#if he had more medical knowledge he probably COULD use his survey skills to find out about illness and stuff!!

[scribesynnox]

Rereading The Greatest Estate Developer (as one does of course), and I just got to the part where Lloyd surveyed the giant Cremo lobster monster in order to find out what it’s made of and now I’m just wondering.. could he do the same with a human?

The human body is chemically equivalent to a mix of water (35 L), carbon (20 kg), ammonia (4 L), lime (1.5 kg), phosphorus (800 g), salt (250 g), saltpeter (100 g), sulfur (80 g), fluorine (7.5 g), iron (5 g), silicon (3 g) and trace amounts of fifteen other elements.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #401

“my love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses”

Do you typically do your makeup the same each time? Or do you like to change it up often? IF I wear makeup, it's essentially always the same. Who is the last person you were in a room with just the two of you? What were you doing? Yesterday with Mom. We were trying to find the best deal on Eco Earth, a substrate we're getting for Venus. What was the last really good book you read, and what was it about? If we're talking REALLY good book, then The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In short summary, it's a dystopian future novel where women are now basically just objects used only for repopulation, even having their names stripped from them. They follow very strict rules as society has returned to horrible misogyny. As a woman, the "oh my god, this is possible" aspect of it is terrifying, and it causes such a sense of disgust and urge to ensure women rights always continue to be fought for. Do you feel safe in your country? For the most part, I'd say. I guess. There are places I'd feel safer, though. How many meals do you eat a day? Three. Have you ever performed a solo dance in front of a crowd? No, but I was supposed to my senior year in high school; the seniors at my dance studio were always welcome to do a solo in celebration. Mine was a modern dance to "Coma White" by Marilyn Manson, wanting to tell a story about depression and how being medicated could feel, but I eventually decided like halfway through learning the choreography that I was just too nervous to do a solo. Have you ever sung a solo? No. When you go to McDonalds, what drink do you usually get? Coke. Have you ever had to call and complain about a product you bought? No. Do you own a designer purse? Definitely not. I'm not wasting that much money on something like that. What’s the weirdest rumor you’ve ever heard about yourself? Apparently, Jason and I had a baby in high school even though I was obviously never pregnant. To my knowledge, it was started by his ex. Who is now a good friend of mine lmaooo. Life is funny. What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon growing up? Pokemon, of course. Would you ever have an affair? Nope. Would you ever have a one night stand? Nope. Where you present at any major historical events (e.g. 9/11)? No. What are your opinions on marijuana legalization? Legalize it, but treat it similarly to alcohol in that driving under the influence is illegal and punishable, and I believe you should be of a certain age. How about abortion? I am pro-choice. I was pro-life most of my own life, but now I am very firm about a mother being able to choose if she wants to endure a pregnancy or not. Like, that is a MASSIVE life event that almost inevitably changes - and sometimes traumatizes - people. I do believe a fetus is its own body and not part of the mother's, but rather in the mother's, but the belief that a woman decides what she wants in her body is her choice, too. I'm not very fond of people treating abortion as a simple, regular form of birth control, like it's nothing but an "lol whoops," but I still believe it is ultimately her decision, and she should always be free of judgment for doing what is best for her. Do you wear skirts or dresses more often? Neither. I wouldn't dare wear a skirt more so, though. What do you think about tipping at restaurants? There should always be an expected minimum, imo, unless the person was truly, sincerely, genuinely fucking awful. Waiters do not have an easy job, fight me about it, and they're just trying to survive while putting on a happy, jovial face, all the while dealing with hungry people who can be such assholes. I believe the actual tip should relate to actual service, but again, give them something. Would you ever get back together with any of your exes? One, absolutely. The other would take a shitload of consideration and proper communication on his part. Do you have a preferred coffee brand? No, because I don't like coffee. Do you usually befriend your coworkers, or do you prefer to keep work separate from your personal life? IF I had a job, I'd like to build a friendship with those I have to engage with almost every day. What is something you frequently forget? Dates, ages, names, what I was about to do five seconds before I forgot... Pretty much everything. My memory is frightfully poor. Is there any drama currently going on with your family? No. When you take a nap, do you nap in bed or on the couch? In my bed. Were you raised by both of your parents? If not, then who raised you? Both; my parents split when I was somewhere around 17, though, but I'd say there wasn't much more "raising" to do at that age. Have you ever stolen anything? If so, why? No. Have you ever plagiarized someone else's work? Hell no. What's your most-used mode of transportation? My mom's car. Have you ever taught someone else a useful skill? Not to my recollection. Does seeing everyone else's 'perfect lives' posted on social media ever bring you down or affect how you feel about yourself? It actually does, honestly. Not ALWAYS, but if I'm being honest, it does most of the time. I've contemplated deleting Facebook for that reason, but with is also comes things that make me happy, and I think I'd feel even more isolated without it. What is your favorite Hostess/Little Debbie snack? This is SO impossible for me to answer. I loooove Hostess and Little Debbie treats. I want to say honeybuns, but I also love those chocolate cupcakes with the white swirls on top, as well as Twinkies. Very few exist that I don't like. Do you/your family buy loafs from the bakery or bagged on the shelf? We just buy bagged bread. What’s the best news you’ve gotten lately? My APAP mask is definitively WORKING!!!!! :') Mom got an app that connects to the machine via Bluetooth that monitors the effectiveness of the mask, evaluating many factors of your sleep, and it's detecting a definite decrease in disruptive behaviors or something like that. It is so, SO encouraging to know that. ^And, the worst? Hm. Oh, probably some news on something serious a good friend is going through, but I don't feel it's my right to disclose what. It's just a very worrying and potentially dangerous issue that I wish I could help her with. Would you rather receive (or give) flowers, chocolates or jewelry? I'd appreciate any, but my fat ass is drawn to the chocolate, ha ha. What *I* would give would vary depending on what the person liked. How do you feel about coconut? Smells lovely, but is otherwise gross. ^ Ever cracked one open? No, but omg I've always wanted to, haha. What’s the best thing about being your gender? I guess the fact it's more "normal" and "accepted" to show our emotions. Fuck that generalization, though. I don't give a shit what your gender is, you experiencing emotions is NORMAL and welcomed to be expressed. ^ And the worst thing? The ability to be raped and impregnated by it. Do you do your part to save the earth? I don't do nearly enough. :/ We recycle, but that's about it. Well, none of us DARE to litter either, but I still don't feel like it's as much as the earth deserves from its denizens. Who do you think should have their portrait on a bill? I don't know or care. Why did you last feel exhausted? Yesterday was my niece's birthday, and I spent essentially ALL day playing with her and her brother. I have a very limited battery when it comes to kids, and I was running on empty for hours. My anxiety was SO high and I really needed a break from them, but they're too young to really understand that Aunt Britt can only socially run for so long before I'm completely burnt out, and TRUST ME, I was there for sure. I didn't want them to think they did something wrong, you know? I just had to keep going. I slept like a baby last night though for sure, haha. Have you ever used emotional blackmail to get your own way? Wow, no. Has anybody ever used emotional blackmail on you? No. Who did you last worry about and why? Sara for health reasons. Are you currently looking for a new place to live? Not actively, but Mom and I definitely want to move. We feel very out-of-place here in the suburbs. Which would you prefer as a view; mountains or the sea? Mountains. Do you have a mouse for your laptop? (Assuming you have a laptop) Yes. I canNOT play games with a trackpad. Do you apologize a lot? Extremely excessively. When you get married what do you think you’ll put most of your focus and money into? Do you mean like, for the wedding? In that case, probably the venue. Being a photography buff, I want a place I think is really pretty to have pictures taken. What’s something you complain about frequently? My legs hurting, my weight, and being hot. Do you have anything planned for the summer? Nope, and that's fine with me. I'd rather stay inside away from the heat. Who usually makes dinner in your household? My ma. Do you have a blog? Just on Tumblr. Does anyone in your family snore loudly? My mother does because of gerd, and at least when my father still lived with us, he snored super loud, too. Do you want to fix anything with anyone? Yeah, a few people. What shows do you watch? Right now, only Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty. Whenever The Edge of Sleep comes out, I will 110% be watching that, too, because Mark is a key actor in it. :') Plus the concept seems super cool. Have you ever broken someone’s heart? I don't know. Who was the last person you had a conversation with on the phone? Me mum. Does the song you’re currently listening to remind you of anyone specific? No, given it has like... one lyric, haha. Do you own any TV show soundtracks? No. Last thing you did that made you feel like an adult? I mean I guess sign myself in at the doctor's. What’s your favorite picture of your mom? Dad? Oh my god, there's a candid one I got of Mom laughing when she was posing as my subject for a photography assignment, and I cherish it with ALL my heart. I want to share it with essentially the whole world, but yeah, I'm not gonna put my mom's picture here. As for my dad, I like this one I took of us at Red Lobster for his birthday a year or two back. Last TV show series you finished? Fullmetal Alchemist with Sara. Favorite flavor of cream cheese? Regular. What US state would you like to visit? Alaska. Last meal you made yourself? I put a chicken pesto thing in the microwave earlier for dinner.

[theadrogna]

@singledarkshade​ came up with the Dream Show challenge, where we had to give her a list of 7 TV shows or films and we were given a cast of 7 actors in return. Then I got carried away and this is the result: Diaspora

Synopsis:

Earth seeded the galaxy with colonies, sending out ships full of colonists in suspended animation with everything they needed for a life elsewhere. That was a generation ago and now a new ship, the Linnaeus, has been sent to check on the colonies that Earth founded. Have they prospered and conquered new worlds or are they failing and in need of help to survive? The Linnaeus with its team of scientists and problem solvers is Earth’s mission to re-establish contact. The colonies are a long way from Earth and the rules are different when you’re so far from home.

Cast:

Dr Aneurin “Nye” Castell (Arthur Darvill): Nye is the team’s xeno-ecologist and scientific lead. He’s something of an idealist, and a brilliant academic, but never saw himself going into space again. Parsa is an old friend and talked him into joining the crew as an opportunity for furthering his research. He specialises in finding out what makes an Earth-like world inhabitable for humans, and looking at alien ecosystems to investigate how they function. He usually ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to sorting out what’s going wrong with a colony. He is able to make intuitive leaps that can be hard for others to follow, but is accepting that not everyone can always keep up. He doesn’t particularly enjoy walking into the unknown, but his scientific curiosity is why he’s here.

Dr Parsa Nazari (Cas Anvar): Leader of the expedition. Originally a scientist himself, he left academia and moved into the role of mission specialist. He’s the one to make the tough decisions, even if sometimes that doesn’t make him popular, especially with his friend, Nye. He’s been working towards leading the Linnaeus mission his whole life, and recruited only the best for the expedition. He has to juggle the scientific side of the mission with the political, and that isn’t always easy, but he’s good at finding acceptable compromises. He leaves behind a divorced husband and two kids to head up the Linnaeus mission.

Rosalind Fitzroy (Torri Higginson): A politician. She’s not well liked amongst the crew, and Parsa fought to exclude her but failed. She is ambitious, but so far her career hasn’t gone as planned. She is able to read people and manipulate them, although often less effectively than she thinks. She’s on the team to remind the colonies that they’re still subject to Earth law and that they’re expected to help their home world, but her role is also smoothing the way for the team with the local authorities. If the colony need advice on how to set up new systems of government or on their economy then Rosalind can help with that too. This could be the most important job of her life, but it’s one that most politicians wouldn’t want, but she sees it as a stepping stone to something better.

Dr Carrie Joshua (Hannah John-Kamen): Carrie is a medical doctor. Her job is to assess the physical health of the colonists and help them with medicines, nutrition and fitness. One of her biggest concerns is how human biology interacts with the new worlds. She enjoys trekking and climbing, and can be found on the ship’s meagre fitness equipment most days before she begins work. On planet, she’s enthusiastic to explore, even in areas which appear dangerous. She is also fearless when it comes to putting her patients first, something that has been known to get her into trouble. She’s one of six siblings, and misses her big family more than anything else while she’s in space.

Kira Sokolov - (Jodhi May): As both the ship’s engineer and technical problem solver, she thinks fast on her feet to fix broken technology with limited resources. Her motto is that “perfect is the enemy of good”. Ed likes to tease her by calling her MacGyver, but it isn’t that far from the truth. She is tenacious and loyal to the team, but has little time for Rosalind because she used to be the representative for the province where Kira grew up. Her family still live there and have to deal with food shortages and rationed water. She’s bilingual and enjoys learning new swear words in every language she meets, but her most annoyed exclamations are in her mother’s native language, Ukrainian.

Ed Avalino (Taika Waititi): The pilot. He drives the bus, but has to double as the lab technician and general assistant to whoever needs him most when they’re on planet. He is the closest thing that the team have to a security person, and does his best to protect them when on planet and assess threats. He is relatively easy going by nature, but can quickly shift gears to deal with a crisis. He gets on with all of the crew, even Rosalind, but shares a love of danger with Carrie. Parsa apparently met him in a Martian jail, but neither of them will talk about that incident, despite Nye desperately wanting the details. Rumours about his past missions as part of the Earth military are probably untrue, but he doesn’t dissuade anyone from exaggerating them further.

Dr Grace Blackwell (Nafessa Williams): Grace is the xeno-psychology expert on the team. The humans in the colonies are not alone and someone is needed to work out what the aliens want. She also often applies her psychology skills to the humans as well. She’s the youngest and most inexperienced member of the team, and was something of a prodigy. She looks up to Nye as a mentor, but occasionally finds his pure pursuit of the academic to be too much and prefers to listen to her gut. No one ever questions her knowledge of her subject, but she sometimes lacks confidence in herself. She knows that this is a once in a lifetime chance to make a difference and she’s grabbing it with both hands. She is a natural ray of sunshine, but finds the long journeys between planets are the hardest part of the job.

Episodes:

1: The Flight of the Linnaeus (Pilot) – Nye Castell is researching far away planets but hasn’t left the safety of his university in years, when Parsa Nazari invites him to join the Earth’s first trouble shooting mission to the Colonies. Nye is unwilling at first, but Parsa plays upon his need to investigate and learn, and eventually he accepts. Flashbacks give a taste of exactly why he is so unwilling to leave the planet. He puts his Earth-bound affairs in order and reports to the Linneaus facility to begin work. Parsa and Nye build the team, but are blindsided by their superiors’ need to include Rosalind Fitzroy, and an attempt to destroy the entire project by an anarchist spy who claims to know something they don’t.

2: Planetfall – The Linneaus arrives at its first destination, the colony of Gessner. This has been chosen as an easy first test of their readiness and skill, since Gessner has been in regular contact and appears to be doing well. Appearances can be deceiving though. The colonists thrive when they’re young but rapidly die when they reach 60, with one notable exception, the governor of the colony who was elected partly due to his magical longevity. It’s up to the Linnaeus crew to find out what’s going wrong.

3: Downfall - Having discovered that the elderly are being deliberate poisoned when they become older and less useful, Rosalind tells the crew that Gessner is no longer their problem as the solution is beyond their ability to fix. Nye, Carrie and Grace disagree strongly, but Ed points out that they have no resources to forcibly change the leadership of the colony, whilst Parsa sides with Rosalind much to everyone’s surprise. Grace outlines a system of psychological pressure points that could be used to change the governmental structure, but is this really the job of the Linnaeus crew?

4: Homesick - After leaving Gessner, the Linnaeus crew have a long journey to the next planet. Nye sleeps badly and sees his long dead mother in the corridors of the ship. It seems like Nye might be suffering from “orbital fever”, a psychological condition that affects astronauts on long voyages and he reluctantly goes to see Carrie. She agrees with his self-diagnosis and tells Parsa that Nye will need to be taken back to Gessner, as the condition typically worsens rapidly to become psychosis if not treated. As the crew readies to turn back, Grace reveals that she’s being visited by the ghosts of her childhood pets. Other members of the crew also start seeing things, leaving the team in no doubt that something else is going on here. Nye works out some of his childhood issues with his hallucinations.

5: All at Sea - Everyone is pleased to reach their next destination, Aelian. Here the colonists share their world with a primitive, but sentient, species of sea dwellers, which hadn’t shown up in the original survey of the world. This has produced a dangerous tension, and one which Grace is ill-equipped to handle despite this being her area of expertise. The entire crew find themselves drawn into what could be the build up to war between the two species who regard Aelian as home.

6: Adapt and Survive - The Linnaeus lands at the colony site of Ellis to find that the landing site is deserted. All that greets them is the remains of buildings and abandoned vehicles. Nye, Ed and Carrie trek into the jungle to see if they can find any trace of the humans who are supposed to live here, while Parsa, Grace, Kira and Rosalind investigate the ruins of the colony for clues. Nye and his group find the colonists, but they’re changed beyond recognition. Parsa discovers the reason and it becomes clear that the Linnaeus needs to leave rapidly.

7: Lost in Space – The rapid departure of the Linnaeus from Ellis leaves the crew with repairs to make to their broken ship as the Linnaeus drifts further from its course. Kira and Ed lead the effort, putting the scientists to work. Nye reveals a little more about his reluctance to come on the mission. Carrie is sure that Rosalind is hiding something, but he has no idea what. Soon the crew are fighting for their lives, racing to make planetfall before the ship breaks down completely.

8: Borderline – The Linnaeus’ crew are faced with a failing colony, known as Genera, where the colonists never seem to manage to make much progress, but are kind and welcoming. Despite the apparent fertility of the world and its ecosystem, the crew of the Linnaeus realised that the colony could only have a single generation before if it dies out completely. Nye refuses to give up in finding a way for the colony to become viable, but Parsa thinks they should cut their losses. Kira takes a young engineer from the colony under her wing. Rosalind attempts to get a message back to Earth.

9:  Hooked on a Feeling - Genera still remains something of a mystery to Nye, until Carrie informs him that Kira’s apprentice is suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Nye and Parsa investigate, coming to the conclusion that the entire colony are hooked on the same addictive substance, apparently unwittingly. Nye uses all of his skills to find the culprit.

10: Letters from Home – While the ship continues to deal with the ongoing issues of Genera, Ed receives a message packet from home for the crew. Now in addition to the problems of the colony, the crew find that their life on Earth has caught up to them. Rosalind accidentally ends up revealing just how important their mission is, angering the crew who were not kept informed. The Earth is desperate for resources and dying. Perhaps all they can do is to make their mission a success.

11: Mushroom Stew - The Linnaeus has left Genera behind and is on its way to Dorrien, a planet that seems to favour fungi over almost every other form of life. The colonists have faced difficult growing conditions for their crops, which must be kept in vast greenhouses to protect them from contamination with fungal spores. But as rapidly as the colonists clear land, the mushrooms seem to be doing their best to retake their planet.

12: The Great Chain of Being - The colony of Jekyll was a paradise when the colonists landed, but now the local wildlife is dying out, with great tracts of land becoming barren. Nye and Parsa desperately search for the reason behind the devastation, while the rest of the team try to help the colony deal with the effects of the dying ecosystem. It’s up to the crew of the Linnaeus to find a way that the ecosystem and colony can be saved.

13: Paradise Lost - The colony of Masamune is bland and calm. Even the animals don’t eat each other, but something is killing the colonists. Rosalind is under pressure to report positive findings back to Earth, and asks the team to falsify their reports since every colony they have visited is struggling in some way. She drops the bombshell that if the Linnaeus doesn’t do as it is told then it will be recalled to Earth, having failed to fulfil its purpose.

[peanutsandbitterstep]

Compass Heading

Summary: A GBF Soulmate AU. Everyone has arrows on their body that point them to their soulmates. Nehan has one on each arm.

The first moment of clarity in months and it comes from curing the sickness of a fellow slave. The precise measurements of ingredients, combined into medicine that would break a fever. The Magasin are more than pleased that they’ll be getting more value out of him than they paid for.

“This is the one you were talking about?” the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer asks, hand on one hip, surveying Nehan.

“You said you could use all the help you could get,” his master says. “He doesn’t look it, but he’s got a brain in there.”

“Hn. Well, some of the others are going out for supplies. Have him join them. He can’t get into too much trouble like that.”

With a wave of dismissal, the chief gets back to work.

Nehan is sent out with an overseer and some other members of the pharmaceutical team. He doesn’t resent the change in duties. Focusing on remembering plant shapes and habitats means that his mind doesn’t have space to dwell on images of blood and decaying bodies.

He practically becomes part of the medical division and formally does once the epidemic passes.

“You’re turning out more useful than we thought. Keep this up and maybe you’ll actually be something,” his master says.

The promotion would be beneficial, but it’s still the clarity that he chases, until he no longer needs to be actively focused on work to keep the memories at bay. And without the memories comes a lack of feeling that persists, even when he poisons someone and watches him die.

It’s not the death that’s notable or even the killing. He’s seen and done plenty of that already. But this was less of a professional hit and more of along the lines of experimentation of a new poison. The death is messy and drawn out over the course of a few hours, but he can’t muster up anything other than intellectual curiosity.

“Looks like we’ll need to get back to the drawing board,” the chief says, once it’s all over. “Good work everyone.”

A candy is passed to each of them as they file out of the room.

“For me?” Nehan questions, even though he knows he shouldn’t.

“Of course. You’re part of the family too,” the chief says casually, as a few associates trail in to deal with the body.

Family.

The word digs under his skin and sticks, like a splinter he’d once had to spend fifteen minutes locating and pulling out. He sneaks out that night and holds his arm up against the sky, studying how the arrow lines up with the constellations. It’s the first time he’s been able to look at it since the day he’d lost his home.

There are people with nowhere else to go, there in the Magasin. Fellow slaves who make the family their home, and even find their soulmate among the others.

Nehan’s home may be gone, but there’s still one family member he has left.

At the moment, the arrow on his right arm points northeast. Toward another island, maybe even another skydom.

Sudden rage bubbles up from his chest, to his throat, and he wants to shout, ‘Come on! You know how to find me. Come and try to finish me off like you did everyone else!’

He has no illusions about overpowering Xing. The prodigy, hope of the Karm Clan. But he’s gotten better at firing a gun and has enough knowledge about poisons that they could at least go down together.

But Xing doesn’t come. Instead, a guard comes to check on him and make sure he isn’t trying anything stupid.

Some of the others might not know where they came from, but not him. Nehan knows who his family is and why they’re no longer with him.

‘I’m going to see you again,’ he thinks. ‘And when I do, I’ll be ready.’

Years pass and he learns as much as he can. Medicine and drugs, how to coax a sickened organ back to health as well as shut it down. His memory does not fail and his emotions stay out of the way. The family places more and more trust in him and he becomes busier with all the extra responsibilities.

Responsibilities that include research for the drug they’re developing, titled Project Serenity. If they get this right, they’ll get enough power to retake their territories.

Which brings him to the island.

“Nehan!”

“Hello, Mugen. How have you been?”

The lone inhabitant of the island had not been much help when it came to research. As it turns out, someone who can’t be poisoned doesn’t need to consider anything except taste when it comes to ingesting plants. There are other reasons to let him tag along, though.

Mugen tells him about all the changes that have happened since he was away (it rained and he caught a frog), and Nehan tells a heavily edited version of his most recent trip to Auguste.

He’s struggling to convey the idea of a sea when he hears the growl of a timber wolf. Right hand reaching for his gun, he searches the direction it came from.

It’s Mugen who reacts first, punching the first wolf that leaps at him. Nehan picks off two more. Out of the corner of his eye, there’s a blur and he moves just enough that the wolf’s teeth close on his jacket sleeve instead of his right forearm.

He’s aware of Mugen shouting his name, but he’s too busy gutting the monster to respond. It’s silent when he looks up again. Mugen must have taken care of the rest of the pack.

A shadow looms over him and he flinches, raising his gun. It’s only Mugen though, concern on his face as he reaches out.

“I’m all right,” Nehan says, showing Mugen his torn sleeve and unmarked skin. “See? No blood.”

Mugen studies Nehan’s arm, carefully holding back his strength as he turns it over. “Nehan have too.”

“What?” Following his gaze, Nehan sees what he’s referring to. “Oh, the soulmate arrow.”

“Soul...mate?”

“A soulmate is…a person whose life is intertwined with yours.” Scrambling to explain the concept more simply, Nehan says, “It’s two people who are very important to each other. The arrow shows where the other person is.”

“Like Nehan?” Mugen holds out his left arm and, sure enough, the arrow is pointing directly at Nehan.

Swallowing, Nehan says, “No, not like me. Look, my arrow doesn’t point to you.”

What he leaves out is that it would be the arrow on his left arm that would determine whether he and Mugen are soulmates. He hasn’t checked that arrow in a long time and he isn’t going to check now.

He doesn’t want Mugen to get tangled up in his problems.

Pulling his arm out of Mugen’s hold and stepping back, he says, “I’m sure whoever your soulmate is will be a wonderful person.”

“Nehan wonderful,” Mugen insists and Nehan laughs before he can stop himself.

“Thank you for saying so. We should keep going.”

This idiot. If the Magasin or any of the other families were to find out about him, this child with an adult body and inborn power lurking right under his skin was just going to be used. Like Xing.

Time hasn’t tempered his rage or desire for vengeance, but it has given him perspective. The Karm Clan had reaped what they sowed. Their fate had been to die at the hands of their own weapon, to pay for their crimes with their lives in the most ironic way.

And maybe that’s why Nehan is still alive. There are more than enough people who hold a grudge against him, more than enough who would deserve to take revenge.

Perhaps they will. But not before Nehan makes Xing answer for his crimes.

Another two years and Serenity Heaven is created and distributed, repositioning the Magasin in the crime world. With Nehan’s work and the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s death, Nehan’s position as the successor is cemented.

The most authority he will ever have. And he needs to act now because the Magasin is falling.

Alliances between the other families and poorly thought out strategies, including but not limited to his former master killing his soulmate in a feat of remarkable cunning and absolute stupidity.

Amazing how soulmates in rival families tended to bring out both the best and worst in each other. He’d seen soulmates provoke each other to anger with a meaningful look or well-placed word, as well as inspire the acquirement of new skills.

“That bastard knew what he was doing when he bought the restaurant!” his former master had ranted. “He did it just to spite me!”

And he was probably right. Because they were equally petty and had a tendency to modify their business dealings so the other person’s job would be more difficult. But with him dead, his family had made taking down the Magasin their biggest priority, and Nehan wasn’t going to wait for everything to collapse.

He supposes he shouldn’t be so critical. After all, his plans are going to upend the entire skydom.

Because Xing, as it turns out, is an Eternal. Seox, as he calls himself now. Surrounded by the most powerful skyfarers, armed with talents that he has honed to perfection.

He could have found Nehan anytime he wanted, but he hadn’t. Does he think he can run from fate?

Some people think fate is something that can be defied, but look. Here Nehan is, without his clan or home, but there’s still a mask still on his face, he has poison in one pocket, and Trancensia is in the other. It was always going to turn out like this.

The moon is just beginning to rise as he walks toward the port. He has a promise to keep to Mugen and then he’s headed to the Enforcers. He’s done waiting for someone who clearly isn’t coming. The stars will show him where he is and his arrows will guide him to where he needs to be. And then all of this will be over.

A/N: Thanks to my friend who proofread this and my other friends who listened to me complain! I hope you enjoyed reading this.

[hookaroo]

Vocivore, Ltd. (19 of ?)

A OUAT WINTER WHUMP FIC

Also on FFN and AO3 (ListerofTardis)

Tagging @ouatwinterwhump, @killian-whump, @sancocnutclub, @killianjonesownsmyheart1, and @courtorderedcake <3

***THE MOST WONDERFUL COVER ART BY @cocohook38 HERE!!!!!******

****ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!Chapter 12 animation and art that will absolutely astound you!!! THANK YOU MY WONDERFUL COCONUT FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!*************

Long bonus chapter for a coconut :) With apologies to @mathildia (but we do see her again a couple more times in flashbacks.) 

One day ago (Thursday)...

Z was dead.

Staggering into her hovel after an excruciating trip back in his Master’s arms, half-dead himself and bleary with anguish, Killian didn’t realize it at first. He made it to the butcher’s table and was gathering the strength to heave himself up before glancing over to where she sat slumped in a chair in the corner. Her eyes were open but blank, her head nestled against the seat back and the wall. As always, no injury adorned her body, but Killian knew that wouldn’t have been her cause of death. She would have succumbed to whatever neurological draining power the Master possessed which affected all of its slaves.

Killian couldn’t even summon the will to feel sorry for her, or honestly, even to be grateful for her efforts which had kept him alive this long. Perhaps when this whole thing was over--if, by some miracle, he lived long enough--he might look back and honor her memory. But at present, his only concern was how he could possibly survive to enact his plan without her brutal but necessary treatment.

In the few seconds it took for all of this to flash through his brain, a noticeable slick of blood had gathered on both sides of his mangled ankle, adding scarlet ribbons to the rusty brown already painting the stone floor. Stop the bleeding. That was the priority. He had access to her tools and knowledge of what to do; he’d even had some experience in his long and violent history. The question was, could he remain conscious long enough to get the job done?

Killian realized he was staring vacantly back at Z’s corpse, as if expecting her to rise from her chair and spare him the necessity of self-torture. But she remained still and silent. So he dragged in a labored breath, set his jaw, and limped drunkenly toward her row of yellow cabinets.

In previous encounters, he had generally been too involved with flopping up onto the table to notice her system of organization, and in any case, she’d usually had things mostly prepared before his arrival. This time, her tray was empty save for the dreaded disinfectant bottle and a tub of iodine, which may or may not hide a submerged selection of needles.

The first cabinet that caught Killian’s fall contained more than a hundred plastic pouches of saline. Nearly a score of them hung from hooks at the top, labeled and out of their original packaging, with pre-filled tubing already attached. Several large boxes were stacked at the bottom of the cabinet, containing still-sealed bags of the same. Killian made a face, but then changed his mind about dismissing the possibility outright. There was no doubt that the extra fluids had prolonged his existence thus far, and he had come to believe that Z had been adding additional medications, such as antibiotics; otherwise, he very likely would have succumbed to infection long since.  

One of the prepared bags caught his eye. In addition to the sticker label that had illegible names and dosages scribbled on it, there was a large number “3” drawn in black marker. “3” for Tripod? Killian tried to recall whether he had noticed that label on the previous IV bags Z had used on him, but he had always been too distracted with pain to be certain. Other bags were labeled with other letters, numbers, or symbols, and from his quick survey “3” made the most sense. So he snatched the bag off of its hook and tucked it under his left arm. He had certainly watched the process enough times; surely he could replicate it on himself?

The next cabinet contained additional sackcloth tunics, as well as wadded-up bandages. His nudity was the least of Killian's worries, but he did grab a handful of linen strips and a garment for warmth. Moving on.

Inside the cabinet next to Z herself, the top shelf held vials and vials of unrecognizable medications. A hasty survey revealed no morphine, Vicodin, or anything else particularly helpful in that regard.

It wasn’t worth the effort to get up on the table for himself. Killian tossed the supplies he had collected so far onto a clear patch of floor by the wall. Then he forced himself over to the chest of drawers near the sink. Therein he found the staple gun, as well as extra suture material, which he collected without allowing himself to dwell on it. There were refills for the stapler, but in all of his searching, he couldn't find any of the large straight needles she used for the IV treatment. How could she be so well stocked with everything else but that? He would have to report it to his Master so that it could set priorities for the next supply run...

Killian stopped and squeezed his eyes shut, but when he opened them again the scene before him continued to waver. Cold prickles attacked the area behind his eyes and shivered down the back of his neck. Reality and charade blended so that, for a moment, he forgot what he was doing there. He was running out of time.

Ultimately, it was a severe twinge from his ankle that brought him back to full awareness. He staggered toward the table where Z’s tray waited. Placing staple gun and sutures onto the metal surface, he then took the tray in hand. The iodine sloshed over the sides of the shallow basin on top, bathing the instruments in yellow stain.

He returned to where he had left the other supplies and slumped with his shoulder against the wall. It was the only thing that saved him from a painful collapse onto the floor. His skin left a bloody streak on the paint as he slid down and landed with a groan. After a few centering breaths he forced himself to focus, knowing that if he allowed himself to close his eyes and rest, he would probably never wake up. First priority: fluids. And the biggest obstacles to that would be his ability to set everything up one-handed, and then to actually hit a vein without any sort of training.

There was more iodine on the tray and floor than in the basin by the time Killian thumped it down onto the stone. He could see the expected needles in what was left of their interrupted bath and had a brief flashback to a work safety video he’d watched with Emma expounding upon the dangers of sharing needles. But he had no choice, and really, the odds of surviving long enough for bloodborne pathogens to become a concern were hovering close to zero.

With the tray safely on the floor beside him, Killian reached for the IV bag. His ankle throbbed mercilessly, and he didn’t even want to look at it for fear of passing out, but in his peripheral vision, he could see the blood welling. To his immediate left stood one of the cabinets, with a protruding knob at just the proper height to hang the pouch. A gravelly groan accompanied his blind reach; he hurt in too many places to twist or try and get up to his knees. Eventually, the small loop at the top caught on the knob, and Killian dropped his arm with a sigh of relief.

Now for a difficulty: popping a slender needle onto an equally tiny bit of plastic one-handed. He was normally fairly dexterous, and given enough practice, could master most tasks without the necessity of a second set of fingers. But he had neither the usual time nor steadiness as assets. Setting his jaw, he fished in the iodine remnants until locating one of the long needles so favored by Z. He did his best to grip it by the base and not touch either end as he gave it a final swish in the disinfectant. Then, holding the needle between thumb and forefinger, he grabbed the tubing between pinkie and ring finger. Once he had aligned the plug with the needle’s hollow base, he used delicate pressure to connect the two. It took more tries than he would have liked, due to uncontrollable interrupting tremors, but eventually, he had the two pieces in weak connection. He brought the setup carefully to his mouth, gripped the plug between his teeth, and used that leverage to insert it more firmly into the needle. Then it was just a matter of winding the little screw-on security apparatus, and it seemed ready to go. He held it in hand once more, opened the stopcock on the tubing, watched a small stream of liquid shoot from the hollow needle, then shut it off once again.

The only thing he had to use as a tourniquet was a linen bandage. This he tied with a slipknot before sliding it gingerly over his ring-and-stake accessory and up around his upper arm. He again used his teeth to assist, this time by grabbing the loose end of the bandage and pulling tight. It seemed to work all right; he could feel the tingly throb of his heartbeat in his forearm as blood backed up in the veins.

Feeling fainter by the second, Killian couldn’t afford to hesitate or spend much time locating a vein. He positioned the needle’s point just above a still-visible puncture mark mid-forearm from just a couple of days ago. At least that way he would be in the general area, even if he had zero inkling of what angle to go in.

Poking himself did not present that much of a mental hurdle. He’d done it before, when desperate times had required him to suture his own injuries: a skill which would, unfortunately, be called upon in a few moments. This needle was bigger in diameter and similarly blunted by regular use, but once he applied enough pressure, it popped through the skin with a familiar sting and then moved much more easily. He rooted around at a fairly shallow angle for a little while, knowing from past observation that blood should appear in the tubing once he entered a vein.

A combination of luck and persistence rewarded him with a result a few moments later, after he was already thoroughly tired of mutilating his own flesh. The area invaded by the needle burned, and a faint bruise was already visible over the moving steel. But then a definite spurt of blood curled up into the tubing, and Killian froze. He was in--but now what? The needle still protruded halfway out of his skin, and at an angle too steep to try and secure it as it was. But if he decided to move, he risked poking through the vessel and having to start over.

As delicately as he could manage, Killian decreased the angle and pushed the needle deeper. It made sense to him that the vein would travel at a relatively constant depth within his arm, which meant parallel to the skin. So by steadily advancing while at the same time changing the angle, he would hopefully follow the vessel’s path.

He watched as blood continued to mingle with the saline; its dilution was making it hard to tell for certain whether fresh was still coming in or not. An involuntary tremor spasmed through his fingers, and he cursed through gritted teeth. He had felt a very definite jolt of the needle within his flesh, the twinge of pain a possible sign of its dislodging. But all he could do was hope for the best. Another centimeter, and the base of the needle came into contact with his arm. There were still 3 or 4 millimeters of steel sticking out, but he could apply tape now to secure it. Very slowly, Killian released his grip, making certain that none of his fingers were tangled in the plastic tubing. The needle remained in place, shivering slightly with each pulse. Killian first loosened the tourniquet, then he reached for the stopcock and said a prayer as he opened the valve.

The blood-tinged saline flowed quickly into his arm as gravity sent fluid trickling into the drip chamber above. There didn’t seem to be any obstruction, and his forearm didn’t swell like a water balloon, which Killian took to be a very good sign indeed. Releasing the breath he’d been holding, he selected a roll of surgical tape, tore a strip off with his teeth, and gently smoothed it over the protruding needle. There. Now, if he were to lose consciousness, at least he was replacing the blood volume being lost through his open wounds.

Now for the ankle. It didn’t have to be pretty, or even thorough. It just had to get him through the next day or so. Prevent him bleeding out before having a chance to enact the plan.

Killian had hoped to give Emma more time. Without her contribution, he would fail, simple as that. But he could not last longer. 20 minutes ago, after being dumped into a heap outside, he had nearly lacked the strength to rise. He might have lay there until the luminous columns of Zeus’ domain replaced the mud and despair, and then all of this would have been for nothing. How many more times could he find a way to get back up? How long before his quivering muscles would no longer obey?

Before the sinister voice in his head became too compelling to resist?

He would give her until tomorrow. Gamble that the next Session would not break him beyond hope, that his maimed body would make it that long, and that Emma would find a way in time.

Twice, the staple gun slipped between uncoordinated fingers before Killian finally managed to grab hold. It had better not require much effort to trigger. Fighting back nausea, Killian struggled to shift his weight. Repairing the ribbons of flayed skin would be like trying to piece together a document that had gone through a paper shredder. And he couldn’t even aim properly.

He hovered the business end over the lowest line of dark maroon, near his heel.

“You can’t just shoot the staples willy-nilly,” whispered Smee in his ear. Or maybe it was Dr. Whale. ”The skin needs to be pressed together first…”

“Sod off.” He squeezed the handle.

SNAP!

Killian cursed vehemently.

“Sir… you missed…”

“Bloody hell…”

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

“Maybe you should open your eyes for this… Captain?”

SNAP!

SCREAM FOR ME… MY TRIPOD… SCREAM FOR YOUR MASTER….

Hope—SNAP!—kidnapped—SNAP!—Hope—SNAP!—dead?—SNAP!—No?—SNAP!—No Hope—SNAP! SNAP!—No hope—SNAP!—No hope…

“Hook! That’s enough! Hook, stop!”

Killian wiped away tears. A haphazard mess of metal now drowned in the blood of his inner ankle, sometimes intersecting the wounds, other times burrowed into perfectly intact flesh. One more, maybe… right there…

SNAP! Dammit!

Close enough.

I ENJOY THE LITTLE UTTERANCES, TRIPOD, BUT CANNOT LIVE OFF OF THEM.

No hope… no hope… no hope…

“How ever will the pirate reach his outer ankle?”

Who was that, now; the Crocodile?

“Give me my hand back and I’ll show you.”

A true problem, that. Were he not injured in a dozen other places, he could possibly twist far enough. As it was, he could really only reach around from beneath and fire blindly.

“What’s the difference? It isn’t as if you watched what you were doing when you could see.”

*****

Enough cursing and arguing with the array of invisible onlookers got Killian through 13 jolting shocks on the other side of his ankle. In truth, he probably needed more, but the device had run out of staples and he couldn’t decipher how to refill it. With any luck, the stinging bits of metal coupled with a tight bandage would be enough to encourage clotting.

Sleep. He ached for sleep, almost hungering for it. The bag of saline was nearly empty, and he briefly considered swapping it out for a full one, slowing the drip rate, and lying down right there to give in to the temptation. But that would likely earn him an extra beating; one card stacked in favor of early demise.

22, 24 hours more. That’s all he needed. Maybe all he had left in him.

No hope. It was true, wasn’t it? No longer a mantra. A reality.

No hope. If they failed? What then? What would Emma be left with? Nothing. No advantage, no leverage, no hope.

Then he realized. He could leave one thing behind. Not much, but better than nothing. Without Z supervising her tools, it was his first opportunity to even consider doing it. He cast narrowed eyes on the tub of iodine at his side. He knew there was one in there; he’d sliced a finger on it while searching for the damn needle.

Screw sanitation. It was too late anyway. Killian reached out and, more by accident than design, flipped the tub all the way over. Brown-tinged liquid soaked the stone floor, metallic instruments clattered in a prickly pile beneath. He batted the useless tub aside and scoured the mess for the scalpel blade.

It took some doing to grasp it between thumb and forefinger, but at least he managed to snag a pre-loaded, curved suturing needle in the process. He was going to need that.

No scar marked the spot; he would be required to go on memory alone. Killian increased the volume of his internal chant as camouflage. Just there, left shoulder, below the collarbone. Correct? He pulled a deep breath and gritted his teeth. He had to be quick: looking down at such a severe angle, with the need for intense focus, was already making the world spin.

In one brutal movement, he stabbed the sharp tip of the blade into his flesh, then dragged it sideways, making a long but shallow incision parallel to the clavicle. The wound burned as it began to leak blood. Hastily, Killian placed the scalpel blade on his leg to give himself easy access. Then he wriggled his finger into the cut, squeezing his eyes shut against the onslaught of pain. It wasn’t that deep, surely? He should be able to feel it, a small oddity among the warm, slippery mass of skin and muscle.

His breath left him in a low growl as he probed deeper. The memory of pain seemed to be right in that area… but who could tell whether or not the current sensation was influencing that. He pressed harder, pointer finger now buried almost to the second joint. Forceps, if he could find some, might hurt less--might--but wouldn’t give him the ability to distinguish between flesh and metal.

There! Something dug into the pad of his fingertip, pointed and motile. Grimacing, he pushed against the object and felt an uncomfortable shifting within his shoulder. It was deeper than he’d anticipated, and lower down; how could be possibly grasp the bit of metal, much less extract it from its cocoon of flesh?

Blood spurted from the wound as Killian reluctantly removed his finger. He’d have to try and push it out through a secondary incision.

Another line of fire joined the first. It was lower down his chest, closer to his arm, where he approximated the other end of the capsule to be. He had meant to cut just as deep… but in reality, may have held back more than he had intended.

His finger wormed its agonizing way back into the hole. Seconds later, a nasty twinge told him he’d located his target. The lower incision continued to bleed freely; his whole left chest and flank were now stained red. With a snarl of pain, Killian pushed as hard as he could against the metal capsule, attempting to guide it toward the exit hole. He could feel it shifting, tearing through muscle fibers and subcutaneous tissue with its tapered end. A small bulge appeared in his skin, slightly below the second cut. Hissing curses, he lifted his stump, not caring if he dislodged the needle in his forearm. He hated using the wrist ring and all of the pain that it brought, but it was his only option.

Though still bandaged from his short stint in the hospital, the end of the stake protruded slightly, and he used this to pull on the skin of his chest. The incision gaped a little wider, ultimately stretching over the place where the capsule was stuck. More pressure, more tearing, accompanied by a yell of pained effort, and then the metal point appeared, covered in bright blood. Killian sucked in one more steadying breath before savagely thrusting with his finger; at the same time, he drove the wrist stake in toward his ribs.

The metal capsule popped free of his flesh and landed between his legs, leaving a ruddy trail as it rolled along the stones. Panting, Killian removed his finger and held the bandaged wrist against both incisions, then snatched the capsule up with a bloodstained hand before it could skitter out of reach. Blasted thing. He scowled at it, eyes slightly unfocused, shivering with exhaustion and pain. Where to hide it?

Within a bandage was the logical place. His wrist, simply because it was easy to reach. Hopefully, the Master would not bother with the wrapping until an opportune time presented itself.

Suture shoulder. Maybe ribs. Put on sackcloth. Then barn and sleep.

Tomorrow would be the end.

[bishopsorphan]

Justice. Peace. (Epic Ducifer AU fic)

The chill in the crisp air had nothing to do with the coming autumn months. It had everything to do with the Seals.

57 of the 66 had been broken, despite their best efforts. 

57 Seals, and he could feel every last one of them as they cracked. Had felt Dean break in Hell. That had been the hardest. That had been the thing he’d dreaded most. Before he could have saved the hunter, if he’d just gotten to the reaper fast enough, if he’d just played his cards right, played his hand a little better...

He had enough regrets.

Time to keep a promise.

The gate creaked as Lucifer pushed it open, striding toward the house. They were probably about three weeks from the big light show. The angels were losing. The Winchesters were losing. And if his timeline was right, someone else was about to lose big time if he didn’t step in.

He unlocked the front door with a thought and walked into a house that he’d only ever walked out of. But that had been a different time, a different life. A different him, a version of himself that he could no longer even comprehend.

He hated to admit it, but he’d been wrong. And worse, he’d broken a promise. Twisted his own words and meaning.

The face he saw when he looked in the mirror wasn’t his True Vessel’s. It wasn’t even close to his own true face. But he was starting to think of it as such. He owed the man a debt of gratitude. A life for a life. Or two.

“Nick?”

Lucifer shut the door behind him and turned, smiling. “Hey, hun.”

Sarah frowned. “You’re home early. And surprisingly sober.”

“Yeah, some guy’d been drinking since noon, tried to leave, and smashed up a bunch of cars. Bill cut his party short. Once the guys who got hit are done with the cops, Bill said he’d call and we’d move it to a bar or something.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and waved it briefly, as if to help explain.

“Ok, well, I just put Teddy down. I was gonna go up and read for a while before turning in.”

“I’ll keep the TV down.”

She smiled at him and headed up the stairs toward their room. “Don’t stay out too late, love.”

“I’ll be safe.”

Lucifer flopped down on the couch and clicked on the TV as Sarah’s footsteps faded up the stairs. Nick was still at the Elks’ getting smashed, he’d checked before stopping by.

It was maybe half an hour before something thumped beside the house and a shadow passed by the window. 

Showtime.

“Nicky?”

Sarah was standing at the top of the stairs, white nightgown flowing around her.

“Sorry, just heading to Bill’s. Sleep tight.”

The woman mumbled some sort of response and wandered back off to bed as the angel wearing her husband’s face slipped out of the house.

He rounded the corner of the yard and found himself face-to-face with a regular-Joe sort who was so, so much more. “Hey, Abe. Long time, no see.”

The demon squinted at him. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Lucifer flexed his wings. “Oh, I know.”

Abraxas was dead before he knew what hit him.

---

SEVEN YEARS LATER

So this was what forgiveness looked like. 

It looked like Nick Campbell. Felt like Nick Campbell, but stronger. Built for him. Built... special. An actual, honest to Dad, True Vessel.

Holy shit, he’d managed to get himself the Castiel treatment, and it had only taken a trip through time, a complete 180 on his very worldview, and falling into bed with Dean Winchester.

Speak of the Devil....

Dean happened to walk into their room to find Lucifer standing in front of the mirror, stunned at the way he finally fit.

“You...?”

Lucifer smiled. It seemed like an eternity since they’d last seen each other. He’d been ripped from Cas’ body only to be invited into Dean, who kept his Grace in a vice grip until they’d gotten to safety. Which was a good thing. Turns out it’s a whole lot easier to turn yourself into a bomb with an archangel holding you together.

But that hadn’t been necessary, and Chuck had dispelled the excess souls swirling around inside Dean. He’d sent the angel away, too, only to give him back with a shiny new meatsuit.

And then Dean was in his arms and everything was good. Everything was better than good. No more rotting away like he had been before the Leviathan had banished him back to the Cage. No more using Castiel as a vessel. Nothing left to come between them.

“How?”

Lucifer shrugged. “Dad finally made up for all the missed birthdays, got me a gift.”

Dean smiled. It was radiant. “Weird. Your aunt gave me something, too.”

“Yeah?”

Dean took his hand and tugged him from the room. “Yeah. Come on.”

The hunter pulled him down the hall and into the kitchen, where a very confused looking blonde woman in a white nightgown was standing. “Mom? I’d like you to meet my, uh -”

“Nicky?”

For the second time in ten minutes, Lucifer found himself with his arms full of Winchester. “Did you say mom?” Yeah, come to think of it, she did look familiar. Dean kept a photo of her tucked away in his duffel, now in their room.

Wow. Good going, Auntie Amara.

Dean ignored him. “You two know each other?”

Mary frowned, pulling back a bit to eye her son. “He’s my little brother. Your uncle. Where’d you even find him? He ran away after our parents died.”

Lucifer gaped. He turned to Dean, who was also standing with his mouth hanging slack. “Did you know that?” The hunter asked.

“Of course not. What, you think I take a detailed family and medical history for each vessel I take?”

Mary backed fully away, disentangling herself from the angel and narrowing her eyes. “Vessel?”

“Mom, meet Lucifer.”

It was impressive how a fiery death and unexpected resurrection had done absolutely nothing to dim Mary Winchester’s hunting skills. Lucifer hadn’t even seen the knife until it was sticking out of his chest. He didn’t even know where she could have gotten it.

“Mom!”

He wrapped his hand around the knife ad pulled it slowly from his (brand new!) flesh. “You just stabbed your baby brother. That’s cold, lady. You’re cold.” He smiled. “I like it.”

“Give him back.” Mary’s fists were balled up at her sides, her teeth clenched. She was shaking.

“Relax.” The knife disappeared, his shirt repairing itself, blood fading, skin knitting back together. “He’s fine. This is,” Lucifer gestured down at himself, “new. It’s just kinda how I see myself now. Happens when you spend too much time in one vessel.”

“What are you even talking about?” There were tears in her eyes now. And, wow, yeah, it must be a lot to take in at once.

“I can show you,” Lucifer offered, holding two fingers out toward her head, hovering awkwardly in the space between them. “It’s kind of a long story. There’s time travel involved.”

Mary looked to Dean, who nodded. “It’s ok.”

She looked back to the angel. “No tricks.”

He tapped her forehead and gave her a crash course in alternate universe creation. How he time-hopped, found her boys, wormed his way into their lives. How they wormed their way into his very being, changed him at such a base level that he couldn’t even imagine he’d ever considered manipulating them like that.

“Threw in some pop culture knowledge, too,” he said as he drew his hand away. “Didn’t spoil anything too big, though. You’re gonna love The Walking Dead.” He glanced at Dean and grinned. “Can’t wait til she gets to Negan.”

“Thanks for the change of clothes, too,” Mary muttered, looking down at her jeans and flannel combo, a Winchester classic. 

“Can’t go running around in your nightgown. I assume you’d like to see your brother?” He held out his hand to her, and this time there was no hesitation.

They were in Delaware in the blink of an eye, standing in the middle of the Campbell kitchen.

“We can see them, but they can’t see us,” Lucifer explained as Mary surveyed the scene.

Sarah was busy making dinner for the family - mac and cheese by the look of it - while Nick sat with the kids at the table. Their son was getting help on his math homework while their daughter colored a picture in a Frozen coloring book. A perfect nuclear family.

Lucifer couldn’t help but smile seeing it. He’d done that. He’d made it a possibility. He’d done what he’d once said he couldn’t; he’d given Nick his family back, even if the man didn’t even know it. He had his justice. He had his peace.

“I’m an aunt?”

“Teddy and Gwen.”

“They’re beautiful.” She turned to the angel and smiled, tears in her eyes for an entirely different reason now. “Thank you.”

Lucifer shook his head. “No. Thank you.”

He could have sworn, in that moment, that Nick looked up from the table and met his eyes.

[mzyrimworld]

Duster Part 11: Quadrum 11

Last time we lost a bunch of footage to a solar flare, but the colony gained a bunch of animals, converted prisoner Nobreitra, and Lion and Steroid got into the colony’s first relationship! Where will things go from there...?

With the base far more established, the colonists are getting back on the art to decorate people’s bedrooms. Henry and Priscilla are the main talents in this respect, and they have loads of stone blocks to use from hollowing out the mountain

There appears to be some kind of room in the southern part of the mountain, and the colonists have been hearing noises from inside. Our sources have told us that there can be dangerous things in rooms like this, which the colonists also seem to have heard, as they seem to be creating an entrance as limited and far from the base as they can...

Yes, the colonists certainly look prepared for a fight, as brawler Vas (who has a shield belt nowadays) goes in to break open the wall...

We can see inside! I see an implant, advanced components, some risky luciferium and... oh dear, we recognise a lancer from when Lisa died, and our sources tell me the other is a ‘scyther’, known for decapitating (parts of) people...! Are the colonists ready for this?

Those mechanoids move fast, Vas is barely outrunning them back to the firing line! Henry and Zeiph, two of the most important colonists, have backed up to a slightly safer distance...

The scyther has honed in on Morales (who wasn’t even supposed to be there!) and he is not holding up well - he better retreat to the hospital before he loses anything more vital than a finger...!

The scyther took a lot of hits, but it has been finished, in time for Morales to stay alive...

And Vas goes back in to take down the Lancer, shattering some key parts. Incredibly, everybody’s still alive!

Morales took a few more cuts and is downed, but the only thing he’s definitely lost is a finger, and hopefully he should have time to be taken to the hospital and get patched up...

Yup, Henry’s grabbed and tended to him, so saving infection the rest of his body should be alright, but it’s got to be awfully painful. If he never sees one of those things again, I’m sure it’ll be too soon.

That implant in the room turns out to be a painstopper, and I could see a fight breaking out over this! Doesn’t matter for now though, the colonists don’t have the scientific knowledge necessary for brain surgery like that would require.

Interesting timing, but good news: Steroid and Lion are planning to get married! I suppose you have to take what chances you get in this situation and on this planet; you never know how long either of you will survive!

And more good news: more huskies to keep Jethro company! Only one of them is female, but I could see more breeding happening. Still, Jethro’s been incredibly useful, so perhaps a few litters can help protect the colony...

They all have names too - where did they come from and what happened to their former owners? I can only assume nothing good... But one of those names is going to get confusing: turns out the only good Raider is a husky.

With the mechanoids out the way, the colonists decide to chance opening the pods in the room. They’re playing it safe with weapons; rumour has it sometimes mechanoids are stored in the pods as well...

They’re all human - but some of them are immediately pulling their weapons (or drugs)...?!

We don’t know why they’re attacking, but the colonists have no choice but to defend themselves! The attackers are very well equipped though...

Nobreitra’s lost an eye! And so soon after the archotech eye was given to Lion! He’s going to need to retreat and get treatment for that pretty quickly...!

Priscilla is dead! Her steel plate armour could not protect her head from all the gunfire! I can’t believe they made it through the mechanoids alive, only for somebody to be killed by the humans!

Zeiph comes to help and Vas has finished off a second of the attackers...

Even Dead had to be called in with her shield belt, the attackers were just too strong without melee.

They’re all dead now, with Zeiph managing to even shoot this one’s head off. I don’t understand why they immediately attacked on being freed? Were they imprisoned against their wills and assumed the colonists were their captors? We’ll probably never know...

Nobreitra made it to the hospital safely to be treated, but the colony’s going to have to find another eye for him somehow...

The colony gets a request for helpin the middle of this, but it’s really badly timed, and they’re not even offering any implants or prosthetics, so I doubt it’s going to happen...

Vas winds up in a bed next to where Morales is still recovering from the mechanoids, but Vas isn’t too badly injured. He’s actually mostly suffering with food poisoning.

And this is the way the room has been left, which also turns out to be the most convenient place to lay Priscilla to rest, though it needs some cleaning.

And Julio’s carved her a beautiful sarcophagus honouring her memory as a badass. Looks like it’s montage time...

*Pretty and mournful unlicensed music*

Priscilla Bellerose joined the colony on 10th of Septober 5501, about a year and a half ago. Three colonists died in the rescue (including young Beryl, who had just overcome his addiction), all for want of somebody who could do medicine, which unfortunately she couldn’t.

She had a big personality and a pretty face from her celebrity youth, but her biggest use to the colony was as part of the away team with her ex-lover Vas and medic Morales, completing quests and trades for the good of the colony. She wasn’t somebody you wanted to be up against in a fight.

In that year and a half she learned well and became very valuable to the colony with how passionate she was about nearly everything. It’s hard to believe she died to some angry and confused humans, but she did take an awful lot of bullets before she went down. If the colonists learn anything from this, hopefully it will be the need to get themselves some proper protective headgear.

Rest in peace, Priscilla Bellerose, c5452 - 5th Aprimay 5503. Hopefully your husband won’t hate the colony for your loss.

The colonists are going to have their own day of remembrance in a few days, assuming nothing goes too wrong in the meantime...

Anyway, back to business: a random buck decides to join the colony. Hopefully it will have better luck than the ibex ram, but I wouldn’t hold your breath...

Hmmm! The Leobrin of the Brook seems to finally be seeing sense in not sending its tribepeople to die against our colonists’ guns. Assuming it’s not an attempted trap, it sounds like a good idea to me!

But then this happens swiftly afterwards! And our colonists have yet to reject anybody fleeing in their direction...

We have a new thirteenth colonist! Hauke Pahl is a young man and not particularly skilled, but at least there’s nothing that he’s not willing to do around the colony...

And here come the tribespeople on his tail, all equipped with melee weapons. Only issue for the colonists is that it’s still early morning and not all of them are awake...

Of course there is the turret - or there was the turret. Most of them managed to back off before it exploded, but one of them was too close and has died already. Unfortunately the colonists don’t know how to build turrets themselves yet, so it’ll be a while before they can replace it.

Zeiph has been downed! You forget how much damage people can do, especially at close range. And he’s joined the other three earliest colonists in having an ear destroyed, though this is his left - seems the women lose the right and the men lose the left! Really need to get some replacement ears for our colonists, but hopefully now the other colonists are getting out of bed there won’t be any more body parts lost...!

With all the tribespeople down or dead, let’s survey the damage! This one went the same way as old Vladimir did - shredded apart by an exploding turret...

This one took too many bullets and stabs, though it’s not clear which one finished her...

But the other three have all been taken alive and stuffed into the prison cell with Frenchy, who doesn’t seem too impressed.

They’re all quite badly wounded though. This older man is apparently a healer, and you can never have too many of those...

This one’s a fighter, which the colony could really use after the loss of Priscilla...

This one doesn’t seem as good, but sometimes the colony needs to take what it can get.

The only colonist badly hurt was Zeiph, but except for his left ear he should be alright. I’m sure he’d like somebody to clean the hospital though; that’s not his vomit around the bed.

I think Vas likes to pretend he didn’t care about Priscilla since they broke up however long ago, but we’ve caught him sneaking in here alone to visit her resting place. Old feelings probably die hard.

And the colony gains its fourteenth colonist! Frenchy’s not that impressive in most ways, but he’s very good at social and very promising at intellectual! The colony hasn’t achieved a lot research-wise since leaving the last base, but perhaps that will change soon?

Back in the prison things aren’t looking so positive, as one of Val’s injuries, given by a husky, becomes infected. Just as well we have so many medics around...

And then the bullet wound in his shoulder gets infected too! Just as well the colonists want a fighter, if they’re going to be this much trouble! At least he’s in a clean new bed now.

Unfortunately with all the excitement the colonists never got around to cleaning up this chamber before Priscilla’s funeral. Still, most of them went to hang out and chat about old times. Vas stayed away, given that he’s already visited and probably still wanting to appear like he didn’t care...

The next day perhaps tensions were running high, as there was perhaps the first ever social fight in this colony! I’m not sure Sky should be taking on Nobreitra...

But Sky won! To the point of pulling his pistol on Nobreitra! There’s no way the colony would let murder slide, he better put that away!

Away from that drama, our hopes have come true! The colonists finally learnt how to make a more sophisticed research bench, and used an old AI core they got from a quest to learn how to make a multi-analyser too! Perhaps they can learn to make their own prosthetics now...?

With things calmed down, a party is formed to go to those peace talks, with Frenchy and his social skills replacing Priscilla in the away party form, for this quest at least.

One of the good things about the hospital is that after fights like that one, colonists are forced to spend time together without being able to fight again. Hopefully Sky and Nobreitra can settle their differences and prevent it happening again.

Excellent! No more raids from Leobrin of the Brook, for now at least! Shame that those Combat Society pirates probably aren’t open to such negotiations...

This isn’t new, but most of the old footage was lost in the solar flare; the alpacas especially are very much inbreeding, to a bit of an unsettling degree. The one named alpaca is this baby’s nephew, uncle and cousin...

Buck 1 has gained a proper name now too! Would have been more useful for one of the animals of which the tribe has plenty, but I guess this buck just has more personality...

Sigh, the prisoners are trying to break out weaponless despite how easily they were beaten when they were armed. We’ll see if they even make it through this alive...

Well I suppose there’s some justice in the head plotter getting most badly injured, with a permanent injury to his brain. I can’t tell how badly this might affect his abilities, but you would assume it would to some degree?

This one’s bleeding more, but probably not as permanent. ... I missed which colonist bit her right leg - Henry has a melee weapon, so I assume not her? Strange.

This one’s had a kidney outright destroyed, but he wouldn’t be the first colonist to have that problem, he can live with just one. Hopefully they’ll all learn from this.

We’re late to another raid, this time by the Combat Society! The colonists got word ahead of time and ambushed them near the edge of the map. One of them’s already dead near the top there, but this is more people than the colonists have ever faced so far...

The animals are on hand, but it’s the bullets that have been doing the real damage so far...

The fight is won, but one of the raiders - the weakest probably - manages to flee faster than the colonists can catch her. I expect she’ll tell their bosses what happened, which may not be a good thing.

This one died mostly thanks to a husky...

This one took too many shots to the torso and internal organs...

This one took a lot of shots as well, including to the spine...

This one took a mix of bullets and husky attacks...

This one is still alive right now, but that’s not nearly enough time to get her back to the base and treated, so she will die shortly.

The boar did its best but really only wound up getting hurt, including a stab to the heart! The colonists look set to do their best to save her in time.

Jethro got beaten up once again, but he’s taken worse in the past and did very good work.

Raider the husky took worse, but again hopefully none of that should be permanent damage.

Not all threats to the colony are human, but at least electric shorts like this are easily put out.

Another incest baby alpaca is born. Hopefully these will tail off now that the male and female animals are fairly separated; the colony only needs so many.

And just before the quadrum ends, a random hare loses it and chases Julio around the base. This is why I will never understand the complete pacifism - when you can’t even put down something a tenth of your size that won’t stop biting you. Fortunately Hauke’s nearby with a machine gun, and Julio is saved from the monstrous small animal...

Final Stats!

Henry: Doing a lot of medicine lately

Jethro: Beaten up again

Zeiph: Lost an ear

Dead: Studying ferociously for prosthetics

Lion: Engaged!

Vas: Totally not sad or anything about losing his ex-lover

Lucya: So quiet you wouldn’t know she’s there

Sky: Proud of winning a fight against a bigger guy

Priscilla: Dead v.v

Morales: Lost a finger

Julio: All bitten up by a mean bunny rabbit :(

Eri: Cleaning in the background

Steroid: Engaged!

Nobreitra: Lost an eye, and a fight

Hauke: Rescued!

Frenchy: Converted!

Colony: Lost one colonist, gained two, gained three prisoners, and several animals.

[imagines-never-die]

While searching through wreckage of a recent war site, Hanzo/McCree/Lucio find a person who begs them not to bring them to a medical place. The stranger somehow persuades them to just go to their home and as they clean up, the man sees that they have huge bird/bat wings and the person has become almost fully healed from being injured in a matter of hours! Thanks! {Angel Anon}

(Oh hello again, AngelAnon~ So nice to hear from you! This kind of sounds like an OC idea? Are youplanning an Angel OC? I can totally help match them for you if you want. This one turned out to be pretty long, though, so I put it under the cut.)

Hanzo

The archer surveyed the wreckage around him,his breaths heavy and his fingers sore from exertion. It had been some fightand he was the last one to leave the war site. He had been told to look for anysupplies to scrounge or any possible survivors, but there were none that hecould find. Sighing, he began the trek home when he saw a meek little head popup from the rubble.

The stranger glanced around nervously andshakily, their [color] eyes darting this way and that. Hanzo watched them for afew moments until they pulled themselves from the rubble and collapsed on thesurface. Now that he could see the rest of them clearly, he saw that their bodywas covered in dried blood and dirt. Beneath all that grime, they wore astrange sort of dress that ran from their neck to their knees, hanging looselyaround their form. It had one large zipper running down the back. Suddenly, herealized they could be survivor he was supposed to be looking for, and herushed over to them.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he knelt downnext to them.

The stranger flinched and sat up, giving him asuspicious glare.

“Do not worry,” he assured them, “I willnot hurt you,”

They just continued to glare at him, theirlips wavering slightly before muttering, “O-ok…”

“You’re hurt badly,” he pointed out, “Iwill take you back to the city and find you–”

“No!” they suddenly gasped, scrambling awayfrom him, “Not the city! I can’t go anywhere where more people might seeme,”

Hanzo cocked his head in confusion, “Whynot?”

“I just can’t! You sh-shouldn’t have seen meeither!” they exclaimed, “J-Just leave and pretend you never saw me!”

“Leave you?” he echoed, “Why would Ileave you? You could die from those injuries,”

“I-I’ll be fine,” they insisted firmly,hugging their knees to their chest.

Hanzo let out a small groan and pinched thebridge of his nose as he stood up. Why was she/he being so difficult?

“At least let me take you back to myapartment,” he offered, “I have medical supplies there that could help. Itwill not be as effective as proper medical attention, but at least I won’t beleaving you out here,”

Glancing around worriedly, they nodded slowly,and got to their feet. They were hesitant to let Hanzo carry them or even touchthem at all, so he merely offered his arm for them to lean on. Even when theyreached his apartment, the stranger continued to look about them nervously,darting like a skittish cat through the door once he let them in.

They insisted they could tend to their ownwounds and asked that he just leave them to get cleaned up. So, Hanzo went backto his room and waited for about an hour and a half. After that time hadpassed, he figured they’d have finished cleaning themselves up. Maybe theycould use some tea; probably an extra calming type for their nerves. 

When he entered main room, tea in hand, he wasastonished to find the medical supplies unused. At first he worried that theyhad just let themselves die, but when his eyes moved to the stranger, he nearlydropped the tea he was carrying. All their wounds were completely gone, leavingtheir skin smooth and unscathed. Even if he had taken them to a hospital, itwould have taken days for them to recover like that!

But that wasn’t even the most shocking part.The large zipper to the back of their baggy dress was open and two giant batwings had unfurled from within it! The wings lay strewn across the carpet,little veins running through the leathery black skin. Meanwhile, the strangerlay on the floor, their lungs slowly rising and falling as they slept.

Hanzo didn’t even know what to make of it! Washe dreaming? Carefully, he set the tea down, and studied the wings. They lookedlike your average, enlarged bat wings…Felt like them too. Smooth yet ruggedlike fake leather; bony in some spots. Then his hands wandered to where theirwings met the back, his hand pushing the dress to the side a little to get abetter view.

Where the wings were implanted didn’t looknatural. It was like someone had dug them into their shoulder-blades thenhaphazardly stitched and spliced them into place. Just as his fingers began torun along where their normal flesh met their wings…

“Augh!” the stranger jumped awake, sending Hanzoflinching backwards.

The whirled around, their face flustered asthey tried to hold up their dress at the front.

“Y-You creep!” they shouted, “What thehell w-were you trying to do?! What, do you have a thing for backs?!”

“I-I…” Hanzo stammered, his face turningred, “Forgive me, I just–the wings were there, and I–well I didn’t evenknow what I was–”

“Wings?” they repeated, then their facesuddenly paled.

Quickly reaching back, they felt their wingsand their mouth formed a little “o” shape.

“They…came out?” they whimpered, “Yousaw?!”

“Y-yes, but that’s not a bad thing, is it?” heasked.

Suddenly they started to flap their wings andwith each flap the wings grew smaller and small until they completely retractedinto their back and disappeared.

“I can’t believe I let them fall out while Iwas sleeping!” they gasped as they frantically zipped up their baggy outfit.

“What…What are you?” he asked.

That question seemed to make themuncomfortable. They slumped their shoulders and hugged their sides, rockingthemselves back and forth gently.

“Y-You shouldn’t have seen me,” they mutteredunder their breath, “You sh-shouldn’t have seen my wings…”

“Why not?”

“I…I’m a geneticexperiment from Talon, but I escaped this morning,” they mumbled without makingeye contact, “I stowed away in one of their ships, but I didn’t know itwould lead me to one of their fights…”

Hanzo sat there, taking all that he/she had told him. So he had been harboring a fugitive that whole time. No wonder they were so jumpy. But at least now he knew what to do.

“Here,” he handed them a cup of tea, “You can stay here and rest for one more day, and then I’ll contact headquarters,”

They opened their mouth to protest, but he raised a hand to stop them.

“Don’t worry. Overwatch will keep you safe; you have my word,” he said, “And you’re knowledge of Talon could prove invaluable to them. But for now, just rest. My name is Hanzo Shimada by the way. I am sorry for not introducing myself sooner,”

“[Name],” they said in response, “Thank you for saving me, H-Hanzo,”

McCree

Jack groaned when he saw Jesse’s caller ID on his cell phone. What did he want now?

“Hello?” 76 grunted into his phone.

“Howdy, Morrison,” McCree said on the other end, “So, uh, I’ve got a bit of a problem and I need your advice…”

“What is it?” he grumbled.

“You know that mission we were just in? Well I was surveying the reamnants like you said, and I found someone,” he explained.

“Then take them to medical like I said,”

“Well I woulda,” McCree grimaced, “But uuuh…they were very insisting that I hide them and it all seemed a little fishy to me,”

Now the story seemed a little more interesting to Jack and he perked up, “So where did you take them?”

“Back to my ranch,”

“You took them to your personal home?!” 76 barked, “Agent, that’s a risky move! They could be undercover!”

Yeah, yeah I know!” Jack could practically feel McCree rolling his eyes on the other end, “But they were beat up pretty bad, and if I didn’t take them back here to get patched up, then there wouldn’t be much else I could do. Besides, that’s why I’m calling. They’re cleaning up right now which leaves a good chance me to go routin’ through their stuff. What kinda stuff would I be looking for if they were undercover?”

“I guess an ID card of sorts or some kind of pendant,” Jack shrugged, “Most Talon agents wear the company logo on them in the form of a charm or necklace, but you might also find a card with it, too. Look for any confidential files with an undercover mission, too, anything that instructs them to infiltrate an Overwatch agent’s personal abode,”

“Huh,” McCree nodded, “Got it,”

“Call me back if you find anything,” was Jack’s last order before hanging up.

That left McCree sitting in his kitchen, glancing down the hall to the bathroom. He knew the stranger was in their cleaning up, and all he needed to do was slip in and grab their bag. With any luck, they wouldn’t see him, so it was time to put some of his old Blackwatch skills to use. Gradually, he moved down the hall to the bathroom where he could hear little water ripples.

Backing himself up against the wall, he slowly edged the door open just enough for him to reach his arm through. So far, it didn’t seem like they had noticed. He could see their black backpack, so he slowly reached out for it, easing through the crack in the door more and more. Sure, he got it, but made the mistake of looking up.

“The hell?” he mumbled then slapped a hand over his mouth.

He almost couldn’t blame himself for saying it out loud. They had fucking angel wings on their back! Big, white, feathery wings hanging off their back and pooling into the tub around them! Of course they heard him and spun around, disturbing the water around them.

“W-W-What do you th-think–” they stammered, flapping their wings angrily, “G-Get out!”

Jesse yelped and ducked out, totally abandoning the pack he was supposed to have grabbed. He tried calling Morrison back to update him on the…odd situation, but he wouldn’t pick up. When the stranger finally emerged, wearing the same pants and backless shirt from before, their face was red and they looked pissed.

“What is wrong with you!” they shouted, “Can’t a guy/girl get some privacy?!”

“S-Sorry, really, I-I just wanted to–um…” he stuttered as the stranger waited impatiently for an answer, “Well…truth is I was gonna go through yer things and check if you had any evidence for being an undercover agent from Talon,”

They scoffed, “Do I really look like an undercover agent to you?”

“Well I dunno, you had those big ol’ wings on yer back!” he retorted.

Their face turned a darker red and they averted their eyes.

“So…you saw…” they snarled.

“Of course I did! The big white feathers hangin’ off yer back? Duh,”

Sighing in annoyance, they grabbed their backpack and slammed it down on the kitchen table. They unloaded all its contents, even shaking the bag upside-down a few times. There was a passport, snacks, money in the form of a variety of currencies, a silenced pistol, a guidebook to America, and some spare clothes. But nothing that Soldier: 76 had warned him about.

“See? Nothing that points to Talon,” they snapped, “So why would my wings of all things point to them?”

“Ok, ok,” he eased off a bit, “Just uh…wasn’t expectin’ you to be half bird,”

“Half angel,” they corrected him.

“Yeah, alright,”

“Well I am. Don’t you work with people with special powers in Overwatch?” they pointed out, “Aren’t you used to that?”

“So yer sayin’ you were born with this?” he asked.

“I’m saying that you should mind your own business, McCree,” they ordered, “Look, I’m grateful for you hiding me while I regenerate–”

“Wait what?”

“–But I’ve got to fly now, literally. Can’t stick around here much longer,”

With that, they grabbed their backpack and put it on backwards so that it hung off the front of their shoulders. Then they headed for the door with Jesse hot on their heels.

“That’s it? Not even an explanation for why your here?” he whined, “Not even a thank you?”

They stopped just short of the door and took a deep breath. Then they turned to him and looked him in the eyes with a heartfelt sincerity.

“Thank you, McCree,” they gave him a small bow, “I know I haven’t told you much yet–not even my name–but trust me, things will start to make sense very soon,”

“What do ya mean?” Jesse asked.

“I can’t explain that now,” they shrugged as they opened the door.

They walked outside, standing in the ranch’s driveway, and their ivory wings erupted from their back again. They looked so pretty and plush, it almost made him want to run his hands through them.

Looking back at him, the stranger said, “But I will explain soon. You play a bigger part in this war than you think, Jesse,”

They knew his first name?

“Wait, how you know my–” he started to ask.

But in one flap of their wings, they took off from the ground, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Just like that, they were gone, but he was sure they’d be back.

Lucio

Lucio didn’t question in much at first when the stranger requested to be hidden. They seemed so jumpy and afraid that he just wanted to calm them down, so he took them back to his place for the time being. He figured he’d just call the hospital in a bit anyways. If this person needed some time to settle down, he’d give it to them. After all, he found them in the wreckage of the Numbani Museum, where a big fight had just gone down. They had probably seen some shit in there.

He left them in the living room his Sonic Amplifier switched to the healing setting. Last he saw them, they were sitting criss-cross next to the speaker, allowing the light tunes to slowly cure their wounds. But when he came back with some water and blankets, he was surprised to hear that the music was switched off.

“Hey, you should keep that on if you…” he started to say when his voice suddenly died in his throat.

Well for starters, their cuts had totally closed up and they looked totally healthy. But what was weirder was that he had walked in on them changing shirts. But what was weirder than that were the chestnut-colored bird wings sprouting from their back and falling gently to the floor.

“U-uh sorry!” he felt his face heat up and he turned around, trying to hide the oncoming blush.

“It’s alright,” was their calm response.

At least they had chilled and weren’t stuttering and shrieking anymore.

“You can look now,”

They were wearing a shirt now, but a small part of the back was open for their bird’s wings to come out. The stranger fluttered them gently and smiled.

“You like ‘em?” they asked sweetly.

“Uuuuuuuuh…” was the only thing that came out of his mouth.

The stranger just giggled at him and stretched their wings out as big as they could make them, “Go on, you can look at them all you like until you get used to them,”

Lucio just placed a hand under his chin and leaned against the wall, his eyes still unable to move from the wings.

“I’m…not entirely sure I will,” he mumbled.

They just laughed at him again and folded the wings at their sides, “I always get the funniest responses from these. But listen, you can’t tell anyone you saw these. It’s a secret.”

They put a finger to their lips and went “shhh.” Lucio could only nod along.

“Got it. Um, w-why exactly do you have those?” he asked nervously.

“Born with ‘em,” they shrugged, picking at some of the feathers at the ends, “I’ve been looking for my biological parents–or creators–to find out why I’m like this. I came to the Numbani Heritage Museum for answers, thinking my wings resembled a bird native to here, but…”

Their cheery exterior suddenly dropped, and their body shuddered upon remembering their museum experience. Lucio grew worried and approached them.

“Hey, it’s ok now, you’re away from them now,” he comforted them.

“Who were they?” they breathed.

“Talon,” he sighed as he took a seat next to them, “They cause trouble everywhere they go,”

“What were they after?”

“Doomfist’s gauntlet,” he answered bluntly, “Those grunts just won’t take no for an answer. They just keep comin’ and comin’ to take it,”

“That sounds troublesome…” they mumbled.

“Yeah,” he droned, before perking up, “But you can stay here as long as you need to recover, of course.”

“That’s very kind of you,” their smile returned, “But I should be going soon. After all, my wings also somehow heal me, and I’m all better now. I’ll probably spend the night on the couch, but I’ll be gone in the morning. My past isn’t going to discover itself,”

“Heh, yeah I guess,” Lucio shrugged before getting up again, “But listen, if you need anything, just let me know. Food, tunes, birdseed–”

“Heeey…” they pouted.

“Sorry, sorry,” he chuckled.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #47

“and our scars remind us that the past is real.”

which dinosaur is your favorite? spinosaurous! have you ever been fishing? i live in north carolina. guess, lol. have you ever broken the law? if yes, what did you do? yeah, like illegal downloading and drinking underage. what is your favorite candy to receive in your trick-or-treat bag? reese's! would you ever play with a ouija board? no. idk if i believe in ouija boards, but i do enough to not fuck with them. what is your favorite foreign cuisine? italian, i guess. have you ever wondered if deep down you’re evil? i have. considering there's one person whom i'd kill if i didn't have the guilt factor, i've wondered it. i know without a doubt i'd beat the shit out of her if i saw her, and that should say enough about me. ugh. i just lose all self-control when i merely THINK about her. who do you still need closure from? jason how did you find out what sex was? how did you think it worked before? i actually learned in the 5th grade from sex ed. before that, i had no theories, i didn't know it was a thing. when did you last see an attractive member of your preferred sex? did you speak to them? do you think you’ll see them again? i saw this SUPER cute guy on christianmingle, but i didn't talk to him (you can't talk to people on there 'less you have a subscription, which i don't have yet). who knows if i ever will. what exactly did you eat for your last meal? have you any idea what you’ll be eating your next meal? i had honey nut cheerios. my next meal will be at 12:00, but because we have no bread, i'll probably just like have a cookie. we barely have anything right now. have you ever tasted baby food? how about pet food? no. pet food, i did have a guinea pig treat once lol. if you found out that your ex was having a child with someone else, how would you feel about that? fucking NO find 5 people on your facebook friends list, whose name begins with k. who are these people, and how did you meet them? kelly: met in art class in high school. she is now a mother to a daughter named jasey. katherine: we met via youtube, i think? she just lost her dad. :( katelynn: jacob's ex. very sweet lady. kathleen: high school friend. she moved away after school. kenesa: my hair stylist. if you wear glasses, are they dirty right now? eh, kinda. are you good at wrapping presents? nope. do you put your hair up when you cook? i don't really cook, but i never have in the cases where i have. do you prefer mountain dew or sprite? mountain dew. i don't like sprite. funny how it was my fave soda as a kid. what is your favorite unisex name? hm, not sure. have you ever deleted anyone from your facebook friends list? if so, why? yes, either because we don't talk, i have no interest in keeping up with you anymore, or you've done something to piss me off. time for a random question about the person you love/like. what’s his/her favorite food? probably pizza, but i'm not sure, actually. do you regret any of your past relationships? no. what is your best friend’s middle name? colleen. she goes by her middle name. have you ever liked someone that your friends didn’t like, or considered to be unattractive? if your friends have an opinion on someone you like, or are in a relationship with, do you take that into account? juan didn't like jason because jason once dated rachel, whom juan liked. i'm pretty sure one of my friends called jason weird-looking before, too?? and no, i don't care what my friends think of those i like much, honestly. it's my business, no theirs. do you plan on having children in the future? i think so, yeah. at the same time though, i'm VERY scared of having another life to watch after besides my own. i can barely take care of myself, for heaven's sake. i don't want a child if i can't appropriately take care of them. do you believe that the world will actually end? it's biblical, yes. if you could choose to be any mythical character, which would you choose? dragon!! what is your favorite animal and why? meerkats!! they're the second-most social animal in the world and would give their lives for their families. do you find yourself on youtube a lot? i always have it open. are you satisfied with your gender? yep. do you know any strippers? not to my knowledge. would it intimidate you if your crush was smarter than you? maybe a slight bit, maybe. who’s the biggest whore you know? rachel what do you want to get for your first tattoo? if you already have tattoos, what was your first one? my first tattoo was a butterfly with a semi-colon body. it represents the butterfly and semicolon projects. ever had a feeling something bad was going to happen and you were right? yep. i "knew" jason was going to break up with me like less than a week before he did. when was the last time you cried? last night. when was the last time you walked more than five miles? how come you did it? holy shit dude, i couldn't tell ya. what was the last flavor of ice-cream you had? french vanilla have you ever gone to any ridiculous extremes to lose (or gain) weight? i haven't, but i'm like five seconds from starving myself to lose weight. have you ever witnessed a birth? only by animals. do you think age matters in relationships? yes. as a general rule, an adult should not be with a minor. i personally draw the line for adults around a 10-year age difference. you should just... be in similar stages of your life, y'know? do you ever actually drink milk alone? yeah, milk is my go-to drink. have you ever been in your kitchen naked? no. the kitchen is at the other end of the house, and i'm very uncomfortable naked. do you like the smell of coconuts? eh... i'm neutral. can you play pool? yeah. we used to have one of those leveled gaming things where you could change the top of the thing to create a different game, ex. air hockey to pool. do you think that christians (and other religions) can believe in evolution? i mean... i guess?? but as a christian, it wouldn't make much sense. do you wear socks to sleep?   hell no, that's just uncomfortable. have you ever kissed just a friend?  no, and i wouldn't do that, because i wouldn't lead someone on like that?? would you rather own a snake or a rabbit? snake ugh i want one so badly!!!! what does your town's name begin with? n are you a seafood fan? not generally do you like pickles?  hell yeah! do you have a class ring?  no... i wanted one, tho. we just didn't have the money. do you prefer gold or silver jewelry? gold. i can't wear silver, i'm allergic. have you ever shaved your arms? nope. what about your stomach? i shave the dark hairs were you a nancy drew reader when you were younger? nah. would you marry someone if they were unable to have sex? of course i would. sex is just such a minute part of relationships. what's the last piercing you got?   hmmm.  i think my anti-tragus. have you seen your best friends naked?   just about.  she is totally not self-conscious about doing whatever in public; i mean consider it.  the woman's had surgery on her breast, had a surgery for endometriosis, she's married, her sister like barges in on her when she takes a shower.  i WISH i was like that.  there was one time she needed me to zipper clothes for her, so we were in the dressing room together.  i have so much respect for her. what's the last wedding you've been to?   i was the fat bridesmaid for ashley and nick. do you wear colored contacts?   i wish. one word to describe the last person you kissed?   perfect. are you counting down for anything?   my birthday!! does your hair have layers?  yeah.  ugh they gotta be trimmed. does anyone call you babe or baby?  on the VERY rare occasion juan and i talk, he calls me that sometimes. do you have or want your bellybutton pierced?   i WANT it pierced, but only after i lose weight.  i don't think plus-sized people look good with it pierced, honestly. how skilled are you at photoshop?  not at all.
 how well can you handle vulgar things (i.e. gore, disturbing images, etc)?
   general gore, no problem.  that's an aesthetic of mine.  disturbing images, like, say, a bone jutting out of someone's arm, fuck that. what part of your body would you like to change?   number one thing?  i want my stomach to be smaller. has anyone ever tried to ruin your relationship?  yeah, rachel.  too bad i ruined it myself, bitch. fess up, who was the last person you thought about kissing?   ugh.  jason. ever sang to the person you liked?   no.  after three and half years, i was too shy to sing in front of him, except for ONCE at church. are there some songs you can't listen to because they remind you of someone?   yes.  "stairway to heaven," "all or nothing," "easy to love you," and i'm on the verge with "have faith in me."  i have a hard time listening to ANY bvb or motionless in white, but i do anyway. do you believe that there's good in everybody?   nope. do you still speak to any of your classmates from elementary school?   ummm i don't think so. what if you/the last person you were seeing found out you/they were pregnant tomorrow?   i'd be impossible because it's been over a year since i've seen him? if you knew you couldn't get caught, would you rob a bank?   no.  couldn't live with the guilt. if you could discover one medical cure, what would it be for?   alzheimer's have you ever dated someone in the military?  no, and i honestly don't think i would unless i just so happened to really like him.  i could NOT live happily and contentedly knowing my boyfriend/spouse was always on the verge of being killed. what are you listening to?   "scars" by papa roach.  lol i'm having an emo streak. do you like to go out in the rain?   NO.  i hate being wet. do you think you'll ACTUALLY live a happy life with somebody?   lmao no.  this is why i cried last night. how many people have the ability to hurt you emotionally?   literally everybody. have you ever kissed someone who smokes?  nope, and i never will. do you have any brothers?  a half-brother. who did you go to the movies with last?  colleen and chelsea (: would you kill someone you hate for a billion dollars?   no, because i don't fancy prison. have you changed this year?   i'm more of a calloused bitch. have you ever been in a real moshpit?   nope.  i know it's a big part of metal culture, but i don't think i ever will.  i just... i'd get so scared being pushed and stuff. taco bell or olive garden?  og.  no competition. has your best friend ever seen you naked?   no.  way too shy to let that happen. how old do you think you will be when you finally have kids?  late 20s have you ever snuggled with someone you weren't dating?  no. would you prefer a baby boy or girl?  a beautiful little girl named alessandra quinn. are looks in a boy/girl important?   you know what, i don't entirely know anymore.  so if you read my last survey, you know i joined christian mingle a few days back.  well, thinking about it, i didn't really look into people's pages that weren't at least what i call "neutrally attractive," which is like, not really attractive, but not unattractive.  maybe i was wrong to say all these years that they don't matter.  but then again, if i befriended an unattractive guy irl and developed feelings for him, i wouldn't deny them, so i wouldn't say they're very important. you go home with a hickey, what does your mother say?   i'm 20, she can't really say much, but i'm sure she'd be a bit concerned.  i'm not in a relationship, so to randomly have a hickey?  yeah, she wouldn't like it. do your parents know EVERYTHING about you?  mom thinks she does, but sorry to inform her that she doesn't. would you consider painting your bedroom purple?  hm.  dark purple, i suppose. do your parents approve of the music you listen to?  most of it.  some of the heavier stuff or things that sing about highly negative things, notably arch enemy and otep, mom doesn't like, but of course lets me listen to it. do you keep in touch with your cousins?   no. have you ever had a best friend that moved away?  she wasn't really a BEST friend, but she meant a lot to me. do you wish you had an older, protective brother?  i guess not.  after all, when i imagine said figure, i can't imagine he'd let jason have slept with me.  i'd'a pitched a fit. name some things you would never tolerate in a relationship?   any kind of abuse.  any illicit drug use.  smoking.  obsessive drinking.  i know there's more, but i'm not gonna dwell on this question forever 'til i remember. is it easy for you to accept loss?   HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH- what's in your underwear drawer?  underwear, bras, bathing suit, fingerless gloves kiss with eyes open or closed?  who on earth kisses with their eyes open?  freaky.

[hub-pub-bub]

In an age where there’s so much change and uncertainty and disruption, there’s more of a need for leadership now than there ever was before.

—Anh Phillips, Center for Integrated Research, Deloitte

Jerry Kane:  Talking about digital is not enough. Thinking about digital is not enough. Action is what’s necessary …

Anh Phillips: Begin to understand the technologies that are out there. Understand the impact they can have.  And this doesn’t mean go out and take a coding class.  This means understanding, in a practical, functional way, the possibilities that it can offer for your organization.

Jerry Kane: I’ve often said digital transformation is much more about will than it is about skill.

Tanya Ott: Does your business make full use of the digital tools you have available? Get some new ideas today on the Press Room.

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Tanya Ott: I’m Tanya Ott, and years ago, when my daughters were young, they went through a phase—it was probably during middle school—when we were running to the store all the time buying more duct tape. But not your father’s duct tape. I’m talking tie dye, rainbow metallic, cheetah print … you name it. They’d cut and fold it like origami, one layer after another, crafting bracelets and wallets and even small purses that they could give to friends and, of course, keep some for themselves.

I’m pretty sure the company that invented duct tape during World War II could have never imagined a bunch of 13-year-olds turning it into fashion.  

But, as well all know today, duct tape has lots of uses.

Jerry Kane: It was a waterproof tape ...

Anh Phillips:  … and it was originally green, and because it was waterproof they called it duck tape. And then over the years after the war it began to be used in construction and used to tie together air ducts, and hence it changed to gray and we started calling it duct tape.

Jerry Kane: If you're anything like me, you can use it for just about any repair purpose in the house. There is actually a Wikipedia page on duct tape that looks at all sorts of different and unusual uses for duct tape. They used it to fix helicopters in the Vietnam War. There's actually some medical research on duct tape as a wart remedy, which was news to me.

Anh Phillips: Hi, I'm Anh Phillips and I lead our research on digital transformation in Deloitte's Center for Integrated Research.

Jerry Kane: And I'm Jerry Kane. I am a professor of information systems at Boston College and the director of the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship. I'm also the guest editor for Digital Business at MIT Sloan Management Review.

Tanya Ott: For several years now, Jerry and Anh have conducted an annual survey of business leaders around the world to find out how “digital” is going in their shops. They’ve now got more than 20,000 survey responses and 100 interviews—so a lot of data—and it all feeds a new book they’ve written called The Technology Fallacy: How people are the real key to digital transformation.

I sat down with them to talk about it, starting with duct tape.

Jerry Kane: The whole point was when you come in and you think there's only one possible application of technology, it's like saying there's one right use of duct tape. It just doesn't make any sense.

Anh Phillips: And part of it is discovering along the way how to actually use that technology. Sometimes you might buy a technology and you may have a sense for how you might use it strategically, but it's in the experimentation, it's in the use of that technology, that you begin to discover new ways of using it.  

Tanya Ott: Let's move this from tape—which is very analog. Let's move it to the digital. One of the tools that a lot of us use in lots of different ways, both personally and in our business lives, is Twitter. It's been used [in] a lot of different ways by a lot of different companies, and that speaks to what you're talking about, Anh. Can you give us an overview of what Twitter was perhaps originally intended for, but how companies then started figuring out some really good use cases for them?

Jerry Kane: I really call Twitter the digital duct tape because it's this data stream from customers that companies are figuring out all sorts of different ways to use. Traditionally, we think of it as an opportunity for a company to get their brand message out. One of the case studies we used in the book was KLM Airlines. They used Twitter as a solution to deal with a crisis in the midst of the 2011 Icelandic volcano eruption. Basically, all their flights were down. They had no way to communicate effectively to masses of customers. They began to turn to Twitter as a way to begin to get this huge network back on track. Once they started using it in that purpose, they realized there was a great customer service tool. They use it for Lost and Found. So, if you've gone through the gate at security and you left your iPad® mobile device back on the plane, you could tweet KLM and they would have a gate agent bring it back out to you because then they could go back through security.

And then there are all sorts of other examples from companies. T-Mobile basically monitored Twitter to see what people hated about their biggest competitors.  And that's what led to their un-carrier strategies. What people disliked was their contracts, and so T-Mobile said, “We can be the un-carrier. We're not going to do contracts.” The health care provider Kaiser Permanente used it to track what people disliked about organizations, and it turned out that parking was a huge issue, and they could actually use the geotags to figure out what facilities people were most upset with and where they could step in. So, it creates this data stream of real-time information that companies can figure out different ways to leverage for competitive advantage. It's very different than just, “Hey, let's tweet our brand message out over and over and over.”

Anh Phillips: And Tanya, the point is that social media was not created with these intentions in mind. Nobody created these tools and said, “This is how we're going to use it. We're going to use it for customer service. We're going to use it to really get a sense for what customers want and their preferences.” That was not the original intention of the technology. So, it's the idea that the technology gets released and people start to use it; they start to use in interesting ways, and then the technology continues to evolve as people begin to find different ways to use it.

Tanya Ott: Technology can also create the opportunity to work differently within your own company, and you write about one company that used technology to basically create a database of experts within their own company. Before I have you tell me about that technology and the hidden value in it for the company, explain why it is [that] a company felt that it needed to do this in the first place. Didn't they already know who their content experts were within their company?

Jerry Kane: There's a very famous saying from, I believe, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard: “If only HP knew what HP knew, we'd be three times more productive.” And so there is this concept that many organizations don't know what knowledge they have in their own four walls. They don't know what knowledge resides in the employees’ heads. And sometimes the employees don't even know that the knowledge they possess is actually valuable. When these digital platforms are able to surface this knowledge and make it more accessible to others in the organization, it can really have a significant performance impact.

Tanya Ott: How were they able to surface this? How did the tool work?

Jerry Kane: There are a couple of different examples I think in the book. One is research from my colleague Paul Leonardi at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He studied Discover Financial Services, and they had a social media platform where the employees would share information online. He did a before-and-after study and basically, by being able to look at this stream of information that people were sharing, they increased their ability to know who knew what in the organization by something like 70 percent. What was really interesting about that is that when they were asked what they learned, they said, “Oh we didn't learn anything, it didn't make a difference,” even though he had the data to say otherwise.

We have another active research project with a large professional services firm—a very similar sort of process where we're mining the electronic data that people are normally contributing and making that expertise available to others. And what we found was that not only did consultants increase their billable revenue by about 5 percent across the organization once they adopted this tool, it [also] disproportionately affected people who had previously been locked out of the organization or a bit marginalized. Namely, junior employees, in terms of rank and tenure, and women. They all performed disproportionately better as a result of adopting this tool.

Last but not least, the example we use in this book is a large chemical company did this, and on one project team they made their people stop using email and start using this collaboration platform. They found it increased the productivity of their team by about 25 percent because it reduced the effects of turnover. When somebody left, if they only communicated via email, all that knowledge was lost. When they communicated on a digital platform and somebody else came to take over, they could get up to speed much more quickly. So, it's that collaborative side of technology that [have enabled] really, new types of collaboration.

Tanya Ott: Interesting. Each year you both conduct a survey of company leaders where you report how they think their company is doing digitally. And then you sort of rate the companies by their level of digital maturity. Walk us through that continuum from the early-stage companies to the digitally mature companies, in terms of how they're finding and leveraging these sort of hidden advantages in the technologies that they deploy.

Anh Phillips: It's interesting that you asked that because we notice that early-stage companies use digital tools differently. They typically start off by using it to improve customer engagement and interaction. And then by the time you get to digitally maturing organizations, they're actually using it for much more than that. They're using it not only to engage with their customers but to improve efficiency and also to innovate and to transform and create new business models. And that's ultimately where the value lies. It’s in thinking how you can do business differently.

Jerry Kane: And another important follow-up point on this [is], and this is really the core thesis of the book, it's not just how they use technology that's different. Their leadership styles are different. The talent-retention models are different. Their organizational structure and culture are very different. Digital maturity from an organizational perspective is not just how you use technology. It's how you reorient your entire organization to be able to compete more effectively in a digital world. And those reorientations may or may not actually have much to do with technology. Yes, digitally mature companies use technology differently, but they do a whole lot of other things differently as well.

Tanya Ott: And I absolutely want to get to that leadership issue in just a moment. But just to stay here for a quick second—it seems like there could be a really fine line sometimes between missing out on an opportunity and maybe getting too far over your skis on an opportunity, particularly for those companies that are just in the early stages of digital maturity.

Jerry Kane: One thing we found is that risk tolerance is an important aspect of digital maturity. So being more comfortable with experimentation, with iteration and, let's face it, with failure. Things aren't going to always work out as expected. How you manage that risk tolerance—like what's an appropriate level of failure? How do you do fail small? You don't want to fail on a US$1 billion IT rollout, but failing on some small projects is very acceptable because you can learn as a result of that. You're never going to figure this stuff out unless you do those small iterative experiments.

But one of the biggest things that really separated the digitally mature companies out was not that they experimented more, but once they had those learnings and had those quick wins, they then use those insights to drive change across the entire organization. Everybody can experiment. It's what you do with the lessons you learn that really separates digitally mature companies out.

Anh Phillips: What Jerry is talking about is really when you talk about getting out over your skis, this book is about thinking of different ways to operate and behave and organize yourself as an organization. And when you do that, when you change the way you actually work, you're better positioned to not be out over your skis. It's all about preparing yourself and rethinking your organization so that you're better equipped to handle the unknown in the future.

Tanya Ott: You are both making the case that leadership is so important, and leadership means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. When you're looking at people and leadership and the intersection of that with technology, what [attributes] are you looking for these leaders to have? What are the qualities that you see in the more digitally mature companies?

Anh Phillips: We have to first start by making a distinction between managing and leading. There are lots of people at various levels of many organizations out there with various titles, and many of them are effectively managing people, managing projects, managing things. But leadership is not just about managing things. Leadership is really about leading people, influencing, creating a vision, showing people the way. It's always been that way. So, when we talk about digital leadership—digital leadership, in many ways, at the core is still leadership. It's always been that type of leadership. But what's a little bit different is, we found in our study that most organizations—even digitally maturing organizations—say that they need new leadership. In our study, we find that the need for new leadership doesn't drop below 50 percent, even among digitally maturing organizations. So, everyone's saying that we need it. The key is in an age where there’s so much change and uncertainty and disruption, there’s more of a need for leadership now than there ever was before.  At the heart of digital leadership, it’s still core leadership skills. You still need to be able to influence people. You still need to have a vision. But now leaders have to be change-oriented. They have to be forward-looking. And on top of that, they have to have some new skills too. They have to be digitally literate.  They need to understand technology in a way that can create a vision for the future.

Jerry Kane: I just want to follow up on to that because Anh dropped my favorite part of that statistic, and that is, although 50 percent or more of all companies report they need more leadership or need better digital leadership, what sets digitally mature companies apart or maturing companies apart is that they're actually doing something to help address that need. They are actively developing the type of leaders that can help their organization for the future, and it's not necessarily the technical skills, as Anh was pointing out. We asked them a question: What skills do digital leaders need? It was “forward-looking,” it was “visionary,” and it was also “change-oriented,” and they needed technical literacy as well. Not hard-core tech skills, just digital literacy and an understanding of what these technologies could and couldn't do.

Tanya Ott: So, are those more digitally mature companies doing talent development within their own existing staff? They're working to build up existing staff leadership capability?

Anh Phillips: What we find that's consistent across digitally maturing organizations is that if you look at talent and if you look at leadership, everyone is saying they need talent. Everyone’s saying they need leadership. But what sets apart digitally maturing organizations is they're actively developing their people and their leaders. So, it's figuring out a way to enable people to grow as individuals and grow into leadership.

Jerry Kane: And it's important to note also that when we talked to the executives we interviewed over the five years, they're pretty consistent that they're not talking about formal training initiatives here, necessarily. It's also about creating the type of work and the type of work environment where people can learn on the job. For instance, not just keeping people in their same function, [instead] creating cross-functional teams where they can learn from other people in the organization. Moving them from job to job throughout the organization so they can continue developing those skills. That's the sort of development they need to understand how to work in these sort of turbulent and agile organizations.

Tanya Ott: Let's pretend that I'm a leader, at least in title, of a company or maybe a department or a team and I'm listening to this podcast and I'm thinking to myself, maybe I don't really have my game together. Maybe we're not really doing what we need to be doing. Where do I start? What do I do?

Anh Phillips: I think there are a couple of things …

Jerry Kane: First, read our book. (laughter).

Tanya Ott: Good plug there, Jerry!

Anh Phillips: You're always looking for the opportunity, Jerry.

Jerry Kane: Yeah. Hey, I never miss the opportunity—The Technology Fallacy, available now through MIT Press.

Tanya Ott: Anh, you we're going to actually tick through a list for us. I think.

Anh Phillips: Yeah, there are several things. First of all, go to what we really know is core leadership and make a distinction between what leadership is versus just managing. We're confused these days about the two. So, if you think about those core leadership skills and then also add onto that this idea of, how do you start to think about your company 10 years from now, 20 years from now. What does that mean for your group that you're responsible for? For the company that you're responsible for as a leader? Where should the company go? And begin to look forward. And then on top of that, if you're not already familiar with all these different technologies out there, begin to build your digital literacy. Begin to understand the technologies that are out there. Understand the impact that they can have. And this doesn’t mean go out and take a coding class. This means understanding it in a practical, functional way and the possibilities that it can offer your organizations. And then start to think through what changes might need to occur in your organization. Culture is at the root and foundation of a lot of this. Without the right kind of culture in the organization, the organization can't move fast enough. It's going to be risk-intolerant. It's not going to be able to experiment. It's not going to be able to learn. You need the right kind of culture in order to encourage all those things.

Jerry Kane: Yeah, and the last chapter of our book is actually sort of a “digital transformation—a practical guide.” And we do have a 23-point survey in there recommending that people get a sense of where your organization stands. Pick two or three initiatives that can really move the needle for you. And then do a short six- to eight-week intervention to just try and get the ball rolling because it's about momentum. I’ve often said digital transformation is much more about will than it is about skill. You know, talking about digital it not enough. Thinking about digital is not enough. Action is what’s necessary because it’s only if you start doing things—even small things—that you can start to learn and to iterate and build on whatever successes or learn from whatever failures you have.

Tanya Ott: Jerry, Anh—thank you so much for joining us today.

Jerry Kane: Absolutely.

Anh Phillips: Thanks, Tanya.

Tanya Ott: Anh Phillips and Jerry Kane’s new book is The Technology Fallacy: How people are the real key to digital transformation. You can find it wherever you find books … and you can check out an excerpt on Deloitte Insights, where you can find a lot more conversations just like this one.

The Press Room podcast is available where you get your podcasts, online at deloitteinsights.com and on Twitter at @deloitteinsight (no S). I’m on Twitter at @tanyaott1. Thanks for joining us today. I’m Tanya Ott and we’ll be back here again in two weeks.

This podcast is provided by Deloitte and is intended to provide general information only.  This podcast is not intended to constitute advice or services of any kind.  For additional information about Deloitte, go to deloitte.com/about.

iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. This podcast is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc.

  Deloitte Digital DNA

Digital DNA refers to the traits companies need to organize, operate, and behave successfully in this fast-moving digital age. It’s about rewiring the organization for digital—creating the organizational environment needed for your customers, employees, and organization to optimize the value of digital technologies. The Digital DNA process includes understanding where your organization is in its digital DNA maturity, determining how digitally mature it needs to be to achieve its ambitions, and helping your organization to know how to get there.

[djgblogger-blog]

Why medicine leads the professions in suicide, and what we can do about it

http://bit.ly/2GK9MQc

Suicide is more prevalent among doctors than any other profession. Burnout could be a reason. Iuri Silvestre/Shutterstock.com

Earlier this month, one of us visited a prominent U.S. medical school to give a lecture on the topic of burnout and how physicians can find more fulfillment in the practice of medicine. Sadly, that very day, a fourth-year medical student there took her own life.

The problem was not personal failure. She had recently matched into a competitive residency program at the one of the nation’s most prestigious hospitals. Yet apparently, she still found the prospect of the life ahead more than she could bear.

This is hardly an isolated incident. A study reported earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association revealed that among U.S. professionals, physicians have the highest suicide rate. According to the researchers, the suicide rate in medicine is more than twice that of the general population, resulting in at least one physician suicide per day in the U.S. In fact, the actual number is probably higher, as the stigma of suicide results in underreporting.

The news gets even worse. There is good reason to think that when it comes to distress among physicians, suicide is only a particularly noticeable indicator of a much larger problem. For every physician who attempts suicide, many others are struggling with burnout and depression. One recent survey found that 42 percent of U.S. physicians are burned out, with rates of 38 percent among men and 48 percent among women. Such distress manifests in other ways, such as alcoholism, substance abuse and poor patient care.

High stress, but high rewards

From one point of view, these findings are not surprising. Medicine has long been recognized as a stressful profession, characterized by competitiveness, long hours and lack of sleep. Many physicians work each day with the knowledge that a mistake could lead to the death of a patient, as well as the frustration that, despite their best efforts, some patients will elect not to comply with medical recommendations and others, despite doing so, will still get sicker and die.

And yet physicians seem to have much to be grateful for. Compared to Americans in other lines of work, they are highly educated and well compensated. They enjoy a relatively high level of respect and trust. And their work provides them with regular opportunities to make a difference in the lives of patients, families and communities. They are privileged to care for human beings in some of their most memorable moments, such as in birth and death, and they may occasionally save someone’s life.

Test pilots

Why then might suicide rates among physicians be so high?

While there are undoubtedly many factors, ranging from problems in the health care system to individual circumstances, the recent death of novelist Tom Wolfe at age 88 has inspired us to look at the problem from a different perspective. The author of numerous works of both fiction and nonfiction, Wolfe’s best-selling book was 1979’s “The Right Stuff,” which chronicled the early days of the U.S. space program.

Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of an NF-104 on Dec. 4, 1963. U.S. Air Force Photo

“The Right Stuff” is populated by two very different sets of heroes. First there are the test pilots, represented by Chuck Yeager, a former flying ace who in 1947 became the first person to break the sound barrier during level flight in his X-1 rocket-powered jet.

By Wolfe’s account, the test pilots were men of daring who regularly pushed the limits of human flight, placing themselves in hazardous situations where failure to respond to problems in a split-second could result in mission failure and even death. In his introduction to the 1983 edition, Wolfe reports a pilot mortality rate of 23 percent. During the 1950s, this translated into about one death per week.

Yet morale and camaraderie among the test pilots were high. They believed that they were promoting patriotism, expanding the human capacity for exploration, and bravely breaking what were thought to be unbreakable human limits. Said Yeager, “What good does it do to be afraid? It doesn’t help anything. You better try and figure out what is happening and correct it.”

Astronauts

Through no choice of their own, the later Mercury astronauts were a very different breed, Wolfe found. Though many had experience as both combat and test pilots, their role in space exploration would resemble that of passengers more than pilots. For example, they were selected based less on their bravery, judgment or skill than on their ability to withstand a battery of grueling and sometimes humiliating tests that included nausea-inducing centrifuge rides and castor-oil enemas.

Mercury 7 astronauts, including John Glenn, second from left, examine what NASA called their ‘couches,’ or their seats that had been molded to fit plaster casts of their bodies.

In other words, the astronauts functioned less as test pilots than test subjects. The work of piloting the flights would largely be done by computers and ground control, and the astronauts’ role was largely to endure them. When it came to the design of the Mercury capsule, they had to fight for a window through which they could see where they were going, a hatch that they could open from the inside, and even minimal manual control over the rocket.

The astronauts and their families were revered by the American public, who marveled at the courage it took to ride a rocket into the unknown, but it was not enough for the men themselves. They longed to do something. In “The Right Stuff,” Yeager captures much of their frustration when he turns away from the project saying, “Anyone who goes up in that damn thing is going to be spam in a can.”

Physicians: Test pilots or astronauts?

The contrast between pilots and astronauts captures nicely some of the disappointments and frustrations facing U.S. physicians. Having entered medicine believing that their own knowledge, compassion and experience would help make the difference between health and illness and even life and death for their patients, they have found themselves inhabiting a very different reality, one that often leaves them feeling more like passengers than pilots.

Consider how physician performance is assessed. In the past, physicians sank or swam based on their professional reputations. Today, by contrast, the work of physicians tends to be evaluated by the quality of their documentation, their compliance with policies and procedures, the degree to which their clinical decision-making conforms to prescribed guidelines, and satisfaction scores. Over the past few decades, the physician has become less of a decision-maker and more of a decision implementer.

Why is this discouraging? Just as only the test pilot knows what is happening in the cockpit from second to second, a physician is often the only health professional who gets to know patients as people, including each one’s particular needs and concerns. Being assessed by metrics promulgated by economists, policymakers and health care executives who have never met the patient gives the practice of medicine a hollow feel.

Most physicians don’t want to be astronauts, hurtling uncontrollably into a health care future they cannot see. Instead they want to be pilots – professionals who exemplify why having eyes and ears on the patient is far more important than mastering a computer system or billing code. They don’t want to be astronauts, stuck in a can that dictates their every move and provides no opportunity to make the kind of difference for patients that generates personal challenge and growth.

The situation is summed up nicely by a crayon drawing by a six-year-old patient we saw recently. Entitled, “My Visit to the Doctor,” it depicts a young patient seated on an examination table, facing the doctor. The doctor, however, is across the room at a desk, facing away from the patient, bent down over a computer into which he is entering data. The implicit message of this simple image? The computer is more important to the doctor than the patient.

Ham the chimpanzee receiving an apple after returning to Earth and successful recovery from the Atlantic as a test subject in the Mercury-Redstone 2 test flight. NASA

If we want to stem the tide of burnout, depression and suicide in medicine, we need to enable doctors to be good doctors – not mere “health care providers” – and to practice medicine in a way they can be proud of. We must allow and even encourage them not merely to manage health information but to care for human beings. Like the early astronauts, physicians, especially the best among them, cannot thrive if they remain relegated to the role of Ham the Astrochimp, America’s first chimpanzee astronaut.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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How come Complete You will Apparent Powerful Verdict?

How come Complete You will Apparent Powerful Verdict?

Did you ever hear which family members gain knowledge of diversely? Well, it truly is true.

And although lots of people could possibly understand by perusing all the regarding the way to take something, a person master differently—you need true examples.

Just like a protester, political leader, as well as superhero, I am just right here to lead with example. We’ve put together a directory of article finish examples the fact that includes lots of tips as well as composition models to function as stepping-stone for your own personel writing.

Prior to I get within the article ending recommendations, to find out the reasons why coming up with an effective finish is indeed important. Any decision isn’t necessarily an important introduction to so what you’ve by now written.

Authentic, it will be slightly regarding summarizing, but it really really should bring your current article a measure further. Your main result should really reply to any unresolved problems and also conclusion a essay or dissertation along with a smash!

and shorter, an incredible composition summary is usually tremendous fundamental while it rounds your try along with causes it to be truly feel complete.

Today on to the wonderful stuff…

Investigative Composition Summary Recommendations

Area #1: Evaluate your design in concern personally persona around the Hunger Online games series.

The most self-evident methods of concern inside Being hungry Video games may well be Katniss and Peeta, however the smoothness whom personifies pity ideal has been Prim. All through the series, the woman compassion is noted once your lady may keep secrets and techniques with the girl mummy designed for Katniss, whenever your woman rehabs Gale following he becomes whipped, together with throughout earphones conduct yourself involved with her life like this lady pushes to save lots of small children on the Capitol. The lady actually activities Albert Schweitzer’s phrases, “Objective of person’s our life is to help serve, and even to indicate empathy along with the could to aid others.”

Topic #2: So what generated the particular Civic Struggle?

The need for any risk factor for any Usa Municipal Conflict might be discussed, yet what on earth is inescapable fact is always there were various factors which usually brought this Southern region to help secede. Thralldom, says’rights, and also the selection of Abraham Lincoln subsequently with the presidency—though certainly no assert with the Southern region elected for the purpose of him—virtually all led for the war. Even when many experts have roughly 150 numerous years for the reason that Municipal Battle completed, examples of the other part in between North plus To the can still be witnessed in modern day America.

Niche #3: Analyze Facebook’s influence upon Our country’s youth.

Composition final thoughts can be simple once you know the actual framework. A great deal comes all the way down to 3 most important components: a good move as a result of earphones figure passage, a new summary of these thesis survey and principal specifics of this article, and also a closing document this gadgets everything up. Should pretty much all college students was confident this easy supplement, maybe essay creating could well be simplier and easier for the purpose of everyone.

Niche #6: Is there a medical way?

These technological procedure frequently occurs sense. 1st, individuals must have a study thought he expects clarified and also just a little qualifications skills about the subject. Consequently the owner types a good conjecture, or even what exactly this individual says the answer to the research real question is, of which the patient lab tests by having an experiment. Last but not least, the individual might review the data and then attract a good conclusion. Using these services is employed in the not to mention away from methodical nation, assessment many techniques from background that will communal issues.

Subject matter #7: Just what are the reasons homelessness?

Moving by just a dispossessed people is actually normal, specifically in city settings. Homelessness is often caused by several components, which includes task decrease, deficit of family help support, plus the diminishing use of affordable housing. Although it is normally easy for a handful of for you to think homelessness is due to internal difficulties and / or total idleness, there are more elements towards consider. Only if the main style regarding drastically renowned can easily community initiate to think of a comprehensive solution.

Matter #8: What’s the subject matter principal result in of climatic change?

Almost all research workers acknowledge that will wipeout of the earths is due to a swift increase involving techniques fumes as the Business Revolution. And some could possibly conisder that manufacturer farming tend to be the major trigger of around the world and other people will probably articulate it’s always contemporary society’s transportation techniques, the key purpose is clear: mankind.

Plot Dissertation Decision Illustrations

Content #9: Think about what exactly it would be live to be given to the pages of Romeo not to mention Juliet.

Really being launched in the pages of Romeo and also Juliet would are loaded with various customs shock. Gentlemen should be transporting swords and additionally fighting with each other 1 another in your street. Young girls could possibly be having a wedding from 13 many old. Previously had When i the information of an amount turned into within the star-crossed enthusiasts, Appraisal have got informed Romeo who Juliet’s death became a hoaxes not to mention to hang about until your wife woke up. This valuable, keep in mind, will make your take up extremely several, but yet We come to feel going without shoes was in fact the accountability soon after obtaining wasted and so enough time using the characters.

Question #10: A time machines has taken an individual back up in interact with your chosen article author (Edgar Allan Poe from this case). Develop that meeting.

Since Edgar along with That i were discussing the everyday styles in addition to dim imagery from an individual’s is effective, your server cut off us. Simply put i hit with regard to the wine carafe, added myself personally any cup, plus instructed in cases where he would just like some.

“Not any kudos,” he said, joking grimly. “All things considered, it usually is poisoned.”

Field #11: Say to around your proudest moment.

Standing just for your little sibling forced me to be find that the type so,who everyone loves with those after-school sitcoms. When i was able to experience the little one who was simply intimidation our small amount of friend without having to use provocations or maybe bricks-and-mortar force. Finally, telling each of the a great open dialogue helped bring them all finer, as well as while they may do not be close friends, not less than they could esteem every single other.

Subject matter #12: Look at opertation which usually made a person what you are today.

My mistreat did not and does not specify my family, but yet We wouldn’t be the identical specific obtained I just not even used it. This got a little while and then there were being difficulties, and yet I’m a much better, further loving human being due to their terrible activities in which happened. I’m hoping many others never have to examine a similar thing Used to do, but once they will, Lets hope they may learn from your case study and discover assistance they should be alter their own issue for any better.

(Learn on crafting narration essays.)

Gripping Composition Final result Ideas

Theme #13: Need to Hermione possess ended up with Harry rather than Ron on the Ravage Potter series?

Ravage may just be the chief temperament about the Harry Potter line as well as J.K. Rowling often have mentioned most recently which perhaps your lady thinks about Hermione not to mention Ravage needs to have ended up being together with each other, even so the individuals are much too similar. That they tend to be organic frontrunners, that will develop a whole lot of romantic relationship tension. Ron, even so, will be Style N in order to amount Hermione’s Model Your personality. Considering that Harry wound up with Ron’s babe, Ginny, the 3 principal roles are actually engaged to be married directly into a similar family. In which obviously will make family vacation get-togethers alot more entertaining.

Matter #14: Needs to advanced schooling coaching be zero cost?

“College student Fiscal loans Wall membrane St Sign” by Funding Zen, Flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)

The level of education loan arrears is an proof which anything is without a doubt mistaken when using the system. However schools will want a salary to survive, buying a school schooling really should also can be bought from not any guide cost you for the student. Free of cost educational background allows just for a lot more professional country as one, them would depart numerous learners with more a chance to do the job further on his or her research projects compared with his or her’s careers, and also it may well promote universities and colleges to obtain additional creative. In the event additional educational institutions accepted the Pay back Them In advance machine, any Usa Affirms may perhaps come to be the most intelligent cities while in the world.

Area #15: Exactly what is the central thing students ought to be understanding however , might not be?

There’s lots of places where people senior high school learning could quite possibly increase, but yet a very important is definitely financial planning. Even though some could possibly claim meant for more suitable diet regime or possibly physical fitness programs, which information is easily obtainable online and even in commercials—and may in fact be taught commencing during basic school. Tougher budgetary preparing curricula would most likely give higher schoolers tips on how to create consumer credit rating, tips on how to spare with regard to retirement living, and how to budget. All of these really are very important to lifetime in the real world although may be filled up with unclear jargoon in addition to selling schemes. By means of Americans getting additional than $11 trillion with big debts, you need to the younger iteration learn the simplest way not really that they are another statistic.

 Niche #16: Ought to children get involvement trophies?

Many Babe Boomers assume that participation trophies function as a sign involving millennials’knowledge with entitlement. The simple truth is, these participation trophy isn’t going to trim sense at all about rivalry or even drive intended for improvement. As soon as there can be performance-based cash incentives together with contribution funds, this magnifying wall mount mirror any real-world whereby average-performing staff nevertheless get payed together with well-performing customers find add-ons, grows, plus promotions.

Argumentative Seek Summary Types

Issue #17: Should atomic weapons wind up being forbidden to all nations?

A result of political trepidation relating to unique nations, it’s not possibly which a worldwide forbidding upon atomic guns might be pursued by almost every earth leader. It is recommended who other nations be prepared to guard theirselves from future disorders together with similarly tough weapons. Even so, even more limitations in tests as well as unveil authorizations ought to be enforced to assure hot-headed frontrunners avoid or perhaps expose most of these unsafe pistols just being indicate with force.

Issue #18: Will be pre-employment medication tests a particular breach for privacy?

However agencies need to have to rent capable, trustworthy sales staff, they must be unable to necessitate everything that their sales staff neutralize comfortableness of their own homes. You can find good ways with determining even if anyone suits a job, such as educational background, earlier business, individual in addition to high quality references, as well as trial run periods.

Issue #19: Will need to criminals need the to suffrage?

Although most people concern the fact that according criminals the right to vote may lead to more enjoyable regulations around specified violations, prisoners are generally a section of the Usa population. A very popular activity may include every one’s sounds, possibly even individuals who have generated mistakes.

Niche #20: Should certainly father and mother end up permitted to spank their kids?

Spanking is actually a particular older in addition to laid back strategy for sticking it to children. Them shows these individuals that may assembly other people’s damaging actions by using wildness can be acceptable. In the event that kids are tall enough to help you realize why they will think you are spanked, these are who are old enough to consider their own harmful behaviour pragmatically plus discover why that it was wrong.

(Learn more details on penning argumentative essays.)

The Previous Concept in Remaining Paragraphs

Since most likely recognized assigned all the different try conclusion recommendations previously, there are a number of the way to absolve a great essay. Often, you’ll encounter any bottom line, nonetheless narrative documents may perhaps take a great exception.

A lot of these works permit you to be a little more extremely creative with the conclusion. You have to nonetheless be sure to terminate these dissertation using feeling of shutdown despite the fact that, since in the example of Area #8, this simply means arriving on your relatively forbidding note.

No matter how you actually understand, it is actually fairly practical to receive effective examples. And then now you undertake, you can find that will completing your essay.

interview essay conclusion examples

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