#so grace and the doctor have to go and get a bit of an atomic clock

[meemoze]

Office Hours with a Supervillain

After getting really good feedback over ao3, I thought that I’d go on a limb and post it here for all my tumblr Otto enjoyers! 

TW: mentions of blood and death: Slight belly kink and body worship: Teacher/student trope

{Chapter One}

The lecture hall was more or less silent save for the professor’s voice. A bored air hung above the students as half appeared either to be sleeping or using their phones. You would be lying if you said you hadn’t considered joining them.

Ah yes, Intro to Nuclear Physics. While the subject matter certainly seemed interesting, the actual execution of teaching such a subject in an engaging way to a lecture hall of first years unfortunately was easier said than done. If you were being honest, you felt bad. You could see how knowledgeable and passionate the professor was about the subject, but the complicated language and his teaching style made it extremely hard for his students to share in his enthusiasm. The professor in question was a man by the name of Dr. Otto Octavius: world class atomic and nuclear physicist. It made you wonder why a man with his credentials was stuck teaching a class of freshman, but you weren't on the academic board, so. Either way, there he was, in his crimson turtle neck scribbling out some hellish looking equations on the crowded chalkboard. You weren’t sure if he noticed that almost none of his students were actually paying attention to what he was saying, but you tried your best to follow him and at least look a little attentive. Despite the density of the subject and how difficult it was to understand, you wanted to try to understand.

This in itself was probably the biggest culture shock when coming to college. While there certainly were classes in highschool that you’d rather sleep through, you at least tried to be subtle about it. In college, as the stereotype goes, people just really don’t care.

“And this concludes chapter one, please keep in mind the quiz that will be on the 5th. If any of you find yourself stuck at all, please consider seeing me after class for office hours. The door is always open.”

Just like that, the lecture hall was filled with noise as students made their ways to the exit. You made your way through the lecture hall as well, however instead of the exit, you stopped at the doctor’s desk.

“Hey Dr. Octavius, how was the trade show?”

For the past couple weeks he had mentioned briefly before and after his lectures he would be attending some large technology trade show. A big event where rich guys could see the latest and greatest in tech. You remember seeing how his chocolate brown eyes lit up, smile lines emphasized, as he chatted about it. It was cute. Too bad no one was paying attention enough to see it. He turned at this from packing his things, a friendly smile gracing his face.

“Yes, it was quite exciting. It is good to see what advances my fellow colleagues are making in their respective fields”

While there was a large portion of excitement in his voice, you could make out a twinge of pride, the straightening of his posture not going unnoticed by you. You couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

This had become a bit of a routine

It only took one session for you to realize you would need to go to Doctor Octavius’s office hours if you even planned on passing this class. You even had considered dropping the class. But despite the intimidation (Dr. Octavius wasn’t exactly a small man), you forced yourself to talk to him after class. Despite your initial fears, your efforts were surprisingly met with understanding and even a little excitement.

“Do forgive me for my informality: I haven’t eaten anything this morning so I hope you don’t mind if I bring my lunch. Though I assure you, I will be just as qualified to help you with your questions''

He gave you an apologetic (but playful) smile, taking his trenchcoat under his arm while finding his place next to you.

“Don’t worry about it Doc, can’t have you wasting away on me, now can I”

This got a short chuckle and side glance out him as he took the lead out of the lecture hall. Had you mentioned how much shorter you seemed whenever he was next to you? Not that you really minded of course, but it definitely was something that you couldn’t ignore.

While a comfortable silence fell over you on your way to one of the study rooms, you spared a few glances at the older man. Despite the clear age gap, you couldn’t help but find him attractive. Curly soft chestnut locks framed his fuller slightly wrinkled face, prominent eyebrows complimented by a slightly hooked nose, and a fuller chubby body to tie the entire look together. It might be unprofessional thinking about your professor that way, but hey, you had working eyes didn’t you?

Luckily it didn’t take long to get to the room where you both typically went over work. Once an adequate studying area was found, you both set your things down and got situated. Lunch placed gingerly in front of himself, he brings your work to his face, adjusting his circular reading glasses. You simply wait patiently, enjoying how his face would scrunch and soften as he thought.

To save face, you pretend to attend to other homework you had.

It only took a few minutes for Otto to figure out what the issues were, you leaning closer to him to get a better look at his notepad as he explained the problems you were struggling with. Intently listening, you enjoyed the soft timbre of his voice as he scribbled on his notepad for you, stopping every now and then to make sure you were tracking a long.

“So while the effort is evident in your work, the devil is truly in the details. How about you work this problem here so I can make sure I explained the problems sufficiently”

With that, he nudges the notepad to you and attends to his lunch.

“I have some papers I need to look over for a project I am currently working on, so please let me know if you get stuck.”

His voice came out as a soft murmur, already focused on the work ahead of him, rummaging in his satchel and pulling out a hefty little folder. You hum a thanks and dig into the problem. Other than the stray inaudible grumble or the clink of metal against tupperware, it was quiet. However, every now and then you would spare a glance at the doctor.

One hand holding a blueprint, the other holding his fork, it was kind of comical watching as he juggled the two. Certainly more entertaining than the headache inducing problem you were working on. That is why as your eyes grazed over the older man looking for some distraction, they fell upon the doctor’s pronounced torso. You knew you were playing a dangerous game, but with the close proximity that these office hours seemed to involve, it was hard not to. His chest was just so soft looking, giving the doctor such a cuddly look. One couldn’t help but wonder how it’d feel to just bury your face in them.

All for science, of course.

On top of that, you could see how nicely his soft middle filled out his turtleneck, especially with how it pressed up against the edge of the table ever so slightly. If he wasn’t your professor, you would definitely try to find an excuse to get a hug out of him.

Eventually you had to peel your eyes away from your physics professor’s boobs and tummy and actually finish the problem you were supposed to be working on (the humanity). Luckily for you though, you were able to wrap up the rest fairly quickly. With the problem checked, you both fall into casual conversation.

“So what’s the project you’re working on?”

Eyes making their way to the bulging folder he was about to put in his bag. You were certainly curious with what exactly the man filled his time with besides tutoring subtly crushing students like yourself. At this, he looked down at his folder, as if to question if the contents of the folder were really the subject of your interests. It only lasted a moment however, as his chest puffed out slightly in pride. Something told you he had been secretly wanting you to ask.

“Well, the project I am currently working on is simply a vehicle to carry my true master project, but still quite fascinating nonetheless.”

Taking him opening the folder as your cue, you shuffle to meet him on the other side of the table. Reaching his side, he hands you an intricate blueprint, hand slightly grazing his.

“While I could harp all day on all the idiosyncrasy and details on my master project, to put it simply, I am attempting to sustain a fusion reaction to create a virtually inexhaustible energy source. And these”

At this, he points at the diagram in front of you.

“Will help me accomplish this.”

As you look over the paper, you could tell he was watching you. The diagram showed a diagram of a man wearing what looked like to be a belt harness with 4 tentacle-like appendages coming out from the back. In a lack of a better term, it looked fucking awesome.

“Woahhh, this is awesome! And you’re gonna wear this?”

You turn to look at him, handing him the plans gingerly, not wanting to damage them.

“When I’m stabilizing the fusion core, yes. And if everything goes right, I will be able to create sustainable energy for millions. As I’ve said before, technological advancement is the key to a better future.”

His face breaks into a smile as he stares out, conviction filling every word. You couldn’t help but join him.

While Otto was a solid 10 in your book just by virtue of his looks, this is what made the man truly attractive in your eyes. While he could have easily used his gifts to his own benefit, his real priority and driving reason was to help others.

“Well remember me when you’re all famous with your 5 noble prizes. Perhaps you could even share some of your wealth~? 400 dollars will suffice for now”

Head turned up in playful aloofness, hand outstretched as if you expected the money at that very moment. All the doctor did was give you a humored look, thick brow raising above his reading glasses ever so slightly.

“Is that so? You know, you’re quite the jokester. You should consider stand up if nuclear physics doesn’t end up working out for you.”

A sarcastic tone played on his lips, though you could see he was biting back a smile

“Well can’t blame a guy for trying. And I’m too lazy for that, sit down seems more up my alley.”

It was silent for what felt like an eternity, the man simply looking down at you. Hazel eyes and dark eyebrows quirked in confusion, reminding you of a deer when looking at an oncoming car. Standing there awkwardly, you were half tempted to fill the silence with a half hearted apology or witty quip. You didn’t think your joke was that ba-

However, to your surprise, the doctor’s face lit up with understanding. Face and eyes crinkling, the next thing you know, the sweetest cutest laugh fills the air. You could even make out a few snorts, despite the valiant effort to hide them. With that, the worry washed away from your face, a quiet relieved sigh making its way across your lips. You didn’t think the joke was that funny, but you wouldn’t ruin this moment for the world. There was just something about seeing such an imposing intelligent man break down into a gut busting laugh.

“Tha-that, just caught me off guard”

Otto struggled to regain his composure, wiping the gathering moisture from his eyes. When was the last time he had a proper night's sleep? He couldn’t even remember….

With a few stray laughs, you both made your way out of the area, unaware of the rain that had begun to pour heavily outside. Reaching the exit, however, the blast of cold air and rain that pelted your face definitely made you aware of the weather change.

“Dang it? For real?”

Annoyance coating your voice like the rain that now covered your face. Of course you had seen earlier that day warnings of rain, but did you actually listen? Of course not!

“Unfortunately I did not have the forethought to bring an umbrella”

Otto murmured, joining you in your annoyance. He had work to do and really couldn’t do it here. To put it simply, he did not have time for this.

“Well I’m not exactly the man with the plan either, so don’t beat yourself up too much about it”

You offer the doctor a smile, trying to lighten the mood somewhat. Just looking at him, you could practically hear the gears in his brain grinding.

“Well it’s certainly not an ideal solution…”

With a murmur, he took the trench coat from under his arm and opened it up. Ah yes, you see what he’s doing now. This is why he had the doctorate here, not you. Using his arms to lift the trench coat over his head, you open the door for him, moving a side so he could go through. You wished you had brought something a little more covering, though at least you had a larger backpack.

Starting to walk forward from under the oning, he stopped, seeing you pull your backpack over your head

“Y-you don’t have to do that. I would rather not have all your good work go to waste by being soaked after all.

One of the arms holding up the trenchcoat shifted aside, as if emphasizing his offer. A somewhat awkward smile made its way onto his face. You could tell that he was trying to be careful, not wanting to make you uncomfortable. Ah yes, the whole “teacher student” relationship thing. If only he knew how little you actually cared about that.

“Thanks doc, appreciate it!”

He didn’t need to know that your backpack was completely waterproof (a gift from your easily worried mother).

Ducking under his arm, you shift your backpack to the front to make more room for the both of you. The scent of rich coffee, books, and oil washed over you. It was certainly an interesting scent, but one you were quickly growing to like. Somehow it just fit him perfectly.

Despite the weather, you couldn’t help but smile walking out in the rain. The water splashed at both of your feet, the rain running off the back of the trench coat onto the ground below. Octavius was practically a walking space heater. A pink blush peppered your cheeks, your breath coming out in a weak puff of mist. It was cold, not unbearably so, but cold nonetheless. No one would question you tucking yourself closer to the doctor.

You were cold after all, nothing more…..

Tensing slight, Octavius subtly glancing down at you. Though you were curious to see the full reaction you got from him with your little move, you kept your eyes forward. Keep it casual. Eyes flicking back up, the doctor's tenseness melts away, replaced with a simple sigh. While Otto was not wise to your true feelings, he was aware of how you liked to push things. Rules. Norms. Expectations…. You were probably just cold anyways.

So then it came as no surprise to him that you pushed it further by getting even closer. Warmth spreads through you as you feel yourself sink slightly into his soft side. A giddy feeling growing in the pit of your stomach. Like a child doing something they knew they weren’t supposed to and getting away with it.

Unfortunately though, all good things have to come to an end. After leading you to your car, like a proper gentleman, you had to move from his side. (parting is such sweet sorrow…)

“Thanks for keeping me dry, maybe you can show me your project in person whenever you’re finished”

Raising your voice through the opened car window over the rain.

“Of course. If you’re truly interested in my work, you’re welcome to come by my lab. Viewing physics and engineering in a more visual way might make it more interesting.”

In between his fingers is a business card, a knowingly bitter look playing on his face.

Your excited smile slowly fell from: So he did know.

“Maybe. But I still find it interesting. It's even better when you can tell the professor is passionate about the subject and actually takes the time to make sure his students succeed.”

Maintaining eye contact the entire time, you gingerly take the card from him. The slight insecurity in his voice is not getting past you.

Eyes darting slightly, you could tell your comment took him by surprise. Mouth opening slightly, only for it to close. You seemed to have a knack of doing that. Eyes not leaving each other, the silence between you only grew as the poor doctor was trying to figure out what to say. “W-Well, of course, my work is my life, I would have not gotten so far in my field otherwise. But the door is always open, if you are ever interested.

Pride coating his words as the doctor tried to regain control over himself. While you were an attentive bright student, he couldn’t help but wonder if you only showed up to office hours just to get good with him.

“Will do. Have a good rest of the day Dr. Octavius.”

“You too.”

Through the wet car window, you watch as the man turns away, quickly shuffling over to his own car through the rain. Yes....you'd be taking him up on that little invitation

Here - Next 

[lambourngb]

re: your tags on that one post abt plotholes in rnm: what are the plotholes that make you lose the most sleep?

(this is my main btw, my rnm blog is @curlyguerin )

Hi! Okay... strap in, because there are a lot of little and big things that wiggle into my thoughts and makes me wonder ...am I the only one who couldn't follow that plotline?

In my opinion RNM suffers more from abandoned narratives and continuity errors than plot holes I guess, since we only have 2 seasons, with at least 2 more to go I guess I can hope they come back to these issues... but: [Under the cut plus some spoilers for season 3]

Things I would like explained :

1. What did Jesse Manes fund with family money in 1x08 ? I'm guessing it was surveillance of the town and the search for more aliens that could have escaped the military in 1947-1948. The idea that Jesse funded Caulfield is just laughable to me, along with how he was able to get his Army-assigned son moved from Germany to New Mexico for 5 years and no one noticed?? Caulfield has to be separate from whatever Jesse was doing in Roswell. Clearly there is still an ACTIVE military project focused on aliens because Flint isn't AWOL, Flint also takes Noah's body to Area 51, so where was Jesse in violation of his orders (Alex's threat to Jesse in 1x08 and then shipping him to Niger)? Surveilling citizens and setting up cameras all over town?

2. Did they ever build an Air Force base on the Fosters Homestead Ranch? (1x01-1x02) ...then it's never mentioned again.

3. I am aware I am the only one who cares about this little bit, but the show seemed to set up a narrative in season 1 about the spotlight Roswell shined white victims of crimes - like Katie and Jasmine, that the town of Roswell holds quite a lot of racism regarding justice- vilifying Rosa for over 10 years, ignoring the deaths of people around Ranchero Night, and then Noah kills Wyatt Long's best friend Hank Gibbons in 1x13. I dunno, I was expecting more from Wyatt in season 2 about this than picking a fight with Michael over Mimi's missing persons sheet and showing up with a crossbow in 2x04. And like, there was a theme of people going missing in season 2!! Mimi, Jenna, the weird twins from 2x06, Charlie -- but yet, no closer scrutiny by Sheriff Valenti other than her focus on Max Evans and the story about Mexico- Like this felt not like a plot hole, but a dropped narrative -- to wrap up the fate of Racist Hank in a missing persons sheet in 2x01. To treat him weirdly like all of Noah's other victims (who were women and men of color and poor), but for a few factors like he was white, he had actual lines in the show over a couple of episodes, and he's one of the few townspeople we learn his first and last name still sticks out in my mind as strange. The Doylist explanation is the actor wasn't available for season 2, but the Watson-perspective of this is just someone the in-show universe doesn't care about ...? Okay. I will keep that in mind, and try to ignore the fact that the town of Roswell swings wildly back to caring about white victims again in 2x13 with Jesse Manes.

4. The Alighting from 1x13 - just how far away was it from happening? Noah was ready to stick a sheriff's deputy, the town event planner and Michael (who probably would be been the only one to go missing without much fanfare, except maybe by Alex) into a pod...for how long? Months? Years? What was his endgame? how did he expect to go unnoticed by the town while he waited for his alien salvation/alien UBER to arrive? Could he just mindwarp everyone into forgetting about the pod squad? Since we didn't see any alien ships show up in the six months from 1x13 to 2x13, and no further follow up by any of our heroes about what Noah was babbling about... I'm going to say this should come back into play for season 3, otherwise it's the most egregious plot hole from season 1.

5. Why did Flint want to work with Helena? Jesse had this master plan that Helena knew all about apparently but she never shares the plan with Flint? Jesse never shares this plan with Flint either? Why? As far as I can tell from the plot of season 2, Jesse takes the console piece from Alex, he was going to kill Alex to keep him out of the way, use the console to blow up civilians, he created a paper trail that pointed the finger at Max, and then when everyone knew the truth about aliens, he was going to use HIS atomizer bomb to release the toxin that Charlie had already developed for Project Shepherd to kill all the aliens.... WHY would Flint want to stop that, especially since they fight in 2x11 over how slow Jesse was moving in his plans? Other than objecting to killing Alex, why would Flint turn Alex over to Helena to blackmail Michael into building a second atomizer bomb? He should have just kept Alex out of the way until it was all over and let Jesse proceed with his plans. Flint's desire to work with Helena Ortecho remains a plot hole to me, that is explained in the most flimsy way of he thinks his dad isn't serious about killing all the aliens even though he has the means? And if he takes Alex from Jesse's control so easily, why not steal the bomb Jesse had too?

6. These are more gripes about continuity, not really plot holes, but the fact we have this loose timeline of events but it doesn't match the weather of filming.... Like Heather Hemmens looked so gorgeous in that little silk outfit in 2x01, but she's wandering outside in Dec in Roswell New Mexico looking like that. I get that it was filmed in August/Sept of 2019 but come on... so my main frustration is I have no idea what season and month is supposed to be on screen. Universe timeline says Winter but filming schedule meant it was early fall with still having the heat of summer there...then the show ends in May/June in the universe, but we all know RNM wrapped in Dec 2019/Jan 2020 so they are all bundled up in winter again.

7. Also on continuity, small things like Rosa's birthday being wrong, the fact her astrological sign isn't Pieces for either date, openly letting Greg Manes see Rosa, not seeming to care that Liz's ex-fiance hears that Rosa is alive - like i'm sure her "dead" sister came up in conversation between Liz/Diego

- the show gives us this beautiful conversation with Michael sharing his background with Alex in 1x10, but then Alex completely forgets it in 2x04 by dropping some line like "this is what you do with family" when Michael expresses confusion about a height chart. Also, on the same note- the jabs about the Library being a dive bar, also felt like a drop in continuity because Alex knows that Michael just lost his mom (1x12) , the government IS studying aliens, and his brother is in a pod, so like, he has some very valid reasons to drink if that's what he wanted to do with in his life in early season 2!! but, also he knows Michael is a genius??

- Why Alex never mentions Rosa, Isobel's blackouts/why Michael gave up UNM, or even hint about what happened with his dad in the shed during his conversation with Maria in 2x05 is also beyond bizarre to me. It was an "information" dump conversation that Alex still doesn't share all the information he has about a situation and just ends up looking kind of judgmental in my opinion.

- the truck conversation in 2x06 between Maria and Alex, why Maria prompts a girl's name when Alex says he's never been in a real relationship INSTEAD of addressing the very real elephant in the room, Michael Guerin, that they had a conversation about in 2x05- also feels like a gap in continuity.

8. Science wise- the pathogen that Charlie developed? It was supposed to be so specific that it could kill a leader of Al Quada and all of their direct descendants but leave the rest of the population unharmed. [Which um, that's a war crime, but whatever!] How was Maria affected? the DNA they had at Caulfield to develop it - like, Maria was descended from Louise and Louise lived free. The only person that pathogen SHOULD have affected was Michael (if they used Nora to base it on) Unless you're telling me that there's some protein in "alien dna" that is so specific to aliens, that no other human shares it, but also so completely undetectable that Kyle couldn't find it in Maria's blood... ? I suppose it's possible. I hope we get more explanation about that in season 3. It makes me wonder why Caulfield/Project Shepherd ever let Patty Harris go after she volunteered for some study then, and remained content to just pay her medical bills through a fake insurance company? [But also didn't flag Mimi and all the doctors that Maria took her to???]

9. Michael's hand. I'm going to reserve judgment about this, because some of my salt on this is based on season 3 promo pictures, but I really thought that moment in 2x13 when he takes off his hat, while Alex is singing, you see him without the wrapping on his hand, that maybe he found some peace with Jesse dead and demolishing the shed with Alex. But then it looks like the hand-danna is all over season 3, right up until the finale of season 3, so... was that a mistake in wardrobe AND not a beautiful moment of character growth??? I wish I could extend some grace to RNM about that, but alas... see above for why I have trust issues.

10. Perhaps I wasn't watching season 1 closely, but I thought Noah's madness was brought on by the fact he was stuck in his pod? That it was "lower class travel accommodations" and Isobel's scream at 13 got his attention? I assumed that he stayed in the pod, possessing Isobel on and off, right up until he used her body to kill Rosa in 2008, absorbing enough power to break out. So how did Noah find Jim Valenti so quickly? If it was through Isobel's memories, then why did Jim not immediately have Noah, some random alien approaching him about his recently dead daughter, hauled off to Caulfield? Jim pays $1,000 for Rosa's body, putting her in a pod [Noah's broken pod??] and stores her, waiting for...something? An alien to come along to bring her back. So did Jim know about The Savior? Why would Jim work with Noah and vice versa? Again, I'm hoping we get more about this in season 3.

11. Was there a point of keeping Alex in the Air Force? He arranges a place for them to work on bringing Max back, but I feel like anyone could have done that? Like Isobel had money, she could have rented a storage facility. All of the equipment was borrowed from the hospital, not the military. The information about 1947-1948 was from the drives decoded from Caulfield or the AAR report left by Flint in the Project Shepherd bunker (which again was decommissioned, not an active military installation). I could support the decision if it had provided some richness to the plot or some conflict within the character, neither of which really happened. Alex hacking the government and going undercover in the Air Force to protect Michael is basically fanon. I love that fanon, but alas...

12. Finally, the time jump. What year are we jumping into? 2020? 2021? Why does it make me think none of those questions above will be answered.

[missywhomst]

Just One?

In her post regeneration haze, the Doctor discovers earrings (Thasmin if you squint). 

(This is kind of an experimental fic to see if I wanna do a series about 13′s post regeneration antics. Not sure how I feel about it, but I hope you all like it!)

- gif by @queerthasmin​ - 

Time seemed to be moving in leaps and bounds, and she was surprisingly disoriented by it which was funny, really, considering how accustomed she was to hopping around the space-time continuum like it was her own personal playset. And so she laughed, almost a scoff, a bit dizzy at the scenery change as she found herself being guided by Yaz down the hallway to a bedroom.

“What’re we up to now? Lost is my head, there,” she said, turning to look at her new friend. She’d found that she garnered much less concern if she pretended she wasn’t missing chunks of time from the last, well, if she had to guess about six hours. Maybe less. She was fairly certain it was still the same day.

Thankfully, or perhaps not, she discovered that she was able to carry on full conversations while blacked out. There had been a point when she was still on the train being fawned over by someone named Grace and another someone named Graham, telling them that she was fine, she was fine, and she just needed to walk it off. Grace insisted she wait for the police, that a PC Khan was nearby and that she just wanted to have a talk. She distinctly remembered saying great, that she’d love a talk, that she really liked talking, and that she’d gotten a new tongue so she needed to break it in. Then the next second she was stumbling after a firefly in the tall grass of a field, the train stopped behind her and Graham running after her yelling oi, where do you think you’re going, and you just fell through a train, love, and come on, now, have a seat.

Graham and Grace and Ryan, who was friends with Yaz, or wasn’t friends, or used to be friends, took her back to their place for a cuppa because she wouldn’t let them take her to A&E. And though she claimed she only tagged along so she could ask a few more questions and file a proper report, she was fairly certain Yaz was just curious about the person who fell from the sky. Some other things happened that she mostly remembered, and now they were in a bedroom, and Yaz was setting down a duffel bag on a bed. Then she put a hand on her back and led her to a chair, pushing down on her shoulders to make her sit.

“I brought some clothes from my flat. Figured they might fit you. I’m sure you’ll appreciate being out of those ones,” Yaz chuckled, walking back to the bed to unzip the bag. She looked down at her arms. Her jacket was torn and burned and about four sizes too big, the ripped cuffs flopping over her knuckles. Her whole outfit was in tatters, really, and she’d been tripping over her trouser legs for what felt like ages now.

“He liked this outfit. Bit of a magician’s coat, innit? Think he’ll be mad?” she asked, picking at the singed ends with absent fingers.

“Who?”

“Him. Me,” she offered helplessly. Yaz frowned, turning back to the bag without replying. It was a difficult sort of mental gymnastics that she had to perform after any given regeneration. The separating herself from her previous self while simultaneously reconciling the two existences. Bit of a head wonk, that one. She took a breath, turning to the cluttered desk and dusty mirror she’d been placed down in front of. Her eyes caught the little silver things scattered across its wooden surface. “Yaz, what are these?” she called, picking one of the dangly ones up between her thumb and forefinger. Yaz turned to look, and she watched her glance at the thing in the reflection of the mirror. Another frown settled on her face.

“Those are...earrings,” she said, and though it wasn’t quite a question, her voice lilted up at the end as if it was, cocking her head quizzically.

“Are you sure?” she asked back, turning her body to look Yaz dead in the eye. “You don’t seem too sure.”

“I’m fairly certain I know what earrings look like,” she said, tossing a few shirts on the bed. “Been wearing them my whole life. More concerned that you don’t know.”

She hummed, choosing to ignore that as she turned back to face the mirror and examine it in detail. There was a little silver hook and from it dangled a set of beads in warm colors. She flicked it with her other finger, watching them sway back and forth in quick succession, clinking together and tangling. Her eyes got buggy rather quickly and she blinked, setting it back down on the desk.

“What do you do with them?” she called again, frowning as she leaned forward to examine herself in the mirror.

“You wear them. They’re jewelry. Jesus, how hard did you hit your head. Are you sure you don’t want to go to A&E?” Yaz asked, walking to stand behind her with her hands on her hips. She just prodded at her cheeks, lips squishing together.

“I’m perfectly fine,” she muttered, holding her hair up above her head and watching it fall back down to her chin.

“You don’t even know your name,” Yaz sighed, pressing her hand into the back of her chair.

“Which is a perfectly natural response when all your atoms have been instantaneously rearranged,” she said simply, turning to look up at Yaz. Then she gasped, her eyes lighting up as she reached out to run her thumb across Yaz’s ear lobe. “Oh, I get it now! Ear Rings. That is brilliant,” she grinned, prodding the little hoop in Yaz’s ear and stretching the velvety skin there with gentle fingers, little hairs bending under her thumb. Yaz swallowed and grabbed her wrist. She didn’t look quite as certain now as she had a few minutes ago when she’d pressed her palms into her shoulders and decisively pushed her into a chair.

“Can you not do that again, please?” Yaz asked, voice cracking as she met her eyes.

“Okay,” she said, lowering her arm as Yaz let go of it. She remembered that humans were finicky about their personal space, and she could never seem to keep up. Still, Yaz’s reaction seemed odd. She brought her fingers to her own ear, rubbing her thumb over the equally soft skin as Yaz turned back to the bed to organize her pile of things.

“I picked out some clothes for you. Some pajamas, a couple tee shirts and trousers, a sports bra if you want it. Obviously not sure what your size for anything is, but we can go shopping tomorrow morning,” Yaz offered.

She leaned forward to look at herself in the mirror again, brushing her hair behind her ear. “Why do you wear them?”

“Clothes?” Yaz asked hesitantly, not turning around. She glanced at Yaz's back in the mirror.

“Earrings,” she clarified, and Yaz almost looked relieved as she let out a breathy laugh.

“Oh, um, I dunno really. They look nice? My mum did them when I was pretty little. It’s kind of like a thing for girls to wear them,” Yaz shrugged, unfolding a shirt from her duffel bag.

She ran a finger down her nose, over her lips, and down her neck. It was smooth. Sans adam’s apple. Sans facial hair. She examined her jawline and collar bones and ran her fingers down the V of her button down. It was all very soft. And she recognized it as hers. “I think I’m a girl,” she breathed suddenly, wide eyed as she traced her hairline. She’d been told that information already in between that precise moment in Grace and Graham’s bedroom and when she’d crashed through a train roof, but she hadn’t quite comprehended the idea until then. She heard Yaz chuckle behind her.

“Good for you, then.”

She picked up the earring again, scrutinizing it. There were others like it in a little porcelain bowl near the mirror. With eager fingers, she dug through them, sorting through safety pins and paperclips and earrings that didn’t have their other halves.

“I want an earring, Yaz,” she declared, searching Grace’s stash for the perfect one.

“Just one?” Yaz asked skeptically.

“Never had one before,” she mused. 

“So you want to be a pirate, then?” 

“Never noticed them before,” she mused, pondering what else she might have missed as a man.

“Okay, well, we can go to a piercing shop tomorrow, I guess.”

“Tomorrow?” she whined, deflating and scrunching her nose up. “That’s hours away, and I might not want one then.”

“All the better reason to wait!” Yaz protested, turning to her. Then she paused suddenly, her face going sour. “God, I sound like my mother.”

She scrambled to her feet and took a few large strides forward, hands up to emphasize her point. “Yaz, listen. Sometimes my brain makes decisions that I disagree with, but this is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity to get ahead of myself,” she pleaded. Oh, begging, that’s new. She wasn’t sure she liked it yet, but she did need this earring and it felt like she might die again if she didn’t get it.

“Right, there’s a lot to unpack there, but I’m choosing to ignore it,” Yaz sighed, so close that she felt her breath on her nose.

“I’m not all together right now—”

“That’s something we can agree on,” Yaz muttered.

“—I’m still...forming. When I wake up tomorrow, I might not like earrings. Who knows? Everything’s new and different, and I might turn out to be a total bore if I don’t do something about it right now,” she breathed, biting down on her lip. She wasn’t sure if that was true, but it felt true with all the buzzing urgency going on inside her. That might just be the regeneration energy still repairing her internal organs from that landing, not her best one admittedly, but that certainly didn’t matter in her quest for an earring.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Yaz groaned. “How are you not exhausted?” Seeing the pleading look in Yaz’s eyes made her sag just a little, huffing as she sat back down.

“Humans have terrible circadian rhythms, and you should inquire about changing them. I mean, you sleep a third of your life away!” she protested indignantly. Yaz cocked her head at her.

“What do you mean...humans?” Yaz quickly shook her head. “You know what, I’ve had enough weird for the night, so I’m just gonna step out and let you change,” she said, walking out of the room and leaving her to fiddle with loose earrings and wondering if that could be her next project, changing humanity’s sleep cycle. She wondered if they’d make her a statue or something. Did she like statues? Well, she didn’t like ones that moved, and there was no telling which ones could, so decidedly not.

Still bitter, she sulked over the desk, picking up earrings and examining them. She poked at the dull end, wondering how exactly they got them through your ear lobe if they weren’t even sharp. Another shiny thing caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, and she grinned, picking it up. “Brilliant,” she breathed, opening the safety pin and watching the pointy bit sparkle in the light.

She leaned closer to the mirror, looking herself in the eye and taking a deep breath as she aligned the pin with her ear. In one decisive motion, she shoved it through, and a white hot pain burned across her skin. “Ow!” she yelped with a frown, feeling rather betrayed. Yaz poked her head in to see what was going on and was at her side in a flash when she saw the blood beading on her ear.

“Are you bloody insane?” Yaz asked, looking at the pin stuck through her ear, the skin already bright red and puffy.

“I didn’t think it would hurt,” she admitted, glancing up at Yaz.

“You just tore a hole through part of your body. It’s gonna hurt!” Yaz protested, grabbing a tissue. In the meantime, she grabbed the safety pin and winced as she latched it in place. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re taking that out right now. It could get infected!”

“No, this is the perfect time to do this!” she protested, eyes wide and urgent. “I’m still rearranging. So if I can keep the hole there until things settle down then it’ll become a part of this new body. It won’t ever close,” she said, scrambling out of her chair and inching away from a slowly approaching Yaz.

“I just wanna look at it,” she said, tissue in hand. She eyed Yaz’s posture, ready to pounce, and seriously doubted her sincerity.

“Stay away from me, Yaz,” she warned, inching toward the door.

“At least let me clean it. You’re dripping on your jacket,” she said, motioning to her shoulder. She quickly wiped her fingers along her earlobe and found them slick with dark orange blood.

“‘M fine!” she motioned, wiping her fingers on her trouser leg. Yaz eyed her. “He won’t mind,” she assured her, but that seemed to make Yaz even less assured and she lunged for her. But she was too quick, sliding out the door and running down the hallway to the living room. “I’m serious, Ya—” she yelped as strong arms wrapped around her, and then they were both on the ground, the wind knocked out of her. Yaz gasped, rolling off her. Then she turned onto her back as Yaz sat on her heels. “Oh, god, that one hurt. I think you rebruised my left kidney.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to tackle you. Just couldn’t have you running out the door. If you won’t go to A&E, you’re our responsibility now,” she breathed, pressing her palms into her thighs.

“I’m not a madman,” she protested, wincing as she propped herself up on her forearms.

“That’s highly debatable, love,” Grace chimed in, and that was when she realized that she was in the middle of the living room floor, all her new friends peering down at her.

“I’m very serious about my earrings. So I’m learning. Do you happen to have any in gold? I don’t think silver’s my color,” she offered, scrunching her nose as she brushed her hair back to show them all the safety pin secured through her ear and the blood smeared down her neck.

[themadamelibrarian]

Michael's Redemption ~ Part 63 of Loving Heart

Written By: @themadamelibrarian & @lucibae-is-dancing-in-hell​​ Fandom: Supernatural Rating: Explicit Warnings: Underage Relationships: Gabriel/Lucifer/Sam Winchester, Michael/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Gabriel (Supernatural), Lucifer (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, Michael (Supernatural), Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), God (Supernatural) Additional Tags: Mating Bond, Breaking Up & Making Up, angelic divorce, Human Michael, Mentions of Cancer, it's a Christmas miracle...except it's not Christmas., vampire attacks, Panic Attacks, Injury, Sneaking Around, Secret Relationship Summary: Michael has hoed a long, hard, row in their opinion. Losing a mate, being cast into the pits of Hell, made to live as a mortal female, and now confronting the mortal coil.

Can Michael find the redemption promised years ago?

ALL OF PART 63 ON AO3

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Chapter 1

Lucifer took a deep breath as he waited for Michael to show up. He arranged to meet with them at the bunker, while everyone else was out. He had something to talk about with his older brother and one-time mate, not to mention the father of his eldest child, but he was nervous. The topic of his Fall was touchy for this reason, but helping Mary through her break up with Eric the past few months had helped him immensely. He fiddled with the necklace that held Michael’s Grace in a vial while also spinning his wedding ring on his finger, both signs that he was nervous.

Michael knocked on the door of the bunker, with their overnight bag slung over their shoulder. Having no idea why exactly Lucifer wanted to meet, Michael had hopped on the first bus leaving for Kansas when they heard the tremble in Lucifer’s voice over the phone.

“Come in,” Lucifer called softly, now exclusively spinning the ring on his finger.

Not hearing Lucifer’s invitation through the thick door, Michael pushed it open and poked their head inside, calling out. “Heylel?”

“Come on in, Micha,” Lucifer called a bit louder.

Stepping inside, Michael dropped the bag at the top of the stairs and came down the stairs. “I came as soon as I could. You sounded distraught. Is everyone okay? Nothing’s happened to your mates or fledglings, I hope.”

Lucifer turned and looked up at Michael. “Everyone’s okay. It’s just... there’s something we need to talk about, and it’s... a sensitive topic to me.” His knee was bouncing as if it was keeping time to some invisible fast-paced march inside Lucifer’s head.

Michael’s head tilted as they sat down next to Lucifer. Their eyes darting down to the other angel’s leg. “What has got you so twisted up inside that it looks like you're about to take flight?”

Lucifer reached for their hand and took a deep breath. “I want to talk about what happened before you cast me out. Right before you did, to be exact.” He said softly. “The sex and bond removal.”

Sighing, Michael’s eyes shut as if to block out the impending conversation. “It was a long time ago, Heylel. A hurt that is best forgotten.”

“Michael, that was the ultimate sign of rejection to me,” Lucifer explained softly. “And it’s caused problems ever since I was redeemed. I’m not going to go into particulars about my sex life, but when I drop? I can’t have anybody not be touching me, lest I lose them the same way I lost you. I couldn’t have my mates make love to me until maybe six months before Mary came into our lives. I still can’t deal with it too often. The mere phrase “make love” used to send me into a panic attack.” He looked down at the map and closed his eyes. “I thought you didn’t love me anymore. That... that maybe I wasn’t any good. It hurt more than the Fall, more than you throwing me into the Cage… more than any torture that Cage could have devised.”

Michael hung their head, shaking slightly as long curls hid their face from the shame they felt. “I shouldn’t have done it the way I did, but some part of me hoped that by me making love to you would change your mind about rebellion. That you’d stop it all for me and if not, then at least I had that memory of you. If I could take it back I would.”

“And my memory of you?” Lucifer asked quietly, in a voice that sounded raw with emotion. “Of you... loving me the way you used to before humans were created before tearing my heart out and casting me out of our home?”

“What do you want, Heylel?” Michael said, lifting their head to reveal eyes threatening to overflow with tears. “For me to prostrate myself and beg forgiveness? I can’t change the past. I’m human and dying inch by inch without power to do what I could before.”

Lucifer shook his head numbly. “Just to know why. Just... to have confirmation that I wasn’t some whore to be used for your pleasure before throwing me out.” He choked on his next words. “To know that you had loved me.”

Michael knelt down in front of Lucifer and cupped his face. “Heylel, I loved you as I held you. I loved you when we fought and I even loved you when the door slammed shut on your prison. You never were and never will be a whore for anyone's pleasure, let alone my own.” A tear slipped down Michael’s cheek and hung on the edge of their chin. “I died that day, so it’s only fitting that this cancer eating away at my body take me and put an end to it all.”

Lucifer sniffled softly. He didn’t want to remember that Michael was already dying, that they had been diagnosed with cancer and that it was all so recent, all so new. He didn’t want to remember holding Michael that day in the doctor’s office, trying to be his former mate’s rock and breaking down as well. “No, Micha, it’s not. We’ve both suffered enough. Through Hell. Through separation. Through humanity.” He grasped Michael’s shoulders. “I need my starlight, even if you’re just my older brother now.” He whispered almost brokenly.

“I’ve accepted it and made peace with Father in human fashion.” Michael leaned up and pressed a kiss to Lucifer’s cheek. “I’ll always be your starlight, just as you’ll always be my morningstar.”

Lucifer broke down sobbing, tears running down his face in rivers. He couldn’t lose Michael, not now, not when they’ve come so far.

Unable to take seeing their brother so heartbroken, Michael wrapped Lucifer up in their arms and held him tight while whispering. “It’s okay… I forgave you eons ago and you forgave me… It’ll all be okay in the end, Heylel.”

Lucifer shook his head, clinging to Michael fitfully as he sobbed into their shoulder. He couldn’t speak, he just cried.

“Well, this isn’t what I was hoping to see when I dropped in,” Chuck remarked thoughtfully as he walked over to his two eldest and crouched down next to them. “Little Nova? Are you okay?”

Lucifer shook his head and clung to Michael tighter.

“I told him about the cancer and my acceptance of my fate,” Michael explained as they turned a tear-streaked face to Chuck, their hand going to stroke over the back of Lucifer’s head. “And a painful trip into the past didn’t help.”

“You know Heylel’s never dealt with death well, Michael,” Chuck said gently, sitting down next to them. “And especially when he’s gotten his answers. He wants that time to rebuild and renew; not to mourn. It might be why he’s averse to winter.”

“I’m human, it had to happen eventually, so I’m not fighting it.” Michael turned to press their face to the side of Lucifer’s. “This is the natural order and I won’t cheat Death.”

Chuck was silent for a moment, watching them quietly.

“I’ll cheat it for you.” Lucifer coughed. “I shouldn’t have to outlive my big brother. I don’t want to outlive my big brother.”

“Not this time.” Michael pulled back and forced Lucifer to look them in the eye. “You have to live for your family. Your children need you and your mates do too. You’re going to say goodbye to me when the time comes and go on living for them. You deserve that.”

Lucifer shook his head. “I’m not saying goodbye, Micha. Not now. It’s too soon. You’re my family too. Even before Malachi, there was us. You are my family, Micha. My brother and my former mate. And I will fight to make sure you’re alive for as long as possible.”

“You’re a beautiful, selfish bastard, but I won’t have you upending reality to keep me in this world.” Michael drew in a ragged breath. “I want to go home, Heylel. I’m tired and I want to go home.”

“You are home,” Lucifer whispered. “You have your brothers and your son and your niece and nephews.”

“That is your family. Earth was never my home and you know it.” Michael scrubbed the tears from their cheeks. “How’s that old song go?” Michael started to sing softly, the notes broken by tears. “ Throw your loving arms around me, I am weary...let me rest.”

“ Lean on me, when you’re not strong,” Lucifer combated with another sob, “I’ll be your friend, and I’ll help you carry on. ”

Chuck cleared his throat and waited for both of them to look at him. “As beautiful as this is, you two do realize there’s another way to get what you want, if you’ll accept it, Michael.” He said softly.

“Accept what?” Michael asked barely above a whisper, too afraid that they’d lose all composure if they spoke louder.

Lucifer whimpered quietly.

“Your Grace. It’s around your brother’s neck.” Chuck said. “I think you’ve learned your lessons, and I’m sure Heylel can agree. If you want... You can be an archangel again.”

“Father,” Michael began, “This body would never be able to contain my Grace. It’d explode into atoms at the first touch of it.”

“And you assume I haven’t thought of that?” Chuck smiled softly. “It’ll return you to a male vessel suited for your needs. This body can die, naturally. You’ll be home, in Heaven again; and Heylel will still have you in his life.”

Lucifer looked up at Michael pleadingly for him to accept the offer. “Micha, please?” He whispered.

It was Michael’s turn to sob, hiding their face behind their hands as they wept in relief and joy. Although death was easy to accept, the pain of their passing was not and Michael had been terrified of it for long enough that it was a constant thrum in their mind.

Holding Michael close, Lucifer wrapped arms and wings around his former mate and the father of their child. “Micha.” He hummed soothingly before singing Michael’s favorite hymn. “Abide with me, fast falls th’eventide...”

Michael let out a watery chuckle when they heard the song. “Memory like a steel trap.” Sitting up, Michael wiped their face clean. “Guess I’ll have to get used to you reminding me of all that old stuff since it would seem I’m staying for a while longer.”

Lucifer laughed happily and nuzzled into his shoulder.

Chuck smiled and waited for his children to calm down. “I take it that means you accept, Michael?”

“Yes, Father. I accept.” Michael said as they sat up straighter like they had held themselves when the world was young and angel-kind still had a semblance of innocence.

Chuck smiled and looked at Lucifer. “Little Nova, would you like to do the honors?”

Lucifer sniffled and nodded, wiping away his tears before pulling his necklace off of his neck. He whispered a soft spell in Enochian, and the small cork to the vial fell out, releasing Michael’s Grace.  

The Grace searched out for Michael and trickled into their mouth in a thin blue wisp of vapor as they stood from their seat. Within no time at all, their body was glowing and their eyes went wide before they disappeared utterly in a burst of energy that sent loose papers blowing in all directions, leaving Lucifer and Chuck alone in the bunker.  

Lucifer buried his face into his Father’s shoulders, tension seeping out of him and weeping his gratitude.

“Hey now,” Chuck said as he patted Lucifer on the back. “He’s fine and will be back soon. That new vessel of his will take a little getting used to.”

“I know,” Lucifer said wetly, grabbing his Father’s shirt to try to ground himself.

“Come on, Little Nova. Dry those tears.” Chuck said as he wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulders. “Michael will be back to Earth soon and then you two can harangue each other until the stars burn out. Just don’t blow any up.”

Lucifer laughed and pulled his very wet face up and looked at his father, trying to dry his tears. “Sorry, it’s been a day.” He mumbled.

“It’s been a millennium for me,” Chuck said with a wry grin. “Now, I think you should tell your family what’s happened and maybe start planning a coming home party for Michael. He’d like that.”

“Oh... Yeah.” Lucifer said, fumbling for his phone. The first call he made was to Gabriel. “Gabe? Are you there with Sam?”

-------

Tagging:  @copperseraphim​ @thenanahunter​ @idabbleincrazy​ @truxblooded​​

[sueboohscorner]

#TheFlash Season 5 Episode 21 "The Girl With the Red Lightning" Recap and Review

Thawne’s timer runs out. The guard comes in and tortures him and then brings in the instrument of his demise.

Orlon is in Grace’s head. He wants her to kill all metas, not just Central City’s.

Caitlin is giving a spiel about the atomizer. She’s missing something or she would have already completed her evil plan. They want to get ahead of her and release the cure to the public, but first they need a lot more of it and a place to distribute it. Joe and Cecile will talk to Singh about distributing it at CCPD. Sherloque is going to talk to Renee Adler.

The rest of them go watch Cisco test the mirror gun on the satellite core. It works, but they don’t know where the core goes. Is it bad form to say the mirror dimension from Doctor Strange? Anyway, Nora’s still acting weird, but she claims to be fine.

Joe and Cecile convince Singh. He leaves Joe in charge while he convinces the big whigs.

Sherloque talks to Renee and then Cicada shows up. Sherloque activates his distress signal and the team shows up. Cicada gets away because her psychic link with Nora gave her a heads up. It also activated Nora’s red lightning. Cicada stole a quantum tunnel converter. She means to use the dagger to super charge the atomizer. She still needs a hyper conduit, which they need to find before she does.

Sherloque and Renee talk. He doesn’t have a problem with her being a meta. He wants to help her.

Nora wants to use her psychic link with Grace to find her. Westallen is against it.

Joe is panicking, and after the news runs Iris’s story and people start flooding in, his panic gets worse.

Ralph is trying to figure out Thawne’s plan and everyone else is brushing him off. They want to know where a hyper conduit would be found in the future. According to Nora, Ollens Laboratory. Sebastian Ollens, as it turns out, was Cisco’s college roommate, and a bit of a slacker. This gives Cisco all the motivation he needs to find him. He has a warehouse with a bleeding edge hyper conduit.

Barry reaches the warehouse, only to find a bomb. Grace beat them to it.

She now has all she needs to not only kill all the metas in Central City, but the entire country. Ralph has a feeling that something isn’t right about this, but no one listens to him.

Nora has been eavesdropping and uses the device that Caitlin used to connect to Killer Frost to connect to Grace.

Sherloque brings Renee to an already overwhelmed Joe. Having this many scared metas in a building is a powder keg for disaster, especially with a non-meta in charge. Joe needs a minute. Renee leaves in the chaos.

Nora is spewing red lightning everywhere because this was a stupid plan. Barry manages to get the device off her head, which causes her to pass out.

Family Westallen talk in the infirmary. Nora claims to be less impulsive than she used to be and reminds Westallen and the audience that she is an adult. She’s going to try again. The only question is if her parents are going to help or not.

Cecile reminds Joe that he can do this. He’s the one that everyone goes to for advice. He knows his stuff. He just has to speak from the heart and stop overthinking everything.

Renee doesn’t want the cure. Sherloque does the mature thing and doesn’t make her take it. He does breach her to his Earth, and he promises to find her when he’s done.

Barry apologizes again, but this time Iris is with him. They’re going to put her in the Thawne trap to protect S.T.A.R. Labs from destruction.

Joe remembers himself and makes a speech that calms everyone down.

Nora is connected to Grace, but Grace can see her. They talk. Grace tries to make Nora angrier with her supervillain speech, but Grace actually acts like an adult and distances herself from Grace’s anger. She severs the connection and tells them that Grace is at CCPD. She’s exhausted so Barry insists that she stay. She finally agrees, but she gives them one more tidbit. Grace is going to use the powers at CCPD as a battery.

Killer Frost and Barry knock Grace out. Killer Frost freezes Cisco in with the atomizer and the dagger.

Cicada wakes up and tells them that she doesn’t need the dagger to kill them. She didn’t have it in the future.

Cisco needs a quantum computer to hack into the atomizer. Nora’s gauntlet has one.

Barry, Killer Frost, Ralph, and Joe hold off Cicada for as long as they can, but she eventually throws Barry through the ice barrier. She takes time to gloat and gives Cisco time to finish. Barry knocks her out and prepares to destroy the dagger.

Ralph connects the dots. Grace didn’t have the dagger in the future. Thawne’s plan is to destroy the dagger. In the future we see it dampening his powers. Ralph tries to stop Barry from destroying the dagger, and then…

Go Ralphie! Take out Nora, and this is a dang good episode! 8/10.

[saibugs]

I finally gave the backstories for my OCs!

It’s big, so I’ll post it below the cut!

Cristina Elaine MacCready, formerly Howard, nee Montgomery

Cristina  Elaine Montgomery was born in 2052 and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the second child and only daughter of Adam Charles Montgomery and Fiona Dawn Montgomery. She is three years younger than her brother, Archer James Montgomery.

All throughout her life, she was verbally, emotionally, physically and even sexually abused by her father, although Archer protected her from as much of it as possible. Her mother was too weak and sickly to ever fight against her husband, a fact that made her take her own life when Cristina turned 15 (2067). A few days later, Archer—then 18—decided to leave for West Virginia. The two siblings argued for hours, causing a rift between them. Cristina declared she hated him and never spoke to him again. A year later (2068, age 16) she ran away from home and moved in with a couple of older friends.

After graduating from high school, Cristina fell into a slump, and became depressed. She was hospitalised at the age of 19 (2071) for attempting to take her own life, and in hospital is when she met her first husband, Nathan ‘Nate’ Howard. She dated him for about six months (which was difficult when he was fighting in the battle for Anchorage) before they were engaged. At the age of 20 (2072) Cristina decided to go ahead and get her degree in Law, supported by her fiancé, and she excelled. At 23 (in 2075), she married Nate and moved to the sleepy little town of Sanctuary Hills.

In 2077 (25), she gave birth to her and Nate’s son, Shaun Howard after he returned home from the Anchorage War. In October of that same year the events of Fallout 4 occur.

General Nuke Garvey, formerly T7-86

Nuke Garvey was created in the Institute 2 years before Cristina left the vault. His first year of life was filled with escape attempts, one of which nearly killed him when he was shot in the head by a laser rifle. He earned a burn from it forever. His final one was successful, but he was thrown into the middle of the Glowing Sea, landing right in the middle of the crater.

Since he was immune to radiation, and he came from nowhere, he was considered a gift from Atom and ended up joining the Children of Atom. For a year, he was devout, but two months before Cristina left the Vault he left the Children, stopped practicing, and wandered the wasteland. A week after Preston is saved by Cristina, he meets Preston and decides to help the Minutemen, eventually becoming the General and falling in love with Preston as well.

Laurie Melissa Anders

Laurie was born in 2258 to Hayley and Johnathan Anders, their only daughter. As a little girl she grew up in a small settlement that is no longer on the map, north of Diamond City. When she was 10 years old, in 2268, Raiders burned her home settlement to the ground and killed everyone. She only survived by hiding under the bodies of her parents after gunshots killed them through the walls of their shacks. She left the settlement after three days of hiding, when she could be sure she would not encounter the Raiders again.

This event would cause her to grow up distrustful, angry, and hateful. At the age of 12 (2270) she became addicted to Med-X, as it was the only thing that helped with the emotional pain of losing her family. In 2274, at 16, she built her characteristic Flamer, painted it blue, and called it Frostbite. While she was terrified of fire she decided to weaponise her fear and burn the Raiders as they’d burned her home. That same year she began to actively hunt Raiders down and kill them.

In 2287, Laurie—having earned a reputation of being a stone cold, aggressive, bloodthirsty ‘pyrobitch’—meets Cait, and she’s the first person Laurie can trust. They have a few sparring matches when they first meet, initially not trusting the other, but after Laurie helps Cait with her addiction (knowing what it’s like to be hooked on something) they grow closer.

Arden Boone, nee Grace

Arden Grace is the biological child of Eden of the Wastes and ex-Paladin Morgan O’Hara, and was born in 2260. Days after her birth she was left on the doorstep of Carey Grace, her adoptive parent, when her adoptive brother Daniel was six. Her mother died of severe radiation poisoning only a few miles outside the tiny settlement. Carey found the body and knew it to be Arden’s mother, but didn’t recognise the face as it had been mutated by the radiation. As a result, he made sure Arden had a ritual; she would leave a particular flower floating in water, as it was a flower she’d been left with.

Growing up, Arden was not the most intelligent person in the world, and several of the other kids in the settlement bullied her relentlessly for it. She never lost her happy-go-lucky attitude, but she does withdraw if anyone calls her dumb (or some variation thereof) because of the bullying.

When she turned 18, in 2278, she left the settlement alongside her brother and parent, and they all went their separate ways. She got work as Courier Six for the Mojave Express, and saved up enough caps to live comfortably if she wanted to. Unfortunately, in 2281, she was shot in the head by Benny for refusing to give up the Platinum Chip.

Daniel Grace

Daniel Grace is a travelling doctor, born in 2254 and adopted by Carey when they found him alone in a settlement as a newborn baby, in 2260. He was unharmed and cheerful in mood despite being alone, healthy too, so Carey took him in and raised him as best they could.

As a boy, Daniel was incredibly intelligent, and often defended his younger sister from her bullies. He began to read as many pre-war texts as he could and learned how to perform complex medical tasks when he was 17 (in 2271) and was acting as the doctor for the small settlement by 2272 (at 18).

At some point after his family left their home in 2278, he went to the Mojave and aided them, becoming a trusted ally to the Followers of the Apocalypse. Around 2281, he was working with them to find ways to mass-create medications (such as non-addictive painkillers and pre-war antiseptics).

Carey Grace – Phoenix

When human, Carey Grace was a strange person. Their birthdate is unknown, but they arrived in the small settlement they ended up living in in 2241. They made themselves known there as a trustworthy, friendly person who helped wherever they could. It was here they befriended Eden of the Wastes, but she left in 2246.

In 2260, while out exploring and searching for medicinal herbs, they stumbled across a small boy called Daniel. He was wriggling in a woven basket, with nothing but a name tacked onto his wrappings, and Carey took him in after working out that there was nobody coming for him, raising him as best they could. Six years later, a tiny infant—Arden—was left on their doorstep, with a name, a letter pleading for Carey to raise the baby, and a special flower. Carey, ever so caring, took the infant in and raised her alongside Daniel.

In 2278, Carey and their two children left the settlement, going their separate ways. In 2279, Carey arrives at the Commonwealth Wasteland, and is captured by Coursers. They take them to the Institute and they are given over to the Institute’s Super Mutant program.

What happens in between is still a mystery, but Phoenix only remembers waking up in the middle of nowhere, confused and scared. They are in incredible pain all the time and the first day they emerged in the wasteland they tried to seek help, but were shot at and nearly killed. As a result Phoenix lives in a cave on a cliff. The settlers nearby know they exist but they leave them be, because Phoenix defended them once and made it know they’re not a threat.

Phoenix now lives out their days trying to work out what happened to them, what they once were, WHO they once were.

Archer James Montgomery

Archer was born in 2049, the first child and the son of Adam and Fiona Montgomery. He was subject to abuse from his father for not being ‘manly’ enough, since he preferred to read and was a quiet young boy, rather than loud and sporty. He tried to protect his sister, Cristina, from as much of it as he could, and the events left him with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 2067, at 18 years old, Archer moved to West Virginia after his mother’s death. The decision caused his sister and him to fight, and she declared her hatred for him, so he never contacted her again. In 2069, at 20, he became a bouncer for a nightclub and ended up being recruited by Vault Tec in 2070 (21) for their Vault program. In 2076 (27) the Vault closed, and Archer spent the next 25 years inside, keeping the peace for the Overseer. In those years he was promoted to security chief.

In 2102, Vault 76 opened. Archer, now 53 years old, was the last resident to leave the Vault. He explored Appalachia a bit, hunting for cryptids—as something he had wanted to do before entering the Vault—and helping his fellow Vault Dwellers out. But after launching the nukes in early 2103, Archer was heavy-hearted and abandoned Appalachia, instead trekking the United States and finding every Vault he could, learning about them, taking information from Vault Tec and destroying all but one copy.

15 years after this, in 2118, Archer had just arrived at the Commonwealth after learning his sister had been sealed in a Vault. But before he’d managed to get there, he was shot by an Institute synth. At the age of 68 Archer recorded a series of holotapes for his sister, managed to hide the information he’d collected in a secure location, and bled to death.

[the-desolated-quill]

Death In Heaven - Doctor Who blog (Fuck You Moffat)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Remember when I said The Name Of The Doctor was the worst series finale in New Who. Turns out I was wrong. This is the worst series finale in New Who. And I do hope Moffat isn’t interpreting this as a challenge, trying to come up with finales worse than the previous year’s. How about writing some good shit for once in your career?

Dark Water was an incredibly bad episode, but Death In Heaven takes it to new, insulting extremes. It’s utter bollocks from start to finish. It’s a mountain of bullshit so rock hard, not even diamond tipped drills could penetrate it. It’s an entire hurricane of piss. It’s... It’s... I didn’t like it.

Having fucked up the Daleks back in the previous series, it seems Moffat is now determined to ruin the second most popular monsters in the show the Cybermen, and he succeeds with flying colours. Is there anything the Cybermen can’t do now? They can fly, they can convert the dead, they can create clouds of Cyber-pollen, and apparently every atom of a Cyber body contains a program to upgrade the human race. At this stage the Cybermen have become so over-powered that they’ve just become utterly boring, evading anything the Doctor throws at them by pulling another random superpower out of their arses.

Also, like I said in my previous review, why are they converting the dead? Why not convert the living like they usually do? And why, once they’ve been converted, do they just stand around doing bugger all? It’s a bit hard to find Cybermen threatening when they pose no fucking threat whatsoever.

And then, as if you couldn’t undermine the Cybermen anymore than he already has, Moffat decides to go in for the kill with Danny Pink. I’m sorry, but Danny the droopy Cyberman has got to be one of the most pathetic sights I’ve ever seen. He wants to erase his emotions because of Clara (which seems like an overreaction to me) and asks Clara to do it for him even though there’s no reason why he can’t just do it himself. It must be out of spite. That’s the only reason I can think of. Oh, but Moffat still wants us to think that Danny and Clara are the perfect couple as opposed to a highly dysfunctional and toxic pairing that would seem more at home on The Jeremy Kyle Show than Doctor Who. 

Also, even in Cyber form, Danny can’t resist chastising the Doctor even though he’s actually trying to help the ungrateful bastard. In fact there’s a lot of Doctor-blaming going on in this episode and I really don’t get why because, as far as I can see, he hasn’t actually done anything wrong. At this stage I wanted nothing more than for Danny to fuck off and die, and I thankfully got my wish, except it had to take the form of a stupid, heroic self sacrifice. This isn’t the first time the Cybermen have been defeated by the power of love, and it’s always been really stupid every time, but this has got to be the most nonsensical. Danny’s love for Clara reverses the Cyber conditioning? Are you seriously telling me that Danny is the only person in the entire world who has loved someone enough to want to save the world? And if that’s not bad enough, Danny gets not one, but TWO stupid self sacrifices when it’s revealed the Master’s teleport randomly only has enough power for one trip (bit fucking convenient) and so he chooses to save that kid that died in that war zone. A series worth of buildup for this cliched pile of shit? Cheers Moffat!

Since I’ve mentioned the Master (I categorically refuse to call her Missy), let’s talk about her. I didn’t think it was possible to be more annoying than John Simm, but Michelle Gomez somehow managed to pull it off. I utterly detested her in this. I’ve never really liked the Master anyway, but I swear the character never used to be this fucking childish. She’s weird, obnoxious and goofy for no other reason other than she’s ker-RAYzay. (seriously, is that the only way Moffat knows how to write villains? She’s basically Andrew Scott’s shitty version of Moriaty in a dress). What’s worse is that the only way to make her come across as even remotely threatening is by making the characters around her act like fucking morons. UNIT have met the Master before. They know how dangerous she is. Why do the soldiers guarding her not react when she very visibly activates her bracelet, breaks out of her restraints and puts on her lipstick? Why does Osgood, who has apparently read all the dossiers about the Master, get so close to her to listen to her whisper and not scarper when the Master threatens to kill her?

Also, what is the Master’s plan exactly? Why Cybermen? Considering these Cybermen have pretty much nothing in common with actual Cybermen, I can only assume they’re there for rubbish fanservice and that Moffat is too fucking lazy to come up with his own ideas.

Apparently the Master wants to give the Doctor his own army to prove the two aren’t so different. It appears Moffat is going for a Killing Joke vibe, but it doesn’t work because while Batman and the Joker are two sides of the same coin, the Doctor and the Master are so diametrically opposed that this whole plot point becomes fucking laughable. It has the same whiff of bullshit that Journey’s End had with Davros chastising the Doctor for ‘taking ordinary people and fashioning them into weapons.’ Like I said about that episode, there’s a world of difference between turning people into weapons and encouraging people to defend themselves. The Doctor is very much the latter, so spare me the ‘we’re not so different, you and I’ crap. Is the Doctor better than the Master? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY!

Yes, once again, it turns out this episode is all about the Doctor. That’s all this bastard series has been about. Characters talking relentlessly about whether the Doctor is a good man or not. It’s utterly tedious to sit through because we all already know the bloody answer. Hopefully the Doctor’s speech about how he’s just an idiot in a box with a screwdriver will finally put it to rest. Not that I’m praising the speech mind. Peter Capaldi does his best, but it’s badly written and stupidly over the top, plus it’s hard to really feel the emotional weight of this speech when all it does is state the fucking obvious. The Doctor isn’t a soldier or a hero. He’s just some guy. Yeah. We know. What, have you only just worked that out Moffat? Why are you boring us to death with shit everyone and their mums already fucking know? Can we move on?

If there’s one thing I hate more than Moffat trying to spin the bleeding obvious as surprising revelations, it’s the bullshit lies and fake outs. Why are the Doctor and Clara lying to each other at the end? What purpose does it serve? (Also trust Moffat for coming up with a pretentious bullshit reason why hugs are bad. It couldn’t possibly be as simple as this Doctor just doesn’t like hugs). What was the point of Clara pretending to be the Doctor to trick the Cybermen? That never goes anywhere. Oh no! Danny is going to be Cyberfied... oh wait. He’s okay. Oh no, Kate Stewart has fallen out of the aeroplane... oh wait, she’s fine. OMG, the Doctor is actually going to kill the Master... oh wait, that wasn’t an orange light. It was a blue light, which means she’s teleported, so she’s probably okay. Wow, the Doctor is finally going to find Gallifrey... oh wait. No. The Master was lying.

Like I said in my previous review, keep wrong-footing the audience and eventually we’ll get sick of the bullshit and stop trusting what we see. I mean look at Osgood’s death. That should have been shocking, but not only is she a one dimensional character that I don’t give even a sub-atomic particle of shit about and is clearly too stupid to live, the fact is none of Moffat’s characters ever actually stay dead, do they? Rory. River Song. Strax. Jenny. Clara. Nobody really dies in the Moffat era, so why bother getting upset about Osgood? She’s probably going to come back in the next series.

But the thing that angered me the most about Death In Heaven is the utter contempt and disrespect Moffat shows to classic series fans. And don’t pretend you don’t know what scene I’m referring to.

Cybermen are converting the dead. The Brigadier is dead. Moffat is an insecure, egocentric hack who desperately wants to stand out from the Who rabble. Take a random guess what happens.

I’ve seen bad Doctor Who episodes before. I’ve been pissed off by Doctor Who before. But never before has an episode filled me with such utter rage. Not even Kill The Moon managed that, and you all know how much I despised that load of garbage. I didn’t take the idea of the Brigadier being a Cyberman particularly well, and I’m not exactly proud to say this, but my reaction was quite extreme. I basically had a full blown screaming fit. I was so angry and so upset by this. I couldn’t believe Moffat would do something so fucking crass and so fucking disrespectful. Yes it’s just a TV show, but the Brigadier was one of my favourite characters in Classic Who and indeed one of the most beloved characters in the entire show. And when a talentless, arrogant smartarse like Moffat comes along and tramples all over those happy, nostalgic memories, I think you have every right to take it personally. This has got to be the most insulting thing Moffat has ever done, and if I wasn’t committed to reviewing the rest of these episodes, I think I can safely say I wouldn’t be watching this show anymore after that.

Death In Heaven is a fucking terrible finale to what has been a fucking terrible series. Yes some episodes had decent elements in them, but it’s largely been awful. Series 8′s only saving grace has been Peter Capaldi, who has done an amazing job in the role despite the material he’s had to work with.

Moffat, go flush your head down the fucking toilet.

[zodiackillerrevealed]

Allot of speculation has been going around that the Zodiac might have used a few comic books as his inspiration for the creation of his Halloween card. He had created a code within the Halloween Card taunting that his name could be found probably within the bones of the skeletons.

“I feel it in my bones. You ache to know my name, And so I’ll clue you in…

…But then why spoil the game!”

The card was originally sent to the reporter Paul Avery on October 27th 1970.

Learn more about the Halloween card here.

  But how are comic books connected to this card? What drew people to this conclusion?

Let’s look into one of Paul Avery’s news articles.

I decided to look up Paul Avery’s articles that he had written before the Halloween card. I had found one that got my attention. It was written almost exactly one year before the Halloween card was sent to him directly.

The thing that got my attention about this article is that Paul Avery mentions comic strips and associates the Zodiac Killer with them.

So we know Zodiac would read these articles. And since Avery had already mentioned comic strips and the like it would not be too far of a stretch if Zodiac then decided to use comics for his creations like the Halloween card which was sent directly to Avery one year after this article was published. The idea was already being circulated in the general public. So it was already a thought in many peoples minds.

San Fransisco Chronicle  – October 24th 1969

Halloween Card – October 27th 1970

In the clipping it says that the Zodiac is not the zodiac from the comic strip. Maybe for his Halloween card he used certain comics that he thought did give us a clue to who he is. Could this be a connection? Could Paul Avery have given the Zodiac Killer the idea to use comic books to clue us into his identity?

It’s interesting to think that he may have been taunting Avery due to the article he had written about comic strips and sent him a card that is connected to certain comics to help break the code without cluing him into it. Maybe he thought he could connect those dots?

  Let’s see what links and information we can find to this comic book theory.

Tahoe27 originally found the connection between the Halloween card and the Lady Doom comic book and posted it to Zodiackiller.com found here.

Let’s look at the Tim Holt issue #30 Lady Doom comic book.

Front Page of Issue #30 Lady Doom Comic

This comic has been linked to the Halloween card by the similarities of the death wheel and the back of the Halloween card.

“Death by Gun, Death by Knife, Death by Fire, Death by Rope”

Back of Halloween Card

  The character Red Mask is also linked due to the red mask placed onto the skeletons face inside the Halloween card.

  The way the initials of the artist are demonstrated also play a role of similarity.

Notice how the 4 dots within the Halloween card match the shape of the center of the artists initials. The only difference is they are upside down. But they are both in the center. The F is obvious and the only one that is a question is the upside down L.

Is this comic book artist signature a clue to de-coding Zodiac’s signature?

Frank W. Bolle  is the Comic Book Artist.

Frank W. Bolle (born June 23, 1924)[1][2] is an American comic-strip artist, comic-book artist and illustrator, best known as the longtime artist of the newspaper strips Winnie Winkle and The Heart of Juliet Jones; for stints on the comic books Tim Holt and Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; and as an illustrator for the Boy Scouts of America magazine Boys’ Life for 18 years. With an unknown writer, he co-created the masked, Old West comic-book heroine the Black Phantom. Bolle sometimes used the pen name FWB and, at least once, F. L. Blake.

Wikipedia Link

Could this name be a link to Zodiac’s name?

The name Frank/ Francis has come up consistently with all of my research.

  The comic is also about Lady Doom and in the Halloween card Zodiac wrote in white paint around the eye that is staring at the red masked skeleton.

“PEEK-A-BOO YOU ARE DOOMED!”

Doom being the linking word in similarity.

  In fact the whole Issue #30 comic book following the Lady Doom strip is riddled with many interesting things that can support many of the Zodiacs personality quirks. It almost seems to be a criminals handbook for ideas and ways to fool people and get away with murder.

The man of 1000 faces for instance.

Notice the artist Frank Bolle wrote his name this time instead of just his initials.

Within this issue he describes how he can fool people with disguises and how he has learned to forge other peoples handwriting.

  Now that we have seen some of the connections for this comic book and how they link with the Halloween card…let’s look into the history of the character of Red Mask.

I came across an interesting blog by Western Comics Adventures. (Author unknown)

TIM HOLT “becomes Red-Mask!”

“When Tim Holt #19 came out in 1950, the last page of the comic asked the question…” Who is this man?

“…when #20 came out two months later, the readers found out who the masked man was…”

“Many Western movie and tv stars had self-titled comics that played on the conceit that the actors actually were Western characters!

But this was the only series that a “reel-life” Westerner assumed a masked identity he hadn’t played on the silver screen…”

The masked identity became so popular that almost every cover from #20 onward featured the masked hero, and the book was re-titled Red Mask with #42!”

I would think Zodiac probably grew up reading all of these comics and probably was a big fan of westerns as well.

So let’s assume Zodiac used this comic book character to clue us into who he is. The character “Red Mask” is now linked to a real person “Tim Holt”.

Back in those days it seems they wanted people to believe that the characters portrayed  were their actual identity. So Tim Holt is Red Mask in real life which is the message they are sending.

But who is Tim Holt?

Wikipedia Link above

Charles John “Tim” Holt III (February 5, 1919 – February 15, 1973) was an American actor best known for his youthful leading roles in dozens of Western films and his co-starring roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).

Tim Holt was born Charles John Holt III on February 5, 1919, in Beverly Hills, California, the son of actor Jack Holt and Margaret Woods.[1] During his early years, he accompanied his father on location, even appearing in an early silent film.[2] He was the inspiration for his father’s book, Lance and His First Horse.

Holt was educated at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, graduating in 1936.[2] One of his classmates was Budd Boetticher who recalled Holt “used to walk around in our suite of rooms there…and he often had on his .38 revolvers and holster. He’d walk up and down the hall in his bathrobe and practice drawing his guns. He’d say, ‘I’m going to be a western star some day’.”[3] Immediately after graduation he went to work in the Hollywood film business.[1]

    So Tim Holt’s actual name is Charles John “Tim” Holt III.

If you have read any of my previous posts then you know that the names Jack and John keep popping up every time I research most of the clues Zodiac has left us within his cards and letters. The name Frank is also one that pops up over and over and I’ve started seeing George now and again.

Tim Holt’s fathers name is “Jack” Holt. Let’s take a look.

Wikipedia Link above.

  Charles John Holt Jr.[1] (May 31, 1888 – January 18, 1951) was an American motion picture actor in both silent and sound movies, particularly Westerns.

Born in 1888 in Winchester, Virginia, Holt was the son of an Episcopal priest.[2] When in Manhattan, he attended Trinity School. He was accepted into the Virginia Military Institute in 1909,[3] but expelled for misbehavior in his second semester there.[2]

Following Holt’s father’s death, the family moved to New York City, where Jack, his mother, and brother Marshall lived with his married sister, Frances.[2]

Holt worked at various jobs including construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s tunnel under the Hudson River and being a “surveyor, laborer, prospector, trapper, and stagecoach driver, among many other jobs” during an almost six-year stay in Alaska.[2]

Holt began in Hollywood with stunt work and bit parts in serials and at Universal Pictures worked as a supporting player for Francis Ford and his brother John Ford, and Grace Cunard.

  It would seem that both father and son have the same exact name (Charles John Holt) but they are also both more known by a nickname instead. One is known as Tim and the other as Jack. Both are very famous stars and they have even been together in films.

Wikipedia Link

The Arizona Raider is a 1948 Western starring Tim Holt and his father Jack, the only movie where they co-starred.

RKO head of production Dore Schary, impressed by the Holts being in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, gave the film a bigger budget than Holt Westerns normally received.[5] It was also known as The Arizona Ranger.

  Now that we have uncovered the identity of the Red Mask, let’s look at the other comic book believed to be associated with the Halloween card.

The September-October 1943 Red Ryder Comic #15 as well as the 1952 Red Ryder Paint Book.

The Red Ryder comic is about a character called Red Ryder and his sidekick Little Beaver. The artist is known as Fred Harman.

Fred Harman (February 9, 1902 – January 2, 1982) was an American artist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used the pseudonym Ted Horn.

These two comics are also said to be used as the Zodiac’s inspiration for the Halloween Card. The main reason is due to the symbol on the covers of these two comics. It is almost identical to the Zodiac Killers signature on the Halloween Card except these ones have a line on the bottom. But when you look at the envelope the Halloween card was sent in the Z is in the right spot to make that extra line.

Top left image: Halloween card signature from inside of the card. Right image: Envelope the Halloween card was in. Two bottom left images: Red Ryder Comic Symbols.

Top: Halloween Card Signature Bottom Two: Red Ryder Comic Symbols

Signature on the Envelope of Zodiac’s Halloween Card

So now that we see the same similar symbol, the question is what does it mean?

In the context of the comic book it is known as a Cattle brand.

The symbol is known as the Flying VF Bar Cattle Brand

More info

It is commonly called the Flying VF bar. It is also referred to as representing the Big Dipper constellation. It is also said to be the name of the current ranch owner Vincent Fontana. However Vincent Fontana did not own the ranch in the Zodiac era. It was then owned by Jon Clark Cummings, who also used this brand. The Flying VF brand was registered in 1941.

A comment by  JudgeJudy on Zodiackiller.com

It is interesting that the name John comes up again. He was the owner of the ranch with the Flying VF Bar Cattle Brands in those days. Another clue maybe? (I still need to find the sources for this.)

In terms of the Zodiac’s Halloween Card creation, the signature is slightly different than this cattle brand.

  Another thing that can be considered similar is the negative space within the bottom part of the RR symbol directly above the Flying V.F. Bar Cattle Brand.

The negative space makes a similar shape to that of the 4 dots in the Halloween Card signature. Remember Frank Bolle’s signature in the other comic book with the W? Could this be another clue that the dots are supposed to be lines?

  Another similarity is the number 14 or 41.

The Indian is pointing North East after the number 41.

Could this maybe be a clue for directions on a road as well as reversing the numbers? 30 is in the hand of the skeleton as well as the 14.

Place the numbers together then reverse the 14 and it ends up being 4130.

If you reverse this number as a whole you get 0314 the equivalent for PI. Which is found all over the Halloween card. It’s even written within the wrist of one of the skeletons.

  Another similarity was the circled symbol that looks as if it could be an axe or the letter T on the Red Ryder Paint Book. If you look closely into one of the skeletons left eye in the Halloween card you can see a T written within in a circle.

I also noticed there is a tent and a broken arrow next to this symbol.

It makes me wonder if this is a victim of the Zodiac killers. Maybe a child or a boy-scout was killed in a tent by an arrow, knife or even an axe who’s first name starts with a T. The fact that the letter T is within the skeletons eye could mean that the boy was last seen in the eye of the killer….the skeleton representing one of the murderers.

I also noticed that the same skeleton is holding up his hand in the shape of a lowercase b which is right next to the T. So initials could be T.B.

The reason I bring this up is due to some of my first work on the Halloween card.  I had actually found a code within the card and broke it. I found not one but two full names/ two killers who appear to be family related with the same last name. This is what lead me on a goose chase to finding all the same names many times over within all the clues Zodiac has sent in his correspondences .

I also found directions within the code to a certain location. The starting location given was S.E. PA, Paradise. I will not go into the full logistics of the entire code and how it works. But here is a very small piece from my original work. It was done through a chronological method of matching letters, numbers and imagery similar to a card game like rummy but also different. Notice how the letters in SECRET PAL are all in big caps the same as how Zodiac wrote the back of the card message PARADiCE / SLAVES.

As I followed the directions I had decoded they lead me to a church where I had later found out  a boy had been stabbed multiple times within his tent. The case is still unsolved. His initials are T.B. and the murder happened exactly six months and one day before the Halloween card was received. This would have given Zodiac ample time to create a well laid out coded card as well as deliver it on the 6 month anniversary of the killing.

Another interesting thing was the hand imagery and directions S.E. of PA, Paradise matched the hand with the 14 reversed. (Directions starting at Highway 1 then to 41 then to 30)

Remember how I had placed these numbers in this order 4130  reversed 0314 or 3.14

However the directions did not lead into Paradise. It was just the place that was shown within the Halloween card as the first location to look for.  A more in depth look at this may be a post for another day. But I will say that it was up one big thirteenth. (113) Which coincidentally I found out this number is also linked to the number 3.14.

Part of the 13 hole punch postcard Zodiac sent October 5th 1970 within the same month he sent the Halloween Card

As of right now this is all speculation, but it is a strange and very bizarre path that I have found. Maybe one day we will find out if there is any truth in this. Until then all we can do is speculate and ask the question “what if…?”.

  I’m sure there are probably a few more things that are similar within this comic book to the Halloween card but lets start looking at the characters of the comic book now.

About the Red Ryder Comic Book Characters

Astride his mighty steed Thunder, Red was a tough cowpoke who lived on Painted Valley Ranch in the Blanco Basin of the San Juan Mountain Range with his aunt, the Duchess, and his juvenile Native-American sidekick, Little Beaver, who rode his horse, Papoose, when they took off to deal with the bad guys. Little Beaver spoke in the pidgin English now considered an offensive caricature (for example: “Spinach heap good. Me like’m!”). Other notable characters were ranch hand Buckskin Blodgett, Red’s gal pal Beth, and bad guy Ace Hanlon.

So now for the question… who was Red Ryder?

Jim Bannon was who portrayed Red Ryder’s character in film.  He was also well known for his most prominent acting role for being a detective called Jack.

Jim Bannon

James Shorttel Bannon (April 9, 1911 – July 28, 1984) was a radio announcer and Hollywood Western film actor known for his work on the I Love a Mystery and Red Ryder series during the 1940s and 1950s.

Bannon began his broadcasting career on local radio station KCKN, then briefly at KMOX in St. Louis. He moved to Los Angeles in 1937, beginning his show business career in radio as an announcer on The Great Gildersleeve, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, and Stars over Hollywood, among others, with his most prominent acting role being that of Detective Jack Packard in the serial I Love a Mystery.

Bannon is best known for being the last of four actors to portray the fictional cowboy Red Ryder in the long-running B-movie series, completing between 1949 and 1950 what would be the final four pictures in the franchise that were distributed by Eagle-Lion Films

What I noticed instantly when I saw this is the last name almost matches completely with the last name I had decoded in the Halloween Card with one difference; an o instead of an a.

(Bannon / Bannan)

The other thing I noticed was his initials. which are J.B. (Jim Bannon) and that his most prominent acting role was being Detective Jack Packard.

His sons name is also Jack Bannon.

  John James Bannon (June 14, 1940 – October 25, 2017) was an American television and stage actor, known as Jack Bannon.[1][2] He was best known for his role as Art Donovan on Lou Grant, a role he played for the duration of the series, from 1977 to 1982.

At age 24, Bannon began working as a dialog coach on Petticoat Junction.[3] In 1963, he appeared in the Season 1 episode “Kate’s Recipe For Hot Rhubarb” of the series as Bobbie Joe’s date, Roger. In 1969, Bannon was seen again on Petticoat Junction (after his mother died in 1968) appearing as “Buck” in the episode “One of Our Chickens Is Missing”.[4]

Bannon’s signature role was that of Art Donovan on Lou Grant. The actor’s film career included What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)

Are these more coincidences and are they linked?

Perhaps Zodiac did use these comic books for his inspiration to create his Halloween card. Maybe he wanted us to find them and find the links. Or perhaps he didn’t think we would ever find them and he got off on never being able to be caught even though the clues were placed. It makes you think though.

I definitely see many similarity’s. And in my opinion I believe he used techniques of hiding things in plain site with multiple meanings using imagery similar to that of other things to help us make a connection. It draws our eye from one place to the next. Artists have been using this process for a very long time. And isn’t that what the zodiac is in a way; an artist?

  In my next post I will be taking a closer look at the Dripping Pen Card Zodiac sent. Did you know dripping pens link back to the same names?

Pen leakage

Meanwhile, many inventors turned their attention to the problem of leakage.[20] Some of the earliest solutions to this problem came in the form of a “safety” pen with a retractable point that allowed the ink reservoir to be corked like a bottle. The most successful of these came from Francis C. Brown of the Caw’s Pen and Ink Co. and from Morris W. Moore of Boston.[21]

In 1898, George Safford Parker released the Parker Jointless, named so because its barrel was single-piece to prevent leakage. The section assembly fit into the pen’s end like a cork stopper; any leaked ink was kept inside the nib.[22]

In 1908, Waterman began marketing a popular safety pen of its own.[23] For pens with non-retractable nibs, the adoption of screw-on caps with inner caps that sealed around the nib by bearing against the front of the section effectively solved the leakage problem (such pens were also marketed as “safety pens”, as with the Parker Jack Knife Safety and the Swan Safety Screw-Cap).[24][25]

If you feel that I missed something that should be added to this blog please leave a comment. I will update with things that are needed.

If you would like to see a more in depth look at how the comic books help to unlock the Halloween card signature please take a look at a previous blog here.

A few links to Jack.

A few links to George  – This is a name that can also link with the Halloween card.

Links to Frank – I have not written this blog quite yet as Frank comes up allot but here is an added link to the name Frank  from the stamp on the envelope of the Halloween Card.

    The Zodiac Killer – Exploring the comic book theory and how two of them might have been the inspiration for his Halloween Card. Allot of speculation has been going around that the Zodiac might have used a few comic books as his inspiration for the creation of his Halloween card.

[mst3kproject]

320: The Unearthly

The first word that comes to mind to describe this movie is 'colourless', which gets an immediate reaction of well, duh, because the movie is of course in black and white.  But above and beyond that, The Unearthly is completely lacking in interest, tension, characters, and everything ese that makes a movie entertaining.  It could have had these things, but apparently it just didn't bother.

Mad Scientist Dr. Charles Conway believes he has discovered the secret to immortality – an artificial gland which, when implanted into the patient's brain, will modulate their hormones to keep them young and fit forever!  So far all his test subjects end up deformed, dead, or unresponsive, but he's determined that he'll get it right if he just keeps trying, and has a friend refer mental patients to him so he can continue to experiment on them.  Then fate throws a wrench in the works, in the form of escaped criminal Mark Houston.  Conway takes Houston in with the idea of blackmailing him, but Houston is actually an undercover police officer, here to expose the whole project.

The Unearthly is a difficult movie to write a summary of, actually, because the story is very unfocused and seems to spend a lot of time wandering aimlessly from scene to scene without actually getting anything done.  This is largely because of the way it handles its characters.  Mark Houston is technically our hero, but we don't meet him until we've already spent almost ten minutes getting to know a completely different character in a way that suggests she will be our protagonist.

The movie begins with Grace Thomas, a woman suffering from mental illness, whose psychologist Dr. Wright has brought her to Conway's quiet little halfway house.  Supposedly this is for treatment, but once Grace is out of the room the two doctors' conversation makes it clear that they intend to fake her death and experiment on her.  All this is dealt with in some detail, and in a way that seems to set Grace up as the audience identification character.  Somebody who watched only these first few minutes would probably guess that the rest of the movie is about Grace discovering that something is wrong and trying to get in touch with her father, whom Wright identifies as her only living family.

This is not the case, though.  Grace goes to bed, Wright heads out to throw her purse in the bay and claim she drowned herself, and then we meet Mark.  For the rest of the film, it will be Mark we follow, as he investigates Conway's nefarious experiments while Grace sits around doing and saying nothing much of interest.  In fact, Grace is a singularly bland character, partly because she's written that way and partly because the actress evinces no interest in her lines whatsoever.  Allison Hayes was in two other MST3K features, The Undead and Gunslinger, as well as a number of other classic b-movies like Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Zombies of Mora Tau, and this is the worst performance I have ever seen her give.  She sounds like she's bored to tears.

In fact, Grace has less personality than any other member of the cast, including Tor Johnson's Lobo.  The other patients at Conway's retreat include Dan, a man prone to fits of anger, and Natalie, a chipper and trusting young woman looking forward to going home. Conway himself is egotistical and obsessive, and his assistant, Dr. Gilchrist, is professional and a little bit motherly.  Mark is nosy but cautious, as befits his investigative role.  I cannot pick out any personality traits like this for Grace.  She just says lines while staring blankly at the wall.

While Mark may be the hero, we are clearly supposed to feel something for Grace.  The last two people Dr. Conway experimented on came to bad ends, and we're supposed to worry that Grace will be next and Mark will not be in time to save her.  She is such a nonentity, though, that it's almost impossible to care.  We're supposed to want to see a romance blossom between her and Mark, but she's totally apathetic.  We're supposed to believe that she trusts Dr. Conway and comes to him with her problems, but the movie tells us this without bothering to establish it properly. Even when she's supposed to be angry with Mark and ordering him to leave her alone, it just doesn't work.  Nothing around Grace is interesting, and since she is the focal point for other characters throughout the narrative, the movie never has a proper center.  That, however, is merely annoying.  If you want to get angry at this movie, let's talk about portrayals of women and mental illness.

Dr. Conway's patients are explicitly mental patients, perhaps because he claims to need perfect physical specimens for his artificial gland to work.  Mental illness in movies is usually not researched very well, and I don't think The Unearthly was an exception to that, even though it tries to be a little more realistic.  At least it doesn't have anybody who talks to hand puppets or a guy who thinks he's Napoleon – what it's got is Dan, a man who is a bit paranoid and suffers from fits of ranting anger, sometimes needing medication to calm down.  He is presented as something of a joke, and the other characters treat him as if they consider him unreasonable rather than ill – but he is at least allowed to be ill and show symptoms.  The same cannot be said of the women.

Grace is described as having suffered a nervous breakdown and being prone to mood swings: she'll be suddenly afraid, or will break down in tears for no reason, but we never see her behave oddly.  In fact, Grace comes across as calm and collected at all times, and we see no difference in her between the scene where she arrives and the one where Dr. Conway tells her she's made excellent progress. Natalie is presented to us as nearly cured and ready to leave the retreat, so it's not surprising if she shows no symptoms, but she is unable to describe her previous illness as anything other than an inability to 'get herself together'.

So what we have here is two cases of acute Fictional Disease: women in movies are allowed to suffer from terrible illnesses, but only as long as these do not render them unattractive or antisocial.  A woman going into the same kind of rant as Dan would come across as bitchy rather than ill, and would be automatically unsympathetic to a male audience who would associate such behaviour with the stereotype of the nitpicking, nagging wife.  We're supposed to like Grace and Natalie, so their health problems can only manifest in ways that make us want to protect and help them, and actual symptoms are kept discreetly off-camera. At the end of the story, I think we're supposed to assume that Grace's problems will be solved not by a licensed practitioner with years of training, but by the power of Twu Wuv. Evidently people in the 50's still accepted the Victorian idea that all women's health issues can be solved by a generous application of dick.

Then there's the way Dr. Conway behaves towards Grace.  At their first appointment, he tells this sick woman who has been committed to his care that she looks lovely, and that “if I were Rembrandt I would paint a portrait of you”.  He claims that many women would envy her and that her looks and charm make her worthy of attention and protection.  Perhaps if Grace is suffering from low self-esteem these are things she needs to hear, but they come across as deeply creepy and unprofessional, and the worst part is that I can't actually tell if the movie wants us to find them so.

There was a similar dynamic, with a mad scientist hitting on his patient while the female assistant became jealous, in Atom Age Vampire, but in that movie it was explicitly manipulative and wrong.  The Unearthly, however, is much more neutral in its presentation of this material.  It just sits back and watches, without placing a value judgment, and Dr. Gilchrist's condemnation of the behaviour is much milder than that of her counterpart in Atom Age Vampire.  Later Dr. Conway laments the fact that Grace has 'turned on him', suggesting that he did in fact have feelings for her... in which case, perhaps we're meant to think he was expressing honest affection?  Whatever the case, it's gross.

The Unearthly's single greatest moment of misogyny, however, comes courtesy of Dr. Wright.  In order to facilitate Grace's disappearance, Dr. Wright throws some of her possessions into the sea in order to suggest she committed suicide in her depression.  Not long after, he finds himself in a similar pickle when another vanished patient's sister turns up on his doorstep – Wright calls Conway to ask what to do, and Conway tells him to simply make out a death certificate for the man, who has been in a coma since the experiment anyway.  Wright, who personally came up with the plan to fake Grace's suicide, is horrified.

There are only two possibilities I can come up with to explain this contradiction.  Either the screenwriter just couldn't keep track of which characters were willing to do what in the name of science – or Dr. Wright is just fine with faking the death of a woman, whose life doesn't matter, but repulsed by the thought of doing it for a man, whose does.  I think it's just shitty writing, but I can't be sure.

The Unearthly really could have been much better than it is, but it did just about everything wrong.  The idea of a mad scientist experimenting on mental patients because he knows anything they say will not be believed is one that could work, but is never explored.  Conway's basement full of possibly-immortal monsters could have been used to much better effect.  Mark's assumed persona of criminal on the run wondering what he's gotten into was far more interesting than his actual role turned out to be.  Grace would have been a way better character if she'd ever done something. Anything.  In the end, the movie simply misses every opportunity it had, and the result is as dull as a bowl of plain oatmeal.  Like I said, colourless.

[diaryofanangrynerd]

The Broken Are the More Evolved

Split/Diary Entry #10

 Welcome everyone to another edition of Diary of an Angry Film Nerd! Did anyone miss me? Well I missed being in front of this computer, so I guess I, in turn, missed all of you. So in that last few days since we have spoken, a couple things have been revealed by the wonderful people of Hollywood (sarcasm sensed?) and I would love to take a quick minute to discuss these topics. First is the trailer drop for Thor: Ragnarok I will have to admit that I wasn’t overly excited to see this film, but I was going to see it. Now that I have seen this teaser I can fully admit that I am garnering more excitement to see the direction that Taika Waititi is going to take this character. Given the more light-hearted tone of the film I am ecstatic that the third go round of Thor won’t take itself so seriously. Lastly is another trailer that was dropped this week and it is that of Atomic Blonde staring Charlize Theron and James McAvoy. All I really have to say about this is wow! A little John Wick coupled with a little A Long Kiss Goodnight, but either way Theron looks badass and I am now highly excited to see this film. I will place this links of these two trailers below for your viewing pleasure, but now on to my review of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Split.

So Split tells the story of three young women (one of which is Anya Taylor-Joy) that have been kidnapped by a man named Kevin (James McAvoy). As the story progresses we learn that Kevin has 23 separate personalities and is preparing for a 24th to awaken. Determined not to see what this latest personality is like Casey Cooke (Taylor-Joy) tries to find any way out of her prison and goes as far as trying to manipulate one of Kevin’s personalities.

Well Shyamalan has found his way back into our good graces with this intriguing thriller. Split, like it’s main character, has many layers to it that are very interesting. We have a character study of not only Kevin, but of Casey. We see a few of Kevin’s personalities and their motivation for kidnapping a couple high schoolers and on the same token we see why Casey is different from the other two. Casey is inverted and socially awkward, but becomes the hero of the story due to the psychological drama she has gone through in her life. Taylor-Joy expertly displays the layers to Casey’s psyche/character. I love the way she inserts herself as the hero by knowing something bad may happen to her and the other girls because something bad as happened to her. McAvoy is also so amazing in this film with his multiple personalities. I was most impressed with his take on Hedwig, who is a nine year old boy. The way that McAvoy displays a nine year old’s mind and actions were remarkable.

This film is classic Shyamalan, as it seems like he has come full circle with his career. The dark/ominous setting coupled with the flawed protagonist is what we have come to love about Shyamalan’s films. With that being said, I did find just a few minor grievances with the film. Gripe number one would be that I needed a little bit more explanation on the relationship Kevin has with his psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley). During the course of the film only one of Kevin’s personalities is shown conversating with her…how did this one personality seem to have sole access to the doctor? Why is he more outstanding than the others? Speaking of Kevin’s personalities, and maybe these will be saved for a sequel, but why didn’t we see a little bit more of his other personalities. We get a list of them toward the end of the film and there are some intriguing names on that list like Mr. Pritchard. Why doesn’t he have a first name? I’m not one for sequels, but I think to flush all of this out there should be.

Despite my very minor complaints of this film, I highly recommend Split to fans of thrillers and especially fans of Shyamalan’s earlier work. This film ranks up there with his better films. Let us all pray that Shyamalan is back on track because I want more from him because there was always something just a little more to Shyamalan’s films (not just the twist endings) that always captured my imagination. Thanks for reading and please feel free to contact me.

Worth Your Time

Diary of an Angry Film Nerd will return…

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfayCqL6Gmw&spfreload=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIUube1pSC0&t=7s

[archivesdiveronarpg]

Congratulations, EMILY! You’ve been accepted for the role of GONERIL. Admin Bree: This application was everything I could’ve hoped for and so much more. I’ve been waiting for someone who truly understood Grace, as nuanced and complex as she is, and Emily, you went above and beyond. Every part of your application, from the “what drew you to this character” section to your very last headcanon, screamed Grace Daly in all her blood-stained glory, and I loved every single word of it. You know her even better than I do, and for that reason, I’m so excited to place her in your hands. God bless Verona; long live the Queen. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours. 

                                                                                 WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character

Alias | Emily

Age | 20

Preferred Pronouns | She/her

Activity Level | I’ve literally wanted a second character for months now – but I forced myself to wait until I had enough time to juggle both Odessa and someone else before applying. I feel as if I’ve gotten into a good groove and have enough time now! I’ll actually be home for the whole of April and although I have essays to do and exams to prep for, I’ll still be on to roleplay quite a bit! I love this roleplay, so much, so I’ll be on quite a lot – especially with the amount of muse I have! I’d say out of ten, maybe a 6/7?

Timezone | GMT

Current/Past RP Accounts | Well, here’s Odessa. And here and here are two more that I think best demonstrate my writing.

In Character

Character | Grace Valeria Daly:

GRACE: In English the meaning of the name Grace is: From the word ‘grace’, derived from the Latin 'gratia’, meaning God’s favor. Grace wasn’t named until her 45th day on this earth, more than six weeks after she was delivered. Truth be told, her parent’s hadn’t dared named her until then – terrified that to do so would be to curse her. In the beginning, the doctors had advised them to – but only so they had a name to put on the birth and death certificates they would file simultaneously. Louis and his wife had refused – believing in their daughter. As it turned out, they were right to. Grace wasn’t done with life yet, fighting through the worst odds. At 45 days, she was taken off the ventilator, her little lungs breathing all by themselves. That was when they decided to name her, drawing inspiration from the God they saw as responsible for their child’s continuing life. That would, as it turned out, be in a direct paradox to everything Grace has ever represented, for she has always been a woman who sought to ascend higher than God – and who drew inspiration from the most infamous angel of all, Lucifer. Their tricks and deeds have always been more alluring than the holy ones in God’s possession. Pay heed Morningstar, for your protégée has come to walk the earth. Truth be told, Grace cares little for her name. It makes her sound so vanilla, so plainly docile. She isn’t any of those things – and brash and vulgar as she is, she’s never cared to use it as some sort of cover to lure people into a false deception of kindness. Let all the niceties be reserved for Catherine.  

VALERIA: In Italian, the name Valeria means - strength, valour. Like her first name, Grace’s parents drew inspiration for her middle name from the situation she was born into. Recognising that their daughter was a scrappy fighter, a survivor above all else, they wanted her name to resonate strength and for the world to see exactly who she was. And whilst it’s correct to assert that Grace has always been a strong woman, she’s not strong in the way they might have wanted to imagine her as, a sort of phoenix figure. No, she’s strong like a hurricane is, just before it destroys your home. She’s strong in the way that darkness is as it creeps in each night. She’s strong in the very worst way. That makes the second definition of her surname, valour, such an ironic one.  It’s impossible for her to be courageous in the face of danger because she is that danger. She cannot be brave as she rides into battle – because she’s never intended on being in the middle of a war, where it’s possible to get hurt. No, she’s the sort to swoop in at the end – and claim the victory as her own. Besides, she’d always be on the winning side. To represent valour is to represent the light. And if there’s one thing all parties, her parents excepted, can agree upon – it’s that it just isn’t her.

DALY: The Daly’s are infamous throughout Verona. Theirs is an opulent family, known for its trio of daughters – each as beautiful as the one that came before. Striking elegance, they are known for their mansion that sits upon the town, both apart and away from it all. Bold and brash, every atom of it is inscribed with grandeur, no expense spared. And that’s just the outside. Should you be invited in, there’s no limit to material goods – gifts rained down upon the three daughters, given anything their mind can think of. Whereas Catherine always sought to hold herself to higher standards than that, Grace never had a problem indulging in her birth rights, seeing it as something being owed to her. Why on earth shouldn’t she take all she could? Synonymous with greed, Grace quickly followed in the footsteps of her father – carving out a reputation to rival (and indeed, she would argue it did, his). And yet, despite the perks and lifestyle her surname has offered her, she cares little for it other than as a means through which to assert herself. Whilst her parents do hold a place in her heart, it’s a rather limited one, soured by the attention they gave her sisters (really, she once asked, why did I need sisters at all?). As for her siblings, well, she cares so little for them that they rarely cross her mind. The idea of a surname signally family is…well…laughable. By the turn of the century, she will be the only Daly they remember. And really, isn’t that all it’s worth?

What drew you to this character? |

Okay so as I outlined above, I’ve been wanting to pick up a second character for some time now – and just waiting until the right one/time came to do it! The moment Grace’s teaser came out…boy was I sold. Like…I don’t think you could have written a character I loved more? Everything about her was so…it’s everything I end up being drawn to in a character tbh. Like, dark powerful women are my aesthetic. I’ve played way too many of them over the course of my time roleplaying – and I don’t think I’ll be giving up any time soon, if this application is anything to go by. Anyway, when the bio came out…I was just sold. I immediately imagined her voice in my head and really wanted to start an application right away – because I was so sure she would be snapped up immediately. However, I didn’t have the time then – and I figured that it wouldn’t exactly be fair for me to take up someone if I didn’t have the time to dedicate to her. Luckily, she’s still open (!!!!!!!!!!!) and thus, I’m filling this out. As for what specifically drew me into Grace, I would say there are two or three distinct aspects, which I’ll expand upon below.

PERSONALITY & STORYLINE: As I mentioned above, I’m so game for dark powerful women – and Grace has that down to a t. She’s a creature stolen from the shadows, an empress in the making – even if no one else around her sees it quite yet. Corrupted by ambition, she’s rotten down to the core – and in truth, she always has been. She’s quite evil – and I love it. Ruined by the attention her parents gave her – and their point blank refusal to discipline or see anything amiss in their daughter – something ugly took its place, wearing the mask of a beautiful woman. Time has made her lethal, a cruel and dangerous woman, utterly selfish and consumed by her own wants and needs – no time for anyone else. Her heart is black – and there’s no room in it for anyone who isn’t Grace Daly. And that probably makes her one of the most dangerous players on the board. She’ll stop at nothing. Her loyalty is only to herself – willing to sell and betray anyone at a moment’s notice. But, what makes her truly dangerous, is that she has such a core belief in herself. She’s put her mind to her pursuit of power – and doesn’t think there’s anything that can stand in her way. That means she won’t stop or doubt herself – ever. I truly wouldn’t want to go up against that. Someone who doesn’t want to just go down in history, but make it revolve around her and change its course entirely. Put simply, Grace fulfils the archetype of the Woman King. I have such a weakness for them – oh my god, so really, I’m just so immensely drawn to her and adore her – faults and all – already. I’d love to be able to explore her – and I’ve had fun doing so already, even within the space of this application.

THE MOBS: Like, I won’t lie, I adore the spades. They’re very much active within the plot and such a big driver of this next chapter of the roleplay and so I’d love to be a part of that. There’s so much room for richness within them, so much potential to their dynamics that’s practically gone unexplored. As I stated within the plot section, that’s definitely something I want to delve into – and I gave you a few examples of what I’d like to do/see there. I think this is definitely complicated by the fact that Grace stabbed the Caps in the back for them – and so naturally, the dynamics between those two parties are really interesting to explore – because it’ll be interesting to see if there’s animosity on their part – and how she might respond to that. Plus…she wants to see their destruction, so there’s that (and it shows how heartless she truly is). Basically, Grace is such an integral player within the mobs, which makes it so tempting to apply for her. Just in terms of what you can do with her, there’s so much, making her truly versatile.

RELATIONSHIPS: Finally, I’m a sucker for all of her dynamics – both the ones listed in her biography and those which have yet to be forged. Primarily, there’s the one between her and her sisters. Yet, despite being on different sides of the war and sharing an upbringing, there’s no pain, no angst. Grace left her sisters for years without so much as a warning, betraying their side with little thought as to how it might impact them. She never would think about it – caring so very little. That makes it incredibly interesting to explore, because the relationship becomes incredibly nuanced and multidimensional, which each sister having their unique perspective. Other than that, the one between Vivianne and Grace is incredibly compelling. In my head, I like to imagine that Vivianne was the one stopping Grace from ascending – because she occupied the position Grace would have wanted, with little sign of giving it up. There was simply no room for Grace up at the top – and in a sense, Vivianne choked her. Therefore, the hatred between them (well, hatred on Vivianne’s behalf, the spark of amusement on Grace’s) becomes all the more compelling. I like to imagine that Grace winds her up for fun, wants to be the one to stick the dagger in her back – want to see Vivianne’s face when Grace finally triumphs and beats her, for good. It’s almost a game for Grace – one she might pick up when she’s bored – and one which serves to further her ambitions, which is really what Grace is at her core. And then, finally, there’s the dynamic between Grace and Boris. I really like what you’ve done with these two – because in a sense, they come from the same place. But there’s always been a distinction between them – and with Grace’s superiority to him comes her hatred. She’ll do anything to undermine him and his authority, anything to steal what she sees as belonging to her. What unfolds between them, no matter what happens, will be to die for, I know.

I hope this section made sense? I really wanted to convey why exactly I love Grace so much – and the different aspects of her, as well as her potential, that make her so compelling for me.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

THEY WANNA MAKE ME THEIR QUEEN: This is just a fancy name for Grace’s ambitions. At the core of her is this desire to rule – to see the chess pieces fall and be the only one left at the table, to swoop in when people least expect it. Ambition is such an ugly thing – but she makes it look so beautiful. There isn’t anything she wouldn’t do to further her agenda – and I’d love to explore exactly how far she’s willing to go to make it happen. Spoiler: the answer is very far, possibly beyond the bounds of humanity itself. For not a very patient person, she’s known remarkable restraint here, first switching to the Spades and letting her cause fester for a few years. But now she’s back in Verona, the place where she made herself, among the mobs she once claimed to be loyal and opposed to, something might just spark inside of her, an urgent need she can no longer swallow. Having perfected both brute force and stealthy plots, it’ll be interesting to watch how Grace interacts with the Montagues and Capulets. Essentially, they need to be removed (and by they, she means that docile little slip of a girl Julianna and the new boy-king Roman) in order for her to advance her plans. Right now, she’s willing to work with the Spades to make that happen – and I definitely think she’ll be the biggest advocate of action within them. She’s remained in the shadows for too long – it’s time to embrace the burn of the night. They can outsmart them. They can beat them. So let’s get on with the game. Like a cockroach, when they bring about the end of the world, she’ll be one of the only ones left standing. I do think, that eventually, there will come a time when she ponders severing ties with them, where she can go no further. Her endgame is her ruling over the underworld of Verona – but there’s more than one path to get there. There’s no rule in the playbook that says she necessarily has to end up betraying Faron (but it’s not like she wouldn’t) but it seems likely that’s the case. But these are all details that can be fleshed out later!

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN?:  If Grace were to finish that sentence, she’d purse her lips and state that it isn’t. Her family means nothing to her. Alright, she’s better than them – does that count as an opinion? She hardly sees them as family – and they’re more strangers to her than anything else. Even in the years away, she hasn’t kept up with them, caring so little to do so. I’m dying to see her interactions with them – which are bound to unfold in different ways. Catherine is still gentle enough to love Grace – even when the elder couldn’t care less. Grace doesn’t even pity her youngest sister, she isn’t even disgusted – she just doesn’t care. Catherine is no match for her in the game they both play – and she won’t hesitate to roll over her sister to get what she wants. Honestly, she’s more inclined to ignore her than anything else. With Regina is where it really gets interesting. Whilst the world basically shared the same opinion on Catherine, people have always seen something in Regina – clearly, since they now both technically hold the same position in their respective mobs. Despite that, Grace has never seen the same, always happy to write off her little sister as somewhat useless, like a tempered, mute and lesser version of herself. But I do get the feeling there’s some underlying jealousy there? Regina has equalled her in far less time and risen far faster than her. With Regina, it’s almost like an unspoken (she would never ever admit that her sister could rival her) competition between them. It would probably be foolish of Grace to underestimate Regina – but that’s what she’ll do anyway. Grace isn’t in a hurry to see her sisters by any means – and she’s not exactly going to approach them, engage with them or making any motions into bridging a divide. It suits her perfectly. And honestly, this sort of dynamic is the kind I ache for.

THE ACE OF SPADES: This is just my (not so) witty name for the spades – Grace’s place inside of them and the dynamics between them all, which I’m so weak for. As a concept, the spades don’t really make sense – they’re all drawn from different walks of life, places and experiences. But despite that, they’re lethal – and they click. I’d love to explore Grace’s place inside of that. Who does she despise? Who does she respect (if anyone)? Does she question orders handed down to her or obey? Does she seek to undermine the authority of anyone who could potentially rise up above her? Does she have any friends? These are all questions to be answered. I think, central to this discussion, are the dynamics between Grace and Faron and Grace and Boris respectively. I think with Grace and Faron, what’s really interesting is that she considers himself her equal, even though he’s technically her boss. But at the same time, she has to obey him – and her rise is limited by him. That makes for a really interesting question – when the time comes, will she step over him, or remain loyal? I’m inclined to think of the first. But before that, she has to step over someone else – Boris. She’s never despised someone quite as much as him. Part of it originates in an age-old feud – the rest of it in the fact that he’s her boss. She hates being told what to do – and especially by him, considering he isn’t worthy. A shadow of a man until he came here, he’s fallen, she never has. That makes her more qualified. But really, it’s her she’s angry at – that she wasn’t good enough to beat him in the first round. It’s a weakness – and the only mistake she’s ever made. But, sooner rather than later, Grace will figure out a way to engage in round two – perhaps challenge him for the under-boss position. And once she does, she’ll win.

PRIDE COMES BEFORE FALL: I don’t think any phrase sums Grace better up than this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with such an ego. She has such a high opinion of herself – and expects everyone else to follow suit, even if they have no direct reason to. Throughout, Grace is adamant that time will make them do so. Yet, having never seriously fallen, or failed, before – Grace expects everything to go her way, because it always has. I want to see what happens when that’s challenged, when she’s forced to meet someone who might be her match, or, even worse, what might happen if she makes a move and she loses. How would she deal with such consequential failure? How would it change who she is? Or the way she thinks about herself? I don’t think it would – because everything about her is too cemented in position for that ever to happen. But I do think that it’s important for this to happen, because it’ll force her into a position where she has to consider everything and in the process, it’ll make her better. She’ll fight harder, be stronger, all the more cruel for it. I’d want this to be a temporary setback and I’m not sure what form it would take yet, whether it would be as little as just losing a fight or having her put in her place by Boris or someone on the equivalent, but I do want this to happen. I think it’s important to place obstacles in your characters desires – and to see how they would react to that.  

In Depth

What is your favorite place in Verona? |

Sentimentality – she had always sneered at it, in both terms of people and places. Such emotion was reserved wholly for her do-gooder little sister, or the whimsical love interest in a terrible movie. People like them saw Verona was a medieval slice of beauty, looked to the love stories written over its fabric, sighed at the history of it all. Grace’s eyes, sharpened, saw only a playground, a messy reality upon which her rule would one day be implemented upon. As she matured, she had ceased to see Verona as her home – and began to see it as an abstract, from a distance, perceiving it from the eye of a raven, flying high above. What can you offer me? That was the question forever etched upon her lips. “Once upon a time, I might have said the Cathedral.” There’s no bitterness to her tone. Unlike the other defectors (whom Grace holds herself above), she was not forced out. There is no wistful sigh when her eyes are trained towards its spires. That was her choice. Besides, she had outgrown it. She moved on up in the world. A quizzical eyebrow raised, she ponders her answer for a few more moments, it’s not worthy of any longer than that. She doesn’t mince her words. “The dark lady. I adore the name.” It’s like looking in a mirror. “The cliental can be a little…leery – but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Besides, it’s the only place that’s ours.” The Montagues could keep their puny little soup kitchen and the Capulets could have their little cafes – theirs was made from the darkness, weighted with sins. Fitting. “For the moment.”

What does your typical day look like?

“A little of this, a little of that.” She’s deliberately evasive, games dancing on her tongue. Her voice is velvet, it invites you in – daring you to guess what exactly she does. Warning: there’s danger to be found. How silly, she muses, warnings ruin everything. And they do have such a beautiful side-effect of separating the wheat from the chaff. In truth, her time is divided up equally. The first half is spent inclining her head and obeying the wishes of the one she calls boss – shaking up clients who refuse to fulfil their end of the bargain, galvanizing her (she does so like to refer to them as her own) soldiers, turning ordered streets into chaos. (There’s been less of that lately, what with their relocation to Verona and the changing dynamics of the game). And then, there’s the time she keeps to herself. Sometimes she goes off on a tangent, plays the games she used to play before joining the underworld – before she was all the more professional for it. She engages in blood and lust, all things sinful and wicked. A pressed secret between her lips, she rarely leaves a trace. I’m too good for that. Little about her can be considered mundane. She will never be the vixen at the bar, the preppy annoyance at the coffee shop or the artist who looks upon the city and paints. Her hobbies are rather more deadly. “A girl has to have her outlets. Or she’ll just go crazy.” Action streamlines her blood – it feeds her. She’s always been like that, filled with an infusible hungering that cannot be quenched. She’s found only one thing does the trick – power. “But I sense the normal is about to shift…and I for one cannot wait.”

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

A wolf can only smile when covered in the blood of its prey. Grace Daly can only smile at the demise of an enemy – or the awaited downfall, anyway. It’s coming. An immortal longing in her bones tugs at the organ that best resembles a heart (but doesn’t act as one should), impatient to be done with it all, for a grand masterplan to see the pawns topple and the Queen rise. Have you ever seen such a beautiful thing? No. There is no match. “Impulsive fools.” There’s a scathing judgement in her tone, the assumption being that if she was in charge, she never would have rushed in. Not without assembling a nuclear arsenal, anyway. Grace knows the most fundamental lesson of battle – you never strike until you can be sure of your victory. Why else would you enter the battlefield in the first place? “They’ve signed their own death warrants.” It’s that thought, of twitching bodies and a path to the throne, of her former comrades and adversaries lying still permanently, that forces her lips into a smile that can only be characterised as a smirk. “Oh well.” She can’t pretend to regret such a thing. The thought of her sister’s place never even crosses her mind. “Their loss – and they willboth lose – is my gain. Neither side can win, so they’ll end up destroying themselves in the process. It’s called mutually assured destruction. Or at least, weaken themselves to the extent that a third party can crush them.” Her hand, previously lying flat, is curled into a fist, hot rage fuelling her fire. Unclenching it, she leans back, but remains attentive. “How do you think I’ll look in purple? It is the colour of royals – you know.”

In-Character Para Sample:

All good stories follow a familiar format. They start with a once upon a time, they describe a delicate princess, more a wisp of a girl than anything else, she is given conditions of hardship, made the tragic hero. That’s why you root for her to overcome adversity. That’s why you beam the moment she meets the Prince. And as everyone knows, all fairy tales end with a happily ever after. They see the wicked witch defeated, the ogre without a head. The story of Grace Dally detoured long ago. She was the Princess turned monster, the greedy traitor who clawed their way up to the throne, flashing their thorns at anyone who cared to probe too deeply. They are not the hero in this tale – but the villain. And the only happily ever after will be hers.

Onyx eyes flatter those she calls comrades, soldiers who look to her for leadership, captains who share her vodka, an underboss she obeys through gritted teeth. Theirs, she muses, correcting her own monologue. For now, at least. It’s a dangerous, devious thought. But she stuck the knife in once – so if it suits her goals, why should she not again? There is, after all, room for only one Queen. Does this one need a King?  The compression of time is a dangerous affair. And there is, after all, a distinct difference between now and then. Every social climber with the glint of ambition in their eye knows when to chant there’s no I in team and when to wedge the dagger firmly in the back. It’s a fine line – too soon – and you expose yourself. Too late – and you spend a lifetime wishing back your chances. Grace will not be one of those women. Her place is not as a footnote in history. She deserves manuscripts, endless volumes of her trysts and achievements. Her name will become synonymous with power, her rule the age of darkened chaos. She sees it each time she closes her eyes  – a golden crown, a chain of command, everything she has ever wanted. Yes, it’s true, even the hellish creatures of nightmares dream.

Reality, by comparison, is all the more stale. Stagnation makes for a poisonous viper, all the more dangerous, for they have little to lose. Her entire life, she has been a woman in constant motion, seeking the next rung above. As a teenager, her fantasies manifested in trysts in the deviancy of her imagination, a child wearing the face of a condemned soul. Then, she had looked towards the Capulets – eyes greedy to consume it all. They exchanged sharpened knives for a gun she could fire with pinpoint accuracy, slow movements for stealth. (That’s one lesson she never bothered to keep. She wants people to know when she’s coming. She likes them scared). Soldier had been a blessing, all until it wasn’t. Too much anonymity in it. Too little recognition. Three years, with so little to show for it, what was a girl to do? Vivianne Sloane sucked all the oxygen from the room. And people had begun to prattle on about her sister as if she had been the next messiah, risen again. Screw that. Hungrily, her eyes turned outward. And they liked what they had found.

The Spades, the cog that would blast the machine, the eye of the storm, those with a penchant for change. Faron had dared her to leave, extended a hand, waved a promotion right in front of her eyes. How could she refuse? And from solider to captain, she stepped into infamy – cementing her seat at the table. Even if that table had been in Russia, far far away from the thrill of the fight. All good things come to those who wait, her father had once said that, a vain attempt to parent that he never bothered to repeat. Well Grace had done her waiting. Itching, the prospect of destiny tantalizingly close, she edged closer towards oblivion. Can you smell it Verona? Can you smell the winds of change?

Down below, two kingdoms converge, a divide ever dissipating. A lifetime ago, she called one of them home, the other a sworn enemy. Now, they both lay claim to that title, as she – and those who stand shoulder to shoulder with her – will lay waste. In each of their eyes dances excitement. Tonight, they observe. Tomorrow, they play. And in everything, in all the games she’s ever engaged, none has ever matched this. There’s nothing like the hum of a kingdom in your chest – the drums of war beating in the background.

“Is it just as you remember it?” Her boss, his Russian accent slightly compressed, turns to her, eyes glimmering with ambition.

Constructing an answer, her gaze flickers to the familiar figures cloaked below. Even now, at this distance, their faces continue to be imprinted upon her mind. The players, it seems, remain exactly the same. Vivianne, ever as bold and cloaked in irony as ever, stands tall, a protective shield around the child-turned-woman Grace can only guess to be their darling Principessa, in full bloom. Always a docile one, her weakness is going to get her killed. It isn’t so much a prediction or prophecy as it is a certainty. For a Queen to rise, the heir must fall. Grace has known killers who make the distinction between the scarlet of sin and the silver of innocence. She will show no such kindness. Standing close to their left, her eyes settle upon two figures that should be more familiar than most. Once, she would have called them sisters (through a bitter, twisted, tongue). These days, they hold the title of strangers. They may die in the Spades quest. A cold voice speaks within. That’s fine.

Her assessment is frank, a sneer cast downwards. “Nothing has changed.” Predictable. Like dominoes, they will fall – one by one. “The Montagues will prove the easier pickings.” For tonight, where one Montague falls, another rises. But he is a green boy, wet around the ears, possessing none of the cruel ruthlessness of this predecessor. Why crown a man who is not truly deserving? “But I’m confident that the Empire of the Capulets will crumble.” They always do. History was littered with examples of Empires that had come and gone – Greek, Roman, Ottoman – something ripe would always take its place. Something new.

“You’re looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

A devious smile, sharp enough to slice your skin, spreads across her face, brash in her wickedness. She’s known those who keep their impurities close to their heart, a secret used only in the moment of a strike. She’s never been one of them. Her hells are brazen, her sins boastful, brash in every intention. The mark of a Goddess,for they never shy away. How else would you be truly immortal? “I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. And I intend to squeeze every second out of it.” The air chills as she pauses, sentence drawn out in irony. “God bless Verona.”

And, she concludes, long live the Queen.

Extras:

Mockblog: X

Personality Analysis: X

Headcanons:

Lovers, like nearly everything else, are considered disposable for Grace. They have their uses, no one is denying that, but they are somewhat temporary – with Grace refusing to indulge with the same person more than a handful of times. Cliches would have the world believe she did it to protect herself, or because she was afraid of attachment – but that simply isn’t truth. If she’s being honest, five times is all it takes for her to grow weary of them – to become bored. Tricks, after all, are only good the first few times around. And an orgasm is muted as it repeats itself, time and time again. In all her years, she’s never found someone who can keep pace for longer than that – who can continue to satisfy her. In the bedroom, Grace searches for excitement – she wants a lover that surprises her, that can match her ferocity – but who allows her to dominate. It surprises men, time and time again, how she takes charge in the bedroom –  where the operation from start to finish is strictly on her terms. If they can’t accept that, she’ll either force them into submission, or toss them aside. Whatever particular whim she’s feeling that day. Her appetites aren’t reserved for the opposite sex. Over the years, she’s dabbled with women too, usually those who resemble a little of her – the same spark of fire in their eyes, the same dare that invites in temptation. But even in those situations, she takes charge – and that’s unlikely to ever change.

Humans aren’t born evil. It’s a mantra that makes Grace roll her eyes, the pettiest of explanations people use to excuse the behaviour of those fallen into a life of sin. Perhaps not. But Grace feels as if she was born to be wicked – a destiny manifesting itself from the youngest of ages, when she gobbled up affection and languished in the finest riches money could buy. As she aged, excusable sins became all the more sacrilegious. After all, isn’t immortality all the less endearing on a matured adult? But it wasn’t until high school that her reign of terror began, that she found a natural talent to rule – sparking an ambition that would never die. Her first taste of power, she ruled over her dominion like a mini Queen. But where the movies would have you believe she was some blonde bombshell undermined by the first girl-next-door on the scene, her rule was a little different. She didn’t give a shit who became prom queen, or who was dating who. But what she did, however, crave, was control. She found it amusing to humiliate and shame people – for anything and everything, mocking them as she went. And high school students? Oh they fell in line all too easily.  Once, it even turned violent – Grace leading the pounce upon some poor suspecting girl who had stolen praise and acclaim. That was her first taste of blood. And how she adored it.

[thelordfool]

When The Sun Rises - Chapter Six

Determination

“Aber- Courier,” The doctor corrected himself, “do you intend to take up Mr. House on his request?”

“Absolutely! ...Not. You are allowed to call me Aberdeen, you know. I won't get mad.”

“I just wasn't sure, is all.” Arcade reached up to wipe the sleep from his eyes, remembering on contact with his helmet that he wasn't able to. The courier had fashioned them both a way to hang their helmets from their necks, freeing their hands in case of attack, but Arcade was on the paler side and feared sunburn more than he probably should.

“After last night? Pff,” Aberdeen waved a dismissive hand. “Man, you could call yourself my best friend after all that money you won us. How'd you do it? Even my luck isn't that good.” The doctor merely shrugged.

“Couldn't tell you. First time in a while I really cut loose, too. I ought to thank you for that.”

“Nah, don't think of it. You deserved it. We both did.”

“I don't mean to pry, but... I assume your mission went the way you intended it to.”

The courier stopped in his tracks. They had set out of the Strip early that morning, headed south. Before they even could get off the premises of The Tops, someone stopped them – a spy of the Legion. He granted the courier the mark of Caesar, as the leader of the most feared group in the Mojave and outlying regions  (save for the former Enclave) wished to speak to Courier Six himself. Aberdeen had intended to go south, anyway, but not out to Cottonwood Cove. He had Primm set in mind, which was very much west of the eastern dock town. Arcade argued with him about it, but Aberdeen shot him down – he had business elsewhere in the region, regardless. Plus, it was just a bit south of Novac. He could get a rest in his own bed, for once. Afterwards, they stopped in at the Silver Rush to pick up some  extra microfusion cells and to get Aberdeen's - “What was it called again?” “A LAER. Laser-assisted electrical rifle. Picked it up out in the Big Empty. This one's modified, though.” “What is a Big Empty?” “Sigh.” repaired. It was his main weapon of choice, but it had seen better days. Arcade was basically a kid in a candy shop in that place, giddy as can be. Boy had a thing for energy weapons, it seemed, and the courier took note of that.

“Aberdeen?”

“Sorry. Got lost in thought there. Guess you could say it did,” he picked up the pace again. “We got a long walk ahead of us. Do you mind if we stop in a few places that've caught my eye?”

“I don't see why not.”

“Good. Also, do you mind if I turn on the radio? I hate long periods of silence. Drives me nuts.”

“Again, go right ahead.”

It was mid afternoon by the time they reached the REPCONN headquarters. Aberdeen was stiff from a previous fight with some Fiends earlier, and now there were loads of robots lying in wait ahead of them.

“I know this place, some of the history behind it,” commented Arcade. He prattled on a bit about it as they approached. “What are we here for?”

“Well, I had a... friend, yeah, a friend, who needed some repairs done on an old eyebot.”

“What, like the ones the Enclave used?”

“One and the same. I got the repairs done, but... Something happened to the eyebot, and I'm just wondering if I can find anything I need to get it back in operable shape.” Aberdeen was leaving something out on purpose. The men both had their secrets, and that was fine, but Arcade's suspicion was heightened by this. Did he, too, have connections to the Enclave? No. No way, impossible. Something was... off about this.

“We might be able to take a rest here, too. Granted nothing inside decides to shoot at us. C'mon.”

The men entered the facility. A Mr. Handy greeted them, offering them a tour. The corpses of a few Fiends lay in the main lobby area. Guess they declined a the tour in a less-than-friendly fashion. Aberdeen looked over to Arcade. “You wanna give this old rust bucket some purpose?”

“Oh, I'd love to!” His enthusiasm was boundless. The old bot led them through a set of double doors into a room filled display cases and old, err, safety barrels. Nothing interesting, as all the barrels were empty and even the vials of 'plasma' were just colored, slightly irradiated, water. The next room had models of rockets, again, nothing actually interesting to the courier, though Arcade was filled with glee and reading every plaque.

“This is so interesting – much of it is a bunch of pre-war bureaucratic malarkey – but the technology that's since progressed from this point... astounding, how even in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, mankind continues to push forward.”

Though Aberdeen wanted to say something wise in response, he merely gave a light punch to the doctor's shoulder. “Nerd.”

“The geek shall inherit the Earth!” It was said with a smile, even if Arcade's face could not be seen.

“'Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the Earth.' Matthew, 5:5.”

“When's the last time you read the Bible?”

“A little too recently.” An odd moment it was, when he came across that Bible cached deep within a desk that had been laying underground for years. He strained to read it in the blood-red light trickling through a crack, an ironic prayer that it would put his mind at ease and he could sleep within that buried building and nothing would come to eat him during his restless dreams.

There was an uncomfortable pause. “It was a nice joke, though,” the courier chuckled. “Guess I just have a bad sense of humor when I'm focused.”

Already the Mr. Handy had progressed to the third room of the tour, and through the doors the courier could see what he wanted: a standard, albeit ancient, eyebot. His heart sank upon approaching it, however. Much like everything else on the tour, it was but a hollow replica of the real thing.

“ED-E might never be repaired,” he murmured to himself. Even if he could, he thought, would it be the same ED-E after he exploded like that? “Fuck!”

“Pardon me, sir,” the Mr. Handy said, “I'll have to ask you to refrain from using such language in the presence of the other rocketeers. Onwards, to the observatory!”

“Aberdeen, it doesn't take a genius to see that something's wrong, here.”

“It's nothing,” he muttered bitterly. “Literally. There's nothing here I can use. It's just a plastic piece of junk.”

“Do you think it'd be worth checking out the rest of the building? You know, in case they have a real one stashed away somewhere?” The courier shook his head, no. “Maybe there's something else in here, then, maybe you can find parts off another robot-”

“Arcade,” the man said softly. “I appreciate what you're trying to do. But unless there's a RobCo around these parts, I don't think I'll have any luck.”

“It'd make sense for there to be one, considering the owner of RobCo. I mean, he even bought REPCONN out. Doesn't make much sense to me.”

“Wait, who's the owner of RobCo?”

Arcade turned to stare at his companion. “I was literally talking about it less than fifteen minutes ago. Were you not listening?”

“...No.” The punch Aberdeen had given the doctor earlier was returned.

“Asshole.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Don't deflect. Your poor listening skills are a sign of misdirected focus. If you hyper-focus on one thing, then you'll miss out on all the rest. Also, it makes you look like a jerk. Listen to your friends when they talk to you.”

“Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll do better to do that from now on.”

“You better.”

Plans changed after that to make headway for the 188 trading post. It was considerably safer than an abandoned building, filled with robots who could mistake the pair for intruders. On the way, Aberdeen listened to how the founder of RobCo was a Robert House, who may very well be the same Mr. House that runs New Vegas now. Or some decedent of the original. Something like that. RobCo had bought out REPCONN to get into the aerospace business, because, why not?

Dusk was starting to settle on the horizon. One thing Arcade noticed was that his companion was the type to stop and smell the roses – if roses grew out here, that was. Figure of speech aside, when there was something worth looking at, Courier Six would pause to stare, removing his helmet to take it in. And the sunsets around here were always worth looking at. It blasted the skies in hues of pink and orange, a deep, dark blue creeping in like capillary action. The clouds were never the same, or often just not there, and on the horizon, buildings melted into mountains.

The duo briefly wondered, without speaking, if that was what it looked like on impact of an atomic bomb. People were just dying to see it! The courier chastised himself for such dark humor.

“Aberdeen?”

“Hm?”

“How's your eyesight, with that injury?”

He reached up and gently traced over his left eye. He could barely open it, but by the grace of God, it hadn't been actually harmed. The deathclaw that had ruined his once devilishly handsome face had only gotten to swipe across the bridge of his nose, skipping just barely over the eye itself, and up over his brow. Most his eyelid and socket were scarred, making it difficult to lift the lid.

“Not great. My depth perception is off.”

“Not that anyone could tell with the way you were shooting earlier.” He glanced over to see his companion smirking.

“My peripherals, too. Can't tell you how many times afterwards ED-E would sneak up on me.” He had said it casually, without thinking, as if Arcade would know who he was talking about.

“Eddie?”It was pronounced with less of a pause between syllables, the way Six had done it. “Was... that a friend of yours?”

So he didn't hear him in REPCONN.

“...” He was angry. He had slipped. He hated what had happened out in the Divide. He hated thinking about how he ruined so many lives, and then another fell before him to stop it from happening again. It scrambled his brain. The wind-whipped, isolated land, pocketed with craters from detonated warheads. Tunnels seeking to drag him into a poisonous den. Ulysses, taunting him. He was a fool to follow the signs. You can go home, Courier Six! But he wouldn't. Not until he reached the end. And, in the end, the only thing keeping him going was gone, all because he was too cowardly to seek the missiles on the Legion.

“A lover, then,” Gannon concluded with a smug tone. “Didn't take you to be the romantic type.”

“He was not a lover!” The courier stopped and pivoted in his tracks, reaching out to the doctor. “You don't speak of ED-E from here on, cogitesne?!” His fist had closed around the edges of the duster. Despite Arcade's near half foot of height on the courier, he was dwarfened.

The rage radiating off the courier was palpable. Arcade had felt this fear only a few times before. And then, after a rather pregnant pause, his face sofened, but not to one of a joke, or joy, but to that of abject horror.

“Oh... oh, God,” he dropped his companion, stumbling a few steps backwards. “Arcade, God, I'm so sorry, I... I shouldn't have...”

“I overstepped.” The blonde haired man finally spoke, having caught a breath. “I made light of something that was obviously a serious situation. I deserved it.”

“You did not,” the other croaked. Was he... crying? No, but looked like he was about to. “Fuck.”

This time, there was no Mr. Handy to ask him to mind his manners. Arcade didn't mind. This was the first of many lessons the courier would teach him.

“Let's just... get going, alright? You can talk about it when you're ready.” He reached a tentative hand out to touch the shoulder of Aberdeen, but retracted it. “If you're ready,” he corrected himself.

Aberdeen grasped Gannon's hand, surprising the doctor. It was a handshake-type hold, a promise. They nodded to one another, and trekked down the road to the 188.

That night, Aberdeen would not sleep, only lay flat on his back, staring at an endless abyss of stars. Arcade would remember the feel of Aberdeen's hand, the blisters on exposed fingertips, the carefully filed nails, the welcoming and sorry seeping into him, opposite of when it held him at the throat. He would, unlike the other, eventually fall asleep, a light snore rising from his chest.

This is part six of ? of a slow burn Courier Six (Aberdeen)/Arcade Gannon fic. If you like my work, consider buying me a coffee or donating to my PayPal. I’m working on remaking my commissions post, but I do artwork, as well. I... also need a new tablet, so any tips will be going towards getting one!

If you’d like, drop me a kudos on Ao3 or start from the beginning here on tumblr. This fic is un-beta’d and updated frequently. Shoutout to vertiberd on Ao3, whose works I hungrily consumed, as they were fantastic. Also, big shoutout to the Wiki community for giving me ample material to work off of aside from my own memory.

[jakehglover]

What Causes Asparagus Pee?

By Dr. Mercola

Cooking up some tasty, tender-crisp asparagus with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a few sprinkles of Himalayan salt is a popular side dish, and after dinner you might even find yourself sneaking a few half-warm sticks of the interesting green veggie to munch — it's that delicious. Asparagus has its own valuable set of nutrients that make it a healthy food. There are purple (due to more anthocyanins) and white (due to thwarted chlorophyll from the absence of sunlight) varieties of this veggie, too, with slightly varying nutrient content.

However, there's an odd phenomenon that sometimes gains notoriety after a hearty serving: Asparagus has the capability of giving urine a peculiar odor like nothing else you've ever eaten. Scientists in a study of the phenomenon noted that asparagus metabolites can cause "a rather malodorous bouquet," and there's a link between the ability to smell asparagus pee and more than 9 million genetic variants.1

It's an ancient observation, though, one noted by Stephen C. Mitchell, from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, who chronicled the history of asparagus reaching back at least to the 11th century.2 It was published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine and subsequently quoted by Medical News Today: "The Ancients thought asparagus had medicinal properties and took its odor-producing qualities as proof of its activity."3

Benjamin Franklin even noticed it, as did Louis Lémery, a French botanist who lived in the 18th century, whose quote on the subject was one for the books: Asparagus causes "a filthy and disagreeable smell in the urine, as everybody knows."4 What's interesting is that not everybody did know, as scientists have now figured out.

However, scientists still hadn't definitively identified the chemical compound that causes the smell, so experiments were conducted at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Massachusetts (as part of two long-term studies known as the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study) by researchers from the U.S. and Europe to get to the bottom of it.

Mitchell explains that sulfur is usually at the bottom of such a smelly conundrum; case in point: the not-so-fragrant aroma of rotten eggs. Other studies had already determined at least some of the compounds present when someone has eaten a healthy amount of asparagus: methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, the first two detectable by smell when asparagus is boiled.

Scientists explain the smell is an indication that cooking could destroy them. Matthews indicates that another compound, asparagusic acid, which isn't so prone to breaking down when exposed to heat, may be the culprit. Asparagusic acid, known by scientists by chemical moniker 1,2-dithiolane-4-carboxylic acid and thought to be present to protect tender asparagus shoots from parasites, is the "active ingredient."

What's All the Fuss About Asparagus?

Depending on where you live, you may be one of those lucky individuals who grew up gathering asparagus for dinner just by driving down country roads and spotting it growing abundantly in meadows and ditch banks. The tall, graceful stalks are bright green, like tiny, slender trunks of green palm trees, with flexible tops not unlike an inflated, purple-green wheat tassel.

When they're cut for consumption, asparagus stalks should be rinsed well, then "snapped" about one-quarter of the way up the stalk at a natural breaking point. The top three-quarters is tender enough to sauté or steam with a little natural salt so that it's tender-crisp to the bite rather than woody. (As stalks get larger and thicker, they tend to get more woody, like chewing a toothpick.)

In fact, the cooking time for asparagus is crucial, making the vegetable either delectable or pithy and unpleasant. The World's Healthiest Foods, sponsored by the George Mateljan Foundation,5 a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to helping people cook and eat for optimal nutrition, recommends sautéing it for three minutes.

Any longer than that and not only does the enjoyable, crisp texture become mushy, turn "off-green" and bland, it also loses much of its nutritive value. It's also important to note that pencil-thin stalks cook quicker than thicker ones. Further:

"Recent research has underscored the value of careful storage of fresh asparagus. The key scientific finding here involves respiration rate. Like all vegetables, asparagus doesn't instantly 'die' when it is picked, but instead, continues to engage in metabolic activity.

This metabolic activity includes intake of oxygen, the breaking down of starches and sugars, and the releasing of carbon dioxide. The speed at which these processes occur is typically referred to as 'respiration rate.' Compared to most other vegetables, asparagus has a very high respiration rate."6

Among the most prominent nutrients that make asparagus a uniquely healthy vegetable are vitamins K, B1, B2, C and E, plus folate, copper and selenium, but others are outstanding as well, namely fiber, potassium, phosphorus, iron, protein, zinc, manganese, pantothenic acid and vitamins B3 and B6, as well as A.

Then there's the asparagusic acid, which can be thanked (or not) for delivering what Ben Franklin called "a disagreeable odor." It turns out it's a reactive acid as it's flanked by two sulfur atoms in the molecule, which helps the acid break down rapidly. Scientists think the derivatives are what emits the smell when asparagus is eaten.

Some Produce the Smell and Some Don't; Some People Smell it and Some Don't

While eating asparagus may cause some people's urine to smell odd, it's a little more complex than that, because not everyone produces the odd odor after eating asparagus, and not everyone finds it offensive, depending on their ability to actually detect the smell.

In essence, there are "producers" and "non-producers," and there are smellers versus non-smellers. As Medical News Today explains, the non-sniffers have asparagus anosmia, the technical term for an inability to smell. Interestingly, the gene that makes the smell detectable has a name, too: olfactory receptor.

To figure out the inherited factors linked to the ability to smell asparagus metabolites in urine, a study7 involving 6,909 men and women (of European-American descent) concluded that 60 percent of them could be classified as asparagus anosmic — non-smellers. There are three distinct differences between people in this regard, The World's Healthiest Foods8 explains:

Inside your GI tract, the differences involve the way asparagus is digested as well as differences in the way asparagusic acid is absorbed

There are differences in the way people metabolize asparagusic acid if it gets absorbed up into your bloodstream

Some people have different abilities in regard to detecting the presence of asparagusic acid derivatives, which can sometimes be unusual, such as someone having significant amounts of asparagusic acid derivatives in his or her urine without being able to smell it, even when someone else can!

Incidentally, another aspect worth getting into is that at its core, the molecule has a component called 1,2-dithiolane, which is key in forming a sulfur-containing organic acid called alpha-lipoic acid. As an antioxidant, it is in turn involved in enzymatic activity critical to the pathways of aerobic metabolism.9

Urine: Not Just What Goes in, but What Comes Out, Is Important

Urine serves a very important purpose for your health and well-being. It could be compared to a waste elimination plant and involves one of your most important organs: your kidneys. This filters both the fluids you drink and waste from your blood as a purifier.

Your kidneys' ability to succeed in this role is a huge determining factor for your overall health. When you think about the potential toxins introduced to your system through your diet, it gives you a new level of appreciation for the function and significance in your kidneys' ability to flush out toxins so they won't build up in your system.

Scientists estimate that in an adult's lifetime, a million gallons of water are passed through their kidneys. The urine you expel is roughly 95 percent water and 5 percent uric acid. What you eat and drink affects it; if you eat beets, for instance, your urine will likely take on a dark pink hue, not to mention the possibility of the peculiar odor after asparagus consumption.

You may even get an idea of what might be causing certain physical problems and conditions by the color and smell of your urine. It can take on a green, brown, yellow or orange tint, as well as cloudiness. In its fragrance, your urine may be reminiscent of maple syrup or even roses. Anything startlingly different may indicate something you should pay attention to or maybe even see a doctor about.

Many other things could be said about the importance of pee, but two of the crucial ones are simple: When you have to go, go. Waiting can exacerbate painful urinary tract infections and even distension, meaning your bladder enlarges and may not return to its normal size. It's never good to hold onto toxins.

It's best to get rid of them as often as you need to. The second bit of advice is to drink plenty of pure water. A good rule of thumb to determine how much water you need is to listen to your body and let thirst be your guide. You may be surprised at how much better you feel.

Aspects of Asparagus That Make It an Antioxidant Anti-Inflammatory

Not surprisingly, asparagus contains many very significant phytonutrients to benefit your health, and they reverberate throughout your body. One of the most important may be the antioxidant benefits, because they fight free radicals roaming around in your body looking for a weak place to break down your resistance and leave you open to disease.

Asparagus saponins, chemical compounds that Phytochemicals10 describes as glucosides with foaming characteristics found in most vegetables, as well as herbs, lead to such beneficial effects as immune system stimulation, bone loss reduction, optimized blood cholesterol by preventing its re-absorption and prevention of cancer cell growth.

Studies have shown white asparagus to be instrumental in causing colon cancer cell death,11 and it exerts further positive effects on combatting liver cancer by regulating apoptosis gene expression.

Asparagus extracts were also used to show its effectiveness in reducing corticosterone and lipid peroxide, two markers of chronic stress.12 According to one study, asparagus roots are the main source of a "crude" drug called shatawar, used to increase breast milk production and the appetite of lactating women, as well as for dysentery, tumors, inflammation, leprosy, epilepsy and night blindness.13

That introduces another term, shatavarins, a group of steroidal saponins in asparagus, well-known in Ayurvedic medicine and modern East Indian pharmacopeia. One study notes that asparagus racemosus, a species grown in India and Asia, contains:

"Essential oils, asparagine, arginine, tyrosine, flavonoids (kaempferol, quercetin, and rutin), resin, and tannin. It is a well-known Ayurvedic rasayana which prevent ageing, increase longevity, impart immunity, improve mental function, vigor and add vitality to the body. It is also used in nervous disorders, dyspepsia, tumors, inflammation, neuropathy and hepatopathy."14

Studies in recent years have noted that shatavarins in asparagus contain other saponins that have a beneficial effect on inflammation by inhibiting cytokine production and messaging,15 and other reviews have explored how asparagus may have potential in reducing dementia-related diseases such as Alzheimer's.

How Important Is the Ability to Smell Asparagus Pee?

According to the featured study, scientists first thought those with strong-smelling urine after eating copious amounts of asparagus, as well as those who could detect the smell even if the person producing the urine could not, must reflect a genetic factor. Later, they determined that everybody secretes the odor to some degree but that not everybody could detect it. Further, they revealed the difference was due to genetic factors. According to Myths of Human Genetics:

"It is clear that there is variation in two different traits: excretion of sulfur compounds in urine after eating asparagus, and ability to smell those compounds. This means that asking people whether their own urine smells odd after they eat asparagus is not a good way to study this. The limited amount of family data available suggests that excreting may be a simple one-gene character, with the allele for excreting dominant, but more work needs to be done."16

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/03/03/what-causes-asparagus-pee.aspx

[consciousowl]

How To Survive In a World of Artificial Intelligence

The future is already here — It’s just not very evenly distributed.

William Gibson

Sometime this year you may spot a tiny little drone buzzing not far over your head with no visible pilot. You may also run into a few driverless cars, most with drivers at the wheel ignoring it, carrying on an idle conversation without paying much attention to the road. You may even see a few experimental cars cruising down your street without any steering wheel.

This year, you may also come across medical bots on the Internet that can give you better prescriptions than your local doctor…faster and cheaper. You may witness computers mastering sophisticated computer games in an hour or two, which might take you months, or even years, to get up to Level 10.

Welcome to commercial Artificial Intelligence. Your world, and your life, will never be the same.​

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence or A.I. is the capacity of an advanced computer system or device, including a robot, to mimic human thinking, to apply abstract reasoning and engage in pattern recognition. It goes well beyond our habitual familiarity with computers as fancy processing and communication devices with powerful memory. A.I. can now move into problem solving in a wide variety of fields.

Supervised learning addresses the ability of a computer to learn and get smarter and smarter about specific tasks that you ask of it, such as Google Translate or Google Maps, that can now advise you of the best possible route in crowded road conditions when the freeway may be jammed. This capability is increasingly commercialized.

General, or strong, A.I., is capable of unsupervised learning, such as the ability to scan thousands and thousands of images, and figure out which ones are those of a cat with whiskers. 

Strong A.I. is still in the experimental stages, and many conceptual hurdles remain before it can be widely deployed. This capability could easily take away 40% of professional jobs.

How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

You may have not given much thought to how attached you already are to your smart phone, or to talking to Apple’s Siri to have her find Internet information for you fast, like an intelligent agent. Can you now imagine life before the Internet? How many days could you stand it without using Google or playing with your friends on social networks and media?

We are likely to be increasingly attached to every aspect of computing, as smart chips and materials fill our world. Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, is already urging people to switch off their phones for a few minutes each day, or at least place them in sleep mode, so they can get some peace and hold on to their sanity. With the emergence of the Internet of Things, devices of every sort will now start talking to each other without any human involvement.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

Closer to home, many professional jobs that were previously immune to technology and outsourcing will soon be vulnerable, not so much to bright, energetic and hungry offshore workers, as to smart systems on the Cloud with direct access to vast domains of human knowledge that can learn fast and begin solving complex problems.

More and more, attention will go, not to lawyers, doctors, and academicians, but to the very systems and agents they use. It will become all too obvious that people are replaceable for many functions we thought were unique to highly educated men and women.​

The Technology Singularity

In popular thought, singularities in terms of black holes, as in the final scene of the epic film, 2001, where the astronaut plunges into an infinitely dense darkness from which he can never escape. It implies everything converging into infinity.

A technology singularity suggests a rapid convergence of technologies in a rapidly accelerating fashion such that computers could approach superintelligence. It is significant that the expansion of the Universe since the Big Bang is now accelerating, which has led to the present focus on dark matter and dark energy.​

Today, this singularity is happening with a vengeance, as microprocessors have become ever more powerful and memory chips ever cheaper, going from millions of bits, or processing units, to billions to trillions. All the technologies have finally come together that were previously late in coming: extremely accurate sensors, chips that can process billions of cycles per second, rack-mounted computing on the cloud with a proliferation of devices, going from smart phones to drones to self-driving cars to humanoid robots.​

Ray Kurzweil’s Transhumanism

Transhumanism is a daring, postmodern philosophy popularized by Ray Kurzweil, CTO of Google, that actively explores the possibility of computers becoming, not only smarter than individual humans, but than all humans put together. Just think how much smarter you are today with the Google search engine than you might have been a generation ago, even if you were at the card catalog for the Library of Congress.

Alan Turing, one of the pioneers of modern computing, proposed a test to determine if a computer is as smart as a human. If you can put two humans and a computer behind curtains, and an audience cannot detect through extensive questions which one is a computer and which is a human, then the system will have passed the “Turing Test.” Already, systems have been developed that have fooled 30% of the audience, and IBM’s Watson won a highly publicized Game of Jeopardy over the human contestants.​

Ray envisions humans actually fusing with machines, of machines becoming, not only the servants of humanity, but its masters. He hopes the developers will program into these ultra-advanced systems respect and appreciation for human life, anticipating possible objections people may have from seeing the breakthrough film series, “The Matrix.” Lest you think Ray is a crackpot, check out some of his videos on YouTube. Ray is extremely brilliant and likable, unpretentious, and an evangelist of a new world order. He is not exactly naïve, as his own parents were holocaust survivors.

Wrinkles in the Proliferation of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has been given a tepid reception by many of the best and brightest thinkers alive. The pre-eminent physicist, Steven Hawking, warns that A.I. “could spell the end of the human race.” Elon Musk, who pioneered PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, has second thoughts about the dangers of A.I. and has played an advisory role to Trump’s Presidential Administration.

We are approaching hard limits on Moore’s Law, which has held for nearly 50 years, predicting the double of computing power and the halving of cost every 18 months, or so. This has been the primary factor in the creation of Silicon Valley and the emergence of high technology as humanity’s trillion-dollar megaindustry. Microchips are becoming so small that their subnanometer circuits are measured in numbers of atoms across. They are approaching instability and possible leakage.

Even more to the point, our world today is challenged to an incomparable degree not seen since World War II. The planetary ecosystem seems severely strained with global warming a given, and climate change the new norm. Despite massive efforts to create a sustainable global economy and heal the environment, many heads of state remain in denial. President Trump holds to the view that it is all a hoax. Continuing environmental degradation could have a disruptive effect on further technological innovation.​

Teilhard de Chardin’s Omega Point: The Perfect Response to Transhumanism

Teilhard de Chardin, the visionary French Jesuit priest and archeologist, saw a divine scheme in human evolution where everything is leading up a singularity of a very different sort. We are in the process of creating a Noosphere, or sphere of being and consciousness around Planet Earth. 

The Earth is becoming conscious of itself as consciousness, and humanity is becoming conscious of itself as divinity.

Chardin called the inflection point the Omega Point, the last letter of the Greek alphabet that carries the numerical value of infinity.

An electronic nervous system for humanity resulting in a global brain makes sense for Homo sapiens sapiens, the smartest species this planet has ever seen. Without this electronic brain, we would not have the wherewithal to collectively deal with the magnitude of problems threatening to overwhelm us. It is the grace of God that has allowed us to mobilize our intelligence through software in thinking machines.

Humanity’s genius lies, not so much in its mere rational intelligence, as it does in its creative imagination, its spiritual nature. Our consciousness is magnificent enough to contain the entire universe.​

For example, tell me of a moment when you weren’t there? Whatever you think of, YOU are the one thinking of it, creating it. We are creators here to create. Jesus Christ was right in revealing to us that we are all children of God, co-creators of the very universe that put us here.​

What You Can Do Today to Prepare Yourself for a Transformed World

Artificial Intelligence is already here. Denial will get you absolutely nowhere. A Luddite reaction of smashing the machines would be equally futile.

It is too late to go back. We can only move forward. You need to determine what is truly important to you, and hold to that as sacred.

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Computers are truly wonderful servants, but wretched masters, even the most beautiful Macintosh. Get a life!

Inform yourself about the entire field of Artificial Intelligence, how it is impacting today’s society and the best projections for tomorrow.

Get active and speak out on its development. It matters a great deal whether the developers at Google, IBM, Apple and elsewhere program the equivalent of a soul into their platforms. Ethics matters.

Re-examine your career and what you do for a living. Insofar as possible, focus on real human needs that other people can meet better than machines. It makes sense to look within. Wisdom, as opposed to information and knowledge, is in very short supply. Empower people with vision and a living sense of the Spirit.

Get anchored from within. Machines can never replace humanity, because we are inherently divine. Open up to the great mystical traditions, and enjoy a feast around the Sacred Presence in everyone and everything. In this sense, information systems are our friend, and we owe much to Google.

Before leaving this earth in the late 1950’s, Teilhard de Chardin prophesied, “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.”

How To Survive In a World of Artificial Intelligence appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.