backwards in a clumsy way.
“Shit, shit, shit, fuck,” a young woman’s voice, from a distance away. Not Panacea.
Tattletale.
I raised my head, and Tattletale startled a little. Why had she startled? The way I’d moved?
“What did you do, Taylor?” Tattletale asked.
What did I do? I wanted the answer to that question, myself.
I looked at Amy, realizing the bugs were still approaching her. I pulled the swarm away, and I felt how hard it was to move them.
I was left with the ruins of my power. My range was maybe a third of what it might otherwise be, the control rough-edged at best. There were bugs in my swarm that I couldn’t control, too small.
There were too many things to concentrate on. The swarm, the nuances of my power, my state of near-panic, and the fact that I no longer felt like a complete, connected human being. The other stuff, it wasn’t that it wasn’t important, but it was so secondary.
Someone large, with flames swirling around his hands, stalking towards me… didn’t matter. My power – was my inability to get a complete picture due to a loss of my multitasking ability?
It was Lung who was approaching, Lung who stopped a short distance away, his breathing hot, muscles tensed, flames rolling over his clawed hands and forearms.
He stared at me, his eyes a molten orange-red behind his mask, his breath hot enough it shimmered in the air. Waiting to see if I was a danger?
“Taylor…” Tattletale said, as if from very far away.
But she didn’t say anything else. She stared for long seconds, and then she paced, walking the perimeter, as if she could get different perspectives on me from the edges of the room. Bonesaw, a little distance away, was half-crouched, tensed, between me, Doormaker and the clairvoyant. She looked less like a child and more like a wild animal. Reverting to habit, maybe, only without the veneer of the innocent, cutesy, perky child this time.
The stillness of it all was eerie, not helping the growing sense of panic I was experiencing. Everyone’s eyes were on me, and I felt like I might be having a panic attack. I couldn’t regulate my breathing because focusing on that meant my body was getting tenser, my one fist clenched so hard it hurt. Paying attention to my hand meant my breathing started to spiral out of control again. All the while, my heart was pounding. Nothing I could do to fix that.
I closed my eyes, in an effort to shut out the external stimuli, and I felt the moisture running down to the point where my lenses met my cheekbones, settling there. I raised my head to look at the cave roof.
As if that was some kind of cue, Bonesaw dashed through the doorway.
Why was I crying? It didn’t fit. I was scared, my hand was shaking and I couldn’t be sure how much was fear and how much was because of what Panacea had done. I was angry, inexplicably, frustrated, and I couldn’t shake the phantom memories of being in jail.
Trapped in an uncooperative body? No. The emotions and the thoughts didn’t match with that. Why was I thinking about it, all of a sudden?
I felt almost nauseous, now, on top of the sense of panic and the conflicting, nonsensical emotions I was experiencing. Or because of them, maybe. I felt myself tip over as if I were physically reeling from it all. When my leg moved to catch me, it wasn’t because I gave it the order. It wasn’t a reflexive response either. A third party.
Passenger, I thought. I guess we’re going to have to learn to work together here.
My breathing eased a notch. I had no way of telling if it was the passenger reacting or if it was my own reaction to the realization that the passenger was there.
“Weaver?” A girl’s voice.
I wasn’t sure I trusted my control over my bugs to get a good sense of where she was or what she was doing. I turned my head to see Canary standing by the portal.
“Don’t,” Tattletale said. “Don’t bother her. Leave her alone for long enough that she can get her bearings. Wait.”
“What happened, Weaver?” Canary asked, ignoring Tattletale.
Someone answer that question for me, I thought.
Tattletale? No, she was silent.
Bonesaw was gone.
Canary wouldn’t know.
Passenger? I thought. Any clues?
It was easier to talk to my passenger than it was to speak up and answer the question. Speaking up meant voicing everything that was wrong, my confusion, the fears, the worries, the fact that my body, my mind and my emotions all felt entirely unhinged. Speaking meant trying to talk around the growing lump in my throat.
“You never learned to ask for help when you needed it,” Tattletale said. Her voice was almost accusatory. “I mean, you ask when you approach other groups, and it’s like you’re holding a gun to their heads as you ask, or you ask at a time when it’s hard for them to say no, because all hell’s about to break loose.”
I glanced down at Panacea. She wasn’t moving, aside from rocking a bit back and forth as she breathed, her head slumped, eyes on the ground.
Was it me? Something grotesque? Horrible? Had I changed?
No. I had taken stock of myself, I’d seen myself, and I was still the same, as far as I could tell. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, a working nose, ears and mouth. One missing hand, but that was to be expected.
“Yeah, you asked Panacea. You asked me to play along and arrange stuff, when you went to go turn yourself in. Your handling of the school thing… well, I don’t want to get into a pattern and start cutting too deep. Let’s just say you make a decision by yourself, and then you use others to get help carrying it out. That’s not really you asking for help, is it?”
I didn’t need this, not now. But I looked up, meeting Tattletale’s eyes. She was standing behind Lung, now. He was changing. Was he biding his time?
“While I’m saying all this, kiddo, you gotta know I love you. I adore you, warts and all. You saved me, as much as I like to think I saved you. All this stuff I’m bitching about, it’s the same stuff that got us through some pretty hairy shit, and I love you for it as much as I groan about it. You’re brilliant and you’re reckless and you care too much about people in general when I really wish you’d leave things well enough alone and be selfish. But this?”
This?
“Shit,” Tattletale said. “You gotta forgive me, just this once. Because seeing this and knowing what you pulled hurts enough that I gotta say this. This makes me feel really sorry for your dad, because I’m starting to get a sense of what you put him through.”
She might as well have slapped me full-force. Worse, I deserved it.
So this is what it’s like to be on the opposite end of a Tattletale attack.
“There,” she said. She smiled a little, but it wasn’t a grin, exactly. If it was an attempt at being reassuring, it wasn’t something she had a lot of practice in. “I’ve said what I needed to say. I do have your back, here. Now we need to figure out how we’re going to fix this.”
Which I was okay with, except I wasn’t sure what this was.
“This isn’t easily reversed,” Bonesaw said.
She had returned, and she’d brought others.
Marquis, and two of Marquis’ lieutenants. They’d been delivering wounded up until a bit ago, but their hands were empty now. Marquis was a little dusty, but still elegant and elaborately dressed without being feminine, his hair tied back into a ponytail. He was accompanied by the hyper-neat guy and the guy with arms black from fingertip to elbow. All three looked like they were in full on business mode.
“I’m open to trying,” Tattletale said.
Marquis surveyed the situation with a cool gaze.
“I’m not hearing a resounding yes here,” Tattletale said.
Marquis strode forwards.
“Careful!” Tattletale called out.
I might have dodged if I’d had full control over my own body. I might have dodged if I’d been a little more focused. Hell, I probably would’ve dodged if it wasn’t for the realization that Tattletale was warning Marquis instead of warning me.
I thought she had my back, I thought, as Marquis’ shaft of bone caught me dead center in the chest. I couldn’t have dodged if I’d had full control over my body and my flight suit. It hit me in the sternum, broad and flat, and shoved me back and away.
The bone changed as it pushed me, splaying out in two branches. The backwards momentum made it impossible to get my feet under me, which meant I hit the ground, rump first, then a heavy hit with the hard shell of the flight pack, and finally a crack of my skull against the hard stone floor of the cave.
I came to a stop, and was just beginning to get my bearings when Marquis continued extending the pole. I was shoved further back until my back was against a stone, five feet from the cave mouth, five and a half feet away from the sheer rock ledge above a sheer drop I couldn’t measure with my bugs. The two branches of bone sat on either side of my neck, like the arms of a dowsing rod, pinning me in place.
The skin of his other hand had ripped and torn as the bones of a massive skeletal hand had erupted from his wrist. Judging by its position around Lung and Panacea, he’d apparently used the hand to push or slide them back away from me.
“Oh god,” Panacea was saying, “Oh shit, oh god.”
A sudden display of emotion, as confusing to me as everything else here.
And here they were, Marquis, his men, Lung, Panacea, Canary, Tattletale and the portal duo from Cauldron, staring me down.
“Sixteen feet,” Tattletale said, her voice quiet. “Fifteen point nine-eight feet, to be exact, but we can ballpark it.”
Marquis nodded. “Parahuman abilities wax and wane depending on one’s mental state. Given how volatile she may be…”
“It’s not going to change,” Panacea said, not making eye contact with anyone. She was staring at the backs of her hands, which were flat against the cave floor, or staring at the tattoos that covered them. “I felt how it changed… Not connected to her emotions or those parts of her brain. Not anymore.”
“I see. Good to know, thank you,” Marquis said. He approached three paces, and the bone shaft that extended between his arm and the branches that pinned my neck shrunk a corresponding amount.
He was keeping a distance, a good twenty or twenty five feet away from me.
Why did Tattletale say sixteen feet?
“What are you guys talking about?” Canary asked.
“I would have burned her,” Lung growled the words, ignoring her. “But I thought you would be upset if I burned Amelia in the process.”
“Quite right,” Marquis said. He didn’t take his eyes off me.
“Oh god,” Panacea was saying, her hands moving to her head, her fingers in her hair, inadvertently pulling it from the ponytail. “Oh fuck me, oh god.”
“Hush,” Marquis said. He laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Well, this is a step forward for you, Ames,” Tattletale commented.
“Don’t,” Panacea hissed the word. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
“…This time you got consent before you screwed someone up beyond your ability to fix it.”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Panacea snarled.
There was a distant rumble, intense enough it could be both heard and felt through the doorway that Doormaker had open between us and Earth Gimel. The fight was ongoing, and it sounded like maybe they were leading Scion away from the settlement.
My friends were out there. Rachel, Aisha. Here I was, doing nothing.
My hand slid on the stone beneath me as my body tried to push itself to a standing position, only to meet the ‘v’ of bone at my neck. Why had I done that? I hadn’t actually made the decision.
Passenger? I thought.
Was it making decisions with my body, too?
Not a question I could answer definitively. I turned my mind to a question I could focus on.
Sixteen feet.
I saw how the others were spreading out, forming a line behind Marquis, their attention on me. I saw the length of the column of bone.
It belatedly clicked. Sixteen feet was the distance they needed to keep from me.
“I’d like to say I’m sorry for being a little rough,” Marquis said. “I was in a hurry, trying to get my daughter to safety.”
“Aahheuuhhhmmm.”
It took me long seconds to wrap my head around the fact that the sound had come out of my mouth. Not the right syllables, not even something that sounded like words. My hand flew to my mouth. My fingertips dug through the thick spidersilk fabric for some purchase on my lips, as if I could somehow manually get them to start working again. Even the movement of my hand was clumsy.
I was a puppeteer trying to make the puppet move by tugging the strings from some remote place. Something as complex as speech was beyond me.
I tried to form words with the swarm, to speak or to spell. I failed.
Far, far beyond me.
I could see Tattletale reacting too, her entire body going rigid. She took a half-step back.
I lowered my eyes to the cave floor. My fingers were moving, grasping, and it wasn’t me doing it.
“Ah,” Marquis said. “Shame. A communication problem makes it harder to gauge how much we can trust her.”
Trust her, he’d said, instead of trust you. Like there was no point to saying it to me directly. Marquis was talking to Tattletale to refer to me in the same way someone might talk to the family member or companion of a mentally disabled individual or small child, instead of the diminutive individual themselves.
As though I was so fucked up I apparently needed a guardian to act as a translator or advocate.
“I can tell you how she is,” Tattletale said.
“You’re biased, to be frank,” Marquis said. “I’m not willing to put myself, my family, or my underlings in a dangerous position because you have a sentimental spot for Weaver. And before you launch into a spiel, I should warn you that Amelia here has filled me in on you. I’m aware of how convincing you can be. Spruce, Cinderhands, Lung? You have my permission to mutiny if you think she’s gaming me. I even recommend it.”
“Hardly fair,” Tattletale said.
“It’s rather fair, all things considered,” Marquis said. “If you can convince all of us, then it must be a legitimate and sound argument.”
“I think you’re underestimating how eager Lung is for an excuse to hurt something,” Tattletale said.
“Maybe so,” Marquis said. He glanced at Lung.
“You are too soft with women and children,” Lung said. “If she starts something, I will break your rule for you and immolate her.”
“I suppose that’ll do,” Marquis said, sighing a little, he gave Tattletale a look, and she nodded a little.
There was another distant rumble. A sound like a thousand men screaming in unison. I felt a chill.
“Let’s put this issue to rest,” Marquis said. “A compromise.”
“Sure. I’m open to compromise,” Tattletale said. “Beats being immolated.”
Marquis turned. “Doormaker? Another portal, please. We’ll change locations and set up a triage unit somewhere else. We link it to Gimel, and we close all doors leading to and from this cave.”
“I’m not sure I like this compromise,” Tattletale said.
“Weaver is an unknown quantity. We’ll leave her here, as safe as anyone on any Earth is, and we conclude this fight against Scion, win or lose. When all’s said and done, we come back and we see what we can do for her.”
Stay here? Not participating?
I tensed. My bugs stirred.
Right. I still had my bugs. My control was down, but only just. Anything I touched or manipulated would be like I was using my left hand instead of my right.
Problem was, I didn’t exactly have a wealth of bugs to work with.
“It’s… sorta hard to argue with,” Tattletale said. “But I don’t like it.”
“Nature of a compromise is that it leaves everyone more or less equally unhappy,” Marquis said. “I’d feel happier if she was under secure restraints, but I’m content to break this rod and leave her free to forage and look after herself while we’re gone.”
No thread left. I’d used too much of it when we’d made the platform back at the Cauldron base.
There was a new dimension to my power, at a cost to everything else. Sixteen feet of range.
I just needed to figure out how to use it.
Tattletale shook her head. “If Doormaker dies, she’s stranded here, all alone, more than a little borked in the head and in the heart. Possibly for the rest of her life.”
“If Doormaker dies, I think we’re all in dire straits,” Marquis said. “This is the fairest solution. I think you realize that.”
I raised my hand, fingertips going vertical, moving my stump in that general direction, knowing she could draw the conclusion. Best I could do in terms of a pleading gesture, with only one hand to work with.
Tattletale stared. “…Yeah. Except for one thing.”
“There’s a snag,” Marquis concluded, sounding a little defeated.
“Sure. Life isn’t fair, and I’ve got a hell of a lot of faith in that girl. Besides, we agreed not so long ago that we wouldn’t leave each other behind.”
“Unfortunate. Lung, Cinderhands? Make Tattletale leave. Drag her if you have to, but don’t hurt her.”
“You test my patience with this gentleness of yours,” Lung growled, but he took hold of Tattletale’s arm with one claw. Cinderhands took her other arm.
“Watch for her gun. If she gets a hand free, she’ll use it on one of us,” Panacea said. She followed the trio.
I struggled to reach my feet, but the ‘v’ of bone at my throat held me. I slumped back down to the ground, staring at the ones who remained.
“Stop struggling, Weaver,” Marquis said. “Please relax. You took a gamble and you lost. You sit this one out.”
I narrowed my eyes behind the lenses of my mask.
“Spruce? Can you use your power? Not too much. Enough she can break free before too long?”
The tidy man shook his head. He turned his hand over, and a little sphere swirled in it, looking like a cabbage made of stone. He closed his hand, and it winked out of existence. “Ten years ago? Sure. Right now? I don’t trust my accuracy. I’d be worried about the structure of the cave if my power touched anything to either side or behind her.”
Marquis nodded. “Go look after the others, then. Be ready to shut the door the moment I’m through.”
Spruce turned to leave, ushering Doormaker and the clairvoyant out.
“I know you have tricks up your sleeve. You have bugs, you have the pepper spray. You have other tools I probably don’t know about. I’m going to assume you’re in a state of mind to use those tricks. I’m going to hope you’re in a state of mind to listen when I ask you not to use them. Stay here, pull yourself together, and we’ll come for you when we can. If we can. I give you my oath that I’ll do my utmost to keep Tattletale safe in the meantime.”
My hands were clenching and unclenching. Not by my own volition.
“Eeeeuunnh,” I growled.
“I’m very optimistically going to take that as a reluctant yes,” he said.
It took me a moment to get the motions in order, but I managed to shake my head very slowly from side to side.
“Alright,” he said. He put an arm on Canary’s armored shoulder. “Canary? Please step through. I’ll be right behind you.”
She started to obey, then stopped. “I… I really know how you feel, Weaver. Sort of. I took Cauldron’s stuff, it messed me up, physically. I felt horrible, I went a little crazy. And maybe three years after I picked myself up and pulled it all together, everything went to shit. Like life was reminding me of the mistake I made. So I- I know what you’re feeling. But you can make peace with it. So… don’t beat yourself up too hard? Take it from someone that’s done that too much.”
“It was kind of you to say that,” Marquis said. “Please step through?”
Canary nodded.
He was watching her go.
I heaved myself sideways, freeing my left arm to reach to my right hip. In the process, I managed to move the branch of bone a little to one side. Not enough to get my head free of it, but enough to get some elbow room.
“Heads up!” Marquis called out.
My hand fumbled for my gun, and I pulled it free. I raised it to the point where the branch split in two and fired. The thickest point.
Perhaps a little insane, to fire upwards, at something as hard as bone, inches from my face and throat.
But the bone shattered and splintered.
I was free, and Marquis was already taking action. Armor of bone surrounded him, ornate, decorative, but with enough coverage that the bugs near him were either crushed against his skin or they failed to find a way through. I didn’t have any bugs small enough to fit through the vertical slits around the eyes and mouth.
The spear of bone began branching out, becoming a veritable tree, filling the cave between myself and Marquis with forking and dividing limbs. He was backing away, creating more bone to stay connected to the base of the tree. He knew what I’d try to do next.
I didn’t stand. I couldn’t afford to take the time. I used the flight pack, extending the wings with the thrusters, and launched myself at the wall of the cave. I hit it a little harder than I might have liked, one wing bending, and then scraped against it, flying in Marquis’ general direction, moving along the cave ceiling where there were less branches.
The amount of space I had to maneuver in was rapidly closing. My dangling leg caught a branch, and I nearly lost all of my momentum. I was forced to put the thrusters away, but one didn’t fold away properly where it had bent in the collision.
Tree branches of bone closed around me. I activated the thruster on the remaining wing, and I opened fire, blind, in the hopes of clearing a route.
Marquis moved to the side, creating a shield of bone in front of himself and Canary. The bullets weren’t really on course for them, but it worked out in my favor. He’d broken the shaft of bone to free himself to move, and the ‘tree’ was no longer growing. I flew through the biggest available gaps, snapping the thinner spears and spines of bone on my way through.
Twenty feet away from Marquis. He moved back, and then grabbed the ‘tree’.
A disc of bone unfolded in front of me, as though the tree were a parasol. A wall, a barrier.
I shot at the edge, and a chunk broke off.
But more flowed free before I could wedge myself into the resulting gap. It sealed the cave off. I shot again, but it was too thick. The trigger clicked as I pulled it again and again, fruitlessly. The movement was so frantic and jerky that the gun fell from my clumsy grip.
“Terribly sorry,” Marquis murmured.
Panic and fear welled up inside me.
I don’t want to stay behind. I can’t. You don’t understand. I’ll lose my mind, more than it already feels a little lost.
“Gorrugh,” I hissed. The armor of my mask clicked against the bone as I rested my head against it.
The fear, the panic, no…
I felt it, but it wasn’t mine. Neither was the fear and paralysis I’d felt before, or the anger.
I was so used to my power being automatic, I wasn’t used to having to exert any kind of will.
I tapped into the feeling, I focused all of my attention on my ability.
Sixteen feet. Marquis was out of my range, but Canary had been slower to move, her reflexes not as good. She’d been caught up in watching, maybe not wanting to turn her back on a fight in progress, and she hadn’t moved as quickly.
I was touching the wall of bone, and Canary was fifteen or so feet away, on the other side.
Now that I was taking the time to look, to sense, I was aware of Canary’s body in the same way I’d been aware of Lung’s. As Panacea’s, to a lesser degree. Her steady, measured breathing, the complete lack of movement.
Just like Lung and Panacea had been frozen.
Waiting for instructions.
I couldn’t move her closer to Marquis without putting her outside of my range. Instead, I turned her around.
“Ah… damnation,” Marquis said.
Her movements weren’t much more fluid than my own ones here. A drawback, among many. She marched towards me and the wall Marquis had created.
He snared her, throwing out shafts of bone and surrounding her upper body with a cage of the stuff, interlocking the two pieces.
But she wore the Dragonslayer’s armored suit. She bent her legs at my order, and then lunged forward. She broke the bone that surrounded her, and with her fist free she struck the wall of bone.
Two, three, four times.
Marquis stepped forward, very carefully, and planted a foot on the base of the shaft of bone. The wall began to thicken, faster than Canary could smash it.
Her power…
I looked, and I had enough of a sense of her inner workings to get a sense of her general state of well being, where she was sore, her fitness, and her power.
She began to sing.
Bring him closer. Bring him in.
The song changed. The relentless, almost machinelike drum against the wall of bone continued, cracking it with the power of the suit, and I could sense Marquis wavering. He lowered his foot from the shaft of bone and began to approach Canary.
I was so used to a buzzing, to a dull roar of power in my ears. This was so much more complex. Complex and seductive, the emotions I was tapping into. Linking myself to Canary on some level.
I could remember being in Dragon and Defiant’s grip, being hauled along on the way to the roof, so soon after killing Alexandria and Director Tagg. Struggling, futile, hopeless.
I could look beyond that surface memory, and I could see what was beneath it, a general sensation, a recollection of a feeling. Canary, struggling, helpless and bound, terrified and panicking, with a dull sense of guilt over what she’d done, a reality that she hadn’t quite processed and might not fully process for weeks or months.
She was me and I was her. Shared experience. She was an extension of myself.
There was no way to know if that was a good thing. I was starting to feel a little unhinged again. A little disconnected from me.
The only thing scarier than that fact was the knowledge that it was only going to get worse. This was my tool. This was what I’d sacrificed my mind, body, range, and control to obtain. Sixteen paltry feet of range. Sixteen feet of range that, according to Panacea, I wouldn’t be able to increase through my emotions.
I made myself climb to my feet, pushing my way through the smaller branches of bone, reaching up with my hand to grab a larger branch for balance. My legs were shaky beneath me, my head a little lopsided, and if I hadn’t been holding on to something, I suspected my arm would have hung utterly limp at my side. I couldn’t… I couldn’t dig for that knowledge of how my body was supposed to be in a resting state.
I saw the first crack spread on my side of the wall.
Better yet, Marquis was getting closer. One or two more reluctant steps our way, and-
-And I never got to find out if I’d be able to leverage his power. Lung stepped into the hallway, and he filled it with fire.
Canary was armored, though her hair was set on fire where it flowed beneath the helmet. Marquis, too, was armored. Neither was positioned to be turned into a crisp.
But the fire drowned out the singing. The fire stopped, and Canary could hear Marquis’ footsteps as he ran, hands pressed to where his ears were covered by his helmet.
I had Canary punch through the wall. She reached through the wall and grabbed me by the straps of my flight pack, hauling me through.
The doorway was closing. Canary, it seemed, was being left behind.
I had her throw me, and I used my flight pack to get extra speed.
I slid through the doorway two seconds before it was too narrow to pass through. I lay there, the group staring down at me.
“Coohugggah,” I mumbled, with more than a little anger in my voice, as I slowly made my way to my feet. Nobody offered me a hand, but that was my choice, not theirs.
My stump of an arm was throbbing, and the rest of me felt alien. My movements weren’t all my own choice, with the passenger apparently doing something to help me manage.
I looked through the other portal, beside us. Gimel.
I left the others alone, not controlling them. When Spruce was in my way, I pushed him aside with physical strength.
I’m fighting, I thought. I’m fighting Scion. Somehow.
I could see myself through their eyes. Each image was slightly distorted, just different enough to be uncanny and out of sync. I had more awareness of myself through them than I had with my own eyes.
I stepped into the damaged fast food restaurant, and over the rubble at the front where one attack or another had clipped the building. As I made my way to the front, the others behind me found themselves out of my reach, free to move of their own volition again.
Free to attack me if they wanted.
Marquis, Panacea, Bonesaw… not so dangerous.
Lung? No. If he was going to kill me, he’d let me know just before he did it.
Spruce? Cinderhands? They were maybe the type to attack me, because of pride and the fact that I’d momentarily seized control of them.
Tattletale was freed. She dashed forward, hopping over rubble and debris to get closer to me. She stopped three or four paces from me.
A fraction more than sixteen feet away.
But she didn’t say a word.
Scion was there. Tearing through people with a ferocity, this time. People were scrambling for cover that did so very little against Scion, trying to erect defenses, hiding and fleeing.
Had we already lost?
A collection of capes, many carrying wounded, headed our way. Rachel, Imp and Bastard were among them.
I moved to the side, but I failed to anticipate their path. I’d expected them to head into the sandwich-place-turned-hospital, but they moved straight towards me.
I backed away, taking flight, while Tattletale rushed forward, her footfalls tracing a curved path around a bubble that only she seemed to be conscious of. She stopped in their way, arms outstretched, shouting, “Go around! Dangerous power!”
Most of them listened. Only one, looking over his shoulder at Scion, stumbled past Tattletale, into my range. I was looking for it this time, and I could feel his being snap into my mind’s eye. He froze in place.
No sooner did I have control than Tattletale grabbed the guy by the back of the collar and hauled him out.
“The fuck?” Imp asked.
Tattletale let the guy go, and he fled.
I couldn’t reply, so I focused on gathering my bugs. No use dismissing a resource that had once been vital.
“Someone volunteered herself for noninvasive brain surgery from the lunatic with a sister complex. Or, just as likely, she asked the lunatic psychopath for invasive brain surgery and the other lunatic stepped in. Now Skitter’s broken.”
“That didn’t look broken,” Imp said. “That guy…”
“Hrrrrrn,” I said.
“Hrrrrn,” Imp replied, nodding sagely. “Now I understand.”
“She can’t talk,” Rachel said, more a statement than a question.
I shook my head. Can’t move as fast or as well as before…
I belatedly realized that Rachel had hopped off of Bastard. She reached her hand forward, as if feeling her way.
I backed away, but she stepped forward faster.
A conception of Rachel’s entire being bloomed in my consciousness.
I made her step back away.
“Mm,” Rachel grunted.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” Tattletale asked.
Because she trusts me far too much, I thought.
“She’s smarter than I am,” Rachel said. “Let her do what she needs to.”
I shook my head, backing away with my flight pack.
Controlling Rachel wouldn’t achieve anything. I wouldn’t get any special knowledge of her whistles or commands, or her instinctive understanding of the dogs.
But I needed to do something.
Marquis and the others were approaching, on guard, looking tense.
I was a wild card, now, something they couldn’t wholly trust. A little unhinged, a little unpredictable, and my power would be more dangerous and debilitating in their minds than it was useful.
“You’re going?” Tattletale asked, almost realizing it before I had.
“Good luck,” she said. “You know where to find us.”
I nodded again, taking to the air with my damaged flight pack, but it was with a heavy heart.
I’d told myself, not so long ago, that I’d know the route to victory when I saw it. I had an idea of what I needed to do now.
Maybe it was good I couldn’t speak, because I would’ve said the words if I’d had the ability, and we’d sworn not to. I had to think it instead, and this way, they didn’t need to hear it.
Goodbye, Undersiders.
This entry was posted in 30.01 and tagged Bastard, Bonesaw, Canary, Cinderhands, Doormaker, Imp, Lung, Marquis, Panacea, Rachel, Spruce, Tattletale, Taylor by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
472 thoughts on “Speck 30.1”
Because not everyone got to see, I want to extend an especially big thank you to recent donators, Michael S in particular. Very much appreciated, and it made my month.
As we speed towards Worm’s ending, I’m having to start thinking about a limit – only so many weeks and quite a few incentive chapters to offer. That in mind, I’m probably going to stop offering the donation rewards after a week or so, so I don’t get trapped in an endless stream of epilogue chapters. I will keep track of totals and try to maintain an open dialogue so you guys feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is possibly maybe doing Worm side-stories (or backstory) for characters you guys might be curious about, if the post-Worm work doesn’t have interludes (or maybe as a secondary option if it does). Give you guys your Worm fix in another fashion.
Anyways, wanted to cover that stuff in a fairly visible place. As always, thank you for reading and thank you for your support. Let me say hi to the people who’ve just started visiting from Reddit, and thank you to the readers who’ve been piping up about Worm in places like Reddit or Facebook.
Expect a chapter on Thursday, barring exceptional circumstance.
Unmaker on October 15, 2013 at 09:16 said:
I was thinking of offering you a donation for bonus chapters on your next project, as a way to encourage you to actually do a next project. That would be up to you, of course, but that might relieve some of the current pressure … at the cost of future obligations.
This sounds like an excellent idea. I heartily approve, and wish I could remember some of the characters/organizations/etc whose histories or whatnot I’d like to hear.
En on October 15, 2013 at 16:21 said:
Oh, I have a laundry list of people I want to know what happened to, or how they’ll do after the end.
Vista, Riley, Dinah, Ballistic Marissa and Genesis, Danny, Emma, Newter, Aidan, Eli, Skitter’s minions, WagTheDog, Glory Girl, Sveta and Weld, the ward with the glasses that had pen, peper and dice ready…
But most importantly I want to know what happened to Duke!
Duke! You cannot be dead! Duuuuuuke!
*throws a tantrum*
Who’s Duke?
Personally I really want to know what Assault is doing/how he is coping. He was built as this reasonably major confrontation (former super villain with mid-high power level who specialised in breaking out other dangerous super villains, come on!) out of his misguided need for revenge but then nothing came out of it.
Duke’s an old dog. I would be surprised if he lived to see Scion go nutso.
And yeah, it’s easier to list the folks we wouldn’t care to see an epilogue for than the ones we would. But a prologue? That’s a more limited list.
overpoweredginger on October 15, 2013 at 00:07 said:
In the process of updating the Worm Statistics Spreadsheet, I glimpsed both the first and last sentences of this chapter. Based on those alone Wildbow, my fan fury burns with the strength of a thousand suns.
Upon actually reading the chapter, I still feel the thousand suns burning. However, Wildbow, I can now say that you truly are a magnificent bastard, and when Worm is finished, then I will be able to legitimately say that I read your book(s).
Yes…feel the power of the ginger burn its way out of you, you thousand-freckled bastard.
yinyangorwuji on October 15, 2013 at 00:11 said:
I think everyone knew this was coming. Just not like this. Nobody predicted this.
Stop on October 15, 2013 at 11:28 said:
Losing her power, getting brain damage, and controlling other para-humans were all predicted I think.
Probably not all at the same time, though.
vpshiomi on July 21, 2016 at 11:38 said:
It seemed likely things would head this way considering her power. However after all these chapters I got to say I really dislike Taylor.
soulpelt on October 15, 2013 at 00:13 said:
Well then…..er….Damn. That is all
Liked the chapter, feels like it needed to be longer.
It was six thousand words, gimme a break.
I spoil you bastards. :p
You do. :p That is why you’re such a great author. 😀
6,638 words, to be precise.
And we love you for that. 😀
The chapter’s long enough for me. It covers all the bases, it’s just that the bases were big enough that you didn’t need to cover as many as with many chapters.
And yeah, almost seven thousand words…that’s an impressive block of text.
I wonder how big Worm would be if it was all printed in one volume when all was said and done.
It would be so big that it could not in any feasibly way be bound in a sole volume. See “A la recherche du temps perdu”, which according to a commenter in the previous chapter, risks to see its record beaten by Worm.
I estimate the collected Worm series would be somewhere around 10-11 books the size of those in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Apparently it’s still only around 39% the length of the Wheel of Time though…
RazorSmile on October 15, 2013 at 00:13 said:
A brutal compromise. They jailbroke her power from the flesh and blood end of things. Now she can administer all the things but only within that paltry range. Let’s see what happens next.
And what happens after that…
Tagg on October 15, 2013 at 00:13 said:
So the final arc begins.
Charles Borner on October 15, 2013 at 00:13 said:
Typos and bad grammar here.
Pinkhair on October 15, 2013 at 00:26 said:
“a girl’s voice.” Missing caps.
“cave ceiling where” cut off there.
Sage nabbed the other ones.
chrnno on October 15, 2013 at 00:37 said:
“I didn’t stand. I couldn’t afford to take the time. I used the flight pack, extending the wings with the thrusters, and launched myself at the wall of the cave. I hit it a little harder than I might have liked, one wing bending, and then scraped against it, flying in Marquis’ general direction, moving along the cave ceiling where
The amount of space I had to maneuver in was rapidly closing. My dangling leg caught a branch, and I nearly lost all of my momentum. I was forced to put the thrusters away, and felt the bent wing keep one from folding in completely.”
Something wrong there.
E.R. on October 15, 2013 at 00:47 said:
felt a pang of guilt,and I was surprised at how intense it as.
evileeyore on November 3, 2014 at 18:52 said:
“I felt a pang of guilt,and I was” – still needs a space in there.
theant87 on October 15, 2013 at 00:15 said:
Oh fuckity, fuck, fuck. She can CONTROL PARAHUMANS. ALL PARAHUMANS in her range of 16 feet. Maybe EVERY LIVING THING in range. She can’t move, or speak anymore though. Oh no wonder Teacher is scared, if Taylor gets close he loses. All his minions becomes hers/he loses control. What else can she control? Endbringers, passengers, can she edit their powers while in control? What happens when she gets close to Scion? Awesome chapter Wildbow. Shit like this is why I think you’ll be famous down the line.
Times like these, I’m glad I upgraded my spinal column to allow me to control my body through the cybernetic portions of my brain.
That reminds me about my favorite villain Mannequin. Okay so strategy ideas.
1. Drive Scion off- Either she communicates/forces him to share her pain or emotions/becomes his new handler or partner/just creeps him out.
2. Get a working body or means of movement. She can take control of Bonesaw, in a moment of delicious irony for Riley, and get her to operate to see what she can do. There should be a few Mannequin clones left to take control and have them work together to give her a new means of moving. Worse comes to worse maybe cyborg up with Riley/Mannequin/Dragon helping to rebuild her. Eventually she is going to run out of juice for the jetback and she needs to be able to move around. Again she has the 9 clones she can take control over with no guilt. Any chuckles clones left that she can have him carry her?
3. New powers: Take control of the Yangban and have them divide a few powers into her/limit how many there are so she has more powerful abilities. Priorities are Flight/Regeneration or healing/some kind of Brute status.
4. Deal with Teacher and Brainwashed armies. Take over or free his students, and case 53 armies. Possibly talk to Contessa/Dinah about options.
5. Endbringers: Find out what else they can do, and possibly make more of them. There were 20 of the damn things in Eden’s vision.
6. Find the other realities that Eden’s body touched on and see if you can control the other choice shards she never intended to give up.
7. Future: Death? Live out rest of days being taken care of by Rachel and others? Rule/Protect Brockton Bay? Join the Protectorate?
kanzid on October 15, 2013 at 06:19 said:
Given this is the last arc only options 1, 5, and 6 seem like they have any chance of ending the story fast enough, and 6 feels unlikely given we’ve just gone through the arc investigating Eden.
As for Taylor’s future for the last few arcs I’ve been convinced that Taylor’s not making it out of this alive. I’m expecting some sort of merge / turn into another entity along with scion.
Destrark on October 15, 2013 at 06:52 said:
Can’t wait to see what happens with Scion. She can control their powers/shards now? What are the Entities made from?
Aname on October 15, 2013 at 11:46 said:
8. The Simurgh sticks her in that glass tube and rigs up some kind of broadcaster? We already know there’s a way to artificially recreate and broadcast Taylor’s power, like with that famine engine thing.
jurily on October 15, 2013 at 22:13 said:
This was the Smurf’s plan to beat Scion all along.
Conrad on October 16, 2013 at 07:54 said:
So do you think that the Smurf brainwashed Taylor into demanding the risky brain surgery in the first place?
DasNiveau on October 15, 2013 at 01:14 said:
Thats not that. A cape with a not even 5 m “death-radius” isn’t that scary. Even Mantelum had a higher range and was nearly as deadly as Taylor. I can’t see him running scared about somone who could not walk and is “easyly killed” from someone with a larger range … like a preteen with a gun. The big question is, what can she do to “not-humans”. And why does the Simurgh hide a pretty Taylor-sized glass tube?
Stephen M (Ethesis) on October 15, 2013 at 02:45 said:
Yep. Suddenly that becomes more interesting.
The only thing scarier than Skitter is a gun that shoots Skitters.
AliceAce on October 16, 2013 at 15:18 said:
That comment made me laugh so hard.
hunter on June 23, 2017 at 15:43 said:
worm’s version of the angry marine’s chainsword canon.
thewatcherbehind on October 15, 2013 at 00:16 said:
Wow. Looks like we were right about her gaining the ability to control other shards, But what a cost. 16 feet. Also, reading through this again, I love how the relationship with rachel has grown and changed over the series. And now, since I’ve always wanted to do this:
TAI-PO THREDD!!! YOUZE EET NOAW!!!
Aww, too late on the typo thread. People, please use the one above.
Actually I think is control of any living thing. Not just shards/parahumans.
I think she mentioned that she lost the tiny bugs. So it’s a bit more confusing (and limited) than that.
TanaNari on October 15, 2013 at 17:37 said:
She lost fine control. But still had poor control over bugs. And people, including herself, apparently.
Kat on October 15, 2013 at 23:23 said:
I noticed that it said she lost control of et smaller bugs, so it seems like her range (of living things) was bumped up. Previously she theorised that she could control incredibly simple-minded things (i.e bugs/crustaceans) now it’s higher brain functioned things. I do wonder if this night include general animals, being a step up from bugs and a step down from humans. Or they’re too different.
Apologies if someone has addresses/disproved any of this in the comments, haven’t managed to scroll through all the comments yet.
*the, not et
*might, not night
Wow. That fits everything.
And what happens with relay bugs?
Sengachi on October 15, 2013 at 03:50 said:
…. fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Flex on October 15, 2013 at 11:52 said:
……….. fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
…Where did she put those, again?
Half of them are breeding, the other half are unaccounted for.
Well, that would solve one of her problems.
Still on track.
And the name, speck. That is what she has become.
Speck is the german word for bacon. That was my first thought … bacon, rly?
Eh, I thought of the ham that’s made in Tirol. (which is awesomely good btw)
Some delicious “Schinken”. Now I am hungry.
TheShadowbehindyou on October 15, 2013 at 08:44 said:
The titel got a good german grin onto my face.
The chapter itself turned it upside down, drowned it, shot it with a minigun and threw it into the sun.
> The titel got a good german grin onto my face.
> The chapter itself turned it upside down, drowned it, shot it with a minigun and threw it into the sun.
Worm, shooting grinning Germans in the face since 2011. 😀
Well we finally know why Canary was so important. Her entire purpose was to keep Taylor in play. Also it’s cute to leave her in a mine.
For whatever reason I was thinking that Taylor was still missing an arm. Reading this chapter she comments on two arms two legs etc, so I’ll have to see if she did get that fixed before Panacea went to work on her head, but that is a very minor issue really.
Predictions for the future.
I can see two paths for her to take on the get close to Scion path.
1. Go grab Grue. He has a power that might be useful against Scion, and with her new power won’t be able to say no to helping. I’m less inclined towards this path.
2. Play nice with Imp. WAAAY back we read that Imp’s power has a second stage. One that she cannot activate, or allow to activate on her own because she notices it and then it cuts off. In theory she holds the shard that allows Worm’s to hide from each other. If she gets within Taylor’s aura it is possible that Taylor could make use of that second stage, overriding Imp’s ability to stop using her power’s second stage and with that actually get close enough to Scion to make use of her own power on him.
The really sad thing is of course what might become of Taylor at the end. I am thinking she will need to go under the knife again. Possibly losing her mind, possibly just her powers but people will realize by now that while incredibly dangerous and messed up she isn’t a mad nightmare out of control. Just unable to communicate her need to continue to face Scion and not have her sacrifice made useless.
I do hope that Amy is able to help in the end. That she can help Taylor, and from there perhaps face up to and help Glory Girl. It’s hard to imagine it might happen but it could. Or if not Amy that Bonesaw will do that for her.
As for Lisa tearing into Amy again I think that’s really easy to understand. She’s hurt and afraid and her friend is right there suffering. So no she can’t attack Taylor and has to settle for another. Yes she’s a thinker but of all the really smart one’s she’s also one of the most human.
Hm…for some reason I’m inclined towards the Grue plan.
And I really do hope that Panacea can at least partly un-break Taylor, maybe make it so she can control her body without using her power again.
And on that note: I wonder how many people want to kill Tatletale now.
Panacea making any use of her touch-range power on someone who totally controls everyone within sixteen feet would be a hell of a trick.
illlogicmedia on October 15, 2013 at 15:51 said:
Meh, if Grue came back for this last arc, I’d be really irked. He quickly faded into a nobody, and I, for one, hope he stays there.
I have to agree with you in saying that I sort of hope Grue stays away. I would rather not see him coming back at the end. I would MUCH prefer the Imp solution, or of course there’s the unspoken one of the Simurgh plot. But much like the nameless one perhaps its better not to repeat that name thrice.
Tom_D on October 15, 2013 at 20:30 said:
Hate to say it, but, I don’t think Taylor is going to survive this arc.
Dread Pirate on August 7, 2017 at 09:54 said:
Yes, Grue seems like a nobody now. However, think back to the alternate future foreseen by Eden. The heroes’ counter to an army of enemy capes was someone called Black Knight, who couldn’t be defeated by parahumans but was scary/risky enough the heroes didn’t want to use him. There’s really only two people that could be. The first is Jack Slash in a suit of power armor. The second, also in a suit of power armor, is Grue, with his clouds of darkness blanketing the battlefield and shutting off powers. A threat that can’t be seen, heard, or smelt, who renders you helpless and then strikes you down with your own powers or those of your strongest champions.
Unfortunately, yeah he’s pretty much useless right now because he can’t steal Scion’s powers (tested), and Scion can also see through his darkness. That combined with his ‘I will fight no more forever’ attitude means we probably won’t be seeing him again until maybe the epilogues.
Tayles on October 15, 2013 at 00:21 said:
My face right now.
Rhodesian on October 15, 2013 at 00:21 said:
Was there ever a description of what awful abomination she looked like to scare people so badly?
I think it was more that they realised what her new power was right away that freaked them out.
I hope they feed teacher to her.
Sounded like she was making a beeline for the super tantrum god.
fghjconner on October 15, 2013 at 00:31 said:
Aaaand I’m going to be referring to Scion as the stg from now on.
I didn’t know Superboy-Prime was in this story.
Mind control isn’t so cool on the receiving end, eh Teacher?
Though when she responded.
Probably gets some attention.
Robert on October 15, 2013 at 00:28 said:
Panacea (and then Lung) got caught in her sixteen-feet web. There was probably some degree of resonance or reflection between the two that Taylor didn’t notice that made it obvious what was happening, even beyond Panacea not getting the hell away.
Poor Canary, locked in a mine. I hope someone lets her out.
They have no reason not to now. Doormaker is active and Skitter is out already. Enough is going on that they might not think to though.
Also poor Canary in that she found out what it was like to be controlled by someone else, similar to the power of hers that she didn’t want to use, and which Taylor made her use at risk of being attacked by Marquis.
flame7926 on October 15, 2013 at 00:25 said:
Goodbye, Skitter. Goodbye, Weaver. Taylor, may you finish this war and save the world, and die a gentle death, though that may be too much to hope for.
mc2rpg on October 15, 2013 at 00:25 said:
I forget, are the Yangban still alive at this point? Short of jacking Scion I am not sure who else she will be using her power on.
Jacking Zion, even at this late date, would be too easy. I ran things through my “how could this get worse” filter, and came up with:
She gets close to him and he sees that she has opened herself completely to her shard and that it has messed her up. He gets his first ever burst of humor; he thinks it’s hysterical and fixes her shard. Now crazy mixed-up broken Taylor has range, and the shard is in control. Taylor becomes the passenger for the Queen Administrator now running the show.
Or she communicates with him. Honestly communicates with him in a way no being has ever done except for Eden. What he does afterward…your guess is as good as mine. It seems too easy, and he has killed so many, that I can’t see it ending just from that.
Didn’t Jack also communicate with him in a manner beyond simple speech?
Yeah, but Cauldron admits that Jack simply moved the timeline forward. I mean he sees us as a weird combination as insignificant insects, and according to Tattletale, fellow human beings. She might pull a Jack and sort of control him through emotional manipulation for a while/force him to feel her fears or emotions etc. I don’t think it will be so easy but I think Zion will consider her a significant something in the next few minutes.
Scolopendra on October 15, 2013 at 09:32 said:
Scion tends to pause to consider things that he doesn’t expect. When he’s bumped into Eidolon, Contessa, and the Case 53s, he’s always been at least momentarily confused or off-put. I imagine he’d see Taylor’s altered shard in front of him and probably try to puzzle out what exactly happened. If he figures out that someone pulled the limiters off a shard, it might end up being a complete “oh crap” moment. He put the limits on the shards in place so that it would be effectively impossible for parahumans to fight back against him (well, also so that the shards don’t cause horrific things to their hosts). Being omnipotent, it would most likely occur to him that the humans have figured out a way around his greatest defensive measure and can probably repeat this process.
Snickles on October 15, 2013 at 00:26 said:
Well I think taylor will probably die now. Also what exactly did Pancea do? She removed restrictions which allowed Taylor to control all biological beings, but also cut her power range way down? Did she remove restrictions or just change what the power did like Echinda did with her clones?
Im guessing removing the restrictions caused her shard to overload her mind.
Which is one reason why there were restrictions, she probably couldnt handle a larger range without becoming braindead.
letseveryonemorality on October 15, 2013 at 00:30 said:
I think she was probably forced to play a sort of balance with the qualities of Taylor’s power since she cannot directly alter the shard itself. Bumped the complexity of what Taylor can control way up, but had to trade a ton of range, and maybe more things that aren’t as obvious, in order to do it.
Ally on October 15, 2013 at 11:08 said:
Panacea messed with her personal stats 😉 Taylor’s minmaxed now!
I dunno, controlling all living things is great, but at the cost of almost all of her range plus fine control plus possibly senses, I don’t think it was worth it.
I think the lack of control probably has more to do with her shards lack of knowledge about how to operate humans than anything else. She did lose some control over her bugs, but she doesn’t seem to think it was enough of a loss to matter, and the shard not only got to do it’s “scan” for knowledge about bugs when she triggered, but it’s also been learning more bug control from Taylor’s experiences, it doesn’t have the same advantages with humans.
It was pretty clear that Taylor lost a lot of control with bugs. Most clear-cut example: She’s been able to “speak” with her bugs to varying degrees for years now, and suddenly she can’t manage anything more than a drone.
Well there is also the possible problem of feedback. Taylor seems to be both under the control of her own power, and in control of that power. Who knows what sort of merry hell this would play with commands she gives.
It’s possible that making the insects buzz in synch with her own voice won’t work because her shard doesn’t know how to make Taylor speak in the first place.
He didn’t say it was a good minmaxing!
So, kinda like the time I tried to minmax a monk using Vow of Poverty?
(It worked! …For about a level or two.)
Or minmaxing a wizard to maximise his arcane might… Then blundering into a trap due to low dexterity and being instantly killed due to terrible health!
Anyone can minmax, but you do need to be careful, particually if you know it’s going to annoy the DM, as he/she can easily make it so that the stat you thought was unimportant was ironically the thing that would have saved your life.
I do love the idea of an adventurer taking a vow of poverty, though I’d get around it by generously offering to carry other party members’ gear for them, since you don’t have any of your own to carry, and if it should happen that the best way to carry it is by wearing it… Remember, letter not spirit!
Pretty sure that that is against the letter of the feat, actually.
And for a level or two, if you’re a monk or something, the AC bonus and stuff makes up for it! Then you realize that you don’t have magic items of any kind. And that you are a monk.
In the immortal words of Portal, “think with portals”. If we can get Taylor close enough to Doormaker/the Clairvoyant and if he has fine enough control to open a mini portal than imagine the possibilities. Taylor could theoretically control everyone everywhere whenever she wanted assuming her multitasking is still working okay. Scary thought.
Relying on the Doormaker and Clairvoyant being OK, the Clairvoyant not screwing Taylor too much, and the lack of control not screwing things up.
True there are a lot of potential problems but I love that the possibility exists. It’s the sort of out of the box thinking that our hero excels at.
http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0052.html
veekie on October 15, 2013 at 04:10 said:
Probably because the human mind and body has an upper limit to what it can manage, and what Panacea is doing is basically trying to change the operation of a computer program by modifying the motherboard. She has very little control over the specifics and it’s quite amazing how it worked at all to begin with.
GeeJo on October 15, 2013 at 04:50 said:
Also bear in mind that at some point along the way, Panacea stopped consciously controlling the editing process as Taylor took her over and started prompting her subconsciously.
And since Taylor had no idea as to what she was doing, it was probably Simurgh’s singing doing the steering.
s on March 9, 2018 at 03:34 said:
So Taylor steering, Panacea working the brake, Simurgh on the gas, and *no one changing gears*
Patrick Reitz (@dreamfarer) on October 15, 2013 at 00:28 said:
Now that we’re getting close to the end, I almost wish the updates were only once a week.
I know there’ll be more/other stories to follow, but I’m not ready to say good bye to Taylor yet.
Yeah. I am beginning to think that donations should apply to:
Wildbow’s quality of life enhancement.
Or, chapters in his new project.
I’d like to donate, but I’m halfway across the planet from wildbow residence, and paypal doesn’t help it anyway
yes, i think donation could be used to enhance quality of his life, and therefore his creativity. Maslow’s pyramid of needs stated that
But if his physical book somehow land in local bookstore, I WILL buy it, no matter how ridiculously thick it would be
There’s always the PO Box (from the donate page):
1910 St. Laurent Blvd
PO box 41003 ELMVALE P.O.
Ottawa ON K1G 5K9
Indigo on October 15, 2013 at 00:30 said:
Her new power is scarier than just about anything in the story before.
I said a long time ago that this was the power variation that would be game over. As usual, despite being right, it was still a surprise to see.
packbat on October 15, 2013 at 14:07 said:
One of the greatest sources of enjoyment in my last reread-with-comments was seeing all the brilliantly-prescient predictions people made.
Her power it’s brain networking with her brain as admin. Tayor’s computer is lagging. She needs to shutdown and reformat. Sleep won’t work. It needs to be a complete stop.
Wouldn’t this make her the second telepath?
Does the Simurgh count as a telepath? Sure, she’s got offensive mindfuckery, but so do plenty of other capes. We now know her primary sense is based on super-duper prescience, she doesn’t read minds or anything. Cherish wasn’t classed as a telepath despite being able to read/manipulate emotions, which would be closer to telepathy (empathy) than the Simurgh. Taylor’s weird mind-meld thing is more like telepathy than either of those two, and probably the only true telepath power we’ve seen.
SEA-106 on October 15, 2013 at 00:30 said:
And now we know what those relay bugs were for.
The problem is, even if Taylor can control every cape individually, she doesn’t have the control to make them do a better job than they would have, already. (Unless they were previously incompetent.)
Or, maybe, I shouldn’t underestimate her.
I haven’t decided if I like the new Taylor. Her lack of control makes her seem sluggish, while she was so precise before. I could see it become frustrating very quickly.
This is Taylor we’re talking about. She’s a goddamn genius when it comes to ”using” other people.
With a single mind running the whole show, she can probably come up with some nice power combinations. It mentions that her mind sort of melds with the people she controls so she may be able to get good enough control while controlling a significant number of people.
If she can control people the way she can control bugs then the result will be almost certainly better than the sum of its part.
But 16 feet. That’s pretty tight range.
Can’t wait to see her next interaction with Simurgh.
Bet she ends up in Smurf’s tube.
Given enough time her shard will probably learn to control humans as well as it controls bugs.
Good point with the relay bugs. Especially if she hands one to Siberian. Good luck frying that one, Scion!
I am reminded of Ender’s Game. The Formics had an advantage in coordination because of their (very minor spoiler) hive mind, but their individual ships lacked initiative. Mazer Rackham managed to defeat the Second Invasion due to this kind of initiative.
Taylor’s closer to Rackham in the initiative/planning department than most, but I think that it won’t help for the most part.
I thought this might be an option for a power, but I didn’t think it would come at so high a price. I waited for this in the edge of my chair…and I still feel that way. Only feels partially resolved. Looking forward to seeing what’s next, of course. Thanks for the chapter.
Oh yes, almost forgot.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Because we all remember how well that turned out last time.
MrVoid on October 15, 2013 at 00:50 said:
Also breaks the longstanding rule of never actually saying goodbye.
Missed that. Ouch. This is even worse now.
And from beyond the grave, Alec starts hitting his head on a wall.
Bahumat on October 15, 2013 at 22:48 said:
Yeah, her power seems to be more or less Alec’s, but on a faster timeline and requiring more direct focus.
notes on October 15, 2013 at 00:36 said:
The most interesting thing of all is that we still haven’t seen what made Teacher afraid, what made Contessa fail to recognize Taylor initially.
There are a handful of people who guess at what this power is, and how deep it goes. No one knows, Taylor most assuredly included, possible exception for Scion.
She’s presently in her costume and mask – that’s as recognizable as it gets.
There’s at least one more shoe waiting to drop.
Perhaps something to do with the way she isn’t fully in control of her body? Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if she’s wearing her costume though.
Asmora on October 15, 2013 at 01:12 said:
Given a comment she made to herself, I’m imagining that she and everyone under her control are kind of hanging like marionettes, limp except the parts she’s consciously controlling. She said that Amy’s head was lowered, which would fit with that, and she mentioned that her own head was sort of lolling to the side. That’s the sort of thing that would be pretty obvious to anyone but Taylor, since she’s lost her ability to form a cohesive mental image of a person in return for control over every component of every person in 16 feet… including her own body.
I wasn’t imagining it quite that bad, but it well could be.
No, that makes perfect sense to me – Skitter and Weaver both had an extraordinary physical presence, so a Taylor Mk. 2 that’s moving like a stroke victim is going to look completely different in how she holds herself.
Pandemonious Ivy on October 15, 2013 at 15:47 said:
I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but somewhere around “moves like a stroke victim” I lost my shit. Had me in tears.
Also, while I’m commenting (doing it via phone which is a TASK), Marionette is hella appropriate. That’s the title I’ll refer to Jailbroken!Taylor as. Its just so good.
Also also, it appears that Mari jailbreaks other parahumans within her range, which remains to be confirmed, but it’s fairly neat speculation.
Jailbreaks as in “she uses the unlimited version of the power instead of the limited version”? Because I doubt Rachel noticed any change to her power after she left the field.
That said, that really would make her new power hax enough to have a chance of doing what was needful.
Taylor is aware of her body in a way she never has been before, but she doesn’t have shit all control of it. She’d have noticed if she was all mutated. Chances are she just looks really disturbed/like she’s having a stroke.
Maybe it’s the context, not the form. For example, if something truly bizarre happened, like she was holding hands with Zion, then it might take people a moment to possess who “not Zion” is.
I figured Contessa’s reaction was because it was so unexpected. Sort of like finding out that the evil mastermind who has been trying to take over the city is you daughter.
Oh god, not this one again 😛 .
What do you mean “trying to”? 😛
Based on what she said there, she still has a humanoid form, but given that she hadn’t actually looked at herself, her body might be badly Case 53’ed
I don’t know. I think there would have been a clear reaction fromTattletale and the others to such a thing.
1. Case 53’s are only from Eden shards, maybe only from “processed” Eden shards.
2. This is not a trigger event in any way, shape, or form.
3. If Taylor had changed, she would probably have noticed. She has a terrible level of control over her body, but she’s aware of it in a whole new way.
4. If Taylor looked different, you’d better believe that Bitch or Imp, at least, would have said something.
And so she goes from Skitter and Weaver to Trapdoor. Unless that name’s taken.
Yep, poor little broken Taylor. You can see the way she lacks an appropriate emotional response to the first stuff that she’s not quite understood it all yet. I just have to wonder how much of it is controlling the person and how much controls through the shard.
Controlling shards could be extremely useful against Scion.
Thing is, with her screwed up emotions and the way she’s already made some hard decisions, I have a feeling this is about to get very, very bloody.
Now then, it seems somebody new showed up that I didn’t have an opportunity to welcome because I didn’t hang around all day yesterday.
“grinvader on October 14, 2013 at 2:57 PM said:
Done catching up.
At a loss for words, and most of those I can reach are expletives.
Thank you for being awesome, wildbow”
Not nearly done enough, Darth Smiley. And not nearly enough expletives. There aren’t enough expletives in the world. Seriously, you could do an appropriate response to Worm that was like those “Where in the world is what’s his name dancing?” videos on youtube, but instead have it be people cussing all over the world, including overly stoic guards at the Korean DMZ.
Me, I favor the F-bomb. I’ve even built and used one on a major city. I also invested in glass and window companies just prior to it. That’s what we evildoers call a Win-Win. Unless, of course, your second in command is a racial stereotype. Then you call him or her Win-Win. Win-Win, fetch me some Thunderbird!
No, the expletive is not nearly enough, grinvader. Especially not now that you have been welcomed, grinvader, to the comments!
Web would be a good name for this new Taylor.
Ooh, I like Web. Good one.
Really? Web? I didn’t even like the name Weaver. Skitter was my first and so I feel completely and madly in love with that. She don’t need a new name, at least not in my vocab.
Marionette forever!!
I’m just not feeling it AMR. sigh…
But…it’s both creepy sounding AND descriptive!
Besides not even Taylor liked Skitter.
True, but in the real world if you come up with your own “nickname” you get made fun of twice as hard.
Wrong end of the strings. “Puppeteer” makes more sense…
I approve of Trapdoor until a suitable non-arachnid (Skitter to Weaver to…) name is come up with. Preferably following the -er lineup.
Snare?
Snare has replaced Trapdoor, definitely. I’m willing to be content with this, if no suitable -er titles pop up. It’s really neat with nuances as well.
I like Clotho myself. Or Puppeteer.
We’ve seen Taylor come to the end of herself before, not that long ago when they were fighting Scion on the oil rig. Remember, cut in half? Blood and organs leaking into the ocean? Or what about the blindness? She’ll manage with this.
Also, didn’t they say specifically that she doesn’t look different? Expression, yes, but she’s not outwardly mutated.
Yeah, the power doesn’t look earthshattering right now. But the highest-powered capes currently around (idle thought: wonder where Miss Militia has gotten to?) are reacting in more fear than it seems to warrant, so maybe they see something we don’t. I mean, she’s dangerous in that she can’t turn it off, that (and range) is the main difference between her and Regent right now, as far as I can see. But they’re scared enough to find Contessa, whom no one trusts at this point, to help with Weaver. So there must be something we’re not seeing. Maybe when she controls someone the limiters are off? That’s not necessarily something she’d realize at first. I’d be interested to see what she does with an unfamiliar parahuman, someone whose power she has no existing expectation for.
Relay bugs are an intriguing idea. But still, even if she gets a much bigger range and can control all the powers in her larger vicinity just as well as the individual capes (big if), that’s still just the equivalent of really good tactics and communication, not an order of magnitude upgrade to Team Humanity. And we need that upgrade.
Well, she did just do something odd with Canary’s power. When Canary used it, she only knew how to make people suggestible and obey given commands. When Taylor used it, the song itself compelled Marquis to do things.
I think Teacher is acting solely from self preservation here.
He has the ability to boost powers, or give new powers.
Taylor’s range is currently only 16 feet. So, who do you think Taylor is likely to seek out to improve her abilities…
But Taylor knows that Teacher can control or at least exert strong influence over those who he has granted power to, and Teacher knows she knows this.
So Teacher knows that the only way for Taylor to be able to trust him not to try to control her after his power has effected her, is if she controls him. And Teacher definitely will fight with every last bit of his being to avoid being made into a mental thrall, because he would never trust anyone enough to believe they would release him.
Contessa can get answers to questions she asks that aren’t about Scion. After a few questions, she will certainly know enough about Taylor’s new abilities to know why Teacher is running from her. And I would be highly surprised if Contessa doesn’t frog march Teacher straight back to Taylor and give him to her, and possibly even offer herself as well.
Remember, the blocks on Contessa’s power are direct blocks. If Taylor is asking the questions, Contessa’s passenger might give her straight answers…
Lots of fun places this might go.
dpara on October 16, 2013 at 10:12 said:
I think you are on an interesting track here Aname.
What if anyone Taylor controls.. has no limits O.O , that would make everyone shit their pants.
..Which begs the question what happens with unrestricted tinker/thinker powers.
propa03 on October 15, 2013 at 02:13 said:
As for names, I was thinking of how her body is basically ‘bait on a hook’ now, but “Hooker” wouldn’t really be appropriate. Guess we’ll have to make do with… Worm?
Hookworm?
I hereby nominate: Superuser.
“Root”?
Web has been suggested.
Web sounds good.
Webber?
For a new name, I’d say Web is the best one. She both traps and connects.
Plus, what does the Weaver make, if not a web?
I nominate Dominion, as she could probably drop the bug shtick now that she controls every friggin’ animal within a sixteen foot radius.
Still curious as to how Scion fits into this. Is there even a Kingdom that his race/species could fit under?
Biologically a copy of human. Just with weird dimensional folding. Or, at least, that’s what the Avatar is.
And Dominion is good. Better than my “Snare” suggestion.
Although- honestly- her ACTUAL name- Taylor (hehe, very punny, Wildbow) is a viable cape name at this point.
MarcusFell on October 15, 2013 at 17:31 said:
She does make all the uniforms.
If I had to guess, Taylor can now control every animal life form, and potentially other kingdoms, I’m not sure yet. She was a pretty high master before, like Regent but going for quantity over quality. Now that I think about it, seeing how Regent and Grue’s powers would work on Taylor would be cool, except Wildbow wrote both of them out of thr damn story.
As for names, aside from the gender connotations, King would have been good (as in the chess piece). Queen might suffice, but if Brockton Bay was still a thing and the Usiders still ruled it, then as a villain Despot would work better.
Wasn’t it mentioned that the tiny insects were out of her control now?
I don’t think they were out of her control, just that Taylor was having difficulty using her power and that the bugs were reacting sluggishly.
grinvader on October 15, 2013 at 14:26 said:
Thanks for the warm welcome, PG.
Vast amounts of cluster f-bombs were dropped that day, indeed.
r2k-in-the-vortex on October 16, 2013 at 09:52 said:
Taylor already has an apt and suitably badass name – Queen Administrator, so if anything i would vote for that.
Then again names dont really matter anymore, no secret identity left to protect, no media left to promote the name.
Also im guessing her name doesnt matter to other parahumans much anymore, Its not like anyone is going to call “hey Skitter/Weaver/Taylor/Spy want to go get a coffee” more like they are going to call her “oh shit, run for your lives”
Pretty sure she’s not fully in control of her body because Panacea cut out the self-protection parts. She’s within her own range, her power usurped control of her body, so she now has to control herself at one remove (and she’s lost a lot of precision with her power, so she can’t control herself that well). And of course her passenger, which is capable of at least partially independent action, has access to her body.
I wonder if she could talk through the people she controls…
Not any better than through her own mouth.
But her shard is also missing a bunch of “how to control humans” knowledge that It would have normally picked up during a trigger event or through Taylor’s experiences. This more than anything is probably why her control over people seems like a bit of a mess.
xdrngy on October 15, 2013 at 16:43 said:
-my thoughts exactly
I don’t think we’re reading this from Taylor’s perspective anymore, maybe haven’t been for a while now. I think the ‘I’ in this story is now Taylor’s passenger, shard, whatever, and the actions she credits to her passenger are actually those made by Taylor, trapped in her own body. It has the same memories and such, but none of the linked skills or emotional responses – they’re distant because they’re felt by Taylor, who is under Weaver(passenger)’s control.
It’s not really that, it’s more that Taylor doesn’t have any protection from her own shards power at this point. So she’s both controlling and being controlled by her shard, which is a real problem when the shard doesn’t really know how to control a person in the first place. And that’s not even getting into possible feedback loops in commands.
Thankfully as we saw over the course of the story, with her shards control over bugs while Taylor was incapable of using her power, the shard will learn this control given time and experience.
Sadly, Taylor and the human race simply don’t have the time for the shard to learn how to do this stuff properly, so things are going to be a bit of a mess.
Pikel on October 15, 2013 at 00:45 said:
Hi all. Been reading Worm for a long time now (caught up around leviathon) but never posted before. Let me start by saying well done Wildbow. Your story and writing style are truly amazing. I always look forward to sun and fri nights and have never been disappointed. As much as i hate it, i know that Worm does have to end somewhere and i am looking forward to the way you wrap it all up. I will definitely follow your future endeavors and i hope that you publish Worm as a hard copy(ies) so that i can be proud to have it on my shelf.
The community here in the comments section is wonderful. I have never seen a more active, insightful, and funny group of fans. Reading the comments bring me almost as much pleasure as the story itself and never fails to point out the little things i missed and give me new insights and new ways of looking at the story. So a big thank you to all of the people who post comments here. It is a testament to Wildbows writing that he can engage and delight so many different people and keep them engaged for so long.
I probably dont deserve it, but I will be awaiting my formal welcome from the communities self appointed ambassador and madman…. Love your insane welcomes!
Pardon the delay. I had to step out momentarily. It was time to have an epic dance-off rematch with Stephen Hawking. I lost. Again.
I put the “ass” in ambassador, but I wouldn’t say I’m a self-appointed madman at this point. Besides, the darn story’s trying to one-up me on that, too. Taylor just grabbed the green and white mushroom, as she’s become a person-enslaving, emotionless, ass-kicking, lass licking, jabroni-beating, pie-eating, stumbling, mumbling, Grue fucking, Marquis ducking, ridin’, stridin’, wearing a jetpack glidin’ daughter of a bitch.
As for welcomes, if you think you don’t deserve one, then you’re in quite the pickle, Pikel. And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, will always welcooooooome, youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
So, great, now you get to imagine Whitney Houston involved in this. Do you feel lucky, punk? Because if she’s here, you have to ask yourself one question…graverobbing or necromancy? Well? How’d I do it, punk?
Trick question, it was all smoke and mirrors. As Leslie Vernon once said, a lot of what we do is CGI. Granted, he was more of a slasher villain and I’m just an insane guy in a mask who sometimes kills horny drunk teenagers, but I think it works both ways, like a Thai stripper named Boom Boom. (S)he is quite the groundpounder, you understand.
And having your ass pounded into submission by a woman is something both Bangkok and this story has in common. There’s also the crazy guy who meets your eye, says hello, and just makes you feel awkward whenever you walk in, but that’s me in this instance.
Just like Taylor at this point, you might be a little stumped. You weren’t before I showed up, but give me a hand; I sure know how to leave you facepalming and unable to put your finger on just what the hell went wrong in your life to attract my attention.
Worm. Worm went wrong. And then everything went wrong. And then you didn’t trigger.
I said you were in a pickle, Pikel, and no matter how cucumbersome this welcome got, I’m glad you got through it and are ready to join your appleause to ours in enjoyment of this story. Welcome, Pikel, to the comments section.
Don’t bring dead people into this, please. It’s disrespectful, and crosses a…line? Line? Here boy! C’mon, where’s line?
*shrugs* Eh, whatever. What was I talking about again?
Wait. You lost to Stephan?? That spastic nerve in your neck going crazy again?
He has the skills to pay the bills. I’ll have to hope for best three out of five next time.
Bebop on October 15, 2013 at 01:00 said:
So what’s our number 1 draft pick for Capes she should Control? Personally, I think which ever cape gives the Yang Ban power would be my first port of call. Not sure how the two would interact… but I’m hoping it would turn each cape she connects to into a broadcast tower for more capes, like the Relay Bugs.
The yangban keeps the very useful members ( Null powersharer, the power augment or etc) away from the combat zones and, thus, well beyond Taylor’s range.
Alathon on October 15, 2013 at 04:44 said:
Unless she gets Doormaker in her range… or maybe asks nicely. Would anyone really mourn Taylor going all Pokemon Master on the Yangban? Especially if she gave the unwilling recruits back.
The last interlude showed that not all powers work through portals. Though admittedly when she only controlled bugs Taylor could do it through the gates and the power is theoretically the same. We’ll have to wait and see.
She could always go get herself a Sveta-suit…
Ooh. Sveta would probably be happy about the prospect of someone controlling her tentacles, but would she be willing to give up her independence for it? I have my doubts.
However if Taylor gets to the point where she can actually reprogram shards, starting with her own, perhaps, and have the effect remain outside of her area of effect, well, that could be… interesting.
Maybe Taylor could controle perticular parts of the “victim”. Control limb movement and let “it” speak.
It’s mostly a question of trust, for instance, Bitch clearly trusts her sufficiently that she’s willing to risk it.
Yeah, if you don’t trust Taylor totally, she is now just terrifying. Remember back when Taylor was disturbed by Regent being able to control Imp? Not to mention she now has a very evil sounding power. And in-universe the fears she would be corrupted by it. And they don’t know if she isn’t already insane.
Ah, the lovely irony, given that her trigger had to do with being trapped…
Sveta is dead.
Being a Case-53 essentially alone in a collapsed laboratory with an angry Scion will do that, doncha know.
Picklejar on October 15, 2013 at 16:52 said:
Nope, Sveta’s body sniped some bugs out of the air after Scion left.
Soulgazer on October 15, 2013 at 18:17 said:
Nope, she was stil alive when Scion left after the building collapsed.
So I was right that Panacea’s tinkering had an effect similar to Ingenue’s power: powerup one part, weaken the rest.
Lisa, I understand you’re upset at what happened to your best friend but man can you be a bitch sometime. Was it really necessary to whale on Amy? I did appreciate her pointing out Taylor’s penchant for manipulation and offering choices that aren’t really choices. Even though it was a sad scene.
Marquis continues to be awesome every time he appears. And wait, did Lung just come back to rescue him? Dawwwww.
Bitch willingly stepping inside Taylor’s range was both sweet and horrifying.
And,hmm, hate to say it, but I’m pretty sure Taylor’s going to die now. :(.
Think about how at the beginning of the story Bitch hit her, and now she trusts Taylor so completely that she is willing to give her control of her body if asked.
Lisa has a mask herself. When she is hurt she likes to lash out and hurt people, and the closest thing she has to a sister just did that to herself. So I can cut her some slack since she is in pain, and it is probably easier to blame Panacea than Taylor.
Willing to give her control of her body WITHOUT being asked, even.
fnich on October 15, 2013 at 02:48 said:
Well. Amy did do it, let’s not forget. There wasn’t even a “No uts too dangerous. You sir are mad!” Before she was talked into it.. Do irreversible brain surgery that’ll drive you insane. Okay, sure, whateva!
Taylor got off easy from Tattletale. I imagine Lisa could probably spend an entire arc picking at Taylor’s flaws.
Heh. Imagine Brian doing that. We might need a whole new story to contain that.
What, only Taylor’s flaws? Give her her own book and Tattletale could pick apart the flaws of everyone in the story, a hundred thousand words at a time.
So we need to add a HSQ to the tropes page with:
1. Leviathan’s attack- when we realized how fucking powerful they were and that deaths will happen.
2. When she murdered motherfucking Alexandria.
3. When she became what I would call an absolute in the wormverse. Nothing can affect Siberian, nothing affects Grayboy’s fields, moves anything Clockblocker touches, Flechette’s arrow got through anything, and now nothing escapes her control.
I’m sure Behemoth allover is included as well.
Unless they stand 17 feet away of course.
You know what this means, don’t you? She takes over everyone who gets close, so now she can’t consensual sex now unless someone is outside that range. Nobody’s dick is that long, not even Long Dick Johnson, and he had a fucking long dick, thus the name.
Unless they have power immunity or somesuch. Wonder how many of those are left.. Hatchet Face is gone (and was horrible), Eidolon is gone (and was balding). Taylor’s amorous prospects are indeed looking downright gruesome.
Stupid Foil for killing the King/Hatchet Face hybrid.
…What? Apparently King was the personification of “tall, blonde and handsome”.
Maybe they can consent when ~20 feet away, then approach?
Or maybe she discovers some way to turn it off?
Even if they consent beforehand, it will still make her go blind.
Depends on your definitions.
And I suppose Grue could use his power to turn hers off, at least partly, and to gain it, at least partially. So they would be mutually in control of each other, which should balance out if neither tries to stop the other from controlling him/herself.
Devastating in an not even 10 m diameter isn’t devastating at all. There has to be more to tick of Teacher.
Sure, like possibly being someone who can turn the tide against Scion who isn’t him. Or maye being a bump in the road to one of his schemes, or maybe hes using the fact she might be dangerous as a pretense to get control of her.
Teacher is a shifty-eyed bullshit artist so let’s not take for granted that his fears are genuine.
With the “world ending” thing going on, even mentioning her is a salute to her power.
Pretty close to 5 meters, actually.
5m radius, 10 m diameter
Maybe it’s not that he’s scared of Taylor, maybe he’s honestly trying to find someone to help her. If anyone could figure out how to put Taylor back together it’d be Contessa.
Not saying for a second that I think this is Teacher’s angle, but I feel like it’s worth keeping just what Contessa’s power is capable of in mind.
Relay bugs, other mind controllers with greater range, telekinetics and other capes who can bring people inside her range. Then nab that Thanda cape and make sure everybody is locked within her 16 ft range. Etc etc.
Taylor is a master munchkin after all.
Regent: I’m up next! I’d die for a power like that.
*sobs for a moment*
I loved this. Showed off exactly why Marquis used to run BB (and is my favorite) and also saw Taylor being punished for her particular form of conflict resolution. This was eerie and only grew more unsettling as the chapter went on.
Sidenote : re: Contessa seeing Taylor : the chick is filthy, in a torn costume, with only one arm. If that isn’t something that’d throw you off, I don’t know what is.
She’s also moving like a marionette.
You know, Marionette would in itself be a great name for Super!Taylor. For some reason it even makes me think of Mannequin.
I like that or Web the most, but I’m probably biased towards Web.
Given that her shard is directly controling her body, maybe her facial expression immediately reminds everyone of… Scion.
More than ever, this makes me want to see more about Sleeper. If the tidbits we’ve gotten about him mean what I think they do, I think the new-and-improved-and-broken Taylor would make a very interesting comparison or even interaction.
I’m curious. Would you be willing to share your conclusions? Because from the tidbits we got the only things I can say about Sleeper is that he sleeps/is dormant a lot, people don’t seem to really understand him and he can take control of a world by himself.
Since he was apparently able to “subsume” an entire planet, I’d say that he was a grand scale reality warper.
I think that’s a bit of a misunderstanding. Later, I believe in 29.9, Taylor comments that people have migrated to Earth Zayin but due to the Sleeper’s presence they can’t be helped and must fend for themselves. So the Earth is still there.
Though my completely unsupported theory is that he makes his dreams manifest in reality. Because it would be cool.
“Dreams manifesting in reality” sounds a lot like Genesis’ power. Was Sleeper a Cauldron cape too? (he’d have a Deus formula, possibly as a Case 53)
Remember that, by this stage, a ‘planet’ can consist of a small settlement of a few hundred people…
Naeddyr on October 15, 2013 at 01:19 said:
That was much less catastrophic than I expected. I thought she’d have longer range.
Broken powers are boring. Especially if the protagonist gets them.
“Walking away from the people I cared about, feeling horrible about it, knowing it was the best thing in the end. […] I was altering something biological and mental.”
That moment when I realize that whole section applies equally to Taylor and Amy.
Oh, Administrator…
TinkerTailor on October 15, 2013 at 01:31 said:
Yikes. By the looks of it, Taylor’s new power isn’t just a “body puppeteer” deal, it’s a full-on merging of minds – only it seems like it’s one-sided, the people she’s controlling don’t feed back into Taylor so much while she totally subsumes them. Now I’m morbidly curious as to what it feels like for the people on the receiving end – no wonder Panacea freaked the fuck out.
Maybe it’s something like the “mirror in front of mirror” effect: perpetuating feedback. Seeing Amy through Taylor through Amy throug- anywho, I’m sure that would be sufficiently horrifying for the living Passenger she has become.
Huh. Maybe now she can attack people just by inflicting her broken psyche on them.
One more way a telepathy power would be useful.
DM: “You’re sure sure you want to do this?”
Taylor: “Yeah, why not? Only other S-class mind controller is the Simurgh right? I get something bird or angel themed when the mutations kick in.. maybe butterfly wings, or a bunch of iridescent dragonfly wings.”
DM: “Well, actually, the last human who had powers like these was more like a giant slug.”
Taylor turns head, throws dice reflexively, “Wait, what?”
DM: “Bug-slug it is!”
Supposing they all live through this, is anyone really gonna believe that Taylor took out Alexandria with bugs? Or that the Protectorate really had any say in letting her play heroine?
Took me a minute to figure out you meant “dungeon master” and not “doctor mother”.
Took me until you explained it to realize he meant Dungeon Master. Then again, I only waited about 15 seconds before going onto the next comments.
That would actually be pretty interesting. I’d be more than happy to see an interlude/epilogue with various historians giving their take on her and the various propaganda pieces her existance almost necessitates.
That would be absolutely fascinating. I would love to see interviews too.
Tattletale would lie through her teeth and at the same time reveal the most. Grue would focus singlemindedly on the work aspects of her personality. Imp would sympathize with her human side, but not really understand her. And Bitch. Bitch would know her perfectly. But she would never be able to put it in a manner that other people would listen to.
She’d give them a puppy.
And they’d say, “What does this mean?”
And she’s say, “You wouldn’t have that if it weren’t for her?”
Bitch would know her perfectly. But she would never be able to put it in a manner that other people would listen to.
Oh, you know WagTheDog would listen.
and would be an awesome translator for her I think.
Racheakt on October 15, 2013 at 01:56 said:
I listened to “Dearly Beloved’ – by Kaoru Wada while reading the end of this.
Might I make a request? I don’t have any money, but I would like to see an idealistic kid who wants to be a superhero. A kid, maybe a little shy, maybe like Taylor. Who, for his or her first day of school, proudly displays an ‘Undersiders: the Golden Years’ lunchbox. Or something like that, in echo…
There are many things I would love to see. Weaver’s ‘wiki’ entry. Heck- the Undersiders’ wiki entry. Many stories, many characters that we love.
I see that… however this ends Taylor won’t be getting an ending we would wish on someone we have come to know. To understand. Even love, a little.
I don’t think it will be only tears.
Perhapse that sad fool, Contessta, discovers that she can show faith in the midst of uncertinty, and dosen’t kill our heroine. Perhapse Weaver, Skitter, Taylor, is killed after showing Scion that he is not alone, and Scion heals her. Perhapse Weaver will give Scion pause, and he will look into her mind and find a kindred spirit. So many things. Perhapse.
But things will never be the same.
Wildbow. I got involved in this late in the game. But I enjoyed it. I want to see you get this made into a series of movies and become a worldwide sensation. You deserve a tv series and comic books and action figures. You deserve it.
Good luck, make us weep. If you must. But please, make us laugh as well… Give us reason to feel joy in an ending.
This isn’t really the story for being made laugh, actually. That’s elsewhere.
And I wouldn’t get your hopes up on having something nice and light show up. In this story, people just Kill the Lights youtube.com/watch?v=HzhLj8UMOkE
Mm. However, I don’t think that all those hopes are doomed to a Shallow Grave. Don’t be too Blue- just because this story spends a lot of time In The Dark, even verging on a Horror Show, I’m sure the ending will be To Die For.
And in the meantime, Wildbow keeps us on Pins And Needles with the cliffhangers.
A television show and stuff would be fitting for Worm. I’d definitely watch it, even knowing how it would end.
And then I would complain about the changes online.
Well, of course. What’s the point of an adaptation if you can’t complain about the changes. 🙂 .
Feeling smug about having read the original when people gush over the adaptation?
As someone who couldn’t help to point out how he was reading A Song of ice and Fire before GoT made it cool, I’ll grant you that 😀 .
Yggdrazzil on October 15, 2013 at 02:12 said:
I’m equally enthusiastic and curious to see how this develops further, and opposed to seeing this end. If that makes any sense at all.
What a wonderful story. Thanks Wildbow.
I don’t have a paypal account, I don’t trust them with my money. Is there any other way I could donate? (I live in Europe..)
I have a PO box for physical mail. There aren’t really a lot of good options, besides that.
E-transfer directly from bank account?
Do you like chocolate? 😉
I’ve been sending my sister gifts, she lives in a different country in Europe. More than half of them misteriously disappeared. I have as little trust of paypal as of postal services…
I was thinking about transfering money through online banking but I don’t have enough information for that. In the first screen it wants a bankaccountnumber and name, and it then mentions that it will need additional information aftewards. I won’t find out what information until I fill in the acc. no and name. You could e-mail me that information unless you are not comfortable about that (which I would totally understand.)
Alternatively, will you eventually publish this series? Because if you do, then I’ll pay my ‘donation’ by just buying the books for everyone I know 😉
There’s the Moneygram option. But it actually costs a bit to buy one to send. i’ll let the rest of you loyal readers google that. Don’t know how it works outside the UK though.
Again, Not too brilliant an option though.
pidgey on October 15, 2013 at 02:26 said:
Pretty frightening, but I’m seeing an awful lot of similarity to Regent’s power, which wasn’t particularly above the curve. Scion has little cause to be more afraid of the new Skitter than the old.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s a lot of interesting applications of her new power, but from a writing standpoint, I don’t see why her having mediocre control over other people’s powers is especially different from her having a simple leadership position. If it were precise control, that’d be one thing. She could pull off power combos that individuals simply couldn’t. If it were larger range, that’d be one thing. She could gather up a bunch of capes who would be reluctant to work together and make something happen. If she had intuitive understanding of the shards, that’d be one thing. She could improve on individuals’ ability use and apply things more creatively.
With all of those things expressly denied to her in this chapter, she seems like a strict downgrade of Glaistig Uaine’s power, in an earthbound, crippled body.
The one ray of hope I see for this power being unique in any interesting way is the mind-mingling thing. She lacks the ability to communicate in any conventional way, but if she can use her power to communicate her motives and tactics precisely, then maybe nothing else really matters? If she can people to trust her, like Rachel did here, then a lot of the problems she’s been crying about since the beginning of the story could be overcome.
She doesn’t control *shards*. She controls *life*. All of it. She was effecting their bodies. Their feelings.
She may not be able to control the Zion Entity. But the Avatar? THAT she might be able to take. Either to meld her mind into it and… calm it? Talk to it?
Or control it more directly. Force it to attack itself? Sever its bond to the Entity?
All kind of possible options here. Don’t know if any of them will work. Or even CAN work. But it’s not just shard control. It’s a whole lot deeper than that.
What if her range ends up growing and her control over self comes back over time? Don’t know if it might happen, but if it does then Taylor only gets more scarier.
One thing to consider about her control over herself is that…well, it’s basically gone. She can move because her power lets her control herself, but if it wasn’t for that she’d have nothing.
She should avoid power-nullifiers from now on.
Pretty sure a power nullifier would restore her normal self-control. It’s her power stopping her from controlling herself normally.
I don’t think we’ll know for sure unless Grue sticks her in darkness or Bonesaw makes another Hatchet Face clone or something.
Wageslave on October 15, 2013 at 03:56 said:
Imagine for a moment you’re the notably uncreative Zion. You put safeguards in all the shards just to preserve the testing environment/make sure the hosts actually survived carrying them. Now one of them, and a big one, no less, has taken it upon themselves to remove all the safeguards you put in place. This isn’t good. Especially if the conjecture is correct and he won’t be able to do anything to her/runs the risk of being suborned by Taylor.
So much for nigh-omnipotence.
The operative syllable being “nigh,” I guess.
We are the knights who say “Nigh!”
I preferr Bill Nye…:D
http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/bill-nye-on-dancing-with-the-stars
We all prefer Bill Nye. Bill Bill Bill Bill, Bill Bill Bill Bill!
Of course we do!
Bill iz da shit!
Scion, rules.
Oh, this is good. We finally get to see how stuff that was hinted at since… uh, since the very first fight skitter was in pan out.
She always was annoyed by people being dumb users and not doing what the admin thought they should do. Now she has direct access to the users themselves, that’s the dream of every admin ever. The scary devil monastery should take her as mascot or something.
I was actually hoping for something more deus ex machina actually, after so many denied ones I thought it would have been an unexpected surprise.
Instead we see a lot of stuff finally coming to a resolution, and something possibly coming to. And we still have enough hints around to wonder, ah, Wildbow is spoiling me 🙂
Oh, and the main characters reacting in a very human way, and exactly how you expected them to, it’s a really nice touch. IMO Wildbow got better by a large margin in characterization since she started.
The admin shard can not only take control of a human, but analyze the power he possesses and his memories. This explains how she knew so much about the bugs she controlled.
And it still does not confirm or deny she uses other brains for actual processing, even if there are some hints in that direction now.
(I -am- familiar with the arguments against that theory, and I find them extremely weak btw)
Storywise there are several interesting things up in the air. The relay bugs, the Smurf’s airgun, Noelle having a “core” (does Taylor have one too now? Will she become Lolth?), a lot of possible synergies… and most importantly Scion making a human brain for himself.
Eh, he crippled the shard that could control human brains right? Even if the shardbearer got near it would only have 4.5m range, plenty of time to kill it.
It’s not like there’s a perfect precog around that, while not being able to scry scion itself, -can- scry other people and what will happen to them.
And it’s not like it built an inertial dampener to telekine the admin shardbearer around, dodgin Scion attacks right?
Why would Taylor have a “core”? That was where Echidna was pulling the matter to fuel the regeneration from. Taylor didn’t gett regeneration or anything like that.
And yeah, Simurgh is probably gliding over to Taylor as we comment.
Because she was being invaded by her shard, and the parallel with the endbringers mostly.
One is a poor reference pool, but still I’m curious.
The Endbringers aren’t remotely para/human, and Echidna was a unique happenstance caused by a number of factors working together to amplify the physical modification that the Eden shards sometimes have. Also, Echidna’s core was tied directly to one of her major powers (the regeneration); Taylor has no such power, nor is there any reason to think she gained one.
Re: this being foreshadowed for the entire story: Her line “I almost wondered if I’d had a second trigger event, if I was controlling them, the image was so bizarre.” from her being outed as Skitter becomes quite chilling on a second (well, nth at this point) read.
Having a pet endbringer makes you to scary to live.
Contessa is looking at a photo of Weaver sitting on Scions shoulders xD.
Hotaru on October 15, 2013 at 06:00 said:
That’s the look Contessa notices, for once Weaver’s smiling.
Ahhh, so Contessa, like Clockblocker, immediately knows that when Taylor smiles things are going to become serious.
Now that I think of it did Clockblocker see the Echidna Taylors smiling?
Or does Taylor really have that mad a smile^^.
It’s a reference to the chapter where Dragon and Defiant out Taylor as Skitter. Despite being trapped, surrounded and outnumbered Skitter smiles and Clockblocker almost craps himself.
Yeah, but in my eyes this was always a kind of sad smile.. not the “I have you now Mr. Bond”.
mmh rereading it I guess I misinterpreted that scene, but then why use smile and not grin.
In my mind it was one of these.
I always took it to mean that when ever the Wards, or anyone else was fighting her, she was probably smiling while kicking their asses. He saw her smile, and remembered LOTS of bugs.
@Tom_D: Taylor wore a face-covering mask for her whole career as Skitter. And as Weaver, for that matter.
@dpara: Looking up the actual text again:
It dawned on me. Defiant and Dragon were playing it safe because they thought I might have a trick up my sleeve, like I had at the fundraiser. I’d disabled Sere, despite the fact that he was supposed to counter my power, and I hadn’t even made a big deal of it. They knew what I’d done to Echidna, and several other events besides.
They were worried I’d pull something.
Defiant had a grasp on my powers, Dragon had a grasp on me as a person, and they’d gauged that I wasn’t a risk to the others in the room. Which, if I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t. They had the upper hand, they lost nothing by letting this play out, and so they weren’t making a move. They’d talk me down, so to speak, and if I did something, they’d use one of their gadgets or tricks to counter my play.
One of the worst possible things had just happened to me, with my secret identity becoming public knowledge, and here I was, unarmed without a single idea on how to get out of this… and the good guys were playing it safe. I smiled; I couldn’t help it.
…I can see why you might argue that Taylor’s smile would be sad, but I think “amused” is much more likely. Not laugh-out-loud amused – the joke isn’t that funny – but something like a one-sided wry smirk would seem entirely plausible.
Or it might be a full-out grin. Hey, we only have Taylor’s word for it – she might not have been narrating very precisely.
John Campbell on July 10, 2015 at 16:12 said:
When you realize that the enemy that has you outnumbered, outgunned, and surrounded isn’t making a move because they’re afraid of you… that’s a really heady feeling.
“4th of July, 2013”
“Trip to the cottage 2013”
ultima333 on October 15, 2013 at 07:30 said:
I caught up to Worm two days ago and was hit with the big cliffhanger. And now here it is. And all I have to say is…
…Goddamnit Wildbow.
Once again you’ve successfully surprised me.
Once again, you’ve successfully pulled off a big Wham Moment.
Once again, you’ve left me craving for the next update.
Once again, you’ve proven yourself to be a god-tier writer.
Thank you for this wonderful, wonderful story.
I don’t think many people expected it would turn out like this. I mean, yeah, a lot of people kinda figured Taylor would get People Powers, but not at quite this cost. Passenger getting a lot more influence on her? Everyone in fear of her? Being forced to cut ties, yet again? Losing the ability to speak normally?
Please see the first part of this comment again for my thoughts.
*points* ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
You have to wait a mere two days and then get hit with your first of these cliffhangers. You know, I’ve heard that some of us from near the beginning go mad. Wouldn’t know any of those myself. I’ve been this way. Personally, I suspect somebody’s comments may have contributed to the entire group having a slightly more distant relationship with reality. No clue who it might be, but I’m leaning toward Wildbow. Oh Wildbow, you so crazy.
But don’t fret. We, the proud and stalwart members of the comments section, are all here for you. We’ll stick to you like white on rice. Like jazz to a car (I don’t expect you to get that one). Like Wildbow to a a decision to end updates with cliffhangers.
We’ll enfold you in our embrace, like how a giant mutant octopus hugs all its favorite fishes/Japanese women/furry anthropomorphic wolves.
Once again, we wait.
Once again, we ramble inanely.
Once again, ultima333, I welcome someone to the comments section.
> You know, I’ve heard that some of us from near the beginning go mad. Wouldn’t know any of those myself.
Oh, yeah, the voices in my head sometimes say that too.
Good thing we’re both sane then… but I’m not really sure about Wildbow, can boars actually get insane?
Or if they do, is it any different from their usual attitude of solving problems by charging snout-first into them and/or trying to gore things?
I’m heariing voices now… *turns off Youtube* and now I’m not…
UnlikelyLass on October 15, 2013 at 09:03 said:
For everyone now certain that Taylor is going to die, I’d like to remind you that she’s narrating the story in first person.
Obviously, in a universe with powers like Glaistig Ulaine, there are ways around that, but I suspect she’s going to live in some fashion.
I’m not sure we have enough information to really figure out Taylor’s plan to use her new abilities, and we have no good way of working out how they will affect Endbringers or Scion, but I can certainly think of some pretty amazing combos of para humans who could all fit in a 32 foot diameter sphere…
Narrators have died in other stories. MId-bok/film nonetheless! Besides we know that Worm will conclude with third-person epilogues in interlude-style. Taylor can die, or lay dying or, to be cliché, mutter how everything is becoming dark in the last “proper” chapter of Worm. Then Lisa, Brian, Dragon etc narrate the aftermath.
Dinah said that, no matter if humanity wins or loses, Taylor is alive after, but “changed”.
No, Dinah said that no matter the other variables Taylor would be there at the End of the World and she would be changed. Taylor has been/is ( depending on when you think the EotW started) at the EotW and now she has changed. There. The prophecy is fulfilled. What happens next is up in the air.
ACH on October 15, 2013 at 13:14 said:
What AMR said. There are interludes and we even had two arcs that were from the point of view of other characters.
That said, I’m truly hoping Taylor doesn’t die, but this is the Wormverse. There are no true happy endings.
Taylor deserves a moderately happy ending, at least, though. She actually deserves a lot more, but I’m not going to be getting my hopes up.
She deserves any consequences her actions bring.
On the one hand, she’s been working tirelessly for the past two years to prepare a defence against the return of Jask Clash and whatever brings about the End of the World. She’s been doing good, and for good reasons. Her efforts should be acknowledged, narratively speaking.
On the other hand, she makes reckless decisions, without telling anyone, that tend to screw herself and other people over. These, combined with her personality, isolate her from her teammates. Her effectiveness is balanced out by her uncooperative nature.
Taylor will get what she wants, a safe Earth. But she’ll end up alone, probably dying so.
Half the point of the Wormverse is that people don’t always get what they deserve. Or, more to the point, that they often don’t deserve what they get…
Tone on October 15, 2013 at 09:09 said:
My goodness… I love this story. 🙂
Part of me wishes I could’ve started it up later then I did so I don’t have to wait for the end. I loved this chapter though.
So this is your first comment upon catching up?
SAY NO SAY NOOOOOOOOO
ALERT ALERT ALERT. There’s a godamned lert on the loose!
Three of them, apparently!
Technically this would be my second or third post. 😉
Not that that technicality will save you.
Sadly I don’t see Taylor ever getting to just hang with her friends when this is all over. Hell, I’m not too sure a lot of people will properly appreciate all she sacrificed when this is all over.
But…but we have eye-witnesses in the form of a mind-games player extraordinaire, a ruthless gangleader and his underlings, a psychotic dragon-man, a girl who mind-raped her sister and voluntarily asked to be locked up and one of the greates boogeymen of the parahuman world. Why should people doubt them? 🙂 .
honestly?
considering wormverse nature, Taylor (if she survived) has high probability to end up being another list of S-Class Threat, probably on the same line with Sleeper… (little we know of him/her)
So, i wouldn’t be surprised if second iteration of wormverse, starts with people skedaddling whenever the new Taylor drop-by to their neighborhood
Which really sucks, since Taylor is probably the friendliest potential Class-S since Noelle went crazy.
Here’s a horrifying thought:
Taylor grabs Jack Slash. Coerces or convinces Glaistig Uaine to release Jack from the time loop using Glaistig’s version of Gray Boy. Uses Jack’s communication ability, with or without block removal, to extend her power. With Taylor + Jack we have command and communication. Possible further additions:
Contessa for tactics.
Glaistig Uaine so that fallen capes can still be used, plus a fu**load of current power.
Panacea or Bonesaw for medical.
Frankly, the list goes on and on. Taylor is now effectively the seed of a new Worm-like entity. No wonder Teacher is scared.
Unless I misinterpreted what GB told Purity, not even Gray Boy can cancel the time wells. The most he can do is slow/speed the loop. So, no biscuit.
He could change the speed to a point where the person could be knocked out of the loop, or they could convince Foil to lasso him out using her uber-timing.
Not sure I’m following you. Once you’re in the loop you can’t get out unless you’re Scion. Even Foil and her überhax power could only beat Gray Boy’s self-looping immortality but bounced against the grey zone of the time wells.
That explanation doesn’t make any sense, as Foil herself was caught in a time loop, yet was still around to make Canary feel awkward after Scion. To quote 26.b:
Foil’s screams continued, and were soon joined by Jack’s, as Gray Boy started using his knife, reaching within the field.
Up until the moment Foil, still screaming, using her augmented sense of timing to measure the length of each scream, stepped around the monochrome field he’d cast just in front of her. She threw a handful of darts through the Siberian and Gray Boy’s head as his back was turned.
The Siberian flickered out of existence as Gray Boy collapsed.
Neither reappeared, healthy or otherwise.
And GB’s loops don’t vanish when he dies, as evidenced by something he said as well as Jack still being looped while chatting to Scion.
Please not this again. Foil was NEVER caught in the loop. She was just behind it, faking the looped screams with her enhanced sense of timing ( one of her many secondary powers as noted in her interlude) to lull GB in a false sense of security. You may notice a scene before that where Foil throws her darts and they bounce against an area of looped air.
That makes sense, but it also makes things more boring. My theory was that she measured how long each loop was using her uberstopwatch, then made her great escape in the short gap when she was able to react but before the loop reset, kinda like how Jack managed to talk to Scion.
This conversation makes me ask how the fields work in the first place, though. Not the looped time bit, but how he sets them up in the first place. Does he shoot them out of himself like Grue’s darkness before they settle in place, do they just blink into existence, do they have to be within line of sight or a certain radius, and if so, how the hell did he miss Foil in the first place?
Now that I think about it, I’m glad there was only one Gray Boy clone, and that he’s dead now.
The only thing we know about the mechanics of his power is that people believed he needed line of sight to make it work, hence the standard tactic being to obscure his view up until he revealed he only needed it to aim ACCURATELY. Hence all those random spots of empty grey space filled with looped air.
After reading over 16.b again scrutinizing it, I can’t help but think Gray Boy is an idiot. He was aiming for Foil and gauged his “hit” based on her repetitive screaming. Given that GB can adjust the length of his loops, Foil either had to be pretty lucky to be screaming at the right length of the field that missed, or actually caught in one in order to know the reset time of the loop. I’m willing to accept this as a grey area though, as GB could have used the exact same reset times for each of his generic offensive loops.
The real problem, though, is that I can’t see the reason Foil would scream in the first place. When GB froze Jack, Jack was silent until GB used the knife on him. Even if she was incapacitated, Foil wasn’t being actively harmed the moment she was frozen unless coincidence. GB should have known this, and therefore divined that Foil was faking being hit. Also, why didn’t he just freeze the whole freakin’ alley on the other side of the bugs? He clearly doesn’t care about the collateral damage of his power, so why not just carpet time-bomb his enemies?
There are a few more instances of Fridge Logic involving Gray Boy’s power specifically, so I’m just going to paraphrase Grue and say that I freaking hate people that mess with time and therefore will never include a person like that in anything I write aside from the character adjusting his/her watch.
Loki-L on October 15, 2013 at 10:41 said:
This was not the instant total power-up many were expecting. It was more of a power-sideways than a power-up.
Taylor lost fine-control of both her power and herself, she lost most of her range and her ability to control smaller insects. She gained the ability to control parahumans (or humans or larger animals).
Her power works differently. Insects did not suddenly stop moving when they came into her range like people now seem to do. (Her trying to tell Panacea to stop might be responsible for that bit)
16 feet of controlling people with powers very badly doesn’t seem like much. It doesn’t seem like enough. So what can be done to improve Taylor’s ability from here on?
She could learn better control. It took her month to be able to speak and hear through her swarm the first time around. They don’t have months.
If the repeater bugs that Panacea made are still around and still compatible with her current powers that would be one way to extend her range.
Interesting things might come from certain synergy effects. If using different powers in concert might create an effect, it might be worse it.
On a positive side we now know what the little seer meant with “You will be there but you will be different”. One armed, half-mad and with a strange new power.
I wonder if there are any visible clues to her transformation. Antennas growing out of her head or other mutations?
I also wonder if Panacea was really done with her operation or if Taylor stopped her before she could finish the job properly.
Eldan on October 15, 2013 at 10:43 said:
You know, everyone here seems to focus on the control aspect of the power, but it seems to me there’s another, even more interesting part: the melding of minds. Taylor feels what the others feel. Perhaps that even goes in both directions.
Imagine what she could do by linking several thinker minds. Contessa, Dinah and Tattletale. Glaistig Uaine and Chevalier’s power sight.
Taylor’s power always, from the start, gave her a full informational briefing on anything and everything she controlled. It’s the main thinker aspect of her power that no-one outside the Undersiders had a clue was there.
…and I think that means that she will know the powers of everyone she meets better than they themselves do. Which, of course, gives one hope.
Not exactly. It didn’t give her a full briefing on bugs Panacea had edited; it seemed to be restricted to natural bugs, as if her power had scanned the world and built itself an encyclopedia. She always got input, of course, just not an intuitive understanding.
Hmm … that’s a good point. I wonder if that’s tied to Zion’s power limiting…?
Not entirely correct. Taylor had some idea of what the bugs could do, but she noted that she didn’t know what species of spiders she was using on Lung, although she got the general idea. That’s the opposite of that your idea would imply.
No, actually, that’s what I meant. She was given the information, not the words. Names of species aren’t actually a part of the creature’s physiology, and what her power gave her was the creature’s actual physiology.
I’m not sure how “full” it was, though. I got the impression that she knew the gist on the bugs–venomous? how deadly? how big? how strong? etc?–but most of the details were absent.
I suppose that either one is possible, though.
That’s an interesting thought. Since the limits on what a parahuman can do appear to be confined to their own brain, I wonder if those limits apply if being controlled from a remote brain without those limits applied. Maybe she could ignore things like the Manton effect in this manner?
I noticed Pandemonious Ivy making a similar suggestion in another thread – that would be definitely awesome if it worked.
Has anybody else noticed that Taylor has come into Glaistig Uaine’s label of being a ‘Queen Administrator”?
Well, we know from Scion’s interlude that Taylor’s shard was the last shard he sent to Earth. Apparently because he needed it to modify and distribute other shards. When he manifested on Earth as Scion, he never fixed any shards that I saw, only destroyed some that had not yet found hosts that he saw coming to Earth in a damaged state.
I don’t think Scion CAN fix shards, because that ability is held in Taylor’s shard.
I’ll let others take that and run with it 🙂
Ooh, ooh, ooh!
Redistribute shards! Take them from uncooperative people and give them to better targets!
Of course, if Taylor’s shard is damaged enough, by trying to replicate it Zion might have crippled himself…
When did they say that Taylor’s shard was the last shard sent down? I don’t remember that part
The below quote indicates Scion aimed a shard at Danny Hebert. Shards have leeway in who they choose though, and apparently the administrator shard liked Taylor trapped in a locker more than Danny getting drunk.
“When it knows the configuration is absolutely decided, it reaches for the last fragment it will cast off. This one, too, it cripples, even largely destroys, so as to limit the host from using it in the same fashion.
In a haste to decide matters before it enters the stratosphere of that barren planet, the entity casts it off to a similar location as the future-sight ability. A similar time, thirty-one revolutions from now. The destination is a male, thin, in the company of strong males and females, drinking.”
Do the shards (passengers?) have autonomy separate from Scion/Eden? The line where Taylor realizes her leg moved without her conscious directive would seem to corroborate that. Maybe that’s already been said and I missed it.
I believe that’s because her body is inside the range (duh) and so her passenger is controlling it. It’s a borderline “And I must Scream” situation.
I agree, but does the passenger have intelligence, or does it act mechanically? I remember speculation by bonesaw or tattletale that parahumans were connected to their passenger by the thinnest of threads, and that connection allowed the processing and energy production that allowed powers to function. My question is, do the passengers, even being splinters of a former whole, have some volition or intelligence they exert on their human? Skitter mentioned that shadow stalker became markedly more aggressive after her trigger. Skitter saw herself performing maneuvers in the video Glen showed her that she never consciously used. It was at least implied that jack slash survived as long as he did because he was “in sync” with his passenger. Echidna gave herself completely over to her passenger when pressed by eidolon. If the passengers are responsible for these actions, does this mean they have some degree of sentience? And if they do, how does that even make sense, seeing as the entities are conglomerations of these shards? Like I said before, maybe I’ve missed a critical info-dump and I’m way off track.
Maybe not every passenger is, but some are at least somewhat intelligent. See Noelle’s, (presumably) the endbringers’ and the fairy queen’s ghosts.
That makes sense. Thanks
James on October 15, 2013 at 22:58 said:
I don’t think the Endbringers have shards, unless somehow they’re extensions of Eidolon’s? Actually, that’s a really weird consideration… since he made them because his shard provides him with what he needs, and he needed worthy opponents, do they have part of his shard or are they just creations?
The info dump you missed, is that in the per-evolutionary form worms were each a single shard. It was only through the evolution where each worm began eating others and adding them to themselves that the worms became conglomerations of shards instead of individual entities.
I’m pretty sure Taylor’s shard has been doing a sizable chunk of her thinking for her for years. All that parallel processing power she needs to handle her swarm has to come from somewhere, and merely human brain-meats aren’t up to it. And she’s not limiting the stuff she’s offloading onto the extradimensional entity linked to her brain to just driving the swarm – see the bit after Killington where she’s parallelizing reading and taking notes through her bugs.
Taylor’s shard has been displaying a certain degree of independent action or autonomy for a while now, right back to packing up money while she focused on carving out Lung’s eyes (she gave it a basic instruction which it carried out while she wasn’t paying attention). It can act while she’s unconscious or otherwise unable to control herself (Standstill’s attack). She was just never sure how much of it is subconscious and how much of it is truly an independent consciousness (or how much of that independent consciousness is inherited/copied). And now she has to control her body through her shard.
sarah penguin on October 15, 2013 at 12:59 said:
Well that was scary. Poor Taylor. Thanks for the update.
eduardo on October 15, 2013 at 13:32 said:
Taylor to evil dungeon master: – I wish to control everything, not only bugs.
Evil dungeon master, with a sarcastic smile: – Done.
Awesome chapter as always Wildbow.
Are you saying that wildbow is an evil dungeon master? 😛 .
Dayum straight!
I’d play with Wildbow…anytime.
Wildbow would be the evilest dungeon master in the history of gaming..
I’m not that evil. I DM like I write, putting the pieces on the board and letting them come to life, telling a story. Only in a pen & paper game, the players are key pieces.
The only ‘evil’ there is that I tend to throw my players into situations with no idea of how they’re going to survive. Sort of like I do with Taylor & the others. I don’t go in thinking, “Teleported into a surrounded building, point-blank bullet to chest with cracked ribs, set on fire, with soldiers surrounding the structure, outside a chain link fence, but the obvious solution is…”
I just think, you know, “You have the tools. You can probably figure it out.” I write Taylor into the situation, put myself into a corner as a writer, and I figure she gets out if she gets out. If not, then maybe she picks herself up out of the ashes to find that her friends have been hurt/maimed/killed, Coil secure in his position of power and her father being held hostage. I expect my players to handle the same (especially since there’s four+ of them).
It’s not malice or evil. It’s storytelling and verisimilitude. I don’t like the whole, ‘If they don’t figure their way out of this deathtrap then I’m going to hint very strongly about the three gems on the wall’ style thinking.
Plus I prefer fewer, harder, more violent and risky fights over a long stream of ‘you kill kobolds, and then you kill more’.
I said you’d be an evil DM, WB, not that I wouldn’t want to play in one of your games. Gaming with you would be awesome, if a bit nerve-wracking.
Yes. But his characters can also call him an evil God of irony and despair.
Seriously, I would be afraid to play with him. But the game would be interesting for sure, during the little time that my character survived.
Personally I think that I would love being in a game with Wildbow, as GM or as a Player. I mean think about it. Either I get to play in as wild and wonderful a world as Worm, OR I get to see a character like Skitter working to come up with sideways solutions to all the things I put in his path!
I’d be interested to play a game GM’d by wildbow.
…Think she’d be willing to run a PBP one in the comments section?
Always wanted to try gaming, but don’t have anybody to do it with. So as awesome it would be to game with Wildbow, Taylor got a three month grace period, at least, right?
I could easily see Wildbow running a Paranoia campaign.
Is that the game were theplayers are forbidden from knowing the rules?
It’s a game where everyone is a normal human, from a secret society, and they are given tasks that normally require at least a little suicide. Your character says what you do, as a general rule, unless you specifically take a time out, so using unfortunate phrases can be… bad. Oh, and there is a Big Brother computer system, and nuclear hand grenades. And the Cold War is still around, but worse.
I played a few sessions of it when I was in college. Very fun with a good GM, and people who enjoy each other’s company. Add a poor GM or people that take offense at you trying to kill their characters? Well, things can go downhill. Which CAN be fun in a mean sort of way, but that leads to less fun in the long term 🙂
Paranoia, in general, has very, very few rules.
acediamonds on October 15, 2013 at 13:41 said:
Wow, that was a lot sadder than I expected with how desperate Taylor is to be fight against Scion, Tattletale’s little spiel and refusal to leave Taylor, Rachel just walking into Taylor’s field, and that goodbye. Jesus.
If Grue was here, I’d bet his head would explode.
You know, I was thinking that It would be pretty sad if Grue only heard about all of this after it ends, second-hand.
And that’s probably what’s going to happen too, since everyone is a little too busy to stop by and give him bad news.
“Wait, we won?”
“Technically.”
“…What do you mean, technically?”
“It’s a long story, you might want to sit down.”
“But I–”
“If you had been there, I wouldn’t need to eat into your schedule–and mine, incidentally–to catch you up. So sit down and shut up.”
We both know this is going to end with Taylor turning her circumstances around and kicking so much ass she’ll need new shoes.
Besides, I’m no Dinah, but Grue got Put on a Bus and I’m 80% certain he won’t come back (until necessary, of course). It bugs me that Wildbow doesn’t know how to handle his fuckawesome romance subplots (see also: Battery and to a far lesser extent Chevy/MM), but this series has made me a jaded enough individual that I’ve lost all feeling in that department.
Chev/MM (which only existed Ina flashback anyway) was dropped in favor of the even more awesome Chev/Ingenue. I do agree that after being built up as the lover in need of revenge Assault’s abrupt disappearance from the story was a bit weird, though.
Chevy/Ingenue was never even a thing. It was amusing, but Ingenue/Narwhal is far more likely. I’d also prefer that because it’d require Narwhal to become a character, instead of a Canadian forcefielder.
Chevalier/Ingenue was a thing. It was a ship.
Also, Ingenue/Narwhal? Neither of them have been indicated as…well, to “swing that way”.
Actually she implies she seduced a female PRT to get private info on Chevalier. No idea on Narwhal.
But, anyway, Chev/Ingenue is definitely a thing. Their scene in Dr Mother’s interlude was basically Ingenue proclaiming her love (albeit a rather possessive and almost stalkerish one) and Chevalier admitting that one of the reasons he keeps her at a distance is because he knows he’d eventually fall for her even if it’s a very bad idea. Some serious Batman/Catwoman vibes there.
Surely more solid than a ship based on a bonding flashback when they were kids and a throwaway mention of a shortlived fling in high school.
…My god I’ve become a shipper. What is Worm doing to me!?
Lava is more solid than water, but they’re both still fluids.
The final sentence there should have been an indication that the above was written half in jest. The serious half is less because I believe it’s the OTP and more because from a purely narrative point it makes sense that, after spending some time building a (twisted) relationship between the two, something will happen in the end. Even if it’s just Ingenue dying and Chevalier mourning by shedding a single tear (or viceversa).
By the way I though lava was viscous, not fluid :P.
Embrace it. Embrace your inner shipper!!
Anyways, I always thought Ingenue was trying to get into Chev’s pants so she could commandeer what’s left of the Protectorate. Her power could explain both her attitude and Chev’s reaction.
I already explained the reasons for a Chevy/MM epilogue in the last real chapter of Venom, but I’ll repeat the main points: The original relationship is an artifact from the first Wards team, back when the Wards were alloewd to be people instead of heroes. This changed over time, though, and now the two are good people stuck in a system actively hindering their attempts at virtue. An epilogue that brings that back would be a great way of giving relief and happiness to the world after Scion is resolved, assuming Wildbow doesnt go completely nihilist in the meantime.
I felt their relationship got enough closure when they had their break up sex many arcs ago.
Besides, we still have Dragon/Defiant.
Oh Jesus, don’t even get me started on the closure…
That’s just begging to get started on the closure. Go on, you know you want to.
Okay. Have fun:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/scarab-25-6/#comment-44504
Glassware on October 16, 2013 at 13:42 said:
You dropped a disturbing amount of spoilers in that comment.
Thanks for pointing that out, Glass… damn it. I saw the comments but didn’t realize they were on such old chapters. Now there’s a whole thread to clean up. That’s really fucking annoying.
Seriously, people. Don’t make me do janitorial duty when I want/need to be writing. Sanitize your comments when you go back to old chapters, keep them spoiler free.
Oh shit, sorry. I put it there because that’s where it was relevant (I noticed it during my two weeks of catching up after discovering this and then wrote/posted it after I caught up to the most recent chapter. I guess I either forgot new readers were a thing or that comments spawn you at the bottom of the page where mine was.
Now that I think about it, does WordPress have some sort of spoiler tag system? Actually, a link to a WordPress guide to italics/bolding/text effects in general would be nice, as I can’t seem to find one.
Well…timeskips do that, I guess. What, was Grue going to wait two years in case Skitter returned to the dark side?
I don’t care if Grue stopped caring about Taylor during her time with the Wards, but neither Brian, Aisha, nor Taylor’s actions make sense, and Cozen is less of a character and more of an excuse to stop shipping Taylor and Brian. See the link directly above your comment for more.
See my reply to that comment for more. Short version: A lot happened in two years, and we don’t know enough about Cozen to really say anything for certain about how much Brian, Aisha, and to an extent Taylor’s actions make sense. They’re just not in focus.
Taylor basically dumped Brian because saving the world was more important. As Taylor herself said Brian was at that point a very fragile individual ( courtesy of Bonesaw)who needed someone/something to make him feel steady and he saw in Taylor that someone/something. Taylor acknowledged(and seemed okay with )that but decided that saving the world was more important ( this is not an accusation or a judgement). As Lisa said in this chapter Taylor can sometimes be very unfair to the people that love her/ she loves.
This said I find it very reasonable that Brian tried to forget her ( and frankly he didn’t seem very successful) and build a new life in her absence.
I also understand (and somewhat support) Brian moving on with Cozen, but there are too many unanswered questions for such a change to be logical. Bear in mind that when Taylor left, Tattletale described the effect on Brian being similar to his experience with Bonesaw. I can see him getting over that with Cozen as a substitute as Taylor, but as evidenced by the chapter(s) immediately after, Cozen is almost the opposite of Taylor. This begs the questions “What did Brian see in Taylor?” and “What does Brian see in Cozen?”. Until those questions (and others that sadly no longer exist) are answered, I will assume that Brian hooked up with Cozen because he loves large tits and didn’t realize this fact about himself until Taylor left and he asked himself why he didn’t try to keep their relationship going.
Maybe he was trying to prove to himself (and others) that he could get over Taylor. He seems to have failed and Cozen seems to have noticed (and to be fair apart for some passive-aggressive shit when they meet,Taylor was sniping at Cozen more than viceversa).
Also your repeated mention of Cozen’s big tits as if it’s something bad and horrible has some unfortunate implications. Especially, since, as you pointed out, we know nothing about her. Nothing stops her from having big tits AND being smart, resourceful and interesting.
Cozen isn’t resourceful, though. When she isn’t in a familiar situation, she runs the hell away. Now, she isn’t interesting either, but that’s for different reasons, so I’ll give examples*. Also, saying “Maybe Grue X” is not a substitute for Wildbow filling in the holes in the story. The Grue/Taylor/Cozen relationship was one thing before the timeskip and a different thing after, so as a result we’ve been given a significant character change “just because”. That is bad storytelling.
*Mannequin is a former tinker who was on the verge of doing a shitton of good with his powers. However, his family is killed and he falls into a well of despair and nihilism. While in said metaphorical well, he semi-literally cuts himself off from the world and becomes a machine of destruction, unable to cope with his failures to the extent that he can’t stand hearing his former name or seeing anyone at all trying to make the world a better place. Hell, they don’t even need to be that complicated. Bonesaw’s interesting because of the dissonance between her innocence and her actions. When the Nine is gone, she becomes a bitter cynic while trying to redeem herself and do good. Nothing like that exists for Cozen, because she’s a mere bundle of characteristics, rather than an actual character.
See, being resourceful and avoiding unfamiliar situations aren’t mutually exclusive. If you want an in universe example: Grue. Cozen is (from the very little that we’ve seen of her, I want to remind you) a parallel to how Grue has (or tried) reacted to situations during his tenure as the defacto Undersiders’ leader. Uncomfortable in situations she doesn’t fully grasp/is unsure she/her team can handle: Grue. Ever since he was first introduced. That doesn’t make either of them unresourceful. Makes them cautious. Pragmatic, even, depending on how you’ve read the story.
The first definition I found while googling ‘resourceful’ is “having the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties”. So far, we have Cozen failing to be resourceful in 100% of the difficult situations we see her in. The first two instances that come to mind when I think of Taylor being resourceful are the bank robbery and her first Mannequin fight. Both times, she was pressed into a situation where she had the undeniable disadvantage. Both times, she tackled the problem from a different angle that nobody expected and emerged victorious.
I feel like you’re shooting your argument in the foot twice here. First, you say we don’t see Cozen much and that we don’t know much about her. I completely agree, but that is a reason Cozen is a shallow character, if she is a character at all. She isn’t ambiguous or mysterious; she’s just mostly blank.
Your second point, that Cozen is a parallel to Grue, is similar to your first: I mostly agree with your point, but I disagree with you. Sure, Cozen is like Grue, but she is shallow whereas Grue had some nuance about him. Brian was a villain committing dastardly deeds for truly noble goals. He was defensive and protective, and this not only led him to retain, train, and support Taylor during the first part of her tenure with the Usiders (also when she was on the fence about being a cape or not), but it was also what allowed Taylor to unintentionally commandeer the position of “big boss leader” from him. Brian’s relationship with Taylor in the beginning was platonic, he thought of her as a close companion to protect, guide, and mentor. After his second trigger and Taylor kinda takes over, the relationship between Taylor and Brian changes. Taylor becomes the leader, she helps Brian when he’s struggling to go on, and their relationship eventually becomes a romance. Now, how much of what I just described relates to Cozen? Sure, she’s similar to Grue, but when it comes down to it, she’s a store brand knockoff because she doesn’t have the extra details that make Brian such a compelling character.
I’ve pointed out elsewhere in the comments (long after you wrote this) that Worm is a first person work. Obviously Wildbow was kind enough to throw in some interludes to flesh things out, but we’re mostly limited as an audience to experiencing what Taylor experiences as the narrator. We know next to nothing about Cozen because *Taylor* knows next to nothing about Cozen, and because Cozen isn’t important enough to the story to merit an interlude.
We *know* what Brian saw in Taylor and frankly I find it weird that a lot of people ship Taylor and Brian as some great romance. Their breakup made it perfectly clear that their relationship was one of convenience/need. Brian needed emotional support after his abuse at the hands of Bonesaw, and Taylor needed some human comfort with all the shit she was dealing with. When it became clear the relationship would never become more than that, they parted ways.
We *don’t* know what Brian sees in Cozen because we know nothing about her. But we do know a fair bit about Brian. We know that he values family. We know that one of the reasons he and Taylor ended things is that they saw no hope of being able to settle down together in future. In part because Taylor’s mission is always going to come first to her. Brian is essentially just a guy who got powers. He used them to make enough money to take care of his family, which was basically all he ever wanted. He doesn’t want to be fighting gods for the fate of the earth, he just wants to take care of his own.
I’m guessing that Cozen shared that outlook. Again, we don’t really know much about Cozen but we *do* know that when Grue went “let’s blow off the end of the world and go live in a cabin in the woods” she went “Okay”. So that’s suggestive at least.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s a flaw in the writing that this stuff isn’t spelt out. Wildbow has always left some peripheral details vague so that the audience has room to come to their own conclusions (*cough*Sleeper*cough*) and because it would just dilute the narrative too much to cover it all. BTW, this is actually a very effective and deliberate technique for conveying that there’s a lot more depth to the setting than you see on the page.
This is a wonderful chapter, Wildbow. One of the best. I’m eager for what is to come.
Oh good. Thank you.
I’m not sure about “best,” but that’s mostly because I don’t want to try comparing every chapter to the others.
It’s definitely a good one, though, and I am most certainly eager to see what’s coming up.
That’s why the “one of”.
I love qualifiers. I use them all the time. 😀
Don’t you mean “almost all the time”?
Salute’s greatwrymrgold for that one
Ainrhyr on October 15, 2013 at 17:04 said:
Okay, so what exactly would Taylor class as now?
I’m guessing something like Master 12, Thinker 4. Maybe even throw a Trump class in there as well.
I’d imagine the Thinker bit would be dropped, as the only reason it existed was as a Required Secondary Power to facilitate all the multitasking she had to do. At this point, I’d say her Thinking is overloaded to the point of not even being worth assigning a number to. As to the Master ranking, I would take Regent’s rank and add 4.
Hey Wildbow, what the hell do the number rankings measure, anyway? I love the power categories, but the numbers seem arbitrary and optional.
The numbers (and categories) were designed as threat-and-broad-tactics assessment of villains. If he’s a Brute don’t let him hit you, etc. Pretty sure the numbers get re-evaluated if people prove themselves more dangerous than originally thought. I don’t think we ever told Regent’s exact number, except that it was the “highest rated Master in the city” during the Sentinel/Parasite arc, and there was at least one other Master 6, so he’s a 7+. Canary is an 8. Skitter was a 5 during the Leviathan hospital scene.
My main issue with the numbers is that they don’t seem to say anything relevant. Regent is a higher ranking master than Taylor, yet she manages to disable the freaking BBPRTHQ almost single-handedly, which is something Regent probably isn’t capable of. What I believe would be more interesting is if the numbers represented a subtype of power, like if number ranks for master capes represented controlling humans, nonhumans, emotions, telepathy, mind control, etc.
No. Ratings are pretty much just a “threat level” thing.
One thing that puts Regent higher is the possibility that he could control the agent next to you from across the city. Another is that Skitter hadn’t used (or discovered) the full limits of her ability; I daresay she hadn’t before she underwent invasive brain surgery just now.
And, of course, ratings change. I think she was rated as a Master 8 when she got captured by the PRT.
That still begs the question of how a power is measured. The difference between a 7 and an 8 is woefully obscure, and even if we’re going by threat level, powers are too diverse and too situational for a mere measurement of magnitude.
As an example, Tattletale is shown to be capable of completely wrecking New Wave as a family by exposing Amy’s feelings for Victoria, yet when she confronts then-Director Piggot, she’s about as useful as a wet noodle.
And what makes one telekinetic a Mover and one a Shaker, one a Master and one a Blaster?
It isn’t an objective measurement, it’s subjective.
Jesus Christ, nobody on the internet knows the difference between objective and subjective. A subjective measurement is fundamentally impossible (unless human bias enters the equation, but that’s not the point here).
A telekenetic (TK) mover is one that uses tk to move themselves in an abnormal way (super-speed, flight, etc). A tk blaster is a cape that is capable of tking objects at a distance without contact. While I won’t rule them out as a possibility, I can’t imagine how tk could fit into the shaker or master category.
The power categories in Worm work because each one is a difference in kind and they all are fundamentally distinct from each other in some fashion (there’s a gray area around tinkers and thinkers, but it’s distinct enough it doesn’t bother me). The power measurements, on the other hand, are arcane guesswork that is never properly defined and probably pretty nebulous to begin with. That’s some shitty measurements, and I believe that the system would be better off if the numbers representing magnitude/threat level/power mastery were either scrapped entirely or replaced with a set of subcategories.
I won’t tackle the measurements (but I will point out that Brutes at least start with Behemoth at 10 and everybody else scales down).
As for a telekinetic master Parian is one. Her power is telekinesis of light object like thread and needles and she uses to move puppets. Yeah it’s a weird system.
I don’t even know anymore. Master-ism specifically relates to the control of people (like Heartbreaker/Regent/Cherish) or constructs (like Nilbog/Mockshow/Parian). Parian’s cloth creations certainly fall under mastery, but the needle/thread tk doesn’t and needs another category. I assume she had two triggers in short succession.
Hmm,no. She didn’t trigger twice. She uses her telekinesis to weave cloth in puppets and then telekinetically pushes the woven cloth so that it looks as if she’s animating puppets. If she used the same exact power to give people the death of a thousand cuts via storm of needles she’d probably be classified as a blaster or maybe shaker. The PRT classifies effect not cause. Or something. Maybe wildbow or even another, more able than me, poster can help?
Your friendly neighborhood Panda has appeared, to act superior and pretentious with his Worm knowledge: Parian has two distinct powers 1) *fills* objects (vague, but I basically describe it as *with her influence*) which she is then able to manipulate (obvious Master power; minions) and 2) telekinetic control over small objects. She uses this to work with the first (very smart, btw) but the fact that it’s an indiscriminate manipulation makes it Master first, any other classification after. She uses it for glass shards (Shatterbird mimickry) she would be Master/Shaker and probably Blaster too. Uses it like Cuff does (augments her metallic costume with her control over metal) with her outfit somehow, it’d probably get a Brute rating until someone realized what she was doing, and then Master would be added. General function + applications. Ex: Taylor; general function is control and sensory extension through insects. Master. Applications: speaking through them, bug clones, flight (Atlas), sight/hearing through them, general area mapping plus more. Stranger, Thinker, Mover, also Shaker considering what she managed with the Behemoth fight.
Thank you for listening, pardon the block, I’m on my phone and things are difficult. *Ends display of superiority complex and teleports elsewhere*
Much appreciated Pandemonious Ivy. Thanks.
She was rated as everything when she got captured, just to keep from underestimating her. And guess what? They underestimated her.
So… is Taylor inadvertently teaching the administrator shard how to be a human being now?
… then she gets in Scion’s range, and her shard goes “Hey, bossman, you’re doing it wrong!”
Lost Demiurge on October 15, 2013 at 19:48 said:
Oh Taylor… What have you done? Dammit kiddo…
…Her story couldn’t end any other way, though. And it’s not quite yet done…
Now estimating at just over 43,000 comments…
Dinah told wildbow, there is ninety point nine nine six seven eight probability the record will go past 50k comment after the ending chapter, there will be one thousand comments saying some lines like “thanks” another thousand comments stating fans weeping endlessly for a week after the release of aforementioned chapter
storryeater on May 8, 2015 at 14:50 said:
Any chance of an estimated wordcount on the comments? Reading it seems to me that the comments dwarf the actual webserial for size by a factor of about 4 or 5 (to be fair, they have a FEW more authors than the serial itself. :P). It’d be interesting to have that confirmed or not…
Megaolix on October 15, 2013 at 20:26 said:
You know, Taylor is being so fatalistic here, I wonder if there’s a chance she’ll be rescued the moment she thing she’s going to die.
Don’t know for you guys but as far as I saw in stories, going in and ending everything before the final fight with the idea that you’re going to die usually doesn’t end with a death. And damn, I do want Taylor to survive.
You’re not the only one.
Eduardo Perini Muniz on October 16, 2013 at 07:45 said:
Do not tell this to the author !!! Not this author !!!
Oh c’mon death is hardly the only thing that can happen! She might end up having to spend the rest of her days in a body she can barely control, in a special holding facility on an otherwise empty earth because she has evolved into some horrible, terrifying threat that can control anyone. Or she becomes a cosmic tapeworm! Or she becomes a diety that mercy kills parahumans before their powers grow too much and turn them into Endbringers!
Or maybe she ends her story depowered?
Could that be a possibility?
Merges with Scion, has to stay close at all times, in order to hold him in check. The sequel to Worm references her (after Wildbow has done his other book) breifly.
The final part of the Worm trilogy is Rachael and Lisa’s rescue mission. The one that Bitch comes up with.
“So here’s the plan… we give her a puppy.”
Ha! One thing I’ll say for Wildbow (okay, there are a lot of things I’ll say for him) is that he has never given any indication that he will change his trajectory based on fan requests. He has, a few times taken input under consideration re: the *way* things are written, but in terms of plot? Nopenope.
Wildbow, have you checked your gmail address lately? Just wanted to see if the question I sent you there made it through or not. Thanks!
Sorry about that. I get a crapton of emails these days, and the amount of time I have available seems to be ever-dwindling.
You should be less mainstream. Try giving every Worm character a beanie and lumberjack beard. It’ll be so ironic!
That would make Atlas look even stranger…
Someone should draw that.
Not that Krustacean guy, though. We don’t want everyone to die.
Atlas already died, though. Weaver could feel him dying during the press conference when she joined the white hats.
Am I the only one who was horribly sad when Atlas died? Then again, I actually keep bugs as pets, so I’m kind of predisposed to those feelings.
It did lend a tragic note to the entire thing, but I think Rachel’s dogs howling did the same but better, so it was slightly distracting. Either way it was a good “end of an era” feel to the scene.
You were definitely not the only one. For an insect that was clearly described as having little more autonomy than a biological robot Atlas did somehow manage to tug the heartstrings. 😦
No, you’re not. I really liked Atlas and was very sad when he died too. I know he didn’t really have any sort of feelings or instincts or anything but I looked at him as a giant dog basically.
I was referring to the “Everyone,” not specifically the Atlas.
…I did not consciously capitalize “Everyone.” This is creepy. What if my fingers are the fingers are good the fingers are your friend kill the toes.
btown on October 16, 2013 at 04:22 said:
Wow. I marathoned all the way from Gestation 1.1 this past week (was referred here by Eliezer Yudkowski’s recommendation on HPMOR, as I’m sure some others have), and this whole series has been completely mindblowing for me.
I feel so sorry for Taylor, how fate just keeps twisting her intentions and morals against her, how she keeps trying against worse and worse odds. Now, Taylor has to live with the likely sacrifice of the emotional connections she’s worked so hard to build – perhaps the sacrifice of all emotional connections whatsoever. ASOIAF readers and GoT watchers will know what I say when I see this moment of final evolution as equivalent to the RW in terms of tragedy, but such well-written tragedy! A cruel irony that this happens to be the place where I need to wait!
Anyways, this is my first post here, and hopefully not my last! I’ll join the masses in thanking Wildbow for pouring his/her heart and soul into this multiverse. And I’ll certainly be sharing this far and wide (including to fans of Fallout: Equestria, which this may even surpass in my book) – the question is, share now or when it’s finished?
Olivebirdy on October 16, 2013 at 20:09 said:
Share now. The story is almost over, and the half-weekly cliffhangers are part of the experience
So. Let’s consider my Worm RP for a sec.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=131428.0
Things are starting to fall in place, with a big fight right at the PRT HQ. Selina has a sadomachoistic alternate personality, which has just killed two PRT officers and stabbed Kevin rather bleedingly. Steven joined the fight on her side, while Elena (Delphinium), a few other Wards, and a Protectorate member on-site joined five PRT officers. In a display of sheer competence, one officer managed to fire containment foam upward, which lead to the Protectorate member (a Brute) getting caught and incidentally to the door being blocked off. Also, another PRT officer tripped into it. Lovely what terrible rolls do to excellent agents, isn’t it? Anyways, Selina and her other personality fought for control, with the sometimes-help of Delphinium, and has leaped into the containment foam. Steven is still up, but since another Protectorate member just arrived…it might not take much longer. And we will see what happens then.
And now for an important question: What should I name the game?
Caterpillars?
It was the first thing bug shaped that dropped into my head tbh. Further thinking makes me think of how caterpillars can change and when they have, they fly so high.
Maybe I was briefly possess by the spirit of Clockblocker?
Or if you’ve like to pay Homage to john Wyndham, Chrysalids?
There’s no one insect-related in that game.
i was also thinking about the way people change but if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work..
It’s not terrible, but not ideal.
Authy_Silverfur on October 16, 2013 at 16:50 said:
Foam Party 2: The Containment
It’s hard to advise without knowing what you actually intend to use the name for.
Something as pedestrian as “Worm: Toronto” could suffice. Alternately, if you have some idea of themes or where the story was going, you could base it on that. “Darkness rising” or “Noble Demons” or whatever. It’s not immediately clear from the thread even whether your characters are designated heroes or villians…
Now, imagine if Taylor ends up controlling Vista. Trying to evade that 16 foot range gets pretty difficult when you have someone who can alter the distance between objects like that. There would pretty much be no escape.
Vista is considerably crippled by the Manton effect. Keeping scores of parahumans in a 16 ft range may be beyond her.
She is crippled only when there is a person within that distance. It does not matter if she is altering the distance between two people. She’s used that ability several times, only to generally make the gap between people larger.
True, but if the Administrator shard really is what Scion used to modify and restrict shards, that may no longer apply. Guess we may find out in….97 minutes or so, from comment posting.
53 minutes now…
Jay on October 16, 2013 at 22:39 said:
OMG. REMEMBER HOW THE SIMHURG APOLOGIZED? SHE APOLOGIZED BECAUSE SHE SET THIS UP WITH THE SINGING. WHY ELSE WOULD SHE MAKE A SKITTER GUN?!?
Technically the Simurgh just made Taylor experience an auditory hallucination that would move her in the right direction for the Simurgh’s plans. Feelings of remorse didn’t seem to enter into the picture there so much.
Well what you need to remember is that the Simurgh ‘guides’ people through flashbacks and memories and such, sort of like what was motivating Taylor not to stay in the cave…
UponRevenge on October 21, 2013 at 20:30 said:
I really enjoyed these lines:
To me it is the funniest line Imp has delivered.
After reading this chapter I have a sad vision of the main naration of this story ending with a disabled Taylor lying in a heap. Dinah is nearby and Taylor can just make out Dinah saying “I am so sorry”. Taylor desperately wants to act, to say something, but all she can manage is a single tear which rolls down her cheek as her life is ended.
You Ma’am or Sir are depressing. Especially as I can see it too. Maybe with a hug from Dinah thrown in for extra poignancy.
Jason Fonceca (@ryzeonline) on August 23, 2014 at 22:20 said:
God, Wildbow, this story is such a work of f***ing art.
Oh damn. Just damn. Talk about breaking the hardware when upgrading the software.
So the passenger/shard seems to be either merging or overwriting Taylor. Sad but interesting and potentially extremely useful.
I like how Lung has essentially completely decided that Marquis is his friend. Otherwise I doubt he really would’ve bothered keeping Amy safe. Also it was rather funny how Marquis recommended mutiny to his underlings.
“Now Skitter’s broken.” Yup that pretty much sums up the situation in an albeit hilarious sort of way.
So much for my Queen of the Swarm Planet. A Sarah Kerrigan we do not have. Darn, those breeding relay bugs had such promise!
Some really discordant and difficult to follow writing on this one. It’s particularly jarring that everyone suddenly knows that Taylor can control people without anyone saying so, or even Taylor herself figuring it out.
Anonymous on December 15, 2016 at 00:41 said:
Again, with the “Imp does everything sagely” thing. Seriously, Wildbow, this is becoming some painfully juvenile writing here. It’s as if you learned the word or decided it sounded nice, so now you’re wholly incapable of letting it go.
Get your shit together or this will never be published.
ardock on October 9, 2017 at 12:20 said:
You aggressively commented on a single word out of 1.6 million multiple times, multiple years after the work was released and when it is clearly not edited for publication yet, and you want to talk about people being “juvenlie”?
Doubt you’ll see this either since I’m about a year late myself, but if such a minor issue gets so deep under your skin that you have to make personal attacks on the writer, after presumably having read their entire work for months, free of charge… Then you really do need to grow up / get your shit together, Anon.
Ow. Ow ow ow. Rachel is incredible and it hurts.
That… Was not the god power I imagined but I’ll buy it!
Does she get to sit on an Endbringer and control them if she does that would be fuckin awesome
* on October 17, 2018 at 02:53 said:
1. Panacea can fix it. Riley can fix it. Scion can fix it.
2. No! No, no, no, no, no! Wildbow, you put that back right now!
4. 😦
5. Fine. Can’t do much to change it, anyway.
Ooh this was a short chapter!
Leave a Reply to Tom_D Cancel reply
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Tag Archives: Jack Slash
Ellisburg loomed before me. A small town, surrounded by a massive wall. Ellisburg had been situated by a river, and the wall included a section of the waterway. The building that managed the flow of water was bigger than any structure within the walls, a filtration and guard system that ensured that nothing was making its way up or downstream from the small town.
It was a risk to even have the measure, no doubt, and it would cost money to operate and maintain. There had to be a reason they had included the river rather than section the river off altogether. A compromise? Something to keep the goblin king happy?
I’d only been a toddler when the walls had first gone up. Outside of that bit of news, the Ellisburg situation wasn’t one that came up a lot, yet it had somehow found traction in the public consciousness. It was something we all thought about from time to time, something that loomed as a possibility in everyone’s mind.
Would today be the day the wrong person got too much power?
Would today be the day our hometown was effectively removed from the map, surrounded by sixty-foot concrete walls?
The dashboard indicated the Dragonfly was now approaching the designated landing point. The A.I. had suddenly decided to ground itself, landing in a nearby field, costing me precious minutes, while Dragon had been silent on the comms. I’d left a message, trusting her A.I. to pass it on, and hadn’t received a response yet.
My attempts to patch into the feeds and get a view on what was going on with Jack hit a brick wall. The corner of the monitor still showed the cube folding through itself in the corner, Dragon’s loading message, as if the process had hung.
I’d manually piloted the craft back out of the field, and the A.I. had kicked in to handle the flight codes and necessary messages to air traffic control and nearby aircraft. When I’d input my destination for the second time, the craft mobilized.
But the silence, the strange blip in the A.I.’s direction, it left me uneasy.
Now, as we took a circuitous route around Ellisburg, to a field beside the large filtration and security building, I could see the Azazels, parked at the edges of the same location.
That was the point I felt alarmed.
I hit the button on the console/dashboard. “Dragon? Requesting confirmation on the situation. You intended to intercept Jack before I got here, but the Azazels are dormant.”
“Dragonfly,” I said. “Display non-system processes and tasks last carried out.”
It displayed a list. In a matter of seconds, the scroll bar was barely a line, with thousands of individual instructions noted in collapsed menus. A prompt reminded me I could load more with a request.
“In the last minute.”
The list wasn’t much shorter.
“Communications-related.”
There. Besides the orders I’d just given, I could see the message I’d sent to Dragon.
“Status of message? Has she heard or read it?”
The loading symbol appeared in the corner. It should have been nigh-instantaneous.
“Cancel that. Give me manual access.”
A keyboard appeared on the dashboard. I couldn’t use it right away, though. I was forced to pay attention as the Dragonfly reached the field and hovered. I lowered the ship down. The small craft shuddered as it touched ground.
Using the keyboard and the manual access, I began digging through the data. I navigated the menu the A.I. had provided, then opened the submenu to view the details on the message I’d left Dragon.
My message was in the priority queue, but it sat at the 89th position on the list of messages Dragon would be getting to.
I dug a little, and found the list was growing. Ninety-four, ninety-five…
Where the hell was Jack? I contacted Defiant.
“Defiant here.”
“Weaver. What happened? Is the Slaughterhouse Nine situation resolved?”
“No. He entered Ellisburg.”
I closed my eyes for a second. It took a moment to compose myself and get my thoughts and priorities in order. “And the suits?”
“Ignore the Azazels. Listen. I’ve got a lot to handle and coordinate right now,” Defiant said. Was there a tremor of emotion in his voice there? “Golem’s on his way. Wait for backup. I’m sending Dragon’s Teeth your way. Teams from across America are joining the fight now that the full situation is leaking. I’m putting some on containment and quarantine detail, make sure the Slaughterhouse Nine situation doesn’t get beyond the areas the attacks are directed at. I’m going to send a few your way. Ten minutes.”
“Jack’s already in the city, and you want me to wait ten minutes? That long, and Jack could get what he wants. I’ve got the Azazels nearby if there’s trouble-”
“The Azazels aren’t… reliable. Consider them compromised, but a non-threat at the same time. Listen, there are things I need to take-”
“This is the highest priority,” I said. “Isn’t it? Jack? The end of the world?”
A pause. “Yes. Of course. But I can’t help you while I’m on the phone.”
A note of deceit in that. He was covering for something.
Something happened.
I thought of what had happened at the school, the way Dragon had stopped abruptly. I’d read the records, knew the gist of the story. Dragon had been in Newfoundland when Leviathan sank it, had escaped, only to shut herself away from the world, never venturing outside the expansive building complex she’d had constructed in Vancouver.
She hadn’t left Newfoundland unscathed, I was almost certain. Brain problems, body problems… I couldn’t be sure. Probably both. She had no doubt integrated herself with technology to cope, enhance and expand her capabilities.
Except that her technology was failing. The way she’d collapsed at the school, the speech problems she’d suffered, the slow recovery, now this… It was the only theory that made sense.
She’d pushed herself too far, something had gone wrong, and now Defiant faced losing the one person on this planet who could tolerate him for more than ten minutes at a time. No small wonder he was out of sorts.
I considered how I’d feel if it was one of the Undersiders.
“Defiant,” I said. “I’m going in alone. Send Golem in after me if he wants to come, reinforcements can hang back or come with, depending on your judgement. I’ll handle things on this end. You focus on what you need to. Focus on Dragon, focus on damage control.”
A pause. “There’s nothing I can do for Dragon right this moment. The best I can do is maintain the momentum and keep things coordinated, and hope that Dragon’s substitution can maintain the back-end.”
I didn’t respond to that. I was already getting ready to go.
“Thank you, Weaver.”
It was uncharacteristic of him to thank me. A pleasantry. How upset was he?
I couldn’t spare another thought on the subject. I was out of the Dragonfly at the first opportunity, making my way towards the quarantine control and filtration building. It was squat, concrete, hardly pretty. As I got closer, I could hear an alarm.
The front doors had been torn apart. It might not have been so impressive, but these were the same vault doors we saw with the shelters that studded every likely target around the world.
The gouges were narrow, a finger’s width, as though someone had dragged their hands through the steel like I could drag my fingers through half-melted butter. Siberian.
Jack had brought protection.
My bugs flooded into the facility, past the second dismantled vault door. The alarm was louder as I ascended the concrete stairs and made my way into the building.
The emergency lighting was on, casting the area in a red glow. My bugs searched and scanned the area, in case any members of the Nine were lurking in wait. So many ugly ways this could go. So many threats that Jack could have on hand. Cherish? Screamer? Nyx? Ways to fool my senses, ways to shut me down or defeat me. My only recourse was to get them before they got me.
Hey, passenger, I thought. Do me a favor. If I get taken out of action and you step up to fight, work on taking out Jack, alright?
My bugs stirred, moving further down the hall. It was so far from a conscious direction that I wondered for a second if the passenger had listened.
No. I’d tried hypnosis, I’d tried other things. Some in Mrs. Yamada’s office, other times in the PRT’s labs, after dark, off the record. Nothing brought the monster to the fore.
Just my subconscious.
Just. Like that wasn’t something I couldn’t help but wonder about.
But I’d made peace with it. I couldn’t barter with something that wouldn’t talk back, but I could accept it, test and acknowledge my limits as far as they pertained to the entity that was apparently granting me my abilities.
I wouldn’t turn away from it, wouldn’t tell it to go away or hold back in my abilities.
My bugs marked the area, giving me the information I needed to navigate the facility. It proved easier than I might have expected. Rather than follow the winding corridors and make my way to the security checkpoints, I followed the path of casual destruction Siberian had left in her wake. She’d knocked down walls to create the shortest possible route from the front doors to Ellisburg.
No casualties that I could detect. No nonhuman life.
Had Dragon ordered this place evacuated before she was incapacitated, or had Nilbog gotten here first?
My bugs started to scan the area beyond the facility, inside Ellisburg. They made it about ten feet before something like a frog’s tongue began snatching them out of the air.
I withdrew the swarm back to myself, hiding my bugs beneath my cape and skirt, and I made my way through the opening into Ellisburg.
A goblin wonderland. It was clear he’d altered it from its original layout, likely over the course of years. The remodel had been more aesthetic than functional. Floorboards had clearly been dug up and moved to the exteriors of the buildings, creating roofs and building additions that spiraled or twisted, with more boards propped up flat against the building faces on one side, painted or modeled in the same way the towns had been put together in old western movies.
The walls that surrounded Ellisburg had been painted as well. To look from a distance, Nilbog’s kingdom extended to every horizon, with crooked, impossible landscapes at the periphery of it, like an ocean frozen in time, grown over with grass and trees. Oddly enough, they had painted the sky as an overcast one, where it was visible above the lush, unpredictable fields and forests.
Within the city, the trees had been immaculately cut and trimmed, and the shapes were just as strange; trees that were perfectly round, cubes, cones. Where new trees were growing on lawns, as dense and close together as trees in an orchard might be, I could see heavy wires wound around them, guiding their growth into twists and curves. The art of bonsai taken to a bigger scale, cultivating each tree in form. Already, some of the largest ones were properly set up, meshing together with counterparts on the opposite sides of the street, forming lush, living wooden arches.
The grass had been cut, and I could see the attention to detail there, even. There were innumerable flowers growing across lawns, but the grass was neatly cut beneath and around them, as if someone had taken shears or scissors to the blades that grew between the flowers. I couldn’t make out any rhyme or rhythm in how the flowers or plants were laid out and how they grew. It was an injection of color in the same way a random splash of paint from a palette might be applied to a canvas.
And then, as if to remind me that this wasn’t friendly territory, there was a scarecrow in one garden. The clothes were brightly colored, the pose one of a dancing figure, but that wasn’t the eerie thing about it. The head was a skeletal one, a dog’s head stripped of all flesh, turned skyward with its mouth opened in joy. The hands that clutched the rake and watering can were held together by wire. A very small human hand.
For all the signs of careful tending, the entire place was still. A town that could have been taken from a storybook, desolate. There wasn’t any sign of chaos, nor the destruction that would follow from an attack by the Slaughterhouse Nine.
But more than anything, what threw me was the absence of insect life. No spiders spun webs. Even the ground had little in the way of ants or earthworms.
A trap? I looked behind me to see if they were planning on walling me in, and came face to face with one of Nilbog’s creations.
It hissed, its breath hot and reeking of bile. Fangs like a viper’s parted, the distance between them great enough that it probably could have sunk some into the top of my head and the underside of my chin as it closed its mouth. I stepped back out of reach, then forced myself to stay still and wait.
The mouth closed, and I could see how the creature’s head was smaller than mine. It wasn’t more than four feet tall, covered in pale brown scales. The reptilian face could have been in a children’s movie, if it wasn’t for the eyes. They were dark, black, and cold.
It clung to the wall, its feet placed higher up than its hands, opposable toes gripping the frame that had been around the vault door. I noticed it was wearing white shorts, with one suspender strap over a shoulder. A taloned claw held a softball-sized chunk of the wall.
Was it fixing the wall?
“I’m not a threat,” I told the lizard-child.
I felt hands touch my belt and jumped, seizing the wrist of the offending hand in an instinctive motion before I’d even looked to see who it was.
A girl, five or so feet tall, her face mottled with purple veins that spiraled across her perfectly round, puffy, hairless head. Her eyes were tiny and piggish, her fingers blunt, barely a half-inch long, her mouth too small for her face. She wore a sack that looked like it had been sewn to work around her oversized head. Her hand was on my knife.
The lizard boy had extended frills at his arms, neck, and the edges of his face, colorful, brilliant, and held out by a framework of needle-fine spines. His mouth hung open, viper’s teeth revealed.
I looked beyond this pair, and I could see signs of others. Eyes reflected light in the shadows beneath steps, from windows. There were large, bulky silhouettes in the windows, some holding smaller figures on their heads and shoulders. I couldn’t make out much, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
That was twice now that they’d snuck up on me. Quiet motherfuckers.
“I’m sorry for grabbing you,” I said. “You wanted my knife?”
She took it, her tiny black eyes glaring at me from the midst of her oversized head. The lizard-boy eased his frills down somewhat, but his mouth remained open.
“I’d like to see Nilbog,” I said.
She ignored me, her pudgy, blunt-fingered hands fumbling through the pouches at my belt. With painful, clumsy slowness, she divested me of my taser, the pepper spray, and the spools of silk, both conventional and Darwin’s spider silk.
I winced as one spool fell to the ground and unwound partially, dirt getting caught up between the strands. That would be a pain to fix.
I could see more of the things making appearances now, getting close enough for me to see as they took interest in what was happening. Eyes appeared in the windows, reflecting the light in curious ways. Eyes from within the trees, between the slats of stairs… some faces. They ranged from artistic and beautiful to horrific.
Every single one of them was a weapon. Going into this situation was a repeat of the information gathering and problem solving issues one faced when going up against an unknown cape. If it came down to a fight, I’d have to figure out how they operated, and the full extent of their capabilities.
Trouble being that there were a hell of a lot of these things. Hundreds, even thousands.
I waited patiently. No use complaining, even if every second counted, and Jack was no doubt having words with Nilbog.
“Nilbog is in danger,” I said, trying a different tack. “The man with him, he has dark hair, a beard? He’s with a striped woman. Bad people. I think they’re going to try to hurt Nilbog, hurt the man who made you, so you get upset and leave this place.”
Her hands fumbled with my flight pack. I felt her touch the arm at the side of the pack, with its narrow arm. She took hold of it and pulled.
“I can take that off,” I said.
She grunted, and I started to move to oblige, only to get a protest. The frills on the lizard boy extended, and her own head swelled, the skin getting thin enough in the process that I could see a fluid filling the lower half of her head. I moved my arms away from the straps, and I watched them both relax over long seconds.
When she was sure I wasn’t trying something, she grunted again, louder, a frustrated, constipated sound. A communication, but not one meant for me.
Her friend emerged from a garage, lifting the door to lumber forth. He was big, fat, and moved on four limbs that each had opposable digits. His massive belly swung right and left as he loped, so distended and so close to the ground as it swung that I worried it would hit something and split open. His genitals were almost bigger than I was, and they were, along with his sensory organs, the only way I could really tell his front from his back.
The sensory organs consisted of slits running top to bottom from a ridge at one end of his body. There was no room for a brain, no eyes present.
This organ granted him enough awareness to approach, probably by way of scent, but it didn’t give him the fine tuning he needed to find us, specifically. The round-headed creature approached him, took hold of a fistful of chest hair and led him my way.
I backed up a little as they approached, and received a hissed rebuke from lizard-boy.
I remained still. The safest course.
The girl-thing moved the brute’s hand towards me, and I stayed still as she gripped the arm and placed it in the hand.
He closed his fist around it.
He hauled on it, clearly intent on tearing it free. I was thrown, sent rolling until I landed in one patch of grass, dazed, startled, just a little hurt.
The brute approached, the round-headed girl hurrying after.
Before I could rise, he’d already fumbled for me, and seized hold of the mechanical arm. This time, he managed to pull it free. I used the antigravity panels to control my flight as I was thrown, controlled my landing, and hurried to get my hands to the straps.
There was a wail behind me, a warning sound. I saw the others react, but kept working through the straps. Two at the shoulders, one across the chest, beneath my armor-
The pack fell free. I chanced a look over my shoulder, and I saw a number of Nilbog’s creations gathered, close enough that they could have lunged for me. One was a very tall, long-limbed man with skin that looked like a Siamese cat’s, covered in a very fine fur. His face was split by a wide, toothless mouth, his eye sockets little more than indents filled with fur. He held a makeshift spear with a flag on the end, which had been painted brilliant colors, and wore a matching loin cloth. Probably the most dangerous one in my immediate vicinity, just in terms of how fast he could probably close the gap and murder me.
“Safe,” I said. “No danger. I’m safe, the pack’s off.”
I waited, tensed, as they studied me. Enemies on all sides.
Jack was invincible, I wasn’t. But if I was going to achieve anything here, it couldn’t involve destruction. I’d read the files on Nilbog, I had a sense of him, in the most general terms. I was banking everything on his megalomania overriding his desire to collect just a little more in the way of resources.
I kept my voice level and calm, “I’d like to see Nilbog now.”
Were they hungry? If this became a fight, I’d have to defend myself with the bugs in my costume and the bugs in the quarantine and filtration facility. I could use the swarm to equip myself with the stuff that had been dumped on the ground, but that required that I survive long enough to do so. Were there ranged attacks here? Assassins?
Desperate situations called for risks. This was my gamble.
“I have a gift for him,” I said.
Something seemed to ease in them. I watched as some turned away, finding their way to resting spots. The tall man with the loincloth worked his overlong body under a porch, where he could rest in the shade.
I didn’t receive an escort, but the ones along one road moved aside, sitting or standing on the sidewalks.
I walked with my head high, and sent a handful of bugs forward. More than a few of Nilbog’s creatures took the opportunity to snap them up.
A soft rumble sounded above. Lightning. Rain began to patter down, light.
My surviving bugs gave me ears on the scene before I arrived.
“Lipsy? Tell the cook to serve us something. I fancy a salad, and something robust. I think it should taste sweet.”
The alterations to the surroundings only grew more focused and extreme as I found my way to the center of Ellisburg. Building faces were covered in wild plant growth, and there wasn’t a single building without more extreme modifications made to it. Glances indoors showed little more than barren exteriors with the floorboards pried up, or clusters of Nilbog’s creatures lurking in the unlit gloom within.
“I’ll look forward to this, god-king.”
“You should, you should.”
“Your hospitality astounds me. I’m unworthy.”
So Jack was situating himself as someone subservient, even servile, so as not to challenge Nilbog’s alpha status. He was playing nice, even.
If I tried the same, I’d only be working to catch up, to earn Nilbog’s trust.
I approached the town center, and found myself in the midst of a crowd of Nilbog’s creatures. Goblins and ghouls, muppets and horned moppets. Big, small, thin and fat. Each was exaggerated, twisted, as if Nilbog had gone out of his way to insert traits and qualities that separated them from humanity.
The creatures stepped out of the way as I made my way closer. Nilbog sat at the center of a long table, and two more tables extended from the ends to form a loose ‘c’ shape. Checked tablecloths in eye-gouging color contrasts covered each table. Jack sat at the end furthest me, and a man with white and black stripes sat beside him.
Bonesaw was only a short distance away, sitting on the shoulders of what looked like a flayed bear. The thing had claws two or three times the usual size, it’s mouth yawning open like it had been broken.
Nilbog was immensely fat, easily four hundred pounds, and sat on a throne that had apparently been cobbled together from dismantled furniture. His face was covered with a paper mask. Other creatures sat on chairs to his left and right.
The arrangement of the tables created an open space that could host their entertainment. I looked, then wished I hadn’t. A bloated, coarse-looking creature lay on the ground, almost like a potato made of hair and flesh. Smaller things were busy carving gouges and holes into it.
The resulting wounds regenerated, but not before the smaller creatures inserted body parts into the openings, allowing the regenerated flesh to close tight but not close completely.
I averted my eyes from the scene, content with not letting my brain register which parts were being inserted and what they were doing after the fact.
“Another guest!” Nilbog cried out. He spoke like he had a bad accent, but it wasn’t. He’d affected strange and overdramatic tones for so long that his voice had warped, and he’d had no ordinary people to hear or talk to and measure his voice against. “A friend of yours, sir Jack?”
I could see Jack’s eyebrows raise in interest. “Not at all. Skitter, was it? Except you’re going by another name, now.”
I ignored Jack. “Nilbog. It’s good to meet.”
Nilbog didn’t look impressed. “Sir Jack was more obsequious when he introduced himself.”
“That’s because he’s a two-bit thug, Nilbog.”
Jack chuckled at that.
“A two-bit thug? You’d insult my guests?”
“If those guests include Jack,” I said.
Nilbog narrowed his eyes. “I will not have fighting in my glorious kingdom. Jack has agreed to a ceasefire while we dine. You will do the same.”
“I already gave my weapons to your underlings. You should know that the black and white striped man is a living weapon, much like your creations.”
Nilbog glanced at the male Siberian. “I’m not concerned.”
“I imagine you aren’t,” I said. Where’s the real him?
I had to be careful in how I used my bugs. Sending them into buildings would only reduce the size of my swarm, but there was relatively little chance that Manton would simply be hanging out in one of the hollowed-out buildings.
“So,” Jack said. “Are you going to have a seat, or are you going to continue to be rude?”
“I’m waiting for our host to invite me to sit. Forgive me, Nilbog,” I said. I glanced at the fat man. The grease on his skin made it look like he’d oiled himself.
“Sit. But I’d like to hear who you think you are, whelp, if you won’t bow down to me.”
I approached the row of chairs opposite Jack and the Siberian, and one of the critters hopped down, scurrying under to join the festivities in the center of the tables. I took the vacated chair and sat. I might have removed my mask, but I was all too aware of the silverware in front of Jack.
“I’m your equal, Nilbog.”
Jack laughed again. Nilbog seemed to react, almost looking flustered, before turning to me. “You insult me.”
“Not at all. Ignore the thug that’s sitting over there. I’m a queen, a goddess of my own realm. Or I was.”
Jack was smiling, clearly amused. Then again, he was safe. He was untouchable with Siberian beside him, and he was only feigning weakness to get past Nilbog’s defenses.
“A queen?”
“A queen. With that in mind, provided you give your permission, I’d like to offer you a gift. A… peace offering, to make up for the fact that I entered your territory uninvited.”
“Of course, of course!” He was almost childlike, so easily moved by this promise of a gift, his mood changing so quickly. Guileless. He’d been surrounded by yes-men for more than a decade, with barely any human contact, his defenses were gone. “I forgave Jack the lack of an invitation, I’ll extend you the same courtesy. This gift?”
I called on the swarm I’d kept within the quarantine facility. “Resources are slim. An isolated kingdom like yours, providing for your subjects is hard. You do an admirable job despite this.”
“Of course, of course.”
He was eager, impatient.
“I’d feed your subjects,” I said. “Protein. You need it to make more. To keep the ones you currently have in good health.”
“Yes, yes” Nilbog said. My bugs were just now arriving in the area. “This will do.”
The full swarm arrived, the vast majority of the ones I’d kept in the Dragonfly, and the ones from the area beyond the Ellisburg walls. I gathered them on plates in piles. His minions devoured them, licking at the plates, picking with talons, or simply lifting the plates and tipping the insects into open mouths.
I wasn’t surprised when Nilbog turned his attention to his own plate. My eyes fell on Jack. He still had a slight smile on his face.
He held the cards up his sleeve. I’d played mine for a minor advantage, but he had Bonesaw. One virus or parasite in the midst of these creatures, and they could go berserk, roaming the countryside until they were put down. He had Siberian, which meant he was safe, meant he could kill me or Nilbog whenever he wanted.
But he wasn’t going to. This continued as long as the game was still on. He thrived on this interplay.
As more bugs continued to arrive, I used them to search the area. Nothing.
Below ground?
Earthworms, ants and pillbugs dug through the soil beneath the park, searching. Some of Nilbog’s creatures were beneath the earth, ready to spring up and attack. Others were beneath, eating whatever they could find.
In the midst of my search, I found something. Not Siberian’s creator, but nearly as good.
Nilbog himself.
He sat directly beneath his ‘throne’, and was connected to the fat man by what seemed to be an umbilical cord. This cord gave him control of the body, fed him sustenance, let him stay safe while the decoy sat up here.
One card for me to play.
“I think the bug queen here should explain how she came to nobility,” Jack said.
Setting me up to say something incriminating, I thought. “As you did, Nilbog, I claimed a realm for myself.”
“And you left it, apparently. If you’re truly a queen, you’re a foolish one.”
“I did leave it,” I said, “Because I had to, to save it. I had to protect my subjects, to fight my people’s enemies. I have not been as fortunate as you.”
“No,” he said, uncaring. “Apparently not.”
“If it came down to it, would you step up to protect your creations? To protect this town you made?”
“You’re sounding a great deal like sir Jack,” Nilbog commented. He frowned.
“He’s trying to convince you to go to war,” I said.
“To take pre-emptive action,” Jack clarified.
“I’ll do neither. Not war, not pre-emptive action. I have what I need. I’m a content god, a happy king.”
You’re starved for real human contact, I thought. Or you wouldn’t have let us join you at the table.
My bugs continued to search, though the bastard creatures were coming out of the woodwork to catch and devour them.
Where in the hell was Manton?
Jack spoke, “It’s a question of whether you act now and preserve what you have for the future, or wait and let them come and kill you. They’ve been systematically seeking people like you, eliminating them. I could show you proof, given a chance.”
“I’ll make it simpler,” I said. “You don’t need to leave your kingdom, your garden. You don’t need to go to war with an outside party you don’t know or care about. You want to know what happened to my kingdom? That man, right over there, sir Jack, destroyed it.”
“Nonsense,” Jack said. “I’ve been sleeping these past few years. Naps are such an underrated pleasure.”
“They are,” Nilbog said. “All of my subjects nap every day.”
“Let me explain,” I said. “I had a kingdom that I ruled. I had a king that ruled with me, who kept me company. I had wealth, people I cared about, people who cared about me. Power. I was a god in my domain, and those who stood against me were driven off.”
Nilbog shook his head. “You need a heavier hand to rule. More loyal subjects, so you don’t have to bother with those who would stand in your way.”
“I was more powerful than you,” I told him.
He snapped his head around to stare at me. To glare at me.
I’d pricked his pride, apparently.
“I was more powerful than you, but Jack over there made a promise to people. He didn’t say it aloud, but it was still a big promise.”
“Now you’re making stuff up,” Bonesaw commented. She slid down off the flayed bear’s back and joined a group of creatures her size. She hugged one, abruptly.
But Nilbog wasn’t telling me to fuck off. His attention was on me.
He’d built a storybook kingdom, an impossible place, and populated it with monsters, both beautiful and ugly. He’d had some fixation on this stuff, some Freudian obsession. Not sexual, but still rooted in some primal part of his childhood that had been taken from him.
I’d play this by telling him a fairy tale.
“No,” I said. “And I think Nilbog is clever enough to understand what I mean. Jack promised that he’d come back when his nap was done, and he’d destroy my kingdom. He said he’d destroy your kingdom, Nilbog, and every other kingdom. He said he’d kill all of my people, and he’d kill all of your creations.”
“All of this, from the man you describe as a mere thug?”
“Yes,” I said. “A woman with great powers told him he could do it, and now he’s going to try. It’s why he’s here.”
“To destroy my kingdom?”
“No. He wants you to go to war against your neighbors. To break down the walls that keep you safe and fight people who are leaving you alone. He’ll use you as a distraction, and then when everything is done, he’ll come back and destroy your kingdom. And he’ll do it in the cruelest, saddest ways you can imagine.”
Nilbog nodded slowly.
Jack was still waiting patiently. Too quiet. I felt a moment’s trepidation. I hadn’t found Siberian’s controller. I needed to defeat him before Jack was cornered. The second he decided he couldn’t salvage this situation, he’d order the attack.
Nilbog raised his hands. “Angel on one shoulder that tells me one story…”
A placenta-like blob swelled in his hand.
“A devil on the other, telling me another.”
Another blob appeared in the other hand.
Both burst, showering Nilbog in greasy slime. Two creatures gripped his forearms, looking more like flying monkeys than an angel and devil. They were roughly the size of babies, their faces feral, mouths filled with pirahna-like teeth. One had red hair, a red beard and gazelle-like horns, and the other had white hair and beard and a strange horn that formed an off-white halo above its head.
“I’ll take the angel, if you please,” Jack said.
Nilbog shrugged. Were the creatures more a demonstration than anything else? He lowered his hands, and nudged the white-haired thing in Jack’s direction. The other thing made its way to me. I reached out and took it into my hands, holding it close.
“Do you have a response to the Queen’s allegations, Jack?” Nilbog asked. He reached up to adjust his floppy cloth crown. Creatures were arriving to deposit the meal on the plates. It looked like purple vomit.
“I do,” Jack said, smiling. “But can we eat first? It’s rude to argue over a meal.”
Nilbog nodded, as if Jack had said something very sage. “I agree. We’ll eat.”
Bonesaw made her way to the table. “How did you make this?”
“The chef stores every ingredient we can find inside her, then regurgitates it in the form required. I asked for it to be hearty, and here we have it, chunky.”
I looked down at the plate. Droplets of rain made nearly-clear spots appear in the midst of the purple slop.
So it is vomit.
“It tastes like cupcakes,” Bonesaw said, around a mouthful.
I started to move my mask to eat and be polite, then noted how Jack was holding his knife. The blade swayed back and forth in the air, as he chewed, his eyes rolled back and looking up at the overcast sky above.
The blade was making criss-crosses in the direction of my throat.
He glanced down, meeting my eyes, and smiled.
“Our apparent rivalry aside, have you been well, bug queen?”
“Well enough.”
“Then you should be hungry. It’s been a busy few days, and it’ll only get more interesting. I notice your friends are sitting this one out. Did you break it off completely, or are you still in touch?”
“Still in touch,” I responded. I glanced at Siberian. The knife is a purely psychological thing. If he wanted to kill me, he could use Siberian to do it.
Besides, it was a butter knife.
I moved my mask, without breaking eye contact with Jack, and helped myself to a bite.
It did taste like cupcakes. I suspected it would have been less nauseating if it tasted like real vomit.
It was a tense few minutes of silence as we ate. I found out the devil-thing in my arms wanted to eat, so I let him help himself. An excuse not to eat, anyways.
The creatures in the center of the area finished their ‘show’, and Nilbog clapped enthusiastically. I joined him and the five or six creatures around the table who really had hands to clap with.
The second show began. A gladiatorial fight, apparently. One of the creatures had wings instead of arms, while the other had wicked barbs extending out from the elbows and knees. When even the tips made contact, they ripped out grapefruit-sized chunks of flesh.
I braced against the table to keep it from flipping as the pair crashed into it. Nilbog laughed, and the sound was more than a little unhinged.
“Is everyone done?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Nilbog decided.
“Then let me explain. Weaver’s entirely right. Except for the part where you die at the end of it all.”
“Oh?” Nilbog asked. He leaned forward, placing fat elbows on the table’s surface. It dipped as his upper body weight rested on the wood.
“Living like this, you obviously dislike the system. You know how screwed up things are out there. People are vile, self-centered, and so caught up in their own routines and expectations that they’re barely people anymore. Your creations have more personality.”
Nilbog nodded, taking it all in. “They do. They’re wonderful, aren’t they?”
“Wonderful,” Bonesaw agreed, with the utmost enthusiasm.
He just believes whatever we tell him. He’s a sponge. How do you convince someone who’s so incapable of critical thought?
Worse, Jack was touching on all of Nilbog’s pet issues. The man had been a loner before, a loser. He’d rejected the trappings of society long before he’d become this monster. He’d spent years simply going through the motions until the last parts of the system he’d clung to fell apart.
“I want to wipe the slate clean. Things have been going through the same motions for so long that there’s a rut in the ground. You erased everything that wasn’t worth keeping here, and replaced it with something better. With your garden.”
“With that in mind, I’m reaching out to a like-minded soul. Someone who rejects the malignant, stagnant society and wants to grow something else in its place.”
“Jack has no interest in growth,” I said. “Only destruction.”
“Did I interrupt you when you were speaking?” Jack asked.
“Do it again and I’ll order your execution,” Nilbog said.
I pursed my lips behind my mask.
Where the fuck was Siberian’s creator? I’d scanned every area where he could be lurking. There were only monsters. I was nearly out of bugs. I had only a select few secreted away in my armor, and they weren’t ones I was willing to sacrifice.
I didn’t have much in the way of cards up my sleeve, but these bugs would have to serve in that department. Problem was, they wouldn’t fix anything now. Bonesaw could counter them too readily.
Where could Manton be hiding? My eyes passed over the crowd of creatures that had gathered around the edges of the area, enjoying their master’s presence.
Hiding in plain sight.
Plastic surgery, or even an outer suit, like the one Nilbog wore. He had to be dressed up in the skin of one of the monsters.
Shit. How was I even supposed to assassinate him if he was going that route? I touched him with a bug, only to find his flesh harder than steel. Unmovable, just from the way his foot touched the Siberian’s.
Jack licked his plate, then set it down on the table. “Where was I?”
“Replacing society,” Bonesaw volunteered.
“Replacing society,” Jack affirmed. “Imagine if your garden really did extend as far as the eye could reach. If you could walk in the direction of the sunset, only to find that your creations have already settled in each new place you travel to, decorated it, transformed it.”
“A romantic goal, one I might pursue if I were a younger man,” Nilbog said. “But even gods get older.”
“They do,” Jack agreed. “Well, we could give you that youth. Bonesaw could grant you immortality.”
“She could also enslave you to her will,” I commented.
“I’d never,” Bonesaw said. She shook her head, her curls flying, “No, I couldn’t! I love these beautiful things he makes! To control him would mean I’d take that creativity away.”
Nilbog nodded at that. “That’s a good argument. Besides, to enslave a god? Madness.”
Except they’re mad, I thought. All of you are lunatics, and I made the mistake of trying to talk sense.
“It’s a good argument,” Jack said. “Because we’re right. Would you like to live forever, as a god should? Would you like to see your garden grow to what it should be? What it deserves to be? Something fitting of a god?”
“It’s a tempting thought,” Nilbog said.
I reached for a rebuttal, telling myself I had to be just as grandiose, just as mad, but I couldn’t do that at the same time I was trying to convince him to go dormant again.
“If I may?”
It was another human voice, but it didn’t belong to any of us.
Golem.
He approached, taking off his helmet. He offered Nilbog a slight bow.
“One of yours, Jack?” Nilbog asked.
“No. Not in the sense you mean.”
“Yours, then?” Nilbog asked me.
Yes, I thought.
I saw Jack raise his eyebrows at that.
“Shenanigans!” Bonesaw cried out. “I call shenanigans!”
But Golem took my cue. “I’m a third party. I stand for myself.”
“Hardly worth a place at the table,” Jack commented.
“Then let me stand for the others. The innocents.”
“Innocents?” Jack asked. He snorted. “No such thing.”
“There’s always innocents.”
Jack smirked.
“I’ll allow it,” Nilbog said. “Excellent! Sit! We were just having a discussion.”
Golem approached and sat at the same table I was at, but he took the far end. “I’ve overheard some, so we can cut straight to the chase.”
“The dilemma,” Nilbog said. “The devil on one shoulder, the angel on the other.”
“The sin of sloth versus the realm of possibility,” Jack added, gesturing to my demon as he said sloth, then to his own angel.
“Well said, well said!” Nilbog said. He nodded so hard his double and triple chins wobbled.
“Or is the angel making false promises?” I asked. “There’s no security. No comfort. You claim to care about your creations, but you’d go to war?”
“Many have gone to war and made sacrifices in the present, for the sake of a brighter future,” Jack commented.
“I thought you were trying to break out of the rut?” I asked.
Jack laughed at that.
He’s enjoying this.
I felt almost dirty, knowing I was only helping Jack in his self-indulgence, helping him revel in conflict.
“Well, stranger?” Nilbog asked.
“Golem,” Golem said.
Jack snorted at that. He’d caught the meaning behind the name right off, the white supremacist’s son naming himself after a creature from a Jewish parable.
“Golem, then.”
“I’m not an eloquent speaker.”
“That’s a good thing,” I said. “Too many and it just becomes people talking circles around one another.”
“Then I guess I have to get to the heart of it all. Direct.”
“Yes,” Nilbog said. He leaned forward, and I feared the table would break.
“Were you happy, before any of us came here?”
“Yes. I can eat the most delicious foods, yet get every nutrient I need. I can fuck the most beautiful and exotic women you’d ever imagine, whenever I wish. Every need is provided for a hundred times over, and I’m surrounded by those who love me.”
“Then why change? Why do anything? Let us leave, then return to your utopia.”
Nilbog nodded. He rubbed at his chin, but the act was like pushing one’s hand into jello. It shifted the mass more than it rubbed.
“You wanted a tie breaker?” Golem asked. “This is it. Do what Weaver is saying. Do what the Queen is suggesting. Stay quiet, enjoy what you’ve built here. Attack, and the entire world will take it away. Then, even if you’re strong enough to survive that, which you may be, then Jack will still betray you.”
“Or,” Jack said, “You can stop lying to yourself.”
Nilbog snapped his head around. He growled, “Impertinent.”
“Your people are slowly starving. You make them eat each other to live, and desperately attempt to shoot any birds out of the sky so you can try to recoup what you lose. Bonesaw said they don’t live long. How long?”
“Four years. Sometimes five.” All at once, the light was gone from Nilbog’s face, the sudden fury quenched.
“Who’s your favorite?” Jack asked.
“Polka,” Nilbog said. He reached out, and a female creature, no taller than three feet, hopped up onto the lap of the creature beside her king. She had a narrow face with a reptilian structure, with only four fangs at the very front, but smooth, humanlike skin. Her hair was white, her skin blue. She wore a toddler’s clothes, a long, narrow tail lashing behind her. Nilbog stroked her hair.
“Not the first Polka,” Jack said.
“No. The third.”
“She was your first, and you love her for that, because she drew you from the hell that was your life before godhood, gave you this.”
I can’t interrupt this. Not with the subject being something so close to Nilbog’s heart. I might win the argument, but I’d lose Nilbog’s ear.
But I knew I was losing anyways. Jack had found Nilbog’s weak point.
“My first friend,” Nilbog said.
“And she dies. Because your creations don’t last. You make another, and slowly fall in love with her all over again, and yet you know she’ll die in turn.”
“Yes,” Nilbog said.
“Bonesaw can fix that. I can grant you immortality. I can grant your creation that same gift,” Jack said.
“A hard offer to refuse.”
“It would be wise to refuse,” Golem said.
“A king can’t be selfish,” I said. “A god definitely can’t be selfish. Your responsibility is to your creations.”
“Exactly what I’m saying,” Jack said. “Step out of your comfort zone, to better your people.”
“Enough!” Nilbog screamed the word. As if responding to his anger, every single creature in the area responded. Weapons raised, spines extended.
And Jack was still invincible.
“Nilbog,” I said.
“Speak again, and I’ll end you, queen or no.”
His eyes were angry, hard.
He’d lived for so long in his comfort zone, and now he was being called on to make a hard choice.
“Then please listen carefully,” I said. “Because I suppose I’m paying for this with my life.”
“So be it,” he said.
“If you want proof that Jack intends to betray you, look no farther than your own creations.”
“He’s secreted an assassin into your midst. A killer who pretends to be one of your creations.”
A gamble, a last ditch effort. Was my gut right? Had Jack instructed Bonesaw to create a costume or a creature to hide the Siberian’s creator?
I called my flight pack to me, parked it on a rooftop nearby. If it came down to it, I’d have to run. I could see Golem tensing. He’d read the situation right.
“Just look,” I told Nilbog. “Because somewhere nearby, there’s a creature you didn’t create.”
His eyes roved over the crowd.
“Might not be in this crowd, but it’ll be close.”
“I see it,” Nilbog said. “I see it. Bossy, Patch, hold him!”
The crowd of creatures parted as two creatures took another in their hands.
“Not an assassin,” Jack said. “Merely one of Bonesaw’s… I suppose you can call it a homage.”
“It is,” Bonesaw said.
The Siberian was moving. Readying to pounce?
I couldn’t move fast enough if he did.
“Wait,” Jack said. He stood from his chair.
No, I thought. “Don’t listen.”
“I’ll do as I please,” Nilbog said. “Last words, sir Jack?”
“Last words, yes.” Jack approached the captive. The Siberian followed.
“You let him do this, and he kills you,” I said. “Your creations will go mad with grief, and they’ll die in a war for vengeance, just like Jack wants.”
“Not at all,” Jack said. “Because…”
An instant before the Siberian made contact with the monster, Golem jammed his hand into his side, using his power, throwing the creator into the air with one thrusting hand. Siberian lunged, punching through the hand of soil to grab the creator’s foot.
Nilbog half-rose from his seat, though he was massive enough that standing was hardly possible. His eyes moved from Golem to the hand, anger etching his expression, if one could etch into a face as soft as his.
“You dare disturb the peace!?” Nilbog screamed the question. “Kill the queen! Kill the Golem-man!”
In that instant, Golem created two hands, throwing us back.
I caught the flight pack in the air, hugging it. It provided lift. Not enough to stop my momentum as I headed back towards the ground, but enough that I could shift my direction to land on a rooftop. Golem wasn’t so lucky, as he fell into the midst of a sea of the creatures.
“Azazels, now!” I screamed, one finger pressed to my earbud. I pulled on the flight pack and then took off again.
Golem used his power to create a platform, slowly raising himself above the street. Creatures tumbled off of the surface of it. Some flew at him, and he struck at them. Not enemies he was capable against. I sent my bugs to them, the reserve I still had on hand, commanding the bugs to bite and sting.
Others leaped onto rooftops, then onto the rising platform. Golem grabbed one claw as it slashed for his face. He couldn’t do anything about the other, as it gouged his armor, scoring it. He created a fist that jutted out of his chestplate, striking the creature off of the rising hand-platform.
Spines rained down on him. One caught him in the shoulder, and he collapsed.
“Where are the Azazels!” I shouted. The flying creatures were turning my way.
But Defiant had said they were unreliable. Dragon was out of commission.
My bugs burrowed towards the buried Nilbog. Jack had orchestrated a war. Killing the creature’s creator wouldn’t stop that, wouldn’t keep them from rampaging and seeking out revenge beyond the walls.
But it would slow things down.
They inched ever closer. Jack was untouchable, but…
Yes. Worms, centipedes and other subterranean bugs made their way to the buried goblin king, and forced their way into the sac that enveloped him, past the threads of material that wound down his throat and nostrils, and into his airways.
“Creatures of Ellisburg!” I screamed.
Heads turned.
“You’ve been betray-”
And before I could say more, Jack’s knife slash caught me across the chest, the cut severing the straps of my flight pack. I dropped from the sky, landing on one of those ramshackle, spiraling rooftops. Planks that had been poorly nailed in collapsed around me as I hit solid ground.
My hope of turning the monsters against the Nine had been foiled. The fall had knocked the wind out of me. I couldn’t get my footing, and the creatures were advancing. Every possible combination of features, it seemed like, an infinite army, unpredictable.
Your king is dying, I thought, my mouth moving and failing to form the sounds. There was only the barest whisper. I killed him, but if you could believe that Jack did it…
I would have used my bugs instead, but I had so few, here.
I sent those few to Golem, removing them from the flying creatures.
“Nilbog dies,” I spoke through the bugs, but the range of sounds was too limited, and with scarcely thirty bugs in total, they were quiet.
“Nilbog’s dying,” Golem said, his voice coming through the comm system.
One creature, eyeless, like a crocodile with a serpentine body, advanced on me, looming over me. Its jaws opened.
The lizard boy was here too. A drop of venom appeared on one distended fang. I was surprised by the fury on his expression.
“Blame Jack,” I said, through the swarm.
“Jack Slash has used us as a distraction to kill your king!”
Golem hollered the words at the top of his lungs. I felt a tension leave me. I might be fucked, but we’d limited the damage. They’d turn it inward.
The attack stopped. The creature looming over me turned and slid away in a flash. The lizard-boy remained. Still recovering from the fall, I couldn’t muster enough strength to fight back if he bit.
I commanded the flight pack instead, flying it into him with both wings extended. He was brained, and the pack ricocheted off his skull, one wing shattering.
Golem had risen almost to safety, though he was still too far from the wall that had been erected around the city.
I looked at the wall.
Looked past it, at the capes who were swiftly approaching.
Rescue.
I brought the flight pack to me, the broken wing partially retracted, the other still extended, and pulled it on with slow, agonized movements.
Lost without their master, half of the creatures seemed to turn on the Nine, the other half seemed to remain intent on Golem and me.
Capes settled around me, forming a defensive line against the ones who approached. Revel was among them, using her energy blasts to pick off the largest ones.
Someone picked me up, then took flight.
“Jack,” I wheezed out the word.
The Siberian took hold of the umbilical cord and heaved, Jack maintaining contact with a hand on the Siberian’s shoulder. Nilbog, still slowly dying of oxygen loss, was brought to the surface with a surprising ease. Bonesaw wrapped her arms around the man. Frailer than his self on the surface, smaller.
I felt a moment’s despair.
Foil? Someone who could stop Siberian?
Somebody?
The heroes advanced, but the Nine created a portal, and were gone in a flash, Nilbog carried between them.
Leaving the monsters of Ellisburg to riot.
Posted in 26.04 | Tagged Bonesaw, Defiant, Dragon, Golem, Jack, Jack Slash, Nilbog, Revel, Siberian, Taylor | 301 Replies
“Hey, Weaver?”
I had to twist around to look at Crucible. We were in the hallway just outside a set of elevators, windows on one side, doors at either end of the hallway leading into offices. This was something of a waiting game, as Tecton and Revel got their teams into position to support Golem.
Through countless stakeouts, I’d found a routine. Cheating on the ‘can’t do anything but sit there’ rule and reading while my bugs saw to everything else was a part of that routine. I was nestled in between two pillars that sat between clusters of windows, my back against one, one knee propped up, a file in my lap. My cliff notes on the various members of the Nine.
“I wanted to say thanks,” Crucible said, “Appreciate the invite. Hundreds of superpowered lunatics, some of the scariest guys around, and that’s not even the scariest part of all of this! But Chevalier’s all, ‘Weaver specifically asked if you’d help.’ How the hell am I supposed to say no to him?”
“You just say no,” Clockblocker said, before I could respond. “You’re team leader, I’d even argue it’s your job to say no when the situation calls for it. More than leading the team, more than strategy or handling double the paperwork or attending the meetings. You decide what jobs are out of your team’s depth and you tell the bosses to go fuck themselves, in the politest terms possible.”
“It’s Chevalier. Important guy.”
“And when we asked you if you were okay with me taking command, that was your opportunity to say no. His rank doesn’t matter. He’d probably respect you more if you told him your team wasn’t prepared and then stuck to your guns.”
“You didn’t tell anyone to go fuck themselves,” Crucible said.
“No. And I agreed to help out with this because this is important. My old teammates have been preparing for this in their own time, and-”
“-And you’ve got a thing for Weaver,” the Ward I hadn’t yet met said. It was a girl, flanked by five shadowy silhouettes of herself, who were sitting around her on the other side of the hallway. I’d read up on her, and I knew her as Toggle. The ‘baby’ of the team, it seemed, at fourteen. She held what looked like a mace, but it, along with the layered body armor she wore, had circles of light glowing in shifting colors.
There was a long, awkward silence. I glanced at Clockblocker, but he appeared unfazed. Not that I could really tell. His armor still had animated clock faces digitally displayed on the open spaces, and there was one in the middle of his face. Was the varying speed and position of the hands supposed to indicate something, or was I reading too much into it?
“That was a joke,” Toggle said.
“I’m not dignifying it with a response,” Clockblocker said.
“Clocksie’s sweet on Weaver,” Imp said. “Aww.”
“Clocksie,” Clockblocker said, deadpan, “Has been the target of a lot of criticism, because he was in charge of the Wards at the time a lot of stuff went down. Some dingbats online speculated that I had a thing for Weaver, and it took off. The people online like to find stuff that fills in blanks, and there were a hell of a lot of blanks around the whole thing with Weaver defecting, and our pseudo-truce with the Undersiders.”
“They latched onto the idea,” I said.
“Sorry,” I told him.
“Not your fault, not exactly. The city’s pretty peaceful, pretty safe, and nobody even hints about why, but people know. My bosses know why, and that means my career might never recover. The only thing keeping things remotely interesting is the challenge of trying to get to any new bad guys before the Undersiders do, to enforce real justice instead of vigilante scare tactics-”
“We’re awesomely good at the scare tactics though,” Imp cut in.
Clockblocker ignored her. “-Except we barely even get to do that, because Tattletale’s always a few steps ahead. Then, to top it all off, I hear about the Weaver-Clockblocker thing every single day, to the point that it’s sad. Salt in a wound.”
Silence lingered.
“Jesus, Clock,” Vista said, after that. “Pent up much?”
“Fuck, you’re right. I’m stressed, ignore me,” Clockblocker said. “Like Crucible said, it’s a lot to manage. Sorry.”
“I just wanted to make a funny,” Toggle said.
“Don’t worry. Clockblocker used to be the funny one,” Vista said. “Now he’s the asshole grown up that tears the funny kid to shreds.”
Clockblocker didn’t respond to that. Instead, he shifted the device he’d been wearing on his back against the wall and sat down between the elevators.
Waiting on my lonesome was easier.
My bugs crawled all around the exterior of our target. The buildings in this town were smallish, the tallest being five stories, and this contingent of the Nine had chosen it as their destination.
Not a single gap. They’d barely had any time, but they had hermetically sealed the structure, containing themselves and every single resident within. The windows and doors had been sprayed with something red that trickled out of cracks only to harden. My bugs explored cracks in the foundation, and found that same vaguely tacky, amber-like barrier blocking the openings where they should have been able to enter the building.
Doors, windows, cracks, vents, all protected.
I could estimate seven apartments per floor. One on the ground floor, for the building manager. Assuming they weren’t bachelor apartments, that suggested fifty-five to sixty people in total, trapped within, along with hostages and an unknown number and composition of the Nine.
“I have to ask,” I said, not looking in Clockblocker’s direction, “This end of the world thing. The way you talk about the future, life beyond this supposed apocalypse event. Can you do that because you’re optimistic, or because you don’t think it’ll happen?”
“I do it because I have to. You can’t stay sane, thinking it’s all going to end soon. There has to be something beyond it. If you get to that point and then we figure out a way to resolve it, then what happens after that? You need a real life.”
“If you get to that point and you’ve plotted out the rest of your life, and we lose, then aren’t you going to be devastated?” I asked.
“I’m good at handling devastation,” Clockblocker said. “Don’t worry about me.”
I shrugged.
“I can’t really believe it,” Crucible said. “World ending situation?”
“Oh, I believe it,” Clockblocker said. “The crazy powers we get? One of them’s bound to break something somehow.”
“The wrong power in the wrong hands,” Kid Win said. He’d reconfigured the outside of his suit so the armored upper body folded down into a pair of gauntlets, allowing him to walk forward like a gorilla, the two halves acting as massive fingerless gauntlets. It wasn’t pretty, and it left his head and upper body more exposed, but it let him maneuver inside. He seemed to muse a second, then agreed, “Yeah.”
Interesting to see the divide, I thought. The veteran members vs. the newer ones.
“See, I don’t think it’s the wrong power in the wrong hands,” Clockblocker said. “I think it’s a joke. Humanity destroys itself, and all these powers, they just open the door to let it happen. It’s not going to be some villain overlord or even a monster like Jack who does it. I’m more liable to believe the world ends because of some deluded, fat, pimply faced punk kid that lives off pizza and mountain dew. There’s no damn point to it, but sometimes I look at the idiots, the selfish assholes and the maniacs that fill this world and I think that’s all we deserve.”
“I like your line of thinking,” Imp said. “The world gets destroyed by some loser who jacks off twelve times a day to the freakiest, nastiest parahumans.”
“Thank you,” Clockblocker said. “For so eloquently demonstrating what I was saying about us deserving it.”
“No problemo,” Imp said.
“That doesn’t exist, does it?” Toggle asked. “Case fifty-three porn?”
“Everything exists,” Kid Win said.
“Um, it just hit me. When you were saying we deserve it, were you talking about pimple-face the world destroying freak-fetishist or were you talking about me?”
I shut my eyes and tuned out the conversation. It was good that they were talking, staying calm, more or less getting along.
Grue and Rachel arrived from the stairwell.
“Anything?” Imp asked.
“No,” Grue said.
“The Red Hands leave already?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Grue said. “Listen, about all that, it’s-”
I raised my hand to stop him. “Not important. Not a big deal. I was only going to ask if maybe Crucible or Toggle could be taken along. It’s a way out, now that things are getting heavier.”
“No. It’s fine, I’ll stay,” Crucible said.
I nodded, then looked at Grue, shrugging. “That’s all.”
“We’re okay?”
“Copacetic,” I said, turning my attention back to the file. Skinslip.
I reread the page four times before I was sufficiently distracted and able to register what I was reading.
Rachel directed her dogs to watch the stairwell, then crossed to the middle of the hallway to me. She sat with her back to the same pillar I had my back to, her shoulder pressing against mine, squishing me a little bit further into the crevice I’d settled in. Not uncomfortable. Or it was, but the body contact was comforting enough that it didn’t bother me. It was reassuring without being in my face or distracting me from my study of the folder.
All stuff I’d read backwards and forwards, but I couldn’t focus on a book, and refreshers could only help.
I turned the page. Night Hag.
“How’s life on the dark side?” Kid Win asked.
I turned my head. He was talking to Foil, who sat at the furthest point from the stairwell.
“More wholesome than you’d think,” Foil said. “Playing into every stereotype ever, moving in before we’d even been on a date, but it’s nice.”
“Nice?” Clockblocker said. “Not what I expected. Not that I’m not happy for you, but-”
She shifted position, resting her head on Parian’s shoulder. “It’s… free. Pleasant. The times between the fights with the brain-shatteringly terrifying god-monsters, anyways. Cooking breakfast, having breakfast cooked for you, going on walks with the dogs, maybe a bit of bodyguard duty while Parian handles a meeting, whatev, picnic for lunch, patrol the territory, do stuff for my University course, whoever didn’t cook breakfast makes dinner…”
“They’re like a newlywed couple! It’s so sweet,” Imp said. “Of course, they’re skipping the-”
“No,” Foil said. “We don’t need to go into any detail about my personal life with Parian.”
“But I was just going to say-”
“No,” Foil said again.
“-they’ve got crazy good interior design, what with Parian and all,” Imp finished. She made a smug little sound, like she was very pleased with herself.
Foil flicked a dart at Imp. It sank into the wall just to the left of Imp’s head.
Vista leaned back, smiling, “This is the second time in four minutes where she’s alluded to rude stuff. Feeling lonely, Imp?”
“I’m offended! Unfair accusations!”
“Now I’m going to start wondering what someone with pseudo-invisibility powers gets up to in her alone time,” Kid Win said.
“She’s gone there,” Grue said. I looked at him, and saw he was glancing my way.
“Lies and slander!”
“Wait,” Clockblocker said. “I thought I heard something at some point about you being her…”
He trailed off.
“Hm?” Grue asked.
“Train of thought derailed. What were we talking about?”
It was a puzzling change in the ambient tone, and I almost gave the word for people to switch to high alert.
I was distracted by the vibration of my phone.
A quick check and I verified that it was what we’d been waiting for.
Golem engaging. 3x Burnscar, 3x Shatterbird, 2x Winter, 1x Skinslip, 1x Psychosoma identified.
You’re clear to go.
“We’re moving,” I said, hopping to my feet.
Just like that, the mood shifted. Everyone was standing, picking up the equipment they’d put down. The joking atmosphere was gone, the… not peace, but the stillness, it was broken. Nerves were suddenly on edge, the opportunity to joke and comment gone.
“Scouting with the bugs didn’t turn up anything,” I said. “Place is sealed. Vista, we’ll be counting on you to give us an in.”
“We’re going in blind. We suspect there’s at least two Mannequins, but that’s it. Mannequin specializes in indirect attacks. Catching people off guard, while being durable and flexible enough that he can escape from any situation that doesn’t go his way. I hope the rest of you have read up on the other members of the Nine, past and present.”
“Parian, Foil, Kid Win, you’re staying here. Set up, keep an eye out and an ear out.”
“Will do,” Parian said. She was already inflating a stuffed scorpion. Cloth bound around one of Foil’s bolts to help form a tail.
“Grue,” I said. “Hit the building, inside and out, but leave the inside clear. With luck, we can shut off their communications. With more luck, you can get a bead on what powers we’re dealing with.”
With that, we were down the stairs and out the front door.
A joint attack maximized the chaos and minimized the chance of reinforcements. Golem was attacking the other location. Ten members of the Nine there. Ten here?
If so, that was a big step up from the last fight. From four or five to twenty.
Grue used his power, surrounding the area. Slowly but surely, the area was consumed in darkness. Not just Grue’s power, but the fact that the massive cloud of darkness was blocking out the ambient light. Though he kept the smoke out of the center of the area, it grew darker with every passing second.
I joined the Brockton Bay Wards as they switched on flashlights, both handheld and gun-mounted ones. Each of us flicked on the smaller lights that were part of our masks or helmets. The latter were feeble at best, but it was still light. Mine came from smaller lenses that sat around the larger ones that covered my eyes. They filtered out as a faint blue. The pattern and color would hopefully make me more identifiable.
“It’s kind of dumb that we don’t have those things,” Imp commented.
“Perk of being a hero,” Clockblocker said. He handed her a spare flashlight.
I gave one to Rachel, but she didn’t turn it on. Instead, she slid the loop over her wrist, hopping onto her dog’s back.
The walls of darkness that surrounded the structure connected at the very top, and we were plunged into the deep sort of darkness one might expect from being a thousand feet underground. The headlamps and flashlights were the only real light, making it look almost as if the exposed pavement, sidewalk and the foot of the building were the only things that remained in the world.
Vista used her power as we got closer. I could see a depression appearing in the wall, as if a giant, invisible finger were pressing into it.
A hole appeared, and a small explosion tore out through the space, opening the hole wider. We staggered, and some of our smaller members were even thrown to the ground.
Pale mist cleared slowly as we got to our feet. My bugs scanned the area, searching for threats who might have been alerted to our presence.
Nothing. Apparently they didn’t want to engage. They were happy hunkering down, staying eerily quiet.
And the explosion… there was a byproduct. Or maybe it was the source. A small glacier had formed around the hole, jagged, as if water had spewed forth and immediately frozen.
“The hell?” Clockblocker muttered.
Good thing it wasn’t Tecton knocking down the wall, I thought.
Vista tried again, higher up, on the fourth story, off to the far side.
We were braced for the detonation this time. I kept bugs close to get a sense of what was going on. The moment there was a gap, the air rushed out, cold and wet, and was followed soon after by a crushing manifestation of a small iceberg.
It creaked, a long, drawn out sound, then cracked abruptly. The iceberg came free, and the resulting gap was almost instantaneously filled by a third detonation. A chunk of ice the size of a large car dropped to the street and shattered into a million individual fragments.
Or maybe Tecton would be an asset here. How the fuck do we break into this?
“Has to be Mannequin,” I said. “Or Sphere. Used to specialize in closed systems. It makes sense, on a level, but this isn’t in Mannequin’s usual repertoire. Maybe they stole it from… what was the name? Toybox tinker, Gelid? Glace, that’s it.”
“A cloned tinker is the smallest threat,” Clockblocker said. “Takes them time to build, and if you figure Jack didn’t exactly save anything of his, and… well, I don’t even know how they replaced memories, but there’s no way he’s just going to pick up where he left off.”
“Mannequin in a different vein,” I said. “Same psychosis, different direction taken?”
“Looks like, doesn’t it?”
I frowned.
“We could wait for the ice to melt,” Imp suggested. “Warm out.”
“Would take forever,” Vista said.
“And it would only get replaced, probably,” Clockblocker said.
“Go big?” I suggested. “Whatever’s producing the ice, there’s got to be a limit in terms of materials.”
Vista nodded.
This time, rather than a depression, it was a line, running from one corner at the bottom of the building to the opposite corner on the top.
It took ten or fifteen seconds, and then the ice blasted out, barely visible with only our flashlights to illuminate it.
Nothing. Ground to roof, the ice remained.
“I could do it again,” Vista suggested.
“Faster to get Kid Win to just tear the outside of the building apart,” Clockblocker said. “Not like they don’t know we’re here, now.”
“I’m thinking,” I said. “You know that draft of cool air you feel when the automatic doors of a big-name store swing open?”
“Sure,” Clockblocker said.
“It’s designed like that, to use air pressure and air flow and whatever else to keep bugs and debris out.”
“Of course you know that,” Imp said. “Because of the bugs.”
“I looked into it when I started paying attention to places where there aren’t a lot of bugs, to see why. There’s sonic countermeasures, and there’s that.”
“Whatever,” Imp said. “Still pretty random.”
“This is the same thing, except it’s weaponized. Or made into a defense system, depending on how you want to look at it. I’d bet most of the building is rigged with some crazy high pressure, as well as whatever devices he’s got that are detonating on exposure to the outside.”
“Okay, with you so far,” Clockblocker said.
“But where are they keeping the hostages? Option one is that they’ve got them in some sealed area, like they stuck Cherish into, and all of the Nine members in the building are immune to that pressure and cold. Multiple Mannequins, maybe a Siberian in a sealed case?”
“What’s option two?” Grue asked.
“The inside is safe. Apartments or offices bordering on exterior walls would be pressurized, but the interior walls, all of the rooms of the building that aren’t rigged, they’d be safe, with hostages and the Nine inside.”
Clockblocker nodded. “Makes sense, but that’s a lot of speculation.”
“Theory two is a lot easier to prove,” I said. “We either need to go in through the top, and hope the roof isn’t as protected-”
“-or access the interior without passing into exterior rooms,” Vista said.
Shuffle could have done that, I thought. Had we sent the wrong teams to the wrong locations? It had sounded like there was a hell of a lot of offensive power at the other location.
“I’ll try,” Vista said. “Hold on.”
This was a more refined use of her power. She drew on the exterior of the building, and created a depression, but the goal this time wasn’t to create a hole. She extended the depression inward, but she fed enough of the surrounding material into it to keep the resulting walls intact.
It stopped, and she merged it into another wall. I couldn’t see the wall, but I could sense it with my bugs. To my eyes, it was a black void, a hole too deep for my bugs to reach.
She paused, then began opening an experimental hole in the far wall. I pulled my bugs back to make it easier for her.
I could feel the warm air blow past my bugs. I could smell it using their senses. An alien sensation, but I noted the scent of blood, the acrid chemical odor of the sealing materials.
“Way’s open,” Vista said.
“It’s messy in there,” I said. “Be prepared. Sending bugs in now. Grue? Darkness.”
We waited as he pumped the building full of darkness. My bugs made their way through, scanning the surroundings.
“Murder Rat,” Grue said. “Three of her. I can… kind of sense what others are sensing around me, and there’s a glimmer of something that might be a teleportation power. I don’t trust myself to use it without any ability to sense where I’m going. Breeds… And… I can’t even get a bead on this guy’s powers.”
Was it? I could sense figures moving throughout the darkness, but they were swift, and moved in unpredictable directions. The elevator shaft’s doors had been opened, and they climbed up and through with no difficulty. There were countless people, hanging from the ceiling by chains, countless pieces of armor, as though Mannequin was trying to reinvent his own gear, and then on the penthouse level…
A man, easily eight feet tall, muscular and broad-shouldered, sitting at a computer chair with one foot propped up on a desk. His chest was bare, his pants no doubt a normal size, but rendered skintight by his sheer mass, left unzipped. He was watching something violent on a laptop as he sat there. The hostages who weren’t strung up with chains were in the room, cowering behind him as a full cluster. In the midst of them, there was something that looked like a coffin.
“Try using his power?”
“Not sure I want to,” Grue said, “But okay. Um.”
I felt my powers dim, my range swiftly dropping. Others stepped away from him in surprise.
“Stop,” I said.
He did. My powers started to return.
“That’s one. Jesus, that’s a rush. The other… I think it’s the sort of power you need the built-in second sense to grasp.”
“That has to be Hatchet Face. I guess you can use his power nullification,” I said, “That’s something, if we hit a pinch. I just don’t understand this other power. Bonesaw’s work? A hybrid?”
Grue nodded. “Possible.”
I frowned. “Not sure how to do this. If we entered through the top floor, we could access the hostages right away, defeat Hatchet Face.”
“Sounds good,” Clockblocker said.
“Except… what do the rest do?” I asked. “Some signal goes off, or they realize something’s up… they’re not fighting types, not exactly. They’re assassins, indirect attackers. They wouldn’t just converge on us. I don’t know how they’d react, and it’s not the kind of situation where I can say that in a good way.”
“We need to make a call soon,” Grue said. “You said the other team is already attacking?”
“I thought this would be simpler,” I said. “Let’s go in the ground floor. Clear each floor, block off escape routes, so they can’t just exit the building and go wreak mayhem elsewhere, or notify Jack. They can fall back to the main room where Hatchet Face is waiting, and-”
“And then we’ve got a hell of a fight on our hands,” Grue said. “Against enemies with hostages.”
“Cornered rats with hostages,” Vista said. The little of her face I could see in the flashlight-illuminated gloom was somber.
“Ground floor,” I said. “If nothing else, it buys us time to think of something before we reach a crisis point. The alternative… I don’t like the idea that so many of these guys could escape. They’ve bottled themselves up nicely. Stay on your guard.”
“Are you staying outside?” Clockblocker asked me.
I shook my head. “Need to maintain communications against this team, and I don’t like how long it would take to communicate using my bugs, or the chance you could get cut off. I’ll come with, help watch your backs.”
“Go,” I said, before touching my earbud. “Tattletale.”
“Weaver. Kind of busy watching over the other team. Sup?”
“Entering the fray. Looks like Mannequins, Murder Rats, Breeds and one Hatchet Face hybrid.”
“Got it. G’luck.”
Rachel had kept the dogs at a smaller size so they could patrol the building we’d been hiding out in. It meant they were big, but not so big that they filled the entire hallway. They passed through the corridor Vista had made without trouble.
We filed in, shoulder to shoulder, and I did what I could to track the various villains in the building. Grue dissipated the darkness as we got close enough to the respective areas to shine our flashlights on the objects in question.
Ominous, being in the midst of this building, almost like being in a submarine. There was an incredible, devastating pressure all around us. A leak meant a possible terminal end to all of us. The darkness was oppressive, and every surface was covered in the red sealant, scabrous, hard, removing the human touch from everything around us.
I was so caught up in it that I nearly missed it. A figure in the ducts.
“There,” I said, keeping my voice low. I pointed.
Our side turned to look.
Mannequin, I thought. I immediately switched mental gears. Who to protect, what to do tactically.
I hit the briefest stumbling block when the recollection of what Clockblocker had been talking about crossed my mind. Why does he remember his suit?
The same outfit, with alterations. The all-concealing, all-protecting shell surrounding his body, even the joints.
Bastard lunged for him, jaws snapping shut, but the Mannequin cartwheeled back and away.
Vista fired her gun, sending a single green spark zipping ahead. Mannequin swayed to one side, bending his body at impossible angles to avoid the shot. The bullet hit the wall, then briefly flared, disintegrating a scab-covered vending machine.
Lines exploded forward from Clockblocker’s hands, one from each finger, and the Mannequin staggered back. The narrow cables flew past him, glanced off his armor to ricochet into the surrounding area, and one or two even managed to wind around his arm or leg.
Clockblocker used his power, freezing the Mannequin in place.
“Vista,” he said, “Another shot!”
She still had her gun leveled at Mannequin. She aimed-
And the Mannequin let a blade spring from his palm. It punched through the wall at the very edge of our tunnel.
Ice exploded into the interior of the hallway, consuming the Mannequin entirely.
Vista dropped her gun.
“No escape route,” Crucible said.
“Can’t shoot without putting us at risk,” Vista said. “I can make another exit, but it’s going to take a minute.”
“Not a focus,” I said. “Upstairs first. Hostages first. We’ll cross that bridge after.”
We had to walk around in a semicircle before we found ourselves by the elevators and stairwells of the lobby. The stairwell was framed by two bodies, hung by their feet. No wounds were visible.
I felt with my bugs, and I could sense warmth from them. Still alive.
Breed.
What were we even supposed to do with his victims?
For the second time in as many minutes, I found myself saying, “We deal with them after.”
We entered the stairwell. I was aware of a Murder Rat popping in on the ground floor, crawling on hands and feet that each had excessively long blades on the ends. She moved faster than she should have been able to, considering her means of locomotion, but she had an exceedingly strong, flexible body. Enhanced senses, too, with her conical nose close to the ground, long greasy hair brushing against the surface. I almost turned back to deal with her, but she was already gone, moving faster than my bugs could.
Claustrophobic. I was acutely aware of the dimensions of the space, the fact that only a fraction of the building could actually hold people. Of that portion of the building interior, the elevator shafts took up an awful lot of space.
Their territory, really.
The stairs hadn’t received as much of the ‘scab’ treatment, but they were still treacherous ground. The stairs blocked our view of what was above or below us. I was careful to check for threats every step of the way, watching doors, sweeping over surfaces, all too aware that Mannequin had evaded my bugs before.
Had this one somehow retained the lessons the original had learned? I could use thread to cover more ground, spread out my bugs.
An air vent at the very top floor was punched free of the wall. My bugs could sense the long claws, the conical nose. They started chewing on her, devouring and biting, but her skin was tough, as though most of it was scar tissue. I could feel the hot air as she rapidly inhaled and exhaled.
“Murder Rat, she’s on the top-”
She pushed herself free of the vent, lunging, drawing her claws together as if she were diving into water from a height. Her narrow, emaciated body slipped right between the railings of the ascending and descending stairs.
“Incoming!” I shouted. I pushed the others back as I could reach them. The only ones in reach were Rachel and Crucible.
She reached the stairwell just above us and kicked off it, changing her orientation and the trajectory of her dive. She slammed into the largest, most obvious target -Grue- all of her claw-tips drawn together into one long spike.
He was thrown against the walls and the stairs, and his tumble down the stairs just below him drove him into Toggle and Vista, who nearly fell down the stairs along with him.
Murder Rat was still on top of him, shifting the movements of her limbs to remain more or less upright as she perched on his body. Her head cocked quizzically. The blades hadn’t penetrated.
She lashed out, striking, only her target was exposed skin, this time. Vista’s face, Crucible’s jaw. Bastard’s shoulder.
And then she kicked the wall, drawing her shoulders together as she slid between Clockblocker’s legs, her nose pointed at the gap in the railing.
Clockblocker shifted his foot to make contact with the long blades at her toes, touching her, and froze her in place.
“My face,” Vista whispered.
“Put pressure on it,” Crucible said. His own face was bleeding badly, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
And, more troubling, the wound was smoking. Murder Rat’s power.
I turned my attention to Grue. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I… shit, how did that not break a rib?”
I shook my head. Still using the costume I made, and it saved your life.
He accepted my help in standing. I turned my attention to the Brockton Bay Wards, but there were too many people crowded there for me to jump in and help. I focused on the other threats.
I could sense the others swarming around us, on stairs above and below. I drew out lines of silk to stop them from using the same approach this Murder Rat had managed.
For extra measure, I tied thread around the frozen Murder Rat’s throat, tying it to the railing.
She was a composite of two ‘kitchen sink’ capes. Mouse Protector and Ravager. Two primary powers that had blended into the one, a dozen other minor powers. Flexibility, a bizarre kind of enhanced strength, reflexes and agility that had peaks and valleys, and skin as tough as leather.
“Pinch it shut, tape it,” Clockblocker was saying. “We spray it to keep it closed. Smells awful.”
“I kind of like the smell,” Vista said, her words muffled by the hand Crucible was pressing to her face. “Hey, this’ll be a badass scar, huh?”
“Quiet,” Clockblocker said.
I could hear another Murder Rat on the stairs below us. She let her claw drag on the wall, and the metal on concrete made a sound like five nails on a chalkboard. Loud, slowly increasing in volume as she approached us.
I set my bugs on her. She persisted, simply enduring what they were doing to her. I tried to go for the tiny eyes that were nearly buried behind her altered face and brow, but she shut them, relying on touch and smell to move. I started to pack bugs around her nose and mouth, and found that slowed her just a fraction.
But the noise continued. I could see the effect it was having on the others.
A rattling noise from above, joined by another nails-on-blackboard screech. A Mannequin, using the blades he’d extended from his forearms to scrape the wall and hit the individual bars that held the railing up at chest level, the same bars that the Murder Rat had tried to slip between to make her escape.
“It burns,” Vista said. Her fingers raised to the mark that ran from the side of her chin to her cheekbone.
“The meds?” Clockblocker asked.
“The smoke. Stinging my eyes, and feels like it’s fizzing. I read the file, this is her power, right? It’s what she does?”
“It’s going to take a long time to heal,” Clockblocker said. “Pretty much guarantees a scar. But we stopped the bleeding, which is better than most get.”
The dog growled as another Murder Rat joined the fray, her clawed feet clicking against the steps as she made her descent, the screeches of her claws against the concrete joining what was quickly becoming a cacophony. The blades at the fingertips of her other hand struck the bars of the railing, which set them to ringing.
Then, from the first and fourth floors, I could sense Breed’s minions make their approach. In the midst of the banging and screeching, their hissing was almost impossible to make out.
One more Mannequin hung back, letting the little bastards climb on him. They were smallish. Smaller than the ones in Killington had been.
I shifted my weight, ready for one of them to make an attack at any moment. Indirect attacks, surprise attacks, all from directions that were hard to anticipate.
“Three Mannequins and a Rat above us,” I said. “Two rats below us. Lots of Breed’s bastard parasites on both sides.”
“I could use my darkness, but it wouldn’t help much,” Grue said.
“They don’t sense things like we do. My bugs aren’t going to do much either,” I said. “Laying tripwires and trying to bind them here and there, but these aren’t guys my bugs can sting.”
“So?” Rachel asked.
“We die,” Imp said, with an odd cheerfulness. “Horribly, gruesomely. They’ll break or sever our arms and legs and cap them with Mannequin’s stuff so we don’t bleed out, and then they’ll let Breed’s bugs devour us from the inside out.”
“Not helping, Imp,” Grue said.
“I’m only saying what we already know. Kind of counterproductive, morale-wise, to have us read all the dossiers on these bastards.”
“Yeah. Just a little,” Crucible agreed.
“Why are we waiting here?” Rachel asked, her voice a little too loud. “Why don’t we just fucking attack them?”
I didn’t have a good rebuttal to that.
No, that wasn’t right. I had a dozen rebuttals. That these guys would take any offensive action on our part as an excuse to slip past us and murder our more vulnerable members.
But I didn’t have a better strategy. Not one I was eager to use so prematurely.
“Attack,” I said. “Now.”
Rachel whistled, a long sharp sound that cut through the various noises the Nine’s members had created. There was only silence as the whistle echoed through the stairwell.
She snapped her fingers and pointed up the stairs, snapped again and pointed down.
The two dogs charged in the alternate direction.
“Wards, go up. Grue, Imp, Rachel, help cover the rear,” I gave the orders. “Watch your backs!”
We split into two groups, the Wards leading the charge, while the Undersiders covered the flanks. I remained in the center, my knife drawn.
A Murder Rat tried to jump down through the gap, as the first had, but got tangled in the threads I’d woven. She began severing them, one by one, but too slow to slip through. Vista shot her.
With her death scream, the others shifted tactics, abandoning the offense. Mannequins advanced to take over the assault.
Another got caught in the threads, but blades sprung out all over his body, the individual components rotating, and the threads were cut. He dropped down.
Crucible caught him. A forcefield bubble surrounded the figure, pale blue, then flared a brilliant orange-white.
Mannequin would be fireproof, though. Even an extreme heat like Crucible could create wouldn’t have an effect. Still, it meant one was contained.
Yet as soon as we captured one, another slipped the net. The Murder Rat Clockblocker had frozen animated again, slipping through the railing, only to find herself hanging by her throat, a silk cord binding her. My bugs could sense blood trickling, but the movement suggested her neck hadn’t snapped.
Two ways she’d escape. The first was obvious, cutting the cord.
The second?
“Vista, Crucible!” I hollered their names.
They whipped around to face me, saw me holding my knife, ready to drive it forward.
The smoke on Vista’s face flared, blossoming like a smoke grenade that had just gone off, and Murder Rat materialized, one claw already poised with the points facing upward, ready to drive upward into Vista’s unprotected jawline.
I’d seen her gesture as she hung on the rope, in preparation for her materialization. I had to lunge forward, striking the stairs with the boniest parts of my shins to catch the villain’s wrist with my free hand, pulling her off-balance.
She rolled with it, almost doing a backflip as she threw one leg back to drive a point towards Imp’s scalp. Grue caught Murder Rat’s leg, and between us, we held her. I punched the blade into her throat.
Grue heaved her over the railing. He covered our retreat with darkness, then lunged ahead of the group. Murder Rat’s powers, it seemed.
Reckless, not like him, but he joined the front lines, where Bastard was giving two Mannequins a hard time.
Clockblocker threw out lines of silk, then froze them. The dog lunged, and the Mannequins were sandwiched between the dog and the silk.
Blood spurted at the dog’s shoulder where the lines had made contact. One Mannequin lost an arm, but they both managed to contort and angle themselves so they could slip over, under or between the threads.
Of course it wouldn’t be easy. Fuck.
“Back!” Rachel called out, before the dog decided to charge through the cables Clockblocker had used. The dog retreated a pace. Grue only hopped up, grabbing the railing, managed a grip, and then descended on them. He grabbed one and flung it towards the wires.
It only contorted, arching its back like a high jumper to slip through a gap. It got halfway before Bastard closed his jaws on his upper body.
Shit. My bugs were so useless here. I couldn’t go after the Breeds until I knew which of the people in the building were them. The original Breed had died when someone had hit a building with an incendiary missile, and the bugs had stopped appearing. He wasn’t altered in appearance. For all respects, he was just an ordinary man.
Besides the whole ‘I create horrifying space bugs’ thing.
The Mannequin that crawled with Breed’s creations leaped down, only to get caught in more strands. He started to cut his way free, but Vista opened fire. Her shots glanced off his outer shell.
The creatures, though, fell through the gaps. More than a handful landed in our midst.
“I thought you said they don’t go after people!”
“They don’t!” I said. “So long as there’s other food sources available.” I kicked at one as it advanced on my right foot.
“There are dozens of bodies here!”
Already infected, I realized. These parasites were seeking fresh hosts, ones not already occupied by anything.
I caught the ones I could with my own bugs, used thread to haul them free, but there were twenty, and their dozens of legs were sharp, capable of punching through flesh and clothing to maintain a grip. Difficult to dislodge.
One had landed on my shoulder. I tried to pull it free and failed, stabbed at the legs with my knife, only for it to fold them into its carapace. It lashed at the lens of my mask with its spike-tipped tail. It didn’t penetrate, and rolled off my shoulder before I could get a hold on it.
Its legs extended, and it found a grip on my flight pack. In an instant, it was racing up towards my head again. It stopped twice, pausing for one second as it transitioned from my flight pack to my costume, then stopping again as it reached the area where the mask and body of my costume overlapped at my neck. The needle points of its legs were pricking through the fabric of my costume, no doubt as it tried to find a way under. I got a grip on its tail, but failed to dislodge it. Too slick.
The others weren’t faring a lot better. Crucible shouted something incoherent as he used both hands to stop a softball sized creature from advancing on his mouth. Its millipede-like limbs left bloody tracks in his skin as it made excruciating progress towards the orifice.
It was a critical distraction as we were dealing with highly mobile foes. A Murder Rat leaped up to find a grip on the underside of the stairs we were standing on, then vaulted herself to one side and up, slipping between the bars and into our midst.
Rachel whistled, hard, and the dog from downstairs came barreling through our group. We were knocked aside, pushed to the ground by the dog’s mass as it charged Murder Rat. She leaped up, stepping on the dog’s back, then jumped back down to the lower end of the flight of stairs.
The dog growled and turned around, preparing to charge through us again.
“Hold,” Rachel said. She had to pull off her jacket to access the trilobite-parasite bastard thing that was crawling on the small of her back, heading south. Toggle struck it with her baton, and lights flared.
Imp stepped up just in front of Crucible, impaling the bug on his face with her own knife.
Progress, but we were still in the midst of a lot of dangerous enemies. Elusive ones. Of the six here, we’d only achieved two kills.
“Tattletale here.”
“In an ugly spot,” I said.
“Help’s on the way.”
“Eidolon. We tried to keep things quiet, keep everything off the radar, but he caught on. Legend’s at the other site with Pretender.”
“Turn them away!” I hissed the words.
“Um, not about to turn away help,” Imp said. She was benefiting as Crucible created his superheated forcefield dome to burn away the Breed-parasites too dumb to walk around.
“Turn them away,” I repeated myself. “All three.”
More of Breed’s bugs were starting to make their way to us, from above and below. One Murder Rat, one Mannequin, and the guy upstairs we still hadn’t even interacted with.
With his fucked up coffin.
“I can’t get in touch with them. Not like their number is in the phone book.”
“Contact Cauldron?” I used my swarm to attack the Breed-bugs, but it was slow going. Twenty bugs with strong mandibles could kill one, but it took a minute, maybe two, before they reached something resembling soft tissue.
“No go.”
I could sense him, now, approaching the building cautiously. He used a laser to pierce the roof. Ice blossomed out to fill the gap, a glacier in summer.
I began drawing from the bugs outside, forming a swarm-clone. Eidolon ignored it, firing again. Multiple blasts, multiple creations of ice. He swore under his breath.
Rachel’s dog leaped over us to attack the Murder Rat. She slipped to one side, and a wound at Toggle’s shoulder began blossoming with smoke.
The Murder Rat appeared in our midst. Clockblocker was quick enough to tag her this time.
It wasn’t the most ideal maneuver. Grue’s stolen power disappeared in that same instant. Bad timing – he was in the midst of fighting the Mannequins. One had been taken out by Bastard, but another had joined the fray as it brought the bugs down.
Grue reached out for another power. Mannequin’s power wasn’t useful, but the other-.
I felt my power fading, just as the swarm-decoy was gaining enough bulk.
I wasn’t the only one. Crucible’s forcefield shorted out. Clockblocker had been in the midst of reaching for Breed-bugs to lock down, and found himself only giving them easier access in climbing up his arms.
The Mannequin staggered back, tripping on the stairs. Just a little less coordinated.
Still, it wasn’t useful. One dog was entirely disabled, crawling with countless Breed-parasites. Only the fact that it clenched its jaw kept them from getting in its mouth, but its nose-
“Cancel it, Grue!” I shouted.
He didn’t. Instead, he reached down to grab Mannequin by the throat. He ascended the stairs three at a time, dragging two struggling Mannequins with him.
A bad situation was turning into a nightmare. My radius shrank to a mere hundred feet, then fifty.
Twenty.
The bugs were crawling on us, Crucible wasn’t the only one struggling to keep them from worming beneath his hands and into his mouth.
Then he was gone, the radius of his power nullification too small. If the Hatchet Face upstairs was a hybrid, Grue’s copy of his power was a fraction of a half of a power.
Still, he seemed to have Hatchet Face’s strength and durability.
Our powers began to return, and with the threats of the other capes dealt with, we were free to focus on stopping them.
Clockblocker paused the most dangerous ones, closest to mouths, anuses and private parts, to ears and nostrils. We backed away as he freed us of the worst of them, and Crucible barred the path with his superheated forcefield.
“I’m not… I’m not useful,” Toggle said.
“Different threats, you would be,” Crucible said. “Fuck, this stings.”
“Medical treatment after,” Clockblocker said. “One more to take down.”
We hurried up the stairs. Two flights to the penthouse floor.
“Eidolon,” my swarm-clone spoke.
“Weaver.” He had created a kind of portal and was widening it. It seemed slow, inefficient.
“Go home, Eidolon. You aren’t a help here.”
“I’m to take orders from the one who murdered Alexandria?”
“Yes. Leave. You’re more danger than help.”
“I can end this.”
“So can I. I will end this. Your choice as to how. Do I handle this situation myself, or do I have to kill you, then handle this myself?”
There was only silence from him. He stared at my swarm-clone.
“You dare make that threat, after killing my comrade-in-arms?”
“I do. If there’s a trace of doubt in your mind that I could do it-”
“Your bugs couldn’t touch me.”
Inside the building, we were approaching the penthouse floor.
“Your power is dying. It’s obvious enough that people are speculating on it online, in the media. How Eidolon isn’t as strong as he was in the early days. Why aren’t you inside already? Are you so sure that your power would stop me?”
“I’m here to help. That’s all. Attacking me now would be like the violation of the Endbringer Truce.”
“You’re one of the biggest dangers, Eidolon. Jack’s supposed to be the catalyst for an event, a great catastrophe. Are you honestly telling me that there’s no danger here? That you’re absolutely certain that you don’t have a weakness he could capitalize on?”
Eidolon didn’t speak.
“Don’t tell me you don’t. That you aren’t potentially powerful enough to end the world if it came down to it. If he somehow opened that floodgate-”
“It won’t come to that. I control my powers.”
“Or played a head-game with you? Are you telling me your mind is a fortress? That you don’t have that capacity for great evil inside you?”
“I’m not evil.”
“You participated in business that people felt was so horrifying that they seceded from the Protectorate. How many thousands died or suffered gruesome transformations because of the atrocities Cauldron committed?”
Inside the building, we opened the door. Grue was staring down the last member of this particular group of Nine. Tall, muscular in the way that suggested he was in his physical prime, with a wild mop of dark hair. He was masculine in a way that exaggerated the qualities to a fault, with an overly square jaw, massive hands, an almost Neanderthal brow. It made him look like a bad guy from an old animated film about princesses. As if echoing that sentiment, a word was tattooed across his chest.
Tyrant.
I recognized the other half of the pair. Hatchet Face and King together.
Untouchable. King’s power took any physical harm he suffered and transferred it among his pawns. People he’d touched within the last twenty-four hours. Hatchet Face’s power meant we couldn’t even use abilities to circumvent it. Tyrant here had the enhanced strength each of the two had possessed, the enhanced durability.
“Are you saying you’re blameless, little murderer?” Eidolon asked, just above us. “That you don’t have a potential for evil?”
“No,” I answered. The hybrid crossed the room, and I could feel my powers fading. Grue’s darkness dissipated around the building, and light streamed in through the red windows, casting a tint over everything.
I shifted my bugs outside the building.
“No, I know I have some ugliness inside me,” I spoke through my swarm. My swarm was dissipating, my focus and control over my bugs failing. I had to maintain the formation.
“Then what qualifies you to be here when I can’t?”
“Maybe arrogant of me to say so,” I said. The swarm was quieter as my fine control swiftly dissolved. “But I’ve recognized that ugliness, and I’ve got it harnessed.”
I gave the signal, gesturing for emphasis. Tyrant paused. The swarms outside the building shifted in the same moment, uttering the word faintly.
Outside the building, Foil fired, and she used the line I’d drawn out with my bugs for guidance. Not perfect, not ungodly straight, but the thread I’d drawn out helped.
There was a concentrated explosion of ice at the edge of the penthouse as the shot punctured the wall, passed within a foot of Tyrant.
He advanced, and I stepped forward to meet him, my eyes on his. My power was almost entirely gone. Dampened to the point that it was just me and the bugs that crawled on me. Every step he took reduced it another fraction. Half a foot, then an inch away from my skin…
Another bolt, between us, closer to Tyrant than to me.
And then an explosion that seemed to shake the entire building. Everyone present was thrown to the ground.
Kid Win had blasted a hole in the side of the penthouse, firing what had to be every single weapon at the same time. Ice was swelling from the open area in fits and starts.
But it was enough of an opening for Foil to get a clear shot.
She shot Tyrant, and the bolt pierced his brain.
He collapsed onto his hands and knees, then staggered, starting to rise.
Another bolt through the spine.
A third through the heart.
He collapsed onto his face.
Foil’s bolts broke the rules. Apparently his power didn’t work on them.
I slowly climbed to my feet, then stared up through the closing hole in the building at Eidolon.
“Go home,” I called out.
He was still, hovering there. I didn’t break eye contact as he floated closer to me, until he stood only a few feet away.
“Sit this one out, for all of our sakes.”
He broke eye contact first. His eyes fell on Foil and Kid Win.
“Please,” I said.
He didn’t move, looking across the street at the others.
Then, as if the courtesy of the please had given him the ability, he spoke. His voice was quiet enough that I was probably the only one who could hear.
“I live for this,” he said. “It’s what I do.”
It was an admission of weakness, not a boast.
“I know,” I answered him. “But it’s not worth it. Even here, that coffin up there that Mannequin made… if it’s hiding Jack, keeping people from sensing him until the end of this lunatic game he set up, then he could say something. Do something, and you could become everything you’re trying to stop.”
No. I’d said something that was off the mark. I saw Eidolon hesitate, as if he was considering going ahead anyways.
“And you’re all so safe?” Eidolon asked me. “You’re not such a danger, with the right trigger event, the right saying? You couldn’t murder a town full of innocents as readily as you murdered Alexandria?”
“The difference between you and me,” I said, “Is if I go off the rails, if I somehow become an agent of the apocalypse, I can be stopped. I can be killed.”
He stared at me, the shadows of his eyes only barely visible behind the blue-green expanse of the concave mask he wore. The shadow cast by his hood didn’t help.
“There’s a quarantine, Eidolon. Everything we’re bringing to the table here, everyone who’s on the front lines, they’ve talked about this, they’ve agreed. We’re all willing to die if it comes down to it, for the sake of maintaining that quarantine, keeping the end of the world from coming to pass.”
He looked past me at the Undersiders and Brockton Bay Wards.
“I’m willing to die if I have to,” he said, in his eerie chorus of a voice. “I’ve proven that enough times… but it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“There’s no guarantee we could stop you before it was too late.”
He cast a glance over our assembled ranks, then took off.
I waited long moments before turning my attention to the crowd at the far end of the room. They were already moving, running like they could make their way downstairs and escape out the front doors.
I drew my knife, stepping into their path.
“Weaver?”
My bugs flowed past them. I could see, hear, smell, taste.
The swarm went on the attack. People in the crowd screamed and ran.
Of the three I’d targeted in their midst, I saw one open his mouth wide. Four small trilobite parasites crawled out, dropping to the ground.
His nostril bulged, and one crawled from his nasal cavity. One crawled from each of his ears.
His pants bulged, a great deal in the back, then a little in front. They fell out of the bottom of his pant legs.
The others were producing some now too.
Crucible caught the first in his forcefield. He paused a second, then turned it on full burn. The forcefield dissipated, and man, parasites and a circular section of floor were scorched black.
The other two were still fighting off the bugs when Crucible burned them as well.
Silence reigned. The crowd, I think, was a little too horrified to cheer for us.
“First kill?” Imp asked, quiet.
“How the fuck did you get to be a hero with a power like that?”
“Kept it a secret from you guys, kept it a secret from the public. You can do a lot with a solid forcefield bubble.”
Grue and Clockblocker joined me as we approached the coffin.
It opened easily, and we stepped back, as Crucible surrounded it in a bubble.
Jack?
He lay inside, opened his eyes, and frowned.
“This didn’t go according to plan,” he said.
I could see the forcefield start to change hues, ready to bake before Jack could say anything devastating.
“But the idea was-”
“Just stop. It’s not him. Doesn’t fit.”
Jack only smiled. “That so? Well, it’s the bug girl. I can’t even remember your name.”
I could see the tension in the other’s bodies.
He stepped forward, staggered a little, then poked at the forcefield bubble with his knife.
“Shall we put an end to all of this? You got me. Victory is yours. Murder me, and they all go off leash.”
“It’s not Jack,” I repeated myself. “It’s Nyx’s power.”
Jack’s expression became a frown. Then he dissipated.
It was only a teenager, trapped inside. He was in the middle of asking a question. “-you let me out?”
“Holy fuck. I almost burned him,” Crucible said.
The boy pounded one hand on the forcefield. “Please!”
“I’ll let him out,” Crucible said.
I hesitated, holding up a hand.
No. Not enough grounding to say for sure. I let my hand drop.
I was about to give the go-ahead, but Tattletale’s voice came over the comm. “That’s Nyx you’re looking at. Her range is too short, she’d have to be in the building, and she’s too distinctive looking to pass in a crowd.”
I stared at the teenage boy. I’d almost said he could leave.
“Last chance, Nyx,” I told the ‘boy’. “Last words? Share a juicy tidbit?”
The ‘boy’ faded away. An illusion in an illusion. It was only a woman with pale red skin, overlarge black eyes and vents along her hairline, the back of her neck and down the backs of her arms. A fog seeped out from the holes. A small Cauldron emblem was tattooed on her face like a beauty mark.
“No way I can convince you to let me go?”
“Hey,” Grue said. “She’s too dangerous.”
“For good enough information? I’m willing to risk it.”
“I agree,” Clockblocker said.
“Good information?”
“Tell us where Jack is,” I told her.
She smiled. “And I get to go free?”
“My word as a hero,” Clockblocker answered her.
“He’s on his way to visit Nilbog.”
“It’s true,” Tattletale said.
“Now let me go,” Nyx said. She rolled her shoulders, “Take me into custody, if you have to. All I want is to live.”
“No,” Grue said. “We can’t let her go.”
“No,” Clockblocker agreed. “Crucible?”
Nyx snarled, and the fog blasted out of the vents along her body, forming into a shape.
She didn’t get any further before the orb flared. Her scream was high, loud, and exceedingly brief.
Posted in 26.03 | Tagged Bitch, Breed, Clockblocker, Crucible, Grue, Hatchet Face, Imp, Jack Slash, Kid Win, King, Mannequin, Murder Rat, Nyx, Tattletale, Taylor, Toggle, Vista | 374 Replies
Posted in 26.01 | Tagged Bastard, Bitch, Chevalier, Cozen, Cuff, Grace, Grue, Imp, Jack Slash, Nice Guy, Revel, Tattletale, Taylor, Tecton, Theo, Wanton | 432 Replies
Posted on April 27, 2013 by wildbow
The Number Man swept one finger over the touchscreen display. Two point six billion dollars here, a hundred thousand dollars there.
Money was the blood of civilized society, its currents running through everything and everyone. Where money was insufficient, things withered. People starved, sickened and died, constructions eroded, even ideas perished. Where funds were plentiful, the same things blossomed with new life.
And money was, in the end, little more than the product of collective imagination. A slip of paper or a coin had no value beyond that of the material it was fashioned of. It only took on a life of its own when people as a whole collectively agreed that certain papers and coins were worth something.
Only then did people bleed and die for it. For a fantasy, a faith given form in hard, concrete numbers.
Then again, much of society was built on a series of shared delusions. Clothing was little more than scraps of particular materials with particular geometries, but people clung to the idea of fashion. Style. Good and bad fashion was another belief system, one which all members of a culture were indoctrinated into. Breaking certain conventions didn’t only challenge the aesthetic sensibilities of others, but it challenged their sense of self. It reminded them, subconsciously, of the very pretendings they clung to.
Only those with power could stand against society’s tides, flaunt the collective’s ‘safe’ aesthetic. When one had enough power, others couldn’t rise against them and safely say something calculated to reduce their own dissonance and remind the offending party of the unspoken rules.
When one had enough power to take a life with a twitch of a finger, a thought, they earned the right to wear skin-tight clothing and call themselves Hero, or Legend. To wear a mask and name themselves something inane like ‘the Cockatoo’ and still take themselves seriously.
He armored himself in normalcy. He wore only a button-up shirt and thin-rimmed glasses, his blond hair cut into a short style that was easy to maintain. To anyone on the street, he wouldn’t appear to be anything but a bookish middle-aged man.
He hadn’t always been this bland.
The Number Man stepped away from the screen. His office was plain, white tile with white walls. The rear of it was a floor-to-ceiling window, looking out on a foreign landscape, a place far from Earth. Still an Earth, but not the one he’d been born to, not even the one he was in at this very moment. The Doormaker maintained a portal to that foreign landscape, just behind the Number Man’s office and changed it on request. Today, it was a mountaintop view of a wilderness with a crimson foliage and gray branches, the sky perpetually overcast.
One of a number of Earths where humans had never been.
The Number Man had gone to some lengths to spruce up this place. He’d never liked the eternal white of this complex, so he’d adorned his walls with other images. To his right, there was a large print of the Golden Mean, the Phi decimal as a fractal image in gold against black paper, with mathematical notation surrounding it.
Opposite it, Dali’s Crucifixion, Corpus Hypercubus. The painting was blown up to one-and-a-half times the size. Jesus crucified on a fourth dimensional cross.
No chairs. He’d worked out the dangers of sitting against the convenience and decided it wasn’t worth falling into that trap. When he did enter his office, he walked, paced, tapped his foot while pondering deeper problems, stood and stared out the window at whatever landscape he had outside his window in a given week.
He crossed his room and touched a screen. It lit up, filled with data fed to his computers from a doorway to Earth Bet. The pulse of society, right under his thumb.
The Elite, a villain group expanding a subtle control over the western seaboard of America, putting pressure on rogues to bring them under their thumb as performers, thinkers, designers and innovators. He could see the numbers, extrapolate from the data to gauge their rate of growth. They were developing too slowly to be useful, not developing fast enough to outpace the predicted end of the world. They’d reach Brockton Bay in about a year. There would be time to decide if countermeasures were needed in the meantime.
Gesellschaft, a nationalistic organization half a planet away from the Elite, was moving large funds in anticipation of a small war. Money was being laundered through cover operations and businesses, almost impossible to track, unless one was able to take in the bigger picture, to see the intent, the beginnings and endings of it. They were investing in transportation, and their fundings seemed to decline at the same time some notable arms dealers in Southern Europe found themselves richer by an equal amount. The Number Man flicked his way past a series of windows detailing the transaction amounts. Arms dealers who specialized in nuclear materials. This was pointing towards terrorism, and not on a small scale. Troubling, but the system would address them. The major hero group in Germany, the Meisters, would attend to the problem. It didn’t warrant an expenditure of Cauldron’s full resources, not when things were already on shaky ground.
Still, it wouldn’t do to have a disaster at this crucial juncture. The Protectorate was required for just a little longer. If they were going to make it through this, there couldn’t be any substantial distractions.
Gesellschaft hadn’t elected to seek out the Number Man and make use of his services, as so many supervillains around the world did. He had no compunctions, as a consequence, about interfering with them. He tapped into a series of bank accounts he hadn’t touched in some time, then scheduled a large number of transfers to the personal Gesellschaft accounts. Ten or twenty thousand Euros at a time.
Where funds weren’t likely to be held for moderation, he scheduled more transfers and disputed the charges. The transfer amounts were large enough to raise flags, to draw attention to the accounts in question. The banks were on the lookout for suspicious activity, and a total of five hundred thousand Euros appearing in six checking accounts with typical balances of under a thousand Euros would be suspicious enough to merit a serious look.
That was only to slow them down. They would want to investigate, to be careful and find out where the money came from. Later, if the situation was resolved and they somehow managed to hold on to the money, they would want to know where the money disappeared to, as he reclaimed it with a severe interest rate. They would suspect interference, would wonder if this outside agent had connected their civilian identities to their personas within Gesellschaft.
Which he had.
The transfers took him less than thirty seconds to arrange, and it would occupy them for one or two days.
Freezing the larger business accounts would take only a little more time. One or two minutes. The meetings with the arms dealers had fit a vague schedule. The arms dealers always took a different route, but they traveled enough that they needed to buy gas at one point on the way. There was always a large transfer of funds.
He laid a trap, calculated to start falling into place when the gas was bought in the time window. The main accounts that the Gesellschaft used to manage their funds would be frozen by the time the meeting was underway. They’d likely find themselves at the meeting, the product delivered, but with no funds to pay for it.
He swept his fingertips along the window, dismissing the task. Who else? Where were the priorities?
The C.U.I. had bought a parahuman. Not so unusual. Higher rates, as of late, but then, the C.U.I. faced a slight chance of an Endbringer attack in coming weeks. They would want to bolster their forces, add parahumans to their peculiar team.
Tattletale had been actively separating herself from the Number Man, issuing new accounts to the Undersiders and her organization. Not so surprising. Eidolon had outed him, announcing the Number Man as a Cauldron-involved cape to a crowd.
Irritating. At least it had been manageable. He didn’t exactly have a great deal of traction with the hero community. Tattletale was one loss, and he was hands-off with the Undersiders, regardless.
The King’s Men were in debt. Easy enough to manage an anonymous donation, keep them afloat for another two months.
Child’s play, all of it. The money, with its imaginary value, it was something he breathed. Setting up the tools to manipulate it had taken a little time, but that was it. Numbers were the fundament of the universe, as much a fabrication as money in some ways, more real than anything else in others.
He understood numbers, and through them, he understood everything.
A soft beep marked the arrival of somebody at his door. He turned. “Enter.”
There was only one person it could logically be. The Doctor only sent her personal bodyguard and right-hand woman to him, the others didn’t have access to this building.
Except it wasn’t a person. The door swung open, but there was nobody on the other side.
“You can’t handle it yourself?” he asked.
No reply, of course.
He broke into a quick stride, hurrying through the door. “Contessa is busy, I take it?”
Again, no reply.
He reached an intersection and felt his hair stir imperceptibly, little more than what one might excuse as the exhaust from an air conditioning vent thirty feet away. He took that as his cue to change direction.
He knew where he was going, now. He was relieved that it wasn’t the worst case scenario, if one could call it that. A mercenary calling herself Faultline had been leading a team that was opening portals for exorbitant amounts, traveling the world. It was a matter of time before someone contacted her to ask her to open a portal to here, or her own curiosity about Cauldron happened to lead her down that same road.
If and when that happened, the young woman and her team… perhaps organization was more fitting now that their numbers had grown, would get a visit from Contessa. They would be removed from consideration, the portal would be sealed, and Cauldron would be safe again.
In the meantime, they’d let things carry on like they were. Faultline would make contacts, she’d find like-minded individuals, and through her, Cauldron would uncover enemies, to be eliminated in one fell swoop.
At the very least, right here and right now, the threat wasn’t an invader. Given the layout of the complex, and the fact that whole wings of the structure were on separate continents, linked only by the Doormaker, there were only a few possibilities for why an invader would be here. Not that it really mattered, it would be near impossible for someone to find their way here, now.
No, this was a threat from within.
Double doors unlocked and slid open. The Number Man wrinkled his nose as he entered the basement areas of the building.
When the Simurgh had attacked Madison, she’d copied Haywire’s technology to open a gate to a building much like this one. A research facility. The portal had dumped the buildings, soil, plant life and all the residents into the city on Earth Bet, costing Cauldron a horrific amount. Even a stockpile of formulae had been lost.
Perhaps most frustrating was the knowledge, the near certainty, that they’d been near a breakthrough. She’d sensed, somehow, had known, and had dashed it to pieces with the ease that a person might tear down a painstakingly made sandcastle.
They’d rebuilt, and this facility was somewhat different. More reinforced, connected to the surrounding terrain.
Silly, to think she’d do the same thing twice, but they’d felt it necessary, after feeling the losses of that last attack.
The architecture here wasn’t white, and he was somewhat relieved at that. The tile was dark gray, lit by fluorescent bulbs and the light from windows at the end of the hallway. At regular intervals down the hallway, there were cells. Only some had windows to keep the occupants within. Others had only three walls and a white line that marked the division between the cell and the hallway.
In each cell was an occupant. Large metal plates engraved with numbers helped track who they were, matched to the numbers hidden in the right ‘arm’ of the tattoo that each subject received; a series of white dots that looked like nothing more than areas where the tattoo hadn’t taken.
The cells on the right were new test subjects, lost and angry. He didn’t hesitate as he walked past them. The angry words they spat in alien languages were nothing to him. Their glares and hatred less than that.
Their powers were only a small consideration. It was a rare parahuman that didn’t try to move beyond the boundary of their cell. There was no forcefield to stop them. They inevitably ignored the warnings and gestures from those in neighboring cells, stepping free, or they used their power, teleporting free or lashing out at one of the staff. The Doctor, the Number Man, Contessa.
They learned after the first time.
Several staff members were housed in the cells to the Number Man’s left. Those cells didn’t open directly into the hallway. There were short paths that led around to the back of the room. It helped mask the noise, gave them some privacy. The cells were bigger too.
Zero-twenty-three, with a placard beneath. ‘Doormaker’.
Two-six-five. No name. The Number Man knew him well enough, regardless. He’d been too young a subject when he’d taken the formula, his brain too malleable for the required changes, too slow to form natural immunities and defenses. Not a problem with regular trigger events, as it was. The boy’s eyes had burned out of his sockets as he’d tried to process the vast amount of information he was capable of perceiving. Even now as he was reaching his late teens, the boy’s mind had never developed beyond the mental age of eight, and his eyes remained like twin ashtrays.
A partner to the Doormaker, capable of granting clairvoyance, seeing whole other worlds at once. It left most subjects incapacitated for a week after use, and it overrode any other perception powers.
No use to the Number Man, but essential for Cauldron in vetting universes and finding individuals. Most individuals. There were some, like the Dealer, and triple-seven, who’d escaped.
Two-nine-three. Incapable of talking, barely able to move. Limbless, obese. Another key member of the staff.
No sign of interference. The odds of the threat being an assassin dropped.
He quickened his pace, reaching the stairwell at the end of the corridor.
Second floor basement. He stepped out of the stairwell and progressed down the main hallway. There were rows of cells to either side of him. Two thousand and forty-eight parahumans, each with a number, both on the wall of their cell and in their tattoo.
“You need to narrow it down,” the Number Man said. “Help me find the trouble.”
His voice resulted in an outcry, the people in the cells nearest him realizing he was there, shouting, swearing, insulting him in twenty-nine different languages.
He ignored the shouting, instead extending his right hand. “Is it this floor? Yes…”
He extended his left hand, “Or no?”
The faintest brush of air touched his left hand, so faint he might not have felt it while he was walking.
He turned back for the staircase, made his way down.
The third floor basement. Here, the special case studies could be found. Seven-seven-seven had been one. They got a name, more space, some quiet.
He paused. Again, a brush against his left hand.
“Damn,” he said, meaning it.
It was on the fourth floor.
He took the stairs two at a time, moving with an uncharacteristic haste. He also spoke, more to himself than his companion. “There are others who are supposed to attend to these matters. Which suggests the escapee is smart, is strong enough to deal with them, or… as is more typical for the denizens of the fourth floor, interesting.”
Smart, he could deal with. Strong, he could deal with, barring certain exceptions. Interesting escapees, well. There’d be degrees of unpleasantness.
He was still hurrying down the stairs as he reached the bottom. Two doors, both heavy, stainless steel top to bottom, capable of withstanding a small bomb blast. Only the Doctor entered the rightmost door. The Number Man turned his attention to the door on the left, and entered his access codes, pressed his hand against the disguised plate to the right.
As security measures went, it wasn’t impossible to crack, not when one considered the breadth of parahuman abilities, but if anyone who got this far decided to pass through this door, they deserved what they got.
The deviations, the ones who didn’t take to the formula, tended to fall into certain categories. There were those who had some minor physical or mental changes; they were little different from the most extreme deviations that appeared in typical trigger cases. Such deviations occurred a mere eighth of a percent of the time. They weren’t what he was thinking of.
The formula wasn’t exact. Though they learned more every day, there were still unknowns regarding powers. Whatever connection the agents formed with individuals before or during a trigger event, it didn’t manifest as strongly through the formula. When the subject was stressed, their body engaged by that distress, the connection grew weaker.
In typical cases, the agent seemed to momentarily reach out to search the entire world, many worlds for reference material, to seize on the subject’s conception of a ‘bird’ or conception of ‘movement’, to build up an understanding of things that didn’t exist in the agent’s realm of experience.
And in cases of a deviation scenario, the agent noted the physical stress and searched the subject’s frame of reference for something, anything that might reinforce what it saw as a damaged host.
For many -for ninety-three percent of the unfortunates who were so afflicted- the agent drew from plant and animal life, from physical objects, materials and designs in the subject’s immediate vicinity.
But seven percent of the extreme deviant cases didn’t find something physical, and there was little to nothing to rein things in.
Such cases were not, as a general rule, released into the wild. It would be counterproductive. They were briefly studied, then disposed of. The Number Man’s office was in this building because he was but one line of defense against escapees and threats, even in this department.
He paused, concentrating.
As though it were penciled in the air, in thread-thin, elaborate notation, he could see the geometry and the numbers unfolding across the world around him, through the air.
He withdrew a pen from his pocket, spun it around one finger. The notation billowed around it, and through it, he could see the movement of the pen, the plotted trajectory, the velocity and rotation of it. The numbers clicked into place with a speed that made the rest of him, his very perceptions, seem like slow motion.
Here and there, there were incongruities. Painting an entirely different picture. His companion was here, near him. Bending the most fundamental rules. The Custodian.
In another scenario, she would have been kept here and disposed of once we’d found a way to dissect her.
“I know you want to help,” he commented. He wasn’t even entirely sure if he was being heard. “You see it as your responsibility. But it’s best you stay behind.”
That said, he pushed the door open.
If the cells on the third basement floor were twice as large as the ones on the second floor, these were larger still. Each was isolated, standalone in the vast, dark basement. The space allowed countermeasures to be maintained in each space.
And here, experiment number three-zero-one-six was out of his cell. The Number Man knew of this one. He’d paid particular attention, once he’d heard about the peculiarities, heard about the power.
The man was only half-dressed, his upper body bare, his beard a shaggy growth, his hair long and greasy. Showers were provided, where patients were able to make use of them, but the solitude wore on them, and few partook with any regularity.
But the part of the man was unusual was what wasn’t there.
One leg of his uniform flapped in the wake of a wind turbine used to keep two-nine-nine-zero contained. There was no right leg beneath the pelvis, but his right foot was there nonetheless, set firmly on the ground. He stood as if his weight rested on it.
Other parts of him had been carved away when he’d had his trigger event. An area of his stomach, around one eye, his entire left arm. Where they had been severed, there was only a gray plane, featureless, without shading or definition.
But the Number Man could see it. Could see it in the physics of the way the pants leg moved, just slightly out of tune with the way it should have been flapping. There was something there, a disturbance.
The test subject had destroyed one wind turbine, was facing the occupant, who was hidden in shadow.
“We escape,” three-zero-one-six said, his voice a rasp, heavily accented. “Together. I stop the spirit, you take-”
He stopped, turned to face the Number Man. The pair was separated by an expanse of a hundred feet, in an open area with a high ceiling, only the lighting around each standalone cell allowed them to see one another.
No conversation, no pleading. Three-zero-one-six struck before he could be attacked, leaning back and then swinging, using the left arm that wasn’t there.
The Number Man was already moving, the mathematical notation filling his field of vision, singing in his ears, running along his skin. He could taste it, virtually swam in a clear, precise, organized outline of the world around him.
His weight shifted as he found his center of balance. He kicked out to push himself to the left.
Three-zero-one-six manifested the strike as though his arm were exponentially larger, the attack repeated in almost infinite variations through the space in front of him, as though he were leveraging every possible version of himself that could have been here, in this basement, drawing them together in one coordinated strike.
Concrete and steel were obliterated, and the blow carved divots into floor and ceiling both, disintegrated layers of stainless steel that sat behind and beneath the concrete of floor and wall.
The Number Man was airborne. He’d measured the trajectory of the first hit as it carved through the ceiling, letting it slide past him by a mere one and three-quarter feet. He angled and oriented his body to absorb the rush of wind and dust, used it to carry himself just a little further, a little higher. His shoes squeaked as they found traction.
He chanced one glance backwards. The attack had left a hole in the wall, the shape matching the impression that one might have made with an outstretched hand, fingers grasping, except it was fifty-two point seven six times the man’s handspan.
More notation, more numbers to work with. He could extrapolate, get an estimation of his opponent’s weapon. He’d need a point of reference…
He hesitated, as though he were catching his balance, glanced briefly at the nearest cell, while keeping the test subject in his peripheral vision.
Another attack, baited so it would fall in a particular direction, not striking anything vital to Cauldron’s operations. If this test subject got the idea of repeatedly striking in a downward direction, or striking up, then it opened up a whole mess of problems. There were test subjects on upper floors, and below… well… it was best to leave everything below to the Doctor.
He evaded the attack as he had the first, but allowed it to fall closer. Even without looking back, he knew he had the numbers right. The attack with the left arm was the same size each time. The strike passed within an inch of the Number Man.
Probability, time, he thought. He was expending less energy on evading the attacks, now. He focused instead on the possible attacks, the range of motion. The notation that sprung forth put him in mind of the Vitruvian Man, expanded to encompass every possible strike that might occur.
Not seeing the future, but rather the possible consequences that might unfold.
Now the Number Man was free to evade even before the attacks occurred. As a tennis player might move to cover the open court as the opponent’s racket was drawn back in anticipation of a strike, he was bolting for the safe zone, the area where incoming attacks weren’t as likely to fall, where his opponent would have to take time to adjust his orientation to effectively strike.
Which would be a fatal mistake on his opponent’s part.
No. Test subject three-zero-one-six didn’t use his left arm. He kicked out with the one leg that had only the foot attached.
The Number Man ducked under the strike, throwing himself forward, rolling, found his feet in the same motion. The kick demolished whole tracts of flooring, tearing into the bottom of the stairwell.
The distance between himself and his foe was now a mere fifty-seven feet and eight inches.
Two more strikes, sweeping attacks with a fist that could gouge floor and ceiling both at the same time, and each time, the Number Man slipped by unscathed, closing the distance at the same time.
He could see the fear on the man’s face.
Deimos, the Number Man thought. It was an old thought, a familiar thought in the same way someone might find their mother’s cooking familiar, and it wasn’t his voice he heard it in.
Another strike, this one coming dangerously close to two-nine-nine-zero’s cell, followed by another strike in the reverse direction.
Phobos, the Number Man thought. First terror, then mindless panic.
The attacks were more frantic now, but that was to be expected. The Number Man had conserved his strength, had the stamina to move more quickly.
Twice, his opponent tried to feint, to change directions mid-strike. He caught on quickly enough to take advantage, closing the distance to thirty feet and seven inches away, then twenty feet, two inches.
Subject three-zero-one-six had two options. One was to be clever, to claw at the ground between them and create a divide, a moat.
The other was to strike.
The Number Man forced the decision. He calculated his movements, let one foot skid on the dusty ground, sprawled, rolling with his own momentum.
He could hear the rasp as it tore through a section of ceiling, the attack incoming, saw the probable strike zones unfolding before his eyes. Rolled until he had his feet under him, then sprung.
The attack missed by as narrow a margin as he’d permitted for the others.
He straightened, studied the confusion and fear on his opponent’s face. Every action on his part was measured, performed for effect. To dust his clothes off, walking forward at a measured, unhurried pace.
To not even flinch as his opponent drew his hand back. He was still able to dodge. Barely.
“Stop,” he said. “There’s no point.”
The test subject backed away a step instead. He tensed, readying to kick out with that nonexistent leg of his.
“You’ll miss,” the Number Man said. “And I’ll close in and strike you, using my pen and my hand. I can see the stress points of your body, clear as day. I can shatter your skull like a glass, and it would be an exceptionally painful way to die.”
Slowly, he saw the fight go out of the test subject.
“Return to your cell, and we can talk.”
“I can’t. I’m going mad,” the test subject sounded almost morose, defeated.
“There’s only one alternative, three-zero-one-six.”
“My name is Reyner!”
“You lost that name when you came here.”
The test subject’s eyes widened. “You’re mad.”
“Reyner died. This… it’s a purgatory.”
“I do not know the word.”
Not in his lexicon?
“Purgatory? A limbo. A place between,” the Number man said. He advanced, and the test subject retreated.
“Between what?”
“Hell and paradise. The mortal coil and the world beyond. This is a neutral ground.”
“Neutral? Can you even understand what you’re doing to us? I… I’m a child’s toy, pieces missing.”
The Number Man studied three-zero-one-six. He couldn’t imagine any toy like that. Another cultural distinction, hailing to the man’s universe?
“I understand a great deal about what we’re doing to you. I could explain the experiments, the effects on your body, as we understand them, inform you-”
“Morally.”
“Ah,” the Number Man replied. “Morals.”
Another delusion perpetuated by society. Useful, valuable, much like commerce, but still a delusion. It only served its purpose so long as it was more constructive than not adhering to those beliefs, but people often lost sight of the fact, made it out to be something it wasn’t.
He’d suddenly lost a great deal of interest in this conversation.
“I have a family. A wife and children.”
“I told you. You died when you came here. You left them some time ago.”
“I… no.”
“Yes. But what you’re doing here, helping us, it’s going to make a difference. It will help save your wife and kids. When you die, we will autopsy you. We will use what we learn to find stronger powers. Those powers will expand our influence and help us against the true threats.”
“Threats? To my family?”
“Yes. To everyone.”
“You’ll save them?”
“We’ll try.”
Three-zero-one-six slumped, “I can’t go back to my cell.”
“I could kill you, if you wished.”
“If I’m going to die, I’ll die fighting.’
“You’ll only make it violent, painful. It will be drawn out.”
He could see the man’s expression shifting, the dawning realization that there was no way out.
“Did… was there a chance I could have won?”
“Yes. Luck. A little more cleverness. If you were in better shape, perhaps.” My power is better at range. Better still as I get further away, attack from other angles, in more subtle ways.
“Then I could have escaped? A chance I might have returned home?”
“No. There was never a chance you might escape.”
The door slid open. He made his way to the chair, a laptop tucked under one arm.
The Doctor was present. She looked weary, but her hair was immaculate, pinned into a bun. She stared out the window at this world’s landscape, so different from his own view.
“That’s two escape attempts in two weeks. We had three in the last four years before that, only one successful,” he said.
“I’m aware.”
“We’ll need to change our approach.”
She turned around. “How?”
“We need Contessa closer to home.”
“She’s required for damage control. Too many capes who were present for the Echidna incident think they can destroy us by spreading the word about Cauldron.”
“Perhaps we stop performing damage control. Let the pieces finish falling where they will.”
“We’d fall further behind in our agenda.”
“Undoubtedly. But as it stands, it’s only a matter of time before we’re destroyed from within. Our operation is too big and too delicate to manage like this.”
The Doctor frowned. “It would mean less voluntary subjects.”
“Very likely.”
The Doctor frowned. “And we’re behind schedule, even if we ignore that. I’d hoped to use Shatterbird or Siberian.”
“Unlikely anything would have come of it.”
“But if it had?”
The Number Man had no reply to that. He set his laptop on the desk and booted it up. If they had been able to leverage either of them to defeat an Endbringer, or to find why they had wound up so powerful, compared to the typical parahuman…
“It seems we may have just lost Brockton Bay.”
The Number Man’s eyebrows rose, though his expression remained placid, his gaze fixed on the computer.
“Skitter turned herself in.”
With that, he did look up, meeting her gaze. He saw the truth in her statement and closed his eyes. Mourning one more lost possibility.
They’d lost Coil, had lost Hero, and the Triumvirate had dissolved. They were in the process of losing the Protectorate. Everything they’d put together, falling apart over time.
“Is it settled?” He asked.
“No,” the Doctor said. “But she turned herself in, and as far as I’m aware, there is no mischief at work.”
“Then it’s not necessarily over.”
“We can’t interfere.”
“We have to take more risks,” the Doctor said. “If we’re going to recover from these last few setbacks.”
“If we’re to decipher the formula, find the strongest effects, we can’t keep tempering the mixture with the ‘balance’ concoction.”
“Creating more deviations.”
“Far more,” the Doctor said. “But we found the strongest powers before we were diluting the doses.”
“We’d lose up to twenty-three percent of our potential client base.”
“We lower the price. It’s almost trivial at this point. The only reason we set a price in the first place was to wean out anyone who wasn’t fully committed. We’ve supplemented virtually every other part of our operations with parahuman powers.”
“That only returns us to the issue of how we control our interests. We can’t have deviations running around, or we’ll bring disaster down on our own heads.”
“I was thinking we use you in the field, Number Man.”
The Number Man leaned back in his chair. “Me.”
“You’d perform. You have performed in the past.”
“I suppose,” he mused. He rubbed his chin. He needed to shave. “A long time ago.”
“I know you wanted to get away from that business, but-”
He shook his head. “No. This is bigger than things I want. If I can participate in this, I can get my hands dirty. We’ll be looking for the Slaughterhouse Nine, I take it?”
“No. The heroes are already looking, I’m not sure what we could contribute. There are other matters to consider, and we’re giving up a great deal of control behind the scenes by having you in the field, rather than working elsewhere.”
“I take it this is another risk we’re taking?”
“Yes. Increasing the volatility of the formulas, deploying you while we reserve Contessa for the more severe situations, allowing the public to discover more of Cauldron’s role in things…”
“Hopefully not too much,” he said.
The Doctor shook her head. “Not too much. When will you be prepared to relieve her?”
“A day or two. Let me get prepared.” He stood. “I left the data on the laptop. Funding, the movements of key groups.”
He left the room. His power alerted him about the Custodian’s presence as he entered the hallway. The sum of a million infinitesimal details.
It also informed him of the seam in the hallway, marking the nearly invisible Doormaker portal. He stepped from the Doctor’s headquarters to the hallway leading to his own office.
Doormaker had changed the landscape beyond his window. An Earth of black magma and brilliant sunsets in the middle of the day, apparently.
He moved his Dali picture, sliding it to one side, and stepped into the doorway beyond.
Barring incidents like earlier in the day, it had been a long time since he had exercised his power in any serious way.
The costume, neatly folded on a shelf at the end of the closet, seemed so very small as he unfolded it.
Even the smell, it brought back memories.
The pair of them were breathing heavily.
They exchanged glances. Two faces, spattered with flecks of blood.
Jacob carefully stepped around the expanding pool of blood. He crouched by the body, then grinned.
The other face wasn’t smiling at all. It was grim, a stark opposite, just as their hair colors were nearly opposites.
We’re nearly opposites in more than hair color.
“He can die after all,” Jacob mused.
“Wasn’t all that,” Jacob mused. He looked almost disappointed.
“Maybe not.”
“Bastard!” Jacob kicked the body. “Prick!”
I’m worried he’ll get up all of a sudden, even with his guts hanging out and half his blood on the ground.
Jacob stretched, and wet blood ran down his arm as he raised it over his head. He still held the murder weapon. One of the murder weapons. It had been a shared effort.
“This doesn’t end it. They’ll come after us.”
“We could lie,” Jacob said. “Tell them he used mind control.”
“They won’t believe us.”
“Then we run with it. Everyone will have an idea who we are, after this, we can make a name for ourselves.”
“We have names.”
“A reputation. Don’t tell me you don’t feel like there is something bigger, something better. You call yourself Harbinger. That’s all about the things to come.”
“His name for me, not mine,” Harbinger said.
“But the idea… There’s something bigger than this, something at the end of the road,” Jacob said.
“I don’t see the point.”
“But you feel it, don’t you? The rush?”
“Yes,” Harbinger said.
“Forget the stupid names and spandex. Tell me your heart isn’t pounding, that you’ve never felt more alive than this.”
Harbinger shook his head.
“We can live this. Together. Every waking second…”
“Jacob.”
“Okay… Jack.”
“If it’s a farce, a joke, let’s run with it. We take simple names, dumb names, and we make people quake in their shoes at the sound. Jack… Slash.”
“I’m… no. I won’t.”
Jack wheeled on him, knife in hand.
“You want to fight?” Jack asked. The smile had dropped from his face.
The look in his eyes… hungry.
“No. That’s just it. I don’t want to keep doing this.”
“You said it yourself. You feel the rush, like you’re on the cusp of something greater.”
“I do feel it, but I think I can get there by walking a different road,” Harbinger said.
He could see the disappointment on Jack’s face. See the way Jack’s knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the blade. His power blossomed around the boy, showing possible attack vectors. Too many. Harbinger wasn’t sure he’d survive.
He might have to throw himself in the way of the attack and kill his friend before a more serious attack could be delivered.
“I’ll play, though,” he said.
“Play?”
“Make a name for myself.”
Jack smiled.
The Number Man set the costume down. He picked up the knife. The same one he’d used to stab King in the back, buying Jack time to open the man’s stomach.
He wouldn’t wear a costume. Wouldn’t do anything particularly fancy. He’d even keep this name. A measure of respect to an old friend. Something to challenge convention.
Jack was his other number, his inverse. The Number Man was working to save lives, and he killed as a matter of kindness. Jack considered killing a matter of fact, and any life he spared was only for his own twisted ends.
The Number Man still considered the man a friend, as much as he knew that friendship was one of those ephemeral constructs. One of the delusions people subjected themselves to, to make the world make sense.
Or maybe Jack was family. They’d started out on the same path, after all.
Did Jack know that there was another parallel? That the numbers and the research with Cauldron were illustrating something else entirely?
The Number Man had been gifted with powers of perception. To see the underpinnings of the world. In a roundabout way, he used his power for killing, for destruction. Jack had been gifted with a power that was good only for killing, but the Number Man harbored a suspicion that Jack was more than that.
Research within Cauldron had included tinkers, drawing many conclusions about how tinkers operated. Some were well vested in mechanical details, drawing a great deal from it to fabricate their work. Others had little idea about the technical aspects of what they created, relying more on instinct and creativity, relying more on their agents to draw up an idea of how their work would function. It was quite possible that other capes were doing the same thing.
There was no way Jack should have made it this far on luck and instinct alone. Not dealing with the monsters he interacted with on a daily basis. The idea had started as a theory, but had taken on a life of its own: was it possible that Jack was drawing on the same agent that granted him his powers? Wittingly or unwittingly?
Did he have a second set of eyes watching out for him? Sharpening his instincts? Giving him a sense of imminent danger or his vulnerable targets?
And more to the point: why?
Was Jack, perhaps, in particular sync with his agent in mindset?
And if he was, did that suggest something about their motives?
Posted in 21.x (Donation Bonus #1) | Tagged Contessa, Custodian, Doctor Mother, Jack Slash, King, Number Man | 263 Replies
Posted on April 4, 2013 by wildbow
“Park there,” Stan said, pointing to a space off the side of the road.
“We’ll be facing uphill, and we still have to unload the equipment,” Nipper piped up, from the back seat.
“There’s a method to my madness. Park, Marshall. I’ll even deign to help unload and carry this time.”
He got a glimpse of Marshall rolling his eyes, but the boy steered the van to a parking spot.
True to his word, Stan was out the door, rolling up his sleeves. Didn’t hurt: the humidity was brutal outside the air-conditioned van. His dress shirt was already sticking to his back.
They were on a hill, and the vantage point afforded them a view of the city. Cranes dotted the skyline, and the buildings themselves were gleaming, the whites and colors brightened by the ambient moisture in the air. It might have looked attractive, but there were spots where buildings were missing, whole areas where the construction was only just beginning.
He could see the white building, not too far away, which was taller than even the skyscrapers immediately around it. He’d investigated it just a few days ago. They’d erected a tall white tent, holding it up with a crane, they’d reinforced it with plexiglass panels and iron reinforcement, and now a more solid construction was going up around it. Slow, painstaking, careful work, filled with redundancies. The workers would be glad to be free of the hazmat suits in this heat.
Brockton Bay wasn’t lacking in stories to tell. The quarantine building alone was one.
“Need a hand,” Nipper said.
He hurried around to the back of the truck. The van had been parked at the side of the road, emergency brake cranked, wheels turned so it would ride up onto the sidewalk if the brake failed, but the steep incline was making it hard to unload the equipment. Much of it was set up to be slid out of the back of the van at a moment’s notice, but that same convenience was an obstacle, here. The stuff was expensive, and if it slid to the road…
He found a space beside her and reached to get a grip on the far end of the camera. It might not have been a problem, but Nipper was short, petite, built more like a thirteen year old than a twenty-three year old college graduate.
She wasn’t suited for the job. She knew the equipment, she was capable with a computer, she had good eyesight, and the tattoos and array of piercings on her right ear were as good an indicator of her creative edge as anything else.
But this wasn’t the job she’d been working towards. She wasn’t one to complain, but she didn’t have stamina, she didn’t have strength, and this, all of this, it was too fast paced for her. She’d have been better, maybe even happier in the newsroom, managing the feeds, maintaining the systems and working on post production.
Marshall hefted the bag out of the back of the van. All the wires, the tripod, the lighting, packed into a dense case. The boy didn’t look like a professional, hadn’t quite adapted to the job he’d been pulled into: from intern to a jack of all trades, filling in the gaps in Stan’s team. Set up, interviewing, driving, gopher… anything and everything. He was drawing in a paycheck, but he was definitely working for it, facing all of the hassles, the intense stresses and dangers of the job, for eleven dollars an hour.
Dangers, Stan thought. Images flickered through his mind. Everyone at the station had seen the feeds, had watched them several times over. Purity taking the camera from Manzaneres, a guy from channel four, then setting her monsters on the man. A man with a wife and a newborn had been murdered, just to make a point.
There was a reason for the shortage of field reporters. It wasn’t limited to Manzaneres, either. The problem was a chronic one. This was a job that put ordinary people on the fringes of events that were dangerous for capes.
Marshall closed the back of the van and locked it. “Set.”
Stan set off, with Nipper and Marshall following, Nipper almost jogging to keep up with his long strides. “Reason we’re parked here is that the school’s on top of the hill. We don’t know how much parking there’ll be, with students possibly taking up spaces, and if we have to drive by, searching for a spot, then someone’s liable to spot us and take measures.”
“Measures?” Nipper asked, a touch breathlessly.
Right. She didn’t have the experience to know. “You’ll see what I mean.”
There were students gathered outside the walls that bordered the school. Police cars were parked at the front, along with PRT vans, but it was the uniformed guards with ‘Arcadia High School’ stenciled on their sleeves that caught his attention.
Guards? It conjured up an image of a prison, rather than a school.
“Nip, get some footage of the uniforms,” Stan said.
She hefted the camera and trained it on the nearest of the uniformed guards. She had to slow her pace to keep the shot steady, but she kept following him. When a group of students obstructed her vision, she shut off the feed and hurried to catch up.
They reached the gate, where a woman with a colorful scarf was talking to a PRT uniform. He signaled Nipper, and the young woman raised the camera.
“Damn it,” the woman with the scarf groaned, as she saw them. The police officer took the opportunity to step away.
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Stan said, “We’re not the enemy.”
“You’re here to bog down an overcomplicated situation,” she said. “I have enough problems without vultures descending.”
“We’re here for the story, that’s all. You’re in charge here?”
“I’m in charge of the school. Principal Howell.”
He made a mental note. Howell, Howell, Howell. She wasn’t the prettiest woman, with old acne scars riddled across her cheeks, a short stature and a nose that didn’t quite fit her face.
“Stan Vickery, channel twelve news,” he flashed her his best smile and extended a hand. She didn’t take it.
“You’re not allowed on school property.”
“I would be if you gave me permission,” he said, dropping his hand. The job was politics as much as it was investigation, creativity and presentation. What did she want? Peace and quiet. “Give us fifteen minutes to talk to your students and shoot a few takes in front of the doors, and I’ll get the word out that we got the story first. Other stations are playing it safer, these days, less crew, less willing to act on sloppy seconds.”
The principal made a face.
Stan smiled, “Sorry. You get what I mean. Give us fifteen minutes, and we’re one less thing you have to worry about today. With luck, I’ll be the only local reporter you see today.”
“With all due respect, Mr…”
“Vickery,” he said, already told you my name. “But you can call me Stan, Mrs. Howell. Fact of the matter is, you let me in the school, and I owe you one. I pull strings or emphasize certain aspects of a story. Not just this one either. Who knows? The next incident could be worse, or more sensitive.”
“Mr. Vickers,” she said. “I’m fully aware that you’re trying to bait me into giving you a sound bite. I won’t comment on this situation, and I won’t be letting you onto school grounds. I don’t want you talking to any of my students.”
“Fine,” he said. “Come on, guys. Let’s go talk to the cops.”
“Seriously? We’re giving up?” Nipper asked.
“Yes,” he said, he took long strides away from the front gate of the school, until he was sure the principal wasn’t in immediate earshot. “No. She’s liable to get on our case if we don’t pretend to play along. Howell has no authority outside of the school walls, so we interview students there. Marshall, head back in the direction of the van. Talk to students, see if they want to be on TV. Look for the talkative ones and the emotional ones, and point them my way.”
“What about the cops?” Marshall asked.
“They’ll be around later, and cops have better memories than civilians. It’s the students who were at the scene. Go. We don’t know how long we have before other crews show.”
It was a shame the principal hadn’t let him into the school, Stan mused. Silly of her, too. That favor he’d offered her was gold, all things considered. Something she could use to bail a superior out of an awkward position and advance her own.
Your guanxi could be better, Mrs. Howell, he thought. He loved the idea behind the Chinese concept of guanxi. It fit in the same general category as the concepts of friends, family, acquaintances, but it was more based in business and politics. Guanxi was about being able to call up a person one hadn’t seen in years and ask for a favor. To have enough people in one’s debt that there was more implied leverage to use when seeking favors from others.
He’d been introduced to the idea a few years ago, and he attributed much of his recent career advancement to it. It was something to be aware of at all times, and it changed his perspective on things.
He approached a group of teenage girls who were gathered in a group, observing the police and PRT officers. He flashed one of his best smiles at them. He could see one of them glance him over, her body language changing subtly. He directed the smile at her, “I bet you’re dying to talk about what happened here. Exciting stuff.”
“Sure,” the girl replied. “Supervillain doesn’t attack the school every day.”
“Wasn’t an attack. She showed up, and they came after her in her civilian ID.”
“I know it wasn’t an attack,” the first girl replied. “I was just… It’s what others have been saying.”
“Skitter, wasn’t it?” Stan chimed in. He snapped his fingers, and Nipper pointed the camera at the girls.
“Yeah. The bug girl,” another girl spoke up. “I guess she goes to Arcadia.”
“No way. I heard she was a student at Winslow, before Leviathan came. Geeky kid, was having a hard time with some jerks, apparently. I think her name was Taylor, but you’d have to ask someone from Winslow.”
He prodded, “What happened? Was there a fight?”
“Dragon and this new guy Defiant showed up, along with the two new heroes. Don’t know their names.”
He’d memorized the names. “Adamant? Clasp? Dovetail? Halo? Crucible? Rosary? Sere?”
“Sere and Adamant,” one girl replied.
“Sere and Adamant,” he said, making a mental note.
“And two of the Wards. Clockblocker was one of them. Anyways, she got away.”
“She didn’t do anything to provoke them?”
“Didn’t hear about anything.”
“And they mobilized on the school?”
He started to ask for more details, then stopped. Marshall was approaching, with a kid in tow.
“Cell phone video,” Marshall said. “Long conversation between Defiant, Dragon and Skitter in the cafeteria.
Stan raised his eyebrows, looking at the girl with the phone, “Pay you twenty bucks to let us copy it.”
“A hundred,” she said.
“Twenty. If you got it on camera, others did too, and someone‘s going to take the twenty.”
She glanced at Marshall, then back to Stan. “Fine.”
“You have the equipment?” Stan asked Marshall.
“Laptop and a cord. Give me a minute.”
“We’ll watch it later,” Stan said, absently. He turned his attention back to the girls.
This wasn’t the first time he’d walked into a situation almost blind. The job was a stressful one, but he thrived on stress. Racing against the clock, to be the first to the scene, the first to report on the situation. But even reporting was a kind of challenge unto itself. The scene had to be investigated, the story teased out, details verified. To top it off, it had to be presentable.
He’d been the producer, before Coil had blown up the camera crew and reporter that had been covering the mayoral debate. He had an eye for this. Had to, because there was nobody back at the studio that would be able to cover this base for him. Sad and ironic, really. There weren’t enough people in the bay, resources weren’t consistent. So they’d reduced the size of the staff, cut back on hours. Then six people had died, including their lead reporter.
Nevermind the rumors that the PRT was, on Miss Militia’s behalf, investigating ties between Coil and the killed reporters and camera crews. He’d itched to look into that more, but it didn’t fit with his philosophy.
“Were you there, in the cafeteria?” he asked the girls.
“Right. Alright. Any thoughts? Were you scared, knowing there were so many capes in the school?”
Twenty more seconds, to grab more details and reaction clips, and then he was moving, searching for others to talk to.
Two more groups questioned, and he didn’t have much else. He knew Skitter’s name, and Channel four had arrived, and the race was on.
“Got the video!” Marshall called out.
Stan took the offered laptop. To watch now, it would mean delaying interviews. Memories would fade.
But he needed the narrative. How had things unfolded? What were the key, crucial points at the heart of this? That the school was unsafe? It would work, grab attention and viewers, but it felt cheap. No, the public knew that the Protectorate was imploding. There had to be a connection, tying this to something greater.
“Thank you,” he said. He’d decided. “Now, I need you to find me someone who knew Skitter in her civilian guise.”
Marshall nodded.
“He or she will be one of the students who attended Winslow.”
“On it.”
Stan retreated to the van with the laptop. He took the extra time to open the video in an editing suite before playing it.
Without being asked, Nipper hooked it into the van’s computers. A little icon notified him that he was connected to the studio.
“…There for the S-class threat downtown. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I think maybe I deserve to, a little. I’ve done my share. You don’t turn around and reveal my identity in front of a crowd.”
On a notepad of lined paper, he penned down ’20th’ followed by a question mark. The video continued playing, and he noted down times and key phrases, along with questions. When a critical comment was shown, he was sure to copy the clip. There were a few times where the volume was too quiet, the voices too low or things were drowned out by background noise. Nipper worked to tune the sound so they could make it out, raising the volume or filtering out the noise.
D&D picked fight? Pushed by authorities?Drag past convo with Skitter. When?
Putting children at risk
Violation of truce
“…And you seriously expect me to keep my mouth shut about all the dirty little secrets I’ve picked up on over the last few months…”
What does Skitter know? App’tly important.
“…the Slaughterhouse Nine. Either you’ve abandoned that chase, or you’re about to tell me that there’s something more important than stopping them…”
S9? D-check events post-Boston.
Hospital? Skitter & Defiant?
D&D negotiating with villains? Possible cooperation? Corruption?
“…Stand if you side with me!”
Both video and audio were distorted by the movements of students, rising from tables, pushing away from the jumble of bodies.
Stan smiled. There.
He cut out the scene in question, the students siding with Skitter over the heroes, and gave the clip a title. ‘The heart of this story?’
A second later, a note appeared on the side of the window. The crew at the studio had a R.A.T. connecting them to the laptop, and freedom to make changes or add their own details.
Yes – Ed
He had it. The editors at the station were on board.
Now to cobble it together into a story.
He opened a file and began sketching out the script. At the very top, he put up notes, clips he’d need from the station.
There was a knock on the door of the van. Stan opened it to see Marshall with an awkward looking young man. Fifteen or sixteen. He looked despondent. Hangdog.
“He says he was her friend, once.”
“No,” the boy said. “Not exactly. But we sort of knew each other. Had classes together, did group work. And I owe her.”
Stan smiled.
“…take you now to reporter Stan Vickery.”
“Thank you, Nick. One thousand and two hundred students made their way to Arcadia High for their first day back at school, earlier on this sunny day. They hoped to readjust and get a taste of normal life after weeks spent away from home, or enduring the long series of incidents to afflict Brockton Bay. Less than halfway through their day, those hopes were dashed.“
A video clip replaced the blond man with the mustache and a face lined by years of stress. A massive metal suit, looming at the far end of the school’s parking lot, a mechanized dragon.
“The school became the site of a confrontation between Dragon, a heroine known across the world, and local warlord and leader of the Undersiders, Skitter. Within moments of their meeting on school grounds, Dragon revealed Skitter’s identity as Taylor Hebert, a sixteen year old student. With this revelation came a dozen more questions…“
“Change the channel,” a boy in prison sweats said. “News is boring shit.”
“No,” Sophia said.
Skitter was Taylor. A dozen things fell into place.
Anger boiled within her. Outrage. That cringing, whiny, pathetic little scarecrow was the ruler of Brockton Bay’s underworld? It didn’t fit. It demanded an answer of some sort.
But she couldn’t. As the voice droned on, Sophia turned her attention to the bracelets she wore. There was a live current running through them, and they could be joined together to fashion handcuffs, but even like this, they were bondage. She couldn’t enter her shadow state without passing through the insulated sheath that protected her.
She couldn’t leave, as much as she wanted to, right this moment.
Glowering, a confused, impotent frustration building within her, she fixed her eyes on the television. It swelled within her until she could barely think. She clenched her hands, but she couldn’t squeeze hard enough to release any of the building emotion. She unclenched her fists, extended her fingers, as if reaching for something, but there was nothing she could grab.
There was no release valve for this, no way to vent.
Taylor’s face appeared on the screen in the same moment she hit her limit. She rose from her seat, aware of the guards advancing on her, and kicked the television screen, shattering it, amid the protests and swearing of her fellow inmates.
A second later, they were tackling her. Two guards at once, forcing her to the ground.
She screamed something so incoherent that even she would have been hard pressed to interpret it.
“Who was she? And what motivated these professed heroes to mobilize on a school, risking the lives of students and staff? Skitter herself wondered aloud about their willingness to put hostages within her reach…“
A clip appeared on the screen. Taylor, sitting on the edge of a counter. She spoke, filled with confidence, almost nonchalant. “You put me in a room with three hundred people I could theoretically take hostage. Why? You can’t be that confident I wouldn’t hurt someone…”
A student abruptly shrieked, thrashing and falling to the ground in her haste to get away.
“Danny,” Kurt said, settling a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You don’t need to watch this.”
Danny shook his head. Kurt looked down the man. He hadn’t even spoken, from the moment he’d opened the door and Lacey had wrapped her arms around him.
“This is bait, isn’t it?” Taylor’s voice, oddly out of place coming from the television.
“The tone of the conversation even implied there were unspoken secrets that Skitter was aware of, that the Protectorate sought to silence,” Stan Vickery spoke, reappearing, with Arcadia High behind him as a backdrop. “Raising questions about what those secrets might be.“
“…You seriously expect me to keep my mouth shut about all the dirty little secrets I’ve picked up on over the last few months?” Taylor’s voice, again.
Danny put his face into his hands, pushing his glasses up to his forehead in the process. Kurt rubbed his back, while Lacey looked on, sympathetic.
“What did Skitter know, and does it relate to the event on the twentieth of June? Why were Defiant and Dragon willing to abandon their pursuit of the Slaughterhouse Nine?“
“Is…” Danny started to speak, but his voice cracked. He paused, then spoke again. “Is this on me?”
“No!” Lacey said. “No, honey.”
“Those aren’t questions I’d hope to pose any answers to today,” the news reporter said. “The real question is bigger than that, and smaller at the same time. What forces drive a child from this…“
A teenage boy, his eyes downcast. “She was nice, quiet. I know people won’t believe me when I say it, but she was a genuinely good person. Is. Is a good person. At heart. I’m sorry, Taylor.“
“To this?“
It switched to Taylor’s voice, calm, unruffled, accompanied by the same long-distance, low resolution footage of her sitting on the counter in the school cafeteria. “You’d be surprised what I’m capable of. I’ve mutilated people. Carved out a man’s eyes, emasculated him. I’ve chopped off a woman’s toes. Flayed people alive with the bites of thousands of insects. Hell, what I did to Triumph… he nearly died, choking on insects, the venom of-“
Kurt turned off the television. Danny was frozen, unmoving, staring down at his hands.
“It was context,” Lacey said, quiet. “She was acting. I’m sure-“
She broke off as Kurt shook his head. Doing more damage than good.
“We’re going to stick by you, okay, Dan?” Kurt spoke. “Let’s have you come by our place. Better you aren’t alone right now, yeah? And it’ll get you away from those reporters.”
Danny didn’t respond. He stayed hunched over the kitchen table.
“Unless you want to wait here for her, in case?” Lacey asked.
“She already said goodbye,” Danny replied, pushing against the table to help himself rise to a standing position. “I think that’s it.”
“You’d be surprised what I’m capable of. I’ve mutilated people. Carved out a man’s eyes, emasculated him. I’ve chopped off a woman’s toes. Flayed people alive with the bites of thousands of insects. Hell, what I did to Triumph… he nearly died, choking on insects, the venom of a hundred bee stings making his throat close up.“
“And what drives dozens of students to reject the heroes of this city in favor of the villain in charge?” Stan asked.
The widescreen television showed the students rising from the tables, joining Skitter. Another clip followed, showing students actively wrestling with the heroes.
“Christ,” the Director spoke.
Beside her successor, Piggot was watching in silence, elbows on the table, hands folded in front of her mouth.
“This could have been avoided,” the Director said. “On multiple levels.”
“Most likely,” Defiant replied. He stood at one end of the long table, Dragon beside him.
“If you would have cut off the feed, deleted the footage from phones, we would have had time to do damage control.”
“We won’t ignore people’s first amendment rights,” Defiant said.
“…The PRT and the Protectorate have refused to comment, and the silence is damning, in light of what occurred today,” the reporting continued in the background. “Brockton Bay has become the latest, greatest representation of the troubles the world faces in this new age, and perhaps a representation of the world’s hopes…“
“You’re better than this, Dragon,” Piggot spoke. “To the point that I’m left wondering… did you steer all of this in this direction?”
“If you try to place the blame on us,” Defiant replied, “I think you’ll be unpleasantly surprised.”
“This event,” the reporter spoke, “Points to something else entirely, a fatal flaw in the system, the latest and greatest representation of the Protectorate’s steady collapse.“
Director Tagg, Piggot’s latest successor, picked up the remote and muted the television.
Defiant shifted his weight, clasping his hands behind his back. The body language was smug, somehow.
Piggot glanced at each of the people who were seated at the table. Mr. Tagg, the Director of Brockton Bay’s PRT, Director Armstrong from Boston, and Director Wilkins from New York were all present. Mr. Keene sat opposite her. A camera mounted on the table gave the Chief Director of the PRT eyes on the meeting, where she watched from Washington.
Nobody else seemed willing to answer Defiant, some simply staring at him, others watching the segment on the wall-mounted television. She spoke, “I would remind you that you are on a strict probation, with terms you agreed to.”
“I am,” Defiant said. “Would you arrest me for being insubordinate? Or would it take something more substantial?”
“Test us and you’ll find out,” Director Tagg responded.
“And what would happen then? Would you send me to the Birdcage?” Defiant asked.
The question was heavy with the reminder that it was Dragon who maintained and managed the Birdcage.
Emily Piggot was caught between a desire to feel smug and quiet fear. She’d warned them. She’d communicated her concerns at every opportunity, through channels that Dragon wouldn’t be able to track. She’d been dismissed, shrugged off, when she raised the question of what might happen if Dragon was killed in battle, or if Dragon turned against them.
“I’d like to hear a response from Dragon,” Piggot said.
Dragon turned her head to look at her, face hidden behind an expressionless mask and unblinking, opaque lenses. There was something about the movement that seemed off. Both the movement and the silence that followed was oddly disturbing.
“No? No response?”
“A consequence of our recent visit to Brockton Bay,” Defiant said. “I’m hoping she’ll be better in a few days.”
Curious, Piggot observed, the note of emotion in his voice, at that simple statement.
As if eager to change the subject, Director Armstrong said, “Mr. Keene. Thoughts? How does this affect your department?”
Piggot turned her attention to the man. She’d only had limited interactions with him, but the man had earned her respect quickly enough. He wasn’t a Director, but rather the liaison between the Protectorate and various other superhero teams worldwide, organizing deals, ensuring that everyone held to the same code of conduct, and ensuring that the groups could all coordinate in times of emergency.
“It’s catastrophic,” Keene said. “I can manage some damage control, offer further aid, manipulate the grants available, but I can’t build on a foundation that isn’t there.”
“Where do our biggest problems lie?”
“The C.U.I. is first to mind. The Suits and the King’s Men will cooperate, because they have to. For the American teams, it varies from case to case. But we’re in the middle of negotiations with the C.U.I., and this won’t reflect well on us. That is, it won’t if we can’t get our footing here and make a strong showing at the next major event.”
The next major event. The idea seemed to give everyone pause.
“Something needs to change,” Defiant said.
“Somehow, Colin,” Piggot replied, “I think our ideas on what needs to change are very different.”
“Very likely,” he said, his voice hard. “But this was a last straw for us, in many ways. We have a few stipulations for our continued assistance.”
“Defiant,” Tagg interrupted him. “You’re not in a position to make demands.”
He’s a hard man, Piggot thought. Army, PRT squad leader, a general, not a politician. Ironic, that they’d butt heads. “Director Tagg, you asked me here as a consultant, so allow me to consult.”
Tagg turned his attention to her.
She continued, “I don’t like this scenario any more than you do. But let’s hear Defiant’s demands before you reject him out of hand.”
Director Tagg didn’t reply, but he turned his attention back to Defiant and he didn’t speak.
“Dragon and I have discussed this in-depth. We need the present Directors to admit culpability for the incident, and we need to clean house, with in-depth background checks and investigations into any prominent member of the PRT. We can’t maintain things as they are with the spectre of Cauldron looming over us.”
“You’d have us fire any number of PRT employees at a time when we’re struggling to retain members?” Tagg asked, almost aghast.
“And relieving capes from duty at the same time,” Defiant said. “With so few employees, it’s ridiculous to continue working to shut down leaks and control the flow of information. Dragon has expressed concerns over having to do this in the past, and between the two of us, we’ve agreed that the censorship stops tonight, at midnight.”
Tagg rose from his seat, opening his mouth to speak-
“I agree,” Piggot spoke before her successor could.
“It’s a misuse of resources,” she said, “And we do need to clean house.”
“You don’t have a position to lose,” Tagg replied.
“I wouldn’t lose it anyways,” she retorted, “I’ve had no contact with Cauldron.”
Keene clapped his hands together once, then smiled, “Well said. We have nothing to fear if we aren’t connected to them.”
“You realize what they’re doing, don’t you?” Tagg asked. “How does this investigation happen? Dragon has her A.I. rifle through all known records and databases. We defeat the sole purpose of the PRT, by putting the parahumans themselves in a position of power!”
“That ship has long sailed,” Keene commented, “With the revelations about Chief Director Costa-Brown, if you’ll pardon my saying.”
“You’re pardoned,” the Chief Director’s voice sounded over the speaker, crystal clear. “I think this would pose more problems than it solves. We’ll have to turn you down, Defiant.”
“Then I don’t see much of a reason for us to stay,” Defiant replied.
“And if you leave, the assumption is that we’ll be left without Dragon’s ability to maintain every system and device she’s created for us. The PRT without a Birdcage, without our computer systems or database, without the specialized grenade loadouts or the containment foam dispensers.”
“An unfortunate consequence,” Defiant said.
“Not a concern at all,” the Chief Director replied.
There was a pause. Dragon glanced at Defiant.
“No?” Defiant asked.
“No. We’ve been in contact with an individual who has a proven track record with Dragon’s technology. He feels equipped, eager, almost, to step into Dragon’s shoes should she take a leave of absence.”
“Saint,” Defiant said. “You’re talking about the leader of the Dragonslayers. Criminal mercenaries.”
“My first priority is and always has been protecting people. If it’s a question between abandoning the security the Birdcage offers the world at large or requesting the assistance of a scoundrel-”
“A known murderer,” Defiant said.
“I wouldn’t throw stones,” Tagg replied, his voice a growl.
“-A known murderer, even,” the Chief Director continued, as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “I will take security without question.”
Defiant looked at Dragon.
“The second dilemma I have to pose to you two,” the Chief Director continued, “Is simple. What do you expect will happen when the next Endbringer arrives? Between Dragon’s brilliant mind and Defiant’s analysis technologies, I’m sure you’ve given the matter some consideration. Without the Protectorate, how does the event tend to unfold?”
Piggot studied the pair, trying to read their reactions. They were so hard to gauge, even if she ignored the armor.
“It doesn’t go well,” Defiant said. “It doesn’t go well even if we assume the present Protectorate is coordinated and in peak fighting condition.”
“We can’t afford a loss,” the Chief Director said. “You know it as well as I do. Now, tell me there isn’t room for a middle ground.”
Dragon turned to Defiant, and moved with a careful slowness as she set one hand on his arm.
“We get through the next fight,” Defiant said. “Then we clean house.”
“I think that’s an acceptable compromise.”
“Too rich,” Jack commented, smirking. “Across the board, I love it. Fantastic.”
Hookwolf, pacing on the opposite side of the television, grunted a response.
Bonesaw was crouched by the side of a machine. She watched with hands on hips as Blasto ratcheted in a bolt at the base of a tall, black-handled lever, his movements jerky with the internal and external mechanisms that forced them.
“The Protectorate declined to comment, and in light of recent events and allegations of deep-seated secrets, their silence is damning.“
“Almost ready,” Bonesaw said, her voice sing-song. “You’re next, Hooksie.”
Hookwolf glanced at her, and then at the contraption.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared,” she said, her tone a taunt.
“Not of… this. I’m questioning if this is the path we should take.”
“I’m expected to bring about the end of the world,” Jack said, still watching the television. “But this is rather tepid for my tastes. I’d like to hurry it along, inject some more drama into the affair.”
“…event at Arcadia High School is sure to draw attention from aross America. We, the public, want answers. The death of Vikare marked the end of the golden age, the end of an era where becoming a superhero was the expectation for anyone and everyone with powers, and even those who decided to work in business or public affairs with their abilities were termed ‘rogues’…“
Bonesaw took ahold of Hookwolf’s hand and led him to his seat. She stepped back, glancing over the contraption. The only light was cast by a small desk lamp and the glow of a computer monitor, an island of light in the middle of an expansive, wide-reaching darkness. Desk, engine, and tinker-designed seats, surrounded by an absolute, oppressive darkness.
“It doesn’t sit well,” Hookwolf said. “I can’t articulate why. My thoughts are still cloudy.”
Bonesaw hit a button, and the lights began to flicker, the engine beside her starting to hum with a progressively higher pitch. With the flickering of the lights came glimpses of the things beyond. Light on glass and wires.
“I’d rather a Ragnarök than-“
Bonesaw hauled on a white-handled lever, and Hookwolf’s voice cut off. The flickering of the lights ceased, and the room returned to darkness.
Jack sighed.
“…threatens to mark a similar occasion…“
Bonesaw stepped over the body of a dead tinker in a lab coat, stopping in front of Jack. “Strip.”
Jack shucked off his shirt, and then pulled off his pants and boxer briefs. The blades that hung heavy on his belt made an ugly metal sound as they dropped to the tiled floor.
“…and cover yourself up,” Bonesaw said, averting her eyes. “Shameful! You’re in the company of a child, and a girl, no less.”
“Terribly sorry,” Jack said, his voice thick with irony, as he cupped his nether regions in both hands. He stepped back and took a seat, leaning back against the diagonal surface behind the short bench. Cold.
“...The reality is clear. The repercussions of what happened today will change the relationship between hero, villain and civilian. It remains up to them to decide whether it will be a change for the better, or a change for the worse.”
The segment ended, and the television turned back to the news anchors at their desks.
“Pretentious, isn’t he?” Jack asked.
“Likes to hear himself talk,” Bonesaw replied. “Which do you think it’ll be? Change for the better or change for the worse?”
“It’s a given?” she asked. She pressed the button, and the lights started to flicker again.
“I think so,” Jack commented. “But I almost hope things do turn out well.”
The lights were flickering more violently now, to the point that periods of light matched the periods of darkness. Between the spots in his vision, Jack could see more and more of their surroundings.
Row upon row of glass case lined the underground chamber, each large enough to house a full-grown man, though there were only fetal shapes within at present. Each was labeled. One row had cases marked ‘Crawler’, ‘Crawler’, ‘Crawler’… ten iterations in total. The next row had ten cases labeled with the word ‘Siberian’. The one after with ten repetitions of ‘Chuckles’.
One column of cases dedicated to each member of the Nine, past and present, with the exception of Jack and one other.
“Makes for a greater fall?” Bonesaw asked.
“Exactly,” Jack replied. He glanced at the one isolated case, felt his pulse quicken a notch. It was the only one that was standalone. ‘Gray Boy.’
“I guess we find out soon!” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the whine of the engine.
Bonesaw only laughed. She hauled on the switch with both hands, and the room was plunged into silence and darkness.
Posted in 20.x (Donation Bonus #1) | Tagged Alexandria, Blasto, Bonesaw, Defiant, Dragon, Greg, Hookwolf, Jack Slash, Piggot, Shadow Stalker, Sophia, Taylor, Taylor's Dad | 518 Replies
Posted on February 28, 2013 by wildbow
Rey hesitated at the door. He cast a wary glance over his shoulder, but life elsewhere in the city continued as normal.
If he touched the doorknob, any number of things could happen. A pit underfoot, a guillotine blade from overhead.
It took a measure of courage to raise the door knocker and slam it against the front door of the old Victorian-styled house.
The door opened right away.
“Blasto,” Accord greeted him. “We finally meet.”
“Uh huh,” Rey replied. He glanced around. The inside of the house was nice. Must be nice to not have to reinvest ninety percent of your earnings on tech.
“No mask?” Accord asked.
“Yes,” Rey replied. He folded one corner of his face back. “It’s a fungus. Same texture as human flesh.”
Accord’s own intricate mechanical face shifted in response to his underlying expression. “Lovely.”
“I’m still not sure about this, given our history,” Rey said. He accepted the invitation into the front hallway of the house, carefully removed his shoes and set them on the tray to the right of the door.
“I’ve given you my word that you’ll be safe, provided you cooperate.”
“Damn Nazis,” Rey said. “My whole lab, gone.”
Accord didn’t offer any sympathy. “Come.”
Rey followed. Peering into the rooms he passed, he saw libraries and sitting rooms, old furniture. Everything was finely made, nothing cheap or throwaway. Knowing Accord, it was all too possible that the man had hand-crafted everything in this house.
And in each room were people in costume. Other teams had themes, natural or otherwise. Their costumes matched, or they unconsciously mirrored one another in style of dress or quality. Accord’s people were much the same, but it was very deliberate. Each wore fine clothing, elegant dresses and suits, and each had their hair neatly combed into place, oiled to the point that it looked wet. The ‘costumes’ were in the color of their chosen formal wear and badges or brooches they wore, as well as the finely crafted masks that hid any trace of their real expressions.
“You’re not expecting me to dress like them, are you?”
“No,” Accord said. “Truth be told, I fear you could never meet my standards, and I’m going to do my level best to ignore the fact that you exist. You’ll want to keep to the areas I designate and use the back ways out of the building, so that I never see you.”
“You’re not going to imprison me, are you?”
“No. This is a business transaction. I will give you the opportunity to get back on your feet, you will do what you can to eliminate our mutual enemies, being careful to avoid any damage or criminal activity within my territory, and in exchange, you will give me half your territory when all of this is over. Following such an event, I hope we can avoid any further aggression between us for the future.”
“Sure,” Rey said.
“The individuals in question are Menja, Stormtiger, Cricket, Rune, Othala, Niflheim and Muspelheim. I’ll see you have all available records. Best to enter any confrontation with your eyes wide open.”
“My people will not be available to you, understand. Our bargain presumes you are working alone.”
“You’re quiet. You don’t have questions? Requests?”
“Wouldn’t mind some grass.”
“Turf?”
Rey smirked, “In the slang sense. I meant-”
“Say no more. I understand what you meant. Provided you stay out of my way, you can do whatever you wish in the assigned area. That said, I and my people will not provide intoxicants, and if you are inebriated in any way in my company-”
“It’s fine,” Rey cut in. “I get it.”
“Here. Into the basement,” Accord said.
Accord led the way, and Rey hesitantly followed.
The basement was expansive. There were no walls – only pillars. The floor was concrete covered in a no-slip perforated rubber mat, the various desks were stainless steel, each on wheels that could be locked in place. Each desk, in turn, had glass cabinets or drawers. As far as Rey could see, they were fully stocked.
But it was more than that. Rey was used to the usual labs, which held years of old material. Tools that had long since fallen into disrepair. Trays of solutions that nobody had touched in years, too old to use but too expensive to throw away in good conscience. There were slides that were stained, tools that didn’t always work. Even when he’d started his lab, it had been with tools stolen from his old University, things bought on the cheap.
This? This was a dream. He stepped over to a glass case, large enough to fit a person inside. There was a case attached to one side with room for a solution to be poured in, and what he took to be an attached tank of distilled water, with a control panel to select the rate and degree of mixture. Another tube would vent the contents into a biohazard case.
A glance told him that everything would be here. There were neatly ordered bins of chemicals, tools laid out in neat rows. Everything was pristine. The cages on the other end of the room with the captive animals, even, were clean, with none of the animal scent or vague smell of waste that accompanied such. There were troughs filled with rich smelling earth, thoroughly mixed and free of clumps.
Rey Andino could create life from raw materials, fashion a homunculus from the most basic ingredients and elements. He could make monsters, loyal beings that would do as he wished, with only time and things he’d picked up from a drug store. Faced with this laboratory, he felt small, insignificant. He knew he would soil it, that things would break as he used them. It was wrong.
“Satisfactory?” Accord asked.
“It’ll have to do,” Rey replied, trying to sound casual.
“It will. Now, I’d like you to know that I recently acquired some samples and records. I’d intended to hold on to them as a bargaining chip at a critical moment, or something I might offer you as incentive to leave this city.”
“You’ll find them in the far corner of the room. The computer contains the database and the attached machine arm will withdraw any samples on request.”
“My ambassadors will be taking turns observing you. Short of a critical emergency, they won’t be reporting anything to me. Citrine will be first.”
Rey nodded. He was already heading to the computers, to find what Accord would feel was so powerful or valuable that Rey would leave the city to get his hands on it.
The computer was fast. Rey started to empty his pockets and smooth out the papers with the few blueprints he’d been able to salvage when the white supremacists had come storming through his old lab, and the computer was already idling at the desktop screen by the time he’d finished.
A black window with text in bold white letters showed a menu. Two options:
A: View Database
B: View Samples
He took the first option, typing the letter in the keyboard and striking the enter key.
It was names. Cape names. They kept appearing, so fast he could barely read them, and the window kept scrolling until he hit the enter key again to interrupt it.
He scrolled up until he found one name. He clicked it.
Blasto, Real Name Unknown
Classification: Tinker 6 (sub: master 5, blaster 2, shifter 2, brute 2); plants.
Disposition: Villain (B)
Last Known Location: Boston (Allston area, east).
Crime lord of East Allston since est. date of April 2009. No subordinates. No past history as a subordinate. Criminal history indicates cap of second degree murder, tendency to mass damage to property and persons. Produces uncontrolled lifeforms that are incapable of replication. Adversarial relationship with Accord (#13151), Spree (#14755) and Chain Man (#14114).
Note: High risk of Class-S classification. Should creations self-propagate, kill orders are pre-authorized.
A: More information/History
B: More information/Powers
C: More information/Contact & Network
D: Back
There were signs of degraded data, but it was there. Accord had somehow acquired the PRT’s system data and records on all parahumans they’d encountered.
No big surprises on the possible kill order. He’d been made aware of it some time ago, and had grumbled, groaned and grudgingly avoided making any lifeforms that could breed in the years since.
“How the hell did you get this?” he asked. He turned around.
It wasn’t Accord behind him. It was a young woman in a formal, silk dress, yellow trimmed with gold, and a mask in matching colors. A gemstone stood out on her forehead, with matching earrings dangling from her ears like chandeliers. Her hands were clasped in front of her.
“I didn’t,” she said.
“You’re one of his… what did he call you?”
“His ambassadors.”
“That’s right. Do you have a name?”
“Citrine.”
“Ok. How did he get this?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Because you don’t know or because you won’t say?”
He sighed, turning back to the system. He selected the last option in the menu at the bottom of the page, then reloaded the master list, stopping when it had progressed far enough.
Eidolon. There was a full set of details.
More information? Nothing. Data not found.
Powers? Nothing. Data not found.
Legend was the same.
Maybe someone less prominent. He selected Chevalier and got the standard information. More details.
Powers? He selected the option, and received pages upon pages of testing data. Rey’s eyes pored over the results, soaking them in. It was like reading Shakespeare. One could listen to a line, and be momentarily baffled, but skimming it or assuming a general foundation of knowledge, it was possible to pick up the gist of the message; The underlying meanings, if not the exact definitions of the individual elements.
The work of a tinker wasn’t typical science. Refining it was science, but the blunt, raw use of the power? It was almost the opposite.
Good science meant starting with the conditions, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, and then testing it. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until there was a solid base of knowledge. That knowledge let one establish further conditions, refine hypotheses.
But tinkers started with the end result. A moment of inspiration, glimpses of the major steps one would need to take to get there. It involved working backwards, up until that moment the means came into view. Rey could see it at work, could see Chevalier’s power as raw data, something he could replicate by traveling an entirely different path. He would need a sturdier frame. Something big. This wouldn’t be a hybrid of a stray dog and a plant. This would need to be something closer to a bear.
Or, he realized, a human.
He backed out of Chevalier’s data until he was at the original screen. He checked the samples Accord had provided him with.
Select sub-database:
A) PRT (Protectorate, Wards) samples
B) Non-PRT (evidence database) samples
C) Misc samples
Further investigation revealed the full truth. Accord had gotten his hands on a database of DNA from countless members of the Protectorate and the Wards, as well as scraps of material from certain powers, where traces remained behind.
He selected C, expecting little. His eyes widened.
Many were samples from lifeforms that various tinkers and masters had created. His own were in there. That wasn’t the surprising fact.
He selected the last option on the list. To the right of the computer, in a hermetically sealed case, a robotic arm extended and deposited a microscopic sample on a slide.
A fragment, so small as to be nearly impossible to see, of one of the Simurgh’s feathers.
“You keep making these little oohs and ahhs,” Citrine commented. “It sounds like you’re pleasuring yourself.”
“I am, believe me,” Rey replied, not looking her way. “Where did he get this stuff? Does he even comprehend what he gave me?”
“I’m sure he does.”
He’d considered replicating Chevalier’s power, with a solid enough frame. Maybe a bear, maybe a human. Small potatoes.
He went through the contents he’d unloaded from his pockets until he found a piece of paper he’d folded into an envelope. He tore it open and tapped out the contents.
Each seed was about the size of a pea, tapered at each end, a mottled white-brown. He hurried over to one of the large glass tubes and fiddled with the controls until it started flooding with water.
“Are you one of the talkative ones?” Citrine asked.
“I mean, maybe it’s a dumb question, because you’ve stuck pretty much to monosyllabic grunts since this whole thing started, but I’m wondering if you’re one of the capes that likes to rant or one of the quiet ones.”
“Quiet. Why?”
“Honestly? I’m bored. Not like I can go on Facebook with my smartphone or anything. That sort of thing gets you killed, when you work for Accord.”
“You want me to entertain you?”
“I doubt you’re capable. But you could distract me, help while away the minutes.”
He eyed the woman. Rey wasn’t one of the quiet ones by choice. He’d just fallen into the habit of being alone because it was easier to stay in the lab than it was to be out in the larger world. People in the larger world sucked. Up until the Nazis from Brockton Bay had turned up and claimed the building at the other end of the street from his lab, it had been a place he could retreat. A place where his work and his art could occupy his thoughts and distract him from reality.
Art. It was a good starting point for an explanation, and she was probably the most attractive person he’d spent more than one minute around in the last few months…
He forced a smile. He was a little rusty on that front. “What we do, what tinkers do, it’s more art than science. Every step we take is made with an end goal in mind. Just now, looking over these samples, I think I decided on an end goal.”
“My usual methods, well, you know them. You’ve fought my creations before.”
“These seeds,” he raised one hand, a seed pinched between index finger and thumb, “Are like stem cells. They harbor the potential to become virtually anything. Wherever information is missing, they fill in the gaps.”
“Like using frog DNA for dinosaurs.”
“Like using frog DNA for dinosaurs, right. The way I worked it, they’ll decode the information in a very brute force way. The seed starts by forming two bodies, attached by a central hub. I kill the least viable one, it buds and splits again, with copies that are derivatives of the survivor. Usually two to four. Kill all but one, repeat.”
“Until you have something viable.”
“Exactly! Takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Then I have what’s essentially a plant-animal hybrid, and I nudge it in the direction of my enemies. Or give it simple programming that I can use. Training half-plant rodents to fetch shiny objects, for example.”
“Trade secret,” Rey said. “I’m not dumb. I won’t give away the essentials.”
“Okay. So what’s today’s project?”
“Oh, I’ll have a dozen projects in the work before I let myself go to sleep. But the big one is that I want to replicate an Endbringer.”
He glanced at Citrine, saw that she’d gone still.
“I may need to go talk to Accord,” she said.
“No need,” Rey said. “I suspect he already knows. He gave me these samples, no doubt with the idea that I’d use it.”
“And you can’t even control it? Or he can’t control it? It doesn’t sound like him,” Citrine said.
Rey paused. It didn’t sound like Accord. Was there another explanation?
Accord might be planning on killing him after the project was done. Rey kept his creations in line with pheromones, spraying them liberally around his lab and the surrounding neighborhood. They would move to the nearest unaffected location as soon as they were free. Once he did that to Accord’s home, the place would be rendered immune to his own attacks, at least for a little while.
But it still seemed too reckless for the perfectionist. Was Accord that eager to kill the white supremacists? Or was there another plan in the works?
“You’ve gone quiet,” Citrine said.
“Thinking,” he said. “No, I need things quiet for a minute. There’s a TV in the corner. Watch that.”
“I can’t. Accord would be upset,” the woman in yellow replied.
Rey sighed. He crossed the room to the television, turned it on, set it to mute and turned on the closed captions. “He won’t be upset if I turn it on, will he?”
He returned to the computer and started working with the Simurgh’s tissue. It was hard to cut, and harder still to slice to the point that he could look at it under a microscope.
“Crystalline,” he murmured, as he focused on it. The feathers were like snowflakes when viewed at 40x magnification. He scaled all the way up to 800x magnification before realizing that there were no individual cells.
Was it just the feather? Was it dead tissue, on par with the keratin of fingernails or hair? He used the computer to access a sample of Leviathan’s ‘blood’, and let the hands handle the arrangement of preparing the slide. Being liquid, the blood was easier than the feather.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to use Leviathan’s tissue. Growing a miniature Leviathan in a vat would be a bad idea if that vat was filled with fluid.
Using Behemoth’s tissues would be just as problematic. The Herokiller could ignore the Manton effect at a range of up to thirty-two feet. Even semi-conscious inside a glass case, it was too risky.
Had to be smart about this.
Leviathan’s blood was the same as the feather. Crystals, dense and so opaque that light wouldn’t pass through them.
There were more tissues. Flesh. More blood. Hair. Damaged tissues and intact ones. He went through each.
All of it, the same. Crystals. No individual cells. Even the crystals barely differentiated from one another. Truth was, there was more difference in crystals collected from deeper inside the Endbringer than there was in crystals that had come from different parts of the Endbringer’s body; hair as opposed to blood.
He scraped off a bit of his seed, then added water and the catalysts to splice it with some of the Simurgh’s feather. Sure enough, it started to grow. Each end of the scraping formed into buds, and the buds started to form into basic, foetal shapes, one quadruped, one vaguely humanoid.
But neither lived.
The weaker tissue was easier to work with. Assuming it was deriving patterns from the crystals, insofar as the crystals could create or support life, he could use that to work out the peculiarities of how the Endbringers were able to sustain themselves.
No vascular system, no sign of emergent organs.
Of course the emerging lifeform wasn’t viable. It wasn’t capable of life in the first place.
He’d have to take another route. He withdrew a sample of Myrddin’s tissue, then started splicing it with one seed and the ruined fragments of the Simurgh’s feather.
It was lunacy, tampering with Endbringer-related materials, but he couldn’t shake the idea that he was on to something. He’d sustain the Endbringer tissues with other living tissue that could feed it energy or nutrients. His seeds would bridge the gap. It would take ten or fifteen minutes before he saw any real results. There was other work to do in the meantime.
A sedated monkey plus a sample of his own tissue and one seed, and he had a homunculus in the works. It would be roughly as intelligent as a very stupid person in most respects, but it would share his own understanding of chemistry, biology, science and botany. It would serve as a lab assistant, and he would need one for a lab this big.
The rest of the seeds went into another vat to replicate. He’d need more.
He walked over to the glass tube where the Simurgh-Myrddin-plant hybrid was in the works. One had wings rather than legs. He directed a laser to kill it. The other had four arms, but two resembled wings. It would work. He conducted a charge through the fluid to reset the life cycle. It would split in two or three, and he’d kill the remainder.
Accord must have based this equipment off of the stuff he’d had in his last lab, the one Accord had forcibly ejected him from. The lasers being built into the glass tube were a nice touch, kept everything hermetically sealed.
In a fit of whimsy, he directed the lasers to a pure light form, then had them fire into the glass case itself. Letters lit up, labeling the projects. Regrowth for the plant that was growing and budding with more seeds. Homunculus for the monkey that was gestating in the second tube.
And for his real project? It would have to be something fitting.
Morrígan.
Beautiful. He studied the three foetal forms that were developing inside, killed two, narrowing down the results he wanted. Like pruning branches.
The TV started making noise. Rey wheeled around to see Citrine and one of her fellow ‘ambassadors’ standing in front of the TV. The man in the suit with a green dress shirt and a copper lizard mask was the one turning up the volume.
“I’m trying to work here,” Rey said.
“Something’s going on. Look,” the man spoke.
Rey impatiently left his work behind. If he waited too long, a bad growth could be carried on to the young. Wouldn’t do.
The TV showed a reporter talking. Why was he supposed to care?
Then it changed to a camera view of an ongoing conflict. Three gigantic armored suits were in open conflict with a small group of people.
The Slaughterhouse Nine. Here, in Boston.
One of the suits was deploying swarms of drones, but they were getting cut out of the air as fast as they appeared. Another member of the Nine had a loose-fitting coat of human flesh draped over him. He stretched it out to grab surrounding buildings and anchor himself in place as a mechanical lizard with a giant wheel on its back tried to haul him in with what looked to be an immense suction.
The Siberian had made contact with and was tearing apart a third suit.
A suit high in the air fired off a laser beam, and the Siberian jumped to put herself in the line of fire.
Whatever happened next, the camera didn’t catch it. The concussive force of the laser hitting was enough to knock the cameraman over, and the image shorted out.
Rey sniffed. He’d like to see more of Dragon’s work, not because it had anything in common with his own, but because it was good work. But for now, his focus was on his projects.
With a quick glance, he assessed and executed two homunculus-offshoots and one derivative of the Morrígan. Electrical charges restarted the gestation process.
The thing was starting to resemble the Simurgh, though both feathers and hair were brown-black in color, it was hermaphroditic and the flesh was more translucent than white. Veins stood out.
Rey studied it while the thing cracked in the middle, the individual halves separating with a thread of flesh between them. Each of the halves began dissolving and forming anew.
If it was even half as powerful as the real Simurgh… well, this would be a game-changer.
And Accord had to know that. Had to be aware that Rey would be working with the Endbringer tissues on this level.
It wasn’t as though the method of control was that difficult to master. One set of pheromones would make the creation feel fond of something, the other would have an negative effect, drive them away from a person or area. Still another would provoke feelings of anger or hatred, useful if he wanted to bid them to attack.
If Accord found the pheromones, he could be rid of Rey, and he’d have whatever creations Rey had put together in the meantime.
It would be at least a day before the Morrígan was fully grown. He had that long to think of an answer.
The door slammed shut. Citrine had gone upstairs. The lizard-masked man watched the television.
Time passed, and he watched the results with interest. The Morrígan was now forming with two arms, two legs, and vestigal wings. He let it develop to the point that it was roughly two months old, then killed the offshoots. He started running x-ray scans and doing biopsies, picking through the results to fine tune the internal changes and monitor how much of the lifeform was Simurgh, versus being Myrddin or plant-based. He was judicious and merciless in executing the offshoots, keeping them from growing to a point where there was even a chance of them being sentient.
The lifeform did, he noted with some pleasure, have a Corona Pollentia; a lobe in the brain that would allow for powers if it developed fully.
While the man watched the unfolding news, Rey took the opportunity to brew and spray himself with a set of pheromones. His creations would be more favorably inclined towards him now.
The door at the top of the stairs closed. He turned to see that the lizard-man was being relieved. Had that much time passed already?
“You being good?” the woman asked. She wore a black evening gown with a slit all the way up to her hip. It would have been alluring, but her mask was black, with black lenses and spikes radiating from the edges. Her brooch was of a black star.
“Making headway,” Rey responded.
“One of your fucked up creations broke my leg last year. Please give me an excuse to hurt you. Please.”
“I’ll pass,” Rey said, turning his attention to the homunculus. He calibrated the signal, pressing two electrodes to his own forehead, then sent the readings out to his creation.
When it was done, he drained the fluid and vented the chamber. The glass sank into the floor, and the homunculus crawled out, using its knuckles to walk. Its skin was peeling, more like loose bark crossed with scar tissue than flesh.
“You retain any English?” He asked.
The homunculus nodded.
“Spanish?”
Another nod.
“Go dispose of the slides. Consider everything a top priority biohazard.”
The homunculus found a pair of rubber gloves and began cleaning up the mess from the early experiments.
Rey studied the Morrígan. Alarms were set to go off if it approached one month of age. With Myrddin’s brain tissues and the current state of growth in Simurgh-derived parts, there was little to no chance that it would achieve any degree of self awareness.
A glance out the window that overlooked the street showed that it was getting dark. He’d been here all day.
The door slammed at the top of the stairs. He sighed in irritation. Time was passing too quickly. Would this one threaten his life too?
There was a crash, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He wheeled around.
The woman with the black dress had slammed into the television set. She had holes in her as though she were a piece of Swiss cheese, and more of her had been torn to shreds.
A body fell down the stairs. The man with the lizard mask. Dead, though not so mutilated.
The woman who came down the stairs had an unusual body type accented by her style of dress. She was almost like a boy, she was so thin, and her strapless dress hugged her upper body, but the lower half billowed around her. Her hair was long and white, her eyes wide with irises and pupils small. Her lips had been painted black.
Her arms though… machinery had been crammed into the arms, and they’d been extended to nearly twice the length, the fingers drawn out long. Sparks flew as the woman moved one arm, and she winced.
The second individual skipped down the stairs, stopping at the bottom to admire the laboratory.
Her eyes fell on Rey.
“I know you!” she said.
“I know you too, Bonesaw,” he said. Without breaking eye contact, he tapped a key on the computer, prompting a flood of nutrients into the Morrígan’s solution.
“Nice lab.”
“It’s not mine.”
“Man, it’s… this is nice stuff. Being constantly on the move, you miss out on stuff like this.”
“My old lab wasn’t this good,” he said. Make small talk. “Who’s that?”
“Damsel of Distress, with some modifications by yours truly. Damsel for short. Better at controlling her power now.”
“Hi Damsel.”
Damsel looked at him, spoke in a whisper he couldn’t make out.
“And who’s this?” Bonesaw asked. She approached the glass case with the Morrígan inside.
“Looks like the Simurgh.”
“She is. In part. The other half of the genetic base is from Myrddin’s tissue. Everything that bridges the gap is a really complex fungus.”
“Cripes. How do you even manage something like that?”
“Trade secret,” he said. He watched as Damsel approached the widescreen TV, picked it up where it had fallen to the ground, and held it in front of her, staring at the image, no doubt some mention of what the other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine were up to in Boston.
“I’ll get the answer out of you, you know.”
“I know,” Rey admitted. “But I wouldn’t be a self-respecting tinker if I didn’t at least pretend to protect my work.”
Bonesaw turned her attention to the homunculus. She poked it in the stomach and it growled at her in response.
If he let the Morrígan out now… Bonesaw was staring at the homunculus, and Damsel was focused on the TV…
But it would die if he let it go now. It was too young. Every two or three seconds it sat in the high-nutrient solution would be a week of growth. He’d need it at least at four or five years of age before it was capable of moving and acting, and he’d still be depending on it having powers rather than a defunct corona pollentia.
He’d never experienced a stronger emotion than he did when he saw another set of feet appear at the top of the stairs. They made their way down, and each step brought more of the figure into view. If it was another member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, he’d die. If it was one of Accord’s ambassadors…
He’d probably still die. But there’d be a chance.
It was neither.
The man reached the bottom of the stairs, turned his head to survey the scene. He wore a visor that combined the movable visor of a knight’s helm with a high-tech equivalent, and the points where they met his helmet were shaped like a lizard’s frill or a dragon’s wing. He held out a rod in one hand, and it unfolded into a spear of ridiculous length.
The lizard theme… if the machines Rey had seen fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine were Dragon’s, was this one of her assistants? Someone working under her?
Or her?
Damsel wheeled around, extended one hand, but the man in armor was quick to step around a pillar for cover. Damsel’s power ripped into the pillar, warping and tearing space in a chaotic storm.
The man in armor ducked and rolled to reach the next piece of cover, one of the stainless steel desks. He arrested his momentum with one outstretched arm, then kicked the desk with both feet. It slammed into Damsel.
He hopped onto his feet in a single movement, slashing with the spear’s point. The tip struck Damsel across the eyes, blinding her. He reversed the spear and swung it, and the spear-butt caught her in the side of the head. She was knocked down onto all fours before she could direct her power at him again.
The man dug the spear’s point into the ground to help propel himself towards her. His leg flared with a gray blur as he reached her, and be brought it down onto her back from above.
It sheared through her as though she weren’t even there, cutting her in half. He kicked out to obliterate her head and one of her shoulders in a single movement, disabled the gray blur, and set his foot down with a thud that rang through the underground laboratory.
Bonesaw didn’t seem disturbed by the loss of her teammate. “Don’t think I don’t recognize you. You were Mannequin’s pick. Armsman? Armsmaster?”
The man in armor pointed his spear at her. “Defiant now.”
“You know I loaded myself with a mess of epidemics, Defiant,” Bonesaw said. “You kill me like that and I’ll explode into a cloud of a bajillion plagues. It can’t be easy.”
“It is,” Defiant’s voice was distorted by his helmet, vaguely computerized. There was a processor at work somewhere there, Rey observed.
“What, you’ll unleash a thousand plagues on this world to finish me off? Me? A little girl?” Bonesaw smiled wide.
“You’ll get sick.”
“Biohazard safe,” Defiant said. His spear shaft tapped against his armor.
“He’ll die in a hundred horrible ways,” Bonesaw said, pointing at Rey.
“Villain. Acceptable loss.”
“And the people in this neighborhood?”
“I scanned the area. There is zero air flow in or out of this lab. It’s quarantine-safe.”
“So you’ve got all this figured out, don’t you?”
Bonesaw glanced over her shoulder at Rey, “You-”
Defiant moved so fast that Rey couldn’t follow the movement. The spear impaled the girl in the chest. The heart.
“Ugh, fuck me,” Bonesaw grunted.
Defiant swung the spear to one side and slammed her into the wall, knocking chemicals and vials off of every shelf unit she hit on the way.
“Why-” Bonesaw started.
Defiant raised the spear and her sentence was interrupted as her head cracked against the ceiling. He drove the spear toward the ground with just as much force.
“Why…” Bonesaw spat blood onto the ground. Being impaled in the heart hadn’t put her down. “Ow. Bit my tongue. Why don’t you come closer, big man? Too scared to come here and finish me off?”
Defiant didn’t respond. Instead, he struck her against the wall again, then shoved the spear point into a set of stainless steel shelves. Pieces of the empty glass beakers rained onto the ground beneath her dangling feet.
“Coward!” she taunted him.
Rey glanced nervously toward the door. Would it be better to run or to stay?
The girl reached forward, clutching the shaft of the spear. She began pulling herself forward, hauling the spear’s shaft through the hole in her chest as she closed the distance inches at a time.
She smiled as she did it.
Blades sprung from the length of the shaft, and began spinning like propellers One caught her from behind, and she slid forward, only to find herself sandwiched between two such sets.
“That’s Mannequin’s trick! That’s so cute, that you’re copying-”
Defiant moved the spear, and Bonesaw was thrown back, her hair and back caught against the blades. She used her hands to pull herself forward so she was clear, maintaining a grip even as he swept the spear to one side again, keeping herself fixed at the same point on the pole’s length.
“Hey, plant geek!” Bonesaw had to raise her voice to be heard, “He kills me, you die! Think about that!”
Rey glanced at Defiant. There wasn’t an opening or anything that suggested at the man inside. Only armor, implacable, unrelenting, driven.
Then he looked at the girl, half-hidden behind the blur of the spinning blades.
“Okay,” Rey said.
He wanted to live. Wanted nothing more than to go on to do his research, maybe one day find greatness, find a woman who could appreciate him. Have kids.
But he wanted her to live even less than he wanted any of that. Because he could well and truly believe that she would do more harm in her life than any good he could do in his.
“Okay,” he repeated. I can live with that.
There was a crunching sound, and Defiant snapped his head over to look at Bonesaw.
She spat, and smoke billowed where the spit came in contact with the blades.
One flew off and sailed across the room to strike a cage with animals inside. The mechanism that was keeping the blades in motion ceased.
With nothing impeding her line of sight to Defiant, Bonesaw crunched again. Smoke billowed from her mouth as acid ate away at her flesh, she leaned back as if she were preparing to spit a loogie-
And Defiant disabled the propeller behind her, swinging the weapon and flinging her free of the end.
She touched ground and spat out a mouthful of acid onto the floor. It smoked on contact with the concrete.
“No,” Defiant said. He took two steps forward and swiped with the spear, cutting her in half.
Almost in half. Something like chainmail was wrapped around her spine, but the spear had cut through the matching mesh that had protected her abdominal organs.
Defiant turned to catch a mechanical spider that was making its way down the stairs. He impaled it and dashed it to pieces. Another thrust killed one that was hiding inside an air vent.
Bonesaw crawled forward, dragging her spine and ruined midsection apart from her legs. There wasn’t as much blood as there should have been. “Not… done.”
She clawed into her apron for vials, threw them across the room. Defiant backed away as they exploded into clouds of white. As they spread, Defiant was reduced to a mere silhouette.
You’re in an augmented biohazard suit, Rey thought. He eyed Bonesaw as she clawed her way in his general direction. Come through!
But Defiant had other ideas. Maybe he had a degree of familiarity with the white powder, knew what it was and that it had to be avoided.
Maybe there was something else at play. Another member of the Slaughterhouse Nine in the area?
Bonesaw was getting closer. Rey backed away.
She looked up at him. Dark circles were already spreading around her eyes, her face paling. She looked gaunt. And she held a vial. She tried to claw the cork off and failed.
If he stepped closer, she’d do something to him, but if he didn’t try to stop her-
On the second try, the cork came free. She pushed it in Rey’s direction, and he was quick to kick it into the cloud of white to his right.
But the fluid that had trailed out as it rolled was smoking, just under his feet. He had nowhere to go.
He lunged, leaping onto one of the shelving units to keep from passing anywhere near Bonesaw.
Something snagged on his foot. He toppled to the ground.
Looking back, he could see her spine was prehensile, and that it had caught his foot, winding around the bridge of it. The sheath is hiding more machinery.
The white smoke was congealing into strands of gunk that cut off the end of the room closest to the stairwell. Defiant was caught in the midst of it, and was slowly tearing himself free.
No. No.
Rey tried to kick her off, but that only served to let her get a grip on his other foot. She began clawing her way up his legs.
He reached for the keyboard, pulled it down from the shelf it sat on. It dangled above his head, and he pressed it against the wall, tapped the keys to open the tube that held the Morrígan.
He hadn’t drained the water, and the fluid began to flow onto the ground as the glass sank into the floor.
Bonesaw had climbed up to his chest, and it was only his struggles that kept her from reaching any higher. He clawed at her hands, and she wasn’t that strong, but she was tenacious, and she used her prehensile spine to secure any progress she made.
Three limbs against his two. He tried to stand, failed. Too much weight in the wrong places, and he couldn’t use his hands.
The water finished pouring out, and the Morrígan took its first steps. Five or six years old in apparent age, a vague replica of the Simurgh. It would have some blend of her powers and Myrddin’s.
Too busy looking at his creation, he was caught off guard as Bonesaw got hold of his throat with one hand. She hauled herself up until her entire upper body was resting on his chest. The sheath that had been around her spine pressed up against his face as the bone and attached machinery passed into his open mouth and down his throat. His throat was scraped raw by the edges of it.
He choked, fought for breath, found none.
The Morrígan flopped to the ground. Dead. Dumb. Not viable.
Just as the crystalline feather and Leviathan’s blood had been, it wasn’t capable of sustaining life. A failed experiment.
Needles punched their way out of Bonesaw’s spine, found his own. In one instant, he lost all sensation below his neck.
In the next, she was making him move, pulling him to his feet. His head craned toward the ceiling, mouth forced open, blood trickling onto his face as the full weight of her upper body came to rest on his head.
“Just got a fresh pair of hands, and this happens,” she muttered. “Do you know how long it’s going to take to find and transplant a good pair of legs?”
She bid his hands to move as though they were her own. At her will, he typed on the computer. At her bidding, he turned his body to give her a better look at Defiant’s progress, threw another vial at the man.
Back to the computer.
“Samples. Evidence,” Bonesaw murmured. He could feel the vibrations of her voice against his face. The air that was flowing from a tube by her spine and into his lungs was stagnant and foul, but she bid him to breathe and he breathed.
“Crawler,” she said. There was a whir. She used his hand to shatter the glass case that held the samples, and he groaned in pain as the shards cut it. She made him grab the sample from the robotic claw’s grip. “Mannequin.”
She gathered the samples in her own hands while she used his hands to type and select the options.
“Burnscar, Shatterbird… surprising how much DNA we’ve left on crime scenes. Winter… Chuckles…”
Defiant roared. He growled words, as if speaking to himself.
“Nice Guy, Murder Rat, Hatchet Face. We’ve gone through a lot of members,” she said, while depositing each sample in a plastic case. “Screamer, Harbinger, King.”
Rey choked, tried to choke. He could control his head, his mouth. If he passed out, would his body fail? Would she fail?
“Pity I can’t use this lab,” Bonesaw said. “Make the cloning process that much easier. But I’ve seen your work. I think I can replicate it. Helps if I have this…”
She had him tap a key, and he could hear the water flowing as another of the glass cases started to move. The Regrowth tube. The seeds.
“Didn’t think we’d get this lucky,” she said. “Jack said that since the world isn’t ending like it was supposed to, he wants to hurry it along. We did our research, and decided to track down some decent tinkers, and you were closest. Only problem with entering any metropolis like this is security cameras… Oooh! Gray Boy! He was one of Jack’s first teammates! You wouldn’t believe the stories Jack tells about him.”
Another sample was collected and deposited in the box.
She stopped, and turned toward the Morrígan. He could feel his blood run cold.
“Nah,” Bonesaw said. “Even I’m not that crazy.”
She had him tap keys on the keyboard, and a laser fired from the top of the case that had held the Morrígan. He couldn’t see, but he could smell the burning flesh.
The box of samples tucked under one arm, she walked Rey to the door that led out of the back of the basement. The one Rey had been ordered to use when coming and going, out of Accord’s sight.
He couldn’t lose hope. Defiant would have come on an armored suit. If that suit was positioned to survey the area, if Defiant had contacted Dragon, ordered an airstrike or even just reinforcements-
No. There was a ladder on the other side of the doorway, leading down into a pitch darkness.
She turned in Defiant’s direction, and Rey caught a glimpse of the hero. He was still caught, and though the blur around his leg was cutting him free, goop was streaming down from the ceiling to connect to his upper body, and he couldn’t destroy that with a ready kick.
She had Rey grip the rungs of the ladder, and they slid down into the pitch black.
“I failed,” Defiant said.
“You hurt her. If anyone failed, it was me,” Dragon replied. “I couldn’t break away from the fight.”
Mist emanated from her robotic body, dissolving the strings of slime that had congealed around him. Her hand settled on the side of his face.
“Did we gain anything?”
“I’ll show you in a minute. Are you okay?”
“Need more tech. Nanomolecular thorns for my arms. It would have made the difference.”
“We can figure something out. But are you okay?”
“I suppose so. Where do we stand?”
“Two suits destroyed. And we don’t yet know what Bonesaw took with her. Jack escaped with some of his team. But we killed four of them, all together.”
“Four,” he said. “We should mobilize now. There’s a limit to how fast and how far they can move, especially with the wounded. Bonesaw went into the subway system, and it will take time for her to get free, but if she gets in contact with their new teleporter-“
“We’ll mobilize as soon as I’ve freed you, Colin. If I don’t use this body, you’ll be left behind, and neither of us want that.”
“Better that you give chase.”
“We’re doing okay. We’re closing the gap. They showed up on camera, and we were ready to move on them within minutes. We’ll do it again.”
Colin nodded, but he didn’t respond.
She settled her arms around his shoulders, letting the spray do its work. The metal of her forehead touched his mask. “Take it for what it is. A little lost, a lot gained.”
It took thirty more seconds for the foam to dissolve. She broke the hug and he tore himself free of the scraps. They were out of the basement and walking through the ruined interior of Accord’s household in moments.
They stepped outside into the evening air. Colin let the vents in his costume open so the cool air could flow through. Dragon luxuriated in the feel of the air against her exterior body.
Her hand caught his as they walked to where the Uther and her own suit were waiting.
Colin stopped in his tracks. Dragon’s suit was posed with its head pointing toward the sky. The suit’s metal jaws were clamped around a body.
Manton.
“The Siberian is dead?”
“Gone would be a more appropriate word,” she said. “Manton is dead.”
Colin nodded and exhaled slowly. “Good work.”
“The job’s not over yet.”
The Uther’s cabin doors opened to invite him in.
Posted in 19.x (Donation Bonus #1) | Tagged Accord, Armsmaster, Blasto, Bonesaw, Citrine, Defiant, Dragon, Jack Slash, Siberian | 207 Replies
Scourge 19.1
The school’s bell tolled, oddly deep, with an echo that continued, unending. I couldn’t see it through the cloudy haze that consumed my vision, but I felt as though the lockers were straining against their hinges in keeping with the rhythm. The same went for the floor tiles, and the hundreds of footfalls of the students milling around me. A pounding rhythm.
I couldn’t keep my footing. I was blind, still, but that wasn’t the source of the problem. It seemed vaguely familiar, the way every impact seemed designed to hit me where it hurt, to knock me off-balance and leave me in a state where I was spending too much time reeling and staggering to push back or find safety.
Someone tall shoved past me, and his bag caught on my nose. It tore at the skin between the nostrils, and I could feel warm blood fountaining from the wound. I staggered, bending over with my hands to my face, and someone walked straight into me, as though they didn’t know I was there. My head hit a locker and I fell. Someone stepped on my hand as their vague shape walked by, and I could hear something break, could feel it break. The pain dashed all rational thought from my mind.
I screamed, brought my hand to my chest, cradling it. I was tougher than that, wasn’t I? I wasn’t made of glass, to have bone fracture or-
“You’re so pathetic, Taylor,” Emma intoned.
No. Not now. Not like this.
I could hear Madison tittering. Sophia was silent, and her presence was all the more ominous for it. I’d done something reprehensible to her. I couldn’t recall what it was, but I knew she was here for retaliation.
They struck me, and I fell. Emma and Madison took turns kicking me, and every effort I made to defend myself fell short. It wasn’t just that I didn’t know how to fight, or that I was blind. It was somehow worse, as though every effort I made were being actively punished.
I’d reach out with my good hand to grab one of them and pull them off their feet, and my elbow would get stepped on, forcing it to bend the wrong way. I tried to push myself to a standing position, only for someone to kick me in the back, slamming my chest and face into the tile, hard.
I tried to speak and a kick caught me in the throat.
And all around me, there was the steady rhythm of footsteps and the bell’s echo.
The point was clear. I was supposed to give up. I really should have given up.
If I wasn’t able to do something on my own, maybe a weapon? Some tool? My thoughts were confused and disordered, but I searched through them, as if I could remember if I’d stashed some tool or weapon on my person.
No, something else, I was supposed to have another weapon, though my instinct told me it wasn’t anywhere I could reach, and that was normal. I searched for it-
The scene was visible through a thousand times a thousand eyes, the colors strangely muted in favor of texture, the images blurring except where they moved, when they became oddly sharp.
Tattletale managed to leap back from the metal walkway as Noelle lunged and caught on the fixture. As Noelle fell, her claws scraping gouges into the concrete walls, the walkway was pulled free. Tattletale had put herself in one of the rooms that extended off the walkway. Coil’s room. There was a doorway to nowhere between herself and Noelle, surrounded by concrete walls that were two or three feet thick at their narrowest point.
Most of the construction of this place had taken place after Coil had found out about Noelle. He’d known there was the possibility that she would go rogue.
Tattletale stepped up to the doorway, drew her gun, and fired, gunning down a Grue that had been vomited out. Blood spattered and he went limp.
-and I couldn’t find anything. I was unarmed here.
One kick caught me in between the eyebrows, and my head exploded with pain.
That spooked me. I had to protect my head. If I suffered another concussion…
That was the breaking point. My brain was more important than whatever else I was trying to protect. Anything else was fixable. I stopped fighting back, tucking battered legs against my bruised upper body, drawing my hands around my head.
Immediately, the assault stopped being an attempt to break me and destroy my every effort to stand up for myself. It became something more tolerable, with periodic kicks and stomps instead. The accompanying shame and humiliation was almost nostalgic. Horrible, but familiar.
Then Sophia stepped close, and I felt something sliding beneath my hands and arms, settling around my neck. A noose. She used it to lift me, choking, off the ground.
Madison opened the locker, and the rancid smell of it wafted around me. I would have gagged if I could breathe.
Sophia shoved me inside, planting one foot between my shoulder blades as she hauled back on the rope. My unbroken fingers scrabbled for purchase, found only trash and cotton that tore when I tried to grab it. Bugs bit at my flesh and there was nothing I could do to stop them.
Bugs? There was something I thought I should know, something-
The bugs observed as Tattletale pulled the pin from a grenade. She waited while it sat in her hand. It was dangerous and reckless to ‘cook’ a grenade like they did in the movies, but then again, this was Tattletale. It fit with her nature, and if anyone knew how long the fuse really was, it was her. She tossed it down to where Noelle lurked below.
The grenade detonated just before it made contact, billowing with smoke and radiating enough heat to kill the bugs that were finding their way into the underground base. Other bugs could see the shifting radiance of the flames.
Tattletale shouted, “Rachel! Now!”
-that eluded me, like the water that escaped the ever-thirsty Tantalus.
As I scrabbled for purchase, the contents of the locker shifted, falling and collapsing against me, pressing tight against my body, smelling like old blood and rancid flesh.
My heart skipped a few beats and I felt as though my blood was turning to sludge in my veins, slowing down. My thoughts dissolved into a slush of memories, speeding through my life in choppy, fragmented, distorted images. I felt momentarily disembodied, as though the line between myself and my surroundings, my mind and my feelings were all blended in together.
When it pulled back, I could finally breathe. I let out a deep, shuddering breath. I could breathe. I could think again.
I heard the sound of blades rasping against one another, the ringing of steel building with each repetition of the sound. I blinked, and the blind haze lifted as though I’d only had tears in my eyes.
Mannequin stood in the center of the room. He had four arms, each ending in three-foot blades, and was sharpening each weapon against the others without pause.
Around him, the factory. Machinery churned, pumps and pistons and levers moved, and furnaces glowed to cast long shadows, casting Mannequin in a crimson light. The people from my territory were there too, along with Sierra, Charlotte, Lisa, Brian, Rachel, my dad, and my teachers. Each of them fought to hide in the shadows and the corners, but there wasn’t enough room.
I carefully assessed the tools I had at my disposal. My gun, my knife, my baton. In a more general sense, there were my bugs. I called for them-
Tattletale jerked toward the doorway, stopped as one arm stretched behind her with a clink. She’d handcuffed herself to a length of chain, fastening that chain to a rubber-sheathed cluster of wires at the far end of the room. Tattletale’s free hand gripped her gun, pointed it at something narrow… The bugs who were touching the object in question were being absorbed, dying. It was one of Noelle’s tongues, wrapped around Tattletale’s waist.
The gunshot went off, severing the tongue, and the chain went slack. Tattletale dropped to her knees, pressing her gun hand to her shoulder.
The three largest dogs attacked. Bitch sent three, and the result was predictable. Noelle absorbed them as they made contact, though each dog was nearly a third of her own size. Her flesh stretched thin around the mass of each dog, then stretched thinner as they started to swell in size.
Noelle’s flesh crept over them faster than they grew. The growth ceased the instant the flesh finished enveloping them, and their struggles slowed. It took long seconds for them to stop struggling, but each dog eventually went limp.
Tattletale and Rachel watched as two figures stepped out from behind Noelle. Regent and a Skitter. Me.
Regent whipped his head up in Tattletale’s direction, and she dropped her gun. As her good hand snapped up to her throat, gripping it, it became apparent that dropping the gun had been quite intentional. If she’d been holding it-
The perspective of the scene shifted abruptly as the Skitter bid every bug in the area, Noelle’s included, to turn toward Rachel.
Rachel clenched her fists.
-and barely any responded. A hundred? If that? The heat of the furnaces killed many of the ones who were trying to approach. It left me with a mere thirty-nine bugs. I might as well have been unarmed.
Mannequin extended one arm with the blade outstretched, pointing at the crowd. His ‘eyes’ were on me as he did so, moving the blade slowly. Pointing at faces that were familiar, but who I couldn’t name.
Pointing at my dad.
And there was nothing I could do to save him. Not saving him wasn’t an option, either. I drew my gun, fired.
Only one bullet in the chamber. There was a sound as it hit Mannequin, but he barely reacted as he turned toward my father.
I drew my knife and baton, charging.
Futile. He ignored me completely, raising one hand and then stabbing down. I couldn’t even look at what was happening. Refused to look.
I struck Mannequin, aiming for the joints, the small of his back, his hips and knees. Nothing worked.
Without even looking, Mannequin reached over to one side and thrust one blade at me. His weapon penetrated my armor like it was Armsmaster’s special halberd.
I screamed, but it was more rage than pain. I howled like I might against a hurricane, a storm that was destroying everything I loved, that I was helpless to fight. I battered him, struck him with my weapons, gave everything I had and more, to no avail.
He folded his arms around me in a bear hug, squeezed, crushed.
More of him folded around me, pulling tight against my head, my throat, arms, chest and legs.
My life flashed before my eyes, every event, every memory and recalled feeling distilled into a single point.
When the crushing sensation passed, I was left standing, disoriented, in the middle of a flooded ruin.
The momentary relief faded swiftly.
All around me, desolation. Blasted buildings, bodies, flooded streets. Graffiti covered the walls around me, the letter-number combination ‘s9’ repeated in endless permutations and styles.
I flinched as an explosion took the top off a building two blocks away. Blue flames roared on the upper floors.
I couldn’t breathe. My skin prickled, burned, just on contact with the air. I felt nauseous, disoriented.
Radiation? Plague?
A fleet of cockroaches scurried over one of the nearby ruins, like cattle stampeding away.
They were fleeing from something. Multiple somethings.
I took cover.
The voice might have been sing-song if it weren’t for the filter that reduced it to a mechanical hiss.
“Where are you?” another voice echoed the first. Younger, female. A girl’s giggle followed.
“Hush, Bonesaw,” Jack’s voice reached me, like a sibilant whisper in my ear. The water that flooded the streets served as a surface for the sound to bounce off of, letting it carry throughout the area.
My costume was more tatters than actual fabric. It wasn’t like there were spiders anymore. Only cockroaches, and fewer than I might hope. The water that flooded the streets wasn’t so kind to them.
“What game shall we play today?” Bonesaw asked. “Did you make anything? Please tell me you made something.”
“I did,” Bakuda responded. “I borrowed from your work for this one.”
They were close. Nine of them. I couldn’t run without making noise.
The cockroaches, then. I reached for them-
“Regent,” Noelle gasped out the word. She was far bigger than she had been before. “Come.”
Regent hesitated, gave her a sidelong glance.
“Come!” she roared.
He reluctantly obeyed. She raised one massive limb, slammed it into the wall where the walkway had once been attached. The mutant Regent clambered up her arm to the doorway.
That would be the doorway that leads to the corridor with the cells.
The same cells where Shatterbird was in sound proof containment.
Tattletale had descended to the ground floor and was backing up as two Skitters and a Grue approached, with Bentley advancing to her side. Rachel was prone, lying at the point where the wall met the floor, with Bastard on the ground and pressed up against her, as if he were using his bulk to keep the worst of the bugs from reaching her. Her other dogs were smaller. Big, but much smaller than they could be.
“You take fliers, I take ground?” one Skitter asked the other.
“Mm-hmm,” the other Skitter grunted her reply.
“Have to share, be smart about this one. Grue, hang back. She might try pulling something,” Skitter One ordered. “Harder to make a counter-plan against bugs.”
“Me? Pull something?” Tattletale asked. She was cradling one arm, and covered in vomit. Judging by the body parts that surrounded her, Bentley had taken apart the clones that Noelle had vomited at her.
“Yeah, you,” Skitter One said. “You’re the type, aren’t you? Awfully fond of keeping secrets for someone who calls themselves Tattletale. Keeping secrets from me, even at the best of times. Even though you knew what I’d gone through.”
“I’ve been pretty open,” Tattletale said. She retreated a step, and Bentley advanced. The swarm stirred around the two Skitters and the Grue.
“You haven’t mentioned your trigger event, have you? Perfectly happy to dig through other people’s sordid pasts, but you won’t get into your own darkest moment.”
“Really not that interesting,” Tattletale said.
Skitter One’s voice was thick with restrained emotion. “It’s still a betrayal, staying silent. How can we have a partnership, a friendship, without equity?”
“Maybe. I think you’re exaggerating. Does the other Skitter have any input? Awfully quiet.”
Skitter Two made a growling sound that might have sent a small dog running for cover. “I’m the quiet type.”
“That you are,” Tattletale said.
“No commentary? No manipulations?” Skitter One asked. “Nothing nasty to say, to throw us off-balance?”
“You’re already off-balance enough. Besides, I don’t think anything I had to say would get through. How can I target your weak points when you’re nothing but?”
“That so?” Skitter One asked. “Doesn’t happen often, does it? You’re not as cocky, now. Do you feel scared?”
“Just a bit,” Tattletale said. She’d backed up enough that she’d reached the wall. The mangled staircase stretched out beside her, almost entirely torn free of the wall.
“Why don’t we turn the tables, then? Let’s see how I do, trying to fuck with your head,” Skitter One suggested.
“I’ll pass. Bentley, attack!”
The dog hesitated, hearing the command from an unfamiliar person, but he did obey. Skitter Two ran towards him, surrounding herself with crawling bugs. At the last second, she took a sharp left, sending a mass of bugs flowing to the right.
Bentley managed to follow her, struck her with his front paws, and shattered her legs. Skitter One’s flying swarm flew over him, and began binding him with threads of silk. It was too little, a distraction at best.
Tattletale fired her gun, and Skitter One went down. The bullet didn’t make for an instant kill, and the bugs continued doing their work. Tattletale thrashed as the bugs started to cluster on her, took aim again-
And the Grue swept darkness over Skitter One. She disintegrated, reappeared as the darkness sloshed against the far wall.
Teleporting things via his darkness. As divergences from the base powerset went, it was pretty extreme.
“Heroes are on their way!” Skitter One shouted to Noelle, one hand pressed to the flowing chest wound.
I could sense them, observing with the same bugs that Skitter One was using. Tattletale had left each of the doors unlocked as she’d made her way into the base, and Miss Militia was leading a squadron of Protectorate members and her Wards through the series of rooms and tunnels.
More bugs sought Rachel out, and she kicked her legs at the gap where they were flowing in beneath the left side of Bastard’s stomach.
Shatterbird appeared in the doorway at the end of the tunnel. She was holding the Regent-clone by the throat. She pushed him forward and let his limp body fall. It landed in the heaping mass of Noelle’s flesh.
Shatterbird panted, her face was beaded with sweat, and it wasn’t related to the scene she was looking at, not the underground base filled with flesh and bodies. Her hand shook as she pushed her hair out of her face. Emotion?
Miss Militia chose that moment to open the door. She, like Shatterbird, stared at the scene, but she was distracted as she was forced to grab the door frame to avoid stepping out onto the ruined walkway.
Tattletale’s voice was muffled by the bugs that were crawling on her face. To actually open her mouth, in the face of all that, I wasn’t sure I could have done it. I knew better than she did what the result might be, but… yeah.
But she did it. Tattletale opened her mouth and shouted, “Shut the door!”
Miss Militia moved to obey. Too late.
Shatterbird screamed, using her power of her own free will for the first time since we’d captured her.
-and the cockroaches obeyed. They formed a rough human shape, then another. Swarm-clones, as close as I could get to making them, without a concealing costume for my real self.
And the Nine didn’t fall for it. Bakuda turned my way, and I belatedly remembered the heat-tracking goggles. She could follow me by my body heat.
I ran, and I knew it was futile.
Night caught up to me first. It would have been a simple matter for her to kill me right then, but she had different aims. Her claw cut at the back of my legs, and I fell, crippled. My fear pushed the pain into a distant second place on my priority list.
In a matter of moments, I was surrounded. Night at one side of me, Crawler on the other. Jack, Bonesaw, Siberian, Bakuda, Shatterbird, Burnscar and Panacea.
It was Weld who seized my wrists.
“Run,” I tried to warn him, but the words didn’t reach him. Fluid bubbled out of my lips, and it came out as a mumble. The radiation? Plague? Had Bonesaw or Panacea done something to me without my knowledge?
He said something I couldn’t make out. It sounded like I was underwater.
Then he pulled.
He wasn’t gentle about it. He threw me over one of his shoulders with enough force that bile rose in my throat and the sharper parts of his shoulders poked at my stomach. I tried to move my hand to raise my mask, so I wouldn’t choke if I threw up, but my arm didn’t respond.
My head swam, and half of my attempts to breathe were met with only chokes and wet coughs.
Was this another delusion? A dream? Could I afford to treat it as though it was?
I was still blind, but my power was waking up. I could feel the bugs in the area, and I was getting a greater picture of the surroundings as my range slowly extended.
Shatterbird was still perched in that doorway-turned window. Noelle was beneath her, and I had only the bug-sight to view her with. Her already grotesque form was distorted further by the three dogs she’d absorbed into herself.
Instinctively, I tried to move my bugs to get a better sense of the current situation. They didn’t budge.
Instead, I felt the pull of the other two Skitters, wresting control of my bugs from me as though they were taking a toy from a baby, ordering those bugs to hurt my teammates and allies.
Rachel and Tattletale were down, and Imp was crouched beside Tattletale. Imp had pulled up the spider-silk hood that I’d worked into her scarf, covering the back of her head, and cinched it tight. It wasn’t perfect, but it was leaving her almost totally protected.
Almost. Bugs had reached her scalp, and there were spiders working thread around her legs. I wasn’t sure if she was aware of the latter.
The Wards and Protectorate in the upstairs hallway- some were hurt. The fallen and the wounded were numerous enough that the heroes had lost any momentum they’d had. Their focus was in the hallway, now, in saving their teammates. Maybe they’d deemed the situation unsalvageable.
I exerted a greater effort, trying to reduce the impact the swarm was having on everyone present, but there was nothing. My doppelgangers had a complete and total override, and the pair definitely noticed my attempts. They turned my way.
What would I be doing in their shoes? They couldn’t hurt Weld, but they could hurt me.
Or they’d find another avenue for attack.
“Weld,” Skitter One spoke up. Her voice was quiet. “Surprised you’re here. Did Imp help you get close?”
Do I really sound like that? I wondered. And Imp?
Weld wasn’t replying.
“Really surprised you’re with her,” Skitter One said. She had one hand pressed to a chest wound.
Weld glanced over his other shoulder at her. The other Skitter was a distance away, with shattered legs.
“Did she tell you?” Skitter One said, “She set someone on fire. Maimed a minor, slicing his forehead open. She cut off Bakuda’s toes, carved out a helpless man’s eyes. I can keep going.”
“I don’t care,” Weld said. He wasn’t moving. Why? He was waist deep in Noelle’s belly, holding me… it dawned on me that he couldn’t throw me to some point clear of Noelle without giving me to the Skitter.
“You should care. I could tell you about the critically injured man she left to bleed out and die. She stood by and let people get attacked by Mannequin so she could buy herself time to think of a plan to make a counterattack.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t draw in enough breath to manage more than a hoarse whisper, and Weld wouldn’t have heard me.
“I don’t care,” Weld said. “I know she’s done bad things. After this is over, we’ll find her, beat her and take her into custody.”
“You don’t care?” Skitter One asked. “She murdered your boss. Shot Thomas Calvert in cold blood, not that long ago.”
Weld froze. Or he went more still than usual.
“Whoopsie,” Imp said. She’d appeared behind Skitter One. A slash of her knife ended Skitter One’s contributions to the discussion. “Sorry to interrupt.”
I couldn’t say whether Skitter One’s feedback had done anything to change his behavior, but Weld wasn’t gentle when he grabbed me and flung me overhand. My legs tore free of Noelle, where her flesh had closed firmly around my legs, and I was sent flying.
Unable to move to protect myself or react to the landing, I sprawled where I landed, fifteen or so feet from Noelle.
Weld turned back to Noelle. His left hand changed to become a blade, and he used it to hack and slash his way through Noelle’s side. His other hand dug and scraped for purchase as he deliberately and intentionally submerged himself.
My bugs found their way to the others. I did what I could with my bugs to drive Shatterbird away from the doorway and put her out of reach of Noelle’s tongue. Once she’d started staggering back, I set about finding and destroying the bug clones who were attacking people and ignoring my powers.
The door where the Wards and Protectorate had been lurking opened. Miss Militia tested her weight on the staircase, then leaped down to ground level.
She trained a gun on Imp as she noticed the girl crouching over Skitter Two, the taciturn Skitter with the broken legs. Imp executed the girl, glanced at Miss Militia and shrugged.
I tried to speak, coughed. I pulled my bugs away from Rachel and Tattletale.
Miss Militia stared at Noelle, her eyes adjusting to the poor lighting.
“You fed her!?” Miss Militia asked.
“Rachel,” Tattletale said, “Come on!”
There was a clapping or slapping noise, and Bastard lurched to his feet. Rachel stood, and the other three dogs spread out around her.
“You fed Echidna?” Miss Militia asked, disbelieving.
Echidna? Right. They’d coined a name for her, then.
“And we’ll feed her more,” Tattletale said. “Rachel! All of the spare dogs! Try not to get in Weld’s way!”
The dogs began to grow, flesh splitting, bone spurs growing, and muscles swelling to greater size.
Rachel hesitated.
“Do it!” Tattletale shouted.
Rachel gave the orders, shouting, “All of you, hold! Malcolm, go left!”
She slapped one dog on the shoulder, and he bolted.
“Coco, go right! Twinkie, go right!”
The other two dogs gave chase, stampeding past me as they ran along the right side of the room.
“Hurt!” Rachel gave the order.
The dogs attacked the closet target – Noelle. They got stuck in her like she was tar.
But, I realized, that the converse was also true. Noelle was absorbing them, but she was unable to move so freely as long as this much extra mass was stuck to her. It was like the way we’d fought Weld, sticking metal to him.
The problem would be when she spat out the dogs.
I tried to move, but I felt like I had fifty pound weights strapped each of my arms and legs. My face burned hot, and my vision swam.
It wasn’t an entirely unfamiliar feeling. I felt sick.
With that thought, it dawned on me. Noelle absorbed living things, and that apparently extended to bacteria. Where others had bacteria in their digestive systems to help them digest food, Noelle, Echidna, had no need for such. When she absorbed the ambient bacteria and molds from her surroundings, she was storing them, weaponizing them like she did with rats and insects. They were used to debilitate her victims, render them unable to fight back while her clones got the upper hand.
It meant I was sick, and I’d have to hope that whatever the illness was, it would be short-lived.
Shatterbird was still thrashing, trying to do something with her glass and failing because she couldn’t breathe or see. Echidna couldn’t move, as her legs were caught on the dogs. The other clones had been executed by Imp, as far as I knew.
The sticking point was Weld. Tattletale had apparently figured out that he was immune to Echidna’s absorption ability, but he wouldn’t be immune to her basic shapeshifting ability. She didn’t have a lot of control over her form, or she surely would have chosen something without that number of legs, without the three mutant dog heads, but she did have the ability to shift her flesh around, and Weld was limited in how fast he could cut that flesh away.
Rachel had moved to my side. She put her arms under my shoulders and my knees and lifted me, grunting.
I twisted around to cough and gag. I managed to move one arm to my face, but didn’t have the strength in my fingers to move the fabric at my neck.
Rachel found it instead, pulling it up and halfway up my face. I coughed up lumps of stuff that tasted the way raw meat smelled.
“Careful!” Tattletale said. “Incoming! Dogs!”
Noelle had apparently moved one of her heads around, because she managed to spray a stream of vomit our way.
There was a pause as her body heaved, my bugs could sense the movement as one of the bulkier dogs was repositioned inside her monstrous lower body, and then she puked up one of the dogs, along with a handful of humans.
It wasn’t large, wasn’t mutant. Well, it was a mutant, but it wasn’t one of Rachel’s mutants.
“Bentley,” Rachel ordered. “Kill.”
The bulldog lunged and seized the smaller dog in its jaws in a matter of seconds, crushed it in a heartbeat.
“Yeah,” Rachel said, her voice low enough that only I heard it. “Feels wrong.”
“Why?” Miss Militia asked. “Why was it small?”
“When we were hanging out with Panacea during the Slaughterhouse Nine fiasco, she put her hand on Sirius,” Tattletale said. “And she said that the tissues die as they get pushed out from the center. They’re more like super zombie dogs, really, with a juicy, living center.”
“And Echidna doesn’t copy dead things,” Miss Militia said.
Tattletale nodded. “We got lucky. I was worried it would only be a little smaller.”
Weld was fighting to emerge. He had his hands on Grue and one of the dogs. He hurled them out, and Miss Militia caught the dog. Imp and Tattletale hurried to drag Grue away.
“Did you bring all the stuff I asked for?” Tattletale asked.
“Yes. It won’t be enough.”
“So long as you’ve got some, it’ll help. Just need to buy time,” Tattletale said.
Echidna’s bulk shifted. I couldn’t see it with my own eyes, but with the blurry vision the bugs offered, I could track how she was getting her legs under her. I could see that there weren’t any distinct bulges anymore. She was breaking down the mutant flesh she’d stripped away from Rachel’s dogs and she was making it her own. Six dogs… if my estimates about them being roughly a third her mass were right, she could be three times as big as she’d been before.
“She’ll be stronger,” Miss Militia said, putting the dog down. “If this doesn’t work, we just gave her a power boost for nothing.”
“We’re saving the people she took,” Tattletale said, “And we’re buying time. It’s not nothing.”
Echidna heaved herself up to her feet. She vomited forth a geyser of fluids and flying clones. Our ranks were scattered, knocked over and pushed away from Echidna by the force and quantity of the fluids.
It was stronger than before. Whatever the source she was drawing from was, she’d reinforced it with the mass she’d gained from eating the dogs. No less than fifteen clones littered the floor, and there were another twelve or so dogs and rats in their mass.
Miss Militia didn’t even stand before opening fire. Twin assault rifles tore into the ranks of the clones as she emptied both clips, reforged the guns with her power, and then unloaded two more clips. Several clones were avoiding the bullets more by sheer chance than any effort on their part. One Grace-clone managed to shield the bullets, moving her hands to block the incoming fire. One stray shot clipped her shoulder, but she was holding out.
Echidna spat up another wave, and I hurried to get my flying bugs out of the way. I still couldn’t move, but I held my breath. The wave hit us on two fronts, an initial crush of fluid and bodies, and the bodies from the first wave that had been shoved up against us. As the fluid receded, my bugs moved back down to the ground to track how many clones she’d created. It made for a pile of bodies, with snarling dogs and clones struggling for footing as they reached for us.
Bentley and Bastard provided our side with the muscle we needed to shove the worst of the enemy numbers away, bulldozing them with snouts and shoving them aside with the sides of their large bodies. Miss Militia followed up by sweeping the area with a flamethrower. She stopped, waiting for the smoke to clear, and Tattletale shouted, “Again! Weld’s still inside!”
Another wave of flame washed over the clones. They were Regents, Tectons and Graces, as well as various dogs, and none were able to withstand the heat. Each and every one of them burned.
But this much heat and smoke, even with this space being as large as it was, it wasn’t an assault we could sustain.
Echidna opened her mouth for a third spray, then stopped. One by one, bodies were dropping from her gut.
“No!” Noelle screamed, from her vantage point on top of the monstrous form.
Weld forced another dog free, and Echidna moved one leg to step on it.
Grace and Tecton fell, and Weld dropped after them. He turned the blade of one hand into a scythe, then chopped a segment of Echidna’s foot free. With one motion of the scythe, he sent Tecton, Regent and some of the dogs skidding our way, sliding them on the vomit-slick floor like a hockey player might with a puck on ice.
Echidna deliberately dropped, belly-flopping onto Weld, Grace and the dismembered foot that had stepped on the sixth dog.
Miss Militia was already drawing together a rocket launcher. She fired a shot at the general location where Weld was. He forced his way free of the resulting wound a moment later, the dog tucked under one arm, Grace under the other.
Echidna swiped at him, but he hurled the others forward to safety a second before it connected. He was slammed into the wall, but he didn’t even reel from the blow. He made a dash for us.
“Retreat!” Miss Militia gave the order.
The staircase shook precariously as we made our ascent, one group at a time. One of the capes had frozen the staircase of the metal walkway to the wall to stabilize it. They started getting organized to hand each of us and the dogs up to the door, but Rachel barreled past, carrying me and two dogs, with Bastard and Bentley following behind.
As we reached the doorway, dogs were handed to the able-bodied. Others were helping the wounded. Clockblocker had fallen, and Kid Win was being moved with a makeshift stretcher formed of one of the chain-link doors that had been in the hallway. There was a lot of blood.
It was Shatterbird’s power, I realized. I’d barely registered the event. Shatterbird was still in the hallway on the other side of the underground complex. Standing away from the main fighting, perhaps, or waiting for an opportunity. She’d found the locker where Regent kept her costume, was using her power to put it on while simultaneously fighting off the bugs that were still biting her.
Echidna reared back, apparently gearing up to vomit, and Miss Militia fired a rocket launcher straight into the monster’s open mouth.
It barely seemed to slow Echidna down. Vomit spilled around her, crawling with vermin and bugs.
The monster was moving slower, now. The entire structure shook as she advanced on us, sections of the walkway crumpling and screeching where her bulk scraped against it.
But the door was just that – a door. Three feet wide and six feet tall. The tunnels the trucks had used were too small for her mass, even if one ignored the fact that they’d been strategically collapsed.
The entire area shook with the impact of her furious struggles. She was trying to tear her way free. The violence only ramped up as we made our escape, to the point that I was worried the building above us would come down on top of our heads as we headed outside.
The warm, fresh air was chill against the damp fabric of my costume as we escaped from beneath the building. I could sense other heroes and trucks stationed nearby, no doubt surrounding the area.
The second we’d reached the perimeter, Tattletale collapsed to the ground, propping herself up with her back to a wall. Grue and Regent were placed next to us.
We were covered in blood and vomit, half of us so weak we could barely move. It didn’t convey the best image.
“Vista wasn’t inside Echidna,” Weld said. “If she’s still in the building-”
“Triumph, phone her,” Miss Militia ordered.
“Yes’m,” Triumph replied.
Miss Militia turned to Tattletale. She gestured at the nearby vehicles. “You said you wanted containment foam.”
“I did,” Tattletale said.
“You think she’ll fight free?”
“Almost definitely,” Tattletale said. “She had a Grue with her. One with teleportation powers. He disappeared partway through the fight, lurking somewhere out of sight. Being pragmatic about the situation. So unless someone can testify to having killed the guy, we can expect her to pop up in a matter of minutes.”
“Minutes,” Miss Militia said.
“No reply from Vista,” Triumph reported.
“Keep trying.”
“She gets free in a few minutes, and we’ll use the containment foam then?” Assault asked. I jumped a little at the realization it was him.
“No,” Tattletale said. “We’ll use it as soon as the dust settles.”
“Dust?” Assault asked.
She withdrew her cell phone, raised her voice, “If any of you have force fields, put them up now!”
Tattletale started punching something into the keypad. Miss Militia grabbed her wrist, prying the cellphone from her hand. “Stop.”
“It’s our only option.”
“What’s our only option?”
“Buying time,” Tattletale said. She wrenched her hand free, but Miss Militia still had the phone.
“You could punch the last two digits, one and four, into that keypad, see for yourself,” Tattletale said. “Or you could give me the phone, let me do it, and then if Vista’s in there, your conscience is… less muddy, if not exactly clear.”
Miss Militia turned her face toward the phone, stared at the building that loomed over Coil’s not-so-secret base.
“Shatterbird-” I started to speak, had to catch my breath, “She’s in there too. She was talking to Noelle. To Echidna. Last I saw. They might be deciding to work together.”
“I won’t have a clear conscience, no matter what I do,” Miss Militia said. “But I might as well own up to it.”
Miss Militia touched the phone twice. Long, quiet seconds reigned.
“Didn’t think you had it in you,” Tattletale commented.
There was a rumble. My bugs couldn’t reach far enough to see, but they could see the blur. A cloud, at the top floor of the building.
Another cloud expanded out from the top of the building, one floor down from the first.
The explosions continued, escalating, ripping through the building in stages. I couldn’t even breathe as I experienced the resulting aftershock, the vibrations as the building folded in on itself, plummeting down to the construction area.
“What-” Assault started.
There was another explosion, muffled, and my bugs were in range for the explosion that followed. Plumes of earth rose in a rough circle around the building, and then the ground sank. The entire underground base, folding in on itself. Even with the debris of the fallen building on top of it, the area seemed to form a loose depression.
Fitting for the criminal mastermind, I thought.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit,” Regent said, his voice reedy.
“He didn’t use it on us?” I asked Tattletale. “Coil?”
She was staring at what must have been a massive cloud of dust.
“He tried, sort of,” she said. “His computer was rigged to blow everything up if someone tampered too much. I found the stuff when I went looking for his files, as I moved in. Scared the pants off me when I realized that it was already in motion.”
“Before that?” I asked. “When we were waiting for the meeting?”
“Couldn’t afford to let ‘Echidna’ loose,” she said. “And I think I would’ve known. Can’t say for sure.”
It took minutes for everything to finish settling.
“Containment foam on the wreckage!” Miss Militia shouted. “I want cape escorts for each truck and equipped PRT member, do not engage if you see her!”
She was rattling off more orders. I couldn’t focus enough to follow it all.
“She’s not dead,” Tattletale said, “But we bought an hour, at least. Maybe a few. With luck, they’ll upgrade this to a class-S. We’ll get reinforcements… which we’ll need.”
“She’s stronger,” Grue said. He didn’t sound good. “You fed her.”
“Had to. Or she would have escaped before the explosion.”
“But she’s stronger,” Grue repeated himself.
“Do you have a plan?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not really. Ideas.”
“I have a few too,” I said. “Not good ones, though.”
“I’ll take bad ideas,” she said. She sighed wistfully, “Fuck. I really wanted an evil mastermind headquarters of my own. It’ll be years before I can build one for myself,” Tattletale groused.
“So impatient,” Regent clucked his tongue.
Tattletale pushed herself to her feet. “The next part’s going to be three times as bad. I’m going to go see if we can scrounge up some healing.”
I brought my legs up to my chest and folded my arms on my knees, resting my head on them. The visions I’d seen were swiftly fading into memory, but the ideas behind them lingered. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to fight, to step up and save others. A large part of me wanted to say it was up to the heroes, to take the unsure thing over doing it myself and knowing I’d done everything I could.
I turned to Grue. “You okay?”
He didn’t respond.
“Grue?” I asked.
I used my bugs to search for someone who might be able to give medical attention. Everyone was milling around, active, busy.
Us Undersiders aside, there were only two people nearby who weren’t active, trying to contain and prepare for a potential second attack. Weld and Miss Militia.
They were talking, and they were looking at me.
Thomas Calvert. My clone had informed them. And they’d seen our faces.
Posted in 19.01 | Tagged Abhorror, Assault, Bakuda, Bastard, Bentley, Bitch, Bonesaw, Burnscar, Charlotte, Chitter, Clockblocker, Crawler, Emma, Grue, Imp, Jack Slash, Kid Win, Madison, Mannequin, Miss Militia, Mr. Gladly, Night, Noelle, Panacea, Regent, Shatterbird, Siberian, Sierra, Sophia, Taylor, Taylor's Dad, Triumph, Vizier, Weld | 163 Replies
Prey 14.11
I continued my search for the pair, but my tentative explorations of the trails of extermination-mist made a sweeping search all but hopeless.
It felt like I was facing a series of decisions where every answer had some merit, but picking the wrong one would spell disaster. I’d had to make the call between staying at the school in case Jack and Bonesaw were preparing a trap for Amy and Glory Girl, or leaving in case they’d made a run for it. I’d left, and I’d been lucky enough to be right.
Except the Nine were now covering their tracks with a dozen decoys, mechanical spiders leaving trails of bug-killing smoke, leaving me to guess which direction they’d gone.
Two solid possibilities dwelled with me.
The first was that they’d headed back downtown to rendezvous with Siberian. If I was drawing the right conclusions from what I’d overheard, Bonesaw had drawn together a cocoon for Siberian similar to the one that Amy had created for Glory Girl. They could be recovering her real body, maybe doing something to recover Mannequin or Crawler.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind while I was under the miasma’s influence, but I also had to wonder whether Regent would have maintained his control over Shatterbird.
The second possibility was that they’d gone after Cherish. My conversation with Coil had clued them in.
I checked my phone. No service.
Damn the Director. Damn her for making this so hard, and for complicating matters. We’d been playing by Jack’s rules, more or less, and she’d given him an excuse to pull out all the stops.
He probably would have anyways, but she gave him an excuse.
If I headed away from the downtown area, toward the water, I could put myself in a position to track down Cherish, or to get to another point where the satellite phone would work and make a call to Coil. If they were checking the harbor for Cherish, going by what she’d revealed on the phone, then I could get there first. Lay a trap, or get in position to shoot them again. I figured out how to remove the magazine from the gun and checked the number of rounds remaining. Six.
The problem was that the whole reason I’d let Panacea keep using her power on me instead of giving chase to Jack was that I was supposed to cure the others. I could kill and replace the parasites that were carrying the prions. The sooner I did it, the less damage they’d do in the meantime. Some of the damage would be permanent, and the potential victims included Brian and Lisa.
I wanted to head back downtown, to help my teammates and friends, but I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt in the back of my mind.
The difference between Jack and Bonesaw going downtown and their going to the coastline was that the former was almost kind, taking care of a teammate. The latter case allowed them to inflict some terrible torture on an ex-teammate of theirs.
It was the most inconvenient possibility, but my gut told me they’d go after Cherish. If I had to put numbers on it, I’d have said there was a sixty percent chance they’d go that route, a thirty-five percent chance they’d headed downtown. And there was always the possibility I was wrong, that they had something else in mind, so I was leaving room for that extra five percent.
But if I was wrong, if I went to the harbor to try to get ahead of them and Jack didn’t go that way, then my friends would suffer for it. Brian had been through enough, and while Lisa had seemed to deal okay after she’d been scarred, I was willing to bet she valued her mind more than she valued her face.
I headed downtown.
No matter which way I chose to go, I’d have that awful feeling of regret in my chest. I tried to quiet it by telling myself that with Tattletale and the others, I’d actually be able to do something against the Nine. A gun and knife didn’t cut it, no matter how scattered or few in number they were.
I couldn’t quite manage to convince myself.
As it didn’t cost me anything significant in terms of forward momentum, I let Atlas carry me higher. I was getting more comfortable flying him, and there was little difference in being a hundred and fifty feet above the ground and being five hundred stories up. I wanted to assess the situation. Was my dad one of the people who was depending on this cure?
The topography of the city had impacted where the miasma was spreading. As far as I could tell, it wasn’t really advancing into the north end of the city.
Bakuda’s bombing campaign and the militarization of the ABB had predominantly focused on the Docks. Leviathan had arrived in the Docks, and his destruction of the city’s water infrastructure and power had hit that part of the city hardest. I wondered if this would be the first real instance where the Docks weren’t hit as hard by the ongoing series of disasters and attacks in Brockton Bay.
I descended back to a safer distance, where falling wouldn’t be terminal, and tried to plan.
Finding Tattletale was number one. With her assistance, everything else would be easier. As much as I wanted to make Grue my second priority, I knew that there were other things that took precedence. Siberian was a big one. Finding a way to distribute the cure was another. Once I started, it would set up a chain reaction, but I had to decide how to start it off.
Tattletale first. She could help me find Siberian and figure out how to distribute the antidote.
I tracked the trails of extermination smoke as I flew. I was faster than they were, but they were elusive, staying out of sight and moving through awkward positions. I spotted one mechanical spider moving through a trash-littered alleyway and changed my route to close in on another trail.
My second confirmation of a mechanical spider left me with the feeling that I’d made the wrong call.
But it was too late to turn back. It would be faster to go help Tattletale and get her assistance than to turn around and fumble along on my own.
They were traveling on foot, I hoped, and they still had to find Cherish. She was bound to be in a remote spot, and they didn’t have many clues to work with. It would take time.
Things hadn’t exactly been quiet while I’d been gone.
“Calm down! If we all just stop fighting, then this doesn’t end in tragedy.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I’ll tell you as soon as I can think of a convincing reason!”
Tattletale was on the street, alone, facing down Bitch, two dogs and one wolf on full-tilt mutation-mode. They advanced with measured steps, keeping close to their master.
I landed beside Tattletale, and the two of us made eye contact.
“L-mist.”
“A-Carnelian,” she answered. “You understand if I don’t trust you implicitly, here?”
“I do. Listen, I’ve got a cure-”
“Who the fuck are you!?” Rachel shouted.
I shut my mouth and turned to face her.
I was secretly glad the dogs hadn’t turned on her, as that probably would have meant the death of a teammate, but I was getting a firsthand look at what our enemies had to deal with. The dogs were big and vicious enough that if they attacked, there wasn’t a whole lot I could have done. Heck, Tattletale and I together couldn’t have managed much of a defense against one of the creatures, let alone three.
“We’re teammates,” I told her. “I was just fighting the Nine, I’ve got a cure for this thing.”
“Or you’re going to kill me the second I let my guard down.”
I’d been conned by the Nine. Tricked into letting them get access to certain information. Bitch wouldn’t have fallen for that, but that came with the caveat that she was that much harder for us to reassure.
“I can put my weapons away. Or give them to you.”
“I’m not that stupid,” she growled the words. “Don’t treat me like I’m retarded. I’m not. I know you have powers.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to say,” I said. I kept my voice low, my tone as calm as I could manage. “I was just saying I’d disarm myself if it would reassure you.”
“The only thing that’s going to make me feel any better is getting the fuck away from here. But she wouldn’t get out of my way.”
“If you leave,” Tattletale told her, “You’ll go straight to the Trainyard, to your other dogs, and you’ll get worse. You’ll wind up isolated from the rest of us. And I think the Nine want that. They wanted people for their group, and doesn’t this set their candidates up for easy recruiting? Separate them from their previous attachments, leave them vulnerable and lost, then give them the hard sell.”
“Not that you’re wrong,” I said, glancing at Tattletale while trying to keep the dogs in sight, “I saw Jack trying that with Panacea. But Bitch tends to see it as slimy or conniving when someone talks a lot.”
“I see. You want to try, then?”
Bentley growled. It didn’t sound like a dog growl. What worried me, though, was Bastard. He was untrained enough that he wouldn’t necessarily listen to Bitch, and big enough to feel confident about attacking.
Not that I was positive she would stop him if he attacked. As much as she felt like she’d feel more secure on her own, Bitch might well decide she could resolve this situation by killing anyone who threatened her. It wasn’t that she was the murdering type, but she didn’t have the innate sympathy for her fellow humans. She cared as little about murdering us as I might feel about killing two dogs if I felt like my life was on the line.
I’d been in a similar headspace, trying to figure out who was friendly and who wasn’t. Jack had been more on the ball than I, and I’d fallen for his ploy. I’d deal with the guilt over what that might mean at a later point.
“A little while ago, we spent some time in one of your shelters. I’m guessing you don’t remember who, but you remember chilling out and eating Greek food with someone?”
“You could have found that out through someone else.”
“I know. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just wanting you to think about that feeling. I’d like to think we got along, as far as people like you and people like me can get along with others.”
“Doesn’t mean anything to me now.”
“Okay.” I let my arms drop to my sides.
“That’s it? That’s your argument?”
“I don’t really have much better. I know that if I tried to convince you using logic and a well worded argument, you’d feel like I was being manipulative. All I can say is that we had a good time then, we were friendly. I know we parted ways some time after that, but I’d really like to get back to that point. So I’m appealing to that emotional attachment, I guess.”
“You think I’m attached to you?”
This again. This situation seemed to be highlighting the worst parts of people and twisting others. Amy’s paranoia, Legend’s battle instincts, Bitch’s antisocial tendencies, and my… whatever it was, that led to me trusting Jack.
“Yeah. I’m making that assumption,” I told her.
She advanced, and I stayed put. Sirius growled.
“I’m not your enemy,” I said.
“We’ll attack you.”
“If you do, maybe the cure will get transmitted to your dog, and then to you.”
“You’re not that stupid.”
I shook my head. “Not really. But I don’t think you’ll attack me, either.”
She advanced closer. Sirius growled again, and she held one hand out to stop him.
So glad they still listen to her. This would be a disaster if the dogs were on a rampage. I supposed the miasma was slower to affect them, given their mass, or the vectors it affected weren’t present or as predominant in dogs.
She stepped close, until her nose was an inch from mine. She stared unflinching into my eyes. I met her gaze with that same unforgiving hardness.
“No way I could like someone like you.” The words were like the twist of a knife. Hostility and aggression combined with pure, petty malice.
“Just going by looks, when you can’t see half my face?” I asked. Without breaking eye contact, I reached up and pulled down the lower half of my mask. “You don’t recognize me?”
She didn’t glance away from my eyes. “No. Now move. I will order them to attack.”
She would. She could.
I leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on her lips.
Her punch knocked me off my feet and sent my glasses flying off my face to land in the water somewhere nearby.
“The fuck!?” She shouted. One of the dogs growled, deep, as if to complement her anger with a threat of his own.
“You’re cured,” I told her. “That’s it, that’s all it takes.”
She stared down at me.
If this doesn’t work, she might kill me for real.
Tattletale helped me to my feet and handed me my glasses. I got my mask in place around the lower half of my face and then gathered bugs over the mask and glasses to hide my features.
“How’s that work?” Tattletale asked.
“The effects are being generated by a parasite. Panacea changed the parasite to some kind of symbiotic species that overrides the effects of Bonesaw’s work and heals the effects on the brain. My bodily fluids are carrying it. That means that right now, the parasites in Bitch’s bodies should be dying or getting replaced or transformed or something. I hope.”
I dusted myself off, wiped at my costume where I’d landed in the water, and made sure none of my belongings had dropped from their positions in my armor or my belt.
I didn’t hurry to meet Bitch’s eyes, because I knew that when I did, I’d have to maintain that gaze. Only when I was done did I meet her eyes.
She took her time responding. “I was going to have Bentley break you.”
“Glad you didn’t.”
Why had I done it? I’d tried to explain it to her so many times. I couldn’t bring myself to do it again.
“Doesn’t matter.”
Tattletale pointed down at the water just behind me. I turned around and looked. Where I’d landed on my back, the water was changing from red to a relatively clear state. ‘Relatively’ only because the water hadn’t been that clear to begin with. “Guess it’s working.”
“Good,” I said. The last swirls of red disappeared from around my feet, and the water around me began to change back to normal. With increasing speed, the water around us began to transition back to normal at nearly the speed the effect had spread in the first place. It extended out in every direction, promising to revert most or all of the affected bodies of water.
“You couldn’t have waited until after you’d cured me before you put the bugs on your face?” Tattletale asked. She was smiling as she asked it. “Unless you want me to drink that water.”
“Sorry. No, I’ll help you out.”
She gave me a stern look, pointed at me, and said, “No tongue.”
I rolled my eyes, scattered the bugs, pulled my mask down and leaned over to give her a quick peck on the lips.
“Now fill me in. I’ll fill in the blanks as you explain, and hopefully it’ll work fast enough that I can catch up.”
“Jack and Bonesaw tricked me and Coil to figure out where both Cherish and Amy were. I gave chase, and Jack left before he accomplished anything more than head games.”
“State she’s in, head games are pretty serious.”
“Maybe. But at least she didn’t cave on his demands.”
“The bad thing is… Jack knows about Dinah’s prophecy.”
Tattletale looked as though I’d slapped her. “Shit.”
“I mean, her numbers weren’t that good as far as our mortality rate going up against the Nine, so maybe she’s wrong about-”
I stopped as Tattletale shook her head.
“Depends how you interpret it,” she said. “The kid sounded pretty certain. Anyways, keep going.”
“Siberian’s somewhere downtown, her real body in some kind of case, maybe.”
“I think we might have run into her,” Tattletale said. “I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to details, mostly just trying to avoid trouble. But I’m pretty sure she was hauling around something big. Fuck, I think she might have had a friend.”
“A friend?”
“Hookwolf.”
I nodded slowly. “Where was she headed?”
“North.”
“Where did Coil stick Cherish?”
Tattletale made a face. “North.”
If there had been a wall in reach, I would have punched it. “Wonderful.”
“Explain?” Bitch asked.
“They’re heading over to Cherish’s location, I’m almost a hundred percent positive,” Tattletale explained. “If Siberian’s heading there to rendezvous with them, then any further encounters with them are going to be ugly. Doubly so if they have new blood on their team.”
“Hookwolf’s under the influence of Bonesaw’s miasma,” I added. “Don’t know what his reasons were for staying here, but the miasma seems to have eliminated that. He’s with the Nine. Maybe permanently. Bonesaw will keep it from killing him, I guess.”
“So they got their candidate?”
“And,” I addressed Bitch as I spoke, “They might be looking for more candidates to round out their group. If they left Siberian behind to try to recruit Hookwolf, and they tried a pretty aggressive strategy against Panacea, then they might make another stab at recruiting you. Or Regent.”
“Or Noelle,” Tattletale added.
Why did that give me such a bad feeling?
I sighed. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I think we should give chase.”
“Head to where Cherish is?”
I nodded. “It hasn’t been too long, so they won’t have much time to prepare any counterattack. It does still leave the problem of finding the others and curing them before something bad happens.”
“If the cure is contagious… Bitch, you think you could work on finding and curing the others?”
I spoke up, “Cure your dogs. Spit in their mouths, whatever. Then see about tracking down the others, ambushing them, and having the dogs lick their faces?”
She scowled. “I haven’t trained ’em to do that.”
“You’ve got ten minutes to teach them,” Tattletale grinned.
“You’ll see about curing the others?”
“Yeah.” Bitch pointed, “But it won’t work with my dogs. They kill any parasites while my power’s working.”
Right. I could remember curing Sirius of heartworm.
I shrugged. “Another way? Maybe if you dose some fresh water with the new parasites, spit in it, then splash people? People are going to start getting better fast, with the water changing, but let’s make sure our side is okay?”
Bitch nodded once, curt.
“And can you loan me Bentley?” Tattletale asked.
“I’m starting to wonder why I’m on this team,” Bitch grumbled.
“You have to ask?” Tattletale grinned as she approached Bentley.
“I know it’s just words,” I told Bitch, “But I’m glad you’re back.”
She stared at me like I was speaking Klingon.
“Let’s go,” Tattletale said, as she climbed onto Bentley. He growled, but she didn’t seem to mind. Maybe his bark was worse than his bite and she knew it?
Either way, I decided to trust her and took off.
I’d done my part, and I’d have to trust Bitch to complete the task.
I was making more forward progress than Tattletale, though I could feel Atlas fatiguing. It wasn’t the same as the fatigue I experienced, but he was slowing down fractionally in his wingbeats per second. It stood to reason. He was big, and he hadn’t eaten since he was created. That was compounded by the fact that he’d been going full-bore with minimal chance to rest.
Still, we had the advantage of being able to fly over obstacles, which was something I was gaining a greater appreciation of since I’d gotten the hang of flying him.
With Atlas being tired, not wanting to lose track of Tattletale, I kept our flight close to the ground.
“Where is she?” I called out, as I met her pace.
“Boat Graveyard. Beached ship, she’s in the hold.”
“Coil told you this?”
“No, but he’ll forgive me for figuring it out, given circumstances.”
“If you’re sure.”
It wasn’t a short trip. Our destination was north of the market, and the market was a distance from my house. We were making our way from downtown to the Boat Graveyard.
When the local industry had collapsed, the Boat Graveyard had been something of a staging ground for the irate dock workers. Shipping companies based in Brockton Bay saw the signs of what was coming and trapped other boats in the harbor as a form of protest, to ensure they weren’t walking away empty-handed. Police had made arrests, but actually moving the ships out of the way required sailors, and the move had mobilized enough of them that clearing the upper areas of the docks of the ships became all but impossible. Things capped off with fights, gunfire and a deliberate sinking of a container ship by one of the protesters.
Opinions varied on whether the incident had been a symptom or a cause of the collapse. Either way, the result was the Boat Graveyard- an entire section of the coastline where boats had sat for so long that they’d rusted or taken on water.
We paused at the top of a hill overlooking the scene: forty or fifty derelict ships, some bigger in sheer mass than the skyscrapers downtown. Leviathan’s waves had slammed them all into the coastline, smashing them against one another and turning more than a few into something unrecognizable.
Even with Tattletale’s hint, I wasn’t sure I could have found where Cherish was lurking.
“How do we find her before she finds us?” I asked.
“We don’t. She knows where we are.”
I scanned the wreckage with my eyes. Would Siberian pop out? Hookwolf?
“They aren’t attacking.”
Tattletale shook her head, but she didn’t speak.
My bugs began searching for signs of life.
“You outrange her,” Tattletale spoke. “You detect them, you attack before she can whammy us.”
“Yeah.” Fat lot of good it’ll do with Siberian there.
I was getting a sense of why there wasn’t any foot traffic here. Even on land, the force of Leviathan’s tidal wave had sent age-worn sheets of metal flying over the landscape. Ragged edges of rusty sheet metal waited under every step I took, scraping and stabbing against the soles of my costumed feet. Tattletale was relying on Bentley’s weight and durability to handle anything that waited underfoot. He was still panting hard from the run.
My swarm sense alerted me to life in the hold of a ship. The space was half-filled with sand, and water had leaked in through a hole in the side of the ship. If supplies were delivered by way of remote control, that was a likely route.
Seven people. Three male, four females, one of whom was young. A child, long-haired. That would be Bonesaw.
“There?” I pointed at the location. It was barely visible from where we stood; two ships had been slammed against one another, nose to nose, and they formed a precarious arch over the ship in question.
“I’ve found them, I think. I think Siberian’s there. There’s a lot of people, anyways. Seven.”
“How much damage do you think you can do?”
We paused.
“Cherish should be alerting them,” Tattletale spoke. “I’m surprised they aren’t mounting a counterattack.”
“Maybe they can’t? If they split up, Siberian won’t be able to protect everyone,” I said.
“Well, getting closer is a pretty bad idea.”
“We hang back, we follow them, we strike if we spot an opportunity. Between Bentley and Atlas, we can keep at a distance.”
I shook my head. “Bentley’s tired, and I don’t know how long Atlas is going to be able to keep flying.”
“They’ll manage.”
“Pretty sure.”
Pretty sure. So she wasn’t positive.
“There’s another possibility,” she ventured.
“Do tell.”
“Cherish might not be saying anything because she wants us to attack the others.”
“Or,” I pointed out, “The Nine are giving us that impression because they want us to think that so they can turn the tables.”
“That line of thinking leads to madness.”
“Call me crazy, but I’d rather not gamble.”
“So? What’s the plan?”
“We wait? At least a little while.”
“Sure.” She gave the bulldog a pat on the head. “Give Bentley a chance to rest. You can feed Atlas.”
“Pretty narrow window of time,” I added. “Bitch’s effects on the dogs don’t last that long. Figure twenty minutes, and we took at least fifteen to get here…”
“But she gave them more juice than usual. I’d say roughly ten minutes before he’s too small to carry me,” Tattletale said.
“Ten minutes.”
We settled into a position behind cover, and I began drawing bugs to me to feed Atlas. I wasn’t positive about his diet, and Grue had said that he’d given Atlas a more human digestive system, which left me uncertain. That said, Atlas was made of bugs, I figured he required the nutrients they provided on a sheer logical level, like how humans would generally get most of the nutrients they needed by eating other humans, if they had to. That, and I’d pointed out to the rest of the group how bugs were something we could eat as humans, so his digestive tract could probably manage them.
It was also the easiest thing to provide.
“You have eyes on them?”
“Minimal. My interpretation via the swarm’s eyes and ears is still garbage, as always. And I didn’t want to have so many around them that they get suspicious.”
“Can’t make out what they’re saying?”
I shook my head. Still, I could tell that they were talking.
Seven of them. One of the men was garbed in smooth body armor that covered everything. Mannequin. There was another man who could have been Siberian’s real self or Hookwolf. Long haired, shirtless. My bugs traced the edges of knives at one man’s belt: He was the quietest, and was pacing without cease, sitting down, then pacing again. Jack.
Three women, none of whom were Siberian if I accounted for the presence of clothing and the texture of their skin. Rounding out the group was a little girl with long hair. One of the women was doing most of the talking. Would that be Shatterbird or Cherish? Who was the third? Had the Nine gotten their hands on Noelle?
It unsettled me that Jack wasn’t taking more of a lead in the conversation. Maybe Cherish was just dishing out the dirt?
“The dynamic seems wrong,” I said. “Something’s off. Not sure if Siberian’s present or not, Bonesaw’s quiet and Jack is mute.”
“Maybe Cherish took control?” Tattletale ventured.
It was a scary thought. The Nine were strong, and one of the only reasons they weren’t a bigger problem was that they were their own worst enemies. Most of our victories to date had been because we exploited their character weaknesses. Under a leader…
“No. Bonesaw took measures.”
“Maybe Cherish found a way around it?”
I didn’t have a response for that. Minutes passed, and the Nine lapsed into silence. Some were resting. Or pretending to rest.
“They’re napping or something,” I said.
“Could be baiting you.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“And Bentley’s getting too small to help me make an exit.”
“Atlas can manage with just me,” I told her.
“Going alone? No. Grue would kill me. It’s senseless. I can call Coil, so we can get a squad of soldiers in place to try and take someone out. Or maybe we get the Director to bomb the area.”
“Because that’s worked so well this far.”
Tattletale smiled a little. “What would you rather do? Going in is suicide. You’d be opening yourself up to Cherish’s power.”
“She’s resting.”
“Not sure which person she is, but her breathing is really regular, has been for a while.”
“And she could be faking it, a hundred percent aware that you’re thinking what you’re thinking.”
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Why are you so fixated on this? On going in?”
“I want to end this.”
“That’s not your real reason.”
“And I feel like something’s wrong. The details don’t jibe.”
“That’s a less than stellar reason to put yourself at that kind of risk.”
“There’s a chance Siberian isn’t here, or isn’t in a state to defend her allies. But… I can’t bring myself to attack.”
“This is a shitty time to have an attack of conscience.”
“You sound like Jack. He tried to push me to kill while I thought he was Grue.”
“You’ll have to explain how all that happened at a later date. Jack’s good at fucking with people’s heads. It could still be a trap.”
“It could.”
“I’ve got this feeling in my gut, like I had when I was around Jack and Bonesaw, and I wish I’d trusted it then. I don’t want to doubt it now.”
“A gut feeling?”
I nodded, once.
She sighed. “What can I do?”
“Get out of here. I don’t want to hurt you if I fall under Cherish’s control, which is supposed to be pretty short-lived. In case she plans to make it more long-term, maybe call the PRT director and arrange a firebomb if I don’t report back?”
Tattletale made a face. “This is dumb.”
“I’ve done dumb things. I somehow don’t feel like this is one of them.”
“Go, then. Call me as soon as it’s safe.”
She headed out of the graveyard with Bentley. I waited a few minutes, until she was out of my power’s range.
Atlas and I crossed the gap to the ship. I waited for the hit of Cherish’s power, but it didn’t come.
My bugs sensed more of Bonesaw’s traps – areas heavy with fog, or where vials had been thrown, placed or dropped. I was glad there wasn’t any of the extermination smoke. I set foot on the tilted deck and began slowly making my way into the ship. My soft soled costumed feet were quiet, barely audible to myself.
I drew my gun, readying myself to fire the second I was in range. If Cherish was setting up the Nine for me, I was pretty sure I could hit one and get away before trouble arose. It was a feeble thought – even Jack, one of their most vulnerable members, hadn’t fallen to gunfire. Still, it was reassuring.
More traps forced me to make slower progress through the labyrinthine ship’s interior. It was a while before I could stop at the outside of the door at the lowest point of the ship.
I heard sobbing.
I stepped through the doorway and took in the room’s interior.
The floor sloped one way. Half of the room was metal flooring covered in sand, the lowest half was submerged.
Three men, three women and a girl. The man with knives in his belt stood, then began the ritual pacing once again. His feet were raw where the rusted metal deck had cut at them. The others sat and stood in various points around the hull.
I withdrew my phone and called Tattletale.
“That was fast.”
“It’s not the Nine. Decoys.”
I stared at them. The disguises had been rushed but thorough. Jack and Bonesaw had clearly changed clothes with the people in question, and Bonesaw had whipped up something approximating Mannequin’s armor for one of the men.
“Call Coil, get medics here. It’s Bonesaw’s work, so he might need to call on some expert surgeons to undo whatever she did. I’ll use my bugs to mark out the traps that Bonesaw set up inside.”
“On it.” She hung up.
Paralysis, compulsive movements. Puppets. Decoys. Had this been Jack’s attempt to make me betray my morals? Setting up decoys with the idea that I’d attack first and check later? If I’d gone with my first impulse and tried to kill them, I’d have seven civilian deaths on my hands.
“Help is on the way, guys. I’m sorry about this.”
“Thank you,” the twenty-something woman I’d guessed to be Cherish spoke. The others were mute.
I saw drag marks in the sand, leading to the water. Who had that been?
The knife was the last thing I spotted. It had been slammed into the metal hull of the boat. I stepped over the chain and collar that had probably been attached to Cherish. I pulled the knife free of the wall and used my bugs to catch the note before it fluttered to the floor.
We concede our loss to you, Brockton Bay. As per my agreement with Miss Amelia, we’ll be leaving your fascinating city. It was fun.
Don’t worry about Cherish. She’s sleeping somewhere at the bottom of the bay. Bonesaw was kind enough to crank up her receptive range toward negative emotions and remove her filters. The girl will personally experience every awful feeling Brockton Bay’s inhabitants do- and with the benefit of Alan’s tech, she’ll get to do it for a very, very, very long time.
A departure marked not with a bang, but a whimper. I’m sure you understand.
Jack.
Posted in 14.11 | Tagged Atlas, Bastard, Bentley, Bitch, Jack Slash, Sirius, Tattletale, Taylor | 150 Replies
Arcadia high was the school every kid in Brockton Bay wanted to attend. A big part of that was the fact that everyone knew that the Wards attended Arcadia, and attending meant that any one of your classmates could be a superhero or superheroine. To anyone else, you could just as easily be one, too. It wasn’t a rich kid’s school like Immaculata, but it was a good school. Every classmate treated other classmates with the utmost respect. Both the students and the school itself maintained a certain status and pride as a consequence.
Now it was something else, and it inspired entirely different feelings. The front gate looked like it had aged a thousand years, the sharp corners of the cut stone had rounded off, the ivy that once wound around it had withered. The windows of the building were all shattered, empty of glass, and the fields were a patchwork of overgrown grass and mud. With the faint tendrils of colored mist that surrounded the grounds, it looked like a prime location for a horror movie.
I had little doubt I was in the right place.
Panacea’s the healer, top floor. Jack is the slasher, the blond girl the chemist-tinker. Panacea’s the healer on the top floor, Jack is the slasher, the blond girl is the chemist.
I recited the words as a refrain, as if I could hold the names and identities of the major players in my short-term memory by constantly reminding myself of who they were.
The school was on a hill, meaning the water that was producing the miasma was far enough away that only traces of it reached this far. The little vapor that got to the school was held at bay by the stone wall that ringed the school. The design suggested it had been intended more for aesthetics than for utility, but it was serving a purpose nonetheless.
Panacea’s the healer, top floor, Jack is the slasher, the blond girl the chemist-tinker. Panacea is the healer, top floor, Jack is the slasher, the blond girl is the chemist-tinker.
It seemed like the mechanical spiders had lost track of me. They would probably give up the chase and return to their master, but it was one less thing to worry about for the time being.
Jack and the tinker would have gone in through the ground floor. I decided to land on the roof. The second I was on terra firma, I reached for my phone to check. No signal.
I needed to signal someone about what was going on. I was woefully underequipped, and I doubted my ability to win this alone, especially when my opponents weren’t as disadvantaged as I was.
I could use something like a giant nine crafted out of bugs floating over the school to signal that the pair was here… but there was no guarantee that someone would come. There was also the possibility that it would lead to the good guys dropping another bomb on us. That would get the healer and maybe even me killed. Panacea had to survive, or everyone in the city would die in the aftermath of Bonesaw’s miasma.
Panacea is the healer, she’s on the top floor, Jack is the slasher, the blond girl is the chemist-tinker.
I tenderly touched the cut on my face. Jack must have pulled back as I used the tinker as a shield, because the cut was fairly shallow. It was long, though, and my fingertips were wet with blood after I touched my hand to it. I couldn’t distinguish the blood from the black fabric of my gloves, so I couldn’t tell how much it actually was. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
There was a door on the rooftop, and I used my knife to pry the doorknob partially off, then gave it a firm kick to remove it. The lock was built into the handle, and it didn’t take long to figure out how to open it when I could see the internal mechanisms. It wasn’t exactly high security, more intended to keep kids from getting onto the roof than keeping people on the roof from getting in.
Just past the door was a set of stairs that led down into the top floor of the building. It looked like a janitorial closet. I sent Atlas down to check before venturing down myself, and I began distributing my swarm through the school. I prepared silk lines across doorways and hallways to inform me of others passing through, placed ants, earwigs, centipedes and pill bugs on the walls to give me a sense of the layout, and sent flies to scan the interiors of each room to see if I couldn’t find anyone.
Again, I repeated the refrain in my head, reminding myself about who was in the building. I wasn’t sure it was helping, but I didn’t want to get tricked again.
There were two hallways and three classrooms my bugs couldn’t enter without dying on the spot. That marked out a relatively small area that the Nine could be.
The biggest issue was that I couldn’t find Panacea. Did that mean she was in close confines with the enemy? It wasn’t a good thought.
As I laid silk lines across possible entryways to alert myself about enemy movements, I was careful to check each area before I advanced further into the building. My eyes searched for details while my swarm scanned the walls and the ground.
I was a short distance away from the Nine when I saw a wet spot on the wall, complete with discoloration of the paint. I sent bugs in, and they felt shards of glass on the floor around the patch. I wouldn’t have said that the swarm smelled anything, but there was something heavy in the air as flies beat their wings, the muscular action simultaneously drawing oxygen in. Whatever it was, it was dense, cloying, odorless and colorless, only extending a dozen feet around the spot.
I backtracked and picked a different route. My pace slowed to half of what it had been as I searched for other telltale details. Twice, I found similar traps, both with that odourless smoke, and twice I had to change my route.
I paused outside the bug-killing zone. Flies had ferried spiders to me, and I started organizing them to produce lengths of silk cord. I left them behind while I creeped closer and listened in.
“…minds do think alike. I did something very similar for Siberian.” A girl’s voice.
“Shut up. We’re nothing alike.” Another girl.
“We could be! Haven’t you ever wanted to start over? I could make you younger! We’d be the same age! And wear matching outfits! Oh! I could do plastic surgery, we could be twins!”
“Did- did you do that to yourself? Make yourself young?”
“No.” A male voice. “Rest assured, Bonesaw’s immaturity is genuine. Both an asset in how it makes her that much more creative, free in her ways. A detriment in other ways.”
“Doesn’t… that bother you? Him saying that about you?”
“Jack knows what he’s doing.”
“I do. I know a lot of things,” Jack spoke, his voice smooth, almost seductive.
“Don’t. I know you’ve got a silver tongue. I don’t want to hear it.”
“You prefer the alternative?” Jack asked, his voice cool.
I could picture him holding that knife of his, the threat all too clear.
He spoke, “I suppose not. So let’s dialogue.”
“Go ahead,” Panacea’s voice was small, almost defeated.
“What’s holding you back? You’re capable of so much, of changing the world, of destroying it, but you’re so very small, Amelia Claire Lavere.”
His voice was almost mocking as he said her name.
“That’s not my name.”
“It’s the name you were born with. Imagine my surprise when I found out your relation to Marquis. In my last visit to Brockton Bay, I crossed paths with each of the major players. I met the man. I must tell you, Amelia, he was a very interesting character.”
“I don’t really want to know.”
“I’m going to tell you. And I have another motive, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Marquis was a man of honor. He decided on the rules he would play by and he stuck to them. He put his life and limb at risk to try to keep me from killing women and children, and I decided to see if I could use that to break him. I admit I failed.”
“He killed Allfather’s daughter.”
“No, Amelia, he didn’t.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No. What I’m saying is that Marquis would not have killed the girl, even under duress; that was one of the rules he set for himself. If he was going to violate that rule, he would have done it when I’d tried to break him.”
“Allfather put a contract on my head before he died, because of what Marquis did. Because- It’s how I found out he was my dad. A letter from Dragon to Carol.”
“Carol… Ah yes, Brandish. Well, I suspect either Dragon was manipulating you, or your father was manipulating Dragon in an effort to get a message to you.”
“A message.”
“That he’s there, that he exists. Perhaps he sought to ensure he wasn’t forgotten by his child. He was an old-fashioned individual, so it makes sense that he’d seek immortality through his progeny.”
Bonesaw piped up. “That’s stupid. Why do something like that when someone like me could make you immortal for real?”
“Shush, now. Finish sewing yourself up while Amelia and I talk.”
“Okay,” Bonesaw said. Her voice overlapped with Panacea saying, “Stop saying that. It’s not my name.”
“Isn’t it?”
There was another silence.
“You’re your father’s daughter. Both of you are bound up in rules you’ve imposed on yourselves. His rules defined his demeanor, the boundaries he worked within, the goals he sought to achieve and how he achieved them. They were his armor as much as his power was. I would guess your rules are your weakness. Rather than focus you, they leave you in free fall, nothing to grasp on to except your sister there, and we both know how that has turned out.”
Sister. I made a mental note of that. There were four people in that room.
“I- how do you know this?”
“Our emotion reader picked up on some. I’ve figured out the rest. As you might expect, I’m rather familiar with damaged individuals.”
Bonesaw giggled.
I didn’t like the way this was going. I looked down the hall to see the doors. Each door had once had a window on the upper half, but there were only slivers left, the rest scattered over the floor. In an ideal world, some distraction would present itself, or the conversation would become a heated argument and they would distract each other. I could rise from my crouching position, step forward, aim my gun and fire. Unload the gun’s clip on Jack and Bonesaw.
Or I’d miss, resulting in the messy deaths of Panacea, her sister and I. I really needed that distraction if I was going to do this.
“I’m not… not that type of damaged. I’m not a monster,” Panacea protested. As an afterthought, she added, “No offense.”
“I’ve been called worse. I almost relish being called a monster. As though I’ve transcended humanity and become something from myth.”
“Myth.”
“And according to Cherish, it may well be a destruction myth.”
“She recently informed me that the world is going to end because of me. Not quite sure how or when. It could well be that I’m the butterfly that flaps his wings and stirs a hurricane into being through a chain of cause and effect.”
“I don’t want the world to end,” Bonesaw said. “It’s fun.”
“It is. But I expect it won’t end altogether. There’s always going to be survivors.”
“And it makes for an interesting picture. After everything’s gone, there’ll be a new beginning. Who better to craft the remains into a new world than you and Mannequin?”
“And Amelia?”
“And Amelia, if she so chooses. We could be like gods in a new world.”
“You’re crazy,” Panacea muttered.
“According to studies, clinically depressed individuals have a more accurate grasp of reality than the average person. We tell ourselves lies and layer falsehoods and self-assurances over one another in order to cope with a world colored by pain and suffering. We put blinders on. If we lose that illusion, we crumble into depression or we crack and go mad. So perhaps I’m crazy, but only because I see things too clearly?”
“No,” Panacea’s voice was quiet. “Um. You’re not going to kill me if I argue, are you?”
“I’m liable to kill you if you don’t.”
“It’s not that you see too clearly. I think your view is warped.”
“Over the course of millions of generations that led to your birth, how many of your ancestors were successful because they were cruel to others, because they lied, cheated, stole from their kin, betrayed their brothers and sisters, warred with their neighbors, killed? We know about Marquis, so that’s one.”
How many were successful because they cooperated? I wondered.
Jack probably had a rebuttal to my question, but I wasn’t about to speak up to hear it, and Panacea didn’t ask. She fell silent.
I was tensed, ready to move and shoot the second an opportunity arose. Anything would suffice. Anything would do.
I visualized it, the steps I’d take to open fire, and I realized that the shards of glass on the ground between me and the door could provide them with a half-second of warning. Slowly, carefully, I began brushing the shards aside, keeping my ears peeled for some clue about a key distraction.
“Survival of the fittest, it sounds so tidy, but it’s really hundreds of thousands of years of brutish, messy, violent incidents, billions of events that you’d want to avert your eyes from if you were to see them in person. And that’s a large part of what’s shaped us into what we are. But we wear masks, we pretend to be good, we extend a helping hand to others for reasons that are ultimately self-serving, and all the while, we’re just crude, pleasure-seeking, conniving, selfish apes. We’re all monsters, deep down inside.”
Again, one of those pauses that suggested something was going on that was visual and out of sight, rather than something I could overhear. Jack offered a dry chuckle. “Did that hit home?”
“I’m… not that kind of person. Not a monster. I’d kill myself before I became like that.”
“But you see how you could be like us. It wouldn’t even be very hard. Just… let go of those rules of yours. You’d get everything you ever wanted.”
“Not family.”
“Yes, family.” Bonesaw cut in.
“You guys kill each other. That’s not family.”
“You’re derailing our conversation, Bonesaw,” Jack chided the girl. “Amelia, when I say you could have everything you ever wanted, I’m telling you that you could live free of guilt, of shame, you could have your sister by your side, no more doubts plaguing you, no more feeling down. Haven’t you laid in bed at night, wondering, praying for a world where you could have something like that? I’m telling you that you can have those things, and I promise you that the transition from being who you are now to being who you could be would be much quicker than you suspect.”
“No.” The defiance was half-hearted.
“Amelia, you could let yourself cut loose and love life for the first time since you were young.”
And just like that, her resistance crumbled. “I’ve never felt like that. Never felt carefree. Not since I could remember. Not even when I was a kid.”
“I see. From your earliest memory, what was that? In Marquis’s home? No? Being taken home by the heroes and heroines that would become your false family? Ah, I saw that change in expression. That would be your earliest memory, and you found yourself struggling to adjust to your new home, to school and life without your supervillain daddy. By the time you did figure those things out, you had other worries. I imagine your family was distant. So you struggled to please them, to be a good girl, not that it ever mattered. There was only disappointment.”
“You sound like Tattletale. That’s not a compliment.”
“My ability to read people is learned, not given, I assure you. Most of the conclusions I’ve come to have been from the cues you’ve given me. Body language, tone, things you’ve said. And I know these sorts of things and what to look for because I’ve met others like you. That’s what I’m offering you. A chance to be with similar people for the first time in your life, a chance to be yourself, to have everything you want, and to be with me. I suspect you’ve never been around someone who actually paid attention to you.”
“Tattletale did. And Skitter.”
I startled at that.
“I meant on a long-term basis, but let’s talk about that. I imagine they were telling you ‘No, you aren’t. You can be good.'”
“But you didn’t believe them, did you, Amelia? You’ve spent years telling yourself the opposite. You’re a bad person, you’re destined to be bad, by circumstance and blood. And even though you didn’t believe them, you’ll believe me when I tell you no, you aren’t a good person, but that’s okay.”
“You say that, but you believe me when I say it.”
There was another pause where Panacea didn’t venture a response.
“Isn’t it unfair? Through no fault of your own, the blood in your veins is the blood of a criminal, and that’s affected how your family looks at you. You’ve been saddled with feelings that aren’t your fault, and doomed to a life without color, enjoyment or pleasure. Don’t you deserve to follow your passions? A decade and a half of doing what others want you to do, doing what society wants you to do, haven’t you earned the right to do what you really desire, just this once?”
“That’s not really that convincing,” Panacea spoke, but she didn’t sound assertive.
“I know. So I’ll offer you a deal. If you indulge yourself, we’ll surrender.”
“I won’t even make you do it now. Just look me in the eye, and honestly tell me you’ll do it. Drop all of the rules you’ve set yourself. I don’t care what you do after, you can wipe your sister’s memories, you can kill yourself, you can run away or come with us. And your side wins.”
“Aren’t we winning anyways?”
“Up for debate. I’m really quite thrilled with the current situation. Very enjoyable, and we’ve certainly made an impact.”
“This deal is a trap. You’ll make me do it and then you’ll kill me.”
“I could, but I won’t. Do you really have anything to lose by trying? If I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you regardless of what you say or do. Three and a half words: ‘I’ll do it’, and we leave the city.”
I almost stood right then, to open fire before she made a decision one way or another. I had to convince myself to wait, that no matter what they were saying, they wouldn’t leave right this instant.
Then I heard the sound of glass crunching in time with someone’s footsteps.
With the length of time I’d waited for an opportunity, I was going to take what I could get. My heart pounded, my hands shook even as I gripped the gun as hard as I could, but I let out a slow breath as I drew myself smoothly to a standing position and stepped into the doorway, pointing the gun through the window frame in the door.
They hadn’t heard me move. It left me a second to take in the scene and make sure I was shooting the right people.
They were in a music room that had been arranged with seats on a series of ascending platforms, backed by windows that had exploded inward, scattering the area with glass shards. At the bottom ‘floor’, there was a podium waiting for the teacher. Jack was walking up the steps to approach a girl. I knew he was Jack because he was the only male present. He was wreathed in thin white smoke, wore a light gray t-shirt marked with blood stains and black jeans tucked into cowboy boots. A thick leather belt had a variety of knives, including a butcher’s cleaver, a stiletto and a serrated blade.
His teammate Bonesaw, was standing in the corner of the room just to my right. I could see the edge of a dress, an apron with tools and vials in the pocket, long blond hair curled into ringlets, and that same shroud of smoke around her, moving out to fill the room. The rest of her was obscured by the wall to my right and the shelves that stood behind the podium. It put her in an awkward spot for me to shoot. If I’d known she was there, I would have crawled over to the door at that end, gunned her down at point-blank.
Panacea stood at the far end of the room, at the highest point. She had brown hair that was blowing slightly with the breeze that flowed in through the glassless windows behind her, topped with a flat top cap. Freckles covered her face, and she was dressed in a tank top and cargo pants. More than anything else, she wore a look of fear on her face that marked her as the victim, not the threat.
And process of elimination meant the thing beside her was her sister. I would have called it a coffin, but it was clearly made of something living. It resembled a massive growth of flesh that had been shaped into a vague diamond shape, gnarled with horny callous and toenail-like growths that protected it and reinforced it at the edges. On the side closest to me, a girl’s face was etched into an oversized growth of bone. It was unmoving, decorative, with locks of long wavy hair that wrapped around the sides of the diamond. The ‘sister’ floated a foot over the floor.
It was so startling to see that I nearly forgot what I was doing. I drew in a short breath, then let slow breath out as I aimed the gun at Jack and squeezed the trigger.
I’d mentally planned to unload the gun on Jack and Bonesaw, but I’d forgotten about the recoil. At the same time Jack was struck down, my arm jerked up, and my mental instruction to fire nonetheless carried through. The second bullet hit the ceiling.
I whipped the door open and turned to my right to fire on Bonesaw, but my arm was numb, and her reflexes were sharp. She was already opening a door at the other corner of the classroom before I could shoot, making her way into the hallway.
I had a split second to decide if I should chase her or go after Jack. I glanced at Panacea, saw her staring. As if the eye contact snapped her out of a daze, she lunged toward Jack, one hand outstretched. She stopped dead in her tracks as he lashed out blindly with the knife. Reversing direction, she went for her sister instead.
Jack hadn’t been incapacitated. Aside from the impact of the gunshot, he didn’t even seem wounded. He was on his feet in a flash, spinning a hundred and eighty degrees to face me, his knife in motion.
I ducked back through the door, the knife delivering a glancing blow to my back. It failed to penetrate my costume.
Oddly enough, moving into the hallway and putting my back to the wall made me feel like I’d committed to fighting Jack, even if I might have been in a better position to go after Bonesaw.
“Wake,” I heard Panacea speak. She said something else that I missed.
I felt a jolt, but it wasn’t physical. It shook me on an emotional level. My voice abandoned me, not that I wanted to speak. I felt as if I stood on the very edge of the grand canyon and any movement, even one to step back onto solid ground, was guaranteed to send me falling to certain death.
The levitating construct of flesh slammed through the door and the door-frame that Bonesaw had used to make her exit. The mask of bone drew upward like an opened lid, to reveal a clear sphere, containing vitreous fluid and a teenage girl with blond hair.
Her eyes were open, but she looked half asleep, her hair fanned out around her, floating in fluid that seemed thicker than water. Her arms were outstretched, but her hands and lower body were hidden by the meat that surrounded her. The edges of the shell that were unfolding around her were curved forward like the horns of a bull.
If the sister had come after me, I wouldn’t have been able to fight back. Like a deer in the headlights, I stood there, unable to think or compel my body to move.
She rotated in mid-air slowly, as if getting her bearings. As ponderously as she had moved one moment, she went tearing after Bonesaw in the next, slamming through walls as momentum carried her too far and as she turned a corner too tight and sheared through the drywall, tile and window frames.
I could hear Bonesaw laughing with childlike glee as she fled.
“Not smart, not smart, either of you,” Jack chastised us. “See, with Victoria gone, you’ve left me here with a hostage.”
I stood with my back to the wall, gun in hand. Ten bullets in here, four spent, if I’d counted right. I’d always sort of rolled my eyes at how movies treated guns and counting bullets, but it was harder than I’d thought. The shock and disorientation that came with firing a gun tended to disrupt even basic arithmetic. I couldn’t remember how many times I’d fired during the fight in the parking lot.
“I’ve been turning every microbe that touches my skin into an airborne plague, Jack,” Panacea spoke, her voice low. “You should be dead now.”
“And me?” I called out, feeling a pang of alarm.
“I didn’t know you were there. You should be dead too. Sorry.”
“A benefit of little Bonesaw’s smoke,” Jack answered. “If I recall correctly, it’s something of a safeguard in case she accidentally deploys a concoction she hasn’t immunized herself or the rest of our team against. The fact that it works against bugs and small rodents is a side benefit, rather than the intent. Bonesaw’s work has made us members of the Nine more or less immune to disease anyways.”
“And the gunshot?”
“Subdermal mesh. There’s more protection around the spine and organs, and you landed that shot pretty close to my spine. It hurts quite a bit.”
“Skitter! I don’t care if I die,” Panacea called out, “I’d rather live, if only to turn Victoria back to normal, but… just don’t worry about the hostage part. If I have to die so you can kill this fucker, I will.”
It isn’t that simple. Killing a monster like Jack or Bonesaw? That was one thing. I could push myself to do it. Killing a bystander in the process? That was something else entirely.
Jack seemed to be able to interpret my pause. “I suspect, Amelia, that she is worried about the hostage. The monster that dwells in Skitter’s heart is very similar one to yours. It’s a lonely thing, desperate for a place to belong, and the only thing it wants to be brutish to is her.”
“Don’t pretend you know me, Jack,” I called out. “You already tried to fuck with my head, you guessed wrong.”
“I had bad information. Cherish has her uses, but she was never going to be a long-term member of the group. The people who can are truly special. Bonesaw, Siberian, me. Perhaps Mannequin, but it’s hard to say. He’s not terribly social, but he’s been with us for some time.”
I stayed silent. I could hear his voice changing in volume as he spoke. Was he moving?
There were two doors leading into the classroom. Was he moving toward one, aiming to leap out and strike at me? I glanced down the length of the hall. Bathroom, janitorial closet, another bathroom, storage room… it made sense that there wouldn’t be other classrooms adjacent to a music room with minimal soundproofing.
“You two have your differences, of course. Amelia, you’re burdened by guilt, as you’re burdened by your rules and so much else. I’d like you to think again about how nice it would be to be free-”
“No,” Amelia’s interruption was curt, almost defensive.
“Alas. Well, while I’m interpreting you two, I’d say Skitter is driven by guilt. What makes you feel so guilty, bug girl?”
He’s trying to distract me.
I scampered along the length of the hallway, keeping low enough that I wouldn’t be visible from the window while I moved to the point just beyond the effects of the bug-killing cloud. I could send bugs after Bonesaw and the sister -Victoria, was it?- but Bonesaw would still have that cloud of smoke around her. I doubted my ability to achieve anything on that front.
“There’s always some guilt related to family. Tell me, what would your mother think, to see you on an average day? Or can’t you remember her with the miasma? I’d almost forgotten.”
Even if I couldn’t remember her face, who she was, or even where she was, I could feel a pang of regret that knotted in my gut. I grit my teeth to remind myself to keep from opening my mouth and grasped the cords that my bugs had threaded together. I looped them around Atlas’ horn, and then I ran down the hallway, still keeping low.
Just to check, I tried bringing bugs into the hallway. The smoke was still present, if thin. They still died, just a little slower than before. I returned them to their previous location. No use wasting them for nothing.
“Skitter,” he called out in a sing-song voice. With the acoustics of the hallway, I couldn’t pinpoint his location. “Aren’t you going to reply?”
Just as I was trying to locate him, he was attempting to do the same for me.
I decided to give him what he wanted.
“You’re pathetic, Jack.”
I’d intended to provoke him, and I’d succeeded.
I’d also intended to pull the silk cord taut as he stepped into the hallway, tripping him.
Instead of opening the door, he leaped through the open window in the upper half of the door, tucking his knees against his chest. He landed with a short roll, spotted me, and slashed.
I brought my arms up around my face to protect it. The feeling of the silk cord’s weight dropped to virtually nothing as the slash cut it.
I’d been given tips on fighting, even if I couldn’t remember by who or by whom. Catch them off guard. My arms around my face, nearly blind, I charged him.
He caught me in the side with a kick, but I had enough forward momentum that I crashed into him anyways. We fell to the ground, and I reached for the smoking vial that hung around his neck.
Jack already had the stiletto in one hand. He jabbed it toward my face, my eye, and I jerked my head back out of the way, abandoning my attempt to get the vial. Using one elbow, he shoved me to one side, then flipped over, simultaneously reversing his grip on the knife in his other hand and driving it down toward the side of my head. I rolled with the momentum he’d given me to escape before it could pierce my ear or my temple. He was already following up, slashing both knives at me, one after the other.
He knew how to fight, of course. He’d said he’d been at this for a while.
Hated this. Hated fighting without knowing enough about my opponents.
I tried to get my feet under me, but it was slow and awkward as I was unable to use my hands. I had to wrap my arms around my head to shield my face against the continued flurry of slashes. Jack had a knife in each hand now, and he wasn’t giving me a half second between cuts, if that.
My forearms and hands didn’t cover enough of my head. I could feel the cuts nicking my ears, slashing through my hair by my temple. A few slashes made their way through gaps between my arms and fingers.
Blindly, I rushed for the classroom. Needed a second to breathe, to think, before I was whittled down to a bleeding ruin. I could hear footsteps behind me. I felt a hand seize my shoulder. I whirled and knocked it away, felt another knife slash crossing the back of my head. I had blood in my eyes, my ears were a bloody ruin, and cuts burned like fire around my scalp and neck.
A shout. Not Jack’s. I heard it again, the same words, but I couldn’t make them out. There was blood in my ears.
I stumbled into the classroom, and Panacea was at my side in a moment.
“Fix me,” I gasped. I couldn’t tell where Jack was, and I was hurting enough that I couldn’t think to strategize. He hadn’t followed. “Fast!”
She touched my forehead, and I could feel the cuts knitting together.
But there was another injury that wasn’t mending.
“The red miasma took away my ability to recognize people. I don’t know anything about the people I’m fighting. Fix my brain.”
“I don’t- I can’t.”
“If you don’t fix me, Jack could win, and billions could die. If you don’t cure whatever it is that Bonesaw’s done with this miasma, I and tens of thousands of others could die of a degenerative brain disease.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t cure brain damage.”
My heart fell.
“I- my- the last time I did it, the last time I broke my rules, everything fell apart. You’re asking me to do the exact same thing Jack was. To break my rules again.”
“They’re just rules.” Where was Jack?
“They’re the only thing holding me together.”
He’s getting away. This stupid girl. “You were willing to die if he took you hostage. I’m asking you to sacrifice yourself in a lesser way. Fall apart if you have to. But undo what Bonesaw’s started.”
“This is worse than dying,” she said, her voice quiet.
“Ask yourself if it’s worse than the slow, degenerative death of thousands and the potential end of the world.”
She stared at me.
Even as she looked at me, aghast, I felt something awaken in my mind, barriers crumbling.
“This is bad. Every second is time you’re suffering more permanent damage.”
“That’s not a huge priority. I’m more worried about Jack, and all the others who got hit harder by this stuff than I did.”
“It’s a parasite that’s producing the improperly folded proteins. I can stop it, and I think I can make them create a counter-agent that counteracts the proteins and promotes healing in the brain. Can’t make them fix the lesions, but I can promote plasticity in the brain and new connections to old information.”
Her voice was so quiet I barely heard it.
But I could remember the others; I remembered Tattletale and Brian. Rachel. I could remember Alec and Aisha. The dogs. Our enemies. My dad. My mom’s face popped into my mind’s eye and I could feel a relief as I let go of an anxiety that I hadn’t been consciously aware of.
“The parasites will replace existing parasites over time, and they’ll die if it gets cold, now. Or if you raise your blood alcohol content. Get drunk after a week or two to clear them from your system, and don’t drink tainted water. If everyone clears them from their systems, the miasma’s effects will be gone by the end of winter.”
“They’re probably what she seeded all over the area, before using the catalyst.”
“I’d believe it.”
“And the damage, can you reverse it?”
“The minor damage, yeah. But I can’t do anything for the people with more serious brain lesions unless I attend to them directly. There’s other healers out there, I know they’re not as good, but maybe they can do something to fix that.”
Precious seconds passed.
“Let me know the second I can go,” I said. “Jack’s going to attack, or pull something.”
“Trying to engineer a large-scale solution to help as many people as soon as possible. The parasites will leave your body through your sweat, spit and urine, and enter the local water supply to override the others, and anyone you cure will cure others in a sort of reverse-epidemic. I have to make sure this is engineered right, or nobody’s going to get cured. If I screw it up, it could be worse than what Bonesaw did.”
My leg bounced on the spot with anxiety and anticipation. Jack was up to something and I was sitting there.
I tried to distract myself with a change of subject, “Where did you get the material for what you did for Glory Girl? That sarcophagus thing. You have to use living material, so…”
“They weren’t human.”
“That’s not that reassuring.”
“I used pheromones to lure stray cats, dogs and rats to us, then I knit them together. Victoria didn’t have enough body fat to stay warm, and she was wearing out faster than I could get her nutrition.”
“She’s going to return to normal, though?”
“Just a little more time. I have to ensure she’s totally together inside the cocoon, then disconnect her from it, and make sure she reaches a physical equilibrium afterward. Once I know she’ll recover…” she trailed off.
“Amy-”
“Go. You’re done. Go after Jack.”
I hesitated. There was a look in her eyes, dark. She wasn’t meeting my gaze.
I turned and ran. Atlas was waiting on the rooftop as I ascended the stairs.
Too much time lost. My body was a counter-agent for Bonesaw’s prion generators, but I had to find Jack and Bonesaw. I could scout the area with my bugs, vaguely sense the areas they’d traveled by seeing what spots murdered my bugs on contact, but I still had to track their movements.
Glory Girl was hovering over the school, searching for Bonesaw. The ‘cocoon’, as Amy had called it, was damaged much as the school gate had been, but Glory Girl was still intact inside.
The fact that she was looking made it very possible that we were facing the worst case scenario.
The bug-killing smoke extended outside of the school gates. It was hard to verify if they’d gone that way and corked the flow of the smoke or if it was traces from before. My only resource and means of detecting it was my bugs, but testing it meant killing them by the dozens, if not hundreds.
If they stayed on the grounds and I left, it could mean something ugly for Amy and Glory girl. Conversely, if they’d left and I stayed, it could mean disaster for everyone else.
I left, flying Atlas in an ever-expanding circle, reaching out with my bugs to scan the surroundings.
With a mixture of relief and fear, I realized that Bonesaw’s extermination smoke was stronger a half mile away. I’d been lucky enough to guess right.
They’d split up. Two trails, extending down different streets. My bugs felt around to see where the death-zone was, a few dropping dead each time, their numbers whittling down. It was like a game of battleship, with constantly moving ships and limited ammunition.
Three trails. I stopped in mid-air.
I gave chase to the nearest one, abandoning Atlas to pursue the subject into an alley, through a hole in the wall and into a derelict building, past a pile of rubble… this wasn’t right. It was too nimble, moving through spaces too small for even Bonesaw.
And before I even returned to Atlas, there were a half-dozen trails in total that were branching out around us. In another few minutes, there were a dozen.
Our group had used this method some time ago, using Grue’s power to slip away from the bank robbery. But how were they doing it? It wasn’t just the wind carrying the gas down misleading alleys. Were there living creatures carrying vials of the stuff?
Mechanical spiders. They’d found their maker, and Bonesaw was using them to distribute the vapor and cut off my swarm sense.
They’d escaped.
Posted in 14.10 | Tagged Bonesaw, Glory Girl, Jack Slash, Panacea, Taylor | 89 Replies
Prey 14.7
Posted on September 25, 2012 by wildbow
“Three places nearby they could have gone,” Tattletale said. “Two that fit with the direction they were running. The shelter underneath the central library, and the one near where Scion confronted Leviathan.”
“I remember that one,” I replied. We were walking at a brisk pace around the perimeter of the bomb site. The area to our left still burned, and Sundancer was in the lead, clearing away the worst of the fires ahead of us. I was walking with Tattletale and Grue, Atlas following behind us. The others rode the dogs behind me.
“If we’re going to check those locations, then…” Tattletale trailed off.
“If I had a preference, I’d rather we check the library first. Bad associations with the other spot.”
Tattletale turned her head at that. “I thought you’d be proud.”
“I only heard secondhand, so I didn’t get the full story, but you stabbed Leviathan with Armsmaster’s weapon and distracted him from going after the civilians that were inside that shelter.”
“Don’t know how many I really saved. He had a good thirty seconds to a minute to unload everything he had on the people in there, and we all saw how much damage he did to some of our toughest capes.”
“I dunno. I think of what happened back then, and I get this ugly feeling in my gut, like I did something wrong, or I didn’t try as hard as I could have because there was someone in that shelter who I sort of hate. Hated? I’m not sure if I should use past tense.”
“One of your bullies?” She asked.
“Teacher. I think that when I left the Undersiders, I guess I was thinking of considering becoming a hero or something. But with what happened at that shelter, I almost feel like it was the turning point. It was the first time I did anything that someone else could point to and call it heroic, and somehow I can’t find it in myself to be proud about it. And it’s like, that dream of being a hero that I always had just kind of faded away in the face of reality.”
“We’re glad to have you, whatever your reasons,” Tattletale said.
“Thanks,” I told her.
I looked at Grue. “You okay?”
“I’m getting annoyed that people keep asking that,” he spoke.
“Don’t be a dick,” Tattletale replied. “She’s asking because she cares. We’re asking because we care. And you know that if it was one of us that went through what you did, you’d want to make sure we were in the right headspace to go up against the Nine.”
Grue sighed, but he didn’t respond.
“You’d tell us if you weren’t feeling right, yeah?” Tattletale asked.
“If I had any idea what I felt, and it wasn’t good, yeah.”
We watched as Sundancer cleared away the flames with her flickering sun. Flames bent toward it as if being influenced by a strong wind, thinned out and disappeared.
She cancelled out her power and turned back to us. “One minute to cool off and we’re probably okay to go!”
“We should decide where we’re going and how we’re going to make our approach,” Grue spoke.
“If they’re waiting for their teammates, they’ll stay inside the shelter for the time being,” I said. “We’ll be in a better position if we don’t try anything overly complicated, like a pincer attack, if there’s more than one exit. We can hit them hard enough with Sundancer, Ballistic and my bugs.”
Grue nodded. “I don’t disagree. You two will have an idea if they’re making their way out the other exit.”
“The two shelters are close to one another,” Tattletale said. “But I’m still a little worried they’ll leave one location while we’re checking out the other. I almost want to split up.”
“Is that worth the risk of having half our group caught off guard by the Nine before the other half can arrive?” I asked.
“A better question,” Tattletale said, “Is whether we can afford to let them get away. If we miss this chance to go on the offensive and let them escape, they go into hiding and work out a strategy.”
“And we’re not exactly in their good books,” I said. “So we’d be a primary target.”
Was I imagining it, or did Grue’s darkness expand around him by a fraction?
“Hm?” He turned towards me.
No use making it worse, if I was prodding a sensitive area by raising the threat the Nine posed. “Nevermind.”
“Saddle up!” Tattletale called out.
Sundancer turned and sprinted back to the dogs. Regent hopped down from his seat and grabbed Shatterbird’s wrists so she could lift him into the air. I climbed on top of Atlas.
“What if-” I started. “No.”
“Keep talking,” Tattletale prodded me.
“What if I scouted the library, while you guys checked out the other site? I can fly, it’s faster for me to get there.”
“And we’d be one mistake away from you being killed,” Grue said. “If not worse.”
“Hear me out. Their only real long-range attacker is Jack, right? If I’m flying, the others won’t be able to touch me.”
“I think. But if Jack’s at the location, I’d be able to sense him before he got a bead on me. If that’s the case… I can just attack without exposing myself, and I can alert you guys.”
“Assuming he’s not two steps ahead of us and waiting at some vantage point somewhere nearby,” Grue said.
“He functions like a sniper,” Tattletale said. “Ignore the fact that he slashes and stabs, he’s a long-range combatant with a good sense of what the enemy is doing and how his teammates move on the battlefield. He stays out of the way and makes surgical strikes, then relocates to another vantage point. The only thing that keeps him from doing that all the time is how he has to stay involved with his team and keep them under control. Can’t make it look like you’re in charge if you’re not there. With less teammates to manage, he’s liable to go on the offensive.”
“But I have the ability to find him,” I pointed out. “Before he finds me. Amy gave me bugs that increase my range. I’ll be taking on some risk, but it means we’re able to check both locations at the same time and keep an eye out for the Nine. It’s the best way to strike the balance we need.”
“The balance,” Grue said. He was clearly unimpressed.
“Minimal risk to maximum effect. Your group will be safe because you’re all together and you’ll vastly outnumber them. I’ll be safe because I’m airborne, and I’ll have the advantage of an early warning. Offensively, you guys will have the Travelers and Bitch. I’ll have my bugs.”
“Bonesaw countered your bugs last time around,” Tattletale pointed out.
I nodded. “I have a few things in mind.”
“She’s not the only person who gets a say,” Grue said.
“Name a better option, then?” I said.
“We all go to the library’s shelter, then we all go to the shelter Leviathan attacked,” he said. “Safer, smarter.”
“If you’re worried about me being defenseless,” I suggested, “Regent could come with me.”
“There’s a reason we’re keeping that pair close to us,” Grue said. “If he gets taken down, you’ll have to deal with Shatterbird on top of everything else. We’re capable of handling her, I think. I don’t know if you are.”
Tattletale looked back at the others, then back at me. “Go.”
I looked at Grue.
Tattletale pointed. “Go! Stay in contact!”
I turned and lifted off.
I kept to the cover of nearby buildings, and I flew erratically, so Jack wouldn’t be able to hit me if he saw me coming. I was getting more used to flying Atlas. I wouldn’t have said he felt like an extension of my own body in the same manner as my swarm. He felt more like a prosthetic limb, or how I imagined a prosthetic limb might feel like. At first, it would be clumsy, every action requiring some level of careful thought and attention. Over time, it would become more second nature, a learned skill on my end. It would never match up to the real thing, but I could deal.
Already, I was getting more used to correcting orientation and keeping him level in the air.
We set down on a rooftop a distance away. There was a shed with a doorway that led into the building’s interior, and we headed there to take cover.
I chained relay bugs together so one connected to the next, then extended them well beyond the range of my power. Their progress was relatively slow, but it did allow me to sweep over an entire region around the library. Bugs stirred into action at my order, and they crawled or flew within a few feet of every horizontal surface that Jack or Bonesaw could be standing on.
No sign of them. The vault door beneath the library was closed and sealed.
I was about to return to the others when an explosion of dust and rock fragments ripped through a group of bugs a few blocks away from me.
A woman, no clothes. My bugs slid off her skin. Even the slightest abrasion on the surface of the skin served to tear through the legs and bodies of the bugs. Had to be Siberian. If the general shape of the large object she was holding was any indication, she still held the truck.
A handful of my bugs were wiped from existence a fraction of a second before more explosions of varying size ripped through the area around her. Legend was somewhere up in the air.
I drew my bugs together around Siberian’s head, in the hopes that I could distract her. It was pretty thin, but there wasn’t much I could do. Even a direct hit with Legend’s lasers wouldn’t affect her.
I shifted locations, flying half a block before landing again. I could just barely make out the pair of combatants with my swarm sense.
Something about what Legend was doing seemed odd. He wasn’t firing constantly. Rather, his shots seemed to be strategically placed. He ripped apart the side of a building a moment before Siberian landed there, then tore through the five or six floors beneath her so she had nowhere to go except straight down. The instant she stepped free of the building’s ground floor, he tore into the ground with a series of laser blasts that expanded outward, thinning as they went. It created a bowl-shaped indent, with rubble covering the storm drains that had been exposed by the lasers.
Carrying the truck, Siberian headed for the storm drains anyways, tearing through the piles of debris. Legend unloaded on the entire street, collapsing them around her. Some of my bugs descended with the pieces of the shattered street, and they could feel the warmth of the outside air mingling with the cold, stagnant air of the storm drains. He’d exposed her.
I’d seen Legend go all out, and this wasn’t it. Why was he holding back? Granted, there was little point in hitting Siberian with everything he had, and it was easily possible that trying to drill a hole in the ground around her could theoretically give her the chance to escape, if she found some underground cavern or tunnel, but it could just as easily drown her. So long as she had the truck, Siberian had to stay places where there was oxygen. She couldn’t, I was assuming, dive beneath the water and make her escape from there. Legend seemed to be going out of his way to keep her aboveground and exposed, attacking only when he had to.
He was conserving his strength. As much as both he and Siberian were powerhouses with more offensive capability than ninety-nine percent of people on the planet, this was a strategic battle. It was easily possible he was planning to keep this up for hours, harrying her, keeping her from getting her feet under her.
And with Siberian’s master or controller in that truck, she was forced to move more carefully. If Siberian’s creator didn’t have food and water, this could turn into a battle of attrition. One Legend might even win. He was fit, healthy, athletic. Siberian’s master, according to Cherish, wasn’t. Added to that, being in that truck as Siberian leaped around couldn’t be fun.
I felt like I was still missing something. Why was Legend fighting here, of all places? Whatever else was going on, they were causing pretty horrific property damage, and it had to be hard to fight Siberian in a place with this many high-rises. She could disappear into building interiors, and even if he lowered the height he was flying at, Legend was probably having to penetrate three or four stories of building to get to her.
I kept my distance from the fight as I directed Atlas toward the library. With my bugs, I was able to more or less follow the fight. I couldn’t touch Siberian directly, but I could sense where Legend was directing his attacks, and how he was positioning himself.
I continued to do what I could to help Legend, sending bugs at Siberian in the hopes of distracting her or finding some way into that truck. They searched the windows but failed to find a gap. Some crawled into the exhaust, others into the undercarriage-
She fell into a trench as Legend leveled another series of blasts at her, and the movement of the truck coupled with Siberian’s power and its rough texture murdered a solid ninety-percent of the bugs I’d used. The remainder made their way deeper inside.
The bugs could scent something they registered as food. A heavy smell, fetid, like garbage. It was rank in there. They crawled through the air conditioning vents and into the truck’s interior.
The driver’s seat was empty. I sent the bugs into the back. Nothing.
The truck was empty?
With my bugs, I drew out words in mid-air high above me, informing Legend: ‘TRUCK EMPTY – SIBERIAN BLUFF.’
Had she assessed what Legend was doing, turned it around on him? If her real self was somewhere safe, somewhere with food and water, that meant Legend would lose any battle of attrition, if that’s what he was aiming for.
I couldn’t think of another reason her creator would leave the safety of the truck.
Hovering over the library, I got my phone out and dialed.
“Tattletale?”
“Sup?”
“Legend’s fighting Siberian here, but the maker isn’t in the truck. I think he’s in the vault with Jack and Bonesaw.”
“Someone’s sealed over this door with a heavy pad of metal, because Leviathan or someone tore it down. My gut’s telling me the Nine didn’t gather inside and weld it shut behind them, but I can’t ignore the possibility that Bonesaw’s spiders did it. One in twenty chance, I’d guess? We’ll know in about thirty seconds, after Sundancer burns through.”
“Right. A few more things that are bugging me. Can I use your brain?”
“Legend’s fighting Siberian here. It feels wrong. He’s working to pin her down, slow her movements as much as he can. I know he’s probably buying time, trying to wear her other self out, but why not a place with flatter terrain? Why not a place where there’ll be less cover for her and less collateral damage? I know Siberian goes where she wants, and if her other self is in the shelter, that’s probably a big reason she came, but-”
“Your gut is saying something’s off.”
“My gut is saying something’s off.”
“Okay. I’d guess the Protectorate have more of a plan than the one firebombing.”
“They’re going to do it again?”
“No. The first one, going by what you’ve said and what I’ve picked up, hasn’t done much for our side. It’s going to be something else.”
“And we don’t know what?”
“No clue. What else?”
“Minor, but if her other self is in the shelter, where are Jack and Bonesaw? And if they’re in the shelter, where’s Siberian’s real body?”
“She’s spent years with them, they have a rapport, and they’re dependent on one another. Maybe he felt it was safe to approach them.”
“Maybe. Nothing more specific?”
“Don’t have much to work with. What else is going on?”
“Legend’s holding back. Conserving his strength. I get that he’s trying to win a fight of attrition, but as far as I can tell, he hasn’t changed his tactics or the pacing of his attacks much since I informed him that the creator isn’t in the truck.”
“He’s buying time for something? Someone? Maybe Scion is headed this way? No. Don’t get that vibe. Hmm,” Tattletale mused. “We just got inside. They aren’t here.”
I looked down at the library. “Vault door, how do I open it?”
“Can’t say until I see the control panel myself. The shelters are supposed to open with a command from the PHQ-”
“Which was annihilated,” I said.
“Right. Or the PRT headquarters, on the Director’s order. There’s bound to be another code that can be used in case those places get knocked out of commission.”
“How did they get in?”
“They have a tinker,” Tattletale said. “She may work primarily with biology, but that’s not going to be the full extent of Bonesaw’s knowledge. Look at those spiders. Some basic hacking isn’t out of the question. Anyways, I can figure it out when I get there. Unless you want to take the brute force route.”
I looked down at Atlas. “I don’t have enough brute force, and neither does Atlas.”
“Legend does. We’re on our way. See you in a few.”
I hung up.
I drew more words in the air with my bugs, near Legend.
‘FOUND THE 9. UNDERGROUND SHELTER.’
As an afterthought, I added:
‘MAYBE CIVILIANS INSIDE.’
I drew an arrow by the words. Then, to make it as clear as possible, I drew a giant arrow in the sky, pointing down at the shelter door.
I was going to look foolish if they weren’t inside, and maybe cost Legend in whatever plan he was operating under.
I could feel him changing directions. He kept facing Siberian, unloading laser blasts, but he was flying my way.
Siberian dashed forward. I could feel her cutting a swath through the swarm as she ran, the truck in one hand, one corner of it dragging on the ground, cutting a line into the pavement. She leaped into the air, out of the reach of my swarm-sense. I felt something massive collide with the bugs that were in the air around Legend, felt more die as he shot a laser and caught them in the area.
She’d thrown the truck, and he’d obliterated it.
Legend shifted into high gear, flying out of reach of Siberian as she lunged for him. He dove, hard, and I could imagine her leaping off the side of a second building, trying to get her hands on him.
Legend turned my way and flew towards the library. I hurried out of the way, directing Atlas to higher altitude, just in case Legend decided to level the place.
The leader of the Protectorate had arrived on the scene, and I could sense Siberian on the ground, hot on his heels. He raised one hand, and a laser beam shot forth, splitting into eight smaller beams that bent in the air. They hit the outside edge of the vault door with precision, evenly spaced out, then drifted in a clockwise direction. The door toppled free.
Legend spread his arms, and hundreds of individual beams radiated out from his body. Three quarters of them turned in sync to spear towards the library, stabbing through the architecture. Other beams split off to strike through doorways and windows and across rooftops. No less than three struck me.
I flinched and nearly lost my seat on Atlas, but found it wasn’t much hotter than steaming tap water, and it only lasted two or three seconds before cutting out. Siberian had approached close enough to demand Legend’s attention, and he’d terminated whatever it was he’d been doing.
I turned my mind away from whatever the beams had been intended to do and toward my own contributions to this fight. Had to strike before they got their bearings. I took advantage of the pause to send bugs flowing into the shelter.
I could count a number of people, young and old. The mosquitoes in my swarm could scent blood. Twenty or so people were inside the shelter, standing there. There was metal on their bodies, like backpacks or prosthetic body parts, but they didn’t seem to be hurt.
There were three more inside, but I wasn’t feeling so generous as to call them ‘people’. They stood apart: two men and a preadolescent girl.
It was them. The Nine.
I couldn’t trust my ability to get to Legend and communicate the necessary details in time, and I might even be endangering him by getting too close to Siberian. I couldn’t say for sure how he would really act in the field, but his PR sold the idea of a legitimate good guy who would balk at attacking an enemy with a hostage.
Or maybe he wouldn’t. It could even be a mercy, sparing someone from one of the Nine’s clutches. Siberian devoured people alive.
Either way, it was better to try to catch his attention with a written message: ’20 CIVILIAN, JS, BS, SIB’.
He was too distracted by Siberian to see it. She wasn’t as fast as Battery or Velocity, but she had the physical power to move quickly, and she was leaping between buildings to throw herself at him with the speed and aim of an arrow shot from a bow.
I tried leaving another message for Legend, stating the same thing. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw him looking at me. Our eyes met. He nodded, and I turned my attention to the shelter.
I didn’t want to do this half-assed. No mistakes this time around. I gathered a swarm of generous size, but I held it at bay. There were more preparations to carry out. I drew the capsaicin bugs from beneath my armor and added them to the swarm. I drew out silk threads and held them suspended in the air, ready for use. For a final measure, I withdrew a lighter and the changepurse from the utility compartment at my back.
Primary swarm in first. As one singular mass, they flowed inside. The capsaicin-laced bugs joined them, going straight for the eyes.
Jack reacted, as did the man, but Bonesaw was unfazed. I saw Siberian flicker. Legend noticed as well. He snapped his eyes to me, and then the shelter.
The creator needs to concentrate?
My heart was pounding so hard I felt like it would dislodge me from Altas. Bugs settled on the three members of the Nine and then they attacked. It wasn’t the sort of attack I’d ever done before. I’d had bugs bite, I’d had them sting, I’d even used them to deliver payloads of their various venoms.
I’d always held back to some degree. The only ones I hadn’t held back against had been untouchable. These three weren’t so lucky.
Mandibles bit into flesh, seeking not to pinch and inflict pain. Ants scissored flesh away, beetles tore and rent into the flesh, flies spat their digestive enzymes onto the exposed flesh.
I buried them in every kind of insect I had that could eat, cut or pierce meat. The bugs didn’t eat their fill: they simply bit, chewed, let the food fall from their mouths, then bit again.
Bonesaw’s hands were smooth as glass as she reached for her belt. She was cool and collected, even as the bugs slowly flayed her.
She was stopped short as the silk strands tangled her ceramic fingers.
My bugs could hear her speak. Though I could barely make out the words, I thought maybe the first one was ‘Jack’. She held out her hands.
I tried to bind him, but tying his arm to his side was harder than using silk cords to lash fingers together. At least partially blinded by the capsaicin, he swiped his knife a few times in Bonesaw’s direction. He cut her several times, and my bugs could feel her flesh part around her collarbone and face. Some of the cuts were on target, however, and the threads around her fingers were severed. An instant later, she was free to put together her anti-bug smoke, working her hands to break the threads as I tried to tangle her fingers again.
Okay. Not the end of the world. The bugs were still devouring the three, and I still had a plan in mind. An idle hope.
I withdrew the tissues I’d wadded in the changepurse to keep the contents from jingling or rattling around. My bugs took hold of them and carried them into the air, two or three dozen in all.
I tested the lighter, then held it out to ignite the first tissue.
It was a slow burn, taking fifteen or twenty seconds to consume the paper. The flies that carried it died as the flame reached them, consuming them.
By the time the first was burned, my bugs were positioning the second, allowing it to ignite. In this manner, I chained them one after the other. A slow-moving relay of flame.
Bonesaw had her smoke going, despite my efforts to rebind her fingers, and I could feel it murdering my bugs en-masse. I pulled them away and out of the shelter, leaving only a few to track the movements of the Nine.
The trail of burning tissues made their way inside the shelter. I ignited the last few tissues and sent them to Bonesaw. I could feel the bugs die as they hit the smoke.
Nothing. I swore.
It had been too much to hope for, that the smoke was flammable. Even if the smoke had exploded in the mildest possible way, it would have at least given me a countermeasure.
I turned away from the area. I’d told the others I would play safe. I’d tried what I could, I’d maybe even done a little damage to them, now I’d back off. I’d earned Siberian’s attention by attacking her creator, but she was preoccupied with Legend, so that was one threat I didn’t have to worry about. The rest of the Nine were still inside.
Legend, for his part, was keeping up the measured, carefully paced assault. I saw him raise one hand to his ear.
A communication from his team? Had something happened with the rest of the Protectorate? Or the other members of the Nine?
He dove straight for the shelter. Siberian gave chase, and without slowing in the slightest, he raked a laser across the street to render her footing less stable. It couldn’t have bought him more than a fraction of a second, if it even made a difference at all; I could see her placing one foot on a shattered piece of road that wouldn’t have held a squirrel without collapsing. She used it to kick herself forward, soaring after Legend, hands curled into claws. He was ahead of her by only ten or fifteen feet.
The scattered bugs I had at the fringes of the extermination smoke gave me only a half-completed picture. Legend inside, blasting a laser in the direction of the cloud where Jack, Bonesaw and Siberian’s creator were. He grabbed one of the civilians that were standing dumbly in the shelter, only to get mobbed. She latched onto him, and the others did the same, trying to drag him down. My bugs felt a flash of heat as he used his laser to blast at them and free himself. Another laser speared out of the top of the Library, followed soon after by Legend, spearing up toward the sky. He directed another laser straight down at the library, continuing to fly straight up.
That was reason for me to do the same. I rose with one hand on Atlas’ horn, and I drew my phone with the other. I speed dialed Tattletale. Trusting to her penchant for picking up the phone on the first ring, I started shouting before I heard any response, “Something’s up! Take cover and get back!”
The stealth bomber streaked across the sky, just as it had before. Its payload this time was smaller, barely visible.
The devastation wasn’t so easy to miss.
The only word for it was chaos. I could hardly pick out the individual effects as they mingled. A cloud of yellow-green smoke being pulled into a spiral around a vortex, which was causing the section of the library that had turned to glass to shatter and implode. There was a flare of brilliant mixed colors I could barely look at, frying a scattered assortment of boneless, faceless, fleshy monsters. One monster made it four steps before being turned to dust. Where the dust touched, more dust was created, until the vortex expanded enough to start pulling it all in, stopping what might have been an endless chain reaction.
I could see time slowing in one spot, I could see pavement heating into a liquid in another. I could see one area that was serene, untouched, a bubble where a newspaper that had been scattered on the ground was flapping violently with the movement of air. Half a building was annihilated by the flash of an explosion, and it toppled into the midst of the bomb site. In seconds, it was obliterated and chewed up.
The effects spread and expanded all down the street, a stripe of this madness three blocks wide, extending into the midst of the blaze from the previous bombing run.
I drifted toward Legend, raising my hands over my head to show I meant no harm.
“Thank you for the assistance,” he spoke, when I was in earshot. “Some was misguided or off target, but it did make a difference.”
I could only nod.
He put one hand to his ear, then paused for several long seconds. When he spoke, it was vague. “Acknowledged.”
I waited, staring down at the disaster area below.
“Crawler and Mannequin observed to be in the blast site.”
“How did they disengage while keeping them there? They- they did disengage?”
“Clockblocker managed to tether Mannequin in place. Crawler freed himself from the same trap by tearing himself in two against the immovable object. It was Piggot who managed to keep Crawler in the blast area.”
“She had Weld pass on a message, telling Crawler what we had planned. He was so tickled at the idea that we would be able to hurt him that he stayed where he was while the teams made their retreat.”
“Just like that?”
“If he survives-”
There was a series of smaller explosions below. I could see a section of ruined building glowing red, then detonating in a blast of light that sent a nearby glacier spinning into a patch of burning ground.
“And the other three?”
“Remains to be seen. The civilians are dead, but it’s something of a mercy. Bonesaw’s mechanical spiders were welded to their skeletons, allowing her to remotely control them. Like zombies, only they were aware and in incredible pain. I expect she had measures to inflict agonizing deaths on them if we attempted to disconnect them from her spider-frames. Maybe I could have saved them, can’t say. From the glimpses I saw of them, I don’t know if they would have thanked me.”
We spent a minute staring down at the devastation.
I ventured to ask him a question, “Can Brockton Bay take this? It feels like it was on the verge of collapse already. Add this mess, the firebombing… can we really come back from it?”
“You know this city better than I do, I’m sure. I like to think people are stronger than they appear at first glance. Perhaps the same goes for cities as well?”
“I’d like to think so. But if I’m being realistic-”
I stopped mid-sentence.
My bugs had found a group of individuals on the edge of the blast radius.
“No fucking way.” I pointed.
Siberian flickered violently as she crouched beside Jack and Bonesaw, one hand on each. In between the three of them was a man, hunched over.
Legend raised one hand, but he didn’t shoot.
“Legend?”
“They haven’t seen us. I would like to take out Jack or Bonesaw while they’re distracted and unguarded, I just need Siberian to step away or let go of them.”
The group shifted positions, so the man had an arm around Jack’s chest and an arm around Bonesaw’s shoulders, Siberian behind him.
“See that?” Legend asked.
“What?” I could barely make them out from our vantage point. “I can’t.”
“My eyes are better than most. A minor benefit of my powers. The backs of his hands, perhaps you can make out the tattoos? A cauldron on the left hand, a swan on the right.”
“I- I don’t follow.”
“No,” he sighed a little. “I suppose you wouldn’t. It does mean we know who he is.”
“Someone I’d know? An old costume?”
He shook his head. “A scholar.”
Jack glanced up, and Legend fired in the same instant. With Siberian’s strength, the group of the Nine lunged to one side, disappearing behind cover. I sent bugs after them.
My swarm sensed other arrivals. The Undersiders and Travelers came from the west, taking a circuitous route around the top end of the bomb site. Legend fired a series of blasts after Siberian and gave chase, but she was keeping a building between her group and Legend. He stopped where he was, one hand outstretched, and touched his ear.
“My teams are on their way,” he said.
“That’s good,” I said. “The Undersiders and Travelers are too. I’m going to go fill them-”
“We need them to back off,” he interrupted.
“Another bombing?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. It seems we’re facing the worst case scenario.”
“We’re winning,” I said, incredulous. “You guys took out two of them, we’ve got them on the defensive-”
“Exactly,” he interrupted me. “We’re winning. And we’ve broken enough of Jack’s rules for his ‘game’. Now I fear we’re about to see whatever ‘punishment’ it was that Bonesaw prepared for us.”
Posted in 14.07 | Tagged Atlas, Ballistic, Bastard, Bentley, Bitch, Bonesaw, Crawler, Grue, Imp, Jack Slash, Legend, Mannequin, Piggot, Regent, Shatterbird, Siberian, Sirius, Sundancer, Tattletale, Taylor, Trickster, Weld | 90 Replies
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1.x (Interlude)
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24.y (Interlude 2)
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26.03x (Donation Bonus #1)
26.a (Interlude A)
26.b (Interlude B)
Arc 27 (Extinction)
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Arc 30 (Speck)
Stories (Epilogue)
E.01
Interlude: End
Stories (Pre-Worm 2)
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Motherlode | What Should Children Learn About Race?
What Should Children Learn About Race?
January 21, 2010 12:26 pm January 21, 2010 12:26 pm
On a week that includes Martin Luther King’s Birthday and the inaugural anniversary of the first African-American president, Larissa Kosmos has questions.
What — and how — should she be teaching her children about race, she asks in a guest blog. Has the world changed enough that the lessons she missed as a child are now moot? Or have we really not come very far at all?
OUTSTRETCHED HANDS
By LARISSA KOSMOS
When I was 10, I touched a black person for the first time. It was Easter Sunday and I was with my parents and older brother in Nassau, the Bahamas, during our school’s spring break. At the conclusion of the mass we attended, the priest, who looked like any of the white Catholic priests I had seen in Parma, the suburb of Cleveland where I grew up, began walking down the aisle to shake hands with everyone in the congregation.
Alongside him, doing the same thing, was an altar boy wearing red and white vestments, a plump boy around my age with skin the color of dark chocolate. Before I could fully absorb what was happening — this ritual wasn’t practiced at our church — the priest and altar boy had reached our pew. My father shook hands with both of them; I clasped hands with the priest; and the altar boy, his bright eyes meeting mine, leaned toward me, his hand outstretched. I hesitated. It was half a second that held my anxiety: Would black skin feel warm? Or have a different texture? Could the boy’s color rub off on me? The pressure to be polite flattened my fear. It turns out his hand felt unremarkable; it could’ve been anybody’s hand. Now, 28 years later, I would like to think that the boy didn’t perceive my moment of apprehension, that this tiny scratch of time left a mark only in my memory.
Once I matured, I realized how that scene in the Bahamas was telling of my insulation. It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that there were no African-Americans in our community. I was in the company of my dark-skinned peers only once a year when the Cleveland Orchestra put on its annual children’s concert at Severance Hall. Among the dozens of area schools that attended, there were groups, like ours, with row after row of white faces, and schools whose population was entirely black. We glimpsed each other as we streamed down the aisles and took our seats. Eye contact was the extent of our interaction.
It’s too bad that our teachers didn’t approach each other to arrange visits to one another’s schools, maybe a letter and photo exchange, anything to try and bridge the glaring racial divide. It could’ve been a meaningful exercise in Social Studies, more significant than what we were studying in our thick textbooks. Instead, when the concert was over, we boarded our identical yellow school buses and returned to our separate worlds.
Growing up in New York City, my children’s perspective is different. My daughter and son, ages 6 and 3, have black classmates; they’ve been cared for by a black pediatrician; they’ve been instructed by both a black teacher and soccer coach. The principal at my daughter’s school is an African-American woman. It’s apparent that my kids are not mystified by people with dark pigment and certainly not apprehensive of them. In fact, my daughter once wondered aloud if we had a black relative: Before we headed to Toronto last summer to visit family, including an uncle whom we hadn’t seen in a long time, she asked—in struggling to picture him—whether he had white skin or brown. Both races are natural components of her world. She wouldn’t guess that there’s anything unusual about having elected a biracial president.
On the anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, I wonder about the perceptions of other kids, especially those growing up in America’s homogenous neighborhoods. Are there children today who would hesitate to touch a girl or boy of a different race? Would you know if you were the parent of one of those children?
Inspired by the president, are more black youths recognizing their own potential? And if they are thinking better of themselves, does it lessen their hostility toward their white counterparts? Have they sensed a green light to dream bigger? Are those dreams propelling the determination to succeed? How far can determination get them beyond the obstacles?
For children in all-white communities, the kind I grew up in, what’s the effect of seeing a dark face in the White House? Does it depend on whether or not their parents agree with the president’s viewpoints? Or, regardless, has there been a revelation that the ability to lead is a gift not exclusive to people of one race? Are more white kids viewing their black peers as equals?
We could merely speculate the answers to some of these questions for the time being, because the young constituents of our country are still being shaped by this unique era, only one year in the making. Today’s children may not fully experience the impact of having an African-American president, or be able to articulate their thoughts about that impact, until they become adults. Major shifts in perception, like changes in our planet, happen soundlessly, gradually, over time.
A year ago, I had wanted to be in Washington for the inauguration, but instead I witnessed history from a disappointing distance, via a television screen. I hope to one day see President Obama in the flesh. I would love to hear him speak. And I could only dream of the honor of shaking his hand.
Snack Time Never Ends
How Kids Can Help Haiti
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Cities, nature and medieval villages in Catalonia
InLocations
Catalonia hides in its interior many corners of singular beauty and incomparable charm. From the Mediterranean nature of its fishing villages and its beaches to the steep peaks of the Pyrenees.
From the cosmopolitan airs of Barcelona to the tradition and magic of cities such as Girona or the very Roman Tarragona. Very different options for your audiovisual project.
Do you want to find the best location? Get in contact with us!
The Catalan capital, Barcelona, goes from the old to the avant-garde. From the Roman and medieval history in the Gothic Quarter to the modernist buildings and modern art in the Raval. And don’t forget the incredible architectural and cultural heritage captained by Gaudi. It offers parks, beaches and viewpoints where you can get the best views of the city for your audiovisual production or photographic shooting. Let yourself be seduced by its charm and choose the best locations.
You will be able to admire the views from the Balcony of the Mediterranean, its amphitheater and the intense blue of the sea in your audiovisual project. Tarragona, eternally sunny and beautiful, has managed to combine perfectly its Roman ruins with modernity and its medieval framework that culminates in the beautiful cloister of the cathedral, the circus, the imperial forum and its walls.
Girona is as fascinating as the colorful houses that are reflected in the waters of the Onyar River which crosses the city. It is ideal for a photographic shooting or audiovisual production by its wealth of history and details. Take a walk through the medieval streets of its Jewish quarter, climb the grand staircase that leads to the cathedral or enjoy the silence of the cloister. Or wander around the walls and look for the reflection in the Arab baths.
Cadaqués was practically isolated until the 19th century, and you will not be able to resist, for your audiovisual project, the picturesqueness of its streets and whitewashed houses, the pride with which its inhabitants still live facing the sea, the boats on the beach and its climate touched by the fierce Tramuntana.
The idyllic medieval set of Besalú is a National Historic-Artistic Site. Crossing the monumental stone bridge that leads to its historic center is like travelling back in time to the Middle Ages. Stroll through the stone streets, walk through its medieval structure to the Jewish baths, the church of the monastery of Sant Pere and Sant Julià, the Romanesque house Cornellà or the Gothic room of the Palace of the Royal Curia. But the best background for your photographic shooting or audiovisual production will be, undoubtedly, the reflection of the arches of the old bridge in the waters of the river.
Coquettish and spectacular, the town of Siurana is a real beauty. It is located on a huge limestone rock and offers incredible panoramic views of the Siurana river valley and its reservoir in the Priorat region. An impressive location for your audiovisual project. It has a small monumental center formed by the Romanesque church and the remains of an Arab castle.
Aigüestortes and Sant Maurici
The only national park in Catalonia, the Parc National d’Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici is a wonderful nature corner for your audiovisual production or photographic shooting. The park is located in the central part of the Pyrenees and the landscape is high mountain, with almost 41 hectares of mountains more than a thousand meters high, with peaks up to more than 3.000 meters. Valleys with green meadows, lakes of glacial origin, rock massifs and protected forests in a quite wild state.
Fageda d’en Jordà
This magical-looking beech forest is, without a doubt, one of the most charming corners of Catalonia. It is located in the region of La Garrotxa on an ancient lava flow from the nearby Croscat volcano. This undulating and winding terrain will be ideal for your audiovisual production.
The amazing Delta del Ebro, the largest wetland in Catalonia, has an area of 320 square kilometers and stands out for its fabulous natural wealth, with postcard landscapes and beaches. Walking through its rice fields at dusk, exploring the island of Buda by bike, or even taking a boat trip, you will meet countless possibilities for your photographic shooting or audiovisual production.
The unmistakable profile of the Montserrat, in the heart of Catalonia, can be seen from miles away. Its rocky peaks are a permanent focus of attraction for hikers and climbers, and the Benedictine abbey that hosts the Moreneta has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. A spectacular landscape for your audiovisual project.
Photographic Sources:
Portada – https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/the-sexiest-spots-to-watch-the-sunset-in-barcelona/
Barcelona1 – https://www.bolsamania.com/noticias/politica/barcelona-ya-puede-limitar-la-circulacion-de-vehiculos-contaminantes–3005311.html
Barcelona2 – http://www.gsiconstructora.com/reformas-integrales-de-pisos/el-crecimiento-de-las-reformas-de-pisos-en-barcelona/
Tarragona1 – https://erasmusu.com/es/erasmus-tarragona/experiencias-erasmus/experiencia-en-tarragona-espana-de-javier-183724
Tarragona2 – http://www.worldscape.es/tarragona-a-giant-unesco-heritage/
Girona1 – https://2orn7d13eu9j2ad63d44gytn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Girona-study-abroad-Barcelona.jpg
Girona2 – https://www.alongdustyroads.com/posts/2017/7/12/things-to-do-in-girona-spain-guide
Cadaqués1 – http://tourtravelandmore.com/es/tours/barcelona-es/barcelona-actividades-es/tour-privado-museo-dali-y-cadaques-desde-barcelona-10-horas/
Cadaqués2 – http://clarabmartin.com/cadaques/
Besalú1 – https://www.calfuster.com/es/
Besalú2 – http://fotos.costabrava.org/es/downloads/besalu-3/
Siurana1 – https://www.escapadarural.com/que-hacer/siurana-de-prades/donde-comer
Siurana2 – http://www.rutesapeu.com/la-trona-i-tolls-del-siurana-priorat/
Aigüestortes y Sant Maurici1 – http://pirineus.omitsis.com/es/highlights/parque-nacional-de-aiguestortes-i-estany-de-sant-maurici
Aigüestortes y Sant Maurici2 – http://www.masalladelaciudad.com/2016/10/estany-de-sant-maurici-y-estany-de-la.html
Fageda d’en Jordà1 – http://www.funtrack.cat/es/es/que-ofrecemos/rutas-a-pie/rutas-para-todo-el-ano/ta/senderismo-por-la-fageda-den-jorda/
Fageda d’en Jordà2 – https://www.escapadarural.com/blog/la-fageda-den-jorda-cuando-ir-y-como-visitarla/
Delta de l’Ebre1 – https://www.ernesturtasun.eu/ecologia/portem-parlament-europeu-gestio-dels-sediments-dels-pantans-conca-lebre/
Delta de l’Ebre2 – http://delta2c.pe.hu/category/naturals/
Montserrat1 – https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/catalonia/monestir-de-montserrat
Montserrat2 – https://www.elperiodico.com/es/extra/20160908/misterios-montana-montserrat-5366103
If you want support to find the location that your next projects need, do not hesitate to contact us. Tell us your needs and we will take care of everything. We leave you a link to our portfolio and services so you can think about your next production.
More Information about RVD Media Group.
RVD Media Group is a content creation agency with creative and digital marketing solutions. We bet on great ideas and create strategic moves. We can help you with all types of content, both photographic and audiovisual. Don`t hesitate to contact us.
Cultural heritage and nature for your audiovisual project in Murcia
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Imagine Online: The Game
Imagine Online: The Game Chapter 0 Prologue: Vrmmorpg
January 2, 2016 Sakuraid 4 Comments
This story is not properly edited, only the Prologue and chapter one is edited, please feel free to comment on mistakes. English is my second language, the first being Swedish.
The stone walls of the cave grew taller as he shrank, his senses growing sharper, his body twisted as it took on a new form, his new paws rested upon the cold, damp, and uneven floor as he shifted his focus onto getting out of the cave. He turned around, the smell of fresh air from the hole above him, the one he had fallen from an hour ago, grabbing his attention. His name was Hiro Gustavsson, and he was an 18 year old high school student.
Hiro was five feet and nine inches tall, had short messy black hair that barely reached past his ears, crystal blue eyes, and a plain face. He was the type of person that acted studious, but on the inside, was a true gamer. He lived with his little sister, Kira, and his parents. His mother was Japanese, and lovingly called Sakura by friends and family, while his father was Swedish and went by Henrik. He had lived in Japan until he turned 16, when he then moved to Gothenburg, Sweden. As a result, he was fluent in both Japanese and Swedish. In Japan, everyone thought he had a weird last name, but he didn’t get bullied because of it, in fact, he was actually quite popular because of it.
It was 2027, and the first virtual reality gear had been released. People could finally talk to each other face-to-face without having to travel long distances. The gaming industry exploded, with games being made left and right, but the most popular was the first, Imagine Online. Players are given a unique freedom, with any build or class possible, with the amazing bonus of custom magic. Skills could be shared through skill scrolls, with no default ones in existence, players were forced to become creative. The only things players can’t do was edit the terrain, create an NPC, create a new race, or change the pain awareness past 70%. Unlike older 3D and 2D games, there was no background music, focusing more on realism.
Hiro had been standing in front of the gaming store in his neighborhood, with his wallet securely in his right hand. The Swedish summer was perfect for standing in line, and also perfect in that the game was released on his summer holiday. It was about 20 minutes before he could enter the store to get his new virtual gear and Imagine Online. It being almost noon, and the Swedish servers would open in roughly two hours, together with the international servers. So far, there had only been servers open in Japan, Korea, China, and North America.
Hiro had researched the game beforehand and knew the basics, but it wouldn’t affect his gameplay. He knew that there was seven races in total: humans, beasts, elemental spirits, elves, fairies, dwarfs and celestians. There was only one type of humans, elves, fairies, or dwarfs, while there was different species for the others. Beasts could range from vampires to werewolves, elemental spirits varied depending on the element, and celestians differed based on what god they served.
The world in Imagine Online took place in Almeria, and was split into two continents, the North and the South. It had five countries: Mior, Lativase, Pestrick, Loin, and Shion. Mior was the land of the dwarfs, Lativase was home to the elves, Pestrick gave birth to the beasts, Loin belonged to the humans, and Shion housed the celestials, elemental spirits, and the fairies. Even though each race was based in their own country, it was possible to start in any country’s capital.
Hiro arrived at the counter 30 minutes later and bought his virtual gear, after stepping aside to an odd changing room. He was then asked take off his clothes, so that they could do a full body scan. Embarrassed, he stood there, nude, while being scanned by a camera. Afterwards, as he stepped out onto the sidewalk with his clothes back on of course, he suddenly felt very hungry and hurriedly made his way home.
It was near two o’clock when he was finally was able to start up Imagine Online. It gave him a notification, stating that the servers would open at exactly 2:00 p.m. He started up the gear and simply said, “Imagine.”
His world turned white.
Big credit to Scyanicat from Wattpad who edited this for me. If she ever start to publish her own story on wattpad please give her alot of support!
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ActionFantasyRomanceSci-fiVrmmorpg
Next PostImaging Online: The Game V1 Chapter 1: The Game Begins
4 thoughts on “Imagine Online: The Game Chapter 0 Prologue: Vrmmorpg”
Asbolus says:
Woah info dump much? Couldn’t grasp some of that. But a story with potential.
Oh yeah! I support you translating Ring Ring!
Sakuraid says:
There is an updated version on Wattpad that is edited and I’ve neglected this site pretty much. I can update this if you want.
Btw I have already translated chap 2 of Ring Ring, wanna see it?
@Asbolus I updated it, please feel free to reread.
Okayyy thank you ^^
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Male hands taking notes in notebook on a desk with laptop open, only hand, pen and wristwatch in focus
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Reaction to Mariya Gabriel’s Public Hearing at the European Parliament: Research is Essential to All EU Policy Areas
Science Europe warmly welcomes the strong commitment from Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner-designate for Innovation and Youth, to support excellent research in Europe. Research is essential for Europe to address the societal challenges, and lead the transition to a sustainable and digital economy and society.
European Research Area
Science Europe Call to the European Institutions: The Need for an Ambitious Budget for Horizon 2020
Ahead of the trilogue negotiations on the EU Budget for 2020, Science Europe calls on the Council to agree to a substantial budgetary increase for Horizon 2020. Outcomes of Horizon 2020 provide a key contribution to long-term economic growth, European competitiveness, and in finding solutions to societal and global challenges.
Response to the European Commission Consultation on Horizon Europe Co-design 2021-2024
For Horizon Europe’s ‘Strategic Plan’ 2021-2024, Science Europe urges the European Commission to support cutting-edge research and innovation at all Technological and Societal Readiness Levels, and to adopt objectives that are not limited to short term impact. Europe should dare to explore unexplored paths and support riskier experimentation. Moreover, Science Europe recommends to reinforce a series of cross-cutting factors to increase the scientific, economic, and societal impacts of Horizon Europe.
Reaction to the Political Partial Agreement on Horizon Europe: A Good Deal but is there a Supporting Budget?
Science Europe welcomes the Political Partial Agreement on Horizon Europe, voted on today in plenary by the European Parliament. Science Europe is very pleased to see that excellence remains the core principle of the programme. However Horizon Europe’s ambitions can only be met with the appropriate funding and we therefore advise that Horizon Europe is granted a budget of at least €120bn.
Reaction to the Legislators’ Latest Decisions on Horizon Europe
In view of the upcoming trilogues between the three European institutions, Science Europe invites all parties to consider a series of elements to further improve the legislative package for Horizon Europe. The budget of €120bn proposed by the European Parliament is a very welcome proposal and should be taken up by the Council in the next Multiannual Financial Framework. Moreover, fundamental research must be included in all parts of the programme, including the European Innovation Council.
Factsheet on the Need to Increase Funding for Research and Innovation
The overall funding for research and innovation in Europe needs to be increased and an adequate ring-fenced budget should be provided for Horizon Europe. In this factsheet Science Europe illustrates some of the reasons why.
Factsheet on the Need to Support Fundamental Research
The European Commission proposal for Horizon Europe falls short of acknowledging the importance of fundamental research. This factsheet demonstrates the essential role fundamental research plays, not only for research, but also for innovation.
Reaction to the European Commission Proposal on Horizon Europe
Science Europe welcomes the overall continuity between the internal structure and funding rates between Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. However, the proposed budget increase for the period 2021-2027 does not live up to the ambitious scenarios defended by the European Commission in front of the Heads of States and Governments in March 2018 and will not be sufficient for Europe to meet its ambitious political goals.
Response to the European Commission Call for Feedback on Missions
Science Europe sees interesting opportunities in the use of missions and cross-disciplinary Research and Innovation as part of Europe’s toolset to address societal or global challenges. However, the criteria for selecting missions so far have been too broad and more discussion is needed on the concept of missions and their introduction in FP9.
The Funding that Europe Needs: Recommendations on the Multiannual Financial Framework
The Multiannual Financial Frameworks (MFF) determine the budget allocation of the EU over a period of seven years. Science Europe recommends strengthening science, research, and innovation by increasing their budget in the MFF for 2021–2027 and to take measures to ensure that the 9th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation will have the capacity to achieve its goals.
Response to the Report ‘LAB–FAB–APP: Investing in the European Future we want’
This is Science Europe’s response to the report ‘LAB–FAB–APP: Investing in the European Future we want’ by the High Level Group on maximising the impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes. It outlines points of agreement, as well as additional or alternative recommendations, from Science Europe Member Organisations on how the future of European research should take shape.
EU Competitiveness Council Fails to Fully Recognise the Societal Value of Research
Science Europe supports some of the conclusions adopted today by the EU Competitiveness Council, but is disappointed by the lack of ambition in others. The conclusions reflect the Council position on the preparation of the ninth Framework Programme (FP) for Research and Development.
Policy Brief on Public-to-Public Partnerships and the Next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation
A more strategic approach is needed to the co-ordination between regional, national, and European research activities and to the initiatives supporting them. This briefing presents policy makers with the Science Europe view on how to better organise regional, national, and European research efforts.
Key Principles to Shape the Future Framework Programme
Science Europe shares eight key principles to shape the future Framework Programme. Examples of its European added value include the ERC’s role in fostering Europe-wide competition, the support of Research Infrastructures as a fundamental part of the European research system, and the support of collaborative research to solve societal challenges that cannot be addressed purely with national efforts.
Policy Brief on Research Infrastructures in EU Framework Programming
Research Infrastructures (RIs) are of utmost importance for Europe’s global competitiveness and this paper puts forward the case of how the focus on RIs in Horizon 2020 should be enhanced.
Policy Brief on FET Flagships
This briefing is a contribution to the evaluation and development of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships under Horizon 2020. It highlights lessons learned about the added value and limitations of the current FET Flagships and provides recommendations for the development of the FET Flagship instrument.
Position Statement on the Framework Programme that Europe Needs
Horizon 2020 is a unique programme worldwide; it is widely appreciated and has an ambitious agenda. It can meet expectations as long as its nature as a programme capable of supporting excellent research is reinforced. Ahead of the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, Science Europe shares the extensive experience of its Member Organisations, many of whom have decades of experience in setting up world-leading research programmes or are among the main beneficiaries of the Framework Programmes.
Funding Research in Horizon 2020: Europe’s Most Valuable Strategic Resource
Science Europe expresses strong concern that the research funding budget be maximised in Horizon 2020 so that Europe can fully realise its target of becoming a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. Funding for research and innovation in Europe is a critical strategic investment which is essential for Europe’s long-term growth and prosperity.
Science Europe Roadmap
The Roadmap, approved by the Science Europe General Assembly in November 2013, is Science Europe’s action plan to contribute to the elements of a successful research system. It acts as a framework for voluntary collective activity, providing a long-term strategy for the association. The ‘Priority Action Areas’ are those in which Science Europe members believe that there is a potential to achieve tangible and substantive progress, and where they can add real value by working together.
Cross-border Collaboration
Research Assessment
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Tom Holland And Zendaya Are Among Those Celebrating Kevin Feige’s Return To Produce The Next ‘Spider-Man’
Posted September 27th, 2019 by Jax Motes
Sony and Disney answered the prayers of millions with the announcement that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige will return to produce one last ‘Spider-Man’ movie starring Tom Holland. And among those gleefully celebrating were the two stars of the franchise, Holland himself and Zendaya who plays his girlfriend Michelle “M.J.” Jones.
Holland took to Instagram to share a clip from ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ in which Leonardo DiCaprio shouts “I’m not f***in’ leaving! The show goes on!”
A post shared by Tom Holland (@tomholland2013) on Sep 27, 2019 at 8:41am PDT
Zendaya reacted by posting a dancing Spidey GIF on Twitter:
pic.twitter.com/VNSRL27Y8Z
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) September 27, 2019
Sony crushed fans last month, with the announcement that it would be proceeding with its ‘Spider-Man’ franchise without Feige, Marvel Studios, and Disney. Now, a deal has been reached which would allow Feige to come back to produce one last picture, along with Pascal Productions’ Amy Pascal, who has been there alongside Feige throughout this current cycle, and also produced ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’.
It was under Feige and Pascal’s guidance that Peter Parker was integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuting in ‘Captain America: Civil War’. The MCU then heavily factored into ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’. Holland’s Peter also made memorable appearances in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
When it was reported that Feige would not come back to produce the third ‘Spider-Man’ movie, it wasn’t just upsetting, it felt like somehow Sony was essentially canceling this brand with just one installment left, leaving things somewhat unresolved.
At least this way, fans will get a sense of closure when it comes to this Peter Parker’s story.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Michelle "M.J." Jones
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Disney XD Announces Animated ‘Ant-Man’ Shorts
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Recaps and Reviews
‘Arrow’ Review: ‘Prochnost” (Season 8 Episode 5)
Posted November 20th, 2019 by Darryl Jasper
Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
“That is the thing about teaching. It’s not about what you want to say. It’s about what they need to hear.”
Continuing on its wonderfully effective journey using the past as the narrative backbone, Arrow returns to Russia where Team Arrow must find a pulse wave generator and the plutonium to power it, perhaps their only shot in taking down the enigmatic Mar Novu in hopes of discovering the truth about the Crisis.
From the start, “Prochnost” sets the tone for the driving force behind its narrative. A cool yet abbreviated training session between Oliver and Mia is a promising start, hinting at the bond forming between father and daughter. It’s a welcome change-of-pace, seeing Mia, dare I say, happy, instead of her scowling, grumpy, and combative default mode. Maybe it’s Katherine McNamara overplaying that persona— but Mia’s sullen, trust no one attitude has always put me at odds with her character.
Yes, that mask she wears is understandable — necessary even — but something about it has never rung true. Perhaps that’s the point though, because what I have always loved about Mia are the moments where her pain shines through. Combined with her heart, skill, and boundless determination, that vulnerability makes her more accessible, more human if you will. “Prochnost” doubles down on this, giving us a view of both sides of her character.
McNamara shines this week, her chemistry with Stephen Amell making me yearn for another season of these two paired up. Not only do they play off one another well, but Mia and Oliver are two peas in a pod and when they share the screen, it’s as if the scenes write themselves.
The action sequences may have been a bit iffy but it didn’t detract the fun of Oliver and Mia fighting side-by-side. (Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved)
But as fun as those two are, a trip to Russia isn’t complete without an appearance from Anatoly (David Nykl, Stargate: Atlantis, The Sleepers). Maybe the most complete supporting character in the series, he’s out of the life of violence, living the quiet life as a bar owner. Still, he has connections and is pivotal in Oliver and the gang procuring plans for the pulse wave generator. Maybe more important though is the sage advice he gives to Oliver concerning Mia and William.
Anatoly reminds his friend and brother that by hiding the horrible things he did while in Russia, it buries his good deeds as well. It’s a natural fear; the shame of what we’ve done combined with the terror that those we love will think less of us when they find out the truth.
Thanks to his friend’s advice, Oliver overcomes that fear and reaches out to his children, granting them full-access in getting to know the man that he is by discovering the man that he was. Anatoly’s contributions don’t stop there. After questioning her ability to change, he acknowledges that Laurel is no longer that villainous Black Siren but an honest to goodness white hat. Adding this to her earlier conversation with Mia (there was a bit of hero worship going on there) helps Laurel see that betraying those who have put so much faith into her is not worth Mar Novu’s promise to bring her world back. Unfortunately, Lyla doesn’t agree, and when Laurel brings Oliver and John to the meet-up, the A.R.G.U.S. chief has the trio darted. It suggests that there’s a lot more to the story we’re not privy to and though that doesn’t absolve Lyla of her actions, it does bring into question the need for such secrecy.
Joining Anatoly on the blast-from-the-past train is Roy (Colton Haynes, Teen Wolf, The Gates). Diggle recruits him to help steal the plutonium but also help Roy to see that running away from his past will neither help him deal with the bloodlust or atone for his past atrocities. Fighting the good fight, for a purpose and for those beside him, is how Roy was able to control it in the future, so why not get a nice jumpstart on things in the present?
When cutting-and-pasting snippets of an entire season’s arc in a single episode, things are not going to be perfect. Indeed, as good as this season has been, each episode has been plagued by varying degrees of narrative haste. “Prochnost” is no different, with the pulse wave generator/bloodbath portion, though entertaining, lacked a sense of urgency, a trait often shared when events feel rushed. Roy’s b-story suffers from the same fate but even these shortcomings don’t derail the power of watching Oliver bond with Mia and William, nor Laurel finally believing that she is truly one of the good guys.
Every time I think Stephen Amell can’t get any better this season, he proves me wrong. The undying love and desperation to keep his kids safe is such a powerful performance, as good as he’s been all year (and that’s saying something!). Mia’s reaction only heightens the emotion, another ringing endorsement on the exceptional chemistry they share. I haven’t been this emotionally invested in Arrow since the phenomenal Season 2. It’s bittersweet in knowing the end is fast approaching. On the one hand, the addition of the future kids has injected a new energy into the show, but after the last couple years of uneven storytelling, to go out on what looks to be a high note is all that anyone can ask for.
Prochnost
Darryl Jasper
From a young age Darryl embraced everything that was geek. His first true memory of the cinemas was seeing the line wrapped around the building for “The Empire Strikes Back”. The light sabers and the Force had him hooked. Though it remains his favorite sci-fi creation, Star Wars was only the beginning. Star Trek soon followed and his obsession with the various iterations of the Enterprise took him to an actual convention. Between these mega franchises, Darryl enjoyed all the geek cartoons of his era: Transformers, GI Joe, M.A.S.K. Bravestarr, Silverhawks, Voltron, and the like. An avid reader, it wasn’t long before his sci-fi and fantasy partiality in movies transferred to his reading. Star Trek was the beginning and in a strange twist, led him back to the novelized world of Star Wars. It has been non-stop geek since. Though comic books and action figures have all been a part of his menu, movies, television, and books remain his primary focus. Oh, and he’s a pretty avid gamer to boot (PS3).
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Ron Howard Reveals “Serious Discussions” Are Underway To Turn ‘Willow’ Into A Disney+ Series
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How was Seven of Nine the seventh of nine people to be assimilated?
As a girl, Annika Hansen was assimilated into the Collective, along with her parents, and named Seven of Nine. Who were the other six people who were assimilated along with them?
star-trek star-trek-voyager borg seven-of-nine
MithicalMithical
Incidentally, I assume that her name was simply the last two fields in her Borg IP address: 15.10.228.9.7, or something like that. – Joe Jan 7 '16 at 19:35
@Joe, you're sure the Borg wouldn't want to use IPv6? – Ghanima Jan 7 '16 at 22:25
I have to admit I've always thought of her, in that outfit, as Two of Thirty-Eight... – keshlam Jan 8 '16 at 6:15
Seven of Nine was not assimilated with nine other people. She was assimilated along with her parents, Magnus and Erin Hansen.
At some point in the future, she was then assigned to a working group servicing Unimatrix 01. This group contained nine drones, of which she was the seventh, hence her full Borg name
"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01"
We see several other members of this group (2 of 9, 3 of 9 and 4 of 9) in the Voyager episode 'Survival Instinct'.
edited Jan 7 at 0:41
She wasn't!
Your question rests on a faulty premise. It is incorrect to assume that a designation refers to the number of individuals assimilated at the time. Rather, Memory Alpha explains that:
A drone's designation typically described its position within a group, e.g. "Third of Five."
So, there need not have been nine people present at the time of Seven's assimilation! 'Seven of Nine' merely refers to her position in a specific group.
Additionally, as pointed out by @O. R. Mapper in the comments below, in 'The Omega Directive' (VOY), Harry is reassigned by Seven to the designation of 'Two of Ten'. The fact that she reassigns him provides strong evidence to indicate that the designation refers to a position within a group (which can change) rather than a 'name' which it would not make sense to change!
Often RightOften Right
Hmm, I read in a novel that that was the way they were named... Guess it was wrong. – Mithical Jan 7 '16 at 7:50
To add to this answer, we see a few others from her group in the episode Survival Instinct. One of them seems to be bejoran, so it's clear they were not assimilated at the same time. – Tobberoth Jan 7 '16 at 10:02
To add even more to this answer, in The Omega Directive (VOY 4x18), Seven of Nine leads the team examinating the titular Omega particle. At one point, she tells Harry: "I'm reassigning you to chamber maintenance. Your new designation is Two of Ten." This underlines that Borg designations have nothing to do with their original assimilation, but are rather dynamically assigned within organisational units. – O. R. Mapper Jan 7 '16 at 14:25
@O.R.Mapper That episode bugged me, because the conversation between Harry and Seven implied that smaller numbers had lower rank... – user11521 Jan 7 '16 at 15:38
@DanHenderson - My understanding is that she was integrating Starfleet protocols (promotion and demotion) with Borg protocols. It also has to be said that she has almost certainly regained sufficient humanity by this point to want to mess with Harry Kim to punish him for questioning her orders. – Valorum Jan 7 '16 at 19:34
Borg drone designations in the form n of m were established in the Next Generation episode Season 5 Episode 23 "I Borg".
In that episode, the crew found a crashed Borg scout ship. On board of that ship were 5 borg drones of which only one was alive. The surviving drone identified itself as "three of five". The crew inferred that it meant that the drone was the 3rd member of a group of five drones.
Later Star Trek works kept using this naming system for Borg drones. "Seven of Nine" means that she was the 7th member of a group of nine drones.
An alternative explanation could be that the second number is the number of the unit the drone belongs to (7th drone of the 9th group of drones), but there is no canon example of a Borg drone where the first number is larger than the 2nd, so there is no reason to believe that the hypothesis from "I Borg" was incorrect.
There are, however, three examples of Borg which are not named with the n of m naming system:
"Locutus of Borg", the name assigned to Captain Picard after being assimilated
The "Borg Queen" (although she might not technically count as a drone)
"One", the 29th century technology Borg drone from the Voyager episode Season 5 Episode 2 "Drone" (But this designation was given to it by itself after inspiration from Neelix, not by the Borg collective to which it never had any contact)
So there is precedent for the Borg collective giving special names to drones which have a very unique purpose.
I think it's fair to say that the queen doesn't count as a drone. :) – Lightness Races with Monica Jan 8 '16 at 15:26
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged star-trek star-trek-voyager borg seven-of-nine or ask your own question.
Why didn't Seven of Nine assimilate the Voyager crew when she was separated from the collective?
Was Seven (of Nine) really 24 years old?
Who is the first human to be assimilated by the Borg?
Why did Seven of Nine become human so aggressively?
Does each drone have a copy of entire Collective memory?
Is Annika Hansen/Seven of Nine German?
Out of universe, why was Seven-of-Nine introduced?
Why wasn't it possible to completely de-borgify Seven of Nine while it was possible with Captain Picard?
Why does Seven of Nine pronounce “Futile” differently than Locutus?
Why Does Seven of Nine use her Borg designation?
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Tag: Jake Gyllenhaal
SpiderMan Far From Home Review
I’m Back and so is Marvel, just a few short months after they released the mammoth that was Avengers: Endgame we have the return of Spiderman. Fresh from his exploits there, he is back and desperate to go on a school trip and have a break from the superhero life for his summer vacation with his school friends. What could possibly go wrong?
Well it turns out that quite a lot could go awry for Tony Stark’s protege, and indeed it does. The events that we see are hard to go into without spoilers, but I found the movie compelling throughout the whole run time, although there is a clear point in the film where things kick up a gear. This film is half about Peter Parker, half about Spiderman, but instead of feeling disjointed, i felt it really worked well showing the two sides of Peters life that he struggles to balance in every incarnation of the character.
I will start with the obvious for a Marvel flick now, the action. They nail it again, and even though the earlier fights feel a bit odd and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is given a number of cooler moments than Spidey. I didn’t mind too much, as I enjoyed everything about Mysterio in this film (more on that in a sec), but I did feel Spiderman felt a little under-powered. It is explained through the film why he might seem that way, but I wanted more from the early scenes.
In the latter part of the film the action picks up and goes to another level. Peaking at the end of the second act. I have loved these two characters, Spiderman and Mysterio, for a long time, and seeing them playing out the scene they do genuinely had my jaw dropped in disbelief. The film sets everything up in such a way that everything that happens feels feasible, something I never thought I would say about Mysterio. He has always been the one Spiderman villain i couldn’t see how they would ever get him into a movie. But my god did they nail it.
The look and the skill set of Mysterio is one thing, but getting an actor as talented as Jake Gyllenhaal to portray Quentin Beck is a masterstroke. The character’s arc is surprising, and I loved the way the film played him. It was a departure from what I expected in many ways, whilst also being exactly what I wanted. I will say no more as I can only imagine how fun this film is if you have no idea what to expect from Mysterio.
Now that the action and spectacular stuff has been talked about, I can get into the real shining light in this film. Tom Holland is unequivocally the greatest Peter Parker we have ever had on the silver screen, but a big part of that is the chemistry he shares with his supporting cast. Jacob Batalon as Ned, Zendaya as MJ, Tony Revolori as Flash all return from Homecoming, with a few new members of the group, most notably Angourie Rice as Betty Brant. They all really sell the idea of them being a group of friends, and provide some amazing comedic moments alongside their teacher Mr.Harrington played by Martin Starr.
The stars though are Tom Holland and Zendaya, who share chemistry that neither of their characters know quite how to deal with. This leads to some really genuine feeling moments of awkwardness that we can all relate to when we think back on our teenage years. I really hope as the franchise continues we see these characters grow together and deliver on the potential they have to replace, and arguably outshine, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts as the power couple of the MCU.
Those two are absent from the movie, but playing a key role is Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan. He was there, acting and directing at the start of the Marvel Universe in Phase 1, and here he is at the end of phase 3. How they managed to film his parts in this film whilst he is also busy directing the Lion King, which comes out in two weeks time is an absolute marvel in scheduling. He was a distant contact for Peter in Homecoming, but now he has stepped up to be much more of a caring Uncle to peter, perhaps too caring in some ways. He and Peter share a scene which should have felt like a cheesy, too obvious wink at the camera, but the pair act the hell out of the scene and it earns it place as one of my favourite quiet moments in the entire MCU.
So there we have it, every MCU film we know of has now been released, and for the first time ever, we don’t know what lies ahead. The 2 after credits scenes hint at some things, but nothing obvious. Spiderman Far From Home feels like Marvel showboating. Showing off their Cinematic Universe with a wink and a nod, whilst also giving us a really fun teen comedy and delivering some of the most memorable moments we have had so far. Marvel is a movie machine, and Far From Home is another great film to add to the list.
Good: Spiderman, Peter Parker, Chemistry with the entire cast, an astounding action sequence, and two great after credits scenes.
Bad: Well at this point if the MCU isn’t for you, steer well clear. Also you will need to do your homework and see Endgame and probably Captain Marvel to understand everything in this film. Although you don’t have to see Endgame 5 times over like I did.
9/10 – Mysterio is in this film. Go see it.
Author chazjs93Posted on Jul 5, 2019 Jul 4, 2019 Categories Movie Review, Movie ReviewsTags Cinema, Film, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, Movies, Mysterio, Spiderman, Spiderman Far From Home, Tom Holland, ZendayaLeave a comment on SpiderMan Far From Home Review
Velvet Buzzsaw Review
Last week I watched Nightcrawler, the first time director Dan Gilroy and star Jake Gyllenhaal combined, and I really enjoyed it. It gave me a lot of hope for Velvet Buzzsaw which is their second time teaming up. Could it live up to the excellent Nightcrawler?
I went into Velvet Buzzsaw knowing very little about the film. I knew it was a satire of the art world, and that something odd goes on, but beyond that I had no idea. The film starts out towards being a satire on the art world and the pretentious nature of some of the people the world contains. I have met some people in the art world who I could see in parts of the characters in this film.
Those characters are all played by some really talented actors, led by the enigmatic Gyllenhaal. Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton (from Fresh Meat), Toni Collette and Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things) are all really solid. I am happy for Ashton and Dyer as they both have shown some talent before, and this feels like a good next step for them. John Malkovich is John Malkovich, and he’s always entertaining but does seem a bit underused in a film I think he was perfect for.
These solid performers inhabiting quite interest characters sets up a thoroughly intriguing film. For the first half I was very in, and was interested in seeing where the plot went. What happens from around halfway into the movie I have to say really did not work for me. The attempt at satirising the culture of the art world is nearly brilliant, but the script largely disregards this and steadily falls into an odd, nonsensical slasher film. It’s not a spoiler, but the final third of this film is basically a horror movie with no real explanation to what is happening. Things just go wrong, people die, and the way everyone dies is just put down to “It’s a curse”.
I did think the film was going to reveal something in the third act that would have really been an interesting twist and I think this needed that kind of momentum shift towards the end. Things ramp up in a way, but for me it’s all just gore porn and the characters introduced in the first act melt away and become generic victims. This really detracted from the movie for me.
I was a big fan of director/writer Dan Gilroy’s work in Nightcrawler, and whilst the direction in this film is really good, the script starts so high, and deteriorates into a generic horror film. Fans of that genre may find it works well, but as excellently shot and executed as the death scenes are, they just aren’t what I look for in a film. They aren’t predictable deaths, as in the way people go out is very different. One in particular, the “Paint” death is probably the best way to describe it, is very artistic and really beautiful to look at from a cinematic standpoint.
The way the films shot is truly great, and the cinematography, particularly a couple of the landscape shots at night, are up there with the hyperspace crash scene from Star Wars in that they are like pieces of art on their own. However, the fact that my favourite part of the 2nd and 3rd acts is a couple of landscape shots really shows my level of enjoyment for this film.
Velvet Buzzsaw flirts with being a really engaging, intelligent film, then wastes its solid start on an unexplained phenomenon that takes over. I really hope slasher fans find this film entertaining, as I really struggled to past about the 60 minute mark.
Good: Excellent cinematography, solid performances and next steps for some young actresses, Gyllenhaal does his best.
Bad: Satire morphing into slasher could be done very well, it isn’t here, and it ruined the film for me.
4/10 – Promising start wasted.
Author chazjs93Posted on Mar 4, 2019 Mar 4, 2019 Categories Movie Review, Movie ReviewsTags Film, Film Blog, Film Review, Jake Gyllenhaal, Movie Blog, Movie Review, Movies, Natalia Dyer, Netflix, Netflix Review, Netflix Velvet Buzzsaw, Velvet Buzzsaw, Velvet Buzzsaw Review, Zawe AshtonLeave a comment on Velvet Buzzsaw Review
Nightcrawler (2014) Review
Nightcrawler was a film I missed back in 2014, despite it looking like a film I would really enjoy. Jake Gyllenhaal received heaps of praise for his role as Lou Bloom, but no Oscar nomination which many saw as a snub. Would his performance live up to my expectations?
The short answer to that question is Yes. What’s more, he was definitely snubbed an Oscar nomination. In a year when Christian Bale received one for American Hustle, I think Gyllenhaal more than deserved a place on the list of five for that year. He disappears into the character of Lou Bloom and the intensity he brings draws you into the film.
The character himself is unneringly creepy and yet somehow you’re complete with him on the journey. You don’t quite route for him on the level of Joe from Netflix series You, but it’s a similar feeling of cheering for a bad guy at times. Lou is very clearly, from the first moments of the film, a bad guy. He’s out for personal gain, and that’s it. He’s close to being comic booky in his motivation being so self-centred and his lack of empathy towards others is shocking. Gyllenhaal plays him so well, that what seems like vulnerable moments you realise are calculated moves to manipulate people.
His employee for the duration of the film is played by Riz Ahmed, who shows more talent in this performance than I have seen from him on any other film. He’s not given a very well.developed character, but he is entertaining and makes the most of playing off Gyllenhaal’s performance. I think the sidekick role suits his mannerisms and he’s much more at home here than he was in Venom.
First time director Dan Gilroy begins his directorial career with a brilliant effort. He gets the best out of Jake Gyllenhaal, and one of the main parts of a directors job is pulling the best from his cast. His direction combined with some good editing make this feel like a well put together film made by a seasoned pro, not a first time effort. He also directs Gyllenhaal in Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw, which is next on my queue to watch so I hope he’s continued his solid start.
The films story is kind of paper-thin in a way, it’s all about Lou Bloom, and that’s the crux of the entire film. As such there’s no real story to be engaged with, just the question of what the manical character is going to do next. This kind of took away from the film for me, as there is no plot to keep you engaged. It’s as good a film could be without a decent plot though, with the performances really coming through to make this a very enjoyable film.
Nightcrawler is a film I think a lot of people will enjoy. It’s got one of the best acting shows of the decade for me, and that alone makes it worth 2 hours of your time. We often see Director/Actor partnerships develop in the industry, most famously Scorsese and Dicaprio. It’s given me a lot of hope for Velvet Buzzsaw, as the duo of Director Dan Gilroy and Gyllenhaal clearly enjoy working together. Hopefully there is a bit more to chew on in the story department, but Nightcrawler is a great start to the duo’s creative relationship.
Good: Acting, Cinematography and all round good film-making techniques on show. Character driven film.
Bad: Story is thin, and no real lessons learned by the characters by the end of the film.
8/10 – Worth it for Jake on his own.
Author chazjs93Posted on Feb 27, 2019 Feb 27, 2019 Categories Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Review in timeTags Film, Film Blog, Film Review, Films, Jake Gyllenhaal, Movie Blog, Movie Review, Movies, Nightcrawler, Nightcrawler review, Riz AhmedLeave a comment on Nightcrawler (2014) Review
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San Mateo County News
Help Make San Mateo County Safer.
Category Archives: Susan Bassi
SMC Sheriff Sgt. Irfan Zaidi Qualifies as a Brady Officer. Is He on the List? Who controls the list? Is there even a List?
The law enforcement profession requires integrity and trust and an officer who lies violates that trust and tarnishes the integrity of the profession.
October 3, 2018 at 1:00 PM Millbrae, California, Chinedu Okoki a 36 year old man was walking down the sidewalk on El Camino Real. Within 10 minutes he was Tasered 7 times, sprayed in the face with O.C. spray as six San Mateo County Sheriff Employees were on top of him. He was completely limp, unconscious, and never made a sound again. He died there on the spot in the Custody of the Sheriff’s Office.
San Mateo County Sheriff Sergeant Zaidi was not one of the Six Sheriff Employees involved in the In-Custody Death of Chinedu Okobi. Nineteen days later, On October 22, 2018 he filed an Official Report with the District Attorney’s Office making knowingly false statements.
” I directed Deputy Lorenzatti to remove the metal handcuffs from the suspect which she did, and the suspect was placed on his back. The Fire Department and AMR promptly began CPR.”
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe on March 1, 2019 provided a video that he and his Team produced for the public it can be found on his website. The placing Chinedu Okobi on his back and CPR starts at the 18:50 mark. The video shows Deputy Lorenzatti did Not remove the handcuffs.
SMCSO Deputy Lorenzatti made an official statement on 10/04/2018 3:50 PM. to Inspector Eric Suzuki.
“They were like, well let’s get him on his back and start CPR, So then I, you know helped em, bring him to his back.
Question? “Okay and were his Handcuffs off at that point?”
Answer: No they were still on.
Eng. #37 Mazza Statement: “When decedent was lifted onto the gurney, a police officer cadet or trainee removed the Handcuffs from the decedents wrists.”
AMR #94 Retanubun Statement: “They put the decedent on to a “Mega Mover” when noticed the decedent still had handcuffs on.” “Saw police cadet nearby who assisted them with the removal of the Handcuffs.”
AMR #37 Uhland: “So they laid the decedent on his back with the Handcuffs still on his wrists.”
AMR #94 Pham: “Decedent was on his back with Handcuffs on when he arrived.”
AMR #37 Holman: “When they rolled the decedent over to remove the Handcuffs, she noticed several scrapes on his hands and a few small abrasion on his back.” “She was unsure if the injuries were there prior or if caused by the CPR application.”
According to Wagstaffe’ Video, Chinedu Okobi was placed on his back at 18:26 mark.
CPR starts at 18:50 mark with Handcuffs On and Hands behind his back.
Handcuffs Removed at 28:47 mark after almost 10 minutes of Chest Compressions.
What caused Sheriff Sgt. Zaidi to file this Bizarre False Official Statement?
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe’s Video and Data made public March 1, 2019
LATIMES Article June 6, 2019
Note: 300 Deputies on the list. Sheriff Alex Villanueva, has called the Brady list a “fake list” and says it was the result of corrupt investigations designed to retaliate against certain deputies.
Should deputies’ misconduct be disclosed to D.A.?
Justices seem split on ruling that bars sheriff from giving officers’ names to prosecutors.
By Maura Dolan and Maya Lau
The California Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over a ruling that barred the Los Angeles County sheriff from giving prosecutors the names of deputies who have committed misconduct.
During a hearing, the state high court weighed an appeal of a decision that prohibited the sheriff from giving the district attorney the names of deputies with a history of bad behavior, including lying, taking bribes, tampering with evidence, using unreasonable force or engaging in domestic violence.
By law, prosecutors are required to disclose to defendants exculpatory evidence, including information that could diminish the credibility of police officers who worked on a case.
Several justices suggested Wednesday that prosecutors need the information to fulfill their constitutional duty to disclose potentially exonerating information.
That position has been endorsed by defense lawyers, prosecutors and the California attorney general.
Justice Goodwin Liu noted that prosecutors ultimately bear liability for failing to disclose favorable evidence.
If the prosecution is unaware that such evidence exists, convictions — even valid convictions — may eventually be overturned because of a failure to disclose, he said.
“The prosecution can’t take an ostrich-like approach to this very important duty,” Liu said.
But Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye suggested that the Legislature, not the court, might want to take steps to ensure that exonerating information is disclosed to the defense.
She said one possible remedy was to give trial judges sealed lists of law enforcement officers who have a history of misconduct. The judges could review those lists privately in chambers to determine whether the officers’ records were relevant in the case and should be disclosed.
“Doesn’t delivering the list directly to the court under seal … meet the problem without intruding overtly on the officers’ privacy?” she asked.
Justice Ming W. Chin also repeatedly asked whether that path, if carved out by the Legislature or by the court in a future case, could resolve the problem.
The case before the court stems from a lawsuit filed by the L.A. deputies union to prevent former Sheriff Jim McDonnell from turning over to the district attorney about 300 names of deputies with a history of misconduct.
A divided, Los Angeles-based court of appeal ruled in 2017 that the list must be kept secret, even in pending criminal cases in which errant deputies were expected to testify.
The state high court’s decision, due in 90 days, would affect law enforcement agencies throughout the state.
The case pits the privacy rights of law enforcement officers against the constitutional duty of prosecutors to give the defense evidence that might cast doubt on a defendant’s guilt, reduce a potential sentence or diminish the credibility of prosecution witnesses.
That duty stems from a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady vs. Maryland, which said suppression of evidence favorable to the defense violated due process.
At issue is only whether the names can be turned over to prosecutors, not whether they would become public.
But the presence of the names on a list means deputies could be one step closer to having their disciplinary files scrutinized by a judge and their police work called into question during a court proceeding.
Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar noted that the constitutional duty to disclose evidence favorable to the defense trumps state law intended to protect the privacy of law enforcement officers. He suggested the court could “harmonize” the laws.
He called the case “very challenging,” but also noted that “the Brady responsibility is on the state.”
Justice Joshua P. Groban expressed skepticism about the union’s legal arguments.
“You are saying as long as we can bar the door and keep the law enforcement agency from sharing that with the prosecution, then there is no Brady violation?” he asked the lawyer for the union.
Justice Carol A. Corrigan noted that officers whose names were on a list would have less privacy protection than others.
But she also said that a state law intended to protect officer privacy while allowing some disclosures may be hindering the release of information a criminal defendant is entitled to under the Constitution.
Under the system in place for four decades, defense attorneys and prosecutors may ask a trial judge to review an officer’s personnel file to determine whether there is evidence that must be disclosed.
But without knowing an officer’s history, a defense lawyer may not be able to persuade the judge to undertake a review.
“There are cases in which legitimate and material evidence is eluding their review,” Corrigan said.
Justice Leondra R. Kruger asked whether there were legal safeguards that could be imposed to protect officer privacy after the names were disclosed to prosecutors.
Aimee Feinberg, representing the state attorney general, said courts could issue protective orders to ensure the officers’ names were shielded from the public.
Geoffrey S. Sheldon, who argued for Los Angeles County, said he felt “good” about how the hearing went.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we will prevail in the case,” he said.
Judith Posner, representing the union, said she couldn’t predict the outcome.
“There were a lot of interesting and probing questions on both sides,” she said.
Police departments in at least a dozen counties, including San Francisco, Sacramento and Ventura, have had a regular practice of sending prosecutors the names of so-called Brady list officers.
California’s strict laws protecting officer personnel files — which underpinned the appellate court’s ruling for the deputies union — were dramatically altered by a new transparency law that opened up records of confirmed cases of lying and sexual misconduct by officers, as well as shootings and serious uses of force.
SB 1421, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows the public to see many of the documents at issue in the L.A. County sheriff’s case.
But the new law does not apply to the broader range of misconduct that could put an officer on a Brady list, including domestic abuse, sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bribery.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who ousted McDonnell in a stunning upset last fall, has called the Brady list a “fake list” and says it was the result of corrupt investigations designed to retaliate against certain deputies.
By Michael G. Stogner
Filed under #Blacklivesmatter, #SanMateo, #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, Associated Press, Attorney Generals Office, AXON, Bill Silverfarb, Board of Supervisors, Body Camera Video, Brady List, California Bar Association, California State Bar, Carole Groom, Charles Stone, Chinedu Okobi, Chris Hunter, Citizen Journalist, Citizens Oversight Committee, City of Millbrae, City of San Carlos, Community Service Officer Joseph Gonzales, D.J. Wozniak, Dave Canepa, Dave Pine, David Burruto, David Silberman, Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti, Deputy Bryan Watt, Deputy John DeMartini, Deputy Joshua Wang, DOJ, Don Horsley, Google, Grand Jury, Jamie Draper, John Beiers, John Burris, John Warren, Kevin Mullins, Mark Church, Marshall Wilson, Matthew Graves, Menlo Park Police Department, Michael G. Stogner, Mike Callagy, Millbrae City Manager Tom Williams, NAACP, Organized Crime, Positional Asphyxia, Prosecutorial Misconduct, R.E.A.C.T. Task Force, Rick Decker, RICO, San Mateo County District Attorney Office, San Mateo County Sheriff Office, Senator Jerry Hill, Sgt. Bob Pronske, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, SMC, SMCSO Captain Paul Kunkel, SMCSO PIO Rosemerry Blankswade, SMCSO Sgt. Irfan Zaidi, SMCSO Sgt. Weidner, Steve Wagstaffe, Susan Bassi, Those Who Matter, Victim's Advocate, Warren Slocum, Whistleblowers, Yahoo
Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP) gets low marks in Audit.
The Governor of California
President pro Tempore of the Senate
Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:
At the request of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report of the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP). CJP is the agency charged with investigating complaints about judicial misconduct and deciding whether to discipline California judges for violations of the code of judicial ethics, and our review found that CJP must address the following weaknesses:
It does not consistently take all reasonable steps when it investigates alleged misconduct.
Its structure and disciplinary processes do not align with best practices.
It has not worked sufficiently to increase its transparency and accessibility.
In about one-third of the cases we reviewed, we found that CJP’s investigators did not take all reasonable steps to determine the existence or extent of alleged misconduct, such as inappropriate demeanor or improper delegation of duties to court staff. These missed steps include not speaking with all relevant witnesses, not obtaining additional evidence, and not taking a broad approach to determining misconduct in light of a pattern of allegations. Furthermore, CJP’s structure—as a single entity that both investigates alleged judicial misconduct and makes decisions about the appropriate level of discipline—results in judges facing potential discipline from a body of commissioners that is privy to unfounded allegations of misconduct. CJP also delegates responsibility for evidentiary hearings on alleged misconduct to three judges appointed by the Supreme Court of California, a practice that falls short of the voters’ intent to increase the public’s role in judicial discipline with the passage of Proposition 190 in 1994. Finally, CJP has not taken steps to hold meetings that are open to the public or to accept electronically submitted complaints, despite decades of public scrutiny about its lack of transparency and inaccessibility.
CJP’s operations and structure must change significantly to address the issues that this audit revealed. CJP can change its internal policies to address concerns about the planning and supervision of its investigations. However, changes to CJP’s structure will require an amendment to the California Constitution and CJP will need to inform the Legislature about any related funding needs as it adjusts its practices.
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
California State Auditor
Filed under #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, Attorney Generals Office, California Bar Association, California State Bar, Citizen Journalist, Citizens Oversight Committee, Governor of California, Grand Jury, Joe Sweeny, John Beiers, Judges, Judicial Misconduct, Kamela Harris, San Mateo County Superior Court, Susan Bassi, Those Who Matter, Victim's Advocate, Whistleblowers
San Mateo County – Same Story
When you read Silicon Valley or Santa Clara County think San Mateo County also.
This is Great News for the Victims of Fraud in our Courts. Thank You Susan Bassi.
Real Estate Investor Clyde Berg Supports Silicon Valley Journalism & Media Projects
Handshake Deal Brings Investigative Reporting to Silicon Valley’s Family Courts
CUPERTINO, CA—In a signature handshake deal, driven in part by Santa Clara County’s District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s recent refusal to prosecute another rape case, California real estate investor Clyde Berg has lent support to Bassi Productions for a collaborative project that strives to infuse substantial funding and investment to journalism, local investigative reporting and production projects that seek to bring media attention to Silicon Valley’s most shocking divorce and custody cases.
Historically, the wealth of Clyde Berg, and his activist billionaire brother Carl Berg, has attracted some of Silicon Valley’s most nefarious criminals and scam artists, yet Clyde Berg contends what attorney Bradford Baugh did while representing his former wife in a divorce case was the most elaborate legal scam of all.
As part of an alleged scam, Bradford Baugh partnered with fellow divorce lawyer Sharon Roper, who drafted a bogus post-nuptial agreement that was later determined to have been forged a year before Berg’s wife filed for divorce and made false allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence. Had Berg not challenged the forged agreement and false sexual assault claims during a divorce and related civil case, Ellena may have succeeded in fraudulently obtaining $10 million dollars from Berg’s estate. Ultimately, Clyde was exonerated of all charges and obtained a rarely issued formal “finding of factual innocence”, meaning the crimes Ellena had alleged, and garnered media attention from, never happened, and Clyde, at 73 years of age, should never have been criminally prosecuted based on false claims.
Susan Bassi, a local publisher and court watchdog who experienced her own seven-year divorce case in Santa Clara County, met Clyde Berg on social media after she had facilitated bringing national media attention to the domestic violence and custody case involving Kendra Scott and former San Francisco 49er Ray McDonald. Bassi was especially struck by Berg’s compassion to believe women like Kendra and Neha Rastogi, a former Apple manager who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her powerful immigrant CEO husband, Abhishek Gattani during their 10-year marriage.
Bassi and Berg are united in their criticism of DA Jeff Rosen. Bassi has publicly argued that Rosen has failed victims and wasted taxpayer money by maliciously prosecuting men like Berg, while giving men including McDonald and Gattani a free pass.
For the past five years, Bassi has been pushing local and national news outlets to cover family court cases, where court files are fraught with horror stories that include shocking details involving domestic violence, tax evasion, sexual assault, child abuse, rape, and fraud , all of which are typically ignored by law enforcement agencies and judges.
Mainstream media outlets historically have steered clear of investigating divorce and family court scandals, as it can be virtually impossible to sort out the “he said, she said” allegations that characterize these cases. The Berg-Bassi collaboration will seek to provide support for local reporting and production projects with added support requested from the 49ers, the Oakland A’s as well as tech and social media companies including; Apple, Google, 23andMe, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Oracle, Facebook, and Netflix where employees, investors and founders have been personally impacted by unethical private and government lawyers seeking to misuse the courts and incite conflict in families for profit.
“We live in Silicon Valley where stories arising from family courts should fill local newspapers and provide production content to an area quickly becoming known as Hollywood North. Silicon Valley has the money, drive and technology to support journalism and investigative reporting to watchdog elected officials and court systems. Justice is never served when the media isn’t watching, ” Bassi stated as the collaborative project was announced.
Berg’s support, combined with the support of other tech and social media companies, will allow Bassi Productions to direct funding to journalism projects, social media storytelling and non-profit organizations committed to social justice and bringing much needed transparency to California’s family courts and law enforcement agencies dealing with intimate partner violence, sexual assault and false claims made during divorce and custody cases.
To share a family court story, apply for grants, or to assist in project funding and support, contact: Bassiproductions.com, P.O. Box 2220 Los Gatos, CA 95031, or (831) 320-6421.
Filed under #San Mateo County, #SanMateo, #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, Board of Supervisors, Carole Groom, Citizen Journalist, Citizens Access TV, Citizens Oversight Committee, Dave Canepa, Dave Pine, David Burruto, David Silberman, Don Horsley, Grand Jury, Jody L. Williams, John Beiers, John Warren, Jordan Boyd, Judges, Judicial Misconduct, Kevin Mullins, Mark Simon, Marshall Wilson, Michael G. Stogner, Mike Callagy, Organized Crime, Prosecutorial Misconduct, R.E.A.C.T. Task Force, RICO, SamTrans Fraud Investigation, San Mateo County District Attorney Office, Scott Largent, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, Silicon Valley, SMC, Steve Wagstaffe, Susan Bassi, Tax Payer's Advocate, Those Who Matter, Victim's Advocate, Whistleblowers, Zain Jaffer
Susan Bassi & Scott Largent critics of “Corruption” Period.
San Jose Mercury News Misleading readers. They omitted Corrupt & Broken.
What can you expect from an advertising business that betrayed Investigative Journalist Gary Webb.
First sentence: Court critic Susan Bassi should read Corrupt Court Critic Susan Bassi.
Title changes words court critic to judicial critic and replaces broken with injured finger. Again omitting the word Corrupt before either Court or Judicial.
Scott Largent, another critic of the local justice system. Should read Corrupt Justice System.
Story all by itself the San Jose Mercury News not interested in. Santa Clara County Sheriff Deputy David Gomez and two other deputies, Jack Solorio and Michael Jacobs, also searched her phone without a warrant.
That is a Felony.
Lawsuit says Santa Clara County deputy injured judicial critic’s finger in courthouse clash
Susan Bassi claims the County of Santa Clara violated her civil rights when a sheriff’s deputy injured her hand in a confrontation last November, after she refused to stop videotaping inside a county courthouse.
Exterior of the newest Superior Court building constructed in Santa Clara County, the Family Justice Center Court House in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, September 1, 2016. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group) (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)
By THY VO | tvo@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: November 30, 2018 at 4:34 pm | UPDATED: December 3, 2018 at 4:56 am
SAN JOSE —
Court critic Susan Bassi has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Santa Clara County in response to a November 2017 incident in which she claims a sheriff’s deputy broke her finger and injured her hand for refusing to stop videotaping inside a county courthouse.
The Nov. 14 confrontation was sparked when sheriff’s deputies saw Scott Largent, through a video surveillance camera, snap a photo of a computer screen at the courthouse’s public records office. The office prohibits using smartphones to copy records.
Largent, another critic of the local justice system, stopped taking photos and erased the images at the deputies’ request.
Bassi said she heard Largent yelling and claiming the officers were touching him, so she began recording the incident on her cell phone, according to the complaint.
Deputy David Gomez told Bassi repeatedly to “stop recording” and when she refused he used physical force, breaking her finger and injuring her hand, the lawsuit claims.
Gomez and two other deputies, Jack Solorio and Michael Jacobs, also searched her phone without a warrant after the incident while she received medical attention, according to the complaint.
Bassi, who previously filed a separate excessive force complaint against the Sheriff’s Office, says the county violated her First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The lawsuit also says the phone search and use of force violated Bassi’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure of her person and property.
In addition, the lawsuit contends the county has repeatedly harassed Bassi and Largent, two vocal, longtime courthouse critics.
Both the county and Sheriff’s Office declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Bassi is asking for a trial and will seek punitive damages against the deputies for their “extreme and outrageous conduct in complete disregard” of her rights, according to the complaint.
Her lawyer is San Jose criminal defense attorney Dmitry Stadlin.
Bassi is also a freelance journalist who contributes to a website called Ex Parte Mediathat exposes issues in California courts, according to her Linkedin profile.
Seven California counties, including Santa Clara, prohibit the use of smartphones to take pictures of otherwise public court records, while seven other counties allow smartphone use.
Contact Thy Vo at 408-200-1055 or at tvo@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Filed under #SanMateoCountyNews, David Gomez, Illegal Search of Cellphone, Jack Solorio, Michael G. Stogner, Michael Jacobs, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Santa Clara County Sheriff Office, Scott Largent, Secret/Hidden Search Warrants, Silicon Valley, Susan Bassi, Victim's Advocate
Susan J. Bassi’s letter to Jeff Rosen SCC’s District Attorney.
Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen
Yesterday I heard Santa Clara County District Attorney begging the Santa Clara County Supervisors for a raise, in the interest of fairness.
For all the mothers who never saw a raise in their support orders after raising children here for 20 years or more, and for all the fathers who could not afford to pay their child support because they lost their jobs or were fired because of family court……
I wondered what Jeff Rosen thought about fairness when it came to all the people his office prosecuted using harmful error as reported in the Northern California Innocence Project.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about fairness before he maliciously prosecuted two men who had to paid millions of dollars to private criminal lawyers to get a Factual Finding of Innocence.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought it was fair to pressure young Saratoga high school students to take a plea deal in connection with Audrie Pott’s suicide, while he covered up the horrific domestic violence she had endured as her mother and stepfather battled it out in our family courts.
I wondered about all the victims Mr. Rosen failed to serve as he failed to prosecute lawyers, and celebrities like former 49er Ray McDonald, who beat his pregnant girlfriend and still hasn’t been sent to trial for a single misdemeanor.
I wondered if he thought about Deanne Cifuentes-Powers who hasn’t seen her daughter in months because she tried to tell Judge Takaichi and Judge Lie her daughter was afraid of her father who had been convicted of felony domestic violence ( in another state because Jeff Rosen doesn’t prosecute high tech executives).
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about Erin O’Doherty who was destroyed in family court becaue she threw a phone at her ex. She hasn’t seen her daughter in 4 years.
I wondered if he thought about Pam Nudelman, who was married to a former prosecuter, and was left with less than 20% of her community property and support that was less than a $1000.
I wondered if he thought of all the families financially destroyed because Jeff Rosen doesn’t enforce support orders in high assets cases, only cases of the working poor.
I wondered if he thought about how he illegally paid overtime to the DDAs in his office who supported his first campaign, but wasn’t prosecuted for what was certainly a crime.
I wondered if he thought of the former prosecutor who brought him 15 criminal counts against divorce lawyer Bradford Baugh , which Rosen decided not to investigate, or prosecute.
I wondered if he thought about all the women who have reported the horrors of Judge Towery, Judge Lucas, Judge Takaichi and other family court judges rigging divorce cases, and watching Jeff Rosen let them off the hook because of his personal relationship with Judge Towery’s wife. And because Judge Towery got all of his prosecutors out of discipline with the State Bar.
I wondered if Rosen thought about the elderly victims of Terry Houghton and his lawyer wife, Valerie Houghton, who have been under indictment since 2016, and Rosen can’t seem to get to trial, despite Terry Houghton getting taxpayers to pay for his defense through the IDO.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought of all the vicitms of domestic violence who tried to get someone to help them. Someone to pick up the phone in the offie Jeff Rosen supervises.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought of the child who was sexually molested by a repeat child abuser, as his DDA hit on the mom of that child.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about all the dads who were ruined by false child abuse claims.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about all the moms he didn’t believe about child abuse and domestic violence claims.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about how he failed to supervise the employee in Victim Claims, who was abusing his wife and carrying on an affair with a subordinate.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about the man who was found guilty of child abuse in our family courts, but who is now working for Juvenile probation where he has access to abuse other people’s children.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about how the victims and their families would feel about him asking for a raise as they watched him run the DA’s office where prosecutors carry on sexual affairs and stalk the most vulnerable on Tinder and other dating websites.
I wondered if Jeff Rosen thought about the rape victims who still can’t get the results from their SART kits.
And I wondered if Jeff Rosen ever thought about all the support orders for the moms who never saw a cost of living raise after spending years raising children who would form the landscape of Silicon Valley.
It was a long meeting. I could wonder about a lot as Jeff Rosen wanted to whine about topping off his $400K a per plus pension annual perks.
I tried to interview Jeff Rosen after that meeting. Twice he faked that his leg hurt. I wondered if Jeff Rosen ever thought about how it hurt all the people who were punched, kicked threatened or killed by their spouses, intimate partners and parents who should have loved them, because Jeff Rosen is really bad at doing his job.
Mostly I am wondering if Jeff Rosen can read the law, much less follow it.
Maybe Rosen should leave publishing to the professionals.
Filed under #Blacklivesmatter, #MeToo, #SanMateoCountyNews, 911, Attorney Generals Office, Attorneys Blacklisted, Board of Supervisors, Body Camera Video, California Bar Association, California State Bar, DDA Ben Blumenthal, DDA Bryan Abanto, Jeff Rosen, Letters to Editors, Michael G. Stogner, Organized Crime, Prosecutorial Misconduct, RICO, San Mateo County District Attorney Office, San Mateo County News, San Mateo County Superior Court, Secret/Hidden Search Warrants, Silicon Valley, Susan Bassi, Victim's Advocate, Zain Jaffer
San Mateo County News Official Facebook Page
“Unqualified trust relationship with this partner.” Hon. Judge Lisa Novak
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Former San Mateo Police Officer Noah Winchester Sentenced to 81 years to life.
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Are SMCDA Inspectors William Massey and John Warren on Administrative Leave during this Alleged Internal Investigation?
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Sassafras Bee Farm
Beekeeping365
~ The more I studied beekeeping, the less I knew, until, finally, I knew nothing. But, even though I knew nothing, I still had plenty to unlearn. Charles Martin Simon
Category Archives: Honey Bee Research
Wild Honey Bees in Congaree National Park May, 2018 by David MacFawn
Posted by sassafrasbeefarm in beekeeping, Honey Bee Research
Apis mellifera, congaree national park, feral honey bees, Honey Bee Research, wild honey bees
Figure 1: Congaree National Park Entrance (Image Credit David MacFawn )
In March, 2018 David MacFawn, Fleming Mattox and Dave Schuetrum began an effort to explore wild bees in Congaree National Park (CONG, https://www.nps.gov/cong), which is just southeast of Columbia, South Carolina (Figure 1). We are interested determining the size and health of the feral honey bee population there. Various staff and visitors have reported a few others over the years, and we recently found one wild “bee tree” in the park, which was located quite far from any trail. Much of the park is a vast wilderness area, however, and researchers have not systematically searched for bees before. The first phase of our project, (hopefully with follow-on studies), to determine if honey bees are surviving in the forest. The second phase is to study how they are dealing pests and diseases (e.g., Seeley, T.D., et.al. 2015; Seely, T. August, 2017; Tarpy, D.R., Delaney, D.A., Seeley, T.D. 2015).
Figure 2: Number Hives in The United States http://ento.psu.edu/publications/van-mex-2010 Image Credit: Fleming Mattox)
The bee population in the United States has been declining over the past few decades (Figure 2, vanEngelsdorp and Meixner, 2010). Scientists are studying several possible factors that impact the bee population including habitat, genetics, disease, and pesticides. Bee keepers are actively managing their apiaries to treat for diseases in order to improve survivability. Beekeepers also provide hives for the bees to live in, selectively breed the bees, treat for diseases, and work to keep the bees away from chemicals and pesticides (Graham, J. M., editor. 2015).
Figure 3: Old-growth cypress tree at Congaree National Park (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
Figure 4: Cypress Swamp in CONG (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
Above left: old-growth cypress tree at Congaree National Park (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
Above right: Cypress Swamp in CONG (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
South Carolina River Basins (NPS/D. Shelley)
According to the park’s Foundation Document (NPS, 2014), which summarizes the park’s key legislation and priorities, the mission of Congaree National Park is to protect, study, and interpret “the resources, history, stories, and wilderness character of the nation’s largest remaining tract of southern old-growth bottomland forest.” The park was preserved as Congaree Swamp National Monument in 1976 after grassroots campaign, and re-designated in 2003 as a national park. The park’s 26,000+ acres include 11,000 acres of old-growth, which bear no ecological or historical evidence of being clearcut (and certainly not in the last several hundred years) as well as >15,000 acres of wilderness area protected by the Wilderness Act of 1964. The wilderness designation is relatively rare in the eastern United States and sets a high priority for keeping the area “untrammeled;” more information on the Wilderness Act and land management is available on the web at https://www.wilderness.net. Furthermore, the park does not apply insecticides in the forest. CONG is also home to the NPS Old-Growth Bottomland Forest Research and Education Center, which works to connect scientists to parks and people with park science.
Congaree National Park trail map from the park website
Because of its protected status, CONG offers a unique opportunity to study wild bees in a floodplain forest where nature is generally left alone to develop naturally. Studies in other natural areas have documented wild colonies with an average density of 2.5 colonies per square mile (Seeley, T.D., et.al. 2015; Seely, T. August, 2017; Tarpy, D.R., Delaney, D.A., Seeley, T.D. 2015).
CONG has no beekeeper and the bees within the park are left to their own survival. This presents an opportunity to address a number of questions related to human impacts on hives:
1) What is the bee density within the park?
2) What is the bee distribution within the park?
3) Are the bees within the park genetically different from bees outside the park?
4) How are the bees surviving without active management?
5) Are pesticides a problem within the comb of the hive?
6) What is the bee pollen source and is this different from bees outside the park?
The purpose of our study is to begin to answer these questions in a logical and organized manner. The first part is to attempt to determine bee density within the park and to see if there is genetic uniqueness to this species.
The first part of the study in 2018 is to capture bees both within the park and in adjacent areas. Bees will be lured using sugar syrup laced with a natural pheromone, anise oil. Approximately 12 captured bees per lure will be sent to the University of Delaware for genetic analysis. Since hives normally have 15,000-60,000 bees, the removal of several dozen bees will have no impact on hive survival.
If phase 1 documents abundant, genetically distinct wild bees in the park, then a second phase of the project will seek to locate the colonies and possibly sample comb for chemical analysis to determine pesticide loads. Colonies will also be monitored to determine health and survivorship.
Figure 3: Proposed collection sites. In-park sites are in blue, with one known bee tree (as of April, 2018) in red. Sites north of the park are in green, while sites south of the park are in pink. The exact locations will be finalized through on-the ground work and (for non-park sites) landowner contacts through the Mid-State Bee Keepers Association. (NPS/D.Shelley)
Volunteer Opportunities:
Congaree River along the southern border of the park (NPS Photo/S.McNamara)
The project is currently being funded through the generosity of Mid-State Beekeepers’ Association and the South Carolina State Beekeepers’ Association.
Through local beekeeping associations we are seeking volunteers that may be interested in volunteering to assist with this project. Sampling (Figure 3) will take place over 1-2 weeks in June. The sampling will involve three day trips to the sites, including one day to deploy the lures, one day to check (and hopefully refill) them, and one day to sample. Volunteers do not have to commit to all three sampling days. Some sites are more remote than others, and volunteers should have a range of options in terms of physical challenge and difficulty.
Trail Descriptions (link):
Cedar Creek at Congaree National Park (NPS/T.Thom)
Boardwalk (2.4 Miles) – The boardwalk begins on a bluff at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center with an elevated section that leads down into the old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. A variety of different tree species can be observed including bald cypress and tupelo trees in the lowest elevations. Loblolly pines, oaks, holly trees and maples can also be observed. The boardwalk has benches along the way and is wheelchair and stroller accessible.
Bluff Trail #1 (1.7 Miles) – This upland trail loops north of the visitor center and connects to the elevated boardwalk for a short distance. The Bluff Trail passes through a young forest of loblolly and longleaf pines. Evidence of prescribed fires can be found along the Bluff Trail.
Take a boardwalk stroll through a cypress tupelo forest at Congaree National Park (NPS/jt-fineart.com)
Sims Trail #2 (3 Miles) – The Sims trail, an old gravel road, runs from the Bluff Trail on its northern end to Cedar Creek on its southern end, crossing the boardwalk twice. The clearing at the intersection with the Weston Lake Loop Trail was once the site of a hunt club where Harry Hampton was a member.
Weston Lake Loop Trail #3 (4.4 Miles) – This loop provides great views of Cedar Creek where otters and wading birds may be observed. The eastern portion of the trail follows a cypress-tupelo slough (dried-up river bed) where many cypress knees can be seen sticking out of water.
Oakridge Trail #4 (6.6 Miles) – Passing through a rich stretch of old-growth forest, the Oakridge Trail traverses a subtle ridge where a variety of large oaks grow. The number of low-lying sloughs (dried-up river beds) makes this trail great for viewing wildlife.
Trail marker at Congaree National Park (NPS/jt-fineart.com)
River Trail #5 (10.0 Miles) – This trail leads to the Congaree River, the lifeblood of the park’s great natural diversity. Approximately ten times a year, the river overflows its banks and pulses water throughout the bottomland forest. When the river is low, a large sandbar may be visible. Much of the forest along the river was logged prior to the park’s establishment and vegetation here is notably denser than that of other trails.
Kingsnake Trail #6 (11.7 Miles) – The Kingsnake trail, which is not a loop, is a favorite trail for birders because of the diverse vegetation and proximity to Cedar Creek. When the sloughs (dried-up river beds) are full of water, beautiful views are around every bend.
Springtime at Congaree National Park finds butterweed blooming under cypress trees (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
Bates Ferry Trail #7 (2 miles) – Starting from Route 601, this trail follows a 1920’s ferry road south to the Congaree. It is a remnant of the area’s rich history, which includes colonial-era ferries that once crossed near here. While at the river, please be aware that the bank is steep and could potentially be slippery. It is best to stay on the marked path, as old side trails are unmarked and not maintained.
Volunteers measure an old-growth sweetgum at Congaree National Park (Credit: D. Schuetrum)
Longleaf Trail #8 (.6 miles) – This trail branches off the Bluff trail, providing access to the Longleaf Campground.
• David E. MacFawn, Master Craftsman Beekeeper and lead: dmacfawn@aol.com, 803-629-8076 (c)
• Bill Couch, Couchws@gmail.com
• Marc Johnson, dovedog99@gmail.com
• Dr. Fleming Mattox, halidon15@yahoo.com
• Dave Schuetrum, d14ds0604@att.net
• Dr. David C. Shelley, Congaree National Park, david_shelley@nps.gov
• Dr. Deborah Delaney, University of Delaware, dadelane@udel.edu
Graham, J. M., editor. 2015. The Hive and the Honey Bee: A New Book on Beekeeping which Continues the Tradition of Langstroth on the Hive and the Honeybee. Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, IL. 1057 pages ISBN 978-0-915698-16-5.
NPS, 2014. Foundation Document: Congaree National Park, South Carolina. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 76 pp. Accessed May 7, 2018, from https://www.nps.gov/cong/learn/management/upload/CONG_FD_SP.pdf.
Seeley, T.D., Tarpy, D.R., Griffin, S.R., Carcione, A., Delaney, D.A. 2015. A survivor population of wild colonies of European honeybees in the northeastern United States: investigating its genetic structure. Apidologie (Springer Verlag) v. 46, no. 5, p. 654-666.
Seely, T. August, 2017. Honey Bee Environment of Evolutionary Adaptness (EEA). Presentation To Eastern Apiculture Society, July/August, 2017 conference, Newark, Delaware.
Tarpy, D.R., Delaney, D.A., Seeley, T.D. 2015. Mating Frequencies of Honey Bee Queens (Apis mellifera L.) in a Population of Feral Colonies in the Northeastern United States. PLoS ONE, v. 10, no. 3, 12 pp. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118734, accessed May 7, 2018 from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118734.
vanEngelsdorp, D., Meixner, M.D. 2010. A historical review of managed honey bee populations in Europe and the United States and the factors that may affect them. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, v. 103, p. S80-S85, doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2009.06.011, accessed May 15, 2018 from http://ento.psu.edu/publications/van-mex-2010.
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First on CNN: Clinton to remove Iranian exile group from terror list
By Elise Labott
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to notify Congress on Friday that she plans to take Iranian exile group Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, off a State Department terror list, three senior Obama administration officials told CNN.
Notification will be followed by formal removal in coming days from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which includes more than 50 groups like al Qaeda and Hezbollah. Clinton recently designated the Pakistani-based Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization.
Such a listing attaches a certain stigma and allows the United States to legally go after financing and take other steps against individuals associated with these groups.
MEK was put on list in 1997 because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992.
However, the United States has since 2004 considered the group, living for more than 25 years at a refugee camp in Iraq, "noncombatants" and "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions.
MEK's move from Camp Ashraf is nearing completion under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. The members are relocating to a temporary site there before being re-settled in third countries.
The United States has been working with the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees to re-settle the group.
Clinton is under a court order to decide by October 1 whether to remove MEK from the terror list. She has said several times that her decision would be guided, in part, by whether it moves peacefully.
"We don't love these people but the secretary's decision is merited based on the record of facts that we have," one U.S. official said. "This was not done casually and it's the right decision."
Officials acknowledge the decision was the subject of a contentious debate within the administration.
MEK is considered by many in the administration to be a bizarre cult-like organization, prompting concerns about its behavior. Officials say these concerns factored heavily in the debate.
"While they present themselves as a legitimate democratic group worthy of support, there is universal belief in the administration that they are a cult" one official said. "A de-listing is a sign of support or amnesia on our part as to what they have done and it does not mean we have suddenly changed our mind about their current behavior. We don't forget who they were and we don't think they are now who they claim to be, which is alternative to the current regime."
MEK denies that it supports terrorism and supporters rally daily in front of the State Department, demanding the United States remove it from the terrorism list.
Many members of Congress have pressured Clinton to do the same.
Moreover, MEK has paid well-known former U.S. politicians and former administration heavyweights to speak out on its behalf, including former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, and former National Security Advisor James Jones.
The last major convoy of 680 members of the MEK arrived on Sunday at the temporary relocation site at a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport, the U.N. mission for Iraq said.
The State Department said at the time that the arrival marked "a significant milestone in efforts to achieve a sustainable humanitarian solution to this issue."
"The big test now is to start getting these people out of Iraq through the UNHCR and that is where we should return. Our ability to succeed on this is based on many factors, especially how the MEK behaves because countries will be determining whether they will take a large amount of refugees from this group," another official said.
"If they think the notion of de-listing means they can run wild, that isn't true. If they want to leave Iraq, they have to behave," the official said.
MEK leaders have been reluctant to complete the move from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya, formerly an American facility known as Camp Liberty. They complained about conditions at the new camp, calling it more a prison than a home after the first convoy arrived in February.
Camp Ashraf was established in 1986 after former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invited members of MEK to relocate to Iraq in an effort to undermine the Iranian government, which was then at war with Iraq. Iran also considers the group to be a terrorist organization.
Post by: CNN Foreign Affairs Reporter Elise Labott
Filed under: FIRST ON CNN/EXCLUSIVE • Hillary Clinton • Iran • M.E.K. • Secretary of State
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Una discussione motivante Vale sicuramente la pena di commentare. Credo Credo Credo Penso dovresti pubblicare altro su questo argomento , maggio non un tabù tema ma generalmente le persone tale argomenti . Il prossimo! Grazie mille !!
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È difficile da trovare educato persone per questo topic , ma tu {sembra che | Sembra che tu sappia di cosa stai parlando! Grazie
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Let us focus on the causes of terrorism and try to fix the issues. They have been hanging out there for over 60+ years ...in India....in Israel..and now in the United States...England...Austrailia...Sweeden....all over the Europe. Let us focus on the victims of 9/11 and help the families more than we have done. Let us take care of their kids and put them through college. Let us take care of their wives/husbands/parents. Let us take care of families whose dear ones gave their lives in fighting al Qaeda terrorists...in Pakistan...in Afghanistan....in Iraq....in Yemen....in Africas. Let us focus on the victims of Pakistani sponsored terror networks....Haqqani...Pakistani Taliban...Hazbollah in Iran...Hammaz in Palestine. Let us honor US/NATO soldiers from all over the world who sacrificed their lives believing they were fighting for freedom, believing they were fighting evil terrorists in Pakistan....in Afghanistan....in Iraq....in Libya...in Syria...in Yemen....in Egypt....in Africas. They are so many. Just in last ten years, terrorist sponsoring countries like Pakistan, Iran, Pelestine have change our lives once and for all.
Curiously, the State Department posted a list (http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm) of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on Friday, 21 Sep 2012, that includes the MEK. What gives?
ConcernedParticipant
We as free Americans, Europeans, etc better get our game back up to speed – those Moos lems are breeding us out of our own nations. I fear for the future we are setting up for our children – it looks like it's a future of total control, backward thinking, stone-age existence, and insane Shar ia law. So put down the i Phone/Pod/Pad, turn off Jers ey Sh ores, stop being so selfish, and start educating yourselves; focus on building large, strong, principled families, and counter this invasion. You Tube it: Mu slims Are Taking Over The World at an ALARMING Rate
jhtfeftyutthu
CHINA REALY PULLED THIS TROUBLE ALL TOGETHER FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSE ie INDIA- I DONT KNOW WHAT INDIA IS WAITING FOR BUT THOSE HUMAN SKULL DINNER SETS ARE ALL THE TALK OF PAKISTAN- INTERSTING
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Home Reviews Eset Multi-Device Security 9 Review: The Ultimate Edition Worth Your Time
Eset Multi-Device Security 9 Review: The Ultimate Edition Worth Your Time
Eset Multi-device Security 9 offers an intimidating number of options for various platforms. But it is not without its faults.
Hence, in order to protect them all in one go, you would want a security suite that has the capability to protect all those devices.
Take a look at Panda Gold Protection.
And then download the required software.
And the more the merrier.
There is also ESET Parental Control for Android.
But why do we mention them when ESET Multi-Device Security 9 simply does not offer them?
MacOS Extra Features
The firewall that comes with the ESET Cyber Security Pro edition handles al application permissions on its own.
The security suite also comes with a Profiles tab.
So does the button really help?
There is always a chance that the default settings won’t suit some of the users.
In fact, it doesn’t have any effectiveness at all when it comes to HTTPS traffic.
The latest version of macOS also comes with the time scheduling feature.
To our surprise, it even managed to filter HTTPS traffic.
Offerings such as,
But it certainly won’t cross the finish line as quickly as the Smart scan either.
This warning page gives out three options.
So what happens if you just can’t find your device?
But what happens if you have hopelessly lost your device?
It goes something like this:
ESET Security Audit actually warns users if they have connected to an insecure Wi-Fi.
What about the text filtering feature?
The ESET Mobile Security also enables rules for hidden numbers.
Parental Control For Android
Nothing more.
ESET belongs to the second group.
That would, of course, mean that the Web Guard won’t block any content.
Users can either use the parent-mode app or the online console to access system reports.
We also experienced a rather unusual usage heat map.
ESET Multi-Device Security 9 Review: Conclusion
Symantec Norton offers 10 licenses and charges way less than ESET Multi-Device Security 9.
Protection for all major platforms such as Android, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Android security contains lots of features
A robust Windows antivirus
Effective parental control software for Android
The Windows version doesn’t come with sufficient number of premium features
No official iOS support
Slightly expensive
Mac has very few features
Parental control comes under too many restrictions when used on Mac and Android
As the name suggests, ESET Multi-Device Security Pack is a software application that offers protection for almost all major platforms and devices.
These include,
But all that protection will cost you a good amount of money.
Moreover, our research shows that ESET doesn’t offer consistent protection across all major platforms.
All types of malware tend to target computer machines that are running the Windows operating system.
In other words, Windows has to bear the brunt of most major malware attacks, hands down.
Of course, hackers have brains too.
And they know that Windows isn’t the only platform that people use nowadays.
A lot of modern online users run multiple different operating systems on their devices.
ESET Multi-Device Security Pack offers users multiple licenses which can help them to protect all their devices that may be using different operating systems such as,
With that said, if we go ahead and compare ESET Multi-Device Security 9 with some of the best competitors in the market, then it is certainly less effective.
And more expensive, if that makes any sense.
Moreover, the other problem with ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is that it doesn’t offer any iOS protection.
So if you own an iOS device and want to protect it, ESET Multi-Device Security 9 isn’t going to cut it for you.
ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is basically a bundle.
And for some reason, ESET continues to change its price rather quickly.
In other words, ESET Multi-Device Security 9 used to cost users around $84.99 in exchange for six licenses.
At the same time, you can also pay for the same service at about $99.99 for a total number of 10 licenses.
That pricing model has changed now.
ESET Multi-Device Security 9 now starts offering its services at $79.99 for a total of three licenses.
Users have the option of signing up for further licenses.
The maximum number that ESET Multi-Device Security 9 offers off the bat is 10.
So each of the additional licenses that come after the initial offer of 3 cost users $10.
Hence if a user wants to apply for 10 licenses with ESET Multi-Device Security 9 then he/she will have to shell out around $149.99 for those.
You don’t need us to tell you that, this pricing model is steep.
With that said, there are more expensive options.
It charges users around $149.99 for just three individual licenses.
So ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is definitely not the most expensive all-device security solution around.
Another ESET Multi-Device Security 9 competitor is Symantec Norton Security Premium.
Symantec Norton Security Premium offers users a total of 10 licenses along with online backup storage worth up to 25 GB for a total price of $109.99.
The market now also has seen security suites which try to stay away from putting hard limits on the total number of device licenses.
You also have other all-device security products such as McAfee LiveSafe.
McAfee LiveSafe offers users to protect all their devices with just $99.99 per year.
In other words, there is no limit to the number of devices that you can protect with McAfee LiveSafe.
Moreover, McAfee LiveSafe offers protection for all major platforms such as,
We have already mentioned that ESET Multi-Device Security 9 doesn’t offer iOS protection.
So you have to keep that in mind when moving forward with this review.
When a user has successfully purchased ESET Multi-Device Security 9, the company sends the user an email.
The email basically contains the download link.
It also contains the official license key.
All the user has to do is click on the link.
After that, it is just a matter of installing the software.
All of that is fine but we did encounter one disappointment.
The ESET Multi-Device Security 9 download page doesn’t have the capability to detect the user’s operating system.
And hence it can’t automatically offer you appropriate choices for your devices.
Instead of that, users must click and then choose options such as Linux, Android, Mac, and/or Windows.
To take an example, if a user is on an official Windows box, then the company will give that user the license to install one of its two security products.
These two security products come in the form of ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Internet Security.
We’re not really sure nor clear as to why would any user want to install the company’s standalone antivirus solution when the company as clearly offered its entry-level suite for download.
Nevertheless, it is still an option.
Similarly, the company offers two options for Mac users as well.
Mac users can either go with installing the company’s basic security solution in the form of ESET Cyber Security (designed especially for Mac).
Or they can just go ahead and download the company’s Pro edition.
The Pro edition of ESET Cyber Security adds additional features such as,
As you can probably tell, the choice presented in the case of Mac users isn’t as clear as it was in the case for the Windows users.
The point that we want to make here is that a lot of online users don’t really have a need for parental control.
Moreover, an even greater percentage of online users might not even care if a security solution comes with a personal firewall or not.
As far as the Android platform goes, the company allows users to install its ESET Mobile Security.
This security solution is specifically made for Android.
Just as before users can either opt to install one of the given two options or they can install both.
Readers should keep in mind here that whenever they install a software on a given device they actually use up one of their license keys.
That also holds true for the company’s mobile security apps.
In other words, every installation counts.
There is one exception to this rule.
We have come to know that a single official license allows any user to install the parental control feature on any and all of their Android devices.
That takes care of Windows, Android, and Mac OS.
What about iOS and Linux?
Well, we have already mentioned the fact that ESET Multi-Device Security 9 doesn’t have any protection for the iOS platform.
It does have protection for Linux users though.
Users who want to protect their Linux boxes with ESET Multi-Device Security 9 can make use of ESET NOD32 Antivirus which the company has specifically built for the Linux Desktop.
Or more like shared features.
As we have noted before as well, users have the option of installing either the ESET Internet Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus on their Windows machines.
You’re going to have to read the full review to find out the details about what you get with each of these security solutions.
The thing you need to keep in mind, for now, is that the ESET Multi-Device Security 9 doesn’t give you features such as,
File encryption system
Well, we mention these advanced features because users who subscribe to ESET Smart Security Premium to get to use these features.
To put it another way, ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is not the company’s top-of-the-line security product.
The good thing about ESET Cyber Security (available for Mac users) is that it has already managed to receive certifications from a couple of good independent testing labs that regularly perform related tests for the macOS platform.
The ESET Cyber Security for Mac comes with its own set of features such as an elaborate scheduling system.
That is highly unusual based on our research.
The Mac version of ESET Cyber Security also offers phishing protection.
Unfortunately, our research shows that the phishing protection feature doesn’t perform well in many hands-on tests.
Regardless, ESET Cyber Security for Mac comes with many other bonus, and perhaps useful, tools.
Read the rest of the ESET Multi-Device Security 9 full review to find out if it is the right fit for you.
Perhaps the term added features is more suitable rather than Extra features.
ESET Cyber Security for Mac also comes with a Pro edition.
The Pro edition allows users to make use of other components like parental control and firewall which are not available in the basic version.
Whenever a user tries to connect to a new network, the firewall component of this security product asks the user whether it should treat the new network connection as Public, Work or Home.
Based on the users choice, the security product configures its firewall rules.
Users who want to have more control over their network can dig into extended settings which offer a complete view of all firewall rules.
Although it is another fact that it is likely that most users would find those options a bit incomprehensible at first sight.
That is the reason why we recommend here that users shouldn’t hasten to make changes to their firewall rules unless they are very sure what they are doing.
Or are a trained expert.
That is automatically.
But that is the default setup and you can change it if you want to.
Users have the option of selecting the product’s interactive mode.
This mode tries to send the user a query each and every time an unknown or new program tries or attempts internet access or a new type of network.
In addition to all the previous options, the firewall can deny and allow internet access to any program and/or application.
Users who deem it fit can choose to create some new rules concerning specific programs.
After users have done so, the program won’t ask the users about those programs again.
Moreover, users can also program the firewall in such as way and it remembers their answer unless and until the process itself terminates.
Using this section, users have the opportunity to create new profiles.
They can base their new profiles on Public, Work or Home categories.
After that, they can also dig in a bit more to modify the default rules.
For the average user, we don’t think there is any reason to mess with the default settings.
The macOS Cyber ESET Cyber Security also comes with a Zones tab.
The Zones tab is responsible for displaying a button and an empty list that users can add a zone to.
Again, this is another advanced feature that regular users should stay away from.
We didn’t understand this feature the first time either.
But fortunately, our research allowed us to notice the help button feature.
Our research shows that you can click the help button to receive a message which should show you some help.
Our research says no.
It will only show you a message which would tell you that the content you requested was unavailable.
Hence, for regular users, or users who are short on time, the best route forward is to just relax.
And let the firewall do what it knows how to do.
Its job.
We found the default settings as very satisfying.
The Cyber Security Pro edition throws even more option at you if you want it to.
For example, if you enable its parental control feature, then the security product will bind you to select a role for each and every user account.
You can define those user accounts as,
When the user has configured the user accounts using the above categories, then the parental control feature automatically adjusts the content filter with which it blocks a selection of content.
The parental control feature makes use of more than two dozen categories of content to filter the un-filtered content.
For those type of users, the ESET Cyber Security Pro edition offer some fine-tune selection feature as well.
Our research shows that if you turn on the content filter which corresponds to the Teenager level for a specific account you should notice that the software will correctly block any and all the usual naughty websites.
Of course, you will have to try out those sites yourself just to make sure that the content filter is indeed working.
Our research also shows that the content filter works so efficiently that it can even block some lingerie sites such as Spanx and Victoria’s Secret.
With that said, we also found that the content filter didn’t do much to prevent or block an image search which related to naughty pictures.
Expect the content filter to NOT block content when you search for images with the term “naked girls”.
So any search related to more naughty terms like the one we mentioned above will likely get you an eyeful.
Moreover, our research also shows that if you click enough times then some of the links that are present in the images search engine can actually allow you to reach whole websites which are devoted to all kinds of lewd images.
Additionally, the ESET content filter doesn’t have much effectiveness against HTTPS traffic.
And we know what teens are like since we were all once teens.
Any clever one of us wouldn’t need much to come up with a way to evade such kind of filtering.
All that one really needs is a secure and anonymous proxy website.
Perhaps this is a good time to mention that most modern versions of Apple’s mac OS have built-in parental controls.
These parental controls allow adults (supposedly parents) to prevent the use of specific apps.
The built-in parental controls also limit website access.
Not only that but the macOS built-in features can also take care of other things.
Other things such as,
Disabling access to the Apple iTunes store.
Other app stores
Users can also configure it so that it only allows those apps, shows, movies along with books that come with age-appropriate ratings.
Add to that other features which include a simplified desktop along with other nifty options and you have a pretty well-rounded operating system without the need for a third-party parental control guide.
The macOS parental control system which comes built-in to the operating system also offers options that go something like this:
“Try to limit access to adult websites”.
This seems like a decent option.
But it doesn’t furnish users with detailed control over various other and different content categories.
So it makes sense that someone would try to turn off the ESET parental control and work with the built-in parental control.
Our research shows that the built-in parental control feature in mac OS will correctly block many raunchy websites.
With that said, it didn’t bother to block sites which had something to do with lingerie items and such.
The built-in macOS parental control feature also forced Safari to use Safe Search.
Although it couldn’t do the same for Google Chrome.
But just as before, it could do so only in Safari and not in Google Chrome.
Some users may not want a sophisticated parental control suite.
Some only need to keep their kids away from sites with adult content.
For that purpose alone, the mac OS built-in parental control system offers better protection that ESET Cyber Security Pro edition’s content filter.
That is strange, to say the least.
So our recommendation is to simply use its official app control page to block, prevent and/or deny your kids any other web browsers apart from Safari.
This security product is only available for Android.
No such luck for iOS users.
The ESET Mobile Security for the Android System is actually a full-featured security suite.
What we mean to say is that this security suite offers features such as,
It also has the capability to filter phone calls as well as text messages.
The ESET Mobile Security has other offerings as well.
A security summary report
Security audit report for all kinds of apps
Let’s talk about the antivirus for a bit now.
The antivirus comes with a scan that works at around two different levels.
The first level is the Smart level.
And the second level is the In-Depth level.
Depending on your smartphone device, the results are bound to wary.
So keep that in mind while you read the rest of this Android section.
If you have a modern and slightly powerful smartphone such as a Motorola Moto G5 Plus, then the Smart scan feature should not take your smartphone more than a few seconds to finish.
If it doesn’t find any problems, then it will report so.
And if you thought that the in-depth scan would take a bit longer, then you thought wrong.
It won’t.
The ESET Mobile Security antivirus component also checks for new apps as soon as they become available.
Therefore, users can easily set the antivirus to scan when their smartphone device is charging.
Users can also avail the option of scheduling where the antivirus would perform automatic scans on single or multiple days of any given week.
ESET Security Suite also allows users to manage the security product’s anti-theft component.
Users can access this feature with the official ESET online console.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t any other ways to access it.
This feature is also available in the Windows version of the ESET Security Suite app.
The ESET online console also presents an option for users to send a coded text to any of their devices in order to wipe it, lock it or locate it.
The reason why we mentioned the online console method first is that it is considerably easier to use than the Windows version.
When a user uses the feature and marks a device as a missing one, then the ESET Mobile Security suite locks that device down.
Then, the Mobile Security Suite displays a type of warning page.
If by chance a helpful person found the device then that person can simply tp the lost phone in order to contact the owner of the device.
The other option is for the owner of the smartphone.
If the owner finds it, then the device will ask for a password with which the owner can unlock his/her device.
Usually, the Security suite will ask you for the password during the installation process.
There is also a button for the user to make an emergency call.
An emergency call from a locked device?
And you’re also right in the sense that this isn’t something you see often in any security suite.
Well, the Mobile Security suite continues to regularly report on the current status of the user’s device.
It continues to do so for a period of two weeks.
While doing so it continues to make regular reports on the device’s location.
It also uploads photos and does all the hard work of finding the device’s IP address.
Just to take an example, if the Security suite’s location report manages to reveal that user is close to the lost device, then it will give the user the option to tap and start a reasonably loud siren in order to help the user find his/her lost device.
Well, then it gives you the option of a WIPE.
The wipe option will remove all data from the smartphone device.
It can also report if the user has recovered his/her device.
If we’re talking about anti-theft tools then perhaps this is a good time to mention Bitdefender Mobile Security And Antivirus that comes custom-made for the Android smartphone.
It offers users quite the similar toolset.
But along with that, it manages to add just one more unusual feature.
Once Bitdefender can verify that the user has paired his/her device with an Android Wear device (usually a watch) then it gives out a warning sound if and when the user walks away from his/her device leaving the smartphone device behind somewhere.
There is also an anti-phishing component.
The good thing about this anti-phishing feature is that it integrates with Chrome without any problems.
It can also integrate with many of the other preinstalled stock web browsers.
When this security product detects that the user is about to visit a website that it considers as fraudulent then it quickly displays a prominent warning screen.
Not just that, it also allows the user to select whether the user would like to proceed to the page or avoid the said page.
Our advice is always to not proceed when your security suite tells you of a fraudulent website.
It goes one step beyond the call of duty by reporting on settings which hinder the user’s security.
If the user has allowed his/her smartphone to install apps from unknown sources then the Security Audit will give out a warning.
If the user has enabled the debug mode then the Security Audit feature will, again, put out a warning message.
Additionally, the Security Audit feature can actually warn the user if the user’s device is close to running low on memory.
Perhaps the most important function of the Security Audit feature is that it regularly checks all of the user’s apps.
And then makes a report of it.
And then mentions any to which the user may have given potentially risky permissions.
These permissions include,
Ability to use paid services
Reading identity information
Accessing contacts
Tracking the user’s location
Accessing messages
The Security Audit feature also comes with the capability to report apps which might have had the smartphone device’s administrator privileges.
Remember, administrator privileges are potentially very dangerous.
Because apps can use administrator privileges to gain a status which gives them an uncomfortably high degree of device control.
Users have the option of tapping each category and then reviewing the displayed lists of apps.
If they see that anything looks off or fishy, then they can take some action.
But before you go and clean up the house, we want you to know that if an app like Google Maps has access to your location then that probably makes sense.
On the other hand, if your device’s flashlight app has come up on the location permission list, then it is probably a good idea to uninstall that particular flashlight app.
We would also like you to note Norton Security and Antivirus for the Android smartphone Security Audit feature.
Norton’s take it to another level when it comes to reporting.
It takes the concept of listing apps requesting unnecessary permissions and then warnings about those iffy apps even before the user has started to download them.
Users should also understand that the features we have described so far are applicable to smartphones as well as tablets.
If a user is on a smartphone, then the user can easily configure ESET Mobile Security to automatically detect the SIM card switch.
After that, the user can have the ESET Mobile Security send all the new SIM card details to someone the user trusts.
Other features such as call filtering help users to take control of who calls them.
And who doesn’t.
Well, it only works if you have a rather antiquated Android smartphone.
In other words, if you are running a version that is older than Android 4.4.
But that really isn’t a flaw since none of the competing products can offer anything better.
Users can create rules for specific numbers, groups, individuals in their contact list.
They can also set rules for numbers that are non-existent in their contacts list.
If the user wants to then he/she can make a specific rule for things such as the last call they received on their smartphone device.
Moreover, there is even a special option which users can make use of and define which rule they want to be applied when.
To take an example, the user could easily use the ESET Mobile Security suite to ban nighttime calls.
Or they can ban them only for those users who are not on their most important contacts list.
The ESET Security Audit component is not a slouch b any means.
Its reports do have a couple of entries for the user’s smartphone device itself.
More specifically, the Security Audit component can warn users when call roaming and data roaming features are active.
From an overall perspective, the ESET Mobile Security suite has just about every feature that one could want in a mobile security product.
And as we just mentioned, it works for both smartphone devices as well as tablet devices.
We think that ESET doesn’t offer a whole lot of parental control when it comes to its Windows and macOS apps.
In fact, bare minimum, is the word we should use.
The only thing that the parental control component does on Windows and macOS is filtering inappropriate content.
And then it makes a report of the pages it blocked.
That is it.
By contrast, the Android version is a genuine full-featured and effective parental control tool.
As far as the Android goes, the ESET Parental Control software also comes as a standalone product.
Fortunately for you, that standalone product is precisely what ESET offers users with its ESET Multi-Device Security 9.
We don’t go into the full review of ESET parental control here.
But we will summarize what we think about this ESET Multi-device Security 9 component.
ESET offers all of its users a single app when it comes to parental control.
And the app comes with a parent mode plus a child mode.
But that’s nothing special.
Kaspersky Safe Kids and Norton both already do that for Android.
Users can switch to their parent mode if they just enter their password.
Similarly, they can enter the child mode back again with a single tap.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that most parents would like to install the ESET parental control Android app on their own smartphone devices that are running the Android operating system.
Some parental control utilities differentiate them with control.
Others do the same with communication.
You have this main window of the ESET Parental Control child app and it lays out a nice little screen with all the rules.
It uses simple language so that there is little chance of any miscommunication.
Norton Family Parental Control, similarly, has House Rules for the Android platform.
While users are free to use ESET’s parent app in order to configure the app but our research shows that they would have an easier time of managing settings if they used the online console instead.
The online console allows users to first define and then configure profiles for multiple numbers of children.
Actually, it doesn’t have a set limit on the number of children you can control with profiles.
Moreover, users can also associate each of their children with a multiple number of devices that are running on the Android platform.
There isn’t a hard limit on the number of Android devices per child either.
You also have the Web Guard feature.
Users can configure its content filter function to allow or block over 35 working content categories.
Other options include the ability to only monitor unwanted categories.
It would just monitor.
The good thing about the Web Guard is that it can handle HTTPS sites as well.
Hence, your above-average kids won’t have the opportunity to slip past it even if they try to do so with the usual methods such as with the use of a secure and anonymizing proxy service.
The ESET Parental Control Android app has another face.
It’s called the Application Guard.
It basis its monitoring and categorizing on the user’s chosen age range.
The Application Guard component can identify each and every app in terms of three categories.
Those categories as follows,
This means that the app thinks a child is okay to use that app
This means that it won’t allow access to that app.
Apart from that it also gives parents the power to apply some due daily limits on the use of certain apps in Application Guard’s Fun & Games category.
If that sounds too controlling on part of the parents then the Application Guard can also set a necessary and manageable weekly schedule.
Following the schedule, it would manage the time when the child can and can’t use certain apps.
And just like with ESET’s content filter, users have the option to either just monitor app usage or monitor and block app usage.
These reports give the user a complete overwise of any recent activity.
Users who want to dig in for more details on the websites that the software has blocked can do so via the reporting system.
They can also take a look at any visits that someone made to inappropriate or appropriate sites.
Users who have set the ESET utility to only monitor activity and not block anything can only view stats which are related to visits that were made to inappropriate websites.
Moreover, the online console and the parent-mode app also allow users to view stats for different time periods.
Different time periods such as,
The past month
The past week
The ESET official parental control app also produces reports on app usage.
Users have the option to categorize them over similar choices of time periods as before.
The app also breaks out the app usage which the user has defined as Fun & Games in a separate space.
This heat map basically charts the user’s device usage over a period of time.
By default, it maps usage for each and every hour of any given day.
So if a parent sees the heat map and notices that the child used the device a bit too much especially when the child should have gone to sleep, then perhaps that’s the perfect time for a long conversation.
The ESET parental Control app for the Android system is a good piece of software application.
But it doesn’t offer every parental control function or feature that the user could need.
For example, the ESET Parental Control app doesn’t allow users to locate their child.
They can’t monitor texts or calls.
With that said, it is effective.
In fact, it is vastly more efficient and effective than the company’s parental control applications for macOS and Windows.
ESET Multi-Device Security 9 enables users to use the company’s licenses in order to install good protection on their devices.
The really positive thing about ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is that it supports devices that run on platforms such as,
It doesn’t any compatibility for iOS devices.
Moreover, we have also come to know that the protection it offers is inconsistent across different platforms.
For example, ESET Multi-Device Security 9 is great on Android.
The Android version comes with a powerful anti-theft tool and an antivirus.
It also offers a full-featured and effective parental control Android app.
While on the Windows platform, we were satisfied only with the antivirus feature.
The rest of the features such as the personal firewall and parental control feature did not impress us that much.
Moreover, on the Windows platform, the company doesn’t offer the best features of its top-tier suite.
As far as the macOS platform goes, the company does offer an antivirus along with parental control and firewall feature but just as in the case of Windows, they are relatively weak.
Therefore, our recommendation is still tilted towards Symantec Norton Security Premium if users want a true cross-platform and multi-device online security suite.
Moreover, Norton allows you to install good protection on your iOS, Android, macOS and Windows platform.
With ESET Multi-Device Security 9 you miss out on protecting your iOS devices.
In addition to a cheaper service, Symantec Norton also supplies users with 25 GB of free online storage which users can use for backup purposes.
But even though Symantec Norton supports the iOS platform, its service is weakest for the iOS.
That isn’t because Symantec Norton is lazy or anything.
It’s actually because of all the limitations that Apple employs on its operating systems.
As far as the protections on other platforms go, they are superior in every sense of the word.
Overall, we would rank ESET Multi-Device Security 9 as a good option for anyone trying to protect all his/her devices.
But there are better and cheaper options available if one bothers to look for them.
Zohair is currently a content crafter at Security Gladiators and has been involved in the technology industry for more than a decade. He is an engineer by training and, naturally, likes to help people solve their tech related problems. When he is not writing, he can usually be found practicing his free-kicks in the ground beside his house.
Categories Malware and Spyware Programs, Reviews Tags Android, ESET, ESET Cyber Security, Eset Multi-Device Security 9, ESET Parental Control Post navigation
5 Best VPN For China (These Ones Still Work And Bypass Restrictions)
Firewall Application: Do You Really Need One or Are You Better Off Without One ?
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Male characters, Alive characters, Characters,
Characters voiced by Albert Brooks
Springfield Wall of Fame
Scorpio family
Rich Characters
Surprise villains
Affably Evil
Homer's workmates
Characters with Facial Hair
Ginger haired Characters
Hank Scorpio
Who is Hank Scorpio?
Owner of Globex Corporation
Supervillain
Son: Freddie Scorpio
"You Only Move Twice"
“Scorpio! He'll sting you with his dreams of power and wealth. Beware of Scorpio! His twisted twin obsessions are his plot to rule the world, and his employees' health. He'll welcome you into his lair, like the nobleman welcomes his guest. With free dental care and a stock plan that helps you invest! But beware of his generous pensions, plus three weeks paid vacation each year. And on Fridays the lunchroom serves hot dogs and burgers and beer! He loves German beer!”
―Hank Scorpio's theme song
“Hi! I'm here to welcome you on behalf of the President of the Globex Corporation. Me!”
―First lines
Hank Scorpio is an evil genius and owner of Globex Corporation.
Scorpio, despite being an evil genius, proved to be an ideal boss, welcoming the Simpson family with a beautiful home and a friendly, relaxed, non-authoritative employer attitude. However, being an evil genius is still his priority, and over the episode, he delivers a video threat to the United Nations, in which he destroys the Queensboro Bridge with a giant satellite laser device, but is annoyed that some of them seemed to think the bridge collapsed on its own. Unlike many super villains, Scorpio does care for the employees who live in his company town, Cypress Creek, even going so far offering his employees health and free dental care (including to life partners) along with regularly scheduled fun runs. Later, he tries to kill Mr. Bont, a secret agent, who cleverly escapes but is tackled by Homer before being rapidly executed in turn by Scorpio's guards. When Homer comes to Scorpio and tells him that he wants to take his family back to Springfield, a battle between Globex and the U.S government is taking place, and Homer sympathizes with him having problems with the government. Though Scorpio says he would like to have Homer stay, he advises Homer to do what he feels is best for his family. He also tells Homer he would do him a favor if he were to kill some people before grabbing a flamethrower and burning several soldiers while laughing sadistically.
Scorpio later succeeds in taking over the East Coast of the United States, seen firstly as a newspaper headline "Supervillain Seizes East Coast" which lands on the Simpsons' doorstep. He sends Homer a letter saying that Project Arcturus could not have succeeded without him, and gives him the Denver Broncos as a gift, though he knew Homer wanted the Dallas Cowboys, he said it was a start. He later invites Homer if he finds himself on the East Coast.[1] The Simpsons never understood that Hank Scorpio is an international criminal.
Scorpio was recognized by the Springfield Wall of Fame as being a philanthropist.[2]
Claiming that Homer never took his coat at all
He had a brief speaking appearance in the title screen gag to "500 Keys", and briefly appeared in his car in "The Simpsons Guy".
In the comic story, "Sandwiches Are Forever", it is revealed that Hank Scorpio was imprisoned in a Turkish prison for trading ray guns. Homer Simpson was thrown into the same cell as he was after trying to sneak a sandwich out of Turkey. After the guards take a bite out of the sandwich and died of food poisoning, Homer and Hank escaped the prison.
In the comic story, "Lisa Goes to Camp", he has a son often referred to as "Gold Star". His son displays many similar characteristics such as a desire to take over the world. He dresses identically to his father.
In the comic story, “So You Wanna Work For GLOBEX, Huh?”, Scorpio gives you a tour of the Globex corporation in first person. Many mishaps happen within your tour, including a giant weasel being released, James Bont attacking Scorpio, and employees trying to kill you.
In Level 6, Scorpio was mentioned when Bart buys a supervillain car from Kearney. Kearney mentions that Scorpio had also "CONQUERED THE EAST COAST".
Scorpio resumes his quest to take over the world, as usual being a charming and grateful boss. He also has a short quest with Nelson Muntz, informing him that he sees potential for leadership, and Nelson starts to organize his bullying more effectively - which could indirectly call to one of the non-canon futures in the show in which Nelson becomes a crime boss.
Hank Scorpio is a parody of British Billionaire Richard Branson. Scorpio's character parodies evil villains from James Bond movies, especially Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Unlike the Bond villains, however, Scorpio genuinely seems to care about the well-being of his people, even going so far as to have a heart-to-heart talk with Homer about his family's decision to move while in the middle of a battle in Scorpio's lair and giving him the Denver Broncos as thanks for his help, semi-fulfilling Homer's lifelong dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys he told Scorpio earlier.
"You Only Move Twice" has a Bond-esque closing song (a direct parody of the theme to Goldfinger), which plays during the end credits.
The entire Hammock Complex routine was heavily ad-libbed by Albert Brooks, which also explained why Homer was unable to follow Hank Scorpio during the routine and only catch up at the end.
He was supposed to be the villain of The Simpsons Movie, but for some reason (probably due to his Friendship with Homer , this idea was dropped, and he was replaced by Russ Cargill, who coincidentally is also voiced by Albert Brooks.
Mastermind Hank Scorpio
Hank has Facebook and appears to be friends with Mark Zuckerberg.
Homer called him 'Mr. Scorpion' in You Only Move Twice. Scorpio did not like this very much and does not want to be called 'Mr. Scorpio' either, instead to be referred to by Hank.
Tapped Out artwork
Episode – "You Only Move Twice"
Episode – "Take My Life, Please" Springfield Wall of Fame
Episode – "Loan-a Lisa" (name seen)
Episode – "500 Keys" (title screen gag)
Episode – "The Simpsons Guy"
Video game – The Simpsons: Hit & Run (mentioned)
Video game – LEGO Dimensions (mentioned)
Comic story – Sandwiches Are Forever
Comic story – Lisa Goes to Camp
Comic story – A Brand New Burns Part One!
Comic story – A Brand New Burns Part Two!
Comic story – Springfield is Not Enough!
↑ You Only Move Twice
↑ Take My Life, Please
Retrieved from "https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Hank_Scorpio?oldid=875468"
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Transworld Business Advisors Say ‘Seasonality’ Key Factor in Profits
Nov 26, 2018 | Business
Holiday Shopping Expected to Reach $720 Billion in 2018
WEST PALM BEACH, FL, November 26, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ — Transworld Business Advisors, the largest business brokerage franchise in the world with more than 500 brokers in nearly 200 offices, specializes in business sales, franchise consulting, and franchise development. On their recent ‘The Deal Board’ podcast episode, show hosts Andy Cagnetta, CEO of Transworld, and Jessica Fialkovich, owner of Transworld Rocky Mountain and small business advocate, discuss the approaching holiday season and provide valuable insights into the “seasonality” of the holidays and the effect it has on revenue.
“The holidays are big business and provide a bump because of the emergence of sales oriented days such Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday and even Giving Tuesday,” said Fialkovich. “Retailers and small businesses capitalize on this time of the year because it’s a prime time for sales, increased revenue and profits.”
Cagnetta says that businesses take advantage of the public’s mini-vacation as most people are off work between Thursday and Monday. “Businesses do all they can to lure consumers into their stores during those days and some are even open on Thanksgiving, which shows how important the holiday season is to them,” he said. “One business we talked to habitually acquires about 60 percent of its new customers over Thanksgiving weekend, while others see a 30 to 40 percent jump in sales.”
According to the Transworld CEO, when an owner is thinking about selling or buying a business, it’s important to understand “seasonality” and the role it plays. “Business owners need to focus on the critical days that really bring in the most money, and in this case it’s the holidays,” Cagnetta said. “Seasons do affect businesses, so whether you’re buying or selling, it’s critical to time a transition just right to maximize profits.”
The holiday season plays a big role in profitability, as witnessed by the increase in profits that restaurants turn during South Florida’s “season” that runs from Thanksgiving to Easter. “We see it when selling restaurants because the snowbirds come down during that period and it gets extremely busy down here,” said Cagnetta. “Sometimes you can’t get a seat in a restaurant and profits are great, but if you’re buying a restaurant in non-peak months like July or August, it’s more difficult. We work closely with buyers and actually make a lot of deals and concessions so they are assured of surviving the slower months,” Fialkovich said. “In essence, we try to educate people on the buying process.”
Transworld’s North Boston office had a recent listing that shows the importance of seasonality. “Typically fitness center memberships are great gifts for someone as a New Year’s resolution, but this particular listing wanted to get a jump on the competition and promoted memberships during Black Friday,” said Aaron Fox, managing broker. “This strategy kept people thinking about memberships leading into January and by doing so captured a new market and revenue stream that accounted for 62 percent of its new membership. Due to the seasonality strategy, an owner or a buyer would know what revenue to expect going into 2019 and what to expect the first quarter of the year.”
An estimated 164 million people will shop Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Holiday retail sales in November and December are expected to increase between 4.3 and 4.8 percent over last year, and total spending will range from $717 billion to $720 billion. Last year’s holiday sales represented nearly 20 percent of total retail industry sales that includes store-based and online sales from a broad range of retail categories such as discount stores, department stores, grocers, specialty stores and non-store sales—but excludes sales at automotive dealers, gas stations, and restaurants.
About Transworld Business Advisors
Led by CEO, Andy Cagnetta, Transworld Business Advisors is a member of United Franchise Group, a successful group of franchise systems with 1,600 franchisees in 80 countries. Formerly Transworld Business Brokers, the company has 40 years of brokerage experience representing acquisition-minded corporations and individuals interested in owning their own company, or in franchising. With more than 500 brokers in nearly 200 franchised offices worldwide, Transworld offers the professional services that successfully bring buyers and sellers together. From business brokerage to mergers and acquisitions, Transworld Business Advisors are business sale specialists. For more information on buying or selling visit www.tworld.com and for owning a Transworld franchise, visit www.tworldfranchise.com.
About The Deal Board Podcast
The Deal Board podcast is a place to learn about the best way to sell a business or acquire a new business across a wide variety of industries. Hosted by Andy Cagnetta, CEO of Transworld Business Advisors, and Jessica Fialkovich, President of Transworld Business Advisors Rocky Mountain, the show provides a behind-the-scenes look into a business brokerage transaction, helping listeners understand the process. Through conversations with successful entrepreneurs who have learned the ins and outs of buying and selling businesses as part of their own business endeavors, weekly podcast guests help make listeners’ journey as an entrepreneur easier and a more enriching experience. To learn more about The Deal Board Podcast, visit www.tworld.com/thedealboard or subscribe on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, Tunein, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube and more.
About United Franchise Group
Led by CEO Ray Titus, United Franchise Group is home to a variety of internationally recognized brands including Signarama, Fully Promoted, Experimac, Jon Smith Subs, Venture X, SuperGreen Solutions, Transworld Business Advisors, Accurate Franchising, Network Lead Exchange and The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. With more than three decades in the franchising industry, and 1,600 franchisees in 80 countries throughout the world, United Franchise Group offers unprecedented leadership and solid business opportunities for entrepreneurs.
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Dean’s dreams come true with NEIS
When Dean first joined the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) program in 2017 he had one clear goal – to be self-employed for the freedom to run his own business and balance his life, family and work commitments. Delivered by our BRACE team in Port Adelaide, NEIS assists eligible job seekers who want to start a small business with training and mentoring. Initially, Dean’s business provided mechanical maintenance and welding for large construction sites and industrial onsite maintenance. It has been quite the learning curve for Dean and his partner Julia who manages the administration of the business, but their marketing efforts are now paying dividends. Their services have expanded over the past year to include site shutdown and mechanical breakdown call-outs and business ...
Tree Planting with Parks Victoria – by Reece, SkillsPlus VCAL Senior student
On the 23rd of July my SkillsPlus VCAL class along with the year 10 and 11 classes went on an excursion to the Patterson Rivers to help Parks Victoria. Before we actually arrived there, we first started at the Frankston station during the morning and wrote onto the attendance log with our signatures and phone numbers, just so we could keep account of everyone that came on the day. After checking that everyone was here and ready, we went under the station through a tunnel and walked towards the bus station, unfortunately on the day the trains were being worked on and we could not use the train, we were directed towards where the replacement buses were picking people up. After waiting a few minutes the bus arrived and we all hopped on with the teachers getting on last, to make sure th ...
Former SkillsPlus VCAL student, the amazing Amy, upskills with a BRACE Certificate IV
Last year, after leaving high school due to difficulties adapting to the mainstream school environment, Amy joined SkillsPlus VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) in Frankston. “I was struggling at my old school trying to pass year 11. The teachers and the school environment made it hard for me, so I moved to SkillsPlus where I went onto graduate with a year 12 pass. The teachers were great and there was never a day I would go to school upset.” Amy enjoyed her VCAL experience so much that she decided to enrol in a Certificate IV in Education Support with BRACE. “After Year 12 I wanted to study more and gain a qualification in something that I loved doing”, said Amy. “I chose Education Support as a career pathway to help people. I never really knew wh ...
Reece’s transition into employment
When Reece, an early school leaver, completed the Transition to Work program with SkillsPlus in Victoria, he took the next step towards employment with the jobactive team in Pakenham, but it took him some time to find his career path. Transition to Work (TTW) is an Australian Government program providing intensive pre-employment support to young people aged 15 to 21. TTW aims to improve participants work-readiness to help them into work or education. “Reece was an early school leaver,” said his jobactive consultant Kylie. “We explored various vocational course options and traineeships but nothing seemed to spark his interest”. Reece seemed to be disengaged and then began to work with Hnem, a member of Kylie’s jobactive team. While Reece wa ...
Meet Linda
After migrating from China in 2004, Linda found it difficult to find stable employment. In the hopes of securing work as a Teacher’s Aide, Linda is now completing a CHC40213 Certificate IV in Education Support with BRACE. For her placement, Linda has been developing her practical skills in the SkillsPlus classroom, helping our SEE (Skills for Education & Employment) students strengthen their English Language, literacy and numeracy skills. Linda says supporting students from culturally diverse backgrounds is a good use of her own cultural background. “I want to support ESL people as it is a good use of my experience coming from China,” said Linda. Linda’s long-term goals involve upskilling with further qualifications to enable her to become a SEE teach ...
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Shows A-G
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Homeland S4 Ep12: Long Time Coming
After a season full of escalating intrigue, Homeland concluded with a surprising and unfulfilling finale. You can read my full review of episode 12 of Homeland on the Metro [...]
Homeland S4 Ep11: Krieg Nicht Lieb
Carrie races to stop Quinn from carrying out his suicide mission to kill Haissam Haqqani, only to make a disturbing, game-changing discovery in Homeland’s penultimate [...]
Homeland S4 Ep10: 13 Hours in Islamabad
Homeland’s tenth episode, 13 Hours in Islamabad, left both the body count and the stakes high, with 36 dead after the assault on the American Embassy and Quinn and Carrie [...]
Homeland S4 Ep9: There’s Something Else Going On
Homeland marks a return to its best as Carrie gives Dennis Boyd the third degree and oversees a prisoner exchange to get Saul back, while Haissam Haqqani finally shows his [...]
Homeland S4 Ep8: Halfway to a Donut
Homeland ramps up the tension as Carrie tries to identify a security breach within the US Embassy while struggling to keep an escaped Saul from harm. You can read my full [...]
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Neil Etheridge
Villa sign Heaton, Marvelous; Bournemouth add Danjuma
By Joe Prince-WrightAug 1, 2019, 8:49 AM EDT
Make that 12 summer signings for Aston Villa, who are having a splendid… sorry, Marvelous time in the transfer market.
Dean Smith’s side have signed goalkeeper Tom Heaton from Burnley for $10 million, while the wonderfully named midfielder Mavelous Nakamba has joined from Club Brugge.
Just marvelous. Okay, sorry, I’ll stop now.
Villa have named signed a brand new starting lineup this summer, and Smith needed to bring in this huge number of players due to a plethora of departures due to contracts ending and loan deals coming to an end. Villa have spent a remarkable $160 million on new players so far this summer. Here’s hoping this is not another Fulham-esque situation…
Speaking about his arrival at Villa Park, Heaton is delighted to bring his experience to a young Villa side.
“There’s momentum here – you could see that from afar. This club got the ball rolling last season and it turned into a huge success story in the second half of the campaign,” Heaton said. “To gain promotion was absolutely brilliant. It’s been a busy window so far – a lot of signings. But it needed to happen with a lot of players having also left the club. The majority of the signings are young, hungry and athletic. It’s a really exciting time for Aston Villa and I’m delighted to be a part of that. Hopefully, I’ll bring a bit of experience to it.”
Heaton should become Villa’s first-choice goalkeeper now, jumping ahead of Jed Steer in the pecking order. The England international will bring a steady head to a new-look and young defensive unit, and Villa have been on the hunt for a goalkeeper for some time. Deals for Neil Etheridge and Jack Butland proved troublesome so Villa turned their attention to Heaton.
As for Marvelous Nakamba, he joins for $13.3 million on a five-year deal and alongside Douglas Luiz he will battle with Jack Grealish, John McGinn and Conor Hourihane for a starting spot in midfield.
Nakamba, 25, will join his former Club Brugge teammates Wesley and Bjorn Engels at Villa.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the Premier League – and against the best players in the world in the Premier League. It’s the best league in the world. It’s always been a dream for me to play in the Premier League and to be competing against the best players in the world,” Nakamba said. “I will be trying my best, of course – and I will give everything. I give everything for the team every time. That’s who I am. I fight for the team. I care about helping the team. You will see that.”
The Zimbabwe international is a destructive force in central midfield and he will add a little bit of balance to Villa’s engine room given the mercurial attacking talents of Grealish and McGinn. Smith describes him as being “very mobile, very good in possession and he will fit in with our style of play.”
Bournemouth have also been busy in the transfer market as they signed Dutch winger Arnaut Danjuma.
The Dutch winger, 22, has signed from Club Brugge for a fee believed to be $15.7 million and the former PSV Eindhoven and NEC Nijmegen forward will excite Cherries fans.
“Arnaut is another outstanding addition to our squad and I’m delighted that he is an AFC Bournemouth player,” chief executive Neill Blake said. “This is someone we have been tracking for a number of years, who has all the attributes to become a key player for this team. Football is about entertainment and, as a technical, attack-minded player, I’m confident Arnaut will excite our fans and they will enjoy watching him.”
With Danjuma on board, questions will pop up about the future of Ryan Fraser. The Scottish winger has been a real force for Bournemouth over the last two seasons (he scored seven goals and added 14 assists last season) but has just one year left on his current contract. Fraser has been linked with the likes of Arsenal and it is easy to understand why, as only Eden Hazard provided more PL assists than him last season.
Eddie Howe has added young talent to his squad once again this summer with Lloyd Kelly, Jack Stacey and Phillip Billing also arriving.
Tags: Arnaut Danjuma, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Marvelous Nakamba, Premier League, Tom Heaton, transfer news, Ba, Bjorn Engels, Conor Hourihane, Douglas Luiz, Eddie Howe, Eden Hazard, Ibe, Jack Butland, Jack Grealish, Jack Stacey, Jed Steer, John McGinn, Lloyd Kelly, Neil Etheridge, Phillip Billing, Ryan Fraser, Tom Heaton, Wesley
Bargain buys: Relegated players for Premier League clubs to target
Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
By Nicholas MendolaMay 17, 2019, 9:08 PM EDT
This season, it was Ben Foster arriving at Watford from West Brom and Xherdan Shaqiri switching from Stoke City to Liverpool.
Before that, it was Harry Maguire from Hull City to Leicester, and Jordan Pickford from Sunderland to Everton. Idrissa Gana Gueye from Aston Villa to Everton before that.
[ MORE: Terriers release Williams, Lossl ]
Yes nearly every year, at least one player from a relegated squad becomes a difference maker of some repute on a safe Premier League side.
So who will it be this year? Here are some candidates, though several may look to help their clubs rebound back to the top flight.
Neil Etheridge, GK, Cardiff City — The PL’s first Filipino player nearly kept the goal-starved Bluebirds in the top flight, somewhat similar to Lukasz Fabianski‘s work at Swans before moving to West Ham. Is there a spot for him somewhere in the top tier?
Philip Billing, CM, Huddersfield Town — The Swiss defensive midfielder averaged 2.7 tackles and two interceptions per game for the Terriers, and is just 22 years old.
Victor Camarasa, MF, Cardiff City — Five goals and four assists for a side that couldn’t find the back of the net shouldn’t be scoff material. At just 24, someone should take a look.
Aaron Mooy, CM, Huddersfield Town — Capable of unleashing a rocket, the former Man City pupil wasn’t as good in year two at the John Smith’s Stadium. Most weren’t.
Callum Paterson, DF, Cardiff City — Also just 24, the versatile Scot can deputize at defense, midfield, and occasionally forward for his new side.
Ryan Babel, FW, Fulham — The winger may be 32, but did he ever look quite this good on his first run through the Premier League. Five goals and three assists in 16 appearances following a mid-season transfer.
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, MF, Fulham — He’s a bit of a card accumulator, but Fulham was better with him than without him. The 23-year-old was also outstanding at Marseille in the Ligue 1 club’s run to last season’s Europa League Final.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, FW, Fulham — He’s now scored and angered defenses on two offense-hungry clubs, and rang up 11 goals while nabbing an almost silly 6.5 aerial wins per match. He’s still only 24.
Tags: Aaron Mooy, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Callum Paterson, Cardiff City, Football League Championship, Fulham, Huddersfield Town, Neil Etheridge, Philip Billing, Premier League, Ryan Babel, Victor Camarasa, Aaron Mooy, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Babel, Ben Foster, Callum Paterson, Harry Maguire, Jordan Pickford, Lukasz Fabianski, Neil Etheridge, Philip Billing, Xherdan Shaqiri
Cardiff City relegated from Premier League
By Joe Prince-WrightMay 4, 2019, 2:27 PM EDT
Cardiff relegated from PL
Zaha, Batshuayi, Townsend score for Palace
Bluebirds will finish in 18th
Cardiff City’s second season in the Premier League ended the same way as their first: relegation after one season.
Cardiff lost 3-2 to Crystal Palace at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, as the Welsh side are four points from safety with one game to go and Neil Warnock‘s newly-promoted side have joined Fulham and Huddersfield as the three teams who were relegated this season.
With Cardiff’s relegation confirmed, Brighton & Hove Albion are now secured of being in the Premier League for the 2019-20 season.
Wilfried Zaha and Michy Batshuayi scored for Palace, who had handed Cardiff brief hope in the game through Martin Kelly‘s own goal. Then Andros Townsend made it 3-1 before Bobby Reid scored late on to make it 3-2, but that wasn’t enough to save Cardiff.
With the win Palace move on to 46 points for the season, while Cardiff have 31 points and now travel to Manchester United on the final day knowing it will be their last in the top-flight for at least 12 months.
Palace started the game well as Zaha went close and the visitors were soon ahead via their main man. Zaha controlled the ball, cut inside and placed a low finish past Neil Etheridge to put the Eagles 1-0 up as Cardiff’s slow start was punished.
But no sooner had they went behind, Cardiff equalized in bizarre circumstances. Leandro Bacuna whipped a ball into the box which was harmless, but Kelly got his clearance all wrong and shanked the ball into his own net. 1-1. Game on.
Batshuayi then scored to regain the lead for Palace, as he played a one-two with Jordan Ayew and then slotted home to make it 2-1 in a frantic first half.
Moments later James McArthur ran down the right and found Zaha who struck a shot at goal but his effort was blocked by his own player Ayew. At the other end Bruno Manga headed over and then Vicente Guaita made a fine stop to deny Bobby Reid, while Palace then went close again but Neil Etheridge saved bravely.
In the second half Palace looked dangerous on the counter, as Cardiff pushed forward to try and save themselves from relegation.
The Bluebirds were causing problems from set piece situations and Josh Murphy somehow shanked his effort wide after Nathaniel Mendez-Laing found him at the back post.
Murphy’s shot was blocked and Kenneth Zohore‘s shot was saved by Guaita as Cardiff pushed hard, but that led to Palace scoring another as Townsend’s low strike hit the post and went in to make it 3-1.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing had a shot cleared off the line, then Junior Hoilett missed a great chance as the home side threw everything at Crystal Palace to try and keep their hopes of a dramatic survival alive.
Reid curled home to make it 3-2 late on, but that was how the game finished as the Eagles sent the Bluebirds back down to the second-tier.
Tags: Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Premier League, Premier League 2018-19 game recaps, Amat, Andros Townsend, Bobby Reid, Guaita, James McArthur, Jordan Ayew, Josh Murphy, Junior Hoilett, Kenneth Zohore, Leandro Bacuna, Martin Kelly, Michy Batshuayi, Nathan, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Neil Etheridge, Neil Warnock, Wilfried Zaha
Fulham win, Cardiff on the brink (video)
By Joe Prince-WrightApr 27, 2019, 12:15 PM EDT
Babel scores winner
Third-straight win for Fulham
Cardiff 3 points from safety, two games to go
Already-relegated Fulham won a third-straight Premier League game with a shutout as they beat Cardiff City 1-0 at Craven Cottage to push their opponents closer to the drop.
Ryan Babel smashed home an incredible strike to win it for Fulham who impressed throughout, while Cardiff sat back and then pummelled the Fulham goal late on but a combination of Sergio Rico making stops and poor finishing saw the Bluebirds lose.
After a third-straight win Fulham move on to 26 points, while Cardiff have 31 points and face Crystal Palace and Manchester United in their final two games of the season. Neil Warnock‘s side will likely have to win both to stay up, and even then it may not be enough.
There was an even start to the game as Sean Morrison went down in the box and appealed for a penalty kick after tussling with Mitrovic.
At the other end Mitrovic was then denied by Neil Etheridge who made a fine save across his goal to deny Fulham’s top goalscorer.
A worrying moment then arrived as Denis Odoi was kicked in the face by his own teammate Maxime Le Marchand and appeared to be knocked out instantly. Odoi was down for almost 10 minutes receiving treatment before being carried off the pitch on a stretcher.
After that lengthy break in play Fulham were the better team as Ryan Sessegnon went close.
Mitrovic spurned a glorious chance at the start of the second half as Tom Cariney picked him out, but the Serbian striker fired way over the bar. At the other end Cardiff started to push men forward as Leandro Bacuna slipped at a vital moment.
Late on Cardiff threw themselves at the ball as Joe Bennett denied Joe Bryan with a great last-ditch tackle. Mitrovic curled another effort just over as Fulham looked the more likely to score and then they did.
Babel curled home a magnificent strike to make it 1-0, as his sensational strike from distance was his fourth goal in his last six games. But that strike sprung Cardiff into life as Sergio Rico saved on multiple occasions.
Bennett went close but Rico saved, then Hoilett hit the crossbar and Rico then denied Bennett, Morrison (twice) and Danny Ward who all should have scored.
Somehow Fulham held on for the win which pushed Cardiff closer to relegation.
Tags: Cardiff City, Fulham, Premier League, Premier League 2018-19 game recaps, Babel, Denis Odoi, Joe Bennett, Joe Bryan, Leandro Bacuna, Maxime Le Marchand, Neil Etheridge, Neil Warnock, Ryan Sessegnon, Sean Morrison, Sergio Rico
Who would make a PFA Team of the Year without Top Six teams?
Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
By Nicholas MendolaApr 26, 2019, 10:41 PM EDT
The PFA Team of the Year was dominated by Manchester City and Liverpool, to no one’s surprise, though which players comprised the team surprised many.
For example, the team may be without the league’s Golden Boot winner.
[ PL PREVIEW: Brighton v. Newcastle ]
Mohamed Salah was left off the team, likely due to his cold form while the players were voting for the peers, and he’d be an easy part of any “The Best of the Rest” list (along with Christian Eriksen, Roberto Firmino, Harry Kane, and Eden Hazard).
But we’ve added another angle, as we’ll make a “Best Outside The Top Six of the Year.” Here is a team to join the PFA Team of the Year.
“No Top Six” Team of the Year
Fabianski (West Ham)
Wan-Bissaka (Palace) – Tarkowski (Burnley) – Duffy (BHA) – Digne (Everton)
Gana Gueye (Everton) – Ndidi (Leicester City)
Felipe (West Ham)- Doucoure (Watford) – Fraser (Bournemouth)
Raul Jimenez (Wolves)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka‘s 3.8 tackles per game led all backs, full or center; His 2.4 interceptions per match rate isn’t far off from the leader: Cardiff’s Sol Bamba (who just misses).
Shane Duffy and James Tarkowski lead the league in clearances, and are also 1-2 in blocked shots.
Only Hazard has more assists than Fraser’s 12, tied with Eriksen, who also is Top Two in key passes per game.
And even this list leaves out quality like Gylfi Sigurdsson, Joao Moutinho, and Neil Etheridge. Wild.
Tags: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Everton, Felipe Anderson, Idrissa Gana Gueye, James Tarkowski, Leicester City, Lucas Digne, Lukasz Fabianski, Premier League, Raul Jimenez, Ryan Fraser, Shane Duffy, Watford, West Ham United, Wilfred Ndidi, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wolves, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Christian Eriksen, Eden Hazard, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Harry Kane, James Tarkowski, Joao Moutinho, Moha, Mohamed Salah, Neil Etheridge, Roberto Firmino, Shane Duffy
Villa sign Heaton, Marvelous; Bournemouth add Danjuma August 1, 2019 8:49 am Bargain buys: Relegated players for Premier League clubs to target May 17, 2019 9:08 pm Cardiff City relegated from Premier League May 4, 2019 2:27 pm Fulham win, Cardiff on the brink (video) April 27, 2019 12:15 pm Who would make a PFA Team of the Year without Top Six teams? April 26, 2019 10:41 pm Liverpool handle business in Wales (video) April 21, 2019 12:52 pm Red-hot Burnley beat Cardiff amid penalty kick drama (video) April 13, 2019 12:03 pm Man City go top with defeat of Cardiff City (video) April 3, 2019 4:41 pm Chelsea extremely fortunate in comeback v. Cardiff City March 31, 2019 11:06 am Premier League player Power Rankings March 12, 2019 1:09 pm Cardiff City keeps up safety fight with win over West Ham (video) March 9, 2019 12:14 pm Watford smashes Cardiff through Deulofeu magic (video) February 22, 2019 4:41 pm Cardiff snatch dramatic late win at Saints (video) February 9, 2019 12:07 pm Cardiff wins in first home match since Sala disappearance (video) February 2, 2019 2:25 pm Arsenal edge past battling Cardiff (video) January 29, 2019 4:40 pm Schar stars as Newcastle sends Cardiff into 18th (video) January 19, 2019 12:07 pm Cardiff held by Huddersfield (video) January 12, 2019 11:54 am Report of Arsenal interest in Pulisic signals topic of USMNT concern December 30, 2018 9:49 am Etheridge, Camarasa spring Cardiff City past Leicester December 29, 2018 11:55 am Five-star Manchester United buries Cardiff December 22, 2018 2:22 pm Watford edge Cardiff in five-goal thriller December 15, 2018 11:58 am Cardiff City 2-1 Wolves: Hoilett stunner caps Cardiff comeback November 30, 2018 4:57 pm Everton prevails over stubbon Cardiff November 24, 2018 12:12 pm Cardiff gets dramatic win over 10-man Brighton November 10, 2018 9:28 am Liverpool control Cardiff, go top of table October 27, 2018 11:54 am Cardiff City thrashes sorry Fulham to move out of drop zone October 20, 2018 12:10 pm Andre Schurrle makes yard of space, goes Upper 90 from 30 yards October 20, 2018 10:36 am Early Dier goal enough as Spurs top 10-man Cardiff October 6, 2018 12:00 pm Warnock feeling angst after Cardiff wastes chance September 30, 2018 2:09 pm Opportunistic Burnley wins at Cardiff City September 30, 2018 12:52 pm Willian, Hazard wow as Chelsea rout Cardiff September 15, 2018 12:00 pm WATCH: Giroud, Hazard combine twice to lead Chelsea comeback September 15, 2018 11:15 am Lacazette speaks after star turn; Watch his, Auba’s beauties September 2, 2018 11:06 am Beauties from Lacazette, Aubameyang lead Arsenal to win September 2, 2018 10:23 am 10-man Huddersfield off and running, draw v. Cardiff August 25, 2018 12:00 pm What did we learn from Premier League Week 2? August 18, 2018 4:45 pm Cardiff City: ‘Poetic justice’ that Etheridge stopped violent Kenedy August 18, 2018 10:13 am Bournemouth wins behind Wilson goal, assist August 11, 2018 11:57 am
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Big League Dreams faces second spectator injury suit in weeks
By John Suayan | Aug 6, 2018
GALVESTON – League City’s Big League Dreams baseball facility faces another lawsuit pertaining to injuries allegedly sustained by a spectator.
Darrell A. Apffel and D. Blake Apffel of the law firm Apffel Legal, PLLC in Galveston filed the suit on behalf of Bacliff residents Tiffany Padgett and Zane Tucker on Aug. 3 in the Galveston County Court at Law No. 1. The facility’s general manager, Phillis N. Williford, is listed as a co-defendant in the litigation.
The 8-page complaint explains that Tucker was watching a men’s slow-pitch softball game on Aug. 6, 2016 when after the game, “one of the ballplayers or spectators picked up a bat, swung the bat, lost control of the bat, and allowed it to fly out of his hands.”
The bat purportedly struck Tucker “with a great force and violence in the face and head.” The person with the bat was believed to have been intoxicated.
According to court papers, the park lacked security at the time of the incident since the umpires left the field.
Consequently, the plaintiffs seek unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Big League Dreams was previously sued by a female spectator who claims she was struck in the temple by a baseball while watching her son compete in a youth tournament.
The defendant has yet to file an original answer to Rachel Teykl’s lawsuit.
Galveston County Court at Law No. 1 Cause No. CV-81596
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Galveston County District Court
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Democratic Representation and Obstructionist Politics
Posted by Steven Greffenius in Democratic Institutions
Washington has become a bottomless source of so-called narratives that pundits parrot, pad, peddle and promote in order to persuade us to see the world the way they see it. You can categorize journalists by which narratives they choose to pick up. Most importantly, it helps you analyze the question, does this writer think for himself, or not? If the writer has no detachment from the latest narrative, at least be sure you have some detachment. You will never think clearly if you let yourself be drawn into endless sniping.
Remember, sniping is not harmless. It aims to kill your enemy. When we talk about partisan sniping in Washington, we’re talking serious politics. Snipers shoot to kill.
What narrative do I have in mind? The short version is: blame the Republicans. They’re the obstructionists. They’re the reason Washington can’t get anything done.
The story line is more complicated than that, and if I had the space I could summarize it a bit more. But you’ve seen it already. People are writing books about it now. One of the latest, by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann no less, is titled It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. When the book came out a few weeks ago, a lot of people noted that these respected scholars – always balanced! – blame the Republicans for Washington dysfunction more than they blame the Democrats. Take note.
Now, Mann and Ornstein correctly say that Republicans in Congress have obstructed Democrats’ plans and proposals. What this narrative doesn’t include is a reminder that voters sent Republicans to Congress is 2010 to do exactly that. A lot of voters perceived in 2009 and 2010 what Obama, Reid and Pelosi wanted to do, and in November 2010 they responded with a loud NO! WE DON’T WANT THAT!
That’s democracy. You can’t charge Republicans in Congress with obstructionism when they accomplish exactly what their constituents sent them to Washington to accomplish. Certainly the citizens who voted Republican in 2010 wanted their representatives to enact radical reductions in taxes and regulatory constraints – changes that have not occurred – but at a minimum those voters wanted the new Republican majority to stop the Democrats. At least they have done that.
No one doubts that the voters themselves are divided. They disagree about a lot of issues. The so-called gridlock in Washington reflects those divisions. To say though that the congressional Republicans are obstructionist because they prevent Democrats in the Senate and executive branch from getting what they want, is to privilege the party that holds the White House and the Senate. Why would we privilege the Democrats in this case, or for that matter the institutions they hold? We all say the House is the most democratic institution in our republic. Why should the party that holds the most representative institution be charged with obstructionism?
If the Republicans take the White House in 2012, we’ll have to see if the Democrats in the House and Senate become the latest obstructionists. The Republicans may turn the charge around, or they may continue to ignore the charge when Democrats in Congress charge the Romney White House with obstructionism. When both government and citizenry are divided, a charge of obstructionism becomes insubstantial and baseless. It’s a whiny talking point and nothing more. Or, in the case of Ornstein and Mann, it’s an appeal to balanced politics based on compromise that doesn’t exist now, and never did.
Democrats and other political analysts have repeated the charge against Republicans so often, however, that it starts to look like dogma. In fact, an appeal to compromise and balance isn’t a bad ideal for a democratic republic. In this case, though, the argument doesn’t end with an appeal to reason. It ends with blame. The purpose of blame is to punish the wrongdoer. The purpose of blame is to put your enemy away.
Like other false or misdirected arguments, this one about who is obstructionist – and who suffers from obstruction – may recede in time. If it does go away, the Republicans will have done well to ignore the charge. The Republicans in Congress and the voters who sent them there define liberty – our controlling ideal – in a way that differs from the Democrats’ vision. Arguments about partisan divisions in Congress, or about which party deserves more blame, should recognize this foundational disagreement about what liberty signifies in America.
The Republicans in Congress, like Thomas Jefferson, believe that defense of liberty justifies extremism. Their goals, however, are extremist only in light of our current institutions, not in light of our founding law in the Declaration and the Constitution. Republican representatives believe their vision is superior: if their Democratic colleagues blame them for obstructionism, so be it. They do not want the charge to be a distraction, one more talking point, or an accusation that causes demoralization and defeat.
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University of Sydney Research
University of Sydney Research Outputs
Title: Constipation and other common symptoms reported by women and men in methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment
Authors: Espinoza, David
Haber, Paul
Hallinan, Richard
Lintzeris, Nicholas
Veillard, Anne-Sophie
Elsayed, Mahmoud
NH&MRC Clinical Trials Centre
Central Clinical School: Addiction Medicine
Central Clinical School: Psychological Medicine
Citation: Constipation and other common symptoms reported by women and men in methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol.181, N/A, 2017,pp 132-139
Department/Unit/Centre: NH&MRC Clinical Trials Centre
Disclaimer: This work has been made available to the staff and students of the University of Sydney for the purposes of research and study only. It constitutes material that is held by the University for the purposes of reporting for HERDC and the ERA. This work may not be downloaded, copied and distributed to any third party .
Type: C1 - Refereed Journal articles
Appears in Collections: University of Sydney Research Outputs
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Items in Sydney Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
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Penguins in the Desert: behind the scenes in Abu Dhabi
Frances Hurd
Regular (more than one month's notice)
Paid: £50 plus travel expenses @ 40p per mile
History | International
I give a brief account of the history of the United Arab Emirates, then explore an extraordinary society where only 15% of the population are citizens and 60% are male. While the Emirati enjoy exceptional wealth and privilege, the country faces problems. Women struggle for independence and equality, and victims of rape and sexual assault are treated as criminals. Cushioned by government handouts, young Emirati men have little incentive to bother with education or employment. Thousands of Asian labourers live in harsh conditions. And most alarmingly from the government's point of view, even some of their own privileged people are starting to ask about the possibility of introducing some measure of democracy into this absolute monarchy.
Views: 466 | Enquiries: 1
About Frances Hurd
Dr Frances Hurd is an independent historian and genealogical researcher living in Chichester. She has worked in publishing, academia and the heritage sector, as well as inspecting schools both in the UK and Abu Dhabi over many years.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Frances Hurd
Lives, Interrupted: ten young officers in the Great War
The Birth of the English Parish Church: from Romans to Normans
Nineteen Years at the Chalkface: the secret life of an Ofsted inspector
Quakers at War: what do they do and why do they do it?
Secrets and Lies: adventures in family history
An Unwilling Puritan Martyr: the life of Dr John Bastwick
Sex, Violence and Alcohol: some hidden after-effects of the Great War
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Is Public Shaming the Christian Way?
Matthew Quartey
My earliest recollection of her communal shaming ritual goes back to when I was six. She was around my age. We attended the same school, were enrolled in the same first grade class and lived in the same compound. Her name was Adwoa, but no one called her that. Instead we preferred her derisive moniker, Bedwetter.
In the early morning hours, her family, mother leading, would smear her naked body from head to toes with brown and white clay and trot her out. Her urine soaked straw mat was wrapped around her clay-encrusted body with a tight rope as she was paraded around the compounds and small alleys in our village. Her household followed, singing original degrading compositions that cataloged her crime of bedwetting. As the throng shoed her from compound to compound, her hecklers increased with every step. Emboldened by the increasing crowd size, some would throw mud and sand at her.
This ritual was repeated nearly every day because Adwoa could not go a night without wetting her bed. And every morning as the determined community sought unsuccessfully to shame her out of soiling her bed, Adwoa’s only companion seemed to be the ever-present stream of tears that made a path down her mud-pasted face, bearing witness to her shame.
Much later, we would learn that Adwoa’s bed wetting was physiologically conditioned. She had Sickle Cell disease which predisposed those afflicted to bed wetting, even into late adulthood. Sickle Cell patients tend to drink much more than average because hydration minimizes the sickling process and lessens the characteristic crippling joint pain, symptomatic with the disease. Of course, the community was unaware of the underlying biological connection to her bed wetting and, thinking it was a controllable offence, resorted to shaming a six-year-old into abstinence. Through the years, whenever I think of her, I feel shame and guilt for the cruelty done to her.
The beginnings of many disastrous undertakings are rarely portentous. Consider the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. They began innocuously when a few teenage house helpers, in spite, accused a handful of women of witchcraft. Fifteen months later, some 200 would be accused and prosecuted, 19 found guilty and executed by hanging, and five would die in jail awaiting trial. This 300-year-old episode in colonial Massachusetts should serve as a cautionary tale as our SDA church leaders plow headlong into a shaming expedition, potentially unmindful of the pitfalls.
Some would argue that the times are different now and there is little likelihood that any could come to physical harm from these “tribunals.” And certainly no one in our day would be killed for religious infraction, they argue. But for many leaders who have spent all their lives in service to God and church, putting them up for public ridicule and shame could prove fatal, at least to their careers and livelihoods.
Before the 2015 San Antonio vote, Elder Wilson, General Conference (GC) president, publicly pledged to abide by the results. Whether he was conscious of the many implications of this pledge at the time it’s difficult to know, but it could be inferred from the statement that the president recognized that this was a vote of conscience and not of theological belief. This is the only understanding of the statement that seems to make sense and is consistent with the president’s respect for the church’s core beliefs.
It is inconceivable to me that the president would make a similar pledge to abide by the outcome of the vote if it was, for example, going to make Sabbath observance, tithing or the Second Coming, optional propositions. From the conservative Adventist perspective, such scenarios would be ridiculous. And they would be right because some of these positions are foundational and enshrined in our Fundamental Beliefs (FBs).
Aside from our current 28 FBs there are several contested ideas, some with intense ethical implications. These include abortion, the death penalty, proliferation and easy access to assault rifles etc. that church members and officials from different church entities occasionally make public pronouncements about. But the church has not weighed in on these and categorized them as FBs. Consequently, individual church members and leaders of various church entities often take positions on different sides of the same issues, because they fall in the arena of individual conscience.
This is the situation with the church-wide conversation on women’s ordination (WO). Church members, and by extension church constituencies, take different sides in the debate. It is in this context that Elder Wilson could say he would accept whichever decision the delegates make – to include the Divisions in the decision to ordain or not ordain women pastors.
And this is why the Unity Oversight Committee’s proposal, which enjoys the backing of the president’s General Conference Administration Committee (GC ADCOM), and enshrines shaming as official church policy, is profoundly misguided and disappointing. The proposal is a monumental overreach. It envisages a shaming committee on every level of church governance, from the local church up to the GC, with the potential to pit us against each other in our zeal to show we are better Adventists than those in the next pew.
If we need a reminder of how quickly these assignments could ensnare us into playing behavior police, we should look no further than the president’s actions at a meeting of some 360 Adventist theologians and church administrators in Rome, Italy, in June this year. Just before delivering his Sabbath sermon, Pastor Wilson described a situation which met with his disapproval that morning. Among the throng massing in the auditorium for church service, he had seen two attendees who he declared were “improperly dressed.” By his own reckoning, he wrote down their names, not to talk to them privately about their poor choice of Sabbath wardrobe, but to pray for them.
Granted, he did not mention their names, but he might just as well have done so, because after publicly describing the incidence, all the attendees had to do was look around in search of the culprits. If the GC president could so nonchalantly model this shaming behavior during a Sabbath service, imagine how emboldened the average “oversight” committee member at the local level might be.
But does shaming, especially in matters of conscience, work as corrective? And is it Christian?
The president’s hardening public antipathy against women pastors has been gradual, giving the church time to engage it. But it is difficult to discern what could be fueling this sharp descent into undisguised authoritarianism, of which this shaming phenomenon is an outgrowth. On the surface it seems to be about denying women the same privileged ownership to the ministry that their male counterparts take for granted. But at its core it is about control. This is what the incessant telegraphing to women to “know their place,” and the limits nature has placed them, is all about. What else are we to make of this mass “beardedness” orchestrated by the GC leadership as we make our way to Annual Council in Battle Creek? Is it intended to intimidate and coerce? Or is it a public declaration that the church should go back to its glory days when whiskers ruled, and its bearded leaders could, with impunity, consign its female prophet to the ends of the earth (Australia)?
This is not the first time the church, in its long history, has been tempted to adopt public shaming as a corrective tool. But it is the first we’re called upon to institute it as a standing policy. The early 1980s provided the best opportunity to veer this way. The Davenport scandal was at its height. Many church leaders had succumbed to the allure of easy payoff in this Ponzi scheme costing the church millions of dollars.
It all came to a head in the summer of 1982 when the clamor was greatest to name names, publicly. Considering the injury the scandal had caused the church, a public outing seemed right and the least the church could do to assuage the anger and betrayal the membership felt. Another Wilson was the GC president at the time. Initially, Neal Wilson agreed to make public the names of leaders embroiled in the disgrace, but at the last minute he pulled back, contending that doing so would be embarking on a slippery slope whose end might prove regrettable. Though at the time, the elder Wilson’s decision was unsatisfying to many, I believe the passage of time has shown it was a wise one. The Davenport infraction concerned ethical and moral lapses for which public outing could arguably have been justified. To the contrary, the case involving the Unions’ decisions to do away with a two-tier ordination/commissioning arrangement in favor of a non-discriminatory system, speaks to conscience.
Even the occasional investigative committee, with clearly defined mandates, should be rare. And rarer still anything permanent. History shows that humans have a tendency, when given the opportunity to delve into others’ affairs, to go overboard. When Jesus was confronted by the mob, stones at the ready and eager to exact the death penalty from the woman accused of breaking a moral law, his parting words to her were: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” In the case of these Union leaders’ refusal to discriminate based on gender, what moral law, or church belief, have they broken for which they should be publicly shamed? Or the sin they should not repeat?
Matthew Quartey is a transplanted Ghanaian who now lives in and calls the Adventist ghetto of Berrien Springs, Michigan, home.
Image Credit: Unsplash.com
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Female boxers from all over the planet arrive Wednesday for the WBC Convention
The World Boxing Council’s Second Female Convention is this week and it’s going to be big. Not as big as San Diego’s Comic-Con, but surely as important. World champions, promoters, managers, commissioners and the media have eagerly confirmed their attendance at this year’s event, which will take place from Wednesday, January 27 through Saturday evening, January 30, 2016 at the Hotel Grand Tijuana, located in Boulevard Agua Caliente, #4558, C.P. 22014 Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
Updated agenda includes:
Wednesday, January 27, all day for arrivals and registration – then at 8 p.m.
they’ve scheduled a Welcome Cocktail hour.
Thursday, January 28, 9:00 a.m. is the official opening, 12 (Noon): departure to the Valle de Guadalupe for lunch and a winery tour, then 8 p.m. there is a Talent show and social gathering at the hotel.
Friday, January 29,
09:00-13:00 is a working session
13:00-15:00 Lunch
15:00-18:00 another working session
20:30 – Gala dinner with their awards presentation.
Saturday, January 30,
09:00-11:00 they have a final working session 11:30-13:00, WBC Cares visit – 1) representatives from the UCLA Hospital medical team are offering a brain injury presentation, 2) a talk on the impact social media has on Female Boxing, 3) a talk about the promotion of Female Boxing, 4) Dr. Paul Wallace will offer attendees a fascinating insight into the medical aspects applicable in female boxing, 5) a talk on the worldwide impact of Female Boxing with its amazing surge and recognition especially during recent years.
16:00 is the scheduled departure time from the hotel to go to the Centro de Convenciones, Rosarito, B. C., Mexico to attend the World Title fight between the WBC bantamweight champion Yazmin “La Rusita” Rivas from Torreon, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico and the challenger Catherine Phiri from Lusaka, Zambia plus they have 10 additional bouts, one featuring super welterweight Ramon “Inocente” Alvarez of Guadalajara, Jalisco vs. James “Shotgun” Winchester of Reidsville, North Carolina.
Sunday, January 31 is for the all day departure of the delegates
Before one visits Beverly Hills, it’s advisable to buy yourself a map of the stars. Why? Because you don’t want to miss out on seeing where your favorite movie star lives and perhaps taking a photo to show friends and relatives. You have a similar opportunity this week if you’re planning to visit Tijuana or Rosarito for the Convention or the Title Fight. It makes sense to have your camera ready. Arriving from all over the planet, these world class athletes will no doubt be arriving wearing heavy coats and possibly sunglasses. So, it behooves you to have on hand a photo from the Internet plus some background information that will help you identify these ladies. In other words, you should have an opportunity to have a rare meet and greet with these phenomenal female athletes.
Below is an assessment of which female boxers are currently the best in the various weight divisions – the very best boxers throughout the world.
#1 Junior Strawweight
On 5-30-15, 30-year-old Ji-Hyun Park of South Korea(22-2-0, 6 KOs) scored a six round TKO in a non-title fight with Saowaluk Nareepangsri and on 8-1-15 the IFBA Jr. strawweight champion won a 10 round unanimous decision over Gretchen Abaniel to add the WIBA Jr. strawweight title.
On November 29, 2014 in Incheon, South Korea, Ji-Hun Park (l) defended her IFBA Strawweight title and captured the WIBF Miniweight title by defeating Anahi Torres (r) of Mexico City by split decision.
#1 Strawweight
In 2015, the 29 year-old WBA Strawweight champ, Anabel Ortiz from Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico won three matches. First, a 10 round unanimous decision over Nana Yoshikawa on April 29, next a six round Technical Decision over Sandra Robles on September 5 and finally a 10 round unanimous decision over Suri Tapia on November 28th.
#1 Light flyweight
Light flyweight champ, 26 year-old, Ibeth “La Roca” Zamora Silva (24-5, 9 KOs) of San Cristóbal Huichochitlán, México, Mexico, who had that big win over Jessica Chavez to closeout 2014, fought three times in 2015. In March she won an unanimous decision over Suri Tapia, retired Jolene Blackshear in round seven of 10 in May and perhaps in her biggest win, won an unanimous decision over Esmeralda Moreno in September.
Top two Bantamweights
After four victories in 2014, the 28 year-old bantamweight Zulina Munoz (45-1-2, 27 KOs) from Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico, fought just once in 2015. Her opponent, the 23 year-old Gabriela Bouvier was soundly defeated in a bout that went the full 10 rounds. On her resume, Munoz has close victories over Alesia Graf and Yazmin Rivas.
The 28 year-old WBC bantamweight champ, Yazmin “La Rusita” Rivas from Torreon, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico had three victories in 2015. An unanimous decision versus Celina Salazar and Kandy Sandoval plus a TKO victory over Simone Da Silva Duarte to improve her record to (37-8-0, 10 KOs).
Comeback fighter of the year
After losing to Susi Kentikian in 2014, it was thought the 40 year-old bantamweight Naoko Fujioka (14-1-0, 6 KOs) of Tokyo, Japan might be reaching the end of her career. Then, in March, 2015, she pulled the upset of the year by defeating Mariana Juarez (40-7-3) in her hometown of Mexico City. Then Fujioka put on a dominate performance against Hee Jung Yuh of South Korea who at the time had a 14 bout winning streak.
#1 Super Bantamweight
Amazing woman that she is, Jackie “The Aztec Princess” Nava (32-4-3, 14 KOs) has herself on a rigid timetable of being not only a Community Activist slash local Congress Woman, a World Class boxer defending several super bantamweight titles plus a wonderful Mom conceiving beautiful babies. After giving birth to her first child, Frida, in 2013, she immediately got back into fighting shape to defeat Alicia Ashley and Sayda Mosquera in 2014 plus Mayra Alejandra Gomez in February of 2015. Now pregnant, it won’t be long before she gives birth to her second child.
Photo collage shows Jackie Nava (l) with her daughter Frida and husband Mario A. Mendoza, (top, right) at work in the boxing ring, (bottom, right) at work as a both a community activist and government administrator.
Top two Super Featherweights
Ramona Kuehne of Berlin, Germany
Ramona Kuehne (24-1-0, 9 KOs) from Berlin, Germany is now 35 years old. The WIBF, WBO & WBF super featherweight world champion had two wins in 2015, a decision victory over Doris Koehler and a fifth round TKO victory over Erika Kalderas.
Plus you have the 27 year-old super featherweight champion, southpaw Amanda Serrano of Brooklyn, New York by way of Puerto Rico (26-1-1, 19 KOs) who had four rather easy wins in 2015, two KO victories and two by unanimous decision. After losing her title in 2012 to Frida Wallberg, Serrano has yet to face anyone who could challenge her for her title.
Another Super Featherweight champion who is making a lot of noise
The 25 year-old super featherweight Hyun-Mi “Defector Girl” Choi (11-0-1, 4 KOs) of Seoul, South Korea by way of Pyongyang, North Korea, has a storyline so compelling it will likely be made into a movie. A short synopsis: At the age of 13, because of her above average size and athleticism, North Korean officials recruited Choi to train with their soon to be Olympic Boxing Team. In 2004, her father and later her entire family chose to flee North Korea. The oppressiveness of the regime being the push for most defectors.
Once the family made their arduous journey thru China and Vietnam and were permitted to relocate in Seoul, South Korea, the 17 year-old got right back in the gym and in her first professional fight won the WBA World Featherweight title. Choi: “I now box to support my family. Boxing is my way to prove that my parents made the right decision.”
#1 Lightweight
Delfine Persoon, the Undisputed World Lightweight Champion from Roeselare, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium has now dominated her weight class for four years. In 2015, she had another banner year with stoppages of Nicole Boss and Florence Muthoni plus decision victories over Jane Kavulani and Maiva Hamadouche. No doubt Persoon is the Female Boxer of the Year.
#1 Super Lightweight
In 2015, Erica Farias (22-1-0, 9 KOs) had that big win 10 round unanimous decision win over Klara Svensson (15-1-0, 5 KOs).
#1 Welterweight
Now 34 years of age, Cecilia “First Lady” Braekhus of Bergen, Norway (27-0, 7 KOs) remains unbeaten. After defending her titles four times in 2014, she did not fight at all in 2015.
#1 Super Welterweight
The WBC World Super Welterweight champ Mikaela Lauren of Stockholm, Sweden (26-3, 11 KOs) stopped three opponents in 2015, Jennifer Retzke in the fifth round, Victoria Cisneros in the fourth round and Celia Rosa Sierra in the third round. Arranging a rematch with Christina Hammer or Cecilia Braekhus would be special.
#1 Middleweight
The 25 year-old 5’11” Christina Hammer (18-0, 8 KOs) of Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany who rules the middleweight division, fought only once in 2015. Her opponent was Kali Reis (7-3-1). In 2014, Hammer benefitted from a controversial no-contest ruling after getting knocked down by Anne Sophie Mathis of Varangéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France.
#1 Super Middleweight
On July 17, 2015, the 28 year-old Nikki Adler (14-0) from Augsburg, Bayern, Germany won an unanimous decision over 24 year-old Szilvia “Sunset” Szabados (10-4-0, 3 KOs) of Miskolc, Hungary who has fluctuated in weight from 155 all the way up to 165.
At this present time, both the Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight divisions find themselves without a recognized champion.
#1 Heavyweight
Since the 35 year-old Ijeoma Egbunine of Marietta, Georgia hasn’t fought since 2011, that only leaves the 46 year-old Gwendolyn “The Stealth Bomber” O’Neil (19-7-1) of Georgetown, Guyana who in July of 2015 defeated Sonya Lamonakis (10-1-2).
Heavyweight champion Gwendolyn O’Neil poses for a dramatic photo with her many Championship belts.
Fun and games: What you do now is print out this article and make it a point to get at least one photo of every Female World Champion and don’t forget the WBC bantamweight champion Yazmin “La Rusita” Rivas who will be fighting on Saturday night in Rosarito.
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Gurusaidutt wins Bulgarian International
Playing an international tournament after almost a year, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt on Sunday clinched the men’s singles title at the Bulgarian International Future Series tournament.
New Delhi 08 October, 2017 20:48 IST
Gurusaidutt, who has been out of action since the US Open in July last year due to an injury, defeated Muhammed Ali Kurt 21-17 21-16 in a 35-minute match to boost his confidence ahead of next month's Senior Nationals Championship. - Vivek Bendre
Gurusaidutt, who has been out of action since the US Open in July last year due to an injury, defeated Muhammed Ali Kurt 21-17 21-16 in a 35-minute match to boost his confidence ahead of next month's Senior Nationals Championship. “I am feeling good, though it is a small tournament but coming back after a year was not so easy," Guru said after winning the title.
“I wasn't getting entry anywhere. My rank was 900 above and this is the only place where I could get entry.”
Talking about the tournament, Gurusaidutt said: “The level of the tournament was decent. I feel this was a good tournament for me to start my season. I was in the qualifying and had to play 3 rounds in qualifying.
“I was doing well in training and I felt I was in a good shape for this tournament. Semis and the finals were good matches.”
It was an ankle injury and subsequent surgery which put Gurusaidutt out of action for longer than he expected as a ligament strain was detected during the surgery.
“I was totally out of badminton or any kind of training from August 2016 until April 2017. Before I underwent surgery, the doctor and physios tried a lot to avoid the surgery but then in the end surgery was the only option.
“I got back well in April-May before Thailand Open but just before leaving for Thailand, I had a jerk in my ankle, that was because of over loading. Again that took me about 5-6 weeks to get back. But this time it was very well planned by physios Chris Pedra, Kiran and Sumansh with the guidance of Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala.”
Asked what tournament he is playing next, Guru said: “I’m playing nationals next. I thought I need two good weeks of training.”
Bulgarian International Future Seri
RMV Gurusaidutt
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Zee’s Global Content hub to Present new Dramas
Home » Tv » Zee’s Global Content hub to Present new Dramas
At MIPCOM, ZEE will be presenting their first ever English adaptation titled Lala’s Ladiez of the super successful and popular Indian sitcom Hum Paanch. The 20 part series is currently under production in the UK
Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd, with 240,000 hours of quality programming, including the largest premium Indian movie catalog in the world, is now focussing on Zee Format Factory and more. Pickle chats with ZEE’s Sunita Uchil Chief Business Officer, International Ad Sales, Global Syndication & Production
Zee has completed 25 years in business. What’s the major transformation on at Zee in the overseas market now?
What started out with one channel way back in 1992, Zee now has 32 channels in India and 40 international channels across the globe with a reach of more than a billion viewers for offering. We produce and distribute over 240,000 hours of quality programming, including the largest premium Indian movie catalog in the world. With this reach, Zee made an immersive inroad into all continents. People now know, in a strong part due to Zee TV, that Indian programming is high quality, very entertaining and delves into every genre. We are also focused on Zee Format Factory & our co-production projects with the best in the industry.
Make In India, Show the World is real now with Zee’s home grown reality show Dance India Dance as Dance US Dance, and sitcom Hum Paanch which is being produced in its British version as Lala’s Ladiez and an Anglo-Spanish sitcom Love Thy Neighbour (working title) which is adapted from the ever-popular home grown format Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain. Your views…
Zee is very happy to be a leader in helping to spread Indian programming and Indian creative content around the world. With a presence in over 172 countries, Zee is a significant global content company across genres, languages and platforms. We are increasing this move even more with, for example, our recently announced Zee Studios in Vancou-ver Canada, expanding co-production with partners around the world. We are excited to introduce new and current programming to even more people.
Zee TV is the only Indian broadcaster to have spread across the world and speak several native languages. Give a perspective of Zee’s reach in global territories.
Zee has long held a strategy to expand globally, which is reflected in our company motto “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — “The World is MY Family.” This is a driving plan for the company. In the past two years alone, we have created channels for diverse territories such as Germany, Latin America, South Africa, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia and will continue this path. We have programming in a variety of languages including English, French, Arabic, Swahili and many more. Zee also has its leading Health Entertainment channel in the US, the Z Living Network, with an outstanding library of 1700 hours of health & lifestyle content. All produced in English-language.
Do you see growth focus in any particular region? What are the potential markets for Zee?
We see more expansion in Latin American and Africas and that is why Zee has recently added more development and investment into those regions. We are also investing in local programming for example, Khwaabon Ke Darmiyaan is a very popular Indian dramatic series that we co-produced with a leading African broadcaster and a leading pay TV platform in the Middle East that was filmed and broadcast in Dubai to top ratings. We will expand on these type of new co-productions to tap into various regions.
What is your objective at MIPCOM this year? What is Zee’s attraction for buyers at MIPcom?
Our objective is certainly to connect with new & existing buyers and associates. Zee is present at MIPCOM on the exhibitor floor – P1-K51. Global Content Hub By Zee, the syndication division of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), will showcase its latest drama series Kundali Bhagya, Piya Albela & Woh Apna Sa and fresh mainstream lifestyle entertainment shows, Yoga Girls, Big Fat Truth, Altar’d and Conquered. We will be presenting our first ever English adaptation titled Lala’s Ladiez of the super successful and popular Indian sitcom Hum Paanch. The 20 part series is currently under production in the UK. Besides this, we also have Phantasmagoria, Moksha, Love Thy Neighbour, India’s Asli Champion and other exciting formats and originals from Zee Format Factory. Finally, we are most excited to showcase a peek preview on an upcoming Feature Documentary Special, Life of Earth From Space, which will be a blue chip quality co-production – a two hour mini-series covering formation of our planet Earth and development of Life.
What’s the impact of syndication business in the digital now world?
The impact has been a positive one. With new digital platforms, Zee is excited about the state of the syndication business and we are able to share our programming to new and younger audiences via advanced technology. Our continuing partnerships with major digital players have developed into a large segment and is acting as a key avenue to extend the availability of our content to global viewers.
Has protectionists’ sentiment in many countries impacted export of content? Do you see challenges in this space?
We have not really seen any impact to Zee’s programming reach. Zee has many family programs which are acceptable to many country’s censors as well as good working relationships with state broadcasters. Of course, co-development, co-production and format business models help to get over some of the hurdles and we are getting stronger in all these areas every day.
How do we effectively use India’s soft power from content reach perspective globally? In the recent Portland USC report on global soft power rankings of countries, India doesn’t feature in the top 20. Will this trend change in the coming years?
India’s business reputation as a whole has been growing very well and many content industry experts have said that India is the country to watch for emerging developments among the BRIC nations. Also, Indian companies are often easier to work with. So people see big a growth potential.
Shooting Locales in India – Chandigarh
Facilitating growth :Robert Bakish
Indian Films in TIFF 2018
Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Everybody Knows’ to Open Cannes Film Festival
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Senator Chris Murphy: "Neil and I are supporters of the real Second Amendment, not the imaginary Second Amendment"
On the heels of a Sandy Hook hearing in Hartford, Conn., which featured mixed reactions and emotional outbursts, on Tuesday "Piers Morgan Tonight" invited Neil Heslin back to the program to share his candid reaction and pained perspective.
Having lost his son Jesse during the mass shooting in Newtown, Heslin testified on Monday, expressing his feelings that assault weapons have no place in civilian hands.
Met with shouts insisting that the "Second Amendment shall not be infringed," tonight Heslin clarified his position exclusively to Piers Morgan:
"I'm in favor and I support the Second Amendment, and I'm not in favor of taking anybody's weapons or guns from them," he told the host. "I am in favor, and I do want to push for stricter regulations on certain type of weapons, as I said, like the military style weapons and the assault type of weapons."
Continuing the conversation, the host also welcomed Senator Chris Murphy to add his insight on one of the most divisive issues facing America.
On Tuesday, the Democrat from Connecticut released a document in which he downplayed the political power behind the National Rifle Association, suggesting much of the organization's presumed influence is based on myths.
Saying that he "stand[s] in awe of Neil and frankly of all of the families who've had the courage to come out and speak," Murphy described his interpretation of the Constitution in relation to the gun debate:
"I'm a supporter of the Second Amendment just like Neil is," said the senator. "But Neil and I are supporters of the real Second Amendment, not the imaginary Second Amendment. The Second Amendment has always allowed the people, through their elected leaders, to decide what weapons are reserved for the military and what weapons can be in the hands of private citizens."
Watch the clip, and listen to the interview, as Heslin further explains his stance in light of Monday's hearing, while Murphy explains which weapons he feels "we should reserve ... for the military."
> Follow "Piers Morgan Tonight" on Instagram
Filed under: Guns in America
robert v
The notion that we can get the these guns out of the hands of "criminals" by passing new laws and mandating that legal law abiding gun owners register their guns which are now going to be considered illegal is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. Notice that even though it has been proven that the guns used in the CT murders were hand guns not the AR15 (that Piers is after banning) there is no coverage on it. Who does he think is going to come door to door and collect these weapons? This is not England Mr. Morgan we see what has happened there...How high is the violent crime rate there again and gun murders were up 5%...
S. Rodriguez
Piers Morgan you should leave the USA or removed and faced up your corruction problems in UK. ONLY CNN WILL ALLOW a foreigner to demonized our Country. Mayor and many politicians get police protection..WHY they should be protected and want to take our rights away???? how about if they dont get protection like every other citizen.. in fact the should not get police protection..they are not special. It is wasting tax payers money!!!
Piers Morgan is telling you the truth about yourselves. You have no idea how you are viewed, as a society, by the rest of the world. The greatest danger to your country's stability is the fear that your democratically elected government is somehow going to oppress and do you harm and the only solution to the problem is taking up arms and killing the government. Your ideas are insane. The rest of the world is concerned about the instability being created, in a world power, by those who advocate gun violence to solve problems. I have lived in several countries where guns are owned by its citizens but the mentality of those citizens, with regards to firearms, is totally different to the citizens of the U.S.A. To put it in a nutshell, you guys have a mental problem which is much more serious than firearms. Get a grip! and join the world instead of living in isolation and fear. If you don't change you are doomed as a society worth living in.
shawn poland
according to vics logic, then we should have all this FAKE WAR abroad that kills tons of innocent people daily! right vic? im sure in places out side of media influence the people see america for what it has truly become, a storm trooping, family killing outfit, and if the others wonder about its people at all, its to wonder why they dont put an end to the madness by refusing to pay for anymore of this fake war bs!
February 2, 2013 at 5:34 pm | Report abuse |
Ros ryan
hi Robert, It is untrue to say that an AR 15 was not used at Sandy Hook. The officials advise that it was. The misinformation is past it's use by date. no one is believing the denials and you just lost all credibility.
UK have violent crime, same as USA has violent crime. violent crimes in USA much more frequently end up with a dead person or people.
In intelligent debates when stats are quoted sources are provided so the validity of the stats can be verified.
I was wathcing them pull it out of the car while it was unfolding. That morning while tv was shooting everything, they showed the cops pull one from the car. There was no record of 2 so as far as I am concerned there are issues with that
January 30, 2013 at 6:52 pm | Report abuse |
Hi David, do you believe that watching a small part of the events on tv makes you qualified to refute the officials? This is the from official police spokesperson Lt Paul Vance -a Bushmaster AR-15 assault type weapon was used against most of Lanza’s victims. That weapon had high capacity magazines. In addition to that, Lanza had in his possession Glock 10 mm and Sig Sauer 9 mm. All weapons had multiple magazines and additional ammunition. The fourth weapon recovered was from the suspect’s vehicle that was parked outside of the school.
Hi david, here is some more useful info: Anyone who posts fake material about the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School or killer Adam Lanza could face arrest, Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said at a press conference Sunday. (16 Dec )
Stats compiled by the EU show that the violent crime rate in the UK is not only the highest in the European Union, but is higher than the US, Canada, Australia and even countries like South Africa.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5712573/UK-is-violent-crime-capital-of-Europe.html
Reply for CR, you sometimes get your countries mixed up. Is that the UK or the Ukraine?
UK has violent crime but not as many people die as a result as USA. Violent crime stats include assaults and measure them equally. Do you think a gun related death is equal to a slap in the face?
Hi Ros, no I am not getting my countries mixed up. I have never said the homicide rate in the UK is higher than the US. But what I have said, is that the homicide rate in the UK, despite having a virtual gun ban, is higher than many of its large gun owning Western European neighbors. My point being that many of Britain's large gun owning neighbors have some of the lowest homicide rates on the planet.
Hi CR, I'm not sure how the overall homicide figure is even relevant to the America's huge problem with firearm related death. your words 'higher than many of it's gun owning neighbors' isn't specific. UK rate is higher than some of it's neighbours and and lower than some. Overall UK rate is a long way below the European average and a long long way below the USA rate.
Ros, it was Piers' associates in the British media who exposed that the Labor government had been under reporting the violent crime figures. Between 1998 and 2008 British hospitals saw 50% increase in the number of violent crime victims.
January 31, 2013 at 11:41 pm | Report abuse |
I'm sure the victims of violent assault wouldn't like to hear you describe their terrible ordeals as a mere slap in the face.
February 1, 2013 at 12:18 am | Report abuse |
logicandreason
Come on. All we have to do is pass a law that makes it illegal to use certain kinds of guns to commit murder. This is so simple.
And the point of my argument Ros, is that Piers had been using the UK (aka Britain, just in case you think I am getting confused with Ukraine) as an example of where strict gun laws work. While the UK (not the Ukraine) has a low gun murder rate because of its virtual gun ban, it's violent crime rate, as we have just been discussing, is one of the highest in the western World, and its per capita total murder rate is one of the highest in Western Europe.
Hi CR, what is relevant out of your stats is that one very clear and relevant stat which we both agree that the UK has a low firearm related death rate due to gun bans.
A slap in the face is classed as a violent crime ie assault and included in violent crime stats and counted the same as a murder. In some countries verbal abuse, verbal intimidation, violently intimidating gestures are classed as assault and included in violent crime stats.
Would you prefer it if someone yelled at you I'm going to kill you or killed you? Do you get this?
It is so obvious . You are just shooting yourself in the foot if you continue but, off you go:
February 1, 2013 at 1:23 am | Report abuse |
The truth about the UK is that the murder rate has always been low, before and after their bans. They actually had a spike in murders after the last ban was put into place.
http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2012_12_16_archive.html
If anything causes more murder in the US, it would be our large, overcrowded cities and the poverty within those cities. As those cities became more violent, they started passing stronger and stronger gun laws. The criminal element could care less about laws, but the law-abiding citizens would be easier prey for them because law-abiding citizens would honor the gun laws.
So all we need to do is pass a law that makes it illegal to use certain kinds of guns to commit murder?
Ros, you're living in denial.
Reply for CR and Jim. I am living in denial that your statistics give relevant info re firearm related deaths but I'll refute them anyway. "there has been a fall of 19 per cent in homicides since 2001/02, as measured by The Homicide Index in the British Crime Survey.
@ros, while that drop in homicides might be the case, the UK's (not the Ukraine's) homicide rate, despite its virtual gun ban, is still 40% higher than many of its large gun owning Western European neighbors. The Swiss privately own nearly 8 times as many firearms as the British, many of which are automatic assault rifles, and the Germans and French own nearly 5 times as many. Furthermore the Italians and Spanish, two other large gun owning European nations, own significantly more firearms than the British and have per capita homicides rates that are nearly 20% lower.
@ros, in terms of Britain's homicide rate, it depends on where you base those numbers from as to whether you can claim there has been a drop or not in the homicide rate. If you take the numbers for the 70s or even 80s for that matter (excluding Nothern Ireland) Britain's homicide rate has actually increased by about 15%.
Hi CR, and is it not the case that there are many other variables between those countries which predate and outweigh UK gun laws? Eg political, cultural. In order to hypothesize that any differences to overall homicide rates relate to UK gun laws you would at least need to compare stats historically. Now off you go and gather some more stats. Try to make them relevant. Eg firearm related deaths including suicide.
I don't need to Ros, because I can see you're getting flustered.
Are CNN's mod police stifling the debate again?
It's funny how I have made multiple attempts to post a further response to Ros, but the post I want to make mysteriously doesn't appear, but this one does.
Individual Sovereignty
It is simply untrue, NBC has already gone mainstream to admit that the AR-15 was NOT used in the "attack" further more they stated that Four handguns were used. Also You would be completely oblivious to what led to WWII... Hitler did infact attack not only his own unarmed citizens but citizens of other nations. You or anyone else comes for my weapons of choice, you will find out just exactly what should have happened to Hitler and his Nazi's..
So what's YOUR solution to preventing another massacre? Just turn your head and pretend that 26 innocent lives weren't destroyed? Or Aurora Colorado? Or Virginia Tech? Or Columbine? And on and on these mass shootings continue.... WHAT'S YOUR SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM????
The solution is simple. Allow adults the choice of being able to defend themselves via conceal carry. Every single one of the "incidents" could have easily been avoided or at least minimalized had an adult been allowed to conceal carry to confront the criminal. But this insistence that we plow headlong into policies that have shown no effectiveness in its intended goals demonstrates insanity and its why Gun Control has never been about Guns but about Control and who gets to have control... Its infringements like this on our second amendment rights that allowed for all these adults and children to be defenseless and slaughtered.. Blood is on your hands Im not afraid to say.
SuperDave
I see all you NRA nut jobs are still believing the load of crap dished out by the NRA leadership. Stop hugging your guns. What is wrong with you people? We are the laughing stock of the world. You call yourself free, but live in such fear that you want to walk around with guns. Living in fear is not being free. I know, all those imaginary rogue groups or the big bad government is going to attack you. It sure sounds like when we talk about the mentally ill and guns, that the illness is we think we need to walk around with guns. Or, is it that the only way you can prove your manliness is to have a gun? Me, I am a man and don't need a gun to prove it. But I guess you are less of a man, and need that.
February 2, 2013 at 6:20 am | Report abuse | Reply
The NRA doesn't drive the beliefs of its supporters anymore than Planned Parenthood drives the beliefs of their supporters. The NRA is supported by people who believe in the same things that the NRA believes. No one is necessarily in complete lockstep with the groups they support, but they do agree on enough to support them with membership.
People who own guns do not live in fear any more than people who own fire extinguishers. Guns, like fire extinguishers, are a tool that you hope you never need to use for its intended purpose, but it's better that you have it than not. I don't expect to ever need to use my fire extinguisher because I'm not reckless with things that can start fires. I don't expect to ever need to use my guns to fight of a tyrannical government, but since the government continues to do things that tyrannical governments do, such as warrantless wiretaps, rendition, torture, indefinite detention, ignoring court rulings, and yes, trying to limit our 2nd amendment rights, it reinforces my belief that the US government is just as capable of becoming a tyranny as any other past tyranny. The fact that we're armed diminishes the likelihood that it will become tyrannical, and as long as the government doesn't interfere with that right, it's more clear that our government is governing with the consent of the people.
Piers Morgan is an AH
I am very disappointed in the way he has handled the debate about gun control. If the guest doesn't agree with him, he cuts them off before they finish talking and he puts words in their mouth painting them as the bad guy... We cant have a intelligent discussion about the issues if both parties cant speak there mind freely and without interruption. Piers is not an American citizen, there for he is not an authority on these issues and should not be hosting this debate on gun control.
CNN should not have this man pushing for what he believes... He's not American so he cant fully understand our issues with gun reform here in America. I am for gun reform but I want to hear both sides with him not interrupting and cutting off the side he doesn't like..
Either the producers are allowing this because its good for ratings or he has full control of his show.. I am asking CNN to stop this madness... I watch CNN all day everyday and the network is great except for his show. However Piers has got to go.. He's a child.
Lets have an intelligent debate and hear both sides of the issues so we can together come up with the solutions for gun reform... Piers is a fool. CNN should let him go...
Only in AMERICA a foreigner is allow to critized are country under the freedom of speech blanket. How come an AMERICAN reported does not appear in UK News Channels and bash its policies...
AT least PIERS MORGAN has got the cajones - (that's Italian for "meatballs") to stand up for the 20 murdered children and 6 murdered women in Newtown.... What are YOU doing about this gun violence problem????? WHAT ARE YOUR SOLUTIONS TO THIS PROBLEM????? At least this Brit is standing up to what's morally right and not turning his back and pretending 20 6 yr. olds weren't murdered like the rest of you COWARDS, GUTLESS WONDERS! YOU CALL YOURSELVES AMERICANS? Our founding fathers would be turning in their graves if they read your responses! COWARDS AND DEGENERATES who couldn't care less when innocent children are slaughtered!!!!! DON'T CALL YOURSELVES AMERICANS AS YOU DISGRACE THIS COUNTRY AND OUR FLAG!!!! Our Founding Fathers wouldn't be turning away from innocent children and women who were slaughtered and neither is Piers Morgan..... You forget your history? In the Boston Massacre 5 grown adult men were killed and that helped start a Revolutionary War.... Peirs is more American than any of you fools posting here! And may I remind you that the Founding Fathers were in fact (FROM BRITAIN....) In fact, why don't you leave this country and create chaos and division in some other country? America doesn't need anymore ignorant asses; it's got plenty already!. American deserves better than ignorant, uneducated Neaderthals grunting about their guns!!!
You have hit the nail squarely on the head!! The citizens of the U.S.A. have created a monster disease. I call it "Bullet Brain Syndrome". It's a disease which has been allowed to run rampant with no thought of prevention and now you are desperate for a cure. Unfortunately! there is no cure for it. But, there is a way to contain the spread of the disease and that is through tough and severely enforced common sense laws and education on how to prevent this disease from spreading. It will mean educating children, about the "Bullet Brain Syndrome", so that the next generation will eventually have this disease under control in their hearts and minds. It's a sad day for the GOOD people in the U.S.A. But it can be changed. You need to just DO IT NOW. Take heart, take courage, IT CAN BE DONE.
What's to understand? 20 6 yr. olds were massacred.... 6 defenseless women were murdered trying to protect "THEIR" children.... What part of that equation don't you get????? Columbine. Virginia Tech. Aurora.... You've forgotten these other mass shootings? What's to understand about that? It's you gun degenerates that helped flood this country with weapons of mass destruction! You so called "innocent gun owners" who are really gun traffickers & gun runners (straw men) have the blood of children on your hands. And those of you who LET these lack of restrictions on gun manufacturers are just as guilty sure as if you pulled that trigger in Newtown! You're the idiots that want EVERYONE to have as many weapons as possible with no restrictions!!!! YOU have the blood of innocent children on your hands!!!! Not Piers Morgan!
Piers, you tried to draw Mr. Heslin into condemning the responses of those who spoke of their "right to the second amendment" and you disdained their sentiments in the light of his grief. Too bad you don't have the same disdain for those who condone the gruesome killing of preborn babies under the guise of their "right to choose," out of grief for these little lives. Even more "repulsive."
It is amazing how liberals get worked up about guns and the death that results from the lunatics who pull the triggers, but these same liberals see no problem with killing millions of babies via abortion. Could be why our culture has become de-sensitized to violence and killing. After all, if the government says it's OK to murder your baby, what's wrong with killing others as well.
Dylan Trochtenberg
Abortion is not killing a baby. By all the statutes and by all the laws that America stands by, abortion is not murder. Scientists do not even think that life begins at conception, its time people like you stop fighting our government and instead get behind it.
A fraction of one percent of the people who exercise their second amendment right take a life. 100 percent of the people who exercise their right to choose an abortion take a life. Let's fight the REAL battle here instead of a perceived one.
brendainpa
Dylan, have you ever seen a sonogram? Do you know when the human heart starts to beat in that tiny body? 23 days after conception. Is it a human being ? YES Will abortion stop this humans life? YES Then why can't we see that this is murder?
February 1, 2013 at 12:22 pm | Report abuse |
If men want to complain about abortion, they should be held legally responsible for their child's life: financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc..... Too bad millions of men turn tail and run away from their responsibilities to their children and leave the woman & children to fend for themselves....the millions of fatherless children in this country are directly responsible for society's ills. What the hell was the Newtown shooter's father in all of this? Why don't we have answers from the father and surviving brother of the shooter? Father-less children create society's ills; fatherless children create gangs, illegal drugs, addictions, alcohol addictions, domestic violence, etc..... Where are all those men who don't man the frig up????? (Probably playing with their guns at target practice instead of fulfilling their duties as fathers....)
Sorry to hear about your man problem but it does take two in this situation which I am sure there is no argument. Is it you hate men or guns or is it all the same . I suggest you talk this over with a councilor and work this through. And really in your case I don't think you are capable of safely owning a weapon.
Mr Heslin looks like a broken man, my heart goes out to him. please Mr Piers dont give up on this so and make it someone elses problem. I cannot believe how everyone hates your nationality its pretty sad, its great this discussion is still continuning, I agree when the discussion first started there was a lot of emotion at the beginning with the debating because he was angry we were all angry on how easy it is for somone to go on a massive killing spree but since the weeks have past the debating has got better. The silly comments of banning cars and alcohol just shows how closed minded the US regarding their guns, the difference with cars and guns, I have heard no one goes on a killing spree with a car , anyone who is killed by a car it is usually an accident but with a gun its just plain murder.
You've never heard of any cases where people plow their cars into a crowd and kill people?
It's interesting how Piers can find time to interview the parent's of these poor kids that were killed, but he still has not been able to find a Benghazi survivor to interview.
ALLEN JAMES
It was disgusting how Piers Morgan used Mr. Heslin as a pawn to advance his political goals. It was also sickening to see the way Mr. Morgan tried to paint gun rights supporters as rude because they answered a question asked of them. Mr. Heslin asked what appeared to be a rhetorical question and then when no one broke the silence because they weren't supposed to, Mr. Heslin unfairly tried to conclude that a lack of response meant that everyone agreed with him. That's the point when people spoke up.
Mr. Morgan's attempt to put words into the mouth of the Milwaukee sheriff was also amazingly absurd. The sheriff just told the people in his jurisdiction the truth. If you call 911, it will take the police a long time to get there. You can either choose to be a victim while you wait, or be prepared to defend yourself. He suggested that a gun would be the most effective way to do that. It's rare that the police will be right there when you need them. The only thing you can count on when you are confronting a criminal is your own presence. What you do with your presence will determine the outcome. You can either depend on the good will of the person that just broke into your house, hide somewhere, or fight the SOB.
On July 16th, 2003 an elderly man drove his Buick through a farmers market in Santa Monica, CA. He killed 9 people, including a 3 year-old girl and injured 56 people. The police correctly tried to determine his mental state at the time. They didn't call for the banning of Buicks. It's odd that people have no problem sharing the road with people driving 2 ton vehicles at 70 mph, but totally distrust those same people from owning a gun. There are more vehicular homicides each year than there are homicides committed by guns. There are 250 million passenger vehicles that are registered and over 300 million guns. One must take courses and pass a road and written test to receive a drivers license to operate a vehicle on our highways. The gun owners who are not required to take a test to own a gun and who do not need to register their firearms kill fewer people than those licensed drivers. Cars and guns are used by law-abiding citizens every day without incident, but the car that is not designed to be a weapon is a more successful killing machine than the gun which is designed to be a weapon.
Mr. Morgan, machine guns are not banned in the United States. There are many people who own them. You just need to pay a tax and register with the FBI. It's true that someone can't own a machine gun made after 1986, but that just drives the price up so only wealthy people can afford to buy one. This is just another example of the growing gap between the wealthy and the middle class.
As a USC I demand the GOVT TO REVOKE his VISA and REMOVED PIERS MORGAN FROM OUR COUNTRY!!!!! This man has no respect our country... CNN YOU SHOULD BE ASHAME!!!!
hey dummy the difference between a drunk driver and gun murders is none.why because both are the prime example of neglegent use of both items,resulting in the death of a person or persons.so wake up and make intelligent comments,if that is your intention.because you sound just as stupid as piers morgan.
DANA ROWE
NOBODY on this blog wants to see another newtown or anything like that ever happen again, but we are not going to get on here and cheer on some bafoon from britian as if he has the holy grail of answers for american society. Banning ar-15s and restricting what ever someone decides is a so called assault weapon will not change anything, how do we know this , it has been done before and didnt change anything, until we come up with something that will thru meaningfull conversation , the best move for the short term is real security at all schools, they need to be protected. then intelligent people need to sit down and come up with real ideas , cheering for piers morgan is not one of them.
Where are these intelligent people??? It seems no one can make any real ideas on this issue, is there anyone behind the wheel?. Mr Piers is continuing the discussion and this should be applauded, sure it might not be the right direction at times but he is on the road, these type of news falls unto the background and soon it is out of sight out of mind until the next mass murder which is happening more often than ever, we owe it to these children that there lives were not lost for no reason and we want to make a change, Mr Piers should be applauded he hasnt made this someone elses problem, we might not like what he says because we all know this type of truth hurts this is why there is so much hate towards him
I certainly applaud and appreciate Piers for maintaining sensible attention to the need to restrict the sale of military style weapons and high capacity magazines designed for these weapons. These weapons far exceed the reasonable need for sport, hunting and self protection. Increasing their numbers will not increase public safety. This argument is as unrealistic as stating that the world will be a safer place, once all countries have nuclear weapons, . To the often stated argument that our time and efforts would be more productive if invested into addressing mental illness, I say we should begin by addressing the mentally ill that are so paranoid that they feel they they must have a military assault weapon to protect themselves from their surrounding community, their country and the world. To those who advocate placing more guns in schools (A suggestion I find totally unacceptable), let's face it, that security personnel would almost never be in the right place at the right time, so if one wanted to truly have every possibility covered the logical extension of this argument would be to train and arm every student, K through 12, that is capable of raising a gun and pulling the trigger. Hopefully, no one sees this as a possible solution, but the thought that the solution to gun violence is more guns leads ultimately to this possibility.
Tim, have you ever considered that mass shootings always seem to occur where it is reasonable for the perpetrator to think he will not encounter armed resistance? If I'm a criminal/nutjob, I love the idea of more gun laws because it makes my job easier and safer.
And lets put the Sandy Hook blame where it belongs. Why didn't mommy have those guns properly locked up where her mentally challenged son couldn't get them? Probably more of that "my little baby would never do that" crap. Too bad we will never know.
Doany of you understand the difference between law abiding citizen and criminal? A criminal commits a crime so you go after the law abiding citizen? Gun crime in this country is mainly crimenal on criminal secondly it is criminal on law abiding citizen. So let's see to stop the criminal take the legal law abiding citizens guns away. Sounds like stupid liberal logic to me. Also think of the NRA as a Rights group as they are protecting my rights against people like you who would take them away. Enjoy
The Swiss have guns all over the place, and don't have these mass shootings. So what is different about their culture versus ours that causes these crazy young men to kill in America?
We have strict gun laws in Chicago, and it is murder city.
The Swiss on a per capita basis are the 3rd largest gun owning nation on the planet and have one of the lowest homicides rates in the world. It's interesting to see when we compare Piers' own country, and his much used and referenced poster candidate for strict gun control laws, that Britain's per capita homicide rate, despite having virtual gun ban, is nearly 40% higher than Switzerland's. Furthermore, what's interesting about Switzerland is that most of the guns people have in their homes are military assault rifles.
Are you seriously using the Sweden argument? Up until 2010, everyone living in Sweden was drafted into the military when they came of age. The reason that the majority of people own assault rifles, are because they are given these guns when they are in the armed forces, and keep them when they leave. If you would really like the US to be more like Sweden, then are you saying that you would like everyone to be forced into military service? Your Sweden arguments are erroneous and invalid.
@dylan
No I'm not advocating military service for all, the only point I'm making is that the Swiss have lots of guns in private circulation and have have one of the lowest homicides rates in the world.
Reply for CR.
LOL, roll on floor laughing. You do realize that Switzerland and Sweden are 2 different countries don't you. No, I don't think so. OMG . I know they both start with SW it's so confusing. Perhaps if all the guns names started with SW you wouldn't be able to tell the difference too. I recommend we rename the AR15 the SW 15.
@ros ryan
Yes I have actually been to both countries!
Ros, again, mocking, stop that!
Reply for Ainsley. No, don't think I will. I'm mocking the silly selfish narrow mindedness of those preventing meaningful discussion and progress toward solutions .
“the silly selfish narrow mindedness of those preventing meaningful discussion and progress toward solutions” .
Ros, I think that’s you.
THAT IS THE KIND OF QUESTION THAT NEEDS TO BE ASKED , THAT IS PART OF A REAL CONVERSATION, THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION WOULD PROBABLY GIVE INSIGHT TO FINDING A REAL SOLUTION.
In this segment it was annoying to say the least to hear Mr Morgan denigrate how the Milwaukee Co Sheriff Clarke's voice sounds in his public service message emploring citizens to be proactive in their own defense when life is on the line and police can't respond in time (seconds to minutes) to save you from attack/home invasion etc. I think Mr Morgan is clearly racist, criticizing the sound and resonance of this man's voice, who is black. Morgan should apologize immediately to the Sheriff and the black community as well, right now. I haven't heard Morgan equally attack the sound of white men's voices so he must be racist. Anyway the Sheriff held his own nicely, stayed calm under Morgan's desperate angry attacks on him and refused to be bullied. Much more professional demeanor than Morgan could maintain . Morgan couldn't shake him up even ganging up with the incompetent assistance of the dimwit Milwaukee mayor Barrett who babbled about everybody needing to have background checks to buy guns – and Morgan then parroting that to the Sheriff, "do you demand background checks for everybody who wants to buy a gun?!!)....which had nothing to do with the Sheriff's message and the original topic about a citizen's need and right to self defence of their life. The Sheriff's message is simply you can deide if you want to be active in saving your own hide (or family's) if it ever comes to that.....Morgan's race based attack and Barrett's failed sideshow did nothing to divert away from that message.....also remember Barrett is prostrate to the will of Bloomberg and must tow his party line on guns.....which is why Barrett screamed patheticallyfor the Sheriff to agree to demand more gun laws..what an amateurish "interview", ugh. But the Sheriff was amazing and composed. Too bad he couldn't have a more qualified interviewer.
Perhaps we should release the pictures of the children with 3- 11 bullets in their tiny bodies. I remember that it was the photographs of what was happening in the Vietnam War tht turned Americans against that war. So, perhaps we should show Americans what these weapons actually do!
OK and lets show the victims of drunk drivers. Their mangled bodies. The point being its against the law to drink and drive and yet it happens . Banning a gun is not going to stop these crazies just like it won't stop any criminal. They will find a way to get the gun. ie steal, etc. The AR was not used in the Sandy Hook Massacre. Piers needs to do his research before throwing lies out there.
Again someone trying to compare a drink driver to a mass killer, its like comparing Apples with Oranges
Pictures won't work. Right to Lifers stand on the street with those pictures yet that slaughter still continues EVERY DAY! But it's not even news.
Jay R.
You are sick, twisted and disturbed if you actually think thats a good idea.
Piers , I don't like you.. We need more people like the sheriff. Do you honestly think the police are just around the corner when a crime is committed. In a big city like Milwaukee I'm sure the response time can get alittle long therefore to arm yourself would be best. You badger and cut off your guests who do not agree with your beliefs. God forbid you ever have to call for help. Maybe you can hide under the bed.
vlcky
America has become a Country to be ashamed of. The lack of sympathy that Neil who is heartbroken over the loss of his only family member received proves it. Americans lack respect for humanity, however highly respects money. My heartfelt sympathy goes to Neil for the loss of his son and for all the insensitive cruel Americans.
Well said Vicky, well said
If youre so ashamed, perhaps you might pick a different country in which to reside. Or, are you too comfy here to leave?
Nonya
We'd be far more sympathetic if the man wasn't using his loss to further other people's political agendas.
Are you reffering to the mean people who "heckled" him? Watch the full video and see how it actually went down. He went on for 17 minutes about gun control and only after he asked repeatedly and look around the room asking for some one to respond did some one say what they said. NO ONE heckled him.
Piers, you are really a jerk beyond description. The people in the clip you played of the hearing was nothing like your description. You said the defenders of the 2nd amendment shouted at Mr. Heslin about their gun rights. What I saw was that Mr. healing point blank asked for a response and several voices were heard in a normal tone in response to his question. They were of the opinion that their rights to have weapons of their own choice should not be limited by the government. You used the poor bereaved father's sorrowful countenance to your advantage, YOU THINK, but I am certain he secretly wishes he had been in that school with an AR15 in order to save his son's life as well as others' lives. You are a sickeningly biased "journalist" and a detriment to CNN. I hope your ratings continue to plummet, because you really deserve the boot.
Sheriff Clarke's is absolutely correct. We are responsible for our own safety. What if you can't call 911? Should you just wait for the perp to kill you? Mr Morgan is an idiot that believes all you have to do is call the cops and they will come save your ass. Two years ago, four armed thugs kicked my door in and I was not able to call 911 until AFTER it was all over. I'm alive today because I am a responsible, law-abiding citizen that stood my round armed with a legally purchased and licensed 9MM semi-automatic handgun that holds 15 rounds.
Under all the current proposals, my handgun would be illegal, yet I am a not a criminal. Get a grip Mr Morgan, criminals DO NOT obey the laws. If I carry only 10 rounds to be legal, will the bad guy obey the law and not obtain a handgun to commit a crime? No, of course not. Will the criminal only carry 10 rounds when he goes out to commit the crime? Of course not. Great law. Honest people become targets unless they become criminals themselves. Penalizing an honest citizen that elects to stay alive is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.
Mr Morgan, you need to get off your high horse and let your guests talk. You don;t get the answer you want to you talk over them and cut them off. Your treatment of Sheriff Clarke was shameful and very unprofessional.
The constant talk about the AR15 being an assault rifle is absurd. The look of the rifle doesn't make it more lethal than any other gun. It is not an automatic weapon, which would spray a large number of rounds. It fires one round each time you pull the trigger, just lake any handgun. Automatic weapons have been illegal since the 1930s. Before you spout a lot of nonsense, you should learn about the guns. Mr Morgan, you should listen to Dana Loesch. You interrupt her every time she is on too and she know what she is talking about. Let people talk and listen to what they say. You just might learn something.
The government can pass laws that make criminals out of the law-abiding citizens and the criminals will still commit crimes. Gun-free zones.... Another great idea. All of these mass shootings have occurred in such zones. Sure they did, the honest person observes the sign and the criminal will not. Go after the nutbags, not the law-abiding citizens that legally own handguns to protect themselves.
Automatic weapons are NOT illegal. People keep saying this and it's just not true. They are just heavily regulated and taxed. If you're not a criminal and have the money to afford one, you can buy one.
Jim, you are absolutely correct. I had two different trains of thought going on and got sidetracked with a phone call and hit "post" without checking what I had written. Thanks!
I agree, Piers always get this one wrong. A friend of mine legally owns a Class 3 full auto M16.
Piers has not said you cannot defend yourself and he has not saying noone can have a gun, he is asking for restrictions to be put in place with gun ownership so its not so easy for the nutbugs
The ideas on the table, however, do nothing to get the nutbags. Banning the AR15, a semi-automatic .223, a small caliber rifle that fires one bullet each time you pull the trigger just like a handgun??? The rifle with a collapsible stock and a pistol grip that do absolutely NOTHING to make it more lethal??? Reducing the capacity of magazines that will make most of the legally owned handguns illegal??? All of this affects the honest citizens and does nothing to keep them out of the hands of the nutbags.
Lanza tried to buy a gun and couldn't. The current background check in Connecticut, which has stricter gun laws than most other states worked!!! So what new law would have kept Sandy Hook from happening? Nothing the government is proposing so far. They keep talking about mental health, but that has to be done at the state level.
In the meantime, penalizing law-abiding people with more laws that don't solve the problem is just a waste of time.
I'm pretty sure that people who had to face a lynch mob would have loved to have an AR-15 with high capacity magazines. They may not have survived the encounter, but it would improve their odds while also taking a lot of the attackers with them.
No one can predict what type of weapon would be best for self defense. It could be a handgun or shotgun in your house or an AR-15 or AR-10 in the woods. If a grizzly was after me, I'd hope to have an AR-10 with a high capacity magazine. It's up to me to make that decision for myself and not have it made by someone else.
You mean you don't trust Obama's big government to figure that out for you? But I thought they had all the answers.
WELL DUH THAT IS A TRUE FACT.BUT DUH HE IS ALSO AKING FOR A REDUCTION OF AMMO IN A GUN.AND IF YOU SAW THE NEWS ABOUT A MONTH AGO ABOUT A MOM,AND HER TWO CHILDREN ALONE IN THEIR HOME,WHEN AN INTRUDER BROKE IN,SHE WAS ABLE TO DEFEND HER BY CHANCE OF LUCK.BECAUSE SHE HAD A SIX SHOT REVOLVER,AND IT WAS ONE BAD GUY.HAD IT BEEN MORE THAN ONE,SHE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SIX O,CLOCK NEWS WITH HER TWO SONS.SO DUH THIS IS WHY WE DON,T WANT LESS AMMO.OR RESTICTIONS. YOU PROCESS A CRIMINAL,WHEN A CRIME HE COMMITS.BUT DUH COULD YOU PLEASE SEND ME A LIST OF THESE CRIMINALS SO I CAN KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THEM.THANKS DUH YOUR SUCH A SMART PERSON.WISH THERE WERE MORE LIKE YOU AND PIERS MORGAN.
Watched Piers' show tonight for the first and only time and was sickened as that smug liberal Englishman tried unsuccessfully to make the straight talking Sheriff Clark look bad on national TV. Why did he have the Sheriff on if he didn't want to let him talk? The Sheriff is one of the few elected officials in this town that is not afraid to tell it like it is. His main message was to take responsibility for yourself and do something to protect yourself and your family.
Shame on CNN for putting this tripe on the air. But then again, this is why I don't EVER watch CNN.
How do you have this guy on tv and support the banning of assault style weapons when it was not an assault weapon that did the damage at Sandy Hook. I watched it as it unfolded and the rifle was pulled from the trunk of the car. Pistols were the weapon of choice so you entire argument is a crock
Why did Piers do this? This what he ALWAYS does. He won't let anyone talk. When he sees he is not getting the answer he wants, he spews his rude, uneducated nonsense.
Larry Bacon
I am astounded that nobody in all media that I watch goes into any detail about the gun manufactures? These are the corporations that fund the NRA and fund the lobbying that allows them to continue making ever more weapons.They are the square root to the problem. Who are they? whats there name? what sort of mansions do they live in? , what do there children think of the business? etc etc. They appear untoucheable because they don't seem part of the media concerns. Strange.
Sorry, but that is ridiculous. CRIMINALS are killing people, not the gun manufacturers. People drink too much beer at a football game then get in the car, then crash into an innocent victim and kill him or her. Shall we go after Budweiser for making the beer? The manufacturers ARE NOT the root of the problem.
That is absurd. How about holding the criminal accountable for his actions instead of pushing the blame on the honest, law-abiding gun-owners and manufacturers?
People get tired of hearing the statement "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" but it is a true statement. None of my guns has ever gone out and killed anyone all by themselves.
I may agree that guns are bad all over the world and they are used to murder 100s of thousands of people. What gives these other countries and terrorists and dictator countries all the money they need to buy weapons, OIL. What is destroying our planet, OIL. Why don't you people fight the biggest fight, fight to get rid of the use of OIL and thus the supply of money to those who will use weapons to harm us and anyone else they decide to harm. There are so many bigger things to address and the media chooses the smaller things. Yes, people die from guns, but people also are dying from OIL. Come on people, it is all about money. The rich want more just because and the poor end up dead by a gun or by some severe weather due to the use of fossil fuels. When will you humans learn that there are better things we can do besides making money from OIL and guns which go hand in hand by the way. Heck, the US weapons companies would not make as much money if it were not for countries that are oil rich and weapon crazy. Why don't we just get rid of guns and weapons totally? Ahh, you won't touch that one will you? I say the first thing that should be done is to disarm all terrorist countries and that includes our so called allies. After that, when all of the weapons are removed from all other countries and militaries, then we should eliminate guns here in the US. It will never happen though, because all of you wealthy people out there need armed security forces to protect your wealth. Again, it is all about MONEY, the root of all evil deeds. Who is to say that many of these people that commit mass murders would not have done that if they were already rich and had no financial worries. Many of these mass murders are acts of desperation by people who just gave up trying to achieve a false dream that is sucked up by the GREEDY idiots of this planet. You need to look at the bigger picture. The separation of the classes will destroy this planet because those that need to have billions of dollars will always do whatever they want no matter who it harms. It may not be by a gun, but it is harm none the less. We need to learn from the past sometime. Look at Rome, why did it fall? Why doesn't the media discuss a little history and reflect on how money corrupts absolutely. It just makes me sick that so much is said about guns when the real problem is corruption and money, what about the harm to humans that causes? The media is corrupt and greedy as well.
we need to all get together and march on CNN and call for him to be let go are you with me? He is the Obama Beck the prolbem is he is a liar a small month rude jerk that hates us and lives off the money he can make here and not in his wonderful gun free country. let do this lets march on him.
Just tell me when and where, I'll be there. or who's the head of CNN now? We can flood his email inbox with "Fire Piers" messages.
Eric M
Old Fears Morgan is rubbish. He has been kicked out of his own country from what I understand and doesn't know anything about the topics that he has opinions on. Only in America will we broadcast other countries rubbish on prime time television. He has already questioned at least one guest on how they can go after our handguns next. Now as far as the first amendment and that conversation, about taking away handguns which is what they will want to do next if, and I mean if, they pass any new gun legislation, those are fighting words Fears Morgan and they are not protected by the 1st amendment.
Old Fears always likes to pose the question "What do you need an assault weapon for?" I'd like to ask him "which idiot gave you a prime time slot on a major news network?"
Oh and another thing Fears CNN is supposed to be about facts. Please leave your tabloid rubbish across the pond. I can't believe they replaced Larry King with you. What a disgrace CNN has become.
I agree with you, Eric.
Just in case, many of you still didn't know what Morgan did in the past...
He was sacked from his position as editor of the Tabloid paper, Daily Mirror, in 2004 for faking pictures of British soldiers in Iraq allegedly abusing a prisoner – photos that British Ministry of Defense officials said needlessly endangered the lives of British troops deployed at the time.
after you kick back and you see the truth he does you use the kids that die and that is sick you may wish to stop watching him and start watching some one who tell the truth. watch him for fun but here watch this.
GBTV – The Glenn Beck Program – Soros, The UN, And Attacks On gets so truth in your life
they took Beck off due to Soros and Obama as they also hate fox news. this guy is to get the people watching one hand as they hit you in the back of the head with the other hand. does he get you anger yes that the trick do you see it now
Citygirl
If you do not want gun control YOU find a way to end the epidemic of mass killings of innocent people. Every mass shooting brings more people into the gun control camp. And what kind of people heckle a parent who has lost a child? Those people make gun advocates look like jerks and haters.
He wasn't heckled. He asked a question. People responded. Get over yourself.
I hate watching these parents talking about the murder of their children. It is terrible what they must be going through.
“epidemic of mass killings”... this is so untrue.
Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, said that while mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, according to his data. He estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century.
“Chances of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, are probably no greater than being struck by lightning.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rise-mass-killings-impact-huge-article-1.1221062
Did it ever occur to you that you might be a victim of gun-phobia created by the media sensationalizing mass shooting...??
Hi Nae, could you please let us know the number of innocent kids that need to die before gun related deaths are of concern to you?
Ros Ryan, Stop mocking people, you are so annoying! Answer this instead.
Please let us know the number of innocent kids that need to die before we stop driving.
Hi Ainsley, I prefer to use satire over lies and intimidation to make points.
Definition : Satire is a genre of literature, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.
Then, Ros, Answer this.
How many innocent kids need to die before we stop driving?
That vidio you watched was an edited version, leaving 20 seconds out of it in order to make it appear that he was heckeled. Just another example of Media presenting a false picture in order to promote something they do not understand. You can check this out by asking your computer. It is tragic that something like Sandy Hook Happened, but the Weapons owners are not monsters as some people would have you believe. Law abiding citizens do not go out and commit mass murder. Only criminals do that, and we did not force the criminal to pick up any weapon. Ask yourself if you made them do it? Of course not because you respect the law. So do we.
Stephan C. Ban
Apparently this is not the first time Pierce is bending the true news see:
http://www.naturalnews.com/038611_Piers_Morgan_criminal_hacking_journalism.html#ixzz2JTwqTbWM
To Chris Murpy
I am shocked that as a politician you continue to make such agenda driven, uneducated, totally ignorant comments about the second amendment. Which you swore to up hold.
If you read nothing else read this. The second amendment is not about hunting. It's not about sport shooting, as you said last night on CNN. The real 2nd amendmnet are you kidding me? And you were eleceted?
If you say it's about home protection at least you will be a bit closer.
The bottom line is, the Second amendment was written to protect citizens from people like you.
It was written to insure that politicians and government do not infringe on the right of the people by disarming and ruling them in tyranny.
Shame on you for making this horrific event at Sandy Hook part of a political agenda and claiming that you are a supporter of the 2nd amendment.
You are purposely misleading the public by your comments. I believe that this will come back to haunt you in your political career.
I plea with you to read your history, understand what you swore to uphold and stop making ridiculous comments on television and embarrassing yourself and the state of Connecticut.
I have attached a link to help you understand the meaning and the thought process of our forefathers. To help education you.
http://www.godseesyou.com/2nd_amendment_quotes.html
BJKct
Senator Chris Murphy states that he believes in the REAL 2nd Amendment? Not the imaginary Second Amendment?
He thinks the Second Amendment has always allowed the people, through their elected leaders, to decide what weapons are reserved for the military and what weapons can be in the hands of private citizens?
Who is this guy and where has the 2nd Amendment been written or interpreted like this?
All you people on both sides of this issue, criminals and the mentally ill are the danger to society, not law abiding people, whether they are a knife owner, musket owner or semi automatic rifle owner.
sharon stanchfield
The 2nd amendment came in to law a long time ago when life was very different. Laws need to reflect the reality of the times we live in now. The NRA & Americans are kidding themselves if they need to go back and protect an amendment that isn't a benefit for people in this day and age. Americans keep killing Americans and that won't change until the laws change. Your country needs to do the rright thing. Otherwise you are not much better than some 3rd world countries. Your Current NRA needs to go. They are misguiding many people and outright lying to protect the large amounts of money they are getting. It is always about money, disguised as -t is our right.
Sharon, what is the reality now? We have police officers assigned to protect each individual American? Our government is under control and not expanding its powers while bankrupting us? What exactly makes you think the reality is different?
Or is it that we've all been trained to be good martyrs and should just accept our death and injury at the hands of others for the greater good? You referred to America as "your country" so you must be in one of those countries where you're still a subject under the rule of some sovereign. You need to know that all the power that the government of the United States come from the people of the United States but it is very possible for the government to get out of control and ignore the people. That's happening now. Our power vs the power of the government is completely unbalanced now and we must do what we can to stop that gap from growing.
Tedd
Do you really think your government will not abuse you, ever?
A tyrannical act was committed by the US government against the American citizens, indeed.
Nikkei people were placed in detention camps during WW2. Many of them died in there.
And you know what? FDR did it with an executive order... how is this not a form of tyranny?
The government would have not even attempted it if they didn’t think they could easily manage this particular populace. Coming from gun-free country, I assume the majority of them were not well-armed. They were wronged by the government because of their pacifistic nature and the lack of imagination in what governments can do.
See what happened in Venezuela. One of the most democratic country to day is a dictatorship.
Mr. Morgan, I sit there and listened to this interview where you stated that you didnt like it when people shouted out at Neil Hesley, but all you do is shout down those that have differing opinions than you. You shout down people and call them rediculous when they tell you it is important for every citizen to be armed and to be prepared. Why is it so rediculous to you that Gov't Tyranny might hit this country? It has affected nearly every other country throughout history, are you so naive as to think it will never strike America? Why Mr. Morgan do you think no other country has ever tried to invade America? You think its our military might? No absolutely not, our real might lies in the hands of the citizens, our armed citizens can repel any invading force, and can keep our government from ever becoming Tyrannical, why do you encourage people to be victims Mr. Morgan? Everyone on earth should live like they are going to encounter a bad guy sometime in thier life, everyone on earth should live like they are going to encounter a disaster, bad weather of some kind. Why do you encourage victimhood in the face of this Morgan? Every one that can read, read this, arm yourself, arm yourself with everykind of firearm available to you, prepare yourself for any disaster with food and water. And do not be a victim!!!, not to a bad guy, not to an invading country or terrorist, and not to a tyrannical governement.
Sharon, some things never change and the reality is that there will always be evil people, both inside and outside of government. I own my guns for only one purpose; to protect my freedom. The push to ban assault weapons is just a back handed attempt to eventually ban all guns and disarm America. More people are killed every year with fists, feet and blunt objects (see FBI statistics at this link http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls) than with rifles of any kind, much less assault weapons. There are bad people in the world and bad people always look for sheep to attack. If we want a more civilized society, right to carry should be passed and allowed in every state and there should be no such thing as a gun free zone. Criminals are cowards at heart, if you don't believe me, show me the last time there was a mass shooting in a gun shop.
Piers Isadouch
Dear Piers
Please kill yourself now.
Former CNN viewer
nrsman
Mr Morgan
I am commenting to say that I had watched part of this night's show, and I was going to compliment you for the polite way you treated your guests, allowing them to finish what they had to say, or actually complete a response to your questions. I see from comments from people who actually saw the complete show, that you were interrupting and behaving "rudely" to your guests as always. I was mistaken.
In any case, Mr. Morgan, since you are claiming you have never heard of anyone defending themselves with an AR-15, please view the numerous reports of January, 24, 2013, in which a New York state university student defended himself and his roommate from armed home intruders with an AR-15. I fail to see CNN on the list of sources in an online search. How can the national news leader not only FAIL to report on how a firearm was used in self defense, not murder, but that an AR-15 was used in New York to defend against armed intruders?
In fairness, Mr. Morgan, could you personally report on cases like these as a journalist, please stop playing the fool with the argument "I've never heard of it," and stop saying your famous "Who needs an assault weapon?" and "I've never heard of anyone defending themselves with an assault weapon." It happens, whether or not you are willing to listen. Who needs them? People just like these two university students who had two armed men break into their home and came upstairs to silence them.
Piers Morgan has more courage, more moxie than all of congress and the NRA combined! Piers is a champion!
And to all of you who say send him home, where do you think our forefathers came from? We are ALL IMMIGRANTS!
Then, please read this.
Read it, and here's what it comes down to. There are many who will say and do and write because they don't like Pier's courage and honesty.
And so I say again: Piers Morgan has more courage, more moxie than all of congress and the NRA combined! Piers is a champion!
Okay, if you say so, seth.
But one has to wonder... why Daily Mirror had to fire him if he is such a “champion”.
The paper issued a statement saying it had been the victim of Morgan's "calculated and malicious hoax," and that the Queen's Lancashire Regiment – the unit singled out by the Daily Mirror – had been "vindicated" by Morgan's dismissal.
"It is just a great pity it has taken so long... and that so much damage has been done in the meantime," said a spokesman for the unit, Roger Goodman.
And BBC reported this incident too.
REALLY?? If that is todays hero we are all royally screwed.
But he's not, he's a journalist who's looking to draw out a tragic story to improve his declining viewership. You have to remember Piers was sacked from the British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, where he was the editor for fabricating pictures of British solders abusing Iragi prisoners. Knowing this how can anyone trust his integrity.
btw... anybody heard recent comments from Bobby Jindal?
Esteemed Mr Morgan
Your crusade against guns is becoming old and tiring. I can't watch CNN or your program without throwing up.
I am a gun owner. I have concealed weapons licence. And all you advocate is nonsense. All modern hand guns have larger capacity magazine then 10 bullets.
What you should advocate to find a solution that mentally unstable people couldn't buy weapons.
After 9-11 We the people of the free world, not just US citizens, we lost our freedom. I have to get undressed if I wish to fly. And every time some idiot comes up with some new idea for terrorism we respond, by restricting all the people: No water bottle on plains, take the shoes off take you belt off and so on.
This is not a good solution. This only took away the dissent peoples wright to privacy and dignity.
President Kennedy was assassinated with a 22 bullet one of the smallest.
Please find some new subject for your program, or CNN will loose me as a viewer.
President Kennedy was killed with a 6.5 mm round shot from an italian carcano rifle, if you believe the stories, and a .50 desert eagle holds 7 rounds, the .44 desert eagle holds 8 and the .357 desert eagle holds 9
Guns symbolize the worst of mankind. They are killing tools, designed to destroy and take life. It's happening slowly, but never the less right before our eyes, ...evolution is taking place.
We live in the informational revolution, and as the world becomes more informed, more educated, it will become more civilized.
History will look back on this as a transformational time, where humanity struggled, but in the end broke free of the past, and stepped forward away from brutality and fear towards intellect and peace.
@nae "and that the Queen's Lancashire Regiment"
I thought this was the type of government you want your guns to protect you from? Piers probably just exposed the truth, as he is doing here right now.
I have GREAT ADMIRATION for the men and women who serve in the military.
I think I believe BBC over your words. Thanks.
As do I Nae, I have tremendous respect for the men and women who serve in the military.
That's not what this debate is about. The military has the most skill, the most extensive training and talent to operate in the most horrible situations, out of an unfortunate necessity.
Civilians don't. Ordinary people don't.
There is a need and place for advanced weaponry, and that is in the military. Not on the streets, or in schools or theaters.
That wasn’t what I was debating at the moment, it was "Morgan’s credibility" as a so-called journalist.
S. Burra
Guns – The American nation is not going to do without guns. It will remain for our protection, defense, safety and security. The second amendment is here to stay forever – nobody can change it. With that America becomes a nation that respects amendments and abides by them at all times. As regards guns every American will say that the second amendment gives them the right to own a firearm (be it a gun with x number and rounds of bullets or a magazine with y rounds). The gun debate will go on forever and by the time anything changes it will only be by some catastrophic event beyond all the mass shootings that have taken place during the past few years using advanced firearms (they may be termed military style or assault weapons or by any other name)
With all this being said Americans do understand that Piers Morgan is trying very hard to make people understand that such advanced firearms are not necessary for hunting, sport and other activities that harm people. Of course in all fairness violence has to be prevented, mass shootings have to be eliminated, and all this takes a lot of efort on the part of a large number of people for a long time (undefined time period) before the mass shootings are reduced and eliminated
Taking examples and learning from other nations and incidents may be good, but only when it happens in our backyard will that realization come to us
We all pray and hope that day will come and hope it is not far off
Piers- thank you for not giving up on America while you and many of us wrestle with this issue. I want also to present a side that is not discussed much and that is helping those who see their loved ones, friends, fellow students, teachers, etc. gunned down before their eyes or in near vicinity. It is horrific to them. Many times the light goes out of their eyes and the support it takes to move them back to any assemblance of normal trust is long and difficult. I wonder if those who's children or close friends who were suffering due to "extremely high" amounts of magazines used would be so minded to keep those huge numbers of guns available in our country. Also, maybe we should begin therapy for folks who have to give up gun addiction and spend some of our mental health dollars that direction along with other mental health disorders. Maybe giving up just some of that need for gun freedom could save the spirit and lives of others.
Piers – You lose all journalistic credibility when you materially edit content to advance a personal agenda. I held you in higher regard than that. You are now no different than Rush Limbaugh, Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher, or Glenn Beck. I can no longer trust what you present as fact and I will no longer watch your program. Shame on you.
Dido I agree with You John.
Exposing the truth, as ugly as it may be, gives journalistic credibility, it doesn't take it away. And just like Lance Armstrong, when people get exposed, they file charges, lie, spin and try to discredit the whistle blowers.
Keep up the excellent work Piers, so glad you are in America!
UK gun free zone, no guns allowed:
"A 16-year-old boy stabbed to death with swords just 100 yards from his home begged for his life as a gang set on him like a “pack of dogs”, eye-witnesses have claimed."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9831819/Sword-gang-were-like-a-pack-of-dogs-as-they-stabbed-16-year-old-to-death-in-central-London.html
Truly tragic. But at least 9mm or 223 bullets weren't flying everywhere. More would have been injured.
Imagine, if any of the residents in that area who had to witness such atrocity had a gun, don’t you think he would go out and stop it, and the boy can be alive today?
show me an incident where a single person armed with a sword walked into a movie theater and killed or wounded 70 people in less than two minutes
Is your concern mainly for the mass-killings that happen in a very short period of time?
FBI Uniform Crime Reports show that “Knives or cutting instruments” have been used in about 1,800 homicides per year. (That’s more than 20 times as many as the assault weapon homicides.) I guess 2-digit figures of stabbing casualty rarely happens at once at the same place, but is that the real issue here?
Isn’t it the total number of the casualties throughout the year that we need to worry about, and not so much the concentration of casualties...
Tired of the NRA imposing their brand of censorship on us! They are interfering and infringing upon our 1st Amendment rights!
TIme to stand up to the NRA and let them know we won't be prevented from "knowing"!
Their agenda is tired, old and lame!
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/12/gun_violence_research_nra_and_congress_blocked_gun_control_studies_at_cdc.html
"In the 1990s, politicians backed by the NRA attacked researchers for publishing data on firearm research. For good measure, they also went after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for funding the research. According to the NRA, such science is not “legitimate.” To make sure federal agencies got the message, Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) sponsored an amendment that stripped $2.6 million from the CDC’s budget, the exact amount it had spent on firearms research the previous year."
Piers gets to the bottom of things, doesn't he? 😉
All we have to do is pass a law to make it illegal to use certain kinds of guns to commit murder?
Are You for real???
Which guns do you want to make legal for murder? Any
This is why we need background checks.
@stephan "http://www.naturalnews.com/038611_Piers_Morgan"
This smells like something the NRA would write, promote and fund. Pretty smelly 🙂
@stephan "http://www.naturalnews..com/8611_Piers_Morgan"
Okay then, this is an excerpt from wikipedia...
Morgan was fired as Editor of the Daily Mirror on 14 May 2004 after authorizing the newspaper's publication of photographs allegedly showing Iraqi prisoners being abused by British Army soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.[17] Within days the photographs were shown to be crude fakes. Under the headline "SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED", the Mirror responded that it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and apologized for the publication of the photographs.
Sorry Nae, smells like a cover up. You aren't suggesting that Piers doctored photos are you?
He did it before and got cut with it.
why don't you check it out. I did. With all the back up files. The NRA is not a KKK it is an organization, that is funded, by people who like to own guns. Which happens to be our 2nd amendment write to do so. Lucky to us gun owners that they are here, without them that write would be gone in a jiffy
The NRA has been deliberately suppressing the official study of gun impact on society for a very long time. Why? Because when people find out the true statistics gun sales will diminish and they will loose money.
But here's the thing, we are to the point where we don't even need the stats anymore. The gun atrocity is happening all the time, everywhere. People are starting to wise up. The jig is up folks, high capacity killing tools have no place in civilian society.
You are wrong: The amount of guns sold to civilians is just a drop in the bucket in comparison to the army's world wide. Gun makers will stay in business without your baying or nut. And it is not the gun makers that pays the dues to NRA. It is the gun owners, who are aware of the need for a strong forum to protect our 2nd amendment rights from people who thinks like Mr Morgan and You. And that is Your wright because the !st amendment.
Isn't this a wonderful country!!! God Bless America!
So all we need to do is make it illegal to use certain kinds of guns to commit murder?
The gun issue is not about Piers Morgan.
But the credibility of the host is very important to me.
I 100% agree with you on this! Also knowing that Piers' newspaper led a relentless national campaign to get handguns confiscated and banned in Britain. Piers talks about respecting the second amendment and claims he doesn't have a problem with people owning handguns for protection. Just how can we believe his honesty on this after what he did in Britain.
You are right it has nothing to do with Piers directly however his continued miss reporting on news is unacceptable for example there was no AR15 used the Newtown shooting the gun was found in the car but he continues to lie to the American public and that is unacceptable if you cant report the truth than you need to go back to your own country we certainly don’t need more lire’s in the USA.
The problem I have with Mr Morgan. He is milking this story over, and over again until people like Seth get more and more excited until he is ready to bang on my door to give him my guns and that is not advisable for his health.
This story is far now from Newton it became a political football for anti-gun activists. Most gun shops are all sold out of ammo and guns. So maybe it works against Mr Morgans "Ideas"
Bushmaster AR 15 was used. Can't change history, wish we could.
NBC today show admits no AR15 was used google it
Hi Shawn, refer to top of blog for info from officials. Your source lacks credibility.
Nothing will be done about gun control until mothers get heavily involved. Mothers will not get involved until they SEE the gore and destruction for themselves. If everyone could see pictures of the Newtown and Columbine massacres to name a few I guarantee it would shake people up and open many eyes. When it's just words they can easily tuned it out. But if it's a picture it's not so easy.
I have never been a particularly big fan of your show in the past but you have won me over. I applaud you for taking on such a controversial issue. Keep it up. I'm with you all the way.
There is so much more gore and destruction than is found splattered on the floors after Columbine, Aurora, New town and others, there is the gore and destruction of the light leaving the childrens' eyes, their shattered since of trust, hope, etc. Feel we could use some of the mental health dollars to provide gun addiction therapy...how often do you use your gun, think of your gun, want to use your gun, etc. Maybe spending that energy on promoting support to those who's lives were shattered would be better spent.
NRA'S "SOLUTION" TO PREVENTING ANOTHER "NEWTOWN":
(1) Buy more guns; (2) Lay low, wait for another deranged gunman to show up at school; (4) Have a shoot out & hope for the best;; (5) Wipe the blood of our children off the classroom floor..... If this isn't the looniest, dumbest, idiotic moronic insane beyond insane"strategy" ever uttered by a bunch of morons with guns, then I don't know what is.... If this is the BEST MINDS FROM THE SECOND AMENDMENT RANTERS.... then NONE OF THESE MORONS SHOULD BE ENTRUSTED WITH SO MUCH AS AN ELECTRIC PENCIL SHARPENER.... LET ALONE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (AR15s)!!!!!
Reading most of these posts, I can't help wonder if the average IQ of most of these posters reaches anything above a 10.... None of these fools mention the massacre of those Newtown children. They completely ignore the need for practical solutions and they are cowards by looking the other way and pretending 6 yr olds weren't murdered in cold blood.... These inflexible, bull-headed fools are only good for one thing: crying in hysteria about their guns being taken away from them..... What a bunch of loser/sociopaths these "people" are.... Our Founding Fathers would be turning in their graves seeing these cowardly morons talk about gun parts instead of taking meaningful actions to save the lives of children.... Degenerates that are destroying this country!
This type of combative sarcasm is not at all helpful. This is precisely the problem in our society today.
Irene: What sarcasm???? A sociopath is a person who has no conscience.... Look it up in the Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual! What do you want to call men who cling to their selfish, self-centered, arrogant, ignorant beliefs and turn their heads when innocent children are murdered???? Angels???? Saints???? They're degenerates! What would YOU like to call them??????
First of all, no one thinks “Wipe the blood of our children off the classroom floor” is a solution.
Second, everyone posting here has an IQ of above 10.
Third, Most of the pro-gun people are NOT a bunch of loser/sociopaths.
Fourth, They all can very well be trusted with AN ELECTRIC PENCIL SHARPENER..
Should I go on??
Sir, your comments are not offering anything productive, in my humble opinion.
Background checks and gun registration works in civilized countries.
First, Morgan is an idiot. His belief that a disarmed society is a safer society is born of fear and an unwillingness to take responsibility for his own self protection. The police do thier best but they cannot be everywhere at all times, as is evidenced by any attack on the news. The police really can only report crime, not prevent it. I am truly saddened at the Sandy Hook attack, I pray for Neil Heslin and all the families of all such atrocities. But to blame the instrument is to ignore the root cause. The gun can't kill untill someone loads, aims and fires it. A teacher with a small caliber pistol could have stopped the shooter quickly and saved many young lives. The horror was caused by the shooter, not the gun.
Piers, thank you for your idiotic drivvel, you have just helped me decide to join the National Rifle Association. True patriots like the N.R.A need our support now more than ever. May I nominate Wayne LaPierre for President of the United States, and Sheriff David Clarke as his running mate. Deport Piers Morgan and I'll keep my gun....
Go Piers! Keep up the excellent work.
Easy Stephan, nobody's proposing banging on your door to take your guns. Personally I would like to see assault weapons and high capacity magazines made to be as illegal as high explosives. Then owners could choose whether they want to continue to own them or not.
Also it would be great to put a huge tax on any ammunition that fits in these types of weapons, and use the tax revenue to reduce gun proliferation, like a cigarette tax.
Who is this Wayne Lapierre goon on the tube? Really, is this guy some sort of imposter or something?
Alex Jones, Wayne Lapierre, Larry Pratt, wow! These are some serious hard-core bona fide goons.
Tee-hee. Name calling. What are you twelve?
I was once 12 years old. And last night prior to my retire I went back for a brief moment. He he he 🙂
btw... seriously though, they are goons. 😉
10 rounds is too much. The law only allows 3 when hunting pheasants. What, are pheasants more important than people?
6 rounds, that should be the maximum limit. Anybody who thinks they need more that this is way too afraid, and must be a lousy shot. I mean come on man, you need 10, 20, 30 round clips. That's pathetic.
Seth, I have to assume you have never been a violent crime victim. You say 10 rounds would be too much. Until you have been a victim, don't make such idiotic comments. The second amendment is not about hunting so why make such a remark about shooting birds.
I am alive today because I confronted the 4 armed thugs entering MY HOUSE with a 9MM semi-automatic pistol with 17 rounds. If I had only 10 rounds (or 7 in if I lived in New York), I would be VERY DEAD.
There is a little girl out here that is happy to be alive because this law-abiding citizen with a concealed carry permit was around for her.
Why is it the only conversation is about the criminals committing these horrific crimes, but there is never any mention of a responsible gun owner that either saved himself/herself and their family or saved the life of a total stranger?
When those 4 armed thugs kicked my door in, there was no time to call 911. Responsible gun owners have no problems with legislation that will reduce gun violence. So far, the solutions on the table only restrict the people NOT committing all these crimes. None of the ideas so far even mention mental health and in most cases, that is the problem, not their guns.
Now we hear about going after gun manufacturers. How absurd is that? Drunk drivers kill innocent people every day in this country but we don't go after the liquor manufacturers.
Get a grip people, responsible, law-abiding gun owners are not the problem, the BAD GUYS are. Personally I would not want to be unarmed when confronted by an armed criminal. And, I would rather have my gun and not need it or need a gun and not have it.
Bravo Alan
I agree 100% with you. Seth luckily never had apparently a situation to have to defend him or her self. That is OK, the trouble is he is blind to see the other side.
oh that's right, pheasants are more important than people, as are those big guns. can't give up the weekend yeehaa factor to save a child, right?
Good night to all the sane people out there, and good night to the bona-fide goons too. Tomorrow's another day.
Seth, inspirational
vivian lynn sullivan
i got a $100 says your gun ban don't pass and thn you can run tell the queen LOL
LYNN SULLIVAN
wal-mart still sells bushmasters at regular price for all my pro gun friends and the rest of you liberals can..........well you know.LOL
1814we took a little trip along with colonel jackson down the mighty mississipp.......... i bet old morgan knows this tune and if he don't i bet his ancestors did LOL
hey morgan, if you want our guns so bad then (MOLON LABE)
hey morgan, what happened to sir pakenham at the battle of new orleans? i'm sre you know or they told you a lie in your history class, he was absolutely without a dout beaten by ameican forces under andrew jackson at the battle of new orleans even though we were outnumbered 2 to 1 and packenham had troops fresh from beating napolean at waterloo. ou know how we did it? because we love our guns and we are the best in the world with them ! i bet that gets under your thin british skin doesn't it?
Well i guess you can tell that we don't like the british down here in south carolina except for major patrick furguson , we liked him so much that we buried him on top of KING'S MOUNTAIN .i don't know but i heard that his last words to his men were ( DON'T WORRY OLD CHAPS, THIS RABBLE CAN NOT SHOOT) LOL SOMETIMES I LAUGH SO HARD IT HURTS
THIS IS MY WEAPON, THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT BUT THIS ONE IS MINE........ AND YOU CAN BET I'M GONNA KEEP IT....... OH WELL CHEERIO OLD CHAP AND TELL THE QUEEN WE SAID ( HEY YALL)
pat nicosia
I am offering an opinion on the Pro-Gun Americans. I would guess that a good portion also espouse Christianity as their belief system. Matthew 5: 38 – 48 speaks on retaliation and loving your enemies. I would hope you would trying asking the HARD question, "what would God say regarding the stance of I need to save my family." I think you will also find "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord".
I am a Christian myself. But may I say, "self defense" is not "retaliation", "self defense" is not "vengeance".
Yes, we still have to love enemies. I pray for Christ's salvation of Jared Loughner, James Holmes and Adam Lanza, if it's still possible for them.
Gun Control Proposal of the Day:
Make the registered owner of any assault weapon criminally and civilly responsible for any damage or loss of life that his/her weapon is involved in, regardless of who the person was carrying the weapon at the time of the crime.
If people want to own these weapons, they should own the tremendous responsibility of doing so, and be held accountable.
So if a spouse, son, daughter, uncle, brother, friend, friend of son, etc... gets you assault weapon and commits a crime you are completely liable, and criminally prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
This might take some of the fun out of owning these weapons.
Anyone with a brain knows that the intent of the 2nd Ammendment is to put the citizens of the United States on equal ground with the military. If the people of this country reasonably believe that it's government must be ousted, then they will have the advantage of being equally armed to defend themselves from the military forces that would surely be unleashed upon them. If you don't think that this government can turn tyrannical, that it could never happen here, then you're living in a dream world. Just ask the 3 million dead Jews who thought that it could never happen to them either.
Additionally take a look at what has happened in Australia with their gun bans. Crime has spiked to sickening levels because the criminals who didn't turn in their weapons now know that their prey is unable to protect themselves, and their citizens warn Americans not to go down the same road, that it was a huge mistake. too late for them.
Hi Andrew, the gun laws which were introduced in Australia in 1996 are broadly popular according to the article by Prime Minister John Howard in the New York Times recently. Violent crime hasn't spiked, it's down. No firearm related mass murders either.
Enlisted American service people would never turn on fellow Americans, ever. If you're referring to the people that hold the codes to the nukes, well then an AR15 isn't going to save you.
The Nazi Regime wasn't a political party, it was a full blown Cult. Mankind has evolved beyond falling into this type of stupidity.
Again I say if you want military fire power, then you should own the full responsibility that comes with it.
seth, you obviously didn’t read my earlier post, so I’ll post in again.
The government may not have even attempted it, if they didn’t think they could easily manage this particular populace. Coming from a gun-free country, I assume the majority of them were not well-armed. They were wronged by the government because of their pacifistic nature and the lack of imagination in what governments can do.
And so in the time of world war, are you suggesting that it would have served our country better to have a civil war going on as well in our homeland?
"The government may not have even attempted it, if they didn’t think they could easily manage this particular populace." - Deterrence. That's the point. Do you think FDR would've done it knowing many American citizens could die fighting?
- well then an AR15 isn't going to save you.
You are wrong again there.
You think “fight against tyranny” only means an all-out war between the government and the citizenry... civilians are no longer any match for the military force even with assault weapons, so what’s the point of having them, eh? …Wrong!
Tyrannical leaders do not want public outcry, much less International attention, if the International community notices what they’re doing, they have very little chance in succeeding. If any government (especially major democratic countries) used a tank or bomb against their own people, you can imagine that other countries are going to know it almost immediately, right? (Even Communist China couldn't hide it.) Do you think the government can give the world a persuadable enough justification for it? If something like that happened in the US, do you think England, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea, Canada, (not sure about Russia and China) will just stand idly by and watch??
So, unless the government can do it without other countries knowing, tyranny won’t stand a chance. If the majority of the populace stands up with powerful firearms, there is no way for the government to be able to suppress them without causing massive commotion. We still way outnumber them. We can give them a heck of a hard time. Even after the government got the control over the media, if tenacious insurgencies occur here and there, it would suffice to sound the alarm to the world that our liberty is being threatened, so is the liberty of the entire world.
By the way, tyrants know that too (they are crazy but not stupid), so they won’t do a thing until they can relatively disarm the populace and make them controllable first. Thus, as long as we are well-armed, we are safe. As long as the government fears the people, we have liberty. This is why, still today, the Second Amendment is a strong deterrence against tyranny.
""Tyrannical leaders do not want public outcry, much less International attention,""
Tedd, the NRA doesn't want public outcry. They don't want gun impact studies, they want silence and lots and lots of guns. The NRA operates like a tyrannical government, censorship, control, manipulation.
Without American service men and women willfully turning on fellow Americans (which would never happen in a million billion trillion years!) there is no threat of tyranny in America. There is however a very real threat of mass shootings in schools, churches, theaters and all of the other soft targets, any where in large or small town America.
- Without American service men and women willfully turning on fellow Americans (which would never happen in a million billion trillion years!) -
I just told you that it happened. Many internees died under poor living condition, and several were killed by sentries when they tried to escape. It only takes one mistake by one president. No one can guarantee it won’t never ever happen again.
Oh, and, I’m not a member of NRA. I’m not really familiar with what they do. They don’t influence me in any shape or form. I’ll keep my guns regardless of what NRA does or doesn’t.
Reasonable guns have a place in civilian America. A shotgun, bolt action deer rifle, etc... My issue is with high capacity rapid fire weapons that are suited for military use. We don't need these legally accessable on our streets.
I have a pump action shotgun that was given to my by my father. It holds 5 rounds, and you have to pump it. If a crazy broke into my house and stole it, they couldn't do what happened in Sandy Hook or Aurora with this type of weapon.
Seth, you aren't getting anything right today. The AR15 IS NOT a rapid fire weapon. Bullets are fire ONE AT A TIME just like a handgun. It is semi-automatic, not automatic. Semi-automatic only means bullets are fed through a magazine. Read up on the subject before making comments.
Seth, you are wrong about the NRA too. Why not go to the NRA website and read about what they do and what they stand for instead of repeating mainstream media misinformation.
The NRA is scrambling, because people are finding out how they roll:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/26guns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57564599/nra-congress-stymied-cdc-gun-research-budget/
And btw..., I do know quite well what the difference is between a semi-auto and full automatic weapon is. And you can fire a semi-automatic very rapidly. In fact in the military and in law enforcement, semi-auto is the preferred selection versus full auto, for accuracy and ammunition economy.
The lamestream media is a great source of misinformation. It's the government, not the NRA that is scrambling. All the administration is doing is proposing more legislation that is "feel good" only and doesn't address the real problems.
All of the tough gun laws in Chicago aren't deterring the criminals. With over 500 homicides last year and 48 so far in January, it's obvious they aren't going about this right way.
At least the NRA made some good suggestions, but the liberal administration is not interested in logic and mainstream media is supporting it.
"All of the tough gun laws in Chicago aren't deterring the criminals."
Yes in Chicago the laws don't seem to be followed. People can drive right outside of city limits and buy all the guns they want from "on the border" gun dealers and bring them back to shoot the place up.
My suggestion for Chicago and other extreme places is that if can't obey written law then it would be time to confiscate all weapons. If all the weapons in and around Chicago were gone, there wouldn't be anymore shootings, now would there.
During the last ban in the 90's, Black Market production of banned weapons surged. Criminals profited heavily from the high prices paid to low quality fire arms. Prisoner in jail can make fire arms out of pens, that are just a lethal.
Seizing all guns won't stop anything in Chicago. Criminals are't going to go oh ok boys Rob Emanuel said to turn in our guns so hand them over. You are living in pixy dust land. Rob Emanual is most likely tied to the same criminals as Chicago has a long and corrupt history between politicians and criminal underground.
And your comment about the shotgun you own and not being able to be stolen and used Sandy hook style. It easily could just saw of fthe barrel and a delusional person could easily kill as many people with 5 shots. It is called spread. I shot gun could easily kill 3+ people per shot, and reloading isn't that hard on a shotgun. Justification doesn't mesh with reality.
so why is it that you people have to always say amd i quote "if the design of the weapon is to kill more people"!!!!! why is it that you say this.... its a sporting rifle... and a hunting rifle... not a "assult weapon" (fully automatic) the reasron why most civilians do not have a machine gun(assult weapon) is because they probably feel it is to dangerous to be a civilian and own one... anybody that can pass a background cheack and get approved the the gov. can own a machine gun.
Danny Hunt
Censored.
I just wrote a comment regarding the strong belief that this was an organized crime of terror to advocate gun control and to justify weakening the U.S. 2nd Amendment. It did not go through and seems to have been censored. The 100 round clip is not the cause or issue, organized crime will continue to cause and commit these acts of terror to continue justifying more gun control until the U.S. is like the U.K., gun less.
School Safety and Protecting Our Children (see 3. (c)) and 1.
Organized crime is using influence of the mind and abuse to commit these acts of terror to advocate gun control, a defenseless population.
1. Organized crime has identified a vulnerability that they can attack through acts of terror, our children and schools. Do you believe that our children need to be protected from organized crime acts of terror?
2. How will this limit on ammunition clips, 10 bullets, prevent organized crime from targeting schools again to commit acts of terror, and more gun control?
3. a) how long do you think it will be before the mob abuses another citizen, tries to corner him through homelessness, and manipulates him to "hit back at society" through a rage shooting or massacre to advocate gun control?
3. b) how long before the mob targets another citizen, abuses him with energy assault weapons, powerful radar aimed at inflicting deadly cancers through bone marrow damage, cell damage, inflammation, lung scars, etc. and manipulate him into killing another Federal judge and Senator to advocate gun control?
3. c) how long before the mob targets another citizen, convinces him that people are on the Hook in New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy and ignored while they suffer in the cold, and that if he commits a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary with his brothers license from New Jersey it will make this injustice visible, to advocate gun control?
"The reason you find so many of us very reluctant to go down this road is we believe each step down this road leads to the next step and the next step and the next step," said the former Speaker of the House. "We actually think the Second Amendment is central to our liberties, .. "
Piers, I think he's on to the British.
British regimes subjugate the population through organized crime and corruption, charter of rights are gradually weakened similar to this attempt to weaken the 2nd Amendment, charter of rights are easily dismissed in court as citizens are targeted through organized crime, pushed to homelessness or murdered to prevent exposure of wrong doing or international human rights violations, censorship, etc, tyranny .. "let them eat cake" – Marie Antoinette
They are now using energy assault weapons, powerful radar assaults aimed at inflicting deadly cancers from neighboring homes, public places, at their court house to prevent addressing basic human rights violations in the Canadian Criminal Code 672.12 (1)(3), the right to a trial, the freedom of expression, etc. on the population that they want defenseless. .. dictatorship through organized crime hidden from the general population.
"Biden concedes new laws won't end gun massacres"
That is correct, I strongly believe organized crime is committing these massacres through abuse and influence of the mind to advocate gun control, a strategy to weaken the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms. They'll keep doing this until the U.S.is gun less like the U.K..
FBI statistics have showed that little if any affect occured out of the last Ban. While black market gun manufacturing by organized crime rings profited heavily and criminal access increased during the ban.
The US has fewer Gun Deaths in 2010 in any year since 1963 according to FBI. Even though gun violence in Urban areas has remained steady because of gang violence.
Banning of Guns won't reduce mass killings. Even Biden admits that proving Sandy hook is being politicized for political gain. People bent on mass killing find much more horrific ways to kill when guns are banned. Take a trip to the middle east sometime. Take guns away and the mentally ill will turn to pipe bombs, car bombs, other more devastating ways to die that make a gun shot wound seem trivial. Fixing the mental health system, and finding ways to deal with the mentally ill is the only way to stop mass killings.
The "ASSAULT" weapons ban is purely political and will save zero lives because 90% of gun crime is commited with a pistol. Banning "HIGH capacity magazine save all of .4 seconds to change magazines. Pistols are much more affective to commit mass killings and criminal actions than "ASSUALT WEAPONS".
Video games, Media are as much to blame for Sandy Hook as the guns. I myself have played most first person shooter games without incidnet much the same way 99.9% of the population has. It is the .1% who can't differentiate between violent video games, violent movies, and glorification of violent in the media coverage from reality. They see the extended coverage of mass shootings as acceptance and stardom for the killer instead of seeing the horrific violence and pain that is being caused. They see notoriety. The mentally ill need effective reporting and treatment. If that fails then involuntary detention and heaven forbid euthinasia. I feel euthenizing is more human than life time imprisonment.
Adam Machine guns are and have been banned for over 20 years. classification of weapons is much the same as classification of say cars , sports cars, station wagon, and trucks. They each serve a different purpose. I have fired many assualt weapons in my military career and an AR15 is nothing like them. The AR15 isn't as accurate, reliable or as durable as military grade weapons. They share look only.
Amendments and Civil Rights
Civil Rights, Amendments, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, etc, that protect the population from "oppressive laws" and oppression can all be weakened with time.
The 2nd Amendment is the right that protects all other rights, which is why in U.S. many consider it central to their liberties and unwilling to go down the path of gradually weakening this right.
There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what the right to bear arms is about in the U.S. and in other countries. It is not about hunting, it is to deter and prevent dictatorships and tyranny, which can take many hidden forms and is done through organized crime in different regimes.
Organized crime is committing acts of terror through abuse and influence of the mind to advocate gun control, weakening the 2nd Amendment like other rights can be modified and weakened with time. It is a strategy to create justification to weaken a right that protects freedom.
Please support the Rage Shooting Factors for the prevention of gun violence similar to the use of Suicide Factors for the prevention of suicides.
Psychological Harassment Information Association
February 1, 2013 at 11:16 am | Report abuse | Reply
This man was fired for faking the news. He endangered the lives of British soldiers. It is in a report from the home office. He fled to America avoiding his phone hacking charges where he hacked the voicemail of a girl who was killed. His defence before he left England was, he was just passing on the rumors. Read it for yourself here. http://patdollard.com/2013/01/flashback-most-dishones-journalist-of-our-times-piers-morgan-fired-from-bbc-for-malicious-hoax-of-fake-iraqi-prisoner-abuse-that-caused-so-much-damage-served-as-al-qaeda-recruiting-pos/
Get off American airwaves you tabloid garbage journalist!
Why the hell did CNN hire Morgan ?????????????????
I think that one of the biggest issues that is often being left out of this debate is what the second amendment truly stands for. It isn't about the freedom to own weapons or the freedom for the government to decide what weapons we can own, it is about the freedom that we have as Americans to be prepared for instances that get out of control. It is our freedom as Americans to rise up and stand against a tyrannical government or occupying body. I do not think that there is a reasonable use for assault weapons on a daily basis, but it is our right to own them and reason for owning is not a factor that someone gets to decide before they sell to me. History is a beautiful teacher in these issues. In nearly every instance throughout history where a nation becomes a dictatorship it is prefaced by the disarming of citizens. Gun bans are a step in that direction. Instead of taking away our guns , we should be taking measure in training our citizens in proper safety, giving stricter sentences for violent offenders, and actually teaching our children the values of patriotism and worth as a country. We have let our government get too much control over our lives and we need to become more aware and self sufficient citizens again.
Well said, Anthony. Well said, indeed.
I agree. Well stated, Anthony. The government does control too much of our lives and it will only get worse in the next four years.
Reply for CR and Jim. I am living in denial that your statistics give relevant info re firearm related deaths but I'll refute them anyway. "There has been a fall of 19 per cent in homicides since 2001/02", as measured by The Homicide Index in the British crime survey.
@ros, in terms of Britain’s homicide rate, it depends on where you base those numbers from as to whether you can claim there has been a drop or not in the homicide rate. If you take the numbers for the 70s or even 80s for that matter (excluding Nothern Ireland) Britain’s homicide rate has actually increased by about 15%.
UK (aka Britain) gun crime doubles in a decade!
There were 9,865 firearm offences in 2007/08, a rise of 89 per cent on the 5,209 recorded in 1998/99.
Some 1,760 gun related injuries or deaths were provisionally recorded for 2008/09, compared with 864 in 1998/99.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6438601/Gun-crime-doubles-in-a-decade.html
Ros, it was Piers’ associates in the British media who exposed the Labor government had been under reporting the violent crime figures. Between 1998 and 2008 British hospitals saw a 50% increase in the number of violent crime victims.
The UK’s (not the Ukraine’s) homicide rate, despite its virtual gun ban, is still 40% higher than many of its large gun owning Western European neighbors. The Swiss privately own nearly 8 times as many firearms as the British, many of which are automatic assault rifles, and the Germans and French own nearly 5 times as many. Furthermore the Italians and Spanish, two other large gun owning European nations, own significantly more firearms than the British and have per capita homicides rates that are nearly 20% lower.
The annual rate of homicide by any means per 100,000 population In the United States (gunpolicy.org)
The homicide rate in the U.S. has steadily decreased.
Nae, those are nice stats but where are your suggestions for making life better for you and your fellow citizens? You have to agree that your society still has BBS (Bullet Brain Syndrome) and it needs to be brought under control just like any other disease. Go to work and make your society better. Quoting stats doesn't accomplish anything because we all know stats are manipulated to serve a purpose by those who use them.
I’m having difficulty posting again. I’ll try to see if I can post one paragraph at a time...
If you think any of the stats (which I also post the sources) I present here are somehow manipulated, please refute them with the proof that support your accusations. Otherwise it’s just “you” saying that, which simply lacks in cogency.
Here are my suggestions to reduce tragedies of mass killings by unbalanced individuals. I believe we should focus more on the mental illness issue and look into violent movies and video games our young minds are exposed to as if they are a natural part of our culture. The Hollywood people should put their profits second to the healthy mental development of our children. If anti-gun people say the 2nd amendment is not without limit, then, I can say the same to the 1st amendment, can’t I? If we are going to ban assault weapons, shouldn’t we also ban the usage of imagery of those weapons in the entertainment industry? If we can save even one troubled youth from delusion, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Another thing I propose is that we should change the way we treat those who are mentally ill. The families of them are often faced with such stigma, a lot of times they feel embarrassed and can’t openly ask for help. We need to recognize that the mental illnesses are nothing different from suffering cancers, in many cases it’s not their fault that their brains don’t function normally. If we all can be more understandable and compassionate, that would encourage the families to get proper help for their troubled family members.
Also, if there are more adequate facilities, not jails, but more like rehabilitation centers for substance abuse, throughout the country readily available to the families of mentally ill or troubled, where they can take their family members without the worries of them being treated like criminals or receiving abuse from other criminals, where the families can trust that their troubled loved ones will be well taken care of by medical and psychiatric experts at almost no cost to them (state or federal-run), I think that could make a difference. That may help remove the threats of mentally-unstable individuals suddenly exploding and ending up harming others and themselves.
Nae, I can agree with those efforts to help those with psycological problems. It appears you think the real problem is that these individuals are the real cause of gun violence. In Vancouver, Canada very recently, a normal sociable guy, as his neighbours described him, ran amock in an apartment building and stabbed a dozen people. Fortunately there where no deaths. If this normal, sociable guy had a firearm, I'm posotive this story would have had a different ending. Firearms and the love affair that Americans have with those things is the problem. Even so called normal people can have psycological problems that cause them to commit acts of violence. Come on NAE give up this disease that permeates your society and really make a difference.
Gun-culture is not a disease. If you call it that, what would you call car-culture, a pandemic? How do you not consider a 3,000 lb. metal object going 70mph not lethal?? Why on earth would we (or any other part of the world for that matter) allow such recklessness in our society? Because it’s requisite to our modern societies, right? Because it’s requisite to our economic growth, right? You are not complaining about car-culture, nor calling it a disease, because “you benefit from having cars”. Yet, you don’t (or refuse to) understand some, if not many, of us actually benefit from having guns. Isn’t that a bit selfish? I believe our guns used for self-defense have prevented many more deaths than they have caused. Come on, we live in the world where some of us do commit evil or crazy acts against others. If we diminish the individuals’ ability to defend him/herself, there would be more victims. As for the Vancouver incident, if one or a few of the residents had a gun, the attacker with a knife could have been stopped before he was able to stab a dozen people... Can you deny that possibility with 100% certainty?
Yes, I do think the real problem is with the individuals who go on a rampage killing others. If the deranged wants to kill many others, he’ll find a way. He could build a bomb from fertilizers (which killed 168 people and injured over 800 in Oklahoma City by the way). Our utmost focus in preventing mass killings should be on these individuals with psychological problems.
oooops, I meant to say “How do you NOT consider a 3,000 lb. metal object going 70mph LETHAL??”
... And the lethality has been very well proven by the fact that we lose roughly 90 LIVES EVERY SINGLE DAY in our country. Is it only me who thinks 90 deaths a day are more concerning than 42 deaths a year? (That’s the annual average assault weapons have killed since the ban was lifted, according to Sen.Feinstein. And taking them away would only make the attackers choose different methods to carry out the atrocities, so how many do you really think we can save by banning them?)
1) To reduce assault style rifle violence mandate that owners must keep their weapons away from minors and disturbed individuals in the home or face severe civil and criminal consequences with mandatory prison time. Let your son go to school with your AR-10, AR-15, high capacity assault styled weapon because you didn't lock it away from him then lose your savings, your home and your freedom. If you locked it up and he stole it, then you are not culpable. But you run the risk to trust him or not. This would not include handguns.
2) To reduce handgun related violence declare the Bloods, Crips, MS13, Hells Angels, mafia, .... demonstrably violent gangs.... as TERRORISTS. Treat them like enemy combatants. Use the NDAA 2012 and extended Patriot Act against them. Sure we have too many people in prison and yet our crime rates are down – go figure. Just being in a demonstrably violent gang should make it illegal to own a gun. When you are a member of a gang you are forswearing your primary secular allegiance to the U.S.
Should these same rules apply to children who kill other people because they're texting and driving? How about if they're just chatting it up with their friends and crash? Far more people die because of texting and driving than "assault weapons".
‘ Far more people die because of texting and driving than "assault weapons".’
Very true. I’m with you, Jim.
Nearly 500,000 people are injured and 6,000 are killed each year because drivers are talking, texting and e-mailing behind the wheel.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/End-Distracted-Driving#ixzz2JmxTUY2D
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired on September 13, 2004. So, it’s been about 8.3 years since. Sen. Feinstein said, 350 people have been killed after the ban was lifted. 350 / 8.3 = 42.17
So, the number of people we can ‘possibly’ save by banning so-called assault weapons, (as long as attackers totally get discouraged from committing a mass killing simply because they can’t use those guns, and don’t use other guns or methods instead), is average 42 per year.
6,000 victims vs 42 victisms...
Which problem should we fix first...??
Can you guys see how many problems you have? All these things have to be dealt with to reduce the risk to others. It shows you have empathy to your fellow beings if you agree to be "Inconvenieced" by not being allowed to have military style weapons. Why do you want to have these things anyway? What is wrong with you? You don't make logical sense.
Vic, I can tell that you are a very decent guy and you are sincerely concerned about people’s lives. But if you think assault weapons are the biggest problem in our country, I’m afraid you are mistaken. Like I stated above, over 100 times more people (many of them are children and youth, too) are killed by using cell phones behind the wheel. Why are you not outraged by it? If we are gonna enforce new laws spending our lawmakers’ time and energy and our taxpayers money, I want to take on problems that can save more than 42 lives a year. How about make it an offense to have a cell phone within the driver’s reach (just as open container laws), unless it is secured in a hands-free device for instance? I for one think this is a more effective law in saving lives.
I think many of us are more emotionally-driven than logically. It seems to me it’s not the wisest course of action. Don’t you think most of us will agree to much stricter traffic laws, if we see the vivid images of each car accident that happens every single day? Automobile-related death happens four times more often than that of gun-related, but we just don’t know it. Because we got so complacent about car accidents, the media won’t take time reporting them. Or if they were to report each and every car accident as they tend to do each gun-related incident, it will take up all of their air time, and it’s probably impossible anyway. See, most people are not afraid of driving even though they should be, but afraid of assault weapons that kill less than lightning, which kills an average of 54 each year, according to the National Weather Service Storm Data.
I know most anti-gun people dislike the gun/car analogy, but isn’t it because it reveals the dead truth about the hypocrisy on how indifferent they are about car accident victims? Isn’t it because they don’t want any stricter traffic laws imposed on them, even to “save lives”? Are the car accident victims’ lives somehow worth less than the lives of gun victims? I think not.
I don’t own an AR-15 or any sort of the kind. I personally don’t feel the need right now or any time in the near future. But if someone wants to protect himself against gang bangers that may outgun him, it’s not my place to say that he can’t have it, just because I myself don’t need it. And I think there’s a good possibility the sight of assault weapons can intimidate criminals causing them to flee, so I have to agree it’s a good deterrent tool for some people. I can’t deny that. And I don’t want to compromise someone’s ability to defend him or herself.
Very well stated, Nae. Every time I bring up the auto related deaths due to drunk driving and texting, the anti-gunners say I am talking stupid. What is stupid, is the concept of infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens because of the actions of criminals. Ban this, ban that. It is so absurd.
Vic, the government feels the only way to reduce the risk to others is to infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens. I have plenty of empathy, but we should not be inconvenienced because criminals commit horrible crimes. The criminals will always break laws and the law-abiding citizens will always obey them. Restricting or taking away the rights of the honest people, does NOTHING to reduce crime.
There are so many gun laws on the books that are not being strictly enforced, so new ones that only affect law-abiding people does nothing except make the politicians feel good because they can say they "did something".
Enforce the existing laws and prosecute to the fullest extent at all times WITHOUT infringing on rights of the rights of the citizens THAT ARE NOT COMMITTING THE CRIMES.
I want my weapons to protect myself and those close to me. As a survivor of a violent home invasion, I choose to be a survivor by defending myself. What's wrong with us??? No, sorry, but it's "what's wrong with you?" The guns are not going out there killing anyone. Criminals are the ones committing the crimes. I have a number of guns, and NOT ONE has EVER gone out there to kill someone all by themselves. It time to hold the criminal responsible the gun.
Those of you that chose to not defend yourself if you find yourself at risk, then that is your right and I respect that. Our choice to legally defend ourselves should be respected without question.
I learned a long time ago that 911help is not always a minute or two away to save our asses.
Alan, I'm assuming that by having a firearm in your home for protection means that firearm is loaded and ready to be used when or if it is needed and that every member of your household is trained in its safe use and are all of stable minds.
I am assuming you think I am a total idiot and I object to your condescending tone. I am over 60 years old and have been shooting since I was 10 years old. My father taught me gun safety and I have taught gun safety classes in the past in a private setting and in city college campuses (including a police academy). I am of stable mind and live alone. My firearms are ALWAYS readily accessible in the event I need them.
A few years ago, my home was invaded by four armed thugs that we not there on a social call. I'm here to talk about it, so that makes me a survivor, not a "crazy gun nut" that most anti-gunners like to call us.
Why do all "solutions" involve penalizing a person that IS NOT the criminal instead of the person THAT IS the criminal? In addition to texting and driving deaths as Jim mentions, shall we penalize liquor manufacturers for drunk driving deaths?
None of the suggestions come close to fixing the problem. Even Joe Biden is admitting the proposed legislation won't do any thing to prevent another mass shooting like Sandy Hook. Lanza tried to buy a gun prior to the shooting but could not do so. The existing Connecticut law, which is considered strict compared to other states, worked.
So, instead he stole his mom's guns. Was she negligent? Of course she was. So far, mental health issues aren't being put on the table. Everything so far is punishing everyone BUT the criminal. Declaring violent criminals terrorists might be a stretch, especially anything done at the federal level may complicate local enforcement.
There are plenty of laws already on the books and they work, but they need to be strongly enforced ALL OF THE TIME to be effective. There are too many plea bargains and early jail releases that they call "in the interest of justice", which is absurd.
I have an AR15 and handguns. And happy to buy more.
I don't want them banned or nationally registered. I gave two great options that would actually work to some greater or lesser extent and they weren't proffered a cures. I said reduce not eliminate. Negligent gun owners/parents should be held liable with regards to AR's and high capacity mags. It is a simple responsiblity. And gangs are terrorists and should be treated as such.
I feel your driving example is a straw man argument and that you didn't even read or digest my post. You dimissed the ideas w/o any real critique. Why?
I don't favor banning or registration either. While I do agree that there should be severe penalties for negligent gun owners and/or parents, it will not do anything to reduce the gun violence. It is merely a punishment to the responsible party after an act has been committed and adjudicated in a court of law. and I meant to address that earlier. Banning won't work. It didn't work before.
Like I said, most of the existing laws work, but they aren't always enforced. In the case of Sandy Hook, the background check worked. Lanza stole his mom's guns. Could Sandy Hook been prevented if there was a law already on the books that would have punished his mom for being negligent? Not at all.
I did make a brief comment about violent criminals being classified as terrorists. It sounds good, but as I read up on law, anything the administration tries to pass on a federal level may be difficult to enforce locally because there are existing laws in each state that may have conflict. In charging a criminal at arraignment, having state and federal charges make for complicated prosecution because they are different jurisdictions which means multiple trials. There seem to be a lot of legal opinions out there right now that I am reading about. That wouldn't work same as a federal ban on any specific weapons or magazines. I'm still doing some research on how that works.
Are you saying that if Mrs. Lanza had been required to sign an afidavit of understanding about culpability with regard to negligence with an AR at time of purchase that she or any number of other parents would not secure those AR's? I'd imagine at least some would and that would reduce the incidence of white boys going postal. :0)
If I had a nutty kid or relative living in the house I would secure my AR (I don't so I often may not secure my weapons) as would any number of responsible gun owners, especially after some very public convictions and civil awards were national stories. Believe it or not many law abiding citizens do not murder people because capital punishment actually is a deterrent.
And if we apply the Patriot Act or NDAA 2012 on known terrorist groups here in America (GANGS) we would actually get some valid use out of those laws, clean up urban areas of crime beyond gun violence, and discourage gang affiliation so that young urban youths might actually finish school.
Invariably the govt. would abuse NDAA 2012 but it would be on some gang bangers hide and then the ACLU could step in and help correct that legislation to make it actually moral.
Unfortunately we'll never know the answer to that. She knew her kid was a nutbag, but she took him shooting. Would she have NOT taken him to the range if she had to sign such an affidavit? Maybe, maybe not. Personally, I don't really see it as a viable solution, but I feel it's more constructive than some of the crap talk we are getting from politicians.
Mayor of Chicago with the toughest gun laws has the highest murder rate is talking some stupid nonsense wanting to go after manufacturers. That is absolutely idiotic. He can't even reduce crime in his city WITH gun bans.
Again, I say that the terrorist concept made at the federal level might make for difficult prosecution due to overlapping jurisdictions between state and federal court systems. One thing is certain, it would really help if each state vigorously enforced existing laws. Gun crimes are up and prosecutions are down. Like I said, plea bargains are not a deterrent. Instead of long prison terms, these morons are getting wrist slaps.
In Pennsylvania, where I live, it is illegal to text and drive with the penalties for causing an accident increasing if it is proved that you were doing so. Also, in Pennsylvania if an establishment over-serves a customer alcohol, said establishment can be held responsible if that person harms or kills another including but not limited to dui related accidents
"In Pennsylvania, where I live, it is illegal to text and drive with the penalties for causing an accident increasing if it is proved that you were doing so. Also, in Pennsylvania if an establishment over-serves a customer alcohol, said establishment can be held responsible if that person harms or kills another including but not limited to dui related accidents"
These solutions address the person misusing the item. The Piers Morgan solution would be to ban the type of car that was being driven.
I don't understand your point. Most states have the same or similar laws as you have in PA. How does that relate to the discussion? These laws make sense because texting while driving and drunk driving do kill people.
In the case of texting being ruled the proximate cause of injury or death to a third party, it make sense to punish the jerk that caused the accident. He or she broke the law and there is a criminal punishment. In the case of establishments that knowing serve an intoxicated person, it makes sense to take action against the establishment. In most states, however, that is a civil suit rather than a criminal action.
In both cases, they don't relate to what I was saying with respect to firearms. Too many of the "solutions" do more to be punishment to the law-abiding citizen, not the criminal. We have hundreds of unenforced gun laws on the books now. I fail to see how adding more laws that affect responsible gun owners more than the criminals does anything to reduce gun violence. The law-abiding citizens are not the problem, the law breakers are the problem. And now, there are ideas out there that involve going after the gun manufacturers. That makes about as much sense as going after Budweiser because some idiot drank a 12 pack then killed innocent people with his car.
Lanza tried to buy a gun prior to Sandy Hook and could not do so. The background check worked! So what did he do? He stole guns from his mother. How do you come up with a law that would have prevented that? Theft is already an illegal act. So what are the politicians and other anti-gunners doing? They are trying to put the blame somewhere so it can result in more useless laws to make them feel like the "have done something".
As a violent crime survivor, I fully support my rights under the second amendment. Over the years, I have had to use a firearm to defend myself twice. I have a CCW permit and have passed background checks to purchase all of my guns. I also used a firearm to prevent serious harm to a total stranger. People like me ARE NOT the problem, but we are being demonized as being the "crazies".
Until an anti-gunner has been in a life threatening situation with an armed nutbag, they shouldn't judge those of us that elect to be a survivor instead of a statistic.
Sorry for the additional rant not necessarily meant for you, but this entire argument is getting very old.
Shawn. I don't think I would go so far as to say you have Storm Troopers in your society, but there are those who are advocating an armed citizen militia in the U.S. For what, to keep the federal governmment in line? What kind of thinking is that? What causes people to think that way? Do they really think bullets are going to cure all the problems? I said before that you have a very severe case of "Bullet Brain Syndrome" (BBS) which needs to be brought under control and sooner rather than later. It is costing too many lives, good lives, to keep this disease going.
February 2, 2013 at 11:54 pm | Report abuse | Reply
Amazing, simply amazing. A tradgedy happens and you want a knee jerk reaction and attack gun owners and you can't understand why gun owners get deffensive? The fact of the matter is that "Assualt Style" weapons are used in violent crime less then ANY OTHER WEAPON. The FBI's reports prove it. less then 100 people last year. Handguns killed over 8,000 according to the FBI's reports. But its the AR-15, the weapon kept to maintain our rights, that is targeted, not handguns. That being the case you still think people are paranoid? Common sense gun laws means closing the missunderstood so called gun show loophole, and improving the background check system. Not registration, limitation and confiscation. Help the mentally ill and put security in the schools. The argument is made that the security officer may not be in the right place at the right time, but the people who commit these tragic killing usually kill themselves when the authorities arrive because they are cowards. So it stands to reason they would not take the chance if they knew they could be stopped. Also, Why does the media report so much on these people, thats what these psychopaths want! Thats why they kill children. The laws that are already in place would prevent alot of these problems, and Joe Biden has even said they can't even enforce the laws already on the books. Lets start enforceing the existing laws, stop giving these killers the legacy they want, and start helping the mentally ill that need it.
Excellent Jay. Well stated. I feel like we are engaging in a battle of wits with unarmed people....
Latrice H.
We as American people always try to cloud the truth, and get the issues confused . The Issue is were not trying to take away your rights to bear arms we are just trying to enforce our rights that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. And to be able to go to school to learn , and go into a mall and shop, and go to a theatre and watch a movie, and go to restaurant and eat without the threat of being shot multiple times trying to live and enjoy our lives
Cecil Crowder
I think it is time we stop watching CNN and this Brit Peirs If car kills do you take it off the street, a ball can kill,
there is signs before this happens that no one stands up to. To watch CNN and support there station is supporting
the Brit. I think we need to start a band on CNN and see how that works. I for one after to night will be starting with facebook and twitter and more to band this site as bad for the USA.
how does one band a site? And if you meant ban, which I assume you do, are you saying you'd sacrifice the first ammendment for the second?
Piers, I'm a gun owning, registered republican who appreciates your efforts to find a reasonable response to the question why any civilian would need to own an assault rifle or a high capacity magazine. I'm with you on this issue, there is no reason. Having these weapons in the hands of private citizens does not make me feel safer, quite the opposite in fact. To the people that would argue American citizens need to own guns because as Thomas Jefferson said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "it is not only our right but our responsibility to overthrow a government when said government has become oppresive" I would say, if it comes down to a firefight with the US military you're going to lose no matter how big your magazine is. If another Revolutionary War is necessary in our future (god forbid) our willingness to die for what we believe in is what will win the day, not how many bullets are in our weapons.
Leave a Reply to Dennis
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“Mr. High School Sports” – WPIAL Becomes A MAC Machine
Filed Under:Damian Jones-Moore, Eddie Stockett, Football, High School, julian durden, MAC, Matt Popchock, Mr. High School Sports, WPIAL, Zach Guiser
Damion Jones-Moore, seen here as a freshman at Central Catholic, is one of many WPIAL football stars looking to shine in the MAC. (File photo: MaxPreps)
By Matt Popchock
(mpopchock@kdka.com)
While Rushel Shell was promising any incoming Pitt freshman who might be straddling the nearest fence a shot at a championship, I wonder what Julian Durden, the second-leading rusher in WPIAL Class AAA, tweeted to his future teammates?
“Ford Field or bust,” maybe?
“Next stop Detroit,” perhaps?
Okay, wild guess:
“GoDaddy.com Bowl, here we come!”
(Imagine the free swag they give to players at Ladd-Peebles Stadium that week…)
But, seriously…the point is, although population decline and the general growth of the game have taken a toll on WPIAL football, the cupboard is never absent of talent. Some of the talent that doesn’t get the same attention as a player like Shell has found a home away from home.
Those kids have faced each other in meaningful games in high school, and there is, at least, an honest mathematical chance they’ll see each other in a meaningful game again.
Starting with the recruiting class of 2010 and including the 2013 class, 31 WPIAL football players and counting have committed to Midwestern Athletic Conference schools. One of them is Western Beaver running back Dustin Creel, who has signed on with Eastern Michigan. He will indeed play in a meaningful game Friday at 7:30: the Penn-Ohio All Star Classic at Springfield High School in New Middletown, OH, his high school football farewell.
Creel (6’3″, 205 lbs.) did just about everything but sell 50-50 tickets for the Golden Beavers in 2011, as they finished 5-2 in the Big 7 Conference to qualify for the WPIAL Class A Playoffs for the third time in his four years of varsity ball. He ran for 690 yards with an average approaching ten yards a carry. He racked up 354 more as a receiver, which is where he’ll start for an EMU squad looking to improve its aerial attack after finishing fourth from the bottom in Division I passing yardage.
His most memorable moment, in fact, was a 45-yard catch in the back of the end zone to defeat Monaca early in the 2009 season. Little did he know that would be the last home loss in Monaca program history.
“The coaches there relied a lot on me, because we’re a small school, and we don’t have many guys who play only one position,” said Creel, who finished in the top ten in Class A scoring with 16 TD’s. “If anything, you have to be ready to do it all.”
He won’t get to punt or kick for head coach Don Phillips on Friday, though he may see time at defensive back, so three out of five ain’t bad. But it wasn’t just his versatility that got Creel noticed by college scouts.
“I got picked up on a 7-on-7 team over the summer: the PA Swag team coached by Terry Smith of Gateway. We traveled down the whole east coast, playing against the top kids in the nation, and I feel I played pretty well,” he said.
Creel will join former McKeesport safety and Class of ’11 commit Kevin Johnson later this year, which will make Eastern Michigan one of ten MAC teams with at least two WPIAL alums on their training camp roster. Furthermore, it’s one of three MAC teams with a McKeesport player; senior quarterback Ed Stockett made Akron the third when he signed there earlier this week.
One of the better under-the-national-radar QB’s in Quad-A, Stockett, as a junior, completed 55% of his passes for 1,772 yards, good enough for third in the classification, and good enough for top ten in the district. He tossed 17 touchdowns against just six picks, and eventually he’ll run an offense that will include former Bethel Park all-purpose back Bre’ Ford.
Akron’s radar also happened to pick up Greensburg Central Catholic senior defensive back Zach Guiser, who has 16 INT’s in his first three varsity seasons, at around the same time.
Guiser, like Creel, has worn several hats for his high school team. Meanwhile, it’s the job of one of Bowling Green’s top 2012 recruits, Pittsburgh Central Catholic graduate Logan Dietz, to put hats on hats. The offensive tackle will come to the Falcons after a fine senior season that saw Central finish fourth in Class AAAA in scoring offense, averaging 34 points per game.
That was largely a result of Dietz opening holes for Damion Jones-Moore, who, at a very early juncture in his varsity tenure, became the focal point of Terry Totten’s offense. The size of Jones-Moore (5’7″, 173 lbs.) probably frightened away a few interested parties, but it didn’t stop him from amassing 1,673 yards and 32 TD’s as a senior, and making Central Catholic the first WPIAL school to boast two 4,000-career-yard rushers.
With the Rockets short on fuel at the running back spot, Jones-Moore will probably play sooner, not later, for Toledo, which really seemed to benefit from the 2012 WPIAL bumper crop. When Todd Graham soured on Pitt, which originally recruited über-athlete Corey Jones, the thought of playing with teammates Chaz Whittaker and Treyvon Hester sweetened the deal.
Whittaker will play defensive back, and Jones receiver–though the latter is so fast he could simultaneously play quarterback–while Hester cracked the MaxPreps national top 100 list of interior linemen. Hester will play offense, and Toledo beefed up its defense by inking linebacker Jaylen Coleman, who played a brief stint at Gateway before winning a championship and a City League MVP award with University Prep.
If we’re lucky, they’ll meet Kent State in Detroit real soon. In case the initial Motor City allusion didn’t tip you off, that’s where they play the MAC Championship–not to be confused with the Motor City Bowl, which is typically the reward for winning the title.
I’m sorry, it’s called the Little Caesar’s Bowl now. My bad.
Okay, I’ll simplify: Jones-Moore versus Durden with a big trophy at stake would be a nice blast from the past, yes?
(Hopefully Jules doesn’t think I forgot him…and hopefully the company doesn’t bust me on my plugola scheme to hit him up for free pizza, either…)
Anyway, same story here as that of Jones-Moore. Durden isn’t the biggest guy on the field (5’8″, 165 lbs.), but he isn’t just a stat-monger, either. The Montour product ran for over 2,000 yards in both campaigns after his transfer from North Catholic, and in November he debuted his own “Dark Knight Rises” teaser trailer by donning black and gold and exploding at Heinz Field.
His 202 yards and four touchdowns on just 15 carries catapulted the Spartans to their first WPIAL title since 1964. We’ll see if his luck changes without big blockers Matt Barone and Tyler Haddock, each of whom committed to former MAC member/returning Big East member Temple.
Excluding Temple, the five other schools I mentioned have combined for seven appearances in the MAC final since the game was created in 1997. The four schools I neglected to mention that have WPIAL players on their rosters (Buffalo, Ohio, Miami, and Western Michigan) have combined for ten.
Get used to watching the best of the MAC compete in Friday’s all-star game. Soon you’ll see the other MAC stage a WPIAL all-star game every Saturday.
(Special thanks to FinestPreps.com for their contributions to this post.)
(Follow me on Twitter @mpopchock.)
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Odopa in Rose
Eco Friendly Dangle Earrings Crafted from Recycled Plastic, 'Odopa in Rose'
Rita Addo Zakour of Ghana crafts a beautiful pair of earrings that you'll feel good about wearing. The eco-friendly earrings feature beads crafted from recycled plastic bottles, in gradations of rose and fuchsia They swing from brass hooks. The artisan names the design odopa, which means "good love" in the Akan dialect.
Recycled plastic, brass hooks
Recycled materials may vary slightly in color and/or pattern
Promotes recycling and reduces waste
7.0 cm L x 2.5 cm W
Length: 2.8" x 1" W
Rita Addo Zakour
"I do my designing with African concepts in mind."
"I am a designer by profession. I do my designing with African concepts in mind. Growing up, I loved to sketch things on paper. It was a natural talent, I guess. In high school, I pursued a course in visual arts that helped me develop my natural talent; this made my art studies enjoyable.
"I then attended a secretarial school, and stringing beads helped me generate income to my support my education. I sold the beads to friends and students, and their comments encouraged and motivated me to create more designs. Over time, I made more to sell in the local market.
"After completing the secretarial course, my bead-craft became very demanding and I focused my attention on it. I also got into carving as well as developing frame designs for mirrors.
"I started out by creating a lot of designs and worked with a carver to translate my sketches on wood. I started painting them and added the metal plates. I got lots of positive comments on my work, which encouraged me to continue and not give up.
"I'm blessed to be married to a man who is also into arts and crafts, and is a designer as well. We work together. It's wonderful to work in such an environment where a simple design can turn out to be something very unique product through the input of my spouse. This makes my products very unique from other artisans making similar products.
"I find inspiration by opening my eyes wider to see things — in magazines, on TV, on the streets, and all around me.
"Requests for my designs led us to build a workshop at home and have proper supervision of the work. The carvers who collaborate with me use traditional tools. As the demand grows, I'm able to give work to more carvers, which generates more income for them and their families. I sometimes have young men in the community showing an interest in learning how to carve, and they come around to observe. It is possible one or two carvers who show a keen interest can make a career out of this. The workshop also provides local women with a constant supply of wood scraps for cooking. I'm proud to say that, on few occasions, I've chipped in financially to help a couple of children in my neighborhood. These children see me as their second mother and it is a joy to put a smile on their faces.
"With the introduction of my jewelry through Novica, women who mainly enjoy stringing beads in the neighborhood also get to earn some money when there is an increase in demand. We use mainly wood, recycled aluminum sheets and recycled plastic beads.
"Away from work, I love to be with my family and cook for them. It is such joy having three young ladies at home. With their love for fashion, they help out with stringing the jewelry, sharing their opinions on my designs and also suggesting color combinations for some of my jewelry. My beautiful twins are so interested in the jewelry. They are likely to take up the craft as a full-time profession in future. I commit to teaching them all the skills I've learned. I train and encourage my children to follow their passion just as I followed mine. My hopes and dreams for them is that they can be educated to the highest level and that they find and get established in their passion, and I hope to be a part of this dream by carefully guiding them.
"I am hardworking, loyal, organized and religious person, and I believe my friends or family would say the same about me. I live by this philosophy, to focus on the positive, not on the negative, and to never give up."
By Rita Addo Zakour
This item was handmade in West Africa by NOVICA artisan borrowers. Kiva lenders have helped these artisans stock up on materials, buy more tools and grow their businesses.
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9 Sep.2015
Big things are happening at Roeding Park. After months of fundraising, Rotary Storyland has officially opened its doors.
Once upon a time.
“It’s really an emotional experience,” Vice-Chairman Bruce Batti said.
There was a park created with one purpose: to tell stories. But over time, this park, deteriorated.
“There weren’t a lot of people here. It wasn’t in good shape,” Batti said.
But then, a group of people came to the rescue..
“We thank the community so much for getting behind this project, for letting us know they love Storyland,” Batti said.
Batti says their efforts started back in March. The group used Valley Yellow Pages to get the message out. Over time, envelopes with donations found their way back to the parks.
“Some of them with big checks, some of them with notes, handwritten in crayon with $2 in it, saying please open Storyland, we love it,” Chairman Scott Miller said.
Even 10 year old Jaida Jacobie pitched in, using her birthday as her own fundraiser.
“No presents, take all of the money that you would give me for my presents, and we’re going to raise $500 as a group,” Jacobie said.
Jaida was only able to raise 480 dollars with just her presents, so she took the last twenty out of her own savings.
“I just knew I had to save it because. They gave me the experience I wanted so I wanted to give that back to them,” Jacobie said.
Now thanks to the love from Jaida and everyone else who chipped in, Storyland is in full swing.
The first day already a hit with merry-go-rounds, storytellers, and even the train, all back on track. It’s a place parents remember when they were kids, and now want to share with their own.
“It’s something in Fresno we don’t have, something you can’t find everywhere, so growing up here, it’s just a memory,” visitor Allison Gregg said.
About $500,000 have been raised so far. About $100,000 has gone to opening Storyland and the train. Board members say Playland will be open by next April.
Source: Your Central Valley
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How does Python compile some its code in C?
I read that some constructs of Python are more efficient because they are compiled in C.
https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips
Some of the examples used were map() and filter(). I was wondering how Python is able to do this? It's generally interpreted, so how does some of the code get compiled while another is interpreted - and in a different language? Why not just compile the whole thing?
programming-languages python language-design compiler
Howcan
HowcanHowcan
When you write map(something...) in Python, nothing gets compiled to C. It calls code that was already written in C. Imagine that there was a piece of code in the Python interpreter like this: if(!strcmp(functionName, "map")) {/* mapping code goes here */} else if(!strcmp(functionName, "filter")) {/* filter code goes here */} else if ... else {error("Unknown function!");} – user253751 Aug 24 '14 at 2:57
You may benefit from reading this: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/24558/… – Pharap Aug 24 '14 at 7:15
@immibis so what happens when you do os.getcwd() for example? os.getcwd is not builtin. Does that also correspond to some C code embedded in the CPython interpreter as in the case of map(something)? – multigoodverse Mar 2 '19 at 13:01
@multigoodverse os.getcwd is builtin. If you print(os.getcwd) it prints <built-in function getcwd> does it not? – user253751 Mar 3 '19 at 8:06
@immibis you are right. os is not builtin, but os.getcwd is. I used a bad example to illustrate my question, sorry. – multigoodverse Mar 3 '19 at 21:11
That's not true.
First off, there is nothing in the specification of the Python language that requires that certain functions have to be implemented in a certain language. A Python implementor can choose to implement any function and language construct anyway he wants. For example, in Jython, those functions are implemented in Java, not in C. In IronPython, they are implemented in C#. In PyPy, they might be implemented in RPython or just in Python. In Pynie, they are probably implemented in Python.
Seondly, there is nothing in the specification of the C language that says that it must be compiled. There are interpreters for C.
Thirdly, just because it is in C doesn't mean it's fast. There are C compilers out there which produce really terrible code, and there are pretty fast Python implementations.
And fourth, even if the function implemented in C is blazingly fast, that doesn't necessarily translate into faster execution speed of the overall program. Optimizations typically don't work across languages. For example, the optimizer can't inline the call to map into your program, because your program is written in Python but map is written in C. But inlining is pretty much the foundation of all optimizations, because inlining (and loop unrolling) give nice long straight paths of code without branches or calls, which is what optimizers love.
It's generally interpreted,
Actually, all currently existing Python implementations always compile Python code, they never interpret it.
Why not just compile the whole thing?
That's a good question! Writing everything in the same language has many advantages, some of which I outlined above. (Another one is that it's easier to find collaborators who know one language than two.)
If everything is written in the same language, then performance improvements to that language get multiplied throughout the whole system. If everything is written in C, then making the Python 10 times faster isn't going to speed up your program much, because most of the code isn't Python. Sure, the code you wrote is running 10 times faster, but that code mostly consists of calls to C functions which have the same speed as before.
But if everything is written in Python, then making Python faster will have a ripple effect: the primitive types get faster, the datastructures built on top of those primitive types get faster, the algorithms using those datastructures get faster, the modules using those algorithms get faster and so on.
Jörg W MittagJörg W Mittag
This gave me a lot of insight about how languages can work, thank you (and all the other responders as well). I knew programming languages were complicated, but there is so much information about them and so many idiosyncrasies to each one. – Howcan Aug 24 '14 at 0:58
I think "all currently existing Python implementations always compile Python code, they never interpret it" is overstating the case. There is no implementation of the full Python language that compiles entire programs ahead-of-time to machine code, which is what one normally means when one says X is a compiled language. The most commonly used implementations compile ahead-of-time to some sort of byte code, which is then executed by an interpreter. I haven't seen a language that interpreted the source code directly since the days of C64 BASIC. – zwol Aug 24 '14 at 1:22
@Zack Heck, even C64 BASIC didn't interpret the source code directly. – fluffy Aug 24 '14 at 5:24
@Zack: "Compile" doesn't mean "translate to machine code", it means "translate to a different language" (or actually the same one). – Jörg W Mittag Aug 24 '14 at 6:48
@Zack: You are vastly overestimating the cleverness of the Ruby community :-D Until very recently, the most widely used Ruby implementation was MRI, which was a pure AST-walking interpreter. For about 10 years, MRI was the only Ruby implementation and for the next 10, it was still the most widely used. The second production-ready Ruby implementation was JRuby, which started out as a pure AST-walking interpreter, although today it supports both JIT compilation to JVM bytecode and AOT compilation to JVM bytecode as well. (However, it still has the interpreter, because sometimes that's faster.) – Jörg W Mittag Aug 24 '14 at 6:51
The interpreter itself is written in C (or at least the reference implementation CPython is). That means every language feature is implemented with a tiny C function. All the interpreter does is read the sourcecode to find out which of these tiny functions to call.
This means it is not a problem to also delegate more complex functions to C implementations.
These functions are not compiled with your program. They already exist in compiled form in the Python interpreter which just calls them when it encounters them in your sourcecode.
"That means every language feature is implemented with a tiny C function." Not quite true, there are some stuff in the stdlib (which I consider to be a language feature) that's written in Python and not C. – Ayrx Aug 24 '14 at 3:14
@TerryChia But what does that Python code in the stdlib boil down to in the end? The most basic language elements which are then implemented in C. When you dig down, you will always end up in a C implementation. – Philipp Aug 24 '14 at 10:35
No offense at all :) do not think so :) +1 – user167772 Oct 26 '15 at 9:15
Saying that they are "compiled in C" is a bit confusing statement. Let me rephrase it: CPython (the most widespread implementation of the Python interpreter, to which you are referring) is a C program, and those are C functions built in the interpreter, not Python code that the interpreter magically chooses to compile to C.
When you feed a .py file to Python, it parses it and converts each function into bytecode, i.e. a compact binary form of the operations that the function does . This is fed to the Python virtual machine, a piece of the interpreter which reads the bytecode and does what it tells it to do.
When you call functions written in Python nothing special happens: the VM will just jump to interpret their bytecode; but when you call a function that is built in inside the interpreter, the interpreter calls the corresponding C function that it has built in (this happens all the time, for example most operations on primitive types are actually performed by code compiled directly inside the interpreter).
Function written in C in CPython are generally faster, both because they are written in a language that is tailored for high performance, compiled to native code (no need for an interpreter, runs directly on the CPU) and has simpler, less dynamic semantics (for example, in Python each access to a member is a complex hashtable lookup, in C it can boil down to a single assembly instruction).
It's generally interpreted, so how does some of the code get compiled while another is interpreted - and in a different language? Why not just compile the whole thing?
You seem to think that the it's the interpreter to decide what code is compiled and what is interpreted; that's a wrong premise. The compiled parts are code that it's written directly in C by the CPython developers, and is compiled inside the interpreter when the interpreter is built (other code written in C or other compiled languages can be called by Python if it's compiled in Python extensions or via ctypes). All the CPython interpreter can do when you run it is just to interpret Python and call ready-made C functions.
Matteo ItaliaMatteo Italia
It's not "compiled in C" per se: map and filter are built-in functions from the standard library, which is provided by the language implementation (in this case, CPython). Since CPython is written in C, it can easily implement any of its primitive functions in C if needed.
RufflewindRufflewind
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged programming-languages python language-design compiler or ask your own question.
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Ahead-of-time compilation to native machine code of dynamically typed languages
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THIS IS JUST A START! – a mere 52 books.
Suggestions welcome! Send to kmobrien46@hotmail.com.
America: To Pray? or Not to Pray? by David Barton
Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government by Glenn Beck (Sept 14, 2010)
Arrogance: Rescuing America From The Media Elite by Bernard Goldberg(Nov 1, 2004)
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News by Bernard Goldberg(Jan 21, 2003)
The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski (June 1, 2011)
Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe (Oct 26, 2010)
The Coming Insurrection (Semiotext(e) / Intervention Series)by The Invisible Committee
Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve by Bernard Goldberg (Apr 1, 2008)
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin (Aug 9, 2010)
Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America by Ann Coulter (Jun 7, 2011)
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
The 5000 Year Leap (Original Authorized Edition) by W. Cleon Skousen (2009)
Four Centuries of American Education by David Barton
Give Me a Break : How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media by John Stossel (Feb 1, 2005)
Glenn Beck’s Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine by Glenn Beck (Jun 16, 2009)
Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter (Jun 26, 2007)
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin (Nov 17, 2009)
The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America by Andrew McCarthy (May 2010)
Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter (Nov 10, 2009)
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter by Ann Coulter (Sept 27, 2005)
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans by Ann Coulter (Aug 26, 2008)
Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World’s Fastest-Growing Faith by Robert Spencer (Nov 1, 2003)
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin (Jun 1, 2010)
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell (May 2009)
The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott (May 3, 2010)
The Myth of Separation: What Is the Correct Relationship Between Church and State? By David Barton
A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes by John M. O’Hara and Michelle Malkin (Jan 4, 2011)
The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America by Daniel Hannan (Sept. 28, 2010)
The Obama Diaries by Laura Ingraham (Jun 7, 2011)
Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion by David Barton
110 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37) by Bernard Goldberg May 23, 2006)
Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama by Bill O’Reilly (Sept 14, 2010)
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism (Politically Incorrect Guides) by Kevin D Williamson (Jan, 2011)
The Roots of Obama’s Rage by Dinesh D’Souza (Sept 27, 2010)
Rules for Radical Conservatives: Beating the Left at Its Own Game to Take Back America by David Kahane (Sept. 28, 2010)
The Second Amendment: Preserving the Inalienable Right of Individual Self-Protection by David Barton
Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White by David Barton
Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam by Robert W, Chandler (Aug 5, 2008)
Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting America by Laura Ingraham (Nov 7, 2006)
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right by Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh (Sept 16, 2003)
A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media by Bernard Goldberg (Jan 26, 2009)
The Terrorist Next Door: How the Government is Deceiving You About the Islamist Threat by Erick Stakelbeck (May 2011)
365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy by James Delingpole (Jan. 4, 2011)
Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism by Ann Coulter (Oct 5, 2004)
The Twelfth Imam by Joel C. Rosenberg (Oct 2010)
Underdogma: How America’s Enemies Use Our Love for the Underdog to Trash American Power by Michael Prell (Feb. 1, 2011)
Wake Up, America! by Peter Feaman (July 2007)
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Director of Youth Ministry
We are seeking a person to serve our parish community in a full-time position responsible for youth ministry in grades 9-12. Qualifications: Catholic in good standing, BA or MA with theological course work; experience in youth ministry, in curriculum-based and liturgical catechesis, and in “Renewing the Vision”; leadership, organization and communication skills. DYM is directly responsible for continuing to create a prayerful and dynamic environment for youth in grades 9-12 by working with Faith Development Team – Junior Youth Minister (grades 6-8), Adult Faith Formation, staff, catechists, and parents. Should want to set standard for such ministries. Fluency in Spanish preferred. Competitive salary and benefits. Contact DYM Search Committee at clima@stmchapelhill.org, or mail to St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 940 Carmichael Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 by February 28 for position available in May.
The Catholic Community of St Thomas More is looking for candidates for the part time position of Sacristan. Experience as liturgical minister required, training is offered. The sacristan, a practicing, active Catholic, under the general direction of the Coordinator of Liturgy, undertakes the overall preparation of liturgical celebrations. His or her primary role is to attend to the details of the liturgy and ensure a proper environment for worship. Hours average 23 per month, typically split between two weekends. Please send application letter and resume to clima@stmchapelhill.org or Sacristan Search Committee, 940 Carmichael St, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, by February 14, 2020 for position available in March.
View employment opportunities available at St. Thomas More School.
View employment opportunities available in the Diocese of Raleigh.
Carlos Lima
Director of Operations and Finance
climastmchapelhill.org
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Google’s Little Nemo Tribute: Maybe the Best Google Doodle Ever
By Harry McCracken @harrymccrackenOct. 15, 2012
Winsor McCay (1869-1934) was one of the first important creators of both comic strips and animation, and a pretty fair political cartoonist to boot. His masterwork was the Sunday comic Little Nemo in Slumberland, about a little kid whose dreams took him to an Oz-like fantasy world. It turns 107 today, and the artwork and imagination of every installment are as amazing as ever. Just thinking about the fact that it once appeared weekly leaves me slightly agog, and depressed about the current state of newspaper comic strips.
Someone at Google is a McCay fan too, it seems: The Google homepage is celebrating Nemo’s birthday with a wonderful, wonderfully ambitious interactive Google Doodle which captures much of the spirit of McCay’s print and film cartooning. Whoever created this can’t match McCay’s draftsmanship, but that’s O.K.: Almost 80 years after this death, nobody else has, either.
(Side note: When I checked out the Doodle on my iPad, I got only a simple, static Nemo tribute. I had to visit it on my laptop to see the version that’s so delightful.)
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LadBaby Charity Single Lands Christmas Number One
By Kym Duignan
Mark Hoyle and his family’s parody single We Built This City has landed the number one spot in the charts for Christmas 2018.
The song is a parody of the original We Built This City on Rock and Roll by Starship, which replaces the lyrics ‘rock and roll’ with ‘sausage rolls’.
The @officialcharts CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1 for 2018 is…@LadBabyOfficial with 'We Built This City' 🍾
Sausage rolls have done it and @scott_mills can't quite believe it! 😱 pic.twitter.com/kRcZOOesoP
— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) December 21, 2018
All proceeds from sales of the single will go to The Trussell Trust, a charity which operates food banks across the UK.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Mark said the idea for single came about from a tweet he received six months ago, which suggested he cover the song.
“I downloaded the original song, I played it at home. He [eldest son, Phoenix] went absolutely wild for it. So I thought if he’s up for it then why aren’t I?” he explained.
The family beat Ariana Grande and Ava Max, who were also in the running for Christmas Number One.
Speaking to OfficialCharts.com, Mark said: “Thank you everybody in the UK who has got a sausage roll to the top. I can’t thank you enough not only for downloading the song but for raising money for such an incredible charity. I’m honestly speechless and lost for words. Thank you so much. YES MAAATE!”
The 31-year-old dad of two also recently won Celebrity Dad of the Year 2018, beating the likes of Prince William, Simon Cowell, and Anthony Joshua.
OH MY GOD…WE ONLY WENT AND DID IT!!😂 Yes maaaaaaaaaaaaaate. 👍🏻 Honestly honestly honestly I can’t thank each and every one of you enough for voting for me. Totally shocked and overwhelmed! Not only am I now OFFICIALLY @clasohlsonuk ‘Celebrity’ Dad Of The Year for 2018…but I‘m now the first person to have ever beaten @anthony_joshua 😂👍🏻 #BestFansEver #YesMate #SausagesRollsAllRound #LadBaby #dadoftheyear #fathersday #CDOTY18
A post shared by LadBaby (@ladbabyofficial) on Jun 14, 2018 at 2:32am PDT
The charity single We Built This City is available for purchase on iTunes or to stream on Spotify.
Why not read about how Jacksepticeye has raised over $1 Million for charity in 2018 or about Tom Fletcher’s Christmasaurus sequel!
Mark Hoyle
About Kym Duignan
Singer, Writer and YouTuber. | Twitter: @kym_olivia
Hazel Hayes to direct a music video for Anna Akana
Industry Leaders Appointed to UK’s First Influencer Marketing Board
Ben Phillips Raises Money for Australian Animals Affected by Fires
Carrie Hope Fletcher and Scott Paige to Star in West End Does: Love Concert
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Teresa Dovalpage: a Cuban writer's blog
Interviews and Press
El Difunto Fidel
Habanera, A Portrait of a Cuban Family
The Astral Plane: Stories of Cuba, the Southwest and Beyond
Death Comes in through the Kitchen
Llevarás luto por Franco
¡Por culpa de Candela!
Orfeo en el Caribe
El retorno de la expatriada
A Girl like Che Guevara
Muerte de un murciano en La Habana
Posesas de La Habana
La Regenta en La Habana
Teresa Dovalpage
Theater Plays
Visiting Artist Program
Michael Vigil
October 25, 2015 dovalpage
Frank and Nancy Zinno: bound by love and scones
Nancy Zinno finishes a batch of scones
Photo: Katharine Egli
Image and story originally published in Taos news
Taos Farmers Market vendors and habitual customers will readily point to the booth manned by Frank and Nancy Zinno when asked about a place to buy scones and coffee.
“Not just regular ones, but the best scones in Taos,” says Mariah Arencibia, who comes from Valdez every Saturday to buy half a dozen from them.
Frank and Nancy Zinno, owners of ‘Z Best’ Scones, met in Santa Fe in the late eighties. They got married and moved to Taos to build an earthship and establish their massage business—they became licensed massage therapists in 1992.
“But there came a time, in 1997, when we needed some extra money and thought about baking scones,” Frank Zinno said. “We started with a couple of accounts in Taos and in a few months we were selling them to Alfalfa’s and Whole Foods in Santa Fe, and several local coffee shops.”
Soon, the business took on a life of its own. The couple opened a brick and mortar store called ‘Z Best Café’ in the John Dunn Shop plaza but later decided to focus on Taos and Los Alamos farmers markets.
Trying out recipes
Nancy Zinno grew up in a bakery.
“I guess baking is in my blood,” she said, laughing. “I’ve always enjoyed sweet things.”
Her family didn’t make scones, but she treasured some recipes that were later used in their business.
“We couldn’t find any scones like the ones we wanted to make so we went through a lot of testing,” Frank Zinno said. “We had to get the right combination of flour, butter and other ingredients, like the orange zest and the rising agent. We needed to try everything at first.”
No wonder they both gained weight during those initial stages. Frank admits he was up to 240 lbs at one time. Now, he is down to a comfortable and healthy 175 lbs.
“Then we found out we were sensitive to wheat,” he said, “and we started to use a white organic spelt flour that was lower in gluten.”
They now use organic flour from Costilla as well as spelt flour, plus local ingredients when available, such as peaches, apples, raspberries, apricots, pears, peppers, green chile, and corn.
Frank and Nancy Zinno have created sixteen different varieties of scones. Three are savory and the rest are sweet.
“The breakfast sausage scone is our newest creation,” she said. “It has become quite popular. We also have lemon raspberry, lemon blueberry, cinnamon walnut, chocolate, and many more.”
Every week, they bake from eighteen to twenty dozens. That means around two hundred and forty scones, which are often sold before noon.
Unlike many other vendors, they do not offer samples to their clients.
“We tell people, ‘If you are not satisfied after your first bite, we will give you your money back,’” Frank Zinno said. “In all these years, no one has ever asked for a refund.”
Love through thick and thin
The couple has been married twenty-two years.
“The key ingredient of having the business work is our commitment,” he said. “We really enjoy each other’s company. We built two businesses and a house, all by ourselves. We have been through thick and thin and our commitment to our spirit has made it work.”
“Yes, we are together constantly,” she agreed. “It can be challenging at times, but it is very rewarding.”
“You just have to get rid of the small stuff, the little I, the ego, and breath,” he said.
They also share responsibilities. Frank Zinno has a background in accounting and auditing, so he can do their bookkeeping and taxes.
“That helps a lot,” he said.
They usually bake on Fridays at TCEDC— a 5,000 sq. ft. commercial kitchen that provides a space to work for many enterprising cooks and bakers in town.
“On Fridays, we spend from four to five hours there,” he said. “The next morning we got up at 5 a.m. so we can be at the market at 6:30 a.m. and have everything ready. These are two intense workdays.”
Though the couple enjoys their work, it takes a lot of energy. They currently have one helper, and have had two in the past.
“But we aren’t getting any younger,” Frank Zinno said. “So are considering the options of selling the business or finding an investor, a business partner that we could work with. It would also be a way to ease into our retirement.”
They have a lot of recipes and a wealth of knowledge, plus a loyal clientele.
“This is a fun, sweet and profitable business which has made us happy and self-sufficient so I hope to find the right person to entrust with it,” he said. “It if is you, call me!”
To get in contact with Frank and Nancy Zinno, call 741-8288 or find them at the Farmers Market every Saturday from 8 to noon.
Z Best Scones recipes
(6 to 8 medium-sized scones)
Basic directions:
Place 1 lb. of mix in a bowl
Measure 2/3 cups of water (non chlorinated). Add water to dry mix and stir 20-25 times just until moistened. Add more water, if necessary.
Drop mix (after adding fruit or add-ons) onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown on top and bottom.
Blueberry scones: Add 2 tbs. of sugar to the mix. Stir in 1 cup of frozen or fresh berries. Stir in about 2/3 cup cold water (to keep the berries from turning the batter blue). Sprinkle with sugar before baking.
Peach scones: Add 2 tbs. brown sugar to the mix. Stir in 1 cup thawed frozen or fresh peaches. Sprinkle with brown sugar before baking.
Blueberry peach scones: Same as blueberry, except use ½ peaches and ½ blueberries.
Raspberry chocolate scones: Add ½ cup chocolate chips to the mix, follow package directions. After putting the scones on the baking sheet, poke in frozen raspberries. There are great with the lemon glaze!
Lemon glaze: Zest and juice of 1 lemon. Add powdered sugar and stir. If glaze is too stiff, add a little warm water. If it is too thin, add more sugar. Glaze should run easily off spoon.
Taos News
Frank and Nancy Zinno
Taos Farmers Market
Published by dovalpage
I was born in Havana, Cuba and I am the author of thirteen published books. I am currently a professor at New Mexico Junior College. View all posts by dovalpage
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Home Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Statler Center
Statler Center
Title Statler Center
Photographer Ballew, Howard.
Location/Accession HE box 468.; HE-001-930 4x5
Description Photo caption reads: "To open first unit of Statler Hotel. First unit of new $25,000,000 Statler center at Wilshire, Seventh and Figueroa, will be opened April 15. Left to right, Richard Klarfield, assistant treasurer; William C. Leber, vice-president; Arthur F. Douglas, president of Statler Hotels, and Henry C. Rising are shown with a model of the new Statler. Douglas points to section of the hotel which will be opened next month". Photo dated: Mar. 24, 1952.
Subject Douglas, Arthur F.
Klarfield, Richard.
Leber, William C.
Rising, Henry C.
Statler Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Office buildings--California--Los Angeles.
Hotels--California--Los Angeles.
Architectural models--California--Los Angeles.
Businessmen--California--Los Angeles.
Wilshire Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Figueroa Street (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express photographs.
Holabird, Root & Burgee.
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Cloud Computing Interview Questions And Answers – 2019 Updated
Cloud Computing Interview Questions / By Raghuram
1. What are the benefits of cloud computing?
Answer: The main benefits of cloud computing are that it is cost-effective in nature, it increases productivity by about 50%, and reduces IT support to 40%. It also saves time to about 30%, the required power is less, and also takes up lesser space.
New in the world of cloud computing? Let’s start with this introduction to cloud computing and know the reason behind its growing importance.
Certifications play an important role in one’s career. We at Whizlabs understand the importance of certifications and thus bring AWS Certified Security Specialty Practice Tests and Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) Practice Tests for you.
2. What is cloud computing?
Answer: Cloud computing is a new age computer technology that is internet-based. It is the next-generation technology that utilizes the web-based clouds to provide the services whenever and wherever the users need it.
3. Explain the full form and the usage of ‘Eucalyptus’ in Cloud Computing?
Answer: The full form of ‘Eucalyptus’ is ‘Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs to Useful Systems’.
Eucalyptus is an open-source software infrastructure in Cloud Computing, which enables us to implement clusters in the Cloud Computing platform. It is mainly used to build public, hybrid, and private clouds. It has capabilities to convert our own data center into a private cloud and provides its functionalities for various other organizations.
4. Explain how you can vertically scale an Amazon instance?
Answer: This is one of the essential features of AWS and cloud virtualization. We spin up a newly developed large instance where we pause that instance and detach the root EBS volume from the server and discard. Later, we stop our live instance and detach its root volume connected. here, we note down the unique device ID and attach the same root volume to the new server, and we restart it again. This results in a vertically scaled Amazon instance.
5. List down the basic characteristics of cloud computing?
Elasticity and Scalability
Self-service provisioning and automatic de-provisioning
Standardized interfaces
Billing self-service based usage model
6. How can you best secure data for transportation to the cloud?
Answer: First of all make sure that your data cannot be blocked as it moves into the cloud storage by making sure that there are absolutely no data leaks —malevolent or not, from its cloud storage. This can be easily accomplished by using a secure key.
7. What is the difference between cloud computing and mobile computing?
Answer: Mobile computing and cloud computing are slightly the same in concept. Mobile computing uses the concept of cloud computing. Cloud computing provides users the data which they required while in mobile computing, applications run on the remote server and give the user access for storage and manage.
8. What are Hybrid Clouds?
Answer: Hybrid clouds are nothing but a combination of public clouds as well as private clouds. It is usually preferred over both the clouds because it applies the most healthy approach to implementation of the cloud architecture. It includes the functionalities as well as the features of both the worlds at the same time. It allows the organizations to design their own cloud and permit them to give control over to someone else as well.
9. Name some basic characteristics of cloud computing?
Below are some of the essential characteristic of cloud computing:
On-demand self-service with a provision of storage, computing, etc.
Broad network access can be used in the thin or thick client platform
Support rapid elasticity so that it can grow and shrink as per requirement
Measured Services with pay as you go pricing model.
10. What is a Public cloud?
Answer: The public cloud is used among many people and it can be used for deployment. The major focus of the public cloud is the application, infrastructure, and providing platforms to various markets.
11. What is the difference in cloud computing and Mobile Cloud computing?
Answer: Mobile cloud computing and cloud computing has the same concept. Cloud computing becomes active when switched from the mobile. Moreover, most of the tasks can be performed with the help of mobile. These applications run on the mobile server and provide rights to the user to access and manage storage.
12. Name the foremost refined and restrictive service model?
Answer: The most refined and restrictive service model is PaaS. Once the service requires the consumer to use an entire hardware/software/application stack, it is using the foremost refined and restrictive service model.
13. What Are The Basic Characteristics Of Cloud Computing?
The four basic characteristics of cloud computing are given as follows:
Elasticity and scalability.
Self-service provisioning and automatic de-provisioning.
Standardized interfaces.
Billing self-service based usage model.
14. Explain Hybrid And Community Cloud.
Answer: The hybrid cloud consists of multiple service providers. This model integrates various cloud services for Hybrid Web hosting. It is basically a combination of private and public cloud features. It is used by the company when a company has requirements for both the private and public clouds. Consider an example when an organization wants to implement the SaaS (Software as a Service) application throughout the company. The implementation requires security that can be provided by the private cloud used inside the firewall. The additional security can be provided by the VPN on the requirement. Now, the organization has both private and public cloud features.
The community cloud provides a number of benefits, such as privacy and security. This model, which is quite expensive, is used when the organizations having common goals and requirements are ready to share the benefits of the cloud service.
15. Mention the basic Components of a Server Computer in cloud computing?
Answer: The components used in less expensive client computers matches with the hardware components of a server computer in cloud computing. Although server computers are usually built from higher-grade components than client computers. Basic components include Motherboard, Memory, Processor, Network connection, Hard drives, Video, Power supply, etc.
16. What are the unmistakable data creates used in disseminated registering?
Answer: There are unmistakable data creates in disseminated registering like messages, contacts, pictures, web diaries et cetera. As we understand that data is extending well ordered so it is relied upon to new data creates to store these new data. For a model, if you have to store video then you require another data create.
17. What is on-ask for handiness? How is it given in circulated figuring?
Answer: Dispersed figuring gives an on-ask for access to the virtualized IT resources. It might be used by the endorser. It uses a shared pool to give configurable resources. The shared pool contains frameworks, servers, accumulating, applications and organizations.
18. What are Hybrid fogs?
Answer: Mutt fogs are the mix of open fogs and private fogs. It is supported over both the fogs since it applies the most solid approach to manage complete cloud structure. It fuses the functionalities and features of both the universes. It empowers relationship to make their own cloud and empower them to give control over to someone else as well.
19. What do you mean by VPN? What does it contain?
Answer: VPN stays for Virtual Private Network. VPN is a private cloud that arrangement with the security of the data in the midst of the correspondence in the cloud condition. With VPN, you can make an open framework as a private framework.
20. What are the factors to move to the Cloud?
Answer: First need to check what kind of business it is, then should very careful about backup the data, fast accessing of the server, etc.
21. How is the payment model for a Google Cloud platform?
Answer: Google cloud platform provides the first 12 months is the free service up to certain data limit thereafter need to pay the amount as per the data uses plans. But the prices are very reasonable.
22. What is elasticity?
Answer: Elasticity is being one of the characteristics provide the concept of commissioning and decommissioning of a large amount of resource capacity dynamically. It is measured by the speed by which the resources are coming on demand and the usage of the resources.
23. Explain the importance of platform as a service?
Answer: Platform as a Service is an important layer in cloud architecture. It is built on the infrastructure model, which provides resources like computers, storage, and network. This layer includes organizing and operate the resources provided by the below layer. It is also responsible to provide complete virtualization of the infrastructure layer to make it look like a single server and keep it hidden from the outside world.
24. Tell me what are the characteristics on which a Cloud Computing Model should be selected for implementing and managing the workload?
Answer: Scalability is a characteristic of cloud computing through which increasing workload can be handled by increasing in proportion the amount of resource capacity. It allows the architecture to provide on-demand resources if the requirement is being raised by the traffic. Whereas, elasticity is being one of the characteristic provide the concept of commissioning and decommissioning of a large amount of resource capacity dynamically. It is measured by the speed by which the resources are coming on demand and the usage of the resources.
25. What is scalability?
Answer: Scalability is a characteristic of cloud computing through which increasing workload can be handled by increasing in proportion the amount of resource capacity. It allows the architecture to provide on-demand resources if the requirement is being raised by the traffic.
26. What do you know about Google Cloud platform?
Answer: Google cloud platform is very simple and robust scalable platform to use in different ways like data analysis etc.
27. What are the most crucial things that must be sought after before going for the appropriated figuring stage?
Loss of data
Data storing
Business congruity
Data uprightness in circulated registering
28. What is the difference between cloud and ordinary datacenters?
Answer: The cost of the traditional datacenter is higher than cloud because, in standard databases, there is overheating issues and some item and hardware issue.
29. What is an open cloud?
Answer: General society fogs are accessible to the all-inclusive community for use and sending. For example Google and Amazon et cetera. General society fogs base on two or three layers like cloud application, establishment giving and giving stage markets.
30. What do you mean by programming as an organization?
Answer: Programming As a Service (SaaS) is a basic layer of disseminated processing. It gives cloud applications like Google is doing. It urges customers to save their record on the cloud and make too.
31. Comment on the security of cloud computing?
Answer: It is a sub-domain of networks, computers and information security in a larger aspect. Cloud computing security is referred to as cloud computing. It is designed in such a way that it acts to safeguard the policies and technologies of organizations. Controls are deployed to protect applications, the company’s data and the framework of security protocols. (interview questions and answers)
32. How User Will Gain From Utility Computing?
Answer: Utility computing allow the user to pay per use means whatever they are using only for that they have to pay. It is a plugin that needs to be managed by the organizations on deciding what type of services has to be deployed from the cloud. Utility computing allows the user to think and implement the services according to them. Most organizations go for a hybrid strategy that combines internally delivered services that are hosted or outsourced services.
33. Explain different layers which define cloud architecture
Answer: Cloud computing architecture consists of many layers which help it to be more organized and can be managed from one place.
The layers are as follows:
Cloud controller or CLC is the topmost
level in the hierarchy which is used to manage the virtualized resources like servers, network, and storage with the user APIs.
Walrus is used for storage and act as a storage controller to manage the demands of the users. It maintains a scalable approach to control virtual machine images and user data.
Cluster Controller or CC is used to control all the virtual machines for executions the virtual machines are stored on the nodes and manages the virtual networking between Virtual machines and external users.
Storage Controller or SC provides a storage area in block form that is dynamically attached by Virtual machines.
Node Controller or NC is at the lowest level and provides the functionality of a hypervisor that controls the VMs activities, which includes execution, management, and termination of many instances.
34. Explain hybrid and community cloud?
35. How Important Is Platform As A Service?
36. What Is The Use Of Apis In Cloud Services?
Answer: API stands for Application programming interface is very useful in cloud platforms as it allows easy implementation of it on the system. It removes the need to write full-fledged programs. It provides the instructions to make the communication between one or more applications. It also allows easy to create an application with ease and link the cloud services with other systems.
37. What is the security aspects provided with cloud?
Answer: Security is one of the major aspects which come with any application and service used by the user. Companies or organizations remain much more concerned with the security provided with the cloud.
There are many levels of security which have to be provided within a cloud environment such as:
Identity management: it authorizes the application service or hardware component to be used by authorized users.
Access control: permissions have to be provided to the users so that they can control the access of other users who are entering in the cloud environment.
Authorization and authentication: provision should be made to allow the authorized and authenticated people only to access and change the applications and data.
38. How cloud services are measured?
Answer: Cloud computing provides the services to the organizations so they can run their applications and install them on the cloud. Virtualization is used to deploy the cloud computing models as it provides a hidden layer between the user and the physical layer of the system. The cloud services are measured in terms of use. Pay as much as you use that can be on the basis of hours or months or years. Cloud services allow users to pay for only what they use and according to the demand, the charges or the prices gets increased. AWS Training Online
39. What are the optimizing strategies used in the cloud?
Answer: To optimize the cost and other resources there is a concept of three-data-center which provides backups in cases of disaster recovery and allows you to keep all the data intact in the case of any failure within the system. System management can be done more efficiently by carrying out pre-emptive tasks on the services and the processes which are running for the job. Security can be more advanced to allow only limited users to access the services.
40. What are the basic traits of cloud computing? -OR- When do you call a service, cloud computing?
Answer: The cloud computing vendor should provide the following basic features that are essential for the service to be called cloud computing service. The service should be scalable. That is, when required, the cloud service provider should able to increase the resources and when the demand reduces, the cloud service provider should be able to release the resources for other customers so that the user is not overcharged. Other features are a real-time backup, high uptime, and security. Logs are also essential, but they are presented on-demand only. These logs contain who accessed what service at what time etc. information.
41. What are the three types of roles in Microsoft Azure? -OR- What are Roles in Microsoft Azure?
Answer: There are three types of roles in Microsoft Azure. These roles are Web Role, Worker Role, and VM Role. Web Roles help in deploying websites. It is good for running web applications. Worker Role assists Web Role. It runs background processes to support Web Role. The VM Role lets the users customize the servers on which the Web Role and Worker Roles are running.
42. Why should you use cloud computing?
Answer: The main advantages of using cloud computing can be listed below in the following points:
It increases productivity
It is cost-effective and saves time
It is an easy and secure data storage
It is useful for data backup
It has powerful servers
It also has sandboxing capabilities
43. What are the platforms for using large-scale cloud computing?
Answer: The platforms for large-scale cloud computing are: Apache Hadoop and Map Reduce.
Apache Hadoop – It is an open source platform written in Java. It creates a pool of computer with each file system. Then the data elements are clustered and similar hash algorithms are applied. Then copies of the existing files are created.
Map Reduce – It is a software built by Google in order to support distributed computing. It uses a large set of data and various cloud resources and then distributes the data to several other computers known as clusters. Map Reduce can deal with both structured and unstructured data.
44. Can you differentiate between computing for mobiles and cloud computing?
Answer: Although, both of these use the same concept, yet they differ in some instances. In the case of cloud computing, it is activated via the internet instead of the individual device. This facilitates the user to retrieve data on demand. On the other hand, the mobile runs applications on the remote server and therefore lets the user access the storage and manage accordingly.
45. What is cloud architecture?
Answer: It is the main question in the case of network security interview questions and answers. Cloud architecture is the combination of both components along with the subcomponents that are required for cloud computing.
Both the front end and back end platforms are there which include the clients, mobile device, server, and storage in all. Other than these, a network and a cloud-based delivery are also there.
46. How does it provide automation and transparency in performance?
Answer: There are various tools available for this purpose. Cloud architecture allows the management and also prepares reports of the work after proper monitoring of the same. It also allows the sharing of the applications. Alongside, automation is the vital component and thus it makes up for the improvement of the quality of services.
47.. What are the applications of cloud computing?
Answer: Cloud computing is a very speedy application process. Since you do not need to sell or buy anything in it; you can use the software in a convenient manner. The process of application building through this is 5 times faster and the applications can be deployed at anytime and anywhere. Additionally, it also instantly makes the applications mobile in nature. This is a common question that lies in the list of cloud computing interview questions as well as in the cloud security interview questions.
48. What are hybrid and community clouds?
Answer: Hybrid cloud, as the name suggests; it is composed of both public and private clouds. Therefore a hybrid has multiple service providers. For instance, a company might want to implement SaaS application throughout; therefore the required security will be provided by the firewall (private cloud) and the additional security will be provided by VPN.
On the other hand, a community cloud service is used by different companies together when they are ready to share the benefits of the cloud. As the cloud provides benefits of both privacy and security, companies having the same requirements often agree on sharing the same.
49. What can be done using Cloud Computing?
Answer: As Google is a cloud computing platform, Google Cloud interview questions are comprised of the general cloud computing questions. So, while going for a Google cloud interview, you need to prepare yourself with the basic cloud computing knowledge.
The potential of what all can be done using cloud computing is far greater than what most people might assume. The fact that the technology is super speedy, added with the fact that the consumer can just start using it without the need to purchase anything, itself are solid factors which point towards a bright future.
For example, the medical and healthcare industry now uses cloud computing on a regular basis to reach and be in touch with their patients at all times. Thus it can be confidently said that the future holds a plethora of opportunities for cloud computing and its patrons.
50. Describe Cloud Computing As Concisely And Simply As Possible In Layman Language?
Answer: The purest form of cloud computing is pay-as-you-go Info Tech, online and on-demand as per needed. The Info Technology capabilities provided as a service to businesses includes single software applications and the software suites.
All Cloud Computing Interview Questions
Interview Question On Cloud Computing – Freshers And Experienced
Cloud Computing Interview Questions – 2019 Updated Answers For Latest
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STO Management
Reliability Management
Management/History
CHANGE / Building Maintenance Excellence with a Culture of Flexibility in Belgium
Building Maintenance Excellence with a Culture of Flexibility in Belgium
A chemical site in Belgium wanted to assess their current needs and identify areas in which they could cut costs. T.A. Cook was asked to perform a full maintenance review to find this information. Following a three week analysis, a variety of improvement opportunities were revealed. Here are the key results:
Proper planning and scheduling processes established and lost time reduced
Unprecedented client staff buy-in; process adherence ensured
Recurrent problems with most costly equipment bad actors resolve
Fully-functional PMS installed including KPIs and review meetings
The evaluation determined that reactive work patterns were leading to lost time there was insufficient equipment to carry out preventive maintenance. The maintenance department also lacked proper maintenance planning and resource allocation stemming from an absence of prioritization. To combat these issues, T.A. Cook worked with the client to implement a fully reliable maintenance management system. This included implementing a new Work Order Management (WOM) and a Performance Management System (PMS), both supported by improved organizational practices. Overall, the project’s goal was to create an anticipatory culture at the site in which the team can make predictions and optimize resources while still being able to answer realtime urgency calls from production.
Reaching a consensus with stakeholders in order to implement new processes was a key challenge. To overcome this, T.A. Cook worked from the bottom-up, involving personnel in every change process department. This helped secure overall company “buy-in” and led to productive change. Next, equipment repair requirements were monitored and analyzed to identify recurring problem areas. This enabled the staff to anticipate upcoming repairs, rather than waiting for problems to occur. By working closely together, T.A. Cook and the chemical site’s maintenance staff defined new rules for notification gate-keeping and WOM prioritization. More optimal execution of work orders followed due to good preparation, proper scheduling and active supervision – all which allowed overtime to be reduced and costs to be better controlled. Finally, the most important functions and improvement requirements within the maintenance operation were identified, which allowed for the clarification of roles, responsibilities and performance management as well as Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Once preparation and scheduling techniques were improved, supervision became more active, roles and responsibilities were clarified and a fully functional PMS was installed, overall annual maintenance costs were reduced by 10%. Furthermore, the bottom-up approach led to an unprecedented level of buy-in to new processes, which ensured the adoption and adherence among staff.
Productivity Gains at Leading Private Brewer in the UK
A leading private brewer in the UK was operating a bottle-filling contract service for over fifty clients ranging from small local breweries to international wine and spirits corporations.
Proactive intervention gets US Refinery project back on track
A diversified Fortune 100 company providing essential energy resources to businesses and consumers around the world was concerned about one of their North American refinery site’s project cost and schedule overrun.
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Samantha Pugsley
Samantha Pugsley is an English Studies graduate, freelance writer, and photographer.
How The Media Created Sheltered Millennials
I’ll never forget that time when I was twelve when my mom decided to test my reaction to being grabbed in public.
By Samantha Pugsley, 20 Mar 2015
Find The Other Half Of Your Comfortable Silence
I can hear the elevated thud thud thud of his heartbeat matching time with my own as if in conversation with one another. We let them do the talking and languidly drowse in the aftermath of our lovemaking.
By Samantha Pugsley, 2 Feb 2015
You Cannot Lose Your Virginity, And 4 Other Reasons The Definition Needs A Modern Day Overhaul
The concept of “virginity” is heteronormative.
By Samantha Pugsley, 23 Jan 2015
10 Things I Don’t Miss About Going to Church (And The One Thing I Do)
Picking and choosing from the Bible.
“If,” “But” And “For” Compliments: What They Are And Why We Need To Change Them
“She’s pretty for a black girl.”
6 Questions That Can Help Determine Whether It’s More Than Just Low Self-Esteem
Does thinking about my appearance impact my daily life and my decisions?
By Samantha Pugsley, 6 Jan 2015
A Glimpse Into The Abstinence-Only Sex Education Classroom, From The People Who Experienced It Firsthand
I believe part of the problem is that we aren’t talking about what’s actually happening in these classrooms. It’s not just about promoting abstinence, instead crossing over into misinformation, scare tactics, and lies.
Why I Came Out As Bisexual To My Mother, Even Though I Married A Man
It would have been easier to stay comfortably hidden behind my marriage and to write behind a penname to remove all fear that she’d find out. But that’s not what I wanted.
By Samantha Pugsley, 22 Dec 2014
What Oprah Taught Me About Being Childfree By Choice
I’ll borrow Oprah’s words: I wouldn’t be the kind of mother I need to be.
6 Reasons Why New Year’s Is The Worst Holiday For People Who Struggle With Anxiety
About Samantha
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With Bryan Lotocki
Official El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Trailer: Jesse Pinkman’s Final Showdown
After debuting a second teaser trailer this past Sunday during the Emmys, Netflix and AMC have officially unveiled the full trailer for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. After seeing Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman hiding in his now infamous vehicle, listening to reports funneled in direct from the classic Breaking Bad finale, we now get to see what really happened to the man after escaping those white supremacists.
Picking up moments after the series finale of Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul is back as Jesse Pinkman in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, directed by Vince Gilligan, on Netflix October 11. Jesse is the main focus of this third sneak peak at the hugely anticipated return to the world of Breaking Bad. The footage is ominous, as Pinkman sneaks around New Mexico, revisiting old haunts and attempting to get his life in order.
Related: Breaking Bad Movie El Camino Brings Back Matt Jones as Badger
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan returns to write and direct El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which will continue the story of the finale, following Jesse Pinkman on the run as he is now wanted by the New Mexico authorities. In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future.
This full-length trailer teases the ghosts of Walter White and Mike Ehrmantraut standing along the riverbank where Mike’s life ended. Jonathan Banks confirmed during the Emmys that he will be back, which means we’ll be seeing some flashbacks. Bryan Cranston hasn’t officially confirmed that he’ll return as Walter White, but as we see in one far away shot, that appears to be the most likely scenario.
The only other returning characters we see in this trailer for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie are Matt Jones as Badger and Charles Baker as Skinny Pete, as Jesse finds refuge at their house, finally cleaning himself and getting ready for his final showdown, which is teased in the final moments of this preview. Who knows if we’ll get to see any more from the movie before it debuts. Vince Gilligan has been pretty secretive with the movie thus far, and this is really him showing his hand here.
On Monday, we got the first official poster for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, so it makes sense that the trailer would arrive today. Vince Gilligan once credited Netflix for helping fuel the thirsty for his show while giving on of his Emmy speeches. The movie will actually premiere in theaters on October 11 and run for three nights, going until October 13. It will also debut on Netflix October 11, followed by an AMC premiere later in the year at a yet unannounced date. Netflix and AMC Youtube dropped the trailer this morning. You can also take a look at the first poster.
Topics: Breaking Bad Movie, Breaking Bad
Sinister Six Fan-Made Trailer Unleashes Carnage While Uniting Spider-Man and Deadpool
The Lovebirds Trailer Has Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae on the Run
Guns Akimbo Trailer Goes Wild with Daniel Radcliffe & Samara Weaving
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Trailer #2 Comes Hopping Down The Bunny Trail
Stargirl Trailer Brings Grace VanderWaal’s Musical Magic to Disney+
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Nightworld
The movie Nightworld: trailer, clips, photos, soundtrack, news and much more!
Clip of Nightworld
Check out this preview clip of Nightworld, the upcoming horror thriller movie directed by Patricio Valladares and starring Jason London, Robert Englund, Gianni Capaldi, and Lorina Kamburova:
Nightworld – Land of the Dead
“When former cop, Brett Irlam (Jason London), takes a job as head of security at an old apartment building in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, he immediately begins to experience a series of bizarre and terrifying events. As he starts to delve deep into the building’s sinister history and investigate its shadowy owners and past employees, Brett quickly uncovers a malevolent force nestled deep in the bowels of the building, a force that will not stop at anything to be set free into our world.”
Well, let’s hope that Jason London will save the day then!
The release date of the movie Nightworld is set to October 20, 2017.
Stay tuned for updates.
Tags: Nightworld
Trailer of Nightworld starring Jason London and Robert Englund
There’s a brand new trailer for Nightworld, the upcoming horror thriller movie directed by Patricio Valladares, watch it below:
If you have bad feelings about a place, you better play safe and get the hell away!
The cast includes Jason London, Robert Englund, Gianni Capaldi, Lorina Kamburova, Diana Lyubenova, Atanas Srebrev, Nikolay Valentinov Lukanov, John Strong, Stefan Shterev, Julieta Koleva, Todor Dotsev, Dimitar Banchev, and Lyuben Popov.
Still no official release date.
Nightworld Movie Trailer
You may watch below the first official trailer of Nightworld, the upcoming horror thriller movie directed by Patricio Valladares and starring Jason London, Robert Englund, Gianni Capaldi, and Lorina Kamburova:
Time’s up… the night will fall!Plot synopsis:
“When Former LAPD Office, Brett Anderson takes a job as head of security at an old apartment building in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, he soon begins to experience a series of bizarre and terrifying events. Once he begins to delve deep into the building’s sinister history, and investigate its shadowy owners and past employees, Brett soon uncovers a malevolent force nestled deep in the bowels of the building in basement that will do anything to be set free into our world…”
A quote from the trailer: “Rats will always leave the sinking ship.” Those rats are smart, aren’t they? Better leave and live than die!
Anyway, there’s also a film poster:
The night will fall…
And a few pictures:
(Click on a picture to enlarge.)
The film has yet to get an official release date.
The afterlife is darker than you think.
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Directed by: Patricio Valladares
Starring: Jason London, Robert Englund, Gianni Capaldi, Lorina Kamburova
More Information at: Nightworld Trailer
https://teaser-trailer.com/movie/nightworld
Watch the official movie trailer of Nightworld below:
Tags: Gianni Capaldi, Horror, Jason London, Lorina Kamburova, Nightworld, Patricio Valladares, Robert Englund, TBA 2016, Thriller
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The movie Ozzy: trailer, clips, photos, soundtrack, news and much more!
Ozzy Movie Poster
There’s a new poster for Ozzy, the upcoming CG animated movie directed by Alberto Rodríguez and Nacho La Casa and featuring the voices of Jeff Foxworthy, Rob Schneider, Frankie Quinones, and Lexi Walker:
The fast and furriest!
“The pampered life of Ozzy, a lovable beagle, is turned upside down when his family leaves him in what seems to be the best canine spa, Blue Creek, before going on a long vacation. But the place’s perfect appearance turns out to be a façade concocted by its villainous owner, Mr. Robbins. Ozzy soon discovers that Blue Creek is a jail for dogs, inhabited mainly by tough street mongrels and where it’s a case of survival of the fittest. Ozzy will now have to avoid danger, find strength where he didn’t think he had any and learn to rely on Chester, Fronky and Doc, his new friends who will accompany him on his adventure as he tries to get back home safe and sound.”
Are you in for one doggy adventure movie? Then tag along Ozzy and his flea-infested friends!
Check out the movie trailer of Ozzy if you haven’t seen it yet: Continue reading »
Tags: Ozzy
Ozzy Movie Song
Check out the official music video of the theme song of Ozzy, the upcoming CG animated movie directed by Alberto Rodríguez and Nacho La Casa:
Ozzy – Theme song – “I Got Your Back” performed by KayliannPlot synopsis:
“Ozzy, a friendly, peaceful beagle has his idyllic life turned upside down when his family leave for Japan. There’s only one problem: no dogs allowed!
Unable to bring their beloved Ozzy along for the ride, the Martins settle on the next best thing, a top-of-the-line canine spa called Blue Creek. This picture perfect place turns out to be a facade constructed by its villainous owner to capture dogs.
Ozzy will soon end up in the real Blue Creek, a prison for dogs, run by dogs. Ozzy will have to avoid danger and find strength in his new friends, Chester, Fronky and Doc to escape the prison and return home safely.”
It’s a catchy little song, isn’t it? Front paws up in the air if you like it!
Release date: April 21, 2017.
Ozzy Movie trailer
Check out the official trailer of Ozzy, the upcoming CG animated movie directed by Alberto Rodríguez and Nacho La Casa based on a script by Juan Ramón Ruiz de Somavía and featuring the voices of Jeff Foxworthy, Rob Schneider, Frankie Quinones, and Lexi Walker:
OZZYPlot synopsis:
And here’s a series of international posters:
(Click on a poster to enlarge.)
Ozzy and his friends are really smart dogs, aren’t they?
The release date of the movie Ozzy is set to April 21, 2017.
Genre: Animation/Family
Directed by: Alberto Rodriguez
Starring: Jeff Foxworthy, Rob Schneider, Frankie Quinones, Lexi Walker
More Information at: Ozzy Trailer
https://teaser-trailer.com/movie/ozzy
Watch the official movie trailer of Ozzy below:
Tags: Alberto Rodriguez, Animation, April 2017, Family, Frankie Quinones, Jeff Foxworthy, Lexi Walker, Ozzy, Rob Schneider
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PAX Aus 2014
HANDS ON: Bonza shows that I can’t spell coz I’m Smrt
By Gabriel Huynh on November 2, 2014
A brief description of the Bonza could be a combination between crosswords and Scrabble, as player must make words from a set number of pieces. Although the game sounds simple by moving pieces until they connect, it is actually more difficult. While it easy to drag pieces until they connect, Bonza fixes this issue by only connecting piece if the right word is formed. So no lucky guesses people.
I had a chance to try the game at PAX Australia and let’s just say I need to stop depending on spell-check. The game has a well-done tutorial which explains the mechanics visually. While the first set of puzzles were simple and straightforward, as you progress the difficulty increases. According to the game’s developer, the difficulty was meant to vary as you continue so players don’t feel discouraged at higher levels. Additionally, I had a glimpse of the final level: Aussie Lingo. While the level was meant to be extremely difficult (especially for non-Australian), the developer explained the hint mechanics which players exchange 50 gold pieces for one word. These gold pieces can be acquired from playing the game normally or from micro transactions.
The features a lot of puzzles that will test your spelling abilities and your persistence. Moreover, the game features daily puzzle which adds one new level where players can test there spelling ability. However each level has limited replay ability as the words and the letters are fixed.
The game is currently available for iOS and Android devices.
tgau.co/2N1Ndf7
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Moms protest ‘toxic’ toys
Moms gather by a “toxic” toy bin on Broadway and 25th Street to protest an industry lawsuit. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)
A coalition of moms protesting hazardous chemicals and metals used in toys descended upon the headquarters of the Toy Industry Association on Tuesday morning, toting with them a collection of “toxic toys.”
Toys these days, they said, can include chemicals like benzene, cadmium and even formaldehyde. They gave an example in two of the toys that were on display in a trash bin, a soccer ball and a padded mat, which they said had lead. Two of the moms added they’ve even tested toys themselves and found chemicals in them.
One of them was Tenye Steele, who has two daughters. “I am always having to tell them, ‘Please take that out of your mouth’, ‘please don’t chew on that,’” she said. “I used to work with chemicals so I understand that chemicals are needed to make things, but it doesn’t take a physical scientist to understand that toxic chemicals should not be in children’s toys. It could be one less thing I have to worry about.”
The group held its press conference across the street from the Toy Industry Association’s building on 25th Street and Broadway, after being shooed away from the front of the building by an employee there. The location was chosen as a response to a federal lawsuit filed in Albany by a group of toy manufacturers fighting a local law that sets which levels of chemicals in products are acceptable. The suit is fighting it by arguing that there’s already a similar federal law and sufficient safety provisions in place.
Posted in Flatiron
Tagged benzene, cadmium, Flatiron, formaldehyde, JustGreen Partnership, League of Conservation Voters, Toy Industry Association
RGB: Owner costs lowest they’ve been in 13 years
On Thursday, The Rent Guidelines Board released its annual report on landlord operating costs, which revealed that landlords only experienced a 0.5 percent increase last year, making it the smallest increase since 2002.
Mike McKee
Mike McKee of TenantsPAC pointed out that in that year, operating costs were actually in the negatives but the chair at the time had been appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“He said that he didn’t care what the price index showed and that we couldn’t have rent increases below 2 and 4,” McKee said. “And that’s what the increases were that year.”
In contrast, the current board that will vote this year was appointed entirely by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made getting a rent freeze for rent stabilized tenants one of his campaign promises.
The study released last year reported that operating costs had increased by 5.7 percent in 2013, but the board had five new tenant-friendly members and set record-low increase of one percent for one-year leases and 2.75 percent for two-year leases.
The notably small increase in landlord costs in this year’s study is due primarily to a 21 percent decrease in fuel costs throughout last year. The study also noted that there was a 4.2 percent increase in taxes, 7.2 percent increase in insurance costs and 1.2 percent increase in utilities, but these were still outweighed by the drastic decrease in fuel costs.
While the report looks promising for tenants, advocates are still fighting to change the process because they say that the price index is deceptive and shouldn’t even be used as part of the RGB’s process.
Tagged councilmember corey johnson, fuel costs, Mike McKee, price index, Rent Guidelines Board, rent stabilization, tenantspac
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Is your business leading or lagging on social in your industry? Without competitive benchmarks, it’s impossible to tell. And if it’s possible to tell what’s working and what isn’t, why commit to a social media marketing strategy in the first place?
Our latest research puts an end to that existential crisis. We analyzed the social media content from over 40,000 companies across 130 major industries on four major social networks —Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn — to provide businesses with relevant benchmarks for social media audience size, posting frequency, and engagement at an industry-specific level.
The findings, summarized in our 2016 Social Media Industry Index, point to drastic disparities in social media marketing strategy across networks and industry verticals.
Five key takeaways for your social media marketing strategy:
1. Engagement ratios continue to cascade on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
The engagement ratio per brand — or average interactions per post per brand per 1,000 followers — decreased on Instagram (by 25.85%), Facebook (by 8.27%), and LinkedIn (by 7.6%). On Twitter, the engagement ratio per brand increased slightly, up 1.08% across the first half of 2016.
2. The engagement ratio for businesses is 10 times higher on Instagram than on Facebook
Brands see the highest average engagement ratio on Instagram. However, as Instagram made major moves towards monetization across the first half of 2016, including the introduction of a ranking algorithm and and business profiles, its engagement ratio fell by 25.85%.
3. The Music industry dominates Twitter and Instagram
Across all 130 industries analyzed, the Music industry leads the engagement contest on Twitter with an average of 1,745 interactions (likes and retweets) per tweet. The boy band One Direction, for example, averages 68,960 interactions per tweet. On Instagram, the music industry beats all 129 other industries with an average of 58,546 interactions (likes and comments) per post.
4. Sports and Entertainment brands have figured out the Facebook trifecta: popularity, posting frequency, and engagement
Businesses in these two industries rank in the top 10 on Facebook by average number of followers, average number of posts per month, and average interactions per post. Interactions include likes, shares, comments, and reactions. Put differently, Sports and Entertainment brands post frequently, see high levels of engagement, and attract large audiences on Facebook — all signs of highly effective Facebook content.
5. Surprising LinkedIn winners: Wine & Spirits, Luxury Goods & Jewelry, and Airlines/Aviation industries
The Wine & Spirits, Luxury Goods & Jewelry, and Airlines/Aviation industries have the highest average interactions per post on LinkedIn. This finding stands in contrast to the industry with the highest average followers on LinkedIn: Pharmaceuticals.
Diageo, the parent company to liquor brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, and Tanqueray, leads the wine and spirits industry on LinkedIn by engagement. Louis Vuitton leads by engagement on LinkedIn in the Luxury Goods & Jewelry industry. Emirates leads by engagement on LinkedIn in the Airlines/Aviation industry.
Find out how you measure up against the rest of your industry. Download your free copy of the 2016 Social Media Industry Index!
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https://trackmaven.com/blog/social-media-marketing-strategy-report/ https://trackmaven.com/blog/social-media-marketing-strategy-report/ Kara Burney
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American woman Jenny Jacobs explains why she ‘vowed off’ dating British men
May 17, 2019 admin Lifestyle News photo
An American woman says that she swore off dating British men after a trip to England, where she says most of the men she encountered were short, had bad teeth, and out of shape.
Jenny Jacobs, 37, is now married with two children — but before she met the one, she says, she realized that British guys don’t do it for her.
Speaking to The Sun, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based personal trailer listed all of things she finds unattractive about men from across the pond — conclusions she mostly came to have her a single trip to England in 2013.
Personal trainer Jenny Jacobs says that before she got married, she’d sworn off British guys because she found them unattractive and ignorant
Trying it out: She chatted with British guys on dating apps and even flew from Cincinnati, Ohio to London to meet one, but it went nowhere
Jenny insists she wasn’t always against dating a Brit, and even spoke to a few online. But she never found any real romantic connection with any of them, and blames it on their looks.
She would see lots of British guys on an app called Beautiful People, but says she wasn’t physically attracted to them.
‘I’d say Brits are up there with Russian men as the ugliest men on the app,’ she said.
She recalled speaking to one British man online who seemed ‘very successful’ and had pictures of himself on yachts.
But she was concerned that he never showed his teeth while smiling and texted him to ask about it: ‘I see you’re not showing your teeth in any of your pictures, do you have bad teeth?’
Quick visit: After her four-day trip to England, she decided British guys were not for her
She said: ‘I’m a big teeth person, she said. ‘That’s something that stands out to me. [And] my main issues with British guys are height, teeth, and fitness.’
Nope: She said they have bad teeth and are too short for her, and also complained that they aren’t as focused on fitness as she is
She said he never responded, so she supposed it was true.
‘I’m a big teeth person, she said. ‘That’s something that stands out to me. [And] my main issues with British guys are height, teeth, and fitness.’
She’s 5’9″ and prefers a guy who is tall, and also considers herself a ‘fitness nut’.
Jenny already seems to have formed an opinion about them by the time she started talking to one man who lived in Brentwood, Essex.
In 2013, she flew out to meet him for four days — and while he was nice and planned a good trip, she wasn’t attracted to him.
She also wasn’t attracted to anyone else she came across.
‘I noticed a lot of the guys weren’t physically fit,’ she said. ‘A lot of them had bad teeth. They tend to be short and stocky framed, not tall and broad shouldered like the German frame.’
Her dream guy: She now has an American man who fit her standards, Justin Hopkins, 29
‘He’s got perfect straight teeth, he’s 6’4″, athletic, crystal blue eyes, a very strong structural face,’ she said of her husband, with whom she has two kids
What’s more, she said, she noticed several had the ‘disgusting’ habit of smoking and also drank too much.
‘Alcohol is a big thing in England,’ said Jenny, who stopped drinking at age 21. ‘If you get wasted every day, or you get drunk every day, maybe you’re a functioning alcoholic, it’s a little much. I noticed a lot of the Brits I was talking to were drinking every single day.’
She said she realized that there was ‘no way’ she’d find a British guy ‘who didn’t drink every single day.’
And that’s not all: She also said some of them were ‘ignorant’ and couldn’t fathom that a woman would know anything about football.
Luckily for Jenny, she managed to find an American man who fit her standards. She describes her husband Justin Hopkins, 29: ‘He’s got perfect straight teeth, he’s 6’4″, athletic, crystal blue eyes, a very strong structural face.’
She and her medical researcher husband have a three-month-old son named Xavier and a two-year-old daughter named Miracle.
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Danger of alcohol
[1] NOW Lazarus went with a few servants to bring new wine that tasted particularly well. So the cups were filled again. We all drunk of it and our body was strengthened by it. All became very cheerful and praised Me because I had placed such good and strengthening things on this Earth.
[2] But I said: “Yes, yes, such a wine is a strengthening drink, but only when it is taken with moderation and on time. But for those who are immoderate in drinking wine and get drunk, it is then no more a strengthening drink but a drink that weakens his whole body. Therefore, always drink this drink with moderation in My name, then it will also strengthen you for the eternal life of the soul. But in the immoderate usage of this drink, the evil spirit of lewdness and fornication lays hidden. This spirit does not awaken the soul to life, but makes him dead for the true spirit of life from the Heavens and makes the spiritual rebirth of the soul in the spirit from the Heavens nearly impossible on this Earth. Do also remember that.”
[3] I said this on that moment not only for the sake of the truth, since I had said that already oftentimes, but because Judas Iscariot took too big gulps and was on the point of getting drunk. He surely noticed that and stood up from the table, went outside and visited the little town Bethany. (GGJ Book 19, chap. 23)
[18] Also wine was consumed, but in moderation, for the wine was strong. And that is why I said to the disciples: “Be careful that you drink not too much, for you know that drunkenness is a vice that weakens heart and soul, and awakens in the flesh the spirit of fornication and lewdness. A drunken soul will not easily enter the Kingdom of God.” (GGJ Book 20, chap. 40)
Carnal and sensual pleasures
Earth and Moon, chap. 59
"You know that certain human beings, male and female, are much afflicted with carnal desires, while there are others whose sensuous carnal nature is almost totally impassive. Such human beings do not react even if they are exposed to the most delightful flesh, whereas others would again enter into a frenzy at the sight of feminine charms. Yes, there are fools who, at the sight of a female, fall in love to such a degree that they completely lose their senses if they cannot have such a woman as their wife or, at least, for occasional sensuous pleasures.
The reason for such carnal inclination, especially if it expresses itself severely, frequently lies in being possessed with one or even several lecherous carnal devils.
How do these devils enter the flesh of such a person? Human beings themselves prepare opportunities without number or measure. Such carnal devils live especially in all “heating” (that is, alcoholic) beverages, in wine, in beer, and particularly in all distilled spirits. When people drink such alcoholic beverages and become severely inebriated, they have with certainty accommodated at least one or more carnal devils in their bodies. Once these carnal devils are in the flesh, they itch and torment the genitals in such a severe manner that human beings cannot but satisfy this enticement in sensuous pleasures.
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Manny Bermudez embracing much-needed homecoming at UFC Boston
2019 MMA Awards
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by Shane Connelly
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Growing up, Manny Bermudez would pass by TD Garden and dream of what was going on inside. Now, he’s about to take the center stage.
The Boston-born fighter returns to Massachusetts for the first time since signing with the UFC in the beginning of 2018. Nine of his first 11 professional bouts took place in his home state, but for the 25-year-old fighter, this is a major step up.
“I used to drive by the TD Garden as a kid,” Bermudez told John Hyon Ko of The Body Lock. “I used to see all the stuff that was going on in there, and I always thought it was just a place for the Bruins and the Celtics to go play. I never thought that, you know, there’d be MMA fighting. Because when I was growing up, it wasn’t even sanctioned in Massachusetts. And then, you know, now they’re sanctioned and now I’m fighting there too. So it’s crazy.”
The homecoming is a chance for Bermudez to live out his dream. He gets to perform on a big stage in Boston.
But it’s not exactly the homecoming most fighters get.
Bermudez’s opponent, Charles Rosa, was born in Peabody, Massachusetts, and after a two-and-a-half-year layoff, he’s sure to draw the support of many in attendance.
“I’m a little bit bummed out because I always go fight everywhere else and then I’m always the out of town guy,” Bermudez said. “And then this one I’m finally like in my hometown, and I’m still not the hometown guy really.”
And while it might hurt to hear some boos from Rosa’s fans on the walk to the Octagon, Bermudez expects the two of them to draw cheers by the end of their bout.
“It’s going to be a great performance because me and him are both in the same spot,” Bermudez said. “It’s a huge opportunity to be able to be in front of your friends, in front of your family, you know. I’ve had the opportunity locally but never at the TD Garden. I’ve never been able to be in the UFC in front of all my friends and family and just go out there and have fun and fight.”
Manny Bermudez on bouncing back
The homecoming comes at a great time for Bermudez. After setting the world on fire as a professional with his slick submissions, he met his match in August. Bermudez suffered his first professional defeat at UFC 241 when all three judges declared Casey Kenney the winner of their 140-pound catchweight bout.
The first blemish served as a wakeup call for the young fighter.
“You think you’d be undefeated forever,” Bermudez said. “When you wake up every morning, you expect to never have a bad day.”
UFC 241 was more than just one bad day for Bermudez. He has a notoriously difficult weight cut to get his 5-foot-10 frame down to the 136-pound non-championship bantamweight limit, and the UFC took note of this. With the approval of the California State Athletic Commission, the promotion adjusted the bout to a 140-pound catchweight fight prior to weigh-ins.
This decision drew mixed reactions, but many took issue with the fact that Bermudez, the much bigger fighter, was seemingly gaining an advantage over his opponent Kenney, who has competed at 125 in the past.
“You get stuff sent to you and you see all this stuff and I know what the reaction was and that and how people took it,” Bermudez said. “I just read it and I just like keep going on with my life. So I read it and I didn’t really think too much of it, but I did see that some people going kinda nuts about it.”
The fight forced Bermudez to re-evaluate his approach.
“Weight cutting’s one of those tricky things where you have to balance the line of, you want the advantage of being bigger, but like, are you going to deplete yourself?” Bermudez said. “Are you going to kill yourself just trying to make that weight?”
Bermudez had a major advantage over his bantamweight opponents, but his inability to consistently make the weight put his job security in jeopardy. And while he’s not ruling out an eventual return to bantamweight, the 25-year-old is focusing on adapting to a new weight class for the time being.
“I’m still, you know, in tune with the other 45ers. I’m still a good size 45er,” Bermudez said. “I think I was just a huge 35er, so now I’m just going to focus on the other things, focus on my fighting skills, focus on my speed, focus on, you know, just how well I’m going to feel in there knowing I don’t have to cut so much weight.”
Bermudez’s fight at UFC Boston was expected to be his featherweight debut in the UFC, but it will be his third-straight catchweight fight instead. Bermudez came in two pounds over the 146-pound limit, showing that his weight-cutting difficulties are not behind him.
Rosa chose to accept the bout and collect 20 percent of Bermudez’s purse, and the fight will go on as scheduled on Oct. 18.
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Shane Connelly October 18, 2019
New year. Same us.
The Body Lock enters 2020 with the objective of remaining at the forefront of MMA journalism.
With your continued support, we remain committed to reporting the most important stories in MMA and publishing the news that those in power do not want to see printed.
Click here to review our most significant work from 2019.
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About the body lock
The Body Lock is your destination for hard-hitting mixed martial arts news and stories from all around the world.
We are committed to genuine, high-quality reporting, but we need your support.
You can help us by following us on social media.
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How Jason Aldean Fan Kolter Beneitone Came to Symbolize #VegasStrong
Jason Aldean fan Kolter Beneitone doesn't have a great answer for how he ended up on top of the world during the singer's weekend return to Las Vegas. The 27-year-old Army veteran and Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting survivor just recalls screaming to let his emotions out.
Beneitone is the man pictured in a wheelchair being held up by fans during Aldean's Friday night (Dec. 6) show at the Park MGM. That first Ride All Night Vegas residency date marked a return to the city for the singer and dozens, if not hundreds, of fans who were there when the gunfire started on Oct. 1, 2017. Yes, he's technically been back before. and even performed during a few televised events, but this was his first full show since. That clearly mattered to those in attendance.
"I kind of blacked out in the moment. I was pretty emotional," Beneitone tells Taste of Country during a phone call from his Missoula, Mont., home. "From what I understand, he [Aldean] teared up a little bit and pointed at me and gave me a little acknowledgment."
Wearing a Route 91 t-shirt and holding an American flag, Beneitone can be seen going through a range of emotions in three pictures shared to Aldean's wife Brittany's Instagram page. Photographer Justin Mrusek captured the images, the final one showing Beneitone with arms up, head down and a look of anguish across his face. There's so much more to his story that one needs to know to appreciate the pictures in full.
"It was hard for me not to cry," he says, speaking of a night that ended with Aldean finishing "When She Says Baby," the song he was playing when the gunfire started two years ago. "I'm not much of a crier and that was pretty hard not to cry."
Fourteen people from Beneitone's group of 18 that attended Route 91 Harvest Festival joined him at the Friday night concert. There were also a few friends that he met in 2017, two of whom were EMT or first responders. That's who held him up on Friday night. That's who he was representing.
"I just wanted to show everybody ... I was proud we were all there doing that," he shares. "The only way to express the feelings you have in a moment such as that is just to scream as loud as you can."
Among the group in Vegas for both weekends were Beneitone's stepfather and his mother, Michelle Cole. During a conversation with the Idaho State Journal in April 2018 she shared her Route 91 story, one that ended with no harm coming to any of her friends or family members (Beneitone is a paraplegic as a result of a 2012 car accident that ended his Army career). Since then the family has been very proactive. Both Shane and Michelle Cole were already intensive care nurses at Missoula St. Patrick Hospital and had trained for an active shooter. Now they're all Stop the Bleed trainers active in training businesses and schools. He says they're also active shooter resistance trainers with the Safariland Training Group.
"A lot of people struggle finding their route back in life after an event like this," Beneitone says, speaking to how the work has helped him heal. Still, the emotional fallout is something no one can totally prepare for. Army training and that rollover car accident in 2012 may have put him in a position to thrive and lead in 2019.
"I've been through a couple of traumatic incidents prior to that that I was luckily able to learn how to cope with these things a little bit easier," he admits.
After the Aldean concert, Beneitone's group went to see George Strait the next day and then returned home to Missoula, where he was spending Monday recuperating. His message comes with the kind of inspiration that can't be faked, and the double tragedies are described more as learning or growth opportunities than a moment for pity.
"Love wins," he shares when asked for a final word. "And stay country strong."
See Photos From the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting in Las Vegas
Source: How Jason Aldean Fan Kolter Beneitone Came to Symbolize #VegasStrong
Filed Under: Jason Aldean
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Scandinavia – A guide to celebrating midsummer
People in Scandinavia celebrate the approach of summer and light for six days from June 20 to June 26 each year; and whether tourists find themselves in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark or Iceland at that time, they can expect plenty of fun-filled events, colourful displays and gastronomic experiences to savour.
Midsummer marks the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the calendar year and the official start of the new season. Here’s how travellers can make the most of the celebrations and what to expect.
Midsummer in Scandinavia is one of the most important holidays in the Swedish calendar. Dalarna in central Sweden is where the magic happens. Make your way there for views of traditional red cottages and lots of smiling locals singing and dancing around the maypole.
Head to a bar or restaurant a few days before Midsummer’s Eve – and make an effort to befriend a local. Getting an invite to a private celebration at someone’s landställe, or summer house, is the best way to experience the holiday fully. Otherwise, head to a public park or bask in the sun lakeside and wait for the celebration to find you.
On the day before Midsummer’s Eve, Swedes venture out to pick flowers and birch leaves that they use to decorate their maypoles. A hearty lunch is enjoyed on Midsummer’s Eve, with delicacies such as moose, baked salmon, boiled potatoes sprinkled generously with dill, and pickled herring.
The traditional dessert is fresh strawberries with elderflower ice cream, washed down with local beer and spiced vodka.
“While in Dalarna, also be sure to stop by Carl Larsson-gården, the artist’s old residence perfectly preserved by his children in his memory – a work of art in and of itself,” comments Teresa Richardson, Managing Director of The Travel Corporation in South Africa, which includes popular guided travel brand, Costsaver.
“Costsaver’s trips to Scandinavia include all of the essentials but allow travellers to add a variety of optional extras to tailor-make their perfect itinerary.
Visiting these Scandinavian countries during the Midsummer celebrations will give many opportunities to enjoy the festivities with the locals,” she adds.
In Norway Midsummer, or Jonsok, is celebrated by hosting bonfires, but you may still find a few maypoles and hand-made wreaths. While the Norwegians don’t celebrate Midsummer quite as enthusiastically as the Swedes and the Finns, it’s still an important holiday.
Bonfire evenings are light-hearted, warm-spirited gatherings for friends and family, with the fire acting as a symbol of protection and representing the sun.
The fire is also thought to enhance the sun’s strength and power, leading to a rich, temperate summer. As the celebrations are traditional, most Norwegians insist that only flint or sticks are used to light the bonfire.
Locals also still follow many age-old Midsummer traditions. For example, girls are urged to collect seven different types of herbs on Midsummer’s Eve and hide them underneath their pillow.
The magic of the herbs is said to elicit a dream of a suitable future husband who will treat them with love and kindness.
Sweet treats are a common indulgence on Midsummer’s Eve in Norway, with children and adults eating their fill of perfectly ripe strawberries, and homemade pancakes topped with melted butter and spoonfuls of sugar.
Juhannus is the Midsummer festival held in Finland. As in most other countries in Scandinavia, the bulk of the festivities takes place on Midsummer’s Eve, and everyone is encouraged to get involved.
Most areas in Finland have a policy in place that states that all businesses and shops must close their doors by noon so that locals can make their way to their summer homes for a sunshine-filled holiday.
Upon arrival, most Finns will set themselves up to spend a few hours in the sauna with an ice-cold drink ready for the party to follow. They place birch trees on either side of the front door to welcome guests and often hoist the Finnish flag.
Finnish Midsummer celebrations are usually more festive, with plenty of singing, dancing and drinking around the kokko, or bonfire, which is traditionally lit alongside a body of water.
The belief is that the more a Finn drinks on Midsummer, the more abundant their harvest will be the following year, and the louder they get, the better their luck will be.
Finns also indulge in a satisfying feast but will spend some time grilling sausages over the fire before tucking in.
The Danes refer to Midsummer as Sankt Hans and typically celebrate it on June 23. Similar to Finland and Norway, bonfires play a significant role. The only difference is that it’s a much less private affair.
In Denmark, most bonfire parties take place at around 10pm in public areas, such as the beach or town square where locals gather to relish in the joys of the season with friends and visitors. Be sure to bring your own snobrød (bread dough) rolled onto a wooden stick, and sausages to cook over the fire.
A traditional Danish feast is usually held in the garden at home before families head to the local bonfire party. The feast is most commonly a buffet, brimming with local favourites and a good dose of Tuborg beer.
“I signed up to go on the Costsaver Highlights of Scandinavia getaway not too long ago, and we were lucky enough to find ourselves in Denmark for Midsummer.
We attended a local bonfire party at the beach and had so much fun. Such a magical holiday – it was actually the highlight of our trip,” says Fiona Callahan, a dental assistant from Durban.
Jónsmessa in Iceland is a slightly more low-key event but still packed with joy. It is celebrated on June 24 and is revered as a magical night where animals can transform and communicate with humans, and mischievous elves venture out from their hideaways.
On this special day, many superstitious Icelanders lay naked in the grass to take full advantage of the powerful healing powers that the fresh morning dew is said to possess.
While some locals may choose to celebrate the occasion at home with their loved ones, others head to the various festivals and music events scattered around the country.
The lively Brák Festival in western Iceland boasts entertaining parades and fun-filled activities, such as mud-football matches, while the Bright Nights Festival is a top choice for culture, food and music galore.
Colourful cheer. Abundant feasts. Temperate sunshine. Lifelong memories. Celebrating Midsummer in Scandinavia is a must for any traveller.
Story by Bianca Delport
Destinations Discover & Explore Featured Story
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CIA's Abbottabad files show first images of Hamza bin Laden as an adult
In the video, a man refers to Osama bin Laden as “the prince of the mujahideen”
By News Desk / Creative: Saadat Ali
In this image from a video released by the CIA, Hamza bin Laden is seen as an adult at his wedding. Photo: AP
A video of Hamza bin Laden found among the Abbottabad files recently released by the CIA yesterday has been making rounds on the internet.
The video shows Hamza bin Laden wearing a traditional white headdress, at what seems to be his wedding ceremony where he consents to his marriage. It goes on to show the all male wedding party move to another room where the groom and his companions are seen surrounded by fruits and sweets to celebrate the occasion.
In the video, a man refers to Osama bin Laden when he mentions the father of the groom and goes on to dub him “the prince of the mujahideen” who is not seen but reported to be happy at his marriage.
Hamza bin Laden: the heir to al Qaeda?
Later a man quizzes the young boys present on the history of the Quran before they play a game of indoor football. Red heart shaped balloons can be seen in the background.
Footage of Hamza bin Laden as an adult on his wedding day. @thomasjoscelyn assesses wedding occurred in #Iran. More: https://t.co/XTdRroQFKJ pic.twitter.com/webxSxhEm7
— Long War Journal (@LongWarJournal) November 1, 2017
While this is the first time the public has been able to see what Hamza bin Laden looks like, al-Qaeda has occasionally released audio messages reportedly recorded by him. For example, in an audio message in August 2015, Hamza pays homage his father the ‘martyr’ and his older brother Khalid, who died trying to defend their father, and asks militants around the world to “strike from Kabul to Baghdad, from Gaza to Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv”.
One year later, in a diatribe entitled “We are all Osama,” he called for vengeance, warning: “If you think you will not be held accountable for the crime in Abbottabad, you are mistaken.”
Hamza is widely considered a major player in the global militant movement in the future, especially as al-Qaeda’s main rival militant group, ISIS, suffers crippling setbacks in it’s Middle Eastern strongholds.
Top-secret manhunt under way in Syria to ‘kill or capture’ Hamza bin Laden
Hamza bin Laden (L) seen sitting with his companions
Photo: CIA Abbottabad Files
The list of the videos was included in the release on Wednesday by the US Central Intelligence Agency of nearly 470,000 files found on the computer seized in the May 2, 2011, US raid on the al-Qaeda founder’s hideout in Abbottabad.
It is the fourth tranche of materials taken from the walled compound, where Bin Laden and his family lived, to be made public by the US government since May 2015.
According to a CIA statement, material that has not been released is being withheld due to ‘national security, are blank, corrupted or duplicate files, are pornographic or are protected by copyright’.
The copyright-protected material includes more than two dozen videos and two other documentaries about the al-Qaeda leader, reads the statement.
Read more: Abbotabad files , CIA files , Hamza bin Laden
CIA releases massive new tranche of materials seized in 2011 bin Laden raid
Release includes bin Laden's personal journal, about 79,000 audio and image files and more than 10,000 video files
Bin Laden had no help from state elements in Pakistan: CIA files
Al Qaeda chief decried Pakistani betrayal of Afghan insurgents post 9/11
Navy SEALs were ready if Pakistan failed to free US-Canadian hostage family: report
US had backup plan for raid similar to one which killed bin Laden
Bin Laden described Iran as al Qaeda’s “main artery for funds”
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Trine University
Home of Trine University Athletics
Acro & Tumbling
ACHA D2 Ice Hockey
Fred Zollner Athletic Stadium
Hershey Hall
Jannen Field
Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Athletic Recreation Center
Ketner Sports Center
MTI Center
Ryan Tennis Center
Shive Field
SportONE/Parkview Softball Field
Thunder Ice Arena
Weaver Field
Zollner Golf Course
Trine.edu
Thunder Club
Thomas More vs. Mount Union
@ Angola, Ind. (Hershey Hall)
0 Mount Union
Thomas More (0-7) 20 15 26 0
Mount Union (1-4) 25 25 28 3
4 Adam Mathews 1 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
6 Jakob Jones * 3 2 0 3 .667 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 2.5
9 Nick Richard * 3 13 5 23 .348 0 2 2 2 3 1 0 0 0 16.0
11 Robby Cox * 3 4 9 20 -.250 1 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 6.0
13 Tanner Miller * 3 0 1 1 -1.000 24 0 3 0 3 0 1 0 1 0.5
14 Ryan Hans 3 0 0 2 .000 1 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 0 0.0
15 Andy Geigle * 3 5 3 11 .182 0 2 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 7.0
23 Brock Cassin * 3 4 1 9 .333 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 4.5
26 Thomas Williams 3 1 0 3 .333 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1.5
Totals 29 19 73 .137 26 6 14 8 15 1 4 1 1 38.0
1 Jeremy Leyden * 3 0 0 1 .000 31 1 2 0 6 2 0 0 0 3.0
2 Andrew Chen 3 1 0 1 1.000 1 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 1.0
3 Steven Grenier 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.0
4 Justin Sibbel * 3 10 4 18 .333 0 3 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 13.0
5 Mark Bruns * 3 8 5 20 .150 1 3 2 0 3 0 3 1 0 12.5
9 Jordan Spurling * 3 4 2 10 .200 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 4.0
11 Cullen Vereb 3 0 0 0 .000 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0
14 Kaleb Krebs * 3 3 1 5 .400 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.0
20 Sam Matonis * 3 8 1 12 .583 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 1 0 9.5
Arena: Hershey Hall
ATHLETICS@TRINE.EDU
Trine University | Angola, IN 46703 | athletics@trine.edu | 260.665.4141
Trine University has been and remains committed to Title IX and to the goals of eliminating sexual violence,
sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. For more information go to trine.edu/titleix
Trine University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, veteran status or age.
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Tag: casualisation
General Meeting, 6th Dec 2017
As you might be aware, the UCU Edinburgh branch has been working hard for job security and for the rights of casualised staff for many years. In addition to local reps campaining for pay for hours worked in different areas of the university, in March 2017 the branch put in a local claim on casualisation, which has resulted in a number of meetings with HR and upcoming work scheduled in the schools LLC and ECA.
We have had a few wins which include pay for marking, moves to fractional contracts for a number of members, and a raised awareness of the problems that casualisation causes. Parallel to the anti-casualisation work, the branch has been campaigning on workload, raising this issue repeatedly with management as well as collecting material through surveys of members.
This meeting will update members on recent developments, and discuss with members ways to move forward in linking issues of workload with causalisation. We hope you can make it:
Wednesday 6 December, 5-6 pm
Room LG34, Paterson’s Land, Holyrood campus
Author ucuedinburghPosted on November 29, 2017 Categories events, newsTags casualisation, meetings
GH Tutors and Demonstrators
Guaranteed hours tutors and demonstrators update
In response to employment issues raised by the UCU Edinburgh Postgrad/Postdoc Network (UCUE PG/PD network), a meeting took place Friday, October 13th between representatives from senior University management, UCUE officers, representatives of the UCUE PG/PD Network, and representatives from the other campus trade unions.
After a productive discussion, agreement was reached in three areas: 1) a plan to advertise the publication of the new ‘Policy for the Recruitment, Support and Development of Tutors and Demonstrators’ (which can be found at the URL below); 2) an undertaking by management representatives to discuss our proposals on interim changes in practice to Charlie Jeffery, Senior Vice-Principal, and the Heads of College in CAHSS and CSE; and 3) a reaffirmed commitment to addressing UCUE’s local claim on Guaranteed Hours (GH) staff, with an initial pilot project working with LLC and ECA to explore alternatives to the GH model (first meeting on Monday 16th October).
In addition, it was noted that the topic of GH staffing will be discussed at a future meeting of Senate.
We will keep you updated with developments, and ask that you keep us informed about how the new Policy is being implemented via the PG/PD Network.
UoE Tutors and demonstrators policy
https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/tutorsdemonstrators_policy.pdf
The recently launched policy for tutors and demonstrators states that tutors should be paid for all work deemed necessary by Schools to perform their duties: this include preparation time, marking and other forms of assessment. Mandatory training and meetings should also be paid for. The policy also reviews the ‘cap’ on working hours for PhD tutors.
Author ucuedinburghPosted on October 20, 2017 October 20, 2017 Categories campaigns, newsTags casualisation, guaranteed hours, tutors
Casualisation: Letter to HR
The following letter has been sent to Zoe Lewandowski, Director of HR.
UCU Edinburgh Branch
Dear Zoe
As you will be aware, the issue of insecure contracts in the higher education sector now has a very high public profile. You will also know that this is a UK wide priority issue for the University and College Union.
We believe that we have a common interest in improving the contractual terms of employment of academic and related staff in higher education. While a few individuals may find them appropriate to their circumstances, the truth is that for the vast majority, insecure contracts have a seriously detrimental effect on their well being. The results of locally organised surveys of Guaranteed Hours staff have clearly demonstrated dissatisfaction about working conditions and staff engaged on casual contracts have expressed a strong desire for more secure employment.
We are pleased that the University of Edinburgh recognised our concerns on casual contracts some years ago and that in 2014 replaced the practice of engaging staff on “hours to be notified” (HTBN) with the introduction of the Guaranteed Hours (GH) contract. However, while the move away from the HTBN model was a positive step forward, in reality it just replaced one precarious contract of employment with another.
Addressing casualisation within the workforce remains a priority for UCU and we want to ensure that we have the appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and enhancing employment practices.
GH staff still report limited access to training and development, lack of career progression, lack of job security and inconsistent rates of pay. Although GH staff are guaranteed a minimum number of paid hours in an academic year, these hours are reviewed and renewed annually and some teaching staff report that their working hours remain unconfirmed the week before teaching starts. Indeed, in 2016-17, in some areas of the university GH tutors did not receive their contracts until after the teaching term had finished, leaving them working for an entire semester without a contract, which is dangerous to both the institution and the staff member in terms of securing teaching for students. In the same period, some staff on GH contracts report having been given such a low number of guaranteed hours on their contract that after a few weeks of teaching they were effectually on a zero hour contract with no secure pay (as they had worked the minimum number of hours stipulated in the contract) which leaves the university left without any certainty of having enough staff to teach students.
UCU is concerned that a significant amount of student teaching is being delivered by staff on GH contracts and that this will have an impact on learning and teaching quality. So, in addition to asking whether GH contracts are the most appropriate model of employment, we would question whether this model is the most appropriate. While there is a narrative repeated that most staff on GH contracts are PhD students who teach as part of their professional development, the reality is that many GH staff obtained their PhD many years ago, and are kept on as part of a kind of ‘pool’ of tutors to call in when needed. These postdoctoral tutors, who often teach not only on pre-honours but also honours and postgraduate levels, are not paid for research, which makes the University’s commitment to research-informed teaching ring hollow.
We believe that this should be a priority issue for both ourselves and the university, and we know that when we have negotiated in good faith we have seen positive progress in the interests of staff, students and universities. At the heart of the claim we are making is a call to establish a permanent joint mechanism for reviewing, monitoring and negotiating around the issue of secure contracts, building on our existing arrangements. We are calling on the university to make a commitment to work with us to reduce insecurity through this apparatus.
Specifically we are calling for negotiations on our claim which is the following:
1. The establishment of a standing joint review group with a remit to:
a) Review the GH contract model with a view to developing an alternative contractual model.
b) Monitor and review the arrangements under the Enhancing Employment strategy for transferring staff onto more secure contracts, and ensure that this is working effectively
c) Receive, review and monitor data on the employment of staff on non-permanent contracts
d) Review the working hours of GH tutors and demonstrators to ensure consistency of pay and allocation of marking and preparation time
e) Review the issue of training, support and career progression for GH tutors and demonstrators to ensure consistency across schools
2. An understanding from the University that this process will not be cost-neutral and agreement that investment in contractual employment that supports high quality research informed teaching will require additional resources.
We look forward to building on our positive negotiations on the Enhancing Employment strategy and welcome your response to our claim.
Suzanne Trill
(UCUE Secretary)
Author ucuedinburghPosted on March 22, 2017 Categories consultationTags casualisation, policy, rights
Response to The Student
This is written as clarification to an article in The Student, 29 Nov 2016
The below is the comment sent by UCU Edinburgh officers to The Student newspaper, a comment from which quotes were included in their recent article on tutors’ working conditions. UCU Edinburgh committee thought it might be useful to publish the full comment below, including statistics and references.
A note of clarification: The Student article mentions two surveys, one carried out by UCU UK (not UCU Edinburgh) in 2015, and one currently in circulation at the University, the latter carried out by a group of tutors based in the School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures. The latter survey is carried out both to gauge University of Edinburgh tutors’ view of the cap on working hours for PhD students, and to follow up from the petition letter penned by tutors in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences earlier this year, as the tutors in question reportedly have not seen enough positive change from the University.
UCU, or the University and College Union in full, is the largest trade union representing university staff and postgraduate students in the UK. We have over 110,000 members across the country, with over 1,500 members here at Edinburgh. We represent casualised (that is to say, people employed on precarious contracts, with limited or no job security) researchers and teaching staff as well as permanent lecturers, and also ‘academic-related’ staff such as librarians and administrators. As a union we believe that higher education should be a public good, and have campaigned for decades against the marketisation of our profession, including campaigning against tuition fees for students and for better working conditions for our members.
The University of Edinburgh is one of the country’s worst offenders when it comes to employing its staff on precarious contracts. UCU has campaigned against the extended and ever-increasing use of hourly contracts for a long time, but at the University of Edinburgh this work was picked up also by major newspapers. Following on work in previous years, including a 2012-2013 survey on the conditions of casualised staff members (https://ucuedinburgh.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/zero-hours-survey/ ), in 2013 a Freedom of Information request showed that 23 percent of all staff, and 47 percent of staff in Humanities and Social Sciences, were employed on zero hours contracts (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/ucu-homes-in-on-widespread-use-of-zero-hours-deals/2007035.article ), that is to say hourly contracts with no guaranteed minimum hours of work (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/ucu-homes-in-on-widespread-use-of-zero-hours-deals/2007035.article ). Despite the University’s promise in 2013 to improve job security for its workers (http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/university-of-edinburgh-agrees-to-stop-using-zero-hours-contracts-8802279.html ), and despite tutors and demonstrators having issued two petitions (in 2012 (http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/professor-sir-timothy-o-shea-university-of-edinburgh-principal-ensure-fair-treatment-of-tutors-demonstrators-and-hourly-paid-staff ) and in 2016 (http://blake2.ppls.ed.ac.uk/~s1264545/petition_tutors) ), not much progress has been made. While many staff members previously employed on zero hours contracts have now been moved to ‘guaranteed hours’ contracts (a type of hourly contract stipulating a specific guaranteed number of hours of work for a year), the use of such contracts has not decreased; instead they have been accompanied by an increased use of one-off payments (so-called ‘form 100’) which is an even more precarious way of employing staff.
While employers maintain that insecure contracts are needed to maintain ‘flexibility’, or that hourly paid teaching provides a ‘valuable opportunity’ for PhD students, in reality insecure employment causes anxiety and stress among staff as well as far from ideal learning conditions for students. The move to ‘guaranteed hours’ at Edinburgh should in theory give hourly paid staff an improved job security, but in practice they are very similar to the older zero hours contracts. Some hourly paid staff the union has talked to report not receiving their contracts until the end of term, which means they have no guaranteed hours of work at all and could be fired (or could quit) the next day. Others report being given only a small number of guaranteed hours but then being asked to work above this minimum, which means those extra hours are in-effect on a zero hours contract. Many tutors and lecturers are also employed on very short fixed-term posts, only covering term time, meaning that they have work for twelve weeks at a time (twenty-two weeks of the year), and without a guarantee for continued work. Many of us on casualised contracts do not know how to pay our rents, or where we will be living in a few months in case we have to move to another city or country for work, or – for those daring enough to start a family while in such a precarious working situation – how to feed our children. Many of us work up to five jobs at different workplaces in order to make ends meet. A survey of members in insecure contracts in 2015, carried out by UCU (https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/7279/Making-ends-meet—the-human-cost-of-casualisation-in-post-secondary-education-May-15/pdf/ucu_makingendsmeet_may15.pdf ), revealed significant numbers of them struggling to get by:
40% said that they earned under £1000 per month.
One in seven (14%) earned less than £500 per month, which places them below the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance Contributions.
17% said that they struggled to pay for food.
One third (34%) said that they struggle to pay rent or mortgage repayments
36% said that they struggled to pay household bills like fuel, electricity, water and repairs
One respondent states: ‘I especially dread the summer and Easter periods as I have no idea how I will pay the rent.’
Like permanent members of staff, who often struggle to cope with unrealistic workloads and other increasing pressures, casualised staff suffer from deteriorating health caused by prolonged insecurity and overwork. A 2015 article (http://www.jfsonline.org/issue7-8/articles/lopesdewan/ ) highlights the emotional impact of job insecurity and exploitation on tutors and lecturers on casualised contracts. Interviewees mention anxiety and negative thoughts of the future, some of them mentioning ‘being close to “breaking point”’. One respondent states that ‘“I’ve reached the stage where I’m thinking I don’t even know if I can do this anymore, I really don’t”’. As the comments from tutors in The Student article shows, hourly paid teaching staff at the University of Edinburgh are no strangers to unpaid work and anxiety caused by their working conditions.
As data released this month shows (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/16/universities-accused-of-importing-sports-direct-model-for-lecturers-pay ), the University of Edinburgh is still – in 2016 – one of the universities in the UK with the largest percentage of staff on casualised contracts. This is one league table in which we should be ashamed to be in the top three. In terms of employing numbers of staff on ‘atypical’ contracts, that is to say hourly rather than fixed-term contracts, the University of Edinburgh is still – as in 2013 – the worst offender, with the largest number of ‘atypical’ workers: 3,760 staff members (https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/8384/Precarious-work-in-higher-education-November-2016-update/pdf/ucu_precariouscontracts_hereport_nov16.pdf ). Importantly, most tutors and lecturers on hourly contracts do not get paid for research, which goes directly against the University’s aim to provide research-led teaching. Many also do not get paid, or are insufficiently paid, for meeting with students, or to prepare their classes properly.
We in UCU know that bad working conditions for teachers means bad learning conditions for students. As we have seen casualised staff members’ conditions deteriorate, with many of them living hand to mouth with no job security, we have also seen – despite our best efforts as teachers – education becoming less of a priority for UK universities. While the university cares about getting good NSS results, when teachers and researchers raise issues regarding workloads and insecure working conditions – both of which ultimately impact students – we are not listened to.
Lena Wånggren, UCU Edinburgh Vice President
Clara Martinez Nistal, UCU Edinburgh Officer for Fixed-term and Hourly-paid Staff
Author ucuedinburghPosted on December 1, 2016 December 5, 2016 Categories newsTags casualisation, equality, workload, zero hours
Strike, 14th June
Our branch will be on strike on June 14.
Pickets will primarily be at Old College from 9-11am on June 14, where
there will be a meeting of the influential Central Management Group. If
you plan to picket or would like to volunteer to be a picket captain,
please email ucu@ed.ac.uk. Alternatively, on June 14, just come to the
union office at 12 Buccleuch Street at 8:45am to find where available
picket locations are.
A social event with light food will be follow at 11am-1pm (location to be
confirmed). Even if you aren’t available for picketing, feel free to stop
by and say hello to fellow members. This will also be a forum for people
to discuss anything they wish to raise.
The issues are pay, casualisation, and the gender pay gap. More
information can be found at www.ucu.org.uk.
You are NOT legally required to inform your line manager about your plans
for strike action before striking, and we recommend you do not. However,
you must answer truthfully if asked by your line manager after the fact.
We appreciate that June 14 is very soon. This is the first time that UCU
branches are striking on different dates at different universities across
the country. The national leadership decided that in the current
industrial action, each branch should select a day in June or July that
would be most effective locally. At this stage in the industrial dispute,
the branch committee was unwilling to call a strike on a day when a small
number of members would be much more strongly affected than the rest of
us, such as the graduation day for a particular school. Within this
constraint, we believe that June 14 is the most effective strike date in
the next two months.
We were legally obliged to wait until UCU nationally had officially
notified the University before issuing this notice to members.
Unfortunately this has led to you hearing both from both Sally Hunt and
UoE in advance of our notice, for which we apologise.
Author ucuedinburghPosted on June 10, 2016 June 29, 2016 Categories newsTags action, casualisation, pay, strike
Anti-Casulaisation Lunch, 16th May
UCU Edinburgh are organising an ‘anti-casualisation lunch’ on Monday 16th May, 1-2pm in the UCU offices (12 Buccleuch street), to bring staff together to discuss the use of hourly-paid, fixed-term, and other casualised forms of contract at the university. In addition to a sandwich lunch, with tea and coffee, we will have John Slaven from STUC (Scottish Trades Union Congress) visiting to talk about their anti-casualisation campaign Better than zero (http://www.betterthanzero.org), and tutors from Humanities and Social Science will be there to update members on their campaigning for better conditions (see their petition here: http://blake2.ppls.ed.ac.uk/~s1264545/petition_tutors). Everyone is welcome, casualised or not. Non-members are also welcome, so please invite colleagues who are not (yet?) members. If possible we would appreciate if you could RSVP by emailing ucu@ed.ac.uk, so we have an idea of how many sandwiches to order.
Author ucuedinburghPosted on May 14, 2016 June 29, 2016 Categories newsTags casualisation, contracts
Zero Hours Survey
UCU Edinburgh zero hours survey – November 2012/January 2013
83% of respondents are tutors.
26% tutor at postgraduate level and 44% at undergraduate level.
40% of respondents do not get paid for preparation time.
48% of respondents do not get paid for marking.
34% of respondents have no office space. The rest have space of varying types and suitability.
31% of respondents have been on zero hour contracts for four or more years.
55% of respondents do not receive increments. 26% do with the remaining 20% in post less than a year.
66% of respondents have received some specific training.
Detail and comments available here
Zero Hours – University of Edinburgh
Zero Hours – Scottish Universities
Author ucuedinburghPosted on April 4, 2014 May 1, 2015 Categories newsTags casualisation, surveys, zero hours
UCU Edinburgh Blog at WordPress.com.
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Tumamoc Sketchbook
Sketched, snapped, or scribbled on Tumamoc Hill, Tucson's sacred mountain.
Saguaro Arms
Saguaro Arms. Photograph by Paul Mirocha. (Click to enlarge)
HUMANS NATURALLY sympathize with the saguaro cactus. We even feel affection for them. Maybe it’s because they look sort of like us. Except they are giants and live much longer. We protect them. The National Park Service prosecutes saguaro vandals.
We use human anatomical terms to describe their parts: arms, skin, ribs, trunk, etc. Writers often ascribe human feelings to them, like “lonely,” or “stoic,” or “sentinels of the desert.” Saguaros seem to make human gestures with their arms, hugging each other, saying hello, or drooping down, tired and sagging. They lose arms and carry the marks of their mishaps for centuries. The battered old ones look wise after two or three centuries, experienced, even though they have stood in one place for their whole lifs. They must know that place so well that we can’t imagine that kind of knowledge, mostly gained by touch and feel. Like us, they stand upright, and fall down when they die
But they are still plants. And we are mammals. On the evolutionary tree of life mammals and plants went separate ways about 1.6 billion years ago.
Even so, given that plants and animals share the same basic building blocks of life, there are more similarities between us than meet the eye. In one experiment, jellyfish DNA was incorporated into a tomato plant which then produced glow-in-the-dark tomatoes. For reasons unknown to science, plants can make human psychoactive neurotransmitters like adrenaline, serotonin, dopamine, and morphine.
In the story-telling traditions of the Desert People, the Tohono O’odham, this intimacy between people and plants goes far deeper than anthropomorphic comparisons or shared biochemistry: Saguaros were actually once human.
The story or the first saguaro should be heard in person, in a group late at night around a fire, along with the songs that come in at several points. But I’ll paraphrase here because it still works even after losing all of that context. You can read the whole story in written form, as told by Susie Ignacio Enos, in The South Corner of Time, edited by Larry Evers. There is a version online here. (http://www.baboquivari.com/myth-legend-lore/tohono-oodham-legend-saguaro)
Briefly paraphrased, a lonely 10-year-old O’odham girl with a name, I can’t pronounce, goes in search of her mother. She meets a bird who guides her over the mountains to the village where her mother is working so they can have enough food to eat because her father died years earlier. Inexplicably, the young girl sinks into the ground just outside that village. The mother is summoned too late, yet she remembers her husband’s dying words: that their daughter would one day be a great being, different from all other women.
“She will live forever to the end of times. She will be known by races of people from far and near. She will be queen of the Taw haw naw Juwut (desert lands). Generations of Aw?awtam will be saved from starvation because of her and her family.”
Some time later, the first saguaro, a plant whose importance to the Desert People for food and ceremony can’t be overstated,? grows from that spot. The mother cares for the strange new plant.
Giving human characteristics to non-human forms is a classic story-telling technique. See Aesop’s Fables for well-known examples. Yet, this story and others like it go deeper than simple moral advice, or a naive explanation for why things are as they are. Stories are powerful devices that carry cultural meanings from one generation to the next, which is essential in an oral culture. The human brain is wired for stories, we can’t resist them. Memory encodes stories better than it does memorized facts. Even paraphrased, or with parts lost or changed, the story and its symbols retain their essential content.
Images are powerful and can contain as much information as a book and can last even longer. Metaphors are intensely creative. Poets use them so often because they can communicate ideas and feelings that are not fully explainable in plain words.
I don’t view this story simply as an attempt to explain the origin of the saguaro in the sense that it might conflict with Darwin’s theory of evolution, or even scientific logic. On one level it does, but on a deeper level it is poetry. It shows a different kind of relationship with an object, one outside the world view of Western scientific thinking. Plants become human. Humans can become plants. But how?
In the story, nothing is really explained.? There is a sort of cognitive gap as to how it all happened. That’s another device that keeps the listener’s mind occupied with wondering. There are parts that don’t? fit together. But the main message is that there is some sort of? kinship between saguaros and humans that transcends any explanation. The saguaros we see standing on desert hillsides are manifestations of the spirit of a young girl. The boundaries are blurred between ourselves and the other.? Saguaros grow in our dreams, and affect our emotions, just as they grow out on a hillside, far on the other side of our skin.
It’s magical thinking. Most modern intellectuals would criticize me here. But isn’t all thinking magical? I don’t see a conflict between this story and empirical science. I believe them both. In Native American Philosophy, there seems to be no requirement for a single way to look at things. No dogmatic one world view that is true everywhere and for everybody. There are many, each culture creating a window into the ultimately unknown.
After reading this story, I have never looked at saguaros in quite the same way.
For the image above, which was part of the “Dreaming Down the Rain” exhibit, I combined photographs of a saguaro from Tumamoc and a portrait of my wife Christina. Her left arm is still paralyzed after she suffered a hemorrhagic? stroke three years ago. Medical science could not explain why it happened. Somehow though, in a way that I can’t explain, saguaros might also sympathize with us.
The South Corner of Time. Larry Evers, ed., The University of Arizona Press, ?1980
Maidens and Mothers: An Analysis of Hopi Corn Metaphors. Mary E. Black, Ethnology, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Oct., 1984),
Posted in Photography, PlantsTagged photography, saguaroBy Paul Martin MirochaLeave a comment
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GalleryA portfolio of Tumamoc photographs by Paul Mirocha
ContactContact Paul Mirocha, artist-in-residence
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Ring busted for Da Lat-Saigon motorbike thefts
Tuesday, February 06, 2018, 17:23 GMT+7
Thieves stole motorbikes in Da Lat and brought the vehicles to Ho Chi Minh City for distribution
An illegal ring of thieves has been broken up after carrying out multiple thefts in which they stole motorbikes in Da Lat, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, and sold them in Ho Chi Minh City.
Police in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province on Tuesday began legal proceedings against five suspects who are members of the motorbike theft gang.
The criminals previously admitted to carrying out over 20 thefts, but officers believe the number was higher.
According to initial information, Phung Duc Phong, 32, and Vu Thai Hung, 33, were the masterminds behind the illicit operation.
Hung was previously put behind bars for three convictions of theft and robbery and finished his jail term in October 2016.
In August 2017, Hung and Phong began the robberies, hiring Nguyen Duc Tien, 23, Vo Nguyen Tuan Anh, 36, and Le Thanh Thai, 23.
They also recruited three other men named Sau, Hieu, and Long, who are still at large.
Phong and Hung were in charge of stealing the vehicles in Da Lat, while the other members were tasked with riding the stolen motorbikes to Ho Chi Minh City.
The ring leaders promised to pay their subordinates VND1.5 million (US$66) for each motorcycle that was safely transported from Da Lat to the southern metropolis.
The vehicles were then sold in Ho Chi Minh City or brought to Cambodia for distribution.
The gang members reside in Ho Chi Minh City and travel to Da Lat by passenger bus, using fake license plates to disguise the stolen motorbikes.
During the most recent theft, the group managed to steal four motorbikes from a residence on Bui Thi Xuan Street and two others on Hoang Dieu Street on the night of January 17.
On January 23, officers arrested Hung before escorting him to the police station.
Based on Hung’s statements, the law enforcers were able to arrest Phong, Tien, Anh, and Thai.
Further investigations into the case are being conducted.
TUOI TRE NEWS
Three officers killed in ‘mob attack’ in Hanoi suburbs: police
One person among the attackers was killed and another injured
Vietnam court upholds jail term for retired official convicted of child molestation
Vietnam lifts flight ban on recalled MacBook Pro laptops
Over 2,300 Vietnamese workers illegally stay in S.Korea after labor contract expires: report
Erotic massage parlors publicly advertised in Ho Chi Minh City
Cosmetics made of bamboo charcoal powder found in Ho Chi Minh City
The manufacturer was fined and is under investigation in northern Vietnam
New orchid species discovered in Vietnam
Vietnamese survivor of Nepal blizzard offers travelers home in return for English lessons
Vietnamese researchers work hard to conserve cajuput genes
Vietnam and Indonesia boast some of the world’s largest cajuput forests
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Buying a Record Player? Read My Complete Buying Guide For Beginners
Robert Halvari June 6, 2018 Guides 5 Comments
Buying a record player is just one of the luxuries we all want to partake in at some point in our lives, and the reason why I’ve made this little record player buying guide is because I too was a beginner back at the time when the thought of buying one first occurred to me.
In the sections below we’ll discuss all the record player types I’ve managed to think of, and I hope that this form of categorization will help you better understand what each record player type can grant you. Without further ado, let’s get straight to it.
Record player types – drive
Basically, a direct-drive record player features a platter that is “directly” connected with the motor. This way, the motor benefits from an increased level of “scratching” accuracy and starts up a bit faster when compared to other types.
Most direct drive turntables are capable of backward sound reproduction, however the sound might appear a bit inferior due to vibrations that motor transfers to its tonearm. That’s not a terribly big deal, but if you’re not just a beginner but an audiophile as well, consider other types.
Belt-driven record players feature a separate housing for the motor. The belt envelopes both the motor and the platter which is the only rule – certain models feature an outside belt while others, more aesthetic ones feature a belt inside the housing.
One of the main benefits of belt-drive record players is exactly that – since the motor is safely tucked away from the platter, the vibrations (and other interferences) which other record player types cause are neutralized, or at least kept to a bare minimum.
Idler drive
Idle-drive record players are pretty popular nowadays, and you’re bound to come across this turntable type at some point in your search. The so-called idler drive uses a special form of friction wheel which, in combination with a rubber wheel performs a pushing motion against the motor’s shaft.
One of the main benefits of belt-driven record players is that they offer a similar set of benefits when compared to direct-driven record players, but there’s a lot of gears and pieces, so the chances of any of them getting damaged (or destroyed) are significantly higher than that of any other turntable.
Record player’s versatility is represented by the number of features it has onboard. Now, since you’re a beginner, it’s important to set one thing straight. It’s impossible to determine a uniformed rule about these record players, so the only thing you can rely on is as follows – the first number in the record player’s description tells us how many features it comes with.
Further on that note, versatile (and not-so-versatile) record players are present in different categories as well. For example, Electrohome’s Winston Vinyl turntable, as well as Magnavox electric record player are both 3-in-1 record players. The number three tells us that they have three features which are not parallel when compared to each other.
The Electrohome’s model comes with the following features – a stereo system, AM/FM radio, and CD+AUX input while Magnavox model features Bluetooth connection, selectable speeds, and built-in decorative lights. Note that the number of features won’t be able to tell you which features are there. The same applies for 4-in-1, 5-in-1, and 6-in-1 turntables.
The only exception from the aforementioned rule is represented by all-in-one record players. These turntables are, by far, the most versatile type since they almost always come with the highest number of features. Of course, the models differ between themselves through quality of features.
In the audiophile world, most people take interest in this categorization – analogue record players and Bluetooth record players. This tends to puzzle the beginners even more simply because it’s wrong.
Basically, Bluetooth (Wireless) record players are often outfitted with analogue settings (Magnavox Suitcase record player), but the same goes in the opposite situation (for example, Wockoder’s Vinyl player is analogue in nature but features the Bluetooth option). Analogue record players are sometimes called “vinyl” and can be found in virtually every record player buying guide.
Even so, for the sake of your proper introduction to the turntable world, let’s go with this categorization and discuss the benefits and flaws of each type.
Analogue record players
One of the very basic definitions of the word “analogue” refer and relate to a contraption which uses signals and/or information represented by a variable physical quantity.
Let’s break the science down a bit, and represent it in a plain way – analogue record players rely on physical parts, including gears, inputs, cables, etc. That’s why they’re often called “Wired” turntables, as opposed to “wireless” record players.
Some of the most notable benefits of analogue record players are:
Look better than their electronic brothers
Often come at a cheap price
Peculiar, exquisite sound is almost guaranteed
Easy to setup and use
Then again, analogue record players aren’t perfect, regardless of the model in question. Some of the main disadvantages of analogue record players are:
Not so reliable in terms of durability – one parts goes out, the entire system fails or underperforms
Too old-school for new-age millennials, both in aesthetics and sound performance spheres
Wireless record players
Wireless record players are a thing of the future. Most models don’t even rely on the old turntable concept, so you’ll see all kinds and shapes of them in your search. The reason why they’re called wireless is because they feature a form of non-wired connection which is usually the Bluetooth software.
Even though you’ll never be able to recreate the old “blues” with a true wireless record player (the one which belongs to both categories), you’ll certainly be able to use your record player in a more convenient way. Let’s see the most notable benefits of wireless record players:
Looks modern and urban
Nearly 100% accurate sound
More convenient than analogue record players
Usually feature a compact design
Every turntable category features a set of flaws, and regardless how small, you should know about them. Some of the highlights here are:
Usually expensive
Can’t provide the old-school sound like analogue record players
Record player types – design
This is not a standalone category of record players in this record player buying guide, rather I wanted to point out one exception that doesn’t fit in any of the aforementioned categories. There are flat record players (most Audio-Technica’ models belong here), and there are average-sized ones which are just a bit wider in comparison.
The entirety of all-in-one record players can be considered as bulky, but other than that, there are suitcase record players which are somewhat new on the market.
These suitcase-style record players can have the characteristics of all the other record player types (can be belt-driven or with an idle drive, Bluetooth or analogue, flat or bulky), but the only thing that sets them apart from the rest is that they’re more compact. They usually feature a carry handle which makes them ideal for travel.
My suggestions
Best value for the money record player: Electrohome Wellington Record Player
Headphone Jack... from $8.99 View on Amazon
Essentially, Electrohome’s Wellington is a beautiful, highly versatile record player. Though it doesn’t come cheap, it rocks a huge value for the money as it brings a plethora of benefits to the table.
This is a 4-in-1 retro style turntable which features a robust construction with a mahogany finish, it can play vinyl records, music from CDs, but you’ll also be able to listen to your favourite tracks via AM/FM radio. MP3 compatibility, as well as USB input are also present, but the best thing about Wellington is the integrated stereo speaker system which delivers audiophile quality sound.
Audio Technica AT-LP60BK
Audio-Technica... from $99.00 View on Amazon
Audio-Technica is one of the most famous world-class leaders in the turntable industry, and I’ve had nothing but pleasant experience with their record players. The AT-LP60 is a fine representative of their craftsmanship, and if you’re buying a record player that excels in aesthetics, this is the one you should get.
It looks exceptionally good and it comes in three color styles – the black, silver, and white. Even though it’s analogue in nature, AT has issued an improved variant which comes with the Bluetooth technology as well.
Best Belt drive record player: Teac TN-300
TEAC TN-300 Analog... from $198.99 View on Amazon
Now, Teac is a big name in the record player industry, and TN-300 might be one of the finest turntables they’ve made so far.
This is, basically, a manual belt driven record player which supports 33 and 34 rpm records. It packs USB output, AT’s MM phonograph cartridge, and an integrated phono EQ amplifier which substantially enhances the already great sound quality.
What’s more, though it boasts a sturdy construction, it also packs a set of gold-plated terminals that boost its resistance to oxidation.
There goes that – all of the standard record player types are neatly categorized in the sections above, and it’s safe to say that, even though you’re a beginner, you’ll understand how turntables work in the blink of an eye! I hope that you’ve found my record player buying guide as helpful, and I wish you all the luck in your search.
Easy Ways to Clean Your Vinyl Records on a Budget
Nick October 31, 2018
This is a very timely article. With the holiday season just around the corner, my girlfriend has begun talking about a record player she wants for Christmas. Problem is I know nothing about them or how to shop for one. I’m pretty sure she wants one with Bluetooth capabilities, so the Victrola Nostalgic Classic Wood record player you showed looks perfect!
Thanks! Victrola Nostalgic Classic is definitely worth it 🙂
Alexander November 6, 2018
OMG! This is just the guide I need. I appreciate the share!
Philberta November 8, 2018
I had no idea what Idler drive means, thanks for this helpful guide!
Lauren Peterson March 6, 2019
Years ago my mother mistakenly got me a record playing stereo set for Christmas. The thing was huge and bulky. I had no records at the time and only cared about using the 6 CD disc feature. All these years later, I wish I had kept the thing because now I am getting into vinyl records! Doing some shopping now, just wanted to say thanks for the list and tips!
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← Full AP Interview With President Trump (transcript)….
Monday April 24th – Open Thread →
T-Rex: No Further Questions Needed on Russia Sanctions Being Lifted,… EVER !
Posted on April 23, 2017 by sundance
Funny call readout from Secretary Tillerson’s office today. The last paragraph is extraordinarily blunt (emphasis mine):
[Dept. of State] Secretary Tillerson phoned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today to discuss his recent trip to Moscow and his message to the Russian leadership that, although the United States is interested in improving relations with Russia, Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle. The Secretary emphasized the importance of Ukraine’s continued progress on reform and combating corruption.
The Secretary accepted condolences from President Poroshenko on the death today of a U.S. member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM). The leaders agreed that the OSCE SMM has played a vital role in its role of monitoring the Minsk agreements designed to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, and that this tragic incident makes clear the need for all sides- and particularly the Russian-led separatist forces-to implement their commitments under the Minsk Agreements immediately.
Secretary Tillerson reiterated the United States’ firm commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and confirmed that sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine and fully implements its commitments in the Minsk agreements. (link)
Oh well, I guess that’s that then.
No need to ever wonder about those pesky sanctions ever being lifted.
Horse = Dead.
This entry was posted in media bias, President Trump, Russia, Secretary of State, Secretary Tillerson, Ukraine, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.
236 Responses to T-Rex: No Further Questions Needed on Russia Sanctions Being Lifted,… EVER !
Sedanka says:
It’s so good to have actual businesspersons running the show, FINALLY.
Somewhere in Dixie says:
I agree. The media still have no idea how they operate and how different they are from the regular politicians.
Bill in Lexington,NC says:
Which is an important head start.
drdeb says:
Amen to that post!
the blacksmith says:
and an actual American was well….. you, know, one of our own culture.
SSI01 says:
I’ve read somewhere an eyeball that allows the full circumference of the iris to be seen – that is, sclera (white of the eyeball) visible on all sides of the iris – is an indication the owner of that eyeball – or pair of eyeballs – has a mental or neurological disorder that needs looking into. I wish I could remember the name of the condition.
wheatietoo says:
I think that condition is call Barking Moonbat-itis.
Orygun says:
Hahaha! That really did make me laugh and it seems to be a virulent form common to the DC area.
Sandra White says:
Truly feel great again. Laughing so hard at Boris & Natasha poster. Priceless.
WSB says:
Contagious, then.
Louisiana Steve says:
Psychopelosi disorder.
Benson II says:
Darn! Ya beat me to it. ha ha
jwingermany says:
I’m so glad I wasn’t drinking my coffee when I read that! LOL!
It’s called Sanpaku eyes
Screwtape says:
It could also be caused by hyperthyroidism.
trapper says:
Sanpaku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanpaku
deanbrh says:
Wow, how interesting. and here I just thought it was a play on words; Sand pack you!
karmytrumpateer says:
Quite fascinating! ” it is believed that these people attract accidents and violence.” When you look at the list of famous people with this affliction many were murderers or were murdered or had a tragic death: Osama bin Laden, Hitler, Ted Bundy, Omar Mateen, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Sal Mineo, Abe Lincoln, Natalie Wood, Jill Dando.
Charlie Manson
Bert Darrell says:
Thanks, trapper. I had to visit the TCHT comments section to learn that Obama had the Sanpaku condition. So unlucky! As if being a traitor were not enough for the lying leech.
rumpole2 says:
It’s the same look you see in a cat’s eyes when the vet takes it’s temperature… just sayin’😎
Fe says:
Omg I’m dying here, sooo funny. 😂
Curry Worsham says:
Dekester says:
It is 0200 here in Southern B.C. and I just woke my dog with a belly laugh.
The one consistent with so many TCTH supporters, is their collective sense of humour.
We understand the seriousness of what’s going on, but can still laugh.
Leftists cannot do that. Unless they are causing someone pain.
Sanpaku. Who knew.
Deep Blue C says:
Cue Jeff Sessions who supposedly (according to the media liars) “insulted the entire state of Hawaii.” Jeff was mostly right when he said nobody has a sense of humor anymore! (Lefties don’t; we do!)
buzzybee says:
Yup. Years ago I heard a constitutional attorney say that liberals have no sense of humor. Wish now I could remember the joke he told during his talk. I do remember we all laughed.
Hey … how’d you get this picture of my cat, Blue?
It’s called TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome, SSI01. What’s remarkable is that this syndrome was identified years before Trump was elected to the Presidency. Even more remarkable is how it has spread so rapidly after President Trump won the election.
The good news is that it seems to be contained within the leftist and YSM members of the general population. Better news yet, TDS can be cured by jumping on board the Trump Train, which has shown to provide 100% remission from TDS.
margarite1 says:
Aren’t there some photos indicating Hillary is an example of this?
hugofitch1 says:
Other than when balloons are released?
olderwiser21 says:
My, God – she is a hideous looking woman…you can see all the evil in her – really!!!
freeperjim says:
She ALWAYS has those big, bulging eyes and a huge, wide open mouth.
Phony beard marriage with a rapist.
Evil communist traitor & sympathizer of islamic terrorism.
She’s from the same era as Charles Manson, Bill Ayres, The Weatherman Underground, etc. She just went inside government to do her dirty work while they took to the streets of crime.
…and don’t forget Angela Davis, the leftwing communist/terrorist who later became a professor at UCLA.
They went to teach in colleges.
Glad I just finished my coffee before looking at this.
It is sanpaku, which means “3 whites”. Normally only 2 whites are visible either side. If the lower is also visible, it is called yin sanpaku… many who have this have emotional and drug/ alcohol problems, are also prone to be victims of violence. (Michael Jackson, Marilynn Monroe, Betty David, JFK are famous examples). Often this is viewed as “beautiful” (vulnerable), and is imitated with makeup.
When the white is visible above the eye, this is ysng sanpaku and shows a person prone to external violent temper, one can easily feel it from them. (Charles Manson, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi are good examples.). If all whites are visible ones instincts would tell one immediately unless one is brain dead that this is a totally psychotic person.
letjusticeprevail2014 says:
I once worked construction with a guy who had that “All Around” look. It was very unsettling to catch him looking my way, so I totally avoided him. For all I knew, he might have been a saint among men but I wasn’t going to find out. It STILL gives me the willies just thinking about it. And that was more than 30 years ago.
Interesting comment…now go back and look at Hilliar’s photos. Darn, guess now I’ll be looking for the “white” above everyone’s eyes! LOL
jonvil says:
All this stuff about the eyes made me nervous and had to check myself out in a mirror, no white above or below, WHEW!!!
Me too. But I had to squint. 😉
US says:
Exophthalmia.
Dopidad says:
Sanpaku, a Japanese book came out during the hippie era warning about people who displayed sanpaku. It has to do with macrobiotics and yin-yang.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/hillary-had-yang-sanpaku-eyes-very-dangerous/
Jenny R. says:
So in other words a bunch of new age hippie fiddle faddle?
vidlbis says:
Yep. However, just like all hippie-dippie nonsense, the original info has gravitas that goes back – like ancient. The hippies ruined pertymuch everything they touched. IMHO
Insofar as bulging eyes is often a sign of thyroid troubles — in which case the charitable thing to do is to suggest said person get to a doctor and check it out — then yes “wisdom of the ancients”.
However, I am not going to give some poor soul the side eye just because the whites of their eyes show — this is called the “joys of progression in knowledge”, I also don’t cut open animals to look at spots on their livers in order to tell the future.
And I certainly didn’t need to look at Hillary’s eyeballs (I prefer to not gaze at her whatsoever) to know she was a corrupt megalomaniac…I just needed to observe her words and deeds to do that.
Yep – got me there **)
bofh says:
it’s called proptosis or exophthalmos, often seen in over active thyroid conditions
Graves’ ophthalmopathy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graves%27_ophthalmopathy
Often a sign of hyperthyroidism.
Also called Exophthalmos
boojum says:
I don’t know if it’s the term you’re looking for, but I long ago heard it referred to as Sankapu.
Ah, I see Dopidad beat me to the punch and has it spelled correctly.
Like your spelling – add a t and you got sankaput – meaning outta whack.
“sankaput”, sounds like something a golfer would say…
Nah … means out of freeze-dried coffee. 😉
exophthalmos frequently subsequent to Grave’s Disease, or has to go potty really badly.
Old Codger says:
Its a thyroid condition; poor woman really is sick—not mention her mental disease known as “Liberalism.
It’s a feature often seen in people with psychotic disorders. In this case, though, I think it’s just a case of a desperate weasel trying to lie her way out of a tight spot. Her eyes are popping out because she feels the squeeeeeze!
RadioMattM says:
Too many cups of coffee?
I thought that corrupt people could have any kind of thyroid — high, low, normal, or whatever. The problem seems to lie in being morally crippled.
Sayit2016 says:
I saw a report that said when the color part of the eyeball does not rest on the upper and lower part of the eye or one side is ” lifted” it is some kind of a shift in the brain and tends to belong to the criminally insane individual…..
And T-Rex’s State Dept specifically turned down Exon’s request for a Waiver to drill in Russia.
That is the company he just left!
Squeaky clean, our T-Rex is.
mireilleg says:
T-Rex dropped the hammer again. He’s as Fed up with the Russian narrative as we are.
Aqua says:
T. Rex conversations have become “don’t miss” events…
I’d love to be a part of a Trump/Tillerson dinner discussion. Real news.
Kroesus says:
It is questionable whether the Ukraine actually ever “owned”: the Crimean Peninsula…..Khrushchev in a drunken stupor (often for him) transferred its ownership…..the area had traditionally been Russian territory and its people are by a vast majority Russian heritage and lean towards Russian governance……I think we have no business trying to dictate on this matter
They had a vote in Crimea. The people – mostly Russian speaking – voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia. American neocons protested that the election didn’t meet American standards. If it had, the “rejoin Russia” side would have won by only 85% instead of 90%. I’m sure John McCain will be overjoyed by this. It’ll also help Putin maintain overwhelming popularity against his American foil. He’ll probably also cooperate more with Iran, since the US is again proving its inclination to meddle throughout the world.
Kaco says:
Yes, and I thought I had read they have a military base there.
I remember when we all heard Nikki Haley’s first speech at the U.N. She said basically the same thing. It was poo-poohed here as she’s just rattling off, it isn’t what Pres. Trump thinks. Apparently, we should start taking what they all say seriously, including Pompeo about Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
I find it a shame that there can’t be a cordial, practical, relationship with Russia. Destroying the Left’s Russian hysteria is not much consolation, and they will continue the accusation anyway.
I am never sure why you can’t have a sovereign country that speaks Russian and is friendly to Russia without having to become a part of Russia. Am I missing something here?
Derek Hagen says:
No, but now that you bring it up we are all not missing something. Thanks. Let’s pass this question around.
You’re missing that they had a plebiscite. If the people of Crimea want to revert to being part of Russia why should Kiev be allowed to disallow it? More importantly, wtf business is it of ours? It’d be like if Russia slapped sanctions on the US until we handed Arizona back to Mexico. I get Sundance’s point (below) that the sanctions aren’t really hurting Russia (don’t throw me in the briar patch), but the mind-numbing sanctimoniousness of Americans weighing in on this matter at all is beyond belief. What’s next – we start dictating to Myanmar how they deal with the terrorist Rohinga? It’s none of our f’ing business!!!!
alegenoa says:
I hear that many European businesses suffer from this EU sanction, losing the Russian market. It doesn’t make sense.
It seems the Trump administration is just protecting its reputation from those “Russiagate” accusations, but this in turn means there are unwanted consequences for the world.
Always Faithful says:
It’s all fake outrage.
Very few Americans could locate Crimea, the Ukraine, or even Russia on a map.
Even our representatives don’t know the difference between Crimea and Korea.
The same could have been said of Serbia, but that didn’t stop us from bombing them to aid the Muslims.
No briar patch for you. I agree with everything you said.
It’s a very complicated situation, going back well, well before WWII (or even WWI), and neither side is completely the innocent victim. It also involves far more than politics (religion, ethnicity, et al. have been twisted to conform to political justification). There could potentially be some peaceful, pragmatic way to reconcile this thing to the mutual benefit of all concerned, but it would involve compromise and putting old grievances and entitlements to bed once and for all — so it won’t happen because all parties concerned nurse those like a starving infant at a bottle.
The Middle East and Eastern Europe: the places where diplomacy goes to die.
This is what I have been thinking for awhile. At some point there was a separation.
Normally, the US would make a deal to operate a base in a separate strategic area. Why can’t the Russians do the same unless all decide to rejoin under one umbrella? However, the US still should not be involved.
because it’s in an area of the world where diplomacy goes to die 😉
aka. Bismarck was a bastige, but correct (although he should have expanded it beyond the Balkans)
The Russians and Ukrainians (although genetically and culturally quite close — Kievan Rus anyone?) have a tendency to hate each other’s guts (and both sides are guilty of causing that). And the leadership on both sides is infected with a disability to think outside the box — which will likely cause them and others grief in the future.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have liked to see a U.S./Russia alliance and at least better working relations…but I’m not so lacking in clear-sightedness as to get on the Russia Rah-Rah Brigade. That country has some very troubling problems at the moment…we will have to be as ready as possible for the outcomes of those…imhao of course.
Old tribes have sand box issues, no doubt.
smartyjones1 says:
See Robert Conquest’s “Harvest of Sorrow” for why there’s more than a little unhappiness between the people of Ukraine and the Russian government, direct descendants of the Terror Famine. https://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Sorrow-Soviet-Collectivization-Terror-Famine/dp/0195051807
Putin’s Little Green Men now have successfully killed thousands and took down a civilian airliner over eastern Ukraine.
The bear does not want independent thinking people at their doorstep. It could spread like a contagion into Russia itself. That’s not how a dictator stays in power year after year.
In the end, who will be the longest reigning dictator in our lifetimes, Putin or Castro?
That my friends is the question.
Well framed!
It seems they were doing fine until Putin decided they needed to come back into the fold and started agitating with some of the populace to get them to side with him. If Putin had left well enough alone would those who now side with him have decided they wanted to rejoin Russia, on their own. I doubt it.
SteveInCO says:
The fact of the matter is, when the USSR broke up in 1991, the then-present borders of the SSRs were recognized as the new borders of the independent countries.
Russia simply decided to take away something they had previously recognized as belonging to Ukraine. In other words, they simply took it away, with the same excuses the Nazis used to take the Sudetenland.
And yes I know it was ethnically Russian. Again: Sudetenland.
Must be very dense here….I thought Trump wanted an opportunity to make friends with Putin and enlist his help in getting rid of Isis. What’s changed? And what of those 75 diplomats Obama sent back to Russsia? Were those the only “sanctions”? What about our diplomats in Russia? We leave them?
I don’t think Trump has changed w/ respect to working with Russia against ISIS.
He just negotiates from a position of strength, not weakness and sucking up.
Southern Son says:
It’s a Complicated
Business Folks.
Complicated Business..
It is ethnically Roosky, b/c Stalin or his predecessors murdered or forcibly rellocated the Ukrainians (maybe Tartars? Can’t remember their ethnicity right now) and replaced them with ethnic Rooskies, who remain the majority in Crimea as a result. I’m still looking for a deal to be struck where RUS essentially resumes supervision of Ukraine, keeps its naval base, but has to invest some serious economic development and law enforcement $ (rubles anyway) to get sanctions lifted. Seems like 3x win to me.
We don’t want to “own” everything, When a smart developer sees a neighboring property in distress, if he doesn’t want to fix it himself, his best option is to get someone else to.
As I recall, it was ethnically Russian primarily because the Russian empire under Catherine the Great in the 1770s conquered it and moved Russians in to settle what was, before that time, pastoral (nomadic) land.
val76 says:
Both are true.
Yes! Thank you! The local and indigenous Ukrainians were killed and Russians were moved in! It’s why eastern Ukraine too is mostly Russian speaking and have Russian loyalists.
And while we’re re-litigating the history of Crimea, let’s weigh in on whether lands taken by the Kingdom of Ghana should be returned to the f’ing Bantus!
i'm just sayin'.. says:
You had to open that one up didn’t you?
There are disputed lands everywhere. Not our problem. Not our business.
Just because they’re not our “problem”, doesn’t mean TRUMP can’t take advantage of a little chaos to kill off the lingering “Muh Russia” issue AND go a leg up on Putin!
I know its Monday and you got out of bed on the “left side”, but try thinking ahead, just a little bit, eh?
Sounds like an ancient Islamic tactic.
There have never been any “indigenous Ukrainians” in Crimea. It was populated by Tatars before Stalin “relocated” them to Siberia for collaboration with Hitler, and ethnic Russians. Crimea was Russian before Chruschev decided to redraw the map and “give” it to Ukraine.
Let’s be realistic: the local population voted to re-join Russia. They are not going back. And Russia will never abandon Crimea because of Sevastopol. Not gonna happen. Tillerson can issue as many political statements as he wants.
Jenny R says:
Not just Tatars — Poles, Germans, Russians,Ruthenians, Greeks, Jews, a bit of everything from the region (it is sitting on a crossroads of Eurasia, a key hub). And the relocations weren’t just under Stalin — the tsars were not so innocent themselves. In this regard Russia acted like just about every other imperial power at the time (and they weren’t the only ones who did the imperial shuffle in that part of the world)…but it is well to remember: usually the natives don’t remember being pushed hither and whither that fondly (parts of my husband’s family still feel like they were lied to and tricked by all sides of the Schleswig Holstein Wars — the Old World’s memory is far too long, and ours is far too short, or at least our knowledge of how long the Old World can carry a grudge is).
And the Holomodor and forced relocations under Stalin didn’t endear Russians to Ukrainians (who in turn usually acted on any opportunity to get revenge, which didn’t endear them with the Russians).
this territory LOOONG predates Stalin……it goes back to at least Catherine the Great (1700’s) and had a war that occurred BEFORE our Civil War…..Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire xs Imperial Russia….you may have heard of it as it was called the CRIMEAN War……Lord Tennyson actually wrote a somewhat famous poem about the fog of war and mistakes that happen called “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (look it up)
Russia fought the Ottoman Turks for the Crimea, won in 1776 and signed a peace treaty with the Porte shortly thereafter. Russia’s claim to the Crimea is of longer duration than ours to the original 13 colonies, not to mention our later acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Sundance reminds us that President Trump is presently fighting rabid leftists ( 35% of the electorate ) milk-toast Republicans (15% of the electorate) as well as the US Chamber of Commerce & Business Roundtable wielding mega-millions come elections.
Should we lose the White House in 2020 or 2024, we might well return to the chaotic immigration and unfair trade patterns of the last 30 years, as we grow ever poorer. What happens if Mexico demands both the return of those south-western states in 2040 and can count on local populations voting to rejoin Mexico in state referendums? And what would we do if the United Nations — citing sanctions on Russia over Crimea as a precedent — imposes sanctions on us, pending the return of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to Mexico?
For that matter, come 2040, how might Russia vote in the UN Security Council about sanctioning us?
Linden Markham says:
The Mexicans will turn those areas into replicas of the shit holes they left, just as the Palestinians turned the thriving Gaza into a shit hole. Nothing changes.
I say we return California to Mexico! A whole lotta problems solved! Let those lefty Silicon Valley and Hollywood panty-waists deal directly with the Cartels. Barrels of popcorn needed for that!
(And don’t give me the “but, Cali has a GDP equal to the 5th largest…” BS!
Cali’s been losing businesses for years and there would be an absolute mad rush for NV and AZ, if it was returned to México!)
“Russia’s claim to the Crimea is of longer duration than ours to the original 13 colonies, not to mention our later acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.”
Let’s not forget Alaska, Louisiana Purchase.
Hey Coon, I was going to write that France and Russia sold us Louisiana and Alaska fair-and-square, but realized that — given the oil reserves — these nations might now claim that Napoleon had no right to betray the ‘Acadian refugees’ and that the Russia Czar was clearly insane to sell us so much oil for a pittance. In short, the deals for Louisiana and Alaska are invalid.
Sanction those sanctimonious Americans till they return Louisiana and Alaska !
You’ve nailed it!
The problem with this is that Russia owned Ukraine back then too.
Ukraine, INCLUDING CRIMEA, became independent from the Soviet Union as the USSR fell apart and modern day Russia (also becoming independent) recognized that fact, and recognized its borders.
Russia is now coming back and playing what would be, in a more politically incorrect age, “indian giver” and demanding–forcibly seizing, in fact–something they had previously given up.
The parallels to Nazi Germany and the Sudetenland are staggering and I am absolutely appalled that good Americans make excuses for it. One can argue about whether we should get involved, but argue that Russia is in the right here? No fricking way.
There’s lots of apologists popping up. You would think Putin is George Washington not a former KGB officer who was stationed in East Germany helping prop up that totalitarian system/government.
There’s a lot of Russians who don’t have a problem with empire. Hey, just look at the land mass of Russia alone. You think it got that way by accident?
Not by accident, but they did catch a couple of lucky breaks. Once they punched through the Siberian Khanate during Ivan IV’s reign (Ivan the Terrible) they basically had very little between them and the Pacific Ocean.
But yes, they’ve always been expansionist.
Are we keeping the UN?
Buckeye Heathen says:
and if so;why ?
If we get rid of the UN, we get rid of the boot on our neck. Problem solved.
Crimea is historically Russian and the warm water port for the Russian Navy. If we want friendly relations with the Russian Christian Nation they will have to keep Crimea and Latakia base in Syria. I hope and pray that this is only a negotiation position to make a good deal, otherwise we will never have a peaceful relationship. Ukraine is within the Russian sphere of influence. If they evacuate the Donbas we should leave Ukraine alone and never, ever have Ukraine in NATO or the EU.
“Negotiation position”??? As Bugs Bunny would say, “Do tell!”
JoAnn Leichliter says:
Frankly, I agree, Kroesus.
MVW says:
“Secretary Tillerson reiterated the United States’ firm commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and confirmed that sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine and fully implements its commitments in the Minsk agreements. ”
And we should return Texas and California to Mexico. /s
Neocons are loving Tillerson’s position. Soros must love Tillerson. Ukraine government was overthrown by a CIA operation, so again we meddle for the Globalists and then put a White Hat on top of a Black Hat and put a ribbon on our chest. Bravo! /s
I am not celebrating the continued hostility towards Russia, but until we get our domestic problems addressed and Neocons are gone I can’t see a political resolution.
Cali = YES;
Texas = NO! Texas won its freedom from Mexico in a shooting war = Remember the Alamo!!! Texas joined the US as a separate, independent republic.
SEJMON says:
Crimeans are happy they do not have to live under worst government in Europe since may 1945….remember Vicky Nuland give away cookies in KYIEVi feb.2014….
Weeper says:
I just love it when a plan comes together.
I feel like I’m reading a political thriller where the “good guys” are smart, intelligent humans, and the enemies are a bunch of stupid cartoon characters. Next chapter please!!! 😉
Which ones are we?
Depends. Could be either I guess. I’m a human, but I’m also quite fond of Minions!
mopar2016 says:
The enemies ARE cartoon characters.
And most of them are in Senate and the House.
LOL!!! Thanks mopar2016. I can’t do pics 😀
Rickster says:
Yet, Rachael Madcow will probably be on her next show saying “What if….this is a ploy….by the Trump administration…..to apppeaar tough.” o_o
coveyouthband says:
All those tired of winning please raise your hand………………..
KevinH says:
This is one of the few times I differ with the opinion here. At the fall of the Soviet Union, at that moment, the US began dumping billions of dollars into ripping Ukraine out of Russia’s sphere of influence, over 10 billion dollars in fact, according to Victoria Nuland.
You can argue that that was a good idea, or a bad idea. That doesn’t change the fact there would be tens of thousands killed in Crimea if Russia didn’t accept them (half accept, half annex), whatever you want to call it — the people of Crimea are happy for Russia’s intervention.
Your point is not mutually exclusive to the position of T-Rex (and/or Trump).
These sanctions are a nothing-burger, mere annoyances, to both administrations in the larger scale of things.
“Please don’t throw me into the briar patch”.. (the basic concept here).
BlackKnightRides says:
Our T-Rex just cuffed Russia, with more to come…
What did those fools expect we’d do after their bomber-jabs at Alaska’s coastline!
Trialbytruth says:
Good point BK a little tit for tat. However, as straight forward as Secretary Tillerson was, the left will remind us he didn’t say never EVER nor did he pinky swear.
It is nice having adults in charge who are clear in intent. Unlike our previous cabal of liars and cheats when you want to know what this administration means by what it says all you have too do is look at the words.
I tried to explain this to my daughter in law (one year of undergrad law and a constitutional expert) we are no longer face book friends. I only had 7 so now i’m down to the 6 smart ones in the family. Every so often the zack herd must be thinned LOL
Are you now ending each posted Trump Win with the “… don’t tell xyz 😉”?
Excellent point. And it could also be Trump positioning himself at the farthest extreme for free, to leverage in negotiations with Russia about Syria and other topics.
Your sentiment is spot on, though I doubt any significant impact on Syria. It’s about Ukraine. There’s a deal to be crafted that will help everyone.
The world is real estate. so who knows how to make those kinds of deals?
If Trump had been in the garden of eden, he’d have built a wall around the forbidden tree and we’d still be living under God’s original Grace. He’s got a lot of fixing up to do.
” It’s about Ukraine. There’s a deal to be crafted that will help everyone”
If it has anything to do with allowing and paying for many more Ukrianian women into the US as “refugees”, I’m all in! Beautiful, long legged blondes…..mmmm!
Sundance, exactly what I was thinking!
This is all big-picture leverage stuff here that operates on a 4-D chess board.
Most of us can barely see the board, much less the pieces.
Sundance,
Thank you for that clarification. Trump is working in the world of politics now out of necessity. This is the real world, politics is part of it. The problem with politics is that it is the swamp.
xyzlatin says:
There was a free vote in Crimea which approved of the annexation. Russia needs an all weather port for it’s navy. Russia cannot give in and will not. Ukraine also had a properly elected president who was ousted by CIA stirring up marches and the killing of protesters therein, and an unelected oligarch installed. The US, and the EU bureaucracy greedy nation building is to blame for this situation. Ukraine was to remain neutral and out of the EU. Russia was betrayed. This will remain a stalemate and a festering sore. No win here.
However, I can see that Tillerson had to make a show of independence from Russia, given his former life. Also because of the stupidity of the accusations against Trump and bogus Russian interference in the election, Trump also has to make a show of not supporting Russia.
This is part of the huge mess that Pres Trump has inherited.
And yeah, the political optics would be bad if he were to lift sanctions right now.
Even though he might want to.
Putin is smart, so hopefully he understands this.
It will take time to rectify the misdeeds of the past.
Putin will have to EARN any change in America’s position.
If China comes through on the NORKS, Putin will have to contribute mightily to reset relations.
Like perhaps…helping us with Syria and Iran?
Helping us do what in Syria – replace Assad with Salafis?
Maybe he could give back the American Uranium that Hillary and the Clinton Crime Family Foundation sold him?
Or maybe President Trump “freezes Russia’s American uranium assets”.
Tonawanda says:
Plus, Trump and Tillerson may have already acknowledged to Putin the historical fairness of Russia’s claims + the unfairness in Ukraine, and explicitly told Putin that a mutually favorable solution could and would be worked out.
BO’s bogus sanctions might have been a huge gift to Trump.
The CIA seems to stir up trouble everywhere and answer to no one. A country of their own.
Best explanation ever – thank you……
Glad you mentioned the port…I thought it was one of the primary reasons for Putin’s action in Ukraine, but when no posters brought it up I was beginning to doubt my memory,
That, BTW, irregardless of the tongue-in-cheek comments about Ca. is why it’s still important to the rest of the country…the coastline and all it brings.
Well, I note there’s been elections in Ukraine and some have been free and fair.
Others have been questionable but then again, when oligarch tyrant fled in the dead of night off to hide himself in Russia.
All the tears spilling for the oligarch coward here. Fascinating.
Putin wants the Crimean deep water port thats it that’s all
elena19501deplorable says:
No, Putin wants whole Ukraine back…Ukraine never been independent country, it was always split between Russia and Poland…and was always fighting Russia for Independence…
Paula Kinziger says:
That’s correct elena19501deplorable. Watched many docs on the Ukraine/Russia and the Ukraine people want to stay independent.
Then they should avoid getting in bed with the hegemon.
agree-if they wanted be truly independent as SWITZERLAND they would not welcome NULAND/MCCAIN and eat theirs cookies…
I was born in USSR and know very well Russian and USSR’s imperial history.
Timmy-the-Ute says:
Then Russia can compensate the Ukraine for Crimea. Stop paying for a war between the two countries and compensate Ukraine. Enough trillions of Rubles will make the Ukraine happy and navigation right out of the Sea of Avoz (Kerch Strait). Ukraine is not going to invade Russia’s western border. Putin, pull back your tanks and troops.
Yes Alex Jones says the Ukrainians are a bunch of Nazis. But the Russians make a treaty with them. If Russian wants there nationals back them ask them to emigrate back. Russia is not a natural country. It was a empire or a collection of countries. It’s ability to maintain that empire will vary. The empire under the USSR was a high point. Now it is at a smaller level.
Well, if he would be practical, then he would negotiate a deal with Ukraine and get/keep his warm water port — and maybe some other nice bennies as well. A potential win-win situation for at least most people (and thus, in the interests of stability and future working relations, I believe this is what the U.S. should be angling for). There are still some people in the Russian leadership that might be up to convincing him of this.
But if he decides to go with the revanchist elements camp in his government — and it is present and does fit just about every bad stereotype of the Russians available — then he’ll not be happy with just that, will try to reclaim control of all the former Soviet bloc nations, will extend further into Europe and Asia…and will likely have things backfire horribly…causing consequences of an unsavory nature for everybody.
Personally, if the Russians aren’t careful they’re going to cause their country to go POP again (and it will happen suddenly and thus rather shockingly for everyone) — just imao.
Love the Wanted Poster, Sundance!!
Louise Mensch could’ve starred as “Bore Us” also!! 🙂
nothing menschlichkeit about her!
“Menschć is a Yiddish word from the German for” man”. In Yiddish/Jewish parlance it means an excellent or Godly person. I’ve met 1, maybe up to 3 mensches in 60 years. She ain’t one. PDJT might prove to be a real mensch. We’ll see. In the meantime, he’s a heck uva POTUS!
Sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of Crimean peninsula to Ukraine, implements its commitments in Minsk agreements.
— Department of State (@StateDept) April 24, 2017
paris23 says:
It’s all a funny game, isn’t it? The State Dept. must know that is never going to happen. I guess it’s all about posturing for political reasons.
You can call it politics or humanitarian – – moxnix. Fact is RUS is best situated to provide economic development and security to Ukraine. Don’t see Poland, Germany, or any other neighbor stepping up. Key is making a deal that benefits USA, given those realities. PDJT & T-Rex appear to be on the right track, though since they haven’t hired me yet at a yuge salary, there remains room for improvement.
I wouldn’t be so certain of that. As I have grown to see things as bargaining positions, I see this as leverage to do any number of things in the future. To say that’s never going to happen? Let’s say, for example, Russia were convinced serve US interests in some significant and highly visible way. Well? Perhaps that deserves reducing sanctions or some other reward for good behavior. That President Trump was not responsible for the sanctions still makes him “the good guy.”
I begin to see things more and more as potentially useful positions from which to operate rather than staunch positions based on ideology. Operating on an ideological level is essentially operating from an emotional level. And that becomes a big problem as emotions replace intellect in the brain.
Sometimes a hegemon is just a hegemon.
Don’t think for one minute that the other side is against the idea for themselves and wouldn’t ever do it — countries and their inhabitants are never angels and seldom saints.
Which one has its military in over 70 countries?
You did not address the second half of my statement, which if a qualification of the (rather rhetorical) question.
sentien…..with a emotion/ideology and no intellect/brain ????? we do no want that next 8 yrs…
It won’t happen. Ever.
They must honor their agreements.
People may not take seriously Russia’s scientists’ research involving climate change. Their leading scientists predict massive COOLING which means Russia will be affected by having its northern seaports frozen. (Dec 4, 2013 – A new paper by solar physicist by Habibullo Abdussamatov predicts the current lull in solar activity will continue and lead to a new Little Ice Age ). Russia began building massive nuclear driven ice breakers because of this forecast. Russia needs a secure southern seaport for its navy. It is a matter of life and death for the Russians and they will not give in.
The only important part of their Navy are Submarines. Warm water ports are not that important to their Subs. When you only have one Aircraft Carrier you really have one too many. Russia’s navy isn’t used to keep open international shipping lanes like the US Navy does.
So why would Russia close down its options for ever more because at the present time it may have subs as its most important part of its navy? It still has some ships it needs to get out. It would be a foolish nation indeed who gave up a warm water port for ever closing its options down simply because neocons in the EU, Nato and the US (like McCain) want them to behave and toe their line? Unlike the US, Russians have suffered over the centuries from invasion and backstabbing.
Oh, I think the U.S. has suffered its fair share of backstabbing.
Let’s be honest: it is incredibly hard (but not impossible) for the Russians to maneuver a peaceful and lucrative deal due to past associations with its neighbors — a lot of this they have brought upon themselves, and while it isn’t fair to judge a country by its past actions nevertheless the memory of those actions is still there; however, the question should be brought to them: is it better to try something different and thus improve those associations? Or go with the old-fashioned method?
At this point I’m not so sure it shouldn’t be presented to them as :”what have you got to lose?” The Ukraine is becoming a mess for them(and influencing the rest of E. Europe — even Serbia and Belarus have in recent years stepped away from Russia on occasion, and the situation in Central Asia is not looking too rosy, domestically it isn’t either, and I don’t think the Trump administration is going to respond in the same fashion as previous administrations. So at this point maybe they need to try something else because what they are doing is at the point of a zero sum game.
are you crazy?…..ever hear of a thing called the “continental shelf”…..modern subs typical operate in the 1000-2000 foot depths and cannot do this until they reach deep ocean…..since most attack subs vary from 55-65 feet in height you can see the typical 100-200 foot coastal depths give very little water under the keel…in fact even with todays Black and Baltic sea ports in use by the Russian Navy we monitor their movements for HUNDREDS of miles after departure and they must surface to pass through many chokepoints (Dardanelles Bosporus and Juteland Straits)
SharonKinDC says:
In the geo-political chess game, this is the effective statement to make. What the end result will be may differ.
BG2 says:
For whose benefit are these ineffective sanctions? Shadow puppetry, a form of words.
Russia will never give up its warm water ports in the Crimea.
The naive Ukrainians are a perfect case study of why you don’t give up your nuclear weapons in return for hilarious Western promises about your territorial integrity.
You can’t trust a democracy. Look who we elected for 8 years, BHO.
That is the problem of years of public indoctrination, teaching them — incorrectly — that we are a democracy.
We are not supposed to be anything of the sort.
Because our founders knew you could not trust a democracy.
In Az says:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-01/hacked-emails-expose-george-soros-ukraine-puppet-master
Interesting information on George Soros and his evil works in the Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/228379-obama-power-transition-ukraine/
CNN interview with Obama, Obama admitting he “brokered” Ukraine power change.
Of course it is BS. It was a government overthrow, a coup, with the help of George Soros.
The Ukraine President that was overthrown was not a fan the of the EU. He had to go……enter Soros and Obama doing the dirty work for the EU.
By any means Soros needs to be dealt with. He is not the only one causing wars, murder, the downfall of Western civilization. He has help, but he is the face, and he is doing the majority of the evil and vile. work to destroy the world for the Communists Globalists benefit.
As usual, what’s in the USA ‘s interest and in the interest of the people affected is in direct opposition to Soros. Time is overdue when he can be turned over to those he has harmed for trial and sentencing.
Jonathan Hughes says:
Muslims are in the Ukraine. There are many names for Muslims. Ukraine was home to 248,193 Crimean Tatars, 73,304 Volga Tatars, 45,176 Azeris, 12,353 Uzbeks, 8,844 Turks, 6,575 Arabs and 5,526 Kazakhs. That number is growing. ,Muslims are doing there what Muslims are doing here making Liberals to be violent. Leave Russia alone.
Muslims are bad actors wherever they immigrate. Islam is as Islam does.
They play good cop/ bad cop and pretend victim until their numbers increase, then they are dangerous and tyrannical.
They have played the same game and committed the same barbaric bloodshed, committed slavery and oppression since Mohammed was alive.
Here is Islam’s reign of hell on earth just in 2017:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=2017
IF Ukraine doesn’t stop the Muslim invasion, it will be Ukrainistan in 20 years or less.
No doubt Erdogan is pushing Muslims to immigrate there.
Kiev and its sponsor have not implemented Minsk. The Donbass and its sponsor have. The Russian Federation has assumed that sanctions will not be lifted. The bridge to Crimea will soon be finished. Now that the neocon Ukraine gambit has resulted in the impoverishment of the Ukraine it will get even more unpleasant. Keeping The Ukraine together will cost us more than the sanctions will cost Russia, so we probably will let it disintegrate. And Kiev might just attack the Donbass again.
chojun says:
I have a former co-worker who is ethnic Russian from Crimea. The big problem is that they wanted to return to the Russian federation.
I’m not questioning the wisdom of this foreign policy objective but I will say that it will remain a stumbling block for improving relations. But the sanctions do create a significant amount of leverage for the US.
Which means that at some point in the future sanctions and Crimea policy will likely be reversed in exchange for some *big* concessions from Russia on strategic issues.
I hope Chopin is right, we cannot have endless war.
Chojun, spellchecker went off prematurely
chojun-CRIMEA is already(april 2014)part of Russia and happy with that.
KevinK says:
So is this suppose to be another Trump foreign policy “success” we should celebrate? Another example of 3D chess? Anybody who knows anything about the history of Crimea (and I bet most on here are well versed) knows that Russia is never going to give up Crimea nor should it! Crimea has been Russian for hundreds of years! So we should just forget about ever achieving good relations between the U.S. and Russia?
We all know what happened in the Ukraine under Obama. The neocons (Nuland) spent billions to overthrow a democratically president of the Ukraine. Thousands of innocents died horrible deaths as a result of U.S. intervention. But for the illegal U.S. actions in the Ukraine Russia would never have had to annex Crimea.
Trump campaigned on better relations with Russia and seemed open to recognizing Crimea as Russian. Unfortunately it appears the unrelenting campaign to paint Trump as a “puppet of Putin” has worked and Trump has caved into the pressure by adopting a belligerent stance towards Russia – not only in the Ukraine but in Syria (to the delight of ISIS and Al Qaeda).
This neocon foreign policy stance will just lead to more bloodshed in the Ukraine. It didn’t have to be this way.
A2 says:
I’m with Secretary Tillerson. The grievance collectors (aka Putin apologists) and false narrative promoters can pound sand.
SteveFrench says:
It basically comes down to them (the grievance collectors) underestimating PDJT. Look, admittedly with any other candidate I would be likely to be on their side with regards to the situation with Assad and now Ukraine. And that side is something like: “This is what the Neocons have been campaigning for, so this is bad.”
But just HOW can you now operate under the assumption that that Trump doesn’t know something that is obvious to you? Memes about Trump having a time machine were popular because the guy has had such solid intel ffs. I just can’t wait until something so big and successful happens, maybe with NK or negotiation in the ME, so that most everyone will be forced to admit that we are dealing with an individual that operates on another level here.
I do not operate under any assumptions, just the facts on the ground. The so-called Russian grievance collectors are disinfo agents or morons who do not pay attention to actual events.
The rest of your post is garbled. The President=Sec Tillerson. Got that. No time machine, no memes. The memes are yours.
What is your argument?
The President, and the SoS are not ‘operating on ‘another level’. They are operating on hard evidence.
We are in agreement, I think you misunderstood my post.
Steve seemed to be agreeing with your comment about “grievance collectors” (whatever that is) and you turn around and insult him! Not very nice!
Thank you Mr. Kagan.
These statements by SOS Tillerson may be a wee bit more than first meets the eye.
In 1994 Bill Clinton signed the Budapest Agreement, agreeing to protect Ukraine, and Ukraine gave up Ukraine’s nuclear weapons. Putin broke that 1994 agreement.
“Is it fair to speculate that the Kremlin is also interested in the Clinton Foundation?”
“(will) New York’s attorney general will investigate”? Recall, Obama/Clinton guy Preet Bhara was fired.
http://observer.com/2016/06/vladimir-putin-has-everything-he-needs-to-blackmail-hillary-clinton/
Obama/Clinton also broke the 1994 Budapest agreement. Meanwhile, Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk became one of the largest Clinton Foundation donors, and atttempted to influence Bill Clinton to become anti-Putin. http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/10/19/wikileaks-ukraine/
Have any of the 13 steps included in the Minsk II agreement been accomplished, or even attempted? It would seem not. Minsk I was never even begun. http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/09/economist-explains-7
One may become entangled in all the weeds, but imo these statements by SOS Tillerson are more than just what appears on the surface, even a potential bargaining chip. Perhaps Putin knows this as well.
If one may be permitted, plagerizing Sharon,
“I’m wondering if The Donald already knows a lot more than he’s letting on to, but is willing to pursue the public dance because he already actually knows how it ends??? I can’t imagine him risking doing what he’s doing based on hunches…even to a greater extent than he’s already made reference to. We don’t have to worry about The Donald’s loyalties, I don’t believe.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2011/04/07/the-donald-has-gone-nuclear-too-trump-i-have-investigators-in-hawaii-they-cannot-believe-what-theyre-finding/comment-page-1/#comment-11442
Wow, kudos to you jeans2nd for your in depth reading of previous CTH articles and posts….that goes w-a-y back.
WOW! That was a fun interview! And since it covered some of what T-Rex is saying, I just had to share PDJT’s closing remarks to Meridith…
“I know this. I will be better than anybody. I will do the best job. If I decide to run, I will do the best job. I will be best for this country. And, you may say, “Oh, gee, that doesn’t sound like George Washington.” Well, guess what? Before George Washington ran, he didn’t sound like George Washington either. I will be and do a great job, if I run and if I win.”
If the Budapest Memorandum had been a treaty, it would have had to be voted on by the senate. It wasn’t and it’s not. Bush the Elder also assured Gorbachev that we wouldn’t enroll former Soviet republics into NATO. We lied.
Best solution to Crimea – let it be independent and lease their port to Russia if they wish.
Best solution to Ukraine (after neutralizing $0r0$) is a massive MRP (Muslim Repatriation Program) to return Muslims to Saudi Arabia (Sunni) or Iran (Shiite). Really, Saudi Arabia should have to take them all. That is where the evil ideology was formed and that is where it should return.
As for the Africa – muslims have been an evil plague there for way too long. It’s heart-wrenching how many deaths, slavery, oppression Africa has suffered at the hands and swords of Islamists.
The whole world desperately needs MRP to be enacted globally.
Answer to the entire world not blowing up! Thanks, georgiafl! Put a wall around it. Or offer complete annihilation to relieve the Royal family from their misery and demise.
georgiafl, would you trust your security to a lease?
There are 100 year leases – just like the USA leases sites for our bases, etc.
ALSO – didn’t Crimea have a majority vote to return to alliance with Russia?
Ukraine has had major problems with corruption and will have more serious problems with $0r0$ and Islam influencing the country. $0r0$ is still Nazi at heart. Islamism and Nazism are twin ideologies – equally tyrannical and barbaric.
Good. Russia is a rapidly dying country. The fact they are squandering precious resources on conflicts that are nothing more then a replay of Cold War is obvious…Look at the leaders of Russia since end of Cold War and that answers many questions…
We owe Russia nothing and they are not our friends in any way…..We can try to work together and that’s fine, but you don’t concede anything to a thug like Putin….I feel the same way about most of Europe…Pay up and fix yourselves….They all have much bigger bark then bite…
Set the ground rules and walk away…
At least Russia (like Poland and Hungary) has resisted the encroachment and demon hordes ofl Islam.
Russia has a large and growing muslim population:
https://www.stratfor.com/image/russias-growing-muslim-population
I believe the only country on the Eurasian continent that is nominally Christian to have higher numbers is France.
And many converts:
https://globalecco.org/en_GB/ctx-v1n1/violent-converts-to-islam
Go down to the section about other countries — Russia is having a problem with ethnic Russians, who one would suppose are at least nominally ROC in origin, converting to islam, and worse becoming jihadists.
Oh – I had read Russia had cracked down and rejected Islamist invasion after the Beslan School massacre.
Thanks for the correction. Anywhere Islam spreads is plagued and in for a lot of suffering.
Re-correction for you, georgiafl. The Russians have a very aggressive anti-Wahhabi Islam security program in the Caucuses (Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia). These are Muslim republics in the RF, and the ISIS and AQ sponsors in Saudi Arabia have for 35 years sent radicals into these areas to fight the government forces.
The FSB intercepts and kills many bombers and assailants all the time. There are special units dedicated to these regions and to the big cities of Russia.
The St. Petersburg bomber and his cell (he was not a lone wolf, but a directed agent) have been uncovered, the leaders captured. So, more links will be uncovered.
The Russians are very effective internally and internationally at fighting Islamic terror.
Egypt is desperate to get Russia to come help them fight the MB/ISIS. Turkey depends on Russian Intel services to help them against terrorists. And the Central Asian ‘stans all depend on Russian security against Islamic radicals.
https://www.rt.com/news/385307-suspect-petersburg-blast-detained/
Russia also has Siberia where they can store terrorists indefinitely….longterm cold storage.
You’re welcome. It isn’t well known because it is not well reported. It is nonetheless significant, I think. I won’t lie: it troubles me greatly; I am afraid it will have serious future repercussions that may be coming into play now.
The bigger crime is letting Obama, $0r0$ and Islam have their way in Ukraine.
Alex…and you know about VVP & RUSSIA only from NYT & WAPO sir that is not eunogh.
Agree, sanctions a nothingburger…
Importantly, at home, this stance mutes the blathering of war hungry Punch and Judy (McCain & Graham) and their ilk. Pres. Trump has dinner with them (P&J) this week probably for a come to Jesus moment.
Also, accentuates leverage in Europe pre-G7 meeting and anticipating opening, on a country by country basis, bilateral trade discussions. An ancillary benefit is the EU’s continuing to be exposed as an over bloated gas bag.
Oh yeah, more leverage to get NATO “allies” to pay up
This belligerent stance towards Russia will not mute McCain and Graham it simply rewards them them for their past attacks on Trump’s previous foreign policies (that he campaigned on). In an interview last week Graham said he was the happiest man in D.C. after Trump’s 180 degree turn on Russia.
This just came in to my account:
10:00AM: President Trump has a video conference with NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station – Watch LIVE
11:30AM: **President Trump has a working lunch with ambassadors of countries on the United Nations Security Council**
2:30PM: President Trump signs a proclamation on Holocaust Remembrance
3:00PM: President Trump hosts a credential ceremony for newly appointed ambassadors to Washington, D.C.
4:30PM: President Trump meets with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford
5:30PM: **President Trump participates in a reception with conservative media**
6:30PM: **President Trump has dinner with Senator John McCain, Mrs. Cindy McCain, and Senator Lindsey Graham**
Bet President T is rrrrreally looking forward to this evening.
Ha! Ha! I wonder what will be on the menu?!
Sandra-VA says:
Meatloaf, of course!
crows- for Graham & McCain.
Ha! Forgot about that!
artichoke says:
I support Trump in almost everything, but this seems like a contradiction of his campaign rhetoric that a lot of us liked. Why are we still fighting the cold war? Why are we trying to uphold General Secretary Khrushchev’s maneuver to transfer Crimea from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian SSR? Why are we backing the side with neo-Nazi associations?
Nose holding, stinky, swamp politics is reality. Trump has waded into the Neocon muck to get our domestic agenda passed in the legislature. Thank God for Teflon, soap and water.
dododo says:
I remember reading that Ukraine has a weak, corrupt govt and is a hotbed of islamic terrorism.
C. Lowell says:
T-Rex is no John Kerry, that’s for sure,
And I’m sure this is code for DJT/Putin collusion, but I’ll leave it to the MSM to analyze that…
Linked is an article which gives basic information about Crimea, its history, relevancy and which US state(s) it is most like.
http://theweek.com/articles/449175/which-american-state-most-like-crimea
This gives a very good overview of Crimea:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Crimea
Also includes the history.
But I thought DJT was colluding with Russia —
These comments don’t seem like collusion… Or maybe the Democrats and MSM are lying?
saintoil says:
I drop in here every now and then since the Tomahawk betrayal to the base to see if your current reactions. So your cheering Trump and Tillerson on now with the hyper Neo Con Job???? So are you guys ready to go to war for the Ukraine neo nazi’s that WE installed????? I don’t hardly recognize my formerly beloved CTH.
You clearly have not read the comments.
Hillary and McCain are surely proud of the slow learner Trump turned neo.
Are you guys aware that Crimea is mostly Russian speaking and overwhelmingly voted to align with Russia?
If you had read all the previous comments in this thread you would have noted that this has been pointed out several times. In fact, I have seen this espoused many times in other threads over the months, so I do think most here are educated on the facts regarding Crimea.
This is a very troll like post that fits nicely into the current leftist talking points.
‘I don’t think it’s troll like… but…..by taking pro isis rebel, pro EU, pro globalist “GESTURES” he might be stabbing us in the back…….IF he doesn’t stop it ? What makes you think he is going to stop it? Give me one thing that has happened that gives you hope? And do NOT site 4 or 8 D chess. It’s folly, it’s all consistent since the great betrayal took place because Evanka cried and he had a neo conversion from evidence presented from his ENEMIES in the deep state. I am no troll, I was one of his biggest fans before the BETRAYAL. I went to many rallies and gave money. And loved every minute of it. Something happened folks. I voted for America first. There just doesn’t seem to be any debate here about the circumstances of what happened. Just glossing over and hope and wish that it’s some 7 D chess and that he will snap back or say he was hoodwinked by the black hats. I suppose this does fit into leftist talking points and that is the problem. Doing what he did is inconsistent with his promises. I don’t like lefties and Marxist filth but I cannot defend his globalist conversion to their perpetual war and Russiaphobia.
“Obama’s hidden Iran deal giveaway”
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/24/obama-iran-nuclear-deal-prisoner-release-236966
“Obama Lied, Americans Died: Released Iranians Tied to Terror, Nuclear Proliferation”.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/04/24/obama-lied-hidden-iran-deal-released-national-security-threats-destroyed-counter-proliferation-efforts/
55praises on NSC Russia Expert Escorted Fro…
newamericandeplorabl… on NSC Russia Expert Escorted Fro…
letjusticeprevail201… on Monday January 20th – Op…
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The Contemporary
Our Journalism
Report with us
September 1, 2016 March 31, 2017 by Benjamin
Why Doesn’t Everyone Trust the Police?
by Brendan Kennedy
In the debate over black lives matter and police reform, it’s hard to find common ground about what role the police have in our lives. Activists put the burden on the police, wondering why they harm and alienate communities. Critics of the BLM movement, on the other hand, wonder why protesters can’t give more respect and deference to the police, who serve and protect.
What leads to these huge differences in levels of trust for the police? Why can’t they see things from each other’s perspective? In my opinion, the split is over whether or not police are legitimate. I have spent much of this year researching attitudes toward police and surveying residents of San Antonio about their views on the police. In both, I found that the legitimacy of police was a key component in public approval.
Understanding why these two groups are divided, then requires an understanding of legitimacy itself.
An institution’s legitimacy refers to the idea that it ought to be deferred to or obeyed. For police, legitimacy is crucial: it means that citizens are more likely to comply with orders, report crimes, act as witnesses, assist in investigations and support police power. But, like a teacher on the first day of school, police only acquire a limited amount of respect from their title alone. The rest can be earned through their actions. Analyzing police legitimacy, then, means analyzing the actions of modern-day police.
Modern policing evolved in the late 1960s, and concepts of police legitimacy developed along with it. Criminologists recognized that a shift in policing was occurring and sought to define and establish police legitimacy for the new era. Failure to do such could yield dire consequences, as the lessons from the Watts Riots, the Kerner Commission and general unrest during the era demonstrated.
If you like The Contemporary and want to help us empower collegiate journalists across the country, please consider donating here.
As the Johnson administration’s anti-poverty initiatives lost credibility, theories of deterrence and social control took over. As a result, and experts viewed them as key to establishing legitimacy. In the 1973 book Deterrence, Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins described that harsher punishment and increased police presence could “establish a condition of habitual lawfulness” through “fear or moral influence.” The book used the examples of a military straightening out recruits or an occupying army controlling a population through fear, with police using the same principles to gain “automatic compliance” from citizens. You had to show you meant business- only then would people respect you. Deterrence and social control were seen as bringing legitimacy by demonstrating “that the legal system really meant what it said.”
However, this theory assumed that the population already agrees with whatever the legal system dishes out, and simply wants it enforced. That is very often not the case. To illustrate this fact, it is worth taking a step back to examine the history of relations between police and people of color.
Initially, many modern police forces evolved from slave patrols, especially in the South. As time progressed, police played a role in the lynchings that terrorized people of color during the Jim Crow Era. Such lynchings affected minorities of many different ethnicities and often involved the police turning a blind eye or, occasionally, playing a more direct role. As the Civil Rights Movement unfolded, police routinely met nonviolence with inexcusable brutality. This was the legacy of the police at the time that deterrence and social control took hold. For good reason, minorities did not want the legal structure to crack down and show it “meant what it said.” They wanted to change the structure itself.
Policies of social control continued for decades, with police believing that they were bolstering their legitimacy each time they flexed their muscles.
Minority communities, which viewed the police with skepticism from the start, only grew more alienated. Soon, however, ideas about police legitimacy began to change.
In 1968, James Wilson wrote Varieties of Police Behavior in an effort to, like those I discussed before, define how modern-day policing ought to look. Wilson identified two types of policing: institutional policing, in which “the law must be vigorously enforced because to do so otherwise would call into question the law itself”, and communal policing, which requires police to act as a part of the community they serve. With the embrace of social control, Wilson noticed that emphasis was being placed almost entirely on institutional policing. He felt that this severely threatened the ability of police to gain cooperation from the public.
As a fix, Wilson and George Kelling created the Broken Windows Theory in 1982. The theory called on police to act more collaboratively with local communities, noting that these actions promote legitimacy. It said police officers ought to patrol on foot more, talk with citizens, and establish collaboration with the “regulars” in an area. The theory combined this communal style with institutional control, arguing that police can earn respect, then prevent crime by stopping minor infractions and suspicious behavior whenever they occur.
The Broken Windows Theory is far from perfect, even harmful. Researchers have debunked the link between disorder and future crime, the community aspect was largely ignored, resulting practices have encouraged discrimination and George Kelling himself has condemned its implementation. What the theory did do, however, was introduce the idea that police had to engage in the community to be viewed as legitimate. This concept spawned our modern understanding of police legitimacy.
Tom Tyler, beginning in the 1990s, began to take a look at what led people to accept the legitimacy of police. He questioned the notion that strict policing alone would assure legitimacy, and conducted studies to measure citizens’ attitudes. His research, corroborated by others, shows that citizens link legitimacy not with effective policing, but with what is called procedural fairness.
In his book Trust in the Law, Tyler explains the term by saying that “people are more willing to accept decisions when they believe that legal authorities are following fair procedures and have trustworthy motives for their behavior.” These conclusions were not tenuous– various studies showed “procedural justice effects dominating outcome favorability” so much so that it could outweigh “the favorability or fairness of (a person’s) own outcomes.” Even when police action ended badly for a person, it was viewed as legitimate if the person knew that they got a fair shake.
This was often the case in my research as well. When discussing the police, citizens with negative views of the police would claim that the police act unfairly, often citing specific examples. Those who viewed the police in a more positive light would mention that police always treated them fairly, and how as a result they were not usually angry when they were pulled over or questioned by police. These same people rarely talked about how well the police controlled crime in their neighborhoods. Instead, the legitimacy of police was linked to the fairness of their actions.
Today, these ideas are widely accepted in criminology. While much of policing is still dominated by a “tough-on-crime” mindset that seeks to catch criminals at all cost, focus has begun to shift to community policing and methods that emphasize fairness in decision-making.
With this understanding, it is easy to see why different communities hold such radically different views on police legitimacy. In the decades of social control, the War on Drugs, sentencing laws, and police militarization all affected minorities at levels that can’t be explained by crime levels or other factors. These policies have violated procedural justice, and their effects have been felt in very particular communities. As a result, these groups trust the police at much lower levels.
As with any discussion on the police, I ought to reiterate that individual officers perform a brave service and take huge risks to do their job. Police reform is necessary precisely because these officers may see their service go unrewarded. Too often, the good work of police officers is undone by decisions made by politicians or police commissioners, which ruin a community’s trust. Repairing this rift will require a change in crime policies on a wide scale. For decades, we policed communities, especially communities of color, with the idea that police could coerce compliance using fear. It’s time to admit that we were wrong, move forward, and reform our policing until we achieve a full commitment to justice.
Brendan Kennedy is a senior at Trinity University from Dripping Springs, Texas, majoring in Political Science.
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer, The Contemporary takes no position on matters of policy or opinion.
Tome Tyler and Jason Sunshine’s study and picture can be found here.
The cover photo depicts protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Picture by Loavesofbread – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34772144
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Posted in Brendan Kennedy, Law & Institutions, Police Reform, Politics & Society, Urban PolicyTagged Broken Windows, Criminal Justice, Legitimacy, Police Reform, Procedural Fairness, Racial Justice
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United Kingdom / Art
9 Things You Didn’t Know About Art Theft
How much do you know about stolen art? Theft and forgery in the world of art is actually big business. Read our article to find out nine things you didn’t know about art theft.
Monet | © Art Paintings
Art theft and forgery is big business. In actual fact, as reported by the Telegraph newspaper on art crime news and also shown in Printerinks’ latest interactive art data graphic on Theft and Forgery in the World of Art, art-related crimes in places like the United Kingdom total an average of over 300 million pounds annually, with six to eight billion dollars’ worth of art stolen (or forged) worldwide each year.
So what happens to a piece of art when it’s stolen? It’s estimated that only five to ten percent of stolen artworks are ever recovered, and many great masterpieces (such as those stolen by the Nazis during World War II) have never resurfaced again.
Some stolen artworks journey the world over and over. The interactive graphic shows the journey of stolen paintings, and lists some of the most audacious and memorable art heists in world history. You’ll also find out about some of the most infamous forgers in history, many of whom managed to fool museums and private collectors for decades. Here are nine things you may not have known:
Stolen art from private homes | © Pixabay
Most art is stolen from private homes
When people think of art theft, they often think of museums, but 52 percent of stolen artwork disappears from the homes of private collectors, while another eight percent is stolen from places of worship. 95 percent of this stolen art never returns to its country of origin.
Gangster | © Pixabay
A total of 50,000 to 100,000 works of art are taken by art thieves each year
40 percent of all art thefts take place within the United Kingdom, while 19 percent of art thefts occur in the United States.
Art Crime Team | © Pixabay
The United States and the UK each employ an “Art Crime Team”
In 2004, the FBI established a team of special agents responsible for investigating art theft and forgery cases. To date, the team has recovered more than 2,600 items, worth over $150 million. The U.S. Art Crime Team consists of 16 people, one for every 21 million people in the country, whereas the United Kingdom’s team employs only two full-time agents and one part-time agent.
Michelangelo | © Pixabay
Michelangelo is among the world’s most famous forgers
Renowned artist Michelangelo used to make copies of major works, age them artificially, and secretly swap them for the originals. The most prolific forger of art was Mark Landis, a diagnosed schizophrenic born in 1955 who tricked over 60 museums into believing his replicas were authentic.
Greenhalgh family | © Pixabay
A family now famous for their art forgeries lived in abject poverty
The British Greenhalgh family produced forgeries worth up to 11 million dollars between 1989 and 2006. Despite the value of their forgeries, they lived frugally and laundered most of the money. They were eventually sentenced to four years in prison by Scotland Yard.
USA art heist | © Pixabay
The largest art heist in United States history ended in no arrests
Over 500 million dollars in art, including five Degas and three Rembrandts, was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. No arrests were ever made, and there is an outstanding five million dollars reward for information on the case.
Art heist | © Pixabay
One of the most famous art heists in history took place in broad daylight
Stéphane Breitweiser | © Pixabay
Stéphane Breitweiser was given only 26 months for stealing over two hundred works of art
Over a period of six years, Breitweiser admitted to stealing artwork from museums all across Europe. The stolen works were valued at over a billion dollars, and only about half were ever recovered.
Art protection | © Pixabay
Buyers can take steps to protect themselves against forged or stolen art
Obtaining a certificate of authenticity or using digital authentication techniques, a buyer can prevent themselves from being defrauded. Buyers can also detect forgeries by familiarizing themselves with the artist and understanding their techniques and subject matter.
By Jeanna Heeraman
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FORMER WORLD CHAMPION BRANDON RIOS CONFIRMED FOR FOURTH ANNUAL BOX FAN EXPO, DURING MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE WEEKEND, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15, IN LAS VEGAS
The Fight Journal 25 Jul 2018 Professional Boxing
Box Fan Expo is the ultimate fan experience event that gives boxing fans the opportunity to meet-and-greet top fighters, current and former world champions, boxing celebrities and industry people in an up-close personal setting.
Tickets On-Sale Now at EventBrite
Las Vegas (July 24, 2018) – Former World Champion Brandon Rios has confirmed that he will appear and hold a Meet & Greet with his fans at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the fourth Annual Box Fan Expo on Saturday September 15, 2018 from 10am to 5pm, during Mexican Independence weekend. The Boxing Expo will also coincide with the highly anticipated rematch between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin, that will take place later that evening.
Rios will once again appear at this years’ Expo at the Supreme Boxing booth, and will be signing gloves, photos and have merchandise for fans to enjoy. Boxing fans will also have a great opportunity to take pictures with this boxing star also known as “Bam Bam”. For more info on Supreme Boxing go to (http://supremeboxinginc.com).
Brandon Rios is an 11-year pro, and currently a contender at Welterweight Division. He is a former WBA Lightweight World Champion, Latino WBO Champion, WBO International Champion and Lightweight NABF Champion. Nicknamed “Bam Bam”, Ríos is known for his highly aggressive pressure “throwback” style and a warrior’s mentality with formidable punching power and excellent chin, which makes him an exciting boxer to watch. Rios challenged some of the top fighters in his career such as Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley, Mike Alvarado and Danny Garcia to name a few.
Rios Joins, David Benavidez, José Benavidez, Badou Jack, Mia St.John, Jessie Vargas,
Erik Morales and Fernando Vargas as an early commitment to this year’s Box Fan Expo
About Box Fan Expo
Box Fan Expo has been a huge success with fans and boxing industry people. Many boxing stars have attended the last three Expos such as Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Marco Antonio Barrera, Roy Jones Jr., Marcos Maidana, Sergio Martinez, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley, Deontay Wilder, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, Fernando Vargas, Zab Judah, James Toney, Vinny Pazienza, Mikey Garcia , Mia St.Johns, Leo Santa Cruz, Badou Jack, Terry Norris , Riddick Bowe , Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks, Danny Jacobs, Abner Mares, Jorge Linares, Brandon Rios and many more…
Exhibitors such as boxing gear, apparel, new equipment’s, energy drinks, alcohol, supplement products, broadcasting media, sanctioning bodies and other companies who wish to participate will once again have a chance to showcase their brand to fans, media and the boxing industry.
Tickets to the Box Fan Expo are available online at:
https://boxfanexpo.eventbrite.com
Box Fan Expo is the ultimate boxing fan experience event, which allows fans to Meet and Greet Boxing Superstars of today, current and former world champions, Legends of the sport and other boxing Celebrities at their booth. On Site, fans will experience different activities from Autograph Sessions, Photo Sessions, FaceOff with your favorite boxers, as well as a chance to purchase merchandise and memorabilia from their booth, plus so much more… you won’t want to miss this must-attend Expo!
Box Fan Expo will also feature top boxing organizations, promoters, ring card girls, famous trainers and commentators as well as boxing gear companies “ALL UNDER ONE ROOF”.
Throughout the next couple of months leading up to the Event, there will be weekly updates on the many stars that will commit their appearance at the Boxing Expo. And for anyone in the Boxing industry or other Exhibitors (non-industry), who would like to be involved and reserve a Booth, contact Box Fan Expo:
Telephone number: (514) 572-7222 or Las Vegas Number (702) 997-1927
For any inquiries please email: boxfanexpo@gmail.com
More information on the Box Fan Expo is available at: http://www.boxfanexpo.com
You can follow Box Fan Expo on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/BoxFanExpo
and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BoxFanExpo
Badou Jack, Box Fan Expo, Brandon Rios, Canelo Alvarez, Chip Mitchell, Fernando Vargas, Gennady Golovkin, GGG, Golden Boy Promotions, K2 Promotions, Las Vegas Boxing, Oscar De La Hoya, TheFightJournal.com, Timothy Bradley, Triple G
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PICTURE 01
Eventually, Nebbucanazzer died and his son Belshazzar was appointed king.
Belshazzar decided to throw a party.
As they drank from the temple cups and mocked God, a hand appeared and wrote on the wall.
Belshazzar was terrified, so he sent for Daniel to interpret the writing, Daniel said;
“You have mocked God, ‘Your kingdom has been given to the Medes and the Persians.”
Then Belshazzar gave Daniel the third highest position in his kingdom.
The Persian army had redirected the river Babylon, by digging trenches and making a dam.
Now they were creeping into the city through the sewer system.
That night in 539 B.C. Belshazzar was killed and Babylon was captured by the Persians.
Darius was made king. Darius appointed three presidents, of whom Daniel was one.
King Darius considered making Daniel the head of the whole kingdom, second only to himself.
The other leaders became very jealous of Daniel, so they made a plan to trap him.
They suggested a new law, to pray only to the King. If anyone prayed to any other god, they should be cast into a den of lions.
The king had no idea what was going on, so he signed a law that could not be altered.
When the conspirators found Daniel praying, they went to the king saying;
“Daniel the Hebrew, is praying to his God three times a day.”
Darius couldn’t alter the law, so he sent for Daniel.
When they reached the lions den, the king said, “Daniel, your God will deliver you.”
The lions were kept back with fire and Daniel was made to enter.
These lions were only lightly fed, so they were away hungry.
A great stone was rolled over the mouth of the lion’s den, then sealed.
Suddenly, an angel appeared to protect Daniel.
King Darius was both angry and upset, as he considered this situation was his fault.
That night Darius couldn’t sleep.
Very early in the morning, the king made his way to the lion’s den.
“Daniel is your God able to deliver you from the lions?” Daniel shouted back “O king live forever.”
The king gave orders to release Daniel.
Darius was overwhelmed and he executed Daniel’s accusers.
Then Darius wrote a declaration to the entire world, proclaiming Daniel’s God to be the living God.
Daniel received from God, dreams, interpretations of dreams and visions of the future.
The first year when Belshazzar, the Babylonian was king, Daniel had a dream.
Daniel saw the four winds of heaven blow upon the great sea.
Then he saw four beasts.
The first beast was like a lion, with eagle’s wings.
The second beast was like a bear and it had three ribs between its teeth.
The third beast was like a leopard, with four wings.
The fourth beast was very powerful, it had iron teeth and ten horns.
An angel explained the dream to Daniel saying, “The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will arise from the earth.
Historically, it is believed that the first beast was Babylon which destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and was in power at the time of the vision.
The second beast was Persia when Persia conquered Babylon in 539.B.C. and Darius became king.
The third beast is believed to be Greece in 334 years before Christ, when Alexander the Great, began to conquer the Persian Empire.
The fourth beast is believed to be the Roman Empire, after the Romans conquered the Greeks.
Rome eventually took control of Jerusalem under General Pompey 63 years before Christ.
In the third year when Cyrus was king, a message was revealed to Daniel.
He was by the river, when he saw a vision of a man dressed in gold linen.
No strength remained in me, as I listened I fell into a deep sleep.
Daniel was told what would happen to his people, the Israelites in the last days.
There would be a time of great tribulation like never before.
At the time of the end the great prince who protects Daniel’s people, would stand up.
“At that time O’Daniel, everyone who is found written in the book of life, will be delivered!”
Daniel seal the book until the time of the end, when only the wise will understand. The captivity in Babylon lasted for seventy years.
In the story we have just told, the Persians conquered the Babylonians.
It was at this time that God spoke to Cyrus the king of Persia, to set the children of Israel free.
The historical records show that a remnant of 43,360 left the captivity, plus a further 7,337 servants but many Israelites remained, unwilling to leave their property.
520 years before Christ, at the urging of Haggi and Zechariah, Zerrubabel started to rebuild the temple.
The temple was completed five years later, on March 12th 515 B.C.
A short time later Ezra became the Temple priest.
Nehemiah the Kings head waiter left Babylon to start to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem,
In the year 479 B.C. the Jewess Esther, became Queen of Persia.
During this time Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament was written. The four hundred year period from Malachi to John the Baptist is known as the silent years.
The Temple was in a continual state of dis-repair
And the Persian Empire was eventually conquered by the Greeks.
Led by Alexander the Great 334 years before Christ.
Eventually the Romans conquered the Greeks and sixty-three years before the Messiah.
The Roman general Pompey the Great, took control of Jerusalem.
And so it was that the whole land of Israel, became part of the Roman Empire, just as Daniel had prophesied.
Under Herod 19 years before Christ, the rebuilding of the third temple began.
The next prophet of Israel was John the Baptiser, his message was, “Prepare the way for the Lord.”
All Old Testament Bible Pictures
All Old and New Testament Bible Pictures
All New Testament Bible Pictures
© 2016 All rights reserved. Glory to God International
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Home>Sports>NFL>Dallas Cowboys>Dallas Cowboys: 5 Training Camp Storylines To Follow
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Dallas Cowboys: 5 Training Camp Storylines To Follow
The Dallas Cowboys are firm believers they are still America’s team and as my Ladybug put it “I live in Philly, but I rep the Star”. 2015 was easily not one of their brightest moments as injuries piled on and “next up” players were not able to produce as expected. Tony Romo’s injury was the nail in the coffin as the Cowboys went from division favorites to watching the hated Washington Redskins win the NFC East. All seems well in the Big D now with Romo and Bryant healed but the suspension of Demarcus Lawrence looms over the defense. Darren McFadden finally realized he was an NFL player but the Cowboys saw a chance to grab possibly the RB of the future in Ezekiel Elliott and jumped on it.
This is a make or break year for many on the roster as most will be on a production watch while others are getting up there in age. The Cowboys must start looking for a QB to replace Romo ASAP, after last year they can no longer go by committee. Jason Garrett gets another shot to reach the big game, the division gets a chance to see the new look Cowboys at full strength and you the fans get to read what my 5 Dallas Cowboys Training Camp Storylines are.
How Much Trust Can They Put In Tony Romo?
At some point the Cowboys must say, enough is enough and begin to look towards the future. Romo is a great QB but he is 35 years old. Last season and mostly through the last two, he has suffered major injuries, but the Cowboys have continued to ignore the writing on the wall, then throw tantrums when their season goes down the tube due to health issues. Last year Romo played 9 games before going down for the year and the Cowboys never recovered, finishing 4-12 and watching what should-be a NFC East coronation turn into a “what do we do now” season. Romo says he is healthy but what happens when he takes a helmet to the back, or gets piled on by two or three, 300lb linemen? The Cowboys went with a QB by committee last year and yielded results of 16 TDs and 22 INTs. I understand Romo is still their leader but putting their faith in a QB that is a hit away from IR may not be the best bet. No trade was made for a true veteran, I, like the rest of Cowboys Nation will be holing my breathe every time he drops back.
Thank You Darren McFadden But Ezekiel Is Now The Man
McFadden sort of revived his career last season with the Cowboys when he rushed for 1000+ yards, instead of giving him the role outright for a job well done job they basically shelved him for a rookie. Elliott is not your average rookie, he might be a franchise changer, much like McFadden was when he came out of college. The Cowboys took a gamble on the Ohio State star with the 4th overall pick when there may have been better options on defense or a QB of the future, but what he can provide the team should not be overlooked. McFadden offered stability after they lost DeMarco Murray to free agency, Elliott is in excellent position to become this generation’s Emmitt Smith. The O-Line is arguably the league’s best and should the rookie runner get 200+ rushes this season we may very well see that the Cowboys were right in drafting the kid so high.
Is This Jason Witten’s Last Hurrah?
Witten is the ultimate professional, the player that will take you under his wing, teach you how to handle life in the NFL and how to succeed at this level. Throughout his career he has been one of the best TEs in the game, not just on the receiving end where so many of today’s TEs only seem concerned with. Witten is a throwback, a player that gives 100 percent each snap, whether the ball is going to him or not. Let’s not forget that he is part of that awesome O-Line the Cowboys have, one of the reasons Murray and McFadden were able to produce like they did. Age has caught up with Witten but it hasn’t stopped whoever has been under Center to look for Mr. Reliable. His yards may have taken a hit but his targets have not. Last season Whitten was targeted 104 times, catching 77 for 713 yards and 3 TDs. At the age of 33 how many more seasons can Witten continue to go across the middle and provide a security blanket for Romo? As the offense has improved his stock has dipped a little but his importance to the team couldn’t be higher. I hope he has another productive season left in him as he is the blueprint on how to be a professional.
[embedit snippet=”2″]
Can We Expect Production Opposite Dez Bryant?
Last season the Cowboys felt what life would be like without Bryant and it was not pleasant. The Romo injury was a big issue but with Romo out and Bryant able to play, he and whoever was under Center could not find a connection. In 9 games Bryant caught 31 passes for 401 yards and 3 TDs. As you can see, he was not tearing the league up with his normal production when healthy. During his injury was an opportunity for another to emerge. This was the Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley audition. Neither player was able to take full advantage but proved that going into 2016 it proved that Bryant may have some help on the opposite side. Williams and Beasley both have the speed to stretch the field but a possession receiver is needed most. Beasley caught 52 passes for 536 yards in 2015 compared to William’s 52 catches for 840 yards. Williams may prove to be the best option as he started 10 more games than Beasley but the Cowboys seem content with going with a 3 WR look in 2016 which could spell trouble for the rest of the division. With Bryant healthy and both Beasley and Williams confident that can produce, Romo will have plenty options this year.
Who Will Fill The Void Left By The 4-Game Suspension of Demarcus Lawrence?
Mistakes happen, all you can do you is accept responsibility and hopefully grow from it. The Cowboys were possibly looking at the future of their defense in Lawrence but will be forced to look elsewhere for the first 4 games of 2016. Who will step up in his place is a big question for the Cowboys heading into camp. With Greg Hardy floating in the wind the pressure to up their performance falls on the pads of Jack Crawford. Crawford finished 2015 with only 1 start to him name but in spot duty you sometimes saw a motor that wouldn’t shut off. It’s not set in stone if he will become the starter, but either way he must produce. The Cowboys are hoping his 4 sacks last season were signs of things to come.
Robert D. Cobb
Founder, Publisher and CEO of INSCMagazine. Works have appeared and featured in places such as Forbes, Huffington Post, ESPN and NBC Sports to name a few. Follow me on Twitter at @RobCobb_INSC, email me at robert.cobb@theinscribermag.com
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Home / Blog / Uncategorized / Intergenerational ethics in the workplace
Intergenerational ethics in the workplace
by Managing Values on June 19, 2014
If the average person in the street describes business ethics as “being fair” then by this definition we have failed the young people of today in creating a fair workplace. Instead, we are progressively turning our backs on our responsibilities to the next generation and exploiting young people by denying them the right to work and the dignity of labour that comes from being rewarded for their endeavours. Workplaces today, be they private or public, are typically characterised by churn at the top and in its wake ongoing restructures and organisational change programs that most employees agree to change very little.
Raised in a wired world where the typical business heroes are the geeks of Silicon Valley operating from carefully designed fun and inclusive work campuses, young people’s dream of working in similar contexts are quickly dashed when they enter most workplaces. Far from being recognised as potentially contributing value from day one, they’re typically squashed with daily reminders to park their own ideas and simply do as they are told and be content that they have a job at all.
However, stifling those jobs are however they are still better off than many of their peers who find themselves on casual or contract status for years on end or juggling a portfolio of poorly paid part-time work to cobble together a living wage. And then there’s the very unethical but popular practice of interns or “volunteers” – or maybe we should go back to calling it what it used to be called which was exploitation – where young people basically don’t get paid at all for their labour and might even find themselves being asked to pay for the privilege of being an intern and gaining access to that vital first rung on the marketplace ladder.
Despite the lack of care afforded young people today in the workplace, our experience has been that many young people in both the public and private sectors have today a greater sense of ethical ambition than previous generations. Maybe it’s because they can no longer take for granted that public or private institutions will do the right thing – balancing what is good for themselves (or their leaders) with what is good for the common good – that they want to talk about ethics and how it can fit in with their professional roles. As time goes on we have also seen much of this ambition get stymied by workplace contexts where expediency is the order of the day and time-poor managers direct their staff to ‘just do it’. Poor ethical standards result in low employee morale as well as risk issues for the business. For some, it becomes a case of death by a thousand cuts as they stumble from one organisation and its empty promises to another who also fail to deliver.
Does it have to be this way? Can we turn the tide of apathy towards creating vital and sustainable workplace contexts where it’s a win/win for the business and for its employees? We know that it can be done. We know from the literature that there are some leaders in the field who are creating emancipated workplaces and reaping the rewards of doing so. However, for it to become mainstream needs critical mass and it’s the late majority that we need to step up to a higher accountability around growing their people. It’s a sustainable business proposition since field research shows that employers of choice are also the top performers in their industry. In chasing results, these leaders know that people do matter and if you care for them they will get you to the results you want quicker. Let’s start a conversation again about what really matters; it’s about people, especially young people who are dependent on older people to set an example that responds to the ethical ambition of the time. With business enjoying the infamy of being the biggest and least trusted institution, isn’t the notion of restoring a fair go for all the sort of ethical ambition for the modern workplace that everyone might be proud of?
Let’s not go quiet on the things that really matter….
In the interests of full disclosure, I would like to acknowledge that I have two sons who are currently experiencing the type of workplace cultures that stymie any sort of ambition never mind the ethical dimension.
Please fill out the form below to get in touch with us and to start the discussion about your business ethics issues. You can also call us now on 0430 889 850 or email us directly at attracta@values.com.au.
Would you like to bring business ethics in your company to the next level? Please fill out the form below to contact us.
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Does your organisation engage in “Ethics Sheep-dipping?”
How legitimate is your Code of Conduct?
Is it because people are not valued that leaders do not measure workplace culture?
Is collective unethical behaviour shaped by poor management practices?
Ethical Leadership: Is Tone at the Top measurable?
Why ethical behaviour differs amongst employees?
Business Ethics Pays on the Bottom Line!
We recognise that each client has an organisational and industry context that requires a tailored program to meet their specific needs.
attracta@values.com.au
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steve@values.com.au
Managing Values © 2018. All rights reserved.
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Read Next: Two Rivers Media Buys Out Parent Kew Media Group's Stake In Business
Listen: Mark Cuban, Meg Whitman, Jeffrey Katzenberg and More Join Variety’s Strictly Business Podcast at CES
CREDIT: REX/ Shutterstock
Variety‘s Strictly Business podcast hits the road this week to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show conference.
Hosts Cynthia Littleton and Andrew Wallenstein walk through CES’ C Space installation at Aria Las Vegas while discussing the seismic shifts under way for media and entertainment thanks to the onslaught of competition from digital streaming and on-demand viewing platforms.
Strictly Business also speaks with movers and shakers including Mark Cuban, Quibi partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, and UTA partner Brent Weinstein, who was an early adopter among Hollywood talent agents of the digital media realm as a business opportunity.
Listen to this week’s podcast below:
Pluto TV chief Tom Ryan weighs in about what he sees as the market for free ad-supported streaming options as a complement to the Big Three streamers of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Bleacher Report CEO Howard Mittman details the evolution of the sports brand and how easily it has integrated with its Turner Sports parent company.
Cuban drew an SRO crowd for his Jan. 8 keynote with Wallenstein at Variety‘s annual Entertainment Summit at CES. The investor, an early internet billionaire who is now the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and a featured star “shark” investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” told the CES audience he’s focused on the development of the AI economy and thinks many others should be too.
“If you don’t know AI, you’re the equivalent of somebody in 1999 saying ‘I’m sure this Internet thing will be OK but I don’t give a s—,’ ” Cuban said. “If you want to be relevant in business, you have to or you will be a dinosaur very quickly. .. There’s going to be AI haves and have-nots. If you’re a have not, you might as well rip out all the computers in your office and throw away your phones. That’s how impactful it’s going to be.”
Strictly Business” is Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
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