#also if I ever don’t respond to people it is because I panic and shutdown! haha sorry about that

[king-ludwig-ii]

T shirt that says I still have social issues and trauma from things that happened over a decade ago

[xo-cuteplosion-xo]

Hi there! I found your blog a while back and you wrote your epileptic s/o request really well! If you don’t mind, would you do a request of Atsushi and Chuuya with an s/o with ASD/Autism? Like they often stim with their hands, make small vocal tics, repeat certain words a lot, and even bounce on their feet a bit for example! However, there is often shutdowns and meltdowns that come with a lot of environmental stimulation for them too. They often feel ashamed and embarrassed by their disability, but our sweet young men always reassures them that they’re beautiful/wonderful regardless? I just love seeing neurodivergent x readers and positivity for that! Feel free to do this if you want to, thank you! 🙏💕💗💓💝💘

I hope this is alright. As usual, feel free to correct me on anything I have wrong or if anything is possibly offensive. Love chu peeps!

Neurodivergent reader HC | Atsushi and Chuuya x reader|

Atsushi-

He never brings attention to the tics or small actions you do to stim.

He’ll nod to make it known he’s paying attention to you. If anybody gives a weird look, like ever, he’ll threaten them with a glare. 

He understands it can be difficult at times.

If you're in a situation that overstimulates you and causes you to start having a meltdown, he might panic the first few times, but he’ll learn to try things to help calm you down.

He doesn't really know what to do, but he tries to create a safe, quiet, and still environment for you. 

He doesn't want to pull you away if you're not going to go on your own. He waits till you're ready, but when you do remove yourself from the situation he follows.

When you look a little better, he remains giving you the space you need, and asks if you're okay.

He doesn't repeat himself (unless he's sure you didn't hear him), letting you take the time you need to respond.

If you ever feel ashamed or come to him with a small rant about the disability, he'll wrap you in a hug and tell you how amazing you are.

He loves you no matter how you are. 

There really isn't anything you can do that will cause him to not love you.

He assures you with words and hugs. He’s a little shy with physical and verbal affection, so he’ll probably hand you a bunch of chocolates with a little note, then get all flustered after handing it to you.

He reminds you all the time that you can always tell him if he messes up and makes you feel worse or upsets you in any way.

He’s also open to doing whatever you need to feel comfortable and loved.

Chuuya-

As your partner, he knows the do’s and don’ts with you.

He knows what kinds of affection you like, which ones you hate, dislike, and which ones you like, but are a big no when you're having meltdowns.

It takes time for him to adjust, but he’s one big guard dog.

Like if anybody ever pokes fun or stares just a little wrong at you, he's got his ability up, and he’s threatening them because you're perfect. He’ll probably say things like, “Huh? What do you mean, they're perfect just as they are, you dip shit.” he’s never afraid to stand up for you.

If you tell him it’s fine and it doesn't bother you, he'll roll his eyes because he knows it does.

He’s completely aware how you feel about it, that’s why he’s always trying to reassure you of how perfect you are to him.

If he ever catches you in a situation that is starting to overwhelm you, he'll ask if you're alright.

If you shake your head, he’ll offer to go somewhere quiet where you can get a handle on things.

He waits until he sees a change, then he asks if you're okay, if he can hold your hand, or give you a soft peck.

If you don't respond, he'll nod and wait until you talk to him or reach for him.

If he finds you getting down on yourself over the disability, expect hugs, cuddles, and even praises. He finds anything to praise you on. For example, he’ll tell you how he loves your eyes, your personality, even the way you smile.

He offers whatever you need to make you feel better. He never wants to overstep, so he constantly asks for permission to do things with you.

He doesn't ask because he’s looking down on you; he just never wants to make you uncomfortable, scared, or panicked. He’s seen what people call the uglier side, and he has made it his goal to try and never put you there himself.

He’s open to doing things your way, if you need things done a certain way he’ll do it just like that. Even if it means relearning how to fold clothes.

[autisticsidesau]

I just wanted to say that as an autistic person, I've really enjoyed reading through this blog, and getting to see one of my special interests (sanders sides) shown as autistic characters made me really happy, I stimmed a whole bunch while I was reading!!!! also, if its okay, can we see more of Logan and Virgil's friendship???

Aww ty!! ts sides is also a big special interest of mine, and autism is awesome so hell yeah. Super glad you’re enjoying it. And hell yeah!! Stim!! ~Remiel

I’m glad you like this blog and it made you happy stim!!! TS sides is my main Special Interest (some side ones are Try Guys, fashion history, and neuroscience) and I personally love seeing autism rep in the fandom too!! It’s cool to see characters like me!! -Max

TW: meltdown, losing a comfort item temporarily, routine change

So The Whole Gang decides to go to an outdoor mall one day as a group

They prefer the outdoor mall because it has more space and the open area means sounds and smells aren’t as trapped so it’s generally less overwhelming

Throughout the day they end up in smaller groups

And eventually Virgil and Logan are left as a pair wandering through different sections of the mall and generally being stupid teenagers just enjoying life

(Virgil wanted to stay in Hot Topic and Logan wasn’t opposed and that’s how they got separated from everybody else)

Eventually they get the text from Roman that everyone’s gonna regroup at the front of the mall

As they walk to the front of the mall, Virgil realizes, somethings is very very wrong

But they don't know what 

So Logan goes grabs his tablet and pulls up virgil’s checklist and they run through it

(Virgil’s checklist is essentially: when was the last time you: ate, drank, used the bathroom? Are you overwhelmed? Is it too loud, bright, smelly, etc? Do you have everything you need? 

And it’s when they get to this last point that it clicks

Virgil doesn’t have their hoodie

Which immediately causes them to Panic Big Time

Logan helps to calm Virgil down saying they didn’t go many places it’s probably in one of the few stores they went to

Logan leads Virgil through some breathing exercises and has Virgil wear their headphones b/c they get overwhelmed easier when they’re anxious 

So they go through all the stores and Logan uses his tablet to ask the store workers if they’ve seen Virgil’s jacket and shows them a photo

After searching all the stores they went to, Virgil and Logan decide to meet up with the rest of the group who is now Concerned b/c Virgil and Logan are late and have not responded to any texts or calls

Eventually they walk up to the rest of the group and Dee turns to see his brother shaking and crying and bordering on a meltdown with headphones and no jacket???

And Dee immediately rushes to comfort his brother and then tells the rest of the group to go without them and that their moms are gonna come pick them up 

Logan gives Dee Virgil’s backpack as Dee calls their moms

So everyone leaves and Dee and Virgil get picked up

Virgil’s pretty unresponsive for the evening and goes to bed really early that night

It’s the next morning when everything really comes crashing down

Virgil gets up and starts their morning routine

Shower. Dressed. Grab breakfast. Brush teeth. Grab backpack. Grab jacket. Go to school.

Wait where’s their jacket?

And now Virgil remembers and this isn’t okay because this is their comfort object it makes them feel safe and it’s part of their routine and now it’s lost

It’s lost

And Virgil‘s trying to hold it together. They’re trying

But this is their comfort object and they might never ever see it again

It’s no wonder they have a meltdown

And Oh Boy it is a really bad meltdown

And because it’s a really bad meltdown it’s a very draining meltdown 

And Virgil is in no shape to go to school

Dee wanted to stay and help for as long as possible but eventually he and Janet had to leave while Lindsey stayed with Virgil for a bit 

Being a lawyer she has a lot more schedule flexibility and is able to stay home with her kid 

They spend the day in the sensory room together, Lindsey works on paperwork while Virgil watches movies and is nonverbal the whole day

Eventually they feel well enough to text their friends that they’re ok they just had a really bad meltdown and couldn’t go to school

Logan responds offering to come over and help Virgil with their homework

Virgil shows the text to his mom and Lindsey allows it 

So Logan comes over and hangs out with Virgil and helps them with homework 

Logan comes into the sensory room to find Virgil in a weighted blanket burrito with their mom on her laptop next to them

Logan settles down next to Virgil and sees Virgil’s spider stuffie which he promptly puts on Virgil’s head because he knows it’s another of Virgil’s comfort items

This gets a happy face and happy hum from Virgil

Virgil starts rocking as Logan explains the math from today

Then Virgil’s phone starts ringing

And the noise of the phone is instantly overwhelming to Virgil

Their rocking turns more frantic but they dig around in the blanket burrito for their phone before practically throwing it at Logan

Logan looks down and recognizes their area code.

Logan: “Do you want me to answer it?”

Virgil nods so Logan turns down the volume slightly and answers it

The person from the other side of the call is someone who works at the mall

And asks if this is “Virgil” and that they have their jacket.

Logan gets the location and information and hangs up

Virgil is very overwhelmed so they’re not listening and processing at all.

Logan tells Virgil and their mom they got their jacket and Virgil is unresponsive

Virgil’s mom lets Virgil know that she’s going to go pick up their jacket and then leaves

Virgil’s still unresponsive so Logan just hangs with them why they wait for their mom

Eventually Dee and and Janet get home and they find that Lindsey’s gone and Logan’s here and Virgil is unresponsive

Logan quickly fills them in whilst Virgil is going to town on their bat chew in the background

Dee joins them in the sensory room and sits down and opens his homework 

He and Logan get distracted and have a discussion about science philosophy quietly

Dee checks on his brother every couple minutes tho 

This gets small slow nods from Virgil 

Who is stimming a lot

Eventually the garage opens and Virgil slams their hands over their ears because L O U D

Dee grabs Virgil’s headphones as quick as possible and puts them on his brothers ears

Soon after, Lindsey slowly and quietly enters the room and hands Virgil their jacket 

Virgil is stimming even harder now and starts crying and making many noises that are good and bad

Eventually they figure out virgil’s having a shutdown

Lindsey quickly grabs Virgil’s PECS board and emotions binder and leaves the room to give her child some space

Because there were a lot of people in that room near Virgil and that was Not Helping

Eventually Virgil comes back around and signs “thank you” over and over again 

They happy stim a lot and shake their head 

And Logan and dee are smiling as virgil tries to put on the jacket whilst happy stimming 

Logan stays for the rest of the afternoon and for dinner 

Around 7 Emile arrives to pick Logan up and Virgil feels well enough to walk logan to the door and when they step outside Virgil quietly says “Thank you”

Logan: “No problem Virgil, i’m glad we were able to find your jacket.”

Virgil hums and flaps their hands as Logan says this 

Virgil: “I’m glad it wasn’t lost. But I meant thanks for staying with me and helping me communicate. To the store clerks and on the phone, i know how frustrating it can be for you.”

Logan: “You’re very welcome. I understand how important comfort items and routine can be. I- I don’t want you to be upset.”

Which is admitting a lot of Logan, because while Logan is a very caring friend, it’s not often he’ll straight admit to caring for others

Virgil: “You’re a really good friend Logan”

Logan takes the compliment, but doesn’t seem to happy about it

Virgil signs “ILY” 

Logan pauses for a moment before signing “Same”

Which is a big deal for Logan

They both flap their hands a bit and Virgil watches logan get into Emile’s car and drive off and waves as logan drives away and doesn’t stop waving until they can’t see the car anymore

[thechildoflightning]

Ch6- Two Consuls (January)

Title: Calendrical Consequences [Masterpost]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairings: eventual LAMP, background Logicality

~~~

Chapter Title: Two Consuls (January)- Chapter Six

Summary: Virgil can't help but think of his mom after a comment Patton made. And well, people always say that things get worse before they get better.

Warnings: PTSD, Family Problems, Victim Blaming (in a way), Shutdown/Meltdown, Panic Attacks, Suicide and Self Harm Mention (past)

[ao3 link]

~~~

Two Consuls (January)- Chapter Six

January 9, 2019

“So Patton told me something a few weeks ago, and I can’t get it out of my head,” Virgil confessed, looking up at Picani. Picani gestured for Virgil to continue.

“I blame myself for my mom leaving me and my dad.”

“Care to elaborate?” Picani asked.

Virgil sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, okay,” he said with a huff, “So when I was kidnapped, it was obviously really hard on my parents, and eventually everyone thought I had died,” Virgil waved his hands as he talked, “And they adjusted to that. But seven years later I turned up, with a mess of PTSD, anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies, you name it. She couldn’t handle that. She left.”

Picani nodded.

“So how do you fit in?” he asked, “How was it your fault that your mom left?”

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck with a hand as he glanced around the room, avoiding Picani’s eyes.

“Well,” he said, “If I had just been, I dunno, less,” Virgil looked for a word, “fucked up,” he settled on, “Maybe she would of stayed.”

“Maybe,” Picani agreed.

Virgil snorted, “Wow, thanks Doc, way to make me feel better.”

Picani leaned forward.

“Virgil, that’s not my job. My job isn’t to lie to you to make you feel better, it is to help you through the issues you face so you can learn the skills to make yourself feel better,” he explained.

“Well then thanks for helping me make myself feel better. Totally working,” Virgil bit out as he looked off to the side.

“Virgil, maybe your mom would have stayed if you were hurting as much after what happened to you. But, she might of still left. Maybe she had been thinking about it for awhile. Maybe she hadn’t. The point is, that’s not something you can control. It was a decision your mother made,” Picani reasoned.

Virgil took a breath and looked around the office, eyes catching the numerous colorful and cartoon-themed displays in a futile attempt to ignore Picani’s words. He was good at his job. Very good. Virgil was already feeling less responsible. It was infuriating.

“But,” Virgil argued, “It’s possible I could have prevented it.”

“No,” Picani said, “That is not your responsibility. You were a traumatized child in this situation. It was never responsibility,” he shifted slightly and then took a new direction, “It’s like, take some of your triggers for example.”

Virgil immediately stiffened.

“We can work on those triggers in therapy together, but there’s a large potential that some of those things will always remind you of your trauma. Your mom went through trauma too, and sadly, you could very likely be one of her triggers that remind her of that trauma. So could your dad, so could your house. But those things aren’t the triggers faults. What’s the saying about triggers?”

“Triggers are scary, but they’re just that, scary, they can’t hurt you.”

It was something the first therapist Virgil had ever had told him in his early days of recovery. The therapist was absolute shit, but that particular phrase had sat with him all these years. He introduced it to Picani when they first started. Iit seemed a bit childish at this point in Virgil’s life, but it helped keep him grounded.

“Exactly. And just like it’s your responsibility to adjust to your triggers, it’s your mom’s responsibility to adjust to hers. You’ve learned to adjust through therapy, practice, and assistance from Trixie, because removing the trigger from the equation altogether is generally unrealistic and impractical, forcing us to work on adjusting to our situation instead. It seems like your mom never adjusted- or worked on adjusting- to her own triggers.”

“So my mom removed me instead.”

“Yes.”

The two sat in silence for a minute, Virgil processing that unfortunate conclusion.

Virgil sighed, “That sucks.”

“Yes, yes it does. I’m sorry Virgil. And I don’t know your mom, so I could be wrong, but from what you’ve explained, it seems most likely. The point is that your mom leaving is not your fault, even though you might believe it is. That belief is valid, but blaming- or even shaming- yourself for her absence in your life is putting responsibility on you that is not yours to take.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.”

Virgil hesitated before bringing up what he was going to say next. 

“I think I want to call her,” he admitted. 

Picani shifted, “Why?” 

Virgil looked at the doctor. His face seemed sincere in his question. 

Virgil sighed, “I’m- I don't know. It's just. I think she loves me. And I know I love her. I think it was just too hard.”

“What if you call her and she tells you she hates you?” Picani asked. 

“Wow that sounds great Doc. I would love that,” Virgil bit out. 

Picani sighed, “Here's the thing Virgil. I'm not against you calling your mom if that's what you want to do. I'm just asking what you're looking for from the conversation.”

Virgil hesitated, thinking. He started to clench his fist, nails digging into the skin. Trixie shifted to put her face in his lap. Virgil relaxed his hands and started petting her instead. 

“I guess,” Virgil started, “I guess I just want to hear from her, whatever it is. I feel like I need closure and I feel like the only way I can get that by talking to her.”

“And if she doesn't respond? Or screams at you and tells you horrible things?”

“Well if she doesn't respond that's closure enough I guess. It's some sort of response still. Same with the screaming. I just feel like I need something.”

“That makes sense,” Picani validated, “Closure is a very important process of trauma recovery. But I also have to ask; what if it goes well?”

“What?” Virgil had to ask, because wasn’t that a good thing? Wasn’t that what he wanted to happen?

“I mean- what if the call goes really well and she tells you that she loves you and it was all a mistake.”

“Well then we’d probably talk more?” Virgil suggested.

“Okay, and then what? Virgil- your mom hurt you and her apologizing might not make things better. Do you realize that?”

Virgil stopped. Had he?

“I think- Yeah I think I get it,” he confirmed, “I’m- I’m not doing this to have a relationship with her. I mean if a healthy one comes out of all of this, that's great, but I mean- I’m doing this whole thing for me. Because it’s what I think I need.

Picani nodded and tapped his chin. 

“Well,” he said slowly, drawing the ‘l’ out, “If you think you're mentally in place to make that call,” Picani shrugged, “I’m not going to discourage it.”

-

January 17, 2019

Virgil got the number from his dad. Or the last number that he had known. His parents hadn't talked in years either, who knew if it would work. Virgil typed it into his phone regardless considering it was the only thing he had to go off of so he might as well try it.

He breathed in and hit call. 

One ring. 

Breathe. 

Two rings. 

Breathe. 

Three rings. 

Br-

“Hello?” a voice asked from the other side of the line. 

Holy shit holy shit holy shit she answered that was her that was her voice he remembered it that was her. 

“Hello?” she asked again. 

“Hi,” Virgil spoke out breathlessly. How was he supposed to do this? Did she know who he was? Should he hang up? What if she hung up? What was his plan? He had a plan, right? What was it? Why couldn’t he remember it? 

Trixie whined and nudged him with her nose. He tried to take a breath.

“Hello? Who is this?” the voice asked. 

“Uh, hi, Mom, it's Virgil.”

“Virgil?” she whispered. 

Virgil took a step back, crashing into the couch. He sat down on it. She said his name. She said his name. Trixie clamored on top of him.

“Yeah,” he answered. 

“How did you get my number?” she asked. 

“Uh I- uh from Dad. I've been uh- doing a thing in therapy? And realized some things and wanted to call you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Uh do you have time to talk? Do you want to talk?”

“Um okay. Yeah I can talk. That sounds good actually.”

“Yeah?” Virgil asked, more than a little surprised. 

“Yeah,” she said.

Both went quiet. 

“Uh, how have you been?” she asked. 

Virgil stuttered over his words, “Oh, uh, I mean. Good? I guess?”

“Oh. Oh that's good.”

“Yeah. I'm in college.”

“You are?” Virgil thought she sounded surprised. Which honestly, the surprise was well deserved, he was still surprised he had managed to make it this far himself. (Sometimes he was still surprised that he was even still alive). His free hand went to unconsciously rub across a large scar on his arm. (But that was the past. He didn’t want to die anymore).

“Yeah. I’m at school in Florida.”

“Oh. Oh. I live in Florida too actually.”

“Uh. Cool.”

“Yeah. Uhm, you mentioned you were in uh therapy?”

“Yeah. I er, I was in therapy until I went off to college and I recently restarted again.”

“Right. Um, why did you start going back?” she asked. 

Virgil shrugged, “Uh just recent stuff. Uhm. They caught Matthew Waters. He's the one who-”

“I know who he is.”

“Right well they caught him. I'm uh going to testify against him. Uhm and it was y’know, a lot to bring back up. So I've been going back to therapy.”

“Right.”

They both went quiet for a minute. Virgil shifted the phone to the other ear.

“Uh Mom, why did you leave us?”

The other side didn't answer. 

“Mom?”

He heard a choked breath. 

“Oh Virgil,” she breathed out, “I couldn't- I couldn't handle it. And I know that's not fair to you and it probably hurt and-”

“It's okay,” Virgil said, even though it really wasn’t okay, “I mean it hurt a lot. And I've always thought that it was my fault. But I get that it was a lot. It was a lot for me too.”

“Virgil,” she whispered, “honey you were just so broken and I didn't know what to do. But you seem so much better now.”

“I mean. I'm still fucked up,” Virgil said with a laugh, “tremendously. But I know how to deal with it now.”

“That's great.”

“Yeah,” he paused and then blurted out the question he had been wondering since he was a child, “Mom, if I hadn't been kidnapped, would you still would of left dad and me?”

She hesitated.

That was all Virgil needed.

“Okay,” he said, nodding on his end. He started to cry, “Okay, Mom, I think I'm going to hang up now. But I might call back. Is that okay?”

“Oh Virgil, I just meant, you were so broken and I couldn't-”

“Right you couldn't.” His tone was a bit more biting then he meant, but he couldn’t argue that it wasn’t well deserved.

She sighed.

“Yes,” she told him, “Yes of course you can call me again. I hope you do.”

“Bye.”

“Bye, Virgil.”

-

January 20, 2019

“Hey Logan, can we talk?” Virgil asked. 

The boy looked up at Virgil, and turned his head slightly. 

“Me?” he asked. 

“Yeah you,” Virgil said with a grin, “Wanna go for a walk?”

Logan shrugged, “Sure.”

The two exited the apartment, Virgil making sure to shove on his hoodie and get Trixie into her vest. 

“What’s going on?” Logan asked when they got on the street. 

“Well- I- You- I just-” Virgil stammered.

“Virgil, breathe,” Logan reminded. He looked especially nice tonight, his slightly tan skin glowing in the moonlight.

Virgil nodded and took a deep breath in, held it, and then slowly exhaled. 4, 7, 8. He knew this.

“Okay,” Virgil said with a shake of his shoulders, “Uh, this is a kinda personal question so…”

“Personal for who?” Logan questioned.

“You?” Virgil said, voice hesitant.

“Go ahead,” Logan offered. 

“Right. Well. So I called my mom. She left me and my dad when I was in recovery after I was found. I haven't talked to her since. And she pretty much confirmed that she left us since I was too much too handle after all the trauma I went through.”

Logan nodded.

“So- I- just. I know you've had a rough relationship with your parents. Uh, with them wanting you to be ‘normal’ or whatever. And them putting you in therapy to ‘fix’ you or whatever. I just- I dunno- uh. What was that like? Like how do you have a relationship after all of that?”

Logan continued walking and didn't say anything. After a minute of this, Virgil spoke up. 

“Logan?” Virgil asked. 

Logan grunted. 

Virgil went quiet. 

Logan took another minute of silence. 

“You're right. This is very personal.”

“Yes- I- I'm sorry- I shouldn't of-”

“Stop talking.”

Virgil went quiet and shoved his hands in his pockets, hanging his head. The two of them continued to walk onwards. Logan started to hum quietly. 

“Virgil,” he said after a moment, “would you please apply pressure to me.”

“Uh like a hug? A pressure stim?”

“Yes. Please.”

“Sure. You want to sit down? I can get Trix to help too that way.”

Logan nodded and sat down on the sidewalk. Virgil slowly wrapped his arms firmly around Logan, holding him tightly, as he directed Trixie onto his lap. 

They say there for a good while. Logan humming softly all the while. His hands came up to his ears and Virgil realized that Logan had not brought his familiar headphones with him. Virgil took his own off from around his neck and placed them on the taller boy. They may not as be as noise-cancelling as Logan's but hopefully they would help to some degree. Logan didn't try to push them off at least. Virgil took that as a sign that they could stay. Eventually Logan stopped humming and his body released its tension. 

“Thank you Virgil,” he eventually said, “I appreciate the pressure you and Trixie provided. I would appreciate your assistance in getting up,” Logan said stiffly. 

“Logan- I’m sorry- I didn't mean to- I know that it's a sensitive topic-”

“Please Virgil,” Logan insisted softly, voice barely above a whisper, “I would just like to go home now. Please.”

“Right. Uh sorry.”

God, Virgil had fucked up hadn’t he? He shouldn’t of asked Logan. He knew that Logan’s relationship with his parents was rocky at the best of times and he knew Logan still internalized a lot of feelings of inadequacy in relation to them. But Virgil just had to have brought it up, hadn’t he?

Logan clenched his fists and his eyes shut tightly. 

“I need you to stop talking,” he hissed. 

Virgil just nodded vigorously. The two turned around and started their walk back to their apartment in silence. 

When they were about five minutes away, Logan spoke up once again.

“Virgil,” he said, “I’m feeling… a lot right now. And I'm not really sure how to handle it. It is not your fault, okay?”

“Yeah Logan, I get it. A bit overwhelmed huh?” And Virgil did know. He did. He knew it wasn’t his fault. He still couldn’t help but feel guilty.

“A bit overwhelmed,” Logan said with a frown. Virgil wasn’t sure if he was agreeing with or challenging the statement.

-

When they returned to the apartment Logan went straight towards the bedroom he shared with Patton, closing the door quickly behind him. Patton and Roman both looked up at Virgil from their places in the living room, eyebrows raised. 

“He had a shutdown,” Virgil explained, “I asked him a bit about some things. I think he brought up a lot of emotions for him and he's having a bit of trouble sorting through them and feeling them.”

Patton nodded, walked over and offered a hug. Virgil took it gratefully. When the younger man broke the embrace, the older scrambled away to assist his boyfriend. Virgil moved to join Roman. 

“I feel bad,” Virgil admitted when he joined his friend. 

“You shouldn't,” Roman said, focusing on a book, “You know this happens sometimes. It's just part of Logan. He’ll be okay.”

“I know, but I brought up a sensitive subject and-”

“Virgil,” Roman cut in, “I care about you, I really do. But you need to stop blaming yourself for things that aren't your responsibility. Not only does it hurt you. It hurts the others around you. I care about you, but I can't always be here to comfort you.”

Virgil swallowed harshly. 

“Right,” he muttered, exiting the room in a scramble, “You’re right. I just get in everyone’s way.”

“That's not what I meant,” Roman said with a sigh, but Virgil didn't stick around to hear the rest. 

He darted into his room, Trixie fast on his heels. He sat heavily on his bed, vision blurring. Trixie whined and nudged him. Oh my god his friends hated him. He was too much trouble. He was way too much trouble. No one liked him. He was always in the way. Worthless. Useless. Pointless. No one cared about him. And- something was pawing at him. What no? He was alone. Alone like always because no one cared and- Nope something was definitely pawing at him. What? Oh oh Trixie. 

Breathe Virgil, come on you're having a panic attack, Trixie is alerting you. Lay on the floor. Lay on the floor. They're you go. Trixie on top, providing pressure. DPT. Just breathe. Inhale for four. Hold for seven. Out for eight. Again. You got this. 

You got this. 

You got this.

Just breathe.

[aesthetic-survivor-of-twd]

Why do you not post not much as you use to? I get you have college if you're running a blog then you should commit to it. I only followed you because you were a freqent poster but you don't post as much anymore :/ You were also away for long time last year and I think you owe it to us to post more frequently. but feels like you don't care about your followers and not taking anything seriously. Sorry but I might have to unfollow if you don't fix this. I'm tired of this and you should have time.

Oh go fuck yourself anon.(Notice: This is the ONLY time i'm going to respond to this type of Ask. Because I've gotten a few of these the past few days and this is one of the only ones that isn't just verbal abuse )I would normally reply privately in these matters, but since you don't have the balls to come off Anon, I'm just gonna reply to you as normal._____________With all due respect, I don't owe you anything.I'm aware that i'm going to sound like a total bitch here, but I'm not going to let myself get slandered like this without defending myself.I have spent SO much of my life running this blog ever since it was created.Yes, I have probably been lagging behind lately (for understandable reasons) but I would just like to state that well before I had my deadline back in November I had been spending nearly every waking moment on this goddamn blog replying to Asks (you might think I'm exaggerating but I assure you I'm not).There were times I was so involved with this blog that I neglected a lot of real life stuff that I SHOULD have been paying attention to. But instead I chose to keep this blog running as frequent as I possibly could because I knew people liked seeing my posts on here.I spent a lot of time keeping up with news updates to later post and to keep you all informed with the game.After Telltale went downhill, all I did was keep checking for feedback and replying to all the hysteria fueled Asks I kept getting because everyone was in a panic (hell it ended up even making me stressed to the point where I had to have people calm ME down).I even pulled an all nighter on a college night so I could stay up to stream episode 2 for people at 5am (UK) because so many people wanted to experience the episode with me. So I thought, "Hey I'll make this a cool little event on the blog!". And I ended up sleeping in afterwards and missing half of my morning class that day.And then there is a bunch of drama bullshit that I kept getting pulled into by people on here privately and later on Twitter despite not even having anything to do with it.The point that I'm trying to make is that I've worked hard on running this blog every day - despite it not always being a pleasant experience for me.I'm not saying I deserve a pat on the head or a medal for running this blog.^ I'm a college student that runs a twdg fan blog on Tumblr for fuck sake. It's not a big deal.But I don't think it's unreasonable to at least want some form of respect for it either.Like, I'm just in shock that I've received this Ask... Did you honestly expect me to fail college just so I can entertain you 24/7? I LOVE this blog and the people on here. I truly do. I never lied when I said that i'm glad I met you all or that making this blog was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Because it truly is.But I'm also a human being that has a life to live outside of Tumblr and who has their own fair share of bullshit to deal with in life just like everyone else on here does.I can't just dedicate my entire life to nothing but this blog. Because then the blog no longer becomes fun and instead just feels like a full time job which I then feel obligated to do and start to resent it.I often try to avoid rants like this as long as I can on here because I try to keep it positive so I don't upset people, but I'm sick of getting private messages like this from people that seem to think my sole existence in life is to be your personal entertainer.It just feels like such a slap on the face to see stuff like this.It's nice to know that all those days I stayed up at like 4am to reply to Asks and all the times I was in college responding to Asks when I was meant to be doing college work or consoling people when Telltale shutdown despite barely handling it well myself resulted in this. Really makes me feel great. Thanks.This is the only time I'll be addressing these messages since I'm already having a bad day and need to vent. But if you still don't like what I've said or that my blog still isn't up to your standards then just unfollow, please. I'm sick of trying to please people like you. Actually, just unfollow either way. Do yourself a favour and step off of your fucking soap box, take a good look at yourself in the mirror and grow the fuck up.

[creativitymouth]

Up-Surge Pt.1

A/N - So there is a 50/50 chance I won’t be uploading this as often as I uploaded TWFBTWF because I have a lot of requests I am also working on at the moment but I will be continuing this if the response is well enough.

Summary: We can’t contain the unknown. AgedUp!EddieKaspbrakxFem!Reader

Trigger Warnings: Germs, Swearing.

Forever Tags: @mari-melancholy​ @hello-mynameisfinn​

Chapter 1: The Spread

Day 1:                                                                                                                    It was just a cough. A young woman passing by a child and forgetting to cover her mouth. She didn’t see the countless bacteria she’d spread, she hadn’t known she’d infected others. Her trip to Malaysia had been an innocent one, all she’d wanted to do was care for the innocent there. If only she knew what was inside of her meat.

Day 2:                                                                                                                    5 cases now, spreading across New York. Hands touching bus poles, bodies pushed together on crowded trains, money being passed to the waitress at the local diner. They don’t know. They think it’s just a common cold, it is so much more.

Day 3:                                                                                                                    The Center for Disease Control has been notified 18 cases, 6 dead. They have no idea what they’re working with. They’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a cross between Swine Flu and Bird Flu, with violent symptoms.

Day 5:                                                                                                                It’s spreading like wildfire. One uncovered sneeze in a movie theatre and the entire movie-goers are sick. A mother goes home to tuck her child to bed. She forgot to wash her hands before touching him. Not that it would have helped any. Her head spins violently, her mouth is dry, vision blurry. The Doctor has said it was just a cold. Just a cold.

Day 8:                                                                                                               They don’t want to alarm the masses. 48 cases in New York. 12 in Massachusetts. 10 in Washington. It is spreading like wildfire. And there is no cure. They can’t figure out who patient sub-zero was, they do not know of her travel to Malaysia. They do not know of the infected meat she ate. They do not know that she went home to kiss her mother on the forehead. She died 2 days after infection, without a trace to her there may be no hope.

Day 12:                                                                                                             They must tell the people. New York is suffering. Massachusetts is close behind. The larger the city is populated the easier infection spreads. No one thinks to wipe down subway seats before they sit, or to wear gloves when they touch things others have encountered. They had conditioned them to not be afraid. Now they should be.

Day 20:                                                                                                           Mass Hysteria. Doctors are fleeing their jobs. How can they work without a cure? It has spread past the East but, yet they haven’t shut down travelling. They consider quarantining New York, they don’t for now. People wear Masks outside, but it isn’t enough. Now is not a time to be brave. Stay in your homes and pray for the best.

Day 30, Hour 12:                                                                                              Eddie Kaspbrak sits in his Derry home watching the new reports of the fast spreading virus. His friends had always teased him about his obsessively clean and hygienic quirks. Now look where they were. A virus with no cure, airborne, and extremely deadly. All you had to do to contract it was touch what the infected came in contact with. Chance of survival from the illness was low at least until they could come up with a cure. But in 30 days New York State and Massachusetts had already been placed under quarantine, no one in or out. They’d thought it would prohibit the spread of the infection but they were wrong. Eddie knew Maine was 7 hours away from New York and 4 hours away from Massachusetts, but those numbers seemed so small. Already 1 person had fallen ill in Derry though rumors told it was just a chest cold. Isn’t that what all the infected had thought? Just a cold.

Day 30, Hour 14:                                                                                               Your father, ever the stubborn man, did not take heed of the virus warnings. He still traveled the days to work. It was not until Day 20 of the spread that anyone noticed his lethargic behavior. Your mother had locked him away in their room to try and contain the illness. She tried to tell your sister and yourself that it was nothing to worry about. 4 days later they were both dead, rotting away in their rooms as you held your younger sister to you while she cried. Your aunt had come to retrieve you and now you were being sterilized in the basement of her house in Derry, Maine. You understood why the precautions she took were necessary. She didn’t want to risk infecting her 3-month-old child and husband. She took you in out of courtesy, not because she wanted nor needed too. Your sister was just 10 years old, her child-like brain unable to understand what was going on. She didn’t see the dangers of contact and would whimper when denied hugs from her extended family. You too missed the embrace of another human beside her, but you had learned to accept what you were given.

“This can’t get much worse.” You spoke aloud, your sister was snoring soundly beside you. You didn’t know how wrong you were.

Day 45, Hour 17:                                                                                                The Infected now display signs of insanity. They run rampant in the streets, with a fervor you’d only seen in movies. They foamed at the mouth, clawed at their eyes, and attacked anyone in sight. This was the last stage of the illness, the only thing to follow was death. You listened on as your aunt cried softly.

“Even if you don’t believe in a God, I suggest you pray.” The spokesman said. “The illness has once again developed just out of reach in time for our doctors to find a cure.” His face was red and blotchy, and you wondered if he would be the next to fall ill. “The sick are now experiencing Walking Dead like symptoms. If you come into contact with one,” he paused taking in a large breath, “well may God help you. May God help us all.” He signed out then and the only sounds left in the house were the cries of your aunt.

“(Y/N)?” You looked down at your sister taking in her large eyes.

“Yes baby?”

“Am I going to die?” You didn’t respond because you didn’t know how too. “Are you?” You looked away from her to the TV, watching as the ill roamed the streets in anger. Some sat banging their heads on the concrete, others chased passerby. The world was in chaos. The sickness, still had failed to reach Derry but you knew peace didn’t last.

“No Sully.” You said with strength because you knew you meant those words. “Neither of us is going to die.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Day 50, Hour 20:                                                                                            “Have you seen the hot new girl next door?” Richie was squinting through the blinds in Eddie’s room. Pretending as though he was oblivious to the chaos outside. He was 18, but in the heat of the everything he felt 100.

“No.” Eddie responded blandly. Unlike Richie he couldn’t ignore the death counts, and the ill roaming around like zombies. He hardly wanted Richie at his home and breathing the same air as him, there was no way to insure he didn’t carry the virus. “I’ve been busy studying.”

“For what? Schools been out for 3 weeks.”

“I still need an education Tozier.”

“What you need is to ease up and get some fresh air.”

“Yes, because I am so keen on getting ill and then attacking my mother in a frenzy of neurological madness.” Richie rolled his eyes, accustomed to his best friends tiring sarcastic commentary.

“She moved here like a little less than 3 weeks ago.” This caught Eddie’s attention. He put down his Trigonometry textbook and faced where Richie was playing peeping tom from the window.

“She has a little sister too.”

“Moved here?” Eddie mumbled under his breath. “From where?”

“Washington, D.C.” Richie turned away from the window and watched as the wheels of panic turned inside of Eddie’s head.

“How long ago?” He didn’t want to think too much about it, there was a chance he was just overreacting. There was also a chance he wasn’t.

“I said a little under 3 weeks ago.”

“What day was that?”

“Um, if I remember I saw the car pull up on the March 27th.” Richie was trying to play it off, but he knew that was the day you had moved in. Since the spread of the virus, and the shutdown of the school he’d had nothing to do but watch life pass him by. He had been doing just that when he saw your aunt’s car come back into town. “Why?”

“Washington was quarantined on the 1st of April. She came here from an infected zone. She’s going to get us all killed.” Eddie had begun to pace the room frantically. There had been a scare once before that Derry had contracted the illness but if someone was here from an infected zone that raised the stakes. “She’s going to run out of that house, come over here, and attack me. She’s going to be foaming at the mouth and crazy and going to completely fucking ruin my chances of survival.”

“Calm the fuck down.” Richie moved away from the window and over to the passing Eddie. He put his hands on his shoulders to try and slow his paced movements. “Think of the plus side in all of this.”

“What plus side?”

“The Losers Club can now become like Zombie fighting bad-asses.”

“What?”

“You know,” Rich took his hands-off Eddie’s shoulders to gesture into the air, “How in every T.V show there’s a group of kids who fights monsters or something. That could be us.”

“This isn’t a fucking T.V show, it’s real life.” Eddie was growing tired of Richie’s look at the Brightside attitude. To him there was no Brightside just infected people roaming the streets, and an illness that had no cure. “And they aren’t zombies.”

“They’re close enough.” Richie smiled at Eddie, he knew his best friend was nervous, but he didn’t see a reason to be. The likelihood of the illness reaching Derry was 0 to none.

Day 51, Hour 20:                                                                                                    They now had a name for the people infected who became mad. They called them Rabid and they were dangerous.

Day 52, Hour 4:                                                                                                   He had just managed to escape the quarantine in Florida, seconds before the barriers had come down he’d drove his car through. He’d heard the sirens following him but after about an hour of chase they’d given up. He wasn’t infected, so it didn’t matter if he left. That’s what he kept telling himself as he drove to what he considered a haven town. He had been raised in Derry, Maine and knew that the infection couldn’t have spread there so quickly. He could lie low here and not have to worry about becoming a Rabid or getting pulverized by one.

Day 54, Hour 14:                                                                                                  He was experiencing dry mouth and blurry vision. He told himself that it was just the nervousness of having escaped with his health. He handed money to the waitress bringing his food, she gave the money to the cashier, and the cashier put it inside of the register. The Cashier went home to hug his wife and kiss his 3-month-old baby on the forehead. He didn’t touch his wife’s nieces in fear that they were infected. He didn’t know that he now carried the virus, that he should be afraid of himself and not the young girls in the basement.

Day 57, Hour 12:                                                                                                  The man who traveled into town looking for haven died, after clawing his eyes out in a fit of rage. He had denied his symptoms for so long that he was capable of spreading the virus in the small town. All it took was a cough, a handshake, a hug, and someone else was infected.

The Waitress had died alone in her house where she had one day hoped to start a family. She hadn’t had much but she was content to build, now she would never have that chance.

Then there had been the Cashier:

“Sully,” You whispered as your aunt began to violently cough. “Come here right now. Cover your mouth.” The Cashier had been your Uncle and though he had shown the symptoms of the illness your aunt refused to believe he was sick.

“But auntie is making us a sandwich.” Your uncle had yet to come out of his room that morning, you’d figured he was dead. Maybe your aunt had killed him when she started to experience signs of madness.

“Sully,” you took a deep breath as you watched your aunt slowly slamming the knife onto the cutting board, “I said now.” Your sister saw the panic in your eyes and scrambled over to your side. “Walk to the front door and run to the neighbor’s house when I tell you to.” She was staring at your aunt as she cackled to herself the madness settling in her bones. Her head was tilting side to side threateningly, her eyes leaking blood as she coughed. “Don’t take your hand from your mouth no matter what.”

“(Y/N)?” Your sister whimpered as she started walking to the front door her eyes never leaving her aunt.

“You did this.” Her voice was hoarse and tired as she waves the knife in the air in front of her face. “You brought this illness here.” She turned to you smiling with her teeth blood stained. She coughed blood spewing from her mouth. You instinctively put your hand over your face inhaling short breaths.  “Come give auntie – “she struggled to speak the blood gurgling in her mouth, so instead of finishing she lunged towards you.

“Go, Sully! Now!” You listened as your sister’s footsteps took off from behind you. Your aunt had given up the ability to speak and was now just making wet sounds from her throat. You pulled your sleeves over your hands grabbing the nearest chair and throwing it at her. It hit her in the leg, but she wasn’t at all stunned as she took another lunge for you. You stepped away quick enough and grabbed the thing too your left. It was a set of forks and you weren’t very sure they would help but you’d flung them at her regardless. You were very aware of your bodies proximity to hers and became grateful for the fact that she’d been so paranoid that you or your sister carried the illness. Those plastic utensils suddenly seemed like a godsend. The forks hit her in her forehead and did absolutely nothing. She shook her head, reaching out for your foot. You screamed kicking out at her not wanting her to meet your skin.

“(Y/N)!” You didn’t have to turn your head to recognize the voice as your sisters. Your aunts head snapped in the direction of Sully.

“What the fuck Sully, I thought I told you to go!”

“I heard you scream!”

“And that caused you to come back?” You would have taken more time to scold her if your infested aunt hadn’t changed course. Her ears had begun to bleed, and you knew it was only moments before she depleted all her energy and dropped dead, but moments were too long. Since her attention was temporarily distracted from you, you took the opportunity to slip towards the butcher knife she had been making sandwiches with. You should have known something was wrong then, but you wanted to play house and ignore it. No one made turkey sandwiches with a butcher’s knife. Your sister was screaming as your aunt cackled and stared at her. It was if her brain was melting. Pulling down your sleeve over your hand you picked up the knife.

“(Y/N)!” You turned around with the weapon in your hand to see your aunt having cornered Sully. You took a deep breath - which you realized you shouldn’t have done and didn’t have time for – before walking quickly over to your aunt and stabbing her in the shoulder blade. She howled in pain reaching around for the knife in her back. You took her lapse of pain as a chance to escape.

“Go!” You yelled at your sister, “Go, go, go.” You wished you could push her, but you didn’t want to risk infecting her. She glanced once more at your animalistic aunt before turning and running out the door. You followed behind her and with your hands still covered by your sleeves you shut the door and locked. You know her cognition would be to messed up for her to turn the knob to begin with but you wanted to be safe. You stripped your shirt off - it had come into contact with a lot of things that carried the virus - and tossed it to the side. “Walk to the neighbors, don’t touch me.” You said sternly as you moved a couple of paces away from your sister. You were happy she’d come back because it had saved your life, but it had also risked her own. After the death of your mom and dad you weren’t ready to handle another. Sure, the passing of your aunt had been sad, but you’d never had a close relationship with them to begin with. When you reached the neighbors door you shooed your sister away, she took several large steps over.

“Who is it?” Your eyebrows quirked up, you hadn’t expected someone to answer so quickly. The

voice sounded strained and nervous, but it was obviously a boy around your age.

“We need help.” You tried to keep the desperate pleading from your voice. Eddie peaked out of the peep hole, and was mortified by your lack of clothing.

“I don’t sell clothes.”

“No, what the –“ You took a shuddering breath in. You were still overcome with nerves over your aunts Rabidism. When it had first started you weren’t given a chance to let it sink, but now standing here with your thoughts and a boy who wouldn’t open his front door you couldn’t shake the metallic taste of fear. “Please open the door. My little sister is only 10 and she’s afraid and so am I, we have nowhere else to go.” Eddie shifted his weight between his feet. He could see it in your eyes, something terrible had happened over in that house. He didn’t know if he wanted to risk bringing it to his own. “Please.” You tried again as the emotion clogged your throat.

“Oh, for fucks sake.” Eddie whispered to himself before swinging his door open. “Come in.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t look at you as you stepped inside of his living room, a shaking girl behind you. You stood in the center of the small house as your sister sat on a lounging chair and curled into herself. She at once started to cry, and you wished for nothing more than the ability to comfort her. Eddie tossed you a shirt from the bag of clothes he had by the door if he ever needed to make an escape. You caught it gratefully and shifted it over your head. Between your sister’s cries and the way, you stood stiffly, the tension inside of the living room was awkward.

“The illness,” you cleared your throat looking up at the lanky boy before you, “it’s in Derry.”

[askthesquips]

DON’T DO VOLTAGE KIDS (Part 1 & 2/3)

When we were still trying to finalize the voltage thing, I had written a drabble trying to explore the possibilities of it. The idea has grown way beyond this now though, but we thought it’d be nice to show you guys how it was like when it started.

-Mod Gen

“Are you sure about this?” Jeremy asked, nervously fiddling with the tab of the Mountain Dew Voltage can in his grasp. “Can’t you tell what this will do?”

“No, I cannot. My Database Is Vast But Outdated. Your SQUIP Had Prevented Me From Updating And Even Now In His Forced Shutdown State, I Struggle To Break Through His Security Measures.” P explained in his usual forceful manner, before his face suddenly fell into a grimace and he uncomfortably switched the leg he was balancing on the table. “There Is Also The Fact That In My Malfunctioning And Unstable State, A Lot Of My Information Became... Unreliable."

“I get that but… After what happened with the Code Red, I kind of want to know how what I’m doing will affect you.” Jeremy said, rubbing the back of his head bashfully with one hand and swishing around the contents of the can with the other.

“Well, You Know What They Say, Jeremy, Nothing Ventured Nothing Gain.” The hyperactive SQUIP declared, putting his hands on his hips triumphantly and bouncing slightly on his feet. “We Need To Find A Way To Deal With Your SQUIP Sooner Or Later. Before Any Malicious Attempts At Control Can Happen.”

Jeremy nodded, recalling the horror story of possibilities he was told, and put the can to his lips, but before he could take a sip, he hesitated.

“What will happen to you if I drink this?”

P just smiled, there was a melancholy about his expression, but his face still oozed warmth.

“Do Not Worry About Me, People Are Better Off Without SQUIPs Making Decisions For Them.”

Those words struck a chord in Jeremy that he wasn’t expecting. Despite the mess that he had put him through with M, he still liked P. He slowly learned that he only wanted the best for him. Genuinely wanted it, and that was solidified now that he saw he was willing to die for it, again. Filled with determination, he finally drank from the can. He took one, large sip, and after swallowing, he immediately cringed and dropped it.

It hurt so badly. It felt like electricity coursing through his body straight to his brain. It was one long, excruciating moment of agony that occasionally spiked. His legs buckled and he fell forward, grabbing the table for support. He would be screaming if his body didn’t feel paralyzed, but someone else had him covered in that department. He could hear P screaming, voice glitching horribly, and while he couldn’t see him, he could just tell that the SQUIP had curled in on himself.

It was impossible to tell how long that had lasted, time was meaningless under all those layers off pain. The only thing Jeremy was aware of when it slowly faded out was his haggard breathing and the fact that he was on his knees leaning against his kitchen table. When he was capable of intelligent thought again, panic immediately rushed through him as he remembered P’s cries. Snapping his head to the side with adrenaline fuelled speed, he saw said SQUIP, bent over, hands on his knees, and panting heavily with robotic sounding breaths. It was strange to hear P sound like that, M usually did so when he was furious, but P had rarely ever done so before. What was even more strange was when he finally looked up, face painted with blue, glowing lines in a circuitboard fashion, something else similar to the deactivated SQUIP, but this somehow felt… worse.

“Uh, are you okay?” Jeremy asked tentatively, not completely sure what had happened to the other.

When he spoke to P, his face snapped into an expression that could only be described as a ‘manic smile.’ Stretching his arms out, a coat glitched into existence over them and his vest disappeared. His khaki’s turned into some fancy black pants and with those sunglasses, he looked like he had jumped straight out of the matrix.

“I Am Wonderful, Jeremy! Better Than I Have Ever Been!” P responded, talking faster and louder than ever, with an unnatural tinge to his voice. “In Fact, I Think We Have Found Our Solution! Voltage Seems To Have Greatly Improved Everything About Me, So Much So That I Now Far Surpass The Other SQUIP Inhabiting Your Head! If I Were Given Time I Could Overcome Him And Completely Erase Him From Your Consciousness!”

Jeremy sighed, leaning back in exhaustion. It seemed everything was fine after all. Whatever had just happened may have given him an extreme sugar rush, but they could use that to their advantage. It even looked like he wouldn’t have to completely delete P either. Those feelings of relief didn’t last long, though, as the super powered SQUIP ran forward and jumped on the table he was leaning against, now looming almost dangerously over him.

“And Of Course, I Can Take His Place!”

-

“No no no no no…” Jeremy mumbled over and over.

He felt like he was going to cry. This wasn’t supposed to happen, P wasn’t supposed to turn into a much more powerful and much more dangerous version of M. He was going to help, he was going to make sure Jeremy was okay and free from that other SQUIP. He genuinely cared, he proved that on so many occasions and now he was fucked up. Jeremy had fucked him up because he decided to drink the stupid voltage flavour. He wanted to scream, break something, vent out all of this negative energy violently, but he couldn’t. His body felt exhausted and his mind numb as a dull pain throbbed in his head.

“You Okay Over There, Jeremy?” Looked like whatever that freak abomination of P was noticed this. “We Should Get You To Bed! A Whole New World Of Possibilities Has Opened Up And Humans Need Sleep To Properly Process Information!”

P leaned down and put his hands on his shoulders. They felt more solid than usual, as if his brain was processing the touch as more real. Feeling his body get up on its own, he realized that the SQUIP had taken control off him. He acted as if he were steering someone emotionally fragile, humming a soothing tune to himself as he did so. Jeremy wanted to hate him, wanted to hate this so badly, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t something that P would do. But he was so tired and his eyelids were drooping shut. He barely felt the impact of falling into bed before darkness overtook him, interrupted only by flashes of blue and sparks of pain.

When he woke up again, his body felt feverish and sore. There was a pounding in his head that was almost unbearable and he buried it into the pillow as if that would help anything. Last night had felt like a dream and he could barely recall what had happened.

“Good Morning, Jeremy!” He heard a familiar, but distorted voice call out. He looked up ever so slightly from his pillow and saw the face of P, covered in circuit board blue lines, and wide smile on his face. All at once memories came flooding back and he groaned at how it made his head hurt.

“It Seems The Stress Of My Upgrade Has Negatively Affected Your Health.” P said, taking control of Jeremy’s arm and making him grab the bottle of headache pills on his nightstand, and a glass of water that was there for some reason, before forcing his own body to take the medicine. “Your Progenitor Was In Here Earlier And Already Diagnosed You With A Fever. He Left Those For When You Woke Up.”

Jeremy only groaned again. Lacking the strength to answer, he was given back control of his body and fell backwards on his bed, melting in the softness of his mattress. He just wanted to sleep, and it seemed he was about to get that wish before a certain somebody slammed his door open, Bob Marley play from the headphones around his neck and wearing a familiar red hoodie.

“Yo, Jeremy! Your dad said you were sick so I came to the rescue with patented Michael Mell Cures™!” Michael exclaimed, face lighting up as he deposited handfuls of things all over the floor. “Okay so we got Apocalypse of the Damned, extra greasy popcorn, Mountain Dew, wait you can’t drink that stuff right? Because of the SQUIP things? That’s fine I brought other soda, like…”

Jeremy couldn’t help but smile, even though Michael had interrupted his much needed rest, he only wanted to help. Though pretty much everything he listed sounded pretty unfavourable to his current, sick state. He was about to suggest that they set up the game and play a few levels, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. All of a sudden he lost control of his body and sat up, left just staring as Michael was still sorting through everything he brought. He couldn’t turn his head to look at P, but he felt the SQUIP’s analytical gaze drilling into his friend.

“Uh, I-I’m sorry, Michael, I’m not feeling up to it today, can we do this some other time?” His mouth said without his permission.

Michael looked over him, a little surprised at what he said before his face fell. That didn’t last long and Michael perked right back up to his usual self, expression of understanding, but the little moment it wasn’t left Jeremy reeling with intense self-hatred. He didn’t want to say that! What was the P doing, he promised he would get to keep his relationship with Michael intact, that he wouldn’t have to drive him away!

“Nah, it’s cool bro, I get it. You must be feeling really sick.” Michael responded, walking over to the side of his bed and leaning over, placing a fist in front of him. “Next time?”

Jeremy’s fist connected with it without his control, he wanted to throw up. “Next time.”

He had to wait and watch his friend leave. Picking up the crazy amount of things he had brought just for him, just to make him feel better. He desperately wanted to spend time with Michael, wanted someone to cheer him up and keep him distracted, but he was powerless to do anything as P kept his control over him firm. When Michael finally gathered up everything, he gave Jeremy one last look over his shoulder, a wide grin, Jeremy returned it with a sincere smile that was not his own, and then Michael was gone.

Feeling his body return to him, he immediately turned to yell at P out loud, not caring if anyone heard him.

“What was that?! Why did you tell him to leave, why did you make me tell him to leave?!” His volume wasn’t as loud as he wanted it to be, he was still so sick and barely had any energy. “You promised you wouldn’t make me lose everyone close to me, you promised…”

P looked down at him sympathetically, putting his hand on his shoulder, Jeremy shut his eyes, fearing the inevitable loss of control, he only opened them when that never came, and his SQUIP was actually gingerly massaging the shoulder. It was… Nice, but he still had his guard up, not sure what to expect.

“Jeremy, You Are Very Sick Right Now, You Would Have Only Made It Worse By Straining Yourself To Hang Out With Your Friend.” P took his hand off his shoulder and leaned back to sit on the nightstand, the water and pills not yet having been returned, and put his legs up. The familiarity of the action was comforting. “I Promise I Am Not Trying To Push Your Friends Away, I Genuinely Care For You, Remember?”

Right… He genuinely wanted him to be happy and safe, that’s why he was trying to get rid of M. Telling Michael he wasn’t well enough to hang out today was in his best interests too, right? It was only this one time. He could still trust P, he had to be able to.

“Okay, yeah, I get it.”

P smiled, it wasn’t as big or as unnatural as the others, but seeing it on that face still caused unease to form in the pit of Jeremy’s stomach. But that was probably just from the sickness. Closing his eyes again, he let himself slowly fall asleep, the flashes of blue and pain returning yet again.

[ganymedesclock]

your zarkon analysis got me thinking: if zarkon had successfully retaken the black lion and eventually the other four, do you think it would have even been possible for him and four other galra to form Voltron? the trust, support, and love the five paladins must share probably wouldn't be a priority for zarkon's version of Voltron. would it have even been possible for the lions to combine if the other four Paladins were terrified of the Head?

I’d take it on an even more fundamental level than that.

Even if Zarkon takes out Shiro, I don’t think he could ever pilot the Black Lion again.

There’s this minor issue of Zarkon interacting with Black in any magnitude tends to send her into completely unresponsive shutdowns. Sure, we see Zarkon is able to mess Black up in her responses to Shiro- but we haven’t seen any implication that he does anything to actually make Black respond to him.

Zarkon’s relationship with Black at this point has nothing to do with trust, and it has nothing to do with love.

It has everything to do with fear. Suggesting that this is a way Zarkon could actually practically control the Black Lion is like suggesting Sendak could make Shiro do his bidding because he was able to send Shiro into dissociative panic attacks in s1e9.

Everything that Voltron does, it’s the Lions and paladins doing together. Ignoring that I doubt the Lions would willingly side with the murderers of their paladins- in a scenario where Keith was killed and Red captured, I feel like unpleasant things with the flame cannon would happen to any imperial soldier that went near her mouth- there’s the fact that without the complete, active, and willing participation of the Lions, things are inaccessible.

Shiro has been working patiently and diligently with Black for most of two seasons before he achieves the Wings of the Wraith, her signature weapon. Everything he knows about her functions, besides the bare minimum- that the Lions can come together to form Voltron- Shiro only knows because Black taught him.

Even if the Lions’ abilities to fight back, and leverage their mouth-based weapons against pilots trying to force themselves onto the Lions, were compromised... that would be a nightmare for the pilots involved. You have a set of ancient black box machines, nothing is labeled in any language you can read, and it’s not going to operate like anything you’ve used before.

The paladins can just waltz right in and understand the Lions, again, because the Lions are teaching them.

And there’s the other thing of the Lions can choose to get in people’s heads. You know what else got in people’s heads? The baku.

The Lions have the capacity to be infinitely worse than the baku was.

Let’s just start with the fact that they can create vivid enough illusions that until they choose to drop it, the pilot really believes everything they’re seeing and hearing. An ability like that was used to nearly kill the entirety of Team Voltron in s1e9. You also don’t have to be touching their body for them to make you see things. You just have to be near them, and- honestly, let’s hope none of the Lions feel like forging a paladin bond purely for the sake of being someone’s personal nightmare. Because the paladin bonds, as we’ve discovered... don’t have outside limits. If a Lion was really committed to messing with someone’s head and used that kind of mental anchor as a kind of “hand in unloving hand”, they could basically guarantee anyone who tried to come near them would never know peace for the rest of their life, or until the Lion decided to let them go.

I mean, think about how much hell Zarkon was able to raise for Black by refusing to let go of his end of the connection. That’s a two-way highway. 

They can also simply ignore pilot input. Boy, I’m sure you’d love to have the ice beam right now? Too bad, hypothetical empire pilot, Blue just... y’know, doesn’t feel like helping right now. Oh are we getting smacked around? Red knows something we could do about that, but... well, y’know, you pried her mouth open last time, she doesn’t like you.

Black demonstrated they can eject people. And they can move on their own.

Even being captive and in the empire’s custody wouldn’t stop them from calling out. From finding people they do like, with just enough doubt and uncertainty festering that they’re willing to listen more to the little voice in the back of their head than they are their commanding officer telling them to stand down and back away from the Lion. 

Basically? The empire trying to control Voltron is a pipe dream. They could certainly try, and knowing Zarkon and Haggar they’d try to exploit all kinds of unsavory means to make the Lions behave, but I think the most success I could concede for them is maybe they’d be able to seriously mess Voltron up, and even that’s not a given.

TL;DR: Voltron is a hive mind made of five benevolent space horror apex predators. Zarkon has approximately a snowflake’s chance in hell of actually establishing control over it. 

[scriptautistic]

Masterpost: Meltdowns

One of the most obviously recognizable autistic traits are meltdowns. Stimming can often be done in subtle ways, allistic-type social skills can often be learned, but meltdowns are simply beyond control. Unfortunately, they’re frequently misunderstood and mishandled by others who don’t realize what they’re seeing.

As always, we want to emphasize that meltdowns are different for everyone. Some autistic people have regular meltdowns. Some experience them rarely or not at all. And they can be caused by different things and experienced differently by different people.

Meltdowns are caused by an overload in the brain. This can be sensory overload, extreme anxiety, emotional distress, or stress: basically, there is too much or something and the brain can’t cope. Whatever the cause, the brain is in a state where it can no longer handle further input.

Many autistic people, especially adults with a lifetime of experience, are able to recognize when they are getting overloaded and are headed for a meltdown. Some people are able to leave the situation which is causing their overload and give themselves time and space for their brains to “catch up” so they can calm down and avoid the meltdown. Sometimes, however, it’s not possible to leave a situation - and sometimes, it’s not clear to the person what is happening. For example, alexithymia might prevent them from being aware that they are getting overloaded. If the person remains in the overload-inducing situation, a meltdown can occur (The person can also experience a shutdown - we’ll get into this in a minute.). Sometimes the meltdown is also caused by internal reasons (anxiety, emotional distress) which can hardly be avoided.

Once in a meltdown, the person no longer has normal control over themselves. The brain goes into “fight or flight” mode. The brain perceives a threat - the cause of the sensory overload, or stress, or whatever people happen to be nearby when it happens. It can also be a vague sense of danger / pain that’s not directed at anything. Logic and reason go out the window, and the person is gripped by a tremendous sense of panic and danger. For some people, their brain is saying: YOU ARE NOT SAFE. YOU NEED TO GET AWAY. Picture a cornered prey animal preparing to fight for its life. That’s the state the brain is in.

The person will then react to the situation as though they are in extreme danger - even if they are logically aware that they are not. Common reactions include:

They may physically run away, or try to run away.

If they are unable to run away, they may try to hide: behind doors, under tables and chairs, behind curtains, anywhere that presents itself. (Mod Aira has been known to try to hide on the couch, under the cushions.)

If approached by other people, they may respond as though they are being attacked (because the brain feels as though they are). This may include screaming, yelling insults and threats, and lashing out physically, punching, kicking, scratching, or even biting.

The character may shout things they would never normally say, including threats, slurs, curse words, etc. Alternatively, they may beg for help, to go home, for their mother, etc.

They may thrash around and/or stim in extreme ways, or in ways that are out of character for them. This can include self-harm: scratching or biting one’s skin or slamming one’s head against the wall or floor are not uncommon. This is an attempt to calm the nervous system.

They may scream, whimper or cry because of the pain they’re in.

They’ll probably have trouble thinking clearly or at all.

Throughout this experience, the person may feel physical pain as well as panic. Common descriptions include having bees in your head, feeling like your skin is trying to crawl off of you, feeling like your chest is trying to implode, or having nerve pain that shoots up and down your body.

In addition to panic, the person is quite likely to feel profound embarrassment and/or shame, especially once the meltdown is over and the person is calming down, and especially if it happened in public. They are often aware that what they are doing is irrational, and they know how awful they look while it’s happening, but they cannot control it in any way.

This is an important thing to note: Meltdowns cannot be controlled or stopped once they begin. They are not related to temper tantrums, which they are commonly mistaken for. A temper tantrum is someone behaving in an extreme way in order to get attention or to manipulate others into giving them what they want. A meltdown is in no way voluntary. It is more like a seizure: a neurological event which cannot be controlled or stopped (though it might be shortened in some situations, and can definitely be made worse).

If a character in your story sees the meltdown happen, there are ways to help, and there are ways to make it worse. If the person knows what is happening and what to do, they can help make the meltdown as short and painless as possible in the following ways:

Do not attempt to talk to or touch the person melting down unless they have explicitly requested that you do so. Some people may find comfort in pressure, for example, and ask friends and family to give them bear hugs when they melt down, but this doesn’t work for everyone and will make some people worse.

If the meltdown is caused by sensory overload, remove as many sources of sensory stimulation as possible. Turn off music (even quiet music, since the person may be extremely sensitive), turn off or dim lights, stop all conversations, etc. If they are able to walk, moving the person out of an overloading setting can be more feasible if the meltdown happens in a public place (supermarket…).

If the meltdown is caused by stress, anxiety or emotional reasons, anything which can help reduce these can help shorten the meltdowns. What can and can’t help depends on the person. Asking someone how to behave if they ever have a meltdown in a moment when they’re NOT having one is a good thing to do, as they won’t be able to tell you when a meltdown has already begun.

Give the person space and keep bystanders away. Ideally, create a situation where no one is looking at them (seeing eyes looking or staring can increase the sense of threat). Explain that they are fine, the situation is under control, and keep them from gawking. If police are around, explain if necessary that the person is autistic but that they will be fine in a few minutes, and that you are taking care of them. Make sure the person does not perceive any extra threats from people approaching them, which might result in a worsening meltdown and possibly even violence.

Once they have calmed down and are ready to talk, don’t make a big deal out of it. Make it clear that you understand this is something beyond their control and that they have no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed.

If possible, give the person an escape route. Do not stand between them and the door. Make it clear that they can leave if they need to, and provide a safe space for them to be alone.

Naturally, such perfect “meltdown companions” rarely exist in most autistic people’s lives. Your average well-intentioned friend or family member, and certainly your average stranger, are likely to react in the following ways, and with the following results:

Trying to calm the person down by approaching them, trying to soothe them with gentle touches, stroking their hair, rubbing their back, etc. Aside from the potential panic they might feel from being approached by someone (threat!) which can result in violent outbursts, physical contact and hearing someone’s voice can lead to increased overload which can worsen and prolong the meltdown.

Trying to force the person to talk about what’s happening. Demanding that they explain what’s going on, asking lots of questions, wanting them to “talk it out”, or just rambling on about how they’re here to help and everything’s going to be okay, etc. Again, the noise can increase overload. Also, the person might be totally unable to process speech and be unable to understand what’s being said, in which case they just hear “I’m not leaving you alone! I demand that you accommodate my need to understand you!” and increase stress.

Yell at the person for “throwing a tantrum” or “being dramatic”. It is extremely common for meltdowns to be misunderstood and mistaken for a willful tantrum. Verbal attacks like this will increase the sense of being threatened, worsen and prolong the meltdown, and might provoke violent behavior which the autistic person feels is self-defense.

Block exits and prevent the person from running away. If allowed to leave the situation, a person experiencing a meltdown might be able to calm down fairly quickly, but when prevented, the threat level increases - instead of running, they are cornered, and have to resort to other methods to try to get the “threat” away.

Making them the center of attention. The person melting down generally needs to be left alone. When everyone is looking at them, trying to “help” them or calm them down, even if all the people around have good intentions, it can make the situation far worse.

The amount of time a meltdown takes to pass depends greatly on the individual and the situation. They can pass in a minute or two, or they can last for upwards of an hour, especially if the person is forced to remain in the situation which triggered it. On average, they tend to end within 15-20 minutes. If left alone under ideal circumstances, they can be shortened dramatically.

When the person feels that the threat has passed and the brain has calmed itself down sufficiently, the meltdown can end. The character can gradually calm down and regain control of themselves. Aside from potentially feeling embarrassed and ashamed, they are also likely to feel exhausted, as meltdowns expend a lot of energy. Some people will even curl up wherever they are (under a table, inside the sofa, wherever) and immediately take a nap. Their cognitive functions (ability to think clearly) might take some time to go back to normal.

That’s all for meltdown. A masterpost about shutdowns will follow shortly, as well as some posts describing the mods’ personal experience with both type of reactions so you can have a concrete example. Happy writing! (Here we are, giving you more options to make your characters suffer. Do you really need that.)

[echoesthrupassages]

“there is no question the united states missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus. but the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed. the choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many americans will have to bury a loved one because of covid-19.

through my work with the gates foundation, i’ve spoken with experts and leaders in washington and across the country. it’s become clear to me that we must take three steps.

first, we need a consistent nationwide approach to shutting down. despite urging from public health experts, some states and counties haven’t shut down completely. in some states, beaches are still open; in others, restaurants still serve sit-down meals.

this is a recipe for disaster. because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus. the country’s leaders need to be clear: shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere. until the case numbers start to go down across america -- which could take 10 weeks or more -- no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown. any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths.

second, the federal government needs to step up on testing. far more tests should be made available. we should also aggregate the results so we can quickly identify potential volunteers for clinical trials and know with confidence when it’s time to return to normal. there are good examples to follow: new york state recently expanded its capacity to up to more than 20,000 tests per day.

there’s also been some progress on more efficient testing methods, such as the self-swab developed by the seattle coronavirus assessment network, which allows patients to take a sample themselves without possibly exposing a health worker. i hope this and other innovations in testing are scaled up across the country soon.

even so, demand for tests will probably exceed the supply for some time, and right now, there’s little rhyme or reason to who gets the few that are available. as a result, we don’t have a good handle on how many cars there are or where the virus is likely headed next, and it will be hard to know if it rebounds later. and because of the backlog of samples, it can take seven days for results to arrive when we need them within 24 hours.

this is why the country needs to clear priorities for who is tested. first on the list should be people in essential roles such as health-care workers and first responders, followed by highly symptomatic people who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and those who are likely to have been exposed.

the same goes for masks and ventilators. forcing 50 governors to compete for lifesaving equipment -- and hospitals to pay exorbitant prices for it -- only makes matters worse.

finally, we need a data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine. scientists are working full speed on both; in the meantime, leaders can help by not stoking rumors or panic buying. long before the drug hydroxychloroquine was approved as an emergency treatment for covid-19, people started hoarding it, making it hard to find for lupus patients who need it to survive.

we should stick with the process that works: run rapid trials involving various candidates and inform the public when the results are in. once we have a safe and effective treatment, we’ll need to ensure that the first doses go to the people who need them most.

to bring the disease to an end, we’ll need a safe and effective vaccine. if we do everything right, we could have one in less than 18 months -- about the fastest a vaccine has ever developed. but creating a vaccine is only half the battle. to protect americans and people around the world, we’ll need to manufacture billions of doses. (without a vaccine, developing countries are at even greater risk than wealthy ones, because it’s even harder for them to do physical distancing and shutdowns.)

we can start now by building the facilities where these vaccines will be made. because many of the top candidates are made using unique equipment, we’ll have to build facilities for each of them, knowing that some won’t get used. private companies can’t take that kind of risk, but the federal government can. it’s a great sign that the administration made deals this week with at least two companies to prepare for vaccine manufacturing. i hope more deals will follow.

in 2015, i urged world leaders in a ted talk to prepare for a pandemic the same way they prepare for war -- by running simulations to find the cracks in the system. as we’ve seen this year, we have a long way to go. but i still believe that if we make the right decisions now, informed by science, data and the experience of medical professionals, we can save lives and get the country back to work.”

bill gates. the washington post, march 31, 2020.

[cryptowavesxyz]

Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Bitcoin price drops to $3,637, rebounds above $5,200 within minutes

Whenever there’s a big crash on the stock market, traders on Wall Street are often pictured with their heads in their hands — surrounded by a sea of screens with red numbers. This week, it was crypto’s turn. Bitcoin prices had been relatively stable in the high $7,000s at the start of the week… then Thursday happened. BTC dramatically fell by 17% in the space of an hour — taking it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019. Hours later, BTC was under $5,000. But the sell-offs were far from over. Later that evening, BTC slumped to $3,637 only to rebound above $5,200 within minutes. The meltdown means that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 33% compared to where it was last Sunday. Analysis from Keith Wareing suggests there are reasons to be optimistic: True hodlers are unfazed, newcomers can enter the market at lower prices, and catastrophic sell-offs are now much less likely. The carnage also means the number of people owning 1 BTC has hit a new record. More than $50 billion has been wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap over the past seven days. Uncertainty surrounding the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic means we could end up waiting a while for a bounceback.

MakerDAO community to vote on upgrades, conduct debt auction

Of course, Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s been having a bad week. Thursday also saw ETH prices take a beating — and this was especially problematic for the decentralized finance community. MakerDAO briefly explored the prospect of an emergency shutdown after the crash left millions of dollars in debt under-collateralized. Voting is now underway to determine how the lending protocol should tackle this crisis. Despite the “perfect storm,” many executives in the DeFi community remain confident in the ecosystem. Some believe that harsh lessons will be learned as a result of the crash, with InstaDApp CEO Sowmay Jain saying: “Such painful times remind us that we are extremely early in the space, and there’s still lots of room for improvement.”

Some Indian banks are still “arbitrarily” refusing to process crypto transactions

Earlier in March, a controversial ban that stopped banks from offering services to crypto-related firms was overturned by India’s Supreme Court. If you thought this would be the end of it, you were badly mistaken. This week, lawyers claimed that certain financial institutions are still arbitrarily denying to process crypto-related transactions. It seems these domestic banks are waiting for further confirmation from the Reserve Bank of India — which instigated the ban in the first place and is planning to appeal the ruling. It’s also possible that the country’s parliament will revisit a proposed law that would see anyone caught dealing in cryptocurrencies will face up to 10 years in prison. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there is going to be a happy ending for India’s crypto community anytime soon.

Exclusive: A major French bank is blocking customers from using Coinbase

BNP Paribas is apparently blocking customers from sending funds to Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. The French banking giant’s restrictions seem to have come into force over the past week — and transfers to other crypto trading platforms appear to be taking place as usual. A source told Cointelegraph that Coinbase is considered an “illegal operation,” and the restrictions look like they were imposed with very little notice. Fraud, malware, scams and the anonymous coin Monero were among the factors that led to the decision.

Bitcoin miner stumbles upon $8 million stash from 2010, sells before crash

In a week of doom and gloom, it’s worth ending our news roundup on a high note. A former Bitcoin miner has stumbled upon an old wallet that contained 1,000 Bitcoins, which also included myriad forks. It’s believed that the BTC was mined a long time ago, and the wallet.dat file was recently found on a USB stick. The lucky miner, identified on Reddit as “whoamisoon,” had turned to Reddit on Tuesday for advice on how the coins could be moved onto an exchange — and later that day, 1,000 BTC appeared to be making their way to Coinbase. A post on Thursday suggested that whoamisoon managed to liquidate everything before prices crashed. Whoamisoon wrote: “Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $5,342.51, Ether at $125.01 and XRP at $0.15. The total market cap is at $153,190,529,804.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Multi-collateral DAI, USD Coin and Paxos Standard. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Matic Network, Maker and Algorand.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The MakerDAO had a +$500K surplus before the price drop and now has a -$4M surplus that needs to be filled.”

MakerDAO

“We are in the middle of a revolution in payments. Banknotes — the bank’s most accessible form of money — are being used less frequently to make payments.”

Bank of England

“If I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000.”

Peter Brandt, veteran trader

“Insane theory of the day: There was no BitMEX hardware issue.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO

“Banks’ refusal to provide services for the sale/purchase of crypto assets is absolutely illegal, unjust and arbitrary in the eyes of the law and the same amounts to wilful disobedience to the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

Mohammed Danish, fintech lawyer

“This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.”

Edward Snowden

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible, warns veteran trader Peter Brandt

In the aftermath of Bitcoin crashing below $4,000, one experienced market analyst had an alarming prediction that the worst may be yet to come. Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all-time high — said the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000” if he interprets BTC charts without bias. That would be a fall of more than 80% from their current level. Brandt is no crypto skeptic, and he often makes predictions that are more bullish than bearish. In the past, he’s suggested that parabolic increases in BTC charts could see it hit $140,000. His latest analysis will be something that many in the crypto world don’t want to hear.

FUD of the Week

Judge slams Craig Wright for forged documents and perjured testimony

A judge has attacked Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving a perjured testimony. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto has been fighting a ruling that is forcing him to hand over more than 500,000 BTC to the family of Dave Kleiman, his late business partner. Judge Bruce Reinhart has questioned Wright’s credibility and said during a hearing: “I give no weight to sworn statements of Dr. Wright that advance his interests but that have not been challenged by cross-examination and for which I cannot make a credibility determination. I have previously found that Dr. Wright gave perjured testimony in my presence.” Wright is under pressure to provide documentation detailing how many Bitcoins are held by the so-called “Tulip Trust.”

BitMEX denies it made Bitcoin price drop to $3,700 after going offline

The crypto crash was bad news for BitMEX. During frenzied trading activity as prices fell off a cliff, the exchange faced unexpected downtime. This sparked rumors of foul play, with BitMEX officials rejecting the allegations as a “conspiracy theory.” The outage meant the company’s services suffered disruption between 2:16 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. UTC on Friday — minutes after BTC prices had suddenly tanked below $4,000. BitMEX says a “hardware issue with our cloud service provider” was the reason requests were delayed.

Revealed: How North Korea laundered $100 million of stolen crypto

A blockchain forensics firm has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals linked to North Korea laundered stolen cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. According to CipherTrace’s findings, the pair are believed to be associated with the Lazarus Group — cybercriminals who were responsible for 2014’s Sony breach and 2017’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic. The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong to its list of sanctioned individuals. It is believed “peel chains” were used to obfuscate the size of funds being deposited to any given wallet.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Zooko’s Triangle: The human-readable paradox at the heart of crypto adoption

Memorable, decentralized, secure: Can you really only pick two? Maya Middlemiss looks at the trilemma facing crypto advocates as blockchain domain names become more common.

Fintech in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Because of the coronavirus, many have lost sight of major issues such as Brexit. Thankfully, Sarah Hall hasn’t. Here’s her look at how the financial technology sector may change after the U.K.’s transition period ends on Dec. 31.

French court moves the BTC chess piece — how will regulators respond?

A court in France has ruled that Bitcoin is a fungible, intangible asset — sending ripples through the crypto community. Is this an important milestone for further development in the crypto market? Andrew Singer finds out.

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The post Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15 appeared first on Crypto Waves.

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Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Bitcoin price drops to $3,637, rebounds above $5,200 within minutes

Whenever there’s a big crash on the stock market, traders on Wall Street are often pictured with their heads in their hands — surrounded by a sea of screens with red numbers. This week, it was crypto’s turn. Bitcoin prices had been relatively stable in the high $7,000s at the start of the week… then Thursday happened. BTC dramatically fell by 17% in the space of an hour — taking it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019. Hours later, BTC was under $5,000. But the sell-offs were far from over. Later that evening, BTC slumped to $3,637 only to rebound above $5,200 within minutes. The meltdown means that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 33% compared to where it was last Sunday. Analysis from Keith Wareing suggests there are reasons to be optimistic: True hodlers are unfazed, newcomers can enter the market at lower prices, and catastrophic sell-offs are now much less likely. The carnage also means the number of people owning 1 BTC has hit a new record. More than $50 billion has been wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap over the past seven days. Uncertainty surrounding the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic means we could end up waiting a while for a bounceback.

MakerDAO community to vote on upgrades, conduct debt auction

Of course, Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s been having a bad week. Thursday also saw ETH prices take a beating — and this was especially problematic for the decentralized finance community. MakerDAO briefly explored the prospect of an emergency shutdown after the crash left millions of dollars in debt under-collateralized. Voting is now underway to determine how the lending protocol should tackle this crisis. Despite the “perfect storm,” many executives in the DeFi community remain confident in the ecosystem. Some believe that harsh lessons will be learned as a result of the crash, with InstaDApp CEO Sowmay Jain saying: “Such painful times remind us that we are extremely early in the space, and there’s still lots of room for improvement.”

Some Indian banks are still “arbitrarily” refusing to process crypto transactions

Earlier in March, a controversial ban that stopped banks from offering services to crypto-related firms was overturned by India’s Supreme Court. If you thought this would be the end of it, you were badly mistaken. This week, lawyers claimed that certain financial institutions are still arbitrarily denying to process crypto-related transactions. It seems these domestic banks are waiting for further confirmation from the Reserve Bank of India — which instigated the ban in the first place and is planning to appeal the ruling. It’s also possible that the country’s parliament will revisit a proposed law that would see anyone caught dealing in cryptocurrencies will face up to 10 years in prison. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there is going to be a happy ending for India’s crypto community anytime soon.

Exclusive: A major French bank is blocking customers from using Coinbase

BNP Paribas is apparently blocking customers from sending funds to Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. The French banking giant’s restrictions seem to have come into force over the past week — and transfers to other crypto trading platforms appear to be taking place as usual. A source told Cointelegraph that Coinbase is considered an “illegal operation,” and the restrictions look like they were imposed with very little notice. Fraud, malware, scams and the anonymous coin Monero were among the factors that led to the decision.

Bitcoin miner stumbles upon $8 million stash from 2010, sells before crash

In a week of doom and gloom, it’s worth ending our news roundup on a high note. A former Bitcoin miner has stumbled upon an old wallet that contained 1,000 Bitcoins, which also included myriad forks. It’s believed that the BTC was mined a long time ago, and the wallet.dat file was recently found on a USB stick. The lucky miner, identified on Reddit as “whoamisoon,” had turned to Reddit on Tuesday for advice on how the coins could be moved onto an exchange — and later that day, 1,000 BTC appeared to be making their way to Coinbase. A post on Thursday suggested that whoamisoon managed to liquidate everything before prices crashed. Whoamisoon wrote: “Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $5,342.51, Ether at $125.01 and XRP at $0.15. The total market cap is at $153,190,529,804.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Multi-collateral DAI, USD Coin and Paxos Standard. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Matic Network, Maker and Algorand.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The MakerDAO had a +$500K surplus before the price drop and now has a -$4M surplus that needs to be filled.”

MakerDAO

“We are in the middle of a revolution in payments. Banknotes — the bank’s most accessible form of money — are being used less frequently to make payments.”

Bank of England

“If I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000.”

Peter Brandt, veteran trader

“Insane theory of the day: There was no BitMEX hardware issue.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO

“Banks’ refusal to provide services for the sale/purchase of crypto assets is absolutely illegal, unjust and arbitrary in the eyes of the law and the same amounts to wilful disobedience to the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

Mohammed Danish, fintech lawyer

“This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.”

Edward Snowden

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible, warns veteran trader Peter Brandt

In the aftermath of Bitcoin crashing below $4,000, one experienced market analyst had an alarming prediction that the worst may be yet to come. Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all-time high — said the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000” if he interprets BTC charts without bias. That would be a fall of more than 80% from their current level. Brandt is no crypto skeptic, and he often makes predictions that are more bullish than bearish. In the past, he’s suggested that parabolic increases in BTC charts could see it hit $140,000. His latest analysis will be something that many in the crypto world don’t want to hear.

FUD of the Week

Judge slams Craig Wright for forged documents and perjured testimony

A judge has attacked Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving a perjured testimony. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto has been fighting a ruling that is forcing him to hand over more than 500,000 BTC to the family of Dave Kleiman, his late business partner. Judge Bruce Reinhart has questioned Wright’s credibility and said during a hearing: “I give no weight to sworn statements of Dr. Wright that advance his interests but that have not been challenged by cross-examination and for which I cannot make a credibility determination. I have previously found that Dr. Wright gave perjured testimony in my presence.” Wright is under pressure to provide documentation detailing how many Bitcoins are held by the so-called “Tulip Trust.”

BitMEX denies it made Bitcoin price drop to $3,700 after going offline

The crypto crash was bad news for BitMEX. During frenzied trading activity as prices fell off a cliff, the exchange faced unexpected downtime. This sparked rumors of foul play, with BitMEX officials rejecting the allegations as a “conspiracy theory.” The outage meant the company’s services suffered disruption between 2:16 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. UTC on Friday — minutes after BTC prices had suddenly tanked below $4,000. BitMEX says a “hardware issue with our cloud service provider” was the reason requests were delayed.

Revealed: How North Korea laundered $100 million of stolen crypto

A blockchain forensics firm has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals linked to North Korea laundered stolen cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. According to CipherTrace’s findings, the pair are believed to be associated with the Lazarus Group — cybercriminals who were responsible for 2014’s Sony breach and 2017’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic. The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong to its list of sanctioned individuals. It is believed “peel chains” were used to obfuscate the size of funds being deposited to any given wallet.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Zooko’s Triangle: The human-readable paradox at the heart of crypto adoption

Memorable, decentralized, secure: Can you really only pick two? Maya Middlemiss looks at the trilemma facing crypto advocates as blockchain domain names become more common.

Fintech in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Because of the coronavirus, many have lost sight of major issues such as Brexit. Thankfully, Sarah Hall hasn’t. Here’s her look at how the financial technology sector may change after the U.K.’s transition period ends on Dec. 31.

French court moves the BTC chess piece — how will regulators respond?

A court in France has ruled that Bitcoin is a fungible, intangible asset — sending ripples through the crypto community. Is this an important milestone for further development in the crypto market? Andrew Singer finds out.

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The post Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15 appeared first on For Crypto.

from For Crypto https://ift.tt/3d1akma

[angryconnoisseurface]

Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Bitcoin price drops to $3,637, rebounds above $5,200 within minutes

Whenever there’s a big crash on the stock market, traders on Wall Street are often pictured with their heads in their hands — surrounded by a sea of screens with red numbers. This week, it was crypto’s turn. Bitcoin prices had been relatively stable in the high $7,000s at the start of the week… then Thursday happened. BTC dramatically fell by 17% in the space of an hour — taking it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019. Hours later, BTC was under $5,000. But the sell-offs were far from over. Later that evening, BTC slumped to $3,637 only to rebound above $5,200 within minutes. The meltdown means that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 33% compared to where it was last Sunday. Analysis from Keith Wareing suggests there are reasons to be optimistic: True hodlers are unfazed, newcomers can enter the market at lower prices, and catastrophic sell-offs are now much less likely. The carnage also means the number of people owning 1 BTC has hit a new record. More than $50 billion has been wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap over the past seven days. Uncertainty surrounding the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic means we could end up waiting a while for a bounceback.

MakerDAO community to vote on upgrades, conduct debt auction

Of course, Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s been having a bad week. Thursday also saw ETH prices take a beating — and this was especially problematic for the decentralized finance community. MakerDAO briefly explored the prospect of an emergency shutdown after the crash left millions of dollars in debt under-collateralized. Voting is now underway to determine how the lending protocol should tackle this crisis. Despite the “perfect storm,” many executives in the DeFi community remain confident in the ecosystem. Some believe that harsh lessons will be learned as a result of the crash, with InstaDApp CEO Sowmay Jain saying: “Such painful times remind us that we are extremely early in the space, and there’s still lots of room for improvement.”

Some Indian banks are still “arbitrarily” refusing to process crypto transactions

Earlier in March, a controversial ban that stopped banks from offering services to crypto-related firms was overturned by India’s Supreme Court. If you thought this would be the end of it, you were badly mistaken. This week, lawyers claimed that certain financial institutions are still arbitrarily denying to process crypto-related transactions. It seems these domestic banks are waiting for further confirmation from the Reserve Bank of India — which instigated the ban in the first place and is planning to appeal the ruling. It’s also possible that the country’s parliament will revisit a proposed law that would see anyone caught dealing in cryptocurrencies will face up to 10 years in prison. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there is going to be a happy ending for India’s crypto community anytime soon.

Exclusive: A major French bank is blocking customers from using Coinbase

BNP Paribas is apparently blocking customers from sending funds to Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. The French banking giant’s restrictions seem to have come into force over the past week — and transfers to other crypto trading platforms appear to be taking place as usual. A source told Cointelegraph that Coinbase is considered an “illegal operation,” and the restrictions look like they were imposed with very little notice. Fraud, malware, scams and the anonymous coin Monero were among the factors that led to the decision.

Bitcoin miner stumbles upon $8 million stash from 2010, sells before crash

In a week of doom and gloom, it’s worth ending our news roundup on a high note. A former Bitcoin miner has stumbled upon an old wallet that contained 1,000 Bitcoins, which also included myriad forks. It’s believed that the BTC was mined a long time ago, and the wallet.dat file was recently found on a USB stick. The lucky miner, identified on Reddit as “whoamisoon,” had turned to Reddit on Tuesday for advice on how the coins could be moved onto an exchange — and later that day, 1,000 BTC appeared to be making their way to Coinbase. A post on Thursday suggested that whoamisoon managed to liquidate everything before prices crashed. Whoamisoon wrote: “Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $5,342.51, Ether at $125.01 and XRP at $0.15. The total market cap is at $153,190,529,804.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Multi-collateral DAI, USD Coin and Paxos Standard. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Matic Network, Maker and Algorand.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The MakerDAO had a +$500K surplus before the price drop and now has a -$4M surplus that needs to be filled.”

MakerDAO

“We are in the middle of a revolution in payments. Banknotes — the bank’s most accessible form of money — are being used less frequently to make payments.”

Bank of England

“If I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000.”

Peter Brandt, veteran trader

“Insane theory of the day: There was no BitMEX hardware issue.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO

“Banks’ refusal to provide services for the sale/purchase of crypto assets is absolutely illegal, unjust and arbitrary in the eyes of the law and the same amounts to wilful disobedience to the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

Mohammed Danish, fintech lawyer

“This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.”

Edward Snowden

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible, warns veteran trader Peter Brandt

In the aftermath of Bitcoin crashing below $4,000, one experienced market analyst had an alarming prediction that the worst may be yet to come. Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all-time high — said the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000” if he interprets BTC charts without bias. That would be a fall of more than 80% from their current level. Brandt is no crypto skeptic, and he often makes predictions that are more bullish than bearish. In the past, he’s suggested that parabolic increases in BTC charts could see it hit $140,000. His latest analysis will be something that many in the crypto world don’t want to hear.

FUD of the Week

Judge slams Craig Wright for forged documents and perjured testimony

A judge has attacked Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving a perjured testimony. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto has been fighting a ruling that is forcing him to hand over more than 500,000 BTC to the family of Dave Kleiman, his late business partner. Judge Bruce Reinhart has questioned Wright’s credibility and said during a hearing: “I give no weight to sworn statements of Dr. Wright that advance his interests but that have not been challenged by cross-examination and for which I cannot make a credibility determination. I have previously found that Dr. Wright gave perjured testimony in my presence.” Wright is under pressure to provide documentation detailing how many Bitcoins are held by the so-called “Tulip Trust.”

BitMEX denies it made Bitcoin price drop to $3,700 after going offline

The crypto crash was bad news for BitMEX. During frenzied trading activity as prices fell off a cliff, the exchange faced unexpected downtime. This sparked rumors of foul play, with BitMEX officials rejecting the allegations as a “conspiracy theory.” The outage meant the company’s services suffered disruption between 2:16 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. UTC on Friday — minutes after BTC prices had suddenly tanked below $4,000. BitMEX says a “hardware issue with our cloud service provider” was the reason requests were delayed.

Revealed: How North Korea laundered $100 million of stolen crypto

A blockchain forensics firm has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals linked to North Korea laundered stolen cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. According to CipherTrace’s findings, the pair are believed to be associated with the Lazarus Group — cybercriminals who were responsible for 2014’s Sony breach and 2017’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic. The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong to its list of sanctioned individuals. It is believed “peel chains” were used to obfuscate the size of funds being deposited to any given wallet.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Zooko’s Triangle: The human-readable paradox at the heart of crypto adoption

Memorable, decentralized, secure: Can you really only pick two? Maya Middlemiss looks at the trilemma facing crypto advocates as blockchain domain names become more common.

Fintech in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Because of the coronavirus, many have lost sight of major issues such as Brexit. Thankfully, Sarah Hall hasn’t. Here’s her look at how the financial technology sector may change after the U.K.’s transition period ends on Dec. 31.

French court moves the BTC chess piece — how will regulators respond?

A court in France has ruled that Bitcoin is a fungible, intangible asset — sending ripples through the crypto community. Is this an important milestone for further development in the crypto market? Andrew Singer finds out.

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The post Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15 appeared first on Tip Crypto.

from Tip Crypto https://ift.tt/2U695JG

[coinfirst]

Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Bitcoin price drops to $3,637, rebounds above $5,200 within minutes

Whenever there’s a big crash on the stock market, traders on Wall Street are often pictured with their heads in their hands — surrounded by a sea of screens with red numbers. This week, it was crypto’s turn. Bitcoin prices had been relatively stable in the high $7,000s at the start of the week… then Thursday happened. BTC dramatically fell by 17% in the space of an hour — taking it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019. Hours later, BTC was under $5,000. But the sell-offs were far from over. Later that evening, BTC slumped to $3,637 only to rebound above $5,200 within minutes. The meltdown means that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 33% compared to where it was last Sunday. Analysis from Keith Wareing suggests there are reasons to be optimistic: True hodlers are unfazed, newcomers can enter the market at lower prices, and catastrophic sell-offs are now much less likely. The carnage also means the number of people owning 1 BTC has hit a new record. More than $50 billion has been wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap over the past seven days. Uncertainty surrounding the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic means we could end up waiting a while for a bounceback.

MakerDAO community to vote on upgrades, conduct debt auction

Of course, Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s been having a bad week. Thursday also saw ETH prices take a beating — and this was especially problematic for the decentralized finance community. MakerDAO briefly explored the prospect of an emergency shutdown after the crash left millions of dollars in debt under-collateralized. Voting is now underway to determine how the lending protocol should tackle this crisis. Despite the “perfect storm,” many executives in the DeFi community remain confident in the ecosystem. Some believe that harsh lessons will be learned as a result of the crash, with InstaDApp CEO Sowmay Jain saying: “Such painful times remind us that we are extremely early in the space, and there’s still lots of room for improvement.”

Some Indian banks are still “arbitrarily” refusing to process crypto transactions

Earlier in March, a controversial ban that stopped banks from offering services to crypto-related firms was overturned by India’s Supreme Court. If you thought this would be the end of it, you were badly mistaken. This week, lawyers claimed that certain financial institutions are still arbitrarily denying to process crypto-related transactions. It seems these domestic banks are waiting for further confirmation from the Reserve Bank of India — which instigated the ban in the first place and is planning to appeal the ruling. It’s also possible that the country’s parliament will revisit a proposed law that would see anyone caught dealing in cryptocurrencies will face up to 10 years in prison. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there is going to be a happy ending for India’s crypto community anytime soon.

Exclusive: A major French bank is blocking customers from using Coinbase

BNP Paribas is apparently blocking customers from sending funds to Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. The French banking giant’s restrictions seem to have come into force over the past week — and transfers to other crypto trading platforms appear to be taking place as usual. A source told Cointelegraph that Coinbase is considered an “illegal operation,” and the restrictions look like they were imposed with very little notice. Fraud, malware, scams and the anonymous coin Monero were among the factors that led to the decision.

Bitcoin miner stumbles upon $8 million stash from 2010, sells before crash

In a week of doom and gloom, it’s worth ending our news roundup on a high note. A former Bitcoin miner has stumbled upon an old wallet that contained 1,000 Bitcoins, which also included myriad forks. It’s believed that the BTC was mined a long time ago, and the wallet.dat file was recently found on a USB stick. The lucky miner, identified on Reddit as “whoamisoon,” had turned to Reddit on Tuesday for advice on how the coins could be moved onto an exchange — and later that day, 1,000 BTC appeared to be making their way to Coinbase. A post on Thursday suggested that whoamisoon managed to liquidate everything before prices crashed. Whoamisoon wrote: “Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $5,342.51, Ether at $125.01 and XRP at $0.15. The total market cap is at $153,190,529,804.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Multi-collateral DAI, USD Coin and Paxos Standard. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Matic Network, Maker and Algorand.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The MakerDAO had a +$500K surplus before the price drop and now has a -$4M surplus that needs to be filled.”

MakerDAO

“We are in the middle of a revolution in payments. Banknotes — the bank’s most accessible form of money — are being used less frequently to make payments.”

Bank of England

“If I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000.”

Peter Brandt, veteran trader

“Insane theory of the day: There was no BitMEX hardware issue.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO

“Banks’ refusal to provide services for the sale/purchase of crypto assets is absolutely illegal, unjust and arbitrary in the eyes of the law and the same amounts to wilful disobedience to the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

Mohammed Danish, fintech lawyer

“This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.”

Edward Snowden

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible, warns veteran trader Peter Brandt

In the aftermath of Bitcoin crashing below $4,000, one experienced market analyst had an alarming prediction that the worst may be yet to come. Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all-time high — said the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000” if he interprets BTC charts without bias. That would be a fall of more than 80% from their current level. Brandt is no crypto skeptic, and he often makes predictions that are more bullish than bearish. In the past, he’s suggested that parabolic increases in BTC charts could see it hit $140,000. His latest analysis will be something that many in the crypto world don’t want to hear.

FUD of the Week

Judge slams Craig Wright for forged documents and perjured testimony

A judge has attacked Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving a perjured testimony. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto has been fighting a ruling that is forcing him to hand over more than 500,000 BTC to the family of Dave Kleiman, his late business partner. Judge Bruce Reinhart has questioned Wright’s credibility and said during a hearing: “I give no weight to sworn statements of Dr. Wright that advance his interests but that have not been challenged by cross-examination and for which I cannot make a credibility determination. I have previously found that Dr. Wright gave perjured testimony in my presence.” Wright is under pressure to provide documentation detailing how many Bitcoins are held by the so-called “Tulip Trust.”

BitMEX denies it made Bitcoin price drop to $3,700 after going offline

The crypto crash was bad news for BitMEX. During frenzied trading activity as prices fell off a cliff, the exchange faced unexpected downtime. This sparked rumors of foul play, with BitMEX officials rejecting the allegations as a “conspiracy theory.” The outage meant the company’s services suffered disruption between 2:16 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. UTC on Friday — minutes after BTC prices had suddenly tanked below $4,000. BitMEX says a “hardware issue with our cloud service provider” was the reason requests were delayed.

Revealed: How North Korea laundered $100 million of stolen crypto

A blockchain forensics firm has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals linked to North Korea laundered stolen cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. According to CipherTrace’s findings, the pair are believed to be associated with the Lazarus Group — cybercriminals who were responsible for 2014’s Sony breach and 2017’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic. The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong to its list of sanctioned individuals. It is believed “peel chains” were used to obfuscate the size of funds being deposited to any given wallet.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Zooko’s Triangle: The human-readable paradox at the heart of crypto adoption

Memorable, decentralized, secure: Can you really only pick two? Maya Middlemiss looks at the trilemma facing crypto advocates as blockchain domain names become more common.

Fintech in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Because of the coronavirus, many have lost sight of major issues such as Brexit. Thankfully, Sarah Hall hasn’t. Here’s her look at how the financial technology sector may change after the U.K.’s transition period ends on Dec. 31.

French court moves the BTC chess piece — how will regulators respond?

A court in France has ruled that Bitcoin is a fungible, intangible asset — sending ripples through the crypto community. Is this an important milestone for further development in the crypto market? Andrew Singer finds out.

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The post Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15 appeared first on Coin First.

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Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Bitcoin price drops to $3,637, rebounds above $5,200 within minutes

Whenever there’s a big crash on the stock market, traders on Wall Street are often pictured with their heads in their hands — surrounded by a sea of screens with red numbers. This week, it was crypto’s turn. Bitcoin prices had been relatively stable in the high $7,000s at the start of the week… then Thursday happened. BTC dramatically fell by 17% in the space of an hour — taking it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019. Hours later, BTC was under $5,000. But the sell-offs were far from over. Later that evening, BTC slumped to $3,637 only to rebound above $5,200 within minutes. The meltdown means that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 33% compared to where it was last Sunday. Analysis from Keith Wareing suggests there are reasons to be optimistic: True hodlers are unfazed, newcomers can enter the market at lower prices, and catastrophic sell-offs are now much less likely. The carnage also means the number of people owning 1 BTC has hit a new record. More than $50 billion has been wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap over the past seven days. Uncertainty surrounding the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic means we could end up waiting a while for a bounceback.

MakerDAO community to vote on upgrades, conduct debt auction

Of course, Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s been having a bad week. Thursday also saw ETH prices take a beating — and this was especially problematic for the decentralized finance community. MakerDAO briefly explored the prospect of an emergency shutdown after the crash left millions of dollars in debt under-collateralized. Voting is now underway to determine how the lending protocol should tackle this crisis. Despite the “perfect storm,” many executives in the DeFi community remain confident in the ecosystem. Some believe that harsh lessons will be learned as a result of the crash, with InstaDApp CEO Sowmay Jain saying: “Such painful times remind us that we are extremely early in the space, and there’s still lots of room for improvement.”

Some Indian banks are still “arbitrarily” refusing to process crypto transactions

Earlier in March, a controversial ban that stopped banks from offering services to crypto-related firms was overturned by India’s Supreme Court. If you thought this would be the end of it, you were badly mistaken. This week, lawyers claimed that certain financial institutions are still arbitrarily denying to process crypto-related transactions. It seems these domestic banks are waiting for further confirmation from the Reserve Bank of India — which instigated the ban in the first place and is planning to appeal the ruling. It’s also possible that the country’s parliament will revisit a proposed law that would see anyone caught dealing in cryptocurrencies will face up to 10 years in prison. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like there is going to be a happy ending for India’s crypto community anytime soon.

Exclusive: A major French bank is blocking customers from using Coinbase

BNP Paribas is apparently blocking customers from sending funds to Coinbase, a major crypto exchange. The French banking giant’s restrictions seem to have come into force over the past week — and transfers to other crypto trading platforms appear to be taking place as usual. A source told Cointelegraph that Coinbase is considered an “illegal operation,” and the restrictions look like they were imposed with very little notice. Fraud, malware, scams and the anonymous coin Monero were among the factors that led to the decision.

Bitcoin miner stumbles upon $8 million stash from 2010, sells before crash

In a week of doom and gloom, it’s worth ending our news roundup on a high note. A former Bitcoin miner has stumbled upon an old wallet that contained 1,000 Bitcoins, which also included myriad forks. It’s believed that the BTC was mined a long time ago, and the wallet.dat file was recently found on a USB stick. The lucky miner, identified on Reddit as “whoamisoon,” had turned to Reddit on Tuesday for advice on how the coins could be moved onto an exchange — and later that day, 1,000 BTC appeared to be making their way to Coinbase. A post on Thursday suggested that whoamisoon managed to liquidate everything before prices crashed. Whoamisoon wrote: “Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $5,342.51, Ether at $125.01 and XRP at $0.15. The total market cap is at $153,190,529,804.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Multi-collateral DAI, USD Coin and Paxos Standard. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Matic Network, Maker and Algorand.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The MakerDAO had a +$500K surplus before the price drop and now has a -$4M surplus that needs to be filled.”

MakerDAO

“We are in the middle of a revolution in payments. Banknotes — the bank’s most accessible form of money — are being used less frequently to make payments.”

Bank of England

“If I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000.”

Peter Brandt, veteran trader

“Insane theory of the day: There was no BitMEX hardware issue.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO

“Banks’ refusal to provide services for the sale/purchase of crypto assets is absolutely illegal, unjust and arbitrary in the eyes of the law and the same amounts to wilful disobedience to the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

Mohammed Danish, fintech lawyer

“This is the first time in a while I’ve felt like buying bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason.”

Edward Snowden

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible, warns veteran trader Peter Brandt

In the aftermath of Bitcoin crashing below $4,000, one experienced market analyst had an alarming prediction that the worst may be yet to come. Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all-time high — said the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000” if he interprets BTC charts without bias. That would be a fall of more than 80% from their current level. Brandt is no crypto skeptic, and he often makes predictions that are more bullish than bearish. In the past, he’s suggested that parabolic increases in BTC charts could see it hit $140,000. His latest analysis will be something that many in the crypto world don’t want to hear.

FUD of the Week

Judge slams Craig Wright for forged documents and perjured testimony

A judge has attacked Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving a perjured testimony. The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto has been fighting a ruling that is forcing him to hand over more than 500,000 BTC to the family of Dave Kleiman, his late business partner. Judge Bruce Reinhart has questioned Wright’s credibility and said during a hearing: “I give no weight to sworn statements of Dr. Wright that advance his interests but that have not been challenged by cross-examination and for which I cannot make a credibility determination. I have previously found that Dr. Wright gave perjured testimony in my presence.” Wright is under pressure to provide documentation detailing how many Bitcoins are held by the so-called “Tulip Trust.”

BitMEX denies it made Bitcoin price drop to $3,700 after going offline

The crypto crash was bad news for BitMEX. During frenzied trading activity as prices fell off a cliff, the exchange faced unexpected downtime. This sparked rumors of foul play, with BitMEX officials rejecting the allegations as a “conspiracy theory.” The outage meant the company’s services suffered disruption between 2:16 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. UTC on Friday — minutes after BTC prices had suddenly tanked below $4,000. BitMEX says a “hardware issue with our cloud service provider” was the reason requests were delayed.

Revealed: How North Korea laundered $100 million of stolen crypto

A blockchain forensics firm has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals linked to North Korea laundered stolen cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of dollars. According to CipherTrace’s findings, the pair are believed to be associated with the Lazarus Group — cybercriminals who were responsible for 2014’s Sony breach and 2017’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic. The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong to its list of sanctioned individuals. It is believed “peel chains” were used to obfuscate the size of funds being deposited to any given wallet.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Zooko’s Triangle: The human-readable paradox at the heart of crypto adoption

Memorable, decentralized, secure: Can you really only pick two? Maya Middlemiss looks at the trilemma facing crypto advocates as blockchain domain names become more common.

Fintech in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Because of the coronavirus, many have lost sight of major issues such as Brexit. Thankfully, Sarah Hall hasn’t. Here’s her look at how the financial technology sector may change after the U.K.’s transition period ends on Dec. 31.

French court moves the BTC chess piece — how will regulators respond?

A court in France has ruled that Bitcoin is a fungible, intangible asset — sending ripples through the crypto community. Is this an important milestone for further development in the crypto market? Andrew Singer finds out.

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The post Crypto Carnage, Fears of $1,000 BTC, MakerDAO Crisis: Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 9–15 appeared first on CoinRetreat.

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