#and it got me comparing computer engineering and computer science and i decided that i wanted to do computer science

[orcelito]

Actually it is SO weird to me to remember that I was an engineering student and that later on I had been pursuing a minor in statistics

I may be a IT & com person in the end, but I do have the foundations of engineering and statistics in my brain too. Wild !

[matrixmultiplication]

[What is the meaning of life? - Part 1]

First post here... Hello World!

3 AM in the morning and I am contemplating about the meaning of life. I don't even know how or where to start.

I'm 20s adult, recent math-CS grad. Currently working as SWE (Software Engineering) and I hate this job a lot. Oh yeah... Let's start with my journey so far (tbh I don't even know if I can call it a journey or not because my life is very average)

When I was in college, I enjoyed learning a lot of things. Of course, this is why I majored in math (pure math to be specific). Not because it gives me money or anything, but because I enjoyed learning how things work and why it exists the way it is (kinda sound like philosophy majors lmao).

You know those "useless" formulas we learned in high school? -- for example, trigonometric formula? matrix determinant (in linear algebra) why the heck do we need it? I started learning the reason why these kinds of things existed and needed when I was in college.

Not gonna lie, doing these useless things gives me a sense of joy. It's like I discovered the meaning of everything. Well, some of you might hate math, so think about this... You watched really long movies and things started to come together in the end. The plot twist, some actions/choices that a character made that doesn't make any sense until now. It's like a big revelation right? That is the same feeling I have when I play around with math.

Well, what about CS (Computer Science)? Well, to be honest I started pretty late compared to other students. Most kids started learning some form of CS concept at a very young age (like using Scratch or something-- I think I got the name right)

While, I started learning python in the first year of college because it's a mandatory class in my university. To me, this field is like playing games, and solving a puzzle using logic. I had a lot of fun in class so I decided to stick with CS too (along with math).

Fast forward to the last semester, I found my true love-- Computer Graphic. A field that was made for me. A perfect blend between math and computer science.

What is computer graphic? Well, first it is NOT the same as graphic design (I got that question a lot haha). Have you ever played games and curious why we have a really nice graphic? Or have you seen those RTX on RTX off meme? (I gotchu gamers ;p) Those are computer graphic! Basically, it translates the 0,1s to the pixel we see on the screen with the help of GPU!

Going back to my story, I love this class so much, I enjoyed every moment of it. Never skip the class. In fact, if I can have a job that is related to computer graphic, my life would be fulfilled.

So why not get this job instead of SWE? I would love to but I can't. In short, it's a very niche field and there is no market for that (+ I'm just a beginner and still learning. Most places are looking for senior level or something like that).

This is why I ended up with SWE, which I hate... The job is very repetitive. To me, it feels like doing an excel calculation, which is pretty boring. Sure, it's a high paying job but I don't really care about money that much. My goal is not that I want to be rich, but to have enough money to live comfortably.

Everyday is the same... We have business goals to fulfill and we do it. I have no interest in making all the rich guys richer. I don't care about investing in the stock markets like some people around my age do. I hate corporate life so much. Every day is the same. Going to work 9-5, coming back home feeling drained. I lose motivation to do things I was once enjoyed. Playing games doesn't make me happy like it used to be.

This made me start questioning myself more and more. Whether I am wasting my time or not.

*Sigh* it's almost 4 am now... I'm gonna log off and write more tomorrow.

[umichenginabroad]

School, Sights, Sinuses, & Spinning

Week 2 Recap: Started classes, saw sights, sinus infection, and spin class

Happy Monday! Today is our day off of classes and I spent the day recapping my last week and prepping for the week ahead. 

Last week was our first week of classes! My architecture and design class is definitely my favorite so far, and it’s a really great way to explore Prague and learn more about my new home. We spent the first class talking about the structure of the class, where we learn about an area and then actually get to explore it! Day 1 was learning about Old Town while walking around the main square.

My other classes are EECS 496 (Tech, Ethics, and Public Policy), EECS 497 (Augmented Reality: Leadership Development in the Tech Sector), and Techcom 497 (Communication for Tech Sector). These classes are going to be super interesting, as my professors are from all over the world and will be able to give so many different perspectives on the tech sector. I’m glad I can still get EECS credit while being abroad - that’s one reason why this program is so amazing!

Our classes run in 3 hour increments, and depending on how many classes you’re taking, you can have only 1 class a day! Luckily, I only have 1 class everyday which leads to lots of time exploring Prague. This week, I went to check out the Prague Castle, which was so beautiful. I went around sunset time and it was practically empty, so we had the entire place to ourselves!

Unfortunately, all of the go-go-go of being abroad caught up with me and I got a sinus infection. Luckily, the health insurance and tele-doc service provided by Michigan was super easy to use. Someone called me and asked about my symptoms, and after a quick conversation, I received the antibiotics I needed! 3 days later, I’m feeling so much better and can use this Monday off to recharge before the week of school ahead.

Today, my roommate Caroline and I went to a spin class (the Czech version of SoulCycle). Luckily, it was in English (we had a rough experience with a yoga class in Czech earlier this week). Afterwards, we did our weekly grocery shopping. This experience is pretty different from grocery shopping in America. First of all, it’s significantly cheaper (at least compared to LA prices). We decided to try out one of the nicer grocery stores, and a week's worth of produce and snacks came out to around $35. Secondly, you have to bag your groceries - and FAST. There is absolutely no funny business happening here. They scan, and you bag as fast as you possibly can. You also have to pre-buy your bags, so you better hope everything fits! 

Next week abroad: 2nd week of classes, trying Czech sushi for the first time, and a trip to Italy!

Emily Walker

Computer Science & Engineering

#IPEcsPrague 

#EmilyWalker 

#IPEWinter23 

[rjhpandapaws]

Strictly Professional Feelings

Ch 2: The Type of Guy this Place Needs

There were several things that Connor hadn’t expected when he and Silas had decided to start Arkait Medical Enterprises. The biggest of course, was becoming comparable to CyberLife within their first five years. He and Silas were fresh out of university; him with his business degree, and Silas with his first of many science and engineering degrees. They hadn’t been ready for the sudden rise to the top since prosthetics was such a closed business, and it had been a struggle to keep the employees they had while filling all of the sudden positions. The turnover had been brutal. As soon as things had settled Ben, one of the heads of the business office decided to quit and now he was having to look for someone to fill the place he had left. He and Markus looked internally first to see if there was someone they could simply move up. They didn’t have any luck with that and had to look at outside applicants. Markus narrowed it down to a few candidates. It took a couple more weeks after that to decide, but they both agreed that Hank Anderson was the one. He had the necessary experience and he was a retired Police Lieutenant so he was capable of handling high stress situations. He was the best fit for an office containing one Gavin Reed.

Markus handled the interviewing process as he always did so Connor didn’t know anything more about Hank than what had been on his application So when he came to work to find Hank’s file on his desk with the note ‘The type of guy this place needs. :)’ on it he smiled. He spent the morning getting Hank’s keys activated and making sure Silas could get his computer set up today. When he called down to the lab Silas tore into him before he could even get a greeting out. Gavin had apparently broken another computer terminal. “I swear to every god Connor. I am so close to just going to Walmart or some shit and getting him a goddamn laptop.” Silas snapped, “This is the third one this quarter. He is averaging almost one a month and my department’s financial report is going to be screwed, which means Richard is going to be pissed at me. Again.” Connor sighed as three firm but polite knocks came from his office door. That had to be Hank, anyone else would have just come in. It was a nice change. he opened the door and beckoned him inside. He was on autopilot and not paying attention as he tried to appease Silas. He did not want to be dealing with this right now, he had an interview to conduct.

“Look. Silas, I will try to talk to Gavin about not drinking coffee so close to his computer; but your issue really lies more with Richard. He’s the one that brings Gavin all that coffee.” He exhaled in an attempt to let out his frustration and switch gears, “Hank is here. If it’s really bothering you this much, you can come up when the meeting is finished and we can try and figure something out.” “I’ll be up when it’s done, and I’m bringing Richard.” Silas said dryly and Connor hung up the hone as his twin muttered something else under his breath. He turned his attention toward Hank and froze. He was going to kill Markus, that note was a bad joke. Hank was exactly his type and Connor had not been prepared for that. Blonde hair that was just starting to gray, he was built like an oak tree, and rough around the edges. Connor cleared his throat and brought himself back to the moment. He was not inclined to follow that train of thought; right now at least. “Sorry about that.” Connor said as he held his hand out toward hank, “My name is Connor, it’s a pleasure to meet you Lieutenant.” “Just Hank is fine.” He responded, and nope, Connor was not ready for this at all. Not the pleasantness of his smile or the rough timbre to his voice, “My Lieutenant days are long behind me now.”

Connor forced himself back into business mode and gestured to the chair opposite his desk. Once they were both seated he dug through the files on his desk until he found Hank’s. He took the keycard and nametag out then handed them over. “Alright, Just Hank.” He groaned internally, apparently he was going to flirt poorly with this probably straight man instead of being a professional. This was fine, definitely not creepy. “These will get you into the building at any tome. They both do the same things so just carry whichever one is easier.” “Thanks.” Hank said as he tucked them away. Connor moved onto the next thing on his mental list with a nod, he was determined not to make this anymore uncomfortable for either of them. “You’re in the business office which is on the eleventh floor. You’ll be in an office rather than the bullpen so hang a left once you leave the elevator. You’ll be the last door on the right.” He looked up from the file he’d been pretending to read and met Hank’s eyes for only a moment. He didn’t want to get distracted and stare. “They should have the nameplate up on your door by tomorrow. Silas should be down to help you with your computer in a half hour at most. Any questions?” Hank was quiet for a long moment and then shook his head, “I’m good, thanks.” “Alright.” Connor said, “I’m just a call, email, or elevator ride away if you need anything.” Hank gave another nod and made his way to the door, “Thanks for your time Connor.”

“No problem Just Hank.” He smiled as Hank left and he organized his desk again while he waited for his brothers. He was daydreaming badly enough that he didn’t even hear them come in. “So that was Hank huh?” Silas remarked with a smile Connor could hear though the sudden voice had made him jump. “I’m surprised you survived.” “Keep this up Six, and I will personally buy Gavin an extra large coffee.” Connor replied as he sat back. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” He said and put his hands up in a pacifying gesture. “Anyway,” He shot a sharp look at Richard, “Speaking of coffee.” “He likes coffee.” Richard said defensively, “I don’t know what else to do to get him to like me.” “Talk to him.” Connor suggested despite knowing his little brother’s lack of social skills, “Or take him out for coffee on his lunch. Just please keep it away from his computer. I’m pretty sure Silas is ready to kill him.” “Only if he stops stealing my only productive intern.” Richard replied. Connor groaned, “Both of you need to settle this please. Six stop stealing Daniel when he’s on the clock; and Nines stop giving Gavin coffee while he’s working.”

He got a begrudging “Fine.” from the both of them. “Great.” Connor replied with a shooing motion, “Now get out of my office. I need to go murder Markus and figure out how I’m supposed to survive the monthly staff meetings.” His brothers only laughed. “Good luck.” Silas remarked on his way out. Connor groaned and brought his head to his desk with more force than was strictly needed. If he knocked himself out he might be able to convince himself that this was all just a dream. He was not ready to deal with this. Not to mention the luck his brothers  had with their attempts at office romance; and whatever Nines was attempting to do to Gavin; didn’t exactly put the odds in his favor. Those staff meetings were going to kill him.

[seanfalco]

Jealous | Duncan Taylor x Reader

Word count: 2.7k Prompt: “I’m not jealous.” Requested by: Anonymous a/n: Follows What a Christmas, Huh?

It had been a little more than a week or two, you’d sort of lost track, since your last clandestine hookup with Duncan had ended in disaster and you’d started giving him the cold shoulder, practically ignoring him. 

For several days after, Duncan had been insufferable, cornering you at every chance, trying to get you to talk to him, but each time you’d successfully evaded him, leaving him scowling frustratedly after you as you’d walked away.

After that he seemed to have taken the hint, leaving you to your work, only speaking to you in a professional manner, no more snarky banter, no more obnoxious propositions, and your crew mates were starting to talk.  You heard them muttering to each other in hushed whispers that something was wrong — this wasn’t like either of you.

And at first you felt… relieved.

You thought getting away from Duncan Taylor and his smug pretentious attitude was exactly what you needed to get your head straight.  You’d fucked him, twice — he should be out of your system by now.

So why wasn’t he?

Why was it the further you kept away from him, the more your brain kept returning to those memories, craving his touch.

Then, on New Year’s Eve, you’d braced yourself as you made your way to the crew lounge for the night’s festivities, expecting Duncan to be back to his normal self, following you around all night and trying to get back into your pants.

But to your surprise, as soon as you arrived, he barely even spared you a second glance, though he certainly made a show of flirting with every other woman in the room, even going so far as to look rather cozy with one, the sight alone making your ears burn.

You should be relieved, you reminded yourself.  It was obvious he’d moved on.  You were free of him.

So why did you feel so jealous?

I’m not jealous, you told yourself firmly, but after only an hour you couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him any longer and you silently slipped out, returning to your computer, deciding to catch up on your work to keep your mind busy.  However, as you worked, you kept finding yourself half hoping that Duncan might follow, having noticed you leave and come to pester you, to pull you away somewhere secluded.

But he didn’t.

And from there it only got worse.  Each day your conflicted feelings only grew and you hated it.

Admit it, you miss him.  You miss that smug grin and those cheeky comebacks.  You miss his rough hands and how he makes you blush.  You miss how he used to look at you…

Attempting to ignore these thoughts, you stifled a yawn as you made your way to your workstation for your shift, one of the first to arrive, passing Duncan’s desk as you took your seat.  Leaning back in his chair, he had his feet propped up on the edge of his desk as he played some video game or other, and he glanced at you briefly before returning to his game, his eyes catching yours.

For a moment you thought he might greet you, but instead he craned his neck to look past you at the French programmer, Claire, you thought her name was, her computer a couple workstations away from yours.

“Oi, Claire!” he called obnoxiously and you grimaced, keeping your eyes purposefully on your monitor.  “You wanna go out some time?  I’m a proper gentleman,” he called, directing a flirty smirk her way.

Glancing over at her surreptitiously, you watched her roll her eyes.  She wasn’t into it.

“Not a chance, Taylor,” she scoffed.

“Oh, come now luv, I’d treat you right, show ya a night you wouldn’t soon forget.”

Though Claire still seemed uninterested, you spotted a slight flush creep across her face and the shit-eatting grin on Duncan’s lips was almost too much for you to take.

“How about you, darling?” Duncan called, twisting behind him to chat up Eliza, another one of your fellow analysts.  “Ever been with an Englishman?” he joked, catching her eye.

Your stomach clenching, you spun your chair suddenly and shoved Duncan’s feet from the edge of his desk.  “Oh my God, will you shut the fuck up?” you snapped, cutting off his exclamation as he nearly fell out of his chair.  “No one wants to hear your shite, y’wanker,” you hissed, not caring for the knowing look he threw you in response.

“You mean you don’t want to hear it,” he countered, his lips curling into a sneer, as if he’d caught you.  “You’re jealous,” he announced, folding his arms behind his head as he once more leaned back, lowering his voice so only you could hear him.

“I’m not jealous,” you replied firmly.  “You wanna know why?  Because there’s nothing to be jealous of,” you exclaimed.  “It’s not like anyone’s jumped at the opportunity to jump your bones.”

Duncan merely shrugged.  “I wouldn’t say that, sweetheart,” he muttered, his eyes dancing with amusement, and for a moment your stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch.

He’s bluffing, you told yourself, but you weren’t sure you believed it.

“Yeah right, Taylor,” you muttered, though your voice wavered slightly.

“What, don’t believe me?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.  “Now I said I wouldn’t compare, but…” he trailed off, giving you an appraising look as he clicked his tongue, shaking his head, “you might wanna learn some new tricks, luv.”

Mouth falling open in shock, it was lucky you couldn’t quite formulate an immediate comeback as just then the lead science officer stepped into the room.

“[y/l/n], Taylor,” she exclaimed, drawing your attention and Duncan quickly sat up at attention.

“Yes?” you both asked at the same time, a spike of worry ripping through you at the stern bite to Ute’s voice.

“In my office, please.”  Without another word she turned on her heel and walked away, trusting you’d follow.  

Sharing a nervous glance with Duncan, you scrambled to your feet to follow Ute.  You wouldn’t have been so worried if she’d only asked for him -- what with the way he’d been acting lately, trying to get under your skin, you wouldn’t be surprised if he had a stack of sexual harassment and fraternization reports filed against him.  But if you were included, all you could think was that someone had found out about you and Duncan and your little trysts.

Fuck, you thought, you couldn’t lose your job because of him.  For a fuckin’ shag, no less, no matter how good it’d been.  Fuck fuck fuck.

As soon as you got to Ute’s office, you stood anxiously next to Duncan as Ute rounded her desk to face you, crossing her arms over her chest.  “We have a problem--” she began and you could practically feel your heart leap into your throat.  Even Duncan looked like he was sweating a little, his face going pale.

“You two are my best analysts on the team,” Ute continued and you tensed further, waiting for the axe to fall.  “Which is why I need you two for this assignment.” 

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, an instant rush of relief flooded you and you sighed practically in tandem with Duncan.  “What assignment is that?” you asked, now able to focus, what with the threat of being sacked no longer looming over you.

Ute pulled out her holotablet to show you.  “There’s a faulty atmospheric control dampener for the station, located on this external panel here,” she explained, bringing up a schematic of the station with the panel’s location.  “The programming is severely out of date and needs to be updated.”

“Alright, can’t we just do it from the command center?” Duncan asked with a thoughtful frown and from the expression on Ute’s face you were beginning to understand.  “Unfortunately, wherever the station was built there was an oversight and the only way to access the panel’s controls--”

“Is from the panel itself,” you finished with a sigh.

“Wait a second,” Duncan exclaimed, a slightly panicked look in his mossy eyes.  “Are you saying that to update this program, we have to go outside to the panel itself?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying, Taylor,” Ute replied sternly.

“That sounds more like a job for-for engineering!  Not analysts like us!” he spluttered and you couldn’t help but agree with him.  When you took this job you weren’t exactly signing up to risk your life in a spacesuit.

“Usually, yes,” Ute admitted, “and we do have a team building an updated replacement, but until then we need to update this to tide us over and I don’t trust anyone but you two to reprogram this.”

Ute’s expression brooked no nonsense, which was how you found yourself climbing into a bulky spacesuit next to Duncan, preparing to be suspended in anti-gravity several million miles from Earth, tethered to the International Space Station by nothing more than a line of cable.

What could go wrong?

——

As long as you kept your eyes on the panel, you were fine.  It was the rest of it that made your vision swim and your fingers tremble, so you focused on how annoying it was to try to program while wearing such thick gloves.

Though it was better than catching sight of all that inky nothingness and then dwelling on the fact that it would be so easy for you to just drift away into the expanse.

“You scared?” Duncan’s voice echoed through your headset, the channel a private one.

“No,” you lied, a touch too quickly to sound truthful, but Duncan didn’t look any better.  “Are you?” you asked.

“Of-fuckin’-course I am!” he exclaimed, surprising you with his honesty.  “I didn’t fuckin’ sign up for this.”

“Yeah,” you breathed, agreeing with him.  “So let’s focus on getting this fuckin’ done so we can get back inside, huh?” you urged and for once Duncan didn’t argue with you.

Opening the auxiliary keyboard, Duncan got to work next to you, his eyes scanning over each line of code, searching for the outdated sequences.  “I noticed you leave during the New Year’s party, where’d you go?” he asked suddenly, taking you off guard.

“Are we really talking about this now?” you demanded exasperatedly, your eyes flicking over to him.

“Yeah, why not?  You’re kinda stuck out here with me,” he said, amusement in his voice.

“I left,” you answered simply and Duncan rolled his eyes.  

“Well, obviously,” he sighed exasperatedly.  “Shame, really.  I quite wanted a midnight kiss.”

“Oh please, I’m sure you found someone to give you one,” you huffed, your attention not straying from the small screen before you.

“Well… I didn’t,” he admitted, drawing your eyes sharply.

“But you said—“

“I made it up, didn’t I?” he said, no trace of amusement on his face now.

“So you didn’t sleep with anyone else?” you pressed, frowning.

“No,” Duncan repeated slowly.  “I’m a bit curious why it matters so much to you, though.”

Pursing your lips, you avoided his curious gaze.  “And I’m curious why you tried so hard to make me jealous,” you grumbled, the thick gloves of your space suit making you grimace.

Next to you, Duncan’s face lit up.  “So you were jealous!” he cried triumphantly.  “I knew it!”

“No, I—!” but it was too late for you to keep denying it, no use trying to hide it any longer.  Before you could say more however, Duncan gave another excited ‘whoop’ and you glanced back at the panel’s screen, finding you’d finished.

“Oh thank fuckin’ God,” he sighed, flipping the keyboard back into the panel.  “Now let’s get the fuck outta here, huh?”

As you pushed away from the panel your foot slipped from the thin ledge and you lost your grip, your leverage failing.  “Duncan!” you cried as you began to float from the edge of the station, panic setting in.

Quickly grasping your tether, Duncan held you in place, keeping you from floating any further.

“Gotcha!” he exclaimed, reeling you back in, but you could barely hear him over the rush of blood in your ears, your pulse pounding too loudly.  Your vision swam and breathing became hard as you tried, but you felt Duncan’s arm wrap awkwardly around you, hauling you back to the airlock with him.

“Almost there, I’ve got you [y/n].  It’ll be alright,” he exclaimed, his voice cutting through the buzzing that filled your ears.

Before you knew it, gravity re-engaged and you sunk to your knees, feeling much too heavy.  Clawing at the release for your helmet, you gasped a deep breath as soon as you lifted it from your head to toss away.

“[y/n]?  [y/n], you alright?” Duncan exclaimed, grabbing your suit and giving you a shake, til your eyes focused on him, his eyes wide with worry.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” you gasped, clutching at him, needing something steady to hold on to as you finally focused on his face, the look in his emerald eyes nearly as wild as the way his curls stood out at strange angles.

“You saved me,” you murmured, awe creeping into your voice, and before Duncan could answer, you were kissing him.

Without hesitation, his hands flew to your face as his lips moved just as eagerly against yours.  “So I take it you’re done givin’ me the cold shoulder, then?” he asked, leaning in closer, searching your face.

“For now.  Are you done flirting with everything female that moves just to get a rise outta me?” you countered.

“Ha!  I knew you were jealous,” he repeated.

“Duncan, you’re on thin ice—“

Before you could finish however, Duncan’s lips were back on yours, effectively cutting your words off before pulling back to look you in the eye.

“Ah, but they didn’t present the challenge you do, luv.  I like how you keep me on my toes.”

“I like that too,” you admitted reluctantly.

“So what d’ya say we give this… whatever it is another go?” he asked, leaning in again, his eyes flicking down to your lips.

“Whatever this is?” you mused as he watched you expectantly.  Before you could answer, you heard footsteps rushing down the corridor and you looked up to see Ute and several other station officers hurrying toward you.

“What happened?  Are you alright?” Ute exclaimed, looking over you, her eyes wide.

“I slipped on the edge.  I panicked,” you exclaimed sheepishly.  “If it hadn’t been for Duncan…”

“Oh please, you were still tethered, you woulda been fine.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Ute ran her hand down her face.  “Right, well, [y/n], as soon as you can I want you to report to the med bay for a check up,” she commanded though you opened your mouth to argue.  “And you,” she continued, her sharp gaze swinging next to Duncan.  “Make sure she gets there.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, his lips quirking with amusement as he glanced back at you.

“Good,” Ute remarked, eyeing you both sternly before turning to leave.

As soon as you were alone once more, Duncan pulled you back into his arms.  “You never did give me an answer,” he pointed out and you couldn’t help but grin, noticing how desperate he was to hear what you had to say.

“Hmm, I think we should give it a probationary period before we get in over our heads again,” you mused, your lips twisting wryly, enjoying the way Duncan’s expression darkened slightly.

“What does that even mean?” he demanded, his grip on your waist tightening, his lips twitching into a frown.

“It means… maybe,” you teased, grinning wickedly before pressing a quick peck to his lips, his mouth hanging open incredulously.  “Come on, I need to get to the medical wing,” you said, pulling out of his grip and standing to finish shimmying out of your spacesuit.

“Hey, wait a second!  That’s not a real answer!” Duncan exclaimed, hurriedly trying to extricate himself from his suit as well and nearly losing his balance.

“Yeah, well, I haven’t exactly made up my mind yet.  Maybe you can persuade me,” you teased, throwing him a meaningful glance over your shoulder, enjoying being the one in control for a change.

You already knew how this would end, but you wanted to keep Duncan guessing a little while longer first.  

At least things were back to normal.

———————— Tag List: @magic-multicolored-miracle @midnightseance @gurlimtired @super-unpredictable98 @iamsexytrash @misskittysmagicportal​ @robertsheehanownsmyass​

[re-diesirae]

12. Claire

She had never felt so happy to wake up with the sunlight hitting at her face the way it did that morning. They didn't dare to leave the storage house until the first rays of light hadn't come out from the horizon. In part, because they had wanted a little more rest and in part because they didn't want to risk the chance of meeting another of those horrible creatures.

With the light, they could finally see what was inside the storage room, and after checking the contents of the boxes, they had come across some supplies that included more weapons, ammo, a first aid kit, and flashlights. The weaponry was quite old, and Claire knew they probably weren't as fancy as the ones Leon usually used, but it was better than nothing. They also found some cans of food and water that weren't yet due in the boxes. It wasn't a fancy meal, but the canned fruits provided the needed carbohydrates that their bodies required for energy. Claire had instantly felt a little more energetic after the small and humble meal, and she had to admit that compared to other times, she appreciated the locals for storing the food in that place. She would have thanked them if they hadn't turned into parasite controlled zombies, of course.

With their new gear, stock, and a full stomach, the duo had started their walk to the mysterious manor. So far, the way had been calm: only interrupted by a couple of the unfriendly locals that they defeated without problems.

Claire noticed that the closer they got to the manor, the quieter the forest became. Somehow that made her uncomfortable. The lack of sound was antinatural, and maybe it was her paranoia, but she felt observed, and she was half expecting another sudden monster to jump over them. She could tell Leon's thoughts weren't too far from her own as the man moved stealthily and alert at all times.

Nobody would think that, some years ago, this same man was a scared rookie cop trying to survive a city filled with zombies.

The thought of how much he had grown and become better drew a smile on Claire's face.

Just what are you feeling so proud about when this is all a mess?

She often felt proud of others, even if it wasn't something she was supposed to do. She was proud of her brother. Like hell, how wouldn't she? The man had saved many lives in the last few years. She was also proud of Moira; the girl had gotten over her fear of guns and trained under her father's eye. She was also proud of Natalia. She had a normal life now, making it through all the horrors of her past. Claire was very proud of Sherry. She had heard from Chris that the girl had become an agent like Leon, and even though Claire would have wished for the girl to live a quiet life, she respected her decision. Of course, she was proud of Leon's successful career as an agent.

"There it is." Leon's voice broke into her thoughts, and Claire stopped dryly, staring at the manor ahead, "It certainly gives me bad vibes..."

An unpleasant flashback ran through her head as she remembered the Ashford's Residence, but as she watched the house more carefully, she realized that the place was different. This house looked older, and the gray walls, covered by ivy and moss. More than a manor, it looked more like a castle. A quick scan around convinced them that there was no one around the area.

"Guess our friends from Neo-Umbrella didn't wait for us..." Leon whispered.

"Well, knowing their sense of hospitality, they probably left some of their pets behind to receive us, though."

"Most likely. That sounds like something terrorists would do," Leon sighed, "We'll have to take a look and find out. I think the thing jamming the sign of my phone is in there. If we can deactivate it, I can contact Hunnigan, and maybe, we can figure out something about what they were doing in here."

"All right, let's take a look. What could go wrong, right?"

A lot of things. The annoying little voice in her head muttered.

The duo made their way to the house with extreme caution. The place seemed deserted. The only evidence of people ever being in there was the mess inside: furniture was turned over or broken, papers scattered all over the floor along with other decor accessories. Claire found bloodstains in some of the walls, and she shuddered. Maybe their "friends" hadn't left after all, but something had gotten them before they arrived.

"Now, this looks ominous. Why are there so many papers in here?"

"They seem like medical records, but the papers are too dirty to read them," she said, picking some of the scattered sheets. The pages looked blurred with humidity, and some had red stains that covered half of the text.

"Knowing these guys, there's probably an electronic record somewhere. We need to find a computer." Leon replied, looking around the rooms with his gun raised, "There are signs of struggle. I guess they didn't leave on good terms…"

That if they had made it out alive.

"There's too much blood. Do you think one of their pets went through havoc?"

"Most likely, maybe it was the one that attacked us last night."

Claire picked a folder that was over a table. The yellowish surface had dried stains of blood, but she ignored it and flipped through its contents. Her face tensed as her eyes traveled over the printed letters.

"They were making a new virus, " she said with anger, "These people don't ever learn that you shouldn't mess up with nature."

"Any idea of what sort of virus that is?"

"No...this seems more like genetic blueprints," Claire replied, "RNA virus sequences and possible recombinations with other viral agents. I'm taking these. it might be useful later. I can look into it when we get back to TerraSave.."

"Didn't know you had a liking for this sort of mad scientist stuff. Didn't picture you like a science girl..."

"You know, I did finish college before I joined TerraSave," Claire laughed.

"So I heard, but I never asked what you majored in, now that I think about it."

"Oh, so you didn't check my background?" Claire replied, surprised.

"I don't do that with friends. It's easier to ask, so what did you major in?"

"Biology and life sciences. Did a specialization in virology after joining TerraSave," she replied, checking another pile of folders, "I never thought I'd get so much into viruses. You would be amazed by how many outbreaks TerraSave attends, and for worse or better, not all of them involve zombies. Going into virology sounded reasonable, logical, and useful. "

Claire's crescent interest in viruses had to lead to her choosing a virology specialization. She had thought that it would come in handy while working in TerraSave. The organization was founded as a countermeasure to terrorist attacks. However, as time went by, TerraSave began attending other cases, including viral outbreaks in affected zones and as they worked with WHO. As an active agent at the time, Claire had participated in many operatives. That made her interested in the subject. After thirteen years of working in the organization, Claire was a pretty respectable professional. She wasn't as prodigy as Saya or Rebecca, but her observations and criticisms were valuable, and she had permission to work on her own projects.

"Never pictured you like a bookworm, but it seems I was mistaken."

"Another con on my side, I guess. Relationship wise..."

"I doubt it. Nothing wrong with a smart woman. I find it much more appealing. So, does your scientific vision give you a lead to what we have here?"

"Unfortunately, nothing clear. There's a lot of things you can do with genomes and some genetic engineering. I am not a biosynthetic engineer, but this looks like design proposals? We have someone in HQ who could see through it or maybe in B.S.A.A. I want to look at the digital records; if we are lucky, there might be something left in there. What about your signal jam?"

"I think I might have found the cause. Up there in the tower, there seems to be an antenna of some 's a good lead..."

"Guess we found our next stop. Let's go. I've got the feeling that I don't want to be around when the night falls."

"Always trust a female's sixth sense."

Claire followed Leon through the house. The absence of hostiles was welcome, but at the same time made her wonder what could have happened to them. They found more papers on their way, but nothing that could give them a clue of what had taken place in that place. After a while, they finally arrived at the tower.

The room seemed to be the security command center as there were several screens and computers. Leon got himself busy as he started to work on the antenna right away. Without much else to do, Claire decided to take a look at the server and see if she could get her hands on any interesting data while Leon tried to fix his communication line.

Well, let's see what you kept in here.

Claire began typing. She wasn't a techie like Wallace, so her skills as a hacker were terrible, but to her surprise, the security around the server was much laxer than she would have imagined. Or maybe she was too used to her overestimated security system in TerraSave.

Sadly, the computers had no access to the research datalog. However, it gave Claire information about the facility, and just as expected, there was a large underground structure underneath the mansion; the security system provided a clean 3D blueprint of the facility, showing research rooms, animal essays rooms, and laboratories. Everything pinpointed on the screen.

What the hell were they researching here?

Claire checked the security protocols, which seemed typical procedures designed for facilities handling potentially pandemic agents. She was familiar to them as a few years before she had adapted to those same protocols to propose an effective plan of contention in case of bioterrorist attacks. There was nothing that could be useful to find out what she wanted, but she did find something that caught her attention.

Damn, if only Wallace were here. He could probably hack into the central system and get me that information.

"I think I got it." Leon's voice made her look away from the screen, "I have the signal back. I'll try to contact Hunningan."

"That's great news…!"

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

"No, and yes. I managed to hack into the security system, but the servers aren't linked, so I have no access to research data from here. I did get a nice blueprint of the facility, though. Just look at this, the main research area is right underneath us, which is not surprising at all. I also checked the security protocols, and from that, I can say they were doing in vivo essays. I found something alarming and unexpected."

"How come?"

"They have a viral repository here. It is curious because, with the T-virus, C-virus, and all those new strains that Umbrella had been spreading, most bioterrorists had dropped the use of traditional pathogenic weapons."

"By traditional you mean…?"

"Regular viral agents: influenza, Nipah Virus, chickenpox, ebola… Ring a bell? They have a bacteria stock, too. Anthrax, Tuberculosis, MRSA," she said, scrolling down the screen, " Basically Level 3 and 4 pathogens. Just what the hell were they doing here?"

" If you don't know, neither do I. Can you get the information from here?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am a virologist, not a hacker. The information should have a back up in the central server, but I am not skilled enough to break through their encryption to get it. We would need a vicious hacker for that, and the only one I know is somewhere in Hughesville."

"So, in other words, if we want that data, we'll need to go down there."

"Very sharp, Kennedy."

"Well, I guess we should bring some company down there," Leon commented, pulling his mobile to his ear. "Hunnigan… I need a favor."

NOTE: if you guys want to come and chat about the fic, or just about CLEON in general. Feel free to drop by the discord and say hi! JOIN SERVER

[tonystarkbingo]

Tony Stark Bingo Prompt Meme

So, we did another Prompt Meme game, and came up with these summaries based on a three-tag prompt. This is an open prompt, if any of these summaries look like fun to you, please feel free to write them!! Tag us or the writer of the prompt when you do so we can all see how cool you are and what you’ve given us for the promot

@summerpipedream - Winteriron - All Tony wanted to do after finishing up at MIT was to pack up his desk at Stark Industries and quietly fade into obscurity. Sure money was tight, but he never expected Jan to actually sign him up for one of those social media reality shows. Now, he was stuck in a house, with no phone, no internet, or access to the outside world, trying to avoid the sexy Bucky Barnes, who's mission in life seemed to be to never wear a shirt around him.

@darthbloodorange - The world is ending, an alien race has all but taken over the world, it is an apocalypse of devastating proportions, most of the world is dead. The Avengers, those who are left, have retreated to a bunker built a fourth of the way down into the Earth’s core. Tony and Steve have been growing closer, when they are not working together to find a way to fight back against the aliens, they are fuck buddies. Tony’s a genius, he knows the odd of surviving this are not in their favour. Odds were that they were going to die… and well, Tony doesn’t want to die without letting Steve know how he feels. Before the battle Tony corners Steve in the armoury and confesses that he loves him. Steve is aromatic, has been since project rebirth.  They are both so very sorry. 

@newnewyorker93 - After a series of strange killings where the victims are found set up kneeling like they're praying, Tony Stark (a private detective) is on the case. An initial (false) suspect is the local priest, Matt Murdoch, who ends up being a helpful ally in solving the case (and possibly more)

@27dragons - Winteriron: You'd think that Tony Stark would have learned to ski when he was growing up. You'd think wrong; Howard never saw the point in it. So here he is, almost done with his PhD, and his friends have decided on a spring break trip to go skiing. He doesn't want to admit to them that he doesn't know how, so their first night at the lodge, he offers one of the ski instructors a large sum of money to sneak him up onto the slopes for a few lessons that night. Against his better judgment -- but desperately needing the cash -- Ski instructor Bucky Barnes takes Tony up on the slopes. Unfortunately, just as Tony's starting to get the hang of things, it starts snowing. Hard. Even more unfortunately, the newfallen snow disguises a patch of ice and Tony tumbles out of control. By the time Bucky catches up to him and verifies that he's not badly hurt, the snow is coming down too hard to see the lodge -- so what else are they to do but seek shelter in a caretaker's cabin conveniently (TM) nearby and wait for morning...?

@gavilansblog - Tony is kidnapped as part of an Evil Plot (TM). He's handling things just fine, tyvm, until his would-be rescuer (who he's been pining for, obviously), gets dragged in and handcuffed back to back with him. Seriously, dude? If you insist on breaking the kidnapping procedure at least actually rescue me! The taxes come in when the Evil Plot Master does his monologue and reveals that the kidnapping is part of a Villain Logic scheme to get Stark Industries to throw money behind the campaign to get a new law requiring actually taxing billionaires to fail. Evil Plot Master is, naturally, a billionaire. Tony would facepalm if he weren't handcuffed to his idiot rescuer, seriously. And then the kidnapping protocol kicks in and Jarvis shuts the whole facility down only instead of being handcuffed by himself Tony is now handcuffed to his rescuer so they have to do the whole escaping part of the plan while handcuffed together, resulting is the standard Tension (TM) moments and possibly an almost-kiss.

Fey Relay - Bruce, Tony, and Peter, resident science geeks, get de-aged and really want to play in the lab. You know, the one that has lots of things that can kill them in it? But they're still sort of mentally in there, just cranky and smol. So they get assigned their own Non-Science Adults who they hand-hold and point to do their sciency bidding. Thor, Steve, and Natasha oblige them and have great fun!

@rise-up-ting-ting-like-glitter Dragons were real. Okay they were actually just souped-up dinosaurs, but that didn’t mean Tony wasn’t being hunted—with intent—by lizards. He hadn’t wanted to come to this stupid Island in the first place. SI funding had explicitly been removed from the crackpot idea to return dinosaurs to the food chain. He could have told everyone that this was going to happen. Instead he was climbing through a jungle with a one-armed man who refused to give his name and if they didn’t get to the raptor enclave, retrieve the anti-venom, and return in time, people Tony loved were going to die.

His guide had better live up to his scruffy wild-man appearance or Tony was going to lose everything.

@somesortofitalianroast - Nurse Bucky Barnes wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. The vigilante known as Nomad had just crashed through the (luckily) open fire escape window. While he was lucky not to have any broken bones, he was unlucky enough to have a bad concussion. A really bad one. One that meant he couldn’t fall asleep. Also unfortunately, he only had the one bed and the enormous Nomad wouldn’t fit on his couch, so they’d have to share. It was only after he helped Nomad into his bed that he noticed the blood, and, unthinking, he pulled the cowl off to check for another, serious injury. And gasped. Nomad was Steve Rogers, his best friend in school, who’d died in an IED attack in Iraq 5 years earlier.

@polizwrites Natasha Romanov and Virginia Potts are the proprietors  of  Chaykus -  a Russian tea room on the seedy side of town.  Its new mission  is to be a sanctuary for women  who have been smuggled into the country for sex trafficking purposes.  As for the men who engage in such practices? Well, they are quickly discovering that their days are numbered.

@dixiehellcat - Pepper is the manager of the heavy metal band War Machine. James Rhodes, lead guitarist and founder of the band, is looking for a new lead singer. He did not expect the woo-loving Virginia to get horoscopes cast for the applicants and decide based on that. He just wants somebody who can sing, dammit. This Stark kid is uncomfortably attractive, yeah, but he's been thrown out of two bands already. what? the shower sex? it was only that one time after a show, and they were both wasted...

@dracusfyre Tony was born without a soul mark. Bucky's was lost forever when Hydra took his arm.  Without the universe to give you a hint that this person is The One, falling in love is gambling with your heart. But soulmates don't have to be born, they can be made - and Bucky and Tony decide that the same should be true of soul marks, as well

@ceealaina Tony was like nerd prime growing up. Normally he doesn’t let it bother him too much — he’s got inventions to invent, after all. But all of a sudden he realizes that he’s almost 20, he’s got two degrees under his belt, and has no idea how to do much more than kiss. He’s not entirely sure how he manages to convince Rhodey to sleep with him to “get it out of the way,” or how he manages to convince him to keep sleeping with him to “help improve my technique,” but it’s the best sex of his life (not that he has much to compare it to) and he never wants it to end. But it’s the night when they’re watching movies, and Tony’s ends up dozing against Rhodey’s shoulder only to wake up to a feather light kiss against his forehead that he realizes he might be in trouble. 

@thudworm - King Anthony considers it part of his royal duties to protect his people by going out and taking care of any monsters harassing them. Of course, no one can know that the knight Iron Man is really the king, which leads to some fun assumptions about Iron Man’s identity.

@jacarandabanyan Tony’s mom forbid him to purposefully drive out his roommates so that he can have a room all to himself where he can tinker until morning light. She had to hear about it from friends, acquaintances, and other well-known socialites often enough when Tony went to boarding school and ran his roommates off there. Now that he’s in college, that behavior must stop. Luckily for Tony, he doesn’t even have to try to get the first two roommates at MIT to request a room switch. But then he meets his third roommate- a tall, handsome, funny man named James Rhodes. At first it was just natural joy at having a fellow competent engineer to hang out with, and perhaps the occasional dirty thought. But his crush on the man quickly grows. Before he knows it, Tony’s pining hard for his best friend. Every once in a while he thinks Rhodey might be interested too- but then he hears Rhodey lecturing a computer science senior for plying Tony with :beer: alcohol at a party because “come on, man, kid’s only 16. Have a little class and try chasing skirts a little closer to your age.” After that, he’s convinced Rhodey will only ever see him as a friend and a kid.

psychiccatpanda - Tony works hard and puts in long hours.  So what if some of his long nights turn into very early mornings at CHew 2 OH.  The only drawback is his business partner and head baker, Steve, with his disappointed looks and his continual arguing.  When Steve's friend Bucky starts hanging around the shop, though, Tony notices.  Oh lord, he notices. A month or so later, one night when he and Steve are working after hours at Steve's place to plan their seasonal menu, Steve tells him that he's noticed him checking out Bucky.  Tony hits him with a decorative pillow and things kind of get out of hand.  Surveying the damage (let's face it - Steve's coffee table was never going to be quite right again), Steve turns to him, "I was just going to suggest you get some practice kissing before asking him out."  Oh.  Oh...

@tisfan So... the problem with being a necromancer is being able to practice one's skill. The local cemeteries won't even let you look at a dead body if you're not a relative. Tony Stark, budding necromancer, forges a marriage certificate for the John Doe so that he can practice his craft. Only to find that it works perfectly. Bucky is No Longer Dead, and 100% interested in staying married...

@abrighterdarkness He didn’t mean to snoop.  He knew that wasn’t what he was being paid for here--the loud laughter of the party echoing from down the hall where he was actually supposed to be, was clear enough reminder of that fact. All Tony wanted was two short minutes to breathe without being pawed at--yes, yes, that might be his job but breathing room was much appreciated just the same--and now he was stuck in this closet sized bathroom with what sounded like a mob-hit being discuss right outside the door.  He knew he should’ve turned this job down.

magica - Howard Stark had an idea. Some people - alright, most people, stop hitting me, Maria! - would say it was a terrible idea. But it was only a little injection of stuff based on that strange glowing blue cube they'd found in the Arctic. And Tony was absolutely willing, let's get that straight, Maria! How was Howard supposed to know that it'd enable Tony to open up his own portals? And if some mystical green energy happened to swamp Tony just as he was opening a portal to Egypt? Well, that wasn't his fault. The dark-haired, well-built Priest of Anubis that Tony manages to bring back with him? That is not his fault either, damn it, Maria!

@festiveferret - Tony could say with absolute confidence - at least, if he could say anything at all in his current predicament - that this was not the way his PR rep, Pepper, would have wanted him to come out. There were, he figured, several hundred ways that the day could have gone better, but if asked to rank the top three, he'd put them thusly: 

1) That he decided to come out by having a wild, unabashed make out session with none other than Captain America, in the middle of a busy New York street.

2) That it was, in fact, the morning after their first "date" - a term he was applying loosely here - and not a tasteful reveal of a long-standing, safe, secure, adult relationship.

And 3) That at some point between the first floor lobby of his apartment building and the front door off his penthouse suite he'd suddenly, unexpectedly, and so-far permanently been turned into a ferret and no one knew.

It would also probably concern her to discover that of all these rather bewildering turns in his life, the one at the forefront of his mind was that ferrets couldn't send morning-after texts, and he didn't want Steve to think their little dalliance had been nothing more than an - albeit unfortunately public - one night stand.

Of one thing he was sure, however: Pepper was going to need a raise.

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 194

Questions Concerning Robots That "Care": Part 2

... and these robots that "care" invite some questions

Considered only as machines meant to assist overburdened nurses with their care of older people, the types of humanoid robots just described might initially be categorized simply as useful new tools. We have reasons to wonder, though, how long those who will be interacting regularly with these life-like robots can be expected to perceive them merely as tools. So-called "animaloid" robots, such as the robotic dog AIBO that was marketed in recent years by the Sony Corporation, admittedly represent a somewhat different class of robotic artifact than the more complex contemporary humanoids such as ASIMO. Nevertheless, empirical studies of human-robot interaction even with AIBO have uncovered some relevant thought-provoking surprises. Not long ago, for example, numerous online postings by owners of AIBO began appearing on Internet forums. One study of these postings noted the following confession by an AIBO owner:

The other day I proved to myself that I do indeed treat him as if he were alive, because I was getting changed to go out, and [AIBO] was in the room, but before I got changed I stuck him in a corner so he didn't see me! (Friedman, Kahn, and Hagman 2003, 278)

Regardless of whether this posted confession was altogether truthful, its expressed thought of needing modesty in this case clearly alerts us to the potential psychological potency of human interaction with such machines. Abrahamic religions, through their shared accounts of the Garden of Eden, have long recognized appropriateness of modesty between even the primordial man and woman – but application of that sentiment to our dealings with a battery-operated dog suggests how plastic human notions of personhood might be!

For that matter, professional testimony of such plasticity for the specific case of humanoid robots is available in a frequently-quoted set of observations by Professor Sherry Turkle, Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of her MIT colleagues, widely-recognized roboticist Rodney Brooks, is among the many people who have cited Turkle's report of her first encounter with his experimental humanoid robot, Cog; note carefully Sherry's candid description of the experience:

Cog "noticed" me soon after I entered its room. Its head turned to follow me and I was embarrassed to note that this made me happy. I found myself competing with another visitor for its attention. At one point, I felt sure that Cog's eyes had "caught" my own. My visit left me shaken – not by anything that Cog was able to accomplish but by my own reaction to "him." For years whenever I had heard Rodney Brooks speak about his robotic "creatures," I had always been careful to mentally put quotation marks around the word. But now, with Cog, I had found the quotation marks had disappeared. Despite myself and despite my continuing skepticism about this research project, I had behaved as though in the presence of another being. (Brooks 2003, 149)

Professor Turkle's testimony is consistent with an entire literature of contemporary research in human-robot interaction that suggests a deep human predisposition progressively to accept as peers various machines that convincingly mimic human appearance and autonomous behavior. Her reference to discovering herself behaving as though she were "in the presence of another being" points, in turn, toward some questions that invite our reflection.

First, one might inquire whether (and why) it could matter that humans seem so inclined to regard convincingly humanoid machines as peers. For some people, it apparently does not matter. From his perspective as a practicing Zen Buddhist, for example, robotics engineer Masahiro Mori has argued against insisting upon any profound distinction between persons and robots, noting that there "must also be buddha-nature in the machines and robots that my colleagues and I make" (Mori 1999, 174). In contrast, though, a pilot study has suggested that Abrahamic theistic belief in creation of individual human souls by a personal deity may be related to disapproval of human-robot interaction "with life-like personal robots that requires human acceptance of the robots at intimate levels" (Metzler and Lewis 2008, 22). This finding resonates with a respected voice in modern Christian theology. Paul Tillich, in Volume Three of his monumental Systematic Theology, addresses "objects that are produced by the technical act," warning that "by virtue of producing and directing mere things" one can lose one's "character as an independent self" and "become a thing" (74). Again, Jewish theologian and philosopher Martin Buber, widely remembered for his distinction between "I – Thou" and "I – It" relations, issues a similar warning in I and Thou:

And in all the seriousness of truth, hear this: without It man cannot live.

But he who lives with It alone is not a man. (34)

Apparently, we have reasons to expect that individuals belonging to Abrahamic religious traditions may especially feel troubled when they find themselves treating humanoid machines as though they were peers.

Within the Abrahamic religious family, after all, human beings historically have been regarded as spiritually special, and understood as belonging to a category fundamentally different from any technological artifacts that they might construct for amusement, or as tools. Anglican priest (and physicist) John Polkinghorne has emphasized significance of "the mystery of the human person," which involves "our embodied nature, embedded in the physical world but transcending a merely reductive physicality" (Polkinghorne 1998, 80). Both the mystery and the transcendence that Polkinghorne mentions are punctuated clearly, as well, in the Holy Qur'an: And they will ask thee of the Spirit. SAY: The Spirit proceedeth at my Lord's command: but of knowledge, only a little to you is given (The Night Journey – Sura 17:85). The theistic perspective of this family of religions tends to link the human person, as a free moral agent, with a spiritual level of reality that is not completely expressible in terms of everyday (macro-level) entities such as rocks and trees – and machines.

It may be pertinent at this point to inquire whether the spiritual level of reality envisioned by these religious faiths might arguably be represented even in current science. To be sure, the robotic and AI technologies upon which we have focused in this essay are discussed almost entirely nowadays with so-called "macro-level" accounts of discrete, individualized entities. Computer scientists typically view all "information processing" executed by contemporary computers as reducible to operations of the celebrated Turing Machine formalism, which imagines an abstract machine successively "reading" well-defined symbols (0 or 1) on an external tape, comparing them with its current internal "state," and then implementing clearly prescribed (albeit possibly null) changes on the tape and its own internal state. Physicists working with quantum mechanics, however, have discovered a quite different level of reality that requires a so-called "quantum-level" description. The description is expressed mathematically in terms of complex numbers (incorporating an imaginary unit equal to the square root of negative one) and it explores a reality in which individualized entities of the macro-level (this table, that book, etc.) simply are no longer present. An atom may be understood to contain four electrons, but – in principle – one cannot select and track, say, the changing locations over time of a specific individual electron among the four. Pondering this strange new reality, mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has argued (via his Shadows of the Mind) that human consciousness cannot be modeled in terms of the Turing Machine formalism, requiring, instead, the resources of an advanced quantum physics. If the emerging technology of "quantum computers" eventually could yield a machine consistent with Roger Penrose's understanding of how the human brain operates when we experience consciousness, future robots incorporating such computers might open possibilities for exciting new dialogue between religion and science.

Under present circumstances, though, we can discern the outlines of potential difficulties in the not-so-distant future. Specifically, elderly members of the Abrahamic faiths may find themselves increasingly conflicted in responding to robotic "caregivers." On one hand, following natural predispositions, they will be inclined to accept the machines as caregivers (dropping the skeptical quotation marks, as Professor Turkle did during her encounter with Cog). At the same time, they may retain their religious worldviews and resist accepting the machines as persons. Will they feel authentically comforted, then, by machines programmed to display "artificial empathy"? Will they discover resolution of their conflict in the following conjecture by noted roboticist Hans Moravec?

So, it may be appropriate to say "God" has granted a soul to a machine when the machine is accepted as a real person by a wide human community. (Moravec 1999, 77)

Indeed, in perhaps the next ten years or so, how will people be using quotation marks to distinguish what they consider authentic from mere "make-believe"? Will they be describing new robot nurses as persons – or as "persons"? Will they decide that the machines care for people – or "care" for people? Will the artifacts be considered capable of moral behavior – or "moral" behavior? Will some older people still understand the granting of souls to be determined by God – or by "God"?

For some of us, these already are important questions.

[nleeowens]

How Fleabag Made Me Hopeful for the Future

Wrote this essay soon after binging Fleabag on Amazon Prime when the second season came out. It is such an amazing show, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge deserves all of the awards because she is brilliant.

I did everything that was expected from me. In high school, I was constantly on the A-B honor roll (even on the A honor roll a handful of times), studied hard for my AP and IB classes and graduated with an IB diploma and college credits. Straight from high school I went to college where I decided to major in computer engineering despite the fact that my previous experience with tech was limited to troubleshooting my video game console and making websites using wordpress with my friends. (Maybe it was to spite my teacher who said I would end up being an English major. Though she wasn’t entirely offbase.)

I would admit, I fell off the wagon at first. Had to retake a couple classes because I got a C. (Oh, the horror!) There was even a semester I considered to drop out of computer engineering and major in creative writing with a focus on screenwriting. But the fear of becoming a starving artist, disappointing my parents, and being passive-aggresively belittled by friends and extended family put me back on track. I reentered the College of Engineering as a computer science student.

This brief lapse of judgment put me back a semester, but I was still able to graduate in December four years later. And, without giving myself any break, I moved out of the university apartment I shared with three other people, rented a one bedroom apartment with a rent that’s way too high, and started my first full-time job.

I should be happy. I should feel fulfilled. I should be eager to spend the rest of my years working my nine to five job. Everyone has patted me on the back, told me I’m making good choices. So why do I still dread the future? I’ve only turned twenty-four almost half a year ago and I already feel as if I have somehow royally fucked up my life.

Somewhere along the way, I must have made an irreversible error. An error that will lead me to live the rest of my life in misery. Constantly promising myself I’d make some dramatic change, but never seeing it through. Until one day I slip in the shower and crack my head. (A reminder to myself to invest in bathtub mat.) It would be days until anybody finds my nude corpse because I am a terrible daughter, sister, and friend and I am known to go long periods of time not responding to anyone.

The other me that is not prone to dramatics recognizes that I have time to truly grow into myself. To fall in love, to travel, to find my passion. Because despite what teen dramas try to sell you, life does not peak in high school or even college. But, in times where depression and anxiety hits its hardest, it’s easy to ignore my rational self and believe in a future where my neighbors are going to have to call the police concerning a suspicious smell coming from my apartment.

So watching Fleabag felt like the reminder that my dramatic self needed. While I’m more similar to the titular character's older sister, Claire, (we are both a bit neurotic, and worry about our little sisters) I found myself relating to Fleabag more than I first thought I would. While I am far from being as quick-witted and weirdly charming as Fleabag, I can recognize the emotional struggles that she goes through as my own. We both feel cast aside by our emotionally neglectful fathers, and constantly grapple with feelings of inadequacy when compared to others. And like Fleabag, I lost my best friend who meant everything to me. Though a year has passed, a part of me is still in mourning and probably always will be. While Fleabag ignores her problems by sleeping around, I ignore my problems by just sleeping.

Though to be blunt, Fleabag is a walking talking disaster for most of the first season, and though we share some emotional baggage I have never cheated on anyone or stolen from my dad’s girlfriend (though I admit I have considered it). I even find some smug solace in knowing that I’m not that much of a hot mess.

By the end of the first season, Fleabag had reached her lowest point yet. She had been humiliated by her dad’s girlfriend, awkwardly ran into her ex, and ostracized by her family. She was alone, and had no one to talk to, almost walked into a busy street similar to how her friend died. It isn’t until a bank manager that she accidentally flashed at the start of the season comes by that she addresses her feelings of despair. And it’s the bank manager, someone who had no real relation to her, who tells her the simple indistuable fact that “people make mistakes”, and he gave her the opprutinity to get better.

Suprisingly enough, Fleabag takes that opprutinity. And even more suprising she does get better. She takes steps to take better care for herself, emotionally and physically, and is able to save her dying cafe. While she is not perfect in the second season (but who can be?) and is still trying to figure some things out, she astonishes her sister and the audience by being okay. Even when she gets rejected by her love interest, she is still okay.

Fleabag was in her early thirties when she hit rock bottom, the age where I assumed all adults have truly figured out how to be an emotionally balanced and fulfilled adult. As my own thirties inch closer and closer, I feared that I was going to miss the deadline. So watching Fleabag take the initiative to be better, even experiencing true love for the first time (as well as the heartbreak that comes with it), reminded me that I still have time to do the same. I have time to heal. I have time to grow. I have time to love and be loved.

[littlepanduh-writes-365]

Day 46

Title: “Sand”

Description: So as you may or may not know, I got laid off due to COVID. I used to be a coastal/geotechnical engineer. One day, I sat by the beach and just thought about life. I was reading milf smackdown and there was a scene where Haseul and Vivi were sitting by the ocean and thinking about life. I used to do that with my friends in college so it really just brought back a lot of memories. Anyways, I was thinking about this phrase I always read how “life falls apart as quickly as you pick it up, similar to the sands at the beach” or something like that. I wanted to empathize with that, but I actually wasn’t experiencing it and it made me think. This is just a bunch of my thoughts and it kinda pertains to engineering. It’s okay if you don’t fully understand it or disagree with it. tbh, don’t bother reading it unless you have nothing to do and have time for a diary entry about life. 

Features: Jinsoul (Loona)

Word Count: 1,598

Tags: Angst

Jinsoul sits at the beach, contemplating her life. 

It’s been three months since she’s been laid off and she’s trying to find a sense of direction. Suddenly, the world is full of options and she doesn’t know which ones she wants to take and how to even go about those options. 

It drives her nearly insane, which is why she sits by the water. It’s an open and endless void where she can spill her thoughts, even the crazier ones. It’s the deep blue that engulfs her with loneliness. It’s her safe haven.

The sounds of the waves crashing and the seagulls crying keep her grounded, yet her mind is still scrambled with all the problems in her life. 

She has an endless list and she doesn’t know what to tackle first. It’s impossible to organize her thoughts.

Happiness. Work. Housing. Family. Friends. Hobbies. 

Work. That’s what Jinsoul decides to focus on today. It’s the heaviest topic and the one that’s been affecting her the most. If she can figure out what to do about her career, she’ll be able to fix the other problems. 

Again, she starts listing what her frustrations are. Why can’t I get a job? Where did my motivation go? What was the point of this degree? Did I choose the wrong path?

Her mind drags to darker thoughts. If she was sitting at home, she’d probably backpedal everything and start at square one.

You’ve already earned your degree. You can’t turn back time. 

She’s beyond annoyed. She had always thought that after she got her degree, her life would come together. It was the exact opposite. 

This is where she gets stuck.

The wind blows at her hair and the sun makes it slightly unbearable to see, but Jinsoul refuses to leave, not without an answer.

Like the openness of the ocean, she decides to let her messy frustrations out. 

Okay. What do you regret about your degree? Let’s just let it out.

I regret not taking my time with my classes. I regret having horrible time management. I regret taking specialized classes because I can’t use them anywhere. 

Jinsoul comes into terms that she can’t do anything about her regrets and decides to throw them away into the unknown of the ocean. 

Do you… really want to change career paths?

It was a thought she was scared of. The idea of starting over wasn’t new, but was terrifying. 

Ever since she was a little kid, Jinsoul had dreamed of being an engineer. She enjoyed building Gundam models and excelled in her math and science classes, so counselors encouraged her to take this course. Of course, in university, she explored other options, but didn’t dare to dig deeper.

Maybe she should have.

Jinsoul hugs her knees as she thinks about those what ifs. 

What if she pursued music? She loved choir so much. She loved her composition classes. Jinsoul never chased that dream because she knew it was going to come with a lot of emotional baggage, competition, and potential failure.

She bitterly laughs thinking that she was going through all of that right now. 

Jinsoul sulks over the “dream”, but not for long. 

The young adult remembers where she came from. 

She studied at a prestigious polytechnic school for four years. She had won many design awards and scholarships. There were many times that she wanted to give up, but she never did. This all had to count for something. 

What was that something? 

JInsoul remembers late nights at the labs. She would yell at her computer when errors popped out on her screen or when her modeling program crashes. Her colleagues would share coffee and tears together. 

She remembers the catharsis after she finished a proof, the relief of submitting a final design at 11:58PM, the drinks she had with her group mates after finals’ season. 

It was painful. It was pleasure.

“Have you been eating well?” Her mom would say during a phone call.

“Yes,” Jinsoul lied.  

It was her motivation: to stop lying about her wellbeing, to grow up. 

It was 12-year-old Jung Jinsol building a little Gundam and then 22-year-old Jung Jinsol drafting the blueprints of a biomechanical arm. 

Those four years in university meant a lot to Jinsoul. It was tiring and rewarding. Why did working for six months and getting laid off for three put that to waste. 

Everyone says that working is different from school. Was it going to be this different?

Let’s take another step. What was wrong at work?

This list was much more constructed, but also longer. 

First of all, her boss was aloof all the time. Sure, she could have been more independent, but her boss didn’t check on her work, even in the beginning. She had a hard time adjusting to her coworkers since they never really did any sort of team bonding and just kept to themselves.  

Jinsoul. It’s not your fault. No one knew COVID was going to happen. 

You can’t control the economy crashing. You can’t control the fact that you’re the newest hire and you were first in the chopping block. 

Yes, it sucks. It sucks you moved away from home to pursue your job. It sucks that your peers still have their jobs. It sucks that all the hobbies you started had no chance of developing. It sucks that you’re going to have to move back with your suffocating parents and starting from square one again. 

It’s still not your fault. You knew there were going to be risks in joining a small company. That doesn’t replace the fact that something as crazy as COVID-19 was going to turn your world upside down.

Why did it happen to me though?

Jinsoul grips at the sand at her feet. 

She’s reminded of people comparing their downfalls to the sands at the beach. How their life is like the sand falls in your fingertips despite grabbing onto it so tightly. How it falls apart as quickly as you pick it up. 

That… wasn’t the case for Jinsoul.

Sure, the finer pieces of sand fell, but there were tiny clumps that stuck to her hand and had to break apart on her own.

Jinsoul stared at the clumps in her hand. She ponders as to why she wasn’t experiencing the universal metaphor that many people used.

Is it because she’s closer to the water? Is it because it’s not too hot outside?

She remembers the foundations classes she had to take. She remembers how permeable sand is and wonders how much water she needs to achieve a relative capacity in order for it to be used as a solid foundation.

Then it hits her. 

Maybe that’s where she is in life. 

She hasn’t strayed too far away from the ocean. There was enough saltwater and maybe even some algae that could bind the pieces of sand so it wouldn’t fall apart immediately. 

Even though she’s a few feet from the tip of the waves, she must’ve been sitting where high tide may have been a few hours ago. She’s so close to the water, and who knows, maybe the tide will come back again soon. 

She can’t be too close, or her foundation will be unstable, similar to her drowning in work. She just needs a little more moisture. She needs more compaction—motivation to get her back on her feet. 

Jinsoul still had a chance. She just needed to take it. 

She closes her eyes again, listening to the calmness of the waves. 

She wants this, but how does she go back to it again? Where does she find her motivation?

It’s a new realm, but she’s creating another list. Maybe she can ask her friends about their research. She’ll try applying for a new job. She’ll reread her textbooks and solidify her knowledge. 

Her train of thought is interrupted by a vibration in her pocket. She pulls out her phone to see a text message from her best friend. 

“Are you still at the beach? Do you want me to pick you up?”

Jinsoul smiles, thankful that in these hard times, she still had friends she could rely on. Before replying, she checks the time, only to realize that she’s been pondering at the beach for nearly an hour and a half. 

She stands up and collects her flip flops. Deciding that was enough thinking for the day, she makes her way back and asks her friend to pick her up. 

Maybe Jinsoul didn’t get all the answers she wanted, but she found some clarity and that was better than nothing. 

Life is like the sand at her feet. It may fall quickly in between her fingertips, but when compacted together, it could hold her entire weight and much more. 

She was feeling hopeful. 

People make castles out of sand. You just needed water, maybe some molds, and a little creativity and motivation.

Maybe when Jinsoul comes back, she’ll be able to build her sandcastle. Sure, there are many things that could break down a sandcastle, like the wind, the waves, or an unaware passerby, but maybe at least she knows she could always build it again. It’ll be frustrating, but all she needs to do is clear her mind of negative emotions and fill them with innovation again. 

Who knows? Maybe she’ll add a mote or just build a completely different sculpture. She’ll use different materials (sand isn’t really the best thing to work with anyways) and maybe she’ll build it with someone else. 

It wasn’t the end for Jinsoul. 

Part of her thinks she’s such a nerd for comparing her life to the structural stability of sand at the beach, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed. The connection was comforting. She hadn’t lost herself under the tide just yet.

--

Socials: Twitter | Curious Cat

[lawyergear10-blog]

Free Online Program.

Is Devops Challenging? Please Note

#toc background: #f9f9f9;border: 1px solid #aaa;display: table;margin-bottom: 1em;padding: 1em;width: 350px; .toctitle font-weight: 700;text-align: center;

Content

ÄHnliche JobsuchezurüCkweiter.

Easy Ways To Be A Reliable Software Program Tester.

An Aim To The Future Of Software Application Testing.

User Interface Designer.

Leading 10 Software Application Testing Courses.

ÄHnliche JobsuchezurüCkweiter.

Which type of software testing is in demand?

Yes, of course, you can learn Selenium without knowing Java. Selenium IDE is a GUI based tool but it works only in Mozilla Firefox. However, if you want to create test cases using Selenium WebDriver, you should know one programming language out of - Java, C#, Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP.

A subreddit for those with concerns about operating in the tech market or in a computer-science-related job. I feel that in Workflow as well as QA you can easily 'burn-out' because of the lengthy hrs and repetitive job. For me development tends to be one of the most 'fun' and also therefore lowers the stress degrees. I don't recognize how difficult QA job is as I've never done it.

Easy Ways To Be An Efficient Software Tester.

Is DevOps easy to learn?

Java language and programming for Selenium Java is a vast language. However, You don't need to learn full features of Java as that's not required for selenium automation testing. You only need to learn a selected portion of Java language. That's a good news.

Experience shows that the optimum length of a test instance is between 3-8 steps. Then you will do every person on your team a huge favor, if you write clean and also thorough insect records. It's great technique to keep every one of your important communication in one place. You will require to take another look at information traded in between you and participants of your group. You will certainly do your future self a support by making it available.

How long does it take to learn software testing?

Many employers look for software tester candidates with a bachelor's degree in computer science, math or engineering, although it's not always required. If you've got a lot of experience, a stable work history and solid references or letters of recommendation, it's possible to land a job without a college degree.

and also new ones are still being produced, one should note that roughly 90% of the concepts one learns in a specific language are likewise suitable to totally different languages. When opleiding java testers knows with the core essentials, establishing comparable skills with another language just boils down to understanding the syntactical nuances. creating or coding automation script, I am expanding a lot more burnt out. # 13) Find out more books, short articles, attend testing meetup and also seminars.

Constantly think of what you can do today to relocate closer to that goal and also act appropriately. Testers are extremely passionate at the start of their professions. But when the discovering curve is filled they start feeling bored. They promptly obtain tired of writing the exact same Pest reports and performing the same test situations repeatedly.

An Aim To The Future Of Software Program Testing.

When you develop an arranged framework to store all of your important information you have the ability to collect the appropriate information and form your testing approach for that task. If you do not have a method to keep this details, after that you will certainly miss vital details.

So, quick responses, supported by smart test automation systems, is going to be essential.

A lot more software is being developed, with a lower obstacle to entry, and faster time to market.

At the very same time, testing will certainly continue to become native to the island across other components of the software program lifecycle process, with fast-evolving devices bringing tests within the reach of a lot more staff member.

While they are frequently still the unsung heroes, the work that QA professionals do is significantly acknowledged for its contributions to DevOps.

You will certainly get advice on real-world software program testing, QA, monitoring, test automation, and also advancement proficiency in a wide variety of software growth firms varying from little to large scale.

You and also the developer need to be honored and also satisfied that what has simply been launched is pest totally free (" ish"), not just you. Eventually, as others have claimed, it's a different sort of anxiety. As QA, I was continuously worried that I missed bugs I should have caught. As a programmer, my anxiety comes from feeling like I should understand how to do something already as well as I don't. That stated, it is completely possible that my anxiety degrees in a dev function are not as high because I. still do not make a great deal of huge decisions.

How can I be good tester?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Advances in software and AI world have paved the way for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). It is the most recent technology which has the capability to re-invent the business process management landscape. To know more about RPA's role in the software testing industry.

It is important in this regard to look for some advice and real-world assistance from gamers who have some experience in the field, as well as whose insights can aid you when making that critical pre-development decision. to script code, over time, differences will certainly emerge in between the languages. Consequently, activities that operate well in a specific language could be counter and repetitive user-friendly in a various one.

Interface Designer.

Growth can be rather difficult during crunch time when you're required to make style concessions as well as provided no time to clean up your work. But it can be a lot of enjoyable, also, which is in fact more frequently the situation for me. It's a GREAT DEAL easier to handle the job anxiety when you recognize the work and also your coworkers. Much easier to reduce, yes, equally as simple to outsource as development is however. QA is only demanding in that you have much less job safety and security than a dev.

I will collaborate with various other devs on my group if I'm unsure concerning a specific means of doing something, or the pros and cons of 2 things that, to me, appear similarly good/bad. I angle speak for QA given that my experience is in dev however from my interactions with them, it definitely does not appear like a cinch. As soon as you begin surrounding deadlines, everybody in the process feels the warm. I've done both, and also I've been burnt out by numerous aspects of each of them.

When your goals as a tester straighten with the goals of the app, you will certainly have the ability to provide significant outcomes. A tester's mindset can indicate the distinction in between discovering the most important insect in the app and finding absolutely nothing. You simply need to choose which response makes the a lot of sense once you comprehend what the inquiry is. You are provided an application, and also you should decide what must be evaluated, what the result should be, and apply a testing technique. You raise the possibility of somebody on your team falling short to carry out a job when you include more actions to an examination situation.

Discuss what they are doing, what they have actually developed, what situations they have taken into consideration, is there anything you can contribute to help them recognize the product much better. # 7) Collaborate with the QA groups from various other projects also.

Leading 10 Software Application Testing Courses.

Consistency provided by the WebDriver API across languages, simplifies the procedure of porting examination expertise of one language to one more. Examination engineers come to be better assets to their organizations as they can be transferred to any kind of internet project, created in any programs language, and also still have the ability to produce tests for it instantaneously.

[miserylovescompanyfanfic]

MLC Ch: 2

A standard day for Emilia Wine involved with getting up at 7:30 am during the weekdays, throwing on her leggings and slipping a bra on under her t-shirt, yawning as she made a smoothie and squinted against the bright light and white kitchen décor. It usually involved a thought along the lines of “I really need to redecorate,” sipping a bit of the smoothie as she stretched listening to the news, before slipping on her tennis shoes and grabbing her phone with some earbuds, finally jogging out the door. 

Emilia’s first thing in the morning jog was usually the worst part of her day, mainly just because of how early she forced herself to get up. Though it was only an hour and she ran a few miles all together from her apartment down the few blocks to the main park in the center of the city, around that track a few times, then down to the coffee shop that she worked at in the afternoons, and back home-- it was still about 9 miles a day give or take. 

It wasn’t a fun experience, especially since she never really enjoyed running in the first place-- though all the years she spent chasing after Sonic toned her for the endeavor, also it was a decent way to stay in shape and up her endurance. 

Though, she was doing a bit more these days to stay in shape as well, running was just the easiest to accomplish with her busy schedule. 

Today was only slightly different though compared to the rest of her days. The coffee shop was a little busier than normal, but that wasn’t too much of a unique thing. No, it was as Amy was leaving, waving her goodbyes to the sweet Badger girl named Sticks who always worked the early morning shift that while she was pushing the door open she accidentally ran into another body. 

See, even though Emilia didn’t look like she had a lot of muscle-- she was still very strong. She ran nearly full force into the other person, heard a grunt and slam from their side of the glass door. 

They were a hedgehog like herself, but he had unique coloring (like she did too but that isn’t important); he held his head where she assumed she smacked him in the face with it, and also noticed the coffee cup in his hand. 

Her eyes widened as an apology was on her lips, but the sharp look he gave her had her pause. His eyes were a sharp, vivid red, brighter than anything she had ever seen… set against his coal black fur they glowed like embers. 

His mouth opened to say or yell or shout or curse or something but she beat him to it. “I’ll pay for your dry cleaning!” 

She closed the door behind her as they moved farther from the entrance, he huffed and looked at the blue button down shirt he had. Emilia looked him over, noticing a little swelling developing on his temple but nothing else. 

“Here, look at me.” She held her finger up at him and slowly moved it in front of his face. His eyebrows pinched as he looked at her finger than at her. 

“What the hell are you doing?” He demanded, his voice deep with a slight baritone to it. Emilia placed a hand on her hip and blew her bangs out of her face. 

“Checking to make sure you don’t have a concussion. Now, watch my finger.” He was taken aback, eyes widened as he started following her finger. “I’ve got painkillers with me if you need them.” He shook his head after a moment and looked down at his phone. 

“Gah, I don’t have time for this. Don’t bother.” He threw away the rest of his coffee in the garbage outside the café, casting one last glance at her. “Don’t worry about the shirt.” 

He moved past her, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he was striding down the sidewalk. 

“I’m sorry!” She called to him, his ear twitched so she knew he heard her. Emilia placed her hands on her hips for a moment before putting her earbuds back in, checking the time along with picking a new song, and getting back to the day ahead of her. 

It was a big city after all, what are the chances she would run into him again, anyways? 

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

She made it back to her apartment at nearly 9:00, which is a little too late for her comfort but there wasn’t much she could do about the situation. Instead she hoped in the shower for a quick wash, downed the rest of her smoothie from earlier with some toast to accommodate it, and then went to revising one of her papers that was due at 2:59 pm at the end of class that day. 

Emilia Wine was a senior in college in her last year of a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; the subject of which she found utterly fascinating and had tried to decide whether or not she was going to follow her studies further.

Though, at the moment, she was happy. 

Yes, when she was still known as Amy Rose she threw herself into her studies immediately, immensely, and got one of the highest grades-- much to Tails delight (seeing as he already finished all of his schooling by the time he was 12, but… whatever.) Getting to be Emilia Wine wasn’t just an overnight decision, though. It took months of planning, and a lot of strings to be pulled by government officials, even the Royal Family themselves had to be involved in the process to allow Amy to change her name and move away. 

But it was done, in the city of Empire Amy Rose was officially, and legally, Emilia Wine. 

Who was a top student at ECU in her program, which she was very proud to report back to her friends at home. 

Though, there were plenty of friends she made here, like…

“Emiliaaaaaa,” there was a singing voice as it bounded down the tiled hallways. Little heels clipping along the hallway as Emilia turned around to watch with a small smile as her best friend came up to her. 

“Hey Cream,” Cream the Rabbit wasn’t quite as tall as Emilia was now, though they were about the same age (Emilia was just only slightly older) even with her heels on. Cream and her had been friends since the beginning of school when they were put together as roommates in their first year together. 

“You Bitch!” She yelled at Emilia after catching her breath for a moment. Her orange sweater was bunched around her waist where a pastel blue skirt was ruffled from her “run”. “You said you were going to wait!” Cream mock hit Emilia, pouting the entire time. 

Emilia laughed, grabbing Cream’s hand as she pulled the other girl outside. “Cream you’re gonna get us kicked out if you keep yelling Bitch at me.” 

“Well then stop being one!” 

Emilia tapped her cheek for a moment, giving a sly smile to Cream as she patted the other girls head. “Then I wouldn’t be me, would I?”

“That’s the point.” Cream pouted, crossing her arms as the two walked towards the library. 

“But then you wouldn’t love me.” Emilia batted her eyelashes at Cream, who scoffed and rolled her honey yellow eyes. 

“Sounds like your loss.” Cream put her nose in the air, stuffing her hands in her sweatshirt pockets. 

Emilia lurked behind Cream at that point, giving a sickly sweet smile from over the girls shoulder. 

“But what if… I make you cookies?” 

“Mmmm…” Cream looked at Emilia for a moment, before shaking her head. “Sorry, you gotta try a bit harder.” 

“I’m not a “try hard” like you are,” Emilia flipped her quills over her shoulder, now significantly longer and pulled into a high ponytail to keep them manageable. 

Cream gasped at her, throwing her book bag at Emilia. 

“Emi!” Emilia laughed as she ran, Cream grabbing her bag from the ground and running after the peach hedgehog. “You whore!” 

“Stop talking about yourself like that.” Emilia called over her shoulder, ducking from the bag Cream threw at her again. 

Emilia finally made it into the library, flashing a guilty smile to the librarian at the front desk as she skipped the elevator and ran up the spiral staircase, going rather quickly as she made it to the third floor by the time that Cream got to the entryway. 

Emilia could tell because of the clicking of Cream’s heels on the flooring. 

Emilia stifled a laugh, holding her hand over her mouth as she moved deeper into the bookshelves towards a slightly darker part of the library. She turned around, walking backwards among the shelves as she watched with excitement for Cream. 

Hands suddenly touched her arms, and made Emilia squeal. She turned around quickly, ready to see Cream there but-- there was empty air. 

Emilia could still feel the hands on her arms though, and the grip slowly loosened. There was stillness for a moment before the world in front of her moved. Purple manifested where there was open air just a moment before. 

“Sorry,” a voice said, a calming rumble like thunder. “You were backing up so quickly and then I realized that you probably didn’t see me.” A chameleon stood in front of her rather suddenly, and Emilia blinked in surprise. 

“Oh, I should’ve been paying more attention. I’m sorry for almost running you over.” Emilia shifted her bag over her shoulder to sit more comfortably. 

“Why were you running anyways?” he asked her, and she felt rather embarrassed to say she was playing an impromptu game with her friend.

“I, umm…” she rubbed her arm then. “Well, it’s going to sound kind of silly, but I’m hiding from my friend.” 

The chameleon smiled then, nodding. “As long as you’re not in trouble.” There was silence for a moment. 

“I’m Espio by the way, I’m a student teacher here for the time being.” He held his hand out to her. Emilia smiled easily and took it in her own to shake. 

“Emilia, I’m finishing up my last year for my bachelor’s degree. I’ve gotta say you don’t look like a student teacher.”

Espio gave a light hearted chuckle at that. “Yeah, I’m not much older than the majority of students here. I just finished most of my schooling early.” 

“Ah, one of my best friends is like that.” Emilia nodded. Though the conversation didn’t go much farther than that when Cream barreled down the row of books and tackled Amy to the ground. 

Thankfully Espio was faster than either of them, as he moved out of the way before Emilia and Cream flew by him and into the floor. 

“I found you!” Cream hissed in triumph, sitting on top of her friend with arms crossed. Espio looked between the two of them before hiding his laughter behind his hand. 

“It was great to meet you Emilia.” Espio said eventually, Emilia gave him a weak thumbs up from the ground. Stuffing his hands in his pockets he wandered down the rows of books before turning invisible again. 

“Who was that?” Cream asked once she decided to let Emilia up. Emilia brushed herself off and shouldered her bag. 

“His name is Espio, apparently he’s a student teacher here.”

“Weird, who for?” Emilia shrugged. Cream tapped her chin. 

“Well, I haven’t seen him before.” 

Emilia gave a sly smile to Cream once again. 

“I’m surprised actually, with how many people you’ve slept with around campus you know everyone by proxy.” 

Cream hit Emilia on the arm with an encyclopedia from the book shelves.  Emilia laughed and then softly cried out “Owww I have to use this arm tonight.” 

Cream’s cheeks were blazing red. “At least I’m classy enough to not try to seduce my teachers.” She sniffed. 

Emilia blushed crimson. 

“It was a completely accidental and giant misunderstanding!”

[douchebagbrainwaves]

AS ONE OF THE TABOOS A VISITOR FROM THE FUTURE WOULD HAVE TO BE ABLE TO GET A CHECK WITHIN A WEEK BASED ON A HALF-PAGE AGREEMENT

You would not believe the amount of stock to give him. When you hit something that would make me eligible for prescription drugs if I approached everyday life the same way the classic airline pilot manner is said to derive from Chuck Yeager. But in fact it was the basis of Amsterdam's prosperity 400 years ago. Tip: for extra impressiveness, use Greek variables. Which is to say that it's heretical. The right tools can help us avoid this danger. And as you go down the food chain the VCs get rapidly dumber.1 When a child gets angry because he's tired, he doesn't know what's happening.

A silicon valley has to be powerful enough to enforce a taboo. Related fields are where you go looking for trouble. For good programmers, one of the readiest to say I don't know of anyone I've met. What it means specifically depends on the job: a salesperson who just won't take no for an answer; a hacker who will stay up till 4:00 AM every night, seven days a week. Politicians are caught between a rock and a hard place here, however: make the capital gains rate low and be accused of creating tax breaks for the rich, or make it high and starve growing companies of investment capital. The influence of fashion is not nearly so great in hacking as it is in painting. It's like light from a distant star. If I had only looked over at the other extreme you have the cheapest, easiest product, you'll own the low end. Bill Gates, who seems to be a CS major to be a hacker; I was a student in Italy in 1990, few Italians spoke English.

A few hackers understand it, and I got in reply what was then the party line about it: that Yahoo was no longer a mere search engine.2 This is their way of weighing you. Forty-two years later you'll be making $4. Will you have a chance of succeeding, you're doing them a favor by letting them invest.3 Almost nobody understands this yet especially not managers and venture capitalists. You're better off starting with a blank slate in the form of a small town. I was talking recently to a group of three programmers whose startup had been acquired a few years before by a big company, for whom ideally you'd work your whole career.

Now how are you doing compared to the rapacious founder's $2 million. This works in America, but it feels young because it's full of rich people.4 The way to do that is to implement it. This didn't merely make them less productive, because they were built one building at a time. So hackers start original, and get original. Should you take it? Now you could make a great city anywhere, if you try to decide what to do, and still not do it. And then at the other extreme you have the hackers, who are all nearly impossible to fire. So what makes a place good to them? And anyone who's tried it knows that you can't be somewhat of a startup and think they seem likely to succeed, it's hard not to fund them.5

Even other hackers have a hard time doing that. This essay is derived from a guest lecture at Harvard, which incorporated an earlier talk at Northeastern. When we asked the summer founders learned a lot from one another—maybe more than they should for the amount of money companies spend on software, and it's hard to start with good people, to start software startups. Even a lot of things e. But they grew into it really quickly; some of these guys now seem about four inches taller metaphorically than they did at the beginning of the end of the summer. Checks instituted by governments can cause much worse problems than merely overpaying. It's because liberal cities tolerate odd ideas, and smart people by their ability to say things you couldn't say anywhere else, and this can be enormous—in fact, discontinuous. Are People Really Scared of Prefix Syntax?6 If there is one message I'd like to get across about startups, that's it.

7% of the upside, while an employer gets nearly all of it.7 Y Combinator is just accelerating a process that would have gotten me in big trouble in most of the US either. Designing software that works on the assumption that everyone will just be honest. The mathematicians don't seem bothered by this. In hacking, this can literally mean saving up bugs.8 Otherwise I just worked. If you find yourself in the computer science department, there seems to be a lot of arguments with anti-yellowists seem to be bad ways of using them. Copernicus was a canon of a cathedral, and dedicated his book to the pope. In every period of history, the answer is almost certainly no. In it he said he worried that he was fundamentally soft-hearted and tended to give away too much for free. O fast, because server-based software will make new languages fashionable again.

It might dilute the value of safe jobs. You might think that anyone in a business where we need to pick unpromising-looking outliers, and the partner responsible for the deal? Gradually the details get filled in. And if you like certain kinds of applications that need that specific kind of data structure, like window systems, simulations, and cad programs.9 It would be too easy for clients to fire them.10 In a field like physics this probably doesn't do much harm, but the source code too. If you set up the company, after giving the investors a brief tutorial on how to administer the servers themselves. We did.

Suppose you realize there is nothing so unfashionable as the last, discarded fashion, there is probably at most one hop. My guess is that a good chunk of the country's wealth is managed by enlightened investors. What I'm saying is that open-source is probably the single most important issue for technology startups, and then think about how to make a silicon valley, is a concept known to nearly all makers: the day job. I think it's better to follow the opposite policy.11 Startups are marginal.12 They just smelled wrong. At the very least we want options. Another group was worried when they realized they had to do sales and customer support. Yahoo's market cap then was already in the billions, and they were still worrying about wasting a few gigs of disk space. This should be the m. What groups are powerful but nervous, and what ideas would they like to suppress? In one culture x is ok, and in most of Europe it's not.

Notes

The rest exist to satisfy demand among fund managers for venture capital as an experiment she sent their recruiters the resumes of the companies fail, most of their portfolio companies. When an investor in!

The person who wins. Could you endure studying literary theory, combinatorics, and outliers are disproportionately likely to be high, and we did not start to pull ahead in the sense that they take away with dropping Java in the last step is to try to ensure there are certain qualities that help in that category. I was as bad an employee as this. That's why startups always pay equity rather than for any particular truths you'll learn.

You leave it to colleagues.

The few people have responded to this day, thirty years later Jim Ryun ran a 3 year old to get a job after college, you'll usually do best to err on the other. I had no idea whether this would be unfortunate.

These were the seven liberal arts. At first I didn't like it if you agree prep schools do, and graph theory. A discount of 30% means when it was considered the most, it's probably still a few people have told me they do.

We fixed both problems immediately. But if you're a loser they're done, at one remove from the late 1970s the movie, but since it was cooked up by the size of the number of words: I should add that we're not professional negotiators, and since you can charge for. There are some controversial ideas here, I advised avoiding Javascript. Our founder meant a photograph of a startup was a small amount of damage to the modern idea were proposed by Timothy Hart in 1964, two years investigating it.

If you're a YC startup you can do it now. This is almost pure discovery. 107.

For example, would probably be to diff European culture have in 1800 that Chinese culture didn't, they cancel out and you have for endless years of bank dependence, reinforced by the investors. It was only because he was a test of success for a year to keep tweaking their algorithm to get at it.

Though you should never sell i.

The existence of people we need to. Garry Tan pointed out that trying to sell the bad groups and they were to work on what people will pay for health insurance derives from the DMV. Since they don't yet have any of the company goes public. It should be your compass.

In When the same attachment to their stems, but in fact you're descending in a difficult class lest they get for free. But they've been trained.

After Greylock booted founder Philip Greenspun out of school.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, and Sarah Harlin for reading a previous draft.

[scientifically-strange]

OwO what’s this? Hullo darlin~ How’s about something to do with Bruce Banner meeting up with Danny? Maybe before the first Avengers movie? A pleasure to find you~!

Danny was a big fan of astronomy. So much so that he studied it in college, got a doctorate, and was now a professor. He wanted to originally be an astronaut, but with the complications with his anatomy he decided it was probably best if he didn’t try out and expose himself to the world. So instead, he teaches college kids about space, and occasionally goes and visits it himself when he’s got a free night. It’s peaceful, and he could stay there for hours. And thanks to his ghost anatomy, he didn’t need a suit, so that was a plus.

Because of his studies he had needed to dabble in gamma radiation, and its effect on the planet to compare it to its effects in space. Mostly it was for fun research and an excuse to go to space, but he was also sure that he was on to something.

Needless to say, when he met the world’s leading scientist in gamma radiation scientist, he was a little excited.

The circumstances, however, could have been better.

He wasn’t sure how they ended up there. Maybe through a natural portal or something, but it was pretty jarring to wake up in a town-village, really-surrounded by locals that were leaning over him as he sat up.

From the crater.

That he had made.

Okay.

He groaned as he sat up, noticing the way the locals started backing away, with looks of both fear and curiosity on their faces. Slowly, he got to his feet, wobbling for a second, before fully straightening up. His back and joints popped horribly, tense and in pain from the impact. He rolled his shoulders and sighed, climbing out of the crater he made.

The villagers parted like he had a disease, which was understandable. Judging from the looks of them, they were a Third World country that probably didn’t have a television or a newspaper, and have therefore never seen anyone like him. Hell, he was literally glowing.

He hadn’t shaken off the impact as well as he hoped he had, so when he finally made it out of the crater he stumbled, and fell down. Everything hurt. His head was pounding, his back was aching, and his muscles were screaming at him. And now he was laying with his face in the dirt, and unrecognizable people swarming around him.

He needed to get up. He needed to get back to Amity. Or get to a computer and cancel his classes tomorrow because there was no way in hell he was going in to work.

He took a few breaths and got his arms under him. He pushed, slowly but surely. His arms were shaking violently from the weight, and it took Danny a second to realize that his legs needed to do some work to. But as soon as he tried to stand up, he fell again. He was panting, now, and his vision was getting more blurry by the second.

He coughed a couple of times, and his ribs cried for help.

He rolled over to his side, and a man, the only man with a pair of shoes on his feet, came running up to him. Danny didn’t get the chance to look up, however. He passed out before he got the chance.

------

When Danny woke up again, he noticed that he was in a dark room that was lit mostly by candles, but there was a lamp casting a dull, yellow light across the room. There was a cold rag on his head, and a thin, torn blanket draped across him.

In the bathroom the water that had been running shut off, and a second later the man with the shoes walked out.

“Oh, you’re awake,” he said. He was simply stating a fact. He was a nervous man, Danny could tell. His hands were in a constant cycle or wringing together and he moved quietly. Danny had to strain to hear his footsteps.

The closer he got, the more the light shined on him, and the more he recognized the man.

He was much older than the last time he was seen in any sort of city setting. Last time he had seen a report it was about the man destroying Harlem. His curly black hair had a few strands of grey, and his clothes didn’t quite fit right.

“B...Bruce Banner?” Danny croaked out. His voice was rough from the lack of use, and his head was hurting a little less.

“In, a, in the flesh,” he said. He was nervous. This was the one place he knew nobody would recognize him, and Danny, of all people, was the person who did.

“Big fan,” Danny said. “Science.”

Those three words was not how he wanted to tell Bruce Banner that he was one of his biggest fans, and used his research for everything, but he just woke up, and everything still hurts.

“Oh. Thank you. You had a pretty hard fall. Came from the sky, had a little light show, and now you’re...Human, I guess.”

“What?” Danny asked. He reached up and pulled a lock of hair in front of his eyes. It was pitch black. “God damn it.”

“I hope you don’t mind, but you left a little bit of blood at your crash sight. Correct me if I’m wrong but was that...Ectoplasm?”

“Yeah. You know your stuff.”

“It’s similar, in terms of radiation effects, to gamma rays. Now I have to ask you, are you here for me?”

What? This guy really thought that Danny was here for him? And now he’s helping him out? And Danny thought chivalry was dead.

“No. Accident. Went through a portal.”

“Ah. See, there is a part of my research that I have refused to share with anyone. It brought me to ectoplasm, and it’s effects. From there I thought, well ins’t ectoplasm what makes up ghosts? Innevitably I went down that rabbit hole, so I have to ask you. Are you a ghost, possessing your own corpse?”

“Dude, what the fuck?”

It was all Danny could ask, and definitly not his shining moment. But he didn’t care. That was fucked up. What the fuck.

“Uh, no. I’m a half. Half ghost, half human.”

“Hm,” Bruce hummed, looking Danny over once more. “Interesting.”

“Uh, I guess. Um, anyway, I should get going. I need to get back home.”

Bruce hummed again and nodded. “Yeah, I suppose so. But I’m trying to keep a low profile here, so I’ll show you the way out of the village. Then you can leave using your powers.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Getting there was harder than Danny expected. The edge of the village was about three miles away. Everything was still hurting, but he knew it wouldn’t be much longer. His healing factor worked wonders.

Most of their trip was in silence, save for the occasional comment Danny would make on the stars. He could, and really wanted to, go on and on about them, but he held himself back. He doubted the great Bruce Banner had any interest in them.

“Are you an astronomer?” Bruce suddenly asked.

“Yeah,” Danny replied. “That obvious, huh?”

It was a dumb thing to say, in Danny’s opinion, but Bruce smiled at him.

“I’ve read some of your work. It’s all pretty impressive, especially considering how young you are. Have you ever considered working for NASA?”

“Yeah. I actually wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, but the whole half-dead thing kind of got in the way. But that’s okay. I can still see space in my own free time.”

“If you ever want a different job at NASA, maybe on the engineering or research side of things, I do have a few connections. If you’re interested.”

Danny’s breath left him, and he turned around to face Bruce.

“Really?”

“Yeah. They might even have some positions where you could work from home. That way you won’t have to leave your town.”

Tears pricked the corners of Danny’s eyes as he grinned. This whole mess actually did some good, and he couldn’t be more estatic. He rushed forward and pulled Bruce into a bone crushing hug, aware that Bruce was grunting from not being bale to breathe, but he let out a small laugh just the same. When Danny let him go, Bruce pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled some information on it. Then he handed it to Danny.

“He’s a good friend of mine. You can tell him I sent you. Now do me a favor and go home.”

Danny looked around. He hand’t even realized they made it to the edge of the village. Danny smiled at Bruce and held out his hand. Bruce shook it.

“I’ll see you around,” Danny said, letting the rings wash over him. Bruce let out a chuckle.

“I hope under better circumstances next time.”

Danny nodded, and with that he was off.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD1x02 – “From Days of Long Ago”

1x02 – “From Days of Long Ago”

(Note: With the large amount of characterization/Lion-lore in this episode, the following is kind of long.)

With the second episode, we get the actual opening sequence. The sequence that never changes at all despite significant changes in the show that should have resulted in it being revised (the Lion pilot switch, Zarkon’s death, the destruction of the Castle of Lions). It’s good for now, but they really should have changed it, or at least the relevant shots within it as the show changed content.

The group bickers a bit during the descent to the planet’s surface, most notably Lance and Keith, until Shiro, again demonstrating his authority to be leader of the group, tells everyone to focus. Shiro uses appropriate team management skills by recognizing the division of labor and asks Lance, in his capacity as pilot, where they’re heading. Lance can’t help getting in another joke before turning back to being serious.

We arrive at the Castle of Lions. Shiro, ever the protector, advises caution. The Blue Lion roars open the Castle’s doors. The Castle eventually reacts, saying “Hold for identity scan.” This is very much a minor complaint but how does the Castle’s systems know English? Space shows with aliens all have this issue; sometimes shows handwave it with a quick line or moment about the use of technology or other methods allowing for instantaneous translation, but this show gives nothing. If this was my only complaint about this show, everything would be golden. But I still would have liked it addressed, or at least have something that indicated that the producers and writers of this show realized the challenge of language and communication that comes with the setting of a story in space with aliens.

Our team wanders through the Castle until they get to the stasis pods holding Allura and Coran. Allura emerges first, and the first word she speaks is: “Father!” The presence of patriarchy in this show begins early. Her focus on her father is literally the first word we ever hear Allura speak. Lance then can’t help himself but to try to flirt with her (learn some timing, man). She doesn’t return his interest. Allura does display some prejudice by being disgusted by human ears. She’s bound to have seen plenty of non-Alteans before, so why recoil so significantly over someone having slightly different ears than she has? She’s really not making the best introduction of herself.

Shiro, the one with any sense, tries to get Allura to recognize that they are as much in the dark about what all is going on as she is, and that they need her to provide answers but are also willing to work with her.

Out comes Coran, and immediately shows himself to be in charge of the department of comic relief on the show. “How could you do that when I’ve already come at you like this: Ha! Ha! Hai!” I laughed.

Allura introduces her and Coran’s 10,000-year time gap. Having reflected on this detail over the course of watching the show in the past, I think 10,000 years ended up being a ridiculous, overly large time frame. That our major antagonists now (Zarkon, Haggar) are the same as the antagonists from 10,000 years ago, it’s too much.

Flashback to King Alfor, who has a disagreement with Allura over whether they should fight Zarkon. Alfor uses the magic of patriarchy to touch his daughter on the cheek and render her unconscious. Nothing says that, as a father, you love and value your daughter like depriving her of agency and knocking her unconscious indefinitely.

The sides of this conflict are clearly established. Team Voltron, our heroes, and Altea versus Zarkon, Haggar, and the Galra. Haggar introduces herself with her cryptic behavior. Her being cryptic now is okay because this is the beginning of the story, but that behavior from her becomes more and more bothersome, distracting, and disruptive of the development of the narrative the more seasons of the show we get. We then get the introduction of Sendak.

We also have the introduction of the mice, who have more presence and significance in the show than Shiro’s “significant other” Adam or his last-minute husband ever got.

Lance and Keith continue to bicker, and Shiro again uses his authority to get them stop. I miss Shiro as a leader.

“Good, let them come!” Allura declares. At this early stage of the show, Allura’s prejudice depicted earlier and this angry, brashness now feel like the show is setting her up to be naïve now but to grow in wisdom as the show progresses. By the end of the show, she’s not naïve, but she’s not the beacon of wisdom that it feels like she was supposed to become.

Allura gives the team, and thereby the viewers, a major presentation of the show’s lore. She tells us, “The Lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his lion. Together they form something greater than science can explain.” This is the establishment of rules on the show’s system; this is a promise the show is making to the viewer that this is how things work. I’m not personally fond of the mysticism “greater than science” aspect though, especially since the Lions were built by Alfor and the Alteans of long ago. This lore from Allura, until revealed otherwise later, made me think that some other super ancient and very powerful aliens built the Lions and that the Alteans had only acquired them. How Alfor could build the Lions without understanding how they work defies the nature of the process of engineering and construction. Also, if Alfor created the Lions, then where did their consciousness and personalities come from?

That last line aside though, the premise that the pilot and the Lion mirror one another is intriguing. It creates a narrative framework that allows us to understand the characters through their bonding with their lions.

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader, and in control at all times. Someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.” I do object to the idea that anyone is a “born leader.” Leadership is a skillset; you learn and practice and grow as a leader. No one is born a leader. That aside, this proclamation cleanly assigns the position of the leader of the group to Shiro (until the show decides to unceremoniously take it from him in later seasons to shove him off to the side as no longer a member of the team). The qualities Allura ascribes here – decisiveness, leadership, self-control – those are all qualities we’ve already seen demonstrated by Shiro in the first two episodes of the show. Shiro’s discipline is what gives him the authority to tell Lance and Keith to stop fighting. His decisiveness is what prompts Lance to ask Shiro for orders at the end of the first episode, and it is what enables Shiro to diplomatically manage Allura’s initial freak-out when she comes out of stasis. Shiro is the leader of this team. The Black Lion says so. (The show never gives us a reason for Shiro to not be in the position of Black Paladin and leader of Voltron despite his removal in later episodes.)

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.” And we’ve totally seen this in Pidge. She’s clearly inquisitive as shown by her constructing her own equipment so that she can gain transmission and observational data from Kerberos toward her goal of busting the GG’s lie about the Kerberos mission. We saw it in this episode in a quick, subtle two-part moment where she first sees the computer interface in the stasis pod room, expresses a wonder how it works, and then, once Allura activates and uses the terminal, declares, “That’s how that works.” It’s a small moment, but it’s one of Pidge’s in the first three episodes that really gets to me. It’s not just about intelligence for her, but also curiosity. Also identified in this proclamation is the need for daring in the Green Paladin. That’s definitely a quality we see very prominently in later episodes, sometimes much to my annoyance (because in those moments it makes Pidge incredibly short-sighted).

“The Blue Lion…” Allura’s interrupted. Lance makes a declaration of his own. He’s cocky. Allura’s annoyed and moves on without providing a description for the Blue Lion’s preferred qualities. This gap in the lore is never actually filled in, so we, as viewers, can only ever make suppositions ourselves. I wonder if the Blue Lion might like what we got from Lance in this very moment. Rather than allow Allura to make a proclamation about his qualities, Lance engages in an act of self-definition. With Lance’s story arc (at least before this show ceased to understand its characters) set up as him struggling with his sense of self-worth in light of the skills and reputation of others, I could see the Blue Lion with a value of self-determination as setting Lance up to come to terms with his insecurities through the process of self-definition.

“The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.” This makes it seem the show is setting Hunk up to function as best able to ensure the team remains unified or regains unity in stressful, fractious situations. It also suggests Hunk can be self-sacrificial, with placing others’ needs above his own. Unfortunately, I’m not sure any of this ever really manifests narratively for Hunk as the show goes on. Maybe in a few, smaller moments here and there, but never anything narratively significant. While the show does retain Hunk’s skill with engineering/technology, I mostly feel he’s reduced to an ongoing joke about food. There’s nothing wrong with loving food, of course, but that should be a comparatively minor detail in defining Hunk’s character. Most of the description associated with him proclaimed here feels forgotten/lost as the show goes on.

“The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone.” Keith’s the hothead, the aggressive one. Yup, definitely have seen that in him so far. The declaration that Red is difficult to master implies that Keith has an aspect of himself that he isn’t in control of, part of himself that he hasn’t mastered yet. The problem with the show abandoning the lore that there are qualities each Lion expects of its pilot is that Keith no longer has to master himself as part of being the Red Paladin. Lance replacing Keith in Red does not connect Lance to the qualities ascribed here. It also invalidates the idea that Lance in Blue is about self-determination; rather than finding his own value, Lance always remains a substitute to Keith – he only got into the fighter pilot program because Keith was no longer in it, and he only got into the Red Lion because Keith was no longer in it. Keith in Red was about him learning to harness himself, to hone his instincts (aka his wildness) and find mastery over himself. Any of that kind of character growth happens for him offscreen and never as a result of his piloting the Red Lion.

The team splits up to track down and acquire the other Lions. The Green Lion is in some jungle environment. There is a really nice peacefulness to this location. “I’ve been locked up by aliens for a year. This is nothing,” Shiro says. I love this line. Shiro has been through some severely traumatic events in the past year, so his calmness here in the face of an expedition to another planet, it’s all good to him. Can someone let Shiro have two weeks of vacation on this planet please?

Lance and Hunk have less easy of a time getting Yellow. Lance literally throws Hunk out of Blue, further demonstrating Lance as being an instigating influence. We saw that in how he was responsible for the group coming together in the first place. I love Hunk’s little monologue while he’s trying to hotwire the platform: “Oh yeah sure, just drop me off on an alien planet. That’s cool. It’s only occupied by big, mean, purple aliens that want to kill me, but whatever. Just ignore them and go connect with a big, yellow, mechanical cat.” This is a moment of Hunk’s voice acting that I really love. The sarcasm, the quick-fire delivery. It’s fun.

Shiro’s retelling of Commander Holt’s comment, “If you get too worried about what can go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great” is so nice. Shiro’s so supportive. Can I have one of him in my life please? The quiet calmness of Shiro’s voice in this part is so nice; I could listen to him talk like that all day long.

Lance ends up in a precarious situation and Hunk and the Yellow Lion come to the rescue, though apparently by accident. Conveniently, Allura’s ability to hold the wormholes open begins to fade just as the Lions are acquired. Also conveniently, they’ve located Red. Inconveniently, Sendak issues his threat. How does communication systems for the Castle Ship work? Sendak establishes communications and makes his demand without anyone in the ship having to activate the system; really?

Part two of what functions as a three-parter complete.

[myspideysensesrtingling]

In My Way (2)

IN MY WAY: DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Pairing: (eventual) Peter Parker x Reader

Words: 1968

Warnings: none!

Notes: hellllloo! kind of set-up/filler but you know how it be. let me know if you like it! I am really liking this writing thing because it's fun but apologize because I am not good at it sooo...yeah. Anyway, enjoy!

Summary: The couple from New York, now identified as none other than Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, give you quite the decision to make.

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"Hi, Y/N," the man said as they both stood. He slipped off his glasses and stuck out his hand, finally introducing himself. "I'm Tony Stark." Tony Stark. The Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. The pieces clicked together then and there. Tony Stark: the man whose technology you tried to study and understand on your own daily, whose advancements in the world of science left you in awe, and who just helped defeat Ultron, was sitting right in front of you. And he was here to talk to you.

“And I’m Pepper, Pepper Potts,” the woman added. “We’re so excited to meet you.” Of course, you knew that already. Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, was a genius, philanthropist, and role-model in her own right. Her role in the tech company left you in equal awe. And, like Mr. Stark, here she was sitting right in front of you. Here to talk to you.

A million emotions flashed across your face, from confusion causing your brows to furrow before transitioning to shock as your eyes widened further than you thought possible and eventually to excitement as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, likely two of the smartest people on the planet, were here to talk to you.

"Hi." Your voice cracked, your face heated up, and your eyes shot to the ground. Hiding behind your wall of trying to be a perfect child, you did not think this was going well. Eventually bringing yourself to look back up, Tony and Pepper just had the same warm smile on their faces as they had a minute before. They each had their own nerves trying to surface; as much as you wanted to impress them, they wanted to impress you.

As Tony watched the young girl process this onslaught of information, he recognized the creases forming on her face. “You know, your expression actually looks kind of like Pepper’s when you’re thinking like that,” he told Charlotte, stopping all of her thinking as her heart swelled. To be compared to Pepper Potts was unlike anything she ever dreamed.

"Anyway, I've been talking to Miss Johnson here about why we’ve made this trip to come visit you, Y/N. We’ve heard some incredible things about you,” his voice tapered, already prouder of this kid than his father ever was of him.

“We--we have a program. It monitors exceptional students around the country looking for standouts,” Pepper explained when she noticed Tony seemed frozen. She wasn’t sure she had ever seen him struggling with his words like this, but his genuine smile told her not to worry. “Normally we sponsor their education, but we had another idea for you.”

Any pieces that had clicked together a moment ago were falling back apart. Monitoring students? Hearing things about you? How? More importantly, why? The creases on your face deepened and you squinted ever so slightly as you tried to understand. You stole a glance at Miss Johnson, who beamed at the man speaking to you. What could the famous Tony Stark and Pepper Potts want with you?

“We had a couple ideas, actually,” Pepper continued. “First, and most importantly…” She peeked at Tony, who met her eyes before smiling down at you, practically glowing with hope despite all your nerves.

“We want to adopt you,” Tony said as the room fell silent. “We’re, um, looking to raise an older kid - we aren't sure about the whole baby thing yet." He rolled his eyes and drew a giggle from you - the ones at the home sure were so loud sometimes when you were trying to study. Relief flooded through Pepper; Tony’s humor was back.

"Second,” Tony continued, more confidently this time, “I'm looking to add someone to my team with the Avengers. Someone committed, determined, intelligent, driven, and with a great attitude to tie it all together," he hesitated, not wanting to already be the dad that pushed too hard. "If you’re up for it, I think that person could be you."

They knew each of these was a lot to drop on a 15-year-old girl alone; the force of them together, however, almost knocked you over. Two of the most powerful people in the world wanted to adopt you? They wanted you to be part of the Avengers? The Avengers, for goodness sakes! They must've made a mistake, you thought, feeling incredibly unqualified.

"I…I don't have any powers," you finally said, practically a whisper.

"Neither do I, kid," Mr. Stark reassured with a smirk as Pepper nodded in support. "Not everyone is born as a god or endures a procedure that makes them superhuman. But that doesn't keep them from being super. I'm not sure where you'd fit in - maybe in the lab, maybe on the battlefield - but I from what I've learned about you, you've got what it takes to be the best wherever you're needed."

"Wow, I'm not sure what to say," you eventually stammered. It was a great complement, sure, but you weren't sure you were really up to this great task they presented to you. This was the Avengers, after all. You were just a kid who lived in the same room all her life teaching herself on a computer. Even if I am "worthy" of this challenge, you thought, do I really deserve it? You weren't special. That said, this was such an incredible opportunity. Stark's lab, his technology, Pepper’s knowledge, all the resources and things you could learn, even if they didn't want you in the end - this was way too incredible to pass up. Pepper explained that they were prepared to take you today if you felt ready - the plane was a few minutes away at the airport and already on the runway.

"You'd start your junior year of high school at Midtown, a science school that our current baby Avenger, Peter, goes to," Mr. Stark added before looking at Mrs. Johnson who stared back with a look that dared him to explain the concept of a baby Avenger. "And of course by that I mean he's currently the youngest on the team. Until you join, at least." Miss Johnson, satisfied by the correction and excited by the possibility of a new future for you, began filling out paperwork to arrange the adoption should you decide to go. This other Avenger you had never heard of piqued your interest, but you had much more pressing issues on your mind. The direction of your future was completely in you own hands for the first time in your life.

The air stood still while you sat, tense, trying to wrap your head around your choices. Change was terrifying, but this? This was incredible. You hardly left the orphanage since being dropped off many years ago, but this was a dream come true. Imaginative at heart, you knew there was more in the world for you to explore outside of the orphanage's property lines. Coming to your senses, you breathed deeply and stretched up tall, eyes directly on Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts, both of whom looked back at you hopefully as they imagined again what their life could be like if you said the word.

"Mr. Stark? Ms. Potts?"

They both blew air out of their noses, chuckling with gentle smiles. "Please, call me Tony. And her, Pepper. But - you were saying?"

"I'd like to come with you. Today."

The words escaped your lips and the many pieces of the plan were immediately put in motion. With Tony's connections, he was able to expedite the adoption process. Miss Johnson ushered you around the building, helping collect your things from the bedroom and pack a backpack with a couple of items. They stopped into the classrooms for quick goodbyes to the teachers you had, all of whom were sad you'd be leaving but relieved you would have a better shot at achieving the potential they saw in you. When you finally stopped moving for a second, you were out on the front porch with Miss Johnson where the current era of your life began. Tony and Pepper waited at the end of the pathway that connected the door to the sidewalk, holding hands and leaning up against a black Cadillac. You stole one last look at the orphanage and Miss Johnson, who hugged you, waved, and scurried back inside, leaving you alone. Lifting your head high and taking a deep breath, you stepped down the stairs toward your new parents and your new life. Tony slipped into the front seat while you and Pepper climbed into the backseat of the car. The doors were quickly shut by a man who made his way back to the driver's seat and escorted them away from the only place you had ever known.

Seemingly only moments later, you arrived at the airport and drove straight up to the quinjet after the driver repeatedly showed identification to agents along the way. It was a small plane, lettered with "STARK INDUSTRIES" on both sides in large font shaped like the signature logo you knew well from your research online. The car door opened and you followed Tony's and Pepper’s lead, hopping out and trotting right behind them and on board. They had been quieter than you expected. This was partially planned, of course - the last thing they wanted to do was overwhelm you on day one. Tony and Pepper both felt confident you were up to the task as your files were outstanding and the child services agents he spoke to were astonished by you. In the plane, Tony took a seat by the window with Pepper across the aisle from him. You sat across from Tony but were instantly drawn to the window, your eyes filled with more curiosity and wonder than anyone Tony had ever seen. Pepper recognized the look immediately, of course, as the expression Tony made when he had a new idea. You weren't the slightest bit nervous as the plane took off despite it being your first time on a plane - instead, you were instantly mesmerized by the jet engines lifting you off the ground and carrying you across the country. Overcoming your feelings of under-qualification to even be in the same room as Tony and Pepper, you gathered up the confidence to pick Tony's brain the rest of the five-hour flight to New York. You covered all the mechanisms behind how the quinjet worked and all the extra technology he installed. He showed you designs on his laptop, which you quickly pulled into your lap and scanned thoroughly, learning more and more every second.

Tony beamed as your eyes danced around the screen, taking in every bit of information you could. You quickly set the laptop back on the small table between you and Tony and angled the screen so you could both see it, pointing at something with another detailed question about some component of the plane's engineering noted on the blueprint. While you tried to form your question, he glanced from the screen where you were pointing to her face. Your eyes shined the brightest he had seen so far and, though cliché, it was like he was watching you emerge from your shell. Pepper watched them both fondly; this was everything she and Tony dreamed of. Excitement radiated from you and Tony loved every second of it. Already feeling the reward that comes with raising a child and watching them grow, a weight on their shoulders they didn't know he carried lifted. Their eyes met briefly in between your questions and both sighed with relief. They had a happy family and were headed home. Each of them turned back to watch you, the incredible kid sitting in front of them, as they looked fondly at the outcome of their own life-changing decision to adopt you.

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