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weskrrr · 3 months

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UROBOROS VIRUS ANALYSIS

The uroboros virus was engineered in the 21st century by Dr. Albert Wesker (re5 era), later on being made into a less-potent strain by Dr. Alex Wesker to serve as a bio-weapon.

Origins: the virus was names from Ouroboros in greek mythology, which is a snake or snake-like creature that consumed itself.

Research on uroboros began in around 2006 following the ‘mansion incident’ *insert page numbers for mansion incident here* between albert wesker and dr ozwell spencer.

After this incident, wesker decided that humanity is the problem and that the only way to save it is make his own superb species called the Übermensch. He would do this by using the progenitor virus *insert progenitor virus numbers here* to kill everyone except those capable to carry the uroboros virus. Those that can survive would join the Übermensch.

The Übermensch would theoretically be more physically and mentally advanced than the average humans who would now be dead.

The uroboros project then got slowed down after tricell, a company that worked with umbrella at the time, started up a brand new lab in the Ndipaya kingdom. The population of humans in the Ndipaya kingdom able to withstand, survive and mutate to adapt to the progenitor virus was too small for the lab to be a valuable asset.

However, the uroboros strove through. Wesker extracted t-virus antibodies that he extracted from a mutant test subject, jill valentine, and repeatedly used them on his uroboros cultures to eventually naturally create a new, distinct, less potent strain of the progenitor virus.

Now, this new strain would allow project uroboros to go onto its new stage and with it being less potent, thousands of new test subjects were ine=fected over the next two years.

There was also more assistance from Tricell from its own research staff.

The virus became near enough finalized by may 2008. Now, samples of the strain were loaded onto missiles and the uroboros project was in its final stage.

The final stage’s idea was to lauch the missiles and infect every corner of planet earth until all thats left are the ones that survived, that mutated, that thrived.

The Übermensch.

Unfortunately for Dr Wesker, there were problems with the preparations and a fire occurred. This delayed the end stage a little until march of 2009.

In early 2009, the end stage started. However, this was quickle stopped by the bioterrorism security assessment alliance, specifically Chris Redfield and Sheva alomar *insert page numbers for both sheva and chris*. This resulted in the death of Wesker.

At least four humans were successfully infected with uroboros, one of the main people being Dr. Albert Wesker himself. Wesker mutated successfully, but the other 3 that were infected did not. Wesker was the only one to hold uroboros and mutate it correctly.

The other 3, the main demographic of those infected, had their bodies torn apart in an uncontrollable mutation. In one case, the mutation consumed an unannounced number of other people and bodies.

Meaning, there is a possibility that even if project uroboros has truly worked then only 1/4th of the world, possibly even less, would’ve properly mutated to be the super race (the Übermensch) that Wesker truly wanted.

The Uroboros disease is almost always lethal in humans except from humans with the same genetic composition to those who able to withstand it, like albert wesker.

The disease goes through two stages, which can be established as early and later symptomatic stages.

In the earlier symptomatic stage, uroboros patients are noted to experience the following:

Sweating

Laboured breathing / difficulty breathing

Confusion / delirium

The research conducted by scientists specially appointed to conduct research on the uroboros project have concluded that, in all cases they got to study, all these symptoms happen almost immediately after infection with the uroboros virus.

In the later, last, stage of infection, the infectees DNA will lead them one of two ways: The first way being the way to correct mutation and where the uroboros succeeds, in cases like Dr. Albert Wesker’s, in its objective. The second way is where the uroboros fails, like the majority of the victims of the virus would and have failed.

This second way involves untamable mutations, often where the results end in the victim of the infecton are viciously torn apart and instantly killed in the process. The remnants of the now dead infected continue to live as its own, new entity. These entities are now known as only ‘uroboros’, no longer as a human.

#albert wesker #resident evil #uroboros #i am genuienly albert fucking wesker #wesker #mmmm #resident evil wesker #re wesker #chrisker #resident evil 5 #resident evil 4 #leon kennedy #leon s kennedy #chris redfield #jill valentine #re2 #re5 #re4 #weskerposting

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scarymath · 9 months

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average lethal company experience

#has this been done yet #probably #art #my art #artists on tumblr #lethal company #digital art #icarly meme

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godtears · 2 months

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You should climb up to the height of your ego, then jump down head first to the level of your IQ

??????? That would mean I'd be flying up?? Are you telling me to grow wings or...????? My ego is like, to the floor and my IQ is well above average as tested by psychologists, so I'd be, again, going upwards.

I'm only answering this because I'm confused by the wording of this, it genuinely sounds more like a compliment and that you're telling me to fly and soar like the beautiful birdie I am :3 ❤️

If you're attempting to tell me to kill myself, I would actually suggest seeking a therapist if possible, instead. And/or getting a fun hobby. Mostly because I think you might have some internal stressors that are causing you to act out inappropriately to strangers you disagree with. Finding help for the stress in your life can actually feel so relieving! I know it's not always possible for everyone, especially if you live in the USA. But if you're able to, I think you would benefit from it, sincerely. It sounds like you might be going through some stuff.

If you want me to recommend some hobbies, here's a few that I like to do that you might enjoy! Things like customizing and cleaning up old Furbies, drawing, making shrinky dink Keychains, playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends, bird watching, going for walks, singing, baking, crafts like fursuit making, doll collecting, 3D avatar modeling and customization, fanfic writing, video games, etc.

If you want video game recommendations, I cannot express enough how much Cult of the Lamb is the best! I also would maybe try out games like Fallout (any really), Labyrinthine, Phasmophobia, Valheim, Slay the Princess, Crown of Leaves, Omori, Sketchy's Contract, Alice: Madness Returns, House Flipper, Indigo Park, Little Kitty / Big City, Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist, Little Nightmares, Borderlands (any really), The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog, Sons of the Forest (or the original The Forest, or both), World of Horror, Content Warning, FOREWARNED, Lethal Company, Víscera Cleanup Detail, First Class Trouble, Hades, Half-Life, Outer Wilds, Resident Evil (any really), Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, The Binding of Isaac, Death's Door, Changed, Hide and Shriek (if you have a friend to play with), In Sound Mind, Inscryption, Stray, We Happy Few, Don't Starve, Slime Rancher, Baldur's Gate 3, Dead By Daylight, Escape the Backrooms, On Dark Terms, We Need To Go Deeper, Rain World, What Remains of Edith Finch, Night in the Woods, and uhh Killer Frequency.

Let me know if you check out any of those games and like them, I love to hear about people's experiences! I hope you have a better day, or night depending on what timezone you are in ❤️

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mightyflamethrower · 5 months

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The Madness Continues: Chinese Scientists Create Mutant Ebola Virus

The following content is sponsored by The Wellness Company.

Apparently, the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t been learned. Dangerous biolab experiments continue – humanity be damned.

Photo: Depositphotos

According to the Daily Mail:

Chinese scientists have engineered a virus with parts of Ebola in a lab that killed a group of hamsters. A team of researchers at Hebei Medical University used a contagious disease of livestock and added a protein found in Ebola, which allows the virus to infect cells and spread throughout the human body. The group of hamsters that received the lethal injection ‘developed severe systemic diseases similar to those observed in human Ebola patients,’ including multi-organ failure,’ the study shared.

The results of this study were predictably horrific:

One particularly horrific symptom saw the infected hamsters develop secretions in their eyes, which impaired their vision and scabbed over the surface of the eyeballs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a decade ago, Ebola ravaged parts of Africa. Ebola has an average fatality rate of 50 percent:

Ebola virus disease, once known by, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is defined by the iconic hemorrhagic fever, but more common symptoms are non-specific such as fever, malaise, headache, diarrhea, or vomiting. The disease can quickly progress to multi-organ system failure leading to shock followed by death. The case-fatality rate ranges from 25% to 90%; the average case fatality rate is about 50%.

The obvious concern with any of these dangerous biolab experiments is the threat of a lab leak, according to the Daily Mail:

But lab leaks happen, and these incidents could lead to the spread of to those outside of the lab. Experts have confirmed that respiratory viruses – which are [spread] via coughing and sneezing – are more likely to spread widely through a population. Data released this March revealed that lab leak incidents occur every year and included the release of controlled pathogens like tuberculosis and anthrax. There are anywhere from 70 to 100 releases were recorded every year.

Be Prepared

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robertreich · 4 years

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youtube

Trump’s 40 Biggest Broken Promises

Trump voters. Nearly 4 years in, here’s an updated list of Trump’s 40 biggest broken promises.

1. He said coronavirus would “go away without a vaccine.”

You bought it. But it didn’t. While other countries got the pandemic under control and avoided large numbers of fatalities, the virus has killed more than 130,000 Americans*, and that number is still climbing.

2. He said he won’t have time to play golf if elected president.

But he has made more than 250 visits to his golf clubs since he took office – a record for any president – including more trips during the pandemic than meetings with Dr. Fauci. The total financial cost to America? More than $136 million.

3. He said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with something “beautiful.”

It didn’t happen. Instead, 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance since he took office. He has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the law in the middle of a global pandemic with no plan to replace it.

4. He said he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more.

He did the opposite. By 2027, the richest 1 percent will have received 83 percent of the Trump tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans will pay more in taxes.

5. He said corporations would use their tax cuts to invest in American workers.

They didn’t. Corporations spent more of their tax savings buying back shares of their own stock than increasing workers wages.

6. He said he would boost economic growth by 4 percent a year.

Nope. The economy stalled, and unemployment has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression. Just over half of working-age Americans are employed – the worst ratio in 70 years.

7. He said he wouldn’t “cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”

His latest budget includes billions in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

8. He promised to be “the voice” of American workers.

He hasn’t. His administration has stripped workers of their rights, repealed overtime protections, rolled back workplace safety rules, and turned a blind eye to employers who steal their workers’ wages.

9. He promised that the average American family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

But nothing trickled down. Wages for most Americans have barely kept up with inflation.

10. He promised that anyone who wants a test for Covid will get one.

But countless Americans still can’t get a test.

11. He said hydroxychloroquine protects against coronavirus.

No way. The FDA revoked its emergency authorization due to the drug’s potentially lethal side effects.

12. He promised to eliminate the federal deficit.

He has increased the federal deficit by more than 60 percent.

13. He said he would hire “only the best people.”

He has fired a record number of his own cabinet and White House picks, and then called them “whackos,” “dumb as a rock," and "not mentally qualified.” 6 of them have been charged with crimes.

14. He promised to bring down the price of prescription drugs and said drug companies are “getting away with murder.”

They still are. Drug prices have soared, and a company that got federal funds to develop a drug to treat coronavirus is charging $3,000 a pop.=

15. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and bring back lost coal mining jobs.

The coal industry has continued to lose jobs as clean energy becomes cheaper.

16. He promised to help American workers during the pandemic.

But 80% of the tax benefits in the coronavirus stimulus package have gone to millionaires and billionaires. And at least 21 million Americans have lost extra unemployment benefits, with no new stimulus check to fall back on.

17. He said he’d drain the swamp.

Instead, he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they used to work for.

18. He promised to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.

His Justice Department is trying to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with preexisting conditions.

19. He said Mexico would pay for his border wall.

The wall is estimated to cost American taxpayers an estimated $11 billion.

20. He promised to bring peace to the Middle East.

Instead, tensions have increased and his so-called “peace plan” was dead on arrival.

21. He promised to lock up Hillary Clinton for using a private email server.

He didn’t. Funny enough, Trump uses his personal cell-phone for official business, and several members of his own administration, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka, have used private email in the White House.

22. He promised to use his business experience to whip the federal government into shape.

He hasn’t. His White House is in permanent chaos. He caused the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history when he didn’t get funding for his wall.

23. He promised to end DACA.

The Supreme Court ruled that his plan to deport 700,000 young immigrants was unconstitutional, and DACA still stands.

24. He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.”

He hasn’t delivered.

25. He promised to bring an end to Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program.

Kim is expanding North Korea’s nuclear program.

26. He said he would distance himself from his businesses while in office.

He continues to make money from his properties and maintain his grip on his real estate empire.

27. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be consequences for companies that shipped jobs abroad.

Since he took office, companies like GE, Carrier, Ford, and Harley Davidson have continued to outsource thousands of jobs while still receiving massive tax breaks. And offshoring by federal contractors has increased.

28. He promised to end the opioid crisis.

Americans are now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car accident.

29. He said he’d release his tax returns.

It’s been nearly 4 years. He hasn’t released his tax returns.

30. He promised to tear up the Iran nuclear deal and renegotiate a better deal.

Negotiations have gone nowhere, and he brought us to the brink of war.

31. He promised to enact term limits for all members of Congress.

He has not even tried to enact term limits.

32. He promised that China would pay for tariffs on imported goods.

His trade war has cost U.S. consumers $34 billion a year, eliminated 300,000 American jobs, and cost American taxpayers $22 billion in subsidies for farmers hurt by the tariffs.

33. He promised to “push colleges to cut the skyrocketing cost of tuition.”

Instead, he’s made it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students, and tuition is still rising.

34. He promised to protect American steel jobs.

The steel industry continues to lose jobs.

35. He promised tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations would spur economic growth and pay for themselves.

His tax cuts will add $2 trillion to the federal deficit.

36. After pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, he said he’d negotiate a better deal on the environment.

He hasn’t attempted to negotiate any deal.

37. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be sued after the election is over.”

He hasn’t sued them, presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.

38. He promised to bring back all troops from Afghanistan.

He now says: "We’ll always have somebody there.”

39. He pledged to put America first.

Instead, he’s deferred to dictators and authoritarians at America’s expense, and ostracized our allies — who now laugh at us behind our back.

40. He promised to be the voice of the common people.

He’s made his rich friends richer, increased the political power of big corporations and the wealthy, and harmed working Americans.Don’t let the liar-in-chief break any more promises. Vote him out in November.

#video #videos #Trump #Trump promises #Trump country #Trump lies

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thecompany-if · 2 years

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Which is the greatest invention dr.Henry has done and which is the craziest experiment he has conducted in their time in the Company lab? How many guinea pigs volunteers have they managed to convince to go with their experiments aside from Tally?

Greatest Invention: Deus ex machina aka a bottle of pills that grant you the power of a random god. Henry managed to get some blood samples of dead and existing gods from a raid a team did a few months ago in a cult hideout and managed to make some pills out of them with a bit of trial and error. It was quickly banned and destroyed, unfortunately.

Craziest Experiment: Probably trying to get someone to momentarilly forget via a prototype Grade 1 amnestic. The test subject ended up forgetting about everything: both memories and cognitive skills and has resorted into a vegetative state afterwards. The prototype has been renamed as "Big Forgetti Sniffy" by Dr. Henry and is currently only used for [REDACTED].

Volunteers: Before his days in Burnwood, he managed to get his hands on 20 convicted serial killers for his experiments per month, with some lasting more than others surprisingly. Now he manages to get an average of 5 to 10 death row inmates from the local jail per week for his experiments. He only uses death row inmates if he deems his experiment too lethal for Thalia. A mad scientist, sure, but the man's somewhat got morals.

#Team ask #curious anon #Henry

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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Corruption

“Corruption” conjures images of bags of cash changing hands in deserted parking garages, but I’d like to propose a simple and concrete definition that goes beyond that: “Corruption” is when something bad happens because its harms are diffused and its gains are concentrated.

Here’s what I mean. West Virginia is known as coal country, but coal is actually a small, dwindling industry in WV; WV’s biggest industry is chemical processing, dominated by Dow — chem processing, like many industries, is heavily concentrated into a few global monopolies.

WV has a water crisis, with frequent “boil water” advisories. Its origins are in the chemical industry — specifically, in a regulatory proceeding where state regulators sought comment on whether to relax the EPA’s national guidelines on chemical runoff into drinking water.

Dow, acting through the manufacturers’ association it controls, argued the people of WV could absorb more poison than the national average because they were much fatter than the median American, and when they drank, it was mostly beer, not water.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/03/14/the-real-elitists-looking-down-on-trump-voters/

No, really.

Here’s the thing. I’m not qualified to set the safe levels of different kinds of runoff in water-tables. It’s probably not zero (at least, not for most chemicals), but it’s also not “anything goes.”

It’s a question that requires subtle, interdisciplinary expertise: chemistry, health, environmental science. It’s an area where people of good faith can disagree.

These thorny, high-stakes technical questions that cross disciplines are the norm, not the exception.

Even if you have the technical knowhow to evaluate whether wearing masks fights covid, that doesn’t answer questions about vaccine safety, or whether zoom-school will turn your kid into an ignoramus.

Answer those questions and you’re left with still more: should you get in one of Southwest’s recertified Boeing 737-Max airplanes? Is the code specifying the reinforced steel joist that holds up your roof adequate, or is your building gonna collapse?

Should you eat carbs? Will your 401k preserve you through a dignified retirement? Answering all of these questions definitively for yourself requires earning 50+ PhDs, but also, people who have those PhDs don’t all agree with one another.

In a technologically complex world, there will always be official advice whose technical arguments we can’t understand. Our only reassurance is the process by which that advice is arrived at.

We may not understand the arguments, but we can recognize an open, independent process refereed by neutral regulators who show their work and recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest.

We don’t always understand what goes on inside the box, but we can tell whether the box itself is sound. We can tell judges are financially interested in outcomes, whether they publish their deliberations, whether they revisit their conclusions in light of new evidence.

That’s all we’ve got, and it depends on a balance of powers that arises from a pluralistic, diffused set of industrial interests.

When an industry says with one voice that West Virginians are so fat that we can poison them without injury, it carries a lot of weight.

(so to speak)

It’s a stupid argument. It’s a wicked argument. It’s a lethal argument. It’s the kind of argument that might get you laughed out of the room if it is filled with hundreds of squabbling chemical companies looking to dunk on one another.

That’s the thing about conspiracies (and Dow was, in fact, engaged in a conspiracy to poison West Virginians to enrich its shareholders) — they require a lot of discipline, with all the conspirators remaining loyal to the conspiracy and no one breaking ranks.

The bigger a group is, the more it struggles to keep a united front. That’s why there’s so much billionaire class solidarity. Sure, it’s hard to maintain unity among a clutch of grandiose maniacs, but it’s much harder to maintain unity among billions of their victims.

Monopolization is corruption’s handmaiden — not just because it lets Dow hire fancy lawyers and “experts” to dress up “fat people are immune to poison” as sound policy, but because the industry can sing that awfful song with one voice.

Dow spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to win a policy that will save it millions — and cost the people of WV hundreds of millions or even billions in health costs, lost productivity, and, of course, the intergenerational trauma of ruined and lost human lives.

The reason millions in gains can trump billions in losses is that that the millions are reaped by just a few firms, who can wield them with precision to secure the continued right to impose costs on the rest of us, while the losses are spread out across the whole state.

For Dow to corrupt West Virginia’s legislature, it need only tithe a small percentage of its winnings to political causes and dark money orgs.

For West Virginians to fight corruption in the cash-money world of political influence campaigns, they have to overcome their collective action problem and outspend Dow — all while bearing the human and monetary costs of Dow’s corruption.

America is a land of manifest, obvious dysfunctions, and close examination reveals their common root in corruption.

Take the health-care system: Americans pay more for worse outcomes than anyone else in the rich world.

Their healthcare is rationed by faceless, cruel bureaucracies. They ration their medicine or skip necessary procedures. Patients hate this — but so do doctors and nurses, who have to hire armies of bureaucrats to fight with insurers.

Everyone hates this system. Everyone knows it’s rotten. Everyone — except for a handful of pharma, hospital and insurance monopolists, and the propagandists they pay to busily race through the crowd, busily swapping hats and shouting, “SOCIALISM! BOO! SOCIALISM!”

But while the US healthcare system is terrible at providing healthcare, it’s very good at jackpotting for monopolists. They reap billions while costing the public trillions, and they hand around millions to keep that situation intact.

We can see that in action right now. Nina Turner is running to take over a Congressional seat in northeastern Ohio vacated by Marcia Fudge when she joined Biden’s cabinet.

https://www.dailyposter.com/dems-launch-proxy-war-on-medicare-for-all/

For 30 years, every Congressional rep for Ohio’s 11th supported Medicare for All — a commensense measure to end the long waits, price gouging and cruel bureaucratic rationing of for-profit care. Unsurprisingly, Turner also supports M4A.

https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1404793650895331337?s=20

In response, a group of corporate, establishment Congressional Dems have launched an all-out attack on Turner’s candidacy, joining forces with health-care lobbyists to raise vast corporate fortunes to support her primary challenger, Shontel Brown.

The seven Dem lawmakers attacking Turner have collectively taken in $5m from pharma and health-care monopolists. James E Clyburn alone has pocketed $1m from pharma. He’s leading the charge against Turner.

https://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1405121330433957888

Before Clyburn accepted $1m worth of pharma money, he co-sponsored Medicare For All legislation. Now he’s its most bitter opponent, insisting that it’s political poison (a majority of his constituents support M4A).

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-blog/south-carolina-primary-live-updates-democrats-vote-2020-candidates-n1145296/ncrd1146076

One million people in Ohio lost their jobs — and health care — during the pandemic. The system is murdering and maiming people. It’s a wasteful boondoggle that’s bad for everyone except a tiny minority of shareholders and the corrupt officials who accept their blood-money.

It’s not just healthcare. Think of Exxon Mobil’s crime against humanity and Earth: the 40-year coverup and disinformation campaign to delay action on the climate emergency. Exxon spent millions, made tens of billions, and cost us all trillions.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crisis-crime-fossil-fuels-environment

The megadroughts, once-in-millennium heatwaves, raging wildfires, annual floods-of-the-century and zoonitic plagues Exxon bought with their millions were objectively a very bad deal — but their concentrated gains beat our much larger diffused losses (so far). #ExxonKnew.

But corruption creates policy debt, and the interest on that debt compounds — in a degraded environment, worsening health, precarious work, and a collapse in trust in institutions. The corrupt have a structural advantage, but it’s not a sure thing.

Take Ohio (again). The GOP-dominated Senate passed legislation to ban Ohio cities from offering municipal broadband. Now, municipal broadband is the best internet in America: cheaper, faster and more reliable than anything the telecoms monopolists offer.

There are ~900 (mostly Republican) towns and counties where people get their internet from their local government:

https://muninetworks.org/communitymap

And they fucking love it, just as much as their Comcast-burdened peers elsewhere hate their service:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180808223947/https://www.consumerreports.org/phone-tv-internet-bundles/people-still-dont-like-their-cable-companies-telecom-survey/

Muni networks are better at everything to do with the internet: connection speeds, price, and customer service. There’s only one area in which they underperform relative to telecoms monopolies: generating profits for shareholders by overcharging and underinvesting.

There’s only a tiny minority of people who’d trade good internet service for profitable internet service (namely, the people receiving the profits). But the pro-monopolists have concentrated gains, while the public experiences diffused losses.

That’s why the Ohio Senate passed its budget bill banning municipal networks. But when the budget was reconciled in the Ohio House, the measure was killed, thanks to an all-out uprising led by the people of Fairlawn, who stepped up to defend Fairlawngig, their muni ISP.

The victory for muni broadband is a triumph of evidence over corruption — proof that the diffused nature of corruption losses can be overcome. It’s cause for hope, especially in light of this week’s collapse of the antitrust case against Facebook.

https://www.wired.com/story/ftc-antitrust-case-against-facebook-very-much-alive/

Facebook escaped justice by citing the theories of Robert Bork, Nixon’s chief criminal co-conspirator and Ronald Reagan’s court sorcerer. Bork insisted that anittrust law had but one purpose: to keep prices down.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/28/dubious-quant-residue/#incinerators-r-us

Any other consideration, especially political corruption arising from market concentration, was out of scope.

The court agreed. No surprise; 40% of the US Federal judiciary has attended a lavish “Manne Seminar,” junkets where they are indoctrinated into Borkism.

But the absurdity of ruling that Facebook isn’t a fit subject for anti-monopoly law is the beginning of the end for Borkism, prompting bipartisan calls — led by Elizabeth Warren — to explicitly redesign American antitrust.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/facebooks-surprise-antitrust-victory-could-inspire-congress-to-overhaul-the-rules-entirely/ar-AALCJz8

Corruption has many costs: monetary, human, environmental. But every bit as important is the cost to institutional credibility. Remember, none of us are capable of understanding the technical nuances of the dozens of life-or-death decisions we face daily.

If we can’t trust our institutions — if we don’t believe that regulators are neutral, good-faith experts in ardent pursuit of the truth and the public good — then our very idea of shared reality collapses, as Snowden has written:

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

It’s hard to overstate the sheer, reeling epistemological terror of institutional collapse. When the EPA allows the chemical industry to poison America, how can you know whether the products in the store can be trusted not to kill your family?

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/30/epa-pesticides-exposure-opp/

Remember, the Flint water crisis came about as the result of corruption: the promises of “experts” that taking shortcuts to save money would come out all right, despite the copious evidence to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Water_Crisis

What parent of a permanently damaged child, poisoned by lead deliberately introduced to save pittances for a tiny group of people, could ever trust any “expert” process again?

Michigan Republicans saved millions at the expense of billions, but the gains were concentrated among the wealthy white taxpayers of the state who enjoyed cuts to the top marginal rate, and the costs were born by the Black families of Flint. That’s corruption.

#pluralistic

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lena-in-a-red-dress · 3 years

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Okay, so. the people who return on the flight in Manifest experience hallucinations that lead them to being heroic right? Right up supercorp alley. There's one kid character who experiences them more intensely than anyone else, but I'm sick of the chosen kid trope, so I'm going to pluck that condition up and plunk it right down on Lena Luthor, but not right away. At first she's just an average returnee, struggling to pick up what's left of her life and move forward, plagued by these visions she doesn't really understand. But even though she doesn't really understand, I think she trusts them a little more innately. I know it goes against fanon, but I think Kara would be the one who's a little more doubtful, a little more hesitant to obey the random callings, whereas Lena would trust herself and her senses enough to just roll with it and see where it takes her.

What's more, I also think where Kara is uber careful about maintaining appearances and making sure no one suspects anything, Lena is a little more careless about it. And I think that Lex inevitably begins to suspect something is off with his sister, and when her callings begin to lead her towards his black ops study of some missing returnees, he arranges to have her disappeared-- and to have her join her fellow returnees as a lab rat.

Cue Kara having visions of a medical facility and barbaric experiments. At first it's just her, and she knows in her soul it's Lena trying to reach out to her. To warn her, or for help, Kara doesn't know. What she does know is that Lena's in trouble. When she finally tells Alex about her visions, Alex doesn't believe her. It's not until Kara passes out with a nosebleed that it finally sinks in that whatever is happening to Kara, she's in trouble if Alex doesn't help her. So Alex uses her resources as a cop to track down the missing returnees, and when they do, they find Lena and the others strapped to gurneys, nearly dead from lethal amounts of electroshock therapy.

After the rescue, the lab rat returnees are basically catatonic, Lena among them. It's not until Kara touches Lena's wrist that Lena returns to full lucidity. But even then, she's not the same as she was. She suffers migraines, as one might expect, but also callings that are more intense and vivid than anything she's experienced to date. They lead her to learn that Lex is behind her abduction and the unethical experiments on the returnees, but there's little she can do about it without evidence. So there's only one thing she can do.

She's going to take the family company back.

#supercorp #manifest au #idk i'm winging this as i go #but illegal medical trials with lena as a guinea pig?#call me a glutton for punishment but i'm down for exploring that ordeal

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gwen-pleakley · 2 years

Photo

ABOUT GWEN 🦟

Basic Information

Full Name: Dr. Gwendolyn Pleakley

Nickname(s): Gwen, Wendy, Professor Pleakley, Dr. Pleakley

Previous Aliases: Wendell Plummer

Age: 30

Date of Birth: August 28th

Hometown: Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Current Location: Redwood Hollow

Ethnicity: Vietnamese-Caucasian

Nationality: American

Gender: Trans woman

Pronouns: She/her

Orientation: Heterosexual

Relationship Status: "Married” to Javi Jookiba

Religion: Atheist but believes in astrology

Political Affiliation: Blue Check Liberal

Occupation: Professor of Ecology at Redwood College

Living Arrangements: Renting a room inside the home of Nani Pelekai

Language(s) Spoken: English, French (not good), Spanish (even worse)

Accent: N/A

Physical Appearance

Face Claim: Patti Harrison

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Height: 5′6″

Weight: 152lb

Build: Thin and not muscular

Tattoos: None

Piercings: One of the first things she did after running away was get her ears pierced

Clothing Style: Gwen has been experimenting with her style ever since she started transitioning. She leans towards bright, obnoxious colors and flowy fabric and generally looks ridiculous at any given moment

Usual Expression: Always tries to keep a smile on her face, but can easily have her mood switched

Distinguishing Characteristics: Her voice is high pitched, shrill, and easily distinguishable

Health

Physical Ailments: Gwen suffers from IBS but she does NOT want you to know that. Additionally, has astigmatism in her left eye

Neurological Conditions: She has undiagnosed OCD and generalized anxiety

Allergies: Ironically enough, bug bites. They aren’t lethal, but they do swell up and itch more than average. She sees this as a necessary sacrifice

Sleeping Habits: Generally tries to get her 8 hours in but is known to lose a lot of sleep when she’s working on a project. Prone to falling asleep in chairs/at her desk. Can be quite the fidgeter, especially when she dreams

Eating Habits: Due to her IBS, she’s very careful about what she eats and how much she does. Leans heavily towards healthy, organic, cruelty-free food. Is a vegan

Exercise Habits: Doesn’t do any regular, structured exercise, but does walk and bike everywhere. She wants to become more physically fit and wants to take martial arts classes

Emotional Stability: Gwen is doing her goddamn best not to fall apart at any given moment. Being on the run has pushed her to the limits of stress and who knows what it will take to cause her to snap

Sociability: Gwen generally enjoys the presence of other people, but doesn’t always understand social cues and tends to bluster through situations. She’s not the best at keeping friends due to her own personality flaws

Addictions: The DARE program scared her enough as a kid that she was always wary of addictive tendencies and is vigilant not to fall into them

Drug Use: Never.

Alcohol Use: Doesn’t drink regularly but enjoys a glass of wine every now and then

Personality

Positive Traits: Intelligent, Driven, Helpful

Negative Traits: Paranoid, Obsessive, Self-Righteous

Goals/Desires: To somehow live a decent life and not get sent to jail. To do as much as she can to help out the environment and all its living creatures

Fears: Getting caught, getting clocked, other people’s judgement, accidents, dying, climate change

Hobbies: Research, reading, writing, fashion, watching reality TV, bowling

Habits: Huffing, uses her hands a lot when she talks, playing with her hair, smoothing out her clothes

Favorites

Weather: Partly cloudy, not too hot or cold

Color: Green

Music: Bubblegum Pop

Movies: Dramas, romcoms

Sport: Martial arts

Beverage: Jasmine boba tea

Food: Thanksgiving Dinner (yes, all of it)

Animal: Mosquito

Family

Father: Mark Tran is a focused and dedicated executive at a fortune 500 company. He settled down and started a family, but was kicked to the curb when it was discovered he was cheating. He lost custody of his children, as well as half his assets in the divorce. He’s started to try to reconnect with his children in adulthood but it has been rather awkward

Mother: Nancy Plummer is a high-strung, overbearing and demanding woman who has acted as a helicopter parent throughout her life. A combination of inheritance and divorce gave her enough money that she never needed to work, giving her more time to focus on her children, as well as charity work. She has high standards, but that’s only because she wants her kids to be successful and happy

Sibling(s): Bertrand Plummer is the oldest of the siblings and the least successful. He imploded under the pressure of his mother and still lives at home, cycling through different minimum wage jobs. He tries to act above it all, but is rather mean and bitter underneath. Maxine Plummer is the middle child and feels like she is never given enough attention. In between Bertrand’s failures and Gwen’s successes, she always feels overshadowed and thus overcompensates. She’s the CEO of a travel agency that she started herself and acts more important than she really is

Children: N/A

Extended: Gwen doesn’t know anyone on her father’s side, and on her mother’s side is an extensive list of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She is currently in contact with none of them.

Family’s Financial Status: Upper-middle class

Pet(s): N/A

Extra

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

MBTI: ENTP

Enneagram: The Achiever

Temperament: Choleric

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Moral Alignment: Lawful Good

Primary Vice: Pride

Primary Virtue: Temperance

Element: Earth

#about

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popcornaddict500 · 4 years

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Alien! m6 headcanons (little nsfw)

(just a funky idea i had :P. I’m gonna be putting my own designs of how i think they would look as aliens haha. @steponmemrasra @the-yelling-cave i grant thee the aliens)

Asra

-He has six arms, somewhat pointed ears and a long tongue. He has a white deer-like tail. His hair is longer, and he often wears it in a loose ponytail draped across his shoulder. He has sharper teeth and clawed hands. He usually wears a white coat paired with a purple blouse and a tight-fitted pair of pants. He has the ability to float, but not to fly. If he falls he can hover. He does have futuristic armor, but doesn’t wear it often. His armor is white with a purple shine to it. He’s built robots to do work on his ship, and often does research on other species and such. (he needs glasses sometimes haha) This research is harmless, he merely wants to know how other beings’ minds and bodies work. He also collects gemstones from planets and places, some are very rare. His spaceship is quite large, but not that big.

-Most likely would meet you during one of his research sprees, he would take a liking to you and offer to take you with him on a trip

-Is actually very strong?? Maybe it’s because of the six arms but he can lift weights 3 times heavier than himself. He’s not buff, but i guess having six arms is an advantage

-Sleeps 12 hours a day tbh

-Very good at multitasking ;)

-Has a gigantic snake on his ship as a pet (Faust obviously)

-He loves exploring planets so try to keep up when he starts running around

-Some of the gemstones that he collected are larger than you

-Has two 🍆’s

-Will most likely use his research tools on you, for ultimate pleasure

-Great hugs

Nadia

-Has sharp horns on her head and owl-like wings. Despite not seeming so different on the surface, what’s inside tells a whole different story. Both her face and her stomach can rip open vertically, to reveal a demonic horror of a mouth. Her blood is poisonous and she has venomous fangs. Also her insides glow, including her mouth, blood and other bodily liquids. But she rarely uses her lethal abilities. She travels through space to find plants and flowers of all different sorts, species and types. When exploring, she wears her armor, which is a deep purple. She has various tools equipped on her armor. As expected, her ship is filled with a lot of plant life and flowers. It’s a beautiful sight. She’s alone on her ship, she prefers it. Less crowded, you know. She can fly, but flying is tiring. So she only does it sometimes. Her ship isn’t that big, but it’s equipped with various radars, sensors and weapons.

-She really enjoys eating fruit

-She always and i mean always smells like flowers, be it space flowers or earth flowers

-A great cook

-Might seem soft but can kill you with no effort

-When she’s in her ship, she doesn’t wear clothes, ever. (unless she has company, of course.)

-Her touch has a strange effect, it makes the person getting touched feel dreamy, in a way. It’s very relaxing and wonderful

-So imagine how warm and lovely kissing her must be

-She would meet you when gathering plants, maybe from your garden. She wouldn’t have known, because ‘gardens’ are unknown to her

-Can be incredibly direct at times

-Her skin is so soft??? Like it feels like silk but better

-Has very experienced hands ;)

Julian

-He's got 4 eyes, first of all. Two smaller ones are underneath the original ones. He has two columns of 3 holes on the sides of his neck, he breathes out of those. He can breathe out of his mouth too, of course. So 3 holes on either side of his neck. On his body are bioluminescent lines, their shape is sharp, curled and symmetrical. Two of the pointed lines are on his jaw and a part of his cheek. (like on both sides of his face, symmetrical) The glowing color that they give is dependant on how he's feeling. He has a long, leather like tail. He usually wears futuristic black armor, when he's relaxing he wears a fullbody alien made suit, it clings to the one wearing it and it's practically like a second skin. It has a high collar (but with holes in it) and it ends at his shins and hands. His armor is shiny and equipped with various plasma guns. He has 'drones' which are mindless servants of a lower ranking than him. Their only purpose is to do what he orders them to. He's the leader on his ship. His skin isn't much different, but he's cold blooded.

-Definitely the type to just visit earth and look around for a bit (or for an order from his superior)

-If he did abduct you then it would be to ask some questions about earth or because he liked you

-Would politely send you back if you wanted to go back

-He uses a translation device to speak with you (all of the m6 do tbh)

-Since he’s cold blooded, if he gets too cold then he’ll go into hibernation... Keep him warm, skin to skin ;)

-He doesn’t understand the concept of clothing- hence the suit that hides... nothing- and is often confused about why humans wear such restrictive clothing

-Have i mentioned how gigantic his ship is? Larger than your average neighborhood, i suppose. And no, it’s not your basic ufo shape. It’s quite complex.

-Every 2 months, he goes into a heat-like state. Unless you want to be ravaged intensely, i recommend hiding. This state lasts quite a while, and he’ll be constantly restless. He might be a switch, but during this time he’s very much a top ;)

-His tail is sensitive, especially at the tip, so go wild with that

-Super ticklish on the glowing lines on his body

Portia

-She also has 4 eyes, like Julian. And a leather like tail, she’s also cold blooded. But besides that, they’re pretty different. Her skeleton is so flexible, she can make the strangest twists and turns. Her ears are pointed and orange. She can climb walls, sit on the ceiling and she has hair that’s constantly moving around. She just breathes out of her mouth and nose. She has some orange spots on her body, these spots can sprout out spikes when needed. Kinda like a pufferfish. Has sharp teeth. Her futuristic armor is a deep, dark blue and it’s equipped with various devices and weapons. Her ship is also quite big, she has a space cat and some drones. (space cat is Pepi, but with 6 legs and 2 antennae) In casual activities she also wears a skin tight body suit.

-She’s very hard to catch since she’s flexible enough to bend over backwards which is good for some experiments 👀

-She was determined to find out if humans existed, so when she found you, such an excuisite specimen, she just had to ask you to come with her.

-Sleeps a lot but not as much as Asra

-Also doesn’t understand clothing lol

-She’s so curious! She loves getting to know everything about you and your species! ‘How do you reproduce? We use test tubes.’

-Oh and she’s touchy too, both because she requires heat and because she’s interested in your body

-She just can’t help it, humans like yourself are so interesting

-Has sparkles in her hair for some reason

-She’s always got such a nice scent, kinda like fresh wool (if you’ve ever sniffed a cat you know what i mean)

-Likes experimenting a lot, she’s very curious ;)

Muriel

-He has scales on some spots of his body, like the neck, the legs, the ears and his hands. He has a scaled tail and eyes with slit pupils. He has six eyes. He also has two antennae on his head and he can create see-through dragon like wings on his back, powered by his energy. His armor is a dark green, with holes in it’s back for his wings. He travels around space to find different animal species, and befriend some, if he can. His vocal cords are different, it allows him to speak to animals. That doesn’t mean he cannot speak to you. His ship is not that big but not very small either, he’s gained a lot of pets in the time he’s been travelling, so he’s not alone on the ship. He usually wears a turtleneck sweater and a pair of pants when he’s in his ship.

-He’s not fond of fighting so he’s only brought a few weapons on his ship, to protect himself if needed.

-Most likely met you when trying to befriend your pet

-Was super shocked and embarassed, apologizing for trying to take your pet, he didn’t know it was yours

-Sometimes, when it’s dark, he glows. It only happens when the moon(s) is out though.

-Sleeps in a hammock at all times

-Would probably nuzzle you a lot

-He’s very strong (obviously) but loves hugs nontheless

-Sometimes goes flying with some pets and you

-His ship also contains a lot of plant life

-Is embarassed to say it, but tries to ask you to come with him, you’re nice company.

Lucio

-He’s got longer hair and fangs, his ears are pointed and he has 4 arms, two of which being insect like arms. He has an abdomen with a stinger on his lower back. (like an insect abdomen with a stinger) His armor is white with gold, and equipped with various swords and plasma guns. His ship is large, and filled with drones. He goes through space exploring and following orders from his superior. He has the ability to make items bigger or smaller. He usually wears a white blouse and dark yellow pants. He also has some dark markings on his skin.

-When does this bitch not try to destroy other planets

-He wants to but his superior won’t allow him

-The only reason he wants to is bc someone on that planet insulted him

-Would most likely meet you when you went to investigate the loud cursing coming from the forest -this dumbass crashlanded his ship.

-Immediately, he likes you

-Would abduct you with no shame

-Someone please teach this man manners

-Would tease you a lot

-His 🍆 has some ribs and bumps along the sides

-Knows not how to be subtle

-If he’s horny, you can immediately tell.

#the arcana #the arcana headcanons #aliens #the arcana asra #the arcana nadia #the arcana julian #the arcana muriel #the arcana portia #the arcana lucio #julian devorak #nadia the arcana #asrathearcana #muriel #lucio #portia devorak

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Colorado Snowstorm Knocks Out Power to Thousands and Snarls Travel (NYT) A snowstorm sweeping through Colorado and Wyoming on Sunday was expected to bring as much as four feet of snow to some parts of the region, and has left nearly 30,000 people without power in Colorado. The storm brought heavy, wet snow and downed trees and power lines. More than 20,000 customers near Greeley, Colo., about 50 miles north of Denver, were without power on Sunday, according to Xcel Energy. More than 2,500 people around Fort Collins, about 1,500 near Loveland and about 3,000 people in the Denver suburbs were also without power. A blizzard warning was in effect on Sunday for Colorado’s Front Range, an area that includes the Interstate 25 corridor from south of Denver up through Cheyenne, Wyo. The National Weather Service warned that an additional two to six inches of snow and wind gusts as high as 45 miles per hour could create “nearly impossible travel conditions.”

Florida’s pandemic response gets a second look from the national media (Axios) After a solid year of living with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats have been quietly pondering in the Sunshine State: Was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pandemic response right for Florida? More than 32,000 Floridians have died, but our death rate is no worse than the national average—and better than some states with tighter restrictions. On Sunday’s front page, the New York Times explored the positives—from the booming real-estate market to Florida’s low unemployment rate—of an early reopening: “Much of the state has a boomtown feel,” writes Patricia Mazzei, “a sense of making up for months of lost time.” The Times notes that Florida’s unemployment rate is 5.1%, compared to 9.3% in California, 8.7% in New York and 6.9% in Texas. “That debate about reopening schools? It came and went months ago. Children have been in classrooms since the fall.” The closer you are to either loss or to the fullness of life will likely determine how you feel about the state’s response.

Quaking in their beds, sleepless Icelanders await volcanic eruption (Reuters) Icelanders are yearning for some undisturbed shut-eye after tremors from tens of thousands of earthquakes have rattled their sleep for weeks in what scientists call an unprecedented seismic event, which might well end in a spectacular volcanic eruption. “At the moment we’re feeling it constantly. It’s like you’re walking over a fragile suspension bridge,” Rannveig Gudmundsdottir, a lifelong resident in the town of Grindavik, told Reuters. Grindavik lies in the southern part of the Reykjanes Peninsula, a volcanic and seismic hot spot, where more than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred since Feb. 24. Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, Iceland frequently experiences earthquakes as the plates slowly drift in opposite directions at a pace of around 2 centimetres each year. “Everyone here is so tired,” Gudmundsdottir, a 5th grade school teacher, said. “When I go to bed at night, all I think about is: Am I going to get any sleep tonight?” Authorities in Iceland warned of an imminent volcanic eruption on the peninsula in early March, but said they did not expect it to disturb international air traffic or damage critical infrastructure nearby.

Vigil To Reclaim The Streets From Vigilance (CNN) Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared on March 3 while walking home from a friend’s home in London’s southern neighborhood of Clapham. Her body was found inside a builder’s bag in a wooded area. A 48-year-old police officer has been charged with kidnapping and killing her. On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Clapham Common to pay tribute to Everard despite planned nationwide vigils having been canceled due to pandemic restrictions. As darkness fell, police officers began grabbing women in the crowd and making arrests. Videos posted on social media showed officers violently dragging some female protesters away and throwing others to the ground and handcuffing them. Women’s rights activists in the UK are reeling from the Metropolitan Police’s heavy-handed approach. There’s also been political fallout, with a member of Parliament reading out the names of 118 women murdered last year. In a new poll, over 70% of UK women said they had been sexually harassed in public spaces. The figure rose to 97% among women aged 18-24. 45% said they didn’t believe reporting the incidents to officials would change anything.

Dutch police break up thousands of anti-lockdown protesters (The Hill) Police in the Netherlands dispersed thousands of anti-lockdown protesters outside the Hague on Sunday, one day before national elections begin in the country. Reuters reports that police used batons and water cannons to disperse the crowd who authorities said were ignoring social distancing rules as well as warnings from authorities. Many of those gathered in the crowd held up yellow umbrellas and signs in opposition that read “Love, freedom, stop dictatorship,” according to Reuters. The country has been under an intense lockdown since January, Reuters notes, with gatherings of more than two people banned and the first night-time curfew issued since World War II. When the lockdown was extended, it sparked several days of rioting across the country. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Netherlands has confirmed over 1.1 million coronavirus cases and more than 16,000 related deaths.

Spain to launch trial of four-day working week (The Guardian) Spain could become one of the first countries in the world to trial the four-day working week after the government agreed to launch a modest pilot project for companies interested in the idea. Earlier this year, the small leftwing Spanish party Más País announced that the government had accepted its proposal to test out the idea. From New Zealand to Germany, the idea has been steadily gaining ground globally. Hailed by its proponents as a means to increase productivity, improve the mental health of workers and fight climate change, the proposal has taken on new significance as the pandemic sharpens issues around wellbeing, burnout and work-life balance. Leftwing parties in Spain—where a 44-day strike in Barcelona in 1919 resulted in the country becoming one of the first in western Europe to adopt the eight-hour workday—have seized on the idea. “Spain is one of the countries where workers put in more hours than the European average. But we’re not among the most productive countries,” said Iñigo Errejón of Más País. “I maintain that working more hours does not mean working better.”

Major European nations suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine (AP) A cascading number of European countries—including Germany, France, Italy and Spain—suspended use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday over reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame. AstraZeneca’s formula is one of three vaccines in use on the continent. But the escalating concern is another setback for the European Union’s vaccination drive, which has been plagued by shortages and other hurdles. The EU’s drug regulatory agency called a meeting for Thursday to review experts’ findings on the AstraZeneca shot and decide whether action needs to be taken.

Myanmar junta orders martial law in 6 Yangon townships (AP) Myanmar’s ruling junta has declared martial law in six townships in the country’s largest city, as security forces killed dozens of protesters over the weekend in an increasingly lethal crackdown on resistance to last month’s military coup. At least 38 people were killed Sunday and dozens were injured in one of the deadliest days of the crackdown on anti-coup protesters, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, an independent group tracking the toll of the violence. Several estimates from other sources gave higher figures.

Flights canceled during China’s worst sandstorm in a decade (AP) China’s capital and a wide swath of the country’s north were enveloped Monday in the worst sandstorm in a decade, forcing the cancelation of hundreds of flights. Skyscrapers in the center of Beijing appeared to drop from sight amid the dust and sand. Traffic was snarled and more than 400 flights out of the capital’s two main airports were canceled amid high winds and low visibility. The National Meteorological Center said Monday’s storm had developed in the Gobi Desert in the Inner Mongolia Region, where schools had been advised to close and bus service added to reduce residents’ exposure to the harsh conditions. The National Meteorological Center forecasted the sand and dust would affect 12 provinces and regions from Xinjiang in the far northwest to Heilongjiang in the northeast and the eastern coastal port city of Tianjin.

Taiwan’s boom (NYT) Taiwan, home to 24 million people, has seen fewer than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 and just 10 coronavirus-related deaths. Prior to 2020, lots of Taiwanese and dual nationals moved abroad and only came back for a visit. After the pandemic hit, Taiwan closed its borders to almost all foreign visitors. Protocols put in place include temperature checks, hand-sanitizing, mask-wearing (except in schools), rigorous contact tracing, and strict quarantines for incoming travelers. Taiwanese nationals returned, and about 270,000 more stayed than left. As a result, the island is experiencing a real economic boom. Exports have been rising for eight months, fueled by shipments of electronics and surging demand for semiconductor chips. Domestic tourism is exploding. The economy grew more than 5% in the fourth quarter compared with the same time period in 2019. And every day restaurants, bars, aFor Law Enforcementnd cafes are packed, office buildings hum, and schools are filled with laughing, unmasked children. “We just feel very lucky and definitely a little guilty,” said a product manager for a Bay Area tech company who returned to Taipei with his wife and young son last May. “We feel like we are the ones who benefited from the pandemic.”

United States and Iran warily circle each other over reactivating nuclear deal (Washington Post) The United States is willing to sit down with Iran “tomorrow” and jointly agree to full compliance with the nuclear accord they and five other world powers signed in 2015, according to a senior Biden administration official. Iran has made equally clear it shares the goal of going back to the terms of the original agreement, before President Donald Trump pulled out of it. But nearly two months into Biden’s presidency, with Iran’s own contentious presidential election approaching in June, the two sides have been unable even to talk to each other about what both say they want. Iran wants all Trump sanctions lifted and an immediate influx of cash from the release of blocked international loans and frozen funds, along with foreign investment and removal of bans on oil sales. It seeks assurances that the next U.S. administration won’t jettison the deal again. For its part, the Biden administration wants a reactivated deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, to serve as a “platform” to renegotiate its sunset provisions—the future dates when certain provisions are set to expire. It wants to move quickly to discussions about its other problems with Iran, including Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its use of proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and beyond, and human rights abuses. Both sides continue to wait for the other to prove its good faith with “you, first” rhetoric.

‘Republic of Queues’: 10 years on, Syria is a hungry nation (AP) The lines stretch for miles outside gas stations in Syrian cities, with an average wait of five hours to fill up a tank. At bakeries, people push and shove during long, chaotic waits for their turn to collect the quota of two bread packs a day per family. On the streets in the capital of Damascus, beggars accost motorists and passers-by, pleading for food or money. Medicines, baby milk and diapers can hardly be found. As Syria marks the 10th anniversary Monday of the start of its uprising-turned-civil war, President Bashar Assad may still be in power, propped up by Russia and Iran. But millions of people are being pushed deeper into poverty, and a majority of households can hardly scrape together enough to secure their next meal. “Life here is a portrait of everyday humiliation and suffering,” said one woman in Damascus. Her husband lost his job at an electronics store last month, and now the family is drawing on meager savings that are evaporating fast. With two kids and an elderly father to care for, she said life had become unbearably difficult and she is gripped by anxiety for the future. Until recently, she could smuggle in her father’s medicines from Lebanon, but now Lebanon has its own meltdown and shortages.

#headlines #news

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alphaternal · 4 years

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* INTEGRATED BEHAVIORAL RAPTOR INTELLIGENCE STUDY (IBRIS).

On April 4th, 2012, Simon Masrani gives Doctor Henry Wu full authorization to create a new species after the board of his company requested a new Jurassic World attraction to satisfy investors, resulting in the creation of the Indominus Rex. Earlier within that very same year, Dr. Wu recreated hybrid dromaeosauridae, specifically combining genes from birds, reptiles, the achillobator and its close relative the velociraptor, both of which share a place among the raptor family. The Integrated Behavioral Raptor Intelligence Study was created under the pretense that “velociraptors” would become a main attraction of Jurassic World. Owen Grady was hired as chief researcher and animal handler for the project. IBRIS was conducted by INGEN’s Security Division. The program was privately conducted by INGEN, and is a completely separate entity from Jurassic World.

The fact that the Indominus Rex and the IBRIS Project were founded within the same year is not a coincidence. Under the command of Vic Hoskins, INGEN’s Security Division had evolved from a small security detail into a powerful paramilitary organization in partnerships with Aerospace Dynamix, Mascom Network, and the United Nation’s Security Council; utilizing five satellites for a GPS navigation system known as ‘Centaurus’ developed and launched by Mascom, it is one of the most formidable security companies in the world.

A retired Recon Marine, Vic Hoskins saw an opportunity in weaponizing the predators of Jurassic World. Unknown to Simon Masrani, he cut a deal with Dr. Henry Wu to develop a deadly hybrid super-weapon under the pretense of creating a new attraction for Masrani’s theme park. Vic greenlighted the IBRIS Project in order to test the theory that raptors were able to be trained and controlled for military field operations.

When Owen was hired, the circumstances were complicated, and he had not been informed of what his role in this new job even was until he was shipped off to Isla Nublar. While Owen had no idea of the Indominus Rex’s existence, he had developed an inseparable bond with the raptors and quickly discovered that Hoskins had ulterior motives for the IBRIS Project. Owen actively fought to delay and stop these plans. Because his expertise was invaluable, and he was already making considerable progress with his research, they could not replace him. He was the key to the project’s success.

The IBRIS Project had not started smoothly. Since its conception in 2012, there have been a number of raptor subjects created for IBRIS using DNA from raptors taken from Isla Sorna. An incident with Subject V2, a hyper-aggressive raptor, resulted in their termination via euthanasia (the autopsy revealed that the aggression was likely due to the raptor’s sex changing to male through their pogona DNA). The mortality rate of cloned raptors were high, as they were extremely fragile as newborns. In 2013, upon realizing that training the raptors would be incredibly complex, Owen had recruited a French zoologist and long-time friend, Barry Sembène. They began working together to develop strategies and techniques to care for the raptors.

By 2015, there was a pack of raptors consisting of Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo, all trained to follow over 40 different commands.

In a typical hierarchy among pack animals, the alpha is not designated as the "strongest, most violent aggressor commanding the pack". This is a gross misconception based on flawed, outdated research with random subjugated wolves in enclosed spaces (zoos). In free wolves, alphas (often coming in pairs) are parental figures with the necessary skill set to protect and sustain the group dynamic. “Betas” are typically the alphas’ oldest children. An authentic wolf pack is a family. Evolution is about progeny, not power, or strength, or dominance.

When Owen confirms he is the raptor pack’s alpha to Zach Mitchell, he is literally admitting that he is their surrogate parent. In turn, the IBRIS raptors recognize Owen as their caregiver and “matriarch”.

Owen was present at each one of their births, and had them imprint on him; this was essential to the process of training them. He cycled through several training methods, derived from his experience training Belgian Malinois, bottlenose dolphins, sea lions, and other marine animals. These training methods included Clicker training, Target & Transference training, and Hand-rearing. As an animal behaviorist, it was not difficult to learn from the raptors and accommodate their unique needs. Owen began hand-rearing them before they could even walk, rarely leaving their side. He fed them by hand. As the raptors began growing large enough to socialize, Owen would eat pieces of raw meat as he was feeding it to the raptors, in order to establish himself as the pack’s alpha. He was often required to exude dominant behavior, body language and posturing, which compelled the raptors to behave submissively and recognize his role as leader of the pack.

The raptors’ dynamics and hierarchy are not very different from typical pack-hunting predators, but they were born in captivity; their behaviors adapted to their environment and training... and the fact that they had imprinted on a human.

Owen was the only handler allowed to work directly with the raptors. No other staff member was allowed to hand-feed them. Because he is essentially their surrogate parent, Owen spent twelve hours a day with the raptors in order to maintain this bond. For this reason, he has a mobile office-home in the facility where they built the spacious Raptor Research Arena. He had four alarm clocks, and slept five hours a day, every day, except on weekends where he was required days off.

The raptors are measured between 6 to 7 feet tall and twelve feet long; their average weight estimated between 150 and 200 pounds. Their intelligence was equivalent to lower primates and socially intelligent canines: specifically, wolves. To create the unique raptors for IBRIS, Dr. Henry Wu created a custom hybrid genetic code for each clone. The four raptors were born separately. Blue was born in 2012, as the oldest member of the raptor pack, surviving the initial trials of the IBRIS project. Delta was the second eldest raptor, born in 2013. Later in that same year, Echo was born as the second youngest raptor in the pack. Charlie was the youngest, born on the first month of 2014. The average raptor was “lethal” at 3 months old due to their accelerated growth rate; it only takes them one year to grow into their fully adult bodies.

[Owen Grady’s expertise as an animal handler is canonically inspired by Military Dolphin Handlers. I personally added that he was a Navy SEAL Military Working Dog Handler training Belgian Malinois before MK9, which are the primary canines used in military field operations and bomb detection for DEVGRU. Intelligent, protective, and with an excessive prey-drive, these dogs were known as the “Furry Raptors” of domesticated canines for their extremely high energy, almost to the point of neurotic. His ability to train raptors and become their proverbial alpha can be paralleling the famous ex-military animal behaviorist Werner Freund, a former paratrooper and career soldier whom dedicated his life to rearing and raising wolves in his own wolf sanctuary in Merzig, Germany. Freund would raise them from a very young age, and acted as their pack leader.]

#HC.#JURASSIC WORLD.#long post

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kuno-chan · 5 years

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Sides of the Moon - Ch.22, Persistance

Summary: Runaan and his team of assassins discovers that Rayla has defied him. Again. But when they find her, she’s bleeding out in the woods with precious cargo under her arm and face to face with the princes of Katolis running away from their own castle. They find that, upon this meeting, the die has already been cast.

Rating: T

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Callum could no longer leave without someone accompanying him. Someone who wasn’t just Rayla.

Runaan didn’t want Callum out of their sight. They didn’t have time for another near-death experience with the human prince, as it was so elegantly put. Callum felt a little bad about it; the trouble it caused, anyway, but it was worth it. Callisto seemed to be much better within the past day than he had since his injury.

He didn’t mind Andromeda and Callisto as company. Out of everyone, they were the easiest to get along with.

“Do we need any more than this?” he asked, looking in their bag. Herna had been kind enough to give them a little money to buy supplies.

“We don’t want to make our packs too heavy. We need to stay light on our feet. This is enough.” Callisto said.

“Besides, we can’t keep stealing,” Andromeda said. “It will bring too much attention to us. Especially when we need to leave quietly.”

Callum could agree with that. They passed the town square, a neat cobblestone plaza powdered with snow. They peered at a newly formed crowd, with the ruckus growing louder as Callum ventured closer. He knew he creeped too close when he felt Callisto’s firm grip on his shoulder.

“Look. Listen,” he said to Callum.

“... vile creatures from Xadia! They are here! They are here to invade your homes and take what is yours. And there’s a group of them. Right here. In this very town!” The spindly man’s face was good-natured in a way that Callum realized wasn’t his natural disposition. “ Who do you think killed the poor old man who lives in the mountain? We have to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our children! ”

Concern did not look good on Morgan when you knew what he was actually like. He’d dressed himself perfectly: a drab set of clothes that were neither too fancy nor too old. His hair was tousled just right. An everyday man. A concerned citizen of the town. His eyes were lit with kindness that Callum knew was fake even from here, but Callum had also seen Morgan in his real skin. Something closer to a monster than a human.

“We must hunt them down!” He raised his fist, his voice stirring with some emotion not becoming of him. “ We must make sure no one will ever again fall prey to these monsters in our town. Who’s with me?”

The crowd agreed.They bellowed their opinions and reached out to him, shaking his hand and giving him room to step down into the crowd. They helped him down.

They supported him.

A few good words, rousing the hearts of people who probably were less like Lady Eveline and more like people who would be angry on her behalf. People who did not know the pain Lady Eveline suffered from. Most people would never see an elf and, yet, they agreed to wipe them from existence. Or, at least from their little town.

He wondered if elves felt the same.

“We need to go,” he heard Andromeda hiss and felt Callisto pull him away from the crowd. Away from the square. Away from the anger that Morgan had so easily aroused in them. Callum still spied him from a distance. Morgan hadn’t seen them.

He walked like an average, concerned citizen. His hair was perfect. And if Callum had not seen the beast underneath, he might have believed him, too.

If only a little.

-:-:-:-

Andromeda gave them the news as soon as they got back, and everyone started packing in haste. Thankfully, there was not much. They gave their supplies priority over everything else, and they made quick work of getting their things together.

“Not a trace,” as Runaan ordered.

They would leave quickly and quietly, not saying anything to the innkeeper.

But it seemed like they didn’t have to.

Herna came into the room as Callisto, Skor and Ram were packing a small bag.

“Here,” she said urgently. “It’s not much, but it will last you from here to the east.”

They just stared at her. Callum would intervene if they pulled out any weapons, he decided, but they just watched her. She didn’t pay them any mind. “I don’t know exactly how far it is, but hopefully this will last you. If anybody comes asking about the lot of you, I will tell them you left and headed to the towns in the south. Make haste and you’ll have time before anyone is the wiser.”

Callisto and Ram exchanged looks.

Skor asked, “What are you doing?”

Herna didn’t pause in helping them pack the food. She didn’t speak for a moment. Skor continued to stare.

She took a deep breath. “It isn’t safe here for you anymore.”

Callisto frowned. “How did you know?”

“I’m a human, but I’m also old. I know when something doesn’t feel the same,” she said, smiling. “Your accents aren’t the easiest to hide, I presume.”

Quietly, Callisto took the bread she handed him and nodded. “Your kindness will always be appreciated.”

Herna smiled as they left the room, their packs on their backs. Runaan was at the door, watching, but said nothing. Skor stopped beside Herna and put a hand on her shoulder. “Be safe.”

Herna placed her hand over his. “And you. If we never meet again, I hope you find your peace. And your justice. Now, go.”

Skor squeezed her shoulder and left. Callum didn’t move right away, watching Herna for a moment.

“Callum.” He twisted to Runaan’s voice. “We’re leaving.”

Callum spared Herna a glance, then followed Runaan.

-:-:-:-

The streets were teeming with humans gossiping and searching for the elves invading their town right under their very noses. They weren’t as lethal as a trained group of assassins. Not on their own.

But Runaan wasn’t foolish enough to take the chance. He also wasn’t rash enough to think they could take on an entire town of humans, lethal or not.

He was more on edge about Anarr and Morgan than he liked. But Rayla had been too close to being on the other end of Anarr’s blade. Unnecessarily. It should not have happened.

Callum came to mind.

He was distinctly aware of the human prince trailing with Rayla near the back of their party.

It made him uneasy.

-:-:-:-

Callum tried not to look around too much. The first time he did, Rayla scolded him.

“We don’t know if Morgan and Anarr are watching us. We know Morgan was here, but we don’t know if he’s seen us,” she said. “Let’s not make it so obvious we’re trying to leave.”

… I can’t believe it was so easy.”

“For us?”

“No, for him. All he did was change his appearance, and attitude. He acted like he cared. And they believed him.”

“He’s done it before, probably,” she said, then paused. “What’s bothering you?”

Callum hunched his shoulders. “It’s just that... Lord Viren used to be someone I trusted. And everything’s different now.”

A frown tugged on her lips. “I’m sorry.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “I am, too.”

When her hand brushed against him, he returned the gesture.

Nobody noticed them leaving. With their packs full and new coats on, they trudged over a hill hardened with snow. Callum glanced back at it, but returned his attention toward their path. The rest of the team was farther up the slope than he and Rayla.

Rayla continued to watch the town.

He stopped for her. “You coming?” She didn’t answer him. “Rayla.”

“Wait,” she hushed him. “Do you hear that?”

He listened to whatever she was hearing. Nothing--

Wait.

The faintest high-pitched screams. He looked back at the town and saw a plume of smoke rising into the air. His heart dropped.

“Oh no,” she looked back at him.

“Do you think…?”

“It’s Morgan and Anarr. I know it’s them. It has to be them. Something’s wrong.”

Callum’s stomach clenched. “You don’t know that. Maybe something else happened. Rayla, you don’t need to--”

“Go ahead of me. I’ll catch up with you.”

“You can’t go by yourself. What if it is them? We just faced them yesterday, and they almost killed us. At least let me go with you.”

Rayla shook her head and unsheathed her swords. “We don’t have time and I can’t just leave while they’re wreaking havoc because of us. The egg is dying. Tell Runaan and the others I’ll catch up with you. I promise I’ll be careful. I just want to get their attention and then lose them. They’re looking for us, after all, now go--”

“Rayla.”

She didn’t stop to let him finish, turning back and running down the hill at a speed he knew he couldn’t match. Even so, he nearly went after her. After all, she would have done the same for him. She already had.

He would do that and more, but one thing he learned from their predicament yesterday was to stop doing things alone.

Callum ran up the hill, towards the group, his lungs burning by the time he reached them.

“Wait!” He panted, holding his chest. When they turned, Runaan was already searching for wherever Rayla had gone. He saw the plume of smoke. “It’s Morgan and Anarr. They’re attacking the town--”

Runaan sped past him, down the hill.

“I’m going with him.”

Callisto grabbed his shoulder. “No. This is between them. Our job is to get you two and the egg out of the human lands. We keep moving. They’ll catch up.”

Ezran shook his head. “We can’t just leave. They’re attacking the town. They’re hurting people...”

“And more people will get hurt if they see that Rayla went down to save a town of humans.” Callisto squeezed Callum’s shoulder. “They’ll be alright. Runaan will bring her back.”

Callum looked at the town again. His chest constricted as he turned back to their trail.

Ezran frowned, but did the same when Andromeda held out a hand to him. Bait turned green with nervousness. Callum agreed.

-:-:-:-

Rayla raced into town.

Screaming. Running. Scrambling.

People threatened to knock her over as she waded into the fray. She heard the beasts before she saw them and prayed nobody had touched them.

One of those blood monsters missed her at a crossroads as it crashed into a shop. A family ran out and Rayla watched as the creature fled and found another establishment to crash into.

It moved around the people in its way and chose a tavern to destroy.

She realized it wasn’t hurting anybody. The blood beast was just breaking things and causing a general panic.

Was it searching for something?

People were quickly vacating this part of town where the beast was rampant and Rayla knew before she even heard her voice.

“You took my invitation.”

Rayla twisted on her heel and tightened her grip on her swords.

“You can’t do this to a town of people, Anarr.”

Anarr didn’t smile this time. “I can. I will. And, for the record, Runaan will be a bit too busy to save you this time.”

“Leave him alone. It’s me you want, right?’

Anarr snorted. “Don’t worry, my sun and stars, I won’t kill him. I can’t. This entire thing is naught if I do that.”

Rayla shook her head this time. “Don’t you ever give up?”

This time, Anarr smiled. She hadn’t drawn her weapon or moved. The surrounding roads were vacant now, but the distant screaming and chaos echoed in the distance. “I was his best, you know. Runaan’s, I mean. I was his second. You know that, of course. Our relationship wasn’t like yours, but I think once upon a time he might have thought of me as a sister. No, Runaan’s relationship with you is much deeper. If he happens to get past my blood beasts on his own--” Rayla’s heart dropped into her stomach. “He might take my head on sight. For you, naturally, my sun and stars. Always for you.”

“And why do you always call me that?”

Anarr’s green eyes were piercing. “Because you are. Not mine, of course. Runaan’s. You are his sun and stars. The only living reminder he has of your parents. The only child he’ll likely ever raise with Ethari.”

Rayla said nothing. She didn’t know what to say.

Her blades twisted in her hands. Her side hurt.

“You look better. But if we fight now,” Anarr said. “You will lose. And you know it. Runaan would go home and never be the same.”

“You would let him live?”

“For a time. I want him to live with Ethari’s grief for a while before I deal with him.”

“... Runaan never meant to hurt you.”

Anarr lowered into a stance. “I don’t care.”

She was lightning as their blades clashed and sparked in the bitter cold.

-:-:-:-

The blood creatures attacked him all at once.

Thankfully, Runaan knew exactly what he was running into when he went after Rayla. He saw her, but lost her in the people running to and fro. Then, Anarr’s creatures descended on him.

He dodged and moved. They were vicious, but not unpredictable. The size of their “bodies” forced them to make fast, sweeping movements that required some anticipation before their attacks.

He’d managed to slice one of them similar to the way Callum had back on the icy lake. Now, there were two.

Two that weren’t exactly taking turns going after him. He used the corners to evade them at first, using their size against them as they swung around the corner.

He had a feeling they were here just for him. Rayla’s trap was obvious, but she’d gone anyway. For these humans. For people who would just as soon execute her.

Perhaps Ethari was right.

She’d proven herself. He trusted Rayla, but a part of him didn’t. That part of him came from a deeper place he tried to put aside during missions.

But he would be damned if he let Anarr kill her just to get to him.

Runaan climbed the roofs and watched as those things searched for him. So, they couldn’t sense him. He left them to their destruction.

-:-:-:-

Rayla couldn’t keep this up. She was tiring too fast and her side was getting agitated.

Anarr didn’t have to try as hard, but she was definitely aggressive. She shoved Rayla into a wall and the only thing that saved her from a blade to the head was to push Anarr away. They were still in the street, with the snow crunching under their feet.

Their blades clashed; their hearts pounded. Anarr was calculated and wild at the same time. Her swings were personal, her intentions fueled by fire.

Anarr played the long game, and she played it wildly.

“You were really going to jump, weren’t you?” Anarr asked, panting. They circled each other. “With that human? You trust him that much?”

“With my life.”

“A mistake. Mark my words, Rayla. One day, he will break your heart.”

Rayla rolled her eyes. “Right. I’ll be sure to take your advice.”

They met again in the middle, their swords sparking. This time, Rayla buckled, and Anarr punched her in the face.

“You’re mine.”

“Anarr.”

Runaan was already aiming at her. Rayla knew before she even looked up.

Anarr turned and smiled. “Go ahead. Shoot me. You can try, anyway. I’d love for you to miss and hit poor Rayla.”

Runaan kept the arrow on her, but he didn’t dare release it. Not when Anarr could just move and Rayla might just get an arrow in the chest.

“Runaan, I love how you just keep walking into my messes. But I suppose you have no choice if your protégé here keeps running into them.”

“Stop talking as if you’re not getting tired. I know having three of those things is too much for you.”

“Does it matter?”

“What’s the point of all this? You make traps and don’t come through with them when I know you can. You’ve had every chance. You never used to enjoy playing with your food before you ate it.”

“That was before. This is now.”

“I know what I did, but you hanging onto the past is your own fault.”

She growled. “What do you know? You’ve been living with the love of your life! You married him! You raised her with him. But you definitely made certain that I paid for my mistake.”

“Rayla has nothing to do with this.”

“She will have everything to do with this when I make you clean up her blood!”

Rayla lunged at her. “You talk too much!”

The two of them wrestled on the ground and Rayla picked up one of her swords, swiping at Anarr. She could see Runaan coming to her out of the corner of her eye, but Anarr kicked Rayla off and right into Runaan.

“You know what I think, my sun and stars?” Anarr panted, raising something in her hand. “I think I’ll leave you to deal with these humans.”

Humans.

With the blood beasts gone, people were starting to come back to the streets.

And Rayla’s amulet was in Anarr’s hand.

Rayla touched her neck, her chest. Gone. She looked up and Anarr was already leaving, disappearing as the humans began to shout.

“It’s an elf!”

“They must both be elves!”

“They brought those evil things here!”

Rayla shook her head. “No, it’s not like that! Another elf was trying to hurt you and--”

Runaan grabbed her and ran down an alleyway. He didn’t listen to her protests as they went through twists and turns, the humans right behind them. They found a ladder, and he urged her up, watching as the humans went looking for them.

“Runaan, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t leave them like that.”

“You were reckless. You would have died.”

“I had it under control.”

“You walked right into a trap, and what’s worse is that you knew you did. You are not these humans’ hero. They have no love for you.”

“I know that. But they just don’t understand. Runaan, Anarr was destroying their town.” Rayla put her swords away as they stood. “I’m not trying to be their hero, but--”

He cut her off. “They are a mob. And you cannot reason with a mob. Nothing you said would have made a difference. Anarr did her job. Now, every human town from here on out will be looking for us. Any group of obvious strangers will become immediately suspicious.”

Rayla paused. She… hadn’t thought of that.

Of course, she hadn’t.

She rubbed her arm and said nothing. There was nothing to say and sorry wouldn’t fix how she made their mission more difficult, yet again.

There was a silence between them. Runaan let it linger.

Finally, he stood up and walked to the edge of the rooftop.

“Let’s go. We need to leave.”

She followed with nothing left to say.

Whew! Sorry this chapter took so long! I'm sick and in the last weeks of this quarter for school on top of the Rayllum zine and other obligations to projects! You'll want to keep an ear out for the Rayllum zine on Twitter and Tumblr! It'll have some stuff pertaining to this fic! And if you're a fan, trust me on this, you'll want to tune in on the info!

But enough of that tease, I know this is shorter and another transition, but the next arc is going to be a big deal so I wanted to ease us into it. As always, I love the reviews you guys leave. They truly keep me motivated and keep me writing. Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!

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#the dragon prince #tdp #rayllum #rayla #callum #my fics

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