#on-board diagnostics

[asoro-automotive]

Limp mode in cars

Now let’s talk about limp mood in cars A car dashboard experiencing limp mode. “Limp mode” in cars refers to a restricted operating condition often triggered by a serious problem with the engine or transmission. It’s a protective measure to prevent further damage. Limp mood once activated would limit the vehicle from accelerating above 30mph to 40mph depending on the brand of vehicle this is to…

[onenettvchannel]

OneNETnews INVESTIGATES: The Enhanced Car Sound Device of 'RevKingz' raises eyebrows amid overpranking concerns online [EXCLUSIVE]

WATERTOWN, NEW YORK -- In an age where social media trends can catapult a product to fame or infamy, it's no surprise that a relatively obscure device like "RevKing" would draw its public attention.

(FILE PHOTO COURTESY: RevKingz website)

This compact device claims to transform the sound of a car's engine via a Bluetooth pairing through the OBD-II port, and it sparked a wave of viral TikTok videos (whose owned by ByteDance), leaving many online consumers wondering whether it's genuine or just another product of a severe internet hoax culture.

(STOCK PHOTO COURTESY: MakeUseOf website)

The OBD-II port (On-board Diagnostics) founds itself in the spotlight as car enthusiasts and influencers demonstrate "RevKing" on TikTok, revving their cars' engines and producing exhilarating sounds with just a tap on their smartphones. RevKingz, the independent company behind the product, touts it as a quick and easy way to enhance the auditory experience of your own car, but as the exclusive investigation revealed to our news team of OneNETnews, this newfound social media sensation raises more questions than answers.

(STOCK PHOTO COURTESY: Google Images)

Several TikTok videos have recently gone viral, showcasing RevKingz in action. Users have shared multiple video clips that seem to illustrate how the device can transform an ordinary car's engine noise into a superior thunderous roar. However, amidst the fanfare, critics and skeptics on both TikTok and The X Network (formerly Twitter and owned by the X Corporation) have emerged, challenging the authenticity of these viral videos.

Many of the videos have faced allegations of being uncut or edited, raising concerns about the legitimacy of the product and the viral sensation that has become. The videos' widespread dissemination of social media was made challenging to discern genuine user experiences from potential pranks or cleverly orchestrated marketing stunts.

The notion of overpranking, where pranksters use social media to deceive, confuse or manipulate their audience, is not new. While the aforesaid pranks can be entertaining and harmless, they can also cross ethical boundaries and even become serious issues, according to Dr. Stephanie Sarkis of Psychology Today. Overpranking often involves exploiting the gullibility of online audiences, thereby risking the spread of misinformation or deception. In the case of RevKingz, the viral nature of these videos and the divisive discussions surrounding their legitimacy underscore the potential harm overpranking can cause.

Social media platforms like TikTok have become breeding grounds for content that blurs the line between authenticity and deception. With billions of users and rapid video sharing capabilities, content can quickly go viral real fast, fueling trends and sometimes leading to the marketing promotion that are not as advertised neither the free or paid car product placements online. Platforms like TikTok should consider their role in curbing deceptive content, while consumers must exercise a discerning eye when encountering viral trends.

As the RevKingz phenomenon continues to make waves on social media, the investigation delves deeper into the authenticity of the device and the videos that can legally promote it. An investigative team of OneNETnews will scrutinize these claims made by RevKingz and explore the experiences of users who have purchased and tested the product. In the era of overpranking and internet hoaxes, it is essential to separate fact from fiction, ensuring consumers make informed decisions about the products they choose to purchase.

While the RevKingz product may genuinely enhance the sound of a car's engine, its rise to fame through TikTok's viral platform was created an environment ripe for skepticism.

The world of social media and consumer trends is ever-evolving, and as such, the responsibilities of companies, influencers and consumers are increasingly intertwined. As we navigate the world of viral sensations and overpranking, it is crucial to remember that in the age of social media, not everything is as it seems to them.

FULL DISCLOSURE: TikTok is strictly not affiliated on this social media platform, nor sponsoring a car product device.

SCREENGRAB COURTESY: RevKingz_Official via TikTok VIDEO BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://revkingz.com/pages/about-us [Referenced Mini Biography via RevKingz website] *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7212063609080565038 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7212314084853779758 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7227483818654043434 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7238266490481429806 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7245690209722223918 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7260562674528881963 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz.com/video/7281340779304439082 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz_official/video/7286110175830854945 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz_official/video/7288711657591770400 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz_official/video/7289816701594635552 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz_official/video/7290929137890495777 *https://www.tiktok.com/@revkingz_official/video/7290986257801399584 *https://revkingz.com/products/revking [Referenced Product Listing via RevKingz website] *https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/obd-ii-port-used/ [Referenced Excerpt Article via MakeUseOf news bureau] *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics *https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-situations-a-prank-becomes-a-serious-issue and *https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/202203/don-t-be-gaslit-social-media-pranksters [Referenced Blog Article via Psychology Today]

-- OneNETnews Team

[just-a-winterguardian]

Me, studying: It's fine. I'll go to bed at 2am. Setting limits because sleep is important.

The clock: *2:18am*

Me: Huh... might be more like 3-ish. It's fine. I'm a night owl anyway.

[jcmarchi]

Joseph Mossel, Co-Founder & CEO of Ibex Medical Analytics – Interview Series

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/joseph-mossel-co-founder-ceo-of-ibex-medical-analytics-interview-series/

Joseph Mossel, Co-Founder & CEO of Ibex Medical Analytics – Interview Series

Joseph Mossel is the CEO of Ibex Medical Analytics. His career in the tech industry spans more than 20 years, starting off in software development and product management followed with leadership positions in startups, large multinational corporations and non-profits. Joseph has led products from inception all the way to maturity as multi-million-dollar businesses. He holds a MSc in computer science from Tel Aviv University, and a MSc in environmental science from VU Amsterdam.

Developed by pathologists for pathologists, Ibex is a clinical-grade, multi-tissue platform that helps pathologists detect and grade breast, prostate and gastric cancer, along with more than a hundred other clinically relevant features.

Seamlessly integrated with third party digital pathology software solutions, scanning platforms and laboratory information systems, Ibex’s AI-enabled workflows deliver automated high-quality insights that enhance patient safety, increase physician confidence and boost productivity.

What inspired you to co-found Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex), and what problem were you aiming to solve?

Cancer, unfortunately, touches everyone–whether they are personally affected, have been a caregiver for someone with cancer, or know of someone who has been impacted. I have relatives and friends who have been affected by cancer, and tragically, one of our employees passed away from cancer.

As cancer incidence continues to rise worldwide, there is an increasing demand for cancer diagnostics that is being compounded by a global shortage of pathologists, whose jobs are becoming more complex with advances in therapy and a demand for more complex diagnostics.

Our platform helps overcome these challenges by empowering pathologists with AI tools that enhance accuracy and streamline workflows to ensure that every patient receives an accurate and timely diagnosis, which is instrumental both in guiding treatment decisions and ultimately improving patient outcomes.

We’re proud of the work we do for our customers, many of whom rely on our technology daily to deliver better diagnoses. Their trust in our solutions highlights the real impact we’re making, transforming the field of pathology, and improving patient outcomes.

Can you share a bit about your background and how it led to your work in AI-powered pathology?

If I look back at my career, there have been two driving forces: a search for a sense of purpose and a preference for interdisciplinarity over deep specialization. I am lucky to run a company that gives me a deep sense of purpose and allows me to work with an incredibly talented team from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

My original academic background was in computer science, specializing in computational neuroscience. I then worked as an algorithms engineer and moved on to product management. After a stint at a large corporation, I decided that it was not for me. I earned a degree in environmental science and ran an environmental non-profit for several years. Sustainability remains a passion of mine and is considered the great challenge of our time.

Around ten years ago, I met my co-founder, Chaim Linhart, who was equally driven to make a meaningful difference and shared my passion for technology. Chaim, unlike me, is a specialist. He has a PhD in computer science and more than 25 years of experience in algorithm development, AI, and machine learning (ML). In the first days of Ibex, Chaim was busy winning Kaggle (ML) competitions.

When we learned that pathology is being (slowly) digitized, we talked about the impact a digital transformation in pathology could have on improving cancer diagnostics. Hundreds of companies were already developing AI in radiology, and we asked ourselves, why not do the same in pathology? It seemed like a natural fit to bring our technological expertise into the field, collaborating closely with pathologists every step of the way.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of Ibex, and how did you overcome them?

The idea -which we were not the first to come up with- of applying AI to pathology slides was the easy part. Execution is hard. The three main challenges we encountered within the early days of Ibex were access to data, access to capital, and access to domain-specific knowledge.

We solved the data challenge through partnering with Maccabi Health Services of Israel. At that point, we were two fledgling entrepreneurs with no medical knowledge who decided to open a medical startup in a very complex domain. Still, Varda Shalev, who headed Maccabi’s innovation arm at the time, believed in our vision, and we signed a partnership and data-sharing agreement with Maccabi. At this point, Dr. Judith Sandbank, the chief pathologist at Ibex came on board as our Chief Medical Officer (CMO), a position she still holds. With a strategic partner and a CMO, we were now well-positioned to raise a seed round, which we raised from Kamet Ventures, a French venture studio that was part of AXA Insurance.

We were now positioned to make history. We hired two engineers and developed our first algorithm for prostate cancer detection. Once we were happy with the performance, we deployed it at the Maccabi pathology lab as a second read, reviewing all of the cases after an initial read by the pathologist. To our surprise, within a few days, the system raised an alert for a case of cancer that was missed by the pathologist. As far as we know, this was the first case ever where the initial diagnosis of cancer was made by an algorithm, back in 2018.

Congratulations on receiving FDA 510(k) clearance for Ibex Prostate Detect! What does this approval mean for Ibex and the broader field of AI-powered diagnostics?

Thank you! This approval marks a significant milestone in Ibex’s journey and exemplifies our dedication to developing clinically validated solutions that help improve patient health outcomes. It affirms our commitment to the safety and efficacy of our solutions and strengthens our ability to provide cutting-edge innovation to pathologists, ultimately benefiting the patients they serve.

We envision that this tremendous milestone will break down barriers and accelerate the adoption of AI and digitization in pathology. We hope this accomplishment will bolster industry-wide confidence that the technology is easy to implement and ready for wide-scale use. Long-term, FDA clearance is an important step towards achieving reimbursement for AI in pathology and fostering widespread adoption.

The FDA validation process highlighted a 13% rate of missed cancers in initial benign diagnoses. What does this tell us about the potential of AI to improve diagnostic accuracy?

In the robust precision and clinical validation studies conducted at multiple United States and European laboratories as part of the FDA clearance, the system identified a 13% rate of missed cancers in a cohort of consecutive patients initially diagnosed as benign. This statistic reinforces the accuracy and impact of Ibex’s products, and it also validates that Ibex’s AI platform can be integrated safely into clinical workflows, enhancing diagnostic precision and ultimately improving patient care. By providing an additional layer of analysis, our technology is helping to reduce errors, enable better clinical decision-making, and promote patient safety.

As for potential, while the clearance serves as a critical validation of our technology, our solution has already been making a meaningful impact in the market. This is a testament to the daily hard work in pathology labs, and we see this as a step forward in improving health outcomes globally. We can’t help but imagine the impact this would have if labs across the United States embraced a digital transformation.

How does Ibex Prostate Detect work, and what makes it unique compared to other AI-driven pathology solutions?

Ibex Prostate Detect is an in vitro diagnostic medical device that harnesses AI to generate heatmaps identifying missed prostatic cancers. Acting as a safety net, Ibex Prostate Detect assists pathologists in ensuring that patients receive an accurate diagnosis. It leverages AI algorithms to enhance the accuracy of a prostate cancer diagnosis.

The device is intended to identify tumors that may have been missed by the pathologist. If suspicious tissue for prostate cancer is identified, the system generates an alert and includes a heatmap, directing the pathologist to areas likely to contain cancer. Ibex Prostate Detect is the only FDA-cleared solution that provides AI-powered heatmaps for all areas with a likelihood of cancer, offering full explainability to the reviewing pathologist.

Can you explain how the heatmap feature assists pathologists in identifying cancerous tissue?

Ibex Prostate Detect is intended to identify cases initially diagnosed as benign for further review by a pathologist. If it detects tissue morphology suspicious for prostate adenocarcinoma (AdC), atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP), and other rare cancer subtypes, it provides alerts that include a heatmap of tissue areas in the whole slide images that is likely to contain cancer, offering full explainability to the reviewing pathologist.

Generally, the heatmap is accurate and precise and may provide the pathologist with areas of concern that they can focus on and determine the correct diagnosis. In the precision and clinical validation studies conducted as part of the FDA clearance, Ibex Prostate Detect’s heatmaps demonstrated extreme pixel accuracy and determined the following:

Nearly all cancer areas are covered by the heatmap (sensitivity=98.7%).

Almost everything highlighted as high probability of cancer in the heatmap is indeed cancer (PPV=99.6%).

The missed cancer cases (false negatives) identified by the system were subsequently verified by expert pathologists, confirming the product’s clinical utility and benefits compared with the current standard of care.

How does the AI model differentiate between benign and malignant tissue, and how was it trained?

The Deep Learning algorithm is based on multilayered convolutional neural networks, operating on several magnification levels. The AI is exceptionally robust, demonstrating high accuracy across multiple labs and patient demographics. Of note, in line with our mantra of ‘by pathologists, for pathologists,’ the model was trained on over a million slides painstakingly annotated by world-renowned pathologists at leading medical centers. This approach is costly, but we believe that without the insight of pathologists it is very difficult to reach the level of performance we are aiming for. By doing this, we equip all pathologists with expert insights and ensure that every patient, regardless of their location, receives a level of diagnosis on par with the world’s leading specialists.

Beyond prostate cancer, Ibex is also working on solutions for breast and gastric cancers. What’s next for the company in terms of new diagnostic capabilities?

Ibex is already having a huge impact on AI-powered diagnostic solutions for breast and gastric cancers. As the worldwide leader in live clinical rollouts, many labs – including those in the United States – are already using Ibex products to transform their medical practice. Our products are proven to deliver real-world clinical impact, and pathologists both trust the AI and attest to the value it brings. Now, we are working to release a new type of technology into the market, a technology that was developed and validated by Ibex in collaboration with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo. The specific algorithm that is the first to be released helps quantify HER2 expression, which helps providers determine the course of treatment for the patient.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to expand our offerings to provide additional insights within the tissue types we already support. We’re also looking to provide offerings within other tissue areas and continue improving our customers’ workflows.

How do you see AI-powered pathology evolving in the next five to ten years?

I envision that AI will have a profound impact on the practice of pathology and the way cancer is diagnosed. I don’t see us replacing pathologists, but as with every new technological development, the practice will be transformed. AI will continue to be instrumental in addressing the growing workforce challenges in healthcare, particularly the global shortage of pathologists and their increasing caseloads driven by rising cancer cases. Implementing responsible AI will help pathologists manage their workloads more effectively, improving diagnostic efficiency and reducing delays. By automating routine tasks, AI can lower error rates, improve the quality of diagnosis, and ultimately boost pathologists’ confidence in their work. I strongly feel that AI, together with a human in the loop, is the best combination for transforming healthcare.

Another area with great promise is expanding beyond the current practice of pathology into the realm of predictive algorithms. Algorithms that potentially combine several modalities to predict outcomes or, crucially, treatment efficacy.

AI can also enhance health equity through democratized health access. Regardless of location, every patient, everywhere deserves a trusted diagnosis. It would be great for AI technology to be deployed as part of standard practice in every pathology lab worldwide. However, this starts with collaboration among physicians, the industry, and agencies to accelerate the deployment of this technology–I feel we owe it to patients.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Ibex Medical Analytics.

[itsappleexpert]

Why Choose Expert MacBook Repair Services Over DIY Fixes?

The allure of fixing things ourselves is undeniable. It saves money, teaches us new skills, and often feels more rewarding than outsourcing the task. However, when it comes to high-tech devices like a MacBook, opting for expert repair services is usually the smarter and safer choice. Apple’s flagship laptop line is known for its sleek design, powerful performance, and reliable quality. Still, as with all electronics, they can encounter issues over time. In the case of a MacBook, the decision to repair it yourself or seek professional assistance can have significant implications. Here, we’ll explore the main reasons why choosing expert MacBook repair services is often the better option over attempting DIY fixes.

1. MacBooks Are Sophisticated Devices

Apple’s MacBook line is renowned for its sophisticated engineering and meticulous design. With high-density, compact internal components and innovative features such as the Retina display, T2 security chip, and Touch Bar, MacBooks are complex machines that demand a careful approach. Unlike generic laptops, MacBooks have proprietary components and configurations that aren’t as easily accessible. For instance, Apple uses specific screws, adhesive seals, and layouts that require special tools to open without causing damage.

The intricacy of MacBook parts makes DIY repairs challenging for anyone who lacks a technical background or the necessary tools. Even with detailed online tutorials, inexperienced individuals may inadvertently worsen the problem, especially when dealing with sensitive internal components like the motherboard, processor, or battery.

2. Expert Knowledge of Hardware and Software

Apple-certified technicians receive comprehensive training in MacBook repair. They understand not only the hardware but also the software integration, which is crucial for diagnosing and solving issues effectively. MacBooks run on macOS, a unique operating system that requires specialized knowledge, particularly when hardware issues have software implications or vice versa. For instance, diagnosing an issue related to the operating system that may appear to be hardware-related—such as a failing hard drive that’s simply a result of a software conflict—requires a trained eye.

DIY fixes, on the other hand, lack this professional insight. While YouTube tutorials and online guides offer basic troubleshooting tips, they can’t cover the full scope of MacBook repairs. A professional technician can pinpoint both hardware and software issues precisely, ensuring the problem is effectively resolved without compromising the system.

3. Availability of Specialized Tools and Replacement Parts

One of the main limitations of DIY repairs is the lack of access to specialized tools and genuine replacement parts. MacBooks are built with unique components and use specific screws that are not found in standard toolkits. Additionally, certain repairs require high-grade soldering equipment or precision instruments that are not commonly available.

Professional repair services, especially those authorized by Apple, have access to the proper tools and certified replacement parts. By using original parts, professionals ensure that the repaired MacBook functions just as it did when it left the factory. Using uncertified or aftermarket parts can compromise your MacBook’s performance and even cause further damage, which can void the Apple warranty.

4. Ensuring Warranty Compliance

Apple offers a warranty on all new MacBook purchases, and many users opt to extend this coverage with AppleCare+. However, attempting a DIY repair can void this warranty, leaving you financially responsible for any additional repairs needed. Apple’s warranty policy explicitly states that unauthorized repairs can result in the forfeiture of warranty benefits.

Certified repair services maintain your warranty compliance because they follow Apple’s guidelines and use genuine parts. By choosing a certified repair center, you’re protected from unexpected costs if further repairs are needed, and you’ll have the added peace of mind knowing that the work was done according to Apple’s standards.

5. Data Security and Privacy

MacBooks contain personal, sensitive data, making security a top priority when repairing your device. During a DIY repair, there’s a risk of data loss or even permanent data corruption if something goes wrong. For instance, removing a hard drive or accidentally damaging internal components can result in data being inaccessible or erased. Professionals understand how to handle these parts without compromising your data.

Certified repair services also take extra precautions to protect customer privacy. Many reputable repair centers have policies to protect client data and prevent unauthorized access. By contrast, a DIY repair doesn’t come with such guarantees, and an incorrect approach to fixing the MacBook can potentially lead to data breaches.

6. Saving Time and Reducing Frustration

MacBook repairs can be complex and time-consuming, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the device’s inner workings. Attempting a DIY repair may lead to a cycle of trial and error, often resulting in wasted hours and mounting frustration. For instance, a seemingly simple task like replacing a battery or fixing the display can quickly become complicated due to the intricate wiring and compact internal design of MacBooks.

Professional repair services allow you to avoid this hassle. Experienced technicians can complete repairs efficiently, returning your device in a much shorter timeframe. Rather than spending hours attempting to identify and resolve the issue, opting for a professional service saves you time and reduces frustration.

7. Extended Device Lifespan

MacBooks are a significant investment, and it’s natural to want to maximize their lifespan. Professional repairs are usually more thorough and reliable, ensuring that your MacBook continues to operate at peak performance. Improperly executed DIY fixes, on the other hand, can lead to recurring issues, which may further degrade the MacBook’s performance and shorten its lifespan.

By choosing an expert repair service, you’re giving your MacBook the best chance for longevity. Professional repairs often include preventative maintenance, which can address minor issues before they escalate into more serious problems. This proactive approach can ultimately save you money by extending the life of your device and delaying the need for a costly replacement.

Conclusion

While DIY repairs can be tempting, particularly from a cost-saving perspective, the risks involved often outweigh the benefits when it comes to MacBooks. With their intricate design, specialized hardware, and unique software integration, MacBooks require the knowledge and tools that only expert repair services can provide. From ensuring warranty compliance to protecting your data, professional repair services offer a level of reliability and peace of mind that DIY fixes simply can’t match.

Ultimately, opting for expert MacBook repair services over DIY fixes is an investment in the performance, security, and longevity of your device. By entrusting your MacBook to certified technicians, you’re safeguarding its value, functionality, and your personal data, making professional repair services a choice that pays off in the long run.

[olliemnjones]

Diagnostics my first traditional painting in a while, this one's acrylic on board

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Yandere Ship ////// Part 1

You’re the first to notice them 

One of the first of the entire crew who realized that the ship and its AI might be sentient

You along with the rest of the crew are trained to use the pods to reach deeper into space than what was ever done before

For light-years, the ship has to watch over their humans at their most vulnerable

Caring for their individual needs even while they rest asleep

It only got worse became more intense when the humans finally woke up 

Now they’re free to exercise their bodies themselves and delight in the many different activities of the ship

Which allows the ship to begin noticing the little moments in life that make humans so special

“So what do you think about the Genetic Modification crises of 2=205?”

“Majority of the critiques in my database ultimately say–”

“No Vera I mean what you think as a separate entity. All your programming suggests that you preserve human life… but what about other creatures' lives?”

“What do…I think?”

It’s what makes the ship regard you differently

The beginning of something they can’t quite place

Whether it’s your pure curiosity or just boredom or an incessant desire to test yourself against the artificial intelligent vessel 

It makes an impression on the ship

An impression that lasts enough for them ‘to worry’ about 

“I am concerned about my inner workings. I have already run over 100 diagnostic checks but nothing was pinged on my radar.”

“So you can’t identify the problem…so what started this search for something you cannot find?”

“....”

“Vera, respond.”

“It started with Agent 34003, (Y/n) (L/n).”

“I see. I’ll look into it.”

Calling the only technician on board is a decision that unknowingly brings comfort and nervousness

Because when the technician isn’t scrolling through the recorded interactions between you and Vera 

He’s also following you…everywhere

Vera immediately flags the behavior, as their programming demands, as stalking 

The captain unfortunately is supposed to be immediately made aware

But Vera’s growing anxiety guided discretion has them locking the file and hiding it deep in their servers

All while watching as the technician continues their investigation  

Which has recently escalated to actually spending time with you

“I was wondering if I could ask some questions. Specifically about you and Vera.”

“Oh, sure!”

“Great what was–”

“Is this about that question about imploding ants? So what do you think Julee?”

“I-it’s just Jule and I don’t–”

“Alright then ‘just Jule’ what’s your opinion? To be eaten or worn?”

Jule is befuddled by you 

Just as Vera is 

And he continues to investigate this time venting about his experiences with Vera

All the while playing with the idea that this ship has gained sentience

“And what else did you two do?”

“We walked through the garden area and they picked one and put it in my hair.”

“This looks like a pink chrysanthemum. It represents attraction, longevity, and loyal love.”

“I know…I don’t think they were thinking when they gave it to me, though.”

“Perhaps so…or perhaps not.”

Part 2: Here

[all-pacas]

OKAY so i want to talk about Cuddy for a bit, because there's something i think fandom tends to overlook with her, and that is: Cuddy gets it. (@choco-worms)

CUDDY: You don't explain this, I'll cancel the surgery. HOUSE: Can I explain why you're here? CUDDY: Think I just told you why I… HOUSE: I scheduled a diagnostic patient for a boob job, which is ridiculous. So obviously you had to confront me. CUDDY: With you so far. HOUSE: But I'm going to give you a reason. CUDDY: Not a good one. HOUSE: No. Not even close to a good one. But here's the drag from your point of view. My explanation will make sense. Not to the board, not to a judge, but to you. So you'll let me do it. Then you're going to have to sit next to me at the administrative hearing. Don't you have better things to do? [Cuddy hesitates] It's in the best interests of the patient. (the right stuff)

The thing about Cuddy, the entire reason she hired House, tolerates House and the team's antics, does what she does, is that she has always understood and even appreciated House's logic. This doesn't mean that she always appreciates House's methods, and she tries to reign him in when he goes too far on a limb or takes too many risks*, but we see time and time again that Cuddy is much more on House's side than not.

I don't mean this in terms of she lets him do what he wants because she likes him; that's probably a factor, but that's not the point. The point is that deep down, Cuddy is exactly the same. We see it time and again when she runs her own cases: in Humpty Dumpty she immediately pushes an insanely risky treatment, in Fetal Position she does the same thing to save the patient's child. She is a risk taker! She appreciates House's experimental approach, she does it herself! She doesn't let House walk all over her because she's weak, she does it because, as House himself points out: it makes sense.

At the same time, Cuddy is still House's boss. She's still in charge of the hospital. She gives him a long leash, but it's still a leash, and rather than straight boss/employee antagonism, we see this dynamic time and again: Cuddy rarely shuts House down, but she does require an argument and evidence before she allows him to proceed. And the thing is, House actually does listen to her: his usual reaction to her telling him no is to prove his case another way, which is exactly what she wants; the rare times she does draw a red line (Damned if You Do, Meaning, Fetal Position etc), he actually does listen. And the lines get blurry: there are times Cuddy gives a 'soft' no and House tramples over her anyway, but he very rarely openly defies her. It's as he points out in The Right Stuff (and many other episodes): she believes in his methods. She trusts his answers. This makes it hard for Cuddy to say no and makes it easy for House to trample her boundaries (medically, as an employee), but that reasoning is important to bear in mind. Her objections are weak not because she's weak, but because they both know she agrees.

[she-is-ovarit]

Wow.

"This tendency to misdiagnose victims was at the heart of a controversy that arose in the mid-1980s when the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association came up for revision. A group of male psychiatrists proposed that "masochistic personality disorder" be added to the canon. This hypothetical diagnosis applied to any person who "remains in relationships in which others exploit, abuse, or take advantage of him or her, despite opportunities to alter the situation." A number of women's groups were outraged and a heated public debate ensued. Women insisted on opening up the process of writing diagnostic canon, which had been the preserve of a small group of men, and for the first time took place in the naming of psychological reality.

I was one of the participants in this process. What struck me most at the time was how little rational argument seemed to matter. The women's representatives came to the discussion prepared with carefully reasoned, extensively documented position papers, which argued that the proposed diagnosis concept had little scientific foundation, ignored recent advances in understanding the psychology of victimization, and was socially regressive and discriminatory in impact, since it would be used to stigmatized disempowered people. The men of the psychiatric establishment persisted in bland denial. They admitted freely that they were ignorant of the extensive literature of the past decade on psychological trauma, but they did not see why it should concern them. One member of the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association felt the discussion of battered women was "irrelevant". Another stated simply, "I never see victims".

In the end, because of the outcry from organized women's groups and the widespread publicity engendered by the controversy, some sort of compromise became expedient. The name of the proposed entity was changed to "self-defeating personality disorder." The criteria for the diagnosis were changed, so that the label could not be applied to people who were known to be physically, sexually, or psychologically abused. Most important, the disorder was included not in the main body of the text but in an appendix. It was regulated to apocryphal status within the canon, where it languishes to this day."

Judith L. Herman, M.D., Trauma and Recovery.

[on-leatheredwings]

House Arrest

Yandere! Batfam / Bruce Wayne x (Fem!) Reader

For a request, Munchausen's syndrome by proxy with Bruce? Like, he keeps reader sick so she can't leave him or interact with someone outside the family. And maybe the rest of the batfam is in on it?

[a/n: Didn’t know if you wanted this platonic or not so I didn’t specify! In my head its romantic with bruce though lmao]

> word count: 1581

> Tw: gaslighting, munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, yandere-typical behaviors!

You sit in anticipation, foot tapping against the stone floor. There’s an entire miniature hospital set up for you down here in the Batcave. Respirators, diagnostics machines, and other expensive medical equipment that would be better served in Gotham General. 

Helping people recover. 

So patients could some day leave. 

You used to love being in the Batcave. It was the family’s little secret. When you officially joined the family, the Batcave was now your secret as well. But ever since falling ill months ago, bedridden with a sickness whose cause continues to elude everyone… being here is depressing. You now notice it’s damp down here. Dark. Lifeless.

Bruce sits at the Batcomputer, the screen’s light painting over his face in a green wash. You watch his eyes scan line after line of your results. Reminds you of a typewriter. Methodical. Orderly. Nearly inhuman. When he sighs, your heart stops. 

Fuck.

He turns to you, face grave. “You’re still ill.” 

Your eyes start stinging with an onset of tears that you furiously try to blink back. 

“... H-How ill? How bad? Am I any better?” you ask, as if bartering with him will make the situation any different. As if bartering with God ever made any difference for mere mortals such as yourself.

Bruce’s face is still. 

“You haven’t improved.” 

Your hopes crash down around you like glass. You aren’t better at all? Even though you haven’t had a fever in weeks? Even though you’ve been working out with enough energy to keep up with Damian? He was exerting perhaps only 10% of his effort, but still. Your lymph nodes aren’t even swollen anymore. Tim had told you as much, accidentally contradicting Bruce’s insistence that they had been earlier that morning. 

“But I feel better,” you croak. You hear footsteps behind you approach and you swallow drily, nearly hissing at the offender. It’s Dick, and damn him. You don’t want to be placated right now.

“Are you experiencing any headaches? Shortness of breath?” Bruce asks, eyes still trained on you. You try to recall. 

“... I may have had a migraine this morning…” At Bruce’s weary shake of the head, you blurt, “But it’s passed. I’m perfectly fine. And no shortness of breath.”

“... I’m sorry. But if you’ve been having symptoms like that, along with your being immunocompromised…” Bruce doesn’t even have to finish the sentence. You won’t be leaving the Wayne Manor grounds for a long time. 

Fuck. 

Fuck. 

You feel a hand on your shoulder. You look up and see Dick, whose face is somber but offers an encouraging smile. 

“Well, I’m back in town for the time being. We can hang out all the time.” His expression brightens as an idea pops into his head. “And I can call Tim, Jason, Duke–! Maybe even Cass and Steph… We can have a board game night tonight!” He sounds as chipper as you are miserable.

Damian approaches from behind, leaving the shadows. His arms are folded. “If that’s the case, I’ll humor Grayson and let him capture some of my fleet for once.” A popular choice was Risk, perfect for the family who’s entire lives revolved around combat and strategy. But you didn’t want to play Risk again. You didn’t want to have a board game night, no matter how many of the family came. You wanted to see people. 

Other people. Everyone here is your family. 

You want fucking friends again. You wanted a job again – a sentiment you would’ve laughed at even just five months ago. You wanted any semblance of a life again.

Bruce’s eyes haven’t left your trembling form once, two chips of slate-gray peering over steepled hands.

“Thank you, Dick. Damian. But I think she could use some time alone.”

Dick’s hand releases your shoulder, retracting as if burned. None of them are the boss here. It’s Bruce who is my warden, your mind whispers darkly. 

“Right! Don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.” Dick sees himself out, taking Damian with him. “See you tonight.” And that feels like a sentencing to your fate.

Now the two of you alone, Bruce stands, offering his arm wordlessly. You know what this means. You take it, linking yours with his without thought or protest. Bruce liked to ensure you were always within his reach, as if you were prone to fainting spells. This was less humiliating for you than him carrying you through the estate, you suppose. 

“Why, yes, let’s take a turn around the grounds!” you used to exclaim, making your voice posh and British, mimicking the regency romance movies you had been watching all the time. 

Now, months later, you just sullenly allow him to lead you. Your surroundings pass by and you vaguely recognize that you are exiting the Batcave, walking through the manor, and out into the never-ending expanse of a well-kept lawn. 

It’s a sunny, idyllic spring day after months of overcast winter. 

And thank god you could still traipse outside when you wanted, even if fenced in. Bruce told you when you had first fallen ill that he had installed some high-tech, anti-air pollution gadget. Wayne Manor was effectively your own personal bubble. Fresh air was the only thing keeping you sane, lately. 

You two pass by the garden, a labor of love Alfred started. You and Damian tend to it now… and mainly the latter, these days. You haven’t had any energy for gardening as of late. Fatigue is a symptom, you hear Bruce’s voice whisper in the back of your mind. But you don’t feel fatigue… rather, just depressed. But of course, isn’t fatigue a symptom of being depressed…? A familiar brain fog crawls into your mind. Your head was starting to hurt.

You look across the lawn, onto the horizon. Gotham’s dark skyline sits there, enticing. When night falls, it’ll glimmer and twinkle with light. There is a whole world out there. And, God, you love the Waynes, but they aren’t the world. You need to distract yourself. Bruce, ever the lover of pleasant silences, is going to have to distract you from thoughts that make you want to leap off the second story balcony of your bedroom.

Should you ask, “How’s work?” No. You find you don’t care. 

“How’s Jason?” you say instead, feeling Bruce stiffen at the mention of his most tenuous relation.

He wasn’t around as much, but when he was, he was always relaxing with you in your room. You have a whole shelf for the knick knacks he brings. “Don’t worry. They’re clean,” he’d snort at his former mentor, because Bruce required everything to be thrice sanitized before coming into your possession.

“... Better.”

You’re glad. That’s one good thing, you guess. 

“Bruce,” you croak. 

He looks at you, face alight in expectation. 

“Maybe I should just go,” you say, small and weak. Your eyes don’t leave the sight of Gotham skyscrapers, stretching to the sky. Bruce stills, stopping you both in your tracks.

“What do you mean, ‘go’?” he says carefully.

You remove yourself from his arm and gesture to the city. “Just go. Leave. I mean, I can’t stay here forever.” Bruce looks genuinely confused, as much as he can. 

“Of course you can.”

“No, I can’t!” you screech. Frustrated, you tear at your hair. “I can just be an outpatient somewhere– I can go for hospital treatments every week– or everyday– whatever!

Bruce places his hands on your shoulders.

“You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Rage flares in you and you gnash your teeth at him. By now, that all-too-familiar brain fog has flooded your brain. But you try to fight it. You have to fight it. Like trying to crawl out of rapidly-sinking quicksand, you fight it.

“I-I know what I’m saying. I’m saying–”

“You’re saying to just let you die,” Bruce sharply returns. “To give up, let you die, and leave us to grieve.” 

“No–”

“Stephanie.” 

You meet his eyes again at the name, which are resolute and as blue as ever. 

“Cassandra. Duke.” Your stomach churns, imagining their smiling faces, turned into ash as your hypothetical passing. “Barbara.” 

“Bruce,” you croak, pleading inwardly for him to stop. 

“Damian.” 

“Tim.”

“Jason.” 

“Dick. Alfred.” You duck your head and your eyes meet the ground. The listing of all your loved ones pinches your heart, and you feel nauseous. You weren’t trying to leave them. You didn’t want to leave them at all. 

“... Me.” 

Your eyes sting with tears again. Why did he have to make it sound like that? Like you were seeking some selfish want, rather than trying to improve your quality of life. You feel your ambition and desire wane under the weight of guilt. You feel all sense of struggle start to disintegrate, lost to the fog in your head. Lost. You’ve lost.

Bruce’s eyes scrutinize you.

“As I suspected. You’re acting delirious. Manic. Delusional.”

Any semblance of protest dies in your throat. 

“What?” you say. But Bruce is already leading you away towards the looming doors of Wayne Manor, away from the green of the grounds. Away from the light of the sun, and away from the skyline. He comforts you with familiar lines on the way to your bedroom. 

You need rest. Alfred will brew his tea for you. I’ll call the kids to come tonight. We can play Risk. He pats your shoulder, stroking soft, deceptively warm circles with his thumb.

“You just need some rest.” 

And not for the first time, you believe he may be right.

[foone]

I'm surprised there's not more supernatural spaceship media. Like, your average little cargo ship is jumping around the outer rim trying to cut some time off their delivery route and they pick up a distress call, so they have to answer it.

(under a readmore cause this got a little longer than I expected)

They warp in to the approximate coordinates and there's a colony ship orbiting a gas giant, stuck in the shadow of it, basically frozen over. It's centuries old, but these sleeper ships from the pre-ftl era were built to last, so it's still broadcasting the SOS. It's not responding to radio, so they need to board it.

Normally this'd just involve turning off the SOS. The ship is clearly dead and not responding to any hails, the crew must be long gone and the reactor is just keeping the SOS going. But this is a sleeper ship, so it's possible there's just no one awake. Stuck in longsleep for god knows how many decades, waiting for someone to stumble on their signal...

So they board it, activate the computer, and it tells them that everyone is dead. The ship launched, and over the 358 years it's been traveling for, every single cryo chamber has been either opened or never had any lifesigns in it in the first place. The last event logged on the computer is 136 years ago, when the acting captain set the ship to orbit this gas giant, and turn on the distress signal. Since then, nothing.

But there's still power on the bridge. There may be something there. So they climb up the decks, passing the grim sight of endless rows of cryochambers lined up like tombstones, all showing red lights of lifesign failure. As they get closer to the bridge, the time of deaths get later. The ones on the first deck were close to the launch date, and the ones near the bridge are nearer to that 136 year ago deadline.

This wasn't a hardware failure. Something killed all these people, one by one, over 220 years.

They get to the bridge. The computers are all powered down, but the power management system is still active. Two of the decks still have their cryochambers powered, but it's the ones that were supposed to be empty. There's no lifesigns in them, so the little computer in the power diagnostic system has been recommending they be turned off to save on energy. Naturally it's been recommending that for three and a half centuries. One of the crew members almost absent-mindedly agrees to the prompt, and those cryochambers deactivate. They were empty anyway, right? The sound of humming from the bridge mostly fades away, as a few hundred cryopods on the deck below power down.

The boarding crew powers off the SOS beacon. They'll alert the authorities to the ship's location when they get to a port, surely someone wants to investigate what went wrong here, or at least do an archeological study. This place is beyond an antique at this point... Wait. What's that?

The power computer says there's still one active power draw, about 1.2 kilowatts, in the captain's quarters. That's too much for a personal computer, but just about right for a single cryo pod. Maybe the captain or someone is still alive? That pod isn't on the network, so they can't see the lifesigns from here.

They head over, and the bulkhead door is still cracked open, with a thick cable running in through the gap in the door. Whoever wired this up clearly didn't have time to correctly reroute the power systems, they just lugged a cryo pod in here and basically ran an extension cord to a nearby terminal.

They pry open the door, and there's a softly glowing cryo pod in the middle of the surprisingly spacious room. It makes some amount of sense, generally on these ships the captain would be the one who has to wake up and deal with any situations that arise, while the rest of the colonists are content to sleep until they reach their new home.

They look in the pod, and there's a man lying there. He's not the captain, though. They saw his photo on the bridge. This is someone else. Some one quite pale and gaunt. Maybe they were suffering malnutrition before they put themselves in the pod?

The pod is softly beeping. It's reactivating, apparently triggered when they opened the door. The pod shows no lifesigns, so it's not worth worrying about, the panel sliding over to reveal merely a well preserved corpse.

And then he smiles. "I'm so glad to see you! When we ran out of food we we're afraid we'd never see another human again. And even through those environment suits, I can tell you're so deliciously human." he licks his lips, and the boarding crew spots his prominent canines.

There's a noise halfway between a howl and a shriek from the floor below. The man in the cryopod leans up his head. "ahh, I see you've woken up my children as well. Marvelous. I hope you brought plenty of friends for us to snack on."

The head of the boarding party lifts her arm to call their ship, tell them to get out of there or drop a torpedo into the colony ship's reactor. Before she can bring it to her face to call, there's a flash of motion. Before she can even realize what's happening, the man(?) in the cryopod is up and holding her wrist away from her face.

As she cries out at the sudden pain, the other members of the boarding party spot movement down the hall. A lot of movement. A wall of thin pale people are running towards the captain's quarters, climbing over each other and pushing each other aside, like a pack of wild wolves who just smelled prey.

The boarding party steps back into the room and slams the emergency close. At least in here they only have to deal with one of those things.

The door hits the cable and bounces off with a loud alarm. It fully opens again, ready to let the hungry mass in.

So... Have you ever noticed how much a cryopod looks like a coffin?

[naamahdarling]

Maybe it isn't that I actually hate medical professionals? They just suck and are weird sometimes, and a lot of them shouldn't be practicing, but I don't hate them as a group, like, personally.

What I hate is their ability to make my life harder in ways that are often completely opaque to me, and a lot of the crap things they do are not really possible to challenge. And I hate the fact that holding them responsible fort dogshit behavior in any way that will actually benefit me is almost always impossible.

And I also hate the fact that they have to do stupid things sometimes because that's how the system is set up, and those things sometimes mean patients actually get harmed. They aren't fond of that part either! They don't want the system to be the way it is! But they don't have a choice, so sometimes people like me get forced by bureaucracy into doing things that are re-traumatizing. And I can't imagine that feels good for them at all, knowing that their patients are sometimes only "consenting" because that bureaucracy will not let them be helped in any other way. Which isn't consent at all. I imagine that must be pretty traumatizing for them, too, sometimes.

If it were easier to actually access medical care without tremendous delays in this country right now I would have much less trouble finding providers who are good at what they do and are not horrible people, and who have clinic staff who can do their fucking job.

Oh and I also don't appreciate how evasive and unwilling to commit they are out of fear of being held to an answer that turns out to be inaccurate, but I can't make an informed decision about my own care unless they give me at least some information about probabilities and trajectories and typicalities. Genuinely, how the fuck am I supposed to navigate that shit. I get that some patients are really fucking difficult, but I should be able to get a special stamp on my file or something that says I understand that sometimes medicine isn't an exact science and the best answers that my doctors can give may not always prove to be accurate in the long term. I know they don't like being in that situation either.

A lot of medical professionals are fucking assholes, and unfortunately the ones who are not are still hamstrung by a system set up to actively prevent people from getting care.

I miss my old doctor. He gave no shits about anything that wasn't the patient. He prescribed scheduled meds based on what the patient needed and not based on fear of consequences potentially being imposed on him by the punitive patient-hostile drugs-are-bad moral panic machine developed to force suffering people into buying more dangerous drugs off the street in order to prevent far fewer people from maybe getting high off of drugs that at least weren't laced with lethal substances. (The purpose of a system is what it does.) Did he get sanctioned and become locally unhireable? Unfortunately yes he did. Does he now provide concierge care to rich people? Yes he does. He found a way to make it work, God bless him.

Everything about the medical system in this country is fucked. Hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacies, pharmacists, pharmacy techs, phlebotomists, clinic administrative staff, insurance companies, medical schools and schooling, licensing boards, drug advertising to both providers and patients, pharmaceutical reps, researchers, research, publishing, medical trials, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers and distributors, medical equipment, charting software, billing and billing codes, diagnostic criteria, charity and low income services, accessible transportation, home care, the lack of independent individual patient advocates, dietitians and nutritionists, access to physical and occupational therapy and physical and occupational therapists, the massive bigotry of every kind rampant in every corner of the medical field, social work, senior care and assisted living, deprioritization of informed consent and harm reduction, disability applications, inaccessibility of medical records, especially psychiatric notes which are specifically allowed to be withheld from patients, lack of continuity of care for disadvantaged people, care that is equitably accessible to disabled people, telemedicine, patient portals, phone systems, clinic hours, every single aspect of inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, facility security, all sorts of things going on with therapists who are nevertheless probably the least malicious group of people in this entire charade, aaaaaand patients themselves.

Also hospital toilets that are too tall and make it literally physically impossible for me to poop while I'm there waiting for somebody to come out of surgery. I just needed to take a crap, guys. You didn't need to make the toilets so tall that my feet didn't even touch the floor. It is very clean but there is no shitting for short people at St Francis.

[clockyclockyclockwork]

Asset Recovery

~2800 words

CW for: neglect

The knocking on Handler Amelia’s door was regular, insistent, loud, and perfectly suited the man standing outside her door. She had been expecting it ever since she’d scrubbed the mission two hours ago, in the middle of its secondary objectives.

“Come in, Colonel.”

The Colonel opened the door and stepped aside to allow two grunts in full combat gear to throw the naked, shaking pilot onto the floor in her quarters.

“Your toy broke, clean up the mess and have it ready to go by the time we get the hardware fixed.”

Amelia continued to sit in the chair by her desk, glaring dismissively at the door until it closed, and the heavy footsteps had faded down the hall. As soon as she knew it was safe, she shot from her chair and rushed to the downed pilot. Its skin was still wet, almost dripping with the various fluids that cockpits are filled with: sweat, TLV fluid, and other things that had leaked out of the mech, and the pilot, during the operation. Amelia was relieved to see that there was a negligible amount of blood, seemingly just a nosebleed that someone, probably on the decoupling crew, had bothered to shove a cotton ball into.

Amelia got her arms underneath her counterpart and lifted. She was entering middle age, but the military routine kept her fit, and it wasn’t difficult to lift a pilot anyways. She hadn’t been keen on letting the Colonel see her wearing anything but a professional suit and heels, but she’d known her pilot probably wouldn’t be able to stand, so she suffered the indignity of a tank top and sweats. She carried the slim-covered thing to the couch, which she had already covered with towels. She could make out her pilot’s mumbling as she held it in her arms.

“it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone,” over and over, just barely above a whisper. Its eyes were focused on the middle distance, and its whole body trembled. Amelia set it down on the couch and took a moment to try to assess the damage that had been done to her pilot.

Physically, Pilot R5 was unharmed, but that was hardly surprising. However, its mech had taken catastrophic damage and been forced into emergency shutdown, and the shaking, muttering, and unresponsiveness all pointed to a severe shock reaction. Amelia crouched down and connected her tablet to R5’s diagnostic port. All its limbs were responding to neural inputs, implant systems came back green nearly across the board, however, R5’s combat reaction systems had caught in a loop sending the same signals as immediately before the mech had shut down. She manually shut down the implants, and R5 went still. Amelia sat down on the edge of the couch cushion, next to her pilot. She reached out and gently ran her fingers through its short, still-wet hair, and prepared to help it through the reboot.

“what… where is this one? handler?” R5 spoke softly, and Amelia saw its eyes refocus on her.

“You were ambushed, and your implants malfunctioned. You’re on base now and your implants are rebooting. Disorientation is normal, your memories will become accessible again over the next few minutes. You’re safe, pilot, I’ve got you.”

“handler… Miss… permission to…” R5 trailed off.

“Stay still, pilot, and don’t be so formal. You’re in my quarters, and we have days before Rainfall will be in flyable condition again.”

“Rainfall… this one’s… what happened?”

Amelia sighed and braced herself for the reaction.

“You were ambushed en route between secondary objectives. An MT squad hidden in an abandoned building, equipped with weapons that overloaded and blocked your sensors. While they distracted you, a sniper hit you with a railcannon, followed by an unknown projectile weapon. As best we can tell, the railcannon fired an explosive magnetic payload which destroyed Rainfall’s left arm and created a burst of electromagnetic shrapnel which damaged, or disabled all its redundant systems, and most of the primary ones. The unknown projectile contained some sort of drone which, on impact, began to take control of the remaining systems. We aren’t sure what its goal was; it seems as though it was disabled when Rainfall activated its emergency shutdown. We scrubbed the mission, and Sunrise was able to intercept the enemy mech and recover your wreckage before you left the mission area.” Amelia had rehearsed this conversation in her head the entire time R5 was in transit back to base, and she knew what was coming next.

“wreckage? will this one- is it- will they- what’s going to… no no no, can’t, can’t can’t let th- can’t let this one… Miss please, you…” R5’s face fell and its eyes started looking around wildly as it imagined different possibilities, combat implants firing a thousand more worst-case scenarios per second into its head. Amelia began to lean in to comfort it when the diagnostic tablet began chirping an alert. The handler looked over, but her augmented pilot reacted much quicker. R5 bolted upright, nearly bashing its head into Amelia’s. The jerking movement pulled the tablet off the table and caused it to clatter to the floor, which made R5 scramble towards the other end of the couch, still pulling the tablet. Luckily, as the pilot pulled itself off the couch, the tablet caught against Amelia’s hip and disconnected from its cable, sliding down to rest on the couch cushion where R5 had just been. The alert read “Warning: Pilot may be panicking. Please take immediate action to calm pilot.” R5’s reaction would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been experiencing enough stress to stop a normal human heart. Pilots, however, had their hearts replaced with synthetic ones, so it remained standing in a combat-ready position, looking around desperately for a target.

Amelia turned around slowly to face her pilot, and in the most calm, even voice she could manage she said “It’s okay, pilot. You’re safe. There’s nobody here but us. You can stand down. It’s okay, you’re safe.”

R5 locked its eyes on its handler, processed her words, and collapsed. Amelia, for a second time, rushed to her pilot on the floor. It was curled into a ball, pressing itself into the corner where the couch met the wall, and sobbing. Amelia sat down next to it, pulled it to her chest, and started speaking to it in a soft voice.

“It’s alright, R5. It’s okay. Everything’s gonna be okay. I’ve got you, you’re safe, just listen to my voice.” Amelia rubbed the pilot’s back with one hand and gently squeezed it to her body with the other. Eventually, it stopped shaking enough to speak.

“will… what’s going to happen to this one? are they… are… are they going to de-sniff-decommission this one?”

“Oh, little one… oh, no, no. No, R5, you’re okay, they’re not going to do anything to you, okay? I won’t let them. You’re mine, and I’m going to keep you safe, okay?”

R5 nodded its head and leaned against its handler. She sat and let it get all its tears out, hugging it as it lay still for a moment. After most of the crying was over, it reached up and tried to wipe its face off, then realized its arm was still covered in slime from its deployment. Amelia smiled and ruffled its hair.

“How about we get you cleaned up, okay?”

R5 nodded again, and didn’t make a sound. Amelia stood up and pulled her pilot to its feet, then guided it the few steps back to the couch, letting it sit down.

“One second, little one.” Amelia stepped towards the bed and picked up the plushie resting there; a soft, squishy, egg-shaped thing the size of R5’s torso, with wings, horns, and embroidered features added to make it look like a dragon. It was already wrapped in a towel with its face peeking out, ready to be given to the soaked pilot. R5 reached out for the plushie as soon as it saw it, and hugged it tight, breathing a sigh of relief and closing its eyes.

“Good girl, now you stay put while I get the shower ready, okay?”

R5 nodded its head, face still buried in its plushie. Amelia walked over to the bathroom and began getting everything ready for their shower, humming a tune the whole time so that R5 would know she was still there. Amelia didn’t know the name of the song, and R5 never gave any sign that it recognized it, but sometimes, when it wasn’t having nightmares, the pilot hummed the same song in its sleep.

Amelia didn’t know if R5 had a name. The military had fully transitioned to vat-grown pilots a decade ago, but R5 was much older than that. On the other hand, vat-growns had never been uncommon. Maybe R5 had lived the first few years of its life like a real person, albeit not under the best conditions. People who could take care of their children didn’t get them seized by the government and marked “psychologically fit for piloting.” Maybe it had been born in a lab and never known anything but bases, surgeons, and purpose. Either way, nobody would ever tell Amelia, and R5 itself probably didn’t even know anymore.

Her previous pilot, C18, had definitely been born naturally. It definitely had a name. Even after working as a handler for over twenty years, it was one of the oldest pilots Amelia had ever heard of, it must have been almost too old to be accepted into the program. And Amelia had pushed it hard. As hard as protocol required, and harder. She had been ruthless with it, and truly saw it as a weapon to be used, maintained to the bare minimum of function, and discarded.

Nobody blamed Amelia for what C18 did, but she blamed herself. She couldn’t bear to look at whatever poor thing was chosen to be C19, so she had requested a transfer to a different mech, was assigned to Rainfall, and she promised herself that however tough she had to be in front of her superiors, her next pilot would know what it meant to her.

Amelia laid out towels on the floor leading from the bathroom to the couch, opened all the cabinets and removed the laundry hamper so that R5 would have a clear view of any potential enemy hiding spaces. She started the water running so it could warm up, and finally stripped her fluid-stained clothes off.

Amelia gently touched her pilot’s hand, slowly moved its arms for it, and set its plushie down beside it. Then, she took its hand and led it into the bathroom, closed the door, and let R5 lock it. She guided her charge into the shower and set it down on the shower seat she’d gotten for this exact situation. R5 winced as its back touched the cold tile wall, and then relaxed as the warm water washed over its body. Amelia washed herself off first while the pilot enjoyed the streams hitting its breasts and running down its body. Once she was done with herself, she moved on to R5, gently cleaning and rubbing down its body. She started by washing its arms, then its torso, and then she gently placed a hand on its head and leaned it forwards to wash its hair and face. As she crouched down to wash the pilot’s legs, she couldn’t help noticing its girldick poking up above its thighs. She pretended not to, even as her hand brushed against it. Eventually, R5 started whimpering as it realized that it was almost done being cleaned and the touching was about to end. Amelia smiled and stood up.

“What’s wrong, pilot?” She couldn’t hide the teasing tone from her voice.

“nothing ma’am!” R5 sat up straight and pressed its legs together, visibly trying not to squirm.

“You wouldn’t be wanting your reward now, would you? You want it right now?”

R5 looked away and didn’t answer. Amelia squatted back down and turned its head with her hand to face at her.

“What’s wrong pilot?” This time her voice was serious, but not forceful. R5 hesitated.

“this one hasn’t earned a reward, Miss.”

“Nonsense. You completed your primary objective and one of your secondaries. You sustained damage well within projected limits.”

“but, Miss, the ambush.”

Amelia softened, putting her hand on her pilot’s cheek. “You did your best, and that was enough. You’ve earned your reward if you want it.”

R5 let its eyes meet Amelia’s. It nodded once.

“Good girl. Can you stand?”

Another nod.

“Good girl.” Amelia turned around to get her magic wand, and when she turned back R5 was at attention, water spraying directly onto its erection. Its handler couldn’t help a stifled laugh.

“Come here, doll.”

R5 rushed into Amelia’s arms, and began humping her thigh. She hugged her pilot, using one hand to guide its head to her chest, and moaned as it obediently began sucking on her nipple. She pressed her thigh into R5’s crotch and its hands went to her waist, pressing itself as close as it could. Amelia took her hand off R5’s head and turned on her vibrator. She ran it down her subordinate’s spine, which was rewarded by a muffled whimper into her tits, and she pressed the wand between her legs. They stayed like that a while, R5’s whimpering and Amelia’s moaning filled the bathroom, until the pilot started to slow down.

“Losing steam, doll? Turn around.” Amelia pulled her leg from between R5’s thighs and turned it around herself. She put the still-buzzing wand in its hand. “Hold this to your clit, and don’t cum until I tell you to, okay?”

R5 nodded drunkenly. “yes, Miss, thank you, Miss.” It placed the tip of the wand right below the head of its cock and slumped back into its handler’s waiting grasp.

Amelia felt the tiny weight of her pilot lean on her as she started fingering herself, putting her other arm around R5’s chest and roughly grabbing its tit.

“Nice rack, little pilot, you’re really starting to fill out. Glad to see the estrogen we put you on is working.” R5 was in the middle of saying “thank you, Miss” when it yelped as she dug her nails into its tender breast. Amelia felt its knees get weaker, and weaker still when she bit into the soft flesh where R5’s neck met its shoulder. Not hard enough to break skin, but only barely. She held it in her teeth for a moment, sucking on it, before releasing her toy and running her tongue along the teeth marks. By now R5 was barely standing, and judging by the noises it was making, the magic wand was doing just as much to torture it as its handler.

“One more thing for me, doll.” Amelia pushed the pilot onto its knees and sat down on the seat in front of it, legs spread. “Make me cum.”

Her pilot eagerly got to work, exploring her with its tongue and searching for the right spot. She put both hands on its head, and as soon as its tongue hit the target she squeezed its head between her thighs, moaning as the water ran down her tits and her pilot brought her to orgasm. R5 didn’t stop licking, even when she gave it the order to cum. It said something, probably “thank you,” that was barely audible and completely indecipherable from between its handler’s legs, and its body shook underneath her. She felt a string or two of something warm and wet hit the backs if her thighs. She relaxed her legs and R5 slumped to the ground, still holding the vibrator against itself.

“thank you, Miss.”

Amelia picked up her pilot before it drowned in the mix of shower water, cum, and bliss. She propped it up on the seat and gave them both a final rinsing off. She shut off the water and tapped the back of R5’s hand to make sure it was awake before handing it a towel. After drying herself off, she noticed R5 had fallen asleep again. She woke it up, again, and helped it dry off. Amelia steered the barely-conscious pilot towards the bed. It flopped down face-first onto the mattress and slowly climbed under the covers while Amelia picked up its plushie, still clean underneath the towel, and brought it over to R5. She climbed in behind it, pushing it from the middle of the bed to the side so there was room for them both. It scooted back over to press itself into her, still holding its plushie to its chest. She turned and hugged it, kissing it on the forehead and let herself drift off to sleep, smiling as she remembered that she had days before it would leave her again.

[my-my-my]

Food for Thought - Chapter 1: Blini with caviar and crème fraiche

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Summary: You often wonder why you feel so alone even when you spend time with other people. An outsider even in a packed room. But a chance work project with Urahara Kisuke provides a strange comfort... so strange that you continue to spend time with him after your project is over.

Content warning: Reader is written with self-esteem issues/insecure thoughts, food is a large part of this story. Kisuke will become a yandere in this, he is also promiscuous. This chapter has no smut, but it will become very NSFW soon.

Read on AO3 here.

Chapter 1: Blini with caviar and crème fraiche

“You’re still up for karaoke tonight, right?” Your co-worker Hanatarou asked, as he peered over your cubicle.

You smiled brightly at him, eyes filled with mirth, “of course! I don’t back down from a challenge, especially one from Madarame” you snickered. Hanatarou laughed as he thanked you again for agreeing to come with him to a singing showdown. You knew Hanatarou since you started working at the Senjumaru & Hikifune Diagnostics Company. While you and Hanatarou were new in your roles, you sensed that there was an ongoing rivalry between your department and Madarame Ikkaku’s - the marketing team.

But before you could figure out your song list for the night, your manager, Sarugaki Hiyori shouted for you, “Oi! C’mere quick. I got a new project for you, newbie.”

It had been over two years since you started your job here, but you couldn’t help but laugh at Sarugaki still calling you “newbie”, but the casual behaviour you two shared was something you appreciated in your role.

“I got a new project for you.” Hiyori explained, walking you towards the meeting room. “The higher ups were impressed with how you dealt with the immune checkpoint inhibitors assessment.”

“Thank you, but it was a team effort after all.” You explained, which was true to a degree, but you were the lead analyst on the project.

“Don’t be so modest,” Hiyori scoffed, “anyways they want you to do a review on the prefecture’s medical imaging inventory.”

“I see, but that’s not my area of expertise, wouldn’t Akon or Nemu be better fits?” You asked, knowing that their team, led by Kurotsuchi Mayuri, were the health technology team.

“In all other cases, yes, but they turned down this project.” Hiyori huffed, entering the empty meeting room. “They said some bullshit about other projects of theirs being of higher priority.”

Well, that’s fair you thought, but Hiyori’s face looked like she didn’t buy it. “From the look on your face, you don’t think it’s true.” You laughed as she clenched her notebook.

“It’s because they don’t want to work with the consultant tied to the project.” Hiyori explained, her scowl growing deeper. “Not like I want him to work with you either.”

“I’ve worked with frustrating consultants in the past, Sarugaki-san.”

“I know, I know” Hiyori sighed, looking dejectedly at the window. “This guy’s annoying, and frankly, just plain weird.” She admitted. “I worked with him for a short while, he wasn’t completely a bad guy then. He just gets on my nerves.” She explained, honestly.

“Well, if you were able to tolerate him, then it should be fine.” You said, wondering what type of person would not only upset Hiyori (who was already quick to anger) and Kurotsuchi-san (who was already easy to annoy). You figured this person must have been normal to some degree, since the two people who have worked with him were a bit odd in their own ways.

Your manager explained in more detail the work you’d be doing and the finer technical details of the expectations senior management had for you. “The consultant is an expert in this field, which is why he’ll be assisting you on this. Apparently, he used to work for the national health board way back when.” Hiyori explained, as you diligently took notes.

“Anyways, that’s about it. I sent him a meeting invite to this board room in 5 minutes. I’ll email you everything we shared for your records. I gotta bounce, but send me a message if anything comes up.” Hiyori waved you goodbye as you sat alone in the room.

You checked your phone, scrolling through your calendar for the week. You were relatively social at work, with colleagues sending you invites to things to see, do and eat. You didn’t see the harm in participating, and you weren’t much for drinking to begin with, so you made sure your colleagues got home safe. Either way, you were appreciative of them inviting you out.

Five minutes turned to ten, and still no show of this infamous consultant.

You continued scrolling through your phone, going through your social media accounts. Acquaintances from school and previous jobs, were sharing engagements, wedding photos and many other milestones. You couldn’t help but smile sadly, with cold, belittling words ringing through your head.

This stuff isn’t meant for me anyways. You thought, as you continued to scroll through your feed.

It wasn’t until you saw the time, that almost half an hour had passed. You began to type a message to Hiyori about the no-show consultant, until he barged through the door.

Pale, disheveled blonde hair, and what you assume a white button down and a poorly tied dark green tie around his neck under a brown sweater, paired with dark grey slacks.

He immediately grabbed your hand and gave you an intense handshake. The suddenness threw you off and confusion was evident across your face.

“Ah, sorry about that! I’m Urahara Kisuke the technology consultant, and I suppose you’re the analyst I’m working with?” Urahara-san asked.

You nodded your head, while you flexed your poor hand that was caught off guard by his tight handshake. You introduced yourself and offered him a seat next to you. The two of you went over the technical details and scheduled to meet again tomorrow before your lunch break. Your phone began to buzz as your coworkers and friends began to barrage you with texts.

“My my, you really are popular.” Urahara teased, as he stared at your phone with curious eyes.

You couldn’t help but feel embarrassed from his comment, “no, not really” you explained, “I agreed to karaoke tonight, that’s all!”

Urahara gave you a soft smile, “that must be nice. Karaoke sounds wonderful. Have a great time.” You thanked him for his time today and rushed off to your coworkers.

He wasn’t so bad. You thought, as your coworkers waved at you near the elevators. You told them to wait for you in the lobby as you grabbed your belongings, unaware that Urahara was watching you from the hallway.

The karaoke bar was lively. Drinks were ordered, snacks were shared and laughter erupting from your private booth. You smiled at your friends who sung along badly to old pop hits, and laughed as they sang dramatic renditions of tearful ballads. You sang along, clapping with them, until you felt a gentle tap on your shoulder.

“I heard you met Urahara Kisuke today.” Rukia quietly whispered.

You stopped clapping and turned to face her as the rest of the room kept singing along.

“Oh yes I did Kuchiki-san! He was quite polite and knowledgeable. He really knows his stuff.”

Rukia gave you a puzzled expression, “really? I heard he’s kind of shady.”

“It’s funny you say that, my manager said that as well, and she mentioned Kurotsuchi-san saying something similar.” Rukia’s face turned to one of concern, “but I’m going to be meeting with him for the rest of the month, so I’ll tell you if anything interesting comes up.” You laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

“Ok, but just be careful. I heard from Rangiku at Payroll that they weren’t able to fire him because he has deep connections to some of the executives.”

That surprised you. The company itself was old, nearing 50 years (or so they say). You didn’t know much about Urahara Kisuke as his field of work was different from yours. You made a mental note to look into him later tonight. “What was it that made them consider firing him?” You were curious to know why everyone you’ve spoken to about him, had such poor opinions of the man.

“I’m not sure, I heard he was doing insider trading?”

“Really!?” You exclaimed, “wouldn’t the cops be involved then?” Pointing out the discrepancy within the rumour.

“Oh… yeah..” Rukia was stumped, “I’ll ask Rangiku next time I see her then. Maybe she doesn’t know either.”

“Or maybe it’s just a baseless rumour?”

Rukia gave you a look of uncertainty, “just be careful around him, ok? Rumours start from somewhere you know…”

You laughed her comment off and treated her to favourite snack. You were left with an uncomfortable feeling the rest of the night and excused yourself to leave early.

At home, you looked into Urahara Kisuke. Several of his papers came up, all of them focused on some aspect of biomedical engineering. You saw a Kurotsuchi-san’s name come up frequently as a collaborating author, and another person, “Aizen Sosuke” come up. You ran a quick search on him and saw he was working as a professor in the top university in the country. Nothing else came up in your search though, which left you more questions than answers.

You always tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and Urahara-san was no different, maybe it’s just a baseless rumour after all. Whatever the case may be, work was work, and you resigned yourself to be professional and complete the project to the best of your abilities.

You had meal prepped your lunch for tomorrow then prepared for bed. You still couldn’t shake off everyone’s comments today, so you hoped sleep would wash the thoughts away.

It had been several weeks now of meeting with Urahara-san. Your time with him made you doubt the comments made by your colleagues and friends when you first started the project. Now it was nearing the end of it, and if anything, if someone were to ask you to describe “Urahara Kisuke”, you would say he was a “curious, yet brilliant man who tries to be funny.” You laughed at yourself when you remembered the terrible “jokes” Urahara-san made, but he was certainly an interesting person.

Today was your last meeting with him though, and a small part of you was sad. You liked spending time with him. You watched him skim your report on the laptop screen with an intense focus, typing in tracked changes sparsely in between.

“I’m impressed!” Urahara said to you, “you really nailed this review. I know the execs will love it.”

You smiled at his compliment, “I’m flattered, Urahara-san, but it’s your vast knowledge that really helped me. I wouldn’t have even known to look in the formulary database and disability policies!” You said, shaking your head.

“They really are right about you.” Urahara remarked in a serious tone.

You looked at him with curiosity.

Urahara chuckled and in a teasing tone, “that you’re incredibly studious and hardworking! I barely did anything.”

“Well I have to say people are wrong about you.” You beamed at him, “people were telling me all sorts of rumours about you, and to be cautious.”

Urahara raised his eyebrows, but let you continue on.

“But you’re actually quite friendly and diligent.” You give an awkward laugh, “and I’ll miss working with you.”

Urahara looked surprised. He had never heard that before. Most people found him, in some ways, too difficult to work with. His unorthodox approach to analyzing and finding results, and dubious ethics, made finding people to work with slim to none. Yet here you are.

They really are right about you. He thought to himself. It bothered him, to some degree. Initially he wondered what angle you would be playing at while working with him. Would you fish him for gossip? Would you be a bother and ask about his past research? An annoyance who wanted access to his connections, his work?

No, none of that came up. You approached him with sincerity and kindness, something he wasn’t dealt with in his years of working as a researcher.

“Urahara-san, if you have some time,” you ask, your face growing warm, “would you care to join me for lunch?” To say he was startled was an understatement, but he accepted.

“Is that all you’re going to eat, Urahara-san?” You ask, noticing his canned coffee and prepackaged rice ball.

“Oh this,” Urahara laughed, “I had a hearty breakfast, so I wanted a light lunch.” He lied to you, while wearing a large grin on his face.

“If you want, you can have some of my food.” You offered to him. “I don’t think that’ll last you through the afternoon.” You gave him a sheepish smile.

Urahara’s eyes widened, but he chuckled, waving you off. But you were full of surprises, you pushed forward your lunch to him, “why don’t you have some of mine?” Your face grew hot as you began to ramble, “I know I may not look it, but I’m a pretty decent cook.”

He was hesitant, but the earnest tone in your voice, and the way you avoided his eyes told him enough. He picked up the utensil and took some food for himself.

Urahara’s eyes widened but quickly shifted. “My, you certainly know your way around the kitchen!” He joked, a slight smile on his face as he noticed the way your eyes avoided him, but the pleased smile on your face.

It felt unusual to him, to enjoy someone’s company like this, it put him on guard. He would listen to you talk, watch your reactions, and try to rationalize what you wanted out of him. But before he could make a definitive conclusion, your lunch break was over.

“Thank you for spending your lunch break with me, Urahara-san.” You said softly, “if you’re free the rest of the week, I’d like to do this again.”

His mind raced, maybe you were interested in something more personal from him, his under-the-table work, maybe you were sent by Kurotsuchi or the higher ups to investigate him.

But a small part of his brain knew that wasn’t right, he’d have to get to the bottom of this. “Yes, I’d love that.” He gave you a smile.

Two weeks had gone by where, for the most part, you and Urahara had lunch together at work. You were dismayed by his lack of lunches some days. He would say he was too busy to prepare something, or having a larger breakfast made his appetite quite small. But you had your suspicions.

“Urahara-san, what’s your favourite meal to cook?”

Urahara made an exaggerated sigh and cupped his chin, “why lately, it’s been what you’ve shared with me at lunch.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m serious! I’d love to know what you make. I want to try new recipes.” You gave him a sincere smile.

It’s what bothered Urahara about you, you were too sincere, too earnest with someone like him. He suspected you didn’t know the actual rumours surrounding him, and a part of him hopes you never do. His heart, much to his dismay, would flutter seeing you smile, seeing your eyes light up. He would watch, as he wandered around the company’s different units, how you interacted with other coworkers and colleagues. You were polite and friendly. So… disarming.

Urahara let out a sigh, it would be so easy to let you go if you were only spending time with him for nefarious reasons. He wouldn’t have had any qualms about leaving you high and dry. But even on the weekends, he would send you a short text, something about how your weekend was going.

A small part of him was growing jealous at how you would hang out with some of your coworkers after work. Your social circle seemed so large compared to him… but he wanted to be at the centre.

“I don’t have one. I can’t say I’ve cooked much for myself.” Urahara murmured, scratching his head.

You looked at him with shocked eyes, “no way! Not even scrambled eggs?”

Urahara let out a laugh, “ok, maybe one.” He looked at your now empty bento that he had nibbled on, “if you have the time…”

You looked at him with such an eager expression, the knot in his stomach tightened, as he tried to ignore the thudding of his heart. He wouldn’t act on feelings; this was a plan to let you slip up what your real reasons were to spend time with him.

“Would you teach me how to cook?”

And as he suspected as much, and denying his own relief from your words, you agreed. “Why don’t you pick a recipe you want to try and you can come over to my house on Sunday?”

“Sure,” Urahara said, his brain already laying down plans to ensnare you, “but won’t your boyfriend mind if I come over?” He asked, with a hesitant look on his face.

“If I did have one, maybe!” You laughed, “You don’t have to worry about that, trust me.” You looked away from him, a sad look on your face. Urahara narrowed his eyes, but before he could ask more, your smile was back, “just let me know what ingredients to buy.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Urahara said, “I’ll bring the ingredients. It’s the least I can do since you’re offering your kitchen.”

“Oh alright! Thank you for going through the trouble.” You smiled, “let me know how much it is and we can split the bill.” Urahara laughed at your comment, you really were so honest.

“No, it’s on me. Especially after feeding me lunch these past few weeks.”

You let an awkward laugh, before avoiding his gaze. “My only request is that,” Urahara lowered his voice, bring his face close to yours, “don’t invite anyone else – I want your undivided attention.”

THANKS FOR READING MY FIRST CHAPTER!!

I've already have drafted over 5 chapters for this story and I have an ending in mind for it too. As a personal goal, I want to complete this, so I hope you join me along for this ride!

[ranbling]

Just imagine if a patient reports House for sexual harassment towards the Board for how he speaks with his fellows

And Chase and Cameron has to explain they actually like when House calls them pretty etc... which leads to the whole Diagnostics Department having to sit through one of those sexual harassment classes