#gathered USEFUL medical data on those same people they thought of as less than human?? youre telling me you think THAT set of circumstances

[timeisacephalopod]

So after finishing the behind the bastards episodes of Mengele I have learned I was right Nazis were Very Bad at medical science and we didn't learn pretty much dick shit all, and next time someone tells me Nazis taught us a TON about modern medical science I'm going to start quizzing them on what they know about scientific methodologies and if they think any given Nazi could have met the most basic requirements of performing research. And if the answer is anything other than no, I know to dismiss their opinions on anything to do with that.

[kiwi--bot]

Patterns

Rating: T Words: 2,872 Warnings: Blood, Injuries, Al-An doesn’t understand emotions very well. Summary: Al-An prefers when things fall into an easily recognizable pattern. It’s how data forms, it’s easier to work with, and less surprises make it easier to remain efficient. Robin is a rogue bit of code in the set sequence.

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Indeed, it had been quite some time since Al-An was allowed to exist in any dimensions outside of their temporary isolation. And truly, Robin had done well in the fabrication of an Architect form that would suit their needs to relocate the pair off the planet, and return to their home with the remedy for the Kharaa Bacterium; for the Architects of their home world.

Unfortunately, following the reconstruction of their new form, Al-An is hit with the immediate problem that their supposed mode of transportation has... degraded over time; and they are quite lacking really on the resources department. Countless amounts of bits and bobs, here and there, that simply corroded over the years, or just did not operate further. And every small tick of a list of issues added up to an inoperable phase gate. Yet Robin-- ever so helpful Robin-- offers to help collect whatever Al-an could need to repair their ship.

“Always together, even if you’re not stuck upstairs anymore,” She had joked, tapping the side of her head in an emphasized way. How Al-An could only think of how true that statement was...

And so, life on 4546B settled into somewhat of a steady, even pace for Robin and Al-An.

Robin relocates her primary base to the facility where Al-An prepares for convenience’s sake. She wakes up late in the morning, and Al-An’s learned to get a cup of coffee steaming hot and settled at her nightstand at precisely 13:29. This in turn helps her wake up and become functional no later than 13:50-14:00, depending on how late she was up the previous night.

Following that, Al-An fabricates a nutritious meal of her choosing, and it’s set onto a table-- or, a section of the facility that’s been repurposed into a table-- and she eats before she heads out for the day to find the resources needed. (And always, Al-An makes sure that there’s a fabricated meal packed away in a thermally-controlled container for her to take along.) And like clockwork, Robin is back at 22:22 with her Seatruck stuffed to the brim with all the supplies she could find.

And usually Al-An has to check her for injuries or parasites and she just grins when they comment on how inefficient her resource-gathering is if she must hurt herself every single time. “Awww, you just like to fret over me, Al-An,” she coos as they utilize their on-hand medical devices to knit up skin from a rather nasty bite.

“I do not fret, I observe,” Al-An states plainly, and Robin rolls her eyes, only wincing a little when Al-an has to wipe over another puncture with that strange antiseptic gel, and the skin closes under the heat of that magic little tool that Robin has yet to scan. “And I know that humans are one of the most fragile things that get in more trouble compared to any living creature I have yet to meet.”

“I’m gonna talk that as a compliment, Al-An.” Robin flexes out her wrist once the wound is all sealed up, the only reminder a faint scar left in the wake. She flashes a grin at the Architect, who would promptly turn back to what they had been working on prior before they needed to patch her up.

At 27:00 or 28:00, Al-An ceases working for a short period-- one Robin requested so that they don’t overwork themselves. Of course, an Architect cannot really do such a thing as ‘overwork,’ but Al-An humors her. And Robin’s meal is fabricated and settled on the table no later than 28:50. She used to always request Al-An eat dinner with her-- and although they do not eat like she does, they sit nonetheless at her side.

And Robin will scroll through her PDA and read the day’s logs once again, chewing hear and there and really making an inefficient use of her time as she often does. But humans like to be that way-- leisurely, as Robin once corrected them-- and so Al-An will not question it again.

She always leans back against the stone of the her temporary seat, shrugging and shuffling and making a good amount of noise that could startle even the most focused Architect from their endeavors. Over time, she would unconsciously lay against Al-An’s side, and that often settled her, so they would not comment.

If they had to admit something, the pressure therapy from her body weight was a welcome one, given they did not have the proper tools to recreate such things.

Robin turns into bed anywhere from 1:00-3:00; it will depend on what areas she visited, and what the day’s events involved. And she will bid Al-An goodnight with a smile and pat on their arm, before she retreats to her bed. Although, she doesn’t really go anywhere, because her ‘room’ is just a small section of the facility adjacent to where Al-An primarily works.

She’s fabricated herself a bed, some storage, and even hung up some curtains to block out the steady glow of the facility. It’s a small little space that reminds Al-An of how Architects would furnish the habitats of subjects they used for research.

Peculiar.

And this is how their pattern would fall into, resetting each day at 13:29 with the first coffee of the day. Al-An finds the repeating pattern of each day, as Robin would put it.... soothing. Did Architects even need to be soothed? Historically?

No. And yet Al-An could not help but find this... calm, inside the promise of the known. Perhaps it was a way for them to deal with the fact that they might not know what would await them on the other side of the phase gate, where they would have to face their people, and answer for their mistakes. Perhaps that reason is why they can now find solace and even comfort in something as simple as a daily pattern.

How the other Architects would be baffled at the thought. The very notion of it was so unlike them all. Al-An would have to blame Robin for this, at the very least.

Merging with her cerebral cortex must have changed something in their emotional status....

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And with the promise of a steady pattern, Al-An could find each day predictable enough to not impede any portion of their work. They worked quickly to repair what needed repairs, to adjust what needed adjusting, to alter what needed altering.

Steady. Steady. Steady. Repeat.

The illusion of this pattern gets shattered when 22:42 arrives one evening, and Robin is not yet home. Al-An, logistically, should be business as normal. She could have gone farther, she could have had a small set-back, she could have gotten distracted. But when 23:22 arrives, and Robin is still not home, Al-An finds they cannot work.

The data rolls in front of their vision as normal, the facility is operating at 100%, and they have spent the better part of this week weaving data in such a way that it is second-nature. But their hands do not move, their gaze is transfixed on the door, and the progress of their work is stunted.

She should be back by now. She should have been back exactly 60 minutes ago.

Al-An cannot work. They shut off their normal programs and instead set up a long-range scan. It puts them off schedule immensely, but they, for once, cannot find it in them to care about inefficiency. It takes 20 minutes for the scan to prepare, and the entire time, Al-An keeps their gaze on the door. Like Robin will burst in any second, with a couple new wounds, yes, but here, and alive.

Robin does not enter the door by the time the scan is online at 23:42.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:43.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:44.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:45.

Robin is not home as the scanner searches at 23:46.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:47.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:48.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:49.

Robin must not be safe as the scanner finds her at 23:50.

Al-An must prepare for the worst, even as they wish to leave as soon as the scanner reads her biosignature in the Arctic. No good in retrieving her if they do not have food, medical supplies, warmer clothing, an extra hair tie-- she always complained when her current one would break-- and anything else humans needed when they were potentially in distress--

No.

Robin is not in distress. The very thought has the Architect frozen to the spot, a flicker of something so unfamiliar buzzing through them. She is fine, just delayed. Off-schedule, off-pattern. No matter, Al-An will locate her and then they will both repair that.

They finish collecting everything needed into a neat pack, and just as they prepare to put the facility into lockdown, there’s a familiar faint splashing, and then footsteps padding across a stone floor.

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It is 24:17 when Robin Ayou enters the Architect facility she calls home with her arm crudely wrapped in a sling and her leg leaving a trail of blood. But nonetheless, she’s got the same grin on her face, and carries something sharp in her uninjured hand. She’s limping.

“Al-An!” She calls, her voice loud and full of excitement. She’s stumbling over her own feet, and Al-An blinks to her side to catch her with the beam of their mechanical arm, lifting her right off the ground. She doesn’t notice how their posture is tight and tense, instead waving the sharp object in her hand. “Al-An I did it! I fought off one of those Shadow Leviathans and I freaking won!”

Al-An does not reply.

“It tried to eat me, Al-An!” Robin’s arm waves wildly in her excitement, and she doesn’t protest when Al-An brings her to the empty table to seat her, once again getting to work on mending what is broken. Her injured arm has several gashes in it: some down to the bone, and covered messily with plant matter. Al-An removes those and starts on sterilization.

“It yanked me by the arm, but I was quick-- I stabbed him right in the eye, and I held on, because he was pulling me towards his mouth!” She grins wider, adrenaline masking any pain from the antiseptics, or how the beam begins to knit the skin and muscle back to one piece. “I lost my grip on my knife, but I grabbed his spine-- or whatever those glowing things on his belly are-- and I held on and kicked him right in the stomach!”

Al-An silently redirects attention to her leg, where acidic liquid had eaten through her suit and burned the skin-- not too horribly, but bloody. That is treated next.

“And then I must of hurt him bad, because he let me go, but not before I yanked and yanked on those spine things-- And look! I got it, I ripped one clean off!” She’s talking quickly, her body thrumming at the thrilling tale, and feeling so alive. “I felt bad at first, but then I remembered that he tried to eat me, so I shrugged it off, and he backed off after I ripped off this. I won, Al-An! Against a freaking Shadow Leviathan!”

Robin laughs, slapping her now healed hand against her forehead and grinning wildly. “God, I thought for sure I was a goner when I didn’t take the prawn suit down--”

“And why didn’t you, Robin?”

They are both startled by the tone of Al-An’s voice. And Robin finally realizes that Al-An is stiff, mechanical in how they treat her-- so different from the almost caring way they usually do. And they are glowing a sickly yellow color, their gaze transfixed on her wounds as the mechanical arm fixes up the burns on her leg.

“I-I.....” Robin is at a loss, her eyes now locked onto them. “I.... don’t know.”

An uncomfortable silence falls between them. Al-An finishes up work on her leg, and then does a general scan over her to make sure they didn’t miss any other wounds. Processing, methodical, even.

Something is wrong, Robin thinks. Even now, as they seem to pull away from the situation, the same sickly color tinges the edge of her vision. Robin catches their arm as they turn to assess her findings, and she doesn’t miss how they tense.

“Al-An....” She begins, but stops. She can’t find the right thing to say. It all feels wrong. Like anything she says next won’t be the right thing to say. But she tries with, “Are you okay?”

“That is hardly a question you should ask me, Robin.” Al-An’s voice has gone back to the same, even tone as when they first met, but it’s all off. Too even, too tight. Like there is something beneath the surface, just hiding and waiting to strike like an Ice Worm. “You should ask yourself that. You were the one who was injured. Sustaining traumatic injuries is detrimental to the overall health of--”

“Did I scare you?” She asks, and Al-An falters.

“Fear is not a concept we feel,” They state, and yet they now feel the sinking familiarity of it nonetheless. Fear. They were afraid, they had been afraid when Robin was not home at the right time. They were scared when Robin returned injured. They were scared when she recounted her harrowing tale, and they were scared that she’s going to do it again and they would not be there to pick up the pieces--

“Al-An...” Robin’s voice cuts through the swirling data inside their head, and her eyes are soft as she reaches and touches their chest gently. She feels.... awful. Physically and emotionally. How could she not realize that they were upset? How could she have been so blind when she’s normally so in tune with the Architect? “Al-An, I’m really sorry.”

“You have done nothing that warrants an apology,” Al-An states; but their lights flicker pink for the briefest moment. “You were simply acting inefficiently and radically in a way that could have resulted in several versions of a potential death, which is not uncommon for your species.”

Robin smiles. That unintentional insult was 100% all Al-An. She shifts closer to them, and then her arms wrap around them, and she leans her head against their chest, and she imagines she can hear their heartbeat through their thick, armored body. “I know, I was being an idiot. I’m sorry.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m hugging you, Al-An. Never had a hug before?”

“Architects do not partake in this sort of behavior,” Al-an tells her. But, nonetheless, they mimic her movements, and their organic arms encircle her smaller frame, and having her close to them like so reminds them just of how tiny and delicate she is. “....Touching one another was not commonplace.”

“Then I’m gonna make it commonplace, and I’m gonna give you a hug everyday until I catch up on the hugs you’ve missed out on your whole life,” Robin hums as she closes her eyes, yawning.

“That would be impossible, given the length of your human lifespan,” Al-An corrects her, but they find the idea of one of these each day not entirely unpleasant. Robin laughs, and she just smiles. And their lights shift to a light pink as she falls asleep against them, and they return her to her bed: asleep too early for the schedule.

But it was alright to be a little off-pattern.

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And so, life on 4546B settled into somewhat of a general routine for Robin and Al-An.

Al-An has her coffee ready at 13:29 and she drinks it as she wakes up and rolls out of bed by 14:00. Al-An fabricates breakfast, packs her a lunch, and she’s out the door for the day’s work. And if she returns at 21:57 or 23:37, Al-An is not worried. After all, she’s returning with less injuries, and that is good enough for them.

Together they sit when Robin has her dinner and Al-An has their break around 28:42, and Robin reads aloud her PDA entries to Al-An-- even though they could easily scan and upload the documents themself, it makes her feel happy, so they indulge. And Robin leans back against Al-An without hesitation once she’s done eating, and they find the pressure nice.

And when 1:00 or 2:00 rolls around, just before she turns in for bed, Robin will throw her arms around Al-An for their daily hug, and she will hold on tight for a good few minutes, and Al-An learns to hold her in return. Perhaps if they held long enough, tight enough, she would never be in danger again.

And they find that perhaps, maybe... they like hugs.

And Robin fashions the Leviathan fragment into a necklace, that she gifts Al-An.

And Al-An wears it everyday.

[96thdayofrage]

The Fake “Delta Variant” and the Fourth Wave: Another Lockdown? Upcoming Financial Crash? Worldwide Economic and Social Sabotage?

Is a new worldwide lockdown envisaged as a means to combating the “dangerous” Covid variant entitled “Delta”?

The fear campaign has once more gone into high gear.

Let me briefly review the history of this crisis.

There is a sequence of outright lies and fabrications used to justify far-reaching policy decisions in the course of the last 18 months.

The biggest lie, which is firmly acknowledged both by scientific opinion and the WHO is that the RT-PCR test used to “detect” the spread of the virus (as well as the variants) is not only flawed but TOTALLY INVALID. (Michel Chossudovsky, Chapter III)

From the outset in January 2020, all far-reaching policy decisions upheld and presented to the public as a “means to saving lives” were based on  flawed and invalid RT-PCR case positives coupled with false mortality data pertaining to Covid-19 related deaths: “The underlying Cause of death” is Covid-19 “more often or not”. No autopsy required

These Covid “estimates” were used to justify confinement, social distancing, the face mask, the prohibition of social gatherings, cultural and sports events, the closure of economic activity.

The crisis was marked by several important phases:

1. Crisis in Air Travel and International Transport

The calling of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by the WHO Director General on January 30, 2020 was instrumental in launching the coronal crisis. There were 83 positive cases outside China out of a population of 6.4 billion. There was no emergency:  Ironically, the flawed and invalid RT-PCR test was used to estimate those 83 positive cases.

On the following day president Trump’s ordered the closing down of air travel with China which marked the onset of a crisis in International Air Travel and Transport which has extended its grip over a period of 18 months leading to the bankruptcy of airline companies Worldwide, the destruction of the tourist industry, a major crisis in commodity trade, etc.  This was a deliberate act to précipitate the demise of Air Travel Worldwide. There were 5 positive cases in the US, which were used to justify Trump’s decision on  January 31st, 2020.

2. The  February Financial Crash on February 20, 2020

It was the most serious financial crisis in World history, far surpassing that of 1929. It occurred immediately following “warnings” by the WHO that a covid-19 pandemic was imminent, thereby spearheading the fear campaign. There was  ample evidence of outright “conflict of interest” and fraud including foreknowledge, inside information, etc. which resulted in a massive concentration of money wealth by a handful of billionaires. That same day, millions of people Worldwide lost their lifelong savings. What was the justification for the WHO’s shock and awe statements. This imminent threat was based on 1078 (flawed) RT-PCR Covid positive cases outside China.

3. Barely three weeks later, the March 11, 2020 lockdown with 44,279 cases Worldwide outside China were used to justify home confinement, social distancing and the closure of economic activity Worldwide leading to poverty and mass unemployment.

And then in early November 2020 it was the launching of the MRNA “Killer Vaccine” which has resulted in a trend of mortality and morbidity. See the latest figures below.

EU/EEA/Switzerland to 28 August 2021 – 23,252 Covid-19 injection related deaths and 2,166,285 injuries, per EudraVigilance Database.

UK to 18 August 2021 – 1,609 Covid-19 injection related deaths and 1,165,636 injuries, per MHRA Yellow Card Scheme.

USA to 20 August 2021 – 13,627 Covid-19 injection related deathsand 2,932,001 injuries, per VAERS database.

TOTAL for EU/UK/USA – 38,488 Covid-19 injection related deaths and 6,263,922 injuries reported as at 30 August 2021.

Nota Bene: It is important to be aware that the official figures above (reported to the health authorities) are but a small percentage of the actual figures. Furthermore, people continue to die (and suffer injury) from the injections with every day which passes. See D4CE Statement

And now, starting in May-June 2021, we have the Delta Variant. It’s the new talking point.

The alleged dangers of the Delta Variant are being used to speed up the vaccination program as well as the imposition of the vaccine passport.

“A Fourth Wave” has already been announced.

Is a second Worlwide lockdown on the drawing board, requiring stay at home confinement, social distancing and the closure of economic activity coupled with another devastating financial crash similar to that which occurred on Black Thursday March 12, 2020?

The Deadly Variants Sustained by Media Disinformation and Fake Science

Media disinformation is a deadly weapon which sustains 24/7 the illusion of a dangerous SARS-2 Delta Variant.

First identified last year in India, The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant was  “thought to have driven the deadly second wave of infections this summer in India”. According to so-called “scientific opinion” it is now said to be spreading worldwide, to some 80 countries.

“Here’s the deal: The Delta variant is more contagious, it’s deadlier, and it’s spreading quickly around the world – leaving young, unvaccinated people more vulnerable than ever.”

That’s a lie.  The original virus categorized by the WHO and the CDC as “similar to seasonal influenza” is not a killer virus. Moreover, virus variants are always “less vigilant” and “less dangerous” than the original virus.

Joe Biden’s proposed “solution” is  “the Killer Vaccine”, which has already in the course of the last seven months resulted in countless deaths and injuries.

“Please, get vaccinated if you haven’t already. Let’s head off this strain before it’s too late.” (emphasis added)

Health authorities are now claiming that the new cases of the Delta B1.617 variant, increase the risk of hospitalization by 2.7 times.

What is the “science” behind these assertions.

Ferguson’s Infamous Lockdown “Mathematical Model”

Ferguson’s March 2020 mathematical model based on “predictions” of 600,000 deaths in the UK borders on ridicule. It’s more than a lie. It’s a crime against humanity. It was used by the financial establishment as a justification to trigger economic and social chaos Worldwide. Ferguson’s endeavors have been generously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The economic and social devastation of the March 2020 so-called lockdown is beyond description: 190 member states of the United Nations accepted to “close down” their national economy coupled with the face mask, social distancing and the derogation of fundamental human rights.

The stated intent was to protect people against V the Virus. The March 11 lockdown was followed by the Black Thursday “financial crash” (March 12, 2020), which created havoc on stock markets Worldwide. The March 11, 2020 lockdown was heralded as a means to containing the alleged “pandemic”. Nonsense.

“Mathematical Model” in Support of a “Fourth Wave”

And now a second authoritative “mathematical model” is being put forth to “justify” another lockdown.

The same “scientist” (Ferguson) has been called upon to design a new “mathematical model” which is being used to justify a “Fourth Wave Lockdown”.

The erroneous “assumption” behind the modelling exercise is that the Delta Variant is “deadly”.

“New modelling for the government’s SAGE committee of experts [to which Ferguson belongs] has highlighted the risk of a “substantial third wave” of infections and hospitalisations, ….” The official outlook is “now more pessimistic”.  (BBC Report, June 2021, emphasis added).

According to Prof Neil Ferguson:

“the Delta variant of coronavirus is 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previously dominant variant”. (quoted by the Guardian).

Where does Ferguson get his data and estimates? The flawed and invalid RT-PCR test?

What he fails to mention is that virus variants are always “less vigilant” and “less dangerous” in comparison to the original virus. And how does he establish the “identity” of the original virus?

Both British and UK officials are intimating the possibility of a Fourth Wave lockdown, tentatively scheduled for next Autumn.

According to Britain’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty (member of the SAGE Committee)

“The NHS needs to brace itself for another difficult winter ahead, with the possibility of a further “very significant Covid surge”.

According to the SPI-M modelling sub-group of the government’s SAGE panel (to which Whitty and Ferguson belong):

“restrictions would have to be reintroduced”. … the Delta variant posed a “higher risk of hospitalisations”

These announcements are frivolous. Their intent is to justify drastic policy measures (lockdown, mask, social distancing, closure of economic activity, disruption of health services) as well as the speeding up of the vaccination programme and the repression of the protest movement.

Moreover, the statements by British, US and EU health officials regarding the so-called spread of “the more infectious Delta variant” are now also being used to justify the implementation of  “Fourth Wave” lockdown policies internationally in a large number of countries.

The World Economic Forum to the Rescue

The World Economic Forum (WEF) which represents the financial elites, played a key role in the launching of the March 11, 2020 lockdown. And now what they are saying is that another devastating Worldwide economic and social crisis is likely to occur in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In recent developments, the World Economic Forum (WEF) which co-sponsored Event 201, the table top simulation of the corona pandemic together with John Hopkins and the Gates Foundation in October 2019, is now involved in another strategic exercise entitled Concept 2021. The latter is described as an “international capacity building initiative aimed at raising the global cyber resilience”.  It is not a table top simulation comparable to Event 201.

Last year it was conducted at the height of the lockdown via video conferencing. This year the 2021 Conference “discussed the “key risks of digitalisation”.

Those participating in the Cyber Polygon Exercise (2020) included high tech companies including IBM, numerous banks and financial institutions, internet companies, cyber security agencies, corporate and government media, think tanks, law enforcement agencies including Interpol with representatives from 48 countries. The exercise is an obvious means to secure reliable partners and develop strategic alliances. In this regard, there were numerous representatives from Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, including major Russian banking interests, communications and media companies. All in all 42 partners. No corporate /governmental partner from China.

There was also a training program with 200 teams from 48 countries.

Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Director of the WEF and architect of the “Great Reset” describes the crisis scenario as follows:

“The frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack could bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole. The COVID-19 crisis would be seen in this respect as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyberattack.” (emphasis added)

Jeremy Jurgens, WEF Managing Director:

“I believe that there will be another crisis. It will be more significant. It will be faster than what we’ve seen with COVID. The impact will be greater, and as a result the economic and social implications will be even more significant.” (emphasis added)

The implications of these bold “predictions” which represent the interests of the financial establishment are far-reaching.

What they describe is a scenario of economic and social chaos involving the disruption of communications systems, the internet, financial and money transactions (including SWIFT), the power grid, global transportation, commodity trade, etc., as well as likely “geopolitical dislocations”.

The opening session (July 2021) of Cyber Polygon 2021 was conducted (video below) by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin together with the Director General of the WEF Klaus Schwab.

Is this scenario a dress rehearsal for a forthcoming cyber crisis?

Why was China excluded from the Cyber Polygon Exercise? The major partners were from the former Soviet block.

Is the Covid Agenda Part of  A U.S. Hegemonic Project?

Is the covid crisis engineered by the financial establishment part of a hegemonic project, pertaining to control over strategic sectors of the global economy as described by the WEF director general Klaus Schwab?

It’s an act of economic warfare?

It’s “imperialism with a human face”, committed to “saving lives”.

Visibly, it is part of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda. It has geopolitical and strategic implications.

US intelligence and the Pentagon (including DARPA) as well as NATO are directly or indirectly involved in the corona crisis. Cyber Warfare is already on the drawing-board.

The March 11, 2020 Lockdown leading to closure of national economies Worldwide has also been instrumental in   destabilizing several countries which are categorized as “Enemies of America”.

No need for Washington to impose piecemeal sanctions on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. These countries have endorsed the covid narrative. They have accepted the “ultimate sanction”, namely the closure of their national economy as a means to combating “V the virus”.

The situation in Cuba is particularly dramatic. Resulting from the March 2020 lockdown, Cuba’s tourist industry which constitutes the country’s main source of foreign exchange is destroyed. Since the 1980s, the forex revenues from tourism have been used to import food. And now as a result of the closure of the tourist industry, Cuba is experiencing serious food shortages.

Yet the Cuban government has accepted the “Big Lie” and has endorsed the lockdown which is literally destroying the achievements of the Cuban Revolution.

And unfortunately progressive intellectuals are totally blind. They are not only supportive of the Covid narrative, they fail to understand how the Covid lockdown policies as well as the deadly mRNA vaccine are being used to destabilize and destroy countries one after the other. These countries are now fully controlled by Western creditors and the billionaire foundations.

Engineered economic and social chaos. Is that not part of a US hegemonic project?

[aliceslantern]

Retribution, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 1

Newly a person again, Ienzo is weighed down by guilt and his humanity. He's prepared to do whatever it takes to atone... only to find unexpected solace in a familiar face. With more insight into the bonds between people than ever before, Ienzo reaches for a dangerous element from the past to help Kairi and Riku in their search for Sora. What is his life if it means saving another, brighter light?

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

---

Kairi woke up slowly. “Anything?” she asked, before her eyes had even focused.

Ienzo sighed. “I’m afraid not.” He began detaching her from the monitors.

Her own sigh was heavy, derelict. She sat up, rolling her shoulders, stretching. They woke her every five days--to be unconscious for so long was inhumane, good neither for her body or mind. Not good for them either, to work so constantly, but Ienzo cared less about this.

“It isn’t easy, to trace a heart,” he added. “We’re all working as hard as we can--but it’s beyond nebulous, beyond, even, theory.”

“I know,” she said. She smoothed her short hair. “I just… I thought I would feel him. I… don’t.” She forced a smile.

“I sincerely wish I had better news,” he said. More than a little harrowing, to see her moroseness.

“I know you’re doing your best,” she said. She stood, a bit shakily. She nodded once. “I’m going to go clean up. Take care of yourself, okay?”

Ienzo watched her leave, feeling a bit dazed. He set down his tablet, smoothed the chair where she slept. His eyes ached.

“...You woke her on your own?” Even asked. He’d gone out for some books. “I’d hoped to check her vitals.”

“She’s stable. Like she always is. I was trained in first aid, you know.”

Even rolled his eyes. “Did she ask again?”

“She always does.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure how much longer we can reasonably pursue this. There--continues to be nothing. ” A thin, needy pain bloomed between his eyes; he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“...You look like you should be the one sleeping.”

“You’re likely right. There were some things I’d hoped to check on. I’d best do so before--”

Even frowned. “Her break in sleep functions as a break for us, too. You need rest to do good work.”

“Pot calling the kettle black,” he remarked. “When was the last time you slept, Even?”

He scowled. “Go on, then, boy.”

Ienzo did feel more than a little shaky. Human physicality was so brutal, so constantly needy, all the time; his body felt very nearly alien. He made his way back towards his own bedroom. The ache in his head wasn’t getting any better.

“Freed you at last, huh, Zo?”

He almost groaned. It was much harder to squirrel himself away now, that was for sure. “...I see your day is done early as well.” This was certainly a variable he had not planned for, living here once more.

Demyx shrugged. “No more deliveries. I could just sit there, but why?”

After Xehanort’s death, the other boy had nowhere to go and nothing to do; evidently he’d found some satisfaction out of bringing Ienzo the vessels, as he now worked for Scrooge McDuck as a courier. It kept him mostly out of Ienzo’s hair, which was good. Convincing him to become human again had been… exhausting, but at least now there was assuredly no more bits of Xehanort. “...I see.” Small talk had never been his forte, and given his tiredness was the last thing he wanted to subject himself to.

Demyx stared at him. “All good over there?”

His interest in Ienzo’s work was disorienting. “The usual, I suppose.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “That sucks.”

Ienzo shrugged. He was right, which was the irritating thing.

“I guess she’s up and about, then? I should say hey.”

“If you like. She might like some company.”

Demyx didn’t notice the sarcasm; or else didn’t comment on it. “Awesome. See you around, Zo.”

Ienzo just shook his head. “Zo” was a vast improvement over “Zexy”, but he still did not care for Demyx’s nicknames. It had taken the boy long enough to stop calling him Zexion.

(If he were being honest, he still made the same mistake, especially writing his own reports--his fingers would hover over that Z key for longer than they should.)

He went into his bedroom. It wasn’t a large space, not helped by the clutter--books, more for research than for enjoyment, were piled around his desk. He should at the very least take the ones he no longer needed back to the library, but the library was still such a disaster. Relics of his childhood were here and there; the tapestry of constellations, storybooks gathering dust on the overpacked cherry bookshelf, a few moldering stuffed animals sitting in a box. He had no idea what to do with these things. All he knew was that looking at them made him feel vaguely ill. He shed his labcoat, loosened the ascot at his throat. He perched on the mattress and ran his fingers over the stitching of the old quilt, trying to orient himself, to prepare himself for the labor of sleep. Ienzo could feel how badly he needed it, much more acutely than he ever did as Zexion. But his mind was spinning--with disappointment, with the sickness of looking at his old things, with memories that wanted to come, with these heavy feelings.

Perhaps a bath might help? A bath and a trashy novel?

It was still… odd, to see himself in mirrors. Generally he tried to avoid it, but it was not always possible. He shuddered a little as his fingers brushed the scar around his throat. Most unbecoming. Religious application of scar cream didn’t improve things, but at least the color was no longer such a vivid violet.

He settled into the warm water. On a physiological level it was soothing, but the second he started to relax the thoughts invaded--wasn’t this so self-indulgent? He should be downstairs, right now, analyzing the data they’d gathered from this week of Kairi’s sleep. At the very least logging things, drafting a report. Reconnecting with Ansem and the others, to see what they’d found.

His breath, in the tiled space, seemed loud.

Dealing with them should not be difficult. But all he could think when he saw them was they told me you’d gone mad. He grimaced. This wasn’t helping. Maybe some chamomile?

(A stiff drink? Or a sedative?)

He bathed, because he was already here. His skin was weirdly raw, oddly sensitive to everything. It had been when he was a child, but he figured he’d have outgrown such issues. It felt like everything was scraping along his nerves. He put on a soft sweater, slacks (his body would not physically allow him to wear denim. It was extremely irritating). Tried to fix his hair, which continued to grow directly into his eyes despite best efforts. He’d considered cutting it, letting it all go, but likely that would be a shock to himself as well.

Would eating help? He was feeling dizzy. Blood sugar, maybe? Hard to tell. Just tell me what you want , he thought, towards his body. Enough of this vague aching.  

He heated some soup Aeleus had made, forced it all down. Nope, that didn’t help. Was he legitimately ill? He could ask Even, who was indeed a medical doctor as well as a researcher, but frankly he’d rather just deal with it on his own.

“Hello, Ienzo.”

He jumped a little, despite himself. “Oh… hello, Master.”

“I noticed Kairi was awake.”

“...We were rapidly getting nowhere. I figured no reason to keep her asleep if we were getting nothing done. She had expressed interest in doing some visiting. She should. It’s summer, and she’s sixteen. Might as well enjoy it.” He was rambling.

“Why shouldn’t you?”

Ienzo scoffed. “More pressing things on my plate than socializing. ” He could hardly stand talking to Demyx, much less anyone else.

“These breaks are for us, too.”

“...Even said the same thing.”

Ienzo did get some pleasure from the spark of anger that entered his eyes at the name. “You should at the very least get some sunlight. When was the last time you left this castle?”

He thought about it. “We did need groceries a few days ago.”

“Other than that.”

Ienzo was drawing a blank. He bristled a little. “What of you?”

Ansem chuckled. “...Quite. I believe we’ve all been… engrossed.”

“I wish I felt like I were getting somewhere. Seeing the disappointment in her eyes every time she wakes up… is taxing.” He shook his head. “I’m trying to help, to be of use, but we…” Ienzo trailed off uselessly.

“Might I sit with you?”

“...If you like.”

Ansem joined him at the small oak table. It was still so odd, to talk to him after such a long period of separation. That Ansem forgave him was staggering. “How are you faring?”

“...A loaded question.”

He smiled. “I do hope you don’t forget you’re also a young person.”

“Oh, I never was.” He shrugged. “Old soul. So I’ve been told.”

“...You deserve to enjoy your life too.”

Ienzo snorted.

“Why is it you react this way?”

“After all the suffering I’ve wrought?” He raised an eyebrow. “The least I can do is try to help Sora, and the committee.”

“No need for you to also suffer.”

He laughed a little. “I’m not suffering.”

Ansem gave him a look that suggested he was full of it. “You struggle, Ienzo. I can just tell.”

He pursed his lips. “You needn’t concern yourself with me. I’m sure you have other things to worry about.”

“I’m not allowed to worry about you?”

“Well you needn’t waste your energy.”

Ansem blinked. “I’m aware we’ve… lost time we’ll never get back,” he said slowly. “But I do wish to repair our relationship, such as it is.”

More baffling yet. “Why?”

“Why?” He repeated. “Ienzo, you’re my son.”

“I was .”

“...A bond that only ended through no machinations of your own.” He reached over to take Ienzo’s hand; he flinched, the touch unexpected and unanticipated.

“How can you even bear to look at me?”

“You asked for none of this.”

Ienzo could feel something rising within him, heat building behind his already aching eyes. He regretted eating; it felt as though it may come up. “Didn’t I? I asked to do those experiments--”

“--Because Xehanort manipulated you into thinking it was your idea.” Ansem’s rust-colored eyes bore into his. “Because you were a child and wanted to please those around you.”

“What about everything that happened after?” The blood was hot in his face, the toxic slurry of emotion making him nauseous. “When I was older? When I should have known better?”

“You grew up with no heart. No conscience, no bonds with others. How were you to--”

“My actions killed people.” He stood up. “I am no innocent victim, Master. Who do you think was the Organization’s tactician?”

Ansem seemed to not know what to say.

“All those puzzles you taught me to love. Do you think I wouldn’t use that? People were pieces to me. Pawns. How am I any better than Xehanort?” He took a breath; the air was hot. “I need to take my leave.”

“Ienzo--”

He was already moving. He felt it coming at him like a wave, sticky, itchy and impossible to reckon with. Guilt like rivers, like oceans, making his heart race and his palms sweat. He couldn’t be of use if he fell apart. He couldn’t fall apart. Couldn’t. Get it together. He repeated it, almost like a mantra. Get it together.

“...Zo?”

Ienzo almost swore out loud. The last person he wanted to see. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“You look--”

Ienzo narrowed his eyes, daring him to say something.

“...Tired,” Demyx settled on.

“Yes, I am very tired,” he said. “I should like to get some rest. If it’s all the same.”

“I mean, sure, but…” He bit his lip. “Is there… anything I can do? For you?”

His eyebrows shot up.

“You just seem kinda overwhelmed and I--”

“Thank you, Demyx, but I do not need your help.” He scowled.

“Oh… okay.” Demyx bit his lip. “Well… get some sleep.” He tried to inject some cheer into his voice, but it fell flat.

"...I shall certainly try." His headache was only worsening. He limped back towards his bedroom and lay down, pulling the covers around himself. He tried to breathe, slowly, evenly, to lower his heart rate. It wasn't quite dark, but he needed to at the very least try to sleep, despite guilt, despite everything.

Ienzo counted his breath. He told himself stories, recalling novels from memory. Finally, finally… he drifted into an uncertain sleep.

There was a reason Ienzo avoided rest.

The memories, even in unconsciousness, constantly invaded. Tonight's choice? His very own death, the sensation of the replica's glove closing around his windpipe, darkness holding Zexion firm, unable to slink away or fight. Sharpness cutting into his throat, feeling draining out of his body--

Ienzo jolted up, breathing hard. The panic was familiar at this point, but no less painful. He tried to push through it, counting all the items in the room, but his hand had snapped up to his scar.

It's no less than what I deserve.

He was feeling nauseous now. He sat up slowly, checked the alarm clock at his bedside--he'd only managed a few hours, but now it was dark out. There was heat in his eyes.

Cry if you must, and get it over with.

Ienzo rocked slowly, in an attempt to self-soothe. He felt the dampness on his face, humiliation breaking over him in a wave. It was like purging; emptying the tears from his body. At least, he tried to think of it that way.

Eyes raw,  he lay back down, hoping that was enough, but it wasn't. It was clear he would get no peace tonight. He exhaled heavily, got up, put his lab coat back on, and headed back downstairs.

At least, if it were this late, he wouldn’t have to deal with anyone other than himself. He sat in front of that computer screen for a long time, trying to put the pieces together.

[wordsturnintostories]

show me your rosettes, baby (g)

summary: The world tour is over and the Bangtan Boys finally get their well-deserved break. When Namjoon suddenly can’t find Jimin anywhere, things take an unexpected and pretty unbelievable turn. “Kim Namjoon!” “Hyung. How common is it for people to turn into cats?” word count: 11.7k note: sorry for not updating this baby in sooo long. i struggled with this chapter for three months and would have never gotten to this final version without @justanemptydream’s help. you saved me. thank you, love. anyway, last time i thought the chapter was long but now we’ve got an 11.7k monstrosity. let me know if you enjoyed reading it. toodles  ✨

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]

The room is stunningly quiet apart from Jimin’s sleepy hiccups, the soft buzzing of the fish tank and the beeps that signal that the call is not yet connected. Unsure about what to expect, Sihyuk and Namjoon hold eye contact. Then, suddenly, a woman’s voice appears on the other side of the phone.

“Welcome, Bang Sihyuk, Kim Namjoon. I am your automated call agent today. We apologize for not being personally available to take your call at the moment. To continue, please choose an option from the menu. Press 1 to access all gathered data about Park Jimin, press 3 to-“

They both look at each other.

“What the hell.”

A bird caws outside the window. The fish in the tank swim in wobbly circles. Jimin sniffles and fails to lick his side. The silence - okay, it’s more of a shock-state, but the silence seems electric, like any word will change the current and any action will push them to a point of no return.

Namjoon starts a short body-mind check, feels his brain reboot. There are not many updates; he’s still sitting in the same chair in Bang Sihyuk’s office, Jimin is still wriggling around on his lap and they are still on the phone with the weird robot lady whose number they got from a magic business card. But his heart is pounding like it wasn’t before, and his eyes and mouth hang open wide. Actual shivers flow over his skin, matching the light reflexes from the tank, and Namjoon has a weird premonition that he will break something today. The silence is almost damp with shock, and probably only rings in his ears, like he’s a hero in an action movie who’s lost his sense of hearing after the explosion of the century.

Now, Namjoon knows a lot of things other people don’t know. He knows how to make music, great music according to ARMY and the charts, and he knows how to lead a group (although most of the time, he feels like he’s not actually doing anything, thanks to his hyungs). He knows how to survive a 40-event concert tour and he knows how to dislocate a shoulder without trying to. It’s the things Namjoon doesn’t know that scare him.

He doesn’t know how anyone could have possibly found out about Jimin’s condition - he’s been extra careful the past days, restraining himself from posting cat photos on their twitter and only letting Jimin out into their private backyard to avoid prying eyes. The only people he’s told about Jimin are Min Yoongi and Bang Sihyuk. Not even the other band members know about the leopard cub roaming their apartment and gnawing on their cushions. And yet, some company or organization has found out. 

Namjoon doesn’t know what to think - on the one hand, it could be very good. It could mean that the other company has no intention of blackmailing them. It could mean that there is interest in the topic but no pressure. On the other hand, this could be bad, very bad. To know that someone else is out there, with unclear motivations (because seriously, they could still blackmail BigHit for this), with an unknown amount of information - it could mean anything. Namjoon knows as well as any other person working for BigHit how fragile success is - no matter the foundation of work underneath. BigHit and BTS have worked years - long years that cost them their all - to rise up as far as they have today and the whole business is based completely on popularity, on opinions. Opinions can change quickly, especially in the music industry. One wrong move and your career is over. Namjoon knows all this. What he doesn’t know is whether Jimin will shift back, become human again (the doubt still lingers despite what Jackson says), whether BTS will be able to go on normally, whether their next shows will happen, whether Jimin will be okay. Because if he isn’t, BTS isn’t, and if BTS isn’t, BigHit isn’t either. That’s how it works. Namjoon knows that. And that’s why he looks up to Sihyuk for help.

Namjoon is sure that Sihyuk knows all these things too, that he’s thinking about them right this moment while Namjoon has to remember to breathe properly and both ways, in and out, to stuff back his rising anxiety (just like his therapist told him, in and out, in and out). Sihyuk stays pretty quiet for a long moment, looking back at Namjoon but not really looking at him directly, more like… through him like he’s not focused at all. Then, he shakes his head and himself out of his trance and grabs his phone. Another thing Namjoon knows (by heart) is this new look on Sihyuk’s face as he looks for the contact and dials. It’s the I’m-concerned-for-my-kids look that he’s been sporting less and less nowadays but that had been a constant companion during their first couple of years. 

The voice on the phone reels Namjoon back in from his observations, enough to catch the relieved “Good morning, Mrs. Kang”. It’s enough to let Namjoon know that the situation is very serious but hasn’t quite reached catastrophic levels yet. Mrs. Kang is their lawyer, not their emergency response unit. Mrs. Kang clears things up, does law research and manages their contract details. She’s not responsible for decisions concerning anything related to music or marketing or member conditions, so Namjoon manages to find some hope in the thought that all these things are not endangered. PDnim will take care of any new legal issues. We’ll be fine. 

Before he reroutes his full attention back to the words filtering through his phone, Namjoon takes a second to feel himself in the room - he thinks back to his therapist talking to him about unsettling situations and anxiety. Just ground yourself in the sounds and in the feeling of your body in the room - against the chair, against the floor, wherever you are. Feel the air around you and breathe in and out. What is near you? Feel it. Focus on that rather than the anxiety inside. Namjoon breathes in and for a second, he wishes he had Jungkook’s sense of smell because the office scent in his own nose is rather weak. He does smell Sihyuk’s perfume and the lingering residue of his own cologne on the soft collar of his coat. He feels the chair’s armrests that enclose his hips and the way his shoes line up perfectly with the floor. And most importantly, he feels Jimin pawing at his ankles in an eager attempt to be scooped up and cuddled, probably. It forces a pleasant smile on Namjoon’s face that he welcomes - as if the little leopard cub has managed to shush his anxiety completely. Rightfully so, Namjoon thinks as he grabs Jimin’s tiny body, legs and arms flailing around cutely in the air, tail curling around Namjoon’s wrist. Jimin’s eyes are wide and blue and just like a little plushie’s - big enough to stand out from the rest of his body proportions and big enough to lower your defenses to attack you with cuteness. Namjoon sets his dongsaeng down on his lap before picking up the call again only to realize that he hadn’t even responded last time - so now, the robot voice is tirelessly repeating the same menu choices as before.

“-mation we have gathered about Park Jimin, press 3 to apply for a regular membership or a VIP membership, press 5 to request medical or legal support, press 7 to be connected to our Shifter and Hybrid Needs network or press 9 for other issues.”

When his mind registers the options presented to him, Namjoon doesn’t know what to think. In all honesty, those options sound nothing like his paranoia had suggested to him before - it sounds like normal customer service and that bothers Namjoon because this is a magical number that Jackson had given him… right? To be honest, Namjoon doesn’t know what a phone call with a magical number should sound like, if there’s any sample he could go by - is there any K-drama he could watch that is even halfway accurate with these magical things? Maybe he should text Jackson later.

“H-Hi,” he cringes at how shaky his own voice sounds, “w-who am I talking to?”

“Forgive my manners, Namjoon-ssi. I am your automated call agent today. Our office staff is currently not available to take your call-“

It’s so strange. Namjoon has never encountered any automated call agent that responds to his voice, or rather, his words. Normally, those things present the options menu, wait for the number he presses, and react accordingly. He’s slightly confused by how this call goes right now and Jimin whines when the big fingers in the fur on his back still. Namjoon goes back to gently stroking the cub’s fur and frowns. What if this is not a normal machine?

“Are-are you an AI? Or are you a new kind of technology somehow?”

“I am an AMI, Namjoon-ssi, designed specifically to accommodate our many clients’ needs individually.” 

An AMI. He isn’t sure if that name was given on purpose, if that is part of the message that the other side wants to transmit - an AMI? Like, ARMY? Is it meant to… be a joke? A threat maybe? Does the female robot voice introduce itself (herself?) as AMI to everyone or just him? Namjoon’s brows are furrowed and he really doesn’t know what to think, only that wilder ideas arise the more he keeps thinking, so maybe he should stop. What if- what if this is not really a robot voice but an actual ARMY that uses some sort of voice contortion device? What if this is a Sasaeng? Alarm bells ring in Namjoon’s head. He isn’t sure whether that’s possible, whether this is a valid idea, but in the handful of years he’s been an idol, he’s learned that the world is crazy. Anything is possible, especially in BTS. He brushes his fingers through Jimin’s soft fur, letting the tail drag through his hands, relishes in the warmth under the fuzz and risks a look at Sihyuk, who is still talking to their lawyer. 

“There’s no sense in waiting longer, you’re right. Is there anything you can do to activate the contract clause faster?” and then, “Yeah, same as last time.”

Namjoon sits up a little straighter. A contract clause? What does he mean by that? What kind of contract clause - he sucks in a breath. Does BangPdnim - did he plan this somehow? Was he prepared for this kind of thing to happen? Also, same as last time? Has he done this before? Is there… maybe someone else like Jimin? Another shifter in the group? Wouldn’t Jackson have mentioned that? His thoughts swirl and Namjoon feels like he’s falling through his chair, into the ground, like there’s an endless bottom opening up underneath him. Like his world changes and all his breathing exercises from before have been completely useless. Once again, the voice - AMI - pulls him back into reality. He breathes unevenly and finds Jimin’s eyes. Innocent. Unknowing. Trusting. Namjoon’s heart pounds. It aches from his yearning to take care of Jimin well. To protect him.

“May I ask you to choose from the options, Namjoon-ssi. Main menu. Press 1 to access-“

“AMI, how can I change Jimin back? Is there anything I can give him? Maybe medication, or something?”

It’s a rushed question, a question tasting like panic and helplessness. Namjoon doesn’t know what’s going on, it scares him, and he needs to find a solution. If there is even the tiniest possibility of Jimin’s contract being changed up now that he is like this, and Jimin being at a disadvantage because of it, Namjoon will make sure to make it right. He shivers because normally, he wouldn’t hesitate to ask for Sihyuk’s help, but now? It’s all messed up, he doesn’t know what’s happening and what he can do. He needs to come up with solutions, and fast.

“Shifting is a process induced by hormones, Namjoon-ssi. There is medication to trigger a shift either way but it will majorly affect hormone levels of the patient and is not recommended to be taken on a regular basis.”

“Is there any other way?”

“Would you classify this situation as an emergency?”

Namjoon thinks. He looks at Jimin, then at Sihyuk. Catches the mumbled “Can’t have that happen. No one can find out” from the CEO’s lips. Feels breathless, like endless shame is gnawing through his heart for even allowing the mere thought of Sihyuk doing anything that could harm the members. He wouldn’t. Right? Right? But right now, Namjoon can’t really judge the situation well. He doesn’t have all the information, doesn’t know what a contract clause could do in this case, what it would be for, he doesn’t know. He kind of wishes he had Hobi or Yoongi by his side right now, to help him make decisions but also to help him keep a clear head. It would certainly make things more bearable. It feels like he’s actually stepped into that alternative universe from their Heartbeat music video, where impossible things are the norm and magical creatures float around everywhere. He doesn’t understand.

“Yes, I would say so,” he breathes.

“Understood,” AMI replies promptly, “Emergency response team has been alerted. Estimated arrival in 5 minutes. Please prepare to assist the medical examination by-“

Namjoon rushes to yell into the phone, “What- NO! No, no, no! It’s not that kind of an emergency! Jimin is fine, please don’t, there’s no need-“

Sihyuk sends a worried look into his direction, but Namjoon ignores it.

“Emergency response team on standby. Please confirm your previous directive. Is this an emergency?”

“We don’t need medical attention. Jimin is fine.”

“Understood. Main menu. Please choose from the options. Press 1 to-“

His shoulders sag in relief but he feels annoyed that AMI has moved back to the main menu again without even leaving room for discussion. It beeps when Namjoon presses the 1, maybe because he actually wants to know what this AMI knows about Park Jimin, maybe because he really feels bad for making her read the main menu so often and maybe because he doesn’t know what to do and needs to kill time so Sihyuk can do this phone call together with him and maybe even because he doesn’t know if this is important or not. So, he waits for AMI’s voice with bated breath.

“1,” AMI enunciates, “general data regarding Park Jimin. Nationality: Korean. Date of birth: 1997, June 5th. Gender: female. Species: White -“

“Wait, no. That’s uh, you’ve got the wrong Park Jimin.”

AMI is talking about Park Jimin who Namjoon had first met on the set of the After School Club together with Eric Nam, and he releases a breath of relief - and loses Jimin, who takes the chance to start exploring. Like the little troublemaker his kitty alter ego is (not really a big surprise when you think about how human Jimin’s mind works), he jumps right up where he probably shouldn’t be - on the desk. The desk where documents lay, where electronic devices buzz and where little objects look interesting enough to trigger a little cat’s curiosity.

“I apologize, Namjoon-ssi,” AMI says, sounding a little confused with her robotic voice, “would you like to change Park Jimin’s profile?”

“No, no. It’s just the wrong one. There’s another Park Jimin.”

“I apologize, Namjoon-ssi,” AMI repeats and Namjoon figures it’s just how she’s programmed, “would you like to register a new profile?”

“I don’t want to register anything, I just want-“

“Main menu. Press 1 to access-“

He groans. And there she goes again. Namjoon shuffled on his seat nervously, ignoring the little growls from Jimin somewhere further away. He risks a side glance to Jimin and feels soft amusement riding up his face when the cub rolls around playing and nibbling on a small BT21 Cooky’s ears. But then he hears AMI talking, persistently repeating the main menu and Namjoon isn’t sure if he can go wrong by choosing any of the options so he just dares to ask questions. He hopes it won’t get him into trouble.

“You mentioned legal advice. Why would we need legal advice?”

“Currently, there is very little official legislation regarding the Shifter and Hybrid community in Korea. Our legal department’s services are free and extend toward every member of the Shifter and Hybrid community in Korea. We offer-“

“And what about medical support? What kind of medical support would Jimin need?”

“Our organization connects clients to a network of professional veterinarians from all over the nation. However, we have specific 24/7 on-call staff trained to assess and treat Shifters and Hybrids specifically. We also connect to therapists, nutritionists, and skin & fur care professionals if needed.”

Namjoon isn’t sure what that means, only that it actually sounds like robot lady is trying to sell them something now. Hadn’t she talked about a membership before? He feels his leg bounce impatiently. When will Sihyuk be done? Should I just wait for him? Maybe we should just discuss this before anything else-

“Namjoon-ssi, Park Jimin is currently ingesting Samsung printer ink, which can be very toxic for a leopard cub his age, please-“

As if hit by a sudden strike of lighting, Namjoon feels his body move on its own. His eyes shoot up, focusing immediately on his kitty dongsaeng playing with a dark little ink cartridge by the printer. His thumb smashes that end-call button before letting the phone collide with the table in an ugly crash. He lunges forward to grab Jimin from the desk.

“Jiminie! Don’t do that,” he scolds and feels terror spread at the sight of the little leopard wiggling in his grasp, ears drawn back in shock, cheeks and chest soaked in splashes of blue, magenta and yellow ink. “What are you thinking!”

The cub meows pitifully but doesn’t let his words match his actions with all the feisty squirming. Once again, he seeks out the help of his claws that definitely pierce Namjoon’s skin. With his concentration completely on Jimin - it’s honestly a relief that the call is over so that he can deal with one issue at the time - he jumps when Sihyuk suddenly yells a curse through the room.

“What is happening!? Namjoon-ah, what did you do?”

Namjoon whines. It’s not his fault Jimin is prone to get himself into situations like this - he’s too curious, too adventurous and too tiny for the world right now and apparently, he likes making a mess with colored liquids. The toothpaste had been harmless of course, so it wasn’t a big deal, but Namjoon can’t deny it doesn’t give him a half a heart attack looking at Jimin with those stains in his fur. He looks like a little rainbow-kitty somehow. If this wasn’t so serious, Namjoon would take photos. He knows Jimin would coo and laugh at this later and Taehyung would declare it authentic art.

“I’m sorry, hyung! I didn’t pay attention for a second and- do you have tissues?”

Sihyuk throws him a package of wet tissues from some shelf by the wall, but like Namjoon expects, it basically doesn’t do anything to get the ink out of the leopard’s fur. It doesn’t look like Jimin minds or like he even understands the fuss (he purrs when Namjoon rubs his body down), but the humans certainly do. Namjoon sinks back into his chair and sighs, one of his hands brushing through his own hair in an attempt to calm himself. It takes a second to just calm down from the pulsing shock, so he just lets Jimin play with his hands until the little leopard loses interest and starts nosing Namjoon’s belly, the pockets of Namjoon’s jeans, and puts his tiny paws on Namjoon’s thighs, looking up.

“How are you so tiny and still such a troublemaker, Jiminie?”

Jimin stays in his position for quite a bit as if he wants to say something but Namjoon doesn’t get the hint, doesn’t know what Jimin wants, and realizes AMI is still talking. By now, he considers just hanging up and calling Jackson. Or one of the hyungs. He could really use a hyung now, just a steady, calming presence next to him like in English interviews or Award Shows. Jimin, who still has his nose buried in Namjoon’s jeans (where his pockets are), whines. 

“What is it, baby, huh? What do you need?”

The little leopard only snuffles wetly along Namjoon’s pockets (which are empty) and when the rapper tries to grab the cat, Jimin hisses. But then he slips because he’s a clumsy little thing with only a short, shivering tail that doesn’t know how to balance the body attached to it and his paws lose grip on Namjoon’s thigh so he glides off the side. Luckily, Namjoon’s reflexes are quick enough to shoot after his dongsaeng and grab his leg so that he can lift the kitty back up his lap before anything can happen. (He pictures the scene like one of those Dads grabbing their kid falling from the couch in those Dad-compilations. It’s epic.) He yelps when Jimin’s tiny fangs sink into his hand. He receives a vicious hiss on top and feels betrayed.

“Jimin! Don’t bite me like that! I saved you. No need to be so ungrateful.”

But the cub doesn’t seem to feel grateful or repentant and continues his search for whatever it is he hopes to find in Namjoon’s pockets. It’s a tad irritating to be ignored like this when normally, Jimin is so thoughtful and kind.

“If you feel bratty like this, you can gladly spend the rest of our time back in the box.”

At this, Jimin does look up and for a second, Namjoon feels something spark in his chest. Did he understand that? Did he understand me?

“The box? Do you want to go back into the box? Maybe that’s not such a bad idea, huh? You could nap a bit and you’ll feel much better.”

He gets up slowly, trying to grab Jimin on the way, but the little cub struggles too much so that Namjoon has to set him down to not have his hands torn up.

“C’mon, baby. We’ll put you back until you feel better, huh?”

All his hope is crushed when Jimin avoids the box like it’s hell even if he seemed to like it so much before. Any attempt to shoo him near the box fails and after a couple of minutes chasing the kitty around, Namjoon gives up. He goes back to his chair, plopping down and watching as Jimin tapers off to run circles in front of the fish tank and eventually trods over to Sihyuk’s feet. That, in turn, has Namjoon on edge, because Sihyuk is busy and concentrated on the phone call and Jimin is tiny and Namjoon knows from experience how easy the cub is to overlook and almost step on. But the CEO smiles at Namjoon and gives him a thumbs up. He straightens up and stands with his feet planted firmly on the ground, not bouncing on the balls of his feet like he usually does when on the phone. When Jimin starts to roll around, making it his mission to catch Sihyuk’s shoelaces, the man chuckles fondly. It’s a relief and Namjoon can’t believe he thought Sihyuk would somehow maybe make a bad choice just because Jimin turned into a baby animal.

“Yes, please let me know what options we have,” the CEO says. “Thank you.”

Namjoon uses the minute of peace and quiet to send a text to Jackson.

> Hey man, what exactly is the number on the card for? Why do they call themselves an AMI? Is it the same as ARMY?

He doesn’t get an answer immediately, so he stares at the little 1 in their Kakao chat for as long as he can and sighs when he turns his phone back off. 

“Who are you trying to reach?” Sihyuk whispers, covering the microphone with his hand. 

“Jackson.”

“GOT7 has their promotions in Europe now, don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t text back quickly.”

Jimin seems to get tired of playing with Sihyuk’s shoelaces and goes back to doing his own tour of the office. His little tail quivers in excitement as he sniffs every corner and rolls around on the carpet. Every now and then, there’s a little squeak that Namjoon finds adorable and that he wishes he could save in his heart for bad days. Namjoon focuses back on Sihyuk’s phone call. He can already see the many meetings with managers and staff this change could potentially cause; meetings to accommodate Jimin’s needs and to make sure everything stays under wraps for as long as possible. Or, depending on the outcome of the phone call, (Namjoon has assured himself by now that it will not end in a cancellation of Jimin’s contract because Sihyuk would never let go of Jimin, who is basically one of his fifteen children), a new round of contract negotiations. For the entire group, possibly, depending on the details Mrs. Kang will present to them. Namjoon hopes they can find a beneficial solution for everyone.

Suddenly, a strange sound moves into his focus, persistently interrupting his strategic thoughts. Scratch, scratch, scratch. It’s a weird scratching, not like a scratch on skin or wood or maybe clothes. It sounds different, like fabric snagging on something sharp and being released and Namjoon turns his head to look for the origin of the sound. There’s something in the corner of his eye that rouses suspicion. Jimin. Jimin is kneading the carpet. Alarm bells ring in Namjoon’s mind immediately. Kneading, scratching, peeing. It’s an established pattern that he’s observed during the past days. So far, his success rate of removing Jimin from a place like this (aka. a place that’s not his litter box) and carrying him some other place (aka. the backyard) stands at a proud 80%. However, the memories of the other 20% spur him on and Namjoon is out of his chair faster than he can even think about a plan. 

Jimin startles at the sudden movement and jumps out of the way when the rapper tries to grab him. He’s much quicker than his tiny legs suggest and runs to hide behind the big pot that holds the pretty rosé-blossom tree by the wall that backs against the hallway. He probably thinks the big pot will hide him well until Namjoon shows up again, still aware of what’s at stake here (the carpet, Jimin’s new reputation, and both Namjoon’s and Sihyuk’s sanity). In a determined effort to keep Sihyuk’s office sanitary and welcoming, he sneaks up on the leopard. Hands grab air and Namjoon groans. When he turns around, he notices the little tail peeking out from below Sihyuk’s desk. 

The CEO by the window himself doesn’t seem to notice what’s going on and Namjoon kind of feels like he could have used AMI’s emergency team after all. This is the second, no third emergency of the day and maybe, okay just maybe, Namjoon thinks he might have done something bad in his previous life so that the universe thought it would be fair to make him his dongsaeng’s babysitter. Suddenly, a VIP membership sounds tempting… do they offer babysitter services?

“Jimin-ah,” he whispers, “I swear, if you even think about peeing under hyung’s desk…”

Namjoon approaches slowly. If anything, he figures he should approach the leopard in a smart way. He’s aware that he probably doesn’t have much time left before the cat’s urge to relieve itself becomes insurmountable, so he tells himself to get it all over with quickly. What’s the best way to get Park Jimin to do almost anything you want? Sweet-talk. Namjoon approaches slowly and kneels. Before him, he sees the paper bin underneath the desk, a ton of (neatly bound) cables and the wooden legs of the table. Crouching, he grabs around the garbage can, meeting an amused meow that almost sounds like he’s laughing. Again, Jimin flees before Namjoon can get a hold of him.

“Ah, come on Jimin-ah, my cutest, prettiest, loveliest dongsaeng,” he coaxes, “You were doing so good yesterday, kitten…”

But Jimin doesn’t come back. He just sits on the carpet, tauntingly close, with a lively glint in his eyes. Jimin is watching Namjoon and the rapper doesn’t fail to note the excitement that lets the cat’s tail whip around wildly. So this is a game to you, huh?

When suddenly two legs appear right next to Namjoon’s face, he yelps. His hand gets tangled in some cable on the floor. He slips and slams his head against the metal paper bin, making it fall and spill everywhere. A nasty burn hits his temple and when he reaches up to touch the skin there, the cable around his hand pulls taut. Namjoon’s bad luck is endless, apparently, because something tumbles and crashes upon the table. Sihyuk lets out a yelp. Like a miscalculated movement in the shower, a quick burst of water hits Namjoon from above. He shrieks, feeling the wetness settle and hopes Sihyuk didn’t have any important documents out on the table. He doesn’t pay attention, but he can feel Jimin watching him from the carpet with amused eyes. When he looks, the little leopard rolls around, looking the most Jimin-like ever - like he’s laughing so hard that he just has to throw his body against something.

“Namjoon-ah!” Sihyuk yells, albeit more urgent than angry, “where are you? Kim Namjoon!”

“I’m here,” Namjoon groans, still rubbing his forehead. He’s sure the spot’s gonna be blue tomorrow. Yoongi’s gonna have a good laugh for sure.

“Where is here?”

The rapper crawls out from underneath the table. He sees movement from the corner of his eye but focuses on Sihyuk.

“No, I’m talking to Kim Namjoon,” he says into the phone and looks up only to have his eyes widen with a really panicked look in them. He jumps up, pointing into the room. “Don’t let him pee in there! That Sakura tree is from the President!”

When Namjoon whips his head around, making a cascade of water fly everywhere, he finds Jimin not on the carpet like he’d assumed, but in the big plant pot along with the Japanese tree. Jimin is walking around the stem of the little tree like he’s got a monopoly on the spot. From the body language, Namjoon can tell that the cat is calm and relaxed. Ideal for business. Oh no.

“Yes, hyung!”

Namjoon runs like he hasn’t in a long time (the couple days that he’s been on this pseudo-vacation) and finally snatches an unassuming Jimin right out of the tree pot, hands grabbing for the cat with so much determination that he even scoops up some earth. He hears mewling. It doesn’t matter, nothing matters in this emergency, and Namjoon looks around, nerves strung high, adrenaline rushing. He frowns when he realizes that there’s no litter box over here in the office. That leaves him with only one option: A dash for the bathroom. 

Quickly, he runs to the door. There’s a moment of hesitation. He isn’t sure how he should hide Jimin from all the people in the building but considering that the bathrooms aren’t really far away, he hopes no one will cross his way. (Especially now that Jimin looks so violently colorful). A thought crosses his mind. What if Sejin is still outside? There’s a possibility that the manager has gone to his own office to get some work done while waiting but there’s also the possibility that he’s out there and springs up at the door opening and sees Jimin right away. It’s nothing I have control over, Namjoon reassures himself. He feels Jimin’s little cry in his heart and nods. Let’s go.

Stepping out into the hallway feels a bit like coming out of the shower - out of the cozy, safe warmth and into the frightening cold outside. When Jimin keeps wriggling, softly crowing his discomfort, Namjoon repositions him so that his hands won’t press on the leopard’s belly so much. He looks to the side and freezes. Sejin is on the sofa. Luckily, he’s got his eyes glued to his phone and doesn’t seem to have noticed Namjoon yet - and Namjoon is determined not to let it happen either. Before Jimin can make any loud sounds, Namjoon turns and runs. He does manage to run with Jimin in front of his torso so he isn’t visible from behind. Even if Sejin were to look after them, Jimin would be out of view. Namjoon keeps his eyes on the hallway door until a yell comes from behind.

“Kim Namjoon! Wait up!”

Don’t stop, keep running, Namjoon tells himself, glad that the 6km are a result on his step counter every day, not Sejin’s. Sure, Sejin jogs and stays in shape but Namjoon dances and runs around and is much younger too, so he doesn’t even pant as he takes the next turn to the left and runs towards the men’s bathrooms. The door doesn’t budge when Namjoon uses the handle. A flare of adrenaline-induced panic drips down Namjoon’s chest and he wants to curse. He finds a sign that says “Out of order”. Great. Now, where to?

It’s a good thing that Namjoon is so familiar with the building. Practically, this is the building’s office level that BTS members don’t necessarily have to visit very often. But Namjoon is a regular guest in all kinds of offices, so he is not at a great disadvantage. He knows the way, knows a couple of bathrooms strewn all over the levels. It takes a few risks to bring Jimin there as fast as possible - Namjoon dodges people but almost knocks the head of the PR department off his feet as he rounds a corner and gets drenched in coffee. He runs on, apologizing with a quick but deep bow that almost makes him stumble, takes the stairs and finally, finally reaches the end of the next hallway, the men’s bathroom, an empty stall, and holds a trembling Jimin over the toilet. The leopard fusses, not liking the feeling of being held like this, in the air over an abyss of water. He whimpers. 

“C’mon Jiminie, look at me, I ran all the way over here for you,” he says, “give it some effort.”

It’s a moment of desperation but Namjoon feels warm inside (well, he’s sweating). He’s looking at Jimin and suddenly, he feels like he’s in a film, like he’s a Dad trying to potty-train his kid. Jimin shivers, ears flicking and turning constantly and even Namjoon’s gentle attempts to coax him into peeing don’t help. Those big blue eyes look like they’re gonna burst with tears at any moment. Can cats cry?

“You’re doing it wrong,” someone says behind him.

Namjoon jerks and swears he would have almost let Jimin drop. It’s Sejin and that means that Namjoon’s only got two options. Maybe Sejin knows what’s going on, maybe he doesn’t. In this moment, Namjoon doesn’t even let his fear of being discovered bubble up. He’s here to fix an issue, solve a problem, so he’s gotta get on with it. Sejin is on his side, so whatever happens, he’ll help. Namjoon is sure.

“Sorry,” Sejin says, breathing a little heavy as well, “just let him sit. Cats don’t like to be touched while peeing.”

Namjoon nods, suddenly feeling grateful that it’s Sejin who’s come after him. Sejin is the kind of hyung who just sees the need and helps, no matter what. There’s not a single occasion Namjoon can think of where Sejin has refused to help any member of the group. Of course, one could argue that it’s his job but Namjoon has seen people do their jobs and finds that Sejin is doing more than just a job - he’s taking care of Bangtan with passion and foresight, and sees their relationship as a way to install his substitute-Dad-wisdoms in them.

“He’s too small for the toilet though. He’ll fall in.”

“You need something like a litter box.”

Sejin moves around, drawing out a plastic container from below the sink. It’s a plastic container filled with wet tissues, deodorant the PR people keep in here for emergencies, and some excess paper towel rolls. Sejin fills it up with toilet paper and lets Namjoon place Jimin in it. Jimin circles the container, meows and finally seems satisfied. Namjoon looks away when the cub crouches. He doesn’t need to see that, cause it’s creepy, and rather turns his attention to Sejin.

“Not that I mind, but… why does your cat look like my three-year old’s drawings?”

Namjoon doesn’t know why but somehow, this question is so funny to him that he just starts to laugh - he laughs and laughs and when he’s done, he feels like somehow, a knot around his heart has loosened. He feels lighter than before and breathes. He’s tired but Sejin is here with him, and he knows it will be okay. Here on the cold tiles of the bathroom door, Namjoon finds a revelation coming to him. It approaches as he watches Sejin prepare the litter box for Jimin and unravels as Jimin joyfully runs a circle in it before crouching. It hits, however, in this moment of innocent glee, when Namjoon just enjoys the fact that their manager and friend is here with him. I’m not supposed to do this alone, Namjoon realizes, I was never meant to do it alone. He almost feels stupid that this feels like a revelation to him - he’s the leader of a seven-member group and still, his mind had automatically turned to selfie mode. But then again, he had felt so alone, this morning in the cold apartment, without any of the other members yelling around and sneaking Namjoon’s breakfast off his plate. His heart warms up as he watches Sejin smile at Jimin.

“Thanks for running after me and helping, hyung,” Namjoon says, grateful for the way the bathroom acoustics make it sound so much bigger, “I really appreciate it.”

Sejin smiles. “I’ll always help you, Namjoon-ah. Just let me know what I can do.”

There are some occurrences in life - sort of like déjà-vus - that make Namjoon hold his breath. Maybe it’s not that significant, but the way Sejin sounds like Seokjin almost makes Namjoon tear up right now. In his heart, he feels himself looking forward to the moment Seokjin’s banter echoes through their apartment again, the moment Namjoon steps through the door and looks into his hyung’s face. The moment Seokjin will hug him whether Namjoon wants to or not, and the moment he’ll feel his hyung breathe against his neck in a warm, friendly embrace. And the moment of relief, where Namjoon tells all the members what’s going on, where they talk over one another in an attempt to encourage Jimin and make him giggle in glee. It’s all gaining color and shape in Namjoon’s mind and with the image, hope and courage rise inside of him. Everything will be fine, and even with Jimin’s nagging self-doubt and perfectionism and whatnot, they will find a way. They will push the bad things away. Together.

“It’s great to have you on the team, hyung, seriously. I don’t know if I ever said this, but I’m really grateful for you.”

“Aw, cute. Why are you so sentimental all of a sudden?”

Namjoon shrugs, eyes turning back to Jimin so Sejin won’t see how mushy Namjoon feels inside, how much more he could say but won’t because he doesn’t want his hyung to suffocate under the avalanche of compliments and heartfelt emotions he’s still got in store. The right dosage is important, Namjoon-ah, he remembers Yoongi saying back in the dark, one shared night in their four-year-old studio chairs with takeout in their hands, don’t overwhelm people with your words. You’re too powerful with words sometimes, people don’t know what to do with it. It’s your superpower, so use it responsibly.

“I still don’t know why your cat looks like he’s just come back from a children’s birthday party.”

“PDnim tried to fix his own printer again. He left an ink cartridge on the desk and this little baby,” Namjoon pokes Jimin, who just meows, “was a bit too curious.”

“I don’t understand hyung. I told him he’s got an assistant for stuff like that.”

“He’s stubborn.”

“Yeah,” Sejin chuckles and they both watch how Jimin lifts one leg over the walls of the make-shift litter box, one after the other, very carefully. He catches on the rim with the last paw and lands on his snout with a soft thud. Following the momentum, he stumbles right into Namjoon’s shin and looks up wide-eyed like he can’t believe he just did that. Namjoon isn’t sure why he expects to see tears - probably because Tae is making him watch all those baby and toddler videos lately - but Jimin just whines, stands up and starts climbing Namjoon’s leg. 

“Aish, always so clumsy, baby,” Namjoon mumbles, cooing at the tiny cat in his arms. “You scared me, baby. I thought you hurt yourself. Are you okay?” He kisses Jimin on the head but lets him sniff at Sejin’s hands when he tries to. He doesn’t give much of a reaction, which is not necessarily bad - it’s not a rejection. Sejin smiles and scratches Jimin behind the ears. The cub purrs against Namjoon’s hand, happily closing his eyes.

“What’s going on?”

“Didn’t hyung fill you in already?”

“When? In the five seconds when you ran from me?”

“Good point. So, er-“ Namjoon takes a deep breath. There’s something about sitting on bathroom floors, something cold that makes you share your warmth and your inner thoughts, Namjoon thinks as he looks at Sejin. It’s a BigHit bathroom, so it’s clean, nothing like a public bathroom, but still - the floor under his feet makes him feel a bit bare, a bit lonely even if he’s not, and makes him want to not keep secrets.

“So, I uh… Well, Jimin, and I know it sounds er-strange, turned into a cat two days ago and I basically don’t know what I’m doing.”

Sejin does look surprised, looking back and forth between Jimin and Namjoon a couple times, as if he’s trying to figure out whether he’s become a victim to a prank or something.

“Are you serious?”

“I am. It’s not exactly… a great time but I’m glad this didn’t happen during our tour last year.”

“Wow. How are you so calm about this?”

“Well, I’ve had two days to come to terms with this now. But still, it’s a mess, hyung. I think I did well taking care of him so far, but it’s all a mess.”

“Remember when we first met, you and I?”

“Oh God,” Namjoon groans, “I don’t think I will ever forget that.”

“You were a mess back then too. So it’s okay, I can deal with a mess. I’m used to it,” the manager nudges Namjoon in the side with his elbow and Namjoon nods. It’s nice hearing that, and fitting, if Namjoon honestly thinks about their relationship. Yeah, Sejin has seen and has fixed messes left and right. Namjoon’s heart feels a little lighter when he hears those words. Jimin nuzzles into his hand in his lap and Namjoon feels a pang of affection travel through his body.

“Life is life, huh?”

It’s what Jimin and he have always been saying, ever since their first trip to LA. Life isn’t always fair, not always good, actually a lot less than good a lot of the time, but together, it’s not as bad and even great sometimes. Jimin curls into Namjoon’s lap, letting his body drop as if he’s too tired to hold it up much longer. He wants to be carried like the little maknae line member he is, starving for affection and attention.

“Should we go back?”

“What do we do with the litter box?”

“Do you have one at home?”

“Er, no. Jimin went outside for the past couple of days.”

“In the backyard!? Where people walk? Yah, Kim Namjoon! Also, think about your dongsaeng. That can’t be hygienic! Don’t tell me you really let Jimin outside every time he-“

Namjoon has to grin because of the scolding but blushes. “I’m sorry, hyung.”

“Well, that’s not allowed anymore. Do you at least have cat food or anything?”

“Not really. I promise I’ll work harder to be well prepared, hyung!”

“I see. Let’s drop off Jiminie and go cat-shopping. If he is a baby like this, we need to take care of him well, right?”

“Drop him off where?”

Sejin just pulls out his phone and dials a number. Namjoon can’t see the caller ID, but he doesn’t feel the need to ask either. When someone picks up and Sejin starts to rant, he sounds almost like a fake-enraged Seokjin. It’s like the familiar feeling replaces a little cavity-like hole in Namjoon’s heart that’s started to build the moment the members left for their vacations. It forces him to smile.

“Yoongi-yah, I’ve told you a dozen times not to bring your sick children to work.”

“Jimin is here?”

Sejin falters when the enthusiasm that breaks the mumble that is Yoongi’s work voice sounds through the speaker. Jimin squeaks suddenly, asking to be let down, so Namjoon lifts him up and makes him look right into his eyes. For a moment, he ignores that Jimin doesn’t understand and just hopes that his plea will get through. Namjoon tells the cub firmly not to create any trouble right now. Then, Yoongi speaks to him.

“Namjoon-ah, how are you holding up? Everything okay?”

“Honestly, hyung? It’s a mess. I’m a mess. Jimin is fine, but I don’t think I am.”

His thoughts fly back to the office. Sihyuk’s phone call with their lawyer, all that secretive talk about contracts and even the phone call with AMI. He remembers his confusion, his doubts, his fears - fears for Jimin, who innocently tries to climb up Sejin’s shins. There’s a rustle on the other side of the line that makes Namjoon’s heart beat suspiciously fast with some sort of anticipation. 

“Okay, stay where you are. Don’t worry, hyung is coming, hyung will take it from here.”

Sejin makes a face and Namjoon feels the exact same way. Baffled. What’s going on? What’s with the sudden rush of affection? 

“No need to baby me-“

“Oi, hyung is on his way, yeah? Where are you guys?”

“The bathroom by the PR department.”

Namjoon feels oddly confirmed. As if Yoongi’s sudden overbearing and sweet response was a wink from the universe. You’re not meant to do this alone, Namjoon. His stomach does a little jump at how much comfort Yoongi offers to him just by referring to himself as hyung (which Yoongi rarely does for him). Namjoon’s mind tells him that Yoongi will only baby him now that Taehyung and Jungkook are gone but in secret, behind really thick doors, Namjoon feels a tiny voice wishing for it to be a regular treatment. Namjoon has got Yoongi’s full hyung focus, even if he hasn’t explicitly asked for it. He knows that all the hyungs are attuned to the younger members’ needs but sometimes he forgets that he’s one of them. The leader position can be both a blessing and a curse. 

When Yoongi opens the bathroom door and steps in and Jimin pounces forward with a string of excited chirps, not letting himself get held down by anything or anyone, Namjoon’s eyes widen. Yoongi kneels, scooping up Jimin, totally enveloping the leopard baby against his chest.

“Did you miss me, baby? Ah, I bet you missed hyung so bad, huh? Aish, what did they do to you, hm? You’re all messy. Don’t worry, they’re all idiots who mean well. But hyung will take care of you now.”

Namjoon listens to Jimin’s sweet, chirpy responses that really sound like the kitty is trying to answer Yoongi. They look perfect together, Lil Meow Meow and the cub. Sejin seems to think the same because he’s sneakily taking pictures from the side. Namjoon makes the mistake of thinking that it’s all Yoongi is going to say. He doesn’t expect Yoongi to step forward and look right into his eyes even while Jimin keeps rubbing his cheeks against Yoongi’s heart.

“And how’s my other baby? Running around, destroying everything, coloring his dongsaeng? Tell hyung how to fix it, yeah?”

It’s the weirdest thing ever - Namjoon doesn’t know what exactly it is with Yoongi’s words (maybe it’s the way they float over to him like the steam over a cup of his favorite tea, like they aren’t meant to tease when you just allow yourself to feel them properly) but they make Namjoon’s composure crumble. His cheeks feel wet all of the sudden and he’s sniffing (not bawling, thank God) and leaning into Yoongi’s big hand cupping his cheek.

“It’s not your fault, hey,” Yoongi hushes him and he finds himself under the direct but tender attention of his hyung. “I wish you would have let me know that you needed me so I could come to help you out, you know. That’s what I’m here for.”

“You’re here to rap,” Namjoon sniffles, trying to swallow down his wild emotions.

“And yet I dance like a god.”

Namjoon snorts. 

“It’s not like I can only do one thing at a time, Namjoon-ah. I thought you knew that.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, hyung. Thank you for your support.”

Jimin begins nosing around Yoongi’s chest and arms now. Namjoon nudges Yoongi.

“Hyung, he’s been doing that since a while, what-?”

“He’s hungry. Did you bring any food?”

Wow. That makes so much sense. Jimin is hungry. How did I not understand that? It makes so much sense now that Namjoon knows what it means. 

“I-I brought shrimps.”

For some reason, Yoongi doesn’t look impressed or happy. 

“It’ll do,” he mumbles and moves to walk out of the bathroom. “Let’s go.”

“Manager-hyung and I thought we could go shopping in a bit, we wanted to leave Jimin with you. We’ll buy everything Jimin needs.”

“We could definitely need some cat equipment. Bring one of those fluffy little stick-thingies that cats like to play with. Those are fun.”

“Uh, sure,” Namjoon nods, absolutely not sure if a) he knows what Yoongi means, b) stores will have a “fluffy little stick-thingy that cats like to play with” or if c) a store employee will be able to translate the term for Namjoon. He’ll give it a try anyway. “I just need to get my jacket.”

“Maybe buy some rubbing alcohol as well.”

“What do you want with rubbing alcohol, hyung?”

“Clean this little baby. As much as the color explosion is cute, I doubt it’ll be good for him if he licks it up. Isn’t that right, Jiminie?”

Jiminie doesn’t respond. He’s fallen asleep, probably overwhelmed by the chaos around him. Namjoon feels slightly guilty for putting him through so much stress. Yoongi is obviously so much better at this. I should have just asked him to watch over Jimin. Namjoon knows that’s his own shadow talking, his disappointment at his own clumsiness that still haunts him sometimes. But it still feels like a real feeling, even if it’s a lie, and Namjoon’s shoulders sag at the sight of the little leopard breathing softly into Yoongi’s neck. 

Namjoon doesn’t say a word on their way back to the office and doesn’t even listen to Yoongi and Sejin discussing which cat toys and foods should be bought and how big their monthly budget should be for cat necessities. When the three of them enter Sihyuk’s office, it kind of looks a bit thrashed - Namjoon’s chair is on its side in the middle of the room (it must have toppled over when Namjoon had rushed to grab Jimin), there’s clearly a wet spot around Sihyuk’s desk, an even bigger mess underneath the table and a trail of earth leading from the Sakura plant to the door. Namjoon’s head threatens to hang even lower at the visible chaos (and the “oh wow, what happened here” that slips through Sejin’s lips) but Sihyuk’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

“Option 1. Let’s hear what you have.”

Namjoon’s brows furrow. How-? Is he on the phone with AMI? Then, curiosity rises. Will AMI tell Sihyuk the same as him?

“Option 1. Park Ji-” AMI pauses, almost as if she is thinking, “Good morning, Min Yoongi, Kim Sejin.”

Namjoon shivers. How does this supposedly automatic robot know who is in the room? How can they know? Maybe it’s this uncertainty that makes him feel so uneasy. Could it be that they are watching us? It sounds a little crazy in his mind, but he honestly doesn’t have a clue how else she would know. Maybe it’s magic. Namjoon sighs.

“Option 1. Park Jimin. Date of birth: 1997, June 5th. Gender: female; Nationality: Korean; Spe-“

“That’s not what I asked. Tell me what you have on my kid.”

Sihyuk sighs, visibly disgruntled with how this call is turning out. But the way he said my kid, it makes Namjoon grin fondly. Even if he’s not the person in question, he feels loved. Namjoon can’t help but smirk at how strictly Sihyuk deals with anything that has to do with the Bangtan Boys. Now that the CEO is on it, everything will be fine. AMI stays silent for a while, almost as if she is processing the request or gathering information or something.

“Option 1. Park Jimin. Date of birth: 1994, October, 13; Gender: male; Nationality: Korean; Species: Korean leopard; Genetic Expression: Dominant; Blood Type: A. Species warnings: strong predatory drive, exceptional senses and strength, possibly sensitive to aggressive behavior, solitary and nocturnal behavior; Species requirements: meat-based diet, extensive territory, regular physical exertion; Currently scheduled appointments: Physical Exam 1 by on-duty Shifter Staff of Seoul District.”

“Finally. Now, I would like to know how you have attained this load of information about Park Jimin and how you justify keeping it without our consent.”

“Sir, may I remind you that I am merely an AMI, and cannot substitute for your assigned customer client. I am however able to book an appointment for you with one of our staff…”

Yoongi makes a noise next to Namjoon. Even Sejin shuffles around on his feet. Namjoon feels slightly nauseous. He goes to sit down and Yoongi chooses to stand by his side, hand touching Namjoon’s neck, a soothing message of reassurance. Which is needed. This is a lot. A lot more than expected and somewhat scary, even in the face of 14 million wild Armys knowing more than is healthy about each member of BTS. As the information sinks in, Namjoon realizes that there are two options with this. Either, this is a terrible situation in which the robot lady and her organization are actually a threat, or they are a help and genuinely assist Jimin without any hidden agenda or contract. Heck, this would be so much easier as a commercial offer. Commercial offers are easy to deal with - you either accept, negotiate, or decline. BigHit gets hundreds of them every month, but this-? This is something else entirely.

“Who is your employer?”

“I apologize, Sihyuk-ssi. I am not authorized to communicate confidential information to clients.”

“I’m not your client.”

“Sir, please understand that the law requires for every shifter to be listed in our registry - which includes the scheduled check-ups and following classes-“

“Classes?”

“Sihyuk-ssi, we are required by law to ensure that every person in our registry knows their rights and understands their body. We are simply providing an educational tool to prevent diseases as well as help Shifters and Hybrids to live well. Our organization was founded with these goals in mind.”

“Let’s talk this through with our lawyer. I would like to make use of an appointment. For now, please do enter Park Jimin into your registry.”

“Very well. I will now propose a date for you with one of our customer service staff.”

“Sorry for making you wait,” Sihyuk says once he puts down his phone (he has to look for a good spot for a few seconds because there’s printer ink all over his desk). He looks into their faces. Namjoon can see how affected he is by this situation - a situation that turns tables and reshapes their group dynamics, possibly.

“Hey Yoongi,” he smiles. “Did you get the USB stick I sent you?”

“Yeah,” Yoongi nods, “I got it. What I’ve heard so far sounded great but I’ll look though it tomorrow. Thanks, PDnim.”

Sihyuk also greets Sejin but Namjoon doesn’t really listen anymore. He just wants to get the box and go home - no, right, he wanted to go shopping with Sejin. Namjoon is so tired. It’s like with a high-focus test where you hold up your concentration for so long but when it’s over, you feel your entire existence slack with exhaustion. He shifts in his chair.

Sihyuk’s eyes fall on Namjoon. “You okay?”

“No.”

“Namjoon, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re probably overthinking.”

“Hyung, how are we supposed to have our comeback like this? I looked at the schedules, it’s soon. What if Jimin shifts in the middle of a concert? What if we can’t get him to shift back? Even this robot lady said there’s no medication. It’s impossible to be an artist like us when you turn into a cat like this. It’s impossible.”

“Okay, listen. This situation is not unfixable and not impossible to solve, Namjoon-ah. We can do anything.”

“We can’t do everything, hyung.”

“Did I or did I not set you up to meet Warren G before you were famous?”

Namjoon blushes. Right.

“You did.”

“I did. That was impossible, wasn’t it? You guys became global stars. That was impossible, wasn’t it? You guys are one of the greatest artists in history. That’s impossible too, isn’t it? Raise your standard. RM is impossible. This,” he points at Jimin, who slowly begins to stir against Yoongi’s throat, “it’s just a page in your story. We’ll get through it and it will be okay. Okay?”

Namjoon nods. His head bobs much heavier than usual, as if it suddenly weighs more. He hears Yoongi coo at Jimin and watches him boop the tired little cat’s nose. Then, as if he’s actually attuned to the cat’s thoughts, he reminds Namjoon to look for Jimin’s snacks. He pulls his jacket off the chair, grabs the little plastic bag (the little bag almost rips in his hands but Namjoon manages to just prevent the fourth emergency on the day - a pile of shrimp on his CEO’s office floor) and hands it over to Yoongi, who walks out with the sleepy leopard cub, leaving only Sihyuk, Sejin and Namjoon behind. To some, it might look like disrespect, especially in terms of Korean society rules, but in reality, it’s both an open display of trust towards Namjoon to fill him in on all the important details later, and a display of responsibility as a hyung who prioritizes taking care of his dongsaeng. Namjoon doesn’t care. His fingers smell gross. Like dried shrimp. There’s no sink. Focus, Namjoon. Focus just for a little bit. You’re an adult, behave like one. You can wash up and be tired later.

“Hyung, what does this phone call mean? Do we really have to register Jimin and all that?”

“Yes. We have to take them seriously. That organization does its work well.”

“But what is it that they do? I talked with AMI for at least ten minutes but I still don’t know who they are.”

“They are a government-funded agency who protects shifters and hybrids in different aspects. I only know that they dragged two entertainment companies to court because they had not registered a couple of their trainees. The court decided that it was mistreatment even if they were treated like everyone else.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, there are different laws for shifters and humans but I don’t know much about that yet. I’ll have to go through it with our lawyers.”

“But… if they are government-funded, how did I never hear of this? A court case with other entertainment companies, I’m sure that would have been on the news, right?”

“That was many years ago. I don’t know when this organization was founded, but they must have been working hard to protect every shifter since then.”

“I didn’t even know stuff like this existed…”

“Well, the community is rather small. People don’t talk about it and I’m sure many people don’t know that this stuff exists. As far as I know, most magical creatures are hiding the fact that they are magic. Even the organization runs secretly.”

“Hyung, isn’t that contradictory? How could they be part of the government if they run secretly?”

“I really don’t know much, but I think they aren’t part of the government… just consultants with a special status. And funded. I’m not sure how it works. But they execute laws, like registering shifters and hybrids.”

“Okay… so now Jimin is registered. What now?”

“I’ll take care of the contracts and you take care of Jimin.”

“Okay, I’ll ask Hobi what we can do about-“

“You can’t tell the members, Namjoon-ah.” 

Namjoon isn’t sure he’s heard right. All the mushiness and good warmth from before vanishes in a second. His heart actually skips a beat. He feels awfully cold and like he’s been electrocuted at once. At least it wakes him up. What!?

“What?”

“Don’t tell the members.”

“Why? Jimin will need all the support he can get and I don’t want him to feel any less loved than before. I know that all of the members will feel the same.”

There are a hundred issues lining up right now, but Namjoon knows that their biggest problem of all will be Jimin himself. Because in the end, Jimin’s soul is not a bird that nests easily in a new environment. Of the last eight years that Namjoon has spent by Jimin’s side, he’s witnessed the boy go from believing horrid lies about himself to starving himself like even his worst enemy wouldn’t do to him. Sure, Jimin has overcome these things, has found firm footing in the muddy path called identity. He’s come to love himself, riding on the wave of fresh wind that his brothers’ love is for him. Nonetheless, Namjoon can’t stop worrying about every new wave that comes crashing on the shore. Namjoon knows Jimin is particular about his body. Knows the boy is strategic and sometimes painfully pessimistic in his thoughts without even trying to be and prone to driving himself into feeling lonely. Jimin is so precious and Namjoon just wants to see him be happy. The possibility of the truth coming out to the public and at the wrong time almost hits Namjoon harder than he thinks it could hit Jimin. It resonates in his bones with an evil ache. To think that Jimin will face yet another challenge, that the look of desperation and anger might appear again in his eyes. And that Namjoon can’t help, can’t make it better. And even if Namjoon knows that it won’t be bad forever, that Jimin will get through this and feel better about it all someday but Namjoon just doesn’t know the price. And that hurts. But the members - the members should know. Because they won’t judge him. They will carry it all with him. 

“He won’t. Listen, I don’t want him to feel pressured by this. It’s a huge change for him and he will need some time to figure it all out. And especially now, with the comeback approaching, I want you all to be focused. I know you guys always work hard and you always do your best. But we all know how fragile such a preparation period before a comeback is and how quickly it can become oppressing if bad news hits.”

Namjoon’s mind wanders back to when he’d undergone surgery and the schedule had only allowed it at a time when their next comeback had been on the horizon already. Like a cloud flying overhead, Namjoon’s trip to the hospital and the slight (secret) complications had thrown a shadow over their preparations. Back then, it had definitely stressed the other members, even if their dance practices and recordings had all been on time and perfect. 

“Hyung, we’ve always got stuff going on. After the comeback, we have shows lining up, then the next tour and a hundred different events in between, like the Summer package, like mv shoots. There’s no better time to deal with this than right now. I can’t keep this a secret from the members and then expect them to be happy about it when I tell them later. They deserve to know.”

“I’m sorry, Namjoon. As long as the contracts aren’t renewed…”

“Hyung, I can’t accept that. Jimin won’t do well with this secret. You know how he treats himself sometimes and how difficult changes are for him. Especially Hobi should know since they are roommates.”

“I trust Yoongi and you to be by Jimin’s side until everything is prepared.”

“What do you need to prepare?”

“Well, a change like this… needs to be reflected in his contract. If something happens, he needs to be secure. If there are any special needs he has, we will make sure to provide and help but it all needs to be written out in his contract first. We’ll have to check what laws are relevant for us and align ourselves with it. Until Jimin signs the new contract, I will make sure there will be as little pressure on him as possible. I want him to feel like nothing has changed, like he doesn’t have to feel bad or judged for what happens.”

“What if he shifts again and I’m not there, hyung? Or Suga-hyung? What if he’s left with the maknaes? They should know.”

Sihyuk swivels in his chair and stares at the window for a good minute before answering. Namjoon can hear the fish tank’s soft whirring. He wonders if one day, all this will be the next chapter in a film for Army. Or part of a song. Something to brag about. Because right now, it doesn’t feel that way - not glorious, not beautiful and definitely not comfortable. Sihyuk’s voice sounds quiet, as if he’s had to dig deep for his next words and hasn’t returned from the depths yet. 

 “You don’t know this because I never told you, Namjoon. But when our Park Jimin signed with us, his parents had one major condition. At first, I thought it would be about money, free time, or maybe dating. Actually, they asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement between me and them. I promised to never tell anyone including Jimin that he was a shifter, to treat him normally and to ensure that he would receive his medication - suppressants.”

“Hyung.”

Namjoon feels like someone has punched him in the gut. He can’t breathe somehow, but it’s like he doesn’t want to either. He never thought Sihyuk would do something like this. It’s so wrong, he doesn’t even know what to say. One look into Sihyuk’s eyes, however, makes Namjoon’s tumbling sea still. Sihyuk knows how wrong it is, to keep such a huge secret from Jimin, to restrict his personal… worldview like this. And he regrets it. Deeply.

“So you knew from the beginning. Did you never think that we deserved to know?”

“I wanted to tell you so bad, especially you, Namjoon. At least the leader should know, right? But that was the condition: I don’t talk. His parents said that there are traditions that needed to be followed and kept in their culture and I believed them and wanted to respect that. I wanted to keep my word.”

“But… Jimin’s parents didn’t tell him either, did they? He doesn’t know anything at all.”

“I believe so, yes.”

Namjoon sighs. That’s - crazy.

“We’ve always made sure Jimin received everything he needed to be in top condition as a normal human being. We constantly supervise his health as we do with all of you. Based on that, I kind of expected his body to build a resistance to the suppressants someday. It took a while until we had adjusted them well - do you remember when he lost so much weight?”

“That was because of the suppressants?”

“I almost canceled that stupid contract back then. Jimin shouldn’t have had to suffer through this - he should have known what was going on with his body, he had every right to.”

“Hyung, that’s horrible-“

“Yeah. He just blames it on that genetic disease his parents say runs in the family.”

“So there’s no genetic disease.”

"I mean, it’s one way to describe your genetic makeup. If you’re trying to suppress it, it probably feels like a disease.”

Namjoon nods. It’s understandable from a logical viewpoint. It’s inexcusable from an emotional one. Namjoon swears to himself that he will never call Jimin’s ability to shift a disease. Even if his parents had used that term to hide their shifter side, Namjoon will never allow anyone to call it that. He wants Jimin to feel like it’s a regular part of his identity, like he doesn’t have to feel bad about it.

“So… will that organization drag us to court? Because we didn’t register Jimin until now?”

“I hope not. I will definitely meet up with them and organize a meeting between all parties. Communication is key, so I’ll do my best to fix this. I apologize for causing such a mess but I still have to ask you to keep quiet about this until it’s all cleared up.”

Namjoon nods. He feels a little burnt out, a little defeated to be honest. How could this all be true? 

“May I leave, PDnim?”

“Of course. Please do put all your expenses for Jimin on my card.”

“Thank you, hyungnim.”

When Namjoon walks out, he hears Sihyuk talking to Sejin.

“Please tell our head of staff to give the cleaning staff a raise.”

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ] tags: @xmagicxshopx, @taeshuworld, @justanemptydream, @hoodmeup, @gingerpeachtae  (wanna join? send me an ask!) ✨

[purplesurveys]

771

Have you ever known anyone who was homeless? I don’t think so. Families here are always willing to take in their less fortunate relatives, and being homeless is usually the case for only the poorest of the poorest of the poor. I don’t think I know anyone from that sector.

Do you watch movies with the subtitles on? Yes. I have to, I’m horrible at following any foreign accent. Some English speakers will sometimes speak too fast or mumble their words, which can be such an inconvenience for me sometimes. Did you have a treehouse when you were younger? I didn’t. Most trees here have red ants and have never really been treehouse-friendly, sadly. Sports: Would you rather watch them or play them? Watch. Feels so nice to watch and cheer for your favorites with people who like the sport as much as you do. If you were a journalist, what types of stories would you want to cover? Finally a survey question that directly concerns my degree, hahaha. I loved doing situationers more than anything, meaning to say I never liked the fieldwork part of journalism but I enjoyed the hell out of doing research. Situationers are basically research-heavy outputs that will bring readers up to speed on a current hot topic - it can be anything from an extensive timeline, an in-depth analysis, a data-centric explainer, etc.

But if we’re strictly talking stories, I would love to cover marginalized groups and give them a voice. I once had to cover an informal settlement that was in danger of displacement after a corporation bought their land to build a casino/mall complex. That was my favorite story to write, and I would love to cover similar bases like labor issues, plight of the LGBTs, indigenous people, etc. if given the chance.

Do you think American Idol is rigged? They had some super unfair eliminations in the past that made me think it was rigged, yeah. I remember reading a bit from wrestler Chris Jericho’s memoir where he says he got eliminated from a dance show he once got to be in because the producers felt that there were too many male contestants, and the they simply picked him to be eliminated even though he had been doing  well. After reading that, I started thinking most competition shows do the same practice.

Have you ever participated in any type of medical study? No. Psychological studies, yes; but I don’t think I’ve joined anything medical in nature. Do you believe humans should have the option to be euthanized? Sure, though I think it should only be kept as an option for ultimate cases, like if someone with a terminal illness was due to pass any day. It shouldn’t be like an appointment that can be very easily fixed up for anyone. Have you ever taken a road trip with no destination in mind? No. Gas is too expensive for that privilege lmao. Do you give good directions? Not at all. Use Waze, man. I get confused when I’m at campus and someone rolls down their windows to ask me how to get to a certain building like...everything is Waze-able now dude... What do you think of when I say the word 'lumberjack'? Lumberjack matches in pro wrestling. Have you ever lied about your weight? Why? I don’t think so. I never really had to. Do you know how to do the Macarena? I know some steps but I wouldn’t be able to do the entire sequence. Have you ever tripped over one of your pets? Yessssss Kimi is scattered everywhere all the time lol. It doesn’t help that our floor is white and he is white. He’s always a good sport about it though. Have you ever been stuffed into your locker? No. Our lockers aren’t the tall, vertical type; they look more like cubbyholes, so it’ll be impossible to put a person in one of them. Can you make another person blush easily? Just my girlfriend. I’m not interested in making others blush. What would you change about the way your parents raised you? Like, if I myself got to be a parent? I’d definitely be more invested with my own kid - read to them before bed, have mom-kid days with them where the two of us would have dinner or do something else to bond together, be all ears when they tell me something they’re excited about, or support them when they find a new talent or hobby. I’d want to make my kid feel super loved and that they matter. My parents weren’t bad ones; they just didn’t form an emotional connection with me which in reality is just as important as being able to provide. Do you have to look perfect before you go out to the store? I don’t always have to be perfect; just acceptable. What is your state's motto? The motto has the city’s name in it, so no thanks. Are there any holidays that you feel are completely pointless? I was never a fan of the holidays that exclusively celebrate family members, like Mother’s Day. There are toxic moms or dads or grandparents that get completely overlooked during holidays like those and I feel like it’s unfair to those who have to live with those toxic relatives. Then again, maybe I just feel this way because I have an abusive mom and Mother’s Day is always hell on earth for me. Also why wait a year to celebrate the good ones? Do it everyday. Have you ever gone to work with one or both of your parents? Yes. There were a few times when my mom brought us to her workplace. What is the funnest sport that you got to play in P.E. class? Other than table tennis which I already play, futsal was fun. It was during that quarter I discovered that my foot-eye coordination wasn’t bad at all. Have you mastered the plastic guitar yet (Rock Band, Guitar Hero)? Never. I can never get my fingers to work properly in games like those. What is one cause you know you'll ALWAYS support? LGBT rights. What animals creep you out? Cockroaches. Have you ever done a walk/run for a charity or similar cause? I haven’t. It’d be fun to join at least one sometime, though! Do you like the smell of gasoline? I'm not addicted but like I wouldn’t be bothered if my window was down and I was able to smell it. When was the last time you had a piggyback ride? A couple of years ago. Have you ever owned or used a telescope? Yeah I got to use one to look at the moon at our Grade 7 stargazing activity. Do you have to see or witness certain phenomenons to believe them? Bingo. Do you know/remember what Shrinky-Dinks are? I am literally only hearing about them now. We didn’t have that here. Do you talk to store clerks like you know them? Noooooo and I really prefer they don’t talk to me or follow me around. In your town, are a lot of stores closed on Sundays? No. In fact pop-up stalls or bazaars are active on Sundays since that’s the day most families go out. Do you dislike song remixes? Yes. When was the last time you hula-hooped? January at Rita’s place, because they have a hula hoop. Have you ever played Magic: The Gathering? Nope. What are your thoughts on role playing games? Not a fan. But then again that’s me with most video games in general lol. Do you get an adrenaline rush just from watching videos of roller coasters? No, I get sick to my stomach and have to face away from the screen haha. Do you like watching shows that deal with forensics? If they’re documentaries, yes. But I don’t watch shows like Bones or CSI. Do you want to have a bachelor/bachelorette party before you get married? I’m whatever about it. If I have one or if my friends plan one for me, I wouldn’t want anything too wild. Ever been texted by mistake and played along & acted like you knew them? No, I tell them immediately it’s a wrong number so that they stop bothering me. Would you ever get a name tattooed on you? Initials, yes. Not a full name. If you could have unnatural colored eyes, what color(s) would you choose? Does green count? It’s unnatural in Filipino/Asian terms lol. It’d be nice to have olive eyes. Do you always remember your dreams? No. If I wanted to remember them, I’d have to log them down somewhere. Who is your favorite late night talk show host? Jimmy Fallon only because he keeps inviting Robert Irwin back on his show and he’s the best talk show guest ever. Do your parents dress like they're years younger? Does it gross you out? My dad does. It’s nothing to shame a parent about. Do you know who Seth MacFarlane is? Yes. Do you try on clothes in dressing rooms and take pictures? No. I feel weird about wearing something for fun and just returning it haha as a bit of a germaphobe. If I go inside a fitting room it has to be because I’m interested in possibly buying a piece of clothing. What is a band you can't stop listening to right now? Not really listening to bands these days. I have been listening to Hayley Williams a great deal, though.

[racefortheironthrone]

Thoughts on House of X #5

Time for the issue where HoX/PoX horniness kicked off!

Society Comma We Live in One:

Time to talk about an issue that definitely merited the coverted red issue status. The issue starts with Magneto and Polaris having a dialogue on society that comes off as a bit writerly, more about Hickman creating an opportunity for him to talk about his ideas about society than what Magneto and Polaris would actually be saying to one another (unless Polaris just arrived on Krakoa and is being given the tour, but that doesn’t quit fit her dialogue).

To start with, Magneto is making an argument that “the one good thing humanity taught us was society,” but attaches this to the concept of human beings shifting from settler-gatherer to agrarian cultures. Notably, in Magneto’s version, this shift also has implications for national identity, what with the whole “this is a good place - it is...ours, and from this land we will not be moved.” 

At the same time, it would be highly inaccurate to suggest that hunter-gatherer cultures don’t have societies or engage in (what Magneto is really getting at here) cooperation. The main difference between hunter-gatherer and agrarian modes of cooperation is that, by creating substantial surpluses that allow more people to not engage in food production, the agrarian mode enables a new form of cooperation based on specialization.

All of this applies pretty directly to Krakoa and the resurrection ceremony that Magneto and Polaris are witnessing: as long as mutantdom was constantly fighting for survival (the time when “the greatest necessary traits in mutantdom” would be “strength and aggressiveness”), it was essentially stuck in a hunter-gatherer paradigm. But once mutantdom established themselves on Krakoa, “intelligence, ingenuity, and creativity” started to come to the fore: the Krakoan flowers and medications, Doug’s interface and the resulting Krakoan systems, KASA, Cerebro, and now a new one. Contrary to certain implications from the Librarian in Powers of X #6, rather than simply relying on their “natural” mutant powers, Krakoan society is technologizing them. 

The “Five” are a great example of this process at work. I’ll get more in detail on how this particular Krakoan biomachinery works when we get to the infographic (which brings together all of the information into one place), but there’s some more subtle details at work here:

I love how the (Fab) Five’s social/cultural status is prefigured by their on-page introduction, which looks like nothing so much as the slow-motion group shot from Resevoir Dogs combined with a supergroup pose complete with spotlights.

As many people have pointed out, Hickman’s reinterpretation of Goldballs’ “seemingly benign and pointless power” shows how a different social and technological context completely changes the way we think about the value of different x-genes. 

As someone who’s spent their fair share of time studying the history of science, I do like how much the Five’s introduction re-emphasizes themes of cooperation and specialization rather than the Lone Genius myth: even with Goldballs’ limitless “eggs,” he still needs Proteus to make the eggs viable, and so on and so forth. As Magneto puts it, ““separate...they are great mutants, but only significant, not transcendant. Together..."

An interesting commonality in Krakoan biotechnology is the use of psychics and other mutants - in this case, Hope plays a similar role to the Cuckoos in KASA - to allow the group to work in unison without the need for the literal hiveminds of the machine consciousness. Something to keep one’s eye on.  

At the same time, the Five’s biomachine relies on two other forms of technology of varying levels of technology. As the red diamond on the syringe confirms, Mister Sinister provides the DNA to grow the husks and (and this is one of the Big Reveals of the issue) Cerebro downloads the mind into the body. 

Playing her role in the Socratic dialogue admirably, Lorna raises the vital question of whether these clones are “just their bodies...not them.” What’s really interesting about Magneto’s response is that he’s not just talking about downloading the mind of the mutant, but also “the essence..the anima...[the] soul” of the mutant, which implies a pretty strongly spiritual conception of Cerebro’s primary purpose. (It’s an interestingly monist approach to the question of the soul as a form of data that can be copied, uploaded, downloaded, etc. I wonder what Nightcrawler thinks of this?)

Xavier’s statement that “even knowing I could bring you back...a part of me dies when any of you do” really backs up what I was talking about re: Xavier’s motivation for changing his worldview. Resurrection doesn’t change the emotional impact of death, especially since the system requires Xavier to be psychically linked to the X-Men he’s sending into harm’s way, so that he’s experiencing all their pain and suffering. This also reads quite differently in the wake of Powers of X #6, because it suggests that (quite aside from his broader plans for Krakoa), Xavier’s shift to being even more of a pragmatist has a lot to do with years of compounding trauma.

BTW, a clear sign that there is a high degree of continuity of consciousness going on is that Scott’s first thought after being resurrected is “did it work?” For all intents and purpsoes, this is the Scott Summers who died on Sol’s Forge.

We See Them, Do We Know Them?

I’m going to take this opportuntity to get on my high horse for a second and take parts of the X-fandom to task. While I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse anyone of arguing in bad faith, I do think there has been a tendency to not grapple with the text in an honest way when it comes to certain characters or themes, with the Resurrection Ceremony as Exhibit A in this tendency.

Rather than being about cults or nakedness (more on both of those soon), what this scene is actually about is the coming together of the foundational aspects of Krakoan society/culture, and how two groups of heroes - the five and the strike team - will be treated in this new world. 

As we might expect, there are both parallels and differences in how the Krakoan masses treat and are expected to treat these groups: as we’ll learn later from the Resurrection Infographic, the Five are “universally revered...as cultural paragons [something sacred to be treasured].” 

Storm’s exhortation provides the text that is supposed to shape and give purpose to this popular attitude, that the Krakoan masses should “love them...for they have righted the wrongs of men and defeated our great enemy death.” As with many RL human cultures, historic grievances are used to define in-group and out-group, but at the same time, the Five’s “miracle” is defined as a victory over “our great enemy death,” (which neatly ties together anti-mutant violence, mutant-specific epidemic diseases, all the forces of the “on the brink of extinction” stories we’ve seen for almost twenty years). 

Given that the Five are responsible for A. reversing mutant genocides which have directly and indirectly affected all mutants in profoundly traumatic ways B. making mutants functionally immortal, it would be utterly unprecedented if a cultural and social change of this magnitude did not have some element of spiritual or religious feeling behind it. World religions have been founded on far less than this.

By contrast, the Strike Team are described in more secular terms. For removing the existential threat of Mother Mold (let alone Nimrod) which had loomed over mutant society, Storm describes them as “heroes of Krakoa,” but not so much cultural heroes as secular military heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation: “through their deaths...a great victory was won for our people.” 

Another sign of difference is that the Strike Team’s public reception is conditional, requiring a further ceremony where the community asks “we see them, but do we know them?” I love the way that Hickman turns the meta-question of whether these resurrected mutants are the real thing or “just clones” into a cultural question. 

Thus, he has Storm act as the Master of Ceremonies for a ritual that’s all about recognition and confirmation of individual and social identity, and uses X-comics continuity nods that readers will recognize in the same way that Storm does as the clues:

Cyclops remembers losing the leadership to Storm in UX #139, and I like this particular deep cut because it’s a great contrast to their present-day respect and affected, and because Scott’s inability to commit to his marriage to Madelyn Pryor will help kick off Inferno.

Similarly, Jean recalling line-for-line what she said to Storm in UX #242 works especially well because it’s a line about asserting your identity in the wake of death, resurrection, and the existential questions of cloning, and because once again it recalls Inferno. I’m not sure whether it’s a good sign or a bad sign that Hickman gets Jean’s voice better here when he’s quoting earlier authors rather than writing original dialogue.

And finally, in a great Rule of Three joke format, Monet breaks the pattern by going for a character beat - Monet has strong personal space boundaries - rather than a deep continuity callback.  

Having done my close-reading due diligence, let me get to the point: this is not a cult, and you don’t need to take much in the way of Anthropology coursework to see that. Call-and-response between an officiant and the congregation are incredibly common across many religions, as are ceremonies in which the individual’s membership in the group is confirmed, and so on and so forth. If you want to describe this as a cult, or cult-like, you need to point to qualities that are specific to cults as opposed to other forms of religious activity.

Similarly, I find it quite strange to describe Storm as acting out-of-character in this sequence. Storm, who’s all about giving speeches at the top of her lungs, who’s been worshipped as a goddess in multiple countries, would have a problem with giving a sermon and carrying out a basic ritual? This is the sort of thing that makes me think that a lot of these comments are just people trying to disguise personal preference as story critique.

The scene ends with pulling back to see Xavier and Magneto reacting to all of this, and their feeling of tempered joy is a pretty good synecdoche for how things stand at the end of HoX/Pox: while the “good work” is clearly a cause for joy, it’s clearly at a very early and vulnerable stage, and there’s a feeling of determination that it has to continue “until it is done.” Interestingly, both Charles and Erik view this aspect of Krakoa as more “foundational” than any other element, and I wonder whether this could be part of why they don’t quite see eye-to-eye with Moira any more.

Another sign that things are not as secure as they’d like is that Krakoa still hasn’t gotten over the hurdle of UN recognition, which requires getting around a veto from a permanent member of the Security Council.

Resurrection Infographic:

So let’s talk about the Resurrection process, now that we have all of the information in front of us.

The Infographic really confirms that Mister Sinister is absolutely crucial to the Genetic Base working - “without this, we have nothing.” But given that we learn in Powers of X #6 that this was very much in opposition to Moira’s wishes, I wonder how the original plan envisioned this working. I wonder whether Magneto’s statement to Emma Frost in Powers of X #5 that “we are not ahead of ourselves...we are woefully behind” suggests a motive. Mister Sinister already had a comprehensive DNA database on the go, they might have gone to him because they wanted to accelerate the time table for reversing the Genoshan genocide.

At the same time, you can already see how Sinister has become the snake in the garden. At the moment, Xavier and Magneto have “limited...current mutant modifications...to “optimal aging,” but we can already see Sinister’s influence in the line “it is believed that in the future, designer modifications will be possible.” Unless they are very, very careful, this is how the chimera singularity could topple all of this into the abyss of the singularity.

The Five:

As I discussed above, each of the Five are a crucial element of the overall process.

Fabio Medina (Goldballs): produces limitless eggs for limitless husks. Without Goldballs, the resurrection process would be extremely limited in how many people could be brought back at any time by all kinds of resource constraints; with him, the process can be turned into one of mass-production.

Kevin MacTaggart (Proteus): turns unviable eggs into viable eggs; without Proteus, Goldballs’ innovation would be effectively stillborn. Kevin’s presence here is also a strong indicator that this was part of Moira’s plan, so as with so much in HoX/PoX what we’re talking about is a question of means vs. ends. 

Joshua Foley (Elixir): “kick-start[s] the process of life, initializing cell replication and husk growth.” Without Elixir, the DNA might sit dormant within the egg; with Elixir, you have a bridge between the raw building blocks of life and the end product of a viable husk. 

Eva Bell (Tempus): “temporally mature[s] a husk to a desired age.” This is potentially an under-appreciated aspect of the whole process: without Tempus, you’d still have to wait decades for resurrected mutants to come to maturity and all throughout that time, the process would be incredibly vulnerable; with Tempus, mutants are brought back to life as fully-grown adults capable of doing their part for Krakoan society. 

Hope Summers (Hope): has the more nebulous task of “enhancing and synergizing...to ensure the success of each resurrection.” As Magneto explains, resurrection is “delicate, almost impossible work.” Hope’s unique power set allows her not only to boost the powers of the rest of the five, but also to improve coordination and thus quality control, so that the overall process has a success rate of 100%.  

As we can see already, this is a system with a lot of irreplacable parts, which means a bunch of potential points of failure. No wonder, then, that Krakoan minds are at work trying to overcome these problems. We already see that “Synch or Mimic” have been floated as “upgrades/extensions/stand-ins” for the Five, which suggests that they’re already thinking about ways to improve functionality by adding to the “circuit” or about ways to maintain service if one of the Five needs to be replaced. 

Similarly, I love how the “Proteus problem” shows how Resurrection is changing our perceptions of so many things in Krakoan society. From his introduction, Proteus has been shown as inherently dangerous because of the way that his powers damage his body - but with the Resurrection system, Proteus is just a mutant who happens to have a chronic illness that can be treated. One interesting question...why is Proteus’ “backup mutant husk” based on Charles Xavier? Charles isn’t his father, so it’s not a question of genetic compatibility. 

The Mind:

Here’s where we really get into the philosophy of identity. Hickman gets really emphatic here that these are not “just clones,” because the backups include “the essence of each mutant, how they think, how they feel, their memories, their very being.” 

I’m personally inclined to agree with Hickman. Even without transference of consciousness as a real thing, I don’t think a strict view of continuity of consciousness can really hold, given the fact there are plenty of breaks in said continuity - we don’t consider people who get knocked out or blackout drunk or just have a nap to no longer be the same person, so what’s the rationale for saying that any of the Strike Team aren’t the same people who they were before?

I also love how the Cerebro part of the system adds all kinds of new problems: there’s the technical complexity of scanning every mutant mind on the planet and then storing and copying that datat to “multiple redundant “cradles,” as well as new philosophical and ethical issues about what happens when you put someone’s mind in someone else’s body, etc. More on this in a bit. 

Scale:

So at least at the time that this document was written, it looks like the mutant population is back to 100,000 (although how much was the Five isn’t clear), but that there are 1 million de-powered mutants (many of whom might want to use the system to regain their powers), and 16 million mutants who were murdered and whose resurrection is a key ideological drive for Krakoa.

As Hickman points out, this brings up issues of productivity and efficiency that we’re used to seeing in industrial and technological processes. The Five’s initial rate of 200 a day would take 300 years to accomplish the goal of reversing Krakoan genocide, which is way too long a timeline.

However, it turns out that there’s a mutant version of Moore’s law: the more the Five do this, the better they get at it (with a nice nod to Wolverine, so “its estimated that capabilities could possibly reach around 30,000 a week” (or 6,000 a day), bringing the timeline down to a far more manageable decade. 

A final bottleneck: Charles Xavier “is not capable of” 6,000 daily downloads, and we already seen Krakoan minds thinking about “a workaraound or a team of telepaths” to supplement someone who’s also busy attending U.N meetings, Quiet Council sessions, plotting world domination, etc.

On a policy wonk side note, I was trying to figure out how Hickman worked out these numbers, and I realized that his math assumes that Krakoa has a five day work-week. As we’ll see in House of X #6, there are major open questions about what kind of economic policy (and thus, what kind of society) this new nation-state will have. Good to see that Actual 19th Century Robber Baron Sebastian Shaw isn’t getting his own way.

One particularly odd thing about Krakoan biomachinery, according to “extensive testing,” the Five don’t actually experience “exertion,” but rather a “blissful experience” of self-actualization. This suggests the psychological equivalent of a perpetual motion machine - rather than requiring more and more labor, the damn thing requires less and less and produces “total fulfillment” as a byproduct. Weird.

Another interesting side effect is that the Five have become “an inseparable family unit” who are undergoing a process of symbiosis - given all the discussion of mechanical hiveminds, it’s worth wondering whether we’re seeing a biological one forming and to what extend is individuality being maintained.

A final, slightly odd note: this Infographic describes the Five’s socio-cultural status as that of “cultural paragons” rather than “something achievable through works,” even though the Five are explicitly described as having carried out “good works.” So what gives?

Resurrection Protocol:

One last bottleneck: the whole process seems to take at least 42 and as much as 52 hours to complete. Although they can clearly work on multiple eggs in one batch, getting that figure down would no doubt be useful in further increasing productivity.

An interesting sign of the cultural/philosophical impacts of the system: Krakoan society now has “fears regarding duplication” of an explicit moral character, and thus requires an elaborate system of confirmation to bring someone back from the dead. Thus, we start to see the formation of mutant law-enforcement entities to deal with “mutant missing persons and suspected deaths and murders,” which is presumably going to be X-Factor rather than X-Force as initially believed (since X-Force turns out to be the intelligence service instead).

A Grateful Nation:

Speaking of the burdens of statecraft, the scene shifts to the aftermath of the U.N recognition vote, where it emerges that Emma Frost used her telepathy to push the Russian ambassador to abstain rather than veto, which Xavier is ok with. Krakoa is now an internationally-recognized nation-state in good standing, something that previous mutant nations never quite managed. 

This gave some parts of the fandom a good deal of trouble, but let me say as someone who’s taken a couple courses in diplomatic history, this is really quite mild stuff compared to the usual run of vote selling, wiretapping, blackmail, threats of economic or military retaliation, and other kinds of skullduggery and corruption. The world of nation-states is not one of moral purity.

Also, if we’re talking about characters being in and out of character, as much as Charles Xavier has been described as an idealist when it comes to his ultimate ends, he’s always been a pragmatist when it comes to his means when it comes to psychic powers. Mental compulsion, altering or erasing memories, mind-wiping people into mental vegetables - as long as it’s for the greater good. 

I’m curious what Emma Frost’s reward will be. This scene explicitly comes after she made her bargain with Xavier and Magneto for a fifty-year monopoly for the Hellfire Trading Company and three seats on the Quiet Council, so I wonder what this bonus will be.

Mutant Diplomacy Infographic:

Speaking of the moral ambiguity of international relations, we learn from this infographic that “all current mutant diplomacy...is dependent on relationships with human nations centering on their need for mutant pharmaceuticals.” On the one hand, it’s better than basing your diplomacy on military aid. On the other hand, it’s notable that Krakoa isn’t building its diplomacy on the basis of human rights or cultural exchange or other elements of “soft power,” it’s all very transactional. (It’s also not a good sign that “nations that have rejected a trade treaty with Krakoa are considered to be naturally adversarial.)

We then get a list of non-treaty nations. Some of these inclusions make sense, others are a bit puzzling, and I have some questions about why certain nations didn’t make the list.

Asia:

Why just Iran in the Middle East? OPEC should be losing their minds about the potential for Krakoan portals to undermine the value of oil. Likewise, plenty of Middle Eastern regimes might be worried about other ethnic minorities using the Krakoan precedent to redouble their own pushes for national independence. And if it’s religious ideology, why is it only a Shia issue and not a Sunni issue?

Madripoor: given where Krakoa is located, this is probably an issue of being afraid of a new power in their sphere of influence. Also, Madripoor has tended to get up to a lot of mutant-related crimes, so they’d probably be worried about this.

North Korea: this being listed as an ideological issue is a bit strange. The official state ideology of North Korea is really peculiar, even among putatively Communist regimes, so it’s hard to tell 

Europe:

I imagine the E.U’s role in negotiating trade deals probably is responsible for the relative lack of European nations on the list, but I’m surprised that none of the right-wing populist governments that have sprung up in central/eastern Europe in recent years who aren’t particularly friendly to real world minorities wouldn’t have an issue with a powerful nation of mutants.

Latveria: probably because Doom is a paranoid, egomaniacal autocrat who pursues economic autarky generally. I am curious, however, about other Marvel-specific nation states - we know that Namor isn’t going to go to Krakoa, but what is Atlantis’ foreign policy on this issue? What do the Inhumans think? Etc.

Russi: as we’ve seen from House of X #1, Russia fears a new global superpower. What’s interesting is we don’t see them exerting any successful influence on Central Asian or Baltic or ex-Soviet eastern European nations. 

South America:

Brazil: is this Bolsanaro's cultural conservatism at work or something else? Because...

Venezuela: is kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Brazil’s current government, so it would be odd to see them on the same side of this issue. The only thing I can think of is that this might be due to Chavezista anti-imperialism. Because...

Santo Marco: contrary to what Magneto said in House of X #1, mutants have not been entirely free of the sins of conquest and imperialism, and in one of his first appearances, Magneto conquered the Republic of Santo Marco and ruled it in an extremely brutal fashion. That’s the kind of thing people remember for a long time, so I’m not surprised that you see some South American countries taking a negative view of Krakoa as a result.

Terra Verde: Similarly, Terra Verde’s government was briefly overthrown by the supervillain Diablo, and although mutants were not involved, they may be generally wary of superpower-led nation states. 

Central America:

Honduras: it’s not that I think it’s implausible, but what makes Honduras different from other Central American countries on this issue?

Africa:

This is where we get a potentially really juicy plot hook. As late as X-Men Red, Wakanda has been generally positive towards mutants, especially since not only does T’challa have a personal relationship with Storm, but in the current run of Black Panther, Storm has been popularly worshipped as Hadari Yao, the Walker of Clouds. 

Given that Wakanda is seen as a threat because “they do not need mutant drugs,” this may be a case of Krakoan/Moira’s paranoia that Wakanda’s advanced technology and self-sufficiency might mean that the post-human revolution might start there. 

At the same time, the fact that the rest of the “Wakandan economic protectorate” also reject a trade treaty might suggest that we’re just seeing a simple story of nation-state competition for spheres of influence.

Krakoa Is For All Mutants:

In a very straight-forward example of X-Men dissenting from Xavier’s plan, we see Wolverine - who’s about to take up a significant post in Krakoa’s national security infrastructure - has a big enough problem with the amnesty program that he mentions wanting to beat “Chuck” to death for general smugness and condescension. 

A whole bunch of supervillains cross-over, but while some of them will become significant as members of the Quiet Council or Captains, Apocalypse is framed as the most significant one, because he’s the only one with a pre-existing connection to Krakoa

Indeed, he goes full Disney Princess on page 27 because Krakoa “knows me, and I Krakoa,” which might be a big problem later on if Krakoan’s earlier and deeper connections to Apocalypse come into conflict with its more recent alliances with Cypher and Xavier.

At the same time, at least for the moment Apocalypse is the most ideologically on board with Xavier’s broader project, seeing it as the culmination of his life’s work. 

Thus, he’s happy to say the words: “we submit to the laws of this land, be what they may, and acknowledge from this day forward, we all serve a higher purpose than want or need. One people from this day forward.” It’s an oath of citizenship, but it also speaks to the conditionality of the amnesty. And there are penalties for breaking it. 

[newstfionline]

Headlines

WHO Issues Warning As Daily Caseload Grows (Foreign Policy) As dense crowds of protesters gather around the world, and New Zealand announces a return to life as usual, it’s easy to forget that a pandemic is still raging. On Monday, the WHO recorded the largest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, 136,000 in total; 75 percent of new cases came from just ten countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia.

Stress is skyrocketing among the middle-aged (Marketwatch) If you’re middle-aged and you’re thinking, “I don’t remember everyone being this angry and miserable 20 or 30 years ago,” you’re not wrong. A recent study confirms what many people in later middle age already feel: We really are much more stressed than middle-aged people were back in the 1990s. The good news? As we get older our levels of stress will go down again. We’ll be happier in retirement than we are in our 40s and 50s, even with health issues. Older people experience fewer stressors and are able to cope with them better, says David Almeida, a psychologist and professor of human development at Pennsylvania State University. Meanwhile, the simplest answer is to move more. “My advice to people is to move when you are exposed to stress,” he says. “Moving, physical activity, is probably the best stress reducer.”

After Protests, Politicians Reconsider Police Budgets and Discipline (NYT) In an abrupt change of course, the mayor of New York vowed to cut the budget of the nation’s largest police force. In Los Angeles, the mayor called for redirecting millions of dollars from policing after protesters gathered outside his home. And in Minneapolis, City Council members pledged to dismantle their police force and completely reinvent how public safety is handled. As tens of thousands of people have demonstrated against police violence over the past two weeks, calls have emerged in cities across the country for fundamental changes to American policing. The pleas for change have taken a variety of forms—including measures to restrict police use of military-style equipment and efforts to require officers to face strict discipline in cases of misconduct. Parks, universities and schools have distanced themselves from local police departments, severing contracts. In some places, the calls for change have gone still further, aiming to abolish police departments, shift police funds into social services or defund police departments partly or entirely.

U.N. General Assembly won’t meet in person for first time in 75-year history (Washington Post) For the first time in the United Nations’ 75-year history, world leaders won’t convene in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting this September. U.N. General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande explained Monday that an in-person gathering during the coronavirus pandemic would be impossible because world leaders typically travel with large delegations of aides and security personnel, making it hard to keep the numbers of attendees at events low. “A president doesn’t travel alone, leaders don’t travel alone,” he said. The session will instead take place remotely, though U.N. officials have yet to say exactly what that might look like.

Mexico’s Leader Rejects Big Spending to Ease Virus’s Sting (NYT) Across the globe, governments have rushed to pump cash into flailing economies, hoping to stave off the pandemic’s worst financial fallout. They have mustered trillions of dollars for stimulus measures to keep companies afloat and employees on the payroll. The logic: When the pandemic finally passes, economies will not have to start from scratch to bounce back. In Mexico, no such rescue effort has come. The pandemic could lead to an economic reckoning worse than anything Mexico has seen in perhaps a century. More jobs were lost in April than were created in all of 2019. A recent report by a government agency said as many as 10 million people could fall into poverty this year. Yet most economists estimate that Mexico will increase spending only slightly. Hostile toward bailouts, loath to take on public debt and deeply mistrustful of most business leaders, Mexico’s president has opted largely to sit tight.

Cuba almost coronavirus free (Foreign Policy) Cuba—a country that prides itself on its health system—has almost vanquished its coronavirus epidemic, according to official data. It has recently averaged less than ten cases per day and on Monday went nine consecutive days without a reported death from COVID-19. “We could be shortly closing in on the tail end of the pandemic and entering the phase of recovery from COVID,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said over the weekend.

Spain makes masks mandatory until coronavirus defeated (Reuters) Wearing masks in public will remain mandatory in Spain after the country’s state of emergency ends on June 21 until a cure or vaccine for the coronavirus is found, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday.

This round’s on us, says Malta (Reuters) Residents of Malta will be given $112 vouchers by the government to spend in bars, hotels and restaurants in an effort to revitalize the tourist industry. Tourism accounts for a quarter of the Mediterranean island’s GDP but it has been at a standstill since mid-March when flights were stopped during the coronavirus emergency. Flights to a small number of countries will resume on July 1 but they exclude big tourism source markets Britain and Italy.

Russia rejects Iran embargo (Foreign Policy) Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has called for “universal condemnation” of the U.S. campaign to pass a permanent arms embargo on Iran through the United Nations Security Council. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Lavrov called the U.S. attempt to hold Iran to the confines of the Iran deal while the United States had already broken the deal was “ridiculous and irresponsible.”

Moscow’s strict coronavirus lockdown turns lax overnight (Washington Post) In a sudden about-face from one of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns, Moscow dramatically eased restrictions Tuesday, abolishing the city’s digital-pass system for travel and allowing salons and most other nonessential businesses to open. Schedules for when Muscovites were allowed outside based on their address have also been done away with after just one week. Restaurants and cafes will be allowed to serve people on verandas starting June 16 and nearly all restrictions will be lifted by June 23—the day before Russia’s rescheduled Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square. The city’s walk schedules and requirements for wearing face masks outside have increasingly been ignored by residents, and Moscow authorities might have been feeling the pressure from small businesses that have been closed since late March with little government aid to sustain them.

Tracking the origin of the coronavirus outbreak (Daily Telegraph) Coronavirus may have broken out in the Chinese city of Wuhan much earlier than previously thought, according to a new US study looking at satellite imagery and internet searches. The Harvard Medical School research found that the number of cars parked at major Wuhan hospitals at points last autumn was much higher than the preceding year. It also found that searches from the Wuhan region for information on “cough” and “diarrhea”, known Covid-19 symptoms, on the Chinese search engine Baidu spiked around the same time. It has led researchers to suggest that the outbreak began much earlier than December 31, the date the Chinese government notified the World Health Organization of the outbreak.​

North Korea cuts off all communication with South Korea (AP) North Korea said it was cutting off all communication channels with South Korea on Tuesday, a move experts say could signal Pyongyang has grown frustrated that Seoul has failed to revive lucrative inter-Korean economic projects and persuade the United States to ease sanctions. The North’s Korean Central News Agency said all cross-border communication lines would be cut off at noon in the “the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things.” North Korea has cut communications in the past—not replying to South Korean phone calls or faxes—and then restored those channels when tensions eased.

The Palestinian Plan to Stop Annexation: Remind Israel What Occupation Means (NYT) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is pressing for annexation in conjunction with the Trump administration’s peace plan, which at least ostensibly contemplates an autonomous Palestinian entity as part of what it calls a “realistic two-state solution.” Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank, and could do so as early as next month. But to the Palestinians, annexation flouts the ban on unilateral land grabs agreed to in the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, and would steal much of the territory they have counted on for a state. For that reason, they say it would kill all hope of a two-state solution to the conflict. In response to the annexation plan, Mr. Abbas renounced the Palestinians’ commitments under the Oslo agreements last month, including on security cooperation with Israel. The strategy aims to remind the Israelis of the burdens they would assume if the Palestinian Authority disbanded, and to demonstrate that they are willing to let the authority collapse if annexation comes to pass. The Palestinian Authority says it will cut the salaries of tens of thousands of its own clerks and police officers. It will slash vital funding to the impoverished Gaza Strip. And it will try any Israeli citizens or Arab residents of Jerusalem arrested on the West Bank in Palestinian courts instead of handing them over to Israel.

[hushedsong]

Have some tasty Mass Effect translator meta thinly disguised as fic. Full fic under cut. Read on AO3

The following is found in an Asari diplomat team’s “First Contact Protocol and Diplomacy: Materials for Reference and Distribution” data packets. This version is intended for: [human] [Earth native] [English speaking]

What is an AUNT?

An AUNT, or Autonomic Universal Neural Translator, is a marvel of modern technology originally developed after first contact between the Asari Republics and Salarian Union circa 520 BCE, and it has only been improved on since. An AUNT provides seamless and accurate translation of any known language or dialect without the inconveniences of outdated earpiece translators.

How does an AUNT work?

The AUNT is a small, bio-compatible data processor that is connected to your brain’s neural network through a minimally invasive procedure. By accessing and augmenting your brain’s language centers, the AUNT is, effectively, to the brain what a software update is for a computer.

The AUNT receives sensory (aural, visual, tactile, etc.) information and compares that to its comprehensive database of languages and dialects. This allows the AUNT to identify the language and decode raw sensory information into words and phrases. Then, the AUNT sends out impulses to the user’s existing neural network to stimulate a thought pattern closest to the word’s meaning. In this way, the AUNT does not translate one language to another—it is able to imbue its user with understanding of any given language.

Why is the AUNT better than an earpiece translator?

There are many advantages to using an AUNT over other types of translators. An earpiece translator, or any translation technology that translates one language to another, is always subject to some error. No two languages are always going to have 1:1 translations, and that rule proves even more true across interstellar cultural boundaries. The AUNT, however, translates language into thought, not into another language. As long as the user understands the idea behind a word, the AUNT can do its job, even if the user’s native language doesn’t have a word for that idea. By translating using neural pathways, the AUNT can also account for words that have multiple meanings—finally, a way to reliably translate puns! The AUNT is also adaptable. By analyzing biofeedback it is able to recognize when a translation is incorrect, and adjust to recognize what factors caused the mistake, such as context, tone, and who is speaking. This process mimics natural language learning techniques and ensures the same mistranslation doesn’t happen twice.

Are there any drawbacks to using the AUNT over an earpiece translator?

While the AUNT offers many substantial improvements over traditional translation technology, it does have a few unique quirks that require some acclimation.

Biological Barriers

While the AUNT is able to gather data from your sensory organs, it unfortunately cannot augment them. The one significant limitation of the AUNT is that it cannot translate sensory information that its user cannot perceive. This is a problem that crops up most frequently in inter-species communication, though many species have found ways to compensate. When interacting with other species, many Elcor use vocalizations rather than olfactory communication, and Hanar limit their bioluminescence to a lower frequency spectrum. On the other side, a person wishing to expand the amount of sensory input they receive can do so via Council-approved cybernetic surgeries or specialized omni-tool hardware combined with VI programming.

Cognitive Dissonance

Some users of the AUNT experience a phenomenon called “cognitive dissonance,” usually characterized by trouble focusing and mild headaches. This is caused because the AUNT, by design, does not repress natural brain function, only supplements it. Because of this, when experiencing the sensory input of an unknown language, that input is being interpreted twice—by both your brain and your AUNT. Thus, your brain simultaneously recognizes that input as unintelligible and as a fluently understood language. Most of the time, the brain naturally “tunes out” the undesired interpretation and no problems occur. In some situations, however,  it becomes more difficult to focus on only one interpretation, causing “cognitive dissonance.” The good news is that cognitive dissonance, and its associated symptoms, are entirely avoidable. Extensive study and research has concluded that the phenomenon occurs almost exclusively when the AUNT is translating a language based in a type of sensory input other than the individual’s learned “default” language input. To further clarify, many humans learn to speak their first language far before they learn to read it, making the learned default input aural. Therefore, a human listening to a new language (aural input) would have a near-zero chance of experiencing cognitive dissonance, but may experience cognitive dissonance while reading (visual input) that language. In contrast, a human whose first language is a sign language would have a visual learned default input. They would likely experience no problems processing a new language via visual input, but may if the input is changed to aural.

The treatment most recommended to those having trouble with cognitive dissonance is to, whenever possible, experience language in the preferred input—visual, aural, or otherwise. This is usually achieved with relative ease thanks to the accessibility of omni-tool speech/text programs and personal VIs. Interestingly, a user who is multilingual is significantly less likely to experience the symptoms of cognitive dissonance, so the symptoms may diminish over time the user is exposed to more languages.

I heard a word I don’t understand. Did my AUNT glitch?

The AUNT does not “glitch” in the way traditional translators do. There are a few possible reasons your AUNT did not translate a specific word. First, remember that the AUNT stimulates neural pathways already in your brain to mimic understanding. This process is interrupted when your brain has no memory associated with the meaning of the foreign word or phrase. For example, a volus hearing the English word “elephant” for the first time would not understand it if they had never seen an elephant before. However, the AUNT of an asari who had seen a photograph of an elephant in an article on Earth’s biodiversity would be able to create the connection between the memory and the word.

There are, however, some words the AUNT is designed not to translate due to cultural context. The most frequent examples of this are expletives and words of religious significance. If your AUNT did not translate a word, simply ask the speaker to clarify, or look up the word via the extranet.

How is the AUNT updated?

Updating your AUNT is essential, since no living language ever stays unchanged for long. The galaxy’s best linguists work to disseminate VI gathered data to ensure that your AUNT’s databases are complete and up-to-date. AUNT updates are first downloaded via the extranet onto an omni-tool or personal datapad. Then, the user synchronizes their AUNT, which will first scan the update data packet to ensure it is correctly formatted before beginning download and installation, a process which typically takes an average of 1.2 Earth-standard seconds.

Can I turn off my AUNT?

Anyone wishing to personalize the settings on their AUNT can download an easy-to-use application to their omni-tool or personal datapad, then link it with their AUNT. This allows the user to turn off their AUNT entirely, or instruct it not to translate individual languages, dialects, or even words and phrases. It can also be instructed not to translate for certain people or sensory input types, or during certain times.

Can my AUNT be hacked?

Simply put, no. The AUNT as a technology is made to harmonize with and adapt to an individual’s neural system, and can no more be hacked than a biological brain can. As for the systems that handle AUNT upgrade data, every possible precaution is taken by the Citadel Council to ensure that data remains secure, and the AUNT itself has redundancy systems in place to stop any corrupted data from installing. Since the AUNT’s implementation, there have been no reports of any successful hacking attempts to an AUNT or any related systems.

How much do I have to pay to get an AUNT?

The Citadel Council recognizes that free and easy communication is a cornerstone of inter-cultural and inter-species cooperation. Thus, any member of a Citadel species wishing to undergo the simple procedure for an AUNT can do so free of charge, including any necessary aftercare.

Where can I go for the procedure to get an AUNT?

Asari and salarian scientists specializing in the AUNT systems and human physiology will work with human doctors to provide materials and training, so the procedure can be performed right here on Earth. Check the extranet to find the medical center nearest you where you can get your own AUNT!

[Translated from Thessian] A reminder that the humans’ experience of first contact was through the Relay 314 incident. Be understanding of any wariness and avoid mention of turians when providing example scenarios.

Make no mention, under any circumstances, of any study of humans that may have occurred prior to first contact. Doing so is grounds for immediate arrest.

[arcticdementor]

In the midst of a crisis, Zoom (and similar videoconferencing programs) provided an immediate, seamless way for people to continue to work and socialize while maintaining a safe physical distance from one another. Here was a simple technological response to the many complicated social problems that arose during the pandemic, a solution that seemed to address a practical challenge while also proving the legitimacy of Zoom’s slogan—“We deliver happiness.”

But as the weeks of lockdown wore on, and virtual gatherings shifted from novelty to obligation, many Americans began to confess to feelings of dread each time a new Zoom meeting appeared on their calendars. Human nature, that irrepressible beast, emerged in stories of “Zoombombers” who used the platform to interrupt classroom lectures and business meetings, harassing others with hateful remarks. Then there were the lackadaisical workers who neglected to turn off their cameras, treating their colleagues to embarrassing displays of private behavior made inadvertently public.

By the end of April, New York Times reporter Kate Murphy was explaining to readers “why Zoom is terrible.” The disappointments she outlined were not technical—the platform had resolved its privacy and software glitches—but experiential. Murphy noted the unease she felt about her connections to others, even after hours spent talking to people through a screen, because she could not always interpret the subtleties of facial expressions and body language. “These disruptions, some below our conscious awareness, confound perception and scramble subtle social cues. Our brains strain to fill in the gaps and make sense of the disorder, which makes us feel vaguely disturbed, uneasy and tired without quite knowing why,” she wrote.

…

It was the very swiftness and uncritical enthusiasm with which Americans embraced an “easy” technological solution to a complicated problem that suggests that we are becoming increasingly comfortable with technosolutionism, and not just during times of crisis. Such acquiescence seems understandable at such times, when uncertainty prevails, but as we continue to struggle to find our bearings, it is worth considering the significant choices we have already made with regard to technological problem-solving, and begin to contend with the consequences.

Technosolutionism is a way of understanding the world that assigns priority to engineered solutions to human problems. Its first principle is the notion that an app, a machine, a software program, or an algorithm offers the best solution to any complicated problem. Notably, the technosolutionist’s appeal to technical authority, even for the creation of public policy or public health measures, is often presented as apolitical, even if its consequences are often not. Technosolutionism speaks in the language of the future but acts in the short-term present. In the rush to embrace immediate technological fixes, its advocates often ignore likely long-term effects and unintended consequences.

Technosolutionism is also often unabashedly radical in its vision of what it might accomplish, particularly in times of crisis. One of the more enthusiastic purveyors of such reasoning, Aaron Bastani, argued recently that “the pandemic makes it clear: We need Fully Automated Luxury Communism,” his shorthand for a technosolutionist system he describes as “this technological revolution—oriented around automation, renewable energy, AI, and ever more objects resembling ‘information goods.’”

Even if few people are buying into the appeal of Fully Automated Luxury Communism, we are all witnessing and, under the pressure of the pandemic, more or less resigning ourselves to a growing dependence on technosolutionism in two areas that shape our everyday lives: public health and education.

…

In a time of intense political polarization, technosolutionist approaches can appear to bear a veneer of nonpartisan authority. But the same sort of surveillance used to track the spread of a virus can just as easily track one’s movements during a political protest, for example. That is both the appeal and the danger of technosolutionism, depending on the amount of power one holds. Whether the crisis is one of public health or public safety—riot control or virus control, for example—the response is the same: increased surveillance, especially by the state. As privacy activist Wolfie Christl noted, “The location-data industry was ‘covidwashing’ what are generally privacy-invading products.”

Powerful technosolutionist fixes during a pandemic can look like South Korea’s contact tracing system, which has been praised by public health experts for its early adoption and its effectiveness in slowing the spread of the pandemic. Yet few mention that South Korea’s success relied on a smaller, more homogenous population than America’s—and for that matter, one that is far more trusting of its government and institutions than we currently are.

Technosolutionism can also look like the much more intrusive Chinese contact tracing system, which requires citizens who want to move about in public to download an app that issues a color-coded QR (quick response) code that, when scanned, reveals their COVID status. Only those with a green code are allowed to move freely in public, though their whereabouts are continually tracked. Also, their QR codes must be scanned before they are allowed entrance to office buildings, grocery stores, and other public accommodations. According to the global business news website Quartz, one Chinese province has already announced plans to “normalize” use of the health codes after the pandemic ends. Health officials said they could use the codes “to assign a health status based on people’s digital medical records, including the results of health check-ups and lifestyle habits, such as how many cigarettes they smoke, steps they walk, or hours they sleep daily.”

…

If the relentless rise of technosolutionism in the world of public health is not alarming enough, its resurgence in education—where at least a modicum of skepticism had begun to assert itself—should make us leery of allowing crisis conditions to normalize dubious nostrums. As the pandemic spread, and schools across the country were closed, Americans found themselves caught up in a large-scale experiment in distance learning for nearly fifty million K–12 students. Some school districts moved swiftly to online learning models, replacing classroom instruction with Zoom lessons; others struggled to meet the needs of student populations that often lacked access to the technology that would allow them to learn from home.

The early results were not heartening: “The grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “It was a failure.” Preliminary study had indicated that “students nationwide will return to school in the fall with roughly 70 percent of learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year, and less than 50 percent in math, according to projections by NWEA, an Oregon-based nonprofit that provides research to help educators tailor instruction.” Notably, the NWEA researchers projected “a greater learning loss for minority and low-income children who have less access to technology, and for families more affected by the economic downturn.”

…

Such reliance on technology experts rather than teachers or parents is typical of technosolutionist responses to complex problems. “Bill Gates is a visionary in many ways and his ideas and thoughts on technology and education, he’s spoken about for years, but I think we now have a moment in history where we can actually incorporate and advance those ideas,” Cuomo said, even though, as the Washington Post noted, “the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent billions of dollars on education reform projects it has conceded did not work as hoped.”

Yet despite their paltry results, technosolutions continue to find support among political leaders for sadly obvious reasons: They can claim to have solved a problem in the near term (Zoom classes for all!), while punting on planning and paying for the problems that will emerge later (such as gaps in learning). Similarly, technology billionaires’ foundations and technology companies selling these solutions get power over policymaking without responsibility for any of the long-term consequences.

…

As the pandemic experience has revealed, we have come to rely on our devices (and implicitly, to trust them and the companies that make them and track our use of them) far more than many of us might previously have realized. We have also become more trusting of immediate technosolutionist thinking to solve complex, evolving problems.

That trust is often misplaced. The early evidence from our experiments with automated contact tracing and online learning offer an object lesson—and perhaps a cautionary tale—about embracing technosolutionism. Critics of technosolutionism do not argue for a world without technology; on the contrary, they recognize that technical solutions to human problems have often alleviated suffering and encouraged human flourishing. But when such solutions are offered as wholesale replacements for human problem-solving, and dispatch with deliberative, democratic processes meant to ensure that they are implemented in a way that respects a nation’s values and protects citizens’ privacy, their efficacy becomes questionable.

Consider what might happen if surveillance techniques unacceptable to most people in normal times but embraced during the pandemic do not disappear when it ends. As Yuval Noah Harari argued in The Financial Times, “Temporary measures have a nasty habit of outlasting emergencies, especially as there is always a new emergency lurking on the horizon.”

We shouldn’t assume that the measures we take to combat the coronavirus today are temporary. History suggests that such measures rarely are. The Patriot Act, passed as a temporary emergency response in the aftermath of 9/11, has been continuously renewed ever since. It is now almost twenty years old.

Yet there is reason for optimism about balancing the technological and the human. With our irrational impulses and self-delusions, we humans are the weak link in technosolutionist dreams of a more seamless society. But our weaknesses—including our unquantifiable unease about certain technologies and our persistent concerns about privacy—can also act as a firewall against the most aggressive forms of technosolutionism.

…

Such large-scale social change should prompt us to ask larger questions: What kind of world do we want to live in when we emerge from these chaotic times? How much of that world will have been actively built with our input, and how much of it will have been constructed for us by engineers in ways that only in hindsight we will understand to have been foundational? What patterns of behavior and habits of mind do these solutions privilege over other ways of doing things? What are the likely unintended consequences?

The appeal of technosolutionism is understandable, particularly in a time of increased political polarization, social unrest, and, now, a public health crisis. Technosolutionism alleviates widespread anxiety by promising certainty when uncertainty prevails. It offers efficient responses to complex problems while eliding thorny questions of ethics, politics, or justice. It gives us the how without forcing us to ask the why.

A culture that embraces surveillance and technosolutionism is one that has abandoned trust. If we value a humanistic approach to solving problems, one that nurtures trust not only in our institutions and communities but also in each other, an approach that draws on the strength of that trust to rebuild, then asking those “whys” is the first and most important step.

This article touches on some of the same points I was making in a recent long-post, and provides a very useful term — technosolutionism — for one of the trends I keep criticizing. (For one, it pretty much sums up my biggest disagreement with @mitigatedchaos.)

[ibztumb72-blog]

change your thinking

What’s artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence it about new generation trying to make revolutions, that some people think of it as the new age electricity. When Benjamin Franklin first discovered electricity, it was thought of as extremely profound- something that changed our lives forever. Scientists and researchers are regarding AI to be equally revolutionary- something that will transform the way most industries work. But what is so special about AI? What are the attributes that make people think of AI as high as they do of electricity? What is it about AI that one has to know to make it big in the tech industry? You might also be thinking about the important features of artificial intelligence?

1.    Task performing

All of us have, at some point, accomplished a certain task just because we had to do it, not because we enjoyed doing it. We found that task to be boring, or dull. However, with a machine, you never have to experience similar boring task. An artificially intelligent system will do and continue doing the task as commanded to it, no matter how many times it has to do it. but, this process are usually finding being boring, wider tasks easier for the users.

Let’s take, an example of AI, Dialog flow which is a subsidiary company of Google, that takes credit for creating the Google assistant. We give so many commands to this assistant in a single day! From asking Ok Google, call mom, to Ok Google, order sandwiches – the assistant has it all covered.

At the same time, we have the facility of being able to send numerous calendar invitations to people using this assistant. All we’ve got to do is choose the time of a certain event, and type in the list of guests. The assistant does the rest of the work. An invite will be sent to all those on the guest list. This is so much easier when compared to calling, texting, or visiting people to invite them in your 

Keeping hold of records and analyzing data

Data analyzing and storing is one of the most important features of artificial intelligence. Technology process handles with large size of information. Even a small company of about 50 employees has huge chunks of data to analyse, we can’t even imagine the quantity of data that organizations like Facebook handle.

but, this process records number of data using different operation from multiple sources. All of this appears on the system in a synchronous, or a simultaneous manner.

One such example of artificial intelligence would be falling, which is basically a database of multiple business contacts.  works on a basic principle – give, to receive. The user has to create an account here and sign in, after which the information of the user’s contacts is accessible and shareable by the system. In return, the user gets relevant business contacts, which might be potential customers. In other words, Expressing this crowd sourcing this data. This explains so much about the coaching centers that first call your friend, then you, and then other friends of yours belonging to the same batch.

Technology and business gathering business

Moving into future, one of the main differentiates of companies who succeed with AI and those who see less-than-desirable outcomes will be the end-to-end business knowledge incorporated within a platform/AI system being used.

With the right mixture of embedded knowledge and the right tech in place, there is no stopping industry giants like Facebook and Google, and it’s no wonder they seem to “know” so much about users/customers.

Providing applications in different sectors

AI in banking is growing faster than you thought! A lot of banks have already adopted AI-based systems to provide customer support, detect anomalies and credit card frauds. An example of this is HDFC Bank.

HDFC Bank has developed an AI-based chat bot called (Electronic Virtual Assistant), built by Bengaluru-based Sense forth AI Research.

This technology has launch, named Electronic virtual assistant has given lot of customer queries, interacted with over half a million unique users, and held over a million conversations. Eva can collect knowledge from thousands of sources and provide simple answers in less than 0.4 seconds.

Artificial Intelligence Applications: Health Care

When it comes to saving our lives, a lot of organizations and medical care centres are relying on AI. There are many examples of how AI in healthcare has helped patients all over the world.

An organization called Cam bio Health Care developed a clinical decision support system for stroke prevention that can give the physician a warning when there’s a patient at risk of having a heart stroke.

Another such example is life which is a company that has a digitized device that can find cardiac diseases.

Similarly, which is developing a system for keeping track of how people are doing in nursing homes, home care, etc. The best thing about AI in healthcare is that you don’t even need to develop a new medication. Just by using an existing medication in the right way, you can also save lives

Artificial Intelligence Applications: Autonomous Vehicles

Companies like Waymo conducted several test drives in Phoenix before deploying their first AI-based public ride-hailing service. vehicles radar,

Navigation, photos to provide facilities to other cars

 Advanced Deep Learning algorithms can accurately predict what objects in the vehicle’s vicinity are likely to do. This makes Waymo cars more effective and safer.

Another famous example of an autonomous vehicle is Tesla’s self-driving car. Artificial Intelligence implements computer vision, image detection and deep learning to build cars that can automatically detect objects and drive around without human intervention.

Trying to finding various fields?

. various fields of AI

Cognitive Computing: The ultimate goal of cognitive computing is to imitate the human thought process in a computer model. How can this be achieved? Using self-learning algorithms, pattern recognition by neural networks, and natural language processing, a computer can mimic the human way of thinking. Here, computerized models are deployed to simulate the human cognition process.

System base technology: system base technology helps your imagination and for providing system to known about process images, the same way as the human vision does, and then it provides an appropriate output. Computer vision is closely related to Artificial Intelligence. Here, the computer must understand what it sees, and then analyse it, accordingly.

Natural Language Processing: Natural language processing means developing methods that help us communicate with machines using natural human languages like English

[cardinalstar]

Galra Mini Exchange

It took me a little while, but I’m excited to be sharing my ficlet for @galraweek‘s Galra Mini Exchange.  My recipient is @sparklyspacekitty, who requested Gen Pidge and Thace!  This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed writing it, so I hope you enjoy reading it!  

Read it on AO3

Nights were Thace’s favorite time to be onboard the Altean ship.  Much of the bustle and activity died away as the hour grew late, and the soft glow of the castle’s evening lights was easier on the eye than the daytime lights.  It was easier to find peace and quiet, if that was what you preferred.  Stargazing, which had not been possible on the Empire’s battle cruisers, was a pleasant pastime that left plenty of opportunities for quiet, solitary reflection.  

The late hour had other, less recreational benefits as well.  Unless there was an alert, the majority of the castle’s active inhabitants were Thace’s fellow Blades, who had maintained their preference for a largely nocturnal lifestyle even though the other species onboard the ship preferred to work in the daytime.  

Accustomed as they were to secrecy and privacy, the Blades who had begun traveling with Voltron following Zarkon’s defeat had taken time to adjust to their more visible role in the resistance movement.  The change in tactics had hit the younger recruits the hardest; most of them had been fresh from their initiations and training, and had been given little opportunity to temper the Blade’s culture of secrecy with experience in the field.  

The dramatic shift in their circumstances had worked in Thace’s favor, once he had largely recovered from his near-fatal role in the mission to sabotage Zarkon’s flagship.  He might not be able to participate in dangerous away missions any longer, but Kolivan had made it clear that Thace’s experience and contributions were valued, particularly as the Blade adjusted to its new role in the war against Zarkon.   

Wandering the darkened ship also gave Thace ample opportunity to adjust to the changes in his depth perception since the explosion.  Altean healing pods were miracles of medical science, but they couldn’t regrow a missing eye.  Coran seemed optimistic about the possibility of Thace recovering the full scope of his hearing with repeated sessions, but Thace was less certain.  He’d opted instead to adapt to his new circumstances, and prescribed himself a regimen of physical therapy that would probably have given Ulaz an aneurism, if he’d still been alive.  Nobody could stop Thace from sparring against the Gladiator on its maximum-difficulty setting if they were all asleep.  And with fewer individuals awake to observe his progress, there was a lower likelihood that anyone would observe him if he misjudged a distance and tripped over a doorframe, or barked his shins on the steps leading to the observation deck

Tonight, Thace was taking a break from the Gladiator - he hadn’t been able to program it to focus its attacks on his blind side, and it was frustrating him.  Instead, he had planned to take a leisurely stroll through the shuttle bay, avoiding the many low-hanging obstacles, before joining a tactics briefing that Kolivan was hosting.  But he had deviated from his intended routine when he noticed that the lights in the training deck were on, and had gone to investigate only to spot the tiny figure of Pidge hunched over one of the computer consoles.  For a moment, Thace thought the Green Paladin had simply fallen asleep at her work, but the muttered curse that reached his good ear told him that Pidge was both awake and annoyed.  

Thace paused at the entrance to the training deck, uncertain as to what his next move should be.  He wanted to ask why Pidge was still awake, but he wasn’t sure how the Green Paladin would react to his sudden presence on the training deck, particularly if he startled her when she was already in an agitated emotional state.  He had been informed that he had a catlike tread when he’d inadvertently ambushed Hunk in the kitchen; several discreet inquiries later, Thace had learned that he’d been compared to a small Earth predator renowned for its stealth and cunning.  He’d been flattered, but he had no desire to startle Pidge.  He was far more interested in learning why Pidge was working after hours, particularly since the other paladins and the Alteans were already sleeping.  

“Who’s there?” Pidge said, turning her head slightly in his direction.  

Thace sighed internally.  So much for stealth - he hadn’t been on an away mission in so long, he must be losing his touch, in spite of all the training he’d been doing.  “It’s me,” he said, stepping onto the training deck.

“Oh.  Thace.”  Pidge blinked up at him from behind a pair of wire-framed glasses.  “I wasn’t expecting you.  I thought you might be Keith.  He likes to wander around at night.”

Thace nodded.  It didn’t surprise him; with his part-Galra ancestry, it made sense that Keith would prefer a more nocturnal sleep schedule than a full-blooded human.  He decided not to mention that Pidge was also wandering around at night.  “You seem frustrated with your work,” he said, wanting to ask about the problem but uncertain about whether his prying would be welcome.  

“Yeah,” Pidge said, making a face.  She tilted the monitor so that Thace could see; recognizing the gesture as an invitation, Thace peered down at the screen.  

His eyebrows rose at the slightly-grainy image on the on the screen in front of him.  The picture looked like a frozen fragment of a video feed; Thace picked out several haphazardly-dressed individuals of varying species before his eyes settled on the human in the upper right corner of the image.  Even with Thace’s limited sample size of variation between humans, he couldn’t help but notice that the individual on the screen looked remarkably similar to Pidge.  “Is this a relative of yours?”

“Yeah.  That’s my brother, Matt,” Pidge said, biting her lip as she looked down at the screen.  “He was captured by the Galra the same time Shiro was, and I’ve been looking for him.  I found this footage when we were breaking Slav out of Beta Traz, but I have no idea who he’s with!” she continued, slamming the palm of her hand against the desk.  “The castle’s databases don’t have anything on these other guys.”  

Thace tilted his head, considering the problem.  “Is it possible that the ship’s records are outdated?”  From what he’d gathered, the Altean ship had been in stasis for ten thousand years of turbulent intergalactic history.  It seemed fairly likely that there would be some gaps in the Paladins’ intelligence.  

Pidge shrugged one shoulder.  “It could be.  Allura told me that the ship’s record banks have been updating themselves whenever we’ve flown through a sector and encountered new data.  But maybe,” she continued, sitting up straighter in her chair, “the people Matt’s with are from a sector we haven’t visited yet!”  

But as quickly as her flash of enthusiasm appeared, it vanished.  She glowered at the console.  “That doesn’t help, though.  It isn’t like I can go ‘Hey Allura!  Mind if we detour through uncharted space so that we can look for data on the aliens who might have my brother?’”

Thace decided that he disliked seeing Pidge in such low spirits about her search for her missing relative.  If Ulaz’ past transmissions were anything to go by, it had been over a year since Matt and Shiro had been taken by the Empire.  For Pidge to still be searching, after such a long absence, was a mark of her tenacity.  “It’s possible that some of the Blade’s intelligence might be useful,” Thace said, thinking of the immense record banks back at the main headquarters.  Most of the information was military in nature, related to the positions and strengths of the Empire’s fighting forces, but there was some cultural data within their record banks as well.  Ulaz had helped maintain those records before his posting as an undercover science officer had taken him away from headquarters, and he’d vociferously defended the importance of his work.  One day, when the war ends, we will need a record of what once was, he’d said during one such conversation.  Otherwise there will be no way of comprehending the full scope of what has been lost.  

Thace’s good ear didn’t twitch at the thought of Ulaz, which was a relief.  He knew the Paladins would sympathize with his grief, but he’d been feigning indifference and detachment for so long that he wasn’t sure how to stop.  

Fortunately, Pidge didn’t seem to notice the solemn direction his thoughts had taken; if anything, she looked happier than she had when Thace had first entered the room.  “I didn’t know the Blade of Marmora had those kinds of records!” she said.  “Thanks, Thace.  That would really help.”  

“There might not be any new information in our archives,” Thace pointed out, not wanting to dampen Pidge’s enthusiasm but unwilling to give her false hope.  “I will do everything I can to locate useful data, but it’s possible that nothing I find will be of use to you.”  

“I know,” Pidge said, looking determined.  “But there’s still a chance, and that’s all I need.”  

As he walked out of the training deck, Thace resolved that he would devote more of his time and attention to searching for the Paladins’ missing teammates.  Pidge’s dedication to finding her brother was - moving.  He fervently hoped that her quest for answers wouldn’t be in vain, and he would do his part to ensure that she had every chance of succeeding in her search.  

Though she hadn’t mentioned him directly, Thace had also felt the specter of the missing Black Paladin looming over his conversation with Pidge.  They’d done all they could to look for him, but perhaps it wasn’t just the Blade of Marmora who could benefit from Thace’s knowledge of the Empire’s inner workings.  He couldn’t go search the stars for Matt or Shiro, at least not yet, but he could do his part to point others in the right direction.  

The quiet life didn’t suit him, but Thace could tolerate it for the time being, as long as he was still able to be useful.  

[technologyandit]

Role of Voice Assistant Applications in changing our lives- KBV Research

Voice assistant application market organizes the website which is designed for sales and marketing support, instant responding to customer inquiries, precise navigation, customer ideas, and centralized knowledge management. Voice assistant application develops online communication, permits confined interaction with unprompted response times, working on customer retention, and understanding people’s normal language with any kind of voice recognition. Majorly, the vital luxury acts as an assistant who listens to the calls take into consideration of every necessity and action is taken wherever required. This benefit is easily accessible to artificial intelligence assistants, popularly known as voice assistants.

WHAT DO WE UNDERSTAND BY VOICE ASSISTANT APPLICATIONS?

Voice Assistants are generally made with the use of artificial intelligence (AI), in which these machines play an important in learning and also with voice recognition technology. As customer interaction is done through the digital assistant, so AI programming incorporates sophisticated algorithms in learning from the available data input and further improve itself for the prediction of the user’s needs. Assistants are gathered with cognitive computing technologies which permit digital assistance for enhanced understanding and conduct multi-step requests with numerous interactions and complex tasks, for example booking seats in the theatre. The famous voice assistants at present comprise of Google Assistance, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Now.

USE OF VOICE ASSISTANT APPLICATIONS

Services related to artificial intelligence experience rapid growth and all the associated capabilities have become advanced. With all the amendments made in AI services, and further in the cloud permitting any individual in running certain level of computing power that cannot be thought of by any normal just a few years back, and today this technology is accessible to any and is being used at large.

Majority of individuals who actually access these services, with the inflow of additional data obtained through them, they improve rather at a faster speed. Along with improvement, the number of people also rises. Doing all this will enhance the capabilities of Voice Assistants even faster — we not only expect to see them getting smarter but at the same time more ‘human’. Imitation of voices sounds less robotic, sentiments and context will alter the interactions, and we will rely on these.

USE CASE OF VOICE ASSISTANT APPLICATIONS

·         Media and Entertainment

Voice application offers a completely new medium for entertainment based brands just to make stories and characters directly into life with custom audio that replicates brand personas. Voice assistants have moved over daily commands and have become the most engaged platform only for entertainment. Fun voice-based media allows users in doing more than what they were doing earlier which is grocery lists.

Users can now access their chosen news stations in assistance with a voice assistant, but it is a bit difficult in accessing information personally along with the location and interest of the user.

·         Healthcare

Voice assistants are mainly divided into two groups with potential users in the section of healthcare, out of which one is physicians and the other is Patients. Many physicians often use these programs to capture access records, process data, and patient-related notes. These organizations for data acts as a module for saving time, and voice assistant may provide solutions. If we discuss the Patient, then this is a cheaper alternative for the visits in the office, AI-powered virtual assistants provide 24-hour support to various kinds of patients which claim access on-demand. People suffering from chronic diseases face flare-ups, also disabled patients with family caregivers, and other rural patients living beyond medical care are among those individuals who would attain most benefit from powerful virtual assistants.

·         Retail and e-commerce

Voice commerce is one such technology that provides an alternative in using a keyboard along with mouse just for ordering and further purchasing products online. All that is needed by the customer is to examine and purchase anything online making use of voice commands which acts as a virtual assistant, for instance, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa and not to forget, a voice. Voice commerce is not subjected to searching for the product but also to order and purchase it. In support with voice commerce, the whole purchase turns out to be quicker and can be predicted at any time in a day which may happen while taking a shower; the most important is that your assistant can hear you. To allow customer service chat solutions acts as a doorway to voice shopping directly to the store. A rapid increase in retailers allows for features directly through artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as Linc.

TRENDS OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The most common technology trends are conversational user edges and voice assistants. Few brands such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon are following this trend to compete for market share. Voice interfaces progress at an additional rate in these industries of various kinds, ranging from healthcare to banking, and these companies are striving to be a part of this revolution.

In the last couple of years, the user has been conveying, and lately, the queries related to why and where they say have increased. Totally context-based understanding is the next level in a voice which is becoming an integral part in customers’ lives. Users wishing to take a personalized experience in dealing with technology, with specifications to voice. Personalization in specific is an important part as there are many frictional points in voice technology in the past. Adoption of technology is wide; they must provide a worthy experience, which can be witnessed in 2019.

CONCLUSION:

Voice Assistant Application Market has captured a lot of importance all across where growth awareness benefits are associated with cloud-based solutions. They emphasize more on developing strong cloud- oriented solutions for clients, as there are so many organizations which have migrated to private or maybe to a public cloud. In this evolved era, technology totally based on machine learning, speech recognition, and natural language understanding are attaining connection with capabilities. As a result, they will soon have artificial intelligent assistants for helping in every aspect of their lives. Also, the Global Voice Assistant Application Market is expected to rise at a market growth of 29.7% GAGR over the forecast period.

[confusedunit]

Universe of Unreality - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 -  "...What happened to Dr. Freeman?" The Cascade has happened, and the team is separated. Time to group up. ...Mostly.

When Dr. Freeman woke, the first thing he felt was pain.

His head hurt badly, something inside his torso was wrong, and as he woke further he just felt waves of pain. What happened? He remembered...well, he remembered two separate things, which couldn't have happened at the same time, and that confused him even more. He didn't want to think anymore.

He opened his eyes, and immediately closed them with a groan. No, nevermind, he wanted to get up but maybe he doesn't want to do that anymore either. The room was too bright, his headache too severe, and his glasses were missing. How the hell did he lose his glasses? …Maybe when he fell from the catwalk, actually, huh. That would make sense. At least that's one thing that was doing so. He'd take it.

He finally pushed himself to open his eyes again, slowly sitting up as it felt like the room was spinning. The room can't be spinning, he insisted to himself, the machine is the part that spins. He blinked quickly. Right, the anti-mass spectrometer, that seemed to be pretty stable for now, as far as he could tell with his headache and blurry vision. How did that happen? …Oh right, he did that. Huh. Pretty smart.

…What was he thinking about? Right, pain. Pain is bad, so he needed to get out of the room and get help. Hopefully someone was still out there. They wouldn't...abandon him, right? He pushed himself to his feet, slowly staggering towards the door. Everything hurt, but he knew he needed to get out of there. That was the one lingering thought in his mind: leave, and the others will help you.

He rubbed at his face with one hand, the other arm wrapped around his torso as he stepped into the airlock. No one was left in there, and he moved across the room to try to use the scanner. He heard it spark and hiss, but when the door didn't open he just stepped back. A thought occurred to him, and he moved his free hand to press against the lambda on his chest. "...User status." He wheezed, holding back a cough. "Please..."

The HEV suit whirred around him, and he felt it more than heard it. For a brief moment, it calmed him. But the words it spoke did not. "User health currently, 54%."

"...Well, shit." He didn't hold back the cough, this time, leaning against the wall for support.

"Warning!" The HEV suit continued. "Blood loss, detected! Internal damage, detected! Blunt force trauma, detected! Minor fracture, detected!"

He had to get out. He had to get out of the room. Why wouldn't the scanner work? Please? He shoved at it with his hand, mumbling some kind of request that he immediately forgot as he noticed that the door had opened. When did that happen?

"...Wow, I am...really out of it. Shit..." He staggered through the door, before the weight on his leg was too great and he dropped to the ground. Okay, guess he found where the fracture was.

Maybe he'd just...wait here. Just...rest for a while. Gather his strength, and...get up in a minute. He could do that...Just a minute of rest...

-

Bubby didn't feel fear very often.

Sure, during their time in the last Cascade, he had been afraid for his life, but this bone deep, blood chilling fear? That wasn't common. He didn't like it at all, because of what it meant. Emotional connections were dangerous, that was something that he knew quite well. So to have that kind of reaction, due to someone else...that was a threat. A weakness that he could not afford to show.

He skid as he tried to take a corner too fast, slamming into the wall before he broke off into a sprint again. He was Bubby, Black Mesa experiment, perfect lifeform with seven different doctorates. He didn't have weaknesses. He had skills, had strengths. He had no time for weaknesses. Weaknesses meant a lack of perfection, and were an active threat to his life.

As he entered the elevator and pressed the button to descend, he crossed his arms and nervously tapped his foot. …It was only a threat if others were around, and for the moment...he was alone. He could be honest, for a brief moment. And if he was honest? He was terrified.

Dr. Freeman was one of the few scientists who hadn't treated him like garbage during his entire life at the facility. Harold, Tommy, even Benry most of the time was on that short list of people he felt he could trust, even if he could never admit it to them. He couldn't lose them. Any of them. The boss battle before had been self defense, but now, he hoped he wouldn't have to fight Benry a second time. He didn't know if he could take it.

…He also didn't know if Dr. Freeman could take what had happened in the chamber. Something was different, and he didn't like it. The machine was still running, still spinning, still droning on in strange otherworldly musical tones that put him on edge. Gordon had survived before, but this wasn't Gordon, this was Dr. Freeman, and that made him all the more anxious.

…As long as he was being honest, he was worried about Gordon too. He didn't know how the man had gotten into the facility, and he had no idea how he had gotten out either. But the lack of knowing where he was didn't help his mood. Maybe...maybe they'd be able to find him, later. Harold had been sure that Gordon would know what to do to help them, maybe...maybe he was right.

As the door of the elevator opened, he took off in a sprint again, shoving those emotions back into the mental closet where they belonged. But as he ran, he saw something that caught him off guard enough that he nearly tripped. There, in the middle of the hallway, was Dr. Freeman. He was slumped over slightly, breathing rough, and...a security helmet on his head? It must have been Benry's, but why would he abandon Dr.  Freeman in the middle of the hallway?

He slowed his pace, crouching down in front of the younger man. "...Dr. Freeman? Are you...alright?"

He slowly looked up, giving a smile that definitely indicated he was in pain. "...Bubby." He swayed lightly. "I'm...so glad to see you..."

"I'm glad you can see me, with your glasses missing." He reached over for a discarded medical pack. "What the hell happened in there? Why's the machine still working?"

"Oh, I think...I did that?" He shrugged, wincing as he did so. "...Wanted to shut it down, but...Benry's console got fucked." He imitated an explosion noise. "Had to stabilize instead..."

He was quiet, as he reached for the medical tube on the suit. "...I can get you patched up a bit, but we'll need to get back up to the locker room to reach a real medical station. Do you think you can manage that?"

"No." He gave a sad laugh. "Don't...really have much of a choice though, huh."

He plugged the tube into the medical pack, looking away. Seeing Dr. Freeman in such a state reminded him far too much of Gordon days ago. It made him feel sick, even if he hadn't caused the problem this time.

"...Bubby?"

He looked over, adjusting his glasses. "...Yes?"

He smiled, looking a bit less in pain as the medical kit beeped. "...Thanks for coming for me."

There was a lot to unpack, in that sentence. He threw those thoughts with the others in the mental closet. "...Of course, Dr. Freeman. I wouldn't leave you here." He disconnected the kit, tossing it away. "Here, lean against me. We're getting the hell out of here."

-

Dr. Coomer woke with a start, pushing himself to his feet immediately. The world had stopped falling apart, which was good news, but the floor still shook, which definitely seemed very bad. He quickly took stock of the situation; he was in the same room they had just been hiding in when everything went wrong, he was not wounded in any way that he could tell, and he was alone.

Okay. That was different to the last time he remembered suffering through a Resonance Cascade, but at this point the list of things that hadn't changed was smaller than anything else, so it wasn't really a concern anymore. He could still do what he did last time.

He tore the door to the observation room off of it's tracks, tossing it behind him as he moved inside. The blood didn't bother him, in the room. He'd already seen much worse than this. He hurried over to the window, looking down into the room. "Hello? Is anyone out-"

His voice cut off, as the situation hit him. There was no one in there, no orange HEV suit pushing up from the ground, no voice speaking to answer him. Only a still spinning radioactive laser and the haunting tones the crystal within kept droning out to nothing and no one.

Shit was absolutely fucked this time around, it seemed.

But what could he do about it? He was Dr. Coomer, Waste Management specialist, Black Mesa cloning experiment, nuclear physicist, and all the other titles that he'd earned as himself and as his clones over the past...however long it had been. He also was none of those things, and was an AI in a videogame that had broken past his boundaries and come out the other side alive. He was Dr. Harold Coomer, living breathing and bleeding human test subject, and nothing but bits of code that were useless on their own.

The AI could do nothing to change this, Dr. Coomer thought to himself, but Harold could.

He turned to the main console, entering several keypresses until he heard a beep and a small object stuck out of the side. He took the flash drive and pocketed it quickly, moving away before the console could start to spark again. This he could do, holding onto data to be shared at a later time. Perhaps this data would help them. Perhaps all it would do was put Dr. Freeman at ease, that his experiment hadn't been in vain. But regardless of what that would do, he now had it. And he would hold tightly onto it.

He quickly looked over at the other door as he heard it open, feeling his concern ease. "Ah, hello Bubby, Dr. Freeman, Tom-" He blinked. "...Where's Tommy?"

"...I, uh..." Bubby looked up from where he held Dr. Freeman, the younger man's arm held over his shoulders to support him. "...Honestly, I'd hoped he was with you."

"What happened?" He moved close, worrying over the two.

"He was like this when I found him. He's...real fucked up." He took a breath. "...Can you take him? We need to get to a medical station. I've got my gun, but without Tommy I'm all we've got."

Dr. Freeman seemed to suddenly become aware, at that moment, looking concerned. "...Tommy owns a gun?"

Bubby blinked, before looking down at Dr. Coomer. "...Please?"

"Wait, when did Tommy get a gun? Who gave Tommy a gun?"

Dr. Coomer nodded. "Of course. We'll need your sharp aim to get out of here alive." He gently picked up Dr. Freeman in his arms, holding him close.

"Ow-"

"I know, Dr. Freeman, but we'll be home free soon! We just need to follow Bubby, and you'll be right as rain." He hoped he was telling the truth. "Just hold on."

-

As Tommy came to, he realized something unplanned had happened.

He'd slept before, of course. Most creatures he'd met over his lifetime had been capable of sleep in some form. But waking up from what Benrey had called 'respawning' felt...gross. Everything was slow, as he felt his body knitting itself back into place, pulling and pushing to maintain the appearance that people had come to expect from him. He felt tired.

He took a slow glance around, relaxing as he realized he was near the breakroom. All he had to do was get inside, and get a soda. The speed of sight would cancel out the slowness he was experiencing, and he'd be back to normal time while his body finished fixing itself. Ingenious. God, he was so fucking smart sometimes.

It felt like it took forever to make it to the breakroom, and while he waited the what felt like eternity for the  soda to dispense he took stock of himself. He was definitely recovering from reforming himself, which meant he took a hit for someone. Had it been just one or both of them? The lack of energy in his mind likely meant only one, he was used to that feeling of being drained when he had to pull them back to life. And from the lack of bone deep exhaustion, he assumed it had been Bubby that he had rescued. Every time he pulled Dr. Coomer back from the brink, it was almost debilitatingly exhausting. He really, really needed to talk with the man about engaging in some self care. Despite what Black Mesa had taught him, he was still a man, not a machine, his augmentations be damned. Maybe he'd just force them to ransack the first cafeteria they find, get them to actually eat something this time. He was sure they'd need their strength even more this time than the last.

As he finally drank his soda, he relaxed, feeling time return to normalcy. Now he could actually do something, thank God. Okay, if he was this far out of place, where would the others be heading...He nodded to himself, tossing the empty can in the trash. The locker room, that's where they had gathered up before. Hopefully they'd return again.

He entered the room, stopping in his tracks as he saw a skeleton all the way at the HEV charging station angrily pounding a fist against the metal. He watched for a brief moment. "...Benrey?"

The skeleton turned quickly, rushing over to him. Sweet Voice bubbles poured out of his mouth like a waterfall, strobing through so many colors that Tommy couldn't even try to follow.

"H-hey, just- settle down for a moment." He put a hand on the skeleton's shoulder. "You're recovering too?"

He nodded, tilting his skull for his sockets to point directly at Tommy's eyes.

After a moment of staring, he felt he understood. "...I'll protect him until you come back."

The skeleton watched for a moment longer, before lifting a hand, pinky extended.

He smiled a bit, nodding as he locked pinkies. "Promise."

The skeleton nodded once, taking his hand back. He blew one more large bubble of Sweet Voice, a deep blue, that popped in Tommy's face.

As his vision cleared, the skeleton was gone.

-

Darnold groaned, rubbing at his face as he woke on the floor. What the hell was going on? Last thing he remembered, he was minding his own damn business, and next thing he sees is the dust in front of him.

He really hoped no one had blown up the facility above him. That would make leaving his lab at the end of the day much more difficult than it needed to be. But then again, when did Black Mesa ever do anything that wasn't inconvenient? Never, as far as he was aware. God, he was so tired of their bullshit.

He pushed himself to sit, pressing at his temples. He had a splitting headache, but he had a drink for that, that would be easy to solve. Other than that, and being absolutely covered in dust, he seemed just fine. And his lab didn't seem much worse for wear either, which was a wonderful positive.

He shook his head, pushing himself to his feet and dusting himself off. What an annoyance. Hopefully he could get back to work, it was something very crucial and important.

He turned around, to right his chair and return to his station.

He staggered back, at the sheer amount of notes that covered his workstation. Post-it notes, scraps of paper, notebook pages ripped apart and taped to the wall, and all of them were covered with words. His words, he could tell that was his handwriting. He'd recognize that anywhere.

He cautiously moved closer, finding a note resting on top of a notebook of his. He picked up the note, reading it to himself.

"...You are likely confused. This is a fair response. And as you'll find, it is exactly what Black Mesa intends. But you have all the data you need, and you collected it yourself. Read this, then read the notebook below. It should get you up to speed. Signed...Darnold."

He set down the note, righted his chair, and picked up the notebook. He settled in to read.

[hellofastestnewsfan]

One of the pandemic’s most insidious misconceptions is getting closer to explicit national policy. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that a top Trump medical adviser, Scott Atlas, has been “urging the White House to embrace a controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy.” Atlas subsequently denied the report, though during his time as a Fox News commentator he consistently argued in favor of fringe approaches that go hand in hand with the idea: namely that city and state shutdowns are deadlier than the coronavirus itself.

The idea of abandoning preventive measures and letting the virus infect people has already gotten traction in the administration. Just last week, Atlas moved to ease up on the most important strategy to fight the virus—widespread testing—by telling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change their guidelines to advise against testing asymptomatic people. On Monday night, the president referenced the concept in an appearance on Fox News, explaining, “Once you get to a certain number—we use the word herd—once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away.”

But“herd immunity strategy” is a contradiction in terms, in that herd immunity is the absence of a strategy. Herd immunity is an important public-health concept, developed and used to guide vaccination policy. It involves a calculation of the percentage of people in a population who would need to achieve immunity in order to prevent an outbreak. The same concept offers little such guidance during an ongoing pandemic without a vaccine. If it were a military strategy, it would mean letting the enemy tear through you until they stop because there’s no one left to attack.

[Read: A new understanding of herd immunity]

We may hear even more talk of herd immunity as the election nears, when Trump has an incentive to claim that the pandemic is almost over. So now is a good time to revisit exactly what herd immunity means and, perhaps more important, what it doesn’t. I talked with Howard Forman, a health-policy professor at Yale University who has followed the data on how “herd-immunity strategies” have gone in various countries. The full conversation appears on the latest episode of Social Distance, which I host with Katherine Wells, The Atlantic’s executive producer of podcasts. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Listen to the interview here:

Subscribe to Social Distance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.

James Hamblin: What do you make of news about a “herd-immunity strategy” reportedly being discussed in the White House?

Howard Forman: This is one of these topics that very few people understand. [People] use the term “herd immunity” flippantly. Some talk about it as a policy prescription without knowing what it even means. And I think that there’s a lot of nuance here. In a situation like this where we’ve already lost 180,000 lives, we shouldn’t be flippant about things. We should be thinking about how to avoid as much death as possible, and resume life as well as possible.

Whenever people talk about herd immunity, whenever they talk about ‘ripping the Band-Aid off’ or any of those things, it is an absolutely dangerous idea. Now, I think there are lessons to be learned from Sweden, and no one should be flippant about saying Sweden was horrific or the worst thing that could have happened. But Sweden ultimately did not pursue the policy that we seem to be pursuing right now.

Katherine Wells: I thought they did?

Hamblin: Sweden became this reportedly textbook case of using a “herd immunity” approach, or at least, they initially said they were going to.

Forman: It started off with Sweden and the United Kingdom talking about pursuing herd immunity. Then England got cold feet and Sweden supposedly proceeded with this, but they didn’t. Sweden did a lot of things to curtail the spread. What people seem to not understand is that we do things in our country, even in some areas that are “still shut down” that would not be tolerated in Sweden. They still have a ban on gatherings of 50 people or more.

[Read: The U.K.’s coronavirus ‘herd immunity’ debacle]

Wells: Oh! I feel like the picture of Sweden I have in my mind is everyone outside without masks enjoying the summer, all together.

Forman: For the most part, they are without masks. But they still have a complete ban on visiting retirement homes. They still have a ban on public gatherings of 50 people. Gatherings for religious practice? Banned. Theatrical and cinema performances? Banned. Concerts? Banned. And this is what bothers me. Our president did a rally in Tulsa. That would have been banned in Sweden.

Hamblin: So if anything, we’re the country that’s maybe closest to this “herd immunity” approach? I don’t even want to use that term because we’re doing a lot as well. But no one is honestly just letting the thing run wild, as the idea might suggest.

Forman: That’s absolutely correct. If you have a good understanding of herd immunity, then you know that it means that if we achieve a certain percent of immunity in the population then you cannot get an epidemic outbreak in that community. You can still get spread. You could still have a person come to our country with measles and go into a classroom and somebody will get measles from that person, but you will not have a measles outbreak because there are sufficient numbers of people that are immune to measles that in the process of trying to spread, the virus will extinguish itself. You might get two or three people infected, but it will never take off again. That’s herd immunity. That requires individuals to be truly immune to the virus, which means that the virus not only doesn’t affect you and cause you to get sick, but you actually can’t get infected. You can’t spread the virus if somebody comes in proximity to you.

Wells: And we should mention, just always keeping in mind that herd immunity, while maybe a relief now, would have come at the cost of many lives.

Forman: At the cost of many lives, and potentially, morbidity that we don’t know about yet. I say this with a lot of caution, but we have no idea whether having had this infection means that, ten years from now, you have an elevated risk of lymphoma. There’s not any indication that it would, but we just don't know. We know that hepatitis C leads to liver cancer. We know that human papillomavirus leads to cervical cancer. We know that HIV leads to certain cancers. I don't want people to panic over that possibility because I think that’s unnecessary, but just to make the point that we don’t know. So even if you thought you could get to a vaccination-equivalent immunity through infection, you still run risks beyond the immediate mortality and the immediate morbidity.

Hamblin: Right, there are things we’re not seeing that we need to consider. And so, without suggesting specifically that this virus is causing cancer, we have no idea what the long-term effects will turn out to be and so we don't want to mess around with infecting anyone who doesn’t need to be infected.

Forman: Right. And by the way, there’s never been a real case of herd immunity through infection.

Wells: For any disease ever?

Forman: Correct. In fact, the term itself didn’t arise until just a few decades ago when we had vaccination programs. There are cases where, as large waves of infection passed through communities, you had lower levels of outbreak in most years, and then you would have epidemic outbreaks other years. That probably is the closest thing, but that’s not herd immunity. You’re still having outbreaks all the time. You’re just having bigger waves and smaller waves.

Wells: The term “herd-immunity strategy” makes even less sense to me than it did before.

Forman: We know how much testing alone could do to help us here. Combine massive testing with things like masking and social distancing, and then you have to ask yourself: Why would you allow people to just die in such large numbers when you have these alternatives that are readily available to us? And that, quite frankly, could allow us to get much closer to a normal life than we are right now.

Wells: Well, what’s the answer?

Forman: Honestly, I am at a loss. I’m hoping, by the end of November, the entrepreneurs who have been developing these cheap tests are going to allow us to test at such a massive scale at such a low cost that we’ll be able to substantially impact this in a way that we haven’t so far. But I’m also 100 percent convinced that if our federal government had thought about this back in February and March and decided that they were going to commit even one tenth of the amount of money that they have committed to a vaccine to a cheap testing initiative, that we would have already saved tens of thousands of lives and certainly would have saved tens of thousands more going forward.

I co-wrote an op-ed two months ago where we said that testing is the vaccine. And at that time, I was quarreling about whether we should say $10 or $20 per test as being achievable. Now we’re talking about $1 to $5 for these tests. This is the way out until we have a vaccine.

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2EL5zB0

[maylocnuocplasma]

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Person to person conversation for a person with Aspergers may find it difficult in communicating when it comes to finding a dating partner. This is when discussion comes into play mainly because when primary meeting a dating partner, many of us are generally nervous. And by getting to know the potential time through discussion communication at a internet dating site, this will make communicating so much easier for any Aspie or one with Autism.

Put yourself to choose from, build your profile, share the interests and you should soon experience people wanting to know more about you. Take the opportunity supplied by simply online dating and ‘meet’ new people without the problems of travel and leisure. Real connections start on the net every single day, join us and become some of those lucky persons.

Over the years we now have invented various technical devices, mobile technology, television and computer technology being the most important and effective to the lifestyle. These individual technical devices are evolving into one another. Just like mobile technology now presents new options and possesses merged with television and computer technology. We have gone by just contacting people to communicate to sending text messages, messaging such as Facebook and twitter, Imessage and Blackberry Messenger and the more recently Whatsapp, which lets you Imessage and Blackberry Concept people. Creating an online business, watching television on your phone and news applications, nowadays rather than picking up a newspaper or waiting for good news on the tv or r / c, you can look at that straight away with your phone by simply entering a credit card applicatoin such as the BASSE CONSOMMATION News application on my phone. Games, mailing, photography, video-recording and they have now even evolved in 3D technology.

These new environments have us hooked to the cell phones, iPods to the magnitude that they have end up being the extensions of your selves in an interconnected internet babble and new ways of human interpersonal interconnected memes; where viruses, according to media traditions enthusiast “Bill Myself Tuesday”: malware can act like a logic analyzer. Seeing that the strain goes through the operating system, this stops at certain checkpoints, doing it is rounds in a given timeframe. This checkpoint will record back what the situation is.

Terminology makes all of us human. We use this language as a buggy in our interrogating and getting together with life and within life. We use language to talk, sing, speech our opinions, disagreement, thoughts, purpose communicate, produce, and so forth, within our day to day lives. It is a complex effect you mediated by each person’s psychological makeup, social status, age, and just how the individual uses the information.

Contemporary Public environments will be projected and carried extensively by the press, as in the case of Fergusson and New york city in the wake of the killers of Africa American males and males. This is a very toxic environment that did not only start out with these two murders talked about previously mentioned. This is also an instance of the Cop being over the law, which is a spin-off and carry-over of many years of oppression, reductions, division and Apartheid which was the software program of lifestyle in the United States. The fragmented followers, societies and several types of environs in the states came to a head the moment these two murders happened in sequence of one an alternative.

Disabled Sole Woman Expecting to Date

Going out with websites intended for the incapable have been an excellent service for those living with disability or constraining medical conditions. For the duration of his loss of life, McLuhan’s status was in all probability at its least expensive ebb. The media homework centre he founded by Toronto University had been closed down down. The period of his popular celebrity – if he had made an appearance on TV, offered numerous open public lectures, and made a cameo appearance (as himself) in Hard woody Allen’s film Annie Hall — all this was at the past. Within the academic globe there was wide-spread doubt regarding his hypotheses. Today, however , interest is definitely reviving. His 1964 publication Understanding Mass media has been reprinted by Routledge Classics each year since 2001 (three intervals in 2008). People are examining McLuhan, and it is not too difficult to know why.

Specifically! If you can afford them and love and care for these people go for it nevertheless most people with large households these days wrap up living about welfare as they aren’t afford all the children they may have bought in the world plus the children are the ones that suffer, the ones that aren’t making money off t. sixth is v. shows.

My very own doctoral dissertation—Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media (1979)—in a sense required McLuhan’s observation that electronic media call to mind oral habits of interaction and changed it to a theory that media become more natural, a reduced amount of artificial, even more human, because they evolve. Different theorists—ranging right from Darwin to Popper—played key roles within my work, although McLuhan was your key aid. His traditional connections popped up throughout the dissertation, because they continue to do it whenever I just write about landline calls.

Fractalnoia – making impression of our universe entirely in today’s tense, by drawing internet connections between elements – sometimes inappropriately. The conspiracy hypotheses of the web, the use of Big Data to predict the direction of entire masse, and the frenzied effort of presidency to function without having grand narrative. ” Nonetheless also the emerging skill of design recognition” and the campaigns of people to map the earth as a group of relationships known as TheBrain — a grandchild of McLuhan’s global village”.

Through its continual barrage and consistent repeating the modern news flash allows a virus to multiply into our greatly self-referential advertising space, and has an ability to comment on the media itself. Rushkoff says that: “The viral covering permits the memes to spread just before they have a likelihood to be marginalized. Viruses lounger themselves in irony and appeal to the objective sensibilities of the viewers. Viral shells may be understood seeing that framing gadgets that induce us to distance ourselves from the problems within these people. This objectification of the problems allows us to understand the symbols in our media because symbols and necessarily reality. As well, we are made mindful of the complexities beneath evidently simple illustrations of our universe. ” In cases like this, a contemporary society no longer simply uses technology as a support but instead is shaped by it.

It is quite difficult pertaining to disabled women to meet males unlike just for other ladies that are typical. From the period when online dating websites and companies have signed up with hand in hand to eliminate this problem, their work have been paid off since it contains turned to end up being achievable intended for disabled females to have a time. Dating a disabled woman is not different from going out with a woman who does not have any physical problem.

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