#and also identity problems with their prosthetics and how they were regarded by others

[myxineye]

I found an old pirate101 oc from 2015 and decided to remake her ^_^ meet Kestrel!

Kestrel has a complicated backstory. They led a fairly ordinary life in Marleybone, but one fateful night led to both the death of their parents and the loss of their arms. They were found on the verge of death by a certain M, who brought them to a hospital and eventually convinced them to join the Secret Service, to follow in the steps of their parents (but honestly it was just an excuse to test some experimental weapons through prosthetics). And there, they were given the codename Kestrel and served essentially as a living weapon and test subject.

Eventually, Kestrel became disillusioned with their role and grew to detest M. As a personal act of rebellion, Kestrel ended up defecting to the Armada, giving away valuable intel including schematics of advanced Marleybonian tech and insight into how the spy system works there, even helping to plant some Armada spies in Her Majesty's Secret Service. And after a while of doing all that, they just... disappeared. No one really knows where they’ve gone, but they have been spotted all around the Spiral -- rumors are that they travel with an eccentric band of pirates, who can also be found all over the place for reasons unknown (spoiler alert: those “pirates” are my other ocs Nora and Quincy)

[tomeandflickcorner]

Umbrella Academy Rewatch 1x02

1x01

So last episode, we were introduced to the Hargreeves Siblings, Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus and Vanya, a group of young adults who were trained by their adoptive father, Reginald, as children to be a superhero team but had grown apart as they reached adulthood.  Upon the sudden death of Reginald, the estranged siblings were reunited for the funeral.  However, Luther, who had been the appointed leader of the group when they had been children, suspected foul play had been involved since Reginald’s signature monocle was missing.  But a bigger mystery appeared when, right before the funeral, Number 5, the long-lost member of the Hargreeves Siblings that had gone missing 17 years prior, suddenly reappears, explaining that he had gotten stuck in the future during a botched attempt at time travel.  Number 5 later confides to Vanya that, when he had been trapped in the future, he learned of an apocalyptic event that will effectively wipe out all human life on earth, and the date of this apocalyptic event will arrive in just over a week.

This episode kicks off with a flashback to the day Number 5 disappeared.  During dinnertime one evening, Number 5 grew impatient and insisted he was ready to test the limits of his power and attempt time travel.  But Reginald forbid it, stating he wasn’t ready, since time travel was a complected feat.  However, Number 5 brashly decided ‘I am too ready!’ and ran out to attempt time travel anyway.  This resulted in him jumping too far ahead in time, and he arrived in the future, where he was greeted by a post-apocalyptic world.  When he made it back to the location of the Umbrella Academy, he found the building had been reduced to burning ruins.  Number 5 then attempted to time travel back to his original timeline, only to find that he couldn’t.  He was stuck in the future.

It then cuts to where the last episode left off, with Number 5 finishing relating his story to Vanya.  Vanya pretty much admits that it’s a lot to take in.  But when Number 5 is about to leave, deciding that his sister is still to young to understand (because Number 5 is mentally a 58 year old man now), Vanya convinces him to stay for the night, saying that they just got him back and she doesn’t want to lose him again.  Number 5 relents and agrees to stay over.  But after Vanya heads off to bed, we see Number 5 is carrying a single glass eye with him.  And, after looking at it, he leaves the apartment.

Elsewhere in town, two shady looking people appear on the scene, checking into some seedy motel.  They introduce themselves as Hazel and Cha-Cha.  The woman, Cha-Cha, informs the desk clerk that there should have been a package waiting for them.  When Hazel and Cha-Cha make it up to their room at the motel, it’s revealed tat this package contains guns and a pair of masks.  As the pair converse, it’s revealed that they’re looking for Number 5.  Hazel also hides away the briefcase he was holding, ignoring Cha-Cha’s reminder that they were supposed to keep it with them at all times.

Meanwhile, a group of cops are investigating the scene at Griddy’s Donuts, where the gunmen had all been killed by Number 5 last episode.  The main cop, Detective Patch, interviews Agnes about what she saw.  In the process, Detective Patch learns that someone else had already questioned her about everything.  That other someone turns out to be Diego, and Detective Patch is not happy about it.  So, when she sees Diego is still on the scene, she angrily confronts him about talking to her witnesses.  It’s vaguely implied that Detective Patch and Diego have some sort of personal history, but whatever that was is clearly over now.  Now Detective Patch is just irritated at Diego for constantly trying to insert himself into police investigations, and she reminds him that he is not a cop.  Unbeknownst to the pair, Hazel and Cha-Cha are watching from the crowd of bystanders.

We then cut back to the Umbrella Academy, where Luther has just woken up.  As he makes his way down the vacant halls, he passes by one of the bedrooms, where he sees Alison has stuck around.  But she’s currently in the process of packing up to return home.  They proceed to have a chat, with Luther stating how strange it feels to be back there after spending the last four years on the moon.  He then asks Alison about her daughter, Claire.  Allison says that there are things she needs to do before she can see Claire again, but also tells Luther that she’d told her daughter all about her uncle, and that Claire would love to meet him one day.  However, Luther admits he cannot forget how Reginald's monocle is missing.  Allison begs him to not turn their father’s death into another mission, but her words don’t seem to sink in.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Pogo approaches Klaus, who has just woken up himself.  He informs him that some items from Reginald’s study have gone missing.  Particularly an ornate box.  The same box that Klaus had successfully made off with in the last episode.  While Pogo doesn’t directly accuse Klaus of the theft, tells him that, if the contents of the missing box were returned to Reginald’s office, the thief would be absolved of all consequences.  Which is a problem, since we see that Klaus had already sold the ornate box to a pawn shop for drug money while tossing the box’s contents (a bunch of papers and a leather-bound journal) into a random dumpster.

Now, I probably should mention this.  In this scene, it’s heavily implied that Klaus has a great difficulty in tuning out the voices of the dead, to the point where he can’t even sleep peacefully due to their endless wailing.  This does explain why he became a drug addict.  I guess it’s much easier for him to drown out all the voices when he’s high.  In that regard, you do have to feel bad for him.  Yeah, it’s clearly not a good thing that he’s always high on drugs.  But at the same time, can you completely blame him?

Anyway, getting back to the episode, Number 5 has traced the glass eye he’s carrying to some prosthetic limb manufacturing company.  He approaches the main desk, claiming he found the glass eye in a playground somewhere and that he wants to return the eye to its owner.  However, the man who works there, Mr. Biggs, states that, due to the laws pertaining to patient confidentiality, they can’t just give him the address of the glass eye’s owner.  Number 5 does not take this well, and pretty much threatens Mr. Biggs, only backing off when the receptionist calls for security.

At the police station, Detective Patch has decided to release Diego, with a warning that she’ll have him arrested for obstruction of justice if he ever sets foot on a crime scene again, also reminding him that he was thrown out of the police academy for a reason.  Diego isn’t the least bit repentant of his behavior, though, and urges Detective Patch to just forget about the whole bureaucratic red tape, inviting her to put her badge aside for one night and join him on the streets to really take down the bad guys.  To her credit, Detective Patch is not having it, insisting that the bureaucratic red tape is what helps them put the bad guys away in a court of law.  She also tells Diego that recess is over and it’s time for them to be adults.  All I can say is, props to her.  Especially in light of the current environment.  Though it’s probably only a matter of time before she relents on her stance. 

Luther, still not able to let the missing monocle go, heads out to the gym where Diego works as a custodian in exchange for exclusive access to the back room.  He makes his way into Diego’s room.  Of course, Diego isn’t there, as he’s still detained at the police station at this point, but Luther sticks around until he returns.  When Diego does show up, Luther informs him that he’s determined that Diego has an airtight alibi for the time of Reginald’s death, as he (Diego) was in the boxing ring at the time of the death.  So Luther no longer suspects Diego.  Although, Diego is still a bit put out that his brother even suspected him in the first place.

While this is going on, Vanya returns to the Umbrella Academy to find Number 5.  She locates him in his old bedroom and apologizes for being so dismissive of his story.  Number 5, in turn, apologizes for leaving without saying goodbye.  In the end, Vanya admits she might have not been the best person to talk to about all this.  And it seems that Number 5 agrees, because once she leaves, Klaus emerges from his hiding place in the closet.  It turns out that Number 5 is recruiting Klaus to help him get the information about the identity of the glass eye’s owner.  This proves to be a good call, as Klaus is crazy enough to pull it off.  Basically, in Mr. Biggs’ office, Klaus punches Number 5 in the face and smashes a snowglobe over his own head.  He then threatens to tell security that Mr. Biggs was the one who assaulted them, unless he surrenders the information they need.  Unfortunately, this leads to a dead end, as the glass eye with that particular serial number hasn’t been manufactured yet.  Number 5 is really upset over this, since the person who the glass eye will be made for is quite possibly the one who will be responsible for the apocalypse, which will happen in 7 days.

Meanwhile, Hazel and Cha-Cha have tracked down the tow truck driver who had been seen at Griddy’s Donuts right before Number 5′s confrontation with the gunmen.  It appears that they think the tow truck driver is Number 5.  And they proceed to torture him for information.  Of course, they soon figure out that Number 5 is a kid now and that they abducted the wrong man.  But they proceed to continue torturing the tow truck driver to find out where Number 5 is. Because apparently, Number 5 questioned him for the address of a certain department store during their brief interaction last episode.  Unfortunately, it’s later on revealed that Hazel and Cha-Cha ultimately killed the tow truck driver when they were done torturing him, as Detective Patch finds his dead body later on.

Sometime later, Number 5 breaks into the department store in question.  Looking around, he comes across a store mannequin.  Number 5 greets the mannequin as Delores.  Number 5 had admitted to Klaus earlier that he and Delores had been in a relationship for a while, during the time when Number 5 was stuck in the future.  Clearly, this is a strange revelation, as Number 5 is a person and Delores is a store mannequin.  Of course, we have to remember that, when Number 5 was trapped in that post-apocalyptic future, he was denied any actual human contact.  So it’s not as if Number 5 had many options in regards to companionship.  The unorthodox reunion between Number 5 and Delores is interrupted when Hazel and Cha-Cha appear, wielding guns and wearing Halloween costume-style masks.  (Cha-Cha has a dog mask and Hazel has a bear mask.)  Hazel and Cha-Cha proceed to unleash wave upon wave gunfire at Number 5, but Number 5 is able to get himself and Delores away unscathed, while Hazel and Cha-Cha slip away when they hear police sirens outside. 

Back at the Umbrella Academy, a bit of family drama is going down.  Allison is on the phone with her ex-husband.  Allison wants to talk to Claire, but the ex-husband is denying the request because Allison missed some sort of court-mandated session.  Allison tries to argue that she only missed the session because of her father’s funeral, which the courts understood was a reasonable reason.  But the ex-husband is not having it.  Vanya overhears the conversation and tries to offer her sympathies.  But Allison, rather harshly, dismisses her attempts, stating Vanya cannot possibly know how she feels about not being able to be with her daughter, since Vanya has never had a relationship with anyone.

Vanya, saddened by this whole conversation, returns to her apartment.  After a while, she is visited by a young man called Leonard, who has arrived for a lesson.  Vanya apparently gives violin lessons.  She is a bit taken aback by Leonard, as her usual students are kids, but she lets him in regardless.  They seem to hit it off, especially when Leonard tells her he and his father never got along.  Which clearly resonates with Vanya, on account of her own family issues.

As for Allison, she reflects on things up in the attic.  While she’s up there, Pogo approaches her, informing her that Vanya had called asking how she was.  To try and offer her a bit of comfort, he takes her into a side room, where Allison can review some of the old security footage taken of them when they were kids. Yeah, while most families have home movies, the Hargreeves Siblings had security footage recordings.  By looking through the old recordings, Allison notices that Vanya was often left on her own while the rest of them played together.  As such, Allison realizes that they didn’t include her in their activities, which further makes her regret how she treated her during their last conversation.  However, when Pogo steps out to let Allison to review the rest of the security footage at her leisure, she ends up coming across a recording of something that visibly alarms her.

In the episode’s final moments, Allison approaches Luther to inform him that he was right in his suspicions.  Whatever she saw in the security footage confirmed that Reginald’s death wasn’t a clean cut heart attack after all.  But before Alison can show him what she found, they spot Number 5 returning to the mansion, recovering from his narrow escape at the department store. Noticing that he isn’t looking too good, they ask if they can help.  But Number 5 all but shoves them back, stating that there’s nothing any of them can do.  And the episode comes to a close with showing us that, when Number 5 returned to the ruins of the mansion in the future upon first discovering the apocalypse, he found Luther, Diego, Allison and Klaus’ lifeless bodies among the rubble.  And we also see that Number 5 had found the blood-soaked glass eye in Luther’s fist.  Which explains why he believes learning the identity of the owner is imperative. 

Questions/Observations:

It’s still not clear what Allison did that led to her loosing custody of her daughter

Who exactly are Hazel and Cha-Cha?

What did Allison see in the security footage?

Who does the glass eye belong to?

Will Klaus be able to retrieve the papers and journal he left in the dumpster?

[kali-tmblr]

Thoughts on RWBY7: Part 2 Characters

(Crossposted to Amino) As I said, if their pattern holds I'm expecting to see new threads and weapons at the start of Volume 7, a ton of exposition in the center, and a bit of character development and romantic pairing off towards the end. (Please prove me wrong, Rooster Teeth! Break the pattern!). We've covered the exposition, now let's talk about the characters.

Costumes: snow clothes. 'nuff said.

Weapons: Gambol Shroud needs to be repaired or replaced. I've never been comfortable with throwing a loaded Glock around and having it fire in midair. (Granted, you could probably only do that with a Glock, but still....)

Prosthetics: As this is Cybernetics Central, we may get some work on Maria's eyes and/or Yang's arm.

Character Development: using the principle of turn-based character development, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Maria will probably sit this one out. So will Blake and Yang, unless it's related to Yang's PTSD (I'll write a separate post about that.) Ruby's potential for growth in this season is largely reactive, and depends on what her enemies (Tyrian, Cinder, Neo, maybe Penny's father) do. The anger she started to feel in V5 is something she will eventually have to learn to handle, but if they continue with the slow burn that won't really start to be a problem until the next leg of their journey. The characters we are most likely to see develop are:

Weiss: she's literally shaking at the prospect of meeting Jaques again. Until she no longer fears him, her character arc won't be complete. Now's the perfect time to work on that.

Qrow: Everything he based his life, his self worth, and his self-identity on just shattered. He renounced his family in favor of what he thought was a higher purpose, and that higher purpose just crumbled to dust on the snow. With the exception of protecting the kids, he has nothing left, and the kids don't need so much protecting any more. In Chapter 9 you could tell that he had already begun to question his life choices. "Every step I took, every choice I made, has led me here." What choices? I have no doubt he's done some questionable deeds as Ozpin's agent "for the greater good". Now he has to ask if they were really worth the price. Sometime fairly soon he or someone else is going to be having a very pointed conversation with him, and he will have another such conversation with Ozpin. Then he has to decide what he does with the rest of his life. Problems with the voice actor aside, this was always going to be a rough time for Qrow.

(One of the reasons I keep mentioning the uncertainty over plot order is that problems with the VA increases the likelihood things will get juggled. I think I know about a third of what's going to happen in the next three volumes, but not the order RT will choose to tackle it.)

Oscar: he's 14, has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and has been thrown into a completely different environment. Psychologically, there's no way to prevent him from developing.

Ozpin: he's been suffering from severe depression (and not hiding it very well) since Volume 1. Now he's had the root cause thrust in his face. Such trauma demands growth. Ozpin talks about rising to meet challenges. It's time he demonstrates it. He also owes both Qrow and Ironwood apologies and explanations. But that may get delayed to Volume 8 depending on plot order.

Also, if I'm right about one of the goals of the cybernetics program being to separate the Ozma entity from its host and give it a separate body, that's something whose implications Ozpin and Oscar will have to deal with.

Ironwood: Depending on plot order, we'll reach Ironwood either this volume or the next. When we do his trust issues are bound to be triggered.

Penny and Penny's creator: again, their development is coming, but whether it happens in 7, 8, or 9 depends on plot order. But Penny's creator is bound to have some issues with her erstwhile friends.

Atlas personnel: I'm sure we'll learn more about various Atlesians, but the only others I am expecting to show character development as opposed to character revelation in V7 are Winter, maybe Flynt and Neon, and possibly Whitley. We simply don't know enough about anyone else for it to qualify as "development" in V7. (I doubt Jaques is capable of growth, except as an asshole.)

Adam: won't be missed by anyone who knew of his recent activities. May be missed by those who didn't, especially if he originally came from Solitas. Blake has a general tendency to brood, but it was literally kill or be killed, and she will probably make her peace with that. Yang has no innate tendency to brood. If she has problems, they'll fall under the general PTSD plot. I'll write about that separately.

Cinder: does Cinder really think she can get back in Salem's (meager) good graces by engineering a technical foul regarding Salem's orders? That's egomania on a grand scale. Salem will see right through it. So, as Tai Yang asked, which way will she go?

Salem: a person confident of loyalty wouldn't keep bringing up the cost of disloyalty. Salem is increasingly getting thwarted, and that's starting to affect her minions as well as herself. Both she and her team only mention Atlas as a potential roadblock in the way of her plans for Vacuo. And Atlas itself has come up with an easy solution to that roadblock. **snip**

So the question becomes, does she value the Relics enough to retrieve them before cutting the cord? If her ultimate goal is to summon the gods to a world at war, yes. If not, no.

Tyrian: now has a personal interest in Ruby as well as Jaune. What we don't know is how disciplined Tyrian is. Will he put Salem's wishes over his own? Or, like Cinder, will he be out for personal revenge?

Neo: at present we have no idea how far she will go for revenge, and against whom.

Emerald and Mercury: will these two start to look for a way out? Maybe, but I am not expecting them to try anything yet.

Romantic entanglements: RWBY has never introduced a character and successfully paired them off in the same volume. So any bonding in V7 will probably be among pre-existing characters. That gives us a limited pool to work with. Potentials are:

Blake/Yang: after so much in V6 I'm not actually expecting anything in V7 -- with one caveat. With it's military culture Atlas is the perfect place to explore the deeper implications of Yang's PTSD, and the toll it takes on partners. I'm honestly expecting that plot to be the romantic development of 8 or 9. Again, I don't know what their order will be.

Qrow/Winter: Qrow's pretty broken right now, and Winter doesn't seem to tolerate weakness. It would be a major stretch on her part this soon. Maybe later.

Flynt/Weiss: I think this one has potential. Both of these people started off with such limited views of the other, and now they are growing. I think they could make beautiful music together.

Ruby/Oscar: if Ozpin stays quiet for a long, long time.

Of course characters might be introduced in V7 who pair off later, but that's my best bets for the current field.

PS: One thing I forget to mention in Part 1 is that we don't know how far Rooster Teeth is willing to go with Atlas as a metaphor for the United States. Between systemic racism and income inequality, issues with a closed border, an overblown military, a superiority tendency, and a sliiiiight persecution complex, there's plenty to work with.

Oh, and giant mechs. We're in Mech Central, so there's bound to be bigger and snazzier mechs than we've seen before.

[skybournerp]

“I don’t do magic. I do science. One takes brains, the other takes eyeliner“

A B O U T

Name: Taylor Burns Nickname: Tay Age: Twenty Date & Place of Birth: August 7th, 1997 & New Brunswick, NJ Sexuality: Gynosexual Pronouns: They/Them Faceclaim: Bex Taylor-Klaus Alternate FCs: Kaitlyn Alexander Status: OPEN

M O R E

Major & Minor: Engineering Classification: Sophomore Occupation: Student, School Maintenance, & Inventor Rank: Hero Support Power: None 

P E R S O N A L I T Y

+  inventive, even-tempered, perceptive -  blunt, know-it-all, uptight

B I O G R A P H Y

Being born as the only child of David and Deborah Burns (also known as The Defender and The Punisher) caused high expectations to be placed on Taylor from the beginning. From the moment they were old enough, they were enrolled in karate classes. This was both for their parents’s peace of mind, as well as preparing them early on for following in their footsteps in a life of fighting crime. And while Taylor was decent at it, they were never the top of the class. The same could be said about their grades in school. Even though they made above average grades, they weren’t a stand out student as was expected of them.

When Taylor turned eleven, their parents came clean about identity. Two days after their birthday, they were sat down in the living room and told that when the two of them left on a ‘city emergency’ it was in the literal sense. They fought villains that threatened the safety of civilians and one-day Taylor would be doing the same. From that day forward, Taylor’s parents held a monthly combat session. In their ‘secret lair’, they would have Taylor train with some of their equipment, slowly trying to push Taylor’s limits to set off their power. These sessions only became more frustrating as they continued to show no signs of inheriting a power. They would skip the sessions and hide away in the office - taking apart the computer and putting it back together again. Tinkering with technology became a release for them. It was something they had complete control over, as opposed to their powers.

Although Taylor had yet to show any inking of having powers, they were still sent to a super-hero high school when they were fourteen. It was here that Taylor developed a fascination for superpowers. Since they weren’t a pressure point, they could observe others using their own powers and appreciate how unique each one was, and how differently everyone used their powers either in combat or on a day to day basis. And during high school, they got the idea to make weaponry that mimicked these abilities. Even if their parents still clung to the hope that Taylor would develop powers, they had accepted that they never would and searched for their own loop hole. They were heavily involved with the Robotics Club and won first place in the state competition.

As college application time rolled around, Taylor’s parents strongly encouraged them to apply for their Alma Mater, Skybourne. Maybe, just maybe, they were an extremely late bloomer. At first, Taylor resented the idea, but still sent in an application, merely to save face. But when they got in contact with the engineering program, Taylor found out that the school was particularly impressed with that they had achieved in high school. If Taylor was to attend Skybourne, they could continue to work on their inventions. The fact that they had been accepted to the school due to their own accomplishments (and not the identity of their parents) and could continue their work without having to steal materials was incentive enough. So even though they had no super powers, they decided to go to a university full of them.

F A M I L Y

Deborah Burns (mother - alive) David Burns (father - alive)

C O N N E C T I O N S

Ryan Lopez: Taylor was eager to learn more about prosthetics and had been contacted by Ryan in regards to a rather fascinating project; creating a prosthetic compatible with super powers. Problem is, they’re not sure how they feel about Ryan.

Bethany Fletcher: They first met half-way through Taylor's first year. They had been working on an online project but running into troubles with the coding so they asked Beth for help. With how helpful Beth was, Taylor has made a note that she is a reliable source.

[yaltonrp-blog]

Congratulations Becca! You have been accepted for the role of Hiro Komatsu with the FC of Sen Mitsuji. We found Hiro fascinating and look forward to seeing where you take him. Please send us an account within the next 24 hours with the ask and submit boxes open.

Welcome to Yalton! We look forward to roleplaying with you.

OOC:

Name/Alias: Becca

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Age: 17

Timezone: EST

Activity Level: I’d say a solid 7. Like everyone, there are days where I’m more active and eager to roleplay than others, but I usually do take time to come onto my character account everyday and at my worst, my replies will take place every other day.

Things you aren’t willing to write: Smut

IC:

Biography Info:

Character Name: Hiro Komatsu

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Gender: Cis Male

Age: 22

Major/Position: Philosophy Major

FC: Sen Mitsuji

Biography:

The Komatsu family has always been the epitome of elegance in their town of Hiraizumi, Japan. Ancient Japanese culture and practices still run deep in the town to this day, with it’s agriculture based economy and plethora of historic monuments. At the age of eight, Hiro knew that the small town life would never accompany him as he visited Tokyo for a distant relative’s wedding. The most people Hiro had ever seen in one place at one time were the 103 kids in his year gathered together for an assembly. It was safe to say that stepping off the train and into Tokyo city was unlike anything he had ever witnessed before. Since that day, Hiro was obsessed with the thought of leaving his town to go live somewhere new and exciting, preferably somewhere far away from the farmer filled town of Hiraizumi.

Hiro wasn’t so much of a bad kid as he was a trouble maker. He was anything but neglected, but it’s safe to say his older brother Sho received the most attention from his family. With Sho’s stellar grades and a full ride scholarship for basketball to the University of Tokyo, Hiro couldn’t help but be kept in his 6′5″ brother’s shadow. While eighteen year old Sho was meeting up with the Prime Minister to be condemned for his amazing academic achievements, Hiro was being suspended from school, this time for stealing his teacher’s grade book and altering his friend’s grades. Hiro was stealthy, so if he wanted to get away with little things like that he could, it’s just that the chase was a lot more fun.

While Hiro’s father was born in Japan, his mother is from Philidelphia, Pennsylvania. She came to Japan to teach English and eventually met Minato Komatsu, and the rest was history. Though Hiro was aware of his family in the states, he never actually met them. With only a measly seven cousins residing in Japan, Hiro’s mother explained how she was one of eight, and there’s over thirty other relatives from her side of the family he’s never met. It seemed as if his seventh suspension was the last straw from his parents, as the day he turned fourteen, Hiro was fresh prince’d all the way to Philly to stay with the grandparents he often forgot existed.

Philidelphia was incredibly different from Hiraizumi, but in every way Hiro had hoped it would be. The schools were bigger, people more diverse, and Hiro had learned to prefer the savory American food over the traditional Japanese dishes back home. Though his family feared the culture shock would take him by surprise, they could have never imagined he’d fit in so nicely. Hiro was initially only supposed to reside in Philly for a year, but he was doing so well that his parents decided to allow him to stay for however long he pleased. Although he was considered very smart back in Japan, here in Philly his intelligence was exceptional as he quickly became the top of his high school class. While his peers struggled with teenage angst during high school, Hiro had never felt better. Hiro had girls, boys, and pretty much everyone else he wanted at the tip of his fingers, because who wouldn’t be attracted to the smart yet bad boy from Japan?

His bad behavior stopped in school, but that didn’t prohibit Hiro from engaging in less than admirable activities behind his family’s back. He became quite good at holding his alcohol as Hiro had a party almost every time his grandparents were out of town. If he wasn’t hosting one, he was most certainly attending one. Starting the third week he entered America, Hiro went to a house party at least five times a month. He’d get black out drunk or higher than heaven with his friends, something his family failed to realize until he was seventeen and headed home from what must’ve been his thousandth party. With only a visa, Hiro couldn’t drive, so he was dependent on his buddies to bring him home from whatever they had been doing that night. Though he knew better, his friends didn’t, and decided it would be a good idea to drive everyone home intoxicated. Paramedics arrived at the scene seven minutes after the crash to find the bottom half of the car 100 feet away from the scene of the accident, the tree the car hit completely toppled over, and no survivors except for Hiro who’s legs were completely shattered and stuck between the passenger’s seat and dashboard.

Hiro’s left leg was able to be saved, but his right one was forced to be amputated below the knee as it was completely mutilated. While the rest of his body was practically untouched besides for a few wounds requiring sistches, Doctors didn’t realize there was something else wrong with Hiro until four months after the accident during his last days in rehab. Due to the car stopping so fast while going such a high speed, Hiro’s upper body went right through the windowshield and into the tree which eventually toppled over the car. The impact caused parts of his skull to shatter and enter his frontal lobe, a problem that was presumed solved by an immediate surgery. However, that proved to not be the case once the frontal lobe damage became prominent in his behavior. The once charismatic and somewhat sweet boy quickly became a mix of all different personalities in one. Mood changes had become frequent, and the smallest things would now set Hiro off. His volatile behavior spontaneity had quickly become the main concern for those around him.

As he learned to live with his prosthetic and had been attending a therapist daily, now eighteen year old Hiro was sent home a total of five months after the accident. He finished his senior year by taking summer school classes and being tutored. It was harder to concentrate but still proved manageable as Hiro graduated with one of the highest GPA’s in high class. His family back in Japan flew over for a weekend as they had a party in celebration of this accomplishment, but it seemed as if everyone returned to their daily lives except for Hiro himself. He had plans to apply to some of the biggest colleges in the US for Computer Science, but the accident caused him to lost passion for most things in life. Instead, Hiro decided to take a gap year, getting a job at a local diner. It’s surprising how many tips a crippled nineteen year old with a pretty smile can make.

Eventually Hiro started applying to colleges again. He was lucky enough to take the SATs during his Junior year a earn a near perfect score, but it was still difficult getting accepted almost two years after graduating high school, However it wasn’t all for nothing as Hiro opened what he thought would be his fifth rejection letter only to find out that come fall, he’d proudly be a Yak. Though his battles are far from over, Hiro can proudly say he’s doing better. Weekly therapy sessions and time to himself has improved his behavior immensely, but there are times where he’s set off by some seemingly meaningless things. There’s still a long way to go, but for the first time in his life, Hiro can say he’s actually excited for the future.

State at least one headcanon about the character:

Ever since his accident, Hiro has refused to touch any alcoholic beverage. Although the crash wasn’t his fault, he can’t help but feel responsible for not doing something. He’s been told all his life that coke and rum mix, but booze and driving do not. Hiro is terrified that for any instance if he were to consume alcohol again that history will somehow repeat itself.

Though most expect him to be a womanizer of sorts, Hiro has always identified as pansexual. Sure, he’s flirty with the ladies, but his interests are not influenced by gender identity. He constantly says how his love for another isn’t with the body, but the mind. Hiro is unapologetically proud of his sexuality and greatly values the time it took for him to understand that being so is okay.

Japanese is his first language and he didn’t learn English until age eight.

He has a strong dislike for all of social media except Instagram, where he constantly posts pictures of the most random things he can think of. If it’s artsy enough, Hiro will snap a photo and upload it in minutes. He does use other social media as well but only to keep up with his friends, as he rarely posts any of his own content on there.

Traditional Japanese instrumental is his favorite type of music to listen to, however he is also a big fan of Alternative rock and Grunge bands like Nirvana, Sublime, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The two contrasting genres are an accurate representation of Hiro’s personality.

If you were to tell high school Hiro that he’d be majoring in Philosophy, he probably would’ve laughed in your face. Up until his accident, he was set in stone that he’d be majoring in something having to do with technology. However, in the past few years Hiro has been plagued with a constant question regarding everything: Why? He’s always been interested in theory, and as his love for science dwindled, his passion for the study of ideas about almost everything rose.

He doesn’t exactly know what job he wishes to pursue come graduation, so he presumes graduate school will be his next step.

[kathleenseiber]

‘Noisy’ neurons put a limit on visual perception

The ability to make fine visual discriminations between two stimuli runs up against a natural barrier that large groups of “noisy” neurons behaving similarly create, according to research with mice.

The new research helps solve a longstanding mystery about how brains manage to process information so accurately, despite the fact that individual neurons, or nerve cells, act with a surprising degree of randomness.

The findings in Nature offer new insights into the limits of perception and could aid in the design of so-called neuroprosthetics—devices that enable people to regain some lost sensory capabilities.

In the new study, the researchers measured the activity of neurons in mice brains as the rodents visually discriminated between similar, but not identical, imagery. By analyzing data gathered from around 2,000 simultaneously recorded neurons in each mouse, the researchers discovered strong supporting evidence for a theory that “correlated noise” in neural activity causes perceptual limitations.

In essence, because neurons are highly interconnected, when one randomly responds incorrectly and misidentifies an image, it can influence other neurons to make the same mistake.

“You can think of correlated noise like a type of ‘groupthink,’ in which neurons can act like lemmings, with one heedlessly following another into making a mistake,” says co-senior author Surya Ganguli, an associate professor of applied physics at Stanford University.

Remarkably, the visual system is able to cut through about 90% of this neuronal noise, but the remaining 10% places a limit on how finely we can discern between two images that look very similar.

“With this study, we’ve helped resolve a puzzle that’s been around for over 30 years about what limits mammals—and by extension humans—when it comes to sensory perception,” says co-senior author Mark Schnitzer, a professor of biology and of applied physics and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Thousands of neurons

To obtain the huge sample set of a couple thousand neurons per mouse, lead author Oleg Rumyantsev, a graduate student in applied physics at Stanford, spearheaded construction of a special type of apparatus for brain imaging. Within this experimental setup, a mouse could run in place on a treadmill while scientists used optical microscopy to observe neurons in its primary visual cortex. This brain region is responsible for integrating and processing visual information received from the eye.

The mice in the study were genetically engineered to express sensor proteins that fluoresce and report the levels of activity of neurons in the cortex; when the neurons activate, these proteins give off more light, allowing the researchers to infer the cells’ activity patterns.

Sweeping a set of 16 laser beams across the mouse’s visual cortex illuminated the neurons and initiated the fluorescence process, allowing the researchers to watch how the cortical neurons responded to the two different visual stimuli. The presented stimuli were similar-looking images consisting of light and dark bands, known from previous research to really grab murine attention.

Based on how the neurons responded, the researchers could gauge the visual cortex’s ability in distinguishing between the two stimuli. Each stimulus generated a distinct pattern of neuronal response, with many neurons coding for either stimulus 1 or stimulus 2. Fidelity, however, was far from perfect, given neurons’ innate randomness.

On some presentations of the visual stimuli, some neurons miscued and signaled the wrong stimulus. Due to the groupthink of correlated noise, when one neuron got it wrong, other neurons sharing common inputs from the mouse’s retina and subsequent parts of the visual circuitry were also more likely to make the same mistake.

It was only possible to uncover the true impact of this correlated noise because the researchers were able to observe a large set of neurons simultaneously.

“Correlated noise only really manifests when you go up to about a thousand neurons, so before our study, it simply was not possible to see this effect,” Ganguli says.

Our noisy brains and visual perception

With regard to visual discrimination tasks, though, the brain still does awfully well in cutting through the sheer volume of neuronal noise. Overall, around 90% of the noise fluctuations did not impede visual signal coding accuracy in the neurons. Instead, only the remaining 10% of correlated noise negatively affected accuracy, and thus limited the brain’s ability to perceive.

“The correlated noise does place a bound on what the cortex can do,” says Schnitzer.

The findings suggest that once a suitably large set of neurons (or artificial, neuron-like processing elements) are available, throwing more neurons at a sensory discrimination problem might not substantially boost performance. That insight could help developers of brain prosthetics—the best-known of which is a cochlear implant for the hearing-impaired—learn to achieve more with less.

“If you want to build the best possible sensory prosthetic device, you may only need to cue into, say, 1,000, neuron-like elements, because if you try to cue into more, you may not do any better,” says Ganguli.

Future experiments could examine if the correlated noise limitations, revealed in the new study, also limit other senses beyond vision.

Funding for the study came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Science Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the McKnight Foundation, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Simons Foundations, and the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Adam Hadhazy for Stanford University

The post ‘Noisy’ neurons put a limit on visual perception appeared first on Futurity.

‘Noisy’ neurons put a limit on visual perception published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[myxineye]

Not mean to be rude,but can we get to know more facts about Kestrel please?: )

YES!! KESTREL MY FRIEND KESTREL ^_^

I've been looking for an excuse to drop some stuff about Kestrel after editing their backstory a little bit, if you’re interested in the whole backstory it’s under the keep reading tab! But for now, here’s some random facts about Kestrel:

Frequently whistles and sings to himself

Has a habit of cleaning their prosthetics often; the last thing you’d wanna worry about in the middle of battle is getting an infection from your own arms. Over time, cleaning their weapons just turned into something they do to calm themself.

Kestrel has some problems managing how much pressure to apply to things with their arms; if you go for a high five with them, there’s a chance they might break your hand. Recently though, that chance is getting smaller as Quincy continues to make more modifications to their arms

Upper body is full of scars, most notably burn scars, due to some past accidents with their arms. They make sure to cover them when in public though

Needs to wear a special spinal brace when using bulkier arm weapons; otherwise they’d get bad back pain trying to carry everything around

Despite knowing fully well the Armada are clockworks and not alive, Kestrel still feels a kind of kinship with them. Maybe it’s because of their identity problems as a cyborg, or the fact that the Armada treated them better than the Dogs ever had (of course, it was because Kestrel was useful to the Armada, which they’re also aware of), but they can’t bring themself to think of the Armada as only machines. 

At one point, Quincy made them a mechanical falcon as a gift, which Kestrel nicknamed Ava. They like to use it to send messages to people, and sometimes the two can be heard singing/whistling together :)

Anyways the full backstory for Kestrel here!

██████ “Kestrel” ████████

36 years old

Any pronouns

Musketeer + Buccaneer

Backstory:

Kestrel isn’t their actual name, but a codename given during their time in Her Majesty’s Secret Service; they’ve long forgotten their original name. Growing up, they led a fairly ordinary life in Marleybone, but one fateful night led to both the death of their parents and the loss of their arms. They were found on the verge of death by a certain M, who brought them to a hospital and eventually convinced them to join the Secret Service, to follow in the steps of their parents (but honestly it was just an excuse to test some experimental weapons through prosthetics, it was an extension of the golem program). Not having anything else to do and feeling grateful that M saved their life, Kestrel agreed to join – and from then on, they were given the codename Kestrel and served essentially as a living weapon and test subject. It was also during this time Kestrel met Quincy, who was by then an established engineer working on irregular duty in Marleybone (Quincy's backstory is more extensive and all over the place, but they're the one person tying every oc together so of course I gotta mention them here).

Over time, Kestrel became disillusioned with their role and grew to detest M. They were always regarded differently by the others because of their cyborg status, and anyways, they had a lot of childhood trauma that never got touched on until later on in life. As a personal act of rebellion, Kestrel secretly defected to the Armada, giving away valuable intel including schematics of advanced Marleybonian tech and insight into how the spy system works there – they even helped to plant and create their own Armada spy ring in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. 

After a while of doing all that, it seemed Kestrel decided to just… one day disappear. Marleybone never found out about Kestrel’s betrayal, declaring him as MIA, and the Armada simply does not know where they went. In reality, after hearing about Nora and Valentina’s departure from the Armada, Kestrel decided she wanted to follow suit -- they just didn’t want anything to do with politics or world powers anymore. They never had a chance to grow up, instead being thrown directly in the army as a child and forced to grow up under the scrutiny eyes of others, without being able to make any decisions for herself -- Kestrel just got tired, yaknow, wanted a new start and a new life and everything, they wanted their own freedom and wanted to act however they want.

Using what little information they could gather with where Nora and Valentina could’ve gone, Kestrel eventually caught up with Nora and Quincy. Since then, the three of them have been traveling the skyways together 👍

[scannain]

Under the presidency of Benicio Del Toro (Puerto Rican-American actor), the Un Certain Regard Jury of Annemarie Jacir(Palestinian director and writer), Kantemir Balagov (Russian director), Virginie Ledoyen (French actress) and Julie Huntsinger (American executive director, Telluride Film Festival) ‑ really came up with the goods in awarding the top prize to Ali Abassi’s Gräns (Border) from Denmark-Sweden. A surprising film that navigates between genres in the deftest ways unimaginable, making it one of those films that renews the viewer’s attention as it (s)trolls to its destination. It begins by making what seems like well-meaning points about beauty and ugliness before promiscuously borrowing from Nordic mythology to create its own magical realism.

At a banal customs post in a ferry station, Tina discretely sniffs and her eyes cross inquisitively as she inspects passengers and senses those who are guilty of anything from too many bottles of booze to kiddy porn on a usb key. She has a special animal like instinct that senses things other humans can’t. She is immediately suspicious of Vore who bears an uncanny resemblance to her own particular ‘ugliness’. She knows he is up to something but, despite her ESP, she could hardly imagine what other-worldly shenanigans this could be. It is an epic film about the extremes of identity and belonging that becomes a powerful voyage of discovery for Tina. Any more information would spoil the audience’s own voyage of discovery, suffice it to say the actors’ performances and ‘natural’ prosthetics are uncanny.

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Who then is Teheran-born Danish filmmaker, Ali Abassi, to invent such a cinematic UFO? In an interview published in Nordisk’s site he speaks for himself:

Around 10 years ago, a friend of mine told me about Border a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It stayed in my mind. Then I was offered to work on it. I felt that probably no one else would make a movie out of it because it’s a very challenging material. Most happens in the characters’ minds. I also liked the fact that it’s a universal story about identity, but with an edge.

…Co-writer, Isabella Eklöf, is a fellow director as well [she directed Holidays] who is interested in psychological realism, just like me. The central character being a woman, Isabella was more apt to write intricate details of how Tina should act or react. The major changes we did were adding a crime investigation sub-plot and a darker tone to the romantic story. I’m interested in the dark side of human consciousness, the existential problems that people are facing.

…(Border) is mostly a love story and about Tina choosing who she wants to be, and the experience of being part of a minority. Anyone can relate to that feeling, where your existence is not given, and you have to abide to rules set by others.

…I started as a writer and I’m very inspired by the magic realism wave of Latin American writers, like Gabriel García Márques, Carlos Fuentes. The most important literary device they use is to combine fantasy and realism. To capture life, and inner life, you need different layers. This is why the dreams, hallucinations of the characters are as real as their everyday life and part of their reality.

…Eva Melander and Finnish actor Eero Milonoff for the main roles were simply the best but it took me one and a half year of casting to find them! They are true character actors and went through major physical changes such as gaining 20 kg each! They were literally 100% body and soul into their parts.

Other prizes went to:

Best Screenplay: Sofia by Meryem Benm’barek, a tale of illicit pregnancy in contemporary Casablanca with a sharp immoral twist. Best Performance: Victor POLSTER for Girl by Belgian director Lukas Dhont, recounting the balletic traumas of a teenage gender transition. Best Director: Sergei Loznitsa for Donbass, a gratingly realistic analysis of human foibles in Russian occupied South Eastern Ukraine Jury Special Prize: Chuva É Cantoria Na Aldeia Dos Mortos (The Dead and the Others) by João Salaviza and Renée NADER MESSORA, a Brazilian docudrama of the survival and ethos of one of the hundreds of endangered peoples.

#Cannes18: Gräns (Border) wins Un Certain Regard Under the presidency of Benicio Del Toro (Puerto Rican-American actor), the Un Certain Regard Jury of…