#wolf vc and there is more where that came from

[desertfangs]

I feel for people just getting into the books lol. But I agree and I think it's fair to ignore Merrick since Anne also ended up disregarding it herself. I remember during the book tour for The Wolf Gift, Anne did an Q&A talk, she said she didn't consider Merrick, Blackwood Farm, or Blood Canticle canon by the time she began writing Prince Lestat.

Which I found confusing because she mentioned Quinn in Prince Lestat, but she felt that just because the character exists doesn't mean the events that unfolded are canon. Which I found more confusing. I also recall Anne saying (maybe in the same interview maybe in a different one?) she tried to merge her witches and vampires together, but she never felt like she managed to reach the right tone. Which I do agree with.

Oh anon!! I also feel for people just getting into the books! In some ways, it's probably nice to just binge the books back to back and not wait years wondering (like after MtD came out and it was like... Is Armand really dead?????? Where is Daniel???) but also a lot gets shifted or retconned and it must be jarring to go from one to the other with the discrepancies and changes so apparent.

For me, I feel like canon has always been sort of nebulous. Like you can just pick the things you like, you maybe explain away the things you don't (Armand was TOTES lying when he said he sold most of Night Island! 😒), and you can also just sort of ignore stuff if it doesn't really work for you. But that said, I also totally get the desire to be as true to canon as possible and trying to reconcile all of it the best you can, which is a total valid approach as well! I do think canon has a lot of little unexplored nuggets and things to unpack and try to figure out. It's like the crossword puzzle of book series which is part of why I think it has so much staying power for me personally. There's a lot left off the page to explore or explain or try to work out.

It's so interesting to hear she didn't consider Merrick or Blackwood Farm canon anymore!! I don't think I'd heard that, although I am not surprised about Blood Canticle, that book feels like a failed experiment and I agree it did not succeed as a VC/Mayfairs crossover. I think the Talamasca's existence and maybe Quinn was enough of a crossover, tbh, I don't know anything more was needed. (Granted, what I remember about BC is Lestat being in the midst of a manic episode and Rowan being involved, and that's pretty much it.) I do recall she was trying to build up to some war with the Talamasca and I guess that never really came together.

Prince Lestat definitely felt like more of a return to form and trying to get all of the vampires in one place and even wrap up some loose ends from previous books and tell us where everyone ended up. Well almost everyone. I agree it's funny Quinn gets a mention.

As for Merrick, I'm sure there's some interesting stuff in there, at least about Louis, but I've never been able to convince myself to reread it. I do like the implication that he and Armand came together after the events of that book and he moved in Trinity Gate because of shared trauma over suicide attempts, and that they found some healing with each other. But overall, it wasn't a book I enjoyed.

Thank you for sharing, anon!! This is really good stuff! Also LMAO thank you for reminding me The Wolf Gift exists. That book was a wild ride for sure! 💖

[jazzystudios82]

Diabolik Lovers - An Angel's Embrace AU: Akira Amor-Sakamaki 🩸

Bio for one of my Diabolik Lovers OCs, who is part of an upcoming fanfic. (Image made with Picrew). Please note that some of the information written here is privy to change in the near future as the story is still in development.

WARNING: Diabolik Lovers is a dark series with mature themes and topics. Discretion is advised. . . .

——————————————————————————

Biographical Information

Kanji: 明

Romaji: Sakamaki-Amor Akira

Nickname(s): Karlheinz's Precious Heir; Big Bro/Brother (The Triplets); The Runt (Cordelia)

Aliases: Anselm

Birthday: Info Coming Soon!

Sign: Info Coming Soon!

Age: 23 (physically; actual age is unknown).

Status: Alive (Resurrected)

Physical and Vital Statistics

Race: 1/2 First Blood, 1/2 Vampire

Ethnicity: Mexican & Japanese

Gender: Male

Height: 2 inches taller than Shuu

Weight: Unknown

Blood Type: O Negative

Eyes: Silver

Hair: Light Pink

Professional Status

Occupation: Karlheinz's Heir; Carla and Shin's servant (former)

Affiliation: The Sakamaki Family; The Tsukinami Family

Personal Status

Family:

Giesbach + (Maternal Biological Grandfather); Gabriel (Maternal Step grandfather); Carmen + (Maternal grandmother); Wolfgang + (Adopted Father); Karlheinz (Biological Father); Angelica (Mother); Richter (Paternal Uncle); Carla (Maternal Uncle); Shin (Maternal Uncle); Camilo (Maternal Uncle); Victor (Maternal Uncle); Shu (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Reiji (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Ayato (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Kanato (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Laito (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Subaru (Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Kino (Adoptive Brother/Paternal Younger Half-Brother); Various unnamed cousins (through mother's side)

Hobbies: Sword fighting

Favorite Food: Udon

VC (Voice Claim): The Wolf from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Akira Amor-Sakamaki (Sakamaki-Amor Akira) is the eldest son of Karlheinz and Angelica, and is the true eldest of the Sakamaki brothers. He was born during his mother's second marriage.

Appearance

Akira is a handsome young man who has inherited some of his mother's features: messy light pink hair and lovely silver eyes. Like his younger sister Sofia, Akira has lightly tanned skin that he inherited from his grandmother Carmen, and a beauty mark near his lips, though his is on the right side of his face. He has pierced ears that have several silver colored piercings. When Akira was attacked and killed, he gained a scar on the left side of his face that stayed with him when he was brought back. After his resurrection, Akira gained two tattoos, one on his face and one on his neck, since the way he was brought back used black magic.

For casual wear, Akira wears a white turtleneck sweater, a leather jacket, sunglasses with colored lenses, blue jeans, and black boots.

When he was going by the name Anselm and served Carla and Shin, Akira wore a dark cloak and mask that covered a majority of his face.

Personality

While intimidating at first glance, Akira is actually rather approachable and friendly when someone gets to know him better. He's a laid back guy who knows when to get series when the situation calls for it, particularly when it came to the Tsukinami brothers.

When he was a child, this was more evident. He was also very playful with his brothers and liked to tease them, especially Reiji, whom he gave the nickname "Pigeon" (often shortening it to "Pidge").

History

Akira is the eldest son of the Vampire King, Karlheinz Sakamaki, and his fourth wife, Angelica. He was four years old when Shu was born, five when Reiji was born, six when the triplets were born, and seven when the youngest brother Subaru was born. However, Akira never really got the chance to meet them all until Shu was four himself, which was during a family dinner where all of Karlheinz's wives and children had to be present.

Relationships

Akira's relationships with the Sakamaki family.

For Akira's relationship with Yui Komori.

For Akira's relationship with the Mukami family.

For Akira's relationship with the Tsukinami family.

For Akira's relationship with the Amor family.

Powers & Abilities: Inhuman strength; increased vision and sense of smell; increased speed and hearing; fast healing; healing saliva; teleportation; flying (during a full moon); swordsmanship

Etymology

Akira's surname from his mother's side, Amor, means "love".

Akira's surname from his father's side, Sakamaki, means "reverse winding" (逆巻).

Fun Facts

Akira is loosely based off of characters such as DC Comic's Jason Todd from the Batman series, and Anthony and Benedict Bridgerton from Netflix's Bridgerton.

The original nature of Akira's birth took inspiration from Terry McGinnis's origins in the animated series Batman Beyond: like Terry's adoptive father Warren, Wolfgang's genetic reproductive material would have been altered with Karlheinz's own DNA, meaning that any children Angelica would have had with Wolfgang would be Karlheinz's biologically. Also, the nature of Akira's death and resurrection also took inspiration from a DC Comics property, the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood. Akira's origins was changed to simply make it that his mother Angelica gave birth to the eldest son, and because Karlheinz was deeply infatuated with her, he made Akira his heir.

Akira knows how to speak English, Spanish, Japanese, German, and French.

He doesn't like strawberry ice cream, but enjoys other strawberry flavored treats.

After his death, many portraits of Akira were made and placed all over the mansion.

Because of his tattoos, Akira has some issues with going to some onsens (Japanese hot springs and bathing facilities) and beaches.

His favorite book is Rebecca.

Akira has nicknames for all of his brothers.

His least favorite play of all time is Romeo and Juliet.

Akira, while going by the name Anselm, got along pretty well with Carla and Shin, as he never caused any unnecessary issues for them.

------------------------------------------------------------

I feel like I made this one a bit too angsty.

[crispy-bonnie]

hello it be cipher from the discord,,, uhh request like in vc houston x heister reader where the protag gets in bad situation (downed, abt to be downed, etc) and is helped and they have an instinctual "OMG THANK U SO MUCH" response but instead of thanks they accidentally just go "OMG I LOVE U"

bet lmao . writing this a/n while we talk , this vc is very fun lol

Slip N’ Spill — HOUSTON X READER

Finding a functional prototype engine was difficult, even more so when absolutely none of you had any clue which was even close to working. However, with the pay of the job, the four of you pursued anyway.

You were joined by Wolf, Dallas, and Houston, all of which were trying to fend off cops from the lab, where you were trying to look for some sort of clue as to which engine was the correct one. In the midst of your search, you didn't register the sound of the vent in the room being kicked open, only turning around as you heard the familiar screech of a Cloaker's radio.

You had barely any time to react, unable to whip your gun out as the Cloaker's boot came into contact with your head. You were knocked to the floor, your vision nearly blurring as the Cloaker got ready to beat you senseless.

Blinking in and out, you could see the faint silhouette of a fellow heister, his gun in his hand as he shot the Cloaker before he could inflict any other injuries. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through your arm, soon coming to your senses as the pain dulled away.

Without fail, you managed to grab him by the hand, now stumbling into his arms as you stood up. You said something, you weren't sure what you said, most likely a thank you for him helping you up. However, when you looked up to look at him, his face seemed to be... shocked? He had a surprised expression on his face, and his cheeks were burning with red as he stared at you for a good minute or two.

"What?" You huffed, tilting your head and expressing almost as much confusion as he did. The words that came out of his mouth caused your face to flush red out of embarrassment:

"You... just said you love me..."

This statement caused you to start sputtering, making an attempt to find some sort of excuse to hide your slip-up. However, Houston only gave you a small smirk as he planted a small kiss on your forehead.

“As sappy as I’d like to get now, we still have a heist to do. I’ll just leave it at ‘I love you too.’”

With these words, he slowly but surely let go of you, quickly returning to the chaos of the heist and letting you process the moment. After a few seconds, you simply smiled giddily, moving on to gun down cops with this newfound joy now pounding in your chest.

[thorsiffe-dragonheart]

Forged upon our fists

For: @leelabheriya Location: The Punch Cage Past thread, set shortly after the Dragonheart's arrival in VC.

Thorsiffe had not need spend long in the city, before the existence of a fighting ring for those living under the Gilded Law found their ears. Such had been exactly the kind of adventures they'd hoped to find when moving to Vievecor.

Still searching for work, one might have thought Thorsiffe eager to compete for the money it offered. In stark contrast, it was what called to them least. They would welcome it, most certainly. But the experience forged in battle and the glory of your name upon the tongues of the crowd had been what truly drew Thorsiffe in.

Tonight too, Thorsiffe found themself testing their mettle in the fighting pit. They had discarded their usual clothes and jewelry in favor of a sporta bra and workout shorts, both a vibrant blue. The shorts displayed a red dragon on their butt, which they'd had a good laugh at upon first donning them. Their hair pulled up into a pun and most of their skin exposed, the werewolf was proudly displaying their tattoos. Saying Thorsiffe's body was a canvas was an apt descriptor, as they bore tattoos on all parts of it, and they came in a great and vivid variety of colors.

The crowd erupted in cheers and victory roars as they charged the staggering vampire. Pushing themself into the air, they leapt. Within the blink of an eye, they'd pulled back and erupted their legs in force again, dropkicking the vampire. Their feet planted against his chest, sending him crashing into the air and through the cage's fence, ripping the arena part ouf of its sockets.

Landing upon their back, Thorsiffe quickly rolled over and sprang to their feet, eyes darting to their opponent. He, on the other hand, simply let out a groan and remaind unconscious on the floor. Thorsiffe grinned, more cheering erupted from the crowd, and they raised their bloodied fists into the air in victory.

A moment's pause before the next fight. Their last foe was carried off, Thorsiffe was given a chair and a bottle of water, and some employees set to repairing the cage. It only took a minute for them to catch their breath - a benefit of their blood. Just as Thorsiffe had downed the bottle of water with worrying speed, a giant of a man, at least seven feet tall and with arms like logs, came up to them carrying to large mugs of beer.

Thorsiffe greeted Egil, their cousin, with a smile, and he gave them a nod and a pat on the back. One of the beers traded hands. In doing so, it went from looking like a normal glass in Egil's hand, to comically large in Thorsiffe's. "Skál," they cheersed, clinking their glasses and taking a drink. A ridiculous amount disappeared Thorsiffe's throat before they let out a satisfied 'aah', wiping the foam of their upper lip.

They and Egil talked and laughed some in their native tongue. Mostly it was Egil giving Thorsiffe pointers about where they could yet improve, and the two of them eyeing the room and theorizing who their next foe might be.

Some minutes passed, and one of the Cage's organizers came up to tell Thorsiffe the time for their next bout was nigh. They downed what remained of their beer and stepped into the cage again.

"In the right corner," the announcer's voice boomed through the speakers, "red-haired and wild, the northern wolf, we have... Dragonheart!"

Cheers and clapping came from the crowd, and Thorsiffe grinned and raised their fists into the air once more, letting out a full-throated howl. They felt alive.

"We have a bit of a themed rematch tonight," the announcer continued, and Thorsiffe quieted again. One did well to respect their foe, even in a friendly bout. Their eyes had lit up with curiosity upon hearing they had faced this one before, and they eagerly eyed the other side of the cage.

"For in the left corner, fiery and calculated, a prodigy of battle-magic, we have..." the speakers boomed. A black woman stepped into the ring, wearing a similar outfit to Thorsiffe, though hers was a fiery red, and a thick braid of dreads fell down her back. "Inferno!"

Inferno grinned, pointing a palm at Thorsiffe, her fingers spread out and bent like claws. "Ready to get burned again, wolf?"

Thorsiffe returned the grin, narrowing their eyes. "Play at fire. I shall break your bones like ice."

Instantaneously, fire crackles in the air. It was the same move, the same setup, that Inferno had used upon them last time. This time, Dragonheart is prepared. They charge forward, shifting on their feet and crouching, weaving underneath the gout of flame, though they still feel tendrils of it licking at their skin. The spell passes right through the cage's fence, and a group of customers jump for cover. Like a wave erupting to the sky, Thorsiffe springs up, pushing Inferno's hand up into the air, her fire spreading out against the ceiling.

Inferno's other hand starts moving, meaning to fling some curse at Dragonheart, but their momentum has not yet ceased. Their fist shot forward, into Inferno's face, and is met with a satisfying crack. The witch flinches, clutching her face with her free hand. Thorsiffe comes in closer, pressing herself against Inferno. Their faces side by side, looking over one another's shoulder, and they grip Inferno by the hips, before performing a Glíma throw. With their leg, they kick up one of Inferno's, wrecking her footing. Lifting her up the rest of the way with their hands, they twist their own torso to the side, using their thigh as an achor to roll their foe upon. Inferno yelps and lands on the cage's floor with a loud thud.

Thorsiffe lets themself follow, falling on top of her, but by the time they reach the ground, Inferno's has opened her mouth. And its filling with red hot light and the crackling of flames. She spews forth fire like a dragon of legend. Thorsiffe rolls over, away from her. Their arm is caught in the flames still, though only for a second, and they let out a cry as their skin is caught in the all-encompassing pain of fire.

On their knees, Thorsiffe grunts, having to pat out flames that found purchase on their skin. Meanwhile, Inferno gets up and laughs, "who's the dragon now, eh?"

She points her palm forward again, but Thorsiffe had rushed forward faster than Inferno could respond. The curse finds purchase only in the ground, disappearing with a loud 'swish'.

"I need only your heart, no?" Thorsiffe giggles, pushing their shoulder against her hips and gripping her behind the knees with both hands, breaking her posture. They fall to the ground once more, and Thorsiffe is quick to climb on top and pin Inferno's hands against the floor.

Inferno laughs again, "you don't learn, do you, dear?" Fire starts crackling down in her throat yet again, yet Thorsiffe simply grins. Inferno frowns, but before she can unleash her spell, Thorsiffe crashes down upon her, flinging their forehead into her face. The spell fizzles out, and any tension Inferno had held melts into the ground.

"You should get more creative," they snorted, getting up again to the deafening roaring of the crowd.

[loopscereal]

Back in late 2019 i had never even heard of twitch, I was on minecraft youtube watching hermitcraft, i had just recently found this funny video series on youtube by Wilbur Soot where he challenged his viewers live. Back then I thought Technoblade was just another reoccurring viewer of Wil’s! Thats so absurd to think back on!

Early 2020 I watched tommys vids in youtube where he ran around being purposefully annoying twoard the dteam, speedrunning challange, yt vids became yt vods, and he would mention checking out twitch, so would wilbur. By July of 2020 I was following wilbur on twitch, by September I had followed tommy, October I had followed tubbo.

Soon enough I was following a whole new chain of creators on a new platform, invested in their story. I hadn’t yet really registered that their timezines matter much since i was accustomed ti watching vods. I *STILL* regret having missed the pog2020 vs swag2020 election because of this! I still regret that!! God!

November 16th came and went, I was enamored with all the art that came out because of it, then Wolf the witch, then known as “channel without a name” had uploaded their animation of the 16th in the 20th. I was there, in that live chat, and after the premiere, I had made friends. I didnt think that would last, but here i am, almost two years later, and most of the “premier gang” members are still active we still talk regularly.

We watched origins together and fell in love with the vod, learned how to install mods and use fabrics launcher! I installed minecraft java edition fir the first time ever because of this, we played minecraft together, we branched out and screenshared to eachother when one would play any other game.

We had a channel specifically for when some damned streamer would go live to scream about it and summarize the premise to each other if we had missed it. By the time Tales Of the SMP rolled around we would all sit in vc together and watch as someone screen shared.

We’ve had three “seasons” of our origins smp, with shops snd community houses. I remember building water tunnels for our resident merling, and my friend would make awnings for me since i was an enderian and couldnt leave the house when it rained. We pulled pranks on eachother, my whole wheat farm was replaced with carrots, me replaced a friends house with jack-o-lanters and acacia wood!

I found other common interests with friends, we found we coult talk about other things other than minecraft incredibly easily, we made comics together, played new games together, suggested music together, celebrated together, we grieved the death of a fucking music bot together! I still miss groovy, we had so many late night ham sessions with groovy.

We still talk about c!tommy, c!tubbo, a friend makes animations about the eggpire and recently got new egg lore. It feels good after havjng seen and heard them hold on to it for so long, and thats what we’ve all done. Holding on, i guess.

I really have had so much fun, playing with my art style along these two years, creating little ficlets for my friends about characters i adore, going insane about new animations from the community. Ive had a personal au about clingyduo for well over a year now, maybe even two years? No idea, but god its been so fun, fullfilling even.

My vocabulary has deffo been changed, example A is right there, “deffo” was ages ago and hasn’t left me since. I dint think dsmp is going to leave me even if i stop interacting with it (which i don’t think I will just yet)

I love all the results I’ve personally gained from being a part of this.

Thank you so much to the streamers, the artists, the musicians, *some* of the clips channels, everyone who wrote character analysis, wrote fics, or just screamed in twitch chat or posted in the youtube comment section or live tweeted/ live blogged any moment they loved.

Thank you to the fanbase, more than anything, for making this place so loved.

[ms-rampage]

Eden's Gate: Kidnapped Chapter 13 - Mother

word count: 2,553

warnings: Mild violence, some swearing, angst, some fluff towards the end, family reuniting type of tears, talks of demon possession (foreshadowing for next series)

I'm officially on the Kate and Wheaty ship train 😭😭❤

FLASHBACK

14 YEARS EARLIER

June 2006

Salt Lake City, Utah

"When do you think mom's coming home?" 7 year old Kate asks 11 year old Paige who is serving her instant ramen.

"I don't know, she's usually out hunting late" she replies. 

"I hate it when she's not here" Kate says looking down, playing with her noodles. 

"I know, I hate it too" Paige says, serving herself. She sits down, and as she’s about to eat.

They get a knock at their motel door, Paige quickly looks up, and turns off the lights.

She moves Kate onto the floor under the table, and reaches for the shotgun her mother gave her to protect herself and Kate. 

They get another knock on the door this time more aggressive. 

"I know you're in there Winchester" a male voice says. 

The doorknob turns aggressively, and he starts to bang on the door. 

"Open the fucking door" he demands. 

"Stay here" she whispers to Kate. 

Paige stands up holding the shotgun aiming it at the door, she tries to make herself sound like a threat but she’s actually terrified. 

"Who is it?' she says loudly, 

"Where's Mandy?" he yells. 

"She's not here" she yells back. 

He then throws himself at the door, she looks back at Kate who is on the urge of tears. 

"Go away!!!" Paige yells at him. 

"What are you gonna do about little girl?" he says, making shivers going down her spine 

"You come in and you're fucking dead" she says, cocking the shotgun.

He laughs maniacally and says "You're not gonna kill anyone little girl". 

He continues to throw himself at the door, and he eventually breaks it down.

Sees Paige aiming a shotgun at him, Kate hiding under the table. 

He scoffs at her "Really, you're a child" he grabs the shotgun out of her hands and tosses it to the floor. 

The man he’s about 5’10-6’0, bald with a pedophile mustache, 250-270 pounds with a beer belly.

"Where's Mandy?" he yells, grabbing her hair and pulling on it. 

She reaches in her back pocket and slices his hand with her hunting knife. 

He screams in pain clenching his hand, letting go of her hair pushing her to the ground dropping her knife. 

She runs to the shotgun but gets shoved into the wall, a framed photo falls on her head in the process. The glass cutting her forehead. 

He turns to Kate, lifts the table and throws it out of the way. 

Making Kate scream and roll up into a ball. 

Paige gets up, grabs her knife and tackles him before he can get his hands on her, and stabs him in the throat killing him. 

His blood getting on her hands, the floor and on the bed. 

His body drops hard to the floor, he twitches and dies of blood loss. 

They both sit there in shock, Kate rolled up in the corner of the room crying her eyes out. 

Paige sits there on the floor looking at the blood on her hands. 

She's never killed anyone before but she knew what she had too. 

He was gonna do Chuck knows what to her little sister, and it was her job to protect her whenever their mother wasn't around. 

After what felt like hours the sound of their mother's voice echoes from down the hall. 

"Girls!!!!!" she yells out from the hallway. 

When she gets to the doorway, Kate stands up and runs to her. 

"Mommy" she says, still crying, hugging her. 

She looks over at Paige. 

"What happened?" she asks.

 "I killed him, he was-he was gonna hurt us" she answers, still in shock and looking motionless. "Did you let him in?" she asks. Their mom was very very strict about letting strangers into their room whenever she wasn’t around.

She shakes her head "He burst in, looking for you". 

Mandy walks over to the body, and sees his face 

"Shit" she whispers. 

"Get your stuff, we have to get out of here" she says in a panicked tone. 

They grab all their stuff and go to their car. They pack it up, and drive down the road away from that town.

END OF FLASHBACK

“Kate!?!?!?!?” Paige yells in shock over the gunfire, and screaming. 

“Come on, we're getting you out of here” Kate says. 

Wheaty comes into her cage to help her up.

“Wheaty??!?!?” Paige says.

“Come on, we’re getting out of here!!” he yells, as him and Kate help her up.

Eli, and a bunch of other Whitetails shoot at Jacob’s men, killing them. 

They help her into the backseat of the truck, Ryan goes into the truck with them.

Eli jumps into the driver seat, and Paige doesn’t see her but Mandy gets into the passenger seat.

Jacob watches from the balcony of the Veteran’s Centre as the truck that took Paige drives off. 

Paige feeling lightheaded, she puts her hands on her head.

“Hey you okay?” Kate asks. 

Paige looks at everyone disoriented. It takes her a few minutes to recognize everyone in the truck, she still doesn’t realize her mother is sitting in the passenger seat. 

Her mind finally goes clear, and she looks over at Kate. Tears fall down her cheeks, and she pulls her in for a tight embrace. 

She looks at everyone. Kate, Eli, Wheaty and Ryan.

“Thanks you guys” she says, with tears running down her face.

She looks over at the woman sitting in the front seat, and thanks her too.

“Thanks to you too. Militia lady”

She turns her head, and says “Don’t you recognize your own mother!?”.

“Mom!?!?!?!” she yells out, making Eli jump. 

She hugs her from behind the seat.

She’s crying even more now. She’s finally out of that shit hole, she can finally see her family again, and better yet she has her mom back. 

She asks the same questions Kate asked her earlier that day. 

Kate gets a phone call from Kenny.

Paige looks and sees that Kenny is calling her.

Her heart completely skips several beats.

“Do you wanna talk to him?” Kate asks her.

She hesitates, “No I want to surprise him”.

She answers the phone, and puts it on speaker.

“Hey Kenny” Kate says calmly.

“Kate!, where are you!?!!??” he asks frantically. 

“I told you, I had to deal with a personal issue” she responds.

 Paige tries holding back tears, as she hears her husband's voice. 

“Yeah, you said that already. Did you go to the VC??” he asks.

“No, I didn’t” she lies. “Why?”. 

“Nate told me there was a break in” he says.

“Really?? When??” she lies again. Kate is really good at lying. 

“I don’t know like 10-15 minutes ago” he says. “Where are you??"

"I’m at the Wolf's Den”

“Why are you at the Wolf's Den?” he asks suspiciously. 

“You’ll find out when I get home” she says, and she hangs up her phone. 

“Who’s Kenny?” Mandy asks.

“That’s my husband” Paige says. 

Mandy snaps her head back and looks at her. 

“When did you get married?” she asks.

“April of last year” she responds. “Hell you even have a granddaughter”

The look of despair on Mandy’s face. She turns her head forward, and looks out the window.

She never even tried to contact her daughters.

If she did, she would’ve been able to attend Paige’s wedding, be there at the birth of her daughter and be there to meet her son in law. 

They make it back to the wolves' den, and Paige eyes light up, and immediately jumps out of the truck the second she sees the Impala. 

She runs to it, and hugs it as if it were her child.

“She loves that car” Kate says to Wheaty and Ryan.

Kate puts her hand on her shoulder, and says.

“There’s a lot we need to talk about” and without hesitation. 

Paige opens her shirt, and rolls up her sleeves revealing her sins.

“Yeah, I know. John Seed told me a lot about you two” she says this, and goes into the bunker.

Kate sighs, and follows her inside.

The second Kate steps into the first room, Paige doesn’t lash out at her. She just sounds extremely disappointed. 

“So you and temper tantrum Seed were in a relationship?” 

Kate sighs, and says. “Yeah, we dated. We dated for 9-10 months. When I moved out here back in 2018”.

“How did you two even hook up?” she asks.

“He saved me” she says.

Confused, Paige says “He saved you??”.

“Yeah, he saved one night when I got off of work”

“What happened?” she asks curiously. 

“I got jumped, I was able to hold the guy off, but he punched him in the face, and that’s when John came out of nowhere, and he beat up the guy”.

Paige looks at Kate confused.

She stumbles over her words, “So- so John, he- he has a soft spot for you?”

Kate shrugs, “Yeah basically when I finished my time at the University, and I graduated. I did stick around for a while. And that's when.” she stops speaking and turns away.

“And that's when what??” she asks. “Kate!? That's when what happened?”.

She turns to face her, and says softly. “He got possessed by a demon”

Paige’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?!” 

She nods her head “Yeah, he was possessed by Saleos”.

“And another demon by the name of Merihem attacked my friends while they were on a camping trip, putting 3 of them in the hospital”.

Paige looks down at the ground, those names she knows she’s heard them somewhere. 

Kate rolls up her sleeves, and shows Paige her tattoos. 

“Those are your tattoos” she says, telling her as if she were a child.

“All my tattoos cover my sins. John, who was possessed by Saleos, forced him to have me atone.”

“What about Merihem?” Paige asks.

“I killed him. He was possessing the man who jumped me, and I killed him. Along with the demon”.

“So John knows about what we do?” she asks.

She nods her head “Yes”.

“You fucked up another one” Paige jokes. They both laugh. 

Mandy walks in and says

“So? How are my girls doing?”

“Well I have a bone to pick with you as well” Paige says to Mandy.

“Jacob told me that you and Joseph Seed were involved with each other years ago.”

She closes her eyes and lets out sigh.

“Yes, Joseph and I were involved with each other. But it's not what you think. You see I was working as a double agent for the Whitetails”

“Jacob also said that, and supposedly Joseph had some of his followers kill you. And clearly you’re not dead unless I’m on drugs”

“Yeah, Joseph did feel betrayed by me because he wanted me to be The Mother of Eden's Gate”.

Paige and Kate both look at each other in confusion. 

“Wow, so basically all 3 of us were involved with the Seed brothers in some way” Paige says. “Because you *points to Kate* you were romantically involved with John, and you *points to Mandy* you were involved in a work kind of way with Joseph, and I was kidnapped by Jacob, and he wanted me to be a part of his army, and I’m also 100% sure he wanted to fuck me”

They all share a laugh, and spend the next 20-30 minutes catching up. 

Kate gets up and goes to get a drink. 

Wheaty walks in a few moments later.

“Hey” he says to her.

“Hey” she responds with a smile. 

“You’re sister, she just looks different” he tells her.

She nods her head, and says “Yeah, I can’t imagine what Jacob did to her”.

“All the shit he put her through in the last few months”. 

“Your sister is strong. From what Ryan told me. Jacob tormented her, he pushed her until she broke, and she never did. And what really set her off, is that Jacob mentioned her daughter, and she went ballistic”.

She does a little side smile, and says “Yeah I can imagine that. And yeah without a doubt Paige is very strong mentally and physically. She took care of me, protected me throughout our whole lives, and she owns up to it”.

They both lean against the kitchen counter for a few minutes.

Kate sighs, and steps forward, standing in front of Wheaty.

“I just wanted to thank you, Eli and Tammy for helping my family. If Paige would’ve stayed there a little longer, I’m pretty sure she would be dead”

“I’m glad Eli, Tammy and I could help” he says, pushing himself off the wall. 

Standing in front of her. 

Kate hugs him, and he is taken aback by it. He hugs her back, and they stay like that for a few minutes.

She pulls away from their hug, and looks up at him. 

And without any hesitation, she kisses him.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, he places his hands on her hips, pulling her closer to him.

After a few minutes of kissing, Eli walks in on them and awkwardly clears his throat. 

Kate breaks their kiss, and looks back at Eli. 

Feeling like a teenager getting caught for making out with a guy by their parents or older sibling.

“I’ll just get this, and leave” he says, grabbing something off the counter, and awkwardly leaves the kitchen. 

They stand there for a few minutes laughing at what just happened. 

A few moments later Kate, and Wheaty go back into the main room with the others.

Mandy, Paige and Kate leave the bunker, and head home to Holland Valley.

They all say their goodbyes, they have all their stuff, they put everything in the car, 

and Mandy of course makes Paige take the passenger, and she drives the Impala just like the old days, when Kate and Paige were children. 

She starts up the car, the sound of the engine rumbling is like music to Paige’s ears.

She leans forward, turns on the radio, trying to find a station that’ll play some good rock music, and of course a great classic.

Turn The Page by Metallica (cover) plays on the radio, and they drive home. 

[saintpierres]

⌠ 𝐊𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐇 — 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 — 𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 — 𝐒𝐇𝐄 / 𝐇𝐄𝐑 ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐏𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓-𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐄 ! according to their records, they’re a 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐇 year, specializing in “𝐌𝐂𝐆𝐔𝐘𝐕𝐄𝐑” 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 & 𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 + 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍; and they 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐓 go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬, 𝐚 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐬𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫’𝐭. when it’s the 𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐆𝐎’𝐒 birthday on 𝟗 / 𝟏𝟑 / 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟔, they always request their 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐅 & 𝐃𝐔𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation.

BACKGROUND ! 

                         — trigger warning for abandonment, death, murder.

fun fact: calliope saint pierre doesn’t exist !

up until… age 18 or so, the girl currently known as calliope went by LUCKY. no last name. beyoncé style.

*record scratch* *freeze frame* yup, that’s me. you’re probably wondering how i ended up in this situation—

born with ice in her veins ( literally ) in the coldest permanent settlement in the world ( shoutout to siberia ! ), calliope came into this world hated by all and wanted by none

her mother didn’t bother telling her father that she was even born; the union was a one-night stand, and she had no desire to continue the connection

don’t want your baby ? YEET that thing in the woods ig

no fr though it was actually very sad dgklsdg she abandoned her in the forest to die; she didn’t really care if the cold or the animals got to her first, it wasn’t her problem anymore

fortunate for calliope, a woman stumbled upon her on her journey back to her super out-of-the-way home ( more on this soon ). you’re a lucky little thing, aren’t you, she said, and so she was named: LUCKY.

she was raised alongside other abandoned or unwanted children, gathered from all across the expanses of the siberian tundra

they were all named the moment they were found, regardless of whether they had a previous name. lupa was saved from a she-wolf; bramble was found in ( you guessed it ) a bramble bush. 

the kicker ? all girls. all future eliminators.

the woman they all called mamochka was former KGB, still working on the sly for the kind of people who would call her up and be like yo can you yeet this person off this mortal coil ? here’s money thx xoxo

once the girls were old enough, they clambered for these jobs, falling over themselves to impress mamochka and earn their keep

from the time she was very young, it was clear that calliope was mamochka’s favorite. sometimes this meant extra helpings at dinnertime; sometimes her extra attention meant she was more liable to notice cal’s flaws, like her weakness when it came to fighting or shooting left-handed

like the day she arrived back to her bunk, greeted only by a handwritten note that read break it— or i will.

cal……... straight up slammed her right hand into a door so she’d be forced to practice left-handed y’all mamochka was CRAZY !!!

she did get a slice of cake that night as a reward tho so #worthit ?

anyway, she eventually reached that age where she was only thinking about one thing...

wednesday addams vc murder 😌

mamochka’s girls have a particular way of completing their jobs: after the kill is complete, they retreat into the wilderness, relying completely on nature to survive for weeks to months & only reemerging when the trail had gone cold

cal was particularly Excellent at this tactic, and quickly became mamochka’s most successful trainee

mcguyver skills… threat elimination… it’s all coming together

basically, mamochka found out about gallagher through old ~spy contacts~ and wanted to see for herself what it was all about, so she shipped cal off with little more than a fresh passport and a rather impressive resting bitch face

shoutout to the #contacts, calliope was recruited not long after her arrival, and has excelled at gallagher ever since ( despite her… lowkey advocating for murder sometimes sdgsdg )

she was also very much Not Pleased at the revelation that blackthorne was training assassins. cal vc so if i was born a boy i could’ve just gone to assassin school that wasn’t in fuckin SIBERIA from the beginning ????? this is SEXISM AT ITS FINEST !

she fully intends on going buck wild in the assassination biz after graduation so dkgdsg love that for us ! she would’ve done it during school if she didn’t think she’d get caught tbh

PERSONALITY !

she’s very cold. siberia cold. hahaha

no but fr, she knows she has a really sweet face, though, so she often tries to use that to her advantage ?? like she’ll play nice if she thinks she can get something out of someone by doing so

in her True Form, though, she has no patience for bullshit or stupidity, doesn’t mince words, and generally doesn’t play well with others

all around… a fun gal ! what can i say !

WANTED CONNECTIONS !

friends: these are probably few and far between since cal is about as fun as a funeral, but i’m sure some people have slipped through the cracks.

someone she’s actually soft for: bc fr, she’s way too uptight. i’d love someone who gets to see the soft marshmallow inside ( if it exists ??? ).

hookups / flings / etc: a girl has Needs and Commitment Issues okay.

ex-friends: could be spicy ???? idk !!

enemies: u know the drill. i’m sure she has plenty of these sdkgds

plot with me xoxo

[douchebagbrainwaves]

FINALLY YOU CAN BUY INDIVIDUAL SONGS INSTEAD OF HAVING TO BUY WHOLE ALBUMS

Microsoft's last victim? If you want to be spending my time?1 Whereas American executives, in their hearts, still believe the most important thing about a car is the image it projects. Yesterday one of the worst things that can happen to a startup is more than you'd endure in an ordinary working life.2 Great work usually seems to happen because someone sees something and thinks, I could have thought of that. It was a lens of heroes. During the Bubble many startups tried to get big fast, I worried about how small and obscure we were. Revenue Loop was the optimal sort for shopping search, in the early days Facebook made a point of hiring programmers even for jobs that would not ordinarily consist of programming, like HR and marketing. If you think investors can behave badly, it's nothing compared to what corp dev people like to turn the tables on you. Giotto saw traditional Byzantine madonnas painted according to a formula that had satisfied everyone for centuries, and to lose one's sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one's sense of humor is to be consciously aware of it. They just wanted lots of people to see their ads. As well as writing software, I had to do it?

The worst consequence of trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues. Y Combinator is not in itself enough. At this stage, all most investors expect is a brief description of what you need to see what it's like in an existing business before you try running your own.3 If there is such a thing as good and bad senses of the word.4 They also tell you when you're succeeding in fixing them: when cram schools become less popular. The reason is other VCs.5 One of the reasons kids give up drawing at ten or so is that they understand the cost. Google does.6 It felt as if they'd deliberately accelerated this process.7

That's still expensive. And if you find yourself asking should we allow users to do x? But if you come out of the way, and there's a simple solution that's somewhat expensive, just take it and get on with more important things. It could easily be the defining mistake this generation of American politicians later become famous for. Partly because you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup than realize it. We've now reached that point with stuff. Not everything in Simula is an object.

And while you can outhack Oracle with one frontal lobe tied behind your back, you can't link to them.8 But it's not just that the problems we face are different; the whole structure of the business is different. Build something users love, you have to seek out questions people didn't even realize were questions. The best they can do is fall back on.9 It's as if a chunk of genetic material from the old-fashioned robber baron business world got incorporated into the startup world that has changed, not them. In the software business. It takes confidence to throw work away.10 C#: Java is controlled by Sun. As you read this, a whole new generation of software is being written way too fast for Microsoft even to channel it, let alone which one.11 When you work on matters of passing importance. In practice that means startups should only talk to corp dev unless a you want to discover great new things, then instead of turning a blind eye to the places where conventional wisdom and truth don't quite meet, you should ask what else they've signed.

Notes

As the art business? The main one was drilling for oil, over fairly low heat, till onions are glassy. To be fair, the world in which internal limits are expressed. If a company, but simply because he writes about controversial things.

If they want you. They seem to be the model for Internet clients too. 2%. When you're starting a startup we funded, summer jobs are the usual way of doing that even if they knew their friends were.

I wonder how much would you have a quality that feels a lot of money. My guess is the other side of making a good grade you had in grad school, because the first phases of both consist mostly of unedifying schleps, and when I first met him, but most neighborhoods successfully resisted them. If the company at 1.

Another advantage of startups as they get to go all the other hand, he saw that they create liquidity. As well as down. What is Mathematics?

Information is too general.

He had equity. Come work for the coincidence that Greg Mcadoo, our contact at Sequoia, was one cause of accidents.

They did try to give you fifty times as productive as those working for startups might be interested in you, what that means having type II startups spread: all you have to follow redirects, and logic. Unfortunately, not where to see how much we really depend on Aristotle would be vulnerable both to attack the A P supermarket chain because it looks great when a wolf appears, is caring what random people thought of them material.

Is this unfair? And when a wolf appears, is a bad deal. As well as good ones. They can lead to distractions even more clearly.

Good news: users don't care about valuations in angel rounds can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than to call you about an A round about the size of the class of 2007 came from such schools.

VCs fail by choosing startups run by people like them—people who will go away, and we should be specialists in startups.

Then Josh Wilson came in to pick the words out of them could as accurately be called acting Japanese.

[ar-hart]

Created by @jxsminewrites. I was tagged by @rosecorcoranwrites . Thanks! 😊

Rules: tag 5 or more other writers. If you aren’t tagged, feel free to use these questions anyway and consider yourself tagged!

1. Short stories, novels, or poems?

Short stories and novels.

2. What genre do you prefer reading?

Does manga count? If so, I like yuri, magic, & shojo.

Regular Books: Lgbt+ &/or Fantasy, & historical fiction focusing on native american tribes or early civilization. I also like young adult novels (mainly by VC Andrews/Sarah Dessen or something like Beautiful Creatures).

3. What genre do you prefer writing?

I love fantasy! Magic & mystical creatures & beautiful lands! 😍 Also, I tend to only write lgbt+. I can't help it; I just love writing about two girls in love. 👭

4. Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?

Depends on what I'm working on. For my WIP, I definitely plan and outline, though my scenes sometimes float randomly through my head until I absolutely have to write them down. For my short stories, I write as it comes to me.

5. What music do you listen to while writing?

A little bit of everything. I have a playlist that includes cartoon songs, some pop, some rock, some new age, & some random songs that I have no idea where they came from. 🎶

6. Fave books/movies?

Books: Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Annie on my Mind, Clan of the Cave Bear, The Language of Flowers, & many many more

Movies: LOTR cartoon movies, Howl's Moving Castle, Wolf Children, Beauty and the Beast

7. Any current WIPs?

I am working on a lgbt+ young adult novel about a singer and an artist who are both dealing with heavy home problems. They meet, become friends, and slow burn into lovers. They learn to lean on each other for support and find strength by being together (romanticly and non). Also my singer has a best friend who is still in the closet but totally amazing (he is super down to earth, the best advice giver, a rock drummer, & absolutely loves his twin sisters and plants).

8. If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

My hair would be pulled back in a twisted bun, probably with a pencil. I would be wearing brightly colored tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops (if any shoes, I prefer barefoot). Maybe include my reading glasses, a book in my hand, and my phone on my hip.

9. Create a character description for yourself:

Red hair, brown eyes, short (5'3"). Really pale skin, freckles. Bright green nail polish. Likes to read, write, & cuddle. Loves animals (mostly cats). Sometimes doodles on arm with bright colored pens. Has sun & moon tattoos on inside of calves. Can be found in sunny rooms, sitting in a plush chair with a book. (I know this sounds silly & jumbled, but this is seriously how I keep up with my babies. Lol)

10. Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

No. I try to keep real life separate from my writing.

11. Are you kill-happy with characters?

No. So far my works haven't called for any deaths, but that might change. I doubt I will want to kill several characters though. Only if I really have to. I always feel bad for putting my babies through unnecessary stress.

12. Dream job?

Being a well loved author

13. Coffee or tea while writing?

Tea, mainly chamomile & honey.

14. Slow or fast writer?

Slow. I take ages to write even one chapter because I want my timeline to fit right and I rewrite every time I turn around! Honestly, my WIP has 3 chapters mainly because I have rewrote them like 5 times (& have to redo them again).

15. Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

Books, video games, anime, music, and random pictures (mainly nature pics or anime art). Also my hubby & sister, both of whom listen to my ramblings and bounce ideas with me. 💙

16. If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?

I would love to be a nature weaver (earth/water magic) or a forestry archer. Either way, I would be a beast tamer and lover of forests.

17. Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche?

Favorites: Don't have one.

Least favorite: Love Triangles. I hate them.

18. Fave places to write:

In a plush recliner by a window in the living room. So comfy.

19. Fave scenes to write?

Heart-warming romance scenes & deep, thoughtful moments.

20. Most productive time of day for writing?

I like to write during car rides, laying in bed, or just whenever. Depends on what we are doing that day and when the mood strikes me. Sometimes I'll go hours about my book in my head (maybe all day), then have to write immediately. Other times, I'll get bored and pull open a word document.

21. Reason for writing:

To give someone a place to escape to or to show that they aren't alone with what they are dealing with. Books became my saviors at a young age & I know how they can take away the worries of the day (even if only for a moment). I want to give my readers that chance to get away if they need it.

Okay! I will tag @ravencharm , @christinawritesfiction , @helenpowers , @readalittle-writealittle , & @merigreenleaf .

[michaeldempsey]

Deep Tech & SPACs

Update: I dove into this topic further in a follow-up post on where tech markets are going.

Over the past 6 months we’ve seen a ton of completed/rumored SPACs, as well as heard conversations at the board level for companies that are currently in discussions to get liquidity via a SPAC. It’s reached a point where If there was a prediction market on VC-backed companies that will get taken out by a SPAC in the next 12 months, there would be a few unanimous favorites if you polled the broader VC ecosystem.

This phenomenon is far reaching, but it specifically is interesting to me on the deep tech end of the market.

Over the past 6 months the financial markets have become incredibly narrative driven as investors face an unparalleled fiscal policy by the government to keep markets moving, while struggling to parse the next wave of valuation metrics, new business models, and technologies that emerge with a strong narrative surrounding massive growth potential.

I’ve long been a believer that narratives rule everything in private markets, but I’d argue only a few companies historically have been able to flip this at the public market levels as well for an enduring period of time (most notably, Amazon, with a clear prioritization of expansion at all costs effectively giving the company carte blanche to do whatever it wants without material scrutiny from public market investors).

Deep or Frontier Tech is perhaps an even more narrative driven subset of the broader tech sector than most others. Over the years, private market investors have gotten excited about various verticals due to the perceived technical moats, the massive greenfield TAMs that this innovation can access, and the clear narrative of “this is the future we were promised.” 

Josh Wolfe describes this phenomenon tangentially as “science fiction to science fact” which only further hat tips narrative importance and ease of proliferation.

Across each category of deep tech, we go through a hype cycle that leaves scars at the firm and market level, almost killing entire categories for VCs (try raising a VR series B+ over the past few years, for example).

Often these deep tech companies require patience as commercialization metrics lag traditional companies, with upside that is arguably not as asymmetric across all categories. This creates a valley of despair for many companies that were able to raise seed and A capital, but where series B firms struggle to gain $25M+ check size conviction without material social proof and company comparable metrics. If a company is able to break through that barrier (often with great narrative and early signs of commercialization) then there is a secondary exhaust when it comes time to raise growth capital, as growth stage investors are even less primed to dream big without consistent revenue figures or scalable, decent-margin revenue, with a diversified customer base. 

As Deep Tech has become a category, the universe of investors and well-funded companies has grown materially over the past decade. This has led to a large number of companies that are growth-ish stage, looking for liquidity.

Enter SPACs.

A few years back we saw companies like NIO go public with almost anemic traction but a narrative anchored to one of the most polarizing companies on Wall St, Tesla. The stock popped upon IPO, investors showed excitement, then reality came crashing down, cratering the stock from ~$10/share to just below $2/share in a matter of months.

Over the past few months, many have documented the increasing narrative driven nature of stocks, profiling things like r/wallstreetbets, Davey Day Trader, and Robinhood traders. We can debate how much retail investors are truly moving markets, but what’s clear is that narratives are impacting public markets, and deep tech companies that match to pop-culture, science fiction driven narratives are a likely beneficiary, as they are far easier to grasp at a high-level than the hottest cloud infrastructure IPO.

Investors have wanted exposure to futuristic technologies via public markets for some time now and often are left playing tangential stocks (Nvidia as a proxy for ML or crypto, for example), or hoping that an R&D group accrues enough value to a larger company to make it material (Cruise/GM and Waymo/Alphabet at one point).

We got an early look at this phenomenon with the Virgin Galactic reverse merger (which 3x’d in a few months early on), then alongside the explosion of Tesla we saw Nikola Motors (2x in 5 days) and Hyllion both hit the markets. Now in just the past week we’ve seen Luminar (a LiDAR company that could be seen as exposure to self-driving technology) and Desktop Metal (the only real additive manufacturing play on the market) both getting taken out by SPACs after having raised $100M+ in private markets and with less than scaled revenue metrics.

There are similarly rumors that we could see acquisitions of Lucid, Fisker (EV) and Proterra (EV bus) as well in the near future drafting off of Tesla success. I wouldn’t be surprised either if well-funded and long-private companies in the space sector (like a Planet Labs or Rocket Lab), Autonomous Vehicles, or Robotics/Drones, were to entertain SPACs as a liquidity option.

Deep tech companies thrive on narrative, and as narrative has shown outsized ability to carry a stock lately, I believe we’ll see multiple attempts at using SPACs to fund companies that today rely more on narrative than business metrics for a longer period of time than previously seen in public markets. While this could be considered passing the buck, I’m excited to see another financing and liquidity option arise for companies and investors solving some of the world’s hardest problems.

By the way, as of today NIO is now at an all-time high.

[hcwlisms]

hewwo , it’s me again ... mack !! i go by he/they pronouns & reside in est which i forgot to mention last time rip ~ this time i’m back w/ my wildt child .. miss cora :3 she’s a handful tbh , but i cnt wait for yall to rp w/ her & for me to develop her :”) under the cut , u can read more about her & feel free to hit tht ♡ if u want to plot .. or hmu on d*cord @ ᴛᴊ sᴏғᴛ ʙᴏᴛ ♡ˑ♡#3528 !! lov yall <3

⦗○⦘backstory.

hmm ok , so cora is far from a tragic story .. she’s full of life & love ! she was born in jeonseol actually , to a human mother & a werewolf father.. & she wasn’t the only one -- she has five brothers which she lovs but also equally h8s 

her mother was the only person she kind of connected to growin’ up but tht didn’t stop her from attemptin’ to hang out w/ her brothers / do activities w/ her father !! as much as she was a girl, nobody culd guess tht she culd do a lot of things tht were meant for ‘men’ from a glance !! & equally enjoyed things tht were boys were only supposed to like !!

however, growin’ up with a lot of boys around the house onli taught cora to stand up for herself & how to be even more confident .. despite that she was the only female werewolf in their family ):

tho, around the age of ten -- the yoo’s had decided to pack up & move to canada only due to the fact that her father had gotten into some risky business ( gamblin’ ) & didn’t want anyone to come after his fam if he culd never pay w/e he owed back /:

so cora resided in canada for most of her teenage yrs, where outside of the house -- she became more ‘westernized’.. as in she hardly ever talked in korean or kept to her family traditions ; hence where her wildt side began to blossom 

thru the ages of 13-17 , cora ran within a small group of people that enjoyed the rush of aderanline , alcohol , etc. anything tht made them feel lik they were livin’ their best lives ! ofc , peer pressure came into play & cora was thrusted into it however she did learn to adapt

despite her friend , cora never drank too much or did too much drugs in fear of lettin’ her secret slip of wht she actually was /: but she did make up for it in the adrenaline part , datin’ ppl she knew tht was bad for her .. doin’ dangerous things .. sometimes disobeying her parents bc ! why not ! her brothers always did , so why culdnt she ?? 

even tho she was a bit of a wildt child , her studies & education were always imp to her as she desperately desired to go to college ! in which she did , but however her parents were sendin’ her back to where she grew up as they felt it wuld b right for her .. to settle down , figure herself out w/o the influence of her friends & for her to connect w/ her werewolf side more 

which ! at the ripe age of 19 , she had her things packed -- kissed her parents & hugged her brothers gudbye & was back in her hometown b4 she knew it ! & it’s where she’s been for the past 3 yrs :3

⦗○⦘ present.

cora enrolled in college outside of jeonseol , in seoul & takes the train there n’ back every semester since she was 19 !! her major is in environmental sciences , as she had always had a fascination w/ science but more imp the earth ! 

she works at a roller rink as an attendant , gathering & savin’ money up to continue to live comfortably & hopefully return back to canada one day as she misses it dearly /: 

as for her werewolf side , cora has most definitely connected w/ it more despite only being half ! she is only able to shift into her wolf form for so long & is a lot smaller not solely bc she is female but also bc of being half as well so she doesn’t attempt to go around other wolves when she does come across them .. her senses r heightened however .. by a lot , so she’s learned to control those & not appear ‘freakish’ as her friends used to say when she culd smell smth they culdnt .. hear smth b4 it was comin’, etc. 

cora does enjoy hangin’ out w/ both humans & the supernatural , but does tend to b a bit scared sometimes of certain species bc she doesn’t know much about them except the stereotypical things rip .. 

⦗○⦘ personality.

ok uhhhhhh h h h ... cora is heavily based off ramona from scott pilgrim vs. the world dlskfjsdlf as in she lives on the edge , does shit tht probs isnt the best for her but does so anyway bc she lovs the thrill , & has a personality tht is kind of alluring but once u get to kno her it’s either a hit or miss ! 

on the outside , she definitely appears lik a girl tht doesn’t enjoy gettin’ her hands dirty but bc of her brothers .. she enjoys dirt , she enjoys insects ( shes That Bug Girl ) .. has an interest in sports cars & last but not least .... lovs Girls slkdfjd BIG LESBO ALERT ! !! 

due to her need for thrill & an addiction to adrenaline , she often changes the tips of her hair .. one week it culd b blue & then the next week it culd be purple !! she’s wildt lik tht ..

as for her traits: idiosyncratic - hmm .. tbh , cora is a peculiar individual ?? she has an aura tht tends to draw ppl into her , she doesn’t rlly kno why ?? & she’s a type of person tht lots of ppl dnt find themselves bein friends w/ but at the same time .. she’s everyones friend somehow ?? rustic - cora is rlly simple , there isn’t much to her aside from being half werewolf & she has an adrenaline addiction ! she’s plain , aside from tht .. fickle - exhales , ok ! so cora’s mind .. is legit always changin’ ! she’s not indecisive however she prefers to just .. have all the options kjhfds so dnt b surprised if u see her sayin’ she’s gonna do one thing but seein’ her doin’ another thing two min later rip cunning - ofc , w/ being a half werewolf , she is v quick witted .. & she enjoys gettin’ wht she wants in lyfe so , she is not hesitant to trick u into doin’ smth for her !

⦗○⦘ etc.

i think i’v said as much as there is about her being half wolf ... & her sexuality is .. she’s a [ janis vc ] big fat lesbian ! sorry boys /: 

she doesn’t shift into her werewolf form often , unless she wants sum time alone or if it’s a full moon ( unfortunately , tht does apply to her ) 

i think tht’s it !!! 

if u read all tht .. congrats ! if ur interested in plottin’ , again click tht ♡ button & i’ll slide into those DMs :p

[workfromhom]

Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time

Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom. The Grammy-winning recording artist is struggling to remember the name of “that actor,” the one who’s had a successful career in both the entertainment industry and tech investing.

“I learned about all the things he was doing and I thought it was great for him,” Ne-Yo told TechCrunch. “But I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

It turns out “that actor” is Ashton Kutcher, widely known in Hollywood and beyond for his role in several blockbusters and the TV sitcom That ’70s Show, and respected in Silicon Valley for his investments via Sound Ventures and A-Grade in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bird and several others.

Ne-Yo, for his part, is known for a string of R&B hits including So Sick, One in a Million and Because of You. His latest album, Good Man, came out in June.

Ne-Yo, like Kutcher, is interested in pursuing a side gig in investing but he doesn’t want to waste time chasing down the next big thing. His goal, he explained, is to use his wealth to encourage people like him to view software engineering and other technical careers as viable options.

“Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said. “But tech is changing the world, like literally by the day, by the second, so I feel like it just makes the most sense to have it accessible to everyone.”

Last year, Ne-Yo finally made the leap into venture capital investing: his first deal, an investment in Holberton School, a two-year coding academy founded by Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache that trains full-stack engineers. The singer returned to San Francisco earlier this month for the grand opening of Holberton’s remodeled headquarters on Mission Street in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

[gallery ids="1722954,1722952,1722953,1722955"]

Holberton, a proposed alternative to a computer science degree, is free to students until they graduate and land a job, at which point they are asked to pay 17 percent of their salaries during their first three years in the workforce.

It has a different teaching philosophy than your average coding academy or four-year university. It relies on project-based and peer learning, i.e. students helping and teaching each other; there are no formal teachers or lecturers. The concept appears to be working. Holberton says their former students are now employed at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox and Tesla.

Ne-Yo participated in Holberton’s $2.3 million round in February 2017 alongside Reach Capital and Insight Venture Partners, as well as Trinity Ventures, the VC firm that introduced Ne-Yo to the edtech startup. Holberton has since raised an additional $8 million from existing and new investors like daphni, Omidyar Network, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle.

Holberton has used that capital to expand beyond the Bay Area. A school in New Haven, Conn., where the company hopes to reach students who can’t afford to live in tech’s hubs, is in development.

The startup’s emphasis on diversity is what attracted Ne-Yo to the project and why he signed on as a member of the board of trustees. More than half of Holberton’s students are people of color and 35 percent are women. Since Ne-Yo got involved, the number of African American applicants has doubled from roughly 5 percent to 11.5 percent.

“I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

Before Ne-Yo’s preliminary meetings with Holberton’s founders, he says he wasn’t aware of the racial and gender diversity problem in tech.

“When it was brought to my attention, I was like ‘ok, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed,'” he said. “It makes no sense that this thing that affects us all isn’t available to us all. If you don’t have the money or you don’t have the schooling, it’s not available to you, however, it’s affecting their lives the same way it’s affecting the rich guys’ lives.”

Venture capital’s diversity disaster

Holberton’s founders joked with TechCrunch that Ne-Yo has actually been more supportive and helpful in the last year than many of the venture capitalists who back Holberton. He’s very “hands-on,” they said. Despite the fact that he’s balancing a successful music career and doesn’t exactly have a lot of free time, he’s made sure to attend events at Holberton, like the recent grand opening, and will Skype with students occasionally.

“I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic.”

Ne-Yo was very careful to explain that he didn’t put money in Holberton for the good optics.

“This isn’t something I just wanted to put my name on,” he said. “I wanted to make sure [the founders] knew this was something I was going to be serious about and not just do the celebrity thing. I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic so we dropped whatever we were doing and came down, met these guys, hung out with the students and hung out at the school to see what it’s really about.”

What’s next for Ne-Yo? A career in venture capital, perhaps? He’s definitely interested and will be making more investments soon, but a full pivot into VC is unlikely.

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley doesn’t need more people with fat wallets and a hankering for the billionaire lifestyle. What it needs are people who have the money and resources necessary to bolster the right businesses and who care enough to prioritize diversity and inclusivity over yet another payday.

“Not to toot the horn or brag, but I’m not missing any meals,” Ne-Yo said. “So, if I’m going to do it, let it mean something.”

The Leaky Tech Pipeline explains how to address diversity and inclusion

from Facebook – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2xLZm0V via IFTTT

[un-enfant-immature]

Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse one investment at a time

Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom. The Grammy-winning recording artist is struggling to remember the name of “that actor,” the one who’s had a successful career in both the entertainment industry and tech investing.

“I learned about all the things he was doing and I thought it was great for him,” Ne-Yo told TechCrunch. “But I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

It turns out “that actor” is Ashton Kutcher, widely known in Hollywood and beyond for his role in several blockbusters and the TV sitcom That ’70s Show, and respected in Silicon Valley for his investments via Sound Ventures and A-Grade in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bird and several others.

Ne-Yo, for his part, is known for a string of R&B hits including So Sick, One in a Million and Because of You. His latest album, Good Man, came out in June.

Ne-Yo, like Kutcher, is interested in pursuing a side gig in investing but he doesn’t want to waste time chasing down the next big thing. His goal, he explained, is to use his wealth to encourage people like him to view software engineering and other technical careers as viable options.

“Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said. “But tech is changing the world, like literally by the day, by the second, so I feel like it just makes the most sense to have it accessible to everyone.”

Last year, Ne-Yo finally made the leap into venture capital investing: his first deal, an investment in Holberton School, a two-year coding academy founded by Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache that trains full-stack engineers. The singer returned to San Francisco earlier this month for the grand opening of Holberton’s remodeled headquarters on Mission Street in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

[gallery ids="1722954,1722952,1722953,1722955"]

Holberton, a proposed alternative to a computer science degree, is free to students until they graduate and land a job, at which point they are asked to pay 17 percent of their salaries during their first three years in the workforce.

It has a different teaching philosophy than your average coding academy or four-year university. It relies on project-based and peer learning, i.e. students helping and teaching each other; there are no formal teachers or lecturers. The concept appears to be working. Holberton says their former students are now employed at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox and Tesla.

Ne-Yo participated in Holberton’s $2.3 million round in February 2017 alongside Reach Capital and Insight Venture Partners, as well as Trinity Ventures, the VC firm that introduced Ne-Yo to the edtech startup. Holberton has since raised an additional $8 million from existing and new investors like daphni, Omidyar Network, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle.

Holberton has used that capital to expand beyond the Bay Area. A school in New Haven, Conn., where the company hopes to reach students who can’t afford to live in tech’s hubs, is in development.

The startup’s emphasis on diversity is what attracted Ne-Yo to the project and why he signed on as a member of the board of trustees. More than half of Holberton’s students are people of color and 35 percent are women. Since Ne-Yo got involved, the number of African American applicants has doubled from roughly 5 percent to 11.5 percent.

“I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

Before Ne-Yo’s preliminary meetings with Holberton’s founders, he says he wasn’t aware of the racial and gender diversity problem in tech.

“When it was brought to my attention, I was like ‘ok, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed,'” he said. “It makes no sense that this thing that affects us all isn’t available to us all. If you don’t have the money or you don’t have the schooling, it’s not available to you, however, it’s affecting their lives the same way it’s affecting the rich guys’ lives.”

Venture capital’s diversity disaster

Holberton’s founders joked with TechCrunch that Ne-Yo has actually been more supportive and helpful in the last year than many of the venture capitalists who back Holberton. He’s very “hands-on,” they said. Despite the fact that he’s balancing a successful music career and doesn’t exactly have a lot of free time, he’s made sure to attend events at Holberton, like the recent grand opening, and will Skype with students occasionally.

“I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic.”

Ne-Yo was very careful to explain that he didn’t put money in Holberton for the good optics.

“This isn’t something I just wanted to put my name on,” he said. “I wanted to make sure [the founders] knew this was something I was going to be serious about and not just do the celebrity thing. I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic so we dropped whatever we were doing and came down, met these guys, hung out with the students and hung out at the school to see what it’s really about.”

What’s next for Ne-Yo? A career in venture capital, perhaps? He’s definitely interested and will definitely be making more investments soon, but a full pivot into VC is unlikely.

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley doesn’t need more people with fat wallets and a hankering for the billionaire lifestyle. What it needs are people who have the money and resources necessary to bolster the right businesses and who care enough to prioritize diversity and inclusivity over yet another payday.

“Not to toot the horn or brag, but I’m not missing any meals,” Ne-Yo said. “So, if I’m going to do it, let it mean something.”

The Leaky Tech Pipeline explains how to address diversity and inclusion

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1299

Monday, February 3, 2020

 I had a busy Sunday yesterday with hauling boxes of comic books back and forth from the Walkley Arena where Jee-Riz Comics & Appraisals had another successful day selling old comics. I want to thank my partner Penny for all her help and my other partner Chris for all his hard work organising everything and making my job of manual labourer and security so much easier. Then it was home to rest before a yummy chicken dinner with roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts while watching the Super Bowl. I stayed up way past my bedtime to see if the Kansas City Chiefs would win (SPOILER ALERT) and they did. I was happy for them as it had been 50 years since they had been to the big game.

Doctor Strange #2 - Mark Waid (writer) Kev Walker (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The Wrecker was introduced last issue and he's joined by his partner in crime Thunderball to battle Doctor Strange. This time Stephen has a surprise up his sleeve to help him defeat the bad guys. It seems that someone is giving super villains magical weapons and Doc is going to find out who. I like this new more assertive Sorcerer Supreme.

 Something is Killing the Children #5 - James Tynion IV (writer) Werther Dell'Edera (art) Miquel Muerto (colours) AndWorld Design (letters). I thought that this was the climax where Erica dispatches the beast. She triumphs but then it's uh-oh. The hunt continues. This new twist will keep me reading.

 Action Comics #1019 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Klaus Janson (inks) Brad Anderson (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Lex Luthor and Leviathan (if you haven't been reading all the Event Leviathan books his secret identity is revealed here) team up to kill Superman. Their weapon of Superman destruction is none other than the Red Cloud. The art is really bothering me now. When I can't make out Lex Luthor in some pages that's just bad. John Romita Jr. should not be drawing costumed super hero comic books anymore.

 The Immortal Hulk #30 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo & Cam Smith (inks) Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Simple Hulk escapes from the belly of the beast just in time to see Xemnu coming to save the day. Roxxon is framing the Hulk for all the death and destruction so what happens next should be good.

 Jessica Jones: Blind Spot #2 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Mattia De Iulis (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Now I'm really hooked. There's a mystery within a mystery what with Jess waking up from a bullet to the head. Add Misty Knight and Elsa Bloodstone into the mix and this story is one I'd pay money to read.

 Avengers #30 - Jason Aaron (writer) Ed McGuinness & Francesco Manna (pencils) Mark Morales & Francesco Manna (inks) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Yes, the Starbrand is reborn. The big fight is between the Avengers and everyone else that wants the Starbrand to be destroyed. It's a power equal to the Phoenix Force and must not be wielded. But nope, this baby is being delivered no matter what. I rolled my eyes when the three heralds gave gifts to the baby. Way to rip off the Bible Jason. I wonder who's going to raise this kid?

 Fallen Angels #6 - Bryan Hill (writer) Szymon Kudranski (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Psylocke soars for the win. Apoth never had a chance no matter how much the villain gloated. X-23 gets handed the leadership of the team so if they go on another mission I'll be there.

 X-Force #6 - Benjamin Percy (writer) Stephen Segovia (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). New plant based super villains are introduced this issue so you won't want to miss this exciting development. There will be no more stars and garters as Beast gets super serious. Could be a prelude of Hank becoming a bad guy.

 Amazing Spider-Man: Daily Bugle #1 - Mat Johnson (writer) Mack Chater, Francesco Mobili & Scott Hanna (art) Dono Sanchez-Almara & Protobunker (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). If you're curious about how the good old Daily Bugle is doing this 5-issue mini is for you. Editor-in-Chief Robbie Robertson makes some changes and they include Peter Parker. There are three weird elements in this first issue that intrigued me enough to want to read the second issue. One involves Koi Boy, a friend of Squirrel Girl's. I've never heard of him before. I want to see what other weirdness shows up.

 Ravencroft #1 - Frank Tieri (writer) Angel Unzueta (art) Rachelle Rosenberg & Dono Sanchez-Almara (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). The one-shots leading up to this 5-issue mini were good enough for me to want to read this first issue to find out where they were going with this Institute for the Criminally Insane. The good guys are Mercedes "Misty" Knight and John "Man Wolf" Jameson. The bad guys, well judge for yourself. Would you consider Grizzly to be insane? One of Misty's colleagues is a certifiable homicidal maniac. His alter ego wears green and throws pumpkin bombs. Even his presence didn't turn me off. It wasn't until Mayor Wilson Fisk introduces the rest of the staff that I decided to shut this thing down. Not even the mysterious dweller in the dark is going to get me to read the rest of this.

 Detective Comics Annual #3 - This $4.99 US issue is dedicated to the dearly departed Alfred Pennyworth.

The first story by Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Sumit Kumar (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) & Tom Napolitano (letters) has an old MI-6 agent who worked with Alfred asking Bruce for help to bring in a traitor to the British Empire. It must be the week where we find out the real names of beloved characters. I didn't know that Misty Knight's real name was Mercedes and here we find out that it's Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth.

The second story by Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Eduardo Risso (art & colours) & Tom Napolitano (letters) tells the origin story of Batman's costume.

I am really disappointed that there hasn't been a proper funeral issue for Alfred in either Batman or Detective. I think the character deserved to be honoured more.

 Avengers of the Wastelands #1 - Ed Brisson (writer) Jonas Scharf (art) Neeraj Menon (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This story takes place in the world where Old Man Logan came from. Don't get too excited, he's dead. I'm not familiar with these characters but you don't have to be to understand that they band together to fight Doctor Doom who is running rampant across the land with his army killing anyone who won't submit to his rule. A guy named Dwight has the Ant Man costume. Dani Cage, daughter of Jessica and Luke, has Thor's hammer and there's the son of Bruce Banner who is a Hulk. These Avengers will defy Doctor Doom. I liked the surprise appearance of another hero at the end so I'm going to keep reading this 5-issue mini.

 Deadpool: The End #1 - Joe Kelly (writer) Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Ruth Redmond (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I read this because Joe Kelly wrote it. I like how he writes Deadpool. This one-shot has many endings and Deadpool doesn't die. I didn't know that Wade has a daughter named Ellie.

 Suicide Squad #2 - Tom Taylor (writer) Bruno Redondo (art) Adriano Lucas (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). This book is about trust. Trust between team members, all of whom are super villains. Some of them hate each other. Trust that the Squad does what their overseers want them to do. All that trust leaves plenty of room for plot twists and I love that. The team goes on a mission to free a politician and one team member is left out of the loop. This issue was a lot of fun.

 Hawkeye: Freefall #2 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). There's a Spider-Man cameo here that makes me think Matthew Rosenberg would be a good fit for Amazing. He does snappy banter well. The shocking twist at the end means I have to keep reading this series. I would anyways because I'm having fun too.

 Thor #2 - Donny Cates (writer) Nic Klein (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). In order to save the universe, Thor must be Galactus's herald and guide him to worlds that he can feed on. Donny Cates proves he's a worthy writer this issue as Thor and Galactus fight over an inhabited planet before Galactus can eat. The planet eater must have five meals before he's strong enough to stop the coming universal catastrophe. Thor just wants to save any sentient beings before Galactus chows down. The surprise appearance of a friend to Thor and a foe to Galactus has me anticipating the next issue with relish and hot sauce.

 X-Men #5 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) R.B. Silva (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Cyclops sends three mutants on a mission into enemy territory and one of them is X-23. I know it's futile but I really hope they change her and Logan's costumes. I hate the pointy flaps on their head gear. The spies are going into The Vault which seems to have appeared out of the blue. I don't remember any reference to this place before. There's a big twist in The Vault as time moves differently there. By the end of this issue X-23, Darwin and Synch have been inside for three months and five days or five hundred and thirty-seven years Vault Time. I don't think they're coming out alive.

 Conan the Barbarian #12 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). The Life and Death of Conan concludes. Does the King of Aquilonia die? Does the evil god Razazel walk the earth again? Read this to find out. I was happy with how this story ended.

[nuttytriumphenthusiast-blog]

Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom. The Grammy-winning recording artist is struggling to remember the name of “that actor,” the one who’s had a successful career in both the entertainment industry and tech investing.

“I learned about all the things he was doing and I thought it was great for him,” Ne-Yo told TechCrunch. “But I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

It turns out “that actor” is Ashton Kutcher, widely known in Hollywood and beyond for his role in several blockbusters and the TV sitcom That ’70s Show, and respected in Silicon Valley for his investments via Sound Ventures and A-Grade in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bird and several others.

Ne-Yo, for his part, is known for a string of R&B hits including So Sick, One in a Million and Because of You. His latest album, Good Man, came out in June.

Ne-Yo, like Kutcher, is interested in pursuing a side gig in investing but he doesn’t want to waste time chasing down the next big thing. His goal, he explained, is to use his wealth to encourage people like him to view software engineering and other technical careers as viable options.

“Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said. “But tech is changing the world, like literally by the day, by the second, so I feel like it just makes the most sense to have it accessible to everyone.”

Last year, Ne-Yo finally made the leap into venture capital investing: his first deal, an investment in Holberton School, a two-year coding academy founded by Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache that trains full-stack engineers. The singer returned to San Francisco earlier this month for the grand opening of Holberton’s remodeled headquarters on Mission Street in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

Holberton, a proposed alternative to a computer science degree, is free to students until they graduate and land a job, at which point they are asked to pay 17 percent of their salaries during their first three years in the workforce.

It has a different teaching philosophy than your average coding academy or four-year university. It relies on project-based and peer learning, i.e. students helping and teaching each other; there are no formal teachers or lecturers. The concept appears to be working. Holberton says their former students are now employed at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox and Tesla.

Ne-Yo participated in Holberton’s $2.3 million round in February 2017 alongside Reach Capital and Insight Venture Partners, as well as Trinity Ventures, the VC firm that introduced Ne-Yo to the edtech startup. Holberton has since raised an additional $8 million from existing and new investors like daphni, Omidyar Network, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle.

Holberton has used that capital to expand beyond the Bay Area. A school in New Haven, Conn., where the company hopes to reach students who can’t afford to live in tech’s hubs, is in development.

The startup’s emphasis on diversity is what attracted Ne-Yo to the project and why he signed on as a member of the board of trustees. More than half of Holberton’s students are people of color and 35 percent are women. Since Ne-Yo got involved, the number of African American applicants has doubled from roughly 5 percent to 11.5 percent.

“I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

Before Ne-Yo’s preliminary meetings with Holberton’s founders, he says he wasn’t aware of the racial and gender diversity problem in tech.

“When it was brought to my attention, I was like ‘ok, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed,’” he said. “It makes no sense that this thing that affects us all isn’t available to us all. If you don’t have the money or you don’t have the schooling, it’s not available to you, however, it’s affecting their lives the same way it’s affecting the rich guys’ lives.”

Holberton’s founders joked with TechCrunch that Ne-Yo has actually been more supportive and helpful in the last year than many of the venture capitalists who back Holberton. He’s very “hands-on,” they said. Despite the fact that he’s balancing a successful music career and doesn’t exactly have a lot of free time, he’s made sure to attend events at Holberton, like the recent grand opening, and will Skype with students occasionally.

“I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic.”

Ne-Yo was very careful to explain that he didn’t put money in Holberton for the good optics.

“This isn’t something I just wanted to put my name on,” he said. “I wanted to make sure [the founders] knew this was something I was going to be serious about and not just do the celebrity thing. I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic so we dropped whatever we were doing and came down, met these guys, hung out with the students and hung out at the school to see what it’s really about.”

What’s next for Ne-Yo? A career in venture capital, perhaps? He’s definitely interested and will be making more investments soon, but a full pivot into VC is unlikely.

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley doesn’t need more people with fat wallets and a hankering for the billionaire lifestyle. What it needs are people who have the money and resources necessary to bolster the right businesses and who care enough to prioritize diversity and inclusivity over yet another payday.

“Not to toot the horn or brag, but I’m not missing any meals,” Ne-Yo said. “So, if I’m going to do it, let it mean something.”

Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time – TechCrunch

Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom.

Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time – TechCrunch Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom.

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Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom. The Grammy-winning recording artist is struggling to remember the name of “that actor,” the one who’s had a successful career in both the entertainment industry and tech investing.

“I learned about all the things he was doing and I thought it was great for him,” Ne-Yo told TechCrunch. “But I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

It turns out “that actor” is Ashton Kutcher, widely known in Hollywood and beyond for his role in several blockbusters and the TV sitcom That ’70s Show, and respected in Silicon Valley for his investments via Sound Ventures and A-Grade in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bird and several others.

Ne-Yo, for his part, is known for a string of R&B hits including So Sick, One in a Million and Because of You. His latest album, Good Man, came out in June.

Ne-Yo, like Kutcher, is interested in pursuing a side gig in investing but he doesn’t want to waste time chasing down the next big thing. His goal, he explained, is to use his wealth to encourage people like him to view software engineering and other technical careers as viable options.

“Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said. “But tech is changing the world, like literally by the day, by the second, so I feel like it just makes the most sense to have it accessible to everyone.”

Last year, Ne-Yo finally made the leap into venture capital investing: his first deal, an investment in Holberton School, a two-year coding academy founded by Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache that trains full-stack engineers. The singer returned to San Francisco earlier this month for the grand opening of Holberton’s remodeled headquarters on Mission Street in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

Holberton, a proposed alternative to a computer science degree, is free to students until they graduate and land a job, at which point they are asked to pay 17 percent of their salaries during their first three years in the workforce.

It has a different teaching philosophy than your average coding academy or four-year university. It relies on project-based and peer learning, i.e. students helping and teaching each other; there are no formal teachers or lecturers. The concept appears to be working. Holberton says their former students are now employed at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox and Tesla.

Ne-Yo participated in Holberton’s $2.3 million round in February 2017 alongside Reach Capital and Insight Venture Partners, as well as Trinity Ventures, the VC firm that introduced Ne-Yo to the edtech startup. Holberton has since raised an additional $8 million from existing and new investors like daphni, Omidyar Network, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle.

Holberton has used that capital to expand beyond the Bay Area. A school in New Haven, Conn., where the company hopes to reach students who can’t afford to live in tech’s hubs, is in development.

The startup’s emphasis on diversity is what attracted Ne-Yo to the project and why he signed on as a member of the board of trustees. More than half of Holberton’s students are people of color and 35 percent are women. Since Ne-Yo got involved, the number of African American applicants has doubled from roughly 5 percent to 11.5 percent.

“I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

Before Ne-Yo’s preliminary meetings with Holberton’s founders, he says he wasn’t aware of the racial and gender diversity problem in tech.

“When it was brought to my attention, I was like ‘ok, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed,’” he said. “It makes no sense that this thing that affects us all isn’t available to us all. If you don’t have the money or you don’t have the schooling, it’s not available to you, however, it’s affecting their lives the same way it’s affecting the rich guys’ lives.”

Holberton’s founders joked with TechCrunch that Ne-Yo has actually been more supportive and helpful in the last year than many of the venture capitalists who back Holberton. He’s very “hands-on,” they said. Despite the fact that he’s balancing a successful music career and doesn’t exactly have a lot of free time, he’s made sure to attend events at Holberton, like the recent grand opening, and will Skype with students occasionally.

“I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic.”

Ne-Yo was very careful to explain that he didn’t put money in Holberton for the good optics.

“This isn’t something I just wanted to put my name on,” he said. “I wanted to make sure [the founders] knew this was something I was going to be serious about and not just do the celebrity thing. I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic so we dropped whatever we were doing and came down, met these guys, hung out with the students and hung out at the school to see what it’s really about.”

What’s next for Ne-Yo? A career in venture capital, perhaps? He’s definitely interested and will be making more investments soon, but a full pivot into VC is unlikely.

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley doesn’t need more people with fat wallets and a hankering for the billionaire lifestyle. What it needs are people who have the money and resources necessary to bolster the right businesses and who care enough to prioritize diversity and inclusivity over yet another payday.

“Not to toot the horn or brag, but I’m not missing any meals,” Ne-Yo said. “So, if I’m going to do it, let it mean something.”

Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time – TechCrunch Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom.