#(he fell into area zero and was reported missing for several days)

[pecharuntspeachwine]

Unmasked

Disclaimer: any ship art involving Louis is currently non-canon to Muted Violet, as a love interest for Louis, if any, is currently undecided. This is just speculation

Got carried away with what was originally just going to be a doodle.. Louis son of Larry and main character of Muted Violet AU, you make me ill..

When it comes to this art style, fuck I love making Kieran and Carmine’s headbands/hair-tie combo things function like cat ears 😭❤️

[headcanonsandmore]

“Fell In Love With A Girl”, Chapter Four

Summary:  After Luna's shocking kidnap at the hotel, Ginny is desperate to save her girlfriend. But how will they find Luna in a place as large as the Amazon Delta?

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Tagging: @cheeseanonioncrisps @lytefoot

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                   Read on FFN.                                             Read on AO3.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny was gently led downstairs by Tonks, and sank into a chair.

Her eyes were all red and irritated from the tears she had cried. She felt exhausted, but she couldn’t focus on it. All she felt was terror for Luna.

Kidnapped. In the clutches of the crime syndicate they had been trying to stop.

‘Kid?’

Ginny turned. Sam had placed a hand on her shoulder.

‘Y-yeah?’

‘We’re gonna get her back,’ he said, gruffly. She could tell he wasn’t good with handling emotions, but she appreciated the effort. ‘Those bastards aren’t gonna know what hit them.’

Ginny smiled, despite her tears.

‘T-thanks, Sam.’

The scarred man shrugged.

‘We’ve got a DNA match.’

Ginny’s head whipped round to the side. Remus was stood by a computer across the room.

‘From the bedroom upstairs, you mean?’ Sam asked.

‘Yeah; forensics just got back to us,’ Remus replied, tapping the computer screen. ‘A fragment of skin was left on the windowsill. It matches a low-level criminal who we suspected of being a member of the crime syndicate. Now we’ve got proof.’

At that moment, Tonks burst into the room.

‘Found this in Luna and Ginny’s room,’ she said, holding a book aloft. ‘Thought it might be of use.’

‘T-that’s… that’s Luna’s journal’ Ginny mumbled. ‘It’s…’

She trailed off, before grabbing the book from Tonks and slamming in down on the table and riffling through the pages.

‘Ginny?’ Tonks asked. ‘What is it?’

‘The newest pages are missing,’ Ginny said, pointing at the frayed bits of paper sticking out at odd angles. ‘Luna must have been writing ideas down.’

‘Ideas like…’

‘Amazonian Octarine-Flame,’ Ginny said, her mind connecting the dots. ‘It has variations that grow both above ground and in underground cave systems. The syndicate were obsessed with it, which means that they couldn’t find it in the rainforest. But Luna must have known where it grows; why else would they wait until I left before grabbing her? They need her knowledge.’

‘And kill two birds with one stone,’ Tonks finished. ‘Try to scare us off, and get the Octarine-Flame.’

Sam smiled.

‘You’re good, kid. So, where do we go?’

Ginny’s enthusiasm suddenly vanished; she didn’t know. Luna hadn’t told her where the plant was.

However, her eyes then landed on the map.

‘Oh, it’s where all those reports were coming from!’ She exclaimed. ‘No wonder the locals noticed something was up; the syndicate have been combing that area the whole time! They just need an expert to pinpoint the exact location of that plant!’

Remus nodded.

‘That would also explain why this area seems to be such a target; the network of underground caves stretch out for miles underneath the rainforest. I’m surprised they didn’t just force one of the locals to show them where the plant was.’

Sam chuckled, darkly.

‘Knowing this lot, I imagine they probably didn’t think the locals knew. Typical colonialist nonsense.’

Tonks nodded.

‘The syndicates base must be in that area too,’ Remus said, typing frantically into the computer. ‘They’ve likely got a base of operations close to where the plants are. Somewhere far away from the government authorities.’

‘That’s the problem with these syndicates,’ Sam said, giving a wry grin. ‘They always think that setting up operations in the middle of nowhere will keep them out of attention. But all it does is send up a flare of exactly where they are!’

‘You can hide a bee in a beehive easily,’ Ginny continued. ‘But stick it in a library and it’s impossible to ignore.’

Sam slapped Ginny supportively on the shoulder.

‘Damn, you’re good, kid!’

Ginny smiled.

Evil organisation or not, no-one messed with her girlfriend.

 *

  Luna stumbled forward. The members of the crime syndicate glowered at her. She had been blindfolded ever since she had been kidnapped from the hotel in Rio. They had only removed the blindfold when they had wanted her to inspect a plant.

Amazonian Octarine-Flame. It was the only one they seemed to be desperate to find. Luna wasn’t sure why they hadn’t just forced one of the locals to do it, but she wasn’t about to argue with the rifles the syndicate members were all carrying.

Gritting her teeth, Luna bent down and inspected the plant.

‘Tell us,’ instructed one of them, tapping his rifle in warning. ‘Is that the plant?’

Luna sighed.

‘Yes, it is. It’s the variant that grows above ground.’

‘Good.’

Luna stood back up. The members of the syndicate moved around her, and promptly dug up the plant, placing it and the earth around its roots into a special container they had brought with them.

‘Now, we head back to HQ.’

One of the syndicate members stepped forward, and pulled a mask roughly over Luna’s face.

‘For goodness sake; how am I supposed to walk if I can’t see?’ Luna asked, becoming very aware of how uneven the forest floor was beneath her feet.

‘We’re directing you where you should walk,’ said the syndicate member nearest to her. ‘We can’t have you knowing where our base is.’

‘I’m a florist, not a spy!’ Luna snapped. ‘You’ve got what you want; let me go!’

The syndicate members ignored her, and began to nudge her forward, using the butt of the rifles to do so. They weren’t quite as rough as Luna had been expecting, but it didn’t make the situation any better.

Don’t worry, Luna told herself, Ginny will find me.

As she stumbled forward, Luna’s mind began to work. The syndicate clearly didn’t want anyone to know where their base was, but they’d kept her mask off until she’d identified the plant. That mean… the base was nearby.

They walked on for a good distance. Luna wasn’t sure for how long but, given how many steps she was taking, it couldn’t have been for more than a few miles. That meant that they were still within the area that Remus and Tonks had discussed with Sam the other day.

There was a crackle in front of her. One of the syndicate members had pulled their walkie-talkie out of their pocket.

‘Viper company at section omega with person-of-interest 49?’

They were here. The base entrance must be nearby. Oh, if only she could see!

Luna was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she wasn’t prepared for the push behind her. She crashed to the ground, awkwardly landing on her hands and knees.

‘Get her up,’ grumbled the syndicate member in front. ‘That’s the sixth time she’s fallen over. We should have carried her the way; the last thing we want is the locals noticing the weird foot-prints.’

As Luna was pulled to her feet and pushed forward, she was vaguely aware of her hair swinging into a low-hanging tree branch. Thinking fast, she bit her lip, and gave her head a quick jerk in the opposite direction. There was a sharp shot of pain in her scalp.

The syndicate members didn’t seem to notice this as they bustled her forwards. Before she knew quite what was happening, she could feel herself being led down a steep passageway, out of the sunlight reaching through the rainforest trees.

 *

  Ginny climbed out of the jeep.

They had driving for… she honestly couldn’t remember how long. It could have been ten minutes or ten hours. Ginny hadn’t noticed; she had been focusing too much on Luna. On finding her and getting her out of harms way.

Tonks and Remus climbed out of the jeep. Sam was already standing a few feet ahead, and they all walked to where he was stood.

The rainforest completely surrounded the long dirt road they had travelled along to this spot. Ginny’s t-shirt was already soaked through with sweat due to the humidity, but she didn’t care; she was used to sweat.

Nearby the trees were stood several Amazonian tribespeople. One of them walked over, an elderly woman with kind eyes. She was clearly a local leader of some kind.

‘Hello, Sam.’

The grizzled agent shook hands with the woman.

‘Thank you for agreeing to help us,’ he said. ‘I know the last thing you want is more Westerners intruding.’

‘True,’ she replied. ‘But, by the sounds of it, the redheaded girl has an idea of what the syndicate is after. Which means we know where they’ll be.’

Ginny nodded.

‘Don’t worry,’ the woman said, placing a hand on Ginny’s shoulder. ‘We’ll find your Luna.’

Ginny blinked, quickly.

‘T-thank you,’ Ginny said. ‘Er, what did you say your name was?’

‘I’m afraid you probably couldn’t pronounce it in my language,’ the elderly woman replied, smiling. ‘But, in English, I go by Sky.’

‘Thank you, Sky.’

Sam laid out a map on the bonnet of one of the jeeps. They had marked the area of syndicate activity in red ink; sure enough, it was laid out in a twenty mile perimeter. The end of the dirt track was tantalisingly close to it.

‘Ginny, we don’t blame you if you want to stay here with the jeep,’ Remus said, kindly. ‘We can keep some agents back here with you until it’s safe.’

‘No,’ Ginny replied, her mind set. ‘I promised Luna I’d keep her safe, and I’m not letting a criminal gang hurt her.’

Remus smiled.

‘Okay.’

Leaving the jeeps behind on the track with a few agents, they ventured into the rainforest, using an old well-worn path. Sky and the local activists with her were leading the way, making sure that the MI6 agents avoided any dangerous plants or bugs.

The Amazon was unlike anything Ginny had ever seen before, and it honestly took her breath away. Trees and foliage spread out in all directions, and she could hear the calls of various birds and animals in the canopies above them. If she hadn’t been so worried about Luna, she would have been transfixed.

‘Footprints.’

Sky was crouched down on the ground a few feet ahead.

‘Someone came this way very recently,’ she said, ‘A group of them, and wearing deep-soled boots. Except one, who was just wearing shoes.’

Tonks and Sky nodded at each other.

They continued along the path.

Eventually, they rounded a corner, and came across a large tree. And Ginny’s eyes immediately zeroed in on something.

Hair.

Blond hair.

Luna’s hair.

It was snagged on the low-hanging branch.

Ginny locked eyes with Tonks, who nodded.

The agent exchanged looks with Remus and Sky, and the agents around them began to move into position. Sky mouthed the phrase ‘underground cave network’. The base was below where they were standing.

Gotcha. Ginny thought. Don’t worry, Lu; I’m coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hope you enjoyed it!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

If you’ve been watching television footage of the fall of Kabul, you have been watching the Afghanistan war in toto.  As pickup trucks and Humvees filled with Taliban fighters triumphantly drive into the city along streets crowded with Afghan civilians waving to them, sortie after sortie is being flown by American military helicopters from the Embassy compound to the airport, where whoever is on those helicopters will be airlifted out of the country.  By noon on Sunday, it was reported that Taliban fighters had occupied the presidential palace in Kabul and that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had been flown out of the country bound for Tajikistan.

Please take careful note of the contrast here.  The people who won the war are driving and walking victoriously into Kabul.  The people who lost the war are flying away in defeat, proving that the grand technological and tactical advance that was supposed to be the military helicopter has finally been proved effective for something:  It’s really good at evacuating the losers in a rout.

All day, MSNBC and CNN have been showing footage of U.S. Army Blackhawk and twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopters flying into and out of the American embassy compound.  Perhaps in a day or so – or even later today, the way things are going – we’ll get a new iconic image of that final lift-off from the American Embassy that we all recognize from the day Saigon fell in April of 1975.

Nothing is ever new when it comes to modern American wars because we never learn anything.  The helicopter was supposed to win the war in Vietnam for us.  Instead, military helicopters flew us into one battle after another that we “won” according to the American military but in actuality lost to the North Vietnamese.

The first major engagement between American forces and North Vietnamese regulars took place in November of 1965 in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley.  It was the first time that American “Huey” HU-1 helicopters were used in an entirely new military tactic, to carry troops from the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in an “airmobile assault” on a force of North Vietnamese regulars that had been detected in the Central Highlands near a Special Forces camp that had recently been overrun.  The battle went on for four days.  Five hundred American soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.  North Vietnamese forces suffered somewhere between 1500 and 1700 casualties, but nobody really knows. American forces collected the last of their dead and wounded and moved out of the area on the fifth day of the battle and did not return.  The North Vietnamese and their allies among the Viet Cong maintained their forces in the area.  The Central Highlands continued to be the scene of fighting over the next decade.

The battle of Ia Drang was and still is celebrated as the first big victory of the Vietnam war. Another battle with heavy casualties fashioned as a major American victory took place in May of 1969 at what became known as Hamburger Hill in the A Shau Valley near the border with Laos.  The American assault involved five battalions from the 101st Airborne Division and several units of the South Vietnamese army and was conceived initially as another “airmobile assault” intended to “seek and destroy” North Vietnamese army units facilitating resupply of enemy forces via the nearby Ho Chi Minh trail.

The battle went on from May 13 to the 20th.  More than 440 American soldiers were either killed or wounded, 320 of them alone from the 3rd Battalion of the 187th infantry, nicknamed the “Rakkasans,” the unit which over the years became synonymous with the battle.  Less than three weeks after the hill had been taken, it was abandoned by the 101st Airborne Division, which wrapped up its operations in the A Shau Valley and moved on.  The North Vietnamese units they had fought remained where they had been, and resupply of enemy forces continued along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

We had hundreds of helicopters in Vietnam carrying soldiers in “air assaults” all over the place, flying over the jungles and landing on “LZs” or landing zones and depositing troops and then flying them out again.  Down in the jungles, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military units lurked, with their pouches of rice and their AK-47 rifles and their 60 millimeter mortars and their RPG grenade launchers, and ten years after the battle of the Ia Drang valley which was such a major victory, the last Huey ferried the last American soldier and the American ambassador  out of the Embassy in Saigon and it was over.  The North Vietnamese and the VC had zero helicopters, and who won?  They did.

You see where I’m going with this?  Flash forward to March of 2002 and the first big battle of the war in Afghanistan called Operation Anaconda, which was – wait for it – an attack by “air assault” involving -- are you still waiting? – the “Rakkasans” of the 101st Airborne Division, this time the 1st Battalion of the 187th Infantry.  The battle took place in the Shahi-Kot Valley in Paktia Province, the capital of which fell to the Taliban a few days ago.  The mission was to root out Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who had holed up in a complex of tunnels and caves in mountains surrounding the valley.  The battle went on sporadically over a period of ten days.  Eight American soldiers were killed and 72 were wounded.  Several Chinook helicopters were hit by enemy forces and destroyed and several more were damaged.  Estimates of enemy dead ran from 100 to 1000, depending on who was doing the estimating.

General Tommy Franks, commander of Central Command, declared Operation Anaconda “an unqualified and complete success.”  Reporter Seymour Hersch, writing in the New Yorker, said the operation was "in fact a debacle, plagued by squabbling between the services, bad military planning and avoidable deaths of American soldiers, as well as the escape of key al-Qaeda leaders, likely including Osama bin Laden."

That was 19 years ago.

Today we’re watching the same Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters ferry what we are told are American civilians and what we hope are their loyal Afghan employees to the relative safety of the Kabul airport, from which they will be airlifted by Air Force C-17 cargo jets to greater safety in Germany or whatever friendly country will permit them to land.

Here’s what I find astounding, yet oddly wonderful:  A report I read about the evacuation of Saigon said that American commanders knew that North Vietnamese forces surrounding Saigon were observing their helicopters from the ground yet chose not to shoot them down as they made their way first to the Tan Son Nhut American airbase and from there to ships of the American 7th Fleet offshore.  With armed Taliban fighters now on the ground in Kabul, you can be sure the same “courtesy” is being afforded the helicopters flying from the embassy to the airport.  A burst of fire from a Taliban .50 caliber machine gun or a single warhead from an RPG grenade launcher could take out any of those helicopters and bring an immediate end to the evacuation by air.  That’s how vulnerable are America’s almighty force of military helicopters.

But let me tell you what it feels like to ride in one:  you feel like you’re the king of the world.  I rode around northwest Iraq with the commander of – you guessed it – the “Rakkasans” while I was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in 2003.  Because he was a Colonel and the commander of the 187th Infantry, he had not one but two Blackhawks, one to ferry him, and the other in convoy behind us as his backup helicopter and gunship.  Wearing headsets and microphones so we could speak to each other over the roar of the Blackhawk’s turbine engines, we sat on seats immediately behind the pilots.  M-240 machine gunners were to either side of us aiming their guns through open doors.  We flew at low altitude up to the border with Turkey and visited a Kurdish outpost that the 187th helped to supply and train. The day was loud and fast and glorious.

I had ridden in another two-helicopter convoy a week or so before with Major General David Petraeus, commander of the 101st, out to visit one of his units south and east of his headquarters in Mosul.  Suddenly it came over the radio that an Apache attack helicopter had been shot down by RPG ground-fire not far from where we were flying.  The pilot ordered the helicopter’s doors closed, pressurized the cabin and started to climb to a higher altitude.

Because another helicopter was shot down about five miles away, suddenly we were flying at 28,000 feet.  That’s how vulnerable the commander of the 101st Airborne Division was in his “command and control” helicopter. (I later discovered that the Blackhawk’s capability to avoid enemy fire by flying at such a high altitude was a military secret.)

I remember years before being herded into an old unused movie theater at Fort Benning, Georgia.  It was August of 1969, and they had a surprise for all of us newly-minted impressionable young lieutenants attending the Infantry School.  Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt, who had commanded the 3/187th Infantry battalion at Hamburger Hill was on a publicity tour intended to counter the bad press coverage the battle had been getting.  It seemed that suffering 440 casualties in a single battle and then walking away from the objective you had fought to achieve wasn’t going over very well with the American public, so Honeycutt was out there ringing the victory bell and promoting Nixon’s new policy of “Vietnamization” which he had announced earlier that summer, many said in reaction to the losses suffered in the battle of Hamburger Hill.  Honeycutt had made a special stop at Fort Benning to pump up the troops.

We were crowded into the seats of the World War II era theater, they dimmed the house lights, and there he was spot-lighted on stage, the hero of Hamburger Hill.  A rather squat figure in combat fatigues with a crewcut and a thick neck, Honeycutt strode purposefully to the microphone and began his practiced story of the glorious battle, punctuating his tale with bangs of his fist on the podium.  When he was finished, he stepped away from the podium and stood before us with hands on his hips and loudly barked, “QUESTIONS GENTLEMEN?”

The theater was silent.  It appeared that no one had a question for Lt. Col. Honeycutt. I could see a major in the wings pointing at his watch, signaling that it was time to go.  Then the guy next to me, whose name was Strosher, and who only months before had received a battlefield promotion in Vietnam from Sergeant to First Lieutenant, raised his hand.

“IN THE BACK!” barked the colonel.

Strosher stood up and called out his name and rank and asked, “Sir, where you were during the battle of Hamburger Hill?” He remained standing.

Honeycutt paused, looking momentarily confused, as if that question had never been asked of him before.  “Uhh,” he stammered, “I was in my C & C ship at my assigned altitude.”  He was referring, of course, to his “command and control” helicopter.  “Uhh, 2500 feet as I recall.”

Strosher lifted a hand and said “That’s all I needed to know, sir,” and sat down.

The theater erupted in laughter.  We had all read the coverage of the battle.  We knew it was yet another defeat masquerading as a great victory.  As the laughter died down, the major stepped out of the wings and whispered in Honeycutt’s ear, and guiding him by the elbow, escorted him off the stage.

Strosher, who had served two tours in Vietnam as an enlisted man, knew the answer to his question before he asked it.  He had just stuck a pin in the balloon of the entire war in Vietnam, and Colonel Honeycutt and his helicopter had shown him the way.

That’s why I can say with some certainty that what you’re seeing on your television screens right now is the story of America’s technological military folly in a nutshell. Those helicopters that “won” Operation Anaconda and “won” the battle of Ia Drang and “won” the battle of Hamburger Hill didn’t win the Afghanistan war any more than our remote piloted Predator drones and Air Force attack jets and B-52’s and smart bombs and super-secret satellite surveillance and electronic battlefield simulations and every other doo-dad we came up with. But at least we’ve finally found something we’re good at: air evacuation of the capital cities we lost.

[Lucian Truscott Newsletter]

[kyndaris]

Big Brother is Watching

London is known to be the most surveilled city in the world outside of China. Statistics show that there are 67 cameras per 1000 people in the capital city of Great Britain. Is it any wonder, then, that Ubisoft selected it to be the centre of its dystopian and Black Mirror-esque future where civilians have a device connected to their optic nerve and drones dominate the air space above the streets? Having visited London in the summer of 2013, I was excited to see a near-future iteration of a city that I had thoroughly enjoyed so many years ago. After all, with COVID-19 still going strong, it’s highly doubtful that I’ll be visiting London any time soon.

Watch Dogs Legion begins with a cold open as it introduces us to Dalton, a former MI-6 agent, that is sneaking into parliament to investigate rumours of a bomb being planted on the premise. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the game writers took a page out of Guy Fawkes’s modus operandi. As luck would have it, Dalton manages to defuse the bomb. But not before the hideout of DedSec London is compromised. Even this Pyrrhic victory is short-lived when Dalton learns that several other places had also been designated targets, and watches in dismay as several key sites around the city are blown up and he is cut down by a hail of bullets.

After such an opening, I wondered how Ubisoft would bring it back together. They had promised players that we would be taking on the role of DedSec. How was that going to be possible after we had seen the entire team utterly destroyed in the first thirty minutes of game?

Mixed in with reports of the bombings, it is revealed that Sabine, a member of DedSec that miraculously survived the raid on its headquarters, is alive. She begins the arduous process of rebuilding DedSec. Her first oder of business? To recruit a member of the public that is no longer satisfied of being a ‘sheep’ and ready to fight back against the totalitarian forces that have London in their grip. My first recruit was a man involved in IT. And one that prided himself on having short cooldowns for hacks.

It was not long, however, before I had amassed an army. I even had a detective sergeant and a few Albion officers. All before I was actually expected to recruit specialists that would allow me uniform access to certain areas.

As soon as I was satisfied that I had a robust group of hackers, eager to take back the streets of London, I finally set about trying to figure out the mystery of Zero-Day. In the process of trying to unmask the mastermind of the terrorist bombings that had brought London to its knees, I was brought into contact with several groups that had benefited from the reign of terror that held London in its grip: Albion, the Kelley gang, SIRS and Broca Tech. Each chapter was like watching an episode of Black Mirror. Whether that was the exploring the concept of transhumanism and creating AIs by lobotomising digitised versions of a human brain or using drones to hunt down troublesome individuals that threaten the peace. Even the Optiks affixed to almost every single character’s temple was akin to something I had seen in the television show (and while I would like the convenience of searching the internet or reading a book as I complete the drudgery of work, the fact that all of it could be so easily hacked, presents a terrifying world to live in). 

Still, though a lot of it was skimmed over, I liked the fact that Ubisoft attempted to tackle several problems that the Western world seems to be heading towards. Cameras are everywhere and facial recognition technology means that very soon, we will be living in a world that assesses us on social credits. No one would be able to hide. People could be arrested on thought-crime or their propensity for possible violence, much like in 1984 or Psycho-Pass. 

By game’s end, however, it is revealed that Sabine was Zero-Day all along. She had infiltrated DedSec and once the organisation’s usefulness had come to an end, she had destroyed it from the inside. After being betrayed by Albion, she had needed additional helpers and set about restoring DedSec to what it had been in its glory days - pretending to be an ally even as she stole the technology we had accumulated. 

It made sense. She had been sole survivor when DedSec was brought down. Then there was the fact that she had never appeared in person to any of my operatives.

Her motive for it all? To hard reset humanity and have us stop being so dependent on the technology that we take for granted. As for why she wanted to get rid of it? Unknown. Sabine’s backstory, unlike so many of the other villains we faced, was only lightly brushed upon. Nor was she ever successfully painted as a sympathetic character. When she fell from atop the GBB (the game’s version of the BBC), I felt nothing.

The voice acting could be hit and miss on occasion. There were many that sounded incredibly similar except modulated to be a lower or higher pitch. One of my recruits had a voice so low for a woman that in my headcanon, I simply had it down that she was undergoing hormone treatment. I did, however, like the diversity of accents. From posh to cockney to Indian to general European and then some mix of Caribbean/ African. It helped that I had quite a diverse team. All, of course, with their own quirks when I read through their bios.

What I liked most were the podcasts. Particularly the Bug: featuring Andy and Alice. Their satirical take on London helped paint a world that has gone to the dogs, and where politicians roll over to mercenary private security force. It was also great to hear a proper Australian accent and not whatever garbled mess Americans think us Australians sound like. We’re not all Steve Irwin! And shrimp doesn’t exist in the Australian vocabulary.

Combat, too, felt incredibly gimmicky. The game seemed to favour a stealthy approach. But in the last few missions, no matter how stealthy I was, as soon as I was hacking some MacGuffin, Albion guards would swarm in on my operative’s position. Even if they were outside and they should have no idea where I was because I had sent in my spiderbot. This was particularly irritating when playing with permadeath on, as some of my deaths felt cheap.

To this day, I still don’t know how my first spy managed to die. I was driving in the spy car and I must have nicked a bit of the pavement before it exploded.

That, and the fact that so many of my characters had such a limited loadout when it came to weapons, also proved frustrating and a little annoying during my playthrough.

Despite a few crashes and bugs, I still managed to enjoy what the world had to offer. In particular, I very much liked digging deep into Skye Larsen’s mindset. Mary Kelley’s storyline was also very gruesome and great as it presented the very real issue of human trafficking and the exploitation of immigrants. While I would have liked Ubisoft to have explored these issues in more depth, I also know that Watch Dogs Legion is more about the hacker collective than anything else. In that regard, Ubisoft was successful in detailing the problems with relying on technology and the grim future that awaits us if we allow our rights to privacy whittled away to nothing.

[alitheamateur]

The Grind-Chapter 11

Seats were limited by the time I got to the small dressing area turned conference room, so I opted to stand against the back wall instead of stepping into a crowded aisle. Plus, a standing Liv would catch his attention sooner than a sitting one. Within 5 minutes of waiting, Mendez sashayed through a side entrance, championship belt undoubtably in tow, clashing with his red, yes, RED suit of choice. Jolly ol’ Saint Nick himself would’ve turned up a nose in disgust. He took a seat, propping his prized possession in display on the white table. Prayers of pleading rolling through my head that this blatant narcissist wouldn’t drain all the life out of the room with endless ramblings for the upcoming hour. Right now, it wasn’t this particular fighter that I needed answers from. Thankful for a recording device, I muted most of the repetitive questioning until I was ready to join in. 

“Yeah, Miss Elliott in the back there,” he selected.

“Congratulations on the victory, Danny. I was wondering, if Colton were to call you out for the title again, would you accept?”

He chuckled, “ I mean, yeah. I beat the guy once, so I wouldn’t have a problem doing it again. All jokes aside though, honestly, the guy is scrappy in the cage. I’ll give him that.” In Danny Mendez translation, that was a compliment.

His session ended with mumbling something about having a bottle on ice and blah, blah, blah, leaving us now to wait for the losing man of the hour. Upon 15 very exasperated minutes, two reporters withdrew due to justified impatience of Colton’s delay. Amongst the growing chatters, the black hands of a clock at the rear of the room ticked noisily, it’s repetitive soundtrack creating a deafening echo amid the whispering gallery. After what I assumed was at least 25 minutes passing, an unidentified blonde wearing some sort of badge on her hip, resolutely marched her way front and center.

“Alright guys, that’s gonna be it for tonight. Sorry to disappoint.”

I teetered between irritation, and concern. Was this one of his rebellious PR stunts? Or was he currently being rushed to the nearest emergency room for some kind of growing side effects resulting from an unanticipated injury? I would’ve liked to think Mac, Beth, or perhaps some member of his team would’ve had the courtesy to think of me if that was the case. However, after the cold shoulder from Colton earlier, maybe I was no longer in the inner circle. No longer one of the “popular kids.” Surely, I hadn’t already been tossed aside to join the other outcasted groupies already?

We filed out of the room scattering down different hallways, and I withdrew my phone from my purse. Seeing no missed calls, I decided to lean on relief rather than panic. When I pushed the panel opening the parking garage door, I slid a single key between my middle and index finger. A defense tactic that Colton stressed as dire necessity when I was alone out in the city, at night especially. In his words, I was evidently “green” to the harsh reality that there were indeed violent people here, who’d stab you for the 14 bucks you had in your wallet, and the busted Coach knockoff hanging over your shoulder. Back in Indiana, we didn’t even lock our cars most nights, so Colt’s enthusiastic warnings about his own close call with a mugger, did not fall on deaf ears. If any brave, or entirely ignorant individual had the gall to attempt a robbery on a barrel chested man such as my guy, they’d see me as a sure score.

I double tapped the unlock button opening the driver door, and intently scanned the surroundings when my headlights ignited. I sat aimlessly staring at the blank screen of my phone, the thunderous internal battle now underway.

Call the clueless fool, Liv. Give him the scolding he deserves.

The devil on the right: NO chance. Leave the bastard wondering where you’ve gone. If you’ve made it home safely.

Back to the left. CALL HIM. What if something bad really is going on. You’ll never forgive yourself if he’s hurt.

That was all the convincing I needed. I truly couldn’t live myself had he been unconscious in a hospital bed, suffering from some life-threatening contusion with me not at his side due to my hurt feelings. Vindicated, even still.

“It’s Colton. You know the drill. Leave a message or don’t.”

“Um, hey Colt. It’s Liv. Which you obviously know. Anyways, just checking in with you before I head home for the night. Call me back. Wanted to make sure you’re okay. Uh…yeah, that’s all. So, call me back. I love you.”

I gave myself 5 minutes in the warming car for a call back before my mind spoke up. If he is indeed hurt somewhere, a call to his phone would not be sufficient to reaching the root of the problem. So, one measly text to Beth, then I really would engage the silent treatment.  

L: Sorry to bother you so late, Beth. Just checking in on Colt. I can’t seem to get in touch with him. Wanted to make sure he was alright.

The indicating bubbles of reply danced quite timely after I had hit the send button. I was impressed by the youngest generation of the baby boomer era and her swift technological skill.

B: No bother, sweetheart. He left the arena not long after you hurried off to the conference. Said he just wanted to call it a night.

So, the bastard wasn’t on his death bed in the back of some ambulance after all. Or dying in the hands of a brain surgeon attempting to locate the source of some imagined internal bleeding. Leaving him completely and utterly unexcused for the selfish, and frankly juvenile behavior. Sure, I get the loss was hanging heavy and a night alone in his own bed was therapeutic to nurse his defeat, and freshly wounded body back to health. I couldn’t be mad at him for seeking out a little isolation, I guess. That was one of the personality flaws of Colton, it seemed. Something doesn’t play out in your favor? Run. Someone questions your judgement? Shout, then run. The fact that zero communication had been made with me, the innocent spectator, was the true “no-no” in my book. Especially after the hypocrite scolded me one afternoon for leaving my phone at home on the coffee table one day on my brisk exit to work. He had driven down to the Pilot office, had the secretary summon me to the front entrance so he could reprimand me in the corner about he had worried all morning when he didn’t hear from me, and wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead. Yet, here we were. Tables indeed turned, and not even so much as a single text message just assuring me he was home safe, sound, and not experiencing signs of a brutal concussion or what not. I made up my stubborn mind that when, or if for that matter, that he wanted to talk he could find me. I wasn’t about to drag myself any further into oncoming traffic for a man who pulled stunts like this one. Not without an apology at least.

 Tuesday morning. Two days since the fight. Two FULL days. Crickets. 48 hours. For all I knew, Colton Ritter had hopped a plane to Mexico and was sunning on the beach with a beautiful, topless native as we speak. Keeping the promise to myself, and my self-respect, I held my ground & hadn’t reached out to him since leaving a voicemail late after the fight. The plus side? I had an over abundance of time to finalize my article for Ryan, who had texted me with instruction to head straight for his office as soon as I made it to work. It was edited, proofread, and emailed to him by midmorning on Monday, so I was sure he’d had his chance to look over my work. I mindfully sported my best suit on this particular day, leaning if he thought the article was shit and I was in for a lecture, at least I’d look fabulous while taking my reprimanding.

I marched directly to my boss’ office at 8:00 a.m. sharp, shoulders held high ready to take whatever bad, or good that was coming my way. Two knuckle knocks to his wooden, “editor-in-chief” plated door before he granted my entrance.

“Liv, hey! Goodmorning. Come in, have a seat, have a seat.”

I flashed a reserved smile, lowering to be seated directly across the L-shaped desk from him. “You wanted to see me?”

Thankfully, he grinned brightly, “I did, yeah. Feeling a bit of relief with this one off your shoulders?”

“Actually, I enjoyed it a lot. I mean, aside from Mendez being quite the… snide character, it was honestly kind of fun for me. MMA isn’t really a sport I’ve had much exposure to, but I’ve grown pretty fond of it now.” I figured that response was better than saying “I fell in love with Colton Ritter during this process and we’ve been dating under the table for the last several months.”

Ryan leaned forward on his desk, intertwining his hands together outstretched. “That’s actually one of the things I wanted to discuss with you. This piece was by far the best work I’ve seen from you. Not to discredit any of your past articles, of course! But, it was clearly displayed that you were genuinely enjoying yourself with this topic,” he explained. “Which is why I’ve decided to move forward with publishing you front page.”

A toothy smile immediately turned my lips upward, sweating palms replaced with a leaping heart.

“I know we spoke about only going that route if Ritter took the win since the piece was centered around him. But, your writing was too unbelievably excellent to not reward the dutiful job you did.”

I tried to save face, remain composed but I cupped my hands over my cheery face and released a tiny squeal, however not forgetting to thank my boss for the career altering opportunity.

“Thank you so, so SO much, boss. Truly, I’m so grateful!”

“You earned it, Liv. But don’t thank me just yet. There’s something else I’d like to suggest.” Was he pulling the “good news first to stifle to bad news” bit with me?

“I’ve discussed it with a few of the higher ups, and I’d like to designate you as our resident journalist for all things in the world of fighting. I hope you don’t mind me saying, but I think you may have found your niche with this one. Of course, there’d be a slight increase in pay with the position.”

The heaviness of the weekends dramatic unfolding’s took a momentary backseat to the unexpected pleasantries of this spring-esque Tuesday morning. Still, this very second, the only thing I wanted to do was run to Colt with the good news…

“If you think that’s where I belong, then I’d love to give it a shot. It’s definitely a sport I’d like to continue getting familiar with.”

He nodded with a single clap of his hands, “That’s what I like to hear! We’re lucky to have you here, Elliott. I think this a good move. So, we’ll talk later on in the week to settle everything 100%. And I’ll see you on the front-page Thursday morning, my friend.”

We shook hands, and I nearly skipped the distance spanning from his office to my quaint cubicle. I wondered if the birds I heard singing a song of rejoice around my head were visible to the rest of the office. I lifted the screen of my silver laptop, primed and ready to dive into the world of my latest endeavors. I searched the internet scanning for upcoming matches in the city, some of Pittsburgh’s own who competed in the arena of cage fighting, then I heard a ding signaling a message on my unsilenced phone.

C: Meet at Mac’s soon?

The utter nerve of this guy. Sure, I haven’t heard as much as a ‘hey’ from you in two days, but I’ll be sure to leave an hour into a work day per your request. God help the male population if they’re all this clueless.

L: He speaks.

He knew me well enough to know I’d throw a tad bit of shade at him.

C: Meet me, please?

L: Its not even 10 a.m., Colton. I’m working.

C: After? We need to talk.

Oh, ya’ don’t say, genius. I’d say we were about two days overdue for a talk, sweet, silly boy.

L: 4:30. I have some news of my own too!

C: Great.

TAGS: @torialeysha @eap1935

[stormquill]

Misconduct, Ch. 11 [Soldier 76/Reader]

You have an extremely inappropriate crush on your commanding officer. Maybe if you work hard enough, you’ll stop having feelings.

[ AO3 Link ]

Author's Notes: Collaboration with @antiloquist. Follow the blog @ http://miss-conduct.tumblr.com/

Chapter Notes: look man it's been a solid year and a half i don't really have anything to say for myself lmao

The dead of night gave you plenty of cover as you kept perched atop your roof, overlooking the harbour.

Several days of recon had pointed to the indication that Amélie would be prepped for transport tonight, smuggled aboard one of the many ships bound for the Atlantic the following morning. However, some last-minute digging had uncovered Amélie herself—safe and sound in suspended animation—hidden away in a repair dock on the opposite side of the harbour.

You and 76 had the upper hand for three simple reasons: first, you were aware of the trap waiting for you at the harbour; second, you knew the real location of your target; and third, they weren’t expecting your Commander to be approaching the situation with backup.

76 was advancing towards the repair docks at that very moment. All you had to do was sit tight and pay attention to their presence at the harbour, in case there were any additional circumstances you hadn’t accounted for.

Surprisingly, getting out was the easy part.

The dropship was already in-range. Your handheld evacuation devices—the ones you’d developed with Winston to make your technology more portable—would transport its wearers to the main evac apparatus, installed safely on-board. One of the major flaws of the new tech was that, like its outdated, bulkier version, all nodes had to be activated at once, and once they were activated, it took several hours for them to recharge.

There were three devices in total—one with you, two with 76—and as soon as he confirmed that he’d affixed one to Amélie, you would activate the devices and transport all three of you onto the dropship.

Wait for 76’s confirmation. Hit a button.

“Easy,” you reassured yourself.

You were so tired.

Maybe it was a good thing, you thought. The unholy mess of stress and exhaustion numbed your fear and steadied the grasp on your rifle. At the same time, however, it dulled your senses, making you feel unreactive, and slow. As much as you didn’t want to dwell on the idea, you couldn’t wait to be rid of this mission.

You didn’t tell him that, of course.

Your Commander had glanced down at you before you parted ways, the glaring light of his visor back to the familiar cherry red that suited him most. When you held his gaze, a sinking feeling dropped heavy in your gut, with the inescapable anxiety of absolutely everything going wrong. You’d completed enough training and gone on enough missions throughout your lifetime to be able to control these last-minute fears, but within that moment, you couldn’t shake them off as easily as normal.

“Nothing reckless,” was all you said, “we promised.”

He nodded.

You felt stupid for thinking it at a moment like this, but you wanted to nestle against him again until your raging nerves ebbed to a crawl, until his scent was all you needed as reassurance that everything would be alright.

A few moments of awkward silence passed before you realized you were holding your breath.

“Good luck out there,” you settled on.

“You, too.”

And that was the last you saw of him.

Sudden noises drew you from the memory.

A box truck pulled into the streets below, near one of the boats docked along the harbour. Once they killed the engine, four men rushed out of the vehicle and rounded towards the back of it, hoisting the rear door and prepping to transport something out.

“Athena,” you whispered, voice still feeling too loud in the chill of the early morning. “How many heat signatures in the back of the truck?”

“Calculating...” The female tone was cool and even in your ear. “Detecting six additional heat signatures in the back of the vehicle.”

Four in sight, six in hiding.

Hissing urgent commands at one another, the four visible agents worked together to ease a massive crate from the truck onto a large metal dolly.

“And how many signatures that crate?” you asked.

“Zero.”

As expected, you thought. The crate was a decoy. They were expecting 76 to muscle his way in—and maybe, if you weren’t here, that’s exactly what he would’ve done, only to be met with an empty container and an ambush.

...you both should’ve been gone by now.

You touched the communication device clipped to your ear. “Commander, do you read me? Do we have an ETA on evac? Over.”

The silence sent your mind racing.

“Athena, can I get a status report on the Commander?”

“Vital signs: stable. Communications online. Evacuation node two is prepared for activation. Evacuation node three is prepared for activation.”

Then why the hell wasn’t he responding?

The answer was obvious—he must have encountered enemy interference, either en route or at site. However, the agents below were still maneuvering the decoy cargo towards their ship docked at the harbour, meaning neither them nor the ambush in hiding had been notified of the compromise.

That meant you could still buy him time.

“Commander,” you started, “assume contingency 32B. If I do not receive orders within five minutes, we abort without payload. Athena?”

“Understood. Initiating contingency 32B.”

A split-second later, several cracks shattered the air like fireworks, as every hidden camera your Commander had planted in the immediate area self-destructed.

Neighborhood dogs began barking. Windows of nearby apartment complexes lit with newly woken civilians. The agents below surrounded the dolly, drawing their own guns in response.

Amidst the sudden confusion, you balanced your rifle along the edge of the rooftop, charged your shot to maximum power, and fired at the ship—another crash echoed through the harbour as you blew a hole in the ship’s main hull. The damage wasn’t enough to sink it, but it was enough to keep it from disembarking—more importantly, it was enough to get their attention.

The hidden agents were already piling out of the back of the box truck, while those guarding the dolly shouted and pointed towards your rooftop. Though the shot had given away your position, you immediately lined up another, this time aiming for the vehicle’s engine. The explosion tore through the air louder than any disruption that had come before it. You ducked for cover just before automatic fire began spraying in your direction.

The self-destructing cameras had woken up half the neighborhood, so French authorities would be on their way. You made yourself out to be someone making a play for the fake cargo, which would buy 76 a few extra minutes. And you’d crippled the agents’ ground transportation, meaning they couldn’t fall back to your Commander’s current position, even if they were called to retreat.

Rifle slung around your shoulder, you fell back. You could already hear the heavy footfalls of enemy agents scrambling up your fire escape; you headed for the opposite side, instead, using your grappling equipment to hook onto the roof’s edge and scale down the side of the building.

Three agents were standing guard at the bottom of the fire escape.

You hit the ground running.

Enemy fire sent your heart rattling inside your chest like a bell in a cage, but you kept focused. You’d studied the layouts of these alleys a hundred times over, and outmaneuvering the enemy was child’s play—but the knowledge of what was behind every corner did nothing to ease the sound of their bullets ricocheting as they missed, blasting off bits of brick and concrete around you.

Behind this dumpster. Through this door. Right turn. Left turn. Right turn. Right.

You couldn’t let yourself get hurt again. Not after last time.

“Payload secured,” came the voice you were waiting for, like music to your ears. “Requesting evac.”

“Copy.”

And you hit the button.

Teleportation felt like being yanked by a set of wires tied to your ribcage—it always left you feeling disoriented and unsteady on your feet, even as you made solid contact with the floor of the dropship.

The sight of the unconscious woman jarred you to your senses. Though she was unarmed and barely out of stasis, you weren’t about to underestimate the lethality of a known Talon agent held in such high regard.

Falling over yourself with urgency, you rushed over to the side of her unmoving form. You lifted her body, bridal-style, to the small holding chamber in the back of the dropship, and sat her upright.

You sealed the door shut, and stumbled backwards with the shock of what you’d just done.

You did it.

You rescued her.

As your adrenaline-fueled haste died down, the electric excitement vibrating within your chest replaced itself with a cold, harrowing realization—that the dropship was far too quiet, far too empty around you.

You knew what was behind you before you bothered turning around.

A spent evacuation node sat on the floor where your Commander should have been standing.

“Athena,” you near-whispered, voice weak, “status report?”

“Vital signs: unstable. Communications offline. Evacuation node two, offline. Evacuation node three, offline.”

You took a deep, shaky breath.

You knew what you had to do.

-

To say you hadn’t planned for this was a lie.

Of course you’d planned for it—you’d planned every iteration of every possibility of any combination of the three of you becoming compromised. The contingency of this scenario was clear: neither one of you would leave without the other. Surely, he’d know that.

Surely, he knew you were coming.

All three of your evacuation nodes were spent, which meant you would have to get him out the good old-fashioned way. The question gnawing at you remained: what could have happened that necessitated him removing the transportation device from himself? The node was an instant get-out-of-jail-free card, one which hadn’t been damaged or malfunctioning at time of transport, so why would he ever take it off?

You didn’t have much time to wonder.

Athena dropped you off as close as she could to your Commander’s last known coordinates on the dry docks.

If your positions were switched, you had little doubt 76 would’ve come after you, guns blazing, regardless of enemy numbers or positioning, but you couldn’t afford the same bravado. If you were too heavily outnumbered, trying to get him out on your own would be nothing short of suicide. For 76 to have been taken down, you expected to be faced with an army.

But the dry docks were barren when you arrived. Almost serene.

There were no signs of recent activity in the area, let alone of a recent fight. Aside from 76’s signal pinging you from across the docks, Athena confirmed there were no other heat signatures in the immediate area.

Had he been abducted, maybe? Taken to a secondary location without his tech?

You shook your head, doing your best to parse contingency from paranoia. You were approaching the cargo ship where Amélie’s body was being held mere minutes earlier—unfamiliar enemy territory—and you needed to pay attention.

Readying your weapon, you ascended the set of metal stairs along the side of the ship; already, your footsteps sounded far too loud.

The large, open deck of the cargo vessel was crowded with storage units—massive, rectangular metal boxes of identical shapes and sizes stacked on top of each other like multi-coloured building blocks. As you approached 76’s signal, you kept your steps light and your wits about you, checking your corners while keeping your back pressed to solid surfaces. The deck was dark, claustrophobic, terrible grounds for a fight—if it weren’t for Athena’s confirmation there were no other living souls on-board, you wouldn’t have stepped foot in here without backup.

The pinging in your ear grew more rapid as 76’s signal became stronger on your radar.

To your right, an open storage unit containing the now-empty stasis machine, still running, casting an ice-blue light across the deck and illuminating the scene before you.

Several toppled cargo units crowded the area, all of which were heavily damaged with massive dents and bullet holes. The path of destruction led to the rear-most area of the deck.

A splash of blood was illuminated brilliantly against the dark surface of the ship, awash in the stasis machine’s ice-blue glow, as if it were under blacklight. Another spatter, smeared along the side of a storage container. Several drips along the metal flooring, rounding the corner of another open unit nearby...

You checked your corners before checking inside.

Inside the open storage container sat the form of a man in the glow of his own cherry red visor, hunched over with a hand pressed to his thigh, a pool of his own blood seeping beneath him.

“Don’t,” 76 croaked, sounding weaker than you’d ever heard him, “it’s a trap—”

Reflexes kicking in, you raised your weapon and did a swift 180, aim landing on the head of the other man standing behind you.

And you fired.

You thought you missed, at first—your laser burned a hole in the storage unit behind him—but you realized your shot had gone through him, as the man’s entire body morphed into a cloud of black vapour before your charge made contact.

This didn’t make any sense. There wasn’t anyone else alive on this ship.

You’d checked.

“Athena?” you whispered.

“Target possesses no heat signature. Target possesses no pulse.”

The insinuation of her words sent your mind reeling.

You had no contingencies for this.

The swirling cloud solidified into being once more. Hooded and broad-shouldered, the man towered before you, the sharp edges of his bone-white mask glinting in the blue light. His gloved hands—every finger clawed with a sharp silver talon—carried a mammoth pair of black shotguns you could’ve easily mistaken for cinder blocks. He was black leather and red adornments. He was dread and absolute foreboding.

The partner in more ways than one.

The one he cared about finding.

And Gabriel Reyes laughed at you, his voice as ethereal as the rest of him. “You’re late.”

You blurted out the only words that came to mind. “What the fuck?”

“...eloquent.”

As much as you were trembling, you didn’t lower your gun. “You’re here to kill us, then?”

“And if I am?”

“Anything happens to either us, Amélie is dead,” you snapped. Your voice was much steadier than you were. “The dropship is already en route to headquarters—if we don’t both check in within the hour, it’s set to self-destruct.”

“That so?” His claws readjusted their grip on his shotguns. “How were you planning on getting out of here?”

“Dunno.” You swallowed, hard. “Didn’t think that far ahead.”

He made an amused noise, low in his throat. “It’s been a while since you’ve had someone so willing to die for you, Jack.”

...Jack?

Attention faltering, your blood turned to ice beneath your skin. Pieces of the puzzle were jamming themselves into place, violently, all at once, and as the big picture revealed itself to you, you felt more and more like a complete fucking idiot for not having seen it earlier.

As if reading your mind, Gabriel tilted his head to the side.

“Oh my god,” he chuckled, darkly. “You didn’t know.”

You stood there, facing each other—his guns still at his side, yours still pointed at his head. If your Commander was Jack Morrison, that meant the Gabriel Reyes in front of you wasn’t just any Gabriel Reyes—this was the Gabriel Reyes, ex-commander of Blackwatch, public scapegoat for the first fall.

You suddenly found yourself in the company of men who were killed in an explosion nearly a decade ago and you no longer knew what was real.

“Congratulations, Jack,” said Gabriel. “You managed to find the one person on the planet who bought into the world’s worst-kept secret.”

“Leave them out of this,” snarled the voice behind you. “Your fight is with me.”

“Oh, but this is so much bigger than you and I. Why shouldn’t your new lackey come along for the ride?”

Your desire for an explanation outweighed your caution. “I thought you died, Commander Reyes.”

You could tell the use of his name gave him pause.

“He did,” he replied. “It’s ‘Reaper,’ now. Or did he leave that part out, too?”

Your breath caught in your chest. So not only was Gabriel Reyes still alive, but it was the true identity of the infamous terrorist you’d only ever heard rumours of. The ghost of the battlefield, the shadow of death, the one rumoured to steal the very souls of his victims until their bodies were nothing but dried husks—here he was, standing before you, dismantling your worldview one word at a time.

And yet, you didn’t want him to stop talking.

You lowered your rifle by an inch or two, just enough to better meet his gaze. “What did Commander Morrison do to you?”

He sneered beneath his mask. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would.”

Though you continued aiming at him, Reaper still had not yet raised his weapons against you. He seemed to consider you for a moment—your quivering hands, your unblinking gaze, your steadfast positioning in the face of common instinct screaming at you to run. The sounds of your Commander’s laboured breathing seemed to do little to break your resolve.

Were you really so curious?

Reaper took a few steps forward, his footfalls heavy against the ship deck.

“War is a game,” he said. “A game you can’t win if you’re the only side playing by the rules. But Jack was never one to get his hands dirty. That’s where I came in.”

He continued his approach. The closer he came, the less you could move.

“You’ll do what they ask. You’ll do what is needed. Then they’ll orchestrate your downfall, and deny they had anything to do with you.”

He was inches away from you, now.

He smelled like a battlefield—like death and decay, like earth and gunfire.

“There will always be war,” he continued, “and there will always be people they need to do their dirty work. People just like you.”

“I haven’t—”

“You’ve taken Lacroix. You already are.”

Though you managed to keep your rifle raised, your subconscious had already surrendered, knowing full well you posed no semblance of a threat to this anomaly of an undead man who could dissipate at will.

Slowly, carefully, he pushed the aim of your rifle off to the side, as if he were drawing a curtain in his way.

He closed the distance between you by pressing the tip of his shotgun beneath your chin, tilting your head up until you were gazing into the black sockets of his mask.

You hear your Commander’s voice call out one of your names. You can’t tell which one.

“Remember, when you leave this place.” His gravelled voice was low and deliberate. “Every breath you take is air I’ve let you swallow. Your every heartbeat is a gift from me. From this moment on, you are living on time I’ve allowed you to borrow. And I will be back to collect my dues.”

You barely registered the next words that left you. “I’ll be waiting.”

To your surprise, Reaper laughed. “You don’t deserve them, Jack.”

To your surprise, 76 responded. “I know.”

And Reaper was gone, dark plumes of smoke vanishing into thin air.

Once again, you didn’t have time to wonder.

You immediately unslung your rifle and yanked your jacket off, rushing to 76’s side, the floor of the storage unit scraping hard against your knees.

“...Reader.”

You reached for the side of his belt and pulled out the Biotic Field canister yourself, slamming it onto the ground and activating it. Reaper had prevented him from using it, you figured, in order to have 76’s unstable vital readings lure you here faster.

“Reader.”

You bundled your jacket and helped him apply more pressure to his thigh to stop the shotgun wound’s bleeding. The blood loss had made him several shades too pale, you noticed, but the flow already seemed to be easing as the biotic yellow glow knit his insides back together. It wasn’t going to be a complete recovery, but it would be enough to keep him stable until you reached headquarters.

A gloved hand brushed your bangs out of your face and tucked your hair behind your ear.

You looked up to meet the light of his visor.

“Hey,” he offered, sounding almost playful.

“Hi,” you said back, still feeling numb.

“I know asking if you’re okay is a stupid question, but I’m asking it anyway.”

“I’m...compartmentalizing.” You took a sharp breath. “We’re not safe, yet. We need to get out of here.”

“Mm. How are we getting out of here?”

“Dropship’s on standby. Should be here in a few minutes.”

“I thought you said the dropship left.”

“I lied.”

With your jacket soaked through with blood, the fabric as a whole became easier to twist around; you wrapped the wet jacket firmly around his thigh, tying the sleeves into a tight knot to keep the makeshift tourniquet in place. He reacted little to the pain—he must have been exhausted.

“You took off the evac node,” you said, dully. “You took off the evac node to go after Reaper.”

You didn’t need to see the look on his face when his silence already spoke volumes.

“We promised.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“Nothing reckless.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You promised.”

“I know.”

As hard as you willed against it, tears stung the corners of your eyes as you tried to look down to hide them, down at the rapidly blurring vision of your hands covered in his blood. The memory of you turning the corner and finding him sitting here, bleeding to death, rewound and replayed in your mind’s eye. What if he was hurt just a little worse?

What if you got here just a little too late?

“You promised.” Your cracking voice gave your tears away. “But you don’t give a shit about dying, do you?”

“Not until I met you.”

“Don’t give me that.” Your chest felt tight. “Not after what you just pulled. We could’ve gotten killed—Commander, I almost lost you—”

His hands reached for you, moving up to hold the sides of your face, and your words died in your throat. You could feel the blood in his gloves pressing against your cheeks—everything around you smelled like it now, smelled like him now, like regen and blood and leather—but he leaned his forehead to yours, and the warmth of his skin steadied you.

You’d never felt him tremble, before.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he breathed, and the way his voice broke on the words shook you to your core. “I’m sorry.”

The sound of his faltering only made you break worse. Your shoulders shaking, tears still streaming down your face, you held your hands against his, keeping them pressed against you—he was holding onto you as if he needed you to anchor him in place, as if you were the only thing on this earth keeping him tethered to it.

For the briefest of moments, he touches your lips to where his would be.

He passes out against your shoulder before you can register what happened.

And your dropship arrives.

[disrepairhouse]

Chapter 28 - Wavering Loyalty

Zero stared down at the stasis capsule and scanned the nearby computer to check the life signs of the tiny hedgehog inside to make sure she was at least alive.  The glow that had surrounded her had dimmed considerably, as the Doctor hypothesized it would, but even the stasis tube was having a hard time keeping the temperature down enough not to melt the wires connected to the strange anomaly.  She’d been badly injured during the crash, as expected, but oddly enough only sustained minor burns from the explosion itself. Most of her injuries came from being tossed around the metal room during the landing.  The Doctor thought it best to keep her under closer observation, but also at a safe distance to avoid putting themselves in further danger in case of another episode.  Between the danger she posed and the injuries she sustained, they decided it best to put her under until further decisions could be made.

Not even Dr. Robotnik had seen powers or abilities quite like hers and seemed both intrigued and pressed to find a way to deal with it. There was a distinctly sinister tone to his voice while theorizing that Zero wasn’t overly fond of.  He’d been unsure of the Doctor since his initial reawakening, but he’d grown ever more suspicious with each incident. The child’s reaction to him had been the largest source.  However, he wouldn’t defect until he had properly evaluated the situation. He didn’t want to put himself at risk of retaliation and possibly lose his only way home and, in the meantime, there were more pressing issues.  The repair of the ship and the retrieval of the emeralds the Doctor lost in the crash were the highest priority.

He checked the computer once more to confirm that it was still capable of containing the hedgehog’s power and turned back towards the door to leave the lab.  Luckily, Robotnik had an old base somewhat near the crash site and they were able to move into and reactivate, which would easily cut the repair time of the ship in half. Zero wasn’t all that sure why the Doctor would have another base so far from his main operating base or why there were so many deactivated robots left in it, but when he questioned Robotnik about it he didn’t get much in the way of an answer.  Instead, Robotnik put him in charge of watching over the hedgehog and seeing to the repairs of the ship.  He thought his abilities were better suited to tracking down the missing emeralds, but Robotnik assured him the bots that were sent after them would be plenty enough.  However, with the news of Sonic being on the move again, Zero had his doubts.  He’d seen the destruction the blue hedgehog could cause and didn’t think the basic robots sent out would be nearly enough to handle him should they cross his path.

But he would focus on the task at hand and, should anything happen, he could easily go after them later himself.  He hadn’t had an opportunity to face this Sonic yet and he looked forward to it.  Though there was another mobian -no, he was likely a robot- that Zero looked forward to facing even more.  A red echidna that was likely to come to him, if the Doctor was to be believed.  If the Doctor was correct about the rogue robots, Zero was certainly better off remaining near the lab, after all.

After exiting the lab containing the hedgehog girl, Zero moved down several twisting hallways until he reached a large hanger door and pressed the code into the nearby panel and entering the vast, open area behind it. The ruined carrier had been pulled here by many of the reactivated robots, which were quickly set to work repairing it.  Similar to a degree to the reploids back home, many of these robots had minimal AIs, built for a specific purpose and followed command without question.  It seemed, despite having the ability to create advanced AI, Robotnik had only put it to its full use twice: One of which he’d believed to be destroyed long ago, and the other had gone rogue relatively recently.

Zero crossed several yards to the destroyed carrier to study the progress on its repair, met before long by one of the bulkier robots amongst the group.  The larger bot gave him a precise update: damage reports, needed materials, and an estimate on time to completion, then returned to its position at a nearby console to return to its work supervising the others.  The carrier was a few days away from being ready for departure, but Zero expected as much from his own initial analysis.  Though, admittedly, he wasn’t sure what Robotnik wanted him doing regarding the carrier.  There seemed to be plenty of bots for the manual work and there was the larger bot already overseeing everything and keeping a record of the progress.  Zero wasn’t sure where he was needed with the process.

Perhaps he should check in with Robotnik, himself, for now.  The child was safe in the stasis tube, repairs were going as they should, and there were no signs of outside interruption thus far.  There were, however, signs of activity in the city nearby and Zero suspected it had something to do with their initial reason for coming and wanted to investigate the matter.  If it would expedite his going home, his time was better spent in the city than standing around at the base.

Zero reached the main console room and entered the large double doors (having been given access to each area upon arrival, as with the last base), then walked over to the large chair the Doctor draped over.  As usual, he was staring up at multiple screens across a long display that wrapped halfway around the room but was only observing for the time being.  He hardly even turned when Zero approached but acknowledged his presence once he did.

“How go repairs?”

“As expected, it’ll be a few days still before it’s ready to fly again.”

“And the hedgehog?”

“Inactive, though even the stasis tube is struggling to keep her temperature normalized.”  Robotnik gave a grunt of a response and silence fell once more, prompting Zero to speak up again, “there’s been considerable activity in the nearby city. It may be related to the monster you mentioned.  I believe it’d be best for me to look into it while we wait.”

Robotnik remained silent, as if mulling it over, before shaking his head and turning the chair around to face him.  “No, it’s best if you stay here.  This base is outdated.  I’ve been able to activate most of its defense systems, but should something come directly for us, you’re our best line of defense.  Sonic is on the move, if he shows up, I’d rather you be here to deal with him.”

Zero struggled to keep the displeasure off his face; he was getting tired of waiting around all the time.  He’d only agreed to assist the Doctor under the promise that he could get him back home, that he was the only one with the knowledge and technology to do that.  But the constant waiting and defensive maneuvers were directly impeding on that progress. He wasn’t here as Robotnik’s personal bodyguard!  He was here incidentally and wanted nothing to do with the raging mobian-human war.  It wasn’t his place to intercede, he only wanted to return home.  The only reason he offered to help as much as he had was because he thought it was what X would have done.  But Robotnik seemed less trustworthy every moment and his patience was growing thin.

Perhaps it was time to get a second opinion, after all.

“I’m going to look in on the child again, then,” Zero explained, turning on his heel to leave.

“Good, she may be the most useful tool we’ve found yet, especially with the loss of the Chaos Emeralds.  If we can get that under control…”  Zero didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as the sliding doors slammed shut behind him, cutting the thought off.  Tool.  He didn’t much care for that terminology.  She wasn’t one of his robots, she was an organic child, dangerous as she may be.  Her powers were a curiosity, for sure, and he was wary about giving her another opportunity to use them against them, but he had grown more wary of the Doctor recently. Perhaps the child’s appearance was his true opportunity in the strange world.  She at least seemed more willing to drop the façade than Robotnik.

He entered and locked the door upon reaching the lab, not wanting to be interrupted or allow her possible escape, and pressed in the code to slow the tranquilizers as he crossed over to the console.  He kept the temperature control on, and the tube closed, in hopes to minimize the damage as much as possible in case she responded violently.  Once her vital signs picked up again, he moved beside the tube, standing over it and watching carefully, waiting for signs of a response, mostly watching the glow around her legs to watch for a reaction.  Luckily, it remained the same even as the small girl slowly awakened.

She was drowsy at first, as expected, but the more aware of her surroundings she became, the more she panicked, causing the crystals -which had nearly vanished by this point- and the glow to spark up again. She stared up at him, wide eyed and terrified, her eyes darting wildly around her, and it occurred to Zero that waking up behind glass may cause more panic than he expected.  He reached over to open the tube glass, and watched the girl immediately attempt to scramble away the second it did.  Not wanting her to move any further than necessary, he reached over and pushed her back down, holding her still as he explained the situation.

“Calm down, you’re in no danger so long as you don’t try to attack,” he explained flatly, her wild purple and green eyes darted to him as she struggled against his grip.  She eventually realized that she was going nowhere, however, and stopped struggling, though kept her watering eyes glued to him. He took that as a sign she was listening and continued, “Make no mistake, the second you show signs of aggression, I’ll put you back under.  You caused enough damage, to the ship and yourself, in the first blast, I’d rather avoid a repeat.”  Confusion and pain spread across her face and almost as if the mention of her injuries was what brought them to her attention, not her thrashing around.

After a moment of silence, she looked up at him again, considerably calmer but still clearly in pain and confused, and questioned, “What… blast?”

He had wondered if she had even been aware of the situation, herself, but now he supposed he had his answer.   He watched her cautiously then threatened her once again should she start to panic, but removed his hand from her and sat in a nearby chair once she promised to keep still. He had a feeling it would be a long chat.  “During the fly over, after you fell asleep, you suddenly began to emit a substantial amount of heat. I’m guessing the source of which was from your legs,” he motioned towards the still somewhat glowing limbs and she looked down to study them.  Her eyes widened in shock, but then dropped and moved to the side.  So she knew the cause of it, at least.

“You nearly melted the room you were in until it exploded, taking out half the carrier and causing a crash.  Strangely enough, most of your injuries were sustained during the crash, rather than the heat.  After landing and moving to a functional nearby base, we decided it safest, for both you and us, to put you in a temperature-controlled stasis.”

Itara’s brows furrowed, considering what he was saying as she was still trying to shake the grogginess from her head.  She could barely remember the contents of her dream anymore, only that it had been upsetting, but the idea that she caused an explosion during her sleep…

She shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it anymore.  Instead, she looked up at Zero again, “So… w-why… wake me up?”

“For the same reason I brought you along in the first place; you have answers I want.  That said, the Doctor isn’t aware I’ve woken you up so your cooperation would benefit us both this time around.”  Itara mutedly stared at him in further confusion, so he continued, “As I mentioned before, I’m not from your world-- I have no interest in your world. I’m here entirely on accident, I’m sure, and my only interest is returning home.  I was badly damaged when I first arrived here and Robotnik repaired me and offered to help get me home.  However, there have been several stalls and impediments in that process and, quite frankly, I’m growing tired of them.

“This latest incident, for example, is setting us back considerably and the Doctor seems more concerned with protecting his base than looking into the activity here.”  He eyed the hedgehog sharply to make sure his point got across, “And seeing as you’re the cause of that, you ought to help make up the difference.  You and Robotnik both know more than you’re letting on and I want answers now.  Tell me what you know, or I’ll take it from you by force.”

Itara stared up at him, equally confused and terrified, to see no sign of empty threat in his furious blue eyes.  She looked away and gave it a moment of thought, trying to calm herself down, still a bit dizzy from the stasis, but gave her head a light shake.  “Okay… okay,” she turned back, frowning, “y-you’re right.  I know a… a lot, a lot more than most, really.  I can’t explain everything, though, there are… not because… not just because there’s a lot even I don’t know, but…”  She shut her eyes and curled up a little again, “but because there are… things out there, far more terrifying than even you or Robotnik.”

Zero watched her carefully, taking note of the stutter and wondering if it was because of the situation or if it was consistent.  Both times he’d crossed her path, she’d been in danger, so it was hard to tell.  But at least she agreed to answer his questions.  Finally.  “Fine, then let’s start simple.  Who are you?  And I don’t want your name.  You’re no mere organic, the hole in our ship explained that well enough, I want what you really are.”  She looked up at him, apprehension filling every detail of her face, he added, “I will keep it from Robotnik, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Her face twisted slightly as she considered it, though he understood to a degree.  If she truly was something other than a normal mobian, she had no reason to trust him with that information.  She had no reason to trust he wouldn’t immediately tell Robotnik, either, but he didn’t have time to assure her otherwise.  Finally, she sighed, and he wondered if she would continue playing coy.

“I’m… You really can’t tell Robotnik any of this, he can’t know, but… you’re right, I’m not… normal. I never have been.  I was, in fact, created… by Robotnik, technically, or rather, by one of his robots, in a past no one remembers.  I have powers no one else does, but I…”  She considered keeping the fact that she couldn’t control them from him, but knew that was pointless by now, “As you guessed, I can’t control them.  Robotnik tried to harness them once and brought about the end of the world in the process, the reason he doesn’t know now is because… the timeline was reset. No one remembers but me.  Given the opportunity, he’d likely try it again, which is why he can’t know.  He can’t be trusted.”

Zero studied her expression, searching for the lie or the coverup, but once he was sure she was telling the truth, or at least that she believed she was telling the truth, he considered the answer.  “Timelines… are you telling me you have some sort of time power, in addition to… this?”  He waved, rather incredulous, towards the various crystals and glowing.  She nodded, slowly, cautiously, her eyes remaining locked to her burning legs. “Crystals, heat, and time powers?  Just what are you?”

The question was so accusatory and bewildering, Itara barely managed to contain her wince.  “T-to be fair… the heat is… new… even to me.”  She had a feeling she knew where it was coming from, but she couldn’t be sure.  She looked up and explained, “but yes, I… I used to be able to travel through time.  But I haven’t had access to my powers for… awhile.  Not since the reset. If I had access to them, you never would have captured me.  I used to know the optimal path to success, I used to know what to do to get what I wanted, but I no longer do.  This is all I can do anymore,” she waved towards the crystals before dropping her arm heavily again, the distraught written clearly across her face.  She shook her head, going silent again and looking away from him, “That’s all I can tell you about that, though.  My powers are tied to something else, something far scarier than you, so that’s all I can tell you.”

Zero remained silent, considering everything.  Scarier things than him, huh?  If she wasn’t lying about her powers bringing about the end of the world, perhaps she was best left in stasis, after all.  Then again, there were other potentially world-shattering powers acting up lately as well that seemed far less cooperative than the tiny, frustrated child.  “What do you know of Chaos and the emeralds, then?”

Itara glanced back up at him, curious, but looked down to respond, “Chaos… he’s one of the three Gods that watch over the world, specifically he’s a Water God and the Guardian of the Chao and the emeralds. We’re… near Station Square, right?”

“Correct.”

“There’s an island near here called Angel Island where Chaos resides with the Guardian of the Master Emerald.  He destroyed this city once before, about twenty years ago, you can ask Robotnik who caused that.”   She shook her head and looked up again, watching him from the corner of her eye. There had to be a reason Robotnik was headed for Station Square again.  Supposedly, he’d learned his lesson about upsetting Chaos, but if Zero was asking now… “Why?”

“These gems, the Chaos Emeralds, what power do they hold?”

“Enough that Robotnik and Sonic are basically always in a battle to see who can keep hold of them the longest.  Even the other Gods, Gaia and Solaris, have sought their use before, though Chaos has the most control over them.  Why?”

“We have been on the hunt for these Chaos Emeralds since I arrived, Robotnik assures me they’re the key to getting me home, but they’ve been difficult to procure.  We had three, before the crash, but they’ve since gone missing and we can no longer locate them, or any of the others, for that matter.  Is it possible this is because of Chaos?”

Itara shook her head, “If it is… then we need to vacate the area immediately.”

“Why?”

“Because if Chaos is awake and has the emeralds, he-.”

The sudden blare of a base-wide warning cut her off as even the lab flashed with a bright red light and a warning displayed on the nearby computer: Intruder Alert.  A monotonous robotic voice soon accompanied the warning, stating ‘Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert, Employ Defensive Maneuvers Immediately’, as Robotnik sounded on Zero’s comm unit.

“Zero!  Zero, where are you?!  There are intruders on the main deck!”  He sounded frantic, yet a hint of zeal hid behind his panic.

Zero looked between the hedgehog and the communication device built into his arm, pulling it up and responding, “In the lab with the mobian, I’m on my way.  What section?”

“Hurry up!  They’re in Sector B but moving quickly inwards!”  As Zero stood, Robotnik added, almost as a after-thought, “You may get that fight you’ve been looking forward to.”  Both Zero and Itara stared at the speaker, Zero remaining straight-faced while Itara watched in confusion.

“Right.  I’ll be there quickly.”  He shut the speaker off again and turned to the hedgehog, studying her before narrowing his eyes, “do not move.”

Itara jerked slightly, but sighed and motioned towards her legs, “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.  What did he mean, though?  What fight?”  Zero only shook his head and ensured she wasn’t lying about moving before heading out the door to meet the intruders.  Admittedly, the hedgehog’s legs weren’t her only problem and he deemed it impossible for her to move on her own, but had locked the door to the lab again just in case.  She wasn’t supposed to be awake in the first place but he didn’t have time to worry about putting her back under with the sounds of destruction and chaos already echoing down the hall towards him.  Whatever was making its way through the base, it wasn’t doing so quietly.  Though, with the final comment from Robotnik, he had an idea of who -or what- it may be.

He was joined by Robotnik along the way, hovering in the smaller craft he’d taken to moving around in again, as they raced towards the apparent intruder making bolts of the defense system.  As soon as they reached the open deck and Zero had only barely caught a glimpse of red moving on the other end, the entire base let off a horrifying zap, crackle, snap and with a final, low bwom, everything went dark and Robotnik was screaming in frustration.  Zero, however, wasted no time pulling his sword from his shoulder and taking a defensive stance.  He wouldn’t pull the blade out just yet, as the glow would give his position away all too easily, but as he heard the heavy thud land nearby, he released the blade and swung it sharply behind him.

The glowing blue blade whipped through the empty air and Zero readjusted his stance to deal with the oncoming threat.  However, while he had expected a sturdy, direct attack, he hadn’t expected the sudden laser shot through the darkness which knocked him back several feet.  He righted himself quickly enough, landing and preparing for another attack while Robotnik continued to panic in the distance.  The next attack, at least, came exactly as he expected as his sword melted through the hook glinting around it, causing the owner to quickly distance himself as the base clicked and zapped again, attempting to restart itself only to be shorted again in the process.

“This useless, dilapidated hunk of junk!  Work!”

Robotnik continued yelling and fumbling about, but Zero had long since tuned him out to focus on the battle.  If he had to guess, there was more than one opponent, one he had studied before, one he potentially hadn’t.  He gave his position away with his sword, but due to the delay in further attack he assumed they were keeping their distance thanks to said weapon. Perhaps they hadn’t expected it to cut so cleanly.  The thought amused him but he wanted the fight, and as soon as the Doctor got the base functioning again, he would need to stick to the plan they’d already set out for these specific guests.

The whir of the laser echoed out again and he had all of a second to move out of its way, roll to the side and purposely drop his sword in the process to draw the opponents near.   He waited only long enough for the claws behind him to be beyond retracting and grabbed the arm they were attached to which flipped the heavy bot overhead, slamming him beside him with a violent thud which echoed around the open area.  But as soon as one bot hit the ground, a sharp, extended claw surrounded in snapping blue electricity cut through the air at a remarkable speed, forcing him further away from the other bot and his sword.  At least it confirmed his theory about there being two opponents.

Two black outlines stood against the glow of his sword. A long, thin blue arm lit up, glowing with blue sparks, which revealed half of one aggressor as glowing red and green eyes burned through the darkness between them.  They were only a handful of feet away and Zero was sure of who they were now.  It also meant he knew why they were there, as well.

Unfortunately for all involved, with a cry of relief from Robotnik, the base’s lights flickered back on, desperate to go back out again, then stabilized and revealed the two rogue robots.  But Zero already knew who they were and what needed to be done-- the fact that they’d shown up together only made his job easier. Moving back into a fighting stance, he eyed them with a slight grin. The two bots responded in kind, one noticeably more amused than the other.  However, he couldn’t meet them whole-heartedly in the fight, as he wanted to, as their battle in the dark was the most they would get for the time being.

A string of curses came from the Doctor’s mouth in some far-off corner of the room, but none of the bots paid it any mind as they met fists once more.  However, what the two had realized just a moment too late was that they were led to a specific spot and, before they knew it, a burning green power grid snapped up around them, stopped any further attack.  Sparks flew inside as the rogue badniks attempted to escape, but they got nowhere as Zero walked back over to retrieve his sword.  Robotnik finally made his way over, as well, looked over the furious bots, and clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“Metal Sonic… and Robot Knuckles, even… so this is how I finally find you again.”  Metal and RK exchanged looks, glaring back at Robotnik without a word.  The Doctor looked to RK, specifically, Robotnik continued, glaring back at the helpless traitors, “I thought you were destroyed years ago.  To think you joined the mobians…,” he shook his head.  “But more importantly…,” he slammed his hands on the console in front of him, tilting the entire circular hovercraft as he leaned forward, scowling furiously, and yelled, “what did you do with my comb?!”

[lanternsraised]

Collar x Malice: The Twilight Ward Chapter 1 (draft)

Main Blog: torchvixen.tumblr.com

Warning: Much draft, very rough. Title is a Placeholder. Written in fits and starts during meetings at work, so may seem choppy.

Pairing: Ichika Hoshino x Takeru Sasazuka, Maybe some Ichika x Kei, Ichika x Shiraishi

Summary: Takeru accepts an offer he cannot refuse from Zero, and the rest of the detective agency is left covering for his disappearance. Set from Sasazuka’s bad ending, where he joins Adonis, goes AU in the next few chapters.

Chapter 1

At first, she was certain that the experience had only been a fever dream, brought on by the stress of her job. In her mind, Ichika Hoshino had dreamt up X-Day as an after-effect of accidentally watching a horror movie with her little brother. After all, she couldn’t feel the cold weight of the collar as she regained consciousness.

Opening her eyes shattered the peaceful illusion. She lay on the couch in Yanagi’s office, the detective sipping from the mug from the couch on the opposite side of the coffee table. Her body urged her to sit up swiftly, to mirror the shock of her predicament but instead the rookie officer could barely move as if her body was sinking in quicksand.

“Relax, Hoshino. It looks like you were drugged.” Yanagi’s calm voice managed to sink in, and in response the woman took several deep breaths. He continued as he noticed her resolve, “The good news is that your collar has been removed, so we won’t need to worry about Adonis disposing of you anytime soon.”

“Then, the bad news?” 

Her voice was hoarse, and almost as if summoned by the unsteady creak in her tone Enomoto arrived with hot tea. The brash redhead sat down next to Yanagi, silent for once. His broad shoulders slumped as he did so, and he seemed to slouch where he sat like a child. It was very unbecoming for the tall man, and the odd eyepatch he wore as “style” over his eye made the sight more comical.

“We can’t get in touch with Sasazuka-kun.” Yanagi continued, frowning. “Okazaki headed over to his apartment to check on him.”

Enomoto laughed nervously, “Ah, ol’ seaweed-head is probably buried in his work. This wouldn’t be the first time.”

That may be the case normally, and Ichika had previously shown up at Sasazuka’s apartment when he wouldn’t answer the phone. Something worried at her mind, the memory of a hand combing through her hair and her partner’s sad smile.

Good girl. Go back to sleep.

Ichika didn’t need to wait for Okazaki’s return, she bolted down the stairs, ignoring Yanagi’s call. It took effort to to force her legs to function, and she stumbled once or twice due to the aftereffects of the paralytics on her way down, catching herself just in time. She relied on inertia to get to the street, frantically scanning the area for a man that would not be there. “Sasazuka!!”, she cried out into the night, hoping the wind would carry her plea to her partner on the winds.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dream or a fairy tale with a happy ending. Takeru Sasazuka had chosen a darker path despite her efforts to keep him in the light. Despite herself, she could feel tears slip down her cheeks. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?”

There was no response. The rift between them grew even larger.

~

She wasn’t certain how long she stood outside the detective office in the frigid winter air, but her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of a warm coat draped over her shoulders. She started at the sudden movement, wide green eyes searching for the source.

Kei Okazaki appeared like a ghost, fitting given his role in the Security Protections department. “That’s not good, Ichika-chan,” he chided gently, “You’ll catch cold if you stay out here without a coat.” The older man tilted his head to the side, quizzically. As always, the odd man left words unspoken. In the brief time she had known him, Ichika had learned that his cheerfully innocuous manner obfuscated a clever mind. Even with warning from Yanagi’s team, Okazaki managed to worm his way into Ichika’s good graces, using their rapport to pry information she’d rather not reveal outside of Yanagi’s inner circle. Even knowing this, it was difficult to be angry with him. He was good at his job, and hadn’t betrayed their trust yet.

Until now, there hadn’t been a conflict of interest between the Police and Yanagi’s team of former officers.

“I was just going, Okazaki-kun,” she hedged cautiously, looking for a quick exit. If Okazaki had paid even the slightest bit of attention, he would have noticed that she had been Sasazuka’s partner. She wasn’t certain she wanted to divulge information to him about the missing hacker if he had defected to the other side.  At least, not just yet.

A day. Just give me a day….That’s all I need.

The man in front of her didn’t have any of the normal tells she read about during her time in the Academy. When someone was suspicious, often their eyes would narrow slightly or their stance would become guarded. Instead, his eyes remained blank, his body language nonchalant. The question asked was that of a concerned friend. “Hmm? Without a coat in the middle of December? I suppose you could borrow mine if you’d like, but does that mean we’re switching? I think yours might be a bit toooo tight around the shoulders, but we could try it.” His face brightened and he flashed her his easy smile, “I know! I can walk you home after I talk to Yanagi-san. You’ll want to hear this too, Ichika-chan.” His voice had a gentle lilt as he said her name, much too informally for her liking. Before she could protest, the bodyguard had snatched her hand, leading her to the entrance. His grip was firm, but comforting.

“Okazaki-kun,” she tried, “I appreciate your efforts, but shouldn’t you be guarding Yanagi’s team and not someone like me? I’m just a rookie in SRCPO, not one of your VIP assignments. I take public complaints, and that’s hardly dangerous.” The argument had never swayed the ashen-haired man in the past despite his ignorance of the collar and Ichika’s predicament, but she was left desperately clutching at straws.

“Mm,” he barely acknowledged her point. “Yanagi-san’s team can take care of themselves. Besides, I think we would all feel better if someone saw you home, especially given recent events, yes?”

It wasn’t a true question. Kei was always pushy in such an underhanded manner, and it’s how he often slipped past any objections to get his way. “Given that one of Yanagi’s team just disappeared into the night, are you certain they are safe?” She didn’t resist as he led the way up to the office, though her words seemed to sow doubt on their situation.

The smile on her companion’s lips fell away, revealing the diligent man under his under his carefree demeanor. He stopped outside of the door to the detective agency, pale eyes piercing through her searching for something unknown in her gaze. He kept hold of her hand longer than was comfortable. Instead of voicing his response, he plastered the smile across his features once more. “Let’s go. Yanagi-san must be waiting on my report, and I’m sure they’re worried about you running off like that.”

In the end, there was no need for Okazaki to say what he was thinking. The man dropping his mask told Ichika all she needed about his current thought process.

He knows. She thought, before suppressing her feelings of panic. Or at least he suspects…

Instead, she forced a wavering smile. “Thanks,Okazaki-kun.” Though, if she was honest she wasn’t sure what she was thanking him for. HIs concern? His protection? HIs discretion? Regardless, she felt compelled to say the words.”You know, Yanagi-san is going to be so  happy you’re using his front door for once.” It was a lame jest, but she was desperate to diffuse the tension in the air.

Much like Sasazuka the night before, she felt a distance forming between herself and the man. She couldn’t bear to lose another friend due to suspicion and betrayal. Not right now.

To her relief, he laughed at that, giving her hand a gentle squeeze before letting go to open the door for her. “I hope he doesn’t get used to it!”

Her smile warmed, growing more genuine with their usual banter. “Do you just enjoy the look on their faces when you appear through the window?” He never had explained how he had easily scaled the building to enter the 5th floor office window. Ichika had tried to figure it out one day while bored waiting on Sasazuka to finish his analysis. To her amazement, she hadn’t seen a fire escape or another obvious route of ingress. No wonder Yanagi expressed such dismay at Okazaki’s unexpected appearances.

The SP agent didn’t deny her comment, but also avoided giving a proper answer. Typical. He could be just as evasive as Shiraishi.  Instead he greeted the team, “Look who I found outside, a stray cat!”

The cat comment stung unexpectedly, a reminder that Okazaki had picked up the nickname overhearing Sasazuka call her “Baka Neko” (Stupid Cat) before he learned her name.

Mineo Enomoto took one look at Ichika, draped in Okazaki’s large brown police coat and hopped up, flustered. The young man was never good in tough situations, “I’ll reheat your tea, Hoshino.” At least, he was able to be formal, unlike the man next to her.

Ichika sat back down on the couch, her companion opting to lounge against it next to her. He called after the retreating redhead, “I’ll take one too, Mineo-kun!” At least, Okazaki was irreverent with everyone.

“Thanks for going out there, Okazaki. What did you find?” The detective was all business today. Now it was Okazaki’s turn to feel the weight of Yanagi’s expectant stare.

“Nothing good. He wasn’t at home so I found my way in. It looks like someone packed quickly.” No mention of how Okazaki found himself in the apartment, but she had some obvious guesses and none of them were strictly legal. The SP agent ran fingers through light colored hair, glancing between Ichika and Yanagi. “There is no sign of a struggle, or forced entry before my own. Furthermore, it looks like as much of a rush that was taken in packing, someone took time to deliberately ruin all the computer equipment. I’m not sure if any of it would be recoverable. This… doesn’t look good. Not at all.”

That was an understatement, to say the least. The situation was even messier, given Sasazuka’s recent reinstatement to the Cyber Crimes division at the behest of Commissioner Minegishi in Investigations HQ.  If he had accepted Adonis’ offer, this would be a large scandal for the Tokyo Police in the Shinjuku branch.

Yanagi glanced to Ichika, clearly taking in the sight of the girl without her collar. “Hoshino, what happened?” At her hesitation, the detective glanced at Okazaki. Even he seemed troubled. “I think, at this juncture, we should not hide the truth.” It was an olive branch, of sorts, and Okazaki nodded in agreement.

Still, her mind was in turmoil. She glanced up at Okazaki, taking in the crisp white shirt  and dark slacks, at the red-and-white armband associated with his department. He was in the uniform of the Shinjuku police and she recognized that he was intensely loyal to his mission.

However, his mission was protecting Yanagi’s team and that included Sasazuka. The older man demonstrated free will by determining that this also included Ichika as well. She still couldn’t read him well. Though they had kept him in the dark about Ichika’s reasons for involvement, she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew more than he let on.

Despite having every reason to suspect her, he hadn’t reported the most salient bits of information to his superiors. Inadvertently, this had saved her life.

“Do you need me to leave, Ichika-chan?”, Okazaki asked, tone mild. This made the decision even harder, as she was expecting him to obstinately stay until ordered away as usual.

She took a deep breath, and took a gamble. “No, it’s fine. You can stay.” The smile she received at that proclamation was dazzling. She forced herself to avert her gaze and turn back to Yanagi. “I think that Adonis has Sasazuka-kun,” she said quietly. “I’m worried they forced his hand. They expressed intention to recruit him, no matter the cost.”  

Ichika couldn’t bear to say the reasons behind the defection, or that her partner had left of his own free will.

The dark bangs that fell over Yanagi’s eyes made his face look shadowed as he contemplated the information, “I was afraid of something like that. Sasazuka is talented, it would make sense that others would want to use his skills.” He stood up, “In addition to solving the cases, we need to get Sasazuka back. Shiraishi should be on his way, in theory, and we can fill him in as well. Hoshino, you knew him best, would you be willing to take point on this?”

“Yessir,” she responded, almost mechanically.

“Good, thanks for doing this.” Yanagi said with a gentle smile. He was trying to be reassuring, she realized.

A soft hum interrupted from her right, and Okazaki spoke the words she was fearing, “Hmm… I’m going to have to report this. It’s too much to overlook, especially since he missed work today. If he wasn’t working at Investigations HQ at the moment, right in front of the brass we could delay this longer…” he trailed off, “It would be best to coach it as a missing persons case until we know more.” The last words were deliberate, and his violet eyes looked down at Ichika.

She nodded in response, words catching in her throat for a moment, “Yes, that sounds like the best plan.” Ichika would find a way to express how grateful she was later.

The door opened behind them, and the tall blonde profiler slipped in, “Yanagi-kun, you said it was urgent?” Despite his pleasant voice, Kageyuki Shiraishi made Ichika uncomfortable like nails between her shoulder-blades in the dark of night.

“Good of you to show up, Shiraishi.” Yanagi said, “We think Adonis has Sasazuka.”

Shiraishi didn’t bother to feign concern for his teammate, instead he gave a small, amused smile. “Oh? That’s an interesting plot twist.” Though he was a year older than Yanagi, he never struck her as responsible. It was hard for her to consider that he was nearly 30 and in charge of Field Operations Support department at the station.

The cute black cat ears he wore in his hair didn’t help.

The rookie of the team could feel frustration bubbling up inside her. “Shiraishi-san, this is his life that could be in danger right now.” She stood as she spoke, adding force behind her words.

Shiraishi studied her with inscrutable green eyes, darker than her own.  His expression never changed, the infuriating smile remaining on his lips as if mocking her. He shrugged in response, “Somehow I doubt that’s the case. You never were a good liar, you know? I would take a different tactic if you need to talk to the higher ups about this. Better yet, try to avoid that at all.”

“I don’t think that will be possible,” Okazaki interjected, “One of the terms of Takeru-kun coming back to the force was Ichika-chan acting as his assistant. They’ll see her as a person of interest, though they indulged his request. I think Minegishi-san would have done just about anything to have him return, but I’m sure he wondered why Ichika-chan was requested.”

“Then we’ll have to coach her, won’t we?” Shiraishi responded patiently, as if he’d already thought well ahead on the matter and resented having to explain the situation to a particularly dense child.

Yanagi nodded, “We’ll all need to get on the same page. I’m sure there will be questions for us all. Thankfully, we don’t actually know much at this juncture and I’m certain that will show in the interrogation. Morioka and Minegishi are reasonable directors, after all.” He looked to Ichika, “Hoshino, can you partner with Shiraishi on this one? I think his profiling will be valuable to finding Sasazuka.”

Ichika could feel herself bristle visibly at the suggestion. It was no surprise that Sasazuka and Okazaki likened her to a cat. Despite her distaste for the profiler, she nodded. “Of course, Yanagi-san.”

Shiraishi frowned slightly, “Yanagi, I’m still trying to find the mole in the police station.” Then his mercurious mood changed abruptly, as he gave Ichika a wicked grin,  “Ah well, we get to spend more time together, at least. Isn’t that fun? Meet me in my office tomorrow before work, and we can go over how to approach this with Minegishi.”

“Do you even know her name?” Mineo said, rolling his eyes at the profiler.

Shiraishi pondered this for a moment, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind an ear as if putting actual thought into the matter. “No. Do I need to for some reason?”

Mineo turned visibly red at the man’s flippant manner, his face matching his hair as he tried to reign in his temper, “Aside from the fact that you’ve known her several weeks already and she’s a member of our team? No, no reason I can think of.”

Ichika sighed, moving to grab her coat, “Is there anything else to discuss at the moment? I would like to go home.”

Yanagi’s posture mirrored her own exhaustion, “This is usually where I would ask Sasazuka to dig into the last known whereabouts of the person we were trying to find.” He shook his head, “We’ll have to do this the hard way. Everyone, let’s reconvene tomorrow night. We can share what we’ve found then.” He then directed his attention to her, but before he continued he shook his head. “We can talk more tomorrow, Hoshino. Get some sleep. You look like hell.”

She nodded, numbly. “Thanks. I’ll be off, then.” Okazaki moved to join her, taking back her coat so she could shrug on her own. She breezed past Shiraishi, giving another nod when he reminded her of their early meeting the next day and headed down the stairs back out into the cold.

The walk back was uncomfortable at first. Ichika was left to her own thoughts, which were dark and foreboding. She still felt a bit sluggish from the drugs earlier, and the wind whipped through her long brown hair violently as they walked down the streets of Shinjuku. At first, Okazaki left her to her worrying, hand shoved in pockets and violet eyes scanning their surroundings for any signs of danger. She almost wished he wasn’t protecting her, for once. What if Sasazuka regretted his decision and tried to make contact, only to turn away when he saw she had company?

As if he could sense her unease, the man decided to strike up a conversation, “Don’t worry, if I see anything I’ll let you know. If you need me to be less obvious, I can fade into the background and tail you from a distance as well. I’m sure that nothing would happen so soon after such an obvious event. Everyone is always vigilant right after something like this. It’s when the excitement lulls that we drop our guard.”

“At this point, I’m not sure the excitement will end. What if we can’t figure out the X-day crimes in time? Adonis now has the person that was obtaining the bulk of our information, so that puts us at a disadvantage.” She cut herself off before she could say more.

“Hmm, you really are feeling down, Ichika-chan.” He frowned at that.

Ichika paused, turning to look at him. “What do you mean by that?” Of course she was feeling down. Who wouldn’t, in her position?

“Usually you’re the one cautioning patience, telling others not to give up hope. You bear the worries and fears of the public with a smile and infinite kindness.” His violet eyes seemed like dark pools, and the intensity made her shiver, “So to hear you say something like that is a huge concern for me.” He offered a comforting smile, patting her head gently. She almost snapped in response that she wasn’t actually a cat, then stopped herself. That was an argument she usually had with Sasazuka. He continued, “There, there. Don’t worry, Ichika-chan. I’ll help you find him again. We’ll be able to stop this madness before the deadline.” He slipped his arm in hers jovially, and when he started moving she was pulled in his wake.  “At the very least, you don’t have to worry about their threats against you anymore, right?”

That caused her to tear her arm out of his grasp in shock. “What are you--?” Nerves already frayed, she reminded herself that even if Okazaki knew, he hasn’t informed his bosses, and that meant she was still alive.

“Implying?” He asked, innocently. “Hey, Ichika-chan, I notice you’re not wearing your scarf for once.” He chuckled, “So whatever you were hiding is no longer a worry, right? I’m relieved. For a moment, I worried that you had a red ribbon around your neck. I wondered what would happen if I pulled on it…”

“Nothing would have happened,” Ichika snapped, moving again at a brusque pace. She didn’t want to speak to him anymore.

She heard a sigh and footsteps to match her pace. The streets were clear at night since the quarantine had started, most citizens were afraid to be caught out alone in the dark. “Either way, their power over you is gone now, isn’t it? There’s at least one thing to celebrate.”

“Yes, but the cost wasn’t worth it.” the rookie huffed, turning over in her mind what could have possibly tipped the agent off. “How long have you known? More importantly, why didn’t you report me when you realized I was an active officer at the Shinjuku Station?”

Okazaki’s long legs had allowed him to catch up easily, and once more he slipped his arm in hers, pulling her close. Despite the aggressive move, it didn’t feel like a demand. Instead, it steadied her, and she felt her cheeks grow warm in dismay at her reaction. “Hn. Well, I knew something was off when you started associating with Yanagi’s team. They may bill themselves as a detective agency, but they don’t actually take clients. Shiraishi is right, you know. You’re not the best liar. Luckily, that fact worked in your favor. I could tell by interacting with you that you weren’t a conspirator, which meant you were likely a victim of Adonis.” He flashed another dazzling smile, “Don’t worry, Ichika-chan. I meant it, I’ll help you find your partner. Please, let me protect you.” The words seemed heartfelt, but she never could read him easily.

He let her ruminate over this revelation for a moment. Finally, she let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Ichika could feel the tension slip away with it. “Thank you, Okazaki-kun. I really appreciate it. Honestly, I’m not really sure where to start looking. Sasazuka didn’t exactly share a lot.”

He huffed at that, and for a moment she wondered if he was annoyed with her uselessness. “Ichika-chan, again! Please, call me Kei-kun.” His lips turned downward into a surprisingly adorable pout, made more amusing by how dramatic he was making his features. “It’s only fair, you know.”

They had stopped, and Ichika glanced up to see that they had arrived at her apartment complex. The highrise reaching up to the sky like a protective giant, and the sight of home made her feel comfortable for the first time that very long day. This wasn’t the first time she had this discussion with Okazaki. “I don’t know if I'm ready to call you that, Okazaki-kun…” she trailed off, not bothering to veil her hesitation.

Was it her imagination, or did the man look crestfallen? The moment passed quickly and he was back to smiling again. “I understand, Ichika-chan,” clearly this hadn’t changed his own stance, “I just hoped to express that I’m comfortable with such whenever you’re ready.”

She couldn’t help but blush again. Why did he have to put it that way? The words gnawed at her, with the realization she was probably being rude by ignoring his wishes in her attempts to be overly polite. She hadn’t grown up in Tokyo, and noticed that many were far less formal in the city. Before she could open her mouth to protest (or perhaps apologize), his hand slipped down to take hers. “Let’s get you upstairs, shall we? Please don’t fret over this, Ichika-chan, you already have enough on your mind.” His warm smile melted away her doubts. Perhaps calling him by his first name wouldn’t be so bad, but even if she decided otherwise he didn’t seem the sort to disregard or judge her own preferences when addressing him. The SP’s disarming manner made her feel at ease, even in the worst situations.

Okazaki didn’t let go of her hand on the way up to her apartment, and she didn’t push him away. Perhaps it was the hacker’s absence, but she couldn’t help but notice the differences between Okazaki and Sasazuka. Sasazuka as her partner was prickly, but demonstrated affection in a very different manner. He was quick with a harsh word to his teammates, but quick to pat her head when she was down or share his coveted sweets. It frustrated her when he fed her like a pet, but it warmed her heart nevertheless to see the awkward way he tried to care for others.

The SP agent, on the hand, was unabashedly affectionate and warm towards those around him, always ready with a kind word or encouragement for her when she needed it. That didn’t make him any easier to read most days.

They arrived at the apartment in silence. When Ichika unlocked the door and entered, Okazaki slipped in after her as if he belonged. She gave him a quizzical look as she took off her shoes, “What is it, Okazaki-kun?”

His violet eyes studied the ceiling as if noticing something very important, “I was thinking I should stay here tonight,” he mused, “I’m worried that you’ll be a target after Takeru-kun’s disappearance.” He glanced at her bare throat, “Even with their original hold over you gone, I can’t imagine Adonis’ interest has actually waned.”

Ichika glanced toward her little brother’s room, worried. Kazuki had already responded poorly to Sasazuka’s visit, not that the genius hacker had helped. She wasn’t certain how he would respond to Okazaki’s presence as well. “I’m not sure if that would be appropriate, Okazaki-kun.”

“Ehhh?” He made a disappointed sound, “That’s fine, then. I can guard from outside the building just as well.”

She started at his proclamation, considering all the times she found him standing guard in the alley outside the detective agency. “Wait, that’s even worse. It’s freezing outside!” She protested, eyes narrowing.

Her friend chuckled pleasantly. “It’ll be alright, really, Ichika-chan. I do this all the time, anyway! You know I can sleep anywhere.” Memories of the man falling asleep on her shoulder shortly after their first meeting came to her mind unbidden, and she shook her head to clear that thought.

“No, Okazaki. It’s December. I can’t let you do that.” The words came out in a rush, “We have a spare futon here somewhere. You can spend the night.” Since when did she start arguing his original position? He could be so infuriatingly stubborn.

“What’s going on here?” An irritable voice interrupted the disagreement. Ichika glanced down the hallway to see her brother half out of his room and scowling. Kazuki rubbed sleep from he eyes as he glowered at the pair standing in the entrance.

“I’m sorry, Kazuki. Okazaki-kun is going to be staying with us for a while to protect us from any potential threats, given everything that’s going on.”

“What potential threat could you be facing? Aren’t you a rookie in a low-risk department?” Kazuki seemed incredulous, then grumbled lowly. “Fine. He can stay, but I’m not sharing a room with him.”

“That’s fine, little brother.” Okazaki practically chirped, and she couldn’t help but cringe waiting for the backlash from her hot-headed brother.

Kazuki snorted instead, “Well, at least you don’t seem to be as much of a dick as her partner. I’m gonna tell you what I told him, though. You’re never gonna be my big brother.” Despite his obvious irritation, Kazuki did help drag out extra bedding for Okazaki. Once they had him settled, Kazuki retreated back into his room.

Ichika nervously glanced to Okazaki as she gathered her things to get ready for bed. He had already settled in, light grey hair splayed across his pillow and garish purple sleep mask settled over his eyes to block out the dim light in the room. She never realized how much hair the man had before this moment, musing that it must reach the nap of his neck at the very least. The young woman noted that the hair that brushed against his shoulders was darker than the rest, tinged an odd plum color. He had unusual looks to say the least, and one of their associates wore an eyepatch for fun. With the mask on, it looked like he was winking at her cheekily and she had to stifle a giggle as she crawled into her bed.

“Mmh? What is it, Ichika-chan?” The man murmured groggily.

“Nothing, Kei-san.” She said, drawing the covers up around her with a smile. “Just a thought. Get some sleep, would you?”

“That’s my line,” he groused playfully, and then a pause. “You called me Kei. I can die happy now.”

Ichika flushed with warmth at that. Part of her had hoped the normally astute man wouldn’t bring it up, but now that she saw how happy it made him she couldn’t help but grin. “How about we start with sleeping happy, alright?” Kei mumbled something in response that sounded in the affirmative, and soon was fast asleep with a smile still on his lips.

He wasn’t kidding when he said he could sleep anywhere, and she was certain this was more comfortable than some of the alleys he would doze in. She told herself that it was best for protection if he was right there if something went awry.

It would be harder for the events of the day to get much worse, however. Ichika frowned as she looked down at her phone. She flipped it open, tapping out a quick text. “Sasazuka-kun, where did you go?” Snapping the mobile shut, she placed it on the bedside beside her. She lay awake for a while, eyes on the device as she hoped fervently that a familiar buzz would break the silence. If that happened, the display would light up and she could see that she had woken from a particularly bad nightmare.

Fate wasn’t kind to her, however. The phone remained as still as a graveyard until sleep overtook her exhausted form. If the hacker was able to read her message, he didn’t send a response and her dreams were plagued with images of him slipping somewhere far away where she could never reach him.

[baoanhwin]

It’s time to ban Americans

Voluntary, unenforced quarantine isn’t enough for high-Covid19 countries

President Trump likes to congratulate himself on having closed the border to China in early February as an effective preventative measure against Covid-19. That he should do so isn’t too surprising: congratulating himself is his default setting and his administration has routinely adopted an anti-China stance, as part of Trump’s efforts to rebalance the trade deficit between the two countries.

Even so, while the measure was hardly sufficient, it was at least a step in the right direction. In truth, it didn’t prove effective because there were too many exemptions which the system couldn’t keep track of, and because the virus also found other ways in via alternative countries. Even so, it may well have been a significant factor in the first wave in the US developing around two weeks later than that in Europe.

For once though, Trump’s instincts were right, albeit that they chimed with his pre-existing prejudices: strongly policed international borders are essential if all the domestic efforts in combating the virus are not to be undermined by importing cases from countries which lack either the will or the capability to fight it.

Which brings us to the question the government should be asking – and indeed, which the public and media should be asking: why has the UK government not implemented outright bans on countries with high levels of infections?

At the moment, anyone entering the UK from outside the Common Travel Area (essentially, the British Isles), is supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days unless they’ve come from a country on the ‘safe’ list. However, whether people do or not is largely down to their personal sense of responsibility. The quarantine measures are not being closely policed and with no organised secure transport system between the international arrivals points and people’s places of quarantine, there are great big holes in the plan anyway.

That seems far too lax an approach when the consequences of importing new cases could be so severe and the costs so high – all the more so when the two of the prime reasons why the pandemic has become so bad in some countries are a political and social culture of personal liberty and a downplaying of the seriousness (and the transmissability) of the disease.

Perhaps to the surprise of some, Britain proved very willing to abide the lockdown restrictions when they came in in March. The result of that lockdown was a reduction in the number of identified new cases from a peak of around 5000 per day in mid-April to about 600 per day now. In truth, the real peak will almost certainly have been considerably higher because testing capacity three months ago was a lot lower than it is now and many more cases will have gone undetected then.

The UK’s current daily rate translates to around 9.0 new cases per day, per million population – which is perhaps the most useful comparable international metric. Is that low enough to justify the scale and speed of re-opening? The simple answer is that no-one knows. The government’s senior professional advisors throughout the pandemic – Prof Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Valance – were notably cautious about it in evidence to the Lords yesterday. Some other countries reported lower rates before re-opening and have since suffered a serious second outbreak: Israel, for example, whose new infections fell from a peak of 68 cases per million per day to just 1.5 in late May, before taking off again to such an extent that the 7-day average hit 175 yesterday – the equivalent of close to 12,000 daily new cases in the UK.

However, with the right data and an ability to respond quickly to local outbreaks, the government in London is hoping it can keep a lid on the virus without the severe restrictions of the Spring. And dealing with those local outbreaks is key. The 9.0 per million per day figure is a little misleading when it can vary from zero in some authorities to 146 in Leicester, as last week.

But that’s where the international dimension comes in. Test, track, trace and respond is only effective within a closed system. Once you start sprinkling new cases from outside, the controls break down – which is the theory behind quarantining travellers from at-risk countries. The question is whether the practice can be relied upon to match the theory, to such an extent that the costs in lives and pounds should it fail are an acceptable risk. I don’t think it can.

But if it can’t be relied upon, what can we do? There are really only two options: either to place travellers from countries with a serious outbreak in a hard quarantine, or to ban them outright – although the two may in practice be much the same thing.

That’s the road that New Zealand, for example, has gone down. Its policy is to bar from entry almost all foreigners and to require those who can come to isolate for 14 days in a “managed isolation facility” before being able to properly enter the country. Even then, one blip four weeks ago enabled the virus to get back into circulation again after the country was briefly Covid19-free. It has not yet been re-contained.

(As an aside, New Zealand has a general election two months tomorrow. At the start of the year – before the Covid-19 pandemic – Labour, which leads the current minority government there, was neck-and-neck with the conservative National Party. Jacinda Adern’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis has transformed that, with Labour not having polled below 50% since March and with five of the last six polls giving Labour a 25-30% lead. Such are the chances that Donald Trump missed.)

Britain is not where New Zealand is but it’s doing far better than some other countries. For example, here’s a selection, using the same metric of daily cases (7 day average) per million of population:

UK 9.0

Brazil 164.2

Canada 9.6

France 9.1

Germany 4.7

Greece 3.2

Italy 3.1

Japan 3.1

New Zealand 0.2

South Africa 209.4

Spain 19.4

USA 204.0 (Florida: 552.1; Nevada: 342.5; New York: 47.0)

If the UK government has decided that it’s tolerable to live with a low background rate of Covid-19, and that it can manage that level through large-scale testing, tracking and targeted action, then there’s a reasonable case to allow free travel to other countries (or to other regions within countries) with a similar or lower rate of infection. The flip-side, however, must be more stringent restrictions on countries with more severe outbreaks – and the greater the rate of infection, the more stringent the restrictions need to be.

I would suggest that the government should introduce a three-tier, or traffic light system:

– Green, for countries with less than (say) a rate of below 20: free movement.

– Amber, for intermediate countries with a rate of (say) 20-50: self-isolation at entry/return to UK, as at present for countries not on the ‘safe’ list.

– Red, for countries with rates of (say) 50+: no entry other than in exceptional cases – and those cases to isolate for 14 days at secure locations.

In practice, the rules would need to be a little more complex than that. You couldn’t have on-off cases changing by the day for borderline countries, for example. But those details could be worked out without affecting the underlying principle.

No doubt there would be a frosty reaction from those countries on which a ban was placed, most obviously from the USA, but the health of the government’s own country has to come first. Besides, it would be sensible – though perhaps not diplomatically possible – to try to get the EU to buy into the same policy, not least because the Republic of Ireland has a foot in both camps with its membership of the CTA.

The cost of the Covid-19 outbreak so far has been several hundred billions of pounds to the government, perhaps 60,000 lives and around a million redundancies (though that figure probably understates the true reality because of the government’s support for a great many jobs that are no longer viable), half a year’s schooling to the country’s children, and a great deal of anguish to millions, in so many different ways. Surely almost anything is preferable to going through that again?

David Herdson

from politicalbetting.com https://www7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2020/07/18/its-time-to-ban-americans/ https://dangky.ric.win/

[greenparispavement]

concept:

Chat Noir’s identity stopped being a secret with the worst possible timing; sort of like his puns. Marinette blinked at the oblivious boy, trotting away from behind an advert pole with his own face on it, and her heart cracked for the second time in as many weeks.

Alya never noticed, not when the first wound from Valentine’s day was still fresh. Marinette had never mentioned her alter-ego, as not only was this Alya, but she had in no way wished the other girl��s wrath onto Adrien. Even if he didn’t like Marinette, and only had a crush on a superhero he didn’t know (after all, half the class did, and that was alright), it was fairly normal for a teenage boy.

And at first, after the second shot at her heart, Marinette had thought it was a good thing. Adrien didn’t just have a simple case of celebrity crush, after all, didn’t he? If he was Chat, that meant he’d spent time with her, and knew her - Ladybug her - and so his crush was a lot more genuine. Tikki had rejoiced at her better mood, and encouraged her to try to speak to Adrien again.

He’d approached her, the day after Valentine’s, because of course he would. He wanted to let her down gently, be the gentleman she knew he was. She hadn’t really allowed it to go well; Alya hadn’t left her side (Alya had been witness to Marinette the Sobbing Mess, so there was no way in hell she was leaving Marinette Alone with Adrien), and Marinette had forestalled anything the boy had wanted to say by admitting she knew he didn’t like her, it was ok, hoping they could stay friends, and then running away. It could have been called a success, except that Marinette had kept running away every time she saw Adrien even try to attempt to look in her direction. To say their friendship was strained at this point was like saying her papa’s eclairs were … good.

So Marinette had been determined that night, as she went to bed, to speak to Adrien the following morning, properly. She’d even smiled a little, and just as they were about to fall asleep, Tikki had dropped - what she probably thought was a good thing - the fact that now, as half the secret was out, it was safer for Marinette to actually share her identity with him, as it was always safer when the black cat and ladybird were on the same page.

Burning hot anxiety and ice-cold dread had seized Marinette in the same instant, her half-closed eyes snapping open. She could hardly breathe, she couldn’t move, and she stared unseeing at the ceiling of her room as tears gathered in her eyes. As she heard Tikki fall asleep beside her, unaware of the havoc she’d just wreaked on Marinette’s mind, Marinette re-lived with mounting dread the moment Adrien had read her signed valentine, then imagined Chat looking at her with the same eyes, saying ‘what? No, Marinette, it’s you?’ with the same disappointed tone, and her heart cracked in a new, unexpectedly devastating way.

People did say tragedies came in threes. She supposed she should have expected it; the same boy broke her heart three times.

The thought of her partner, her best friend and the person Marinette had always, unconsciously, considered a second half of her brain - he just, understood her so well! She didn’t even have to speak sometimes! - being disappointed to find her behind the mask… it was a pain she hadn’t anticipated. It took her unawares, mercilessly culling her heart and leaving her feeling hollow.

Because she already knew what his reaction was going to be. She had seen his reaction, his face dropping as Marinette appeared where Ladybug should have been, at least in his mind. The person who knew her best, who - he said - loved her most, was disappointed in her. Found her … wanting. Lacking. A bit of a let-down, really.  If he didn’t want her, who would?

Tikki must have been shocked, the following morning, to find the joyous, hopeful Marinette who she’d gone to sleep with had transformed into a girl in a worse state than even the one after Valentine’s day. She didn’t cry this time - really, what was there to cry about anymore? - but she silently went about her day, smiling only when appropriate, nodding at people. Marinette sunk into her work with a determination and a silent drive that almost scared the tiny goddess. And when Tikki dared to propose they go speak to Adrien, as they had planned, her charge had, for the first time in their acquaintance, told her summarily to shut up. Marinette had never ordered Tikki. And Tikki, being a slave to anyone holding her Miraculous, could do nothing but obey, retreating into her bag with tears prickling her eyes as she realised, belatedly, that something had gone wrong inside Marinette, and that Tikki hadn’t noticed in time.

And then the Surete came looking.

The Mayor of Paris, they said, may be content to let two dangerously powerful Vigilante roam Paris’ streets and rooftops. The central Government of France - not to mention the European Parliament - had other opinions.

It was frightening how quickly they zeroed in on the 12th Arrondissement. The Mayor had never wanted the Heroes to stop doing their job - it brought Paris notoriety, publicity, and Ladybug fixing everything at the end meant no monetary costs for anyone, so that kept insurance companies happy and gave people peace of mind. He had never ordered a police investigation, therefore, and the Heroes were only children. It hadn’t occurred to them that Paris was covered in security cameras. Some belonged to the police, some belonged to banks, some to random citizens or shop owners, all just trying to protect their properties. The Surete had jurisdiction over them all.

Chat Noir blended into the background more easily. They had traced his retreats to one of the richer areas of Paris, then routinely lost him. Ladybug, however, in her bright red suit, was a lot harder to miss. The school Marinette went to had cameras as well, and a bank just down the street caught her several times. Even if Marinette was cautious enough to take round-about routes home every time, it didn’t change the fact that eventually, she had to go home.  Sabrina had no idea, when she was excitedly reporting the news her dad passed her surrounded by a gaggle of people and enjoying her moment of fame, that she was making Marinette’s stomach drop and her breakfast try to make a second coming every morning.

And then another complication occurred. Chat Noir, quite innocently, had begun visiting Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He’d noticed, he said, that she looked sad and paler than usual when he’d caught sight of her during patrol - Marinette wasn’t sure which patrols he meant, but she knew he patrolled alone sometimes, and perhaps he’d just noticed it at school. So he’d begun dropping by, bringing gifts, trying to cheer her up. It had been flattering at first, had made her hopes rise a little, until the Surete investigation had dropped on them like a bomb.

Marinette had tried to drop hints subtly at first, gently and slowly trying to tell him that it was too foolish and dangerous for him to come to her so often. She didn’t want her kitty to think he wasn’t welcome, or wasn’t loved - dieu was that wrong in so many ways - but he wasn’t taking the hint. Whether he was willfully ignoring them, she wasn’t sure, but it drove home the possibility that their ability to understand one another on the battlefield was magical, and therefore not at all what Marinette had thought it in the first place. It wasn’t a deep interpersonal connection that they shared as two people. Only a side-effect of a magic suit. Slowly, slowly, without even realising it, Adrien began to chip away at all the certainties Marinette had built during her year as Ladybug, making her feel like she had returned to the quiet, shy, lonely girl Chloe bullied constantly before she met Alya and Tikki.

The final blow came when Marinette was putting up new posters one night. Her pictures of Adrien had come down the week after Valentine’s, and her wall had remained pointedly blank since then. One picture of Chat Noir had gone up, the Ladybug side folded so that it faced the wall underneath, and she’d endured his teasing for it with a good face. Today, though, she’d decided she was tired of the blank wall, and was putting up some more pictures - pictures of a better time, she told herself. Her old class, Alya and her in a few selfies. That one time they’d taken an improvised photo session for Juleka last year. Nino and Adrien - though she made sure another photo of Juleka and Rose ‘accidently’ hid the blond’s face.

When Chat Noir coo-cooed through the sky light, and then made himself at her home on her chaise as she finished putting pictures up (the last a large poster related to Fashion Week), she ignored his nagging at first. It had been the same each week, when he dropped by; why was the Ladybug part of that poster hidden? Come on, he and his Lady were a team. He was flattered, but it wasn’t fair that she didn’t unfold the other half of the poster and hung it up properly. How sad Ladybug must be, with her face against the wall like that-

Marinette had snapped, at last. Even when he came all the way to her house to see her, putting them both in danger with the ongoing investigation closing in at an alarming rate, all he could speak about when he was in a girl’s bedroom at night was Ladybug.

‘Ladybug doesn’t exist!’ she hissed. She regretted it a moment later when she saw how Chat’s eyes grew large, and his face fell in dismay at her anger. Marinette reigned it in as best she could. ‘Do you think Ladybug is Ladybug right now? No, she’s probably a random girl, doing her homework somewhere. Or, or getting home. Or starting work - no one knows how old she is!’

Honestly, she was trying not to breathe too hard as several things happened inside her at once. Keeping her anger and hurt in check, keeping her identity secret, being apologetic, trying to keep her anxiety in, and trying also to keep her identity straight. But once she started speaking, she couldn’t stop.

‘I, I mean, no one knows her identity, or who she is - which means the same thing, which means, um, I mean. Or how old she is. Or what’s her name. I mean, you don’t either, right? You, you don’t really know her. She could be anyone.’ She swallowed, knowing by the aghast expression on his face that she had said the wrong thing. ‘I mean,’ she tried, screaming in her head even before the words came out. ‘I could be Ladybug! And you would never know!’

The way Chat Noir burst out laughing did something inside her chest she didn’t quite have a name for. It wasn’t heartbreak, because she was quite familiar with that. It wasn’t pleasant, yet it didn’t make her feel drained and hopeless the way she’d been feeling the last few weeks. Anger was another emotion she was familiar with, but this wasn’t exactly that, either. She did feel energised and ablaze as she did when she was angry, but instead of having a hot head and clouded judgement, she almost felt like this was the opposite. Her head felt clear, free of all the emotions and doubts and encumbering problems that had plagued her.

Several things clicked in her brain at once as she watched Chat, her beloved boy and partner, laugh at the possibility that Marinette was Ladybug. This was the solution; this was the solution to all their problems - all her problems too. She almost felt like she did when she was in battle and things in her surroundings lit up in black and red as she held the Lucky Charm.

‘You’re really sweet, and brave and smart,’ Chat said with the last few chuckles, ‘But Ladybug is something else, Princess.’

Marinette smiled, the first honest smile in weeks. She felt lighter, all of a sudden. As the forming idea in her head took more and more body, she felt better than she had felt in nearly two months.

‘Yeah,’ she replied, a giggle of her own escaping her as the buoyant feelings inside her hiccuped, and only rose further up. ‘Ladybug is someone else.’*

Chat Noir didn’t catch her rephrase as he chuckled on with her. Tikki, hidden within the sheets of Marinette’s bed, watched in horror as her charge’s words registered.

=0=

Continues an earlier concept which ended in angst, but I cannot link because I’m not on my laptop and tumblr coders expect me to code for them I googled html coding I haven’t used since my livejournal days. Welp, that website is still better coded than this one. I will edit later with a link at the top. Please have more angst. Another part shall soon follow.

* In French, this phrase would be ‘elle est special’ - Marinette would have changed it to ‘elle est genial’, which CAN mean the same thing, but also tells Tikki that Marinette just had an idea, and seeing her mood, she can guess it’s nothing good. As it is, I’m not happy with the English translation, as it’s too much of a hint. Alas, it is as it is. Alons a la prochien part.

I am also really frustrated with the tumblr app for not taking italics keyboard commands. Dudes. Tablet keyboards are a thing. Dudes.

Angst Concept story line: 1, 2, 3, 4

[scottmapess]

Bitcoin Halving Is Today, Next Price Movement, ETH Vs BTC & TRON Stimulus

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

And lo, everybody. Welcome back for another video. Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re all having an incredible day to start things off. Today is the day after months, years of anticipation. The Bitcoin having is here today, just past 20 hours, 30, depending on where you are in the world, I think is roughly at the time of me making this video about a good 10 hours left. The rewards that Bitcoin miners receive in exchange for the work they do to add transactions to the block chain will be cut in half. What does this mean for the Bitcoin network? Predictions about the consequences of the having range far and wide. But there are several popular narratives among cryptocurrency crypto currently cryptocurrency analysts. At present, the price of Bitcoin has taken a bit of a hit, if you will. Bitcoin peaked at ninety seven hundred on Sunday, the 10th of May. At press time, the 11th of May, that figure has shrunk to eighty six hundred. We recovered from it says eighty four hundred. I spoke about this yesterday as well. Depending on where you look and where you were getting your cryptocurrency prices or cryptocurrency articles. We dropped to as low as 80 100 on certain cryptocurrency platforms, but we are or have recovered from 80 one hundred within the last 24 hours. Although is important to note that Bitcoin is up roughly 40 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming both gold and U.S. dollars. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles about this as well, that a lot of people have been trying to see what has been what assets have been doing well during all of this madness that has taken place over the last three months. And once again, even with a move down, if you will. Bitcoin is at the moment, I believe, the still the best performing asset of anything in the world right now because of, you know, there’s a load chart right there. And one of the most popular believes in cryptocurrency circles about having events is that they are great for the price of Bitcoin, that sooner or later having will cause the Bitcoin price to explode. The belief stems from the fact that cutting the mining reward in half contributes to greater scarcity of Bitcoin as a number of users on the network continues to grow at this present. Pree having moment. Eighteen hundred Bitcoin are produced every day through Meiners Post. Having that is going to be nine hundred per day. And then it goes on to talk about some other people who, what they think and how long it will take place. It is one person I believe he said it takes. He said he believes it’ll take anywhere from 12 to eight no. 18 to 24 months for Bitcoin to try to reach over twenty thousand again. I think that is a I don’t even think the word is conservative answer at that point. I think it will happen much, much sooner than that. I think we are at the point aiming for prices that are a lot higher than twenty thousand. So I think twenty thousand will not be as difficult as people think. But I think the more difficult part will be the actual mega psychological barrier of a trillion dollar market cap. I think that’s going to force greater volatility within the crypto currency space. Yeah. Adam, I mean, this is it. We have been talking about this for heaven knows how long. But here we are. I am. I mean, to say excited is once again an understatement. It seemed like this day would almost never arrive. And we we’ve all had those moments before where you kind of just assume you’re waiting for something. Will it ever get there? No, it’s gonna take a bit longer. But alas, here we are. A lot of the discussions are, for those of you not looking at the screen, said Bitcoin price rests near eight thousand seven hundred dollars at the dump. What’s next? I can give you the yays and the nays if you want. The majority think that the actual fall down in price that we had yesterday, over the weekend was the was the actual having dumped that people were anticipating I e it took place before the actual having happened and therefore after the having prices will move up. You also have the naysayers who say that Bitcoin has to retest three thousand two hundred, that Bitcoin has to be so and so, which is complete nonsense in my opinion. The other articles we’re talking about, the actual current price of Bitcoin, have made sure to note that we not only bounced off of the eight thousand dollars where we fell from, but also the. That we’re constantly floating around or maintained the eighty six hundred eighty seven hundred dollar support, which is a support line. And therefore the fact that we are over it, floating above it, against it, whatever words you kind of want to use. Shows that we are still in bullish territory. If you kind of want to say that this person right here believes that we would meet, we may retest nine thousand five hundred dollars once again, I in all honesty, I think this is going to be a very crazy week, not only for crypto, but just in general, like for the entire world. I just feel something is is is going to be a miss something something weird is going to happen. And I I think that’s also going to contribute to the wild swings in Bitcoin’s price. As always. Or rather, don’t be surprised if the price goes down and then don’t subsequently be surprised if a day or two later we hear that it was from Wales. I think there’s going to be a huge amount of hype as far as people trying to buy. It is going to be hitting the actual, dare I say, main stream news, because this is also a very big topic. If they’ve been talking about the price of Bitcoin before any of this was happening, imagine what’s going to actually happen now, especially if we end up getting a really good move up or move down in price. It’s going to hit the the airwaves. No one uses that term anymore. But, yeah, we are here. We’re going to see exactly what happens. This is the big day. I actually can’t believe that it’s here. Yeah, I would ask what all of you think is going to happen after having the comment section would just be a mess. It could just be tons of people fighting. I think the last like two weeks I’ve seen such an increase in people calling each other names or and I’m sure you’ve seen them as well. It’s very difficult to get the amount of scams. Spam within the comment section has been absolutely wild. There’s there’s one in particular. It’s actually really funny. It keeps. It kind of goes like this. Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy that you mentioned blank coin because it is my favorite coin. I’m glad you also mentioned it because, like, it it it’s some type of a robot. Maybe that does it on almost every one of my videos as I go through the comments. It’s very, very weird. And they pretty much right. Hey, I’m so glad you talked about this coin, which I never did. It’s usually like Hex. Did you bite in like two or three other coins? You if you watch the channel before or even just one other video, you know which coins are important to me and. Yeah. So there’s a lot of spam, a lot of fighting. But I mean it’s to be expected with all the. All right. Yeah. That’s the that is the bitcoin having. Where will the price go. Next question mark. Question mark. And yeah. Let’s move on. Next up, new data comparing Bitcoin’s fundamentals now and around the second having in 2016 demonstrates the immense growth of the network. Double, triple and even quadruple digit increases are evident in all areas, including the number of Bitcoin addresses. The hash rate and the daily transaction volume. While most members of the community are focused on the volatile price movements around the having new information compiled by Glass. Node takes a thorough look at how Bitcoin’s fundamentals have developed since July 2016. Seems like an actual lifetime ago. My gosh, I’m in 2016, which is a very weird cryptocurrency. The prices weren’t moving. I was angry at everything. I remember looking at the prices. You’d wake up and the price would be up by two percent and you like, yeah, you get back from the supermarket is down by 14 percent. I’m just a very it’s a rough time for me. For starters, the number of Bitcoin addresses has jumped by two hundred and thirty four percent. Those addresses are at an all time high at the moment. Over 30 million. Interestingly, the number is even higher than during the parabolic price increase in 2017. And this isn’t the only thing that’s up since 2016, 2017. This is why I mentioned a lot of times and in many videos, while prices are important in the short term, the more important thing to look at is the actual fundamentals of the Bitcoin space. The address is the usage of the transactions, the amount of wallets, the amount of people who are gathering or accumulating crypto currencies as this is what it’s actually based on. If we had seen that in 2017, we saw this line going up twenty eighteen. It was a rough year for all of us. But if 2019 had been around here, that’s when you start getting worried to the fact that we are on a continual upswing with 2017 being the real anomaly, because it probably would have been resting around somewhere around here. This is great. It’s nice to see that even after prices have crashed because of Wales in 2018, that we are still on upswings. This is also why I mentioned before. Why would all the mega institutions be looking to get into an asset class that was going to fail? It’s because they know that it’s not going to fail and therefore this is why they’re putting their money into it. This is just how I view it from my vantage point anyway. This is a list for the number of Bitcoin addresses as crypto potato. Wow. Recently reported the interest in opening new addresses containing at least zero point zero one BTC or a million. Tosches has been surging lately with over four hundred and thirty thousand created in the last 90 days. Loan additionally addresses with at least one Bitcoin or 10 million Satoshi. These are at almost the or also higher than in 2016 by 64 percent and one hundred and forty two percent respectively. Entities holding 1000 bitcoin or more is the only measure which has decreased slightly by seven percent compared to 2016 because Bitcoin’s price is significantly higher and therefore it’s more expensive to buy 1000 Bitcoin. That makes the most sense. I was just watching. Something is really funny. I was making breakfast. I don’t if you care for that. The point is, I was watching something while I was making breakfast and I was watching like a video of this guy in Switzerland who was I think he owns Bitcoin Swiss whoknows. And they would he he he was discussing or he was being someone was interviewing him and they were asking him the question, when did you first get into Bitcoin? What was the prize? And he was like, price. He’s like, I got into Bitcoin before there was a price. And the person was like, what? He said, Yeah, I got 50 Bitcoin like I think like a couple of months after it came out because I think he paid for his friend’s coffee or something like that. And he mentioned he had bought his first 1000 Bitcoin for I think like seven hundred dollars. And I was like. So he he he holds an enormous amount of of of bitcoin. Yeah. I thought of that when I saw that thousand dollar Bitcoin, because if you, if you, if you bought a thousand Bitcoin or seven hundred dollars and you saw the price of Bitcoin hit a dollar, you probably go, OK, well the price increase, let me buy a little bit more. It’s four dollars. Let me buy a bit more. Eight dollars by a bit more. So, yeah, I just thought that was interesting to note. Here’s a little chart for the addresses. The Bailey transaction count and volume have seen substantial growth as well. More specifically, the transaction count is now 44 percent higher than in 2016. While the volume has skyrocketed by six hundred and eighty two percent. That’s insane. Two to two point one billion dollars per day. In fact, the last note and firms in four informs that the on chain volume of U.S. dollars has been consistently high since 2000, 17 of them. I mean, this is a major difference. Twenty sixteen compared to every other year. It was it was these years were rough. I mean, it wasn’t difficult keeping hope alive. There were just more like, you just want something to happen. And then it’s kind of like, okay, you can you can go up now. Although the data above illustrate significant increases in almost all areas, none has been more impressive than the growth of the hash rate back in 2016. Bitcoin hash rate was one point five million Tarah hashes. It is now at one hundred and nine million Tarah hashes to put this into another perspective. It’s a surge of six thousand eight hundred and thirty seven percent in just four years. Bitcoin is fundamentals are incredibly solid. They’re great. We are passing the high 2017 numbers, which once again, I mentioned a couple of other videos. I said. Don’t you think it’s weird that even that not only that prices are down, that we can have any one who would be negative and or bearish on anything within the Bitcoin space? We are doing exceedingly well. Fundamental, wise and fundamentals is what ends up translating into higher prices, especially when people continue to use the network and more people jump onto the network and more people are trying to accumulate the one million, 10 million Satoshi range or if not an entire Bitcoin as Bitcoin’s supply is limited. So regardless of the there’s a huge discussion happening right now amongst the cryptocurrency space. And I think we went over this yesterday as well as far as people or miners in particular who are going to be selling off higher and or lower, depending on how you want to look at it, portions of their Bitcoin holdings in order to pay their rent, to pay their electricity bills and stuff like that. You have to keep in mind that they may be selling Bitcoin into the market, but they are going to for every seller, there is a buyer. And at some point you have a situation where you realize once again that Bitcoin itself is still finite. Just because they are selling off Bitcoin does not mean that the Bitcoin machine is spitting out more bitcoin. It remains the same. It remains consistent because math anyway. Yeah, I saw this. I thought it was great. I think we need more news like this simply because I think people kind of lose sight of exactly how strong and powerful the Bitcoin network is. Once again, the news that we had, you can Google it. Bitcoin is the eighth largest currency on the planet. That’s not a joke. Just imagine when we passed by that and this was this news came out when Bitcoin, I think was below or around ten thousand dollars. So imagine when we hit twenty five thousand magin, when we hit fifty thousand dollars. What number ranking Bitcoin will be? Anyway, that’s that news. And let’s move on. Next up, open interest for c m e Bitcoin futures made a new all time high of just under half a billion dollars on Friday, the third consecutive day of open interest records. This week, significant growth and C.M.A Futures demonstrates the intensifying Konta contest contest between oh my gosh essay contest contest between the stalwart institutional trading platform and crypto native derivatives exchanges. Like Big Macs over the past month, semi’s Bitcoin futures market has grown faster in nearly every other Bitcoin futures market on a percentage and real growth basis. There are the charts right there with C.M.A being in yellow. Soaring semi open interest coincides with news that prominent American hedge funds are interested in investing in Bitcoin futures as of April. Renaissance Technologies, a flagship medallion fund, is considering trading Bitcoin Futures only CMG. On Thursday, Paul Tudor Jones, the second of the Tudor Investment Group, also told investors he is keen to invest in Bitcoin futures. This is the entrance. We would definitely get over the whole Paul Tudor thing a couple of days ago. This is in a the beginning of the interest entrance entrance, not interest because they’re already interested. The entrance of them into the cryptocurrency space. I think when it comes to the traditional or more traditional investors, it is easier for you to sell them the idea that you are going to get into Bitcoin futures, which may either be settled and so and so other cash or in Bitcoin, but you have to have something that is comfortable to them when they start saying that they’re making money or when they start seeing that other people are making money in Bitcoin as well. The actual physical Bitcoin air quotes because as digital numbers on the screen. This is how you get more people into the cryptocurrency space. But the fact that we’ve seen a large spike in interest. For Bitcoin futures is I mean, from a decentralized standpoint, you got to go from an actual growth of the space standpoint. Once again, keeping in mind, a couple of years ago, institutions would not even mutter the word Bitcoin and now they’re all over it. They’re buying up as much as they possibly can. Or they’re trying to have some type of an exposure to the asset, even if it has to go through CMBS. Bitcoin futures. Fascinating indeed. We’ll see where all of this goes, I guess. And I want to give you a time frame, but at some point we’re going to see this this interest accelerate in different directions. And I think it’ll start more if we end up seeing more Bitcoin side chains and or more Bitcoin decentralized finance products. I think institutionalise institutions will grasp that almost immediately, trying to figure out ways to profit from it as well. Yeah. Let’s move on. In news, that was kind of everywhere, news ish, maybe kind of a theory, I’m cocreator, Vitaly Budarin is fending off naysayers who believe the smart contract platform is simply extending the life of the legacy financial system instead of offering a truly decentralized alternative. I’ll give you a backdrop to see you understand a bit more of what I’m going to go through. The idea has been since the very beginning when he theory launched was in late 2015, early 2016. The idea was it was garbage. It’s trash. We don’t need it. How dare you? We already have Bitcoin. That was kind of the idea as time has gone on and ethereal has risen in price and has become more popular and more people are using it to more institutions are trying to use it in the entire decentralized financial space has grown. That narrative has kind of disappeared, however, for people who are Bitcoin purists. The idea is that if cerium is working with far too many institutions. Case in point, the Enterprise Theory Alliance, while a lot of these institutions may be making their own side change on a theorem or even using the actually theorem network themselves. The idea is that Bitcoin is meant to dismantle the current financial system, i.e. you don’t have to rely on anything. The old system has Bitcoin does all of it by itself. You can send money back and forth to who you want, when you want, how you want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just through the Bitcoin system. However, for a theory and it comes down to other companies and corporations are building things on top of your theory, um, that are simply things that we already have and the traditional financial markets. Whatever JP Morgan Chase is going to be building on it, whatever Microsoft is planning on building on top of it, you kind of get the idea. And this leads to the eye symbol idea that. E theory theorem is kind of facilitating B sticking around of these traditional financial institutions by building more. That’s the argument. That’s the actual argument for those. Like I said, I had to give you some context before I kind of went further into it. In a debate on Twitter. Buther Encounter’s, a statement from the founder of Crypto Ne. Yes. Who says the theorem based decentralized finance movement, which is designed to offer a way to access services like loans without intermediaries, is actually creating an ecosystem that’s chock full of middlemen. Once again, the idea for Bitcoin is I send money to you, you send money to me. There’s no middleman. It’s just me and you back and forth. However, with a theorem, you have all these other platforms that are based on top of you theory and therefore the money has to kind of flow through them and or other middlemen are creating their platforms. Orny Theorem. So if I’m sending money to you, it has to flow through their system and they have the AYSO, that KYC, AML KYC and then it pops over to you. But there’s still a middleman when there doesn’t have to be one. So this is true and maybe metalic is still a Bitcoin. But in present, every theorem is clearly not sharing goals with Bitcoin. Ethereum is prolonging the legacy financial system full of intermediaries, and Bitcoin is creating a new one without the middleman, Italic said, I really and truly think it’s the opposite. Bitcoin people seem happy to have lots of centralized middlemen Bemax, Teather, liquid, and it’s the etherial community that’s trying to decentralize these functions with smart contract constructions, which is it’s it’s kind of a 50 50. A lot of the things that are becoming popular on Bitcoin that institutions want to use once again because they kind of have to go through these things are things like Teather or things like liquid, which speed up a cryptocurrency trend or Bitcoin transactions amongst institutions and or cryptocurrency exchanges. But at the same time, these things are going to be created regardless of if we want them or not. We’re we’re going to need side chains. If Bitcoin is going to remain as a core unchained and at the same exact time, same exact thing with the theorem, if he theorem, it becomes more popular, more institutions are going to build on top of it, whether Retallack says yes or no. And a lot of what they’re trying to do or what they have claimed that they’re trying to do with the theorem are the creation of smart contract platforms or whatever that they’re trying to create. We’re simply that acts as the actual middleman. So is the actual computer system doing it and not an actual person? But is Amida Budiman also less a few ethereal based systems that he says have remained faithful to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, including decentralized exchanges like yttrium name service and automated exchange protocol unit swap? Like I said, this was kind of everywhere. I think this discussion is going to go on forever. You can make arguments on both sides. I think or like to think that a lot of the people on the theory and project are aiming for a more decentralized world. But you will always have that apple in the bunch who just doesn’t really care who is just there exclusively for profits, as opposed to the thought of making a better world for all of us, as it were anyway. Yeah, like I said, I mean, this is. Sure, why not kind of discussion? But, yeah, that’s that news or today. In the news, I couldn’t avoid. I tried my darndest and I mean, I was bombarded with this nonstop. A stimulus aid package worth around two million dollars was allegedly awarded by the U.S. to the Tauron Foundation. Matthew Graham, CEO of block chain investment firm Orsino Global Capital and Beijing, translated and shared the post. The Tron platform owned by Justin Sun has been handed by the U.S. government a two million dollar grant due to 19. It was posted on the platform. We chat. Two days ago, a report cited the grant as once on once again, another Tron foundation and controversy Katrina controversy. But it was yes and verified claim of packages from the US. So the point is they’re meant to be federal relief for companies in need. Here’s the actual thing right here. The Post, apparently the translation was it was given by the U.S. in the form of two million dollars and is not supposed to be paid back. The issue is, as it were. Right. It’s it’s a lot to unpack. But right here, for those of you not looking at the screen or who simply don’t remember, it says BitTorrent is selling for one hundred million dollars to Justin Sun and his block chain startup known as Tron. People from Tron have purchased an enormous amount. They purchased BitTorrent. They purchased steam and many other things that they’ve spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions on. So the question then becomes, did they need the two million? It seems more like if they in my opinion as well, if they had better men, money management. I mean, one hundred and forty million dollars is is an enormous amount of money to receive two million. Do you need it? No. Especially when you have tons of businesses around the US who are actually closing tons of people who can’t pay their rent to can’t pay their mortgages. So this is kind of the discussion going on. And a lot of people are not too. They’re not too thrilled about all of this happening. Like I said, I could not avoid this. I really, really tried because I kept on seeing the news about this. But eventually it was like. It’s hitting me in the face over and over. If this is so apparently this is still a legend. No one knows for certain. I think people have been trying to. Get a proper answer. But I think one has not been given. This tells me supposedly, allegedly from the information that I have acquired, absorbed from the Internet. They probably did receive the money. And as such, are just trying to be hush hush about it. If they did receive the money, that’s a bit of a shame. I’ve been watching a lot of stuff about the the things that families and businesses are going through, especially once even all of. And I dare not say all of this is over of the next couple of months as more places try to reopen. A lot of places simply won’t ever be able to reopen. So anyway, yeah, like I said, that was that news. If it turns out to be true, because I, I it’s it’s all over the place. It’s not like on one or two different Web sites. It’s it’s very major news right now because I’m pretty sure people would not be are not thrilled if this is actually true. Anyway. Yeah, let’s move on. This is awkward. And yeah, as of right now, depending on where you look, the prices at the prices, the the the timing is different on every single website. Some of them have it listed as 10 hours. Some of them, this one says nine hours, 44 minutes and twelve seconds, which is obscene to think they were that close. Other ones have things like eleven hours. It is very weird, varying times. I assume as we get to the last hour, things were kind of slimmed down and become more accurate. But yeah, nine hours according to this. Nine hours and 43 minutes, Bitcoin’s reward is going to get cut in half. This is absolutely obscene. Even have like a little chart down here for the other having is in the block height when it’s supposed to happen and the actual rewards when we. I remember I remember people talking about Bitcoin’s block reward being twenty five. The fact that we are going to be at six point to five and then the couple of years at one point five, six. These numbers don’t make sense to my mind anymore. Imagine going from 50 Bitcoin PLUR per block reward to one. It’s it’s it’s it’s a lot, but, yeah, that is. More or less, they say, more or less. It’s more and more the news that we have for today. As always, a very special thank you to my Patriots supporters. Hold on, I have to sneeze Crayola. Michelle, you are well on crypto with Lionel Tiger, a macho nesa. Make me a cake. Army Medic 17 Anytime Fitness Moncks Corner Staff Bodey MC Boldface. Yes, the Krypto Miller Hitch Test Everyday in Cowslips Leg Day Minting Coins. Jeremy Fox. Jim Gardner. Anthony Charles Nickman Delivery Praksis. Vlad the Impaler. Richie Richard Third. Nick Kanaya set soon Adamia Nicholas one with one piece one love crypto artist cold 3D Adobo Bankroll Network Crypto Joe two for two to the worldwide night. Al Jarreau Schneider Master Ventures in Thailand. Mohammed Ronie Adam Grasset Todd Mollis. A Biblio phobia the antima reader John Starts and Nostromo Jungle Loadout Song Alone Omar and Steuer Joshua Vinyard The Pothead Moon Man Hi SRP Yashar Hot Audy and Professor Walli from Gun Bot University. Thank you all very, very much. Your support. Thank you to everyone who is a member of the channel. Thank you to everyone who has a clicker of affiliate links. I do. Thank you all. Sincerely, at the moment, Bitcoin’s price is currently eight thousand five hundred and ninety one dollars, at least on this Web site. It is currently down by 2.8 percent. We are very volatile at the moment. I assume it’s a mixture of people who are trying to. Well, I mean, logically, people who are trying to buy and who are trying to sell. Good job there. But I think it’s it’s only going to intensify as the next couple of hours go on. You have people who are either trying to raise the price of Bitcoin and I assume there are massive amount of buy orders. But on the same exact side, on the other side, rather, you have people who are adamantly trying to push the price of Bitcoin down. Why would Bitcoin logically be going down in price during this movement or monumental day that we’ve all been waiting for for a long time and with the fundamentals being very strong? It has to do with. At the find like a really cool name for them, like dirty whales or like. While she whales are the whales who who keep trying to push the price down, it’s just them. Eventually this. I was reading an article about it before as well, and I said eventually this will be almost impossible to do because the buying pressure across the board will eventually be so high as the coming years continue to move on because of the amount of people who want to accumulate Bitcoin that any type of massive sell off by a whale will be at their own demise because they’ll have sold off and there’ll be a huge amount of buying pressure or people who will be more than willing to buy up everything that they’re trying to sell. So at the moment, the market is down, all of the market is down. I mean, Monaro is up. Cool. Yeah. Just how things are. I. I was going to ask if you’re all as excited as I am, but I might be the biggest nerd in the building here waiting for the reward having to happen. I do hope you all enjoyed. Hope you all are having a great day. Great morning. A great afternoon. A great evening. Wherever you are, wherever you might be. I do hope that it’s absolutely fantastic. Thank you all, once again, we’re watching and or listening. And I will most certainly be talking to you all soon. See you.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price-movement/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/05/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price.html

[jeffrmayhugh]

Bitcoin Halving Is Today, Next Price Movement, ETH Vs BTC & TRON Stimulus

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

And lo, everybody. Welcome back for another video. Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re all having an incredible day to start things off. Today is the day after months, years of anticipation. The Bitcoin having is here today, just past 20 hours, 30, depending on where you are in the world, I think is roughly at the time of me making this video about a good 10 hours left. The rewards that Bitcoin miners receive in exchange for the work they do to add transactions to the block chain will be cut in half. What does this mean for the Bitcoin network? Predictions about the consequences of the having range far and wide. But there are several popular narratives among cryptocurrency crypto currently cryptocurrency analysts. At present, the price of Bitcoin has taken a bit of a hit, if you will. Bitcoin peaked at ninety seven hundred on Sunday, the 10th of May. At press time, the 11th of May, that figure has shrunk to eighty six hundred. We recovered from it says eighty four hundred. I spoke about this yesterday as well. Depending on where you look and where you were getting your cryptocurrency prices or cryptocurrency articles. We dropped to as low as 80 100 on certain cryptocurrency platforms, but we are or have recovered from 80 one hundred within the last 24 hours. Although is important to note that Bitcoin is up roughly 40 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming both gold and U.S. dollars. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles about this as well, that a lot of people have been trying to see what has been what assets have been doing well during all of this madness that has taken place over the last three months. And once again, even with a move down, if you will. Bitcoin is at the moment, I believe, the still the best performing asset of anything in the world right now because of, you know, there’s a load chart right there. And one of the most popular believes in cryptocurrency circles about having events is that they are great for the price of Bitcoin, that sooner or later having will cause the Bitcoin price to explode. The belief stems from the fact that cutting the mining reward in half contributes to greater scarcity of Bitcoin as a number of users on the network continues to grow at this present. Pree having moment. Eighteen hundred Bitcoin are produced every day through Meiners Post. Having that is going to be nine hundred per day. And then it goes on to talk about some other people who, what they think and how long it will take place. It is one person I believe he said it takes. He said he believes it’ll take anywhere from 12 to eight no. 18 to 24 months for Bitcoin to try to reach over twenty thousand again. I think that is a I don’t even think the word is conservative answer at that point. I think it will happen much, much sooner than that. I think we are at the point aiming for prices that are a lot higher than twenty thousand. So I think twenty thousand will not be as difficult as people think. But I think the more difficult part will be the actual mega psychological barrier of a trillion dollar market cap. I think that’s going to force greater volatility within the crypto currency space. Yeah. Adam, I mean, this is it. We have been talking about this for heaven knows how long. But here we are. I am. I mean, to say excited is once again an understatement. It seemed like this day would almost never arrive. And we we’ve all had those moments before where you kind of just assume you’re waiting for something. Will it ever get there? No, it’s gonna take a bit longer. But alas, here we are. A lot of the discussions are, for those of you not looking at the screen, said Bitcoin price rests near eight thousand seven hundred dollars at the dump. What’s next? I can give you the yays and the nays if you want. The majority think that the actual fall down in price that we had yesterday, over the weekend was the was the actual having dumped that people were anticipating I e it took place before the actual having happened and therefore after the having prices will move up. You also have the naysayers who say that Bitcoin has to retest three thousand two hundred, that Bitcoin has to be so and so, which is complete nonsense in my opinion. The other articles we’re talking about, the actual current price of Bitcoin, have made sure to note that we not only bounced off of the eight thousand dollars where we fell from, but also the. That we’re constantly floating around or maintained the eighty six hundred eighty seven hundred dollar support, which is a support line. And therefore the fact that we are over it, floating above it, against it, whatever words you kind of want to use. Shows that we are still in bullish territory. If you kind of want to say that this person right here believes that we would meet, we may retest nine thousand five hundred dollars once again, I in all honesty, I think this is going to be a very crazy week, not only for crypto, but just in general, like for the entire world. I just feel something is is is going to be a miss something something weird is going to happen. And I I think that’s also going to contribute to the wild swings in Bitcoin’s price. As always. Or rather, don’t be surprised if the price goes down and then don’t subsequently be surprised if a day or two later we hear that it was from Wales. I think there’s going to be a huge amount of hype as far as people trying to buy. It is going to be hitting the actual, dare I say, main stream news, because this is also a very big topic. If they’ve been talking about the price of Bitcoin before any of this was happening, imagine what’s going to actually happen now, especially if we end up getting a really good move up or move down in price. It’s going to hit the the airwaves. No one uses that term anymore. But, yeah, we are here. We’re going to see exactly what happens. This is the big day. I actually can’t believe that it’s here. Yeah, I would ask what all of you think is going to happen after having the comment section would just be a mess. It could just be tons of people fighting. I think the last like two weeks I’ve seen such an increase in people calling each other names or and I’m sure you’ve seen them as well. It’s very difficult to get the amount of scams. Spam within the comment section has been absolutely wild. There’s there’s one in particular. It’s actually really funny. It keeps. It kind of goes like this. Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy that you mentioned blank coin because it is my favorite coin. I’m glad you also mentioned it because, like, it it it’s some type of a robot. Maybe that does it on almost every one of my videos as I go through the comments. It’s very, very weird. And they pretty much right. Hey, I’m so glad you talked about this coin, which I never did. It’s usually like Hex. Did you bite in like two or three other coins? You if you watch the channel before or even just one other video, you know which coins are important to me and. Yeah. So there’s a lot of spam, a lot of fighting. But I mean it’s to be expected with all the. All right. Yeah. That’s the that is the bitcoin having. Where will the price go. Next question mark. Question mark. And yeah. Let’s move on. Next up, new data comparing Bitcoin’s fundamentals now and around the second having in 2016 demonstrates the immense growth of the network. Double, triple and even quadruple digit increases are evident in all areas, including the number of Bitcoin addresses. The hash rate and the daily transaction volume. While most members of the community are focused on the volatile price movements around the having new information compiled by Glass. Node takes a thorough look at how Bitcoin’s fundamentals have developed since July 2016. Seems like an actual lifetime ago. My gosh, I’m in 2016, which is a very weird cryptocurrency. The prices weren’t moving. I was angry at everything. I remember looking at the prices. You’d wake up and the price would be up by two percent and you like, yeah, you get back from the supermarket is down by 14 percent. I’m just a very it’s a rough time for me. For starters, the number of Bitcoin addresses has jumped by two hundred and thirty four percent. Those addresses are at an all time high at the moment. Over 30 million. Interestingly, the number is even higher than during the parabolic price increase in 2017. And this isn’t the only thing that’s up since 2016, 2017. This is why I mentioned a lot of times and in many videos, while prices are important in the short term, the more important thing to look at is the actual fundamentals of the Bitcoin space. The address is the usage of the transactions, the amount of wallets, the amount of people who are gathering or accumulating crypto currencies as this is what it’s actually based on. If we had seen that in 2017, we saw this line going up twenty eighteen. It was a rough year for all of us. But if 2019 had been around here, that’s when you start getting worried to the fact that we are on a continual upswing with 2017 being the real anomaly, because it probably would have been resting around somewhere around here. This is great. It’s nice to see that even after prices have crashed because of Wales in 2018, that we are still on upswings. This is also why I mentioned before. Why would all the mega institutions be looking to get into an asset class that was going to fail? It’s because they know that it’s not going to fail and therefore this is why they’re putting their money into it. This is just how I view it from my vantage point anyway. This is a list for the number of Bitcoin addresses as crypto potato. Wow. Recently reported the interest in opening new addresses containing at least zero point zero one BTC or a million. Tosches has been surging lately with over four hundred and thirty thousand created in the last 90 days. Loan additionally addresses with at least one Bitcoin or 10 million Satoshi. These are at almost the or also higher than in 2016 by 64 percent and one hundred and forty two percent respectively. Entities holding 1000 bitcoin or more is the only measure which has decreased slightly by seven percent compared to 2016 because Bitcoin’s price is significantly higher and therefore it’s more expensive to buy 1000 Bitcoin. That makes the most sense. I was just watching. Something is really funny. I was making breakfast. I don’t if you care for that. The point is, I was watching something while I was making breakfast and I was watching like a video of this guy in Switzerland who was I think he owns Bitcoin Swiss whoknows. And they would he he he was discussing or he was being someone was interviewing him and they were asking him the question, when did you first get into Bitcoin? What was the prize? And he was like, price. He’s like, I got into Bitcoin before there was a price. And the person was like, what? He said, Yeah, I got 50 Bitcoin like I think like a couple of months after it came out because I think he paid for his friend’s coffee or something like that. And he mentioned he had bought his first 1000 Bitcoin for I think like seven hundred dollars. And I was like. So he he he holds an enormous amount of of of bitcoin. Yeah. I thought of that when I saw that thousand dollar Bitcoin, because if you, if you, if you bought a thousand Bitcoin or seven hundred dollars and you saw the price of Bitcoin hit a dollar, you probably go, OK, well the price increase, let me buy a little bit more. It’s four dollars. Let me buy a bit more. Eight dollars by a bit more. So, yeah, I just thought that was interesting to note. Here’s a little chart for the addresses. The Bailey transaction count and volume have seen substantial growth as well. More specifically, the transaction count is now 44 percent higher than in 2016. While the volume has skyrocketed by six hundred and eighty two percent. That’s insane. Two to two point one billion dollars per day. In fact, the last note and firms in four informs that the on chain volume of U.S. dollars has been consistently high since 2000, 17 of them. I mean, this is a major difference. Twenty sixteen compared to every other year. It was it was these years were rough. I mean, it wasn’t difficult keeping hope alive. There were just more like, you just want something to happen. And then it’s kind of like, okay, you can you can go up now. Although the data above illustrate significant increases in almost all areas, none has been more impressive than the growth of the hash rate back in 2016. Bitcoin hash rate was one point five million Tarah hashes. It is now at one hundred and nine million Tarah hashes to put this into another perspective. It’s a surge of six thousand eight hundred and thirty seven percent in just four years. Bitcoin is fundamentals are incredibly solid. They’re great. We are passing the high 2017 numbers, which once again, I mentioned a couple of other videos. I said. Don’t you think it’s weird that even that not only that prices are down, that we can have any one who would be negative and or bearish on anything within the Bitcoin space? We are doing exceedingly well. Fundamental, wise and fundamentals is what ends up translating into higher prices, especially when people continue to use the network and more people jump onto the network and more people are trying to accumulate the one million, 10 million Satoshi range or if not an entire Bitcoin as Bitcoin’s supply is limited. So regardless of the there’s a huge discussion happening right now amongst the cryptocurrency space. And I think we went over this yesterday as well as far as people or miners in particular who are going to be selling off higher and or lower, depending on how you want to look at it, portions of their Bitcoin holdings in order to pay their rent, to pay their electricity bills and stuff like that. You have to keep in mind that they may be selling Bitcoin into the market, but they are going to for every seller, there is a buyer. And at some point you have a situation where you realize once again that Bitcoin itself is still finite. Just because they are selling off Bitcoin does not mean that the Bitcoin machine is spitting out more bitcoin. It remains the same. It remains consistent because math anyway. Yeah, I saw this. I thought it was great. I think we need more news like this simply because I think people kind of lose sight of exactly how strong and powerful the Bitcoin network is. Once again, the news that we had, you can Google it. Bitcoin is the eighth largest currency on the planet. That’s not a joke. Just imagine when we passed by that and this was this news came out when Bitcoin, I think was below or around ten thousand dollars. So imagine when we hit twenty five thousand magin, when we hit fifty thousand dollars. What number ranking Bitcoin will be? Anyway, that’s that news. And let’s move on. Next up, open interest for c m e Bitcoin futures made a new all time high of just under half a billion dollars on Friday, the third consecutive day of open interest records. This week, significant growth and C.M.A Futures demonstrates the intensifying Konta contest contest between oh my gosh essay contest contest between the stalwart institutional trading platform and crypto native derivatives exchanges. Like Big Macs over the past month, semi’s Bitcoin futures market has grown faster in nearly every other Bitcoin futures market on a percentage and real growth basis. There are the charts right there with C.M.A being in yellow. Soaring semi open interest coincides with news that prominent American hedge funds are interested in investing in Bitcoin futures as of April. Renaissance Technologies, a flagship medallion fund, is considering trading Bitcoin Futures only CMG. On Thursday, Paul Tudor Jones, the second of the Tudor Investment Group, also told investors he is keen to invest in Bitcoin futures. This is the entrance. We would definitely get over the whole Paul Tudor thing a couple of days ago. This is in a the beginning of the interest entrance entrance, not interest because they’re already interested. The entrance of them into the cryptocurrency space. I think when it comes to the traditional or more traditional investors, it is easier for you to sell them the idea that you are going to get into Bitcoin futures, which may either be settled and so and so other cash or in Bitcoin, but you have to have something that is comfortable to them when they start saying that they’re making money or when they start seeing that other people are making money in Bitcoin as well. The actual physical Bitcoin air quotes because as digital numbers on the screen. This is how you get more people into the cryptocurrency space. But the fact that we’ve seen a large spike in interest. For Bitcoin futures is I mean, from a decentralized standpoint, you got to go from an actual growth of the space standpoint. Once again, keeping in mind, a couple of years ago, institutions would not even mutter the word Bitcoin and now they’re all over it. They’re buying up as much as they possibly can. Or they’re trying to have some type of an exposure to the asset, even if it has to go through CMBS. Bitcoin futures. Fascinating indeed. We’ll see where all of this goes, I guess. And I want to give you a time frame, but at some point we’re going to see this this interest accelerate in different directions. And I think it’ll start more if we end up seeing more Bitcoin side chains and or more Bitcoin decentralized finance products. I think institutionalise institutions will grasp that almost immediately, trying to figure out ways to profit from it as well. Yeah. Let’s move on. In news, that was kind of everywhere, news ish, maybe kind of a theory, I’m cocreator, Vitaly Budarin is fending off naysayers who believe the smart contract platform is simply extending the life of the legacy financial system instead of offering a truly decentralized alternative. I’ll give you a backdrop to see you understand a bit more of what I’m going to go through. The idea has been since the very beginning when he theory launched was in late 2015, early 2016. The idea was it was garbage. It’s trash. We don’t need it. How dare you? We already have Bitcoin. That was kind of the idea as time has gone on and ethereal has risen in price and has become more popular and more people are using it to more institutions are trying to use it in the entire decentralized financial space has grown. That narrative has kind of disappeared, however, for people who are Bitcoin purists. The idea is that if cerium is working with far too many institutions. Case in point, the Enterprise Theory Alliance, while a lot of these institutions may be making their own side change on a theorem or even using the actually theorem network themselves. The idea is that Bitcoin is meant to dismantle the current financial system, i.e. you don’t have to rely on anything. The old system has Bitcoin does all of it by itself. You can send money back and forth to who you want, when you want, how you want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just through the Bitcoin system. However, for a theory and it comes down to other companies and corporations are building things on top of your theory, um, that are simply things that we already have and the traditional financial markets. Whatever JP Morgan Chase is going to be building on it, whatever Microsoft is planning on building on top of it, you kind of get the idea. And this leads to the eye symbol idea that. E theory theorem is kind of facilitating B sticking around of these traditional financial institutions by building more. That’s the argument. That’s the actual argument for those. Like I said, I had to give you some context before I kind of went further into it. In a debate on Twitter. Buther Encounter’s, a statement from the founder of Crypto Ne. Yes. Who says the theorem based decentralized finance movement, which is designed to offer a way to access services like loans without intermediaries, is actually creating an ecosystem that’s chock full of middlemen. Once again, the idea for Bitcoin is I send money to you, you send money to me. There’s no middleman. It’s just me and you back and forth. However, with a theorem, you have all these other platforms that are based on top of you theory and therefore the money has to kind of flow through them and or other middlemen are creating their platforms. Orny Theorem. So if I’m sending money to you, it has to flow through their system and they have the AYSO, that KYC, AML KYC and then it pops over to you. But there’s still a middleman when there doesn’t have to be one. So this is true and maybe metalic is still a Bitcoin. But in present, every theorem is clearly not sharing goals with Bitcoin. Ethereum is prolonging the legacy financial system full of intermediaries, and Bitcoin is creating a new one without the middleman, Italic said, I really and truly think it’s the opposite. Bitcoin people seem happy to have lots of centralized middlemen Bemax, Teather, liquid, and it’s the etherial community that’s trying to decentralize these functions with smart contract constructions, which is it’s it’s kind of a 50 50. A lot of the things that are becoming popular on Bitcoin that institutions want to use once again because they kind of have to go through these things are things like Teather or things like liquid, which speed up a cryptocurrency trend or Bitcoin transactions amongst institutions and or cryptocurrency exchanges. But at the same time, these things are going to be created regardless of if we want them or not. We’re we’re going to need side chains. If Bitcoin is going to remain as a core unchained and at the same exact time, same exact thing with the theorem, if he theorem, it becomes more popular, more institutions are going to build on top of it, whether Retallack says yes or no. And a lot of what they’re trying to do or what they have claimed that they’re trying to do with the theorem are the creation of smart contract platforms or whatever that they’re trying to create. We’re simply that acts as the actual middleman. So is the actual computer system doing it and not an actual person? But is Amida Budiman also less a few ethereal based systems that he says have remained faithful to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, including decentralized exchanges like yttrium name service and automated exchange protocol unit swap? Like I said, this was kind of everywhere. I think this discussion is going to go on forever. You can make arguments on both sides. I think or like to think that a lot of the people on the theory and project are aiming for a more decentralized world. But you will always have that apple in the bunch who just doesn’t really care who is just there exclusively for profits, as opposed to the thought of making a better world for all of us, as it were anyway. Yeah, like I said, I mean, this is. Sure, why not kind of discussion? But, yeah, that’s that news or today. In the news, I couldn’t avoid. I tried my darndest and I mean, I was bombarded with this nonstop. A stimulus aid package worth around two million dollars was allegedly awarded by the U.S. to the Tauron Foundation. Matthew Graham, CEO of block chain investment firm Orsino Global Capital and Beijing, translated and shared the post. The Tron platform owned by Justin Sun has been handed by the U.S. government a two million dollar grant due to 19. It was posted on the platform. We chat. Two days ago, a report cited the grant as once on once again, another Tron foundation and controversy Katrina controversy. But it was yes and verified claim of packages from the US. So the point is they’re meant to be federal relief for companies in need. Here’s the actual thing right here. The Post, apparently the translation was it was given by the U.S. in the form of two million dollars and is not supposed to be paid back. The issue is, as it were. Right. It’s it’s a lot to unpack. But right here, for those of you not looking at the screen or who simply don’t remember, it says BitTorrent is selling for one hundred million dollars to Justin Sun and his block chain startup known as Tron. People from Tron have purchased an enormous amount. They purchased BitTorrent. They purchased steam and many other things that they’ve spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions on. So the question then becomes, did they need the two million? It seems more like if they in my opinion as well, if they had better men, money management. I mean, one hundred and forty million dollars is is an enormous amount of money to receive two million. Do you need it? No. Especially when you have tons of businesses around the US who are actually closing tons of people who can’t pay their rent to can’t pay their mortgages. So this is kind of the discussion going on. And a lot of people are not too. They’re not too thrilled about all of this happening. Like I said, I could not avoid this. I really, really tried because I kept on seeing the news about this. But eventually it was like. It’s hitting me in the face over and over. If this is so apparently this is still a legend. No one knows for certain. I think people have been trying to. Get a proper answer. But I think one has not been given. This tells me supposedly, allegedly from the information that I have acquired, absorbed from the Internet. They probably did receive the money. And as such, are just trying to be hush hush about it. If they did receive the money, that’s a bit of a shame. I’ve been watching a lot of stuff about the the things that families and businesses are going through, especially once even all of. And I dare not say all of this is over of the next couple of months as more places try to reopen. A lot of places simply won’t ever be able to reopen. So anyway, yeah, like I said, that was that news. If it turns out to be true, because I, I it’s it’s all over the place. It’s not like on one or two different Web sites. It’s it’s very major news right now because I’m pretty sure people would not be are not thrilled if this is actually true. Anyway. Yeah, let’s move on. This is awkward. And yeah, as of right now, depending on where you look, the prices at the prices, the the the timing is different on every single website. Some of them have it listed as 10 hours. Some of them, this one says nine hours, 44 minutes and twelve seconds, which is obscene to think they were that close. Other ones have things like eleven hours. It is very weird, varying times. I assume as we get to the last hour, things were kind of slimmed down and become more accurate. But yeah, nine hours according to this. Nine hours and 43 minutes, Bitcoin’s reward is going to get cut in half. This is absolutely obscene. Even have like a little chart down here for the other having is in the block height when it’s supposed to happen and the actual rewards when we. I remember I remember people talking about Bitcoin’s block reward being twenty five. The fact that we are going to be at six point to five and then the couple of years at one point five, six. These numbers don’t make sense to my mind anymore. Imagine going from 50 Bitcoin PLUR per block reward to one. It’s it’s it’s it’s a lot, but, yeah, that is. More or less, they say, more or less. It’s more and more the news that we have for today. As always, a very special thank you to my Patriots supporters. Hold on, I have to sneeze Crayola. Michelle, you are well on crypto with Lionel Tiger, a macho nesa. Make me a cake. Army Medic 17 Anytime Fitness Moncks Corner Staff Bodey MC Boldface. Yes, the Krypto Miller Hitch Test Everyday in Cowslips Leg Day Minting Coins. Jeremy Fox. Jim Gardner. Anthony Charles Nickman Delivery Praksis. Vlad the Impaler. Richie Richard Third. Nick Kanaya set soon Adamia Nicholas one with one piece one love crypto artist cold 3D Adobo Bankroll Network Crypto Joe two for two to the worldwide night. Al Jarreau Schneider Master Ventures in Thailand. Mohammed Ronie Adam Grasset Todd Mollis. A Biblio phobia the antima reader John Starts and Nostromo Jungle Loadout Song Alone Omar and Steuer Joshua Vinyard The Pothead Moon Man Hi SRP Yashar Hot Audy and Professor Walli from Gun Bot University. Thank you all very, very much. Your support. Thank you to everyone who is a member of the channel. Thank you to everyone who has a clicker of affiliate links. I do. Thank you all. Sincerely, at the moment, Bitcoin’s price is currently eight thousand five hundred and ninety one dollars, at least on this Web site. It is currently down by 2.8 percent. We are very volatile at the moment. I assume it’s a mixture of people who are trying to. Well, I mean, logically, people who are trying to buy and who are trying to sell. Good job there. But I think it’s it’s only going to intensify as the next couple of hours go on. You have people who are either trying to raise the price of Bitcoin and I assume there are massive amount of buy orders. But on the same exact side, on the other side, rather, you have people who are adamantly trying to push the price of Bitcoin down. Why would Bitcoin logically be going down in price during this movement or monumental day that we’ve all been waiting for for a long time and with the fundamentals being very strong? It has to do with. At the find like a really cool name for them, like dirty whales or like. While she whales are the whales who who keep trying to push the price down, it’s just them. Eventually this. I was reading an article about it before as well, and I said eventually this will be almost impossible to do because the buying pressure across the board will eventually be so high as the coming years continue to move on because of the amount of people who want to accumulate Bitcoin that any type of massive sell off by a whale will be at their own demise because they’ll have sold off and there’ll be a huge amount of buying pressure or people who will be more than willing to buy up everything that they’re trying to sell. So at the moment, the market is down, all of the market is down. I mean, Monaro is up. Cool. Yeah. Just how things are. I. I was going to ask if you’re all as excited as I am, but I might be the biggest nerd in the building here waiting for the reward having to happen. I do hope you all enjoyed. Hope you all are having a great day. Great morning. A great afternoon. A great evening. Wherever you are, wherever you might be. I do hope that it’s absolutely fantastic. Thank you all, once again, we’re watching and or listening. And I will most certainly be talking to you all soon. See you.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price-movement/ source https://cryptosharks1.tumblr.com/post/618066326975660032

[heatherrdavis1]

Bitcoin Halving Is Today Next Price Movement ETH Vs BTC & TRON Stimulus

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

And lo, everybody. Welcome back for another video. Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re all having an incredible day to start things off. Today is the day after months, years of anticipation. The Bitcoin having is here today, just past 20 hours, 30, depending on where you are in the world, I think is roughly at the time of me making this video about a good 10 hours left. The rewards that Bitcoin miners receive in exchange for the work they do to add transactions to the block chain will be cut in half. What does this mean for the Bitcoin network? Predictions about the consequences of the having range far and wide. But there are several popular narratives among cryptocurrency crypto currently cryptocurrency analysts. At present, the price of Bitcoin has taken a bit of a hit, if you will. Bitcoin peaked at ninety seven hundred on Sunday, the 10th of May. At press time, the 11th of May, that figure has shrunk to eighty six hundred. We recovered from it says eighty four hundred. I spoke about this yesterday as well. Depending on where you look and where you were getting your cryptocurrency prices or cryptocurrency articles. We dropped to as low as 80 100 on certain cryptocurrency platforms, but we are or have recovered from 80 one hundred within the last 24 hours. Although is important to note that Bitcoin is up roughly 40 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming both gold and U.S. dollars. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles about this as well, that a lot of people have been trying to see what has been what assets have been doing well during all of this madness that has taken place over the last three months. And once again, even with a move down, if you will. Bitcoin is at the moment, I believe, the still the best performing asset of anything in the world right now because of, you know, there’s a load chart right there. And one of the most popular believes in cryptocurrency circles about having events is that they are great for the price of Bitcoin, that sooner or later having will cause the Bitcoin price to explode. The belief stems from the fact that cutting the mining reward in half contributes to greater scarcity of Bitcoin as a number of users on the network continues to grow at this present. Pree having moment. Eighteen hundred Bitcoin are produced every day through Meiners Post. Having that is going to be nine hundred per day. And then it goes on to talk about some other people who, what they think and how long it will take place. It is one person I believe he said it takes. He said he believes it’ll take anywhere from 12 to eight no. 18 to 24 months for Bitcoin to try to reach over twenty thousand again. I think that is a I don’t even think the word is conservative answer at that point. I think it will happen much, much sooner than that. I think we are at the point aiming for prices that are a lot higher than twenty thousand. So I think twenty thousand will not be as difficult as people think. But I think the more difficult part will be the actual mega psychological barrier of a trillion dollar market cap. I think that’s going to force greater volatility within the crypto currency space. Yeah. Adam, I mean, this is it. We have been talking about this for heaven knows how long. But here we are. I am. I mean, to say excited is once again an understatement. It seemed like this day would almost never arrive. And we we’ve all had those moments before where you kind of just assume you’re waiting for something. Will it ever get there? No, it’s gonna take a bit longer. But alas, here we are. A lot of the discussions are, for those of you not looking at the screen, said Bitcoin price rests near eight thousand seven hundred dollars at the dump. What’s next? I can give you the yays and the nays if you want. The majority think that the actual fall down in price that we had yesterday, over the weekend was the was the actual having dumped that people were anticipating I e it took place before the actual having happened and therefore after the having prices will move up. You also have the naysayers who say that Bitcoin has to retest three thousand two hundred, that Bitcoin has to be so and so, which is complete nonsense in my opinion. The other articles we’re talking about, the actual current price of Bitcoin, have made sure to note that we not only bounced off of the eight thousand dollars where we fell from, but also the. That we’re constantly floating around or maintained the eighty six hundred eighty seven hundred dollar support, which is a support line. And therefore the fact that we are over it, floating above it, against it, whatever words you kind of want to use. Shows that we are still in bullish territory. If you kind of want to say that this person right here believes that we would meet, we may retest nine thousand five hundred dollars once again, I in all honesty, I think this is going to be a very crazy week, not only for crypto, but just in general, like for the entire world. I just feel something is is is going to be a miss something something weird is going to happen. And I I think that’s also going to contribute to the wild swings in Bitcoin’s price. As always. Or rather, don’t be surprised if the price goes down and then don’t subsequently be surprised if a day or two later we hear that it was from Wales. I think there’s going to be a huge amount of hype as far as people trying to buy. It is going to be hitting the actual, dare I say, main stream news, because this is also a very big topic. If they’ve been talking about the price of Bitcoin before any of this was happening, imagine what’s going to actually happen now, especially if we end up getting a really good move up or move down in price. It’s going to hit the the airwaves. No one uses that term anymore. But, yeah, we are here. We’re going to see exactly what happens. This is the big day. I actually can’t believe that it’s here. Yeah, I would ask what all of you think is going to happen after having the comment section would just be a mess. It could just be tons of people fighting. I think the last like two weeks I’ve seen such an increase in people calling each other names or and I’m sure you’ve seen them as well. It’s very difficult to get the amount of scams. Spam within the comment section has been absolutely wild. There’s there’s one in particular. It’s actually really funny. It keeps. It kind of goes like this. Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy that you mentioned blank coin because it is my favorite coin. I’m glad you also mentioned it because, like, it it it’s some type of a robot. Maybe that does it on almost every one of my videos as I go through the comments. It’s very, very weird. And they pretty much right. Hey, I’m so glad you talked about this coin, which I never did. It’s usually like Hex. Did you bite in like two or three other coins? You if you watch the channel before or even just one other video, you know which coins are important to me and. Yeah. So there’s a lot of spam, a lot of fighting. But I mean it’s to be expected with all the. All right. Yeah. That’s the that is the bitcoin having. Where will the price go. Next question mark. Question mark. And yeah. Let’s move on. Next up, new data comparing Bitcoin’s fundamentals now and around the second having in 2016 demonstrates the immense growth of the network. Double, triple and even quadruple digit increases are evident in all areas, including the number of Bitcoin addresses. The hash rate and the daily transaction volume. While most members of the community are focused on the volatile price movements around the having new information compiled by Glass. Node takes a thorough look at how Bitcoin’s fundamentals have developed since July 2016. Seems like an actual lifetime ago. My gosh, I’m in 2016, which is a very weird cryptocurrency. The prices weren’t moving. I was angry at everything. I remember looking at the prices. You’d wake up and the price would be up by two percent and you like, yeah, you get back from the supermarket is down by 14 percent. I’m just a very it’s a rough time for me. For starters, the number of Bitcoin addresses has jumped by two hundred and thirty four percent. Those addresses are at an all time high at the moment. Over 30 million. Interestingly, the number is even higher than during the parabolic price increase in 2017. And this isn’t the only thing that’s up since 2016, 2017. This is why I mentioned a lot of times and in many videos, while prices are important in the short term, the more important thing to look at is the actual fundamentals of the Bitcoin space. The address is the usage of the transactions, the amount of wallets, the amount of people who are gathering or accumulating crypto currencies as this is what it’s actually based on. If we had seen that in 2017, we saw this line going up twenty eighteen. It was a rough year for all of us. But if 2019 had been around here, that’s when you start getting worried to the fact that we are on a continual upswing with 2017 being the real anomaly, because it probably would have been resting around somewhere around here. This is great. It’s nice to see that even after prices have crashed because of Wales in 2018, that we are still on upswings. This is also why I mentioned before. Why would all the mega institutions be looking to get into an asset class that was going to fail? It’s because they know that it’s not going to fail and therefore this is why they’re putting their money into it. This is just how I view it from my vantage point anyway. This is a list for the number of Bitcoin addresses as crypto potato. Wow. Recently reported the interest in opening new addresses containing at least zero point zero one BTC or a million. Tosches has been surging lately with over four hundred and thirty thousand created in the last 90 days. Loan additionally addresses with at least one Bitcoin or 10 million Satoshi. These are at almost the or also higher than in 2016 by 64 percent and one hundred and forty two percent respectively. Entities holding 1000 bitcoin or more is the only measure which has decreased slightly by seven percent compared to 2016 because Bitcoin’s price is significantly higher and therefore it’s more expensive to buy 1000 Bitcoin. That makes the most sense. I was just watching. Something is really funny. I was making breakfast. I don’t if you care for that. The point is, I was watching something while I was making breakfast and I was watching like a video of this guy in Switzerland who was I think he owns Bitcoin Swiss whoknows. And they would he he he was discussing or he was being someone was interviewing him and they were asking him the question, when did you first get into Bitcoin? What was the prize? And he was like, price. He’s like, I got into Bitcoin before there was a price. And the person was like, what? He said, Yeah, I got 50 Bitcoin like I think like a couple of months after it came out because I think he paid for his friend’s coffee or something like that. And he mentioned he had bought his first 1000 Bitcoin for I think like seven hundred dollars. And I was like. So he he he holds an enormous amount of of of bitcoin. Yeah. I thought of that when I saw that thousand dollar Bitcoin, because if you, if you, if you bought a thousand Bitcoin or seven hundred dollars and you saw the price of Bitcoin hit a dollar, you probably go, OK, well the price increase, let me buy a little bit more. It’s four dollars. Let me buy a bit more. Eight dollars by a bit more. So, yeah, I just thought that was interesting to note. Here’s a little chart for the addresses. The Bailey transaction count and volume have seen substantial growth as well. More specifically, the transaction count is now 44 percent higher than in 2016. While the volume has skyrocketed by six hundred and eighty two percent. That’s insane. Two to two point one billion dollars per day. In fact, the last note and firms in four informs that the on chain volume of U.S. dollars has been consistently high since 2000, 17 of them. I mean, this is a major difference. Twenty sixteen compared to every other year. It was it was these years were rough. I mean, it wasn’t difficult keeping hope alive. There were just more like, you just want something to happen. And then it’s kind of like, okay, you can you can go up now. Although the data above illustrate significant increases in almost all areas, none has been more impressive than the growth of the hash rate back in 2016. Bitcoin hash rate was one point five million Tarah hashes. It is now at one hundred and nine million Tarah hashes to put this into another perspective. It’s a surge of six thousand eight hundred and thirty seven percent in just four years. Bitcoin is fundamentals are incredibly solid. They’re great. We are passing the high 2017 numbers, which once again, I mentioned a couple of other videos. I said. Don’t you think it’s weird that even that not only that prices are down, that we can have any one who would be negative and or bearish on anything within the Bitcoin space? We are doing exceedingly well. Fundamental, wise and fundamentals is what ends up translating into higher prices, especially when people continue to use the network and more people jump onto the network and more people are trying to accumulate the one million, 10 million Satoshi range or if not an entire Bitcoin as Bitcoin’s supply is limited. So regardless of the there’s a huge discussion happening right now amongst the cryptocurrency space. And I think we went over this yesterday as well as far as people or miners in particular who are going to be selling off higher and or lower, depending on how you want to look at it, portions of their Bitcoin holdings in order to pay their rent, to pay their electricity bills and stuff like that. You have to keep in mind that they may be selling Bitcoin into the market, but they are going to for every seller, there is a buyer. And at some point you have a situation where you realize once again that Bitcoin itself is still finite. Just because they are selling off Bitcoin does not mean that the Bitcoin machine is spitting out more bitcoin. It remains the same. It remains consistent because math anyway. Yeah, I saw this. I thought it was great. I think we need more news like this simply because I think people kind of lose sight of exactly how strong and powerful the Bitcoin network is. Once again, the news that we had, you can Google it. Bitcoin is the eighth largest currency on the planet. That’s not a joke. Just imagine when we passed by that and this was this news came out when Bitcoin, I think was below or around ten thousand dollars. So imagine when we hit twenty five thousand magin, when we hit fifty thousand dollars. What number ranking Bitcoin will be? Anyway, that’s that news. And let’s move on. Next up, open interest for c m e Bitcoin futures made a new all time high of just under half a billion dollars on Friday, the third consecutive day of open interest records. This week, significant growth and C.M.A Futures demonstrates the intensifying Konta contest contest between oh my gosh essay contest contest between the stalwart institutional trading platform and crypto native derivatives exchanges. Like Big Macs over the past month, semi’s Bitcoin futures market has grown faster in nearly every other Bitcoin futures market on a percentage and real growth basis. There are the charts right there with C.M.A being in yellow. Soaring semi open interest coincides with news that prominent American hedge funds are interested in investing in Bitcoin futures as of April. Renaissance Technologies, a flagship medallion fund, is considering trading Bitcoin Futures only CMG. On Thursday, Paul Tudor Jones, the second of the Tudor Investment Group, also told investors he is keen to invest in Bitcoin futures. This is the entrance. We would definitely get over the whole Paul Tudor thing a couple of days ago. This is in a the beginning of the interest entrance entrance, not interest because they’re already interested. The entrance of them into the cryptocurrency space. I think when it comes to the traditional or more traditional investors, it is easier for you to sell them the idea that you are going to get into Bitcoin futures, which may either be settled and so and so other cash or in Bitcoin, but you have to have something that is comfortable to them when they start saying that they’re making money or when they start seeing that other people are making money in Bitcoin as well. The actual physical Bitcoin air quotes because as digital numbers on the screen. This is how you get more people into the cryptocurrency space. But the fact that we’ve seen a large spike in interest. For Bitcoin futures is I mean, from a decentralized standpoint, you got to go from an actual growth of the space standpoint. Once again, keeping in mind, a couple of years ago, institutions would not even mutter the word Bitcoin and now they’re all over it. They’re buying up as much as they possibly can. Or they’re trying to have some type of an exposure to the asset, even if it has to go through CMBS. Bitcoin futures. Fascinating indeed. We’ll see where all of this goes, I guess. And I want to give you a time frame, but at some point we’re going to see this this interest accelerate in different directions. And I think it’ll start more if we end up seeing more Bitcoin side chains and or more Bitcoin decentralized finance products. I think institutionalise institutions will grasp that almost immediately, trying to figure out ways to profit from it as well. Yeah. Let’s move on. In news, that was kind of everywhere, news ish, maybe kind of a theory, I’m cocreator, Vitaly Budarin is fending off naysayers who believe the smart contract platform is simply extending the life of the legacy financial system instead of offering a truly decentralized alternative. I’ll give you a backdrop to see you understand a bit more of what I’m going to go through. The idea has been since the very beginning when he theory launched was in late 2015, early 2016. The idea was it was garbage. It’s trash. We don’t need it. How dare you? We already have Bitcoin. That was kind of the idea as time has gone on and ethereal has risen in price and has become more popular and more people are using it to more institutions are trying to use it in the entire decentralized financial space has grown. That narrative has kind of disappeared, however, for people who are Bitcoin purists. The idea is that if cerium is working with far too many institutions. Case in point, the Enterprise Theory Alliance, while a lot of these institutions may be making their own side change on a theorem or even using the actually theorem network themselves. The idea is that Bitcoin is meant to dismantle the current financial system, i.e. you don’t have to rely on anything. The old system has Bitcoin does all of it by itself. You can send money back and forth to who you want, when you want, how you want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just through the Bitcoin system. However, for a theory and it comes down to other companies and corporations are building things on top of your theory, um, that are simply things that we already have and the traditional financial markets. Whatever JP Morgan Chase is going to be building on it, whatever Microsoft is planning on building on top of it, you kind of get the idea. And this leads to the eye symbol idea that. E theory theorem is kind of facilitating B sticking around of these traditional financial institutions by building more. That’s the argument. That’s the actual argument for those. Like I said, I had to give you some context before I kind of went further into it. In a debate on Twitter. Buther Encounter’s, a statement from the founder of Crypto Ne. Yes. Who says the theorem based decentralized finance movement, which is designed to offer a way to access services like loans without intermediaries, is actually creating an ecosystem that’s chock full of middlemen. Once again, the idea for Bitcoin is I send money to you, you send money to me. There’s no middleman. It’s just me and you back and forth. However, with a theorem, you have all these other platforms that are based on top of you theory and therefore the money has to kind of flow through them and or other middlemen are creating their platforms. Orny Theorem. So if I’m sending money to you, it has to flow through their system and they have the AYSO, that KYC, AML KYC and then it pops over to you. But there’s still a middleman when there doesn’t have to be one. So this is true and maybe metalic is still a Bitcoin. But in present, every theorem is clearly not sharing goals with Bitcoin. Ethereum is prolonging the legacy financial system full of intermediaries, and Bitcoin is creating a new one without the middleman, Italic said, I really and truly think it’s the opposite. Bitcoin people seem happy to have lots of centralized middlemen Bemax, Teather, liquid, and it’s the etherial community that’s trying to decentralize these functions with smart contract constructions, which is it’s it’s kind of a 50 50. A lot of the things that are becoming popular on Bitcoin that institutions want to use once again because they kind of have to go through these things are things like Teather or things like liquid, which speed up a cryptocurrency trend or Bitcoin transactions amongst institutions and or cryptocurrency exchanges. But at the same time, these things are going to be created regardless of if we want them or not. We’re we’re going to need side chains. If Bitcoin is going to remain as a core unchained and at the same exact time, same exact thing with the theorem, if he theorem, it becomes more popular, more institutions are going to build on top of it, whether Retallack says yes or no. And a lot of what they’re trying to do or what they have claimed that they’re trying to do with the theorem are the creation of smart contract platforms or whatever that they’re trying to create. We’re simply that acts as the actual middleman. So is the actual computer system doing it and not an actual person? But is Amida Budiman also less a few ethereal based systems that he says have remained faithful to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, including decentralized exchanges like yttrium name service and automated exchange protocol unit swap? Like I said, this was kind of everywhere. I think this discussion is going to go on forever. You can make arguments on both sides. I think or like to think that a lot of the people on the theory and project are aiming for a more decentralized world. But you will always have that apple in the bunch who just doesn’t really care who is just there exclusively for profits, as opposed to the thought of making a better world for all of us, as it were anyway. Yeah, like I said, I mean, this is. Sure, why not kind of discussion? But, yeah, that’s that news or today. In the news, I couldn’t avoid. I tried my darndest and I mean, I was bombarded with this nonstop. A stimulus aid package worth around two million dollars was allegedly awarded by the U.S. to the Tauron Foundation. Matthew Graham, CEO of block chain investment firm Orsino Global Capital and Beijing, translated and shared the post. The Tron platform owned by Justin Sun has been handed by the U.S. government a two million dollar grant due to 19. It was posted on the platform. We chat. Two days ago, a report cited the grant as once on once again, another Tron foundation and controversy Katrina controversy. But it was yes and verified claim of packages from the US. So the point is they’re meant to be federal relief for companies in need. Here’s the actual thing right here. The Post, apparently the translation was it was given by the U.S. in the form of two million dollars and is not supposed to be paid back. The issue is, as it were. Right. It’s it’s a lot to unpack. But right here, for those of you not looking at the screen or who simply don’t remember, it says BitTorrent is selling for one hundred million dollars to Justin Sun and his block chain startup known as Tron. People from Tron have purchased an enormous amount. They purchased BitTorrent. They purchased steam and many other things that they’ve spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions on. So the question then becomes, did they need the two million? It seems more like if they in my opinion as well, if they had better men, money management. I mean, one hundred and forty million dollars is is an enormous amount of money to receive two million. Do you need it? No. Especially when you have tons of businesses around the US who are actually closing tons of people who can’t pay their rent to can’t pay their mortgages. So this is kind of the discussion going on. And a lot of people are not too. They’re not too thrilled about all of this happening. Like I said, I could not avoid this. I really, really tried because I kept on seeing the news about this. But eventually it was like. It’s hitting me in the face over and over. If this is so apparently this is still a legend. No one knows for certain. I think people have been trying to. Get a proper answer. But I think one has not been given. This tells me supposedly, allegedly from the information that I have acquired, absorbed from the Internet. They probably did receive the money. And as such, are just trying to be hush hush about it. If they did receive the money, that’s a bit of a shame. I’ve been watching a lot of stuff about the the things that families and businesses are going through, especially once even all of. And I dare not say all of this is over of the next couple of months as more places try to reopen. A lot of places simply won’t ever be able to reopen. So anyway, yeah, like I said, that was that news. If it turns out to be true, because I, I it’s it’s all over the place. It’s not like on one or two different Web sites. It’s it’s very major news right now because I’m pretty sure people would not be are not thrilled if this is actually true. Anyway. Yeah, let’s move on. This is awkward. And yeah, as of right now, depending on where you look, the prices at the prices, the the the timing is different on every single website. Some of them have it listed as 10 hours. Some of them, this one says nine hours, 44 minutes and twelve seconds, which is obscene to think they were that close. Other ones have things like eleven hours. It is very weird, varying times. I assume as we get to the last hour, things were kind of slimmed down and become more accurate. But yeah, nine hours according to this. Nine hours and 43 minutes, Bitcoin’s reward is going to get cut in half. This is absolutely obscene. Even have like a little chart down here for the other having is in the block height when it’s supposed to happen and the actual rewards when we. I remember I remember people talking about Bitcoin’s block reward being twenty five. The fact that we are going to be at six point to five and then the couple of years at one point five, six. These numbers don’t make sense to my mind anymore. Imagine going from 50 Bitcoin PLUR per block reward to one. It’s it’s it’s it’s a lot, but, yeah, that is. More or less, they say, more or less. It’s more and more the news that we have for today. As always, a very special thank you to my Patriots supporters. Hold on, I have to sneeze Crayola. Michelle, you are well on crypto with Lionel Tiger, a macho nesa. Make me a cake. Army Medic 17 Anytime Fitness Moncks Corner Staff Bodey MC Boldface. Yes, the Krypto Miller Hitch Test Everyday in Cowslips Leg Day Minting Coins. Jeremy Fox. Jim Gardner. Anthony Charles Nickman Delivery Praksis. Vlad the Impaler. Richie Richard Third. Nick Kanaya set soon Adamia Nicholas one with one piece one love crypto artist cold 3D Adobo Bankroll Network Crypto Joe two for two to the worldwide night. Al Jarreau Schneider Master Ventures in Thailand. Mohammed Ronie Adam Grasset Todd Mollis. A Biblio phobia the antima reader John Starts and Nostromo Jungle Loadout Song Alone Omar and Steuer Joshua Vinyard The Pothead Moon Man Hi SRP Yashar Hot Audy and Professor Walli from Gun Bot University. Thank you all very, very much. Your support. Thank you to everyone who is a member of the channel. Thank you to everyone who has a clicker of affiliate links. I do. Thank you all. Sincerely, at the moment, Bitcoin’s price is currently eight thousand five hundred and ninety one dollars, at least on this Web site. It is currently down by 2.8 percent. We are very volatile at the moment. I assume it’s a mixture of people who are trying to. Well, I mean, logically, people who are trying to buy and who are trying to sell. Good job there. But I think it’s it’s only going to intensify as the next couple of hours go on. You have people who are either trying to raise the price of Bitcoin and I assume there are massive amount of buy orders. But on the same exact side, on the other side, rather, you have people who are adamantly trying to push the price of Bitcoin down. Why would Bitcoin logically be going down in price during this movement or monumental day that we’ve all been waiting for for a long time and with the fundamentals being very strong? It has to do with. At the find like a really cool name for them, like dirty whales or like. While she whales are the whales who who keep trying to push the price down, it’s just them. Eventually this. I was reading an article about it before as well, and I said eventually this will be almost impossible to do because the buying pressure across the board will eventually be so high as the coming years continue to move on because of the amount of people who want to accumulate Bitcoin that any type of massive sell off by a whale will be at their own demise because they’ll have sold off and there’ll be a huge amount of buying pressure or people who will be more than willing to buy up everything that they’re trying to sell. So at the moment, the market is down, all of the market is down. I mean, Monaro is up. Cool. Yeah. Just how things are. I. I was going to ask if you’re all as excited as I am, but I might be the biggest nerd in the building here waiting for the reward having to happen. I do hope you all enjoyed. Hope you all are having a great day. Great morning. A great afternoon. A great evening. Wherever you are, wherever you might be. I do hope that it’s absolutely fantastic. Thank you all, once again, we’re watching and or listening. And I will most certainly be talking to you all soon. See you.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price-movement/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price-movement-eth-vs-btc-tron-stimulus

[cryptosharks1]

Bitcoin Halving Is Today, Next Price Movement, ETH Vs BTC & TRON Stimulus

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

And lo, everybody. Welcome back for another video. Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re all having an incredible day to start things off. Today is the day after months, years of anticipation. The Bitcoin having is here today, just past 20 hours, 30, depending on where you are in the world, I think is roughly at the time of me making this video about a good 10 hours left. The rewards that Bitcoin miners receive in exchange for the work they do to add transactions to the block chain will be cut in half. What does this mean for the Bitcoin network? Predictions about the consequences of the having range far and wide. But there are several popular narratives among cryptocurrency crypto currently cryptocurrency analysts. At present, the price of Bitcoin has taken a bit of a hit, if you will. Bitcoin peaked at ninety seven hundred on Sunday, the 10th of May. At press time, the 11th of May, that figure has shrunk to eighty six hundred. We recovered from it says eighty four hundred. I spoke about this yesterday as well. Depending on where you look and where you were getting your cryptocurrency prices or cryptocurrency articles. We dropped to as low as 80 100 on certain cryptocurrency platforms, but we are or have recovered from 80 one hundred within the last 24 hours. Although is important to note that Bitcoin is up roughly 40 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming both gold and U.S. dollars. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles about this as well, that a lot of people have been trying to see what has been what assets have been doing well during all of this madness that has taken place over the last three months. And once again, even with a move down, if you will. Bitcoin is at the moment, I believe, the still the best performing asset of anything in the world right now because of, you know, there’s a load chart right there. And one of the most popular believes in cryptocurrency circles about having events is that they are great for the price of Bitcoin, that sooner or later having will cause the Bitcoin price to explode. The belief stems from the fact that cutting the mining reward in half contributes to greater scarcity of Bitcoin as a number of users on the network continues to grow at this present. Pree having moment. Eighteen hundred Bitcoin are produced every day through Meiners Post. Having that is going to be nine hundred per day. And then it goes on to talk about some other people who, what they think and how long it will take place. It is one person I believe he said it takes. He said he believes it’ll take anywhere from 12 to eight no. 18 to 24 months for Bitcoin to try to reach over twenty thousand again. I think that is a I don’t even think the word is conservative answer at that point. I think it will happen much, much sooner than that. I think we are at the point aiming for prices that are a lot higher than twenty thousand. So I think twenty thousand will not be as difficult as people think. But I think the more difficult part will be the actual mega psychological barrier of a trillion dollar market cap. I think that’s going to force greater volatility within the crypto currency space. Yeah. Adam, I mean, this is it. We have been talking about this for heaven knows how long. But here we are. I am. I mean, to say excited is once again an understatement. It seemed like this day would almost never arrive. And we we’ve all had those moments before where you kind of just assume you’re waiting for something. Will it ever get there? No, it’s gonna take a bit longer. But alas, here we are. A lot of the discussions are, for those of you not looking at the screen, said Bitcoin price rests near eight thousand seven hundred dollars at the dump. What’s next? I can give you the yays and the nays if you want. The majority think that the actual fall down in price that we had yesterday, over the weekend was the was the actual having dumped that people were anticipating I e it took place before the actual having happened and therefore after the having prices will move up. You also have the naysayers who say that Bitcoin has to retest three thousand two hundred, that Bitcoin has to be so and so, which is complete nonsense in my opinion. The other articles we’re talking about, the actual current price of Bitcoin, have made sure to note that we not only bounced off of the eight thousand dollars where we fell from, but also the. That we’re constantly floating around or maintained the eighty six hundred eighty seven hundred dollar support, which is a support line. And therefore the fact that we are over it, floating above it, against it, whatever words you kind of want to use. Shows that we are still in bullish territory. If you kind of want to say that this person right here believes that we would meet, we may retest nine thousand five hundred dollars once again, I in all honesty, I think this is going to be a very crazy week, not only for crypto, but just in general, like for the entire world. I just feel something is is is going to be a miss something something weird is going to happen. And I I think that’s also going to contribute to the wild swings in Bitcoin’s price. As always. Or rather, don’t be surprised if the price goes down and then don’t subsequently be surprised if a day or two later we hear that it was from Wales. I think there’s going to be a huge amount of hype as far as people trying to buy. It is going to be hitting the actual, dare I say, main stream news, because this is also a very big topic. If they’ve been talking about the price of Bitcoin before any of this was happening, imagine what’s going to actually happen now, especially if we end up getting a really good move up or move down in price. It’s going to hit the the airwaves. No one uses that term anymore. But, yeah, we are here. We’re going to see exactly what happens. This is the big day. I actually can’t believe that it’s here. Yeah, I would ask what all of you think is going to happen after having the comment section would just be a mess. It could just be tons of people fighting. I think the last like two weeks I’ve seen such an increase in people calling each other names or and I’m sure you’ve seen them as well. It’s very difficult to get the amount of scams. Spam within the comment section has been absolutely wild. There’s there’s one in particular. It’s actually really funny. It keeps. It kind of goes like this. Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy that you mentioned blank coin because it is my favorite coin. I’m glad you also mentioned it because, like, it it it’s some type of a robot. Maybe that does it on almost every one of my videos as I go through the comments. It’s very, very weird. And they pretty much right. Hey, I’m so glad you talked about this coin, which I never did. It’s usually like Hex. Did you bite in like two or three other coins? You if you watch the channel before or even just one other video, you know which coins are important to me and. Yeah. So there’s a lot of spam, a lot of fighting. But I mean it’s to be expected with all the. All right. Yeah. That’s the that is the bitcoin having. Where will the price go. Next question mark. Question mark. And yeah. Let’s move on. Next up, new data comparing Bitcoin’s fundamentals now and around the second having in 2016 demonstrates the immense growth of the network. Double, triple and even quadruple digit increases are evident in all areas, including the number of Bitcoin addresses. The hash rate and the daily transaction volume. While most members of the community are focused on the volatile price movements around the having new information compiled by Glass. Node takes a thorough look at how Bitcoin’s fundamentals have developed since July 2016. Seems like an actual lifetime ago. My gosh, I’m in 2016, which is a very weird cryptocurrency. The prices weren’t moving. I was angry at everything. I remember looking at the prices. You’d wake up and the price would be up by two percent and you like, yeah, you get back from the supermarket is down by 14 percent. I’m just a very it’s a rough time for me. For starters, the number of Bitcoin addresses has jumped by two hundred and thirty four percent. Those addresses are at an all time high at the moment. Over 30 million. Interestingly, the number is even higher than during the parabolic price increase in 2017. And this isn’t the only thing that’s up since 2016, 2017. This is why I mentioned a lot of times and in many videos, while prices are important in the short term, the more important thing to look at is the actual fundamentals of the Bitcoin space. The address is the usage of the transactions, the amount of wallets, the amount of people who are gathering or accumulating crypto currencies as this is what it’s actually based on. If we had seen that in 2017, we saw this line going up twenty eighteen. It was a rough year for all of us. But if 2019 had been around here, that’s when you start getting worried to the fact that we are on a continual upswing with 2017 being the real anomaly, because it probably would have been resting around somewhere around here. This is great. It’s nice to see that even after prices have crashed because of Wales in 2018, that we are still on upswings. This is also why I mentioned before. Why would all the mega institutions be looking to get into an asset class that was going to fail? It’s because they know that it’s not going to fail and therefore this is why they’re putting their money into it. This is just how I view it from my vantage point anyway. This is a list for the number of Bitcoin addresses as crypto potato. Wow. Recently reported the interest in opening new addresses containing at least zero point zero one BTC or a million. Tosches has been surging lately with over four hundred and thirty thousand created in the last 90 days. Loan additionally addresses with at least one Bitcoin or 10 million Satoshi. These are at almost the or also higher than in 2016 by 64 percent and one hundred and forty two percent respectively. Entities holding 1000 bitcoin or more is the only measure which has decreased slightly by seven percent compared to 2016 because Bitcoin’s price is significantly higher and therefore it’s more expensive to buy 1000 Bitcoin. That makes the most sense. I was just watching. Something is really funny. I was making breakfast. I don’t if you care for that. The point is, I was watching something while I was making breakfast and I was watching like a video of this guy in Switzerland who was I think he owns Bitcoin Swiss whoknows. And they would he he he was discussing or he was being someone was interviewing him and they were asking him the question, when did you first get into Bitcoin? What was the prize? And he was like, price. He’s like, I got into Bitcoin before there was a price. And the person was like, what? He said, Yeah, I got 50 Bitcoin like I think like a couple of months after it came out because I think he paid for his friend’s coffee or something like that. And he mentioned he had bought his first 1000 Bitcoin for I think like seven hundred dollars. And I was like. So he he he holds an enormous amount of of of bitcoin. Yeah. I thought of that when I saw that thousand dollar Bitcoin, because if you, if you, if you bought a thousand Bitcoin or seven hundred dollars and you saw the price of Bitcoin hit a dollar, you probably go, OK, well the price increase, let me buy a little bit more. It’s four dollars. Let me buy a bit more. Eight dollars by a bit more. So, yeah, I just thought that was interesting to note. Here’s a little chart for the addresses. The Bailey transaction count and volume have seen substantial growth as well. More specifically, the transaction count is now 44 percent higher than in 2016. While the volume has skyrocketed by six hundred and eighty two percent. That’s insane. Two to two point one billion dollars per day. In fact, the last note and firms in four informs that the on chain volume of U.S. dollars has been consistently high since 2000, 17 of them. I mean, this is a major difference. Twenty sixteen compared to every other year. It was it was these years were rough. I mean, it wasn’t difficult keeping hope alive. There were just more like, you just want something to happen. And then it’s kind of like, okay, you can you can go up now. Although the data above illustrate significant increases in almost all areas, none has been more impressive than the growth of the hash rate back in 2016. Bitcoin hash rate was one point five million Tarah hashes. It is now at one hundred and nine million Tarah hashes to put this into another perspective. It’s a surge of six thousand eight hundred and thirty seven percent in just four years. Bitcoin is fundamentals are incredibly solid. They’re great. We are passing the high 2017 numbers, which once again, I mentioned a couple of other videos. I said. Don’t you think it’s weird that even that not only that prices are down, that we can have any one who would be negative and or bearish on anything within the Bitcoin space? We are doing exceedingly well. Fundamental, wise and fundamentals is what ends up translating into higher prices, especially when people continue to use the network and more people jump onto the network and more people are trying to accumulate the one million, 10 million Satoshi range or if not an entire Bitcoin as Bitcoin’s supply is limited. So regardless of the there’s a huge discussion happening right now amongst the cryptocurrency space. And I think we went over this yesterday as well as far as people or miners in particular who are going to be selling off higher and or lower, depending on how you want to look at it, portions of their Bitcoin holdings in order to pay their rent, to pay their electricity bills and stuff like that. You have to keep in mind that they may be selling Bitcoin into the market, but they are going to for every seller, there is a buyer. And at some point you have a situation where you realize once again that Bitcoin itself is still finite. Just because they are selling off Bitcoin does not mean that the Bitcoin machine is spitting out more bitcoin. It remains the same. It remains consistent because math anyway. Yeah, I saw this. I thought it was great. I think we need more news like this simply because I think people kind of lose sight of exactly how strong and powerful the Bitcoin network is. Once again, the news that we had, you can Google it. Bitcoin is the eighth largest currency on the planet. That’s not a joke. Just imagine when we passed by that and this was this news came out when Bitcoin, I think was below or around ten thousand dollars. So imagine when we hit twenty five thousand magin, when we hit fifty thousand dollars. What number ranking Bitcoin will be? Anyway, that’s that news. And let’s move on. Next up, open interest for c m e Bitcoin futures made a new all time high of just under half a billion dollars on Friday, the third consecutive day of open interest records. This week, significant growth and C.M.A Futures demonstrates the intensifying Konta contest contest between oh my gosh essay contest contest between the stalwart institutional trading platform and crypto native derivatives exchanges. Like Big Macs over the past month, semi’s Bitcoin futures market has grown faster in nearly every other Bitcoin futures market on a percentage and real growth basis. There are the charts right there with C.M.A being in yellow. Soaring semi open interest coincides with news that prominent American hedge funds are interested in investing in Bitcoin futures as of April. Renaissance Technologies, a flagship medallion fund, is considering trading Bitcoin Futures only CMG. On Thursday, Paul Tudor Jones, the second of the Tudor Investment Group, also told investors he is keen to invest in Bitcoin futures. This is the entrance. We would definitely get over the whole Paul Tudor thing a couple of days ago. This is in a the beginning of the interest entrance entrance, not interest because they’re already interested. The entrance of them into the cryptocurrency space. I think when it comes to the traditional or more traditional investors, it is easier for you to sell them the idea that you are going to get into Bitcoin futures, which may either be settled and so and so other cash or in Bitcoin, but you have to have something that is comfortable to them when they start saying that they’re making money or when they start seeing that other people are making money in Bitcoin as well. The actual physical Bitcoin air quotes because as digital numbers on the screen. This is how you get more people into the cryptocurrency space. But the fact that we’ve seen a large spike in interest. For Bitcoin futures is I mean, from a decentralized standpoint, you got to go from an actual growth of the space standpoint. Once again, keeping in mind, a couple of years ago, institutions would not even mutter the word Bitcoin and now they’re all over it. They’re buying up as much as they possibly can. Or they’re trying to have some type of an exposure to the asset, even if it has to go through CMBS. Bitcoin futures. Fascinating indeed. We’ll see where all of this goes, I guess. And I want to give you a time frame, but at some point we’re going to see this this interest accelerate in different directions. And I think it’ll start more if we end up seeing more Bitcoin side chains and or more Bitcoin decentralized finance products. I think institutionalise institutions will grasp that almost immediately, trying to figure out ways to profit from it as well. Yeah. Let’s move on. In news, that was kind of everywhere, news ish, maybe kind of a theory, I’m cocreator, Vitaly Budarin is fending off naysayers who believe the smart contract platform is simply extending the life of the legacy financial system instead of offering a truly decentralized alternative. I’ll give you a backdrop to see you understand a bit more of what I’m going to go through. The idea has been since the very beginning when he theory launched was in late 2015, early 2016. The idea was it was garbage. It’s trash. We don’t need it. How dare you? We already have Bitcoin. That was kind of the idea as time has gone on and ethereal has risen in price and has become more popular and more people are using it to more institutions are trying to use it in the entire decentralized financial space has grown. That narrative has kind of disappeared, however, for people who are Bitcoin purists. The idea is that if cerium is working with far too many institutions. Case in point, the Enterprise Theory Alliance, while a lot of these institutions may be making their own side change on a theorem or even using the actually theorem network themselves. The idea is that Bitcoin is meant to dismantle the current financial system, i.e. you don’t have to rely on anything. The old system has Bitcoin does all of it by itself. You can send money back and forth to who you want, when you want, how you want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just through the Bitcoin system. However, for a theory and it comes down to other companies and corporations are building things on top of your theory, um, that are simply things that we already have and the traditional financial markets. Whatever JP Morgan Chase is going to be building on it, whatever Microsoft is planning on building on top of it, you kind of get the idea. And this leads to the eye symbol idea that. E theory theorem is kind of facilitating B sticking around of these traditional financial institutions by building more. That’s the argument. That’s the actual argument for those. Like I said, I had to give you some context before I kind of went further into it. In a debate on Twitter. Buther Encounter’s, a statement from the founder of Crypto Ne. Yes. Who says the theorem based decentralized finance movement, which is designed to offer a way to access services like loans without intermediaries, is actually creating an ecosystem that’s chock full of middlemen. Once again, the idea for Bitcoin is I send money to you, you send money to me. There’s no middleman. It’s just me and you back and forth. However, with a theorem, you have all these other platforms that are based on top of you theory and therefore the money has to kind of flow through them and or other middlemen are creating their platforms. Orny Theorem. So if I’m sending money to you, it has to flow through their system and they have the AYSO, that KYC, AML KYC and then it pops over to you. But there’s still a middleman when there doesn’t have to be one. So this is true and maybe metalic is still a Bitcoin. But in present, every theorem is clearly not sharing goals with Bitcoin. Ethereum is prolonging the legacy financial system full of intermediaries, and Bitcoin is creating a new one without the middleman, Italic said, I really and truly think it’s the opposite. Bitcoin people seem happy to have lots of centralized middlemen Bemax, Teather, liquid, and it’s the etherial community that’s trying to decentralize these functions with smart contract constructions, which is it’s it’s kind of a 50 50. A lot of the things that are becoming popular on Bitcoin that institutions want to use once again because they kind of have to go through these things are things like Teather or things like liquid, which speed up a cryptocurrency trend or Bitcoin transactions amongst institutions and or cryptocurrency exchanges. But at the same time, these things are going to be created regardless of if we want them or not. We’re we’re going to need side chains. If Bitcoin is going to remain as a core unchained and at the same exact time, same exact thing with the theorem, if he theorem, it becomes more popular, more institutions are going to build on top of it, whether Retallack says yes or no. And a lot of what they’re trying to do or what they have claimed that they’re trying to do with the theorem are the creation of smart contract platforms or whatever that they’re trying to create. We’re simply that acts as the actual middleman. So is the actual computer system doing it and not an actual person? But is Amida Budiman also less a few ethereal based systems that he says have remained faithful to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, including decentralized exchanges like yttrium name service and automated exchange protocol unit swap? Like I said, this was kind of everywhere. I think this discussion is going to go on forever. You can make arguments on both sides. I think or like to think that a lot of the people on the theory and project are aiming for a more decentralized world. But you will always have that apple in the bunch who just doesn’t really care who is just there exclusively for profits, as opposed to the thought of making a better world for all of us, as it were anyway. Yeah, like I said, I mean, this is. Sure, why not kind of discussion? But, yeah, that’s that news or today. In the news, I couldn’t avoid. I tried my darndest and I mean, I was bombarded with this nonstop. A stimulus aid package worth around two million dollars was allegedly awarded by the U.S. to the Tauron Foundation. Matthew Graham, CEO of block chain investment firm Orsino Global Capital and Beijing, translated and shared the post. The Tron platform owned by Justin Sun has been handed by the U.S. government a two million dollar grant due to 19. It was posted on the platform. We chat. Two days ago, a report cited the grant as once on once again, another Tron foundation and controversy Katrina controversy. But it was yes and verified claim of packages from the US. So the point is they’re meant to be federal relief for companies in need. Here’s the actual thing right here. The Post, apparently the translation was it was given by the U.S. in the form of two million dollars and is not supposed to be paid back. The issue is, as it were. Right. It’s it’s a lot to unpack. But right here, for those of you not looking at the screen or who simply don��t remember, it says BitTorrent is selling for one hundred million dollars to Justin Sun and his block chain startup known as Tron. People from Tron have purchased an enormous amount. They purchased BitTorrent. They purchased steam and many other things that they’ve spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions on. So the question then becomes, did they need the two million? It seems more like if they in my opinion as well, if they had better men, money management. I mean, one hundred and forty million dollars is is an enormous amount of money to receive two million. Do you need it? No. Especially when you have tons of businesses around the US who are actually closing tons of people who can’t pay their rent to can’t pay their mortgages. So this is kind of the discussion going on. And a lot of people are not too. They’re not too thrilled about all of this happening. Like I said, I could not avoid this. I really, really tried because I kept on seeing the news about this. But eventually it was like. It’s hitting me in the face over and over. If this is so apparently this is still a legend. No one knows for certain. I think people have been trying to. Get a proper answer. But I think one has not been given. This tells me supposedly, allegedly from the information that I have acquired, absorbed from the Internet. They probably did receive the money. And as such, are just trying to be hush hush about it. If they did receive the money, that’s a bit of a shame. I’ve been watching a lot of stuff about the the things that families and businesses are going through, especially once even all of. And I dare not say all of this is over of the next couple of months as more places try to reopen. A lot of places simply won’t ever be able to reopen. So anyway, yeah, like I said, that was that news. If it turns out to be true, because I, I it’s it’s all over the place. It’s not like on one or two different Web sites. It’s it’s very major news right now because I’m pretty sure people would not be are not thrilled if this is actually true. Anyway. Yeah, let’s move on. This is awkward. And yeah, as of right now, depending on where you look, the prices at the prices, the the the timing is different on every single website. Some of them have it listed as 10 hours. Some of them, this one says nine hours, 44 minutes and twelve seconds, which is obscene to think they were that close. Other ones have things like eleven hours. It is very weird, varying times. I assume as we get to the last hour, things were kind of slimmed down and become more accurate. But yeah, nine hours according to this. Nine hours and 43 minutes, Bitcoin’s reward is going to get cut in half. This is absolutely obscene. Even have like a little chart down here for the other having is in the block height when it’s supposed to happen and the actual rewards when we. I remember I remember people talking about Bitcoin’s block reward being twenty five. The fact that we are going to be at six point to five and then the couple of years at one point five, six. These numbers don’t make sense to my mind anymore. Imagine going from 50 Bitcoin PLUR per block reward to one. It’s it’s it’s it’s a lot, but, yeah, that is. More or less, they say, more or less. It’s more and more the news that we have for today. As always, a very special thank you to my Patriots supporters. Hold on, I have to sneeze Crayola. Michelle, you are well on crypto with Lionel Tiger, a macho nesa. Make me a cake. Army Medic 17 Anytime Fitness Moncks Corner Staff Bodey MC Boldface. Yes, the Krypto Miller Hitch Test Everyday in Cowslips Leg Day Minting Coins. Jeremy Fox. Jim Gardner. Anthony Charles Nickman Delivery Praksis. Vlad the Impaler. Richie Richard Third. Nick Kanaya set soon Adamia Nicholas one with one piece one love crypto artist cold 3D Adobo Bankroll Network Crypto Joe two for two to the worldwide night. Al Jarreau Schneider Master Ventures in Thailand. Mohammed Ronie Adam Grasset Todd Mollis. A Biblio phobia the antima reader John Starts and Nostromo Jungle Loadout Song Alone Omar and Steuer Joshua Vinyard The Pothead Moon Man Hi SRP Yashar Hot Audy and Professor Walli from Gun Bot University. Thank you all very, very much. Your support. Thank you to everyone who is a member of the channel. Thank you to everyone who has a clicker of affiliate links. I do. Thank you all. Sincerely, at the moment, Bitcoin’s price is currently eight thousand five hundred and ninety one dollars, at least on this Web site. It is currently down by 2.8 percent. We are very volatile at the moment. I assume it’s a mixture of people who are trying to. Well, I mean, logically, people who are trying to buy and who are trying to sell. Good job there. But I think it’s it’s only going to intensify as the next couple of hours go on. You have people who are either trying to raise the price of Bitcoin and I assume there are massive amount of buy orders. But on the same exact side, on the other side, rather, you have people who are adamantly trying to push the price of Bitcoin down. Why would Bitcoin logically be going down in price during this movement or monumental day that we’ve all been waiting for for a long time and with the fundamentals being very strong? It has to do with. At the find like a really cool name for them, like dirty whales or like. While she whales are the whales who who keep trying to push the price down, it’s just them. Eventually this. I was reading an article about it before as well, and I said eventually this will be almost impossible to do because the buying pressure across the board will eventually be so high as the coming years continue to move on because of the amount of people who want to accumulate Bitcoin that any type of massive sell off by a whale will be at their own demise because they’ll have sold off and there’ll be a huge amount of buying pressure or people who will be more than willing to buy up everything that they’re trying to sell. So at the moment, the market is down, all of the market is down. I mean, Monaro is up. Cool. Yeah. Just how things are. I. I was going to ask if you’re all as excited as I am, but I might be the biggest nerd in the building here waiting for the reward having to happen. I do hope you all enjoyed. Hope you all are having a great day. Great morning. A great afternoon. A great evening. Wherever you are, wherever you might be. I do hope that it’s absolutely fantastic. Thank you all, once again, we’re watching and or listening. And I will most certainly be talking to you all soon. See you.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-halving-is-today-next-price-movement/

[mikemortgage]

California races to predict which town could be next to burn

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Impoverished towns in the shadow of Mount Shasta. Rustic Gold Rush cities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. High-dollar resort communities on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Ritzy Los Angeles County suburbs.

They all could be the next Paradise.

A McClatchy analysis reveals more than 350,000 Californians live in towns and cities that exist almost entirely within “very high fire hazard severity zones” — Cal Fire’s designation for places highly vulnerable to devastating wildfires. These designations have proven eerily predictive about some of the state’s most destructive wildfires in recent years, including the Camp Fire, the worst in state history.

Nearly all of Paradise is colored in bright red on Cal Fire’s map — practically the entire town was at severe risk before the Camp Fire raged through last November, burning the majority of homes in its path and killing 85 people.

Malibu, where the Woolsey Fire burned more than 400 homes last year, also falls within very high hazard zones. As does the small Lake County town of Cobb, much of which was destroyed by the Valley Fire in 2015.

“There’s a lot of Paradises out there,” said Max Moritz, a fire specialist at UC Santa Barbara.

All told, more than 2.7 million Californians live in very high fire hazard severity zones, from trailers off quiet dirt roads in the forest to mansions in the state’s largest cities, according to the analysis, which is based on 2010 block-level census data. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says its maps show places where wildfires are likely to be extreme due to factors including vegetation and topography.

The maps aren’t perfect in their ability to forecast where a fire will be destructive. For instance, the Coffey Park neighbourhood of Santa Rosa isn’t in a very high hazard zone, but powerful winds pushed the Tubbs Fire into that part of the city, largely levelling the neighbourhood in October 2017.

Coffey Park was built “with zero consideration for fire,” said Chris Dicus, a forestry and fire expert at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “Fire was in the mountains — there was no consideration that fire would cross (Highway) 101.”

Cal Fire is making new fire hazard maps — ready in a year or so — that will incorporate regional wind patterns and other climate factors. In the meantime, experts say the current maps, created about a decade ago, still provide an important guide to predict where wildfires could do the most damage, in the same way floodplain maps highlight areas that could be hit hardest during severe storms.

The at-risk communities identified by McClatchy also should serve as a starting point for prioritizing how California should spend money on retrofits and other fire-safety programs, Moritz said.

California’s state-of-the-art building codes help protect homes from wildfire in the most vulnerable areas, experts say. But the codes only apply to new construction. A bill introduced by Assemblyman Jim Wood would provide cash to help Californians retrofit older homes.

“This will go a long way toward these different municipalities (in showing) that they deserve funding,” Moritz said.

McClatchy identified more than 75 towns and cities with populations over 1,000 where, like Paradise, at least 90 per cent of residents live within the Cal Fire “very high fire hazard severity zones.”

Here are snapshots of 10, and the unique challenges they face:

——

Shingletown: a miniature Paradise

Population (2010) — 2,283 ‘ In Very High fire Hazard Severity Zone — 2,283

Shingletown is less than one-tenth the size of Paradise but probably carries just as much risk.

Like Paradise, the unincorporated community sits atop a ridge, and is covered in tall trees and thick brush — ingredients for a major wildfire. Shingletown was originally named Shingle Camp, for the workers who cut roofing slats from timber to supply miners during the Gold Rush era.

“We grow trees like nobody’s business up here,” said Tom Twist, a member of the Shingletown Fire Safe Council, a volunteer organization. Twist, who’s lived in the community off and on since the 1970s, said that when the weather is warm he’ll walk his property, pulling up seedlings in an almost futile effort to eliminate potential fuels.

“I’ll pull 20 or 30 seedlings a day out of the ground,” he said. “It’s almost like when I walk over there, there’s 20 or 30. When I walk back, there’s another 20 or 30.”

Just like Paradise, escaping the ridge in a fast-moving fire wouldn’t be easy; Shingletown’s main drag is winding, narrow Highway 44. And, like in Paradise, the presence of an older population would make evacuation more difficult; Shingletown’s median age is 61, according to census figures.

It’s little wonder that when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Cal Fire to develop a list of urgent fire-safety projects, a plan to trim 1,124 acres of vegetation along Highway 44 came up as the top priority out of 35 projects around the state.

Locals say they’re glad the state is paying attention to a problem they know too well. The community had to evacuate when the Ponderosa Fire, started by a lightning strike, hit in 2012. The fire burned 27,676 acres — 43 square miles — and torched 52 homes in the vicinity.

“We’re intimately aware of the dangers up here,” Twist said.

——

Nevada City: picturesque and risky

Population (2010) — 3,068 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 3,064

Since the Camp Fire, Vicky Guyette has looked at the one-acre patch of untrimmed brush behind her mother’s Victorian-era home in Nevada City as more than just an unattractive nuisance.

Now, the brush is ominous — an ignition source that could torch the home built in 1859 that her family has lived in for five generations.

The same anxiety also applies to the cedars, pines and brush covering the hills around this foothill city of about 3,100 people, many of whom live or work in wooden buildings dating back to the the Gold Rush era.

“It’s very scary, especially since it’s such a cute little town I’ve been living in my whole life,” Guyette said recently as she walked down the city’s historic Broad Street, which looks like it fell out of a photo from a museum exhibit.

City officials agree that the wooded draws, steep hillsides, narrow residential streets, ancient homes and thick urban tree canopy that define the character of the city also make it particularly at risk if a fire burns through.

“Nevada City’s single largest risk for human life and financial loss is fire,” Nevada City’s hazard mitigation plan reads.

In recent decades, the city also has had some near misses with fire, including one major close call.

In 1988, heavy winds pushed the 49er Fire through 52 square miles of western Nevada County, burning 312 buildings and dozens of cars.

“At the time it was considered an anomalous event,” said Billy Spearing of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County. “It was not the normal for them then.”

With such fires becoming the new normal, Cal Fire is planning to cut a 1,802 acre fire break in southwest Nevada County in terrain that hasn’t burned in a century, helping protect both Nevada City and the adjacent community of Grass Valley, home to more than 12,000.

Nevada City also embarked on an online “Goat Fund Me” campaign to raise $25,000 to hire farmers to use their goats to eat dense brush in more than 450 acres of city-owned greenbelt.

The goats recently chewed a swath through Pioneer Park near Margaret Rodda’s Victorian home, which sits on a steep draw above a creek. But she’s still worried.

“All it takes is a drunk with a cigarette,” she said.

The goats inspired Guyette. She said she might spend the $500 to put a herder’s goats to work on the thorny thicket of blackberries behind her mother’s house.

“We need to get rid of them,” she said.

—-

Colfax: Fire is on everyone’s minds

Population (2010) — 1,963 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone –1,963

On his first full day in office, Newsom visited the Cal Fire station in Colfax to announce new initiatives on wildfire safety. As he spoke to reporters, surrounded by first responders, he was standing in a city that could burn any summer.

“The people who live here have a true understanding,” said Colfax City Manager Wes Heathcock. “It’s always on the back of people’s minds, especially with the most recent fires, the Camp Fire. We have a similar makeup here.”

At night in the summer, Aimee Costa, who lives on a hill above the elementary school, sometimes keeps her window open, the better to hear ominous sounds.

“You’re laying in bed . listening for that lick, that smack, that pop sound,” Costa said, describing the sound flames would make if they were chewing pine needles, brush and leaves.

A former supply hub for gold mining camps, Colfax sits a few miles from the edge of the Tahoe National Forest in the lower-elevation Sierra. It straddles Interstate 80 and serves as the last major stop between the Sacramento metropolitan area and the Lake Tahoe region. Horses graze beside deer on large ranchettes in the rugged brushy canyons along the outskirts of the city.

The terrain poses a major fire risk.

In July 2015, the Lowell Fire erupted near Colfax and chewed up thousands of acres along the north side of the freeway, forcing evacuations in adjacent Nevada County. In the years since, Heathcock said the city has been working with state officials on “fuelbreak” projects, including a spot near the high school and elementary school, which has been eyed as an evacuation site.

Gene Mapa, who lived in Paradise and escaped the Camp Fire with some family photographs — and nothing else — has relocated to Colfax, where he already owned a second home. But he knows he hasn’t escaped the fire risk; his property just outside the city limits would be threatened by a windy firestorm like the one that engulfed Paradise.

“With that wind, there would be no stopping it anywhere,” Mapa said.

—-

Kings Beach: Tourists seek fun, bring fire danger

Population (2010) — 3,796 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone –3,796

Situated on the pristine north shore of Lake Tahoe, Kings Beach is one of the most heavily visited vacation spots in Northern California.

That’s a big part of the problem.

Because so much of the population comes and goes, it becomes harder to get people to treat wildfire risk with the respect it deserves, said Erin Holland, a spokeswoman for the North Tahoe Fire Protection District. One of the district’s six stations is in Kings Beach.

“It is definitely a challenge because we have so many homes that are vacation homes,” she said. “It’s really a challenge to educate those visitors . They want to have a camp fire.”

Tahoe’s vulnerability to major fires was brought home dramatically in recent years. The Angora Fire in 2007, while it was confined to the south shore area, left physical and emotional scars on the entire basin after burning through 3,100 acres.

Holland said getting the region’s property owners and visitors to observe “defensible space” regulations is particularly difficult. Those rules call for clearing brush 100 feet around buildings and include stricter rules regarding vegetation immediately adjacent to structures.

Violators can be subject to citations, but “the goal is to really educate people, to get people complying,” Holland said. “We go the education route rather than the citation route.”

—-

Pollock Pines: Do the transplants get it?

Population (2010) — 6,877 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 6,533

Just off Highway 50, a few miles from the tourist haven of Apple Hill, Pollock Pines lures transplants from coastal California, mainly retirees drawn to the lovely stands of trees in the foothill community at the edge of the Eldorado National Forest.

Heather Campbell only wishes the newbies had a better understanding of what all that timber represents.

Campbell, a retired U.S. Forest Service employee who’s lived in Pollock Pines since the 1990s, is the head of the Pollock Pines-Camino Fire Safe Council, a volunteer group.

In the past few years her organization has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly from the state’s “cap and trade” carbon trading program, to trim vegetation on the ridgeline south of Highway 50.

That’s all well and good, she said, but more needs to be done. And the people of Pollock Pines, including the newcomers, have to realize what’s at stake.

“Here, everybody allows all the saplings and brush to grow and they don’t weed it out,” she said. “All these roads are incredibly dangerous, when it’s so easy to take out pruners. Take out your pruners!”

She said memories are still vivid of the Sand Fire in 2014. That fire burned 4,200 acres and 20 homes and came dangerously close to forcing a major evacuation in Pollock Pines and surrounding communities.

“They were going to evacuate 9,000 people,” she said. “They were predicting the fire to go to 27,000 acres, instead of the 4,000 they stopped it at.”

—-

Arnold: Trees are falling in Big Trees country

Population (2010) — 3,843 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 3,843

In the community that serves as gateway to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, residents didn’t always applaud when officials began mapping plans to thin dense stands of trees to reduce fire risk.

“Arnold resisted this for a long time because people love their trees,” said Steve Wilensky, a former Calaveras County supervisor who works with nonprofits to improve fire safety in the Sierra.

After years of protests, Arnold’s residents got a major wake-up call in 2015. The Butte Fire, caused by power lines, took out 549 homes in nearby communities. Two people died.

“If the weather hadn’t changed, they’d be gone,” Wilensky said of Arnold. “You’ve got a real parallel with Paradise in some ways . It’s a place that is really highly threatened.”

Arnold sits on a ridge, surrounded by a dense forest of drought- and beetle-killed trees. Powerful wind gusts can funnel fire up rugged brushy canyons.

A key difference between Paradise and Arnold is that as many as 45 per cent of the dwellings are vacation homes, which can sometimes make it a challenge to get out-of-town homeowners to do brush clearing, local officials said.

Wilensky said momentum to reduce fire risk has built since the Butte Fire. More than $15 million in state and federal funds have gone to thinning dangerous overgrowth in the region, Wilensky said.

One project includes using bulldozer lines that were cut during the Butte Fire to expand a fire break that stretches to town.

“Arnold is the anchor end of this project,” Wilensky said.

—-

Wofford Heights: Apathy in a danger zone?

Population (2010) — 2,201 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 2,147

The same powerful desert gusts that attract wind surfers to Kern County’s Lake Isabella make the lakeside community of Wofford Heights particularly at risk for wildfire. So does the adjacent Sequoia National Forest, which has been plagued by drought and tree-killing beetles.

Yet some feel that the region isn’t doing nearly enough to combat the threat.

“We could do a hell of a lot more than we’re doing,” said Judy Hyatt, who lived in the area for 15 years and served as president of the region’s fire safe council. The volunteer group disbanded in recent years from what she and others described as a lack of interest.

In 2016, the Lake Isabella region suffered through the Erskine and Cedar fires, which burned more than 77,000 acres and more than 300 structures. An elderly couple was killed when they were trapped by the Erskine Fire.

According to census figures, the median age of those living in Wofford Heights is 62, and many live in places with poor escape routes.

“Some of those mobiles up there, honest to God, I think they’ve dropped them out of the sky,” Hyatt said. “The roads are so narrow, and it really just presents an obstacle and the only way to really get to it is by air. That is when people start to die.”

Hyatt said the loss of the non-profit Kern River Fire Safe Council she once headed doesn’t bode well for the community. She said the council organized wood-chipping drives to encourage residents to remove wood debris and sought grants for fuel breaks and other thinning projects.

She said too many locals have grown complacent.

“Fire prevention is a nebulous thing,” she said. “It’s hard to quantify, until there’s a damned fire that takes out everything.”

—-

La Canada Flintridge: Is aggressive fire prevention enough?

Population (2010) — 20,048 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 20,048

Carol Settles and her family evacuated their home in La Canada Flintridge during the Station Fire in 2009. But she isn’t terribly worried about a repeat performance — even though her home is on a dead-end street below a brushy hillside of the Angeles National Forest. Large electrical transmission lines run along the wooded draw behind her home.

“We’ve never seen a spark,” Settles said, referring to the power lines. “We’ve never seen any of that.”

Best-known as home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the outskirts of Pasadena, the upper middle-class city has an aggressive fire-prevention program. The Los Angeles County fire department checks properties in Settles’ area once a year to make sure vegetation has been cleared and hazardous landscaping hasn’t been planted.

Fines can be issued for non-compliance. Recently, one of Settles’ neighbours had to saw off the top of a pine tree because it was too close to a transmission tower, she said.

Los Angeles County’s assistant fire chief, J. Lopez, said La Canada Flintridge has embraced rigorous fire-safety standards, which include annual landscaping inspections and stringent fire-safe building codes, even for large home remodels. Lopez said La Canada Flintridge also chose to place the entire city inside a high fire hazard zone, going beyond the recommendation of Cal Fire. That decision translates into citywide enforcement of its fire-resilient building codes.

“That’s a very progressive way to look at it,” Lopez said.

But since 2008, on average only about a dozen new homes have been built in La Canada Flintridge each year, meaning most of the housing stock was built before the rigorous fire standards were in place.

The city’s hazard mitigation plan notes many of those older homes still have “combustible roofing, open eaves, combustible siding,” and they’re on “steep, narrow, poorly signed” roads that make evacuations dangerous.

Thomas Caswell, who’s lived for four decades on a hilly, narrow, dead-end street not far from city hall, said he knows the greenbelt behind his house where he watches possums, birds and other wildlife also makes the community vulnerable to fire. It’s why he says he didn’t mind paying when the city told him he needed to hire a tree service to remove dying trees in his front yard.

Still, he knows such efforts probably wouldn’t do much good if the Santa Ana winds pushed a fire into the city. Fire officials said that La Canada Flintridge could have burned in the Station Fire if the Santa Ana winds hadn’t stopped blowing. The fire burned 89 homes in outlying communities and 160,577 acres of forested lands, the largest fire by land mass in Los Angeles County history.

“Once it comes down the hill,” Caswell said, “nobody is going to be safe.”

—-

Rancho Palos Verdes: Few fears in an affluent suburb

Population (2010) — 41,803 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 40,550

Rancho Palos Verdes holds a dubious honour: It’s the most populated city in California to have 90 per cent or more of its population living within a “very high fire hazard severity zone.” But few residents seem to think their suburb is in the same league as Malibu, where hundreds of homes burned last fall just up the Los Angeles County coastline.

“It’s not like living in Malibu, definitely,” said Gregory Lash as he strolled through a public access walkway in the Trump National Golf Club with his wife, Vivian, on the way to an oceanside park where a pod of dolphins and whales were breaching.

He added, moments later: “Hope that’s not naive.”

City officials say it’s not.

“This being a coastal community, we don’t get the type of brush and that kind of fire behaviour that you might get in somewhere like Paradise,” said Scott Hale, an assistant fire chief for Los Angeles County. The county leads firefighting efforts on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, whose four affluent communities all fall inside a high fire severity zone.

Locals point out that over the years, the firefighters at the five stations on the peninsula have quickly knocked down the relatively small fires that popped up.

Still, Rancho Palos Verdes’ hazard mitigation plan lists wildfire as a bigger threat to the city than earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides. Powerful winds that blow from the coast could funnel a fire up the greenbelts that cut through the peninsula’s neighbourhoods, many of which have opulent homes perched above canyons.

Much of that open space has been preserved by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, which manages more than 1,600 acres of land in and around the city. Residents such as Lash love the 42 miles of trails on conservancy lands, but all that undeveloped acreage could ignite, said Gabriella Yap, deputy city manager.

“You’re trying to preserve that, but it also comes with fire risk,” Yap said.

The city’s staff supports Southern California Edison’s plans to trim vegetation from under the lines that run through some of the open space to reduce fire threats, but the land conservancy is bristling at the loss of native habitats.

“The environmental impact of that is really significant,” said Adrienne Mohan, the conservancy’s executive director.

—-

Harbison Canyon: Will it burn a third time?

Population (2010) — 3,841 ‘ In Very High Hazard Fire Severity Zone — 3,841

Every 30 years or so, a massive fire blows through Harbison Canyon, 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

The 1970 Laguna Fire destroyed much of the unincorporated town that sits inside the canyon and shares its name. Harbison Canyon was rebuilt again after the Cedar Fire burned through in 2003, destroying 287 of the 388 homes.

Rick Halsey of the Chaparral Institute said the canyon is a painful example of how development has been allowed to continue practically unchecked for decades into some of California’s most fire-prone places.

“You want to create a geographical hotspot for fire, you couldn’t put it in a better place,” said Halsey, whose environmentalist organization was founded to fight calls for clearing hundreds of square miles of wild lands following the Cedar Fire. “It’s like a bowling alley for the Santa Ana winds.”

That sort of talk makes longtime resident Mary Manning cringe.

She worries that focusing on the canyon’s fire risk creates the impression that the community she loves can’t be saved from the next catastrophe. She said her community could be made more safe if state and local officials would invest in infrastructure and fire prevention that matched the rates of development she’s seen over the years. For instance, the side streets in Harbison Canyon are narrow. Some, like Manning’s, remain unpaved despite decades of building.

“There were five houses, now there are 35,” she said of the street she’s lived on since 1975.

Manning notes it was only two years ago that the local fire station became staffed 24 hours a day — 14 years after the Cedar Fire. Inside the station, Dave Nissen, the Cal Fire official who oversees firefighting in the area, said there are a number of challenges to fighting a fire in the canyon, including the narrow roads and houses stacked close together.

Nissen said firefighters reduce the risks by inspecting lots every year to make sure they’re not overgrown. On that front, Harbison Canyon’s residents don’t seem to need too much prodding, judging from the roar of chain saws and weed trimmers echoing through the canyon on a recent spring weekday afternoon.

—-

Associated Press data reporter Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this article.

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I was Anthony Bourdain's 'censor' at CNN (opinion) – CNN

I was Anthony Bourdain’s ‘censor’ at CNN (opinion) – CNN

Marianna Spicer Joslyn is executive director of News Standards and Practices at CNN. Prior to her 24 years at CNN, she was executive producer of CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” producer of ABC News’ “This Week With David Brinkley,” “World News Saturday and Sunday,” and “The Health Show,” and an associate producer and writer for CBS’ 60 Minutes” and “CBS Reports.” The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. View more opinion articles on CNN. The final season of CNN’s “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” premiers Sunday, September 23, at 9 pm ET. (CNN) I was Anthony Bourdain’s “censor” at CNN. No, we don’t really have “censors,” per se, at CNN — we have Standards and Practices. I was the lucky one in our department to review “Parts Unknown” for things like graphic language or pictures, political bent or historical tweaking. I never met him. I never even spoke to him. I didn’t have to. He spoke to me, and everyone else, through his work. As a former documentarian, I especially appreciated the sheer beauty of his programs, and the talents of his team. I was blown away by the photography, the direction, the editing and, of course, the writing. Anthony Bourdain’s fans leave tributes at the restaurant where it all began As many have remarked, Bourdain had a very distinctive voice. As a writer for “60 Minutes,” I did preliminary scripts for the likes of Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley and Diane Sawyer. I tried to hear their voices in my head as I wrote those initial tracks. I don’t think I could have done that for Anthony Bourdain. His voice was too personal … so visceral. I didn’t know how he felt about what he was experiencing. Only he could tell us. Read More Tony — and I think of him that way rather than by his formal name — spoke plainly. Writers like him don’t write to impress, they don’t try to write poetry, and they don’t even think about the impact their words will have. They write to share their experience as they are experiencing it — not as a travelogue, but more trying to put you there with them. They can tell us what they see and hear and smell and taste and in a way that is organic. Chef Edward Lee: Bourdain changed my life For someone used to dealing with what news standards should be for our network, trying to find the “bar” for “Parts Unknown” was its own journey. It’s well known that Tony was profane. This was something new for CNN. We had hired him wanting him and everything that went along with it. But even though CNN is cable, it is also a brand. It’s the most widely respected news network in the world, our viewers tell us, and we really don’t want profane vernacular coming out of our anchors’ mouths. But we hired Tony to be Tony. Dilemma. So someone came up with the arbitrary “two shits per show.” F-words were verboten and muted, although of course you could see what was being said. Tony joked about the “two shits” rule on late night TV and said he was negotiating for three for the next season. I have to say, I eventually gave up on the “shits.” But those weren’t the biggest problem. Anthony Bourdain was a voice for the underdog Tony loved talking about genitals. Mostly his. “Be careful after eating spicy foods to wash your hands before relieving yourself” was his favorite. Various bugs and reptiles climbing up his pants and endangering the jewels was another. Then there was the show where people were leaping in ponds and having to spend the rest of the day with “moist nuts.” Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Tony made sure you knew how his body functions were impacted. On a trip to the French Alps with his good buddy and fellow chef Eric Ripert, where both of them ate copious amounts of cheese fondue, Tony warned Eric that he would be having large, concrete-like bowel movements. I learned that “crap” and “shit” were different. Who knew? For one of the last episodes, about the Lower East Side of New York, I paid no attention to the “shits” uttered by Tony and his various guests. The multiple f-words, uttered equally by Tony and his dinner companions, would be muted. But in this episode, Tony’s guests were, hard to believe, more profane than he was. They told tales of 60’s NYC and the very gritty art and music scene. A lunch companion, guest/singer/performer Lydia Lunch, spoke plainly about what it took to make it in the 60’s — hand jobs under the table to get her band to Europe. And that’s one of her milder utterances. And millennials think they invented shock value. Let’s just say “let it all hang out” wasn’t a metaphor. JUST WATCHED W. Kamau Bell remembers Anthony Bourdain Replay More Videos … MUST WATCH W. Kamau Bell remembers Anthony Bourdain 15:22 The producers at Zero Point Zero and I had many discussions over the dispatching of animals. I’ve since read what Tony wrote about that, and I wished I’d read it before. He was on the record as saying after he killed his first pig with a spear, which he felt obligated to do, having ordered the execution of many, many animals as a chef, he felt it was hypocritical not to show where our food comes from. Again, cable is not necessarily cable news. I am an animal lover and admittedly in denial about continuing to eat meat while I can’t stand the thought, let alone the sight, of killing animals. I didn’t feel our audience was ready for Tony’s level of reality. I challenged his executive producer with the question, “Would Tony want to bring a cow out to his dinner guests to see its butchering?” We compromised, but not much. Of course, Tony was very, very funny. We had to seek a middle ground in many areas, especially politics. In one episode, Tony described a particularly disgusting-sounding food he tried somewhere in Africa as being so good he would “eat it out of Chris Christie’s jock on a hot summer day.” Besides the fact that, at the time, Christie was a sitting governor and a presidential candidate, there was the TMI factor. Then the “fat joke” factor. I have the fortunate alternative of kicking these decisions to the next level. It passed, under the “let Tony be Tony” rule. Anthony Bourdain saw the humanity in all of us Tony seemed to love all things shocking, not really a surprise given his personal journey, because after all, what was really shocking to him? In an episode on Tokyo, he reveled in following a couple who “taught” bondage. There were many extended scenes of “fun with ropes” that rubbed my bosses the wrong way — if you’ll forgive the pun — but Tony loved it. My responsibilities included looking at several cuts of each program — rough cut, fine cut, picture lock. I actually needed to look at all the cuts because I was convinced Tony (or maybe his producers?) loved playing the game of “what else can I sneak in here that standards might miss on the second cut.” Blurs needed to be checked and rechecked. Was there anything new? I’m sure I was just paranoid … maybe. One of my favorite challenges over the past five years was an episode on Chicago, where Tony visited a bar whose owner was also a painter. His work was primarily of political icons. One such painting was of Sarah Palin, naked, holding a shotgun, with a turkey being dispatched behind her. Uh. No. Please cover the vice presidential candidate’s private parts. Made me think the show might be called “Private Parts Unknown.” Follow CNN Opinion Join us on Twitter and Facebook Like his viewers, I fell in love with Tony. He was a brilliant writer and storyteller, and you saw his toughness and sensed his vulnerability. His team at ZPZ are the most gifted filmmakers I have seen in a long, long time. His shows were brilliantly shot, directed and edited, always. His writing was poetry, although his friends say he denied being a poet. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate and will miss my small part in this program. And my small connection with one of the most brilliant storytellers of our generation. I will miss his voice. I already miss his voice. I have no claim to being more distraught over Tony’s passing than any of his fans, and not in the same league as those who knew and worked with him. But like those who did know him well, I am really angry at his loss, and deeply sad. His kind won’t come our way again.

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