#also potentially I could ship you the original paper version if someone would want that

[thatsitso]

Sketch commissions open!

Bust 10$

Half-body 20$

Full-body 25$

Digitally colored +10$

Payment via PayPal

Pencil on paper comms open :]!! Dm me if you're interested! I really appreciate even the smallest commissions 🙏 (starting college tomorrow ueue)

Digital commissions open as well (info here)!

[iffeelscouldkill]

Any day breathing

“Captain Tripathi. You’re alive!”

He presents it as a joke, to mask the very real fear that lies underneath those words. The fear that someday, she won’t come back to him safe and whole.

–

A/N: I wrote another thing :3

To the folks in the Starship Iris Discord: I finished it! This started out as a little ficlet idea that I had a while back: a Sana/Campbell concept based on Campbell’s stock greeting of “Captain Tripathi. You’re alive!” I wrote half of it down (I got sidetracked partway through) and then let it sit in my Starship Iris ideas notes file (god, you do not want to see the length of that thing) for ages.

Then, a conversation in the TSCOSI Discord about Campbell, pining, and Campbell’s probable reaction to the Rumor reports being uploaded to the public net (which I had totally forgotten about asfdfgsgsdgsg) inspired me to pick it back up.

It was meant to be a short, whimsical, feels-filled ficlet about Sana and Campbell’s conversations through the years. It turned into something… much longer than that.

Enjoyyyyy~

–

“Captain Tripathi. You’re alive.”

The first time he says it, the surprise is genuine. It’s hard not to be surprised to hear from this woman again – someone whose name had been only a rumour to him until very recently. He’d heard about her from contacts of contacts, mentioned here and there, always with a reverent tone. She had some kind of revolutionary past, he’d heard: was jailed as a dissenter, or had taken part in an uprising. One version of that story said that she’d led an entire planet in an uprising. He also heard that she’d hijacked a high-level Regime starship – possibly in mid-flight.

Whatever he was expecting when they finally met face-to-face, the slender, wiry woman in the brightly-coloured shalwar kameez with a streak of engine grease near her hairline and elaborate floral tattoos adorning muscular arms is not it. Sana Tripathi walks straight into his base of operations – a network of winding corridors and tucked-away cubbyholes in what’s meant to be a confidential location – flanked by a younger woman with a murderous expression and more visible weapons than he can take in with one glance, and demands two full sets of new identification, impeccable and untraceable, to get the IGR off their tail.

“I heard you were the best,” she tells him, a challenge.

Campbell holds out for a full fifteen minutes, but by the end of it he’s agreed to everything she asks for and feels distinctly like he’s gone ten rounds in the sparring ring they used to blow off steam back in the military, verbally speaking. She agrees to pay half up-front, with the promise of the rest once they safely reach their destination.

It’s an hour-long job, and he doesn’t know where the two of them go to lie low while he’s working, but exactly an hour later the glowering, heavily-armed woman is back to pick up their documentation. He’s a little disappointed that it’s not the Captain who came to collect.

The other woman – who tells him shortly that her name is Patel; the name on the papers he’s made for her is Kay Grisham – pays and leaves. He later hears that the IGR is conducting randomised searches at every checkpoint, detaining anyone whose background doesn’t quite check out neatly enough, or whose personal or ship ID papers look a little too new.

Campbell is completely confident in the quality of his work, but he’s not sure that Tripathi could pass a visual check, if she’s been on an IGR watchlist – and that friend of hers didn’t really seem like the subtle type. After thirty-six hours with no word, he figures the rest of the money is lost, but chalks it up as an interesting story to tell.

Two hours later, he gets a call from an unknown number. After running the standard traces on it (the IGR aren’t as good at disguising themselves as they like to think), he accepts the call.

“Is this Ignatius Campbell?” asks the voice on the other end – brisk, but with the hint of warmth and humour lurking underneath.

“Captain Tripathi,” he says in surprise. “You’re alive.”

“Of course,” the Captain replies blithely. “We delayed our departure slightly in order to catch the shift changeover for the randomised checks. The outgoing agents are always tired and less likely to bother with a full database check, and the incoming agents have never been briefed properly. Then we had to make sure that we weren’t being tailed.”

“Of course,” Campbell echoes. This woman is no amateur, and he realises that he’d managed to underestimate her even after everything that she’d managed by tracking him down, coming to him and persuading him to work with her. He makes a mental note not to do that again.

“So, I assume this call is about payment,” he adds, when Captain Tripathi doesn’t volunteer anything further.

“How very astute of you,” the Captain replies, too good-humoured to be mocking, and then proceeds to brazenly haggle him down a further twenty-five percent.

Campbell doesn’t believe in love at first sight, and he never will. But he does believe that there are people whom, when you meet them, the universe demands you sit up and pay attention to.

–

“Captain Tripathi – you’re alive.”

Even after resolving not to underestimate Sana Tripathi, Campbell is still surprised when he hears from her again. It’s been eight months, and during that time, his best-placed informants hadn’t picked up a single trace of Captain Tripathi or her companion. Not under the names he’d created for them, and not under the names they’d given him when they met.

It’s unheard of for him to be unable to track an alias he’s created (he wouldn’t be able to stay ahead of any potential threats unless he had that advantage), but he knows that the Regime has ways of making people vanish completely. It’s a cold, unpleasant realisation, and he experiences an unusually strong pang of regret considering that he barely knows this woman. But he’s sure that somehow, they must have slipped up and got caught.

So when Captain Tripathi contacts him again like nothing has happened, he realises he might just have to get used to unexpected developments.

He’s somehow not even surprised to hear that since they last spoke, she’s picked up a Dwarnian and some kind of renegade translator who has a history with the mafia. “He’s an academic, so he won’t be seeing any action, but he needs to have papers that will hold up if the ship is inspected while we’re docked,” the Captain explains casually.

“…Naturally,” says Campbell. “And speaking of your ship – I suppose you have a full work-up of papers for that, too? You know they’ve tightened the regs on those a lot recently.”

He tells himself he’s only saying it so that he can squeeze an extra job out of a contact he’s fairly confident will be good for the money. Not because he’s concerned.

“Are you suggesting that my ship’s paperwork is less than completely impeccable?” Captain Tripathi asks him with mock indignation.

Campbell suppresses a smile as he replies, “Given that it was made by someone other than myself, I’m surprised it’s held up this long.”

Their conversation concludes with him agreeing to redo the ship’s paperwork – somehow at a much lower price than he would usually charge for a second-time client.

–

“Captain Tripathi. You’re alive!”

It’s already become a joke between them by this point, the fact that Campbell answers Sana’s calls this way, and he waits in anticipation of the sarcastic response that he knows will follow. They’ve been in relatively regular contact since Campbell started playing middleman for some of their cargo, using his network of contacts to move it on and taking a cut. He’s stopped bothering to deny to himself how much he looks forward to their conversations.

But this time, the voice that comes down the line is not Sana Tripathi’s, but Arkady Patel’s. “It’s First Mate Patel, actually,” she says brusquely, and Campbell sits up slowly. “I know you guys traditionally open with like, twenty minutes of banter, but we don’t have time for that right now. We’re in a bind.”

Campbell has a cast-iron policy of not offering any favours, offering help to contacts, or otherwise sticking his neck out any further than he needs to. He keeps his relationships strictly about business and nothing more. Much like his ability to track an alias, it’s what’s kept him off the IGR’s radar for so long.

There are one or two folks whom he goes way back with – like Theodore “Red” Gregor, who was in his unit and a fellow dishonourable discharge. Campbell helped him set up his business on Elion. There aren’t many who could manage to stay in business while avoiding both the mob and the Regime, but if anyone could, it was Red.

But they’re rare exceptions to a very strict rule. Anyone else is on their own, or had better be prepared to owe him for a long, long time.

Campbell thinks about all this before he says, “What do you need?”

–

Campbell is ashamed of how long it takes him to realise that Sana is a fellow Telemachian. He’s usually good at identifying fellow homeworlders, even ones who have lived elsewhere. Telemachians have this spark, this spirit, a distinctive culture that even the Regime couldn’t stamp out of them.

They’re diverse, sure, and numerous, but you can always spot a fellow Telemachian if you know what to look for. They’re the unruly planet on the edge of a solar system, a little too far away from any established IGR base to monitor closely; a little too big to be brought to heel. There’s a reason that most protest songs originate from Telemachus – and that there’s been periodic unrest every few years since the coup.

They’re making small talk at the end of a call (something Campbell indulges in far more than he should), and Campbell is talking about evading the IGR’s latest clampdown and how hard it’s becoming to operate underground. “It’s enough to make me want to give it all up and become a vegetable farmer somewhere.”

“Wouldn’t you get bored?” Sana asks, playfully but with a hint of curiosity lurking underneath.

“Yeah. Probably.” Campbell’s not sure. Maybe if he had the company of the right person, it wouldn’t be so bad. “Just, all this running in place… it feels so futile.” It comes out sounding more tired than he means it to.

“Well, you know what they say,” says Sana, seriously. “When their foot is on your throat-”

“-any day breathing is a victory,” Campbell finishes. “I didn’t know you were a homeworlder.”

There’s a pause, and he thinks that Sana is weighing up what to say next. She hadn’t meant to give so much away, he realises – for all that he’s got to know a fair bit about the smuggling business that she runs, and the odd detail about life on board the Rumor, Sana is very cautious about revealing anything about her own past, or that of her crew, beyond what is strictly required to do business. Campbell has never minded that – he can respect a person’s boundaries. He doesn’t need to pry into Sana’s past to be sure that she won’t screw him over.

“I’ve moved around a bit,” she says, finally. “I spent a few years off-planet in the late 70s. Since then I’ve been… transient. Well, you knew that.”

Campbell inclines his head, though he knows that Sana can’t see it. He’s still considering what to say when she carries on,

“I don’t go back to the homeworld much these days. Actually, when we first approached you to work with us-” Campbell gives a wry smile at how much of an understatement that is, “-it was the first time that I’d been back to Telemachus in years.”

“It’s still home, though, isn’t it?” he says, thinking of the time that he’d spent in deployment; the years that he was on the run, unable to get word to his sister or his nephews. “After everything.”

“Yeah, it is.”

–

Campbell doesn’t really think twice the first time he invites the crew of the Rumor to have dinner with him.

It’s late in the evening, and the crew has just touched down on Telemachus a full twelve hours later than they’d originally planned. First there’d been some unprecedented solar flare activity en route, forcing them to take a detour, and then they’d been boarded by Regime agents in a “random” check on entry to Telemachus. Krejjh had been quickly hidden away in one of the ship’s many nooks and crannies, and the paperwork had all checked out (of course), but the agents had been both suspicious and thorough. All in all, the crew is obviously exhausted and a little fractious by the time Campbell meets them to pick up the cargo. Sana is doing her best to keep things businesslike, but she wilts visibly and rubs her hand over her eyes when she thinks he isn’t looking.

“Hey. Listen, we can go over all this tomorrow,” Campbell says, as gently as he can. “You guys’ve had a rough journey – what d’you say we grab a bite to eat instead?”

Arkady’s frown deepens, of course – it’s her job to be suspicious, and Campbell doesn’t take it personally. More to the point, he knows that it’s just her way of trying to look out for the crew. Arkady Patel is a lot more caring than she tries to let on. She might show it with jibes in the background of calls, or with threats and occasional bodily harm in the direction of anyone who threatens her friends’ safety, but she shows it.

For her part, Sana looks extremely relieved at the idea of being able to put business off until the morning.

���That’s really kind of you, Campbell,” she says. “It’d be great to take a bit of a breather, but we don’t want to impose…”

“It’s no imposition,” says Campbell, shrugging. “I was planning to go out to eat tonight anyway – I’ve been cooped up indoors too much lately. There’s a great hole-in-the-wall two blocks away from here – it doesn’t look like much, but the food is something else. Krejjh can come, too – they get all kinds in there.”

Sana tells him they’ll consult Brian and Krejjh before coming to a decision, but Campbell has a feeling that the answer will be yes, despite Arkady’s clear misgivings. Sure enough, Sana is back minutes later with a mild-mannered translator and an excitable Dwarnian (disguised with a large pair of novelty sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat) in tow.

Over the months – almost a year, now – that Campbell has been doing business with the Rumor crew, he has a sense of how they work together as a group: Krejjh piloting the ship and executing daring last-minute escapes; Brian joking and mediating and cooking slightly disastrous food; Arkady watching Sana’s back and intimidating obstacles into submission; and Sana alternately leading and mothering, driving ruthless bargains for the benefit of her crew.

But it doesn’t compare to the experience of eating at the same table, drinking the Rumor’s lethal home-brewed moonshine, listening to outrageous tales and laughing until his sides hurt.

The next day, Campbell is unsurprised when he doesn’t hear a word from the Rumor crew until nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. He himself only crawled out of bed at noon, and has since been avoiding light sources and slowly regaining his humanity over strong black coffee.

“Incoming call from Sana Tripathi.”

“Captain Tripathi,” Campbell says as he answers his comm. “You’re alive?”

“The jury’s definitely still out on that one,” Sana replies, her voice low and rough. Campbell chuckles, and then hopes the sound wasn’t too loud. “We’re at various stages of recuperation, but at a minimum, Arkady and I will be able to meet you with the cargo at our rendezvous point by three.”

“Make it four,” Campbell says, in deference to how utterly wrung-out she sounds. To cover this up, he adds, “I only joined the land of the living about half an hour ago myself. I’m going to need at least three more cups of coffee before I’m functional.”

“Four it is,” says Sana, businesslike, but with a clear undertone of relief. “We’ll see you there.”

“See you both soon. And, Sana –”

Campbell stops, wondering if he’s overstepping. Last night had been so easy, so fun – by the end of it, the Rumor crew felt like old friends. But it’s harder to recapture that feeling in the light of day, sober. What can he say – ‘Thanks for a great night’? ‘We should do this again sometime’?

(‘You have a beautiful laugh’?)

He clears his throat. “Don’t let Brian forget about that drink he owes me. And uh, you and the rest of the crew are always welcome to make a stop. To refuel, or…” He clears his throat again. “Or for whatever reason.”

“Thanks, Campbell,” says Sana, warm and genuine. “We’ll see you soon.”

–

Things start to get a lot tougher over the months that follow – on Telemachus and on every other planet that Campbell has contacts. Forgers and traders he’s worked with for years go silent, or are rarely heard from; he gets wind of abrupt crackdowns, the Regime imprisoning people who show the slightest bit of dissent, petty criminals being sent down with lengthy sentences.

Telemachus starts to stir. He hears murmurs on the streets. A leaflet is shoved into his hand by a hooded young person who is gone before he can blink. Campbell skims enough of it to know that he would probably be arrested if he were found with it on his person. He burns it, but he knows it’s only a matter of time before the protests start.

On his next call with the Captain to arrange a routine cargo drop-off, he can’t stop himself from urging her to be careful. Sounding amused, she promises him that she will.

“Are we still on for drinks at that bar you promised to take us to?”

“I don’t know what their house policy is on home-brewed moonshine,” Campbell warns her. “But of course we are.”

“Great. We’ll see you in a week, Campbell. Sana Tripathi out.”

He’s not expecting to get another call from her just three days later. Campbell is tense as he accepts the call, sure that something must be wrong.

“Captain Tripathi.” He hesitates over the second half of the greeting, and Sana speaks before he can say anything else.

“Campbell, hi.” She sounds well, but Campbell doesn’t relax, sensing bad news in her tone. “Listen, there’s no good way to say this, but… we’re going to have to miss our drop-off.”

“Oh.” Of all the things that Campbell might have thought were coming next, that wasn’t one of them. He knows he should be angry over being left in the lurch by a business partner, about how badly this will put him out, but instead he’s just… disappointed. And concerned. “What’s happening?”

“It’s – hard to go into too much detail right now, but… we’ve got to make an unexpected stop. Something’s come up, and… there’s no way we’re going to be in range of Telemachus for a while. I’m sorry.”

So, not just missing a drop-off, but possibly not making any stops for some time. Campbell is silent for a few moments, absorbing this.

“I know this will put you out in a major way, and I promise that we’ll make it up to you,” Sana says. “You’re our best customer, and we would never bail on you unless it was urgent.”

That’s what concerns me, Campbell thinks. “I… understand,” he says finally. “I’m not going to pretend I like it, but sometimes, that’s just how things are. I can find another supplier for the Scotch. They won’t be you, but…”

“Sorry, again, Campbell. We were… really looking forward to seeing you. Listen, we’ll give you half price on your next shipment. As an apology.”

Somehow, bartering isn’t as fun when Sana is just offering him a lower price – and when she’s doing it as an apology. “We’ll work something out,” he says. “I know you’ve got to keep Krejjh in hot sauce and Arkady in those elaborate hair products she denies using.”

Sana laughs. “Yeah, we might have to ration the hot sauce for a bit, but we’ll survive.” There’s a pause, and then she adds, “I’ll call as soon as I’m able. Let you know when we might be in the area again.”

“Do that. Good luck with… whatever it is that you have to do.”

“Thanks.” For a moment, Sana seems like she’s about to say something else, but then she closes with, “Speak to you soon. Sana Tripathi out.”

–

Campbell doesn’t hear from the Rumor crew for another three weeks after Sana’s call. All told, it’s been nearly four months since they last stopped by on Telemachus. Once upon a time, he would go much longer without seeing or hearing from the crew and not even think about it. But he’s got used to more regular contact – drop-offs every couple of months, and regular calls, sometimes not even about business. He enjoys finding out what the group has been up to, listening to the way that they joke together, the way Sana alternately cajoles and corrals them. How fond she sounds when talking to her crew, her found family.

He’s sure, sometimes, that he hears the same fondness in her voice directed at him. She’s never hesitated to match his banter, and he looks forward to the calls where they haggle over prices, exchanging insults that sound more affectionate than anything. Campbell would hate to cross a line too soon – he doesn’t want to ruin what is also a great business relationship and friendship. But on his calls with Sana, his catch-ups with the crew, their now-regular drinking escapades with ill-advised amounts of moonshine and ridiculous stories… he’s sure that there’s something more there.

He finds himself thinking about Sana at odd moments during the day: dwelling on her voice, her laugh; picturing her smile, her arms, her tattoos. He hopes that she’s safe, that whatever mystery errand took her away from Telemachus wasn’t dangerous. More than once, he’s tempted to put a call through and make sure she’s okay, but he stops himself. Sana said she would call as soon as she was able, and she’s always been a woman of her word.

He brightens when, in the middle of a slow evening, his terminal lights up and his computer intones, “Incoming call from… Sana Tripathi. Incoming call from…”

“Captain Tripathi,” he greets her cheerfully. “You’re alive!”

–

Then, Elion. A body turns up by the landfill. Sana’s accusation.

“In what universe would I turn on you for them?!”

Then they don’t speak for some time.

–

There’s a massive protest happening in the centre of Nestor, the district of Telemachus where Campbell is based. It’s loud enough and vehement enough that Campbell can hear it, just faintly, from where he sits in his cramped office, distractedly going through some accounts.

Normally, the Regime would have deployed riot police by now, violently suppressing the protest and arresting the instigators. But in contrast to how jumpy the IGR had been before, the machinery of the Regime has been oddly absent in recent weeks. As if all its resources are being focused elsewhere. This is the third protest in about ten days – and the largest. He also heard that there’s been some kind of major incident at a Regime lab in New Jupiter – a fire or an explosion or something. He’s willing to bet that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Something big is going down.

Giving the accounts up as a bad job for now, Campbell dismisses the holographic screen with a wave of his hand and stands up. He needs some air.

Once he’s out of the house, it’s almost impossible to avoid the protest – it seems to be everywhere. Out of sheer morbid curiosity, Campbell walks towards the crowds, his coat collar turned up to obscure the bottom half of his face. Soon he’s close enough to hear some of what they’re shouting.

“THE RUMOR CREW DID NOTHING WRONG!” yells a man nearby, and Campbell’s heart almost stops. “JUSTICE FOR THASIA!” 

“JUSTICE FOR EMILY CRADDOCK!” another voice yells back.

Someone stuffs a leaflet into Campbell’s hand. He looks down at it. It’s a cheap, quickly-printed thing, just black text on off-white paper, and it reads:

WE THE PEOPLE DEMAND A FULL AND TRANSPARENT STATEMENT FROM THE INTERGALACTIC REPUBLIC ABOUT THE DISCLOSURES IN THE RUMOR RECORDINGS OF THE WIDESPREAD USE OF SPY TECHNOLOGY IN PEACETIME ASSASSINATION, ABDUCTION, AND THE INSTIGATION OF AN INTER-SPECIES WAR THE RUMOR CREW DID NOTHING WRONG!

Campbell roughly grabs the shoulder of the man who was shouting nearby. “What are these Rumor recordings?” he demands, brandishing the leaflet.

The man looks alarmed, and Campbell forces his posture to become a bit less “military”. “I’m not one of them,” he says, quickly. “I just want to know what’s happening.”

“They’re all over the public net, man,” says the protestor. The ‘where the hell have you been?’ is strongly implied.

“You should start by listening to Report 1: Violet Liu,” another protestor supplies helpfully.

“Thank you,” says Campbell, and lets go of the man’s shoulder. The man shrugs and rejoins the crowd, chanting,

“JUSTICE FOR ALVY CONNORS! JUSTICE FOR THE CREW OF THE STARSHIP IRIS! YOU CAN’T MAKE A PERSON DISAPPEAR!”

Back at home, Campbell discovers the man was right: the files are all over the net. The IGR is clearly penalising anyone who shares them, and trying to shut down the websites hosting them – his search turns up a lot of dead links and mysteriously deactivated accounts. But there are far too many sources to eradicate them all, short of completely shutting down the public net. Before too long, Campbell has a complete set of the recordings, Reports 1 to 9.

He starts to listen.

The report starts, after the introduction from someone who is clearly an IGR drone, with the panicked voice of a woman who sounds vaguely familiar. Campbell has a good memory for both faces and voices, and he’s sure this woman is the new recruit he’d heard briefly on the call with Sana before the Rumor landed on Elion. It might explain her link to the Rumor crew.

Sure enough, a few minutes later he hears Arkady, using the Kay Grisham alias that he’d made for her, years ago. He recognises the con she’s pulling, a trick that Brian Jeeter grandly refers to as “the Carmen Gambit”. He wonders what was so important about this woman that the Rumor crew went so far out of their way to rescue her. He looks for a timestamp on the recording, but it only shows when the file was uploaded to the public net, which was a few days ago. But Campbell has a feeling this was the reason that the Rumor crew skipped their drop-off in Telemachus.

He wishes that Sana had told him what they were doing. God knows he wouldn’t have been angry about them going to save a person’s life. He wasn’t really angry about it to begin with.

Campbell keeps listening, and learns the real reason for the Rumor crew’s detour: a cryptic message from a friend he thinks Brian might have mentioned once – Alvy Connors, a gifted coder moonlighting as a bartender. Campbell’s sorry to learn about his death. He realises that the protesters had been chanting Alvy’s name – but why would they care so much about this man’s death? Where did these recordings come from?

Two more reports in, and Campbell is starting to put the pieces together to form a horrible picture: how the Regime had known that the Rumor was headed towards Elion. How the crew’s IDs had become compromised. They were listening to every word, he realises. But how?

Sana and Arkady discuss trading with the Fowleys – a particularly low breed of scum that Campbell avoids dealing with if at all possible, but he knows the Rumor crew can’t afford to be that picky – on Elion, and Campbell realises that he must be about to make an appearance in the recordings.

Sure enough, as the group realises that they need new IDs, Sana makes the call. It’s surreal to hear his own voice coming from the computer, and Campbell realises he needs to be very careful from now on. Whatever event caused all these files to be leaked onto the public net, he’s now clearly implicated in it, too. At least the Regime don’t have a visual description, but they have his voice and his location, as well as some details about his contacts. He’ll need to warn Red Gregor.

The exchange between Arkady and Sana in the elevator on Elion makes him cringe. “Did it seem like he was hitting on you?” Ridiculously, he finds himself hoping that Sana will give some indication of how she might feel about that, but instead she expertly turns the conversation around on Arkady. “If we wanna open that door, can I just say that you and—”

“No, that door is shut and locked.”

Campbell thinks about how Arkady talks to Violet Liu, her upbeat mood in response to the other woman’s admiration, and smiles.

Things go downhill quickly after that. Campbell is tense as he listens to the exchange with the guard, the Carmen Gambit once again coming into play. It almost works – until the fatal announcement over the comms that blows the crew’s cover. Campbell reflects that the Regime’s ridiculous, stifling bureaucracy was probably the only thing that kept them from getting caught sooner.

He cringes again as he hears his own call come through, and Sana immediately decline it. He’d been a bit over-eager, calling as soon as he’d got Red Gregor’s message to say that the job had gone off without a hitch – he was really just looking for an excuse to talk to Sana. Clearly, Campbell needs to get a grip.

The recording ends, and Campbell looks at his holo-screen, thinking about what the next recording will surely contain.

“Computer, outside call. Ignatius Campbell to Sana Tripathi.”

“Attempting connection…” the computer intones. “Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Connection not available.”

He guesses he can’t blame Sana for declining his calls, after everything that he’d said to her before.

Reluctantly, he plays the next recording.

He listens to Violet’s attempts to speak to Arkady, Brian’s theories about the robot nanoswarm, and then Violet and Arkady’s conversation in the kitchen and Arkady’s gift of her mint plant. Campbell feels slightly indignant about the fact that Arkady never let on she was a fellow gardener. They could have exchanged tips!

Finally, he hears Sana accept his call in her room, and the friendly conversation quickly devolve into a tense exchange. He’s replayed that conversation endless times in his head, but it somehow sounds even worse than he remembers. Campbell wasn’t angry at Sana – he wishes he could have explained that somehow. But with everything that had happened, she was in no position to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wishes he could go back in time and…

He doesn’t know.

Then, something unexpected. Another call comes through to Sana’s comm, and she accepts it without waiting to hear the name – but Campbell knows that wasn’t him.

“Campbell, I agree it’s a bad idea for us to talk right now, but I just wanna say that if it was only me, I would probably risk it. The thing is, I can’t, I have to think about my crew, and you—”

Campbell’s heart stutters in his chest. “Computer, outside call,” he says, not bothering to pause the recording. “Ignatius Campbell to Sana Tripathi.”

“Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Connection not available.”

Campbell sighs and runs a hand over his face. He’s finally starting to get the picture, and he’s desperate to talk to Sana, to tell her that he understands now. He thinks about the way she’d spoken to ‘him’, the vulnerability in her voice. Damn it, he needs to talk to her. He has to make this right.

A man is speaking on the recording now, and Sana responds to him with anger. Campbell realises that he still has three reports left to go. He’s still far from understanding what has happened and where these recordings came from. The least that he can do is take the time to listen to them and understand what Sana has been going through.

He’s afraid of what the other reports might contain. But he would have known if Sana was hurt or worse – wouldn’t he? Surely Sana would still have come to him for help if she really needed it?

Nothing could have prepared him for the contents of the last three reports: the stunning revelations about Thasia, about why the war began; about the Regime’s use of a sentient swarm of nanobots to spy on dozens of its own people, indiscriminately, in every waking moment. His fists clench, hard enough that his nails dig into the palms of his hands, as he listens to Major General Frederick’s cold declaration that future strains of the nanoswarm will include a ‘kill-switch’. He listens to the sad story of Thasia and their doomed childhood friend, Emily Craddock. He understands now why the crowd had been chanting their names.

The crew’s hours of drunken singalongs and fake ‘confessions’ make him smile, but the smile is quickly wiped from his face as he hears the passage of time at the end of the report. “Two weeks have passed since our last update. As Major General Frederick said, we expect diminishing returns via this swarm of strain H.”

Then, the last few seconds. “Agent McCabe, look out the window!”

“Holy shit—”

Campbell can’t believe the recordings end there. He goes back to the site where he’d downloaded the files, to make sure he hadn’t missed one – but the website has already been taken offline. He scours discussion boards for any scrap of information. All of the commentators agree that there are only nine reports, but they have theories about what might have happened next – linked to the explosion (it definitely was an explosion) on New Jupiter. Odds are, it was the Rumor’s destination. But what happened?

He thinks about the words of the other Violet Liu. “If Plan B fails, not all of you will live long enough for Plan C.” He thinks about Violet coughing, Krejjh coughing, an inexorably deadly swarm of nanobots in the air. The Rumor crew taking one last, defiant, heroic stand because none of them could stand the alternative: to save their own lives at the expense of so many others.

“We have a saying on Telemachus, that when their foot is on your throat, any day breathing is a victory. So, I vote we push our luck.”

Campbell’s breathing is unsteady, and his throat feels tight and painful. He tries to fight down the rising panic in his chest, the voice in his head that fears the worst. Sana is alive. She has to be. He rubs at one eye with the heel of his hand, and it comes away wet.

“Computer,” he chokes out. “Outside call. Ignatius Campbell – to – Sana Tripathi.”

“Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Attempting connection… Attempting connection…”

“Campbell?”

Campbell is so stunned that for several long moments he stares at his computer, at the holo-screen displaying a successful connection, counting up the seconds on their call. “Campbell?” Sana says again. “Is that you?”

“Captain Tripathi,” he manages finally. “You’re…”

“Alive,” finishes Sana, with a smile in her voice.

[michael-radi-the-glamorous-life]

Love The Art, Hate The Artist?

Society - particularly American society - loves to demonize or to “other” art and artists.

We deride people who create:

“Oh, you’re an artist? You’re one of those.”

“Oh, you’re a writer? I wish I could sit at home all day.”

“Oh, you’re an actor? You must love starving.”

These are of course specific examples using common ideas and tropes, but these kinds of reactions are common and probably sound familiar to you.

We tell people who want to go into the arts:

“Why would you to throw your life away?”

“But you have so much potential!”

“But there’s no money in the arts!”

Being a creator is clearly seen as being *less than,* but why? Less than what? Why would we consider becoming an artist or writer or performer or designer a path that is throwing your life away or not using your skills and talents?

Well, Capitalism.

But this type of thinking and behavior not only can be unlearned, but it needs to be unlearned. Art and the products of creation are everywhere, but we’ve been conditioned to have a blind spot for most of it, and what we do see we are told to feel contempt for. Let’s just see how pervasive art is, shall we?

Visual

Let’s begin with the category that most people think of as “art.”

When you say “Visual Art,” the first thing people think of is the type of painting or photography that one might hang on the wall in a home or a place of business. Or perhaps they picture “stodgy old art” that isn’t their taste, like what hangs in museums.

Okay, then let’s start here. Why was this art created? Was it to fulfill the whimsical desires of the artist? Was it an experiment? Or an off-the-cuff creation?

Likely not.

Visual art is meant to have purpose - it’s functional. What is that function? To provide a pleasing visual aesthetic for the person purchasing the art. It’s possible the art was even commissioned originally, meaning that its sole purpose in existing is to be seen and provide visual pleasure for someone. Is this not a worthy function?

And we - as capitalist consumers - hang art everywhere. We buy photographs and prints, paintings and drawings, we frame puzzles, we order canvases, we find indie art shops, we (for better or worse) purchase “Ikea art” - and all for the purpose of enriching the visual elements of our lives.

We adore this art - so why would we deride the people who created what we love?

And Visual Art is not just the things I’ve mentioned above. It’s a gigantic category covering things that we see around us everywhere, all day every day. Here are just a few examples:

Advertisements - Posters, online ads, business cards, etc.

Logos - For businesses, for individuals, for podcasts, for the app on your phone, etc.

Cards/Invitations/Mailings - Wedding invites, birthday cards, charity solicitation mailings, theater season announcements, etc.

Design - Book covers, the shape of a Febreeze bottle, the pattern on your tissue box, etc.

Theatrical - Set, lighting, costumes, direction, performance, etc.

I could go on and on. Everywhere you look is something that some has put time, thought, and design into. That is art. And we use this art. So why deride the artist?

Auditory

First thing people think of? Songwriters.

Not composers, of course, but songwriters. People whose music we hear on the radio. People who create sound and music for the purpose of money and fame. People we worship, people we hate, people who are publicly visible, people who acquire awards, people who fill our ears through radio and streaming and headphones and coffee shop speakers.

Do some of these people make money? Yes - though not nearly as many of them as you think.

Do we love these musicians and often make idols out of them? Yes - some of them at least.

“So that’s not derision, this a a category where we celebrate art!”

But all Auditory Art? And all artists?

You may know the singer-songwriter of that song you love, but do you know the name of the person or company that produced it? How about the sound engineer? The person who mixed it? Or who edited it? Or who created the underlying beat track for the radio version?

There are far more creators on any one radio song than we ever think about.

And where else is sound created other than for the radio?

Theatre

Film

Dance

Lobby/Reception Areas

Elevators

Public Spaces

Websites

Video Games

And what about other types of sound design?

Whether or not you think about it, the lack of sound (or even silence) in a space has been purposefully created for you. Someone said “I don’t want there to be too much sound in this space” and a creator made that happen.

There are also publicly available sounds, tracks, and effects that have been created for users of programs and apps like Musical Notation Software, Recording Software, Sleep Therapy Software, etc.

Someone made everything you hear that isn’t a natural sound. And we use these sounds to create an atmosphere - a pleasing environment.

We love Auditory Art. So shouldn’t we love the artists?

Functional

People come to New York City and buy pictures and renderings of the skyline.

Why?

‘Cause it’s beautiful. It’s been designed to be beautiful.

Functional Art is a broad category that covers the pleasing artistic aesthetic of things that also serve a functional purpose in our lives - well, other than the function of being artistically pleasing.

Here’s a smattering of what could fit in this category, just from an architectural and mechanical point of view:

Building Design

Interior Design - This goes for office space, retail space, and residential space.

Bridges

Roadways

Vehicles

Airplanes

Boats/Ships

Piers

Island Barriers

Canals

Farmland

Large Machinery

Everything has been designed, whether or not you’ve noticed.

And plenty of other types of everyday objects are also included in this category:

Clothing - I’d say this is a pretty big one, especially considering diversity and range.

Furniture

Household Objects

Kitchen Gadgets

Perfumes

Scent Products - Candles, plug-ins, incense, etc.

Small Machinery - Printers, copiers, etc.

Sometimes people argue that - for things such as scent - it is scientists who find these elements and put them together to create pleasing aromas. Or engineers who created the machinery that makes the engine of a car work properly.

Yes. And we wouldn’t dare label these creators as “artists,” would we? The products are far too functional to be given that lowly title, right?

We love Functional Art. We use it. We need it. So we should love the artists as well.

Technological

We rely on technology all day every day. We carry small computers in our pockets. We use larger computers for work and for pleasure.

And someone created that. Both the insides and the outsides.

Technology is something that was created for the purpose of being functional, but that the public also demands to be constantly aesthetically pleasing. And everything that has to do with technology was imagined and created by people.

Another list:

Phones

Computers

Tablets

Hardware

Software

Apps

Programs

Cameras

Film

Coding

Websites

CGI

Electronic Instruments

Medical Equipment

Electricity Reliant Objects

Lighting -Of all varieties.

And a billion other things. And if you notice, much of this crosses over with Functional Art. These days it’s very difficult to create something useful that doesn’t rely on technology in one way or another.

The people who created all of this are artists. Why deride them?

Experiential

Now, more than most times, humans are all about experiences.

We search out activities, places, and recreations that will provide us with pleasant environments and experiences worth remembering or revisiting.

And…you guessed it…artists created it all. Top to bottom, left to right, forward to back, and in a thousand other ways we didn’t even know existed.

Some of these include:

Movies

TV Shows

Theme Parks - Disney anyone?

Theatre

Concerts

Dance

News Articles/Papers/Programs

Books

Sport Stadium Interiors - You can go to a Mets game just for the experiences at CitiField!

Gardens

Parks

Bowling Alleys

Rock Climbing Walls

Dining Spaces

Food

Alcohol

Travel Excursions

Anything that you go to, or bring to yourself, in order to engage in an experience can be considered Experiential Art.

We fill our lives with this stuff. We discuss it all regularly. We create cultural norms and build conversations around this art. We argue about episodes. We share our favorite meals.

It’s all art. So why deride the artists?

It’s Everywhere

Art is not a high concept that can be boxed into a corner. Art is not created in a vacuum. Art is not purely aesthetic. Art is not something only the wealthy experience.

Art has function. Art has meaning. Art enriches lives. Art allows us to live. Art helps us survive.

Art is all around us and we use it every day. And we love it - we don’t put it down or tell it to go away. We don’t call the art around us a waste or time, or life, or potential.

So why deride the artist?

[gavetawrtes]

okay i am literally in the process of leaving my job rn, college only starts in February and i want some plots so pls check out the plots here under the read more and if anything sparks your interest pls like this so i can message you or just message me !

mumu

something based on friends ?? a tiny thing where we get 3 characters each and they can be heavily based on the friends character or just a little bit ? then we can have like relationships between them . friendships ? old flings ? siblings ? different dynamics for each of them and threads with more than one at the same time. they always go to the same coffee shop together or they are always in each others apartment. a has a thing for b but b is oblivious and b has always been bffs with c and so on. honestly it can be so much fun and so pure ? pls i deserve nice things

oKay but like wizards in a wizarding school ? ? i would say hogwarts but that world is a mess right now so we could make our own lil world? where like we decide the subjects and the kind of magic and all that. it could have aspects from any magical world we want like idk hogwarts house or like different types of magics ( physical, natural, Illusion, healing, psychic ) from the tv show the magicians. and honestly whatever else we want ? we can throw our lil characters into it and populate this little world with tiny plots like ‘our houses are eternal rivals and i intend to crush you at this quidditch game but also pls go to the winter formal with me bc you are the prettiest person in school ?’ & ‘my family has been historically amazing at physical magic but i’m really bad at this. you seem amazing pls teach me so people will stop making fun of me’ & ‘i didn’t know magic existed and now i do and this is all new to me how is the frog talking and why are you not scared at any of this ? ? ‘ && ‘whhy do you think it’s cute to be the skater punk version of magical world and fly standing up in your broom ? you could seriously get hurt ? and see there you got hurt. what do you mean ?  help you with healer magic ? no i don’t want you to get expelled but we should call a teacher !’ and honestly whatever else you can think of 

okay but like a group of high school friends and their older selves ?? ?  ?? ??  like we could set all the high school threads in the 80s ?? ? ? ?? ? and have different personalities ? and then we also have threads like in 2018 years later when they see each other again in the high school reunion ? just ? pls? the high school sweethearts who signed the divorce papers three years ago and we are doing both the thread in which they fell in love and the one where they see each other again for the first time after the divorce. the high school rebel who became the local sheriff and the girl he loved who used to be the biggest nerd who had a thing over their last summer. we are doing both their wild adventures and them seeing each other again for the first time bc she moved back with her parents. the two best friends who remained best friends for all those years and they are seeing all of those people again and it’s just like ‘oh man glad this didn’t Help to us’ and we can have them as teens bickering and making fun of their teacher and them years later at the bar like ‘i miss having adventures like we used to’ there are so many possibilities ? for like people who grew disillusioned with their lives ? or people who got really successful . ? people who stopped talking altogether ? people who remained friends forever ?? ? plspls it could be so nice

Okay but a group of old immortals/wizards/witches ? something a long the lines of the originals but they are not all siblings or the hogwarts funders but there is no school involved. like they have known each other for centuries and they have been friendly-ish. they probably got a hand in many important world changing events in history and like maybe they have to come together and stop the apocalypse every 500 years or one of them call them all up and it’s like ‘hey guys so skarsgård is going all ruler of the world again and i can’t stop him alone bc he is more powerful than me so could you pls? help me?‘ ? ? ? ? there are so many possibilities. we could play with different types of characters like ( one wizard who spent the last 100 years in a hole on the ground and he is just done with humanity while there is another one traveling around and trying to write a beautiful book about humans and life but it lowkey sounds like a fake deep tweet ) or like hundred years old relationships where they go ‘making me jealous in 1954 didn’t work why do you think it’s gonna work now?’ or smth like ‘baby we have been together for 3 centuries and you still make me blush’ OR OR  we could get more into plot like half of them go ‘i’m done with saving humans every hundred years. maybe skarsgård is right and we Should rule the world’ while the other half goes ‘what ? no humans are amazing? our job is to save them ’ and just those super mega powerful wizards fighting each other ? pls we could go in whatever direction you want just pls let me play incredibly powerful wizards

the PTA group ?? i love playing older characters but also like there are so many possibilities and it could be legit funny and full fluff and angst like ? we have those two married characters who are a perfect couple but maybe they are not that perfect ? the single parent who is just really Trying but is always late ? the divorced couple who is only participating bc the other is and they wanna show how much Better of a parent they are ? the teacher who loves to do all of this and is honestly worried about everyone drama ? the teacher who Had to sign up for this bc it was given to them as a punishment after they didn’t something and they are just standing there like ‘why are all of you so extra? just go home. you know this is optional now?’ everyone getting involved in each other’s business ?? ? everyone being lowkey friends ?? ? dR a Ma also all the supportive parents going to the kids games and the kids just being super happy

a greek god mumus ??  maybe we pick two ships and develop them like ( idk hera & zeus and hades & persophone ) or we just pick around the characters we wanna play. and we can have like all of them stuck in the real world, stuck in a human body. zeus wanting to fly to be an eagle to go somewhere but being stuck to earth. being the biggest asshole in the face of this earth but also not being able to let hera go? ? not knowing how to function properly when she is not around. and maybe idk maybe in this life hera doesn’t stick around. maybe in this life the only reason why they are still legally together is because he didn’t sign divorce papers, maybe she is done with him and done with trying when he clearly doesn’t give a fuck. maybe in this life she is a wedding planner and when people ask her to plan their marriages she gives them advice on knowing when to be forgiving and when to stick up for yourself. hades is the leader of a biker gang but he is mostly really quiet and chill and he has three pit bulls who just hang around him and do nothing of true harm ?? and the only person you can actually be terrified of is his wife ? ? bc even tho logic dictates otherwise it seems like she sets fire on the concrete she walks through and makes plants grow when she passes by and it baffles every existing human ?? and hades being ‘listen man i would forgive your betrayal but my wife i mean, she kinda asked me for your head and i can’t say no….’ chris evans a poseydon, poseydon as a surfer dude ??  as a guy who works/owns an aquarium and understands the animal there in a way that doesn’t make sense to anyone else ?? who has the biggest pools for the animals to swim around, even if it makes looking at them harder for whoever is vising, bc all those animals have been raised in captivate and they wouldn’t survive in the ocean but he doesn’t want them to feel stuck ? he wouldn’t know what he would if he couldn’t swim around  in the ocean and he just wants them to feel free even if he can’t free them. ?? there are so many ways in which things can go ? i mean honestly i’ll shower in headcanons pls gimme.

this is the last one i promise but a plot with a bunch of criminals maybe ex-navy/army who work together. maybe based on the losers ?? where you got like the leader of the group who makes dubious decisions when there are woman involved and the stoic explosions specialist who knows the leader so well that the moment the leader flinchs he goes like ‘imma take over now. okay? okay.’ maybe you got the gun slinging asshole who makes inappropriate jokes and the person who is just Too Qualified to be around this sea of idiots. maybe they were all framed for the same crime and they have to live in the shadows hiding in a city in the middle of nowhere pretending they are normal civilians. maybe they were all trying to save someone and it backfired and they wanna go back to their lives but how  ? ? idk there are so many possibilities just pls.

1x1

muse a is hopeless romantic that may or may not be more in love with the idea of love itself than he has ever be with anyone. he quits relationships as soon as they get a tiny bit complicated but he is always talking about ~~~~ soulmates ~~~~. muse b the girl who is way too generous and helps everyone out of the kindness of her heart but expects way too much from everyone. she is always falling in love with people and breaking her own heart by thinking they care more about her than they really do. — now close your eyes and imagine. .. . there is so much potential for angst and fluff ?? ? like he prepares overly dramatic moment in front of everyone and like serenades her ? paints her as his muse and puts it up in galareis ? but also one fight and he talks about breaking up bc that is not true love ? while she is there just interested in the tiny things ? in the days at home with him alone and the way they make each other laugh ? she is such a simple girl and they make each other so happy and he just Can’t see it ? ? ? pls 

muse a is the overly responsible single father/mother had to take care of themselves and his son/daughter ever since they can remember. they Cannot Relax because they must do 110% percent at all times for his kid. muse b is the mother/father of three who laughs way too easily and embarrasses his/her kids dancing in public and cracking bad jokes but they are so bad with time and like doing the Simplest things… — now just .. .. just picture. ..  the two of them meet at a school thing and become friends like maybe everyone talks about the two hottest dads in school getting together maybe they are talking shit about Sharon who doesn’t tell her son no and they bond bc ofc they do. .. and it’s totally like pfffftt pfffffffffff we are just friends .. . expect ‘i knew you would forget your kid’s lunch bc i know you so i packed one for your kid too’ and ‘yeah i know you have a kid but i have a babysitter and we are going out bc you are not Allowed to stay inside another Saturday’ and ‘ofc i’ll go with to the game’ and ‘yes we would love to spend the holidays with your family’ and ‘we are just two bros chilling on a hot tub 5 feet apart bc we are not together. the fact that i wanna kiss you doesn’t change anything.’

characters i would love to play in any plot

okay, so here is the thing, i have two characters. they are super wealthy brothers. one is your local asshole i’m too cool for feelings. he is in his 30s and he goes around partying and making bad decisions and he made himself a successful businessman on his own just to spite his family bc they said he couldn’t do it. 99,99% of his decisions are made either based on anger or just so to feel good. the other one is your local golden boy. he is everything his family ever wanted him to be, and he was a child prodigy type who graduated college super young and has never acted like a child. he is his early 20s. 99,99% of his decisions are made based on what he thinks people want him to do and he just wants to please everybody if you would let me play them in literally any plot  ( preferably like some tiny mumu, i have two characters, you have two characters type of thing ) i’ll literally give the sun !! or cookies !! or anything really omg !! they also have a younger sister so maybe you could play her? ? or you could play some character who is dating the younger brother is starts to fall in love with the older and drama~~ or it could be some two character that you would like to play? like any two characters you wanna develop and we figure out a plot? pls? thanks

[flydotnet]

Euthanasia

VRAINS Rarepair Weeks 2018 - Day 4: Birthday/Dying

Summary: [Euthanasia: substantive. From the Greek for "happy" and "death" ; literally, "a happy death".] He is dying in his beloved's arms, but it's too late to realize that, and it's too late to tell her about it. He simply wishes she wasn't crying over him in his last moments. That must be why he doesn't want to die now.

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Ships: Hireshipping (Ema/Akira), platonic and brotherly Akira & Aoi

Wordcount: 2.3K words

Notes: Shhh I skipped Day 3 and I know it, I simply wasn't inspired at all by festivities yesterday lmao. Sup you non-only-DSS-shipper peeps, remember when I made y'all suffer with some angst? Well, it's back woopsie daisy. I've never continued Cyber Thunder Cider (still need to, despite my canon being outdated af by Ema and Kengo's actual situation that was revealed afterwards in the show), so I'm here to bring you what would essentially be the other side of that story. I originally wanted to subvert the prompt with some shitty proverb but instead it's dead-ass angst. Deadass Hire angst because who doesn't want more Hireshipping and suffering in their life? Well, maybe you don't, but I sure do and I'm the one with the angsty Hireship fics here.

Event hosted by @vrainsrarepairweeks

AO3 version available here.

Almost shot through the heart, huh.

 That was rather ironic to think about: he had survived many potentially lethal deals in a shady back alley to finance his sister’s happiness, and yet this would be the end of him. What an ironic ending to his life. It was by saving someone else from death that he granted it upon himself once and for all.

This person he had saved was clutching him against her chest with little consideration to how much he was bleeding out. It was heart-breaking in such a selfish way: he didn’t want the last moments he’d see her to be so sad and painful for her. He had never wanted to see her cry and especially not because of him.

 He wished he could tell her not to weep over him, that’d it be okay. After all, she called for an ambulance as soon as she realized he had been shot: she had done what she could already. There was no reason for her to feel bad about something he had decided to do for her sake: he had never been forced to do so, he simply wanted to save her. Ema’s life, in a moment, mattered much more than his. It still did then: he was actively dying now, and she was alive, safe and sound, albeit miserable. No matter which way he tried to see it as, it was still better than letting her get shot. Would it have gotten her, she would have been killed on the spot.

Bleeding out to death was a weird way to go. In a day and age of instant demises, of lives ending shorter than they got conceived, it was surprising to him that he had been given the time to see Ema’s sorrow over his incoming end and to reflect on his own life. Not that there was much to say about it before his parents had died: afterwards, it had been day-to-day survival, switching between school and back-alley jobs he could never be proud of having done, all for Aoi’s smile which slowly disappeared because he hadn’t given her the attention she deserved. Ah, Aoi…

 “Ema, can… Can I ask you something…?” His voice was groggy and struggling to escape from his throat, as if caught inside by a spider’s sticky and tricky web. It was exhausting to even speak, but he had to do this for Aoi’s sake.

“O-of course…” Her own voice was hesitant, almost wishing not to exist. Through his blurry vision, he could still she was turning away from him, pinching her lip, a tear running down her cheek. Would he have the strength to do so, he would have landed her his handkerchief for her to brush away her tears.

“Can you promise me to watch over Aoi for me… Please…?”

His demand was split in the middle by blood pouring out of his mouth. His lung had been touched. Her own face looked like it had been split apart by it.

“O-of course I will…”

Ema seemed very unsure of her promise, as if doubting her certitude to assure it. Now this was more worrisome… However, that might have been because of how upset she was.

 Still reassured to hear her agree to it, he swallowed back more of the blood he coughed out. The bullet had lodged itself inside his left lung, near his heart that was beating three times too quickly, and yet his pulse was weakening by the moment. His body didn’t know where to go while he was somewhat at a peace of mind: all he needed to do was to make sure Ema and Aoi were both safe. He had saved the former from getting mortally shot: she would take care of the latter. He could sense Aoi had a fondness for the cyberhuntress already, it would only be a question of time.

“By the way… You can get my flat….” He added to make sure they would live perfectly fine when he’d be gone.

 Ah, he was still fairly young to die, now that he thought about it. Dying at twenty-six wasn’t exactly going very far in ages where the average life expectancy was around ninety years of age. Oh well, it was too late to regret doing this. A hand on the dampness that had become this suit he felt like he always wore, it was time to even think back on everything, but his mind blanked. They said your entire life flashed before your eyes before you died, but his never came back to unfold itself again to him. Instead, all he could see was a blurry rendition of Ema’s sorrowful face.

It was as though seeing her so torn over his demise was what prevented him from exhaling his last breath. He didn’t want to die, far from it: he at least wanted to see Aoi become an adult, date a boy or a girl he would be overly suspicious about like a strict father only to warm up to them when he’d see how much they cared about his sister, graduate college and go on to have a life he hoped would be even more successful than his. He wanted to make sure she wouldn’t become like him: a workaholic figure that should have been there and wasn’t, who would come home late and get scolded by his own hired huntress for running himself to the ground. He wanted to see his sister become a great woman, to see her continue doing what she wanted, to save the world like she was already doing with Soulburner and Playmaker.

And he wouldn’t be there to see it, and it broke his heart to even think about.

 He would miss Aoi for sure, but he would also miss Ema and her cheeky smile. They had known each other for years, meeting through the Internet like so many people did around him. He didn’t want to see her go anytime soon, thus why he continued hiring her to the very day he was shot and killed. He simply didn’t expect today to be that day, and that she’d cry over him. For such an independent woman who disposed of data that could ruin people’s lives like she’d give out papers in the streets for some association or other motive, she was incredibly emotional and shaken by it. He’d have thought death didn’t affect very much and that he was, to her eyes, yet another hirer, yet another temporary boss.

Ema was who he wasn’t, and he loved her for this. Her mischievous spirit was always amusing to see in action, always coming up with new ways to trick others into fulfilling her objectives. It was this capacity to always have the upper hand over others that fascinated him at first. He had eventually grown to appreciate most aspects of her: her smile, her winks, her sisterly instincts about Aoi. He knew he could trust in her when everyone else would have dismissed her as shady and traitorous. It was more complex than that: she chose who she was loyal to, and he was lucky enough that she was loyal to Aoi and him.

 He didn’t want to see Ema go. If he could, he would have selfishly made it so she would remain with him until he gave out his last breath, but he was still aware help was coming. The scent of her flowery perfume was the only thing keeping him from gagging over the stench his blood constituted in his nose, a smell of copper and iron fought against by the spice of flowers that simply matched her personality perfectly. Maybe he actually was in love with her. Well, why the maybe? He was in love with this cyber Amazon, completely infatuated with everything she was; and he was lucky enough to be dying in her arms and not anyone else’s.

He never thought he’d see her cry over someone’s death. It just didn’t seem like an “Ema thing” to do. At best, he was hoping she would ask him how he was seeing his hand covered in red, but instead she caught him in his fall and gently laid him on the ground. This was awfully considerate of her: most people he had worked with before would have run away for their lives instead, either fearing losing it directly or losing their freedom by getting involved in a murder. At least, he knew she would watch over Ema for him once he’d be dead, which was just waiting any second to finally decide itself to happen. He didn’t want to die now, but if he had to… then be it.

 “Akira…?” Ema asked him, voice full of uncertainties and hiccups.

“Yes…?”

“Why did you do that, you fool?!”

Oh. There was this question again. She had asked him before, but he had been unable to reply because of blood getting out of his system. The haemorrhage still hadn’t stopped: he didn’t expect it to. The burning pain in his chest was quieting down because his senses were failing on him one by one.

“Obvious… To save you…”

“And why that…?” The newfound fervour in her voice was gone again, much to his chagrin.

“Because I…”

It wouldn’t get out. He was still timid to tell her. It’d make us feel worse anyway, would it not? She’d understand it was also personal between them. He didn’t want her to get any strings attached to him in his last moments. That would be a heartless thing to do.

“I wanted to… see your smile again…”

 Before she could properly hear him, his voice dimming down and eventually dying out, sirens had filled the scenery and so had red and blue lights, blinding him and hiding her. He’d never know if she ever heard him or if she had ever known of the true nature of their relationship to him. He’d never seen her smile again, or Aoi and her grow close, or even Aoi grow up and become an adult. His life had never flashed before his eyes: it was for the better, because this way he could hope to watch over them from the potential plane that was the afterlife.

Oh, how ironic of him to hope such a place existed now that he was on the verge of dying!

 His vision turned black before he could hear Ema scream for his name, repressing back a sorrow before fully letting herself sulk down into despair.

  When he opened his eyes, everything was white around him. Was that the afterlife so many religions professed the existence of. Maybe. That wouldn’t be the first time he’d be proven to be wrong, after all. Everything felt toned down: his sight was blurry, he could barely hear anything that wasn’t his own laboured breathing (or was it? Did people still breathe in the afterlife? Wasn’t that just a necessity of the body?), and his sense of touch was numbed. If afterlife started by not being able to move, then perhaps it would have been better not to access it.

It took him a few minutes to fully realize he was, against all odds, still alive and simply under sedatives. The blood loss he must have suffered was massive considering how slow he felt, as if every part of his body was made out of the heaviest metal. Moving anything seemed to be an egregious effort. Well, it was already a surprise that he was alive, he couldn’t be too capricious about how he wanted to make it out of there alive. He supposed he still had time to write his will, after all. Maybe he should do that as soon as possible since he had so nearly avoided death today. Or was it even today?

 The surrounding sounds were extremely mechanical: if he had to guess, he’d say there were a heart monitor, a machine helping with his breathing and an IV dripping. The contents? Most certainly blood, perhaps other nutrients. He was too numb to know if he had one or two pipes inserted inside his wrists. A voice soon enough came to his ears, a bit cottoned down but still a relief to hear again.

“Big brother, you’re awake…!”

Aoi’s timid voice was filled with a relief he had never heard coming from her. He had scared her too… But she was there, her hand on his, fingers enlaced in his, a heat he could progressively feel. Ah, he had missed his sister so much in so little time.

 There was another hand, this time on his forehead. After giving his dear Aoi the slightest smile (yet the only one he was able to give her at the moment), he lightly tilted his head to the left to see Ema’s eyes and face washed away in relief, dried trails on her cheeks, but with a smile he could only guess was heartfelt. The weight that had been on his chest since a time he didn’t know how to estimate had lifted as soon as he saw it through his weakened state and senses. He had missed it dearly too.

“Don’t ever do that again… You scared the shit out of us both!”

Her scold had this gentler tone to it, a tone that didn’t want to truly scold him away, as if gently reminding him not to almost die in her arms again. He’d miss them both too much to do so once more anyway.

 The last thing before Morpheus’s arms came back to pick him up was her emotional smile and tears of joy, reminding me of how much he wanted to keep seeing her, to keep hiring her until he would find the bravery to tell her that he truly loved her as more than an efficient treasure huntress. Perhaps he could, one day, make of the three of them a complete family.

But for now, needless to say, it was time to give himself a way to sleep the weakness off.

[curiousobsession101]

@ichthus95​ and a few other people and me are in a Starfinder campaign DMed by one of my two best friends (not @littleblackdragonbayard​ , one who doesn’t have a tumblr). Originally the party was my character Ressa (a true neutral damaya lashunta), ichthus’ character Sim (a chaotic good ysoki), and Bolt (a true neutral android). Here are some highlights from our campaign so far:

Session 1:

Sim: They did shoot me. Ressa: You wouldn’t have been shot if you hadn’t run out in front of them. Sim: That’s victim blaming! A few sessions later our assignment by the Starfinder society had led to us exploring a derelict ship with a mysteriously missing crew. On the ship we quickly found a lone survivor, a true neutral vesk named Gomorod (technically an npc) who immediately joined out party. It turned out the ship was attacked by monsters that were weak to water, and after the crew was killed some goblins had arrived to collect scrap and had been killed by the monsters too, with only two survivors. Later, same session: Ressa: I give the goblins each a flask of water. DM: They seem slightly disappointed these won’t set anything on fire. Ressa: You can set the ship on fire after we’re done investigating it. Goblins: We can we can?! Ressa (OOC): *laughing* I like them. Can we keep them? Sim (OOC): *also laughing* Yeah!!

(We didn’t set the ship on fire.)

End of that session:

DM: I didn’t expect them to actually survive! Now I have to come up with names and classes for them!! The goblins are called Stinky and Smelly and they’re our unofficial party mascots now. After exploring the ship we went to this asteroid where an android bounty hunter shot at us. We fought and won but didn’t kill him, and he joined our party (Thrynn, a chaotic neutral android played by someone who had joined the campaign late.) Eventually we ended up in a situation that required formalwear and this happened: Sim: Does a lab coat count as formal clothing? Thrynn: Do you have a tie to go with it? Sim: That is a GREAT idea!

Then we were doing some research in a library and Thrynn picked up a book on Aucturn. This whole conversation was OOC: Ressa: Wait you’re interested in Aucturn? Thrynn: Yes. Ressa: And we’ve confirmed you speak Infernal? Thrynn: Yes. Ressa: What’s your alignment again? Thrynn: Chaotic Neutral. This is just professional curiosity. Ressa: Oh yeah, being a bounty hunter means you need to know as much as possible about Nyarlathotep and them. Thrynn: Of course. Ressa: Wait, was it someone on Aucturn who hired you to kill us?” Android 2: “I told you, I don’t know who hired me. Ressa: Maybe it was a shell company on Aucturn! (later, same conversation, still OOC, also Ressa is a priestess of Lao Shu Po): Ressa: Well Ressa wouldn’t question your alignment based on your interest in Aucturn. She’d just find it interesting. Thrynn: Your character worships a death rat. Ressa: Exactly! Much later we’re in a forest surrounded by creatures colloquially called “stingbats”. We’ve killed all but one. DM: The last stingbat looks like it doesn’t really want to fight anymore. Ressa: We should let it go. Bolt: Yeah, no point wasting charges if it’s not even gonna fight otherwise. Later, same campaign after a much tougher fight: DM: The stingbat from earlier shows up and holds out a mark one serum of healing to you. Ressa: Awesome. Can we keep it? Sim: Yeah it can be our new pet! DM: Ugh, NO! Bolt: Aw, why not?

(the stingbat stayed with us for several sessions after that perched on a party member’s shoulder) Thrynn’s player has missed a few sessions for various reasons. Whenever we have a session and he’s not there we joke that Thrynn is updating and the reason it takes so long to update is because he was made by Apple. At one point he was gone for several sessions in a row and we made frequent jokes about how long it was taking him to update. This was during that time:

DM: The fungal spores are no longer dangerous, but they cover the ground in drifts about three feet deep and they stain anything that touches them pink. Sim: That’s almost as tall as I am. Um, I stay behind Gomorod and walk in the path he clears out. DM: Actually, Gomorod picks up Thrynn and basically uses him as a snowplow through the spores. He’s pink all over now. Bolt: A sporeplow! Ressa (OOC): Oh my god, he upgraded to the rose gold version!

A couple sessions later:

DM: Ressa, roll charisma. Ressa (OOC): Um why? DM: Just roll it. Ressa (OOC): Nat 20. My first decent roll today. DM: This creature [shows a picture of a sky fisher] appears in front of you and shoots sticky threads at you. You are now entangled. That roll was to look like the most delicious party member. (a round or two later, having established the sky fisher is a very strong opponent) Ressa: I try to communicate with it telepathically and tell it that whoever’s been shooting at us from on top of that statue must be way more delicious than someone as scrawny as me. DM: It considers for a moment, and then you feel it touch your minds again and say “I will help you.” Later, same session, the sky fisher has eaten the npc on top of the statue. (This conversation is all OOC): DM: Wow, they really didn’t plan for you guys to have telepathy. Ressa: What? But there’s two main playble races with telepathy! DM: I know but they apparently really didn’t expect you to convince the sky fisher the shirren would be delicious. They have TONS of information on what you could have found out from interrogating them. Ressa: Well that sky fisher was super helpful. Could we persuade it to join our party? DM: NO!! Bolt: Oh come on, it’s really good in a fight! DM: OK if you go back to civilization in Castrovel with a sky fisher following you, you’ll be shot on sight. They really don’t like sky fishers there. Thrynn: Why not? DM: THEY EAT PEOPLE! Thrynn and Ressa: So? Sim: But it can turn invisible. Can’t we just have it turn invisible when we get back to the city? DM: If they pass a check they’ll notice it. Thrynn: OK so we just need to get it to fly high enough that it’s too far away for them to notice it if it’s invisible. Sim: How tall are the buildings here? *cue a ten minute long discussion of how to get the sky fisher on our spaceship without being noticed* DM: Well if you ask it to join your party it will tell you it doesn’t like enclosed spaces like a spaceship. Whole party: Aw..

There have been a few jokes during the campaign that instead of a stereotypical “seduce ALL the things!” party we’re an “adopt ALL the things!” party. Also our stingbat ran away before we could take it to the ship with us and we all miss it terribly. Today we had the last session of the second segment of our campaign. Here are the highlights. (Sim’s backstory is that he has been a college student pretty much his entire adult life but he’s decided to take a gap year and gain some real-world experience by temporarily joining the Starfinder Society.)

(this conversation is all OOC, also keep in mind Thrynn and Ressa are the most money-hungry characters in the party) DM: After you get back to the university of Castrovel, you’re offered two options of payment. Either each of you can take a 1000 credit “research grant” or you can take up to three years free tuition at the university. Sim: I’ll take the research grant. Thrynn: Do they have online classes? DM: No. Thrynn: I might just leave the party to get my degree here. DM: It’s only for three years. Thrynn: I’ll take some extra classes, it’ll be fine. Ressa: Yeah honestly, can Ressa ask for a moment to think about it. After what’s happened, she’s discovered an interest in learning about history and other religions. Bolt: Yeah, free classes! Thrynn: We can go back to the Starfinder Society in three years! DM: You do this, you go back three years later and the universe has ended. Thrynn: Not my problem. Ressa: Ressa wouldn’t care. DM: Yes Ressa would care! That’s where she keeps all her stuff! Ressa: But HISTORY! DM: And [our direct superior in the Starfinder Society] is mad at you. Sim: Wait, why’s he mad at us? Ressa: He means he’d be mad at us if we quit the Starfinder Society to go to college. DM: Yeah because you’re well aware that even if what you found out turns out to be wrong, all the Devourer cultists would rally around it and try to destroy the entire universe and you didn’t stop them! Thrynn: OK then just let us take online classes. Bolt: We have a system-wide comm unit now. *several minutes of arguing later* DM: OK! You can take online classes! Jeez! Bolt: Great! Now whenever [Thrynn’s player] isn’t here we can just say Thrynn is doing homework! Sim: Sorry, got a term paper coming up. Thrynn: Look mom! I’m getting smart! DM: Oh god no... (Sim ended up being the only one to take the money and the rest of us are now officially enrolled at the university.) (During this conversation Ressa opens telepathic communications with the other party members so they can talk without Aria hearing.)

DM: OK as you approach your ship you see a cloaked figure approach. She introduces herself as Aria and offers to pay you to take her to Akiton because she has a shipment of cargo to sell. Bolt (OOC): I can’t tell from the picture, what species is she? DM: That’s a life science check. *one of our party rolled high* DM: She’s an elf. *after a little bit of discussion where we talked about how smuggling stuff to Akiton was EXTREMELY SUSPICIOUS and we didn’t want to get in potential danger but also most of the party are greedy fucks* DM: She offers to pay you 10,000 credits to take her to Akiton. Ressa (via telepathy): OK her cargo is DEFINITELY illegal. Thrynn (via telepathy): But that’s a lot of money. Ressa (via telepathy): I’m just concerned it might be slaves. Otherwise, it’s fine. Sim: Will your cargo require any food or water during the trip? Aria: With any luck, no. After a little bit of conversation, we discovered we’d misunderstood and the DM didn’t mean she was smuggling cargo TO Akiton, she was smuggling cargo OFF of Akiton and didn’t much care where we brought her and her cargo to as long as there was a population she could sell to and it wasn’t Castrovel.

Sim (via telepathy): OK if she taking cargo from Akiton I’m slightly less suspicious. Ressa, who grew up on Akiton, (via telepathy): You know how I was a drug dealer on Akiton? Sim (via telepathy): Yeah... Ressa (via telepathy): YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IS ON AKITON OTHER THAN DRUG DEALERS, SIM? GANGS, CRIMINALS, CEOS DOING ILLEGAL SHIT, SLAVERS! Her cargo coming FROM Akiton rather than going TO Akiton makes it MORE suspicious, not less! DM: She offers to pay you double if you take her somewhere she can sell her cargo. Ressa (via telepathy): Oh man, that’s so much money... Thrynn (via telepathy): Well if we won’t be in danger we can just drop her off somewhere it’ll be their problem. Ressa (OOC): [DM] you said she doesn’t care where we take her? DM: Nope. Ressa (OOC): Can we take her to the Diaspora? DM: It has to be somewhere she can breathe. Ressa (OOC): What about Aballon? Bolt (OOC): She can breathe there as long as she stays underground. DM: You need to take her somewhere there are people who will buy her stuff. Ressa: I know it’s not a planet but if we take her to the kasatha ship- DM: They wouldn’t let her on. Ressa: Darn. Thrynn: What’s on the other side of the Diaspora? DM: Eox. Thrynn: We could take her to Eox. DM: She doesn’t look too happy about it but she accepts your offer to take her to Eox. Ressa: OK if we let her on the ship I think we need to keep her under watch at all times. We can each take turns watching her but I think Gomorod should go first. DM: Gomorod watches her for a day and a night and then tells you he’s refusing to watch her any more. Sim (OOC): Why? DM: She’s creepy. Ressa (OOC): SHE creeps GOMOROD out?? Bolt (OOC): Well elves are generally described as being either ethereally beautiful or kinda creepy. I guess she’s the creepy kind. Ressa (OOC) (I’ve never done a pathfinder-style campaign before this): Pathfinder elves are weird. Either way, if Gomorod is creeped out that’s VERY suspicious. But we can rotate who keeps watch so each of us watches for a day and a night at a time and he doesn’t have to watch her for more than that at a time. Bolt, Sim, and Thrynn (OOC): OK sure. DM: Gomorod refuses to watch her at night. Ressa (OOC): Oh. Well we can rotate day and night shifts so he only watches her during the day. DM: He agrees to that.

Pretty much the whole time Aria is on board and Ressa is awake, Ressa keeps telepathic communications open with Thrynn, Bolt, Sim, and Gomorod.

Sim: I’ll take the next night watch. DM: *sends Sim a private message of what he observes* Sim (OOC): Well now I know why Gomorod was creeped out. The rest of us (OOC): What is it? Won’t you tell us? Sim (OOC): Yeah, I’ll tell the others. DM: She never blinks, and at night her eyes glitter like diamonds. Bolt (OOC): So do we know if this is a normal elven thing? DM: No, you know that elf eyes don’t do that.

Later, we’ve long since picked up her cargo and we’re almost at Verces where we intend to drop off another passenger. This is Sim’s home planet and he plans to use family connections to help her find a job.

Sim (OOC): So how many siblings should I have? DM: About a hundred. Ressa (OOC): So what you’re saying is they breed like rats? DM and Sim (OOC): Yes. Ressa (OOC): So can I roll Diplomacy to try to get [Aria] to answer more questions about herself? Sim (OOC): Is it Ressa’s turn to watch her? Ressa (OOC): She can volunteer to take this shift even if it’s not her turn. [DM] can I roll Diplomacy to ask her questions? DM: You can ask her questions, but don’t bother to roll. Just roleplay this part. Ressa: *asks general questions about the cargo* Aria: *reaffirms that the cargo is not alive but otherwise deflects the questions* DM: You notice that at the back of her head, something seems to be moving under her hood. Aria: *a couple more questions later she excuses herself to the bathroom* Ressa: *follows at a distance and stands in the hallway leading to the bathrooms while Aria is in there* Thrynn (via telepathy): I’m gonna sneak in and try to look at one of the crates. Ressa (via telepathy): I’ll tell you if she comes out of the bathroom. Thrynn: *a few successful rolls later, manages to look in one of the crates* DM: You can see that it’s a statue, but you can’t make out details through the packing peanuts. Ressa (OOC): They still use packing peanuts? DM: Yes, but they’re magic packing peanuts. Bolt (OOC): Are they edible? DM: No, but the ones that fall out of the crate disappear instead of getting everywhere. Later, after Thrynn has made it look like he never opened the crate and left, Ressa and Aria are back in the room, and Ressa’s made a bit more idle chitchat with her: Aria: I’m a bit bored in here with my cargo. Ressa: Would you like me to get you a deck of cards? Aria: I guess. Or maybe I could see more of the ship? Thrynn (via telepathy): If we get her into the holodeck we could set up a game of poker and at some point one of us could “trip” and pull her cloak off. Ressa: We have a holodeck. *smiles* Thrynn just said he’d like to play cards with you. Aria: Ah, right, telepathy. Ressa: *laughs slightly and waves her antennae* That’s a common reaction. *inwardly makes a mental note because even if Aria isn’t an elf we picked her up from Castrovel where almost every sentient native species is telepathic so it seems odd at best for Aria to react that way*

(OOC Thrynn made it very clear one of his plans was to try to seduce Aria into either admitting what she was or taking off her cloak.)

Thrynn (OOC): Wow, Ressa’s doing really well at poker. Ressa (OOC): Yeah, see, I can roll high when the rolls don’t actually matter! Thrynn (OOC): We’re almost at Verces, right? DM: Yeah. Thrynn (OOC): Can we slow down so we don’t get there just yet? Bolt, who is in another room, (OOC): I’m part of the telepathic skype call right? Ressa (OOC): Yeah, with this psychic booster we got Ressa can communicate telepathically almost all the way across the ship. Sim (OOC): But I’m the pilot! I’ll do it. Just give me an excuse to leave. Thrynn: I’m parched. Sim, do you think you could get us some drinks? Sim: What kind of drinks? Thrynn: Pan-galactic gargle blaster. Ressa (OOC): NO we need to not be incapacitated. Thrynn (OOC): Virgin pan-galactic gargle blaster! Ressa (OOC): Every single ingredient is a strong intoxicant and some of them are fatal! Thrynn (OOC): A virgin pan-galactic gargle blaster is just water.

Eventually we settled for Starfinder equivalents of vodka, tequila, and whiskey. It quickly became clear that Aria either isn’t affected by alcohol or has an insanely high tolerance. Also we weren’t getting to Verces until this whole thing reached some kind of conclusion.

Thrynn (OOC): So now we won’t get there until after nightfall right? Ressa (OOC): Yep so you get to tell her her eyes sparkle.

Ressa: *to Aria* I have some really good hyperleaf if you want some. Aria: Alcohol is the only drug I do. Ressa: *nods* *says via telepathy* She doesn’t know what she’s passing up. I NEVER give my drugs away for free.

Thrynn: Let’s make things a little more interesting. The winner drinks one shot, and the loser drinks two. Ressa (via telepathy): I deal drugs. I don’t do drugs! Thrynn (via telepathy): You can drink shots of water it’s fine. Ressa (via telepathy): No I’m doing this. I just won’t be drinking much. Ressa (OOC): She’s probably a super lightweight. Sim (OOC): Well she’s very light weight. Ressa (OOC): Exactly! Plus she’s never gotten drunk in her life.

Ressa (OOC): Wait you’re drinking booze in real life?? Thrynn (OOC): I’m a method actor!

Thrynn: So you’re from Castrovel right? Aria: Yes. Thrynn: *starts making small talk in Castrovellian which we all speak* Aria: *responding in Castrovellian but no more talkative than before* Ressa: *looking at Aria’s empty glass* *speaking in Elven* Want another drink? Aria: Y-yes? DM: Aria is hesitant, like she’s not sure she’s responding correctly. Ressa: *in Castrovellian because most of the party doesn’t speak Elven* Sim could you get Aria a refill? Sim: Sure. Ressa: *to Aria, in Elven again* Don’t you speak Elven? Aria: *turns to Thrynn and speaks in either Common or Castrovellian it wasn’t specified* Want to play another round? Ressa (via telepathy): She doesn’t speak Elven!

DM: Gomorod’s getting tipsy. Aria doesn’t look affected at all. Party: Seriously??

Ressa (up to this point hasn’t had anything to drink): I shoot Thrynn a dirty look and down the two shots. Thrynn (via telepathy): You could just drink water. Ressa (via telepathy): I’m hoping if I’m theatrical about this I’ll amuse her.

Thrynn: Let’s make this more interesting. *takes a flower out of his bag that had previously been employed as a sort of magical lure that almost got Ressa and Bolt killed and even now is remarkably well preserved* If you win, I give you this flower. If I win, you drink that entire bottle of booze. Aria: Are you flirting with me?? Thrynn: Are you declining the challenge? Aria: Fine. Thrynn lost his flower but the round after that Aria lost. DM: After downing the whole bottle, you notice Aria starting to act slightly tipsy. Party: FINALLY! Ressa: *loses again* I guess I have to pay up. If you don’t want my drugs, I don’t have much... Aria: I don’t think you have anything I want. Ressa: Are you sure there’s nothing I could give you that you might want? Sim: That sounded very suggestive. Ressa (OOC): Oh thank god. In real life I’m super aro ace. I don’t know how to flirt!

Thrynn: Well I don’t really have anything else to wager. Let’s make this more interesting. How about strip poker? Thrynn (OOC): OK what does Ressa take off? Ressa (OOC): *almost says she takes of her shirt but then realizes something* Is casual clothing in the Starfinder universe equivalent to clothing in real life? DM: Yeah. Ressa (OOC): OK then- DM: She can take off her jacket. Ressa (OOC): Would she even be wearing a jacket? Oh whatever, she takes off her jacket. DM: Aria takes off the jacket she wears under her cloak. Thrynn can briefly see her forearms before she hides them under the table. They’re scaly. DM: Aria takes off her vest. Ressa (OOC): How many layers is she wearing?! DM: It’s in the picture. Sim (OOC): A lot.

Aria: I know what you’re trying to do. *gets up and walks to the door* Ressa: I follow her. Wait. It’s just that we know you’re lying to us. I’m not usually such a stickler for the truth but we need to be absolutely sure you’re not a danger to us. We weren’t trying to antagonize you. Aria: *sighs* I guess you’re going to pull this out of me no matter what. *reaches for her hood* Ressa: *hurriedly* Just don’t attack us and we don’t have a problem. DM: She pulls back her hood. She’s a medusa.

Thrynn (OOC): This makes me nervous about the statues. Bolt (OOC): Can flesh to stone be reversed? Sim (OOC): Yeah, flesh to stone can be reversed by a strong enough mystic.

Long story short, our characters questioned her and it turns out she’s spent her life making a living by turning “perverted” criminals into statues and selling them to rich people around the system as art pieces. She hid her identity because most races are pretty prejudiced against medusas because of the whole turning people to stone thing. Our characters immediately relaxed when we found this out.

Sim: We’re almost at Verces. Would you like to sell your cargo here instead of waiting for us to get to Eox? DM: She very much prefers selling on Verces than Eox. Necromancers and scavengers really don’t like medusas.

Once she realized we weren’t going to treat her badly because of her race, Aria asked to join our crew.

Ressa: Well we work for the Starfinder Society. You wouldn’t get much chance to do the kind of work you’ve been doing. Bolt: Plus there’s lots of firefights. Ressa: Is that OK with you? Bolt: All the bullets... Aria: A life of investigation and adventure? Count me in.

Aria: Plus I prefer to live somewhere people don’t want to stone me. Ressa: Is that why you refused the hyperleaf?

Sim: So I’ll ask my hundred or so siblings. Actually, we slowed down going to Verces, right? So it’s probably more now. Ressa: It’s only been a few hours! Also, your parents really need a hobby. Bolt: They have one! Thrynn: And they’re very good at it.

Sim: I hope nobody here is lactose intolerant because EVERYTHING in this dinner is gonna have cheese in it. Ressa: Even though Ressa has a clear spindle she’s gonna try a little bit of everything because she’s never had such good food in her life. She’s had Akiton-whatever-she-could-scrounge-up food and tasteless protein wafers and that’s it. And she’s going to compliment the chef. Aria: Aria too. She’s never had a home-cooked meal in her life.

Sim (OOC): Wait. [DM] I think my mom’s gonna have a SEIZURE when she sees Ressa. Ressa (OOC): Um she’ll try to placate her and explain that yes, she grew up starving on Akiton but she has a clear spindle now and doesn’t actually need food or water so she’s fine. DM: Will she have an issue with Aria keeping her face covered? She won’t want them to see her glittering eyes. Sim (OOC): She’ll be fine with that. She’ll just be upset I’m letting my friend go around malnourished.

[salavante]

Last one, with a compilation of all the heads incoming! I already answered the ask where @solrika originally asked about Rusty, so this one’s a free-floater. 

Full Name: Rusty Tsivanoh

Gender and Sexuality: Nonbinary Transmasculine (they have been through the magical equivalent of HRT but no top surgery), Bisexual

Pronouns: They/Them with masculine honorifics (Mr., Boyfriend, Husband, Sir, etc)

Ethnicity/Species: Luch-Dor (Bennai mixed with a bennai subspecies known as the Dor)

Birthplace and Birthdate: Born in a subsection of Logtown, and would refer to their birthday by the Bennai calendar, but we’d be familiar with it as January 21st.

Guilty Pleasures: Pretty much all of the guilty pleasures regard unhealthy food - big milkshakes, loaded nachos, giant cheeseburgers, chicken & waffles, key lime pie etc. They maintain a really rigorous fitness routine and diet, but will buckle every once in awhile. Odwain is a bad influence. 

Phobias: They’re a really loving dad when they have kids and their #1 fear is something bad happening to one of them, which unfortunately does happen in the case of Horace and Horatio respectively.

What They Would Be Famous For: Adventuring with The Network (Hare & Jonquil’s organization), being a key engineer on a large building project (well, textbook famous, not celebrity famous). In Ozzy’s universe Rusty is part of a government task force that hunts Liches and while they couldn’t be recognized on sight, their codename, Heatmiser, is well known.

What They Would Get Arrested For: They actually were canonically arrested on an assault charge, lol.

OC You Ship Them With: Rusty is one of those characters who has good chemistry with a LOT of people. My two big ones that I fawn over are Rusty/Odwain and Rusty/Jonquil, but in Ozzy’s universe Rusty has a daughter with Rutabaga, and they also have good potential romantic chemistry with Hare, Domino, Nev and (a couple names that mean nothing to anyone but me and Jacob) Hemlock and Trillium.  

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: I mean Odwain depending on what stage in their relationship is in when you look at it (he did not like them at first), and there also are universes where they are enemies instead of friends or lovers. The only constant is that their relationship is always really intense. Oh, and The Machine God also wants to eat their dick.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: When Rusty reads its probably for the absorption of information more often than it is for pleasure, whether its scientific journals, stuff about fitness or research papers in their field of expertise. Movies are something they’re more likely to seek entertainment in, and honestly probably like some pretty basic stuff. Action films, the occasional horror movie, romance - anything as long as it doesn’t get slow or boring. They like popcorn flicks.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Not a fan of slow-burn types of stuff or things that are too heady or artsy or complicated.  

Talents and/or Powers: A master engineer with a genius level IQ. They started out being nonmagical, but some shenanigans ensue that make them magically sensitive. Horatio’s pop, the Rusty that’s married to Jonquil, is a witch that uses fire magic. In our current tabletop game they’ve taken a prestige class called a Warcaller, where they can do magical enhancements to themself by speaking simple incantations.

Why Someone Might Love Them: They’re full of rustic charisma, are good with people and are fairly emotionally intuitive, and extremely reliable once they’ve simmered down in their late 20’s. Good to people in low social classes, where they have their roots, and have a lot of compassion for their struggles. The make things with the genuine intention of creating stuff that will make peoples’ lives easier. Solid sense of humor and a big, hearty laugh, and are good at having fun wherever they are. Really sweet and generous towards people they care about, and very romantic and chivalrous with their chosen partners.  

Why Someone Might Hate Them: They were a fucking shithead from about the ages of 16-23. Started shit at the drop of a hat, got in fights all the time, picked on people who they felt deserved it, ran their mouth. They were the guy who’d come to your party, get drunk and crash head first into your mother’s china cabinet. Even today, Rusty has a temper and will throw the first punch if they are inclined, and has a very strong personality that I think would cause some people to actively avoid them.  

How They Change: I can’t speak much about comic verse. But in our games, obviously their relationship with Odwain changes from something very antagonistic to something very loving, but I’d say Rusty gets a lot less volatile even from then on out. They worry about the people they care about more, and when their son has a near death experience, they are way more overprotective of him than they ever could’ve imagined they’d be. In our current game, they’ve been wrestling with how Odwain has visibly aged while they’ve stayed the same, how they can spend the rest of his life with him, but they’ll be without him for a significant stretch of theirs. They are not going to grow old together. This is exasperated when Odwain, well, DIES. YEAH HE DIED a few sessions ago. If the PCs win the game The Hunt will resurrect the dead, but if they don’t, he’s just dead, dude. Rusty’s in a rough spot right now. They feel most powerless they’ve ever been. 

Why You Love Them: Mm, well, I don’t love talking about being trans, but I made Rusty when I was first kind of dipping my toe into presenting the way I felt, right before I started coming out to people. Rusty is unapologetic about who they are and it gave me something to be encouraged by. It sounds dumb, but I went, if some asshole gave me shit about Rusty’s pronouns or their appearance, wouldn’t I defend them? And wouldn’t they defend themselves? So I should be able to defend myself too. Same with, “they saw in themselves a person they didn’t like and resolved to change it. Bad things they may have done in the past do not make them a bad person in the present, because they have put in the labor to become a better version of themself.” They are sort of a personal physical ideal - the build, facial hair, body hair, chest size etc that I would ask for if the Testosterone Fairy told me I could wish for anything. I love them because I needed a part of myself to love, because I am very, very bad at it.

[shirlleycoyle]

Prison Mail Surveillance Company Keeps Tabs On Those On the Outside, Too

In March 2018, the Virginia Department of Corrections (VA DOC) was trying to gain more control over the mail its approximately 30,000 incarcerated people received. Mainly, it wanted to close a loophole in which people posed as businesses so they could include color photos. A contact at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections recommended they talk to a Florida company called Smart Communications about its product, MailGuard.

Smart Communications offered to do a whole lot more than that. It offered VA DOC a suite of products that would make it possible for prison officials to monitor and search all inmate communications with the outside world. It would create a searchable database of everything each prisoner said and received, along with who said it. And, the company claimed, it would include postal mail in this dragnet through its MailGuard product, by scanning each mail item at a remote facility and uploading PDFs for incarcerated people to view from a tablet. The people in prisons would never receive the physical letter. 

The MailGuard system works by having senders address their mail not to the prison, but to a PO box rented by Smart Communications. For state DOCs, the company offers to set up a mail receiving facility in the state, and then ship the mail to its Florida facility for processing. There, the mail is opened, scanned, and uploaded. According to the proposal, inmates would then log into a kiosk to view the PDFs of their mail remotely. After 30 days, the mail is destroyed. There is no way for incarcerated people to ever physically hold or recover their mail.

And, the company said, it would not only track incarcerated people inside the walls, but their friends, family, and anyone who sent mail to them, too.

"Investigators will have access to the postal mail sender’s Email address, physical address, IP Address, mobile cell number, GEO GPS location tracking, exact devices used when accessing system [sic], any related accounts the sender may also make or use," Smart Communications said in a proposal for VA DOC. The proposal and other documents were obtained through a public records request. 

Motherboard is posting the proposal, which was created specifically for the VA DOC, because it shows how a private company proposed a complex surveillance system that would keep tabs not just on incarcerated people but also on the people who sent mail to them, even if they were not suspected of a crime.

This system, Smart Communications boasted, "eliminates anonymity of postal mail, now postal mail has a digital fingerprint with new intelligence." And this intelligence could be used to crack down on "gang members."

When Motherboard asked Smart Communications for comment on this article, a lawyer for the company demanded that we not publish any of the documents, which were obtained using freedom of information laws that journalists regularly use to procure public documents about how taxpayer money is being spent and the general dealings of a democratic government.

"I understand you have obtained information relating to a confidential proposal that Smart Communications previously made to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Corrections. Please be advised that this proposal and the information therein was provided pursuant to a confidentiality understanding / NDA and was clearly and prominently designated as CONFIDENTIAL, PROPRIETARY, and TRADE SECRET," David Gann, general counsel with Smart Communications wrote in an email. "It should never have been shared with you or anyone else by the recipient. We will deal with that issue separately, but regardless, Smart Communications demands that you, Vice Media, Motherboard, and any other affiliated companies or entities immediately cease and desist all efforts to further disseminate or distribute any information obtained in that confidential proposal. Smart Communications further demands that you immediately destroy all copies of its proposal."

In its FOI response, the VA DOC claimed that it did not have any nondisclosure agreement with Smart Communications. The documents obtained as part of this request were automatically made available through Muckrock, the nonprofit platform Motherboard used to file the request on. Motherboard has redacted some inmate personal information and personal contact information for Smart Communications executives.

"Smart Communications takes the protection of its intellectual property and confidential / trade secret information very seriously, and it will pursue all violations to the fullest extent of the law," Gann continued. "Please immediately confirm receipt of this email, that you will not further violate Smart Communications' intellectual property rights by publishing any aspect of its confidential proposal, and that you have destroyed all copies of Smart Communications' confidential material."

The proposal, which VA DOC did not ultimately pursue, does not explain in detail how Smart Communications' platform works, it generally lists its capabilities and prices. VA DOC opted to spend about $7 million a year on an in-house solution of photocopying and shredding all mail before delivering the copied version to people in prison. But Pennsylvania did sign a contract with Smart Communications, through an emergency procurement process, due to a controversial and contested claim of a surge in mail being laced with synthetic marijuana. 

The rollout was "a mess," according to Quinn Cozzens, staff attorney at the Pittsburgh-based Abolitionist Law Center, a public interest law firm.

"Mail was delayed for weeks or months and was regularly delivered to the wrong person. Color photos were scanned and delivered in black and white, often with portions of the picture cut off. They rejected mail and returned it to the sender without explanation for why it was rejected." Plus, the promised kiosks never materialized, as PA DOC staff printed out the PDFs on copy paper and handed them to incarcerated people just like VA DOC does.

While Pennsylvania's deal with Smart Communications was widely reported at the time, the extent of the company's capability to track people not in prison has not been previously known.

"Smart Communications has been boasting of their dystopian surveillance system at least since they were awarded a contract by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in 2018," said Cozzens. "Smart Communications’ total surveillance of every aspect of communications with incarcerated people is a chilling convergence of the expansion and privatization of the surveillance state on one hand, and a growing private industry that profits from holding human beings in cages on the other."

The extent of Smart Communications' reach across the U.S. mass incarceration landscape is not yet known. In communications with the Nebraska Department of Corrections in October 2018, which Motherboard also obtained via a public records request, a company representative boasted of its contract with Pennsylvania and claimed to be "under contract negotiations with Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Utah, and Florida!" 

At least in Virginia's case, this was a bit of an exaggeration, as Virginia received a proposal but never pursued it. The majority of the company's clients appear to be regional and county prisons. 

Screenshot: Virginia Department of Corrections documents

"Written correspondence is one of the most, if not the most, important means for incarcerated people to maintain connections with family and loved ones outside of prison," Cozzens said. "Smart Communications prevents incarcerated people from ever holding a drawing sent to them by their child, or an original photograph, or a handwritten letter from a loved one that hasn’t been scanned and reprinted on a sheet of copier paper."

In the proposal, Smart Communications estimated it would pocket $1.8 million in profits over a five-year period through payments from VA DOC for equipment and maintenance. At least in PA DOC's case, incarcerated people do not have to pay to access their mail, although Smart Communications told VA DOC that if it opted for its digital communications suite, people sending messages to people in prisons would have to pay 50 cents a message or $1 a photo.

Smart Communications offered VA DOC a system to monitor, approve, and potentially reject mail using a "management console" giving them "instant access to the entire VADOC database of inmate mail." Investigators can receive real-time alerts via text or email when an inmate marked as a gang member or otherwise flagged receives an item of mail.

Letters can be approved or rejected by DOC staff. Screenshot: Virginia Dept of Corrections

The company further offered VA DOC the "Smart Tracker" system, the one that tracks the people who send incarcerated people mail. The proposal doesn't detail how the system works, but it appears to use the data people input to create an account through the "Smart Jail Mail" portal to connect them to the letters they send. The company retains all digital copies of mail for seven years, meaning if the system is used in enough prison systems, over time it could generate a considerable database about who associates with whom.

This creates real privacy concerns for people whose only "crime" is trying to communicate with someone in prison, says Aaron Mackey, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has worked on prisoner privacy issues. 

"People who communicate with prisoners are now going to have reduced autonomy, privacy and expression and associational rights," Mackey said, "because now, wholly innocent individuals who are trying to just communicate with family and loved ones, members of their community and so on, are now going to be caught up in this surveillance." Even institutions like social service organizations and religious leaders will be caught up in the dragnet, Mackey warned, potentially getting flagged as troublesome figures because they communicate with people in prisons.

But the most significant issue, both Mackey and Cozzens say, is the emotional toll not receiving physical mail takes on incarcerated people. Even before the pandemic, many prisons have gradually shifted to encourage mostly digital interactions through video visitation and similar efforts. Physical mail was a key link between people in prison and their support networks. That link is being cut. 

To be sure, people in prison do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy even for physical mail. Prior to the Smart Communications contract, all postal mail in Pennsylvania state prisons was opened and physically inspected for contraband by prison staff and skimmed for contents, Cozzens said. But it was rarely scanned and preserved. Once the initial inspection was complete, the mail was delivered to the person it was addressed to. 

Cozzens sees a huge difference between that approach and what Smart Communications is doing. "There is quite a difference between a prison guard potentially skimming over a letter one time before delivering it, and every person who sends mail to an incarcerated person having their letters scanned, rendered digitally searchable, stored for seven years, and on top of that their personal information is also stored and meticulously tracked." He compared it to police agencies merely writing down a license plate when they pull someone over versus deploying license plate readers on a mass scale. 

"This is just another step down that road," Mackey said, "where prisoners increasingly have diminished rights and privacy."

Prison Mail Surveillance Company Keeps Tabs On Those On the Outside, Too syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[longroadstonowhere]

oathbringer spoilers (somewhere in the middle of part four i think? page 950 or thereabouts)

this series is just a little too good at portraying broken/abused/healing people

like, i think sometimes my boredom/frustration with kaladin comes from having depression myself, so it’s like every time i think ‘come on dude, just get with the program and move on’, it’s really just me saying it to myself and then myself going ‘yeah no that’s not how this works’

and gods, that scene with wit and shallan where he takes the story she was telling herself and gives just a little piece of new information that completely transforms everything, and then he relates it to her and her past and ‘accept the pain but do not accept that you deserved it’, that is a moment that is going to stay in my mind for years to come, like i might just type up that entire sequence and present it to people as a reason to read the stormlight archive

also just in general i love wit and shallan’s dynamic because hoid is like, not a good person no matter where he shows up - he pops in, does something funny or clever or dastardly, and then he pops out, but he shows such care for shallan, care that honestly no one else has shown her yet (mostly because no one else knows enough details of her life to be able to show her the care she needs), and it doesn’t feel like a plot or some kind of leverage he’s setting up, it just feels like hoid wanting to help and (finally) being in a position where he can actually do something

anyhoos

i appreciate that i called the thrill being one of the unmade a couple of days ago, like i’m sure there were hints in earlier books that cosmere scholars instantly picked up (like how the heralds still existed and who the cameos from other cosmere books were), but i’m not so great at big picture stuff so the fact that i noticed it long before it was spelled out is good enough for me

oh yeah also azure!!!!!!! who i am ninety five percent sure is vivenna!!!!!!!!!! that is a really great cameo that i am so glad exists, especially because it seems like the sort of thing that almost came as a surprise to sanderson - i know he wrote warbreaker basically as a place for zahel to come from, but vivenna’s actions at the end of warbreaker weren’t something he thought of until he wrote the end, so the fact that she’s now on roshar and has actually become important to a certain degree, that’s just so great, i am so happy, vivenna’s grown so much aaaaaaaaaaaaa

i also like how szeth’s perspective has returned, especially after the extended break through the first several parts because i think we needed that amount of ‘time’ to separate out the understanding of past-szeth and current-szeth

it’s pretty great that he understands all the skybreaker stuff on a very basic level, like he’s always following thoughts all the way to their conclusion, not just accepting the first (or second, or third) perspective he’s been given

i wonder, though, about the Lashings, because the windrunners and the skybreakers only share one surge, but the Lashings have been described as a combination of both the surges the windrunners use, so either all the Lashings are actually from the one surge the two orders share and therefore the windrunners actually have an entire surge they aren’t properly using yet, or the skybreakers don’t have access to all the Lashings that windrunners use (a quick wiki look would suggest they can’t use Full Lashings, which is the ‘stick a thing to a different thing’ one - does make a certain thematic sense, as windrunners and skybreakers apparently didn’t get along well in the past and the differences in their powers would be that one group sticks things together and the other breaks things apart)

i feel real bad for dalinar at this point, considering he never actually healed from his past trauma, just papered over it (like shallan, only he didn’t even have any control over getting rid of the paper), so he’s dealing with a resurgence of all his worst memories, plus the guilt of getting rid of those memories in the first place, plus dealing with the thrill’s attention again - that is one of the worst combinations of things that has happened to a person in the archive yet, i think

it could be interesting if he and shallan ever have a conversation about it, actually - about hiding from your trauma by forgetting it ever happened, and how you actually deal with it once that original coping mechanism is harming instead of helping

side note: really hope shallan eventually becomes, like, ultimate ally to the unmade and manages to get at least some of them on her side because so far it definitely seems like she is strongly connected to them and redemption arcs are cool

speaking of(?) redemption arcs, elhokar’s death was..... rough - like, the possibility of becoming a radiant had clearly been there for a while, like with him seeing the symbolhead spren in the first book, and that scene where shallan sketches him was clearly supposed to be a callback to her sketching the soldiers who would later become her squires, and it could have been an amazing dynamic for elhokar to act as one of shallan’s squires until either bonding as a lightweaver himself or becoming a different radiant (truthwatcher could’ve been interesting, as it could’ve made for some interesting bonding between him and renarin)

but, as happens in life, the potential was cut short because events combined in such a way to bring moash what he most wanted

hm... now that i try and remember it, i think the scene where shallan first sketches someone as a better version of themselves was actually one of the guards for the slave caravan she grifted? and i think that man died in that one fight with the..... bandits? something like that, so i guess elhokar’s death could’ve also been foreshadowed

.... huh, wonder if anyone’s made a foreshadowed/shadesmar joke before.... (because shadows point the wrong way, get it?) (.... it would take a lot of set up and probably would not be a joke worth much at all)

anyhoos, i think i have like three hundred or so pages left (i’m trying not to flip ahead whatsoever, not even to check page amounts), which i’m fairly certain i can do tomorrow, even with going to martial arts, so that’ll be nice

(final side note: really hope syl gets off her ship and finds a different one cuz kaladin and shallan really shouldn’t be together i think - kaladin still doesn’t really see shallan, he just sees the version of her he wants to see, and shallan desperately needs someone who can actually see her)

(i do not know if that person could be adolin, but in some ways his simplicity actually could help make that happen)

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

Mmm, I guess you could do Nate/Maddie, as long as everything was consensual this go around, and he knew her genetic connection to him and was all right with that. (Though personally, I wish Threnody would come back and get with him again)

They were both consenting and knew their relationship. I know - I have all 75 issues of X-Man despite the fact I believe Terry Kavanagh is the worst writer in the history of comics. When Nate brought her back, he was thinking of his mother to guide him and she was pretty upfront about her origin - and any doubt is dispelled in the crossover where she and Jean fight. Their relationship was weird, kinky and incestual, but it was two lost characters finding comfort in each other’s arms. There was one or two instances of her kissing him and it surprising him or her having weird contradictory motivations in attempts to seduce him, but ultimately none of these - or even the relationship - paid off. it was just when Ellis came around and revamped the book (revamped it so well it was cancelled 13 issues later) that he decided to get rid of Maddie and retconned everything into evil rubbish. Fortunately, the handbooks suggested - and I adhere to - the idea that she was Maddie up to the Ellis revamp when she was switched out with the... sigh... Jean Grey and her claims that she was always that Maddie were lies to demoralize and make Nate submit to her.

Thernody is kinda depressing. I mean, Nate has a kid out there and Marvel decided we’re just not meant to think about that. I sort of was against Thernody just because Maddie is the alternative option and I like Maddie. She’s like Jean Grey by the way of Emma Frost and that makes Jean Grey a character I actually like. 

I also liked him with Siryn and think it’s a bit of a shame nobody really ran with teasing a romance between him and her in 616. The most we got was her apparently hating him (everyone seemed to hate him in-universe for no apparent reason). Although, I do prefer Siryn with Madrox or Cannonball.

I hated with a capital h the two ships he got in DnA’s New Mutants run (which on paper looks like a good run, in actuality, is pretty lousy). Moonstar was overwritten to being everyone’s love interest - Cannonball, Cypher, Nate - it was insufferable. Nate and Moonstar in particular have no reason to get together besides being in a book together.

Then there was Nate and Hope. They flirted with giving him another incest-y relationship and this one was just wrong. Nate and Maddie - I’m willing to let work as they technically are and aren’t related - it can be seen as Nate fancying a woman who “looks like his mother”. There’s also a reality apart separating them genetically and a companionship to build that relationship upon. But Hope is just wrong-headed. She isn’t a blood relative at all, but she is a minor and he is an alternate reality version of her adoptive father and, by then, she was a rubbish character. There was no chemistry at all between them and it was just icky and annoying.

Nate and Blink was a potential ship DnA could’ve gone with but they didn’t.

I don’t really want to talk about the Tom Brevoort politics involved with all things X-Man and Maddie, but Brevoort’s hate for the those two characters and the X-Man book is something he is proud to boast about regularly. He thinks because he doesn’t like them that therefore nobody else must like them, that they shouldn’t ever be in comics again because they are confusing and that the only people who bought X-Man were simpletons who were tricked by the giant X and misreading it thinking it said X-Men (he did actually really say that). I’ve always believed that was the reason Nate was dropped from Exiles - the launch of Exiles was perfectly timed with the cancellation of Nate’s book and the transition could easily be done (yeah, he “died” but so did Blink “die” in her last appearance in Age of Apocalypse: Omega) - but for some reason, editorial nixed Nate’s inclusion and not at a proposal stage, when the book was nearly finished being written. Brevoort’s high position at Marvel is probably why Nate managed to stay dead for 10 years without a single mention or acknowledgement to him or events in his book anywhere and probably also why when he did finally come back, DnA were quick to de-power him insanely to the point of worthlessness and irrelevance in New Mutants (he can now only make tiny pathetic telekinetic blasts in the shape of x’s he makes with his fingers). There’s a X-Man storyline where with Doom absent due to Heroes Reborn, Stryfe invades and takes over Latveria. This is never referred to again (outside an issue of Fabian Nicieza’s Gambit) and there’s no resolution to this plot, Brevoort just tells whoever brought Doom back to ignore it. Brevoort admitted to keeping Diamondback, Black Knight and Maddie out of books because he thinks they aren’t interesting characters, so we might as well add X-Man to the list. I remember someone once asked him “Do you keep Black Knight and Sersi out of the comics because of their ties to the Ultraverse” and his response was “I do not keep Sersi out of the comics, she recently appeared in Avengers Assemble.” 

But, yeah, I try not to talk about Tom Brevoort because I actually hate him. But he can take some pride in that at least I acknowledge him unlike a certain superior bully...

[suki-schiffer]

Why does season 10 suck?

Within my small group of whovians we all agreed that this season of Doctor Who has definitely seen a decline in quality to the point some of us felt like we were going to stop watching it. Of course none of us did, just hoping that there was another reason we were mourning the show, maybe we were mourning Clara (my friend L hated her though so...), maybe we didn’t like Bill and Nardole (but actually I’ve been better able to relate to Bill than any other companion, I like her, she points out and question the same things I do, like how the acronym TARDIS wouldn’t work in other languages and while I first thought Nardole was annoying he does serve as a nice comic relief), maybe the so called mistakes and plot holes I have issue with will all be corrected in future episodes, maybe all my questions will be answered. And so I waited and waited and continued to watch and one or two questions were answered and then I realized that in two days season 10 is over. The writers literally have only one episode left to save this season for my friends and I. What bugs me the most though is that I haven’t heard anyone complaining about this, in fact people are singing praises and I’m sitting here wondering if people are blind and/or why people are putting up with this. Just in case you are unaware of the show’s horrible story line this season, or if you are aware and want to compare notes I have made a short list of some of the mistakes and plot holes thus far. (Spoilers)

Episode 1 Pilot: so the Doctor is earth bound, has been guarding the vault at St. Luke’s for about 70 years and yet he doesn’t notice a space ship land on campus and leak fuel. He’s living in the TARDIS and apparently avoiding some unknown enemies, he should have some sort of scanners warning him of unusual occurrences and aliens approaching etc. And he’s probably bored so it’s not like he’s going to let these aliens land and take off without investigating, even if they are friendly, because he’s bored and curious. Also we never found out why Heather had a star in her eye, surly that couldn’t be natural.

Episode 2 Smile: I found this episode very nonsensical. The robots are smart enough to program themselves to kill off the humans to prevent dissatisfaction but they can’t/aren’t smart enough to kill someone who walks outside the city even though they can go and have been shown outside the city. Also they are dumb enough to need a badge to tell them if humans are happy or not (originally if oxygen, water, food was optimal) this is supposed to be hundreds of years in the future, robots today can assess mood through posture and facial expression. For some reason everyone tries to trick the badges into thinking they are happy by smiling so that the Vardy don’t kill them yet no one thinks of taking the badges off. When the Vardy kill they manage to destroy everything but the bones and the locket, including those suits that seemed to have metal components and I refuse to believe that only one person was wearing jewelry, therefore where is all the jewelry/metal? This isn’t the only planet humans have colonized, wouldn’t other colonies be using similar technology, shouldn’t they be warned. And the fix for the episode seemed ridiculous, turn them off and on, no one else thought to try resetting them? It took the Doctor 45 minutes to figure this out?

Episode 3 Thin Ice: my favourite episode so far, pretty well written but for the fact the Doctor says he’s been to the Frost Fair before and Lord Sutcliffe says the monster (and we never do find out what it is, why it’s on earth and where it goes) has been chained in the Thames and the secret passed down in his family “forever”. This means the Doctor obviously should have known something was amiss and already solved the problem.

Episode 4 Knock Knock: another ridiculous episode. What were the bugs? Why did they save the mother but kill/eat/destroy everyone else? Why did they need six people every 20 years? The landlord was old, it was unlikely he would like another 20 years, what did he plan to do then? Didn’t anyone notice these people going missing? How was it the Doctor could save all of Bill’s friends/roommates but not the other people? Why did Bill suddenly need to move out of her foster mother’s house? It wasn’t like getting to the university was difficult if she was working there everyday. When Eliza was ill wouldn’t her son have been sent away? After her “death” wouldn’t his father, a relative, or even an orphanage take him by request of the doctors who presumably announced Eliza dead, or the servants a house that big probably had? Like who was paying taxes if the landlord was a child at the time and his mother had turned to wood? I’m going to stop ranting about this one here.

Episode 5 Oxygen: this episode was okay. I liked the portrayal of the dangers of capitalism and the racism reversal (Bill being called racist). So I get that the people had to buy oxygen but they were all talking about running out, wasn’t there a way to buy more? They were obviously going to be working there for awhile so there had to have been a way. Killing the workers off seems really harsh, wouldn’t it just be better to fire them and take them back to earth/wherever they came from? The fact that the Doctor didn’t figure out that Bill’s suit wouldn’t kill her due to low battery until after he was blind really bugged me. He made a major sacrifice for her when he didn’t have to, and maybe he was trying to save her from pain but in the end her suit got stuck again and so the “inevitable” still happened. Also the lying, I sort of get why he lied to Bill/the crew to make them feel better, but why have Nardole “fix” his vision only to tell him a few minutes later that he really is blind? Again he mentions that his enemies can’t know he’s blind/weak but he shares this with Missy.

Episode 6 Extremis: ah yes, the horrible monk trilogy that no one asked for. First of all this breaks standard Doctor Who format, when have we ever had a three part episode in the middle of the season? The horrid sonic sunglasses are back and somehow the Doctor’s managed to hook them to his occipital lobe so that he can see outlines, read emails, and view statistics about the living thing(s) in front of him, but he can’t see patterns, colours, textures, etc. For some reason in this alternate universe the TARDIS translation matrix doesn’t work as it doesn’t translate the pope for Bill. And that’s a strange device that’s never been used, seen, or eluded to before, very convenient the Doctor decides to make a potentially fatal trade to read the paper version of the text before figuring out it’s already on the computer right in front of him and he can listen to it instead. Oh and the fact that his sight takes awhile to load is very useful too. So Missy being in a vault and how Nardole joined the Doctor is explained in part. Why did these people want Missy dead and how did they capture her? How did they convince the Doctor to come to their planet to be the executioner? When did he have time to fiddle with the device? What exactly was so scary in the records that caused the others to run away and how/why did they not check the records and know this before they brought the Doctor in? How did Nardole get from Darillium to this planet? 

Episode 7 The Pyramid at the End of the World: Out of all the disasters throughout history why did the monks choose this one? They seem generally surprised that the Doctor manages to stop them/turn back the clock, but claimed to have studied him in the simulation world and won against him many times. Where on earth is UNIT? Why do the monks need consent that comes from love? Why could they not just create a link with anyone who agreed to meet their demands if they saved the world? And why did it have to be a person with power? Later on it seemed like any human would have made a successful link. Why a pyramid? Since when can’t the sonic screwdriver not open doors/locks? It’s never just told him the code/showed him what the key looks like, it opens things, so long as they aren’t made of wood and that door definitely wasn’t wood. Why couldn’t the Doctor tell Bill that he would regenerate to prevent her from making the deal? How did these monks fix his vision? 

Episode 8 The Lie of the Land: how was the Doctor “captured”? Why were some people able to overcome the brainwashing? What exactly was the monks’ plans? The had earth and the citizens of it enslaved for over six months yet didn’t seem to be doing anything, not taking resources, not using the humans as slaves for labour power, not preparing for battle of any kind. In the last episode they said that they had taken on the forms they had to essentially relax the people even though they looked like corpses (all humans looked like corpses to them) we never do see their true forms. Why are there so few of them? How did the Doctor manage to convert an entire prison ship to his side without alerting the monks who clearly could get on board and were checking on him? Bill didn’t know the Doctor could regenerate, why did he pretend, how did he manage to pretend? Why hadn’t he acted sooner? Why did he need Bill and need to test her to the extent that he did? Seriously? The answer was love? Love for a woman Bill never knew? And of course everyone forgot everything afterwards, why wouldn’t they?

Episode 9 Empress of Mars: Why didn’t Friday wake his queen up earlier? Why wait months for the humans to discover the “tomb” and do it? Why couldn’t Friday have convinced her to make peace with the humans before she killed so many of them? There’s a fair number of military personnel on Mars, this is 1881, I’m pretty sure someone will notice they’ve gone missing. Isn’t this a bit of a paradox? The Doctor essentially sends himself to Mars because he sees the message “God save the Queen” at NASA then goes to save the humans and the Ice Warriors so that they can create that same message. If he wasn’t there there would be no message, but without the message he wouldn’t be there. Finally the thing that bugged me most about this episode: Since when does the TARDIS lock her doors and leave on her own and then refuse to return for her Time Lord?

Episode 10 The Eaters of Light: actually liked this one probably because of the scenery and mysticism involved. Major critique though is how a small group was able to hold off the creatures for centuries. While it might appear as if they broke the portal because too many went through at once the fact that you can still hear the music is an indication that it’s still functional to some degree. 

Episode 11 World Enough and Time: I was really mad at myself for forgetting about how time and gravity interact however I found the episode very predictable. I mean the way the Razor first scurried from Bill? Totally something John Simm’s Master would do. If the bottom of the space ship is experiencing time much faster than the top and the city is dying doesn’t that mean all the parts are wearing out and will eventually stop powering the top of the ship? Are you telling me all those people originally came from just 20 humans? No wonder they are dying with that little genetic variability. How did the cybermen know to come for Bill (yes they have cameras but Missy, the Doctor and even Nardole look human, how were they able to figure out it was her)? Why was someone sending them up to take the rest of the humans (not just Bill but the other 20+ crew members)? Can they only convert humans, is that why they didn’t try to take anyone else? Why doesn’t Bill’s heart work outside the hospital but the other incomplete cybermen were able to leave to fetch her? Why did the cybermen freak out when she opened the window? Why didn’t more people attempt to go upstairs? I have more questions about this episode but since it is a two parter it is likely some, if not most, will be answered on Saturday.

So there is obviously a writing problem this season and yet very few people seem to be complaining. Personally I think Moffat is trying to take the show down with him, that perhaps he wanted a raise or more creative freedom BBC said no, so now he’s trying to set it up to fail so that he can look back and say “see, you should have just given me what I wanted, I told you guys you wouldn’t be able to survive without me”. My friend C gives Moffat the benefit of the doubt, compares him to a minimum wage worker who’s handed in his two-week notice, he’s run out of ideas and there’s no need to work hard to make the show amazing because so long as he does the work he’s getting paid and this will be his last season whether or not he does well. My other friend, V, is actually blaming the new head writer, Chris Chibnall. She says he might be asking they set the story up for him in some way and the current writers are struggling to do so. Or on a more minor level since Bill is the only character who seems to be staying she could be Chibnall’s character and the current writers are having trouble setting her up to be the character Chibnall wants while fitting her in their stories and having her interact with their characters. 

Okay this has taken much too long to write but it is done. I don’t have much hope for season ten as I find it impossible for the writers to address all these questions and plot holes in a single episode but maybe I’ll be surprised. If it does go down in flames hopefully season eleven will be better. I wrote this solely because I couldn’t find anything on the net expressing similar opinions about this season that I had and I sort of wanted confirmation that my small friend group and I weren’t the only ones disappointed so hopefully someone else who felt the same way has discovered this post. 

Anyway goodnight/day/whatever (it’s now 4am here, oops) and thank you for reading.

[willreadforbooze]

Hello!

BIG NEWS PEOPLE! Our Will Read For Booze twitter account (formerly Sam’s personal account) is going to be dedicated to the whole blog! So go check us out kthxxxx. While that’s amazing, Sam has to start from scratch on a new account, let’s show her some love huh? Check out her new account TheBooktender_  She’ll love you forever and ever.

Ginny’s Updates:

Busy week, busier weekend. Short summary.

Currently Reading:

Wicked Fox  by Kat Cho: Sam heard good things about this book and picked up a copy at ALA. I’m not super far in but so far I’m enjoying the lore of it. I’m not particularly familiar with Korean lore so it’s interesting to try to pick it up. That being said, I’ve been moving further away from YA so I’m having a little trouble getting into the book. We’ll see how it goes.

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland: It’s been a while since I read something for professional development. I received this book at a training a little while ago and decided to pick it up. This book talks about the best way to run a project. Pretty basic.

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh: This if the 7th book in the Psy-Changeling series and at this point it should be very clear that I really enjoy this series. I’m a big fan of the various plotlines foiling serial killers. Right now, Dev, the leading of the Shine (an organization protecting children with Psy blood from the full-blooded Psy) has found a Psy woman with amnesia who clearly needs help. Cool.

Finished:

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi: This was a fun read. The aliens who want to be introduced to the world look like humanity’s worst ideas of what aliens could be; amorphous blobs that speak through potent aromas. I liked the characters in this book, though it’s pretty easy to tell this is one of Scalzi’s early books. Still enjoyable. 3.5/5

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite: Holy shit, this book was delightful. Lucy watches her GF/BFF marry a man and decides to leave. Goes to London to talk to the Countess of Moth about an introduction to the scientific society so that she can write a translation of the seminal astronomy work at her time (she worked as an astronomer with her now-deceased father). Both of these ladies have insecurities but reading them falling in love was wonderful! Watching they ways the worked (or didn’t work through) their problems was a ton of fun, always felt in character, and desperately hurt at times. 5/5

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells: This is the third book in the Murderverse series. Murderbot continues to work their way around the universe, this time going on a mission to an abandoned planet to prove some wrong-doing of their previous owner. They originally hide from the team doing the exploration but obviously that doesn’t go to plan. Watching Murderbot start to realize the various ways they need to change to fit in with society, and the way they want to live is (to steal a word from Sam) precious. 5/5

Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh: The sixth book in the Psy-Changeling series, this is the first book that involves a relationship between two Changelings. Mercy and Riley have crazy chemistry and drive each other crazy; figuratively and literally. They’re also working together to try to deal with a kidnapping attempt that involves both of their packs. The way this world continues to be laid out is magical. I love the way the characters, locations, and political landscape continue to change to adapt to each book. 5/5

Wanted, A Gentleman by K.J. Charles: This is an author I keep seeing mentioned by the people I follow on twitter and now I completely understand it. This book features a freed slave’s complicated relationship with their prior owners teaming up with a seemingly ruthless man who writes basically personal ads to hunt down the daughter of the family of his old owners to save her from a bad elopement. This book is wildly dramatic and yet makes so much sense. 4.5/5

Queen of the Unwanted  by Jenna Glass: This is the sequel to the Women’s War that came out last year. I also received an ARC of this book from NetGalley, and I’d prefer not to say too much but if you read and enjoyed the first book you’re going to enjoy this one. If you want complicated relationships, women in power, and diverse personalities, this book has them all! 5/5

Destiny’s Embrace by Beverly Jenkins: Yup, lots of romance novels this week. Logan Yates is a ranch owner who ends up with Mariah as his housekeeper. She’s been abused by her mother for years and decides she’s not going to let anyone step over her, and goes toe to toe with Logan at every turn. There are some portions of this book that kind of get a side eye mostly because I think a few sentences about posture or something would make them a little more palatable. That being said, this was a lot of fun and a good start to a series. I’m looking forward to the next book 4/5

Linz’s Updates

What Linz read:

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing: Marketed as a cross between Dexter and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this contemporary novel introduces us to a married suburban couple who keep it spicy with a little bit of murder. I think it was kinda dumb they used Mr. and Mrs. Smith, when there are some good similarities to the Gone Girl genre, but whatever. I’m not mad I read it, but it was … fine?

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis: sort of fantasy version of Old West Texas, where Good Luck Girls (ie prostitutes) are kept trapped to their welcome houses with cursed tattoos and a really shitty government. I thought the concept was alright, the ending was very good, and I really liked the protagonist, but some of the world-building was clunky and I thought some elements weren’t really explained.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: I would never have heard of this book if it weren’t for my book club, and I’m kind of pissed about it because it’s REALLY good. Why weren’t more people talking about this 1920s-era mythology-heavy book? I loved the style of writing and the weaving of old and modern worlds, reminded me of American Gods in a better way.

What Linz is currently reading:

Queen of Ruin by Tracy Banghart: The sequel to Grace and Fury that I’ve been itching to get my hot hot hands on. Loved the first installment about two sisters who are forced to switch places in a horribly run patriarchal society.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire: Had to put this down to knock out some ARC reading by drop dates, but Ginny will probably be happy to know I’m picking it back up so she can have her copy back.

Sam’s Updates

It’s Nats World Series Week so I’m spending my days working through hell and my nights (late nights) watching baseball. I. Are. Tired.

What Sam read this week:

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: This is our book club book for the month. Basically it’s the 1920s-ish in Mexico, and our main character Casiopea accidentally lets the god of death out of prison and he gotta put himself back together before he turns mortal and for a variety of reasons (including potential death herself) Casiopea goes with him. I’m not going to put too many thoughts here because book clube but I will be writing a follow-up drunk review to Minda’s sober one.

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman: This is the first in a new sci-fi series by our fave Illuminae duo. Tyler has it made, he’s gonna get the #bestsquadever. But then when he’s out practicing space stuff, he finds a ship that has a buncha dead people in cryopods, except one isn’t dead, she’s Aurora. Anyway he ends up with the last of the last crews and may have accidentally witnessed the start of an intergalactic war. So.. that. I’m really really liking the dynamic of the squad, everyone is a little odd and a little broken but they’re starting to get to know each other. We’ll see if my love for them overcomes the pace of the story (slowwww).

A River Of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy: This is a story about a girl named Eva, she’s a princess. She’s gotta compete with her sister for the throne, to the death. But the thing is, she can’t figure out her magic. So she tries real hard to figure it out all while someone is trying to kill her. This book was fine. I sorta figured it out early but I enjoyed it so that’s good I suppose. 3/5 Shots Drunk Review coming.

…And Other Disasters by Malka Older: This is a collection of short stories that are in the world of sci-fi. I loved them all, and that rarely happens with collections like this. Everyone go pre-order it right TF now. 5/5

What I’m currently reading:

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore: So this is a story of a family that always has 5 girls, 5 cousins. The men that spawn these women disappear, so it’s always the women. 5 ladies, 5 mothers, 5 Grandmas (abuelas), when suddenly a boy appears. He has no memories. Guys I know I’m slow going at this but some stuff happened in the book and now I’m v v sad.

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan: This is the sequel to Girls of Paper and Fire which i didn’t…. love… but also didn’t hate. We’ll see how this goes. I’m predicting a ton of miscommunication between romantic relationships so…

The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin: This is the final installment to the Inheritance trilogy. Seems to be about Sia. Listening on audio so we’ll see how it goes.

Minda’s Updates

No update from Minda this week.

Until next time, we main forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Ginny, Linz, and Minda

Weekly Wrap Up: Oct 21-27, 2019 Hello! BIG NEWS PEOPLE! Our Will Read For Booze twitter account (formerly Sam's personal account) is going to be dedicated to the whole blog!

[fashionoutfit6]

Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services

Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services

Keep in mind you will find examples of admissions essays on-line but know that provided you can discover them, so can all others.www.sigmaessays.com/essay-writing/ Together with the admissions essay writing questions and answers table will become ill of reading through the identical plan repeatedly. You might want to consider beyond the container and pick up their focus inside of a new way.

Produce the entrance table really feel like moving you by will be the most significant oversight with their lifestyles.

It may sound really troublesome doesnt it? Specially taking into account how quite short these essays ordinarily are essay writing objectives knowning that the typical guideline is usually to follow one specific suggest broaden on. And next theres the possibility of utilizing way too many clichs! Its a minefield.

That is why Academized.com utilize the top expert authors, from which you should buy admissions essay on line.

Why Invest essay writing organizer in Entry Essays On the net?

Shopping for an admissions essay at a finest article author helps ensure your essay shall be snappy and legitimate. It is going to seize the entrance table particular attention for the appropriate considerations. It will probably be appropriately edited and proofread and will also stream absolutely.

The top admissions essays reply the entrance essay thought 100 % with no need of rambling and in accordance with the rules. They offer an individual with essay writing numbers out sounding egotistical and they usually voice a desire for the picked establishment devoid of seem to be a realise it all or maybe butt kisser.

Customized Admissions Essay Publishing Company

A performed good admissions essay does all kinds of things layed out on top of. It runs good, is very well organized and interesting which is completely error free of charge.

It is actually entirely exclusive without any other undergraduate are going essay writing pdf to have anything at all exactly the same. Our authors on this website ensure your essay is exclusive. They do not version and mixture scenario essays and in addition they do not re-sell your essay. It will certainly go any plagiarism checker and will also become a inhalation of clean air in the entry table.

An awesome admissions essay will remain while using the table a long time after they also have examine it (for the appropriate explanations) preserving your software within the fore entry in their heads in regards to be the perfect time to produce the fundamental choice which trainees they are agreeing to.

Give An Individual To Write down My Entry Essay To Me

You can certainly order an admissions essay from Academized. Purely fill o level essay writing topics the web sequence style revealing us the inquiry, distance and then any more recommendations. Inform us which establishment that you are signing up to and then your finest publisher will be sure that your carried out admissions essay reaches all of the essay writing on babies stuff that establishment ideals.

Utilizing Academized dependable services are a sensible way to ensure that you get established to your own picked out host to research. We realize what admissions panels want and then we discover how to provide them even while continue to utilizing your speech whilst your tips.

We generally goal to present you an excellent solution together with a fantastic admissions essay. We feel in offering the most beneficial good value and now we will compose your admissions essay for as economical like we are able to with no diminishing on level of quality.

We desire the finest of good fortune with the scholastic excursion so we know you may be approved within your picked university or college in the end, with the use of our company you may have demonstrated that anyone can essay writing level checker make excellent actions so you are devoted to locating the essay writing prompts middle school right essay you are able to!

Use our unique essay posting expert services to guarantee that plagiarism isnt problems for you personally now or truly.

So what is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism will be the saying used to clarify the entire process of stealing an individual elses cerebral asset and moving it well since the individual.

This might be unintentional around the young people thing. The following could flag as a example of plagiarism:

Simply by using a quotation essay writing program and not just crediting the original source

Getting an excerpt and simply not citing the origin

Making use of ebooks an internet-based instruments as researching components rather than putting these to the bibliography

Working with someones statistical files with out crediting them to the genuine job

Copying completely from a manuscript or web based posting

As we discussed, its rather easy to accidentally plagiarise. As well as penalties to get a learner is often rather considerable.

For numerous graduate students and undergraduates, the project might be a computerized stop working.

For school young people researching for any experts education or possibly a doctorate extent, they might be pulled from the path.

To obtain a senior high school person, worthwhile markings are generally misplaced, or even the project may need to be re-performed using up important energy and time.

How Does Someone Make essay writing national festivals Sure This Doesnt Eventually Me?

You should function your job using an on the web plagiarism checker simply to make sure that each of your content articles are distinctive.

Or not surprisingly, you would use the worry from the problem entirely and get Academized to publish that you simply qualified unique essay.

Order Customized Essay

The most convenient was to make sure you do not fit in this snare is usually t.e.e.l essay writing structure by obtaining our unique essay written documents.

Our unique essay solutions assure you completely plagiarism free of charge do the job that will not be sold again and you will be completely made to order composed on your behalf.

Customized Essay Author

Our specialized essay creating solution employs only premier, experienced freelance writers. They all are professionals for their area in addition to their well-performing expert services be certain you will definitely get the markings you require and essay writing on peace have each of the consumer credit.

Your genuine customized university essay shall be brought straight to the email as part of your preferred length of time, wanting to be personalised or emailed towards your professor.

For the very best personalized essay, it seems sensible try using a trustworthy, advisable firm like Academized.

Can Anyone Help essay writing lesson plans Me Look for a Cheaper Custom made Essay?

Should you do purchase one, inform us!

Without doubt, you will discover expertise on the market that depend on young people getting with limited funds. They will likely offer the planet for adjacent to not essay writing questions much. They might almost never ship just a village, much less the whole world!

Do not be blown away to explore which not only will be your essay inadequately composed, but that it really has additionally been sold again many times, and is likely a test essay considered on the internet and placed via a spinner.

This site offers a specialized essay solution which is a fine bang for your buck. We continue to keep our pricing as little as probable although it is not providing it influence the caliber of our freelance writers or goods.

How Will I Make a purchase order to get a Personalized Essay?

Helping to make your order to have a made to order authored essay couldnt be easier. All should do is check out essay writing quiz our acquiring method display screen while giving us the examples below info:

The duration of the personalized report in both pages and posts or words and phrases

The scholastic standard where you can be analyzing to make essay writing paper pdf sure you get the best detail inside the cardstock

Your time frame. Inform us if you want the papers bringing. Whether its emergency, you could have it within just 6 hours.

The niche you could be understanding

The sub matter, and of course if pertinent the dilemma or thesis

The particular kind of tailor made essay you require

What Are The Results Subsequent?

We delegate you our indigenous The english language communicating authors. If you wish to give them any other facts, you can easily send out them communication by means of our website.

Your author will accomplish your custom made report and transmit it for you personally.

After this you get 14 time to examine the process. When you have completed the evaluations with the essay, either you l&t infotech essay writing topics send it back with any sought after alters (at no added fee) or accept it. Its actually that straightforward.

Our custom made essay publishing solution requires the tension from many issues no probability of plagiarism, no potential for lacking the due date, no likelihood of a poorly penned essay with no probability of spelling, punctuation and sentence structure helping you to reduced.

Academized can take the entire anxiety from creating essays and responsibilities, enabling essay writing nature you so settle-back, loosen up and utilize your energy to accomplish what you take pleasure in. Without the need to stress about your tasks.

The post Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services appeared first on Guest Blogging Platform for Jewelry & Fashion.

from Blog – Guest Blogging Platform for Jewelry & Fashion http://ift.tt/2BTls5e via IFTTT from Untitled http://ift.tt/2EnH8Is via IFTTT from Ladiesfashion25 http://ift.tt/2Bqk8px via IFTTT

[ladiesfashion25]

Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services

Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services

Keep in mind you will find examples of admissions essays on-line but know that provided you can discover them, so can all others.www.sigmaessays.com/essay-writing/ Together with the admissions essay writing questions and answers table will become ill of reading through the identical plan repeatedly. You might want to consider beyond the container and pick up their focus inside of a new way.

Produce the entrance table really feel like moving you by will be the most significant oversight with their lifestyles.

It may sound really troublesome doesnt it? Specially taking into account how quite short these essays ordinarily are essay writing objectives knowning that the typical guideline is usually to follow one specific suggest broaden on. And next theres the possibility of utilizing way too many clichs! Its a minefield.

That is why Academized.com utilize the top expert authors, from which you should buy admissions essay on line.

Why Invest essay writing organizer in Entry Essays On the net?

Shopping for an admissions essay at a finest article author helps ensure your essay shall be snappy and legitimate. It is going to seize the entrance table particular attention for the appropriate considerations. It will probably be appropriately edited and proofread and will also stream absolutely.

The top admissions essays reply the entrance essay thought 100 % with no need of rambling and in accordance with the rules. They offer an individual with essay writing numbers out sounding egotistical and they usually voice a desire for the picked establishment devoid of seem to be a realise it all or maybe butt kisser.

Customized Admissions Essay Publishing Company

A performed good admissions essay does all kinds of things layed out on top of. It runs good, is very well organized and interesting which is completely error free of charge.

It is actually entirely exclusive without any other undergraduate are going essay writing pdf to have anything at all exactly the same. Our authors on this website ensure your essay is exclusive. They do not version and mixture scenario essays and in addition they do not re-sell your essay. It will certainly go any plagiarism checker and will also become a inhalation of clean air in the entry table.

An awesome admissions essay will remain while using the table a long time after they also have examine it (for the appropriate explanations) preserving your software within the fore entry in their heads in regards to be the perfect time to produce the fundamental choice which trainees they are agreeing to.

Give An Individual To Write down My Entry Essay To Me

You can certainly order an admissions essay from Academized. Purely fill o level essay writing topics the web sequence style revealing us the inquiry, distance and then any more recommendations. Inform us which establishment that you are signing up to and then your finest publisher will be sure that your carried out admissions essay reaches all of the essay writing on babies stuff that establishment ideals.

Utilizing Academized dependable services are a sensible way to ensure that you get established to your own picked out host to research. We realize what admissions panels want and then we discover how to provide them even while continue to utilizing your speech whilst your tips.

We generally goal to present you an excellent solution together with a fantastic admissions essay. We feel in offering the most beneficial good value and now we will compose your admissions essay for as economical like we are able to with no diminishing on level of quality.

We desire the finest of good fortune with the scholastic excursion so we know you may be approved within your picked university or college in the end, with the use of our company you may have demonstrated that anyone can essay writing level checker make excellent actions so you are devoted to locating the essay writing prompts middle school right essay you are able to!

Use our unique essay posting expert services to guarantee that plagiarism isnt problems for you personally now or truly.

So what is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism will be the saying used to clarify the entire process of stealing an individual elses cerebral asset and moving it well since the individual.

This might be unintentional around the young people thing. The following could flag as a example of plagiarism:

Simply by using a quotation essay writing program and not just crediting the original source

Getting an excerpt and simply not citing the origin

Making use of ebooks an internet-based instruments as researching components rather than putting these to the bibliography

Working with someones statistical files with out crediting them to the genuine job

Copying completely from a manuscript or web based posting

As we discussed, its rather easy to accidentally plagiarise. As well as penalties to get a learner is often rather considerable.

For numerous graduate students and undergraduates, the project might be a computerized stop working.

For school young people researching for any experts education or possibly a doctorate extent, they might be pulled from the path.

To obtain a senior high school person, worthwhile markings are generally misplaced, or even the project may need to be re-performed using up important energy and time.

How Does Someone Make essay writing national festivals Sure This Doesnt Eventually Me?

You should function your job using an on the web plagiarism checker simply to make sure that each of your content articles are distinctive.

Or not surprisingly, you would use the worry from the problem entirely and get Academized to publish that you simply qualified unique essay.

Order Customized Essay

The most convenient was to make sure you do not fit in this snare is usually t.e.e.l essay writing structure by obtaining our unique essay written documents.

Our unique essay solutions assure you completely plagiarism free of charge do the job that will not be sold again and you will be completely made to order composed on your behalf.

Customized Essay Author

Our specialized essay creating solution employs only premier, experienced freelance writers. They all are professionals for their area in addition to their well-performing expert services be certain you will definitely get the markings you require and essay writing on peace have each of the consumer credit.

Your genuine customized university essay shall be brought straight to the email as part of your preferred length of time, wanting to be personalised or emailed towards your professor.

For the very best personalized essay, it seems sensible try using a trustworthy, advisable firm like Academized.

Can Anyone Help essay writing lesson plans Me Look for a Cheaper Custom made Essay?

Should you do purchase one, inform us!

Without doubt, you will discover expertise on the market that depend on young people getting with limited funds. They will likely offer the planet for adjacent to not essay writing questions much. They might almost never ship just a village, much less the whole world!

Do not be blown away to explore which not only will be your essay inadequately composed, but that it really has additionally been sold again many times, and is likely a test essay considered on the internet and placed via a spinner.

This site offers a specialized essay solution which is a fine bang for your buck. We continue to keep our pricing as little as probable although it is not providing it influence the caliber of our freelance writers or goods.

How Will I Make a purchase order to get a Personalized Essay?

Helping to make your order to have a made to order authored essay couldnt be easier. All should do is check out essay writing quiz our acquiring method display screen while giving us the examples below info:

The duration of the personalized report in both pages and posts or words and phrases

The scholastic standard where you can be analyzing to make essay writing paper pdf sure you get the best detail inside the cardstock

Your time frame. Inform us if you want the papers bringing. Whether its emergency, you could have it within just 6 hours.

The niche you could be understanding

The sub matter, and of course if pertinent the dilemma or thesis

The particular kind of tailor made essay you require

What Are The Results Subsequent?

We delegate you our indigenous The english language communicating authors. If you wish to give them any other facts, you can easily send out them communication by means of our website.

Your author will accomplish your custom made report and transmit it for you personally.

After this you get 14 time to examine the process. When you have completed the evaluations with the essay, either you l&t infotech essay writing topics send it back with any sought after alters (at no added fee) or accept it. Its actually that straightforward.

Our custom made essay publishing solution requires the tension from many issues no probability of plagiarism, no potential for lacking the due date, no likelihood of a poorly penned essay with no probability of spelling, punctuation and sentence structure helping you to reduced.

Academized can take the entire anxiety from creating essays and responsibilities, enabling essay writing nature you so settle-back, loosen up and utilize your energy to accomplish what you take pleasure in. Without the need to stress about your tasks.

The post Purchase Entry Essay On the internet. Bypassing Plagiarism with your Made to order Essay Composing Expert services appeared first on Guest Blogging Platform for Jewelry & Fashion.

from Blog – Guest Blogging Platform for Jewelry & Fashion http://ift.tt/2BTls5e via IFTTT from Untitled http://ift.tt/2EnH8Is via IFTTT

[cleancutpage]

5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

With Kodak recently announcing that it’s launching its own cryptocurrency to help protect digital photographers who sell their work on the web, we thought it would be a good time to take a deeper dive into blockchain technologies here at AEC Labs and discuss where they could have meaningful application for the construction industry in 2018 and beyond.

This is a rather long article (our longest so far here at AEC Labs!), so we’ll give you the punchline up front: the five areas where we believe that blockchain has the potential to truly disrupt the construction industry are in building information modeling (or BIM), smart contracts, the construction supply chain and scheduling, payment applications and liens, and insurance.

But before we can analyze its applications for each of these crucial areas of the AEC industry in more depth, we need to discuss some basic outlines of what a blockchain is.

How is a blockchain created and why is it so secure?

A blockchain is a continuously – and potentially infinitely – growing set of digital records, each of which is accessible to the public (or a closed group of users, as the case may be) over the internet. Think of it as a digital ledger whose entries are immutable – if any single entry in an infinite list of historical transactions is changed in any way – no matter how small the edit – every single user of the blockchain will know immediately. As new “blocks” of data are added to the chain, each user receives the new, updated version instantaneously.

The technology has its origins in the “double spending” problem for online transactions. Suppose you own some discrete amount of digital currency and want to pay your friend back for a recent dinner. Without some sort of mechanism for validating the transaction, you could essentially use that digital money to pay back your friend and then use it again for another transaction next week (or potentially an infinite number of transactions).

A centralized mechanism for validating payment to your friend would be a trusted third party (like a notary public, say, for paper transactions or the digital certificate authorities that enable https:// security.) But there are limitations – can you trust that third party to always act in your best interest in verifying the transaction? Here is where decentralization and blockchain technology comes into play.

The key to understanding blockchains is the hashing function.

A blockchain’s continuously growing set of digital records is organized into sequential “blocks.” Each block contains the transaction data (or data from a group of transactions, like purchases during a particular time period or all of the deeds to the houses in your neighborhood), a timestamp, and a “hash” that was generated by the previous block in the chain, all the way back to the “genesis block” whose data is used to generate the first hash in the chain.

The hash is the output of a cryptographic function (a mathematical process) that converts any amount of information contained in the block (the input, or in computer science terms a “string”) into an output that is the same size for all transactions that are parsed through the function. So you could potentially have an infinite amount of data that is reduced to, say, 256 random letters and numbers (if you apply the SHA256 function like most blockchains).

It’s relatively easy to run data through the function and to create the hash, but nearly impossible to recreate that data working backwards from the hash alone.

This is because changing even one character in the string – even adding a period to a sentence or flipping a single digit – will generate a completely different hash. For example, here are two hashes generated by the SHA256 hashing function run against a nearly identical sentence where the only difference is a missing period:

The brown fox crossed the street, 217dbd0cb5d5b92bedcbd52b35802ae403c3200410e61ffe1e23543ade73bf78

The brown fox crossed the street., 5b975ab4c64c313410fb39ea0dc4d7b09e893701b8dc417f3bec786e3933a080 

Once the new hash is generated, it is sent along with the data comprising the new block to the rest of the network on which the chain exists. If the network agrees that the new hash is valid (i.e. if nothing in the chain has changed, the same data will always generate the same hash for all users on the network), then the block is added to the chain. The new hash is then recognized as the latest version of the blockchain and the process repeats itself when the next new block of data is added to the chain.

This process can continue infinitely and allows many users to update the data set independently, communicate those updates securely to other parties on the network, and guarantees that each user will always have the most recent version of the data.

It also solves for the original “double spending” problem by ensuring that the data in each block was only the subject of one transaction (i.e. it can’t be changed or modified without the network’s knowledge as this would change the hash).

Now that we have a general understanding of how a  blockchain functions, what is a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency transactions are all recorded on a public, decentralized ledger (i.e. a blockchain). At a very basic level, when Alice wants to send 5 Bitcoins to Bob, an algorithm confirms that Alice has 5 Bitcoins to send (by analyzing every transaction that has ever occurred in Bitcoin, all of which are listed in the ledger). If she does, then the transaction is added to what will be the next block in the ledger. Bitcoin “miners” (essentially other computers on the network) try and work out the first group of digits to the correct hash that will successfully add the block to the chain.

Once successful (this process takes about 10 minutes), the miner is rewarded with a fixed number of Bitcoins in his or her account (the number decreases over time as more Bitcoins are mined – the last one will be mined sometime in 2140 at the current rate), along with a small processing fee.

In this way, because there are a fixed number of them (21 million) Bitcoins are distributed into the global financial system somewhat randomly (unlike a central bank, say, printing paper currency.)

(This is admittedly a highly simplistic description of how Bitcoin functions – I suggest watching the video embedded below, which I thought was the best of what I found online describing how it works.)

So, with all of that background, how can this technology possibly impact the construction industry?

With most contractors and subcontractors still preparing lien waivers and payment applications by hand, how can blockchain technology or even a cryptocurrency realistically have any effect on improving the industry’s productivity and efficiency?

The possibilities are actually endless, and really only limited by your imagination. But here is our list of the top 5 ways that AEC Labs believes that blockchain technology could improve the construction industry sooner than you think.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The applications for blockchain to improve the reliability and security of BIM (building information modeling) tools could be dramatic, particularly as more projects use increasingly sophisticated BIM models. What happens if there is an error in the model or if something – or someone – changes a component without communicating that change to the rest of the project team?

Blockchain tools could log infinite amounts of data about a particular component of a BIM model and ensure that it cannot be changed – but if it is, communicate who made the change instantaneously. There would be no confusion over ownership if there is an issue. And the security offered by blockchain would provide more comfort to parties who are leery of horror stories from BIM-related claims on construction jobs.

Supply Chains & Construction Schedules

One reason why increasing efficiency and productivity in the construction sector has been so difficult is that supply chains to construct buildings and infrastructure assets are highly fragmented. Materials may be sourced in one part of the world, specified by a designer in another, and then requested and installed by a subcontractor at the direction of a construction manager.

This, of course, creates layers of transaction costs and compounds the inefficiencies that continue to plague the AEC industry. But blockchain technology has the potential to drastically streamline the construction industry’s supply chain (and those for any number of other industries, too).

For example, at the moment a piece of equipment or pallet of materials are delivered to a job site, the transfer of title or digital cash could automatically trigger a linked obligation upstream – say for the supplier to ship the next pallet or for the next item on the project schedule’s critical path to be initiated.  These obligations would take place automatically, coded into the “smart” contracts that constitute this particularly kind of blockchain.

“Smart” Contracts

Underpinning any blockchain-powered supply chain or construction schedule would be “smart” contracts. These contracts could use blockchain technology to actually enforce the obligations that are set forth in what we would consider to be a traditional contract.

For example, imagine a construction world where the obligations in every form industry contract – AIA, DBIA, ConsensusDocs – exist on a blockchain-powered platform instead of today’s clunky traditional, mostly paper contract documents.

Each obligation in the contract could be digitally added to a blockchain and then tied to automatic outcomes (like payment of digital currency, the imposition of digital liquidated damages,  the release of digital retainage, or even the transfer of title to any kind of asset) once the software validates that the triggering condition is satisfied.

There is no gray area or middle ground or room for disputes because either the condition was satisfied, or it wasn’t; the computer network controls all possible outcomes, which exist in a limited universe of possibilities that are coded directly from the contract.

Complex blockchain construction contracts might be deep into the future. But for two-party, straightforward form agreements, blockchain technology offers the potential for a streamlined, efficient way of improving how construction contracts are selected and administered.

Payments (including payment applications, liens, and lien rights)

Similarly, payment obligations and receipts could all be tracked in a blockchain ledger. If a contractor satisfies the digital conditions for payment, the software will automatically make a payment and, in return, instantaneously return a waiver of lien or any other digital document that is required by the contract.

Perhaps liens and lien rights will change too – with blockchain technology, every transaction will be tracked, recorded, and distributed over the blockchain so there will be no dispute over, say, misappropriated trust funds, pay-when-paid  or pay-if-paid obligations, and whether payment milestones have been satisfied.

Regardless, removing paper processes like time-consuming payment applications will increase productivity, help projects proceed more quickly, and reduce costs. Already we’ve seen fintech and contech startups like New Orleans-based Zlien attacking the fragmented, segmented nature of the construction supply chain. Blockchain technology is the logical next step in that evolution.

Insurance

Blockchain technology has the potential to dramatically change the way insurance policies are written. For example, there has already been discussion of “temporal” insurance policies that would only be in place while, say, while you’re driving your car or performing construction work on a project site.

This would decrease the cost to you and – coupled with Internet of Things technologies that could inform the blockchain about conditions as they exist in the real world – weather, for example – increase the efficiency of markets generally.

For the AEC industry, the applications could be similar. Intelligent wrap-up policies could know exactly who was on the site – and when – and structure rates and apportion liability based on what actually happened in the field without the need for litigation.

If you’re still with us, what do you think of our list? Did we miss any areas where you think that blockchain and cryptocurrency technology could change the way the AEC industry does business?

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

The post 5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever published first on https://greatlivinghomespage.tumblr.com/

[yourchoicepage]

5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

With Kodak recently announcing that it’s launching its own cryptocurrency to help protect digital photographers who sell their work on the web, we thought it would be a good time to take a deeper dive into blockchain technologies here at AEC Labs and discuss where they could have meaningful application for the construction industry in 2018 and beyond.

This is a rather long article (our longest so far here at AEC Labs!), so we’ll give you the punchline up front: the five areas where we believe that blockchain has the potential to truly disrupt the construction industry are in building information modeling (or BIM), smart contracts, the construction supply chain and scheduling, payment applications and liens, and insurance.

But before we can analyze its applications for each of these crucial areas of the AEC industry in more depth, we need to discuss some basic outlines of what a blockchain is.

How is a blockchain created and why is it so secure?

A blockchain is a continuously – and potentially infinitely – growing set of digital records, each of which is accessible to the public (or a closed group of users, as the case may be) over the internet. Think of it as a digital ledger whose entries are immutable – if any single entry in an infinite list of historical transactions is changed in any way – no matter how small the edit – every single user of the blockchain will know immediately. As new “blocks” of data are added to the chain, each user receives the new, updated version instantaneously.

The technology has its origins in the “double spending” problem for online transactions. Suppose you own some discrete amount of digital currency and want to pay your friend back for a recent dinner. Without some sort of mechanism for validating the transaction, you could essentially use that digital money to pay back your friend and then use it again for another transaction next week (or potentially an infinite number of transactions).

A centralized mechanism for validating payment to your friend would be a trusted third party (like a notary public, say, for paper transactions or the digital certificate authorities that enable https:// security.) But there are limitations – can you trust that third party to always act in your best interest in verifying the transaction? Here is where decentralization and blockchain technology comes into play.

The key to understanding blockchains is the hashing function.

A blockchain’s continuously growing set of digital records is organized into sequential “blocks.” Each block contains the transaction data (or data from a group of transactions, like purchases during a particular time period or all of the deeds to the houses in your neighborhood), a timestamp, and a “hash” that was generated by the previous block in the chain, all the way back to the “genesis block” whose data is used to generate the first hash in the chain.

The hash is the output of a cryptographic function (a mathematical process) that converts any amount of information contained in the block (the input, or in computer science terms a “string”) into an output that is the same size for all transactions that are parsed through the function. So you could potentially have an infinite amount of data that is reduced to, say, 256 random letters and numbers (if you apply the SHA256 function like most blockchains).

It’s relatively easy to run data through the function and to create the hash, but nearly impossible to recreate that data working backwards from the hash alone.

This is because changing even one character in the string – even adding a period to a sentence or flipping a single digit – will generate a completely different hash. For example, here are two hashes generated by the SHA256 hashing function run against a nearly identical sentence where the only difference is a missing period:

The brown fox crossed the street, 217dbd0cb5d5b92bedcbd52b35802ae403c3200410e61ffe1e23543ade73bf78

The brown fox crossed the street., 5b975ab4c64c313410fb39ea0dc4d7b09e893701b8dc417f3bec786e3933a080 

Once the new hash is generated, it is sent along with the data comprising the new block to the rest of the network on which the chain exists. If the network agrees that the new hash is valid (i.e. if nothing in the chain has changed, the same data will always generate the same hash for all users on the network), then the block is added to the chain. The new hash is then recognized as the latest version of the blockchain and the process repeats itself when the next new block of data is added to the chain.

This process can continue infinitely and allows many users to update the data set independently, communicate those updates securely to other parties on the network, and guarantees that each user will always have the most recent version of the data.

It also solves for the original “double spending” problem by ensuring that the data in each block was only the subject of one transaction (i.e. it can’t be changed or modified without the network’s knowledge as this would change the hash).

Now that we have a general understanding of how a  blockchain functions, what is a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency transactions are all recorded on a public, decentralized ledger (i.e. a blockchain). At a very basic level, when Alice wants to send 5 Bitcoins to Bob, an algorithm confirms that Alice has 5 Bitcoins to send (by analyzing every transaction that has ever occurred in Bitcoin, all of which are listed in the ledger). If she does, then the transaction is added to what will be the next block in the ledger. Bitcoin “miners” (essentially other computers on the network) try and work out the first group of digits to the correct hash that will successfully add the block to the chain.

Once successful (this process takes about 10 minutes), the miner is rewarded with a fixed number of Bitcoins in his or her account (the number decreases over time as more Bitcoins are mined – the last one will be mined sometime in 2140 at the current rate), along with a small processing fee.

In this way, because there are a fixed number of them (21 million) Bitcoins are distributed into the global financial system somewhat randomly (unlike a central bank, say, printing paper currency.)

(This is admittedly a highly simplistic description of how Bitcoin functions – I suggest watching the video embedded below, which I thought was the best of what I found online describing how it works.)

So, with all of that background, how can this technology possibly impact the construction industry?

With most contractors and subcontractors still preparing lien waivers and payment applications by hand, how can blockchain technology or even a cryptocurrency realistically have any effect on improving the industry’s productivity and efficiency?

The possibilities are actually endless, and really only limited by your imagination. But here is our list of the top 5 ways that AEC Labs believes that blockchain technology could improve the construction industry sooner than you think.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The applications for blockchain to improve the reliability and security of BIM (building information modeling) tools could be dramatic, particularly as more projects use increasingly sophisticated BIM models. What happens if there is an error in the model or if something – or someone – changes a component without communicating that change to the rest of the project team?

Blockchain tools could log infinite amounts of data about a particular component of a BIM model and ensure that it cannot be changed – but if it is, communicate who made the change instantaneously. There would be no confusion over ownership if there is an issue. And the security offered by blockchain would provide more comfort to parties who are leery of horror stories from BIM-related claims on construction jobs.

Supply Chains & Construction Schedules

One reason why increasing efficiency and productivity in the construction sector has been so difficult is that supply chains to construct buildings and infrastructure assets are highly fragmented. Materials may be sourced in one part of the world, specified by a designer in another, and then requested and installed by a subcontractor at the direction of a construction manager.

This, of course, creates layers of transaction costs and compounds the inefficiencies that continue to plague the AEC industry. But blockchain technology has the potential to drastically streamline the construction industry’s supply chain (and those for any number of other industries, too).

For example, at the moment a piece of equipment or pallet of materials are delivered to a job site, the transfer of title or digital cash could automatically trigger a linked obligation upstream – say for the supplier to ship the next pallet or for the next item on the project schedule’s critical path to be initiated.  These obligations would take place automatically, coded into the “smart” contracts that constitute this particularly kind of blockchain.

“Smart” Contracts

Underpinning any blockchain-powered supply chain or construction schedule would be “smart” contracts. These contracts could use blockchain technology to actually enforce the obligations that are set forth in what we would consider to be a traditional contract.

For example, imagine a construction world where the obligations in every form industry contract – AIA, DBIA, ConsensusDocs – exist on a blockchain-powered platform instead of today’s clunky traditional, mostly paper contract documents.

Each obligation in the contract could be digitally added to a blockchain and then tied to automatic outcomes (like payment of digital currency, the imposition of digital liquidated damages,  the release of digital retainage, or even the transfer of title to any kind of asset) once the software validates that the triggering condition is satisfied.

There is no gray area or middle ground or room for disputes because either the condition was satisfied, or it wasn’t; the computer network controls all possible outcomes, which exist in a limited universe of possibilities that are coded directly from the contract.

Complex blockchain construction contracts might be deep into the future. But for two-party, straightforward form agreements, blockchain technology offers the potential for a streamlined, efficient way of improving how construction contracts are selected and administered.

Payments (including payment applications, liens, and lien rights)

Similarly, payment obligations and receipts could all be tracked in a blockchain ledger. If a contractor satisfies the digital conditions for payment, the software will automatically make a payment and, in return, instantaneously return a waiver of lien or any other digital document that is required by the contract.

Perhaps liens and lien rights will change too – with blockchain technology, every transaction will be tracked, recorded, and distributed over the blockchain so there will be no dispute over, say, misappropriated trust funds, pay-when-paid  or pay-if-paid obligations, and whether payment milestones have been satisfied.

Regardless, removing paper processes like time-consuming payment applications will increase productivity, help projects proceed more quickly, and reduce costs. Already we’ve seen fintech and contech startups like New Orleans-based Zlien attacking the fragmented, segmented nature of the construction supply chain. Blockchain technology is the logical next step in that evolution.

Insurance

Blockchain technology has the potential to dramatically change the way insurance policies are written. For example, there has already been discussion of “temporal” insurance policies that would only be in place while, say, while you’re driving your car or performing construction work on a project site.

This would decrease the cost to you and – coupled with Internet of Things technologies that could inform the blockchain about conditions as they exist in the real world – weather, for example – increase the efficiency of markets generally.

For the AEC industry, the applications could be similar. Intelligent wrap-up policies could know exactly who was on the site – and when – and structure rates and apportion liability based on what actually happened in the field without the need for litigation.

If you’re still with us, what do you think of our list? Did we miss any areas where you think that blockchain and cryptocurrency technology could change the way the AEC industry does business?

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

The post 5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever published first on https://medium.com/@YourChoice