#one of the main reasons I was so obsessed with security breach was because its expansion of grand themed entertainment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kj-1130 · 4 years

Text

Nothing For Me

Part 2

Main Masterlist

Part 1|Part 3

2012

You were turning 11 this year. Natasha, as you learned she went by, was always a phone call away if you ever wanted to talk--since your sperm donor was obviously no help. You had recently had to call her due to your period starting, which you weren’t expecting to happen for at least another 2 to 3 years. Needless to say, it freaked you out and regardless of your smarts, nothing could have prepared you for that.

Nat took you shopping for what she called, ‘lady items’; bras, pads, tampons, anything a girl could possibly need. She also taught you how to shave if you ever wanted to. She specified that you should never feel forced to do it because ‘people need to normalize women having body hair. It grows there for a reason.’ And you totally agreed with her on that by the way.

There were a few times when she’d let you in on minor S.H.I.E.L.D secrets even though it was quite unnecessary seeing as you could hack your way through it all no problem. That’s how you found out about the Avengers Initiative. You couldn’t agree more with what was said about Tony.

Through your hacking and research of the initiative, you ‘met’ Clint. It was through a video call. He had invaded your girl-talk with Natasha. The three of you were practically best buds now. You’d go to Nat for advice or just when you needed a sister to talk to. You’d go to Clint when you just wanted to let loose and talk about absolute nonsense.

It was another lovely night in Stark Tower for you--please note the sarcasm. You were bored out of your mind. Natasha had been on an undercover mission and Clint was busy at the base; something about the Tesseract. You thought they should’ve just left the thing alone; let fate take its course. Some bad things were going to come with them messing with something they had no knowledge about. They’re joining a game without knowing any rules and are pretty much destined to lose. But, hey. What did you know?

Pepper and Tony were probably in the common area, sucking each other's faces off. Despite how much you disliked Tony, based on your experiences, you couldn’t deny the fact that they’re pining was absolutely annoying, disgusting, and cute all at the same time. You were just glad it was over honestly.

Pepper was an okay person to you. There was nothing you found super nice or mean about her that was prominent to you. She’d greet you on the quite rare occasion the two of you would cross paths and would start the casual small talk (“how are you?” “I’m fine, what about you” “Good, thanks for asking.”). She probably thought you were a live-in intern or something like that. With how much she tries to doctor Tony’s life, you’d think she would try to fix whatever nonexistent relationship between the pair of you, but nope. That just added to your intern theory.

You were reading a book on quantum physics, when your personal AI, M.I.A(miraculous intelligence assistant)--that you did in fact create yourself--notified you that someone had overridden Stark’s systems and gotten into the elevator. Just because you didn’t leave the room doesn’t mean you weren’t nosy.

“Who is it, M?”

“Agent Phil Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D.,” M.I.A. spoke in her smooth voice. “Would you like to listen in on what they are saying?”

“Is that even a question?”

Jumping out of your beanbag, you went to the center of your room, where M.I.A had pulled up footage of what was happening in the common room.

“Security breach,” Tony turns to Pepper. “That’s on you.”

“Mr. Stark.”

“Phil! Come in,” Pepper greeted. Since when were she and Agent Coulson on a first-name basis. You’d have to look into that.

“Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent.”

“Come on in, we’re celebrating,” the red head invites. This was getting more interesting to you by the second!

“I can’t stay.”

“Which is why he can’t stay.”

Phil ignores Tony and starts to hand him a file.

“He doesn’t like being handed things,” you muttered.

“I don't like being handed things.” Called it.

“That’s alright, ‘cause I love being handed things, So, let’s trade,” Pepper says. She hands Coulson her glass of champagne, takes the file, hands Tony the file, in return taking his drink.

“Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday,” the billionaire said.

It was quite obvious Phil was over his jokes and that he was here for a much important matter.

“Is this about the Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about.”

Both men ignored Pepper. “The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn’t even qualify.”

That was a nice day. Finding out what they said about Tony had been nothing less than amusing in your opinion.

“I didn’t know that either,” the CEO said. She sure does have the best cover-ups, doesn’t she?

“Yeah, apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, don’t play well with others.”

“That I did know.”

This whole thing was odd to you. Why were they trying to put together the Avengers when the whole idea was tossed?

“M, pull up the most recent S.H.I.E.L.D files on the tesseract and the Avengers Initiative.”

The AI did as told, and you scrolled through all of them. You saw things on Thor, Clint, Natasha, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and lastly your sperm donor. Looking at Thor’s file, you found something about his brother Loki. And looking at his name, you saw his connections to the tesseract and everything had clicked. Loki had the thing and was definitely going to do something evil with it.

Both adults in the house were gone. Such responsible ones they are. Tony left earlier the next day and you honestly couldn’t remember when Pepper left. Now, here you were in your safe haven, trying to figure out what in the world Loki would want with the tesseract. There’s probably no way for you to figure it out since you weren’t where all the info was, actively investigating. But what you didn’t understand is why would they leave you here when such a threat was hanging in the air.

You knew Tony didn’t necessarily care for you, but he couldn’t forget about you, right? Natasha wouldn’t forget about you. Clint wouldn’t forget you. Right?

It’s been two days. Two fucking days, and no one had come in or out of this building.

You were currently pacing in your room, while your AI--not even a fucking person--was trying to comfort you.

“Does no one answer their fucking phone anymore?”

“I’m pretty sure there is a reasonable explanation as to why no one is answering.”

Out of nowhere, you heard commotion from outside. Rushing over to the window and moving the curtains, you saw these alien things coming out of the sky. You ran out of your room and made your way to the nearest set of stairs as quickly as you could.

“Ah, the little Stark.”

His voice sent chills up your spine. It was deep and quite terrifying.

“Come over, no need to be scared.”

You followed his orders, having a feeling that if you didn’t things would end up ten times worse for you. He looked at you before basically yeeting you out of the window. It hurt; it felt like every bone in your body screamed for peace and anything in the background just became white noise.

You landed on the roof, writhing in pain and groaning. Everything hurt.

Attempting to get up was hard and painful, but you knew that you had to leave or you’d die.

Looking up, you see that doctor. He was mentioned in the files but everything was just so fuzzy, you couldn’t remember properly. Finally being able to get up after numerous attempts, you limp your way down the stairs and out to the streets in the middle of all the chaos.

You were so scared. You knew you probably wouldn’t be able to contact Nat or Clint unless you somehow hacked into their coms system. You continued to walk down the streets, hoping to find some type of shelter, but it felt like you were about to collapse at any second. Sitting down in the nearest alley, you looked around. Looking left, there was a face right in front of yours.

“Fuck! What the hell man?”

The other person wasn’t fazed. Looking them over, you saw their frizzy, somewhat curly hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Her brown skin was covered in dirt and a little blood.

“Hey, you’re (y/n) Stark, right?” She asked a little breathlessly.

“I refuse to be acknowledged as such.”

“I’m Michelle. But don't call me that or I’ll have to hurt you.”

“Are you really trying to converse with me in the middle of an alien invasion? And acting like we’re both not hurt?”

Michelle shrugs her shoulders when you both look over due to some yelling that you heard.

“MJ! Michelle where are you? Michelle Jones!”

MJ looks back over and starts to get up but she trips and falls. You decide to help her up and take her over to the people calling her name. You both struggle but eventually get over to the adults with some time.

Before you could get away from the Jones family, the mother gripped your shoulder.

“C’mon, stay with us. We’ll find somewhere to lay low.“

You were too tired and in too much pain to argue, so you let Michelle’s mother help you keep your balance while the young girl’s father did the same for her.

It was at least a good ten minutes until the four of you found a decent place to take a break. It looked like a gas station, but you really couldn’t tell due to how much damage there was. You and the Jones’ took cover behind a somewhat stable looking wall and tried to stay as quiet as possible.

It was quiet besides the distant screams of people and the yells of the aliens. You wondered if Nat and Clint were okay. You wondered if Tony was okay. You wondered if anyone was safe from this. This seemed like something no one could recover from.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” The older woman asked.

“(Y/n).”

“Where are your parents?”

“My sperm donor is fighting I guess.”

To say the adults were appalled by your bluntness was an understatement. You’ve had a potty mouth for quite a while. There was no one to really correct you on what to and not to say--not that you really needed help with that being a genius and all; well a genius with common sense because your father didn’t have any of that. Without anyone to really monitor what you did, you kind of just roamed free in a sense.

The fight had died down eventually. The aliens were still coming, but a substantial amount of them had been killed. How a group of 6 people/gods/supersoldiers/or whatever amazed you. Maybe you could work behind the scenes one day; even though you already do. Just without anyone knowing.

Before you knew it, there was a nuke flying across the sky. ‘Leave it to the government to find an excuse to hurt civilians,’ you thought. But before it could hit anything, you saw a red and gold figure carry it to the portal.

You knew who it was. He was going to sacrifice himself for the safety of these people. If he didn’t make it, you would miss him even though there wouldn’t be much to miss. When that portal closed, your heart dropped to your stomach. You would never be able to make amends with him. You would never have a single conversation with him. Yeah he was a total douche bag for forgetting all about you, but you had at least expected to be able to see and maybe talk to him. Sort things out.

Without thinking, you ran as fast as you could towards where the newly assembled Avengers were; well at least where you last saw them. You ignored the calls of the Jones family, telling you to come back. Their protests telling you not to go so you can stay safe. You ignored the pain. The aching of your ribs. The dull throbbing in your head and on your lips. There was no doubt that your steps were uneven; limping down the street at your speed probably made you look like a crackhead.

You kept running; not stopping. Not when your breaths got shorter and turned into wheezes. Not when you heard rattling in your chest. Not when you felt like you were going to collapse. Not when your joints popped and begged for rest. You didn’t stop. You couldn’t. Not until you found someone; anyone you knew.

You stopped after what felt like hours. It most likely was considering the sun was going down. You heard a little commotion inside a surprisingly intact building which turned out to be a Shawarma. Tony always talked about this place for some reason.

When you looked inside, the Avengers were there. At least, you guessed they were still called that. But that didn’t matter. They were relaxing after the battle. They looked quite relaxed considering they had just fought aliens.

But that was what kind of hurt. They weren’t worried about you. At all. Of course only 3--well not really 3. Only two really knew you and knew you were in that tower when the attack happened. Sure you weren’t expecting Clint or Nat to be running around the streets of this huge city, but a little effort or at least the thought of it would’ve been nice. You could’ve been dead and they sure as hell didn’t seem super worried about it. Maybe you were overthinking it. Or maybe you were just as forgettable and insignificant as you thought.

You limped away from the establishment, trying to find somewhere to stay seeing as your home--if you could even call it that--was most likely destroyed. And you were in your feelings and nothing was a better cure than isolating yourself even more. You also wanted to see if you could get M.I.A running on a computer or something. Maybe update yourself on what was going on over the world at the moment. Or look up your frizzy-haired friend you met while you were running for your life.

You managed to find a computer near a dumpster. You leaned back against the wall and slid down slowly, not wanting to aggravate your injuries too much. You were able to get M.I.A running on the laptop and then looked up any news. The headlines were crazy. All you saw was the fight that just happened and the death count rising and rising…

You didn’t want to be focused on anything dealing with your father, S.H.I.E.L.D., or any current events, so you decided to give M.I.A. the task of figuring out who Michelle and her family was. It sounded very creepy, but you were her age. What harm could you do with her info. Well you could cause harm to her and her family with any info you found but that was besides the point. The most you were going to do was send them a message or something like that.

You ended up sleeping in that alley. Deciding that you should head back to your place of residence, you got up and started walking back much to the process of your bones and joints. The tower seemed like it was so far away. Especially with your injuries and supposedly no one around to tend to them. After what felt like hours, you made it to the entrance of the establishment and, surprise surprise, it’s already being rebuilt. You honestly didn’t know what time it was. You just wanted to get in your bed and sleep forever.

It had been about a month since the Battle of New York. Your injuries weren’t treated until about a week after the fact. Not because someone noticed you were hurt, but because it was getting hard to breathe and that didn’t seem like a fun way to go to you.

You’d been healing nicely so far, but your emotions and mental health were on the opposite side of the spectrum. Every time you close your eyes, you had this dream, vision, whatever it was, that when Loki threw you out the window, there was no balcony or landing area to stop on. You just kept falling, and falling until you hit the ground. Then you woke up.

You had been isolating yourself as well. There had been plenty of missed calls from the pair, but you just couldn’t find the energy to move and pick up the phone. They were probably just doing it out of obligation anyway.

Seeing everyone, especially Nat and Clint, just made you rethink anything you’ve ever done. Were you too clingy when it came to Natasha? Did she really like you or did she just feel bad? You were probably just overreacting, but you can’t help but think these thoughts.

Everything was just spiraling out of control for you. And you couldn’t get help; well you at least felt like you couldn’t. If you told Tony--not that you would, but hypothetically-- he’d probably wave you off and laugh. If you tried to get a therapist, someone would probably leak that shit to the press; confidentiality be damned.

You felt like you were drowning and you didn’t know how much longer it would be until you fully sank.

#nothing for me miniseries #avengers x black!reader #avengers x teen!reader #tony stark x daughter!reader #tony stark #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x stark!reader #natasha romanoff x reader #clint barton #clint barton x teen!reader #teen!reader #avengers x reader #michelle jones x fem!reader

424 notes · View notes

bountyofbeads · 5 years

Text

Trump’s Choice: National Security or Political Obsession https://nyti.ms/2KhfkX5

Trump’s Choice: National Security or Political Obsession

The impeachment inquiry is the first to involve an issue of geopolitical gravity: Whether the president was undercutting American national interests — containing Russia — to bolster his campaign.

By David E. Sanger | Published Nov. 14, 2019 Updated 4:52 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted November 14, 2019 |

The last two impeachment investigations of the past half-century began with a third-rate burglary and an extramarital affair. They quickly expanded to question the credibility and ethics of the president, but never touched on America’s national interests in the weightiest geopolitical confrontations of their eras.

The sober, just-the-facts testimony of two previously little-known diplomats on Wednesday left no doubt that the investigation into President Trump’s actions is fundamentally different. Mr. Trump had a choice between executing his administration’s own strategy for containing Russia or pursuing a political obsession at home.

He chose the obsession.

In an otherwise divided Washington, one of the few issues of bipartisan agreement for the past six years has been countering the Russian president Vladimir V. Putin’s broad plan of disruption. That effort starts in Ukraine, where a hot war has been underway in the east for five years, and a cyberwar underway in the capital, Kiev.

It is exactly that policy that Mr. Trump appears to have been discarding when he made clear, in the haunting words attributed to Gordon D. Sondland, who parlayed political donations into the ambassadorship to the European Union, that “President Trump cares more about the investigation of Biden” than about Ukraine’s confrontation with Mr. Putin’s forces.

It was perhaps the most telling, and to some the most damning, line of the torrent of revelations in the past two months — the distillation of an internal argument inside the Trump administration that the president’s closest aides have endeavored to keep hidden.

That single line, relayed by William B. Taylor Jr., the avuncular, experienced diplomat sent back to Kiev in May by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, encapsulated the now obvious truth that Mr. Trump had little interest in the central national security strategy that his own administration published in late 2017.

That strategy ostensibly reoriented American diplomacy from an 18-year focus on counterterrorism to a new approach to the world’s two “revisionist powers,” Russia and China. Each poses very different challenges to the United States.

Mr. Taylor, a veteran — first of Vietnam and then of the Cold War and its messy aftermath — has devoted much of his career to building fragile democracies from the ruins of the Soviet Union. Those who know him say they do not know his politics. So it was no surprise when he cautioned the committee that he had no desire to take part in impeachment proceedings.

“I am not here to take one side or the other or to advocate for any particular outcome of these proceedings,” he said, a line that brought visible skepticism from those on the committee who believe he epitomizes the diplomatic “deep state.” Instead, Mr. Taylor, who served as ambassador to Ukraine under the George W. Bush administration, portrayed himself as a “fact witness” who had just returned from the Donbas, the eastern area of Ukraine where 14,000 people have already died.

But his facts led him to a pretty politically charged conclusion. “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Mr. Taylor said. When pressed what he meant, Mr. Taylor added that because “that security assistance was so important for Ukraine as well as our own national interests, to withhold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense.”

“It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do,” he added. “It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy.”

The issue is explained away by Mr. Taylor’s superiors in the State Department and the White House, who argue that the story of withheld aid is a political concoction. Ultimately, the funds were released. It was like paying your credit bill on the last day possible — in this case, the deadline was the end of the government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.

No real harm, no impeachable foul, they contend, and did not President Barack Obama decline to provide the Ukrainians with Javelin antitank missiles? One of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers noted that Washington’s press corps was not writing several years ago that Mr. Obama was, in this official's words, leaving Ukrainians to die. In contrast, Mr. Trump offered them the Javelins. (Mr. Trump’s sale of those weapons prohibited the use of Javelins on the front lines, in an effort to cast them as deterrent weapons.)

But from where Mr. Taylor was sitting in Kiev, withholding the aid hardly seemed harmless. The power of his testimony lay in how starkly he laid out what amounted to an extortion scheme: that Mr. Trump was personally refusing to release the funds unless Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announced two investigations.

One was into Burisma, the energy company in which the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had taken a board seat and payments of as much as $50,000 a month. The other was an investigation into a completely discredited theory that Ukrainian hackers, not Russia’s military intelligence unit, may have been responsible for the 2016 breach of the Democratic National Committee. If that was true, the Justice Department might have to consider withdrawing its indictment of a dozen Russian intelligence officials for masterminding and executing one of the boldest hackings in American political history. The indictment was issued last year by Jeff Sessions, who was then serving as attorney general.

Of the many odd twists in the partisan noise around the impeachment, Mr. Trump’s effort to divert attention from suspicions about the intrusion away from Russia — implicit in his July 25 telephone conversation with Mr. Zelensky — may be the oddest. Ukraine has been Mr. Putin’s favorite cybertarget, the petri dish where the Russian leader has tried out many of the techniques he later turned on the United States, like influence operations, tinkering with voter systems and riddling the electric grid with malware.

As George P. Kent, the assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Ukraine, told the committee Wednesday, the funds appropriated by Congress, and withheld on Mr. Trump’s orders, were meant “to fight Russian aggression in the defense, energy, cyber and information spheres.”

It was clear from the testimony that Mr. Taylor and Mr. Kent have been pressing for — and carrying out — some version of that policy for several administrations, and deeply believe in it. But it has become more urgent. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 unified Republicans, Democrats and Western allies; they issued sanctions and threw Russia out of the Group of 8, where its presence had been intended to integrate the nation with Europe.

When the Senate voted in 2017 to extend sanctions on Russia, the vote was 98 to 2; only Senators Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders voted against it. That veto-proof majority forced Mr. Trump to sign the legislation.

Still, the evidence this pressure is working is scant. Be it Syria or Libya, or elsewhere in Africa and Eastern Europe, Russia has stepped up its actions, and here in the United States, the big question is whether the United States is prepared to stave off Russian interference in next year’s presidential election.

All this made tightening the alliance with Ukraine more important, as a signal, and as a deterrent.

But Mr. Trump has never signed on to that strategy; the evidence now is that he sought to undercut it. In fact, it was an open secret in the White House that the president, who has little patience for long documents, never read the full national strategy published under his name, according to several of his former national security officials.

He has never repeated its main tenets, particularly its references to Russia, in public; instead, he makes vague mention of how it would be a good thing if Russia and the United States got along. His actions, as opposed to his strategy documents, have been a quilt of contradictions. He has pulled out of treaties with the Russians — most recently the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty — and invested in a new nuclear arms race. But he has also questioned why the United States needs to keep up the sanctions imposed on Moscow after the annexation of Crimea and the attacks on Ukraine, and, by pulling back from Syria, he has ceded territory that Mr. Putin coveted.

As it seeks to quash the impeachment parade, the State Department under Mr. Pompeo has added to the confusion by declining to answer questions about what happened this summer, as the aid was frozen. Mr. Pompeo himself has declined to be drawn into those discussions, saying simply that they are internal conversations that should be kept confidential.

That is now over: Mr. Taylor’s lengthy, calm recitation of each interaction over the summer with his colleagues back in Washington, based on his copious notes, gives a window into policymaking unmatched since the revelation in 2010 of the State Department’s internal cables by WikiLeaks.

But what Mr. Taylor’s and Mr. Kent’s accounts reveal is a department that was keeping its own diplomats in the dark. Mr. Taylor, sitting in the Kiev Embassy as a temporary successor to the mysteriously ousted Marie L. Yovanovitch, never received the formal notes from Mr. Trump’s conversation with Mr. Zelensky. He only heard by accident that military aid was frozen. He said he did not figure out how that was related to Mr. Trump’s demands until late in the summer.

The Cold War, too, was filled with incomprehensible moments and quid pro quos. President John F. Kennedy struck the most famous, secretly trading a Russian nuclear presence in Cuba for the withdrawal of American nuclear weapons in Turkey. The details were kept secret for years. But both the quid and the quo were rooted in some plausible definition of American national interest.

That is drastically different from what Mr. Trump sought: American military aid in return for dirt on his opponents.

🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞☕🍂

Pelosi Points to Possible Bribery Charge Against Trump

The day after the first public impeachment hearing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi used the word “bribery,” mentioned in the Constitution’s impeachment clause, to describe President Trump’s conduct.

By Nicholas Fandos | Published Nov. 14, 2019 Updated 1:47 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted November 14, 2019

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi sharpened the focus of Democrats’ impeachment case against President Trump on Thursday, accusing the president of committing bribery when he withheld vital military assistance from Ukraine at the same time he was seeking its commitment to publicly investigate his political rivals.

The speaker’s explicit allegation of bribery, a misdeed identified in the Constitution as an impeachable offense, was significant. Even as Ms. Pelosi said that no final decision had been made on whether to impeach Mr. Trump, it suggested that Democrats are increasingly working to put a name to the president’s alleged wrongdoing, and moving toward a more specific set of charges that could be codified in articles of impeachment in the coming weeks.

“The devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry, and that the president abused his power and violated his oath by threatening to withhold military aid and a White House meeting in exchange for an investigation into his political rival — a clear attempt by the president to give himself an advantage in the 2020 election,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference in the Capitol.

Democrats have begun using the term “bribery” more freely in recent days to describe what a string of diplomats and career Trump administration officials have said was a highly unusual and inappropriate effort by Mr. Trump and a small group around him to extract a public promise from Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a discredited theory about Democrats conspiring with Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 election.

The House Intelligence Committee convened the House’s first public impeachment hearing in two decades on Wednesday with testimony from William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George P. Kent, a senior State Department official responsible for policy toward the country.

They told the committee that Mr. Trump and his allies inside and outside of the government placed the president’s political objectives at the center of American policy toward Ukraine, using both $391 million in security assistance that Congress had appropriated for Ukraine’s war with Russia as well as a White House meeting that was coveted by the country’s new leader as leverage.

Asked to clarify her remarks later, Ms. Pelosi said: “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery.”

She added: “We have not even made a decision to impeach, that is what the inquiry is about.”

Ms. Pelosi said Mr. Trump should give Congress exculpatory evidence, if he has it, and said the president would be given an opportunity to defend himself. Republicans and the White House have accused Democrats of denying Mr. Trump a proper say in the proceedings.

Ms. Pelosi’s remarks on impeachment were the first time she discussed the growing inquiry at length with reporters since Congress recessed in late October. She provided other clues as to how she is thinking about the case.

Asked if Democrats were successfully bringing the public along with them, Ms. Pelosi conceded that the country was likely too polarized to ever support impeachment as overwhelmingly as it did when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974. Public opinion polls now suggest a majority of Americans favor the impeachment inquiry, but only by a thin margin.

“Impeaching is a divisive thing in our country — it’s hard,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The place that our country is now, it’s not a time where you’ll go to 70 percent when President Nixon walked out of the White House.”

Indeed, there was no sign from congressional Republicans that the testimony had shaken their conviction that Mr. Trump is innocent.

Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, told reporters that the hearing had only confirmed that the accounts from Mr. Taylor, Mr. Kent and other witnesses who have offered damaging information about Mr. Trump are not firsthand, and therefore could not be trusted. And he pointed back to a July phone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

“The call summary is still the most important piece of evidence we have, and it shows no pressure or even mention of conditionality between the two leaders,” Mr. McCarthy said.

The White House released a reconstructed transcript of the call in September that showed that after the Ukrainian leader thanked Mr. Trump for military assistance, the American president pivoted and asked Mr. Zelensky “to do us a favor, though.” Mr. Trump then asked Mr. Zelensky to investigate unsubstantiated corruption accusations against Mr. Biden and his son Hunter who worked for a Ukrainian energy firm, as well as a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered with the 2016 election to help Democrats.

The United States intelligence community has concluded that Russia interfered to help Mr. Trump.

🍁🍞🍂☕🍁🍞🍂☕🍁🍞🍂☕🍁🍞

1 note · View note

discoursesauce · 6 years

Text

Respectability Politics and the Trans Community

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent surge of respectability politics within the trans community. For anyone who isn’t a discourse-obsessed gremlin like me and doesn’t know what respectability politics means I’ll drop a couple definitions:

“Respectability politics or the politics of respectability refers to attempts by marginalized groups to police their own members and show their social values as being continuous and compatible with mainstream values rather than challenging the mainstream for what they see as its failure to accept difference.” -Wikipedia

“The set of beliefs holding that conformity to socially acceptable or mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a member of a marginalized or minority group from prejudices and systemic injustices” -Dictionary.com

To many the basic idea of a marginalised group conforming to mainstream values in order to gain acceptance seems productive and harmless, but really it’s most often a destructive and counter-productive practice. The reasons for this are eloquently laid out in this article and you should definitely go read it. However this article is talking about it in the context of the Black American community so I’m gonna go thorough and explain how his main points apply to the trans community.

1. Respectability politics shifts the responsibility away from the perpetrators

This is a big one. By policing the voices and expression of trans people in order to make the community more palatable for cis people you are shifting the blame from the cis people who marginalize and abuse us onto trans people themselves. Tl;dr it’s more or less victim blaming. The goal should be to make society more accommodating for all trans people rather then trying to morph and police the trans community until we’re somewhat more acceptable to cis people. This applies to statements like: “This is why cis people hate use”, “Mogai/tucutes/transtrenders are the reason trans people are oppressed” and “Cis people would accept us if all trans people were just normal”

2. It provides a false sense of security for those who believe in it

Completely conforming to cis-normitivity isn’t going to automatically guarantee respect and acceptance. You’re still trans, and no matter what you do there are still going to be people who don’t respect you just because you’re trans. It’s really shit, yeah, so don’t you think we should be working towards changing societal norms rather then desperately trying to stay within the comfort zones of people who aren’t going to respect you regardless?

3. It doesn’t work

It just doesn’t. There has never been any known instance of a marginalised group gaining acceptance through respectability politics. The Civil Rights movement wasn’t black people gaining rights by trying to meet white people’s standards. It was black people fighting back against the oppressive structure, not conforming to it.

4. It prevents marginalised people from expressing openly and being proud or accepting about their identity or characteristics

If trans people have to conform to cis-standards, then it’s impossible to be proud of or even find acceptance in being trans. You’d constantly trying to not be too outspoken lest you breach the comfort zone of the cis people around you. It’s very difficult to find contentment within yourself if you’re constantly working to meet the standards of people who don’t want you to be who you are.

And that’s the end of my little essay, I hope you got something out of it. Mainly I’m just hoping that you’ll think critically before trying to police the voices or expression of other trans people. Thanks for reading.

#transgender #transmed #transmedicalism #truscum #tucute #discourse #ftm #mtf #transmasc #transfem #nonbinary #Mogai

19 notes · View notes

kaoarika · 3 years

Text

Silly stuff that happened this past friday because I went for a rabbithole. And it STIll keeps going...

The story goes that all I wanted to do was timeshifting some livestream from Nicovideo, but since the platform from time to time logs me out (since I barely use the platform these days: I am only “subscribed” to a program there, since everything I used it for already finished and so and so, or moved to Youtube) I had to login once more.

Thing is, I suspect this past month they have been doing lots of changes to their platform (including moving livestreaming timeshifts to the main nicovideo dashboard and so and so), they also started to implement a new 2-steps-login system where they send you a code to the email you registered your account to verify it is you.

For my luck, Nicovideo was still one of the last few platforms where I still used my old mail account that I barely visit these days because all I get these days there is mostly notifications from fb (and I wish it wasn’t like that, but fb is a weird entity and I hate it). I always do some cleaning each 5 or 6 months, whenever I feel like it, because, again, I barely use it. I WISH I could do smth more with it, but gmail feels more comfortable than whatever the hell Outlook/Hotmail tried to do with it being some kind of gmail clone in the past decade (wish I could say “desktop Outlook”, but, in my almost 20 years of being online, I never used it).

So, yeah... I decided to clean the few hundred notifications I have there from fb. One email notification I checked, however, comes from Google because of my old YT account (this is from a time before Google came and bought YT, before gmail was widely used and became the defacto google account to everything they own these days, and you could register any mail account to get a YT account). It basically went “hey, someone knows about your pw, we took some steps forward and do some security stuff... why don’t you login to do appropiate changes and the like?”. And I was “well, sure... I guess? I have been changing my pw of EVERYTHING, just in case, due to a data breach that happened last year and wanted to be secure”.

Two things i also got from this was: one, this was a mail I received last September. Oh shoot. The other was: wait... what was my old YT account’s pw again?

I have an habit of writing down all my pws since I was younger. And I had a bad practice where I wrote pws of everything in scattered notebook pages, post-its, etc. (these days I HAVE to write down the date I started to use those, in ONE PLACE, but this habit wasn’t 100% foolproof, since there were times I wasn’t even sure for WHERE I USED ONE OF THESE). In my teenage years, all my pws were simple and, frankly, quite insecure. I also kinda used them ALL for EVERYTHING. But as years came by I started changing them, being more meticulously vague with characters used there, and the like. But last year it was when a data breach happened that I REALLY got scared because hindsight is never 20/20, so I started to change EVERYTHING. I think 95% of the stuff I have registered and so and so nowadays use a different pw these days. The other 5% are probably sites that I have forgotten, “do I even care?”, and platforms that no longer exist. Or perhaps pw I have lost with time and doing the whole “recover pw” thing is useless.

My old YT fits a little with that 5%, tbh. I no longer use it, It’s over a decade old (I think last time I really used it was 2010 or 2010... barely before I started to use a gmail account). From what I remember, almost every video on my “favorites” doesn’t longer exist - either the uploader got deactivated for obvious YT reasons, or the videos were privated. So... what gives, right? “I don’t think I still have access to it...”

Or DOES IT?

And then... I went through the rabbithole. A very annoying one, at that. Did I want to give it up? No. I’m very obsessive and persistent, because I didn’t want to lose it.

So, I decided to look if I had a pw that I should have changed it to. Thing is, the first few times I tried it out... I found out the pw was from a different account. A fail from my part.

I then vaguely remembered that I *recently* logged into it, because I DO recall looking through my list of favorite videos. But, it depends what this “recently” means... could have been a year... 2 or 3 years ago (it doesn’t help considering the last two years of the pandemic and time has been quite weird since). So, did I change the pw? Did I use my old pw?

I looked through my old notebook that I used to base which platforms I NEEDED to change my pws last year... and strangely, “YT (original account)” was scribbled. Did I consider it a loss back then? So, I went back and forth with older notebooks.

I spent two hours on it, trying and logging with different pw variants I COULD have changed it to. I even checked if it was possible I changed my pw, because, I guess, Google does send you a notification about you changing a pw... but I didn’t have one of these, either. So... it was possible it was my old pw all around?

Another issue was that, like I said, my old pws were simpletons and MAYBE I could have used a different character, and I could have missed it, but my memory is foggy about it. I don’t rememeber how many times I TRIED logging in, all I do remember is how many times I as cycled back into captcha (and me trying to guess what the hell they were spelling for a word to verify me).

And to make matters worse, Google doesn’t really protect me to check another way to verify it was me: the “other method” is basically remembering what was the last pw I used. “WELL, I wouldn’t be here if I remembered what it WAS, right???”

And then, by 6 AM of that Friday, I finally got it. Maybe. Because of that one single character variant, and I was already too tired that I was all did i typed it correctly?”. All i knew is that it FINALLY sent me a verification to my email, and FINALLY I could be sent that sweet, sweet txt message to my phone.

Only to, right after it, receive another message that I couldn’t gain access due to MANY login attempts. “We have blocked you access due to many login attempts, try a few hours later :)” Okay, cool, I could try a couple of hours later.

And then I tried one hour later: ”Oops, try a few hours later.”

Three hours later: “”Try a few hours later”.

Okay, understandable, I guess I TRIED to login too many times, I will rest it here and try... well, later.

Almost 48 later: “Try a few hours later.”

Wait, it’s been TWO DAYS and you haven’t unblock me...??!

ALMOST FIVE DAYS LATER (a hour before I started writing this): “TRY A FEW HOURS LATER”.

Like... GOOGLE, IT’S BEEN FIVE DAYS. WHAT THE ACTUAL FREAKING HELL? HOW MANY “FAILED ATTEMPTS” IS THIS PUNISHMENT GARBAGE? HOW MUCH TIME IT MEANS “FEW HOURS LATER” FOR THIS PUNISHMENT?!

AGGGGGHHHHH.

UGH, ALL I want to is finally change the pw and regain access to it, nothing more, nothing less. But google doesn’t give me an option besides “try accessing from another device”, which is also incredibly useless.

It’s INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING. It’s going to be a week in less of two days and this is baffling? For an old account I barely use? Where I made the HUGE mistake of going for a dumb pw and I completely forgot WHAT IT WAS?!

I’m freaking tired and I’m trying to get into it 24 or 48 later. I guess, to give google time to cool it down, but NOPE, it’s been almost 120 hours SINCE it give me that message of “we blocked some attempts of ppl accessing to this account” and it’s completely baffling??? Because I’m pretty sure af it was ALL ME? BECAUSE OF A PRETTY DUMB “Well, type the last pw you remember using” too???! FREAKING HELL... I HATE THIS.

#kao's nonsenses

0 notes

authoratmidnight · 7 years

Text

VRains Translated Script EP 1

Script and Translation from DMC3444 on NAC

And we are off!

Revolver: Be gone! Cyberse! AI 1: The Knights of Hanoi are attacking the Cyberse World?! AI 2: But we can’t fight if we are trapped like this… AI 3: That’s… Ignis: Sorry for the wait! Your savior has arrived! Ignis: Well well,… Good job, getting trapped and all. Funny how someone you dislike has to help you out at times like this, eh? Guess I have no choice! I’ll save you all. Revolver: Don’t let it get away! AI: What are you doing? Ignis: Over there! Revolver: What?! It’s forcing a disconnection!? AI: He’s trying to conceal this world from the outside!? AI: But he won’t be able to come back! Ignis: How’s that, huh?! AAAHHHHHHHHHH! Revolver: Search for its remnants! Only Ignis knows where the Cyberse World is! (5 years later) Playmaker: Lynxlayer! Attack! Meteor Slash! Knight of Hanoi: Damn you! Why are you interfering with Hanoi…?! Who the hell are you?! Playmaker: Knights of Hanoi. Wherever you go, I will be there. My name… …is Playmaker! (Opening Sequence) Mysterious Voice: Hey. Wake up. Shima: Whoa! Finally waking up, huh? Fujiki, right? Class is already long over. Yusaku: Who are you? Shima: Hey! It’s been one month since school started, and you still haven’t learned your classmates’ names!? You don’t seem to have a lot of friends. Yusaku: Why, thank you. Shima: I’m Shima Naoki. Hey, don’t you have anything to say to me!? Yusaku: Not really. Shima: What!? You know what this is!? Yusaku: Oh, that. Is that the new type of Duel Disk supplied by SOL Technology? Shima: You’ve finally caught on! Shima: Your Duel Disk has a card holder? That’s pretty old school. Shima: My disk is equipped with an AI that assists with Dueling! AI: Hello. Yusaku: Hey. Shima: This AI connects to SOL Technology’s cloud servers, allowing you to use digitized cards. You can also access the network’s VR Space, LINK VRAINS! See? Just like this! Yusaku: So, you’ve been to LINK VRAINS? Shima: YOU IDIOT! AI: “Idiot” is a forbidden word. Shima: This is a holy ground where veteran Duelists gather! The Charisma Duelists are here, too! Shima: That place’s a lot more brutal than you think! Yusaku: That’s true. Shima: Oh! But if we go there, maybe we’ll run into the Charisma Duelists and Playmaker! Yusaku: Playmaker? Shima: He’s like the hottest Duelist now, man! He’s been taking down that evil hacker group in LINK VRAINS called the Knights of Hanoi in secret! Yusaku: Do you have a photo of him or something? Shima: Of course not! Shima: He’s so cool because you don’t know who he is! One day, I’ll become a Duelist who fights for justice like Playmaker! Yusaku: Good luck. Shima: Hey. Are you going to teach me how to Duel? Yusaku: I’ll pass. Yusaku: After analyzing you, I’ve concluded that you’re not that strong. There’s three reasons. Number 1: The fact that you’re boasting about your disk means that you have no interest in a deck. Number 2: The fact that you haven’t been to LINK VRAINS means that you don’t have much confidence in your skill. Number 3: You don’t even try to analyze your opponent beyond their appearances. How are you going to be a Duelist? Yusaku: But you have three good points. Number 1: Since you talk about Dueling even though you only have a disk, that means you really love Duel Monsters. Number 2: You were able to obtain the nextgen Duel Disk pretty quickly, meaning that you must be well-informed. Number 3: The fact that you actually talked to a loner like me means that you hate being alone. So, you’re not a bad person. Shima: What is your problem!? And what is your obsession with the number three!? Screw you! Just go Duel yourself! Yusaku: Speaking of which, I haven’t thought about it. Does the Main Monster Zone have three rules? No. That’s not it. Ignis: Crap! They’ve found me! Bishop: Zaizen. Is it true that Ignis has appeared? Akira: Yes, Master Bishop. There’s no doubt that it is somewhere in the network. Bishop: SOL Technology has been the driving force behind the network world for many years. That is all thanks to the data material generated by the Cyberse World. However, 5 years ago, During Hanoi’s attack, a certain AI, Ignis, locked the Cyberse World away somewhere in the network. Akira: With the Cyberse World gone, the amount of data material was reduced, and the network’s efficiency was reduced by more than 30%. Bishop: If we cannot find the Cyberse World, there will be more chaos in the network. It’s clear as day what fate will befall our company, should that happen. Bishop: We must find Ignis and locate the Cyberse World, no matter what. Akira: Understood. Specter: Master Revolver. We’ve found traces of Ignis. If SOL Technology captures Ignis, the Cyberse World will be restored. Revolver: If that happens, our efforts will be all for naught. We must find it before SOL Technology. Specter: There’s one problem. A person named Playmaker has been getting in our way. Revolver: Is he one of SOL Technology’s henchmen? No. Those guys would be acting more publicly… Specter: He skillfully blocked our pursuits, and also erased all his logging records in LINK VRAINS. Whoever he is, he’s a skilled hacker for sure. Revolver: I’m curious about him, but leave him be for now. Searching for Ignis is our top priority right now. Yusaku: Who are those people? Shoichi: They’re Charisma Duelists. GO Onizuka, and Blue Angel. Yusaku: Charisma, huh? Shoichi: Hey. Have you heard about this thing called “Data Storm”? Yusaku: No. Shoichi: In the past, there used to be a wind known as “Data Storm” blowing through LINK VRAINS. Some people rode this wind to play Speed Duel. Yusaku: Speed Duel… Shoichi: Rumor has it that there are unknown monsters residing in this wind, and it can lead you to a whole new world and stuff. Shoichi: But that wind is gone now, it seems. Shoichi: If you find it, you’ll probably be able to enjoy Dueling. Sorry. I got you involved in this. Yusaku: I’m doing this by choice. I’ll get revenge on the people who stole your brother and my past. Yusaku: That aside, did anything happen? Shoichi: Den City’s network security has been strengthened. Seems like SOL Technology is searching for something. Yusaku: What is this “something”? Shoichi: It’s an AI program, apparently. Yusaku: I’ve never heard about programs running away before. It’s not like they have will like humans. Shoichi: They might conduct a deep scan to look for it. Yusaku: If they do that, Hanoi will target them. Wait… KOH: Damn you! Why are you interfering with Hanoi?! Yusaku: I see! So that’s it! Yusaku: Kusanagi-san! Let’s get to work! Shoichi: Well, this shop does get pretty busy in the night. Yusaku: That’s not what I mean. Shoichi: Oh come on, I need to prepare the shop for the night! Yusaku: Let’s set a trap. We’ll catch that AI. Shoichi: Hah? Yusaku: It’s not just SOL Technology. The Knights of Hanoi are after it as well. If we catch it, we might be able to use it as leverage against Hanoi. Shoichi: Are you sane? Even SOL Technology and Hanoi couldn’t catch this thing. Yusaku: To be more precise, we’re not trying to catch it. We’re creating an escape route for it. Yusaku: The deep scan will be our perfect chance. It won’t have anywhere to go. Yusaku: We’ll create a breach in the firewall that’ll appear. And guide it into this thing. Shoichi: Not possible. We don’t have enough time. Yusaku: We can do it. If we work together. Shoichi: All right. Bishop: Is preparation for the scan complete? Akira: Everything is ready. Bishop: Then why haven’t you done it? Akira: During the scan, the city’s security level will be lowered. If the Knights of Hanoi attack during that time, there will be serious damage. Bishop: But is there any other way to search for Ignis, besides that? Akira: No, sir. Announcer: Are you ready for this, folks?! Now, a series of Duels between the Charisma Duelists will commence in LINK VRAINS! Dueling in Area No. 1 is the Gouki user! LINK VRAINS’s toughest and wildest Duelist! GO Onizuka! Dueling in Area No. 2 is the Trickstar user! LINK VRAINS’s poster girl! Blue Angel! Blue Angel: Thank you! Announcer: Those of you who can access, come on LINK VRAINS! And those of you who have come here, keep your eyes on the screen! Shima: Good luck, GO-sama! Blue Angel! Oh crud. I don’t know who I should watch. Staff: MSD version 99671. The latest update has been applied. The estimated time until the operation finishes is 3657 seconds. Activating the scanning program. Ignis: This isn’t good! There’s no way I can get away! Shoichi: Hurry! SOL Technology has begun the scan! Specter: Den City’s security level is dropping. Revolver: I’ve been waiting for this moment. KOH: Master Revolver. What is your command? Revolver: He will be taking refuge in LINK VRAINS. You must capture Ignis no matter what. KOH: Roger. Staff: ＩＰＡ０７８３８８. Someone infiltrated the system! The firewall is being breached! Spectator: Hey, what’s going on? Shima: What? What? WHAT?! Shoichi: This program is…the Knights of Hanoi?! Yusaku: They’ve finally come. Ah…What is this sensation… Go: What?! Blue Angel: That’s…! KOH: Where is Ignis?! Those who get in my may will be crushed! Shima: Run for it! Shoichi: Hanoi’s attack has begun! Yusaku: It will be over soon. If we obtain the AI, it will become our savior. Shoichi: Can we really catch it? Yusaku: Yeah. I can feel its presence. KOH: I’ve found you, Ignis! Ignis: I must find an escape route! Where is it?! Yusaku: It’s done. Ignis: There it is! Staff: Many accounts in LINK VRAINS are being erased! Akira: Can you remove Hanoi from the system?! Staff: We can’t! At this rate, LINK VRAINS will be destroyed! Yusaku: Come to me! Yusaku: You’re finally here. You shall be a savior. Ignis: W-What? Yusaku: It’s no use. You can’t perform program change from within the disk. Ignis: EH?! So I’ve been captured?! Shoichi: You’re the AI those guys are looking for, I assume? Ignis: I’m just an ordinary AI passing through, I swear! Yusaku: There’s no time. Let’s go! Ignis: Where are you going? Yusaku: LINK VRAINS! Ignis: I’m trying to get away from there! Yusaku: Save it for later. Yusaku: Deck! Set! INTO THE VRAINS! KOH: Disappear! Ignis: Ah. Now I’m back here. Blue Angel: Who are you? KOH: Who the hell are you? Yusaku: My name is Playmaker. The thing you’re looking for is here. Stop your attack on LINK VRAINS. Or else… I’ll delete it, right here, right now! Ignis: Hey! Hey! You’re holding your savior hostage?! Yusaku: I’ve converted this program to a Duel program. Yusaku: If you want to get it, you have to beat me in a Duel! KOH : That’s Ignis! Akira: He has Ignis?! Revolver: Oh… KOH: Very well. I’ll show you what happens to those who defy Hanoi! Yusaku: Fine by me. Shima: You’re kidding me… Playmaker has showed up! Ignis: This is troublesome. That dragon is strong. I don’t think you can win with your deck. Yusaku: That’s rich, coming from you. If I lose, Hanoi will be able to catch you. Maybe you should try praying for my victory instead. Ignis: An AI doesn’t pray. I’ll perform calculations in order to win! Cyberse data material release! Akira: What’s going on?! KOH : This is… Ignis: Hop onto it, Playmaker! Shoichi: This is… Shoichi: It’s Data Storm?! Ignis: Catch the Wind! Playmaker! Let’s do this! A Speed Duel!

#yugioh vrains #vrains #translated script #vrains translated script #vrains spoilers #yup doing these again

100 notes · View notes

the-sayuri-rin · 7 years

Text

I’m siiing in the VRAINS, just singing in the VRAINS

Credit to DMC3444

Yusaku: So, you’ve been to LINK VRAINS? Shima: YOU IDIOT! AI: “Idiot” is a forbidden word. Shima: This is a holy ground where veteran Duelists gather! The Charisma Duelists are here, too! Shima: That place’s a lot more brutal than you think! Yusaku: That’s true. Shima: Oh! But if we go there, maybe we’ll run into the Charisma Duelists and Playmaker! Yusaku: Playmaker? Shima: He’s like the hottest Duelist now, man! He’s been taking down that evil hacker group in LINK VRAINS called the Knights of Hanoi in secret! Yusaku: Do you have a photo of him or something? Shima: Of course not! Shima: He’s so cool because you don’t know who he is! One day, I’ll become a Duelist who fights for justice like Playmaker! Yusaku: Good luck. Shima: Hey. Are you going to teach me how to Duel? Yusaku: I’ll pass. Yusaku: After analyzing you, I’ve concluded that you’re not that strong. There’s three reasons. Number 1: The fact that you’re boasting about your disk means that you have no interest in a deck. Number 2: The fact that you haven’t been to LINK VRAINS means that you don’t have much confidence in your skill. Number 3: You don’t even try to analyze your opponent beyond their appearances. How are you going to be a Duelist? Yusaku: But you have three good points. Number 1: Since you talk about Dueling even though you only have a disk, that means you really love Duel Monsters. Number 2: You were able to obtain the nextgen Duel Disk pretty quickly, meaning that you must be well-informed. Number 3: The fact that you actually talked to a loner like me means that you hate being alone. So, you’re not a bad person.

Shima: What is your problem!? And what is your obsession with the number three!? Screw you! Just go Duel yourself! Yusaku: Speaking of which, I haven’t thought about it. Does the Main Monster Zone have three rules? No. That’s not it. Ignis: Crap! They’ve found me! Bishop: Zaizen. Is it true that Ignis has appeared? Akira: Yes, Master Bishop. There’s no doubt that it is somewhere in the network. Bishop: SOL Technology has been the driving force behind the network world for many years. That is all thanks to the data material generated by the Cyberse World. However, 5 years ago, During Hanoi’s attack, a certain AI, Ignis, locked the Cyberse World away somewhere in the network. Akira: With the Cyberse World gone, the amount of data material was reduced, and the network’s efficiency was reduced by more than 30%. Bishop: If we cannot find the Cyberse World, there will be more chaos in the network. It’s clear as day what fate will befall our company, should that happen. Bishop: We must find Ignis and locate the Cyberse World, no matter what. Akira: Understood. Specter: Master Revolver. We’ve found traces of Ignis. If SOL Technology captures Ignis, the Cyberse World will be restored. Revolver: If that happens, our efforts will be all for naught. We must find it before SOL Technology. Specter: There’s one problem. A person named Playmaker has been getting in our way. Revolver: Is he one of SOL Technology’s henchmen? No. Those guys would be acting more publicly… Specter: He skillfully blocked our pursuits, and also erased all his logging records in LINK VRAINS. Whoever he is, he’s a skilled hacker for sure. Revolver: I’m curious about him, but leave him be for now. Searching for Ignis is our top priority right now. Yusaku: Who are those people? Shoichi: They’re Charisma Duelists. GO Onizuka, and Blue Angel. Yusaku: Charisma, huh? Shoichi: Hey. Have you heard about this thing called “Data Storm”? Yusaku: No. Shoichi: In the past, there used to be a wind known as “Data Storm” blowing through LINK VRAINS. Some people rode this wind to play Speed Duel. Yusaku: Speed Duel… Shoichi: Rumor has it that there are unknown monsters residing in this wind, and it can lead you to a whole new world and stuff. Shoichi: But that wind is gone now, it seems. Shoichi: If you find it, you’ll probably be able to enjoy Dueling. Sorry. I got you involved in this. Yusaku: I’m doing this by choice. I’ll get revenge on the people who stole your brother and my past. Yusaku: That aside, did anything happen? Shoichi: Den City’s network security has been strengthened. Seems like SOL Technology is searching for something. Yusaku: What is this “something”? Shoichi: It’s an AI program, apparently. Yusaku: I’ve never heard about programs running away before. It’s not like they have will like humans. Shoichi: They might conduct a deep scan to look for it. Yusaku: If they do that, Hanoi will target them. Wait… KOH: Damn you! Why are you interfering with Hanoi?! Yusaku: I see! So that’s it! Yusaku: Kusanagi-san! Let’s get to work! Shoichi: Well, this shop does get pretty busy in the night. Yusaku: That’s not what I mean.

Shoichi: Oh come on, I need to prepare the shop for the night! Yusaku: Let’s set a trap. We’ll catch that AI. Shoichi: Hah? Yusaku: It’s not just SOL Technology. The Knights of Hanoi are after it as well. If we catch it, we might be able to use it as leverage against Hanoi. Shoichi: Are you sane? Even SOL Technology and Hanoi couldn’t catch this thing. Yusaku: To be more precise, we’re not trying to catch it. We’re creating an escape route for it. Yusaku: The deep scan will be our perfect chance. It won’t have anywhere to go. Yusaku: We’ll create a breach in the firewall that’ll appear. And guide it into this thing. Shoichi: Not possible. We don’t have enough time. Yusaku: We can do it. If we work together. Shoichi: All right. Bishop: Is preparation for the scan complete? Akira: Everything is ready. Bishop: Then why haven’t you done it? Akira: During the scan, the city’s security level will be lowered. If the Knights of Hanoi attack during that time, there will be serious damage. Bishop: But is there any other way to search for Ignis, besides that? Akira: No, sir. Announcer: Are you ready for this, folks?! Now, a series of Duels between the Charisma Duelists will commence in LINK VRAINS! Dueling in Area No. 1 is the Gouki user! LINK VRAINS’s toughest and wildest Duelist! GO Onizuka! Dueling in Area No. 2 is the Trickstar user! LINK VRAINS’s poster girl! Blue Angel! Blue Angel: Thank you! Announcer: Those of you who can access, come on LINK VRAINS! And those of you who have come here, keep your eyes on the screen! Shima: Good luck, GO-sama! Blue Angel! Oh crud. I don’t know who I should watch.

Staff: MSD version 99671. The latest update has been applied. The estimated time until the operation finishes is 3657 seconds. Activating the scanning program. Ignis: This isn’t good! There’s no way I can get away! Shoichi: Hurry! SOL Technology has begun the scan! Specter: Den City’s security level is dropping. Revolver: I’ve been waiting for this moment. KOH: Master Revolver. What is your command? Revolver: He will be taking refuge in LINK VRAINS. You must capture Ignis no matter what. KOH: Roger. Staff: ＩＰＡ０７８３８８. Someone infiltrated the system! The firewall is being breached! Spectator: Hey, what’s going on? Shima: What? What? WHAT?! Shoichi: This program is…the Knights of Hanoi?! Yusaku: They’ve finally come. Ah…What is this sensation… Go: What?! Blue Angel: That’s…! KOH: Where is Ignis?! Those who get in my may will be crushed! Shima: Run for it! Shoichi: Hanoi’s attack has begun! Yusaku: It will be over soon. If we obtain the AI, it will become our savior. Shoichi: Can we really catch it? Yusaku: Yeah. I can feel its presence. KOH: I’ve found you, Ignis! Ignis: I must find an escape route! Where is it?! Yusaku: It’s done. Ignis: There it is! Staff: Many accounts in LINK VRAINS are being erased! Akira: Can you remove Hanoi from the system?! Staff: We can’t! At this rate, LINK VRAINS will be destroyed! Yusaku: Come to me! Yusaku: You’re finally here. You shall be a savior. Ignis: W-What? Yusaku: It’s no use. You can’t perform program change from within the disk. Ignis: EH?! So I’ve been captured?! Shoichi: You’re the AI those guys are looking for, I assume? Ignis: I’m just an ordinary AI passing through, I swear! Yusaku: There’s no time. Let’s go! Ignis: Where are you going? Yusaku: LINK VRAINS! Ignis: I’m trying to get away from there! Yusaku: Save it for later. Yusaku: Deck! Set! INTO THE VRAINS! KOH: Disappear! Ignis: Ah. Now I’m back here. Blue Angel: Who are you? KOH: Who the hell are you? Yusaku: My name is Playmaker. The thing you’re looking for is here. Stop your attack on LINK VRAINS. Or else… I’ll delete it, right here, right now! Ignis: Hey! Hey! You’re holding your savior hostage?! Yusaku: I’ve converted this program to a Duel program. Yusaku: If you want to get it, you have to beat me in a Duel! KOH : That’s Ignis! Akira: He has Ignis?! Revolver: Oh… KOH: Very well. I’ll show you what happens to those who defy Hanoi! Yusaku: Fine by me. Shima: You’re kidding me… Playmaker has showed up! Ignis: This is troublesome. That dragon is strong. I don’t think you can win with your deck. Yusaku: That’s rich, coming from you. If I lose, Hanoi will be able to catch you. Maybe you should try praying for my victory instead. Ignis: An AI doesn’t pray. I’ll perform calculations in order to win! Cyberse data material release! Akira: What’s going on?! KOH : This is… Ignis: Hop onto it, Playmaker! Shoichi: This is… Shoichi: It’s Data Storm?! Ignis: Catch the Wind! Playmaker! Let’s do this! A Speed Duel!

#VRAINS #vrains spoilers

20 notes · View notes