#What is Delta Plus variant

[steviescrystals]

the last post i reblogged just reignited my rage over something that happened my freshman year of college so mini rant in the notes lol

[covid-safer-hotties]

Summer COVID-19 wave arrives in St. Louis. The scale is tough to judge. - Published Aug 14, 2024

ST. LOUIS — A summer wave of COVID-19 has swept across the country and into St. Louis, finding a region far better-equipped to face the virus than in years past but still vulnerable to its disruptions.

Because fewer people are getting sick enough to require hospitalization — and the bulk of COVID-19 tests are now administered in the privacy of peoples' homes rather than at clinics, hospitals and pharmacy drive-thru windows — experts are finding it difficult to judge the scale of the wave.

But it is clear that more people are catching the virus now compared with earlier this summer.

Virus levels in wastewater, detected through sewershed testing, have jumped. BJC HealthCare reported seeing more COVID-positive patients. And officials advise the area's residents to take stock of their vaccination plans for this summer and fall.

"I think we don't really have the full picture yet because it is still ongoing," said Dr. Hilary Babcock, an infectious disease expert at Washington University who serves as vice president and chief quality officer for BJC. "It hasn't been a really sharp spike. ... It kind of slowly rose and just kind of keeps slowly inching up locally."

Babcock said BJC has seen a consistent rate of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 through most of the year, and the number has remained flat during the recent uptick of cases. Statewide, however, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show an increase in the portion of hospitalized patients with the virus.

Marc Johnson, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine who is involved with the state's wastewater testing efforts, said there haven't been any obvious changes in the way recent virus variants behave. Whenever a new variant emerges, experts look for changes in its ability to transmit from person to person, cause severe illness and overcome built-up immunity from vaccines and previous infections.

"But," he added, "those are things that are hard to tease out. It's usually much later that you can kind of look retrospectively and see, 'Oh, delta (an early variant) had much more of this or that.'"

Since the onset of COVID-19, doctors have questioned whether the virus would eventually settle into a regular, seasonal pattern like the flu, which circulates year-round but peaks between December and February.

Babcock said that including the recent summer wave, the virus is showing clear signs of seasonality, defined by a winter surge and a summer surge.

Each winter, COVID-19 cases have spiked to varying degrees. And the summers have also seen waves — though last year the increase was smaller and began later.

"People are still trying to understand what drives the surges that we have each year for all respiratory viruses, honestly, including flu," Babcock said. But the virus that causes COVID-19 seems to mutate quickly. The summer infections hit almost a year after most people have received the vaccine, new versions of which are typically rolled out in autumn.

"The summer surge kind of falls into this funny place, from an immune perspective," she said.

An updated vaccine is expected this fall and will offer stronger protection against the most recent versions of the virus. But some people might consider getting the shots that are currently available, Babcock said, in light of the recent uptick.

During pregnancy, for instance, people are at higher risk of complications and severe illness from COVID-19, Babcock said. Plus, some of the benefits from the vaccine can be passed along to the child. People who are about to travel or who are at risk for severe complications from COVID-19 might talk to their doctors about getting vaccinated now, Babcock said, or simply exercise more precautions while awaiting the updated shots.

Babcock said she hasn't made any changes to the precautions she takes day to day. She has continued to wear masks in airports and on airplanes, where it's not possible to distance oneself from others.

"I think the most important thing for people is to be sure that they don't go out themselves if they're sick," she said, "and that they stay home to minimize the risk to others around them."

[gremoria411]

Seeing as I’ve recently finished the model kit, let’s discuss the Delta Gundam today.

I’m specifically going to be talking about the design and it’s variants. What I’m not going to be talking about is the Hyaku Shiki, and it’s variants, since those are a whole separate topic I want to cover at some point, though I will be comparing to the base Hyaku Shiki at times.

So, the Delta Gundam is the original prototype design to the Hyaku Shiki (or at least close enough there’s little difference). Had it been built it would have been one of the first transformable mobile suits of the Gryps war. However, the frame suffered from structural issues, so it was instead completed as the Hyaku Shiki, which would be piloted by Quattro Bajeena (Aka Char Aznable) during the Gryps War. It’s one of the few mobile suits that we know for a fact was never built (at least at the moment) and is arguably the closest Char ever got to piloting a Gundam-type mobile suit (discounting the Mk-II heist at the start of the Gryps war).

I think it’s honestly gorgeous, for being the in-universe first crack at third-generation mobile suits. A lot of the design feels very Zeta-esque to me, but it’s got more heft to it comparatively (probably because of the wing binders). I absolutely love the head, it just looks so sinister and it contains the same IDE (Image Directive Encode) system that made the original Hyaku Shiki such a good sniper. The rifle is also very nice, it’s got a very gryps-era design, but it somehow feels fuller and deadlier. The Delta Gundam stores it’s beam sabers in its shield, where they also function as beam guns. Honestly, I forget about this feature a lot simply because that’s something that was more common during the Neo Zeon War, and it makes the Delta Gundam feel overarmed to me. It’s just such a lovely blend of the Zeta, Hyaku Shiki and Mk-II, which were fairly light on integrated weaponry. The design also feels considerably more contemporary - it’s officially part of the Gundam Unicorn MSV, despite it being in-universe from the Gryps War, so it’s possible that this is an in-universe “refined” concept. The comparatively simple design also makes its unique features (the wings, the head, the gold) pop more.

The Delta Plus.

The Delta Plus is a limited production suit built by Anaheim Electronics based no the original Delta Gundam. It’s essentially a mashup of the Delta Gundam and the Zeta Plus series. Compared to its predecessor, it trades the golden Anti-Beam coating for heavier firepower and a transformation system that actually works. It’s also equipped with a simple bio-sensor for use by newtypes.

For Armaments, it retains the Vulcans, Beam Sabers (and thus beam guns) and (now-optional) beam rifle of its predecessor, while it gains a 2-barrel grenade launcher and besm cannon, both built into the shield. Additionally, it was equipped with a Long Mega Buster, first used by the Full Armour Hyaku Shiki Kai, as standard armament. Why is this important? Because the Long Mega Buster is essentially a handheld version of the Original Hyaku Shiki’s Mega Bazooka Launcher, giving the Delta Plus significant firepower compared to its predecessors. It would be piloted by Riddhe Marcenas during the LA+ Incident (or Third Neo Zeon War).

So what do I think about it? Ehhh….. I don’t really dislike the design, but it’s just a little drab. It suffers because I like both the Delta Gundam and the Hyaku Shiki, so despite the armament increase, the Delta Plus just feels like a downgrade. I like the Zeta Plus series, which the Delta Plus takes obvious influence from, but the problem is that I like them because they have a soft, rounded, aerodynamic look compared to the sleek, angular nature of the original Zeta Gundam. The Delta Plus is just more lines and angles, it feels too different from them from a design perspective. There’s also it’s usage in the story, which I want to talk about.

Okay, I understand why Riddhe’s in Unicorn. I understand who he is and what he represents so I don’t really have to like him, per se. I view him getting the Delta Plus as shorthand for “he’s an important character now, pay attention” and because people like the Hyaku Shiki, he gets a suit based on that. Problem is, other than being able to independently enter the atmosphere (*cough* Ballutes *cough*), I don’t really see what the Delta Plus adds that wouldn’t be provided by a ReZel. I’ll admit this is partially because I’ve been coming around to liking the ReZel a lot more lately, but I just don’t think the Delta Plus adds much. The Delta Plus is eventually absolutely mauled by the Banshee, and while it’s a pretty good “death” scene, it’s destroyed functionally so Riddhe can get a new suit. I mentioned it contains a simple bio-sensor before, but despite Riddhe’s newtype potential, I don’t think it ever comes up in-series.

The Gundam Delta Kai

A thoroughly upgraded Delta Plus, designed as a next-gen demonstration machine. It’s essentially chock-full of fancy weaponry and experimental systems.

Honestly, it’s equipped with a lot of optional weaponry that I wasn’t aware of, so I’m just going to be focusing on its “basic” loadout here (IE What’s on the model kit). It’s equipped with Vulcans, Beam Sabers (which again double as beam guns), a Long Mega Buster (as with the Delta Plus), a High Mega Cannon, built into the shield and based on the ZZ (though with the output ratcheted back quite significantly), and finally, some proto fin funnels swiped from the Nu Gundam’s development. It’s also equipped with the n_i_t_r_o system, which temporarily enhances a normal pilot into a cyber Newtype and causes the mobile suit to emit blue flames. It also makes the pilot unusually aggressive and unstable. So, basically an EXAM system in a hat and moustache. Honestly, I tend to forget about it.

So, the Gundam Delta Kai is gorgeous. It’s a fourth-gen mobile suit with a bunch of armaments, I like how the blue and yellow break up the predominantly while colour scheme and it’s got an actual Gundam-style head. Though I wasn’t able to find a good picture of the shield it integrates far better than you’d expect from its design. The funnels are oversized and delightful, since they change its whole silhouette and give the impression of an increased armament (if the high mega cannon didn’t already). I also want to call out that I especially love the thruster design on this thing. 10/10, no further notes.

The Gundam Delta Kai would eventually be upgraded into the Land Combat Gundam Delta Kai. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really have much of an opinion of this one. Or really anything to say about it.

The Delta Gundam II.

An identical, red copy of the original Delta Gundam, its plans were pitched to Karaba in November of UC 0087, in the middle of the Gryps War, but it was rejected due to the fact it would take too much time to be built. Out-of-universe, it’s an excuse to sell the Delta Gundam in Char’s colours, but I find I rather like it. The flat colours allows the design to take on greater definition in some areas (such as the head) and to pleasingly evokes the Zero-Shiki (and thus the Rick Dias) to me.

Finally, we come to the Mega-Shiki. A Gunpla ordered by Team G-Master for the Gunpla Battle Championship, built by Minato Sakai. It’s essentially a purple mash-up of the Delta Gundam and Hyaku-Shiki, with an integrated Mega-Rider from ZZ as its backpack.

Armaments are: Vulcan Guns in the head, a beam rifle identical to that of the Delta Gundam, two beam sabers styled after samurai swords (functioning similarly to Beam Cutlasses from Gundam Crossbone) and the Mega Beam Cannon mounted on the Mega Rider backpack (honestly it’s called a beam cannon, high mega beam cannon, mega launcher, so I just made my best guess. It’s essentially the Hyaku Shiki’s Mega Bazooka Launcher but better integrated). It retains the anti-beam coating of its predecessors, but it’s coloured purple.

The Mega Shiki is another of those rare models I would get to mod and paint. The purple colour scheme doesn’t do it for me, but it could be repainted in a variety of Gryps-war appropriate colour schemes that I’d find quite enjoyable. I like how the Mega Rider’s integrated, but I’d honestly much rather knock it off, replace the backpack with a standard Hyaku-Shiki one, and use it as the Hyaku-Shiki does - a sort-of sub-flight system meets really big gun. I understand the idea behind the beam katana’s but I just don’t really think they add anything to the design. In a nutshell, it’s a nice concept, but the execution feels like it’s going in too many directions at once. It is my understanding that the HG model contains several spare Delta Gundam Parts however, such as the head (but not the backpack), so it does have options as a model.

[spidermilkshake]

Until September

More RE fanfics--more mutants, more corporate shenanigans. There is fluff! Also a rival company commando is blitzed by a Tyrant, but, uh, this is Resident Evil. Even the nicest scenes are bookended by scary.

Rating: Teen (TW for suggestive language, human experimentation, dehumanization, medical/lab settings and stuff, plus also human adults cuss like human adults, some obvious child neglect and endangerment, alcohol abuse, implied animal abuse)

Mr. X's long first assignment--to be upper-level Tyrant Project researcher Dr. Julian Ramirez's personal bodyguard as he spends his summer at his fancy house bought with his evil corporation money. Having a test mission prototype Tyrant on your property to help flatten any intruders or rival company agents that sneak in is apparently a common perk if the company's board likes your work. Ramirez, uh, has an interesting home life, and T-00 is smart enough to detect some of that despite this being its first experience of humans not poking it in a lab or putting it through combat training in a top-secret facility...

5: Until September

            From that point, after a short cargo helicopter ride and another in the back of a large civilian armored car, T-00… “Mr. X”… experienced the brief life of Dr. Ramirez’s at-home lab.

            Situated in a cozy, deep-red corner of northern California, the man had the benefit of the rural landscape for all manner of reasons. One being his bunker laboratory which he fiddled around with variants of common viral and bacterial elements within, as well as examining various domesticated animal species’ genomes to try and discover another, more advantageous quirk that could be added to the Tyrant project. Some of the sources of these genomes could be found on the small attached ranch property in the form of a somewhat decrepit horse and several large, semi-feral cattle. A highly-pampered golden retriever mix also bounced its way around the property, but it could hardly be lumped in with the farm animals considering how loving and attentive Dr. Ramirez seemed to become on sight of the canine. This animal was about as untrained as the cows—though it balked at any close quarters with the Tyrant, probably smelling something was off about the inoffensive but intimidating newcomer.

            The Tyrant was ushered swiftly into a portion of the swanky abode which bordered the laundry and a small guest room on the first day. Between these two locations, the doctor had prepared a simple rest area for the bioweapon to reside in while it was not to be seen—roughly the size of the small laundry though without the obstructing machines, T-00 noted the heavily-built twin bedframe and the fitting mattress, which it assumed it was meant to rest on. It… was not bad, now that it had a few minutes to contemplate it.

            Okay, it was more than “not bad”. Mattresses were invented for a reason, and the insufficient nature of those holding chamber benches became richly obvious to the beast that had never experienced proper back support before. It had slept a solid nine hours the first night, until summoned by a cheerful call of its nickname—the longest stint of sleep it had ever known.

            Otherwise, the Tyrant which Dr. Ramirez called “Mr. X” stayed a moment, or a meter or two, behind him (depending on what the man requested, and what the Tyrant’s highly-tuned senses for danger dictated). The man spent a lot of time in the small bunker lab, checking fuse banks before booting up huge computers to run an equally massive hypermicroscope device in order to manipulate pieces of dead SARS and Hepatitis delta-virus, picking out segments of RNA and comparing them to Umbrella’s sample slides of base genes. He often made spunky commentary, knowing it was only the so-far nonverbal Tyrant hearing him, but based on his specific, jovial responses it knew he could only be speaking only to it.

            Despite the doctor’s fancy and frequent social life, he was very lonely. After dark fell, no other human occupied the languidly-spread and draftily large house in the hills. The man still chatted happily—sometimes too happily—with his newly-won bioweapon attendant.

            The bioweapon had once or twice also stepped out with him, and a very flinchy, nervous man whom the doctor’d called a “trainer”, to see the old horse and the half-dozen cows. T-00 eyed the dusty, vacantly-staring creatures staying well back from the bioweapon. They behaved much like B.O.W.s with none or very rusty training. The lone horse would come right to the gate for Dr. Ramirez’s trainer, even with the towering creature feet away, though the whites of its eyes flared plainly as it stood, ears pinning and legs shaking for the trainer to check its hooves and teeth.

            T-00 focused instead on the cows, not wishing to interfere unintentionally on the equine check-over. It locked eyes with a large, rusty-brown beast that had very small, stubby horns. The animal stamped its rear legs softly, nostrils flaring. Strange. The creature was fairly small compared to the others in the group, though it placed itself front and center regardless—a “leader” of sorts, making all of the protective motions towards the others that the position entailed. A much larger steer of a mostly black color hid ineffectually behind her—sharing many features with this cow.

            “Come on! We’re done Mr. X,” the doctor called from the gate, the first indication it had quietly shuffled a step inside the paddock area to watch the animals more closely. With an instinctual start, it turned and tromped off after its current objective.

            It wished the animals and its master’s use of the Tyrant as a social interaction stand-in had been the most predictable parts of its mission. No—that honor would go to the once-monthly incident of rival agents attempting to gain access to Ramirez’s nuclear-shielded bunker. Irritated out of its comfortable rest, the Tyrant followed the clinking and ticking of attempts to bypass the lock code and the other measures to find a body-armored individual in front of the small cellar entrance, like a sitting duck as they focused on the loud—annoying—puzzle portion. It wasn’t clear if they ever realized an eight-foot mutant weapon was creeping up on them before it happened. Regardless, Ramirez would have one of the informed Umbrella staff bag up the body and tote it off the next morning as the household came awake.

--------

            It was one week during the hellishly dry heat of summer than Mr. X encountered a true challenge to its adaptable wits—and it began more or less during one of the more predictable, boring parts of its duties. The bioweapon lurked a few meters behind the doctor in his home office, blocking the large window with its even larger back while Ramirez was distracted on the phone.

            The Tyrant could only guess at some of this, but it did recognize the codenames and designations used for various B.O.W.s:

            “So the train was just…? All of them?” Julian Ramirez scrubbed at his patchy stubble, “Jesus… Well, do you know how it happened? …Uh huh, I’m sure it came back inconclusive. There’s never any hypercompetitive, jealous pricks trying to off each other at Umbrella labs, huh.”

            “Speaking of, do you have any idea what they’re gonna do about Birkin?” There was a long pause before a tinny squeak of the other voice picked up, “Oh come on. They practically know it was him. Who else has been sabotaging projects involving T for months? …It was T on that train, right? …Okay, they even know it’s that strain—so who else has access to the Arklay lab who would?”

            There was an even longer silence this time before the other line began to speak again; and once it did Ramirez’s grip on the phone tightened, his dark complexion going sweaty and almost impossibly pale. The change was so extreme that T-00’s senses honed in and it watched its master with mounting concern, convinced the doctor was about to collapse out of some kind of medical distress.

            “… Since when? …Really, that recent?” He finally dredged up his voice again, wiping furiously at his brows and mustache, staring down at his own shaking hand in bafflement as if wondering who put all of that sweat there, “So where was Willy in all this?”

            “…Ah.”

            “So… they’re sure it wasn’t him… Well. I’ll see about giving Teifer a call soon if she’s got questions for me.”

            After Ramirez hung up, he glanced over his shoulder at his house-Tyrant with an indecipherable expression, which had Mr. X straightening up to full attention. Then, with a heavy sigh he turned in his chair towards the squat glass bottle of Pilár dark rum that he kept on one side of the desk and unscrewed the cap in a ritual which usually—T-00 had observed—took place later in the day. The powerful alcohol swirled into a coffee mug and shortly after was slammed into the man’s mouth, eliciting a rough grunt as he fought the burn of the unhealthily-large shot.

            Mr. X relaxed somewhat as Ramirez returned to the phone. The next conversation had more that the bioweapon recognized, but was even more confusing:

            “Hey, Teifer! It’s Ramirez,” he sounded as peppy as always, despite the haggard look in his eyes and the rum flooding into his bloodstream, “Yeah, he told me you needed to hear from me… eh? Ah, he did mention what happened up at the Arklay lab…”

            He leaned back, hooded eyes inspecting his propped-up shoes as he took in his colleague’s words. He rolled them upon a certain part of her story:

            “Hey, hey—you’re getting too stressed. Listen: I get the risk. But Cerberus specimens physically can’t spread the virus. That shouldn’t be your main concern.

            “Those dogs don’t have T in them anymore—they’re kinda like the modern Tyrants, alright? We enhance the genome, we infect—with the delta strain for the Cerberus—and let the mutation take its course, okay? Then when they’re fully baked, we quarantine the specimens, give them a T-virus vaccination, and a course of anti-retrovirals just to be sure before those guys go to training. Which, by the way, you should be able to get a hold of someone at N.E.S.T. with experience training animal B.O.W.s. They’ve got lots of new Hunters coming out of there, they can help you wrangle those dogs when the time comes…”

            “Hm? …Ah… Yeah, see, that one is a problem,” Ramirez’s shoulders finally slouched more naturally, and he got a level, if slightly slushy, tone of voice back, “Rabies is very real and a good explanation for any ‘public eye’ stuff… If the bear story is true you’ll want to get a squad with heavy weapons and track down every rabid animal claim in a five-mile radius, then be sure to bag and burn everything they shoot.”

            “..? Teifer, you know that’s even easier. Quarantine and trace identity, burn the premises, then let the weaponized-virals R&D team see the data.”

            “…What journalist?” At this new turn in the conversation Ramirez shot upright in his chair, “… You don’t have a name? …Uh-huh. … Hm. Well, if he knows too much he probably already knows he’s dead.”

            “Right. See you in fall. Bye now.”

            After Ramirez hung up, he sat for a long while, head in hands. Mr. X let a good ten minutes pass before the alarm bells started to go off, and the huge mutant huffed as it took a careful step forward. At the creak of the floors, Dr. Ramirez raised his head again.

            “Eh?” He twisted around, “What is it, Mr. X?”

            The bioweapon had a number of words that it might have wanted to put out—“Are you well?”, “What was that about?”, “Do you need help?”, or even “What the fuck?”—but it had no idea how to move its throat, or tongue, or lips to do such a thing. He did the next best thing: Mr. X grunted, managing to make the trailing end of the noise rise up in pitch with wordless questions, as humans did in such a situation.

            “Smart fella,” Ramirez gave a soft laugh. “One of these days I’ll have to get you practice in saying a few words. I’m fine. Can you just… turn and check out the window for a while? I have to call my ex,” he added the last part quickly, which while confusing did not hold up the Tyrant very long in turning around and scanning the exterior of the house for potential threats.

            The phone rang several times, with Ramirez left waiting. Mr. X’s pinprick pupils hovered over the entrance gate, then the edge of the pinyon treeline, then over to where the dog was laid out in a patch of dirt by one of the front garden walls. Finally, someone answered the doctor:

            “Linda… hey. No don’t—” there was an insistent buzz of muffled vocals from the speaker, “It’s about the weekend, Linda—look, you want me to just not warn you? Huh?”

            “Okay okay. Look, I just need you to know I have to be out a few hours Saturday to work with someone. Don’t worry—” he interrupted the agonized screech from the speaker, “—I have someone to watch her until I get back. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t walk back on this, mi amor.”

            “… Okay, Jesus, I won’t do it again. Just… noon Saturday, right? I’ll be there.”

            The phone slammed on the receiver. Mr. X peeked back over his lapels in anticipation of a command. There was only so much time in the office, however decorated and airy, that Ramirez could stand and Mr. X tended to agree with this habit. It was in the loft area of the house, and the ceilings were a foot too low for the Tyrant’s comfort.

            “Right. Mr. X?” The bioweapon swiveled around in reply, “I’m going to fetch some things from the basement. Take up a guard downstairs, yeah?”

            Mr. X nodded with eagerness, letting the somewhat tipsy human lead the way out the door and down the stairs. This was an ideal task for both of them, considering the ninety-plus temperatures outside, and once the man had vanished down the too-narrow steps to the musty, refreshingly cool basement level the Tyrant posted himself in a comfortable nook within sight of the open basement door, the front door, and the downstairs hall towards the kitchen area. It watched. Nothing much reached its eyes or ears—except for a distant snort of a horse or cow, a wasp bouncing against the nearest window in a frenzy to find food or shade, and a clatter followed by a Spanish-language curse from the cluttered sublevel. Business as usual.

-------

            On Saturday, the omen which Mr. X innocently overheard came to the doorstep.

            In the morning, with Ramirez nursing a pickle-juice-based hangover cocktail and holding a hardboiled egg like it was a sergeant’s switch from bygone days, Mr. X was confronted with a series of warnings which it knew right away were serious, very serious, and urgent… but that he didn’t entirely grasp right away.

            “Mr. X! Listen—listen,” the man pressed his eggless hand into the lapel of his tame mutant’s trenchcoat, “Today is going to be a bit different. I need you to be… uh… well… different.”

            T-00 stared down at the man pressing himself as close to its face as possible, and gave a low grunt as he tilted his head.

            “Well, I mean…” Ramirez let up on the contact, as aware as they came that pushing the living weapons too hard or confusing them with contradictory orders could come with serious consequences, “Mr. X, you are going to meet my daughter today. She’s visiting over the weekend and will be here until roughly 11 a.m. on Monday.”

            Ramirez waited, as if to hear an acknowledgement from the creature staring him down with wide, perplexed, but still willing eyes. The man sighed, leaning into his hands which had settled on the Tyrant’s chest, “While she’s here, I want you to put your protective orders over me as secondary. While she’s here, you protect her, is that understood?”

            Daughter. Mr. X had not heard anything of Ramirez’s family before, but it had an intuitive sense of what the word “DAUGHTER” meant. The creature took a deep, sharp inhale, then gave a rough, affirmative growl at the same time it bobbed its head.

            “Good… good…” Ramirez reached up and patted the Tyrant on the shoulder, grin of relief almost palpable without flashing it within sight. Mr. X reflexively swelled with the praise.

            “She’ll be here at noon, and you must watch over her very closely until about four. If she needs water, get her a cup and fill it from the fridge. If she gets hungry, take her to the bottom left cabinet and she’ll pick what she wants. Otherwise just make sure no one and nothing hurts her. I’ll introduce you—”

            —and then, the kitchen phone rang, and the pager on the doctor’s hip bleeped with an annoying tone. The man rounded and went to answer, while the biomutant stood silently processing the future orders. Daughter… did that mean juvenile or adult daughter? Probably… juvenile. It would not need to be providing water on demand to an adult, or show an adult to the bottom left cabinet. There was also no reason to limit an adult to that particular cabinet, which only contained the sacks of undiluted nutrient gel for its own fluid intake along with boxes of crackers, jars of peanut butter, and a few bags of veggie chips and other “health snacks” as the doctor had called them. It was… not exactly designed for the task of childcare, and it shuffled anxiously in place as it dawned on him that it would have to figure it out with no more instruction. It could… learn this… right?

            Humans seemed to be fairly unbothered by the duty to watch over their offspring—so it must not be that difficult.

------

            Mr. X had been ordered to stand still inside the gates of the garden in an area half-concealed with shade when the large sedan pulled into the gravel circle at the end of the rural mountain road and crunched to a stop. Its keen vision spotted the small figure step out of the passenger side and quickly have an arm snatched up in a control grip by the small woman who had emerged from the driver’s side. There was a bitter argument between all three, which quelled after a minute or two while the sedan’s engine puttered impatiently. The woman released the little one, who did not run to either parent and instead stepped towards the gate, keeping her large brown eyes on both of them, as if wary of them following her.

            After a minute the car’s engine revved up as it returned down the uneven paving, disappearing in a few seconds around a bend. Ramirez was left wearily standing by where it had once parked, a small bag dangling from one hand (presumably the belongings of his child, packed into a tiny, colorful package).

            Mr. X glanced down at a small sound and was suddenly locking eyes with the absolute tiniest human he had ever seen. Dark hair and cut short, dark skin with a few freckles, and those huge brown eyes which widened further upon noticing the massive, trenchcoat-clad form skulking just inside the property line.

            “Papá!” The shrill voice was at such decibels and pitch that the Tyrant was forced to stagger back. Such a tiny body was so, so loud! The bioweapon resisted the urge to raise up its hands to cup over its ears, but its knees did bend and buckle before the doctor rushed up and grabbed the girl around the shoulders:

            “What’s wrong, m’ija?”

            “M-monstruo!” She pointed straight to the half-subdued, heavily-stressed visage of the startled Tyrant.

            “Oh,” Ramirez hugged his daughter closer and chuckled, as if there was some clear, and obvious, and worse trivial confusion at play. He knelt to where he was halfway between his child and his personal Bio-Organic Weapon.

            “It’s okay, m’ija—this is my bodyguard. I promise, he’s nice, okay?”

            The child peeked over the shabby fabric of Ramirez’s polo shirt, meeting the obviously inhuman pupils of the giant form that had frightened her. Without telepathy, it was unknown if she found a lack of evil within, but she did relent and sniffle up the start of her tears.

            “Bodyguard?”

            “Sí, for work,” Ramirez gave a strained smile, “It’s okay, he won’t hurt you. Look, see? He didn’t mean to scare you.”

            The doctor had slightly pressed the girl further around his shoulder, closer to the colossal form. Mr. X sensed the girl’s resistance to this and took a step slightly back—almost mirroring her trying to push herself back away from it. Its hearts thudded stronger in a sympathetic feedback loop upon seeing the feeble struggle she was putting up against her own father. He was forcing her towards a powerful monster, knowing full well what it could do. What then could it do, a being built for combat?

            It did what only its inbuilt reflexes urged it to do—and bowed its head until it lost eye contact with either of them. Mr. X had assumed Dr. Ramirez’s child would know what a T-103 was. It was now clear that she did not know at all what he was; she might think it was a human. But a big human staring hard at a tiny child was… threatening.

            “You’re okay. C’mon let me introduce you!” Ramirez’s voice chimed out as if no terror or stress was in evidence, “This fella is Mr. X. Don’t ask his real name—it’s secret. He’ll keep you safe so long as you’re here.

            “Mr. X! Eyes up.”

            T-00 reluctantly obeyed, and the first thing its eyes met was the petrified face of the girl still trying to cling onto her father’s shoulder after he’d pushed her to be well within the bioweapon’s reach. Its back twitched before it forced itself to stay completely still, the only other movement he made the uneasy blinking, and the gaze flicking back and forth—from the man, to the girl, to the man.

            “Mr. X, this is my daughter, Mariposa.” He smiled, “You remember I was talking about her yesterday, yeah? Be nice to her. She’s only—how old are you, Mari?”

            Was it… normal for humans to lose track of how old their offspring were? Mr. X felt his brows twitch, and somehow this microscopic expression which went in opposition of her father’s constant push was what Mariposa needed to see to give a quick swallow of nerves and relax a fraction:

            “Ten.”

            “That’s my girl! C’mon now, let’s get your stuff inside,” Ramirez stood up, all but shrugging his little girl off of himself like an annoying weight and picking up the backpack from where he’d set it down beside him. Apparently only Mr. X heard the soft whimper she let out as she stumbled and scurried to put her father back between herself and the menacing giant; T-00 took the opportunity to also do away with this forced close-quarters and took a much larger step back. It hesitated to follow the two into the front door for a few moments, especially as it spied the child sneaking worried glances over her hardly-evident shoulders at the creature.

            “Mr. X! Come on you, get out of the heat!” Its eye twitched a bit at the impatient tone of the order, but ducked his head low to negotiate the entryway and squeezed into the welcome air conditioning. Ramirez had been rushing around the open concept downstairs, dropping off Mariposa’s belongings onto one of the kitchen chairs before scoping around for his own briefcase, wallet, and the keys to his armored truck. The girl meanwhile had posted herself up behind the kitchen island, staring over bewildered and clearly scared at her parent preparing to leave her alone with a monster.

            “Right… that should be it. M’ija, come give a kiss ‘bye for now—Papá’s got to go into town for some last-minute business.”

            “You can’t leave me with—”

            “Shh! Don’t be rude. Mr. X is a big teddy bear, really—relax!”

            The Tyrant itself shot the doctor a dubious look; bear was maybe an accurate comparison at least in terms of size and weight, but… teddy? That was soft and harmless—and Mr. X knew by now it was very much not harmless, and… probably not soft.

            “Papá, please—”

            “No no, you listen. I’ve got to do this and it’s not a choice. You stay here and if you need anything just ask him. I won’t be gone for more than a few hours.”

            With that, Ramirez brushed past the Tyrant and swept out the door. The sound of the latch setting again ushered in a new, heavy silence. The bioweapon could feel the girl’s stare boring into the side of his head—watching him for any sudden moves with the same alertness that a Tyrant might train onto a potential threat. Understanding somewhat, Mr. X held completely still and listened for any indication that the tiny figure was moving out from her cover.

            The click and whirr of the fridge fan cutting on startled them both—Mariposa shrieked, the Tyrant jolted upright so hard the flooring shuddered, and it turned to see that the child had ducked further down and was only barely peeking over the island countertop at it. Briefly grumbling with embarrassment that it had reacted so strongly to so little, Mr. X eyed the floor as it reached up and scratched at the deformed grooves on its jaw. Being scared of something new was one thing… being scared of the box that kept the treats from spoiling was another entirely…

            “Um… Mr. X..?”

            He froze mid-itch at the trepidatious voice; the Tyrant turned to find that Mariposa had crept around the side of the kitchen. While still keeping a chair between herself and the hulking brute, she had cut the space between them by half, maybe more. Without the insufferable pressure of her unobservant (or uncaring) father forcing either of their hands, she seemed to calm down to the idea that this monster was “housebroken”—at least in the sense that it wouldn’t break the house. Not without orders to.

            Mariposa’s nose appeared to wrinkle up in contemplation as the Tyrant continued to watch her, making no move or noise but the normal bassy rush of its breathing.

            “…You don’t say much, do you.”

            Mr. X gave a sluggish blink; it could try to speak a word of two, but it wouldn’t have the slightest idea how the attempt would turn out—and it feared it may turn out like the ugly bellows and groans other Tyrants could more easily produce, so T-00 simply gave a creaky shake of its head.

            “So, you don’t talk?” Another shake, and Mariposa bit her lip as she processed what this meant for their hours stuck unattended together. “But… you listen?”

            It made sure it gave an emphatic nod to this, and then tilted its head as if alertly waiting to listen to her at this very second.

            “Okay…” She stepped out with care and no small degree of lingering trembles from the chair, peeking over her shoulder towards the back garden door, “May I… go outside? I wanna see Benji…”

            Benji. Dog’s name. The Tyrant recalled. The back garden of the house was a forty foot by fifteen foot rectangle with no known toxic or thorny plants, and it was northeasterly. Getting more and more shade soon. It should be safe; it would not be blinded by the California sunshine, and both sunburn and heatstroke would be less able to get at either of them. Mr. X gave a soft grunt that he hoped sounded affirmative and nodded.

            “You have to come with me, huh?” Another nod. “Okay… um… I’m going now.” The Tyrant watched as the small human very warily made her way to the back door, shooting looks its way every few steps as if to brace for the moment the massive form would start pursuing. Waiting until she had her hand to the door’s handle, T-00 started to follow with the lightest shuffling steps it could manage.

            The two of them kept about ten feet apart at minimum—keeping close tabs on each other but not being so jumpy or anxious now. This got even easier in the open space of the garden, especially as the golden-furred canine came loping around the side of the dry clumps of Pampas grass and wagged his whole body on sight of the little girl. T-00 planted its back to the house wall close by so it had the widest field of view and the most sun protection, and for a while it was almost as if the parental badgering, the uncomfortable introduction, and the sheer aura of child-endangerment which permeated the whole situation was no factor. The oblivious and overjoyed dog was a big help with that, and Mariposa bounded around with it as they gave the oversized tennis ball chewtoy a new coat of slobber and montane dust before both flopping down on the patio pavers and engaging in the kind of lazy cuddling that Mr. X could only give a curious stare. It had no context for this kind of contact; it sometimes bordered on violent the way she scratched at the domestic canine, but… Benji seemed to like it, and the dog rolling onto her lap and nuzzling her wet nose into her face was even drawing a few giggles. How… uncoordinated. How… how… something that he couldn’t connect the word for, but knew in its bones the concept of.

            Shit, damn… something. Other-expletive. It was on the tip of its… tongue? Brain? Subconscious linguistic knowledge? It knew what the “good uncoordinated not-serious companionship stress-relief good thing” was. It knew it. But a good word that summed the idea up had somehow not been something it had been exposed to in the growth chamber, it supposed.

            After more than an hour both dog and child were worn out, and their Tyrant chaperone had relaxed more, eyes half-hooded and drowsy. The sound of shoes scuffing nearby had it snapping back to alertness, and on looking down it found a surprise in the form of the little girl craning her neck up expectantly, hand just short of tugging at one of the gigantic hands. Benji padded up close by, wagging away as usual.

            “Mr. X, I’m gonna go in now. Can I take Benji with me?”

            T-00 remembered the dog being allowed inside before—especially when it was as hot as it had been today, so as he unstuck his back from the pebble-stucco of the wall he gave her a slight bob of the head. Benji led the way with tongue wagging in time with his tail.

            In the artificially-cooled interior, Mr. X let out a low huff. His mass was such that it was difficult for him to regulate his temperature once it got much hotter than 25 degrees Celsius. Staying in line of sight of the happy dog and the small child as they curled onto the floor by the couch, tired and joyous, it tried to focus otherwise on letting its system cool off back to normal. But after a moment, Mariposa asked a question, which took the Tyrant a moment to register from its unexpectedness:

            “Mr. X? Are you okay?”

            The Tyrant gave a forceful nod, which perhaps had the opposite effect as the large droplet of its sweat dived from the tip of its nose to the floor at the movement. Mariposa fixed it with an expression that it felt was familiar—maybe it had tried to aim that one at its own trainers, weeks and months ago…

            “Mr. X, do you know where dad keeps the ice cream?”

            T-00 truthfully did not, though the swift flicker of its pupils towards the freezer—where anything “ice” would logically go—betrayed something to the small girl. She stood and joined the hulking bioweapon in the kitchen area of the downstairs, pointing to the freezer section of the fridge.

            “Can you check if it’s in there? I can’t reach…”

            T-00 narrowed its eyes slightly, even as it took two ginger steps closer and reached to open the upper section of the refrigerator. There was a blast of refreshingly chilly vapor as it did so, and after that had passed it blinked rapidly and studied the slim pickings of the contents. There was, however, something which claimed to be “ice cream” within—and in a short motion it plucked the small box from its confines and let the freezer door swing shut and seal while it turned the container about. Not sure what to make of it, Mr. X lowered the package to where Mariposa could read the labels on its side.

            “Ooh…” At the way her eyes lit up, the Tyrant had a panicky feeling that it had just disobeyed Ramirez’s orders for this short guardianship period. But then… with how hot it was, and the man’s daughter had just been outside for so long…

            “…Are you allowed to have one?” Mariposa hesitated at reaching into the box, still lowered to where she could access it. Mr. X didn’t really have an answer. It assumed “no”, since it had never been given one of these “ice cream” things or even informed of their storage area. Almost as soon as it had managed a short shake of its head, Mariposa had pulled out two of the oblong objects and pushed one into the Tyrant’s free hand.

            “I’ll give you one, if you don’t say nothing to papá,” Mariposa smirked. Mr. X lifted up the comparatively tiny frozen treat as it returned the rest of the box to its normal position, and met the child’s gaze again.

            He nodded. Whatever the damn thing was, he was starting to smell it even through the foil wrapping, and whatever it was caused unrelenting rivulets of drool to keep forming at the edges of its tightly-sealed lips. Whatever it was was the good stuff, by the nutrient-hungry standards of a Tyrant. And it was cold as ice, still remaining so after more than a minute in the grip of an overheated bioweapon. Why would Ramirez not let his daughter have one of these, if they seemed so good?

            Oh.

            Oh!

            “Ice cream”, as it turned out, was indefinite proof that the universe was fundamentally good. After what by any numerical measure was only a few minutes, the Tyrant felt like it had experienced an hour of sugary and creamy wonder, all from the three-inch chunk of what Mariposa had specified was an “ice cream sandwich”—the brick of vanilla-flavored goodness wedged between chocolate cookies. T-00 barely knew what these specifications meant but committed them to memory anyways. At least, once it had become able to focus on any other incoming stimuli after the intense deliciousness had faded into the past. It let out an animalistic groan of pleasure before it considered how it may sound frightening to its nearby charge; it needn’t have worried, since Mariposa was licking the melted remnants from her fingers with similar noise and fervor though at a higher pitch and smoother, human vocal tones. Mr. X scooped up the foil pieces where they’d each left them and deposited them in the garbage bin. Mariposa had now settled on the rug in front of the television, petting Benji where he lay half-asleep and scanning through stations in search of something she liked. Mr. X eyed the temptingly large, luxurious couch which he generally was not given much chance to occupy; it was close to where his protective target now was, and he would have good peripherals on each side from there… why… not? But perhaps the most important reason was Mariposa:

            At the heavy creak of the wood flooring under the rugs behind her, the young girl paused in her channel surfing and caught the bioweapon red-handed halfway to the couch.

            “Is the couch, ah… strong enough?”

            Mr. X nodded. Somehow, the couch always held. Of course, it was designed to hold at least four humans weighing over two hundred pounds each, so a single Tyrant weighing almost that much by itself would still be within its design limits. Though, it could still be a fluke. It had only sat here twice before now, so it was still possible… Thankfully, even though it did creak and groan very tellingly, the couch did hold well enough that the Tyrant was able to relax. Mariposa started watching something which showed a number of strange animals—they were larger than humans, though by the way they moved slightly lighter than most Tyrants. Or at least more graceful. The camera zoomed and focused, and T-00 realized these were horses—fully-fleshed, healthy-looking horses, much unlike the half-lamed and raggedy one it had seen in person.

            “The horse only arrived in the American Southwest by chance… Most experts agree that the wild horses we see here are all descendants of domesticated horses brought to the southern part of the continent by the Spanish as early as the 1400s…” The Tyrant almost managed a frown out of pure confusion; despite what the voiceover said, the visuals of the program showed clearly labelled petrogylphs from the area in question from several thousand years prior to the “1400s” which had horses pointed out by convenient labels.

            “Nowadays, amongst the dry chaparral hills and the prairie plains, wild horse herds roam under the protection of a conservation branch of the US government—allowing for a certain number of wild mustang horses to be corralled, auctioned off, and trained to become domestic horses once more so that the many thousands of their wild cousins can continue to run free…”

            Why these apparently thousands of creatures could not do so without something of this sort occurring every year did not make particular sense—but thankfully the program moved on swiftly to another animal from the same region:

            “The Harris Hawk is another wondrous creature found in the American Southwest—one which boasts the title of the only bird of prey in the world which will hunt in packs.” T-00’s eyes flashed at the swift movement on the screen as several handsome-looking birds swept into view, and then looped joyfully into a thermal which took them high over a desert landscape. “Working together in the harsh arid environment, the Harris Hawks can between a group of three catch more than ten times the number of small rodents and reptiles as their closest relatives could on their own, making the cooperative arrangement entirely worth it. Falconers have begun capturing and taming these magnificent birds, bending their amazing talents and social habits to their own purposes…”

            … There seemed to be a pattern here. Animal was found useful—animal got caught and used for human interests. It almost seemed like all of the fanciful camera shots of wild things running and flying and the long-winded narration was just introduction to this idea. Mariposa apparently found this as dry and bizarre as they Tyrant did, and switched the channels again until she landed on one that cycled through daytime gameshows.

            “Alright, Karen—tell me something that frequently gets replaced on a car!”

            “Ummm… the mirrors?”

            This did not appear to be a very smart answer, and yet somehow the answer appeared among the top five of some kind of overall results. The most obvious explanation was that everyone shown was so terrible at operating motor vehicles they had to replace their broken-off mirrors often. Maybe that was the appeal of this game—to watch teams of perhaps the most foolish and ignorant specimens of humanity put these attributes on display to amuse the audience.

            It felt its head bob lower and awoke with a start—panic shooting through it as it realized it had started to drowse mid-watch. But there was… something wrong? No, not wrong; different. There was a slight warmth and pressure up against its side, and the arm on that side was propped up on a low, soft object.

            Mr. X started to move the arm to try and find the flat surface of the couch again, but froze as his palm bumped instead on the frail shoulders of the small girl. It craned its neck down fraction by fraction, trying not to move any other muscles; Mariposa had, beneath its notice, crawled up onto the open section of couch beside the bioweapon, wedging her tiny frame under its limp forearm and nestling her head into the crease and folds of its Limiter coat where its waist met its lap. As if the monstrosity’s leg was a comfy pillow. T-00 blinked as its bleary thoughts woke up further in order to race to the logical conclusion: It had clearly not just “started” to doze off… a sting of unease lit up in its chest and its hackles rose at the thought it had lapsed in this duty. It was supposed to protect her—if she had left the house again—or if that was the moment a rival company sent their agent—or if by pure accident she had gotten injured or threatened—

            Ramirez’s daughter suddenly shifted in her sleep, more onto her back, and as she did so her slender arms grasped up and ended up around the Tyrant’s arm. She was utterly dwarfed by the limb alone, and even the tight hug she had around it was barely making it through his tough sleeve and even tougher skin. Regardless, Mr. X could feel it, and the change had jarred him out of the panic spiral. The Tyrant’s heavily-wrinkled face softened up, and it studied its charge for a moment to ensure she was safe and well. It settled down once more, noting the low angle of the orange-gold sunlight streaking in through the kitchen windows; it estimated the time to be well over an hour later than Dr. Ramirez had said he would return. Its eyes flicked over to the child’s backpack hanging over the backrest of the chair, then to the wind rustling through the Pampas grass outside the window, and then the color and light of the vapid programming still on in the background.

            Ramirez did not return until it was almost dark, and aside from the façade of a bright and attentive reunion with Mariposa that he’d plastered over his clearly exhausted and aggravated inner feelings, the man did not linger on the surprise long absence and instead started throwing together something he’d called “mac and cheese”. Mariposa did not seem enthused, but she tolerated her father’s lazy cooking—especially since she had secretly pilfered the ice cream earlier. The doctor snappishly ordered Mr. X to take up a sentry position outside and leave them to their family time; the Tyrant grudgingly obeyed, shooting a pointed glance down at the lower cabinet where the nutrient gel base was stored but its yearning being ignored. It supposed it would have to wait another few hours. Very unfair, considering it had pulled so much additional weight that day. The bioweapon snorted once it was prowling its usual route in the dark. It was hungry, not starving. There was no danger in waiting a little longer. Mr. X would abide.

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

Headcanon - The Robot Master Wanderers

Since I know this won't get touched upon in detail within the story, so I might as well make a post/chapter about this.

NEW CHAPTER ON AO3!!

So - Protoman aka Blues, makes a group called the Robot Master Wanderers. He makes this out of other Robot Masters wanting to escape being Wily's robot, to explore the world as a human would, or explore beyond their programming. It didn't start out that way, of course.

But Blues did it all on his own. It all starts by running away to not have his personality taken from him just to get his core fixed. Yes, I think you noticed I got this from the Archie Comics. From there, Wily finds him and he becomes part of Wily's legion of robots and fights out of his newfound hatred for Dr Light.

Until he meets Rock in person. They fight and Blues realizes how much Rock cares for their creator. No matter if Rock has a driven purpose or not. Rock trying to convince Blues that Dr Light isn't a bad person and that he doesn't want to destroy any part of him, is the first instance of his code expansion-

Damn I should make a delta nano headcanon part 2- since it started from code expansion, plus Blues' independence, his coding helping with that.

Anyway- It's, of course, a visible change, albeit subtle, and Blue definitely notices it.

He then learns that Wily only temporarily fixed him, and he decided to run off again. Fighting alongside Rock. He then finds another Robot Master named Night Man, who was one of Cossack's Robot Masters and they grow a friendship in a short matter of time. I'll also make another post about Night Man and who he is, don't worry. But I'll have to get my best friend's permission first, cuz it is his character so- ye lmao

But yeah they wander together while helping Rock as he fights the Robot Masters tied to Wily and Wily himself within his Wily Machines.

Over the course of the two wandering, they find a few Robot Masters have escaped Wily's clutches to find out about their story and rumors circulating around them. Some were curious about their wanderings and if they could do the same, and Blues knows they can do what they please, as long as they don't hurt other humans, referring to the First Law of Robotics.

Which I may also touch upon. Man, I'm thinking of other headcanons I wanna post from this one alone, jesus.

I'll put in the list of wanderers they acquire throughout the story of Classic, and a little bit of X in the AU.

In order of joining in the Robot Master Era, we have

-Protoman/Blues (DLN-000) -Night Man (DCN-009) -Metal Man (DWN-009) -Skull Man (DCN-008) -Star Man (DWN-037) -Tengu Man (DWN-057) -Bass Maestro (SWN-001) -Tornado Man (DLN-010) -Splash Woman (DLN-011) -Jewel Man (DLN-013) -Chill Man (DWN-076) -Sheep Man (DWN-077) -Solar Man (DWN-080) -Block Man (DLN-017) -Fuse Man (DLN-018) -Blast Man (DLN-019) -Tundra Man (DCN-010)

And in the Replioid Era we have

-Kejicchi (Who I'll also touch upon, and he's my OC huehue) -ProtoBlues (SLN-REP-000) -Nocturnal Bat (SCN-REP-001) -Bass “Fortenium” Maestro (SLN-REP-001) -Dynamo -Night Shade -Axl (Temporary) -Lumine (Temporary)

The reason why Axl and Lumine go in temporarily is when Axl tries to ask the Hunters for help in X7 Arc, he teams up with Keji, who also fights alongside Zero. I can't wait to write that arc too omg.

And why it's temporary for Lumine is after his redemption arc starts (yes, he gets one), he goes to Keji and Blues to see if he could join somewhere, so he won't be cooped up at Hunter Base all day. And Keji welcomes him to the club. And so he and Axl can find their respective creator, since she went missing after Lumine went under quarantine for his very dangerous variant of the Maverick Virus.

After they find her, they all live together as a family, a domestic life they all wish they had and are having their wish come true.

And because of the Wanderers starting in the Robot Master Era, they have code expanded on them as well, Blues being untouched most of the time, because his already does that on its own. X's does too, of course, but on a wayyyyy more advanced level compared to Blues.

Bass' code expands when he joins the Wanderers and gets a torn cape from Tengu Man to try and find Blues to join. Especially being closer to Rock.

Oh- and the Wanderers have a theme of wearing capes, cloaks, and scarfs, thanks to blues starting that with wearing his own scarf. But it's unintentional, he swears upon it. The others just started wearing their own after a while and he established the group officially.

And- there you have it. A brief history of how the Wanderers became an official group of Robot Masters who would expand their coding to experience things and to be able to break the obey code for the Three Laws of Robotics. As well as Blues internally promising to himself that he would redeem robots having independence like him and hot have a stigma of Robots being dangerous.

Which may hint that he may feel responsible for starting the obey code become a reality in the first place >w>

[dankusner]

Regulating Marijuana Is Better Than a Ban

House committee bill deserves a green light

A combination of legal loopholes and poor regulation have fueled a budding marijuana market in a state where it’s generally illegal.

How’s that?

Well, the difference between legal hemp and illegal marijuana is just a question of how much THC is in each.

Often, legal hemp businesses are selling what amounts to marijuana.

And that’s to say nothing of synthetic marijuana-like products you can find at the convenience store.

Many of the products you can find on gas station and smoke shop shelves are untested and the health risks they pose are poorly understood.

That’s why it’s understandable that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been on a warpath to get the stuff banned altogether.

But so many hemp businesses have taken root across the state under current law that it would be nearly impossible to enforce such a policy, not to mention that it could carry unintended consequences.

Last year, we argued that “lawmakers can come up with more measured solutions through better regulation of the industry.”

A Texas House committee has done just that, and we urge lawmakers to advance the new version.

Senate Bill 3, filed by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, originally took the approach Patrick has favored: a total ban on intoxicating hemp products.

The House State Affairs Committee recently unanimously passed a modified version of the bill that seeks to regulate instead.

In 2019, Texas legalized the farming and commercialization of hemp containing less than 0.3% of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

But there’s never been serious oversight to ensure manufacturers and sellers follow that rule.

Plus, unregulated THC variants have allowed many sellers to skirt the law.

Texas Monthly last year reported on the easy availability of potent marijuana.

The House version of the bill would make provisions for lab licensing, require testing for THC content and the presence of other harmful chemicals like heavy metals, and add penalties for falsifying tests.

It would ban most forms of smokable hemp products, like vapes, but continue to allow regulated beverages and edible products.

Tinctures would be capped at 2.5 milligrams of THC per one-milliliter serving.

Other consumables would be capped at 10 milligrams per serving.

The House committee version would require that the products be sold by specialty hemp retailers, banning them from gas stations and vape shops.

As with alcohol, counties would be allowed to be “dry” and ban the products from being sold, adding an element of local control.

Taxes on these products would be divvied up.

Half would go to the TABC, a quarter to accredited crime labs and the last quarter to opioid and narcotic law enforcement efforts.

The marijuana industry is one we would prefer not to have, but here we are.

The drug is popular, with 24 states allowing it recreationally and 38 allowing it for medical use.

The House version of SB 3 offers a workable regulatory framework that strikes a balance between a ban and the high Wild West.

[iwoll]

Creating Primary Sources: Documenting Experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

My name is James, and I’m a 20-year-old college student who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic. I was a freshman in high school when it was officially declared a pandemic. I first heard about the outbreak in January 2020 during winter break. My mother, who was a psychiatric nurse at the time, reassured me it was "just the flu." At 15, I believed her. I spent my break without a second thought, but when I returned to school, there was a noticeable shift—I noticed fear creeping into hallway conversations. My girlfriend at the time was especially worried. I repeated what my mother had told me, "It’s just the flu." She didn’t buy it, not even for a second. She told me that people were starting to die from it in New York.

By March, everything unraveled. Confirmed cases and death tolls surged. Even my small central Minnesotan town wasn’t spared from infection. On Friday the 13th of March 2020, I sat in my first-year Spanish class as my maestra warned us this might be our last in-person class for the month. We were teenagers—so of course we thought, Sweet… an extra-long spring break.

By March 20th, I was back at school—but only to drop off textbooks, pick up my oboe, and say goodbye to my teachers. My band instructor stood six feet away, both of us in N95 masks. He told me this might be the last time we saw each other that year. I remember the fear and the confusion he and I shared. High school as I had dreamed was gone. Friends didn’t get their graduations. No one really knew what came next.

School shut down for three weeks as the administration scrambled. Classes were moved online—including the performance arts! Everyone struggled, so much so that failing a class became impossible, thanks to our administration. Still, grades suffered. My GPA tumbled from a 4.0 to barely a 3.0. I remember the feeling of isolation was suffocating. I was getting fed up with my parents and the tenacity of this virus. No friends, no normal teenage life, no more loitering in the mall just for the sake of it!

The next school year, my sophomore year, brought hybrid learning. Half of us attended in-person Monday and Tuesday, the other half Thursday and Friday, with online classes in between. By then, I had started working as a cashier and stocker at a local grocery store. My job included the normal responsibilities plus reminding people to wear masks, which didn't always go over well. Some adults lashed out at 15-year-old me for enforcing our store policies. Every public space had plexiglass shields, boxes of masks at the doors, and the worst-smelling hand sanitizer known to man. Speaking of sanitizer—there was a shortage, and alcohol distilleries stepped in to make alcohol-based hand sanitizers! Everything was disrupted and it kind of felt like the world was falling apart. Schools scrambled, healthcare buckled, construction stalled, and stores had shortages on many essentials. Everyone just had to “do their part” and wait it out.

By the middle of my sophomore year, COVID fatigue had set in. People were exhausted. The pandemic became political. Some claimed it was over, but it really wasn’t. New variants kept emerging; alpha, beta, delta, omicron, et cetera. The mRNA vaccine brought relief to some, but extreme distrust to others. Up until 2024, experts still classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.

I chose to present my, and others’, experience through oral history because I believe personal narratives capture the emotional and social impacts of the pandemic in ways that statistics and news reports cannot. Oral histories preserve the raw feelings of fear, confusion, and resilience that defined this period. By sharing my story, I hope to provide future researchers and students with a firsthand account of how everyday life changed for young people navigating school, work, and social interactions in a world that felt utterly unrecognizable. These stories tell not just the logistical disruptions—such as school closures and job changes—but also the emotional toll of prolonged isolation and uncertainty. The pandemic affected every aspect of life, from education to healthcare to the economy, forcing people to adapt in ways they never imagined. The exasperation I felt wasn’t just mine—it was everywhere. The country, and the entire globe, was drained; stuck in a loop of fear, frustration, and division.

This feeling wasn’t limited to healthcare workers—it was everyone. It was students struggling to focus on online classes, grocery workers dealing with angry customers, families terrified to see their loved ones, and exhausted doctors running on empty. The virus didn’t just infect bodies; it wore down minds. People feared each cough, every interaction. The world felt unsafe, and no one knew when it would end. Looking back, I realize how much we all struggled to make sense of an unprecedented situation, and I hope that by documenting these experiences, we can better prepare for similar crises in the future.

To read an oral history from a custodian, college professor, and a physician assistant, click here (x)

[tacticalhimbo]

CHARACTER ASKS / DEVELOPMENT

full creds to mist-the-wannabe-linguist for these prompts!

answering a few of them got me inspired and i wanted to flesh the rest of them out for toni, aka "nomad" (she/he)...

so here we go!

What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character?

genuinely it was just... playing. ghost recon wildlands! which is the first game of the two (wildlands -> breakpoint). i didn't like the male customization options in the game and i wanted to create someone who had a badass, stern air to them... and that's how toni's appearance came to be!

here's an image from my first playthrough...

How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

honestly? within the past year or two. and i think? i picked up gr:breakpoint in 2022 so it’s been a few years! several playthroughs of both games (wildlands being the prequel) and discovering new dialogs/missions/choices has really changed the way toni’s been characterized.

and with adding the whole angle of toni trans canon™ i added in last year… there’s still a lot of characterization i want to tweak! especially since that whole plotpoint happens after the events of breakpoint (which i’m still on the fence of exactly when; do i count episode 1 where walker dies? does it happen after trey stone dies in episode 3? am i including the r6s dlc? who knows!)

but the core of toni’s character has been molded within the past year or two / over the course of 2/3 years!

What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?

appearance, given the character creator. role and personality were both kind of given since the character is voiced/there aren't really dialog trees... the last thing was actually the name because afaik there isn't? an official one. ubisoft considers (cis) male!nomad canon... so given his name is anthony... antonia felt right for the (cis) female!nomad.

of course things have since changed and toni is no longer a cis woman, and plus i just like toni more and have always shortened it.

And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?

since most of it was given, i'd honestly say something i do struggle with is capturing the personality! it's so... specific, in a good way. there's a lot of concrete development and really the hardest part is contextualizing it outside of the game-specific happenings. how does it translate into civ life? how does it translate interacting with different people? so on and so forth.

How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

see above. antonia was the female equivalent to anthony (canonical name) that i liked, and toni is a nickname for both variants. nomad, the call sign, is also canonical and doesn't vary between the selected gender.

What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?

mostly aesthetic, to be completely honest! that said it was also a way for me to integrate some of the canonical lore and kind of expand on it in my own ways.

like, we know nomad goes on tours doing more routine military stuff, and comes from a specific military background (re: selection for Delta Force at 24; three tours with counter-terrorist Task Force 88 before being recruited into the Group for Specialized Tactics (The Ghosts)). so you know... i wanted to encapsulate some of that into the appearance. uniform hair that's shaved down for convenience (is it regulation? probably not-), an older sort of look to show experience, a collection of tattoo sleeves because every service member i've met has a fuck ton of tats, and then the scarring from one of said tours.

What is an aspect of their appearance that you like the most?

toni’s face, and more specifically: the scarring.

speaking about toni’s face in general, i just adore how average of a character you can make using the options available. i’m always in love with character creators that let you make like… non-airbrushed models. and all the rugged textures and discoloration and wrinkling… toni looks exhausted and older and that’s the whole point!! toni’s pushing 50 and has the weight of the world on her back, there is no way he’s going to look like he just walked out of a commercial shoot.

and beyond that, honing in on the facial scarring… i love the texture. i love how it frames her features. i also just love visible scarring on characters because 1) representation and 2) it really does well to tell a story. it’s a visible point of a period in toni’s life that came with a lot of shit, and it resulted in a lot of complicated feelings.

What is the origin of their personality? And let's be honest - how much of it is projecting?

most of it is in-canon dialog... but some of it is absolutely projection. the biggest projections i'd say are the whole trans masc development (something something my desire to see more non-op/older trans folks) and the desire to want to be a present parent versus not being able to due to circumstance.

How big is their role in the story? Do they make a frequent appearance or are they a character with little "screentime" but big influence? Or are they just a favourite background guy?

toni is THE main character. like... yes. in gr: wildlands they have team kingslayer (all of which toni adores and is close friends with; weaver, holt, and midas my beloved boys...) and so she does take a bit more of a neutral role despite being the team leader...

but in gr: breakpoint? she's all alone. weaver's dead, midas is m.i.a, and holt is incapacitated/potentially unable to walk again. (and you can technically have a team and i have kind of written one out since you can customize the teammates, but i imagine they're really background/don't show up until later acts)

What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?

oh man oh man... to avoid explaining literally the entire two games, i'll just focus on breakpoint because that's really where the meat of toni's arc happens i think

because leading up to this, and i've written it out / made a compilation of the flashbacks and such... toni's got a whole arc with walker (another ghost/a close friend/a confidante). and it comes to fruition when it turns out he's betrayed everything they stood for and joined up with some incompetent tech billionaire to create a new world; to plunge it into war and show how archaic things are.

and it is very much not a happy ending by any means. a can of worms has been opened and the only solution is to kill the person she really cared for/thought she had solace in... and that shit hits. it changes toni irreversibly. he's much more bitter after that and really does develop (even more) trust issues. like. sure. the world is saved! but what is left for you at that point? you have nobody. you recover 2/3 friends and end up having to go separate ways anyway... you're truly alone.

Is there any existing character from other media that your character resembles? Was the resemblance intentional or was it a coincidence?

i don't think toni resembles anyone specific, but i will admit i drew inspiration personality wise from black widow/natasha and... uhm. mike ehrmantraut. the former was accidental and the latter was entirely intentional.

Do you have a playlist for the character? What songs do you associate with them and why?

i do have a playlist! i have one for just toni, and one for her/walker as a ship. i'll link both here but the associations i went for are like... dad rock. it's that post that's like "2010s weebs and gym bros" because. yeah! classic, dad rock. lots of like... divorce rock specifically. does that make sense? no.

but seriously! a lot of it is just... the vibe. there are probably a few songs on each playlist i could really elaborate on more but i am simply choosing not to at this time.

Do you have a voice claim for the character? What do you imagine the character sounds like?

nomad does have a voice! again... canonically voiced so i didn't need to think much there. you can hear it in the vid i linked above or in this snippet

between the two games, since they changed vas, i personally prefer alix wilton's performance (in breakpoint) and headcanon that as the proper(tm) voice.

Do you have any quotes tied to the character, either from the story itself or from another source that fit them?

i genuinely forget the source of this one but: “ IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM OUT — WE HAVE TO SEND A MESSAGE. ” (ignore the formatting; it was on a post i made for reference).

Have you ever made a moodboard for them?

i have! i have a pinterest board for toni, plus this little moodboard i made doing a character inspiration meme over on my roleplay blog

Is there any memes or running jokes associated with the character, both in- and out of universe?

oh yeah. one of them, courtesy of my brother, is the whole idea that nomad is... a cryptid. like bigfoot. untraceable, always leaving destruction in her wake, and can never be caught on film beyond this fucked up blur. and that people will whisper about different things they've witnessed but nothing can ever be confirmed and it's just... funny to us. definitely an out-of-universe concept. mostly.

Are there any motifs or symbols associated with the character? How are they represented, in their design, personality or in some other way?

i'm honestly not sure; i never really thought about it. i wouldn't say there is? but i could be wrong there.

Does the character have other characters connected to them? Do you have a family tree and "offscreen" connections made up for them or do they exist in a vacuum purely for the purpose of the story?

yes! they have a decent web that i actually made specifically for this post so-

this cuts out regan and sarah, unfortunately, but this is toni's family tree! she's the biological child of samuel fisher and marilyn perryman (nee sutton), stepdaughter of finley. she married kian and had her son, thomas. when she remarried to julien, she had her twin girls amber and jasmine. and thomas is expecting his own child, who they've named sam after... sam.

What is your general favourite thing about the character? What is your least favourite?

favorite thing: her complexity. the way toni views the world is… quite different to how i view it. all in terms of experience, narrative, and general politics (lest we forget ghost recon is a tom clancy game). and so it’s really fun to research things to really try to hone in and understand what her psychology is. but then again that’s my favorite thing about writing/developing any character, so maybe i’m biased JFKLDAJFLSDJFKLASJF

least favorite thing: this is a rough one.. i think politics aside (see: above), my least favorite thing has to be how much of a brain worm character they are. definitely more of a lighthearted/joke answer, but seriously! every media i get into or circle back to, i think of how toni would fit in there. like. i’ve been watching house md. and i’ve started thinking about a side plot where toni is a ‘jane doe’ patient (similar to that air force pilot) because the show does take place around when toni gets the injuries that cause the facial scarring and result in him having to undergo pt. or another recent-ish one– far cry 6 au where toni ends up being a cia contact that comes in courtesy of juan (in place of willis since, he does not make an appearance again 😔; can’t have old men yaoi so we get an old man and his fucked up little gremlin instead)

Bonus question: share any additional thoughts, art, favourite scenes, anything you've been waiting for a chance to ramble about

oh boy. i fear i do not have anything to new show (yet) but i am planning on getting myself a little birthday commish of her and walker perhaps... :}

beyond that i genuinely think i have covered rambling so! this will be the lovely conclusion to the post now methinks. i will leave y'all with some of my fave gifs i've made as a treat for reading everything

[yesthatsatumbler]

There's an extra funky angle to this because, like, the focus areas of a map are the ones where the projection actually approximates an actual proportional view (and, correspondingly, the angles are in fact about right); for the family of projections that Gall-Peters comes from, this happens to occur near a particular latitude known as the "standard parallel". In the Gall-Peters map? The standard parallel is 45°. This is mainly southern Europe and northern USA (plus southern Canada and a bunch of other mostly-less-populated areas around the world). Africa, Latin America, and SE Asia - the areas that it's supposedly "less racist" about - are horribly stretched north to south. Technically this projection might actually be more racist than most others.

(Peters officially defended it in his proposal by referring to areas with a lot of people in them, notably China. In fact most of China's population lives south of that line; then again so does most of the USA's. Extending the strip of "about right" to, say, 20% distortion each side - which is arguably already a lot - it reaches from about 39° to about 50°. In other words, very roughly, Valencia to Luxembourg, Cagliari to Prague, Ankara to Kyiv, Sacramento to Vancouver, Kansas City to Winnipeg, or Baltimore to, um, Sept-Îles, Quebec. ...or, in non-Western areas, Samarqand to Qaragandy, and Beijing to Heihe. The vast majority of China's population lives south of Beijing, at latitudes more like 32° [Shanghai, Sichuan] or even 23° [Pearl River Delta]. Most of the other highly-populated regions around the world are even closer to the equator.)

There's a vague sense in which the Gall-Peters map is "useful" as a world map (the context in which it is, fortunately, mostly used), namely that it does, at least, preserve areas: regions with the same area on the globe would have the same area on the map, though they may be stretched in inconvenient ways to achieve this. But once you start doing close-ups you end up with distortion all over the place that isn't really counteracted by anything. A map of Nigeria in the Gall-Peters projection would be consistently stretched by nearly a factor of two. (Estonia would be the same in a different direction, but there's nowhere near as many people living in Estonia.)

(You might be asking here: the globe is symmetrical, right? What about 39 to 50 degrees south? Yes, that's also well enough covered. This includes Tasmania, most of New Zealand (though not its largest city), and a piece of southern Argentina spanning roughly from Bahía Blanca to Río Gallegos. Other inhabited places in this area - and I'm generously counting year-round scientific stations as "inhabited" - include a section of southern Chile, the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, and the part of French Southern & Antarctic Lands that isn't in Antarctica. Africa is all too far north.)

...The Mercator projection, of course, approximates a proportional view everywhere, which is why most zoomable online maps just use Mercator (and/or a close variant that's more convenient to calculate), and add a changeable scale label. But it's not (always) the best idea for a world map because it makes polar areas too large, and/or equatorial areas too small, and it is this latter quality that made Peters decry it as "racist".

On the other options mentioned in the post: the Robinson projection is a compromise between different kinds of faithfulness, so (AFAICT) it doesn't actually preserve anything but it tries to get close on as much as it can. Africa turns out to be one of the better-represented regions, but the USA is notably stretched and slanted. Goode Homolosine is trying to get around the problems with Robinson's slanting by cutting the oceans apart. This... somewhat works. IMHO the hardest problem with it is that it's got a name that's really hard to take seriously; it sounds like an old-timey pub or a pirate ship or something.

Speaking of xkcd 977,

I never actually looked into why this was the punchline, but apparently there’s a lot of history here.

You see, cartographers had been trying to get the general public to stop using the Mercator for years, and mostly just getting ignored.

And then suddenly, Arno Peters comes around and says “use this map I invented or you’re racist” and “I invented this map” (actually invented by cartographer James Gall a century earlier)  and “cartographers are all racists who only use the Mercator” (cartographers had been inventing better projections for well before that; most of the projections in the comic were invented before Peters re-invented Gall’s projection) and “this map preserves distance” (it doesn’t) and “this map preserves angles” (it doesn’t).

And he was saying these things right as social justice was getting popular in the 1970s, so the general public started actually listening to him about how everyone else was racist.

Unsurprisingly, this made cartographers hate him. This escalated into the American Cartography Association and five other cartography organizations publishing a joint statement that actually all rectangular maps were racist, and could you please use a real projection like the Robinson or the Goode Homolosine.

(If you’re wondering, yes, Robinson and Goode were in fact involved in writing the aforementioned joint statement.)

[airsoftaction]

THE LATEST ISSUE OF AIRSOFT ACTION IS OUT!

With another airsoft show season now behind us it looks as if 2024 is going to be quite the year, and in ISSUE 160 of AIRSOFT ACTION one of the many highlights is our report on IWA 2024 from Bill and Jase as they cover what they saw at this year’s German show in a very thorough yet entertaining fashion! But that’s by no means it as we introduce the all-new R15 FREYA line from DELTA ARMORY, get down to business with three new Hi Capa variants from ICS, and check out the very latest REAPER AEG from EVOLUTION INTERNATIONAL! Red Cell is all about our long-term test "Tacticool AKS", Stewbacca continues down this path in Part 1 of his deep dive into the new AK accessories from LCT, and we round out this theme by looking at the "PMC" gear worn and used by the members of the AA LEGION in CAGE. Bill has a look at some new boots and existing gear from the brand TEESAR, whilst we’re very happy to be joined by a new contributor, Rich P who takes a look at "Chasing FPS" in his AA debut! Stewbacca again brings this issue to a close as he looks back at continued performance of the WALTHER PPQ. So, once again a good look at new platforms, updates on some "old campaigners", a good bit of gear, and a major show report… what’s not to love? And as we always say, if it’s in airsoft, it’s in AIRSOFT ACTION, so we hope that you enjoy this use just as much as always! Airsoft Action is FREE TO READ on the Airsoft Action website (www.airsoftaction.net), plus all of these digital publishing platforms: Issuu: Yumpu: Flickread: PocketMags: PocketMags+ (All You Can Read subscription service): Readly (All You Can Read subscription service): Magzter: You can also grab the FREE Airsoft Action app and take your entire library with you, to read whenever you like, wherever you are! Airsoft Action iOS App: Airsoft Action Android App: Read the full article

[singh-r]

https://www.secondmedic.com/blogs/delta-plus-variant-mystery-what-can-cause-the-third-covid-wave

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Oh wow, been a long time since I updated this lol...

Despite a much different marketplace, there are still some big things happening here... The Top 10 now looks a little different than it did in late 2022...

And some of these movies indeed cracked it...

1. NE ZHA 2 - $2.2b

2. INSIDE OUT 2 - $1.699b

3. THE LION KING (2019) - $1.657b

4. FROZEN II - $1.450b

5. THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE - $1.361b

6. FROZEN - $1.280b

7. INCREDIBLES 2 - $1.243m

8. MINIONS - $1.159b

9. TOY STORY 4 - $1.073b

10. TOY STORY 3 - $1.067b

Like... Yeah, the two TOY STORY sequels now round out the bottom, they used to be more towards the middle.

Last fall's MOANA 2 almost cracked the Top 10, w/ $1.059b. Just billion-dollar animated movies everywhere, and we saw NE ZHA 2 just upend everything with 95% of that gross coming from China. Like, they didn't need us, or all of Europe, or anywhere else, lol. That record may remain unchallenged for a long while.

What *could* shake up this Top 10? Why, some movies that are out later in the year and next year have a shot, and the next few years at that...

ZOOTOPIA 2 - Thanksgiving 2025 - I think is a good candidate. The original made $1.025b.

SUPER MARIO WORLD could make a play the Top 10 next spring, or it could make less than the original simply because the first movie was the first all-animated, game-faithful Mario movie. Might be an EMPIRE STRIKES BACK/SPIDER-MAN 2 situation where the first one did soooooo well, the sequel may not come close to that.

TOY STORY 5 has a shot as well, but maybe make a little less than the last two. Hard to say, are audiences gonna flock to this one the way they did the last two? I still expect it to be big, though.

MINIONS 3/MEGA MINIONS (is it actually called that?), self-explanatory, though MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU and DESPICABLE ME 4 did miss the big billion... But not by much, maybe this goes back up?

SHREK 5... I think this one is destined to be ginormous. Maybe not NE ZHA 2 big, but INSIDE OUT 2 might be toppled there. SHREK 5 will be the first mainline SHREK movie - should it keep that release date - in over 16 years, and the original SHREK will be over 25 by that point. You just know, *that* nostalgia factor will kick in.

ICE AGE 6, likely vacating Christmas 2026... The last ICE AGE - which was titled COLLISION COURSE - did so-so. The biggest movies in the franchise - third movie DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS and fourth movie CONTINENTAL DRIFT - individually made an astounding $875m+ worldwide. Much like SHREK, the first ICE AGE will be over 24 by the time this out, and it will have been a decade since the fifth movie. Wouldn't count this one out.

SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE... Hmmmm... So, as we all know, ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE was a massive leap from its predecessor domestically. The original INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE opened w/ $35m here, the sequel $120m. However, ACROSS only did decent enough overseas, bringing its final total to about $690m off of a $381m domestic haul. Still great for this kind of movie, but it's surprisingly below the lowest-grossing live-action Peter Parker Spider-Man movie: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, which made $708m in 2014 dollars. But maybe, maybe BEYOND could get a bump because it's the final movie in this story, and it's following up a hell of a cliffhanger. I included it, but I'm not sure I see it getting there. Would love for it to do that, though.

FROZEN III. Almost confident to say this one's locked. Plus it'll have been 8 years since FROZEN II.

No dates for these, but...

INCREDIBLES 3. Look what the last one made, plus a possibly 10 year wait.

COCO 2. The original made over $800m worldwide back in 2017, and will be about 12 years old when this hits. Might see an INSIDE OUT 2-esque bump.

SING 3 is said to be a thing. SING 2 was affected by the Delta/Omicron variants of COVID-19, the original made over $600m back in 2016. Given that this is Illumination, it could circle the big billion, maybe not.

MOANA 3, not announced, but likely happening given how the sequel ends - and did. Maybe, maybe.

Or maybe, another NE ZHA 2-type movies comes along in China, and just rewrites the script yet again.

Or some non-sequel movie completely surprises, like FROZEN did back in 2013. Movies would have to be more affordable or the trip be more worth it for that to happen this decade, I think.

Your guess is as good as mine. But through all the parts of this I put together, it's always fun to see what the Top 10 looks like year after year.

Tracking a Post-Walt Top 10 Box Office, Part 6

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 here…

So now we’re here… In the final month of 2022… It’s been nearly three years since the end of 2019, and because of **everything** that has been going on since then… From the COVID-19 pandemic and its many effects on the business, to other world events…

The Top 10 remains the same…

The Lion King (2019) - $1,657m

Frozen II - $1,450m

Frozen - $1,280m

Incredibles 2 - $1,243m

Minions - $1,159m

Toy Story 4 - $1,073m

Toy Story 3 - $1,067m

Despicable Me 3 - $1,034m

Finding Dory - $1,028m

Zootopia - $1,023m

Most animated features released theatrically during the pandemic haven’t even crossed $200 million worldwide. Many of them went straight to streaming, even in an era where box office and business are back in many ways. (See, Pixar’s TURNING RED going straight to streaming three months after the release of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, which collected nearly $2b in its gargantuan run.) It is often argued that the streaming release patterns and alternate release windows of these films have trained audiences, especially families who have to shell out maybe $60-100 on tickets and some concessions alone, to wait until they leave theaters.

In this year alone, we saw LIGHTYEAR - a spin-off of the massive TOY STORY movies - collect an utterly terrible $226m worldwide… That’s only a little bit more than what TOY STORY **1** made at the domestic box office in 1995/96… While MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU reached $937m worldwide, nearly making it towards Top 10. Families are definitely choosier, and eventual streaming landing dates certainly could be impacting box office… It makes me wonder if the next highest-grossing animated movie won’t be for a loooong, looooong while… And what it could possibly be.

Are any other upcoming animated movies candidates for breaking the Top 10 as it currently stands?

Out later this month is DreamWorks’ SHREK-adjacent PUSS IN BOOTS sequel, THE LAST WISH, which did quite well in its preview screenings and on top of garnering strong critical reception, looks to be a decent-sized hit in its own right. Could it challenge MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU for this year’s animated movie gross crown alone? Who knows! PUSS IN BOOTS Uno, despite arriving just a year or so after SHREK FOREVER AFTER when that franchise’s fatigue was kicking in, was still able to clock in at over $550m worldwide. Again, in 2011… PUSS IN BOOTS Dos could either repeat that, or even if double it, because time has made a difference. With countless memes and nostalgia, the public is arguably hungry for another SHREK movie, even if it’s one without Shrek himself in it… That could *really* benefit PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, among the other things going for it. DreamWorks appears to be pushing it as a sort-of “reset” movie, after a lengthy transition following their merging with Comcast/Universal.

So far, Universal are the ones leading the charge with animation at the box office in the post-outbreak era. Among the highest-earning titles worldwide are MINIONS Deux, SING 2 ($407m), THE BAD GUYS ($250m), and THE CROODS: A NEW AGE ($215m). The latter of those four films opened when theaters were doing limited seating, and before a VOD release, a rollout that worked wonders for the movie. Two Disney releases, ENCANTO and LIGHTYEAR, made it past the $200m threshold. From across the Pacific, the DEMON SLAYER movie, with a not-so-shabby domestic release from by FUNimation, made it past $400m. On the Disney side of things, STRANGE WORLD completely flopped and RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON got a simultaneous PVOD/theatrical release before vaccines rolled out (managing to eke out $130m), the three original Pixar movies went straight to streaming. It’s unknown how LUCA and TURNING RED could’ve performed, but I’d imagine they would’ve pulled ENCANTO/BAD GUYS numbers at best.

Next year looks to have a few animation blockbusters. Illumination/Nintendo’s THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE is likely to be the highest-grossing video game adaptation for sure, and could make a good play for $1b. Maybe not! But I imagine it’ll be big. Ditto Sony’s SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, which looks to build off its fresh original’s sleeper-hit status and outgross it by a wide margin, a la SHREK 2 and DESPICABLE ME 2. Disney Animation’s WISH could be their first bonafide blockbuster since FROZEN II. Pixar’s ELEMENTAL could be their first original blockbuster since COCO, all the way back in 2017. (ONWARD opened right before the pandemic.)

In the next few years, there will be sequels and franchise entries that are sure to pocket some good change, such as KUNG FU PANDA 4, DESPICABLE ME 4, INSIDE OUT 2, another SPONGEBOB feature, SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE, SHREK 5, presumably a MARIO movie sequel. Sometimes a not-sequel comes out of nowhere and takes the crown in an era where franchise entries usually dominate (as we saw with FROZEN in 2013).

Of course, with everything that has been going on, it’s okay if an animated film doesn’t crack the Top 10. It’s totally okay if a lower budget movie makes back its money despite the overall total (see THE BAD GUYS, once again), in fact that’s where things should be heading. Animation should **not** be required to be franchises and big-arse things, we need more lower-budget and riskier endeavors to succeed and be given reasonable parameters to work within… That strengthens the medium, it diversifies and offers us a large range of voices to see and hear from…

… but I’m just curious… Can something make a crack at the Top 10 again? If not the top spot? The Top 10 is currently all films released in the 2010s… Nothing from the 2000s or the 1990s. Does a new trend take over one day and what’s in the Top 10 now is out of it by the end of the decade? Who the heck knows!

[journalistcafe]

क्या है कोरोना का डेल्‍टा प्‍लस वैरिएंट, क्या यही बनेगा कोरोना की तीसरी लहर की वजह ?

क्या है कोरोना का डेल्‍टा प्‍लस वैरिएंट, क्या यही बनेगा कोरोना की तीसरी लहर की वजह ?

देश में कोरोना की दूसरी लहर की रफ्तार अभी थम ही रही है, इस बीच तीसरी लहर की संभावनाओं ने लोगों और सरकार की चिंताएं बढ़ा दी हैं। इस बार सरकार की चिंताएं बढ़ाई हैं कोरोना वायरस के डेल्टा प्लस वैरिएंट ने। फिलहाल तो कोरोना वायरस क��� ये वैरिएंट सिर्फ महाराष्ट्र, केरल और मध्य प्रदेश में मिला है लेकिन इसके तेजी से फैलने की आशंका जताई गई है। आइए जानते हैं कि आखिर कोरोना वायरस का नया डेल्टा प्लस वैरिएंट…

[anokyewaaa]

What is the new delta plus variant?

As cases of COVID-19 surge in the United States due to the highly contagious delta variant, a new version of that mutation called the delta plus is causing concern among many health care professionals. The delta plus variant is similar to the delta variant, but unlike delta, this sub-strain has a spike protein mutation called K417N; these spike proteins latch onto human cells with the external…

[theurbanboard]

What Are The Delta And Delta Plus Variants And Their Symptoms

What Are The Delta And Delta Plus Variants And Their Symptoms

Nobody was surprised because it also happened with SARS-CoV-2, which causes covid-19. The mutations of viruses are a fact, occurring in almost 100% of cases. They are not usually decisive changes in the virus’s behavior in question, but they affect the ease of spread. They check the advances made to detect and stop them. For example, the vaccines already approved by the World Health Organization…