#The Cabin Fever Labs Incident

[painful-vomit]

Uzi Doorman in the flesh. Or rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons; most of them were government property. As for the suit, I think you’ve earned it.

The borderworld, Earth, is in our control for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there. I am impressed.

That’s why I’m here, Ms. Doorman. I have recommended your services to my employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job. They agree with me that you have limitless potential.

You’ve proved yourself a decisive woman, so I don’t expect you’ll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you’re interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise… Well… I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax, after what you’ve just survived.

Wisely done, Ms. Doorman. I will see you up ahead.

[haastera]

Murder Drones has to be written as a multi-season series. There's only one episode left and I'm still confused about so many different things.

-How exactly did CYN make the Murder Drones (a better explanation than saying she used the solver)?

-When exactly did CYN make the Murder Drones?

-Where exactly did CYN make the Murder Drones?

-What happened in-between the Gala massacre and Earth being destroyed?

-How exactly did CYN invade and corrupt other human exo-planets?

-What's up with the other, uniquely designed Murder Drones?

-What does CYN even want beyond being hungry?

-What is the A.S really? An A.I or an ancient Outer god type entity?

-When's the French drone showing up?

-What's with the other two ships that arrived with Flesha?

-What's the proper timeline of events?

-How exactly was the Absolute Solver activated in UZI and Doll?

-How does the Absolute Solver work?

-Why did JCJ arrive at the Elliot mansion to investigate?

-What was the Gala for?

-Why is Flesha posing as a JCJ technician and does she have a direct connection to the company?

-Where did Flesha and Murder Drone J come from?

-Why does Flesha still have the mansion key on her keychain if it was destroyed years ago?

-What is humanity's current state?

-What happened to V?

-What happens to a Murder Drone's Eldritch form if CYN is no longer their admin?

-Who is Lizzy's secret friend?

-What happened to Thad in Ep4?

-How did Nori survive and make it to Cabin Fever Labs?

-Why didn't Yeva also survive if Nori could?

-What's with JCJ's motto?

-How accurate was Ep5 to what really happened at the mansion?

-What's with the disappearing oven cores in Ep6?

-Is Tessa truly dead?

-Is the text about the Cabin Fever Cathedral already being there a joke or serious?

-Does J know about Tessa really being Flesha?

-Did N, V and J always have their personalities as Murder Drones or just their Copper 9 versions?

-If they always had them why bother with the corporate cover story?

-What's with Tessa's Ep3 pink suitcase?

-Why was nanite acid introduced as a powerful weapon only to never be used?

-What happened to the original N, V and J? Where did they go after the mansion incident?

-Did J fight Nori in the past?

-Why does Khan say he had a kill all humans phase when he was younger?

-What's with Outpost 009?

-When and where did N kill Nori?

-What's the purpose of the corpse spires?

-What was CYN's original personality?

-How much of worker drone CYN is left in current CYN?

-What Solver entity was at Camp 98.7 in Ep4?

-What's up with Flesha's star patch?

And a bunch more.

[jazzstarrlight]

There has been a few alterations. But Tessa will remain alive as this is an AU.

Cyn had Tessa captive as her little pet while also trying to make her live forever by slowly turning her into a vampiric robot almost like she did with the DD's.

Tessa had no idea what the cabin fever labs were doing. Just that Cyn was targeting them for reasons. That being said, they're not just trying to stop Cyn with the creation of the patch but also cabin fever labs are attempting protection to the weakest point of the planet it's on. Copper-9's incident most likely would've been worse if not.

Nori's interaction with Tessa is what splits the AU into the main timeline & the happy family timeline. Main- Tessa knocks Nori out and traps her in an empty jar she finds laying around. HFT- Nori dodges & is able to tell her about the patch before the solver controls Uzi.

Uzi was stabbed in the chest. The chest is where the core is. Therefore Tessa stabbed Uzi in the core & if the core is damaged then it can't revive.

[sh4rkbug]

MURDER DRONES - ODDSWAP AU

I present to you all today a murder drones AU based entirely on the premise of “how insane could I get with a swap AU of murder drones?” (Hence the name “OddSwap”)

The swaps (so far) are as follows:

Uzi swaps with Cyn

V swaps with Tessa

N swaps with Doll

J swaps with Alice

IN DEPTH INFORMATION / CLOSE UPS BELOW THE CUT⬇️

CYN AND UZI:

Cyn is incredibly pessimistic and anti-social, only speaking to her older brother Neo. She adapted this personality in an attempt to ward off those who bothered her, but instead it just encouraged more bullying from peers. Cyn has a much more sensitive and polite side, but is usually masked under wittiness and coldness.

Uzi retained her canon personality up until being thrown out and becoming a zombie drone/solver creation. She maintains her rebellious nature but in a more subtle and dull manner. Before her incident she actually got along well with the others, but afterwards they all became distant and wary.

VANESSA AND SERIAL DESIGNATION T:

Vanessa has a similar personality to past V in canon, but is a bit more spiteful and more eccentric about drones. Every time she “geeks out” is shut down by her parents, hence where the spitefulness came in. Sometimes she’d have drones purposely mess up to get back at her parents. Despite that, Vanessa treats the drones well and tries not to favor one over the other. She too is wary of Uzi, but still tries to be nice to her.

T has the personality of canon Tessa, both before becoming a disassembly drone and after. Once becoming a disassembly drone she acted a little more hyper and quirky. While it comes off as annoying to the other two disassembly drones, she still is a valued teammate. She tends to act nervous around those superior to her.

NEO AND SERIAL DESIGNATION D:

Neo is Cyn’s older brother. Their parents died while they were young, and that event lead Neo to becoming vengeful and cold. It also lead to him thinking T killed their parents. Neo is overprotective of his sister and the only one she’s comfortable around. He has the capability to care and love, but that’s a privilege only a certain few will get.

D is quiet, keeping to herself mostly. But of the three, she’s the most strategic. Her quietness is due to being in constant thought of what’s next, which made her a bit out of touch with the other two disassembly drones. D is still Russian, and only understands Russian.

JANE AND SERIAL DESIGNATION A

Jane is presumably the only survivor of Cabin Fever Labs. She used to be much more prestige and classy, until (PLACEHOLDER) tweaked out and Y’know the rest. She entirely blames (PLACEHOLDER) and takes her anger out on travelers. She is also cannibalistic and has some control over the sentinels.

A is the most sadistic of the three, but also not the most competent. Her only redeeming quality is persuasion, and her sadist nature holds her back greatly. The other two could be killing several workers at once while she’s busy focusing on one drone to torture. She claims herself leader of the three, and often blames the other two for her mistakes.

Anyway, that’s all so far. If you made it here congratulations you get a cookie 🍪

If this blows up I’ll do a little part 2 of this

[haastera-001]

Timeline Issues

Tessa being CYN, or at least not fully human would solve the frustrating timeline issue I've had up until now.

In the flashback, Tessa is at a minimum of 10 years old, more probably around 12-15.

Now she looks like she's in her 20s, 30s at the absolute most.

This timeline does not work now that we know the mansion incident came first.

UZi is at least 18 years old given the age bracket of her fellow classmates. She has made it clear she's lived for as long as she can remember inside the outpost, never knowing her mother.

Even if Khan met Nori and had UZI before the core collapse, which is highly unlikely, the collapse had to have occurred at least 15 to 20 years ago.

At Cabin Fever labs all the whiteboards have (work) week 627 written on them. (627(7)/365 = 12 years

(On a side note the collapse occurred on the 26th or 27th based on the calendar markings).

Even if we disregard this it's clear that they had to have been working there for at least a couple years prior to the collapse.

Earth and 2 other planets were corrupted by the solver before C9 according to episode 6. The way Tessa describes what happened & the pictures imply what occurred on Earth wasn't an instantaneous event, and it likely wasn't on the other worlds.

(Side note 2: The little simulation showing the solver corruption spread looks like a Murder drone pod, raising an interesting question as to how exactly those 2 planets were taken over. Did they somehow get core-collapsed as well, or were they invaded by legions of Murder drones?)

This is all to say that the events in the mansion had to have occurred at least 30-40 years ago, maybe even 50 or 60.

So either Tessa looks really, really, really good for her age, or this Tessa is not quite human anymore.

[skyedancer2006]

Pokémon ScarVi x Murder Drones AU Masterpost

Links

First Idea Post + Deisgn Drafts

Drone!Kieran Colored Doodles

Eldritch Drone!Kieran Ref Sheet

Artfight Attack by @/ofowlsdinosaursanddragons!

Art: Hologram. (Horror Warning)

Drone!Kieran and Juliana Ref Sheets

O.G.E.R. Ref Sheet

Fanart by @/wispcandle! (Kieran)

Fanart By @/wispcandle (Juliana)

About The AU

Kieran and Carmine are Worker Drones living on Copper-9. Their parents passed years ago at the hands of Disassembly Drones, and the two have been living on their own ever since.

Within the colony they live in are tales of a dangerous robot called O.G.E.R.; said to be a merciless drone-killing creation left behind by the humans, even before the arrival of the Disassembly Drones. Kieran is fascinated by the stories of O.G.E.R. and wants to see it one day, despite the threat it poses.

One day when the two are part of a scavenging party, their group is attacked by a Disassembly Drone and the siblings are the only ones to make it out. They’re cornered by the killer drone, but Carmine manages to decapitate it with a well placed swing of an old stop sign.

As Disassembly Drones do, it regenerates its head while the two are celebrating. From here it goes similarly to the first episode, with the DD (Serial Designation J, later dubbed Juliana) having temporarily damaged functions and semi-befriending the two workers before they flee back to the colony.

J’s squadmates N (Nemona), A (Arven), and P (Penny) eventually find her and get her back to normal, after which she shares with them a theory the Worker siblings did. That the company doesn’t have their best interests at heart, and that ruthlessly killing the Workers may not be the best move. They’re skeptical, but do eventually agree (unlike in the original show).

The other three aren’t keen on going to the colony and trying to talk things out, so J goes alone and meets Kieran and Carmine again, apologizing for the incident and telling them about the developments within the squadron. Of course they’ll still have to kill some to survive, due to their oil dependency, but she promises her and the other Dissasemblers will do their best to survive off of scavenging and kill as little as possible.

Carmine is still wary of the Disassembly Drones but Kieran quickly hits it off with J the more she comes by to visit the colony, the two becoming friends and Carmine eventually warming up to her as well. J, who knows what O.G.E.R. truly is, doesn’t tell Kieran about it, fearful that doing so will damage his love for it.

J and Carmine one day stumble upon O.G.E.R., and it is nothing like what the Workers imagined. Instead of a terrifying, murderous robot, it’s a small, ball-like droid that seems to only have scavenging tools and an emp built into it, and isn’t aggressive in the slightest. It runs away before they can do anything though.

Kieran finds out that the two encountered O.G.E.R. without telling him, and that J knew the truth about it all along, and is furious, running off to where they found it to try and see it himself. He does find it, only for O.G.E.R. to suddenly become aggressive and attack him with its EMP.

In reality, O.G.E.R. was created to function alongside the Sentinels in eliminating drones infected with the Absolute Solver. And Kieran was unknowingly a Solver host; one of his parents was an escapee from Cabin Fever Labs, and he unluckily inherited the Solver while Carmine did not.

This incident with O.G.E.R. attacking him, combined with the stress of the events leading up to it, causes the Solver to activate, and when he wakes up after the attack, he starts experimenting with learning how to use the Solver every chance he gets, when nobody is watching him.

Over time he starts developing control over his abilities, and other Solver-infected traits. Remote manipulation of objects (eg. levitation and destroying them), teleportation, an oil dependency and almost predatory instinct, and biomechanical wings and tail.

As the Solver develops he switches many times between being excited and determined to use it, and scared of what is happening to him. As the Solver takes more and more control, however, he stops fighting against it, and it gets to the point where he almost merges with it and becomes part of it. This eventually results in an Eldritch form of sorts, and him going on a killing spree within the colony.

The rest of the story is still a WIP, and likely will be until the show wraps up.

Gallery and Special Thanks

Huge thanks to @angelabsol for coming up with the concept and design for O.G.E.R.!

[handfulofmuses]

@mixed-up-multiverse asked: Well, this is awkward. Uzi was seated on the couch within the Cabin fever labs, next to her was her mysterious classmate Doll. Doll and Uzi… admittedly had a rough start. From the bullying pre-colony attack to the Promening incident, Uzi could already feel the tense air. N, V, J and that human were outside talking amongst each other, and had left the two alone in here for the time being. Probably for the best, considering Doll’s supposed hatred for the disassemblers. They’d been told there were cans of oil in here in case they needed it, which didn't help Uzi's nerves too much. Don't remind her of what happened the first time she came here, dangit. It was getting too awkward though. And too quiet for Uzi’s liking. So, only one thing left to do. Quiet breath… quick glance towards Doll… and… “…Nnnnnice day we’re having?”

What Uzi might view as awkward, Doll was alright with just sitting there in silence. In fact, she barely seems to care about the presence of her companion, the robotic bug crawling around on her hands, seemingly lost in her own thoughts where to go from here now. When Uzi speaks, red eyes lifted calmly towards her before glancing out of the window.

“It’s snowstorming.”

[midori-laboratories]

Ashes In The Fall - Chapter 5: Tension and Calculation I

Book 2 of the Calendula Chronicles

Resident evil, Wesker X OC

Story Summary: Marigold Ashford escaped the mansion, only to face new incarceration with a familiar jailor. She may yet have to make a deal with the devil, if she can unearth what this Faustian bargain would cost her.

There is always something left to lose.

Chapter summary: In the aftermath of Marigold's control snapping, Wesker considers how to use this, while Marigold confirms a few things about what Umbrella was really doing.

A little over a week passed. With the shock of the gym incident receding, Wesker used the time to re-evaluate how to handle his charge.

The blood draws resumed every few days, albeit on a smaller scale; vials only. Ashford herself had admitted that the vials were difficult to manage one-handed at the best of times. Given how she tensed whenever Wesker came within a few feet of her, these were…hardly the best of times.

That little admission had come back to bite her, it seemed.

Wesker had started to find more reasons to dip into that bubble of space she had constructed for herself. A touch to the arm when drawing blood. A hand to the elbow, or to the small of her back, when escorting her to the lab.

It seemed that she had decided, thus far, not to run.

Any actual operations were moved offsite, out of range. He and Birkin had gone over exposure vectors she might have used years ago. Spencer had been particularly concerned about testing for a rare mycelium colony in her bloodstream, and had been horrified when she hadn't shown signs of infection, oddly enough. Miss Ashford, or Placidia (Birkin always seemed more comfortable not using her true name), might have lived a cloistered life for the most part, but from all reports, she was hardly an actual nun.

“I’m already getting far more input than before. The external viral vector is enough to pile on the rest of it.”

The virus changed the equation; she had been quite correct on that point. It was...a workable change. Some of his own physiological responses he had experienced in close proximity to her had been somewhat more than he had anticipated, but they could be factored in.

The virus responded to her. The video feed of the tyrant guards letting her slip past had been one (glorious, schadenfreude-infused) instance, but it was an entirely different thing to experience it in person.

The incident in the gym had shown him just how much power she had available, kept tightly tamped down. Had she understood, he rather thought every creature in the mansion would have quietly returned to their enclosures. If Doctor Clemens had been deep enough in his infection at the time, he might have even been subconsciously induced to release her.

Miss Ashford seemed to respond viscerally to the presence of the virus in turn. The memory of her encounter with the mutated Marcus seemed to leave a lasting impression in her nightmares, for all his efforts to look human, and young. Wesker had found himself waking abruptly for several nights in a row before putting that particular problem together. The woman had been passively radiating distress each time, with the virus in his own veins attuning itself to the pheromone signals she emitted, contact or no contact.

And then that little incident in the gym had occurred…

Well. For now, they were in a holding pattern. Birkin was still working to extract himself and his research from Umbrella. For now, the best thing to do was to hold and consider how to handle the new information.

-----

For Marigold’s part, the incident seemed to shift the tone of her confinement from asset to...something else. While she hadn’t dared to let go again as she had in the gym, she still was escorted to use the equipment for the sake of mitigating her cabin fever.

And he kept touching her. The contact was small, almost perfunctory, but it was distracting. This man seemed to be an expert at throwing her off her balance. ‘

Ii was making it harder to shut down that hungry part of herself.

In all of the excitement, she had forgotten something from her day in Raccoon City. During a blood draw and examination, she forced herself to ask. “What’s under the police station?”

He eyed her, speculative. “Did someone mention something to you?”

“You know well enough that no one would have.” He hmmmed in response, non-committal.

Marigold glared, then relented. “I spent a few hours down the street from it, until I couldn’t stand it anymore. Something is down there. It’s...sharper than the feeling from the mansion. I don’t have the lexicon for ‘here there be monsters’ developed quite yet.”

Something about that statement seemed to amuse him, from the briefest twitch of his eyes and mouth. He finished the draw, pressing light above the puncture point as he removed the needle from her arm, then stepped back to take a seat across from her. She was almost getting used to it. He settled into his seat, taking a moment to presumably collect his thoughts.

“You were woken briefly before going into long-term storage. Spencer had wanted to speak to you directly, and a telephone call was arranged during the brief window it was deemed safe to wake you. You may not have been entirely lucid. Do you recall? It’s...related.”

Passive voice, clinical. He might have been describing one of the infected rats, with the amount of distance pumped into that statement. “Not clearly? I remember...Spencer making assumptions. Again. I think I made him angry?” She thought back. “There was a woman nearby, maybe in the next room. She kept crying for her mother.”

“She wasn’t.”

Marigold’s face narrowed. “It was distracting enough to comment upon, evidently.”

“Lisa Trevor hadn’t spoken since early 1968. Given the purpose of the space, I doubt Spencer felt comfortable having the mansion’s architect, or his next-of-kin, out in the world after it was completed. He never was one to suffer loose ends. Prototype - what you like to call Sonnetroppe, although the active form is the T-virus - was already being tested on the family back then.”

Marigold stared openly. She had heard the rumors back then. After a month or so, it had made the papers in New York and resurfaced every few years as an unsolved mystery. George Trevor, his wife, and fourteen-year-old daughter - the papers had redrawn age-progression sketches each time to show what the girl might look like as time passed - gone, into thin air.

Spencer had always been a monster, then. Smiling at her family, reaching out to seat her within the company once her father was gone. Alexander was effectively exiled and left to his own devices.

Neutralized.

She forced herself to draw in a breath, then another. Her moods and the pheromones were always linked. She was well trained in minding that particular fact, suppressing hard. It was more difficult now. A rather large part of her wanted the lash out at Wesker with all her strength. She’d taken savage joy in doing so to Marcus back in the day, and she had still needed to be so, so careful.

But that wouldn’t get her any closer to answers, and they both knew it. Were it not for the massive improvements in her…network capabilities…she would have demanded her suppressants on the spot. She had functioned so long and well while on them that their absence that she had forgotten what it was to go without.

Wesker continued after a moment. “The Paris lab developed something to supplement lost cerebral function from the virus. Birkin was able to requisition a sample. It…worked. Too well. Miss Trevor mutated more than anticipated, but she started asking for her mother again.” His mouth pressed in a firm line. “Several female staff members were killed before the-Miss Trevor could be contained. But Birkin was able to extract to first strains of the G-virus - Golgotha - from that event. That’s what you could sense under the police station.”

Marigold slumped down in her chair. “So it has always been this way.” She said, quietly. Her trip to Romania back in had alerted her to the potential for danger, but she'd lacked the imagination for its scale. It would have been comparatively easy to burn the whole thing to the ground back then. 

“If I might ask,” Wesker pressed after a moment. “How on earth were you exposed? Spencer mentioned Marcus and ‘failed mischief’, but refused to say anything more. There are - were - reams of information on Miss Trevor. Not so, here.”

Well, at least one thing managed to effectively burn to the ground - Wesker had clearly managed to get no further than the destroyed house, and possibly the back lot“No one said? It seems obvious.” Wesker said nothing, only waited. So Spencer had kept it to himself, then. Anyone who might have backed up the story was dead or in the wind. Telling him wouldn’t give anything but closure. “I tagged along with my brother when they went to Africa, once the site was secured.” It was close enough to the truth. Alexander had later admitted that Spencer and her father were looking for ways to tie Marcus closer to their venture, and Spencer had been salivating at taking a more…traditional approach to it, when Marigold had run into trouble earlier that year.

However, no one had thought to tell Marcus anything of the sort- Spencer had planned to put it to Marcus once the more delicate part of their work had wrapped up. Marcus’ little tantrum had wiped that plan so thoroughly away that it had been deemed best to never speak of it again by all parties involved.

She suppressed another shudder at the thought of that disaster ever going through - her current situation was likely an improvement, truth be told. “Marcus seemed irritated that my family showed up at his project. Apparently, it seemed entirely appropriate to attempt to kill the least valuable one despite being invited - especially as I’d blown up my standing in London a few months earlier. No, I won’t get into that.” Wesker raised an eyebrow at the unprompted aside but said nothing. Marigold continued. “We had to take malaria medication. I imagine it couldn’t have been difficult to spike any one dose. I didn’t wake up for days. We were lucky that Alexander caught on fast enough to make it look like I’d forgotten to take my medication and got unlucky.” She smiled suddenly, sharp. “He probably knew we were lying, but if anyone saw me spit in Marcus’ coffee at the funeral, they kept it to themselves.”

She looked up sharply. “Birkin didn’t like me. I know it was a matter of association, but it was still personal. What kept him from doing the same to me? As with…” she trailed off, hesitant to give voice to what had happened to that poor girl in the bowels of the mansion, the very same year she herself had fallen ill, and arisen as something else.

Wesker’s mask was as closed as ever, but she got a distinct feeling that the question pleased him. “Because that would have been a waste.”

[s-wave-entertainment]

Okay temporarily released from university's iron jaws, let me explain these screenshots now with a little bit of editing:

My friends, what you're looking at here are at LEAST 13 crucifixes all in a pile, which Nori is adding to as she realizes the one in her hand (claw??) isn't the one in the footage, which she is clearly looking for.

See what I'm getting at? Maybe not yet. Perhaps a little more evidence:

What I am now directing your attention to is the very same desk from the previous two shots as Uzi inspects them much later in the episode. You may need to zoom in to see them, but what I have circled for you, dear reader, are two photos. One of Khan, and one of a baby swaddled in a purple blanket - more than likely Uzi as a baby. See what I'm going for now?

No???

May I remind the jury that this desk is down in Cabin Fever labs, somewhere that Nori was contained and tortured for what could have been years so that humans could force her to be something that terrified her for a POSSIBLE benefit of humanity, which they only realized was dangerous and needed to be shut down after it massacred an entire human population for the not first, not second, but THIRD TIME (if we assume Nori's first "incident" occurred after or close to Earth's complete human extinction). And for anyone who tries to say "Myrah, hang on, why are you so sure she was afraid of the Solver?"

Not that I think any of you, my wonderful audience, would say or think such a thing, but just to freshen the memory of the jury:

Respectfully, I don't think someone who looks like THIS isn't terrified of themself.

Anyway, back to the point. The main question at this point may be "Alright Myrah, get to the point, what's your argument?"

Your honor, Nori Doorman loved her family and spent years upon years in a place she likely despised just for the CHANCE of finding the patch for her infected daughter.

I know, "bUT shE aDAnDoneD thEm-"

SHUT. SHUT UP.

Allow me to propose a theory for ya:

We know that Nori was stabbed and left to die by one of the disassembly drones, then murdered by Khan as an act of mercy. I'm not gonna get into whodunit or anything like that, no, I'm here to propose the reason why she, Nori Doorman, the one who knew how dangerous the disassembly drones are and was probably the most knowledgeable about their fighting style, was in the position to be killed by one of them in the first place. If I may, I'd like to propose that something must have happened to make her know that Uzi was in fact exposed and prone to Solver possession. If I may - perhaps she was heading out with full intention to find the patch (or at least SOME KIND OF TEMPRARY FIX) for her child. Attacked for being out in the open, when Khan finished her off he must have assumed that she was, in fact, dead. Therefore, he didn't stick around to see that she survived. Nori could have gone back to tell him that she's there - she's alive, and he doesn't have to be so guilty for destroying her body because it DID save her. But she didn't.

But not because she wanted to run.

Nori knew what she was going back into. She knew damn well that to find something, ANYTHING that would save herself, her child, she would have to walk right back into the jaws of the beast. Now, let me ask you this - if your partner whom you love dearly had to kill you in their eyes, but you somehow survived and had to go do something really dangerous to make sure that partner remains safe for Forever and you knew there was a CHANCE you may die trying to do that thing... would you have have gone back to tell them you were alive?

Nori thought it better to leave Khan with the assumption that she IS dead and gone so that if she did in fact meet her end while looking for the patch, he wouldn't have to then deal with the guilt that he couldn't save her TWO TIMES OVER. But she never, EVER forgot about them. Not once.

She left their pictures up, probably looked at them almost every night before she got any rest - if she ever did. Constant reminders to keep going, to keep looking for that one thing that will save them so that her nightmare can FINALLY be over - once and for all.

And what's more, she didn't even TRY to deny Uzi as her kid. Y'all recall the conversation her and N had when they first interacted?

N: "Uzi's dad? Wha-"

Nori: "...How do you know my daughter?"

SHE CLAIMED UZI IMMEDIATELY. SHE DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO PLAY DUMB.

Nori loved her family. Loved her husband, loved her daughter. Every single day she spent down in that accursed pit, every action she took to try to find that patch, she did it for them. And basically all this to say that if they game end her officially in ep. 8 I think I will have to perish I think I just have to-

Y'all are lucky I gotta go to work at 11am. Tomorrow you're not escaping my rant about how good a mother Nori is and I will not elaborate until the whole rant is out. But I will say this:

Just gonna leave these here for now. I'll elaborate tomorrow.

[painful-vomit]

So... who is this girl, Doorman?

They say she was at "Ground Zero".

The Worker Drones?

Yeah.

What, so... You think she's responsible? Sabotage, maybe?

Yeah, maybe. All I know for sure is that she's killing marines.

Oh yeah... She'll pay. She will definitely pay.

[haastera]

A Complete Explanation of the Ep7 or 8 Flashback (My Guess)

I may have put most of the pieces together about the core collapse.

-JCJ arrives in the aftermath of the mansion incident to investigate, possibly due to Tessa's parents having ties to the company.

-JCJ either captures some of the infected workers or interrogates Tessa to figure out what happened. Tessa tells them about CYN, and that she was a Zombie drone. The corporation realizes that the AS has something to do with mutated AI and begins the Cabin Fever program on Copper 9, watching as the AS and legions of Murder drones overrun world after world to harvest all life, be it biological or drone, in the name of feeding their insatiable thirst for oil.

On Copper 9 they construct Cabin fever labs and begin their experimentation. Worker drones are admitted into the program as an alterative to being disposed of or are Zombie drones that JCJ recovered. Their goal is to recreate the circumstances that led to CYN.

The experimentation involves torturing drones to damage their AI and induce the AS mutation. Once they have an infected drone, research shifts to analyzing the AS capabilities, the infection's impact on a worker drone, it's progression, and how to stop/control it. The worker's directly involved in this research wore gloves as a possible (and apparently ineffective) way to restrict their powers and low cut shirts to expose their core, providing advanced warning to the Cabin fever staff of AS infection nearing critical mass.

However, for as of yet unknown reasons the program was shut down. Perhaps they realized just how big of a nuclear bomb they were playing with by deliberately inducing Solver mutations or mistakenly believed they had hit a dead end in their research. Alternatively, the program may have been shut down because of it's success, with JCJ no longer needing the test subjects.

Regardless of the reason, all the test subjects were to be disposed of. Nori may have first tried to negotiate with the humans to avoid her and the other's disposal. If she did her pleas were unsuccessful and in her overwhelming desperation the AS succeeded in directly controlling her in the same way UZI was hijacked when trying to save N, killing as many of the Cabin Fever labs personnel as it could get it's tentacles on.

While controlled by CYN Nori's mind is temporarily synced to the hivemind and shares in it's memories. She sees the AS consuming the biomass of entire planets and converting them into oil to fuel itself and endless legions of Murder drones. Biomechanical predators the AS has created as it's soldiers.

Nori mentally defeats CYN/regains control and decides to sabotage the infrastructure JCJ was utilizing to generate geothermal energy from Copper 9's core, triggering a core collapse to wipe out all biological life on the planet in an effort to starve the AS out.

The resulting explosion creates the entrance N, V, Tessa and UZI jump down in ep6 and buries Nori underneath the snow. She is later rescued by Khan and a party of worker drones who have arrived at Camp 98.7 to investigate the blast.

Nori begs Khan to create a series of fortified outposts to shelter the workers from the Murder drones she knows the AS will send to harvest the drones' oil.

Meanwhile, the CYN-Solver is incensed at failing to corrupt Nori and fearful that JCJ's research may very well hold the key to it's defeat, even if the humans don't yet realize it. The CYN-Solver sends the Murder drones to Copper 9 with 2 goals as opposed to the usual 1.

First Task: Construct the spires by harvesting all life near their landings zones (now just drones after the core collapse)

Second task: Seek out any facilities with the Cabin Fever symbol, enter them, and burn it down. Destroy every trace of the research JCJ was conducting on the AS to prevent the creation of more drones like Nori and keep humanity in the dark.

Can't wait for Ep7 to come out and prove literally of this wrong.

[dreamii-krybaby]

-S may appear or reveal themselves, they may be a mix between a disassembly Drone and a Zombie Drone and may go by the number “008” and be the blue solver host

Or is a DD found by Cabin Fever Labs or was built by CFL but resulted “faulty” and was up to be discarded and may be the weird human hand stalking N and Uzi in EP4

-It’s going to be revealed that the reason why Doll’s parents look so terrified in EP4 is bc they saw whoever was stalking N and Uzi in the cabins in the same EP

-V will come back as a clone but something will be wrong about her

-Doll will sacrifice herself by letting the AS take her as a main host instead of Uzi and get herself killed (she may wind up in some robo-heaven and reunite with her parents)

-AS cure either exists or never existed and was a hoax or there is no longer one

-Flashbacks moments before Yeva and her partner where killed and reveal why they went outside in the first place

-The dead DD’s found in the labs will wake up and will speak different language (since french and russian drones exists)

-more flashbacks regarding the Elliot mansion

-Flashback involving the interview showed in EP6 and the incident at site-48 which Yeva being possessed caused

im hungry for some episode 7 or 8 murder drones theories

[hokey-pokey-loki]

Puppy Love

WORD COUNT: 1828

RATING: PG-13

WARNINGS: None!

PROMPT: I saw something like this on tumblr but it was a Peter Parker x reader where the reader is a shapeshifter and shifts into a puppy before Peter arrives at the tower so he just thinks he has this cute little puppy it's adorable. Anyway I thought I'd do it but where Loki shifts into a puppy to hide from the Avengers and hear the things they say about him But reader finds him and falls in love with the "puppy" enjoy!

     "He's dangerous, Thor, we can't have him here," Natasha says and Tony nods. "She's right. What's stopping him from repeating history?" He asks and Thor sighs. "He's changed, he may be rough around the edges and still a trickster but he would never repeat that, I know he's changed, I can see it and he's my brother, if anything happens, I will take full responsibility and he'll go straight back to Asgard," Thor says and Bruce shrugs. "He doesn't seem that bad anymore I say we give it a shot."

     A certain puppy watches the conversation between the four avengers go down with blue eyes and soft black fur. "W-What's this?" Everyone turns only to see you walk in wearing pajamas and picking the puppy up. Loki growls but you don't put him down. "Is that a dog? Where'd that come from?" Nat asks and you just shrug. "I don't know but he's adorable. I'm keeping him," you say and the puppy whines. "You must be hungry little guy," she says and sets him on the counter while rummaging through the fridge for something that could be taken for dog food.

     "A puppy in the Avengers tower? Really (Y/N)? I'm not taking care of him," Tony says walking by and you nod. "I know, I will, look he's cute! I've never seen a lab with blue eyes!" You say looking into his face. Loki swipes his tongue across your nose and you giggle and go back to looking for food. Realization hits Thor and he grabs the puppy and shakes his head at it. "(Y/N), I think I should take this puppy, maybe to the pound," he says and you sigh. "Why? I hate pounds they're so sad, I could take care of him easily," you answer, pulling ground turkey out of a container in the fridge and some leftover salmon from last night's salmon dinner. "Seriously? You're feeding the dog our salmon?" Nat asks and you chuckle. "Salmon's good for dogs... I think," you say and mix the two together with some bacon grease and put it in front of the dog. "What are you going to name him?" Bruce asks and you shrug watching him eat. "Loki," Thor says and the dog barks at Thor. "Isn't that weird since he's coming to stay?" You ask and Thor shrugs. "I don't think my brother will mind," Thor says and Loki growls at Thor.

     Loki licks the bowl completely clean and you wash it and carry Loki to your room in your apartment, holding the puppy in your arm. You set him on your bed where he sits patiently and looks over at one of your walls made completely out of thick glass with a set of French doors in the middle and a balcony looking over the state of New York. Last time Loki was here he was a much different person, he knows he's changed.

     "You share a name with a pretty scary dude," you say looking through your books. "Although respectfully he is a God, he doesn't always act like one or so I've heard," you say and pull out a Stephen King book called, "The Dark Half." You sit back against the headboard and open the book. After some contemplating, Loki walks carefully over and lies right against your leg, letting out a sigh. You smile and rub his belly to which he spreads further, stretching his short legs. "Where did you come from?" You ask and sigh, going back to reading.

~~~

     "You ready, (Y/N)?" Nat asks, popping her head in the door. "Just touching up my make up," you respond, putting on another layer of mascara. Nat sits on the bed next to Loki who's sat upright watching you. Nat brings her hand to the dog's head but he nips her before she can touch him. "Ow!" She yells and pushes the puppy off of the bed. "Nat!" you yelp and Nat holds her hand. "He bit me!" She yells and Loki whines. You pick Loki up and set him back on the bed. "Alright, I'm done, let's go," you say and you two leave the compound to do the weekly grocery shopping. Usually Tony would have someone paid to do that but you and Nat haven't left the compound in weeks and find yourselves suffering from a little cabin fever. Just after you two leave, Thor watches the vehicle leave the compound and marches straight into your apartment and to your room where Loki lies comfortable on the bed. At the sight of Thor he sits up and transforms into his usual form. "Brother, What is your goal?" Thor asks and closes the door behind him. "Well, I was spying on you and the three Avengers who clearly don't want me here but I got adopted by that one," Loki says referencing you. "Why is she an avenger anyway?" He asks and Thor sighs. "(Y/N) is an assassin," Loki raises his eyebrows. "Shocking, but that explains the knives on her wall," Loki says and nods. "Brother, you have to stop this," Thor says and Loki lies back on your bed. "Why should I? She thinks I'm a puppy. I got to see her undress today it was... nothing short of amazing," he says with a smirk. "You're disgusting. When she finds out she's going to be upset."

     "I guess we just won't tell her then?" Loki says with a shrug and Thor shakes his head. "I guess you'll never get very far with her?" Thor says and turns to leave. "What do you mean?" Loki asks and Thor turns back to his brother. "Well as long as you're a puppy, you're never going to get very far with her," he says and Loki sighs. "I know that, I don't want to "get very far with her" she's just a human after all," Loki says with a shrug and Thor chuckles. "Okay then I guess you're right," he says and leaves and Loki turns and walks out onto the balcony. "This way she doesn't know how terrible of a being I am," he says leaning over the railing with a sigh.

~~~

     The sun hits your eyes and you groan, rolling in the opposite direction of the window. You slowly open your eyes and immediately scream, jumping out of bed and grabbing your Katana from the wall. Loki sits up, still confused from sleep and looks down to find that sleep has somehow brought him back to his original form. He presses his hand to his slightly hairy bare chest. "What the-"

     "Who are you and what do you want?" You ask, holding the Katana in combat mode, ready to kill. You were never there for the New York incident but you heard about it from your home on the news. "Seriously?" Loki breathes out, looking down at his form. "Look, I'm Loki now calm down," he says. "Calm down!? You're Loki? Like the Loki? Thor's brother?" You ask and he nods. "Yes, I have no plans to harm anyone if you put the Katana down I can explain," he says and you set the Katana back on the wall and cross your arms.

     Just before Loki can explain himself, Nat, Bruce, Tony, and Thor all burst into the room, ready to fight and Thor chuckles at the sight of his brother holding his blanket up to cover his undressed and sleepy form. "(Y/N)!? Is everything okay??" Tony asks and she nods. "How did he get in here?" Nat asks pointing to Loki. "I was just about to find out," she says and Loki sighs. "As you may know, I can shapeshift. In order to spy on their conversation about me I turned into a puppy to hide and listen but I only got so far when-"

     "You pretended to be a puppy just to listen to our conversation?" Bruce asks and Loki nods. "I'm not proud of that and (Y/N), I'm sorry I tricked you I didn't mean for this," he says and she shrugs. "It's not a big deal I guess," she says and he sighs. "I'm just glad it didn't go on longer," she says and he nods. "Me too," he says and glares at his brother. Loki stands, holding the blanket to himself still. "Well we came on an agreement to let you stay but now I'm second guessing that," Nat says and Loki nods. "I understand, it was an invasion of privacy and extremely rude," Loki says and Tony raises his eyebrows. "Are you... apologizing?" Tony asks and Loki nods. "It's the closest thing to an apology you'll get from me," Loki says and Thor chuckles. "Alright fine, you can stay but no more shapeshifting for malicious intent," Tony says and Nat nods. Loki nods. "Thank you," Loki says and looks briefly to (Y/N), arms crossed and hair slightly messy.

     That night it was your turn to cook dinner so you decided to make Lebanese food for the first time. While cooking, Loki steps into the room where it was just you and him. "(Y/N)," his voice sounded so lovely saying your name. "I wanted to apologize for Yesterday so I thought I'd get you something," he says and holds out a box for you. He’s much more handsome than you thought he’d be with shoulder length black hair slicked back and an all black suit on. His skin is pale but from what you saw of him earlier, he’d definitely toned. His blue eyes cut straight to your heart when h snakes eye contact with you and your knees go slightly weak. "Loki, you didn't have to do anything, it's okay, really," you say but he pushes it towards you. You open the box and smile at the little black lab puppy smiling at you with chocolate brown eyes. "Unfortunately I couldn't find one with blue eyes but I'm hoping this will at least make up for my behavior," he says and you pull the puppy out of the box and hold it to your chest. "Her name is Tate," he says and you melt. "Loki, this is too much," you say and run around the island in the kitchen to hug Loki who accepts you against his chest, his leather suit not exactly comfortable but you continue to hug him anyway, arms wrapped around his midsection. "I'm glad you like it. I'm hoping we can start over," he says and you step back. "Hello, I'm (Y/N)." You say and hold out your hand. "Loki," he says and the two of you shake hands. "Good," he says with a smile tugging on his firm lips.

[allyinthekeyofx]

Fading Light - Part 4 - 1/4

PART ONE  -  Chapters 1-6

PART TWO  -  Chapters 1-6

PART THREE  -  Prologue & Chapters 1-6

PART FOUR  -  Prologue

PART FOUR

CHAPTER ONE

We made the remainder of the trip back to DC without further head-injury-induced incidents. In fact, we made it back to DC without really anything at all.

We had finally left our position by the lake and returned to the warmth of the cabin and while Scully had seemed a little quiet, even introspective, I didn’t really think too much of it. I put it down to the emotional rollercoaster she had spent the last few weeks riding around and around without the benefit of a safety harness, not to mention the punishing days and nights she had spent keeping vigil over me and the egg sized lump that was still visible through my hair.

By unspoken agreement we both wound up in the king size bed. Scully’s curtained alcove and small single was downgraded unceremoniously to a place to dump our luggage and I spent the next six or so hours with my arms wrapped around her feigning sleep as right beside me she did exactly the same. I wondered briefly if she was pissed that I hadn’t made any kind of move on her; but I quickly nixed the idea. Scully is a doctor, none practising sure but a doctor nonetheless and she is as adept at reading my state of health as she is at cataloguing the stomach contents of a recently deceased stiff, right down to individual pizza topping and whether they had a preference for thick crust or thin and crispy. And given the magnitude of the headache I’d experienced earlier which still echoed distantly behind the four-hourly pain meds she had insisted I took whether I felt I required them or not, I think we both knew that my brain needed all the blood it could get right now and to send it rushing south would in all probability cause me to pass out. 

Not exactly how I wanted to reintroduce myself to her it was fair to say.

But as the night wore on, the emotional connection we had shared just a few hours before as I held her beneath the stars, began to fade, in fact I swear I could actually hear the sound of bricks clinking together as she quietly and thoroughly began building her walls back up even as she laid there beside me; the patented Dana Scully fortress that she is so adept at hiding behind, throwing up the drawbridge and readying herself to defend it from both friend and foe; effectively shutting herself off.

But for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out because the feeling I got from her as that long night wore on, the vibe if you like, was achingly similar to how she had been right back at the beginning of our partnership; the way she had resolutely set her jaw and insisted over and over again that she was fine. Always fucking fine and it’s a pattern that has repeated itself more times than I care to remember over the years, the difference being though that as time has wore on I have always been able to see past her denial and to a certain extent ignore it; my analytical mind able to see inside hers and break down her tightly guarded emotions in to easily manageable chunks to work on individually until her defences eventually crumble. She has always given me that at least. Until that night, as I held her in my arms, soft and pliable against me, for the first time in our long and complex relationship, I couldn’t read her. So completely had she retreated from me that she may as well have been in another room rather than breathing quietly beside me.

And even when I had whispered her name, a question in my tone that pierced the silence between us and hung in the air, awaiting some kind of response from her, there was nothing.

I had hoped – no expected – that by the time dawn heralded the coming of a new day, she would have had a chance to process; to start to catalogue recent events in that singularly perspicuous way of hers. Using her rationalisation like a protective shield to explain her own version of the unexplainable; but truthfully she seemed as empty and as lost as I have ever seen her. To an outward observer she would have appeared completely normal in the way she fussed over me; ensuring I ate, drank, took my meds. Her hand on my forehead checking me for any signs of fever, lightly berating me when I admitted to feeling a little nauseous during the drive home because I hadn’t mentioned it earlier.

Stopping the car so we could take a walk in the fresh air, entwining her hand in mine because it was what she felt was expected of her, not because she wanted to and all the time she smiled that smile at me with her lips but not her eyes. 

Oh yeah, normal didn’t really cut it right now.

By the time we arrived at my apartment, my apartment not hers, she looked like she was about ready to break into pieces in front of me. Fatigue had begun to strip away her carefully created facade of normality and truthfully I think that maybe, just maybe, if I’d pushed hard enough I might have got to the core of what was bothering her so deeply that she felt the need to shut me out completely. But knowing her like I do I was also painfully aware that if I even went just the tiniest degree over what she might be comfortable divulging, that she would rebuild those damn walls quick time this time replacing bricks with reinforced steel girders and then there would be no reaching her at all.

So, trusting my instincts in the complete absence of anything else remotely tangible I backed right off. Both physically and emotionally; giving her the space she obviously desperately needed.

And to a certain degree at least, it worked. She became slightly less guarded over the following days although she still kept me at arm's length, calling every few hours to make polite small talk as to how I was feeling, was I sleeping, eating, taking care of myself? And I was slightly heartened to hear the genuine concern in her voice. Whatever was going on with her, I was pretty sure I wasn’t exactly the cause – at least not in any obvious way.

She had returned to work a couple of days after we returned from Tennessee, a decision that didn’t sit too well with me. Because I knew, oh yeah I knew, that the minute she arrived in our office, she would gravitate straight to the damn filing cabinet and pull out the file that bore her name, a file that had continued to thicken as the years went on, neatly type-written sheets that coldly catalogued just what the cost of my quest had been on her. The abduction, her coma, her sister, her cancer, the children created from that which had been stolen from her even as she came to terms with never becoming a Mother herself, the insidious way in which her life had been invaded, casually used and then discarded as though she were merely a lab rat to be experimented on, a pawn in a game that seemingly had no standard principles of behaviour; or at least not in any tangible way.

She had read through the file before, several times, and each time I had seen how it affected her as she resolutely refused to discuss it with me. I had never pushed her; maybe I should have.

Even better than that, maybe I should have removed the fucking thing from the office and burned it long ago. Because whatever she might feel whenever she read it, she could never be defined by what was in that file, that she was more, so much more than a fucking X- File. I should have removed it; destroyed it. But I hadn’t. In fact, that piece of folded cardboard now bore witness to the events of the last seven months by the new reports I had added. And by doing so I had added substance to her fears that everything that she would ever be was all bound together in that terrifying bundle of photographs and paper.

She would never tell me she had read it; of that I was fairly certain. But I just knew. I just knew that she would use this opportunity to pore over it whilst I was out of the picture on medical leave; waiting for my battered brain to stop playing depth perception tricks on me and for the headaches to abate.

So in all honestly, as much as I had hoped it wouldn’t happen, I was unsurprised when her tightly constructed armour began to unravel and she went in to freefall although I was slightly surprised at the methods she had chosen.

My cel had rung at just before eleven o’clock and initially, since I couldn’t immediately think who else would call me at all, let alone at such a late hour, I had assumed it was Scully. As it turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong because actually, the voice on the other end of the phone belonged to Mike Calvert, the owner of Callahan’s – a bar that Scully and I often frequented after a particularly trying day, a way to unwind before heading home. We generally didn’t stay for much more than an hour at a time – just enough time for me to down a beer and Scully to daintily work her way through a spritzer or tall glass of something feminine and Scullyesque. Neither of us were big drinkers.

Yeah right.

Mike sounded vaguely embarrassed as he apologised for calling me, explaining that he had pulled my number off Scully’s phone and would I mind coming and picking her up because currently she was too drunk to stand and well, he needed to shut up shop for the night.

She was drunk. Not tipsy, not gently inebriated or wobbly on her legs.

No, Scully was apparently drunk enough to be gravitating towards unconsciousness or the back of a police cruiser, whichever happened to come first.

I was off the sofa and grabbing my car keys before he had even finished speaking.

Christ almighty Scully what the hell are you doing?

Continued chapter 2

[festpop]



Today, Electric Forest (EF) officially announced the initial artist lineup for its’ eighth annual music and camping festival in Rothbury, Michigan on June 21–June 24 and June 28–July 1, 2018. View the complete list of announced artists set to perform the First Weekend and Second Weekend HERE.

For the 8th year in a row, Electric Forest welcomes back fan favorite The String Cheese Incident, performing two shows each weekend with the return of the SCI Sound Lab Live set featuring surprises and collaborations on the First Weekend, and EF’s famed SCI Saturday Night Shebang hosted on the Second Weekend. Also topping the bill on both weekends – BASSNECTAR, GRiZ Live Band, RÜFÜS DU SOL, and ZHU. Heavyweight Galantis will perform exclusively on the First Weekend. Marshmello will appear on the Second Weekend. Additional artists are still to be announced.

Other acts announced today include Lil Dicky, Jauz, Green Velvet, Washed Out, Keys N Krates on the First Weekend and Testpilot, REZZ, Datsik, SuperDuperKyle, and Get Real on the Second Weekend. Chromeo, Bonobo (Live), The Glitch Mob, Louis The Child, and Xavier Rudd are among additional artists who will be performing both weekends, promising unique shows so that no two experiences are alike. Fans can expect to hear some of the acts unplugged, with unusual collaborations and sit-ins, performing on special themed sets, and more.

  The first round of EF Curated Events were also announced today. Bassrush, This Ain’t Bristol, Mr. Carmack presents Forward Thinkers, Green Velvet presents La La Land and other to be announced will host EF stages on the First Weekend. Bassrush returns for the Second Weekend, along with Mau5trap, Rüfüs & Friends, Desert Hearts and Soulection. In addition to memorable musical performances, both weekends of EF2018 will celebrate what truly makes The Forest magic. Electric Forest’s Plug-In Program features opportunities for the community to participate in shaping the EF experience, including The Wish Machine, Electricology, Her Forest, and more. The Silent Disco, workshops and speakers, daily yoga, live art and immersive theater experiences throughout both weekends will offer adventure, exploration, and opportunities to connect deeper with the unique energy of the Electric Forest and its community.

Today’s announcement comes after rumors of the festival’s 2018 artist lineup began to leak during an “Official 2018 Electric Forest Meet Up” event hosted at Necto Nightclub in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 12. Hints on social media to the Forest Family, including the first ever EF event page other than the festival itself and a boots-on-the-ground scavenger hunt to “Follow the Elephant. Find the Intergalactic Deity,” led curious and adventurous fans to Necto. There, EF’s beloved art installation “Ellie” the elephant rested outside, far from its home in Rothbury, Michigan. Inside the venue, the free event offered a secret set by Space Jesus, and throughout the night, Forest character actors performed skits, comedy, and drag shows, while clever hints revealed artists on EF’s 2018 lineup. Mock concert posters hung inside the venue revealed Noname, Spag Heddy, Xavier Rudd and others. Bar menu specialty drinks “Vodka SoDown” revealed SoDown, while “Sexy Socialite” referenced a Chromeo song. Phone numbers painted in lipstick on the bathroom mirror directed callers to a voice message by 2018 performers RÜFÜS DU SOL and CloZee. On the toilet paper, a word scramble revealed Manic Focus. A projection mapping on the side of the venue displayed a word search that, when examined, revealed G Jones, Cookie Monsta, BUKU, Louis The Child, and more. In all – 24 of Electric Forest’s 160+ artists performing one or both weekends were leaked to attending fans who spread the word on social media to their friends, followers, and fellow Forest Family. See the social media chatter on Facebook and Reddit and watch the event recap video HERE. The “Official 2018 Electric Forest Meet Up” event continues EF’s ongoing commitment to building and nurturing community by creating opportunities for Forest Family be part of the festival and to help shape the EF experience. In another demonstration of this spirit, the festival’s new fan participation initiative – The EF Wish Machine – encourages the Forest Family to spread positivity by granting wishes to Forest Family members in exchange for an act of human kindness. Follow the EF Wish Machine HERE.

About Electric Forest 

Each summer, just as anticipation for the sold-out Electric Forest reaches fever pitch, tens of thousands of fans – traveling from all parts of the country, and the world, gather at the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan for the music & camping adventure of a lifetime. Entering its eighth year, Electric Forest is known for bringing together a passionate group of fans whose shared community spirit makes the festival a truly unique experience. The festival incorporates the natural beauty of the venue into carefully crafted art pieces and creatively themed environments, while colorful interactive characters and storylines blend with eclectic performing artists and musicians. With its astonishing and unparalleled integration of music, art, and community, Electric Forest delivers “The ultimate festival experience.”  From the carefully curated musical lineup to the jaw-dropping Sherwood Forest, to the festival’s unprecedented participatory spirit, to the site’s incomparable features and amenities – Electric Forest creates a vibe so thick with “camaraderie and freedom…it must be experienced to be appreciated.” Electric Forest’s GOOD LIFE VIP experience offers unrivaled amenities and perks – from camping and RV spots, to log cabins and homes, to resort hotel-style suites – all located directly on the festival grounds. In addition, patrons can take advantage of the property’s many amenities including a 60,000 square foot indoor water park, an 18-hole championship golf course, swimming pools, horseback riding, and more. At the heart of Electric Forest is the beloved Sherwood Forest. By day, fans collect among hundreds of hammocks that drape between the clustered trees. Intricate and earthy artful touches pop from the Forest’s myriad of installations and gathering spaces. At night, Sherwood Forest turns electric, showered with state-of-the-art, jaw-dropping light displays, impromptu “secret” parties, other-worldly characters, and surprises around every turn. “With no exaggeration at all, [Sherwood Forest is] the most well produced and artistically inspired area…ever seen at a music festival.” Known for fully embracing the possibilities of an engaged festival community, Electric Forest’s Plug-In Program deliberately blurs the line between event organizers and attendees.  With this truly unique “open source” fan engagement platform, Electric Forest harnesses the creativity and passion of its community members, offering real and tangible ways for fans to participate in and ultimately help shape the Electric Forest experience. This is a big deal, since for Electric Forest – experience trumps all. Hailed as “an amazing example of how music and festivals can change one’s outlook on life,” it’s widely understood that “one of the most important lessons [to be] learned in the Forest is that we are all together,” and this sense of community is truly “cherished [within the community] like the incredibly rare find it is.”

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Ticket Info

Info on Wristband and Lodging Packages, including expanded 2018 Good Life Camping and Lodging options, can be found HERE.

Loyalty Program On Sale begins December 7 at 2 pm EST at www.electricforestfestival.com/tickets

Read more about the EF Loyalty Program – including the debut of Six In The Forest Loyalty tier, Four In The Forest Loyalty, Good Life Loyalty and GA Loyalty, HERE.

EF General On-Sale begins December 15 at 2 pm EST at www.electricforestfestival.com/tickets.

Also on sale, December 15 are Official Electric Forest Shuttle Passes departing from major cities around the festival and the Muskegon Airport, the Grand Rapids Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Special Group Camping, including the Her Forest Women’s Camp, Electric Forces Veterans Camp, and Camp Traction Sober Camp, will also be available for purchase.

Information on Layaway Plans for all Wristband and Lodging Packages can be found HERE.

To stay up to date on all Electric Forest news, please visit www.electricforestfestival.com and the official Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube pages.

FestPop Staff Writer, Azita Lotfi

Get Excited! Electric Forest Released The Initial Lineup for Both Weekends and It’s Unreal  Today, Electric Forest (EF) officially announced the initial artist lineup for its’ eighth annual music and camping festival in…

[cryopisces]

The trials and tribulations of fieldwork: Honest answers to a few questions that I have been asked upon return…

This is a guest blog from University of Bristol PhD Student Sarah Tingey, who was part of the 2017 PISCES winter fieldwork team. For more about Sarah, visit her website here.

This was my first long(ish) glaciology field campaign and apparently “one of the toughest” (Jon Hawkings, 2017). Now I am back, I have a real sense of achievement. I held a talk at the University of Aysen about my diving passions to a packed room with a translator, when only a few days before we were digging a trench to divert flood waters away from Jon’s already waterlogged tent. 

It was a jam packed month!

Most conversations prior to heading off to Steffen Glacier, Patagonia, Chile went like this: 

“Wow! You’re off to Patagonia on fieldwork – isn’t that basically just a months long holiday?”

“Well, errrr… no. We will be working, but I am still pretty excited.”

“It sounds like a holiday to me – a bit like backpacking! I look forward to hearing all about your sneaky month long break when you return… ”

Fieldwork is awesome. The opportunity to undertake scientific research in a remote area of Patagonia has been a fantastic experience that I am very grateful for. However, fieldwork is about as close to being on holiday as mud is to chocolate. When quickly glanced at from far away they could pass as the same, but upon closer inspection they are very, very different. 

One is sweet and tastes amazing, the other is wet, dirty and gritty, maybe a bit smelly but can potentially help grow amazing things once a seed is planted. 

Luckily, I like both chocolate (who doesn’t?!) and mud (for growing the plants in for my research). 

The PISCES winter field campaign was full of challenges; many of which could have posed a risk to the entire project. However, through Jon’s leadership skills and solid teamwork from Anne Kellerman (Our organic matter wizz collaborator from Florida State University), Nico (CIEP) and I, our time in camp proved a success. 

Team members (from left to right), Jon Hawkings, Anne Kellerman, Nico Araneda, testing out some new wet weather gear courtesy of Sarah Tingey

Fieldwork is often portrayed as glamorous. Images of “scientists” marching around the wilderness like Bear Grylls, who then get to stay in a 5* hotel at night has become the norm. Unfortunately for us, there was no 5* hotel. Instead we had our trusty tipi, woodburner and a never ending supply of tinned food. Since returning I have been asked the same questions again and again – so I thought I would put my “honest responses” up so I stop feeling like such a parrot talking about the challenges we faced. Here we go… 

The mighty camp tipi after a nights worth of snow fell.

1. DID YOU HAVE A NICE HOLIDAY?

As I left, friends and family were convinced I was off on an adventurous holiday. Conversations escalated so much that I even slightly started to believe this myself. However, the planning and packing is only the beginning – after the mission journey was complete and I had arrived it was time to set up camp. When camping in the middle of nowhere the work doesn’t end either. There is always something to do! Whether that is cooking, cleaning or digging a latrine – not “looking busy” is basically code for “needs a job”. 

The closest we got to a swimming pool were the epic floods that appeared after many days of rain – “Playa de Steffen”. We joked that the flood defense trenches we dug were the Steffen equivalent of the lazy log flume rapids. 

All the daily maintenance work has to happen alongside the science. We rarely washed, compared smelly socks, ate a lot of porridge and all worked really hard as a team. The phrase ‘fieldwork has ‘work’ on the end of it for a reason’ is pretty spot on! I had an awesome time, but it was certainly not a holiday.

Setting up water quality sensors next to the meltwater river draining Steffen Glacier

2. HOW WAS THE WEATHER? DID IT RAIN?

We spent 18 days at Camp Steffen. The first 3 days we had a blizzard dumping over a foot of snow onto camp and night time temperatures down to -15 degC. Following that the temperatures remained around freezing and the rain did not stop. Patagonian rain is unlike any rain I have ever seen in my entire life! It was cold, wet and could potentially be miserable. Somehow I managed to draw pure joy from the horror of the relentless downpours.

The unpredictable weather made planning for long days outdoors difficult. Our tipi was graced by the presence of the life saving ‘Magnus Svensson’ – our wood burning stove. Thankyou Tentipi – we’d have been shivering drowned mice by the third day (at best) if it wasn’t for you. 

The wet weather is also a nightmare for anything electrical. It made sensor maintenance slightly more tricky. Opening datalogger boxes to download data became a little more precarious in the downpours, forcing Jon to sit underneath a (very smelly) poncho for protection. Many inventive Patagonia weatherproofing solutions were constructed from my two favourite things, duct tape and cable ties.

The other disadvantage to the constant rain meant that we really only took photos or film footage during the few rare moments when we were reminded what the sun actually is. I fear the sunny snaps will now fuel the “holiday not fieldwork” thinking. Fortunately they show just how beautiful Camp Steffen was - a great reminder of the stunning place that we were lucky enough to have as our office for a few weeks. 

Don Rene’s trusty Patagonian horses helped bring our equipment into camp, despite the bad weather

3. DID ANYTHING BREAK AND CAUSE A DISASTER? 

Annoyingly, anything can break and when in the field will inevitably happen at the most unhelpful moment. The most disastrous incident was one morning, we awoke to a foot of snow overnight which had caused our lab tent primary support pole to snap in half – the whole tent had collapsed! Burying our equipment and belongings underneath! However, Renee Junior, a local settler chopped a tree down and made the most perfect ‘rustic’ new central support.

The new rustic lab tent pole, equipped with coat hooks. Definitely an improvement! 

I have been wondering recently how many research projects and the that have involved fieldwork would have failed without duct tape or cable ties. These two things can fix most problems – from constructing lighting solutions and drying racks to Patagonian weatherproofing. Thankyou to Vesta Stoudt (duct tape) and Maurus C. Logan (cable ties) for your great inventions. 

Jon Hawkings and Anne Kellerman go about fixing the Tipi with nothing but a long pole, some duct tape and cable ties. Essential fieldwork science kit!

4. DID YOU JUST END UP COOKING ALL THE TIME AS THE ONLY PHD STUDENT THERE?  

The combination of short days, difficult weather conditions, camping, a small team and lots to do meant that sometimes it felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to fit in everything we needed to do (ed - there weren’t!). Good science only happens when the work ‘behind the scenes’ at camp runs smoothly. Our leader, Capitan Jon made some tough decisions splitting up the group and rotating us around between leaving camp to sample, conduct river transects or traces and staying in camp to get maintenance and filtering work done. Although it’s not as glamorous it’s still very important. After a day out in the almost freezing rain we could risk getting quite ill without hot meals and a warm stove upon return. Camp responsibilities were shared out and and Jon made sure nobody got cabin (or should I say tipi?) fever. Plus, we successfully managed to get all the samples we planned to achieve.  

The daily routine of downloading data from our sensors

5. DID YOUR STUFF SMELL? 

There is something quite special about the journey home. There is something even more special about opening your bag of clothes and realizing that you really, really smelt. I have had to wash my clothes multiple times. Plus some beer we brought back in my one of my suitcases exploded so my clothes were… “ripe”. 

The Rio Huemules about 10 km downstream of camp.

6. WAS IT HARD WITHOUT FACEBOOK?

Being without internet or a phone for the time we were in the field was glorious – it’s nice to check in upon return but it can also be a bit of a killer to go back to reality where everyone is available at the end of fingertips. I categorically did not miss my phone / facebook / twitter / all the other stuff that I happily went without. 

Rene extracting some of our science equipment on his Zodiak at the end of the field campaign

7. HOW DID YOU POOP?

We dug a big hole far away from water. Everyone knows, you just hope its quick in the pouring rain / freezing cold. Anne also kept us fully loaded on regular doses of prunes. Thanks Anne!

Anne Kellerman sampling the meltwater river

8. WAS IT TRICKY NOT BEING ABLE TO SPEAK SPANISH?

Yes, but it was more frustrating. Nico from CIEP who came into the field with us spoke no English, I speak no Spanish (although I now have a few words…). Anne had some words but Jon had gone away and learnt Spanish for the project. In just 6 months of classes and practice his Spanish was good enough to get us all by. Solid effort. 

One of the local settlers son’s enjoyed playing with our high-tec weather gear

9. WOULD YOU GO BACK AGAIN?

100%. Wouldn’t you go back for three weeks to one of the most beautiful places on the planet whilst being paid despite the above challenges? 

Or maybe I’m just a bit bonkers… 

That’s it folks – huge thank you to my fantastic fieldwork team. I learnt a lot and came back smiling. Now to just start on the analysis of all those samples...

Team PISCES take shelter under the lap tent porch during one of many downpours