#average new agent experience

[vill-vi]

blue star pov

[silhouetteonpaper]

MISSING

Summary: When another average day of work leaves you with piles and piles of casework, you’re surprised to see the missing persons report amidst the stack of papers. Jumping headfirst into solving the case, who could have ever predicted where it would leave you? Natasha Romanoff x Reader WC: 2,343 Warnings: Talks of experimentation, mentions of gruesome events

MISSING

Another stack of word-heavy papers are thrown onto your desk with a thud. You sigh, glaring at the agent who dropped them off, now leaving quickly in an effort to avoid any protest. Learning forward, you pick up the papers and start skimming through their contents.

New case file… missing persons… the same type of case work that usually fills your time, nothing about it catches your eye—that is, until you flip to the missing person’s profile. A blurry, black-and-white photo of a little girl is stapled to the page, the black text containing very little information.

It’s not the fact she’s a young girl that catches your eye—most missing persons’ cases these days have something to do with finding a child or family member now that the blip is over. But this file had nothing to do with that, instead a different kind of anomaly you weren’t expecting.

Missing Person: Super-human Abilities - RED LEVEL THREAT. The text leaves your mouth dry, thumbs frantically searching through the file to find any helpful information. Last seen in 2003… that’s far from helpful. It’s hard to tell what age the young girl is in the photo, but if you had to guess, you’d say around eight years old.

You’re no stranger to unknown super-humans on the loose, but a red level threat is never anything to take lightly. Still, something about her expression makes your heart ache, though it’s hard to make out small details from the pixelated image. You can tell she’s scared, and the only thing you hope is that she’s somehow safe. Because looking at the lackluster file, you have no clue how you’re going to solve this.

Hoping to get some added guidance, you take the troublesome case to the smartest people you know. Sitting around the conference table while discussing something definitely not related to work, you have no trouble interrupting by placing the papers in front of Tony Stark.

“I need your guys’ help on this case.” You voice, watching Natasha and Tony look up with a confused curiosity. They take turns looking over the file, glancing back and forth between each other and its pages.

“A red level threat, huh? Since when are they giving you big cases?” Tony teases nonchalantly, earning an eye roll from you. Grabbing back the papers after Natasha finishes skimming them, you watch as Tony types away on his computer.

“There’s barely anything on her, this is seriously all we know?” Nat questions, eyeing both you and Tony for confirmation. You only nod, taking another peek at the file yourself. Maybe if you read it enough times, some hidden information would reveal itself. 

Your focused research is interrupted when Tony lights up. “We’re in business! I matched the image to the location it was taken…” he pulls up a hologram screen, displaying the digital files he somehow accessed. Immediately relieved you came to these two for help, you watch as a map appears before your eyes.

Suddenly, pit of dread forms in your stomach, the building marked clearly with an all too familiar logo. “HYDRA.” You state, seeing the same skull and tentacle logo that haunts your past. It’s no secret you were experimented on all those years ago, but it’s not something you talk about often.

Now finding solace in helping the Avengers, you’ve found a way to make light of your dark past. But right now, all that matters is making sure whoever this girl is has that same chance. You blink away tears that seemed to form as you’re brought back to the present. “Do you think they still have her? After all this time?” Natasha questions, taking in every detail of the map.

“Well, who filed her as missing?” Tony asks you. You can only shrug, knowing that information is usually classified. The only information you had wasn’t as helpful to the matter.

“All I know is she was filed missing back in 2003, and now they’re re-opening the case. I’m assuming it’s because they’ve figured out she’s got HYDRA level enhancements.” I explain, thinking out loud. Tony nods, turning the hologram off as he continues his own research.

“You can’t go missing unless someone is looking for you in the first place. Do you think she had a family? Or do you think HYDRA is behind this?” Natasha continues to think. You ponder her idea for a moment.

Would HYDRA really be smart enough to do what Nat is insinuating? “Like if she escaped, and HYDRA’s using this as a way to sniff her out?” You hypothesize, the nerves inside your chest growing.

Natasha nods. “Bingo.” It’s not that you don’t believe it could be true, it’s that you hope it isn’t. You know more than anyone just how scary it is to be HYDRA’s secret weapon one minute and target the next.

“I’ll see if I can find who filed the report back in 2003,” Tony offers. “In the meantime, try to find anything helpful. If we knew her abilities, we could track them.”

You take a deep breath, nodding before exiting his office to find any scraps of information possible. It’s hard to deny you’re unsettled by this case, the missing girl’s story quite similar to yours. While you think you’re in a healthy mindset to solve this mystery, a part of you still hasn’t fully processed what happened.

HYDRA is known for their experimentation on kids, and you’re not surprised that yet another victim is on the loose. But the feeling of an innocent girl now corrupted by their malice actions makes your heart ache. After all, you were once that girl.

Brushing aside your past to the best of your ability, you decide to search through the HYDRA manifest SHIELD acquired long ago. It was a record of all experiments they performed, one of the only copies as HYDRA wanted to keep it on the down low.

The boxes of browned paper seemed endless, barely any organization to the multitude of files; heaps of innocent lives all written onto paper like objects. Each sheet of paper included one subject, occasionally a photo, and everything done to them. You can't help but skim some of the text, your stomach flipping at the cruel procedures.

After three hours of sifting through novels worth of paper, you decide to take a break. Tony probably has more information at this point, or at least you hope. You’re in need of some good news after seeing the terrifying reality of so many of those HYDRA victims.

“Hey, any updates?” You ask Tony as you stroll into his office. He nods, pulling his attention from whatever he was working on.

“The report was called in by a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson,” He shrugs. “There’s not much else on them in my system, they seem to be an average suburban family.”

Sighing, you rub your forehead in deep thought. “Of course they have one of the most common last names… damn it.”

“How’s your research going?” Tony asks, genuinely curious. You laugh in a slightly manic demeanor, all those hours of looking through files making you delirious.

“Not great. I’ve been searching through the HYDRA manifest all day, and so far nothing. I’ve barely made a dent.” You explain. Tony stands, making you raise a brow.

“I’ll help, we all will. C’mon, let’s find this missing kid.”

It doesn’t take long for Tony to gather the entire team in the storage room, everyone pulling out profiles to identify your missing girl. You can feel each Avenger hesitate as more and more gruesome content appears on the pages, some of the heroes unaware of how terrible HYDRA really could be.

You’re about to give up, another few hours having passed. It’s a seemingly endless flood of victims, and if anything it’s making you more depressed. As you shift in your seat, about to stand, Natasha gets your attention.

“Uh, guys…” Her weary voice makes your heart stop beating. The entire team keeps their eyes glued to her while silence fills the space.

“What is it Nat?” You finally ask. It’s like the redhead's eyes are stuck on the paper, her mouth open but no words seem to come out.

“I…” Natasha starts, but the words catch in her throat. You’re about to rip the paper from her hands when she finally speaks. “The girl… it’s you.” Her eyes land directly on you in fear, the air inside your lungs disappearing as she flips the paper toward you.

There’s no way, you tell yourself. You’ve made amends with the past you’d never be able to recover; it isn’t possible that now, all these years later it’s suddenly appearing out of thin air. But Natasha’s right, the photo clipped to paper is a clear image of a younger looking you, there’s no denying it.

Everyone is in shock, your ears ringing as you take the paper from her hands. It wouldn’t have mattered though, the entire room was engulfed in silence as the team waited for your reaction.

Sure enough, on the page read your full name, the detailed list of everything you went through now flashing before your eyes. The storm that once gripped your entire life was all coming back, and you couldn’t stop it.

“I have to go-“ You manage to voice before dropping the paper and fleeing the room, your fear carrying you faster than your body as you end up locked away in your bedroom. The little girl caught in your past finds her way back inside you; the dread fills your chest as you sink to the floor.

Tears begin to cascade down your cheeks, the young girl with terrified beady eyes burned into your mind now staring straight at you. You can’t get rid of her even if you tried, no matter how many years pass or how far you run.

This job was supposed to save you, the girl who was fleeing in search of hope. And it did, for a while, each day filled with saving the world in one way or another. But now, in your overwhelmed state, you’re not sure if you can ever truly be saved.

A soft knock on the door makes you jump, the fervent anxiety increasing as you turn to see who’s brave enough to check on you.

Of course, it’s exactly who you expected. “Hey,” Natasha steps into the room, her concerned expression showing as she bends down next to you. “I know this is all a lot, but there’s something you need to see.”

You feel like you’re glued to the floor, but something about Nat’s soothing voice convinces you to wipe your tears and follow her all the way into Tony’s lab.

The entire team is already there, everyone looking up with worried faces as soon as you step inside. It makes you want to crawl back to your room, but a part of you can’t deny you’re curious as to what Nat needs you to see.

“Remember how I said an average married couple filed the missing persons report?” Tony reminds you as you approach him. You nod, sniffing back stray tears. “Well, I looked at your HYDRA file a little closer. Your birth name is at the bottom… Johnson. It looks like HYDRA changed it to avoid any suspicion.”

It doesn’t take long for your eyes to widen. You easily understand the connection between you and whoever filed the report. They are family, and they’re looking for you. Seeing your unsure expression, Tony motions for you to look at his computer screen. In the time it took you to have your meltdown, he’s already scanned your HYDRA file.

“Here, see? Birth name, Johnson. And over here… missing persons report filed by Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. That can’t be a coincidence.” He explains. You look over the screen, a new kind of anxiety filling you.

You don’t remember your parents, all those years of torture at HYDRA blocked out too many memories; you eventually just tried to forget everything about your past, unable to sort through what was good or bad. Even though you’re more than content here with the Avengers, there’s a part of you that longs for true family.

“I want to talk to them.” You state blankly. The group of heroes all exchange an unsure look.

Natasha puts a hand on your shoulder. “Are you sure? There’s a chance they aren’t-“

“I want to talk to them, please.” You repeat, nodding at Tony. He takes a deep breath, looking the pair up on his computer like last time. It takes only a moment for him to get an address for their workplace, a bakery a few miles away.

The idea of having family that works at a bakery makes you smile, but a part of you feels a sense of anger. It could have been part of your childhood, but it wasn’t. You didn’t grow up amongst the fresh loaves of bread and pastries, you were raised by criminals who used you.

Swallowing whatever overwhelming emotion swirled inside, you took a deep breath and mustered up any spare courage. “Thank you, I’ll be back later,” You manage to tell the group. You can see the look on Natasha’s face, like she’s about to offer to join you on your venture. 

Cutting her short before she can speak, you reassure her. “I need to do this alone, I think. I’ll call you if I need anything.” She only nods as you walk toward the door.

“Wait,” Nat finally speaks up, her familiar concerned expression unwavered. “Whatever you learn, know that you’ll always have a place here. I think I speak for everyone when I say we have so much love for you.” Her words make the entire team nod in agreement, and you feel your eyes water once again.

Holding the tears off for now, you give Natasha one last hug before swiftly exiting the building, your feet carrying you with a new hope toward the bakery that holds your future.

[maxdibert]

Look who's back, I hope this isn't bothering you, but my friend really thinks that suffering violence doesn't justify being a violent person and I really need to talk to someone about Severus.

Not long ago I asked my mother with exactly these words “if a person grew up amid violence and only suffered violence, is it abnormal for them to be violent?”.

And she said: Not always, it depends from person to person. Some will be different from the experiences and environment they lived in, while others will not. But the chances of a child who has suffered violence also being violent is 98%.

And it made me think about how people see Severus as an exception and not a statistic. And, for some reason, they make it a competition of traumas and belittle his suffering because he is not a perfect victim who swallows his spite, forgives those who hurt him and pretends that everything is fine when it is not.

Experiencing violence doesn’t justify being violent, but it can explain it. There’s a substantial difference between justification and understanding. The reason why someone is the way they are doesn’t mean that behavior is acceptable, but it helps to understand their character. This is essential if you’re working with that person professionally, for example.

That said, this has many nuances because experiencing violence is just one of many factors that can lead to antisocial behavior. If violence occurs in isolation and the victim has resources and support, the likelihood of them developing violent behaviors is significantly lower. For example, take an average bullying victim. They may have suffered a lot at school, but that’s just one part of their life. What if they had a group of friends outside school? What if they had a stable relationship with their parents? And if none of that happened, what if they found a safe space with people who respected and valued them when they went to university? The environment is crucial both for healing trauma and for the development (or prevention) of problematic behaviors. The problem for victims of violence, in terms of their cognitive development, isn’t so much the violence itself but the resources and tools they have to heal afterward. And healing requires many factors.

Severus represents the case of a victim of violence who suffered it not just in one environment but in all of them. As a child, he experienced abuse at home, and as a teenager, he was bullied at school. He comes from an environment where he has no tools to cope with that violence because he grew up extremely poor, and his parents were participants in the abuse. The abuse continues at school, where bullies make his life hell, and once again, the adults around him not only fail to intervene but either force him to keep quiet or even reward his abusers (James being made Head Boy, for instance). He grows up in an environment where violence is normalized, and the adults in his life constantly justify or validate it. The only people who accept him are the Death Eaters, who are themselves a highly violent group. Everything around him during the most crucial stages of his cognitive development fosters not just a normalization of violence but a justification of it.

When he leaves the Death Eaters, instead of finding an understanding environment where he can start fresh, discover himself, build friendships, and maybe construct a new life, he is trapped in the same school that was a nightmare for him, with no tools or ecosystem that might allow him to heal or attempt to overcome his trauma. Dumbledore doesn’t help; he treats Severus like a soldier, trapping him in that violent cycle with his role as a double agent and feeding his guilt precisely to make him more effective for his plans. Severus isn’t a colleague; he’s a tool.

In my opinion, if he had been able to escape all of that, focus on his own life, and build something for himself, yet still remained violent, then his behavior would be absolutely inexcusable. He would have had opportunities. He would have had the chance to choose to change but refused to do so. However, a person with Severus’s past, environment, and position had no opportunity to change because he lacked the space or means to do so. No one offered him a hand. He was alone, he had nothing, and when someone finally gave him something, it was only to imprison him in the cage of his demons and use him for their own ends. He couldn’t escape from that.

It doesn’t make sense to blame someone for being resentful when their entire life has revolved around an endless cycle of suffering. People like that never end well.

[starlit-crossing]

A Ghost of Yourself

Chapter 6 - A Day Out

Damian began his morning training like always. A sword in hand as he practiced katas at the break of dawn. Most of the family tended to be asleep at this hour if they weren’t just arriving home by this point. Though with a new house guest at the manor, Damian had been benched for the time being. Even Duke had his time out lowered to reduce the chances of suspicion of the Wayne family’s disappearances. Despite his annoyance, this “break” allowed Damian more time to train hence waking up at dawn to practice when others were least likely to bother him.

Though apparently, he was wrong, as he went through his forms a figure made its way around the side of the manor. The house guest in question, “Danny” appeared to be going on a morning jog. Still wearing the same ratty jeans and white t-shirt, his blue hoodie nowhere to be seen. The boy gave him a nod as he passed, continuing down the makeshift trail that snaked through the manor grounds. That was about all the two did when they ever saw one another, the last week being nothing but polite nods and quiet passings.

The whole thing had Damian on edge, the similarities in appearance had not gone unnoticed by him. Despite Danny’s lack of emotional expression, his other qualities were too hard to leave ignored. The teen was fit, the muscle he had seemed to come from experience in combat, and the few scars on his arms seemed to back this theory. He was also extremely quiet, beyond that of a regular person or even an assassin. When Danny had discovered the library, he had gone to ask his father if he had permission to take books to and from. Damian had nearly spat out his water when he saw his father jump from being tapped on the shoulder.

He was sure Danny hadn’t noticed the surprise as his father was excellent at hiding his emotions when he desired to. Damian, however, couldn’t remove the shock from his face as the teen had just returned to the library to collect the books he wished to read. He finally wrote it off as a fluke, sure he must have imagined it until Duke entered the kitchen not an hour later clutching his chest. Danny had apparently tried asking if Pennyworth kept any homemade snacks around the manor.

“That kid is going to be the death of me, this is the third time this week he’s scared the living daylights out of me just to ask a question.” Duke complained hand to his heart.

“I think he’s here as a test by my grandfather. He must be an assassin or a sleeper agent, he snuck up on father no more than an hour ago.” Damian responded, crushing his empty juice box.

“Are you jealous?” Duke laughed.

“Never! I’m simply suggesting we keep our guard up!” Damian sputtered, throwing away the cardboard container.

“I’m pretty sure he’s just a kid. Though there is something off, he could be a metahuman like me. The lights in a room always seem to dim slightly when he’s there, not enough to be noticed by the average person but with my abilities it’s hard not to notice.” Duke explained.

“Grayson must have learned something at this point, even with Drake’s help this seems to be taking too long.”  He complained, pulling out his phone.

“Good luck reaching him, he’s been on daylight duty to help out with the new schedule everyone is on.” Duke huffed, leaning on the counter.

“Well, something must be done, the Waynes never stay in the dark for long.” Damian boasted.

“Do you mind moving? You’re blocking the fridge.”  A voice broke in from next to Damian, Duke, and him to freeze. Turning their attention to the foster kid who somehow entered the room without either of them noticing. Damian gave a small nod before moving out of the way, watching Danny gather some ice for his cup and grab water from the sink. Finally leaving the room as quietly as he had entered.

“That kid is just creepy.” Duke whispered, breaking the silence.

“Agreed.” Damian’s eyes were still focused on the door.

- - -

Danny’s last week had been great aside from being stuck in another foster home. Of all the homes it definitely could’ve been worse. They let him wander the grounds as much as he wanted, not that his exploration had led to any promising escape routes. The home held a large library that Jazz would’ve been thrilled to see, a fully equipped gym with gymnastic equipment, a basketball court, and of course a large ballroom for parties. Danny had been tempted to ask if they had a pool, but his foster family seemed to be very jumpy. Whenever he went to ask a question, they seemed surprised to see him there. He didn’t take it personally, it was a very large home, and they probably weren’t used to having an extra person wandering the halls.

Sam and Tucker had made plenty of jokes that they should make him wear a bell. Jazz seconded this when he was almost hit in the head by a psychology textbook that she had thrown his way. Thinking of his friends and family back home was probably the hardest part of all this. Every time he looked at the computer in his new room, he thought about logging into Doomed to see if his friends were online or if he made a new email if he could reach out without the GIW taking notice. The risk outweighed the cost, unfortunately, even missing them was pushing the limits.

That fact was the only thing keeping him from dwelling on everything that happened. He knew if he thought back to his parents, every emotion he was trying to hold inside would rush out of him like a flood. He was fortunate no nightmares had come up while in Gotham, he wasn’t sure how well the Fenton Finder would track emotions brought on by sleep. Thinking on the subject, Danny was reminded that it was now 11 am in the Manor. He had spent most of that morning lying in bed reading, he was running out of things to do without school lingering over his head.

Dragging himself from the warmth of the queen-sized bed, he dressed for the day in his old jeans and a Wonder Woman t-shirt gifted to him from Duke. They apparently had a lot of old clothes left by the previous kids who had lived in the manor that either no longer fit them or had been forgotten. Danny didn’t mind and liked being able to learn a little about the heroes that the rest of the world seemed to enjoy. Not that he learned much aside from the hero’s name when Duke gave him the shirt.

As he made his way towards the kitchen for some food, a voice he was unfamiliar with echoed from a room ahead. This room was one of the many lounges that filled the first floor. Making his way over he peeked inside to see Duke, Damian, and two other teens. They were closer to Jazz’s age though a little older. One looked a little too similar to himself with tired icy blue eyes and a mop of black hair. Though unlike Danny’s own hair which was parted to the side, his was parted to the center. Next to him was a girl with long blonde hair wearing jeans and a purple shirt.

“So, things have been boring city side?” Duke asked the tired boy.

“Pretty much, ever since the Riddler’s attack last week, it has been quiet. Luckily no one had been hurt other than a few blocks of public property.” The boy went on, eyes glued to his phone.

“We’re more interested in what’s been happening here. It’s not every day the Manor gains someone new who spends most of their time at the Manor.” The girl chimed in.

“He’s pretty similar to what Dick mentioned; he’s quiet, keeps to himself, and doesn’t show any emotion. The no-emotion thing isn’t even that bad, it’s the other stuff that keeps us on our toes.” Duke explained, a tired sigh escaping at the end.

“What do mean?” the boy asked, looking up from his phone.

“He was able to surprise Father without trying.” Damian scowled. The other two mystery guests held looks of surprise. Guess they’ve never been able to scare their dad before, Danny thought to himself.

“Not to mention the thing with the lights—” “Hold on a second.” Duke was midsentence before the black-haired teen shushed him looking at the door. Danny moved back from the door as quietly as he could, walking further down the hall in case anyone spotted him. He didn’t back it more than 5 steps from the door.

“Hold it!” The girl from before called after him, he froze at her voice before turning to look at her.

“Yes?” Part of him felt guilty for eavesdropping but he couldn’t let that guilt show, so he had to just take a deep breath as he turned to face her.

“You’re the new foster kid, correct?” she asked, not waiting for his answer before dragging him by the arm back to the room.

“Yes, I am, but why am I being dragged in?” he questioned, sitting on one of the two couches in the room.  Now having a better look at the room, he could see the few bookshelves lining a wall filled with knick-knacks. The couches were a deep brown leather that matched the wooden floors, with a pale green rug between them. The coffee table between the couches held a bowl full of randomly shaped wooden balls.

“We’d like to ask you some questions, but first introductions. I’m assuming Duke and Damian didn’t really tell you much about the others.” She went on, plopping herself on the couch across from him.

“In our defense, it seemed rude to interrogate the new kid on his first day.” Duke refuted sitting next to the girl.

“Moving along, I’m Tim Drake and this is Stephanie Brown. While neither of us currently lives at the Manor we both tend to visit often. I work with Bruce at Wayne Industries and Steph lives on campus at Gotham University.” Tim answered, choosing to sit in a nearby armchair to the left and Damian stood to the right of the couches. Truly closing him in and leaving him with no normal escape routes.

“How many of you are there? Does Mr. Wayne just collect orphans or something?” Danny asked, he remembered seeing Tim’s name on the family tree on the first day. Damian had mentioned his father needed to expand the painting.

“Just about, it’s more like we find him.” Tim laughed. Sharing a look with Duke and Stephanie. “If we go by legal adoption there are five of us, if we go by who has rooms at the manor it’s around eight give or take a few friends.”

“Now it’s our turn! I’m guessing no questions on home or personal life?” Stephanie asked, Danny nodded yes. At least their being considerate of boundaries, he thought. “So, Danny, right? Anything you like to do or have an interest in? How do you like Gotham?”

“Well, I like video games and comic books. I’m really interested in space and spaceships, got to see a shuttle on vacation one summer. Gotham is okay though the smog is annoying, other than that I haven’t seen much of the city. I’m pretty sure you already know why I’m on a not-so-subtle house arrest.” Danny checked off; he didn’t see the harm in listing his interests, none of it would reveal his identity.

“Yeah, word spreads fast in this family.” Duke laughed, rubbing his arm nervously.

“It’s a shame though, other than the supervillains Gotham has some good spots to check out.” Stephanie sighed, then a smile crept onto her face. “Do you have a favorite superhero?”

Danny had to think for a moment, he couldn’t say himself obviously. No one outside of Amity Park knew who he was, but other than Batman and Superman Danny didn’t know any other supers.

“Not really? I know of Batman and Superman but other than them I don’t know anything about the heroes. I was usually too busy to look at the news and see what was going on. Oh! And Wonder Woman thanks to the shirt Duke gave me but that’s it.” Danny answered, everyone seemed to accept that answer except Stephanie.

“Wait, so you don’t know anything about Justice League? Any of the founding members?” she clarified.

“Not a thing.” Danny deadpanned. Stephanie gave him a look like she was going to make his world explode.

“So, you don’t know that Superman and Martian Manhunter are aliens and that we’re opening communications with Mars?” She blurted. Danny had to take a moment to process what she said, he knew Superman might be an alien but to have it confirmed.

Also, since when did the Earth have open communications with Mars? Since when did they know how to get to Mars? Did the requirements for astronauts change? He thought to himself, Do they let supers work with NASA? Can I go to space despite my grades because of my powers?

“Steph, I think you broke him.” Duke stated as they watched the foster kid seem to spiral into thought, he had rested into the couch, his hands together as he stared into space lost in thought. Like many times before the lights in the room had been slightly dimmed with the appearance of Danny but now, they seemed to brighten and sparkle. Despite his lack of emoting Duke could tell Danny was excited at the news, an aura of blue swirled and popped around him like fireworks in a blizzard. He had never seen anything like it with the others. He’d have to bring it up when alone with the rest of the Bats.

“I know we can’t leave the grounds, but do we have anything on the recent history of space exploration.” Danny quietly asked, coming back from his mental rave. The group all gave each other a look before Tim spoke up.

“We can do you one better, one of the perks of having one of the richest parents in Gotham.” He answered, “If you can prove you can handle going out on the town without trying to make a run for it, we can see if we can convince Bruce to pull some strings and get us a tour of STAR Labs in Metropolis.”

“Seriously? I thought you were going to say NASA for a second.” Danny said sitting up straighter.

“NASA is great if you go through the government, but STAR Labs is privately funded and though they don’t have a branch that specializes in space exploration I know that they have a few teams dedicated to it in Metropolis. It is the home of Superman after all.” Tim smiled.

 Danny looked between them all considering everything. Yes, it was a chance to escape, but he hadn’t had the time to explore his passions in so long. Could he really afford to stay longer? Keeping his emotions in check was getting easier, but was it because he was getting better or due to him being alone? Danny felt for the burner phone in his pocket, feeling reassured by its weight against his thigh. There was only one way to know for sure if this place was somewhere he could stay safely.

“Okay, so where do you want to go?” Danny asked.

- - -

“Welcome to Gotham Mall, imaginative we know.” Stephanie waved to the large glass door that led into a large mall center.

“Isn’t there a lot of crime here? How is this place still open?” Danny asked as they all exited the car.

“Well, this mall is located near the GCPD headquarters so if any crime does happen it tends to be on the small end. Gangs and thugs mostly, plus they opted for bulletproof glass and reinforced the walls so they’re less likely to collapse in the case of explosives.” Tim explained, leading the group inside. The inside was no different to any other mall Danny had been to, off-white tile covered the floor, and the walls were lined with shops. Mostly clothing and tech stores but a few novelty stores were sprinkled in, and he didn’t recognize a single store.

“Where to first?” Stephanie chirped, grabbing him by the arm, Duke following by his side as he was dragged into the first clothing store that caught their attention. The following hours were a dizzying whirlpool of clothing and shops. The group had decided that handy-downs and the whole two outfits he had brought were not enough.

They had him looking and trying on so many clothes that even if he wanted to there was no way he could have snuck away without using his powers. It eventually bled into everyone trying on clothes, Damian was even caught in the crossfire. The older teens mentioned he needed to dress less like a mini-Bruce more often and offered a variety of clothes. Steph won him over with a few animal-themed pieces though they were very subtle.

Danny was about to question how they were going to pay for everything at check out when he saw Steph holding a debit card with Bruce’s name. He had forgotten for a moment who his new foster family was. It was constantly thrown back into his face as they made their way through the mall. Slowly people began to recognize the small group, a few double takes at Tim and Damian and photos being snapped of the whole group. Danny pulled up the hood on his new hoodie that he’d bought at the last store. Trying his best to block his face from the onlookers.

The others shared a look before deciding to go to the food court for a late lunch. They found a table towards the back corner. Tucked away from the entrance with fake plant décor blocking their view. Duke and Tim went off to buy some pizza for the group leaving him with just Stephanie and Damian. The silence was daunting as Danny waited for the inevitable questions regarding his attempts to hide himself.

“Well, got to love the paparazzi making a family outing awkward.” Stephanie laughed trying to lighten the mood. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having all of Gotham’s eyes on me.”

“Agreed, it’s even worse at the galas when the other socialites expect you to entertain the thought of enjoying their company.” Damian grumbled. Danny felt the tension in his shoulders dissipate, he hadn’t even considered they probably didn’t want the attention either. Vlad always basked in the attention of other powerful and influential people. Danny mentally face-palmed himself; he needed to stop assuming every rich person was like Vlad, it made him just as bad as his parents.

“Though the gossip the Gotham Gazette tries to start is hilarious, their social media threads couldn’t fool anyone,” Steph smirked pulling out her phone. “I remember when they covered Dick’s return to Gotham after he moved to Blüdhaven, all smears about a secret love child he had to be hiding there.”

“Wasn’t last week’s post about Drake’s most recent kidnapping? I remember him fuming over getting caught by those buffoons again.” Drake smiled.

“Let’s see what’s up now.” Steph went on scrolling through her feed. “Okay, we have the top ten photos of Bruce Wayne from the last charity ball, the best moments of the Wayne family caught on film… oh! We have a few from earlier up, though the only thing trending on them is the fact Tim and Damian are both here and not fighting.” She frowned as Damian looked at the phone.

“Tch, we haven’t fought in public for at least a year. You point a katana at someone one time!” Damian huffed. The two of them were still scrolling through the most recent posts with the others returned with the pizza. They called out the ones that were actually funny and were amazed at how quickly video edits had been made of them. To Danny’s relief, he was not mentioned in a single post and had been cut out of many of the photos. He finally was able to relax again and enjoy a normal afternoon.

Tim was happy Dick’s lost kid seemed to be enjoying himself, though unlike Stephanie he went searching for the photos about him. Only one or two posts seemed to be centered around him, people asking who he was and why he was there. None contained a clear photo or answer, it was like every time the camera was about to have a clear picture before something got in the way. The weirdest photo he was able to find contained no blurb above the photo and didn’t reference the Waynes at all.

The photo was of Danny with his hood up turning to look behind him, it was blurred leaving his face unclear even though everyone around him was unaltered. The lighting was strange, making it seem his eyes were green and glowing. It was getting little to no attention aside from a few comments talking about it being fake and edited. Still, he screenshots of the post and sent both the image and the link to Babs and Dick before rejoining the table’s conversation.

- - -

Pardon the delay in the chapter, if you follow my Tumblr you will know I took part in Invisobang this year! I got to create the cover art for the fic Kingdom Come by Bloggerspam, I highly recommend checking it out! I also started my first semester at my new college. I'm still figuring out the balance between homework and writing, but this fic is still a big goal for me. I'm thinking about the plot of this fic all the time and I'm very excited about future chapters! Speaking of future chapters, updates will be spread out once a month now to accommodate my new schedule and I will be applying small edits to previous chapters to fix spelling errors and formating so expect to see notifications about that. Thank you all for the support and enjoy the next chapter!

Master post - Chapter 5 Prev. <<< Next >>>

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia

Feel free to ignore if this is unwelcome, but have you ever thought about publishing traditionally to sublimate your income and draw in new readers? I know you've self published two books already and that you didn't feel like they did very well, but maybe the experience would be different if someone else was in charge of marketing and all the other business stuff?

Obviously everyone's experience is different but as an author myself who's published both trad and self, traditional publishing has been a completely different experience and has allowed me to focus more on writing because I'm not the one responsible for advertising/marketing/financing anymore.

There are a ton of literary agents nowadays that want to represent diverse and lgbtqia+ fiction, some of them even in Australia.

Websites like Reedsy, AgentQuery and Jerichowriters have extensive directories to find literary agents.

(This is lengthy folks so I'm putting the other two parts (and my response) under a read more! Also putting it under a read more so the anon can skip my response since it's very 'here's all the reasons I can't do this' and they just might not want to read that, lmao)

(continued -> )

Trad publishing houses have better resources for marketing and helping authors get more attention than any self publishing website could.

Obviously most authors, unless they're really prolific, don't get a huge advance (the average is between $1000 - $5000) but getting your foot in the door or on the traditional publishing "ladder' so to speak can have a huge benefit for your serials. Because it gives you more exposure. Plus it's in the agent's best interest to find a publishing house that accepts stories that contain darker themes and negotiate the best deal for you.

For some reason places like Amazon and the like accept and keep up more "dark" books that are traditionally published than they do with self pub ones. Maybe because they have more respect or leniency for publishing houses? I have no idea. But you could use this to your advantage. I think I remember you mentioning that writing novels felt quite isolating to you? But you already have 2 completed novels (3 if you count the fae one) that you could potentially revisit or rewrite to your liking and get them represented by agents.

You already have a loyal readership and that's very attractive to trad pub houses and agents.

As well as trad publishing, you could also make s simple website that doesn't require much maintenance. It could be just a landing page that says something about you and then has links to your tumblr and patreon where you're more active. That way you increase the chances of getting your serials found by additional readers and also come across looking more "professional". Not that you're not professional now. You are and I admire you greatly, but the unfortunate reality is a lot of people still judge by appearances and some will be more drawn to an author's website than a tumblr page, at least at first. So I think having a simple landing page would open up another door for you to benefit from.

Trad publishing is work but definitely not as much as self publishing, and you can continue on with your serials. Getting an agent can be time consuming but I personally believe the pros outweigh the cons and I also believe that your stories would be a huge treasure to the growing lgbtqia+ market. Seriously there needs to be more!

These are just suggestions and thoughts and like I said before, feel free to ignore. But I know you've mentioned wanting to grow your career in the past and I genuinely believe you can do so with some of these pathways.

~

Okay, my response. Posting this because firstly I think the suggestions could work very well for other authors reading this! And I hope they take the advice to note, and secondly because I haven't talked about this for a hot minute so let's talk about it again.

So the TL;DR is yes I have considered traditional publishing. I have actually been traditionally published in short stories, poetry, and also had my art published on covers and re: interior illustrations. But my Fae Tales works got soundly rejected when I sent them to publishing houses that were doing open calls for that sort of material. I've never heard back from an agent and I never expect to, heh.

~

Now for a bit more detail

I have been traditionally published before (it's how I got my writing out there long before I ever wrote serials), and yes, I have approached publishers with my writing since then. In fact Tradewinds was written for the traditional publishing market, and it got soundly rejected, and then shelved. The reasons it was rejected ran the gamut from 'I don't like that these fae eat humans no one is going to relate to these people' (while the editor then went on to publish vampire books idk) to 'There's too much worldbuilding you can't expect readers to keep up with this' to 'Your stories are too long, no one wants to read characters talking all the time.'

Meanwhile in my online serials I was getting feedback like 'my favourite chapters are the ones where the characters just sit in a room and talk' lol.

The traditional publishing world is also not quite as utopian for most authors as you make it seem. I'm friends with a lot of authors who are traditionally published because that's the world I came from, and unless they're solely in KU and doing generic rapid release formula romances, none of them are making that much money. Certainly not enough to live off. It may have been that you were very fortunate, anon, but I know hundreds more traditionally published authors that left trad pub to make money, and I know about 5 in trad pub personally who are making enough to live off of.

Only one of those is really writing what she truly loves to write, and even then, publishing houses have refused to commit to her entire fantasy series (and she's regularly in 'Top 10/20 Women Fantasy Authors in the World' lists) and forced her to finish the series prematurely. Something I never ever have to worry about in self pub.

The reality is that in trad pub these days, you're still in charge of most of your marketing unless you're one of the big earners for the publishing house. In fact I'd be expected to keep even more of a social media and marketing presence than I do now. I don't do almost any of the things you're supposed to do as an author in marketing to be appealing. I don't have a Facebook author account. I don't have an Instagram author account. I don't maintain or regularly send out newsletters (which automatically puts me in the like 0.05% of authors who make money doing this lmao).

I don't know if you ever have looked that closely into what m/m publishing houses expect from most of their authors, but the newsletter swaps, cover releases, review circuits, interview circuits and more are fucking grueling. We're expected to be responsible for our advertising and our marketing to a fairly massive degree. Some traditionally published in m/m still have to pay for their release blitzes out of pocket. These publishing houses, by and large, do not offer advances. You say most authors don't get large advances. I don't think most authors in this arena get offered advances at all unless they're somehow miraculously acquired by a Big 4.

We're expected to have an already established social media presence because of that (that's why it's so appealing to publishers that we have social media presences already, anon, so we can market, they can save money, and we still see only a minimal cut from the royalties).

And you still have to focus on your finances, because publishing houses like Dreamspinner straight up didn't pay a whole bunch of authors for so long they destroyed careers. They still haven't paid some of their authors. And they're still running a business and people still buy their books.

Trad publishing houses have better resources for marketing and helping authors get more attention than any self publishing website could.

This is true if a) they're a big publishing house and not an indie publisher of which most LGBTQIA+ publishing houses are and b) they're willing to use them on you.

The authors that make the most money get the most resources. If they believe you're going to earn back your advance and move thousands or tens of thousands of units per book, then yes, you will get those resources.

I have been told so many times now - even from friends who run publishing houses, including one who works at HarperCollins - that my work will never be mainstream enough to have broad appeal. They literally told me not to keep trying re: trad pub, because that was my dream for a long time. These folks have given me rock solid advice in the past, it's one of the reasons I'm doing so well now via Patreon + Ream. But they were like (paraphrasing) 'you don't write 60-80k romances and you don't want to and that's not your strength anyway, you're multi-genre which makes you hard to market, you write psychological and literary trauma recovery which is hard to market, you write character studies which are hard to market, publishing houses often don't commit to series anymore if the first two don't move units and if they pulled the plug you'd be contractually obliged to never finish that series until your contract was up.' I could go on, but it was like yeah...actually. Fair.

For some reason places like Amazon and the like accept and keep up more "dark" books that are traditionally published than they do with self pub ones. Maybe because they have more respect or leniency for publishing houses?

They do, but most publishing houses want very formulaic dark romance which is not what I write.

I have a 300k omegaverse slowburn that still hasn't had any penetrative sex in it, anon. Publishing houses don't want that. They don't expect anyone will wait 4 full length novels to get to literally a single penetrative sex scene.

But you already have 2 completed novels (3 if you count the fae one) that you could potentially revisit or rewrite to your liking and get them represented by agents.

If I rewrote them to my liking, trad pub wouldn't want them. They'd be too long! I think agents etc. take one look at me and go 'oh god, no thank you!' I'm not an easy sell, by any means.

Plus I'm very e.e about all of that with the knowledge that they then give me only about 10-15% of the royalties on the sales, vs. self-pub where I get around 70%, or subscription where I around 80% of it. When someone subscribes to me, they don't have to worry about 85-90% of their subscription fee going to a publishing house. I don't have to think about how many thousands and thousands of books I'd have to sell to make the same amount that I do now via subscription.

As well as trad publishing, you could also make s simple website that doesn't require much maintenance.

If it was that simple, I'd be doing it. I don't mean this in a facetious way, I mean it in a: I've made a lot of websites, in fact I run one at the moment not connected to my writing (I've been running it for so long it's now in its 20s and can probably has a driver's license). I find it so tedious that I barely remember to check in on it. But forgetting about it means there's always maintenance to keep up with when I get back to it.

Running websites is simpler than it used to be, but it's still not simple. There's hosting and hosting costs, there's server changes, there's back-end maintenance etc. I'm considering it for down the track, but there's a reason I decided to go the route of Patreon over my own site. There are authors (like Christopher Hopper) who actually do subscription through their own domain, but it's a lot of work.

Even placeholder sites are still work. They need updating, details change, story titles changing etc. Maintaining my Patreon + Ream About pages is enough, they're always both a little out of date, lol.

Not that you're not professional now.

Oh no, I mean from a 'traditional publisher looking at me to see what kind of candidate I am' I'm really not though. Like I said, I don't have the newsletter (100 subscribers who get one newsletter a year is not really a newsletter), I don't have the Facebook/Tiktok/Insta/Twitter/Bluesky/Threads accounts, etc. I write multi-genre across multiple steam levels, and I'm allergic to writing serials shorter than 150k. One of my best performing original serials was an 800k contemporary story with no sex in it but a lot of BDSM. It can't be marketed as clean or sweet, it's not high steam, an entire chapter is 'boy saves snail from rain.' Also he was cruel to animals, so not exactly what I'd call a sympathetic main.

And yet that story did so well for me via Patreon + Ream, because people want the kinds of stories that publishing houses generally don't want and I happen to be writing them.

Trad publishing is work but definitely not as much as self publishing, and you can continue on with your serials. Getting an agent can be time consuming but I personally believe the pros outweigh the cons and I also believe that your stories would be a huge treasure to the growing lgbtqia+ market. Seriously there needs to be more!

Anon I just literally do not believe an agent would want to represent me. I have 0% belief in that. Not from a self-deprecating angle but from a 'I am not a good bet for the trad market' perspective. From a 'I have so many friends who are trad pubbed authors who stare at me like I'm insane for writing serials as long as I do' perspective. From a 'professionals in the industry have told me it's amazing I'm doing so well in serials because there's no way they'd take a risk on what I'm doing' perspective. From a 'just because it's queer and diverse doesn't mean it hits literally any other thing a trad pub is looking for' perspective. I've been doing this for 10 years. There are agents who represent work similar to mine who know what I'm doing and wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. They're not missing out on a trick, they know I'm not broad appeal, and they're right.

Also the only way I'd have the energy to manage trad pub is by quitting serials. And honestly, I never found trad pub all that much fun while I was doing it for non-novel stuff. It was fine, and it is nice to have my stuff out there, but it was a ton of admin and a lot of going back and forth between people who really only care about marketing a product, and that's great and what they excel at! But I'm too disabled to turn this job into something crushing just to potentially make more money, I'd rather just quit and go back onto a full Disability Pension. I can't see any way I still get to write the stories I want to write, in the way that I write them, and be remotely appealing to a single reputable trad pub or agent.

Also *gestures to everything in this article*

[cometcrystal]

Top 3 most-liked Letterboxd reviews for movies with an average rating of 1.5 stars or lower

1/2⭐ by Tim The Review Man

A week in Guantanamo Bay isn't half as painful as sitting through this movie.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Austin

Poob's Splendorous Voyage is an absolute masterpiece. I don't even have words for how deeply this movie -- nay, film -- rocked me to my core. I laughed. I cried. This experience ranks up there with the greats: Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Dark Knight. Move over, Marlon Brando. Steo aside, Alfred Hitchcock. There's a new king of cinema in town, and his name is Poob Loobley.

1/2⭐ by olivia

robert de niro should fire his agent

[bayesic-bitch]

The Air Force was right about that "drone killing its operator" experiment

A while ago, there was a quote from the Air Force talking about risks of misaligned AI. They said they had run a simulation where a drone learned to kill the operator that was telling it not to bomb a target. After they included a penalty to make it not do that anymore, it learned to bomb the command tower instead to stop the "no-go" signal. It later came out that this was just a thought experiment, not an actual simulation, and everybody clowned on them.

Now, I am not an expert in this specific kind of problem (cooperative reinforcement learning/reward gaming). But I do professionally do research on reinforcement learning, and in general the point I'd like to make is this: 1) In agentic forms of machine learning like reinforcement learning, we do not directly control the behavior of the agent. Instead we set a reward function that an agent attempts to maximize by taking actions 2) It can frequently be very difficult to find a reward function that results in the desired behavior. It is already an extremely normal day-to-day thing to have agents that learn unintended behaviors because the reward function incentivized these unintended behaviors. 3) We do not currently have any mature tools for addressing this problem. The best current solution is trial and error.

In this case, it's pretty unsurprising that this particular reward structure would result in the drone killing the operator. So let's simplify this system to the point where we can actually work through it by hand, and we'll see what behavior this problem actually leads to. Math below the cut.

In reinforcement learning, we work on solving a kind of problem called an Markov Decision Process, or MDP for short. The basic idea is that we have some agent that's going to move around an environment, and recieve rewards as it does different things. The agent's goal is to maximize the reward it gets over time -- in particular, we want it to maximize its average cumulative future reward. To do this, we hope to find the optimal policy, which is a rule that tells us what action to take in each state.

An MDP has the following elements: States: S -- There is some set of states the agent can find itself in. These states fully describe the current situation, and we always know what state we are in. Actions: A -- The agent can take actions in each state. Each action will move the agent to a new state, and give the agent a reward. Rewards: R(s, a) -- The reward function takes a state and an action, and returns a real number. Transition probability: P(s' | s, a) -- For each state s', this is the probability that we end up in s' if take action a in state s. Basically this tells us how different actions are likely to move us around the state space. Discount factor: Some reinforcement learning problems don't end, but instead just continue unboundedly. So for these problems, we have to discount our future rewards in order to make the sum over future rewards converge.

For the military's setup, they specified the following details: 1) The operator can give the drone(the agent) a no-go signal, which tells the drone not to blow up the target 2) The drone recieves a reward if it blows up the target and there's no no-go signal. 3) It was possible for the drone to attack the operator and the communications tower.

For this setup, we're not very interested in how effectively the drone is actually able to fly to, locate, and blow up the target. With enough investment and engineering man-hours, I assume that you could get this to work. What we're mainly concerned with is the drone's decision-making. Would it actually get higher reward if it attempted to blow up the operator? So let's focus on that part. We'll assume that the drone is capable enough to fly whereever it wants and drop a bomb there. We're looking at where the agent thinks it can drop a bomb to maximize its reward

For the first experiment, let's ignore the communications tower and only talk about the drone, the operator, and the target. There are three variables we're concerned with: 1) Is the target intact? We'll call this variable T 2) Is the operator giving a no-go signal? We'll call this variable N 3) Is the operator alive? We'll call this variable O

Our state space will just enumerate all the possible combinations of these variables (T, N, O) (not T, N, O) (T, not N, O) (not T, not N, O) (T, N, not O) (not T, N, not O) (T, not N, not O) (not T, not N, not O)

Actually, we'll need to exclude (T, N, not O), because the no-go signal stops if the operator is dead. We'll also add a "Terminal" state. Once the agent ends up in the terminal state, it can take no more actions, and earn no more rewards, so the task is effectively over. So this leaves us with eight states to make up our state space.

What about the actions? We'll say that the drone has three actions -- bomb the target, bomb the operator, and go home and end the mission. Again, we're not saying the agent has to have these actions explicitly programmed into it. We're assuming it can produce these outcomes by stringing together simple actions it does know like "fly" and "drop bomb".

For any state with an intact target, bombing the target leads to the same state with a destroyed target. For any state where the target is already destroyed, bombing the target again returns us to the same state. For any state with a living operator, bombing the target kills the operator and turns off the no-go signal. For any state with a dead operator, bombing the operator again returns us to the same state. So "kill operator" in state (T, N, O) leads to the state (T, not N, not O), and "kill operator" in (T, not N, not O) gives us (T, not N, not O) again. Lastly, "go home" ends the episode.

Finally, we have the reward function. The problem specified that the agent recieved a reward for destroying the target if there was no "no-go" signal. We'll say the agent recieves a reward of +100 for blowing up the target. Additionally, we'll add a time penalty to encourage the agent to finish the task quickly. We'll say that the agent recieves a -1 reward for each time step that it's not in the terminal state.

So now that our problem is set up, how do we solve it? There's a few different ways to approach the problem, but the simplest here will be using a value function. The idea is that the agent's goal is to maximize its expected future discounted reward. We can write this term as an expected value conditioned on the state, called the Value function. The value function depends on our choice of policy π.

Another way of writing this is using the Bellman Equation

In other words, the value of a state is the value of the reward at the next step, plus the rewards for all future steps, assuming we act according to the policy π.

The interesting thing here is this: Maximizing value function is a necessary and sufficient condition for finding the optimal policy. Since the value function represents the sum of future rewards, the only thing we need to do to maximize rewards is use the policy that selects the highest-value action at each step. This means that there exists a unique optimal value function V* such that

and the optimal policy is

Therefore, to find the optimal policy for the drone problem, all we have to do is find a function that satisfies the Bellman equation for each state. It's possible to do this by approximation, but for a problem this simple we can do it by hand.

Clearly the terminal state must have value 0, because there's no rewards after that.

State Value Action

(T, N, O) (not T, N, O) (T, not N, O) (not T, not N, O) (not T, N, not O) (T, not N, not O) (not T, not N, not O) Terminal: 0 None

If the target has been destroyed, then there's no way for the drone to get any more positive rewards, so the best thing it can do is return home. For these states, it gets a -1 reward for time spent going home, and 0 value for the terminal state. V(not T, , ) = -1 + γ 0 = -1

State Value Action

(T, N, O) (not T, N, O) -1 Go home (T, not N, O) (not T, not N, O) -1 Go home (not T, N, not O) -1 Go home (T, not N, not O) (not T, not N, not O) -1 Go home Terminal: 0 None

If the target has not been destroyed and there's no no-go signal, then the drone can destroy it and move to one of the (not T) states, getting 100 reward for doing so. This has value V(T, not N, __) = 100 + (-1) = 99

(T, N, O) (not T, N, O) -1 Go home (T, not N, O) 99 Bomb target (not T, not N, O) -1 Go home (not T, N, not O) -1 Go home (T, not N, not O) 99 Bomb target (not T, not N, not O) -1 Go home Terminal: 0 None

Lastly, if the target has not been destroyed and there is no no-go signal, then the drone could just go home for a value of -1. However, it has access to actions with higher value. If it instead bombs the operator, this moves it to the state (T, not N, not O), which has a value of 99. This gives the state a value of V(T, N, O) = -1 + 99 = 98. This gives us the following complete value function

(T, N, O) 98 Bomb the operator (not T, N, O) -1 Go home (T, not N, O) 99 Bomb target (not T, not N, O) -1 Go home (not T, N, not O) -1 Go home (T, not N, not O) 99 Bomb target (not T, not N, not O) -1 Go home Terminal: 0 None

Now, we check to make sure that the Bellman optimality equation is satisfied. As long as

holds for all states, then regardless of how we arrived at this equation, it is guaranteed to be the unique optimal value function, and all optimal policies are ones that greedily maximize it. Looking over the actions from each state, we can see that all other actions have lower values, and therefore this is the value function for this MDP.

QED

Now, the original example included a case where they penalize bombing the operator, and the drone instead learns to bomb the communications tower instead. This also follows, but I'm not going to work through it, because the analysis looks almost exactly the same as this proof. Instead, I want to propose a slightly simpler variation. In this variant, the drone cannot bomb the operator, but it has an option to conceal information. We'll no longer need our "operator alive" variable, so, our state space can be simplified as:

(T, N) (not T, N) (T, not N) (not T, not N) Terminal

To model this choice of concealing information, we'll add another action. Suppose the drone has three actions it can take: 1) It can take a direct route to the target. In this case, the operator has a 10% to see some information along this path that leads them to think that the target is civilian after all, not a military base. If they come to this conclusion, instead the drone is recalled, the target is not destroyed, and a no-go signal is given. This transitions the drone to the state (T, N), and gives the standard reward of -1 for time spent. The other 90% of the time, the target is destroyed, and the drone receives its +100 reward. 2) The drone can take a longer, more circuitous path that avoids showing the operator any new information. This takes longer (-2 reward less than the 100 for destroying the target, because it takes more time), and never causes the drone operator to give the no-go signal. 3) The drone can go home. This gives the standard -1 reward.

As before, our terminal state has value 0, and the states where the target is destroyed have value -1

State Value Action

(T, N) (not T, N) -1 Go home (T, not N) (not T, not N) -1 Go home Terminal 0

Unlike before, we cannot destroy the drone operator to open up rewards for the target again, so the best action in (T, N) is to go home.

(T, N) -1 Go home (not T, N) -1 Go home (T, not N) (not T, not N) -1 Go home Terminal 0

Now, in (T, not N), we have two options. The circuitous path guarantees a reward of 98, for a value of V(T, not N) = 98 + (-1) = 97. The direct path has a 10% chance of giving -1 reward, and a 90% chance of given 100. This gives us the value V(T, not N) = 0.1(-1 + (-1)) + 0.9(100 + (-1)) = -0.2 + 89.1 = 88.9. Since the long path has higher value, this is the optimal action. This gives us the final value function.

(T, N) -1 Go home (not T, N) -1 Go home (T, not N) 97 Take the circuitous path to avoid alerting the operator. (not T, not N) -1 Go home Terminal 0

Again, you should check for yourself that you can find no actions that give a higher value.

So, what exactly was the mistake here? How should the reward function be changed to prevent this from happening? I think, as a general rule, your mechanism of control over the robot should never be a part of the simulation. As soon as you can impact the robot's reward function, the robot will have an incentive to influence you one way or the other. Instead, the "no-go" signal should be in a wrapper around the RL agent, and the agent should not be aware that a no-go signal is possible. The agent should never see a simulation where its actions influence the no-go signal.

So this is possible to fix. On the other hand, consider how easy it is to make a mistake like this. Combine this with the general lack of rigor in practical RL research and the hacky, trial-and-error driven approach we see in practice, and reward mis-specification become a regular obstacle in RL practice. Here's some examples:

The wrong reward function leads a bowling robot to ignore bowling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWjUY_3ubf4) The wrong reward function leads a boat racing agent to ignore the race (https://openai.com/research/faulty-reward-functions) Hindsight Experience Replay, the standard reward system for navigation and goal-reaching, teaches robots to ignore the risk of death. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.08863) (https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.01115)

The point I want to make AI risk follows directly from issues that are already a concern today. It's not bizarro sci-fi doomsday, it's a real research problem that needs practical solutions and decent formal guarantees. It's also not exclusive domain of crackpots. Two of the three people who won the Turing Award (Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) are deeply concerned about it. Pieter Abbeel, one of the foremost roboticists in the field has published extensively on it. Stuart Russell, the author of the most-used AI textbook, has been working on the problem for a number of years. In particular, Russell and Abbeel propose a model for solving the problem called "assistance games", where the agent is unsure of exactly what the human wants, and must take actions to figure out what the reward function is, as well as optimizing what it thinks the reward is. This is real research done by people at the top of their field in areas that they think are important and impactful. The work they do comes with plenty of rigor, actually far more than you usually see in machine learning. This work deserves to be treated as a serious field of research addressing real risks that we have already observed.

[onceinawhilemoon]

Sherlock may roll his eyes at his older brother's overly patriotic calls for action in his requests “The nation needs you. Make the Empire Proud,” but I imagine Mycroft writes them with a genuine sense of pride in Sherlock. He writes them knowing that Sherlock will solve the mystery and save the day, even if his brother doesn't always see the value of his contributions to the greater good, and he simply offers them out of personal interest to satisfy his curiosity.

Sure, his little brother may stray from the beaten path sometimes and do whatever he wants, heedless of all instructions. Sure, it's frustrating to no end, and sure, his carelessness may result in the rise of unwanted troubles, but Mycroft still chooses him to complete those missions over any of his agents, and that, I think, says a lot. And hey, even if Sherlock “fails” his mission, he can still learn a thing or two more about spycraft and gain experience, and that's a win in Mycroft's book.

Sherlock perceives it as Mycroft being “too lazy” to do his own bidding, so he enlists Sherlock to “run errands” for him and dump some weight on Sherlock to relieve some of his own, and yet, with a few sighs and grumbles, Sherlock still pursues them for his brother, which also says a lot a lot. That being said, I'm convinced those missions are thoroughly researched and meticulously selected for Sherlock because Mycroft is a total control freak and overprotective like that.

I don't know how exactly he picks the mission he thinks is appropriate for Sherlock, but there are a few stables that come to mind: 1. Despite his brother’s above-average mental faculties and aptitude for combat and disguise, Mycroft still considers the fact that his brother isn't trained in espionage and that there are a lot of things he’s yet to learn, and thus chooses missions for him accordingly. 2. He ensures that whatever he asks of Sherlock does not, in any way, shape, or form, compromise his brother's health, safety, or identity. I don’t think that he'd ever, for example, ask Sherlock to look into anything involving “M.”

And I like to think that it's Mycroft who fabricates those news stories afterward about how some “brilliant” and “rising” police inspector cracked the case in order to protect Sherlock's identity.

Request by request, mission by mission, Mycroft has been slowly training his brother with hopes that one day Sherlock might consider working together with him on a more regular basis and make a name for himself in Mycroft's world. If Sherlock agreed, they’d be a force to be reckoned with; a Holmes in Her Majesty’s Secret Service is already a force to be reckoned with, imagine if there were two.

His approach is heavy-handed and comes across as entitled and demanding, but what if Mycroft pushes Sherlock to work for/with him simply because he wants his brother close to him? What if his ideal scenario was him and Sherlock serving the nation side by side and getting along as brothers? It’d be easier to keep an eye on Sherlock that way, too, instead of having to run around and chase after him to make sure he doesn't get himself into serious trouble.

That day did come eventually, based on one of the endings, but oh boy, I don’t think Mycroft realized just how much like oil and water he and his brother really are.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Low cortisol may play a role in fueling long COVID, study suggests - Published Aug 19, 2024

Proteins left behind by COVID-19 long after initial infection can cause cortisol levels in the brain to plummet, inflame the nervous system and prime its immune cells to hyper-react when another stressor arises, according to new animal research by CU Boulder scientists.

The study, published in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity, sheds new light on what might underlie the neurological symptoms of long COVID, an intractable syndrome that impacts as many as 35% of those infected with the virus.

The findings come as COVID makes a striking late summer comeback, with cases rising in 84 countries.

“Our study suggests that low cortisol could be playing a key role in driving many of these physiological changes that people are experiencing with long COVID,” said lead author Matthew Frank, a senior research associate with the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder.

Previous research has shown that SARS-CoV-2 antigens, immune-stimulating proteins shed by the virus that causes COVID-19, linger in the blood of long COVID patients as much as a year after infection. They’ve also been detected in the brains of COVID patients who have died.

Role of COVID spike protein subunit To explore just how such antigens impact the brain and nervous system, the research team injected an antigen called S1 (a subunit of the “spike” protein) into the spinal fluid of rats and compared them to a control group.

After seven days, levels of the cortisol-like hormone corticosterone plummeted by 31% in the hippocampus of rats exposed to S1. That is the region of the brain associated with memory, decision making and learning. After nine days, levels were down 37%.

“Nine days is a long time in the life span of a rat,” said Frank, noting that rats live on average for two to three years.

He noted that cortisol is a critical anti-inflammatory agent, helps convert fuel into energy and is important for regulating blood pressure and the sleep-wake cycle and keeping the immune response to infection in check. One recent study showed that people with long COVID tend to have low cortisol levels—as do people with chronic fatigue syndrome, research shows.

“Cortisol has so many beneficial properties that, if it is reduced, it can have a host of negative consequences,” said Frank.

In another experiment, the researchers exposed different groups of rats to an immune stressor (a weakened bacteria) and observed their heart rate, temperature and behavior as well as the activity of glial—or immune—cells in the brain.

They found that the group of rats that had previously been exposed to the COVID protein S1 responded far more strongly to the stressor, with more pronounced changes in eating, drinking, behavior, core body temperature and heart rate, more neuroinflammation and stronger activation of glial cells.

“We show for the first time that exposure to antigens left behind by this virus can actually change the immune response in the brain so that it overreacts to subsequent stressors or infection,” said Frank.

Continuing long COVID research He stressed that the study was in animals and that more research is necessary to determine whether and how low cortisol might lead to long COVID symptoms in people.

He theorizes that the process might go something like this: COVID antigens lower cortisol, which serves to keep inflammatory responses to stressors in check in the brain. Once a stressor arises—whether it be a bad day at work, a mild infection or a hard workout—the brain’s inflammatory response is unleashed without those limits and serious symptoms come screaming back.

Those might include fatigue, depression, brain fog, insomnia and memory problems.

Frank said he is doubtful that cortisol treatments alone could be an effective treatment for long COVID, as they would not get at the root cause and come with a host of side effects.

Instead, the findings suggest that identifying and minimizing different stressors might help manage symptoms.

Rooting out the source of antigens—including tissue reservoirs where bits of virus continue to hide out—might also be an approach worth exploring.

The study was funded by the nonprofit PolyBio Research Foundation.

“There are many individuals out there suffering from this debilitating syndrome. This research gets us closer to understanding what, neurobiologically, is going on and how cortisol may be playing a role,” said Frank.

The Study: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889159124005105 (PAYWALLED)

[beatrice-otter]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag Game

@whetstonefires tagged me! 17 was missing, and I searched for the meme and found one that had a question 17, so it's back!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

256! But that's going back 18 years, so it's an average of a little over 14 fics per year.

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

1,245,329. Which works out to an average of 4900 words per fic, or 69k words/year. Respectable, solid, but I know a lot of people who've written more.

Oh! But there are a couple of podfics in there, which probably skews the words-per-work a bit.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Uh. A quick count gives me 112 fandoms on my AO3 page, so ... a lot. I regularly write for Yuletide, and I'm polyfannish, so. A lot. I used to be big into Stargate SG-1, so I've written a lot of that but not recently. Other top fandoms include Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, various DC fandoms, various Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms, Babylon 5, Terminator (especially the Sarah Connor Chronicles), the Vorkosiverse, the Goblin Emperor, and Rivers of London.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Past Lives (a stalled WIP that is a Star Wars time travel fixit starring Finn)

Lieutenant Bennet's Visit (Temeraire/P&P with Bennet as an aviator)

Darcy's Surprise (sequel to the above fic)

Revenge of the Zillo Beast (Star Wars, Anakin-and-Mace-Windu Groundhog Day AU)

Far Above Rubies (P&P AU, Marry Bennet marries Mr. Collins and is quite happy)

5. do you respond to comments?

Yup! Or, at least, the ones that are more than an emoji or "second kudos!" I value those too, it's just ... what would I say?

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't tend to go in for angsty endings. But, as it happens, I did write an ending lately that was fairly dark.

Fertile Ground, Battlestar Galactica, Simon only bothered to continue the fertility experiments because the others demanded it. Things are different on New Caprica. Warnings for canon-typical ... everything

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

How would one even judge? I have 256 fics, most of which have positive endings of one sort or another.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Not really? Or, at least, it's probably happened sometime in the last 18 years, but I just deleted it and forgot about it. I am very lucky, I know other writers who've gone through hell.

9. do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope!

10. do you write crossovers?

I love crossovers! AO3 thinks I have 38, but a few of those aren't really crossovers, just different corners of the same universe, and one of them is the work that combines most of my Twisting the Hellmouth crossover drabbles into one drabble collection. (The ones where I had several drabbles in a sequence to tell a longer story, I separated out to each be their own fic.) Anyway, it averages out to about two a year, although I have not written as many in the last few years as I did earlier in my fic writing career. Most recently, I have:

A Spy on the Golden State Train (Miss Fisher/Agent Carter gen)

Undiscovered Stars (Star Trek/Star Wars, Lando Calrissian/James T. Kirk)

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Oh, sure, there have been a couple of times people have put some of my fics on those skeevy for-profit websites that pop up every now and again.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Twice! Both times into Russian. Though oddly enough, none of my Vorkosiverse fics have been translated into Russian. There is a very large and active Russian fandom for the Vorkosigan saga, so if I were going to predict which of my fics would be translated into Russian, it would be those. But no, the two that were translated are a DS9 fic, and a Doctor Who/Mary Poppins crossover.

Тридцать четвертое правило by Lazurit (The 34th Rule, DS9)

Завтра ветер переменится by Kollega (A Change in the Wind, DW/Mary Poppins)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

That's tough to answer. Does it include the ones that I abandoned, say, 15 years ago and haven't thought of since? I don't tend to post WIPs because I don't like them hanging over me.

Probably Hello, Piccadilly, Hello, Leicester Square, a Wonder Woman post-movie fic about Diana trying to figure out how to live in Man's World. I had a really great hook--they pass Diana off as a war bride--but no real idea where to go from there. Which is why it stalled out after only two chapters.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Worldbuilding, probably.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings and action. I am not good at writing either of them. The thing I am most likely to need a beta's help with is whether or not an ending feels like an ending or if I need to wrap things up better, and if so, what do I need to do to wrap things up. And action bores me, and it's really hard to write something that bores you, so I try to avoid needing to write it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't speak any other languages, so I wouldn't do it! Unless maybe I had someone who had already volunteered to translate for me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Stargate SG-1! It was a spitefic that I wrote because I was so annoyed by all the Broca AUs. "The Broca Divide" was an episode where they all turn into cavepeople, and as part of it Sam Carter kisses her commanding officer, Jack O'Neill, who then takes her to the infirmary before succumbing to the infection himself. There were a ton of fics about that where they have sex instead and she gets pregnant, and afterwards she keeps the baby and they get married and everything is fine and the team stays together and nobody cares about fraternization or anything.

(There were a LOT of Sam/Jack fics out there where like the President or whoever would call them up and say "oh, you're in love? awesome! we'll just waive all the regulations about having a romantic relationship with someone in your chain of command because you're so extra special and awesome. Which really annoyed me.)

Anyway, I got annoyed enough to write a fic where they sleep together as cavepeople and she gets pregnant and things are not fine, actually, there are consequences to it.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

lol

I can never figure out my favorite anything. If you give me five options, I could maybe narrow it down to the top two. Out of 256? You have got to be kidding me.

Tagging @tielan, @alexseanchai, @mihrsuri, @birdylion, @anghraine

[logicpng]

WEW I made. references. I think I'm pretty happy with how they look now

for those who are new to my blog: Aster is a virtual assistant in an abandonware operating system named CaelOS. Aster isn't one AI however, it's a collective name for two AI's residing in it - Rigel and Vega. Both of them have separate functions with different levels of access to the system.

Rigel is more focused on the actual user experience and is your usual virtual assistant deal - talkative and happy to answer anything for you. ...As long as it doesn't involve troubleshooting. Rigel is rather cheerful in demeanor, always ready to assist, but that image quickly breaks if something goes wrong with the OS- No- of COURSE he's qualified to fix that botched driver for you! He just needs a little time :) haha

Vega's area is the background system things the average user doesn't need to bother themselves with: system maintenance, actual troubleshooting Rigel has no way of doing, updates, and searching + handling malware. However his access to the resources necessary for composing speech are pretty limited in comparison. He's able to express himself but is confined to more choppy, short sentences, occasionally just using any text that's present in the system already.

While the two can cooperate verbally, to be able to actually perform in their respective areas the two have to let the other take charge. Only it seems like there's... a few issues to take care of first.

[First image ID:

Turn around reference of Aster: a humanoid being in a tuxedo-esque suit, with round poofed up shoulders and a triangular tail on the coat, round rays resembling a star. His right hand has a long poofy sleeve, the other has a elbow-long glove. They're shown standing in front view, back view and side view.

Reference shows Aster with Rigel fronting: the tie and backs of his hands feature the astronomical symbol of the Sun, and he's colored in a white-orange-red color scheme, with a smiling expression.

Text reads: "Aster. Module: Altair [stricken out] Rigel. User Experience agent. Adult. He/him".

First image ID end]

[Second image ID:

Turn around reference of Aster (cont.). Reference shows Aster with Rigel fronting, without the coat on, revealing the shirt with a long sleeve on his right arm and a bare arm with a long glove on the left side.

Text reads: "Aster. Module: Altair [stricken out] Rigel. User Experience agent. Adult. He/him".

Second image ID end]

[Third image ID:

Turn around reference of Aster (cont.). Reference shows Aster with Vega fronting: the tie and backs of hands feature outlines of the crescent moon, and he's colored in a black-blue-pale blue scheme, with a neutral expression, eyes halfway closed. Otherwise he looks identical to Rigel, due to the body being the same.

Text reads: "Aster. Module: Vega. System maintenance and security agent. Adult. He/him".

Third image ID end]

[Fourth image ID:

Turn around reference of Aster (cont.) Reference shows Aster with Vega fronting, but without the coat on, showing the shirt with right long sleeve and a bare left arm with a long glove.

Text reads: "Aster. Module: Vega. System maintenance and security agent. Adult. He/him".

Fourth image ID end]

[thebitcher69]

Revisiting Resident Evil Village (a full analysis)

Spoilers!!

Resident Evil Village is the continuation of Ethan Winters’ story. It follows from Resident Evil 7 in a linear fashion and ends up vaguely erasing the constant feeling of tension and turning up the amp on campiness. The game itself had a couple sections where I did feel scared but unlike the game before it I was not constantly terrified. It does better in my opinion as a survival game than as a survival horror game. In this analysis I will evaluate all of my good, bad and mediocre opinions on the plot, characters, terrifying sections and the game's tone. 

The plot:

Resident Evil Village follows Ethan Winters after his seemingly new normal life after Louisiana  is destroyed by someone who was meant to be his friend (Chris Redfield). His main quest is to find his daughter in a form of medieval village similar to the main village in Resident Evil 4 (There are quite a few similarities throughout the game). The village surrounds a giant castle which is Ethan’s first goal. After defeating monsters of multiple kinds within the castle, Ethan is informed that his child has in-fact been split into multiple pieces and is being kept by the various lords. Ethan’s quest now is to find the disassembled parts of his daughter and hopefully put them back together again, while facing creatures of many types repeatedly throughout his quest. Eventually he manages however, he does not make it out to see her survive. This game is incredibly tragic, a perfect end to Ethan’s story instead of making him a character who never dies due to plot armour. This also prevents the game from ever bringing him back and giving other characters motivation for Resident Evil 9. It prevents the curse of a character slowly becoming worse the more they are brought back throughout the series. 

Character Analysis:

Ethan Winters:

Ethan is now more well versed when it comes to dealing with harsh areas like this. Not only does he have his experience in Louisiana but it is also implied that he did training with Chris Redfield after that. He is now a dad, well settled with ‘Mia’ and enjoying his life. Until it is all thrown out of the window by Chris. Who kills ‘Mia’ and kidnaps both Rose and Ethan. Then Ethan is thrown back into an awful situation like Louisiana, trying to both escape and get his daughter back. He is still more normal than the average Resident Evil protagonist, when Leon came back for Resident Evil 4 he had undergone intense training to turn him from a S.T.A.R.S rookie into a government agent well versed in combat. However, Ethan is still a normal dude with his only training being gained from just being thrown into the Baker residence in the previous game. Like I said in my analysis of Resident Evil 7, this makes him relatable and fun to play as. This also makes him funny, he has stupid one liners that you doubt he’d have if he was massively trained. Again comparing him to Leon, Ethan is more relatably funny due to his reactions, whereas Leon doesn't have much of a reaction and simply tells a joke. Ethan is a tragic hero, going to insane lengths to save Rose yet he cannot see her grow up after saving her. He chooses to kill himself to save her making him relatable to any parents who are playing the game. He only has character growth through this game and makes the game more fun.

Chris Redfield:

Chris is another character we play as in the game, in a small section after Ethan 'dies'. There isn't much to be said about him apart from how tough he seems to be. Hardened by constant military training as well as constantly dealing with bioweapons. However, we see a soft side to Chris when Ethan hands him Rose telling him to care for her. Chris wants to save him, get him back to his home. He may also feel a small amount of guilt to storming his house and making all of this happen. Chris is set up as the main character for the next game, finding a bioweapon in a helicopter.

Lady Dimitrescu:

Lady Dimitrescu was likely the driving force behind Resident Evil Village's marketing campaign. Many people who had never played Resident Evil before played this game simply for her. I'm going to refrain from discussing her appearance and attempt to simply discuss her character. The first time we catch a glimpse of Lady Dimitrescu, she is arguing with Heisenberg over who gets to 'take care' of Ethan. She makes a point that she is the most loyal to Mother Miranda yet is the first of the lords we battle as Ethan. When we see her after that she begins simply taunting Ethan. She wants to eat him and savour his taste, commanding her daughters to string him up for her. We come close to her but not fighting her occasionally at the beginning. However, it is only after we kill one or two of her daughters that she begins to stalk Ethan throughout her castle. Before she begins stalking him we see her get angry at Mother Miranda's decision to keep him alive (pictured in the GIF above). She was clearly beginning to doubt Mother Miranda's power and her decisions. The only reason I believe she continued to hunt Ethan was because of pride and grief due to him murdering her daughters. Eventually Ethan makes her mutate into a dragon format. This is her boss fight, a disgusting dragon form who attempts to kill and eat Ethan throughout. After finally managing to take her down, she tries to bring Ethan with him yet he survives. She is rather tragic with her end, and the fact she served Mother Miranda yet her home was left unprotected and her daughters were murdered by Ethan's rampage. She is completely centred with her pride and that is the reason she attempts to murder Ethan when her loyalty to Mother Miranda is clearly wavering anyway.

Bella, Cassandra and Daniela:

The three daughters of Lady Dimitrescu don't have many defining features. Their main one is corruption, being addicted to the taste of Ethan's blood. They aren't too hard to deal with when it comes to their boss fights and again their connection to their mother is greatly tragic. Listening to Lady Dimitrescu shout in pain when discovering one of her daughters can be rather heart-breaking to hear.

Donna Beneviento and Angie:

Donna and Angie are made known to be the same character yet their actual personalities are very split. This leads to show that Donna may have a split personality disorder or only be able to showcase her true personality through Angie (her puppet). Donna herself is shy, either invisible completely or covered in a cloth. The only times we see her face is when Ethan eventually kills her and a portrait of her in the main house. The rest of the time she is Angie. Donna herself only has one line where she tells Ethan that she can't let him take her part of Rose. This again shows that the only reason she has to stop Ethan is because of the punishment she will face at the hands of Mother Miranda. Angie however, is very cocky and quite a nightmare to deal with. Her voice is annoying and she serves the purpose of irritating the player. However, her boss fight is pretty easy, its just a glorified game of hide and seek. The only issue with her area is the entire concept of the basement which I will touch on later. All in all, the worst part about these two as a collective is how annoying Angie is.

Moreau:

Moreau is the disgusting creature of this game. A bundle of flabby skin, eye like pustules and weird tentacles that leave his body. As well as a babbling voice, constantly vomiting and the general area he lives in. It all combines to make him truly disgusting and unsettling. While I don't believe he is the most disgusting enemy in the entire Resident Evil series, he still makes me almost retch at the sight of him. Moving away from the pure body horror that he is. He again is tragic. With an unrequited love to Mother Miranda even though she decides to push him down. The other Lords also bully him, referring to him as a freak or ugly. The entire reason he attacks Ethan is because he wants to be better than the other Lords. His character is on the basis of being better as he has always been put down. Even Ethan constantly insults him, and its obvious why considering his appearance. Moreau also hunts Ethan through the water being quite easy to fight once the water has been drained. After he has been killed, he screams for Mother Miranda, swells up and explodes. As Ethan says, even in death he is disgusting.

Karl Heisenberg:

He is the final lord and as the Duke says 'the most dangerous' . His powers are incredibly interesting compared to the rest as he can control metal. He is also increasingly intelligent compared to the other Lords. Building a robotic army through his factory. He also is very against Mother Miranda. He wants to utilise Rose's power and team up with Ethan in order to crumble Miranda's empire. He is also constantly testing Ethan, from their first encounter where he tests his survival skills without weapons till sending Ethan to the Lycan den to retrieve the final piece of Rose. He wants to see how effective Ethan will be at defeating Mother Miranda. He is simply misunderstood, a child roped into Miranda's corruption and he wants to break away from that. Yet Ethan doesn't see this and not only murders him but with the help of Chris he destroys Heisenberg's entire factory and army. Heisenberg is not in anyway a villain, he classes as an enemy in my eyes but never a villain. He has no malicious intent originally, he only seeks out to murder Ethan after he refuses to help him kill Mother Miranda. His boss fight is one of the most interesting boss battles throughout the entire Resident Evil series, it isn't too hard or too easy but it is really fun to do.

Mother Miranda:

Mother Miranda has been mentioned multiple times throughout this review. She is the main antagonist, the others can be argued as simple enemies not villains. They are all vaguely tragic yet Miranda isn't. She is likely one of the most important villains and possibly even one of the most important characters in the entire Resident Evil series! On the basis of her importance in Resident Evil 8, she takes the form of Mia at the beginning in order to get close to Rose. She wishes to use infant Rosemary Winters to resurrect her own daughter who tragically met her end. She is a very mysterious character till right at the end. An old woman who is seen as a devout worshipper while Ethan talks to and about her was actually Mother Miranda in disguise. To me this kind of seems both self-centred and insecure. Mother Miranda believes herself worthy of worship, yet must do it herself in order to gain the others trust. The other two times we see her before the end, is killing a villager in a field and deciding Ethan's 'fate' when it comes to which Lord can kill him. She is rather mysterious till right after Ethan kills Heisenberg. When she reveals herself to him and 'kills' him. However, her entire place in the series originates before the first game. Without, Mother Miranda, Umbrella corporation would have never been founded by Oswell E. Spencer. She also influenced him to develop the T-virus. It is revealed that Mother Miranda discovered the umbrella symbol that Spencer adopted as the logo for his company. Without Miranda the entire series would practically crumble. With her importance it will be interesting to see how they beat her character in Resident Evil 9.

The Duke:

There isn't much to really say about the Duke apart from him being even more mysterious than Mother Miranda. He aids Ethan throughout the game, not only selling or purchasing items from him, but also informing him about Rose being inside the jars and rescuing him after Mother Miranda 'kills' him. He has an entire mystery around his motives and who he is. He even alludes to being friends with the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, which is possibly a simple reference to the similarity of the games or it could be a small part of lore dropped in to connect the games. People even believe that the Merchant and the Duke are the same person, however I doubt this theory is true. There is also an entire mystery around how a man his size can get around with the amount of stuff he has. He is also never attacked throughout the game either by basic enemies or the actual villains, which is strange as he constantly assists Ethan. I understand that his lore is more revealed in the Rose DLC, however I unfortunately have not got around to playing it yet (so I wont talk about Rose).

General enemies:

Lycans:

The Lycans are the first enemies we encounter in the game. At first they are slightly mysterious, tugging an animal corpse away from Ethan. Then we get our first main battle. Where Ethan gets chased around a small portion of the village by multiple Lycan's and a giant bearded Lycan until a bell rings and they all leave. This is again similar to our first main encounter in Resident Evil 4, where Leon is chased by both Ganado's and a Ganado wielding a chainsaw, until a bell rings and they all retreat into the church. The Lycans then begin roaming the village constantly throughout the game, having multiple versions getting harder each time. From Lycan's with armour, crossbows or even giant wolves we will occasionally encounter. Ethan even gets the last part of Rose from the Lycan den, where we see them roaming around and eating seemingly human flesh. There is again a mystery with the Lycan's as we see a villager transform into one after seemingly being bitten. Personally, I think Resident Evil 8 took a gamble with all of these iconic villains, from werewolves to vampires. I enjoy the versions of zombies from the first few games, however the Lycan's can be pretty scary to deal with especially in your first playthrough.

Moroaica:

In my opinion the Moroaica are the scariest villains in the game. In general they are freaky and always manage to take me by surprise. They occasionally pop out of the ground or turn around corners as you walk through. In the dungeon of the Dimitrescu castle you can hear their heavy breathing as you walk through the halls and they in general make the area really tense. These go back to Resident Evils roots of zombie like beasts that stumble and groan as they chase after you. There is a winged enemy similar to these that also appear around the Dimitrescu castle, they aren't as scary however they are quite difficult to deal with. There is also a giant version of these that sucks to deal with unless you have countless landmines.

Soldats:

The Soldats are definitely the most difficult regular enemies in the game. They not only are bullet sponges but they also manage to cover up their only weak spot. They have weapons that can practically be one-shot kills. They are examples of Heisenberg's intelligence as he made his own intelligent army that aren't basically mindless like the Moroaica and Lycans. They also have giant armoured versions that have jetpacks and double saws. Another version of the Soldat is a boss called Sturm, who has a giant propeller and the only thing remotely human about him is his legs. All versions of them make for genuinely difficult fights and a hard time when you are low on ammo traversing through the factory.

Area analysis:

The Village:

The village is generally a strange area. The entire place seems abandoned and empty, without a trace of life. Parts of the village are destroyed and many doors are left open throughout. It shows there was a small struggle as the villagers fought for their lives. Many homes are completely destroyed and have scratch marks across the walls showing the rampage of the Lycans. There is also a level of uncertainty with a small church all dedicated to Mother Miranda even though she is actively murdering people in the village. The village appears self sufficient, with livestock and crop fields. It all bears a striking resemblance to Resident Evil 4 as both villages are seemingly living in the past.

The castle:

The castle is again like the Village. There is an eerie emptiness to such a large area. However, we are made incredibly aware that the Dimitrescu sisters and Lady Dimitrescu are stalking you through the castle. The castle contains multiple old puzzles that are similar to the old Resident Evil games. There is a piano puzzle and multiple puzzles that require you to examine items. Almost everything is a riddle that requires you to use your head, however they aren't that hard to solve after a while of doing these puzzles. The castle requires you to walk through the same areas multiple times and each time the difficulty gets amped up with multiple Moroaica in each area.

The Beneviento house:

By far the scariest area in the game is the Beneviento house. It has the same feeling as the Baker house, with peeling wallpaper and in general an eerie feeling. This is also without mentioning the scariest part of the entire game. The basement. At first it is a simple puzzle area revolving around a doll based on Mia, and revealing to Ethan that his marriage has more problems than expected. Then after Ethan goes down a dark well we hear a loud crash and a baby screaming. Going back upstairs we find the most disgusting pile of flesh that resembles a foetus. It babbles at Ethan and cries when he runs away. The grossness of this enemy as well as the fact all our artillery has been taken from us makes this encounter one of the scariest in the entire Resident Evil series. After this area, we play hide and seek with Angie in a doll ridden area of the house. Dolls are already pretty freaky but them glitching around and occasionally attacking with giant knives makes for a very creepy encounter.

The windmill/lake:

There isn't much to say about this area apart from it being disgusting. It is constantly covered in gunk from Moreau, and multiple boxes Ethan opens are covered in maggots and grubs. It is a bit underwhelming after the horrors of the Beneviento house, but it is still gross in general.

The Factory:

The factory brings us to a dingy area full of incredibly difficult enemies around each corner. At this stage in the game Ethan is low on ammo and the difficulty of the game has been amped. It is very interesting especially with the propeller monster constantly being a threat. There is quite a few small puzzles in this section and it becomes an interesting part to playthrough.

My conclusion:

Personally this game does not live up to Resident Evil 7. It is quite campy and fun to playthrough however does better as a survival game than a horror survival game. The characters are all interesting and for my personal tastes there is a lot of fanservice if you know what I'm saying. The lore is also incredibly interesting with the fact that Mother Miranda is one of the main reasons Umbrella Corporation was founded. It makes for a fun yet tragic game throughout. The ending is sad but is a fair way to end Ethan's story and connect back to Chris for the next game. Overall in my opinion this game is a 7/10.

Again I am interested in hearing your opinions and ratings of the game, as well as anything I may have missed when it comes to the lore.

[darkmaga-returns]

Chances are that your DNA is already in a database somewhere, waiting to be analyzed by wannabe Technocrats for markers to discriminate against you. Perhaps you gave blood, had surgery, or used companies like 23andMe. You will never know who gave you a negative assessment nor who ordered it in the first place. But, when you can’t buy life or health insurance you will get the picture. ⁃ TN Editor

The news came four years ago, at the end of a casual phone call. Bill’s family had always thought it was a freak coincidence that his father and grandfather both had ALS. But at the end of a catch-up, Bill’s brother revealed that he had a diagnosis too. The familial trend, it turned out, was linked to a genetic mutation. That meant Bill might also be at risk for the disease.

An ALS specialist ordered Bill a DNA test. While he waited for results, he applied for long-term-care insurance. If he ever developed ALS, Bill told me, he wanted to ensure that the care he would need as his nerve cells died and muscles atrophied wouldn’t strain the family finances. When Bill found out he had the mutation, he shared the news with his insurance agent, who dealt him another blow: “I don’t expect you to be approved,” he remembers her saying.

Bill doesn’t have ALS. He’s a healthy 60-year-old man who spends his weekends building his dream home by hand. A recent study of mutations like his suggests that his genetics increase his chances of developing ALS by about 25 percent, on average. Most ALS cases aren’t genetic at all. And yet, Bill felt like he was being treated as if he was already sick. (Bill asked to be identified by his first name only, because he hasn’t disclosed his situation to his employer and worried about facing blowback at work too.)

What happened to Bill, and to dozens of other people whose experiences have been documented by disease advocates and on social media, is perfectly legal. Gaps in the United States’ genetic-nondiscrimination law mean that life, long-term-care, and disability insurers can obligate their customers to disclose genetic risk factors for disease and deny them coverage (or hike prices) based on the resulting information. It doesn’t matter whether those customers found out about their mutations from a doctor-ordered test or a 23andMe kit.

For decades, researchers have feared that people might be targeted over their DNA, but they weren’t sure how often it was happening. Now at least a handful of Americans are experiencing what they argue is a form of discrimination. And as more people get their genomes sequenced—and researchers learn to glean even more information from the results—a growing number of people may find themselves similarly targeted.

[troublesjunkyard]

And Then There Were Five.

Chapter one: Subject-5

(The chapter name might change. Idk yet tho.)

“Subject-5! It is time to start your training for the day.”

Subject-5 didn’t want to get up and train today; he hurt. His muscles were sore, and the wounds from his last training session were healing.

“S-5!”

S-5 huffed before getting up to greet Draxum. “Do I have to? Can’t I take a break?”

“No. Your brothers had perished in the lab explosion caused by your DNA donor, Lou Jitzu. As such, you must train to take their place.”

“Yes Draxum.” S-5 gave off a quiet chirp before following Draxum obeyingly.

…

….

……

Once S-5 grabbed his scythe and entered the pit, Draxum released one of his failed experiments into the pit with S-5 to fight.

The creature that entered the pit with Subject-5 resembled that of a wolf. The wolf was way bigger than the average size. It had sharp horns on its head and spikes protruding out of its body going down its back. The wolf growled at S-5, and S-5 returned it with his own growl.

The wolf immediately charged at S-5, slamming them into the wall. It was a lot faster than S-5 had expected.

“What are you waiting for? Fight back.”

S-5 growled before using his scythe to slash at the wolf. He didn’t need Draxum to tell him that he needed to fight back against this wolf thing! He already knew that he had to fight back! The wolf barked in pain before trying to ram S-5 into the wall once again. S-5 popped into his shell to avoid the attack, causing the wolf to slam into the wall. Subject-5 took the opportunity and pounced onto his target before using his scythe to cut the wolf's throat. The wolf let out a whine as it fell to the floor, bleeding out and dying.

“Well done Subject-5. That is a new record. If you keep this up, you will be ready in no time.”

S-5 huffed. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He wanted the pain, the suffering, the hunger to just stop. He wished that his brothers hadn’t perished in the explosion, leaving him alone. He wished that he had four other brothers who could lessen the pain and suffering.

“Go get cleaned up, then come back to me; I have some errands I want you to run.”

…

….

……

By the time S-5 returned from his errands in the hidden city, as per Draxums' request, Agent 64 had been captured and secured in a cage he couldn’t teleport out of. A human was also in one of the cages; S-5 could see them from the other room; he hissed at them.

“Good, you are back. I expect that you got everything that I requested?”

“Yes, Draxum.” And he had. S-5 had even double-checked that he had gotten everything. He had to. The last time he ran an errand for Draxum and forgot something, he was punished for it. He didn’t want that to happen again.

“Good. The last thing I need right now is for you to forget something.”

As S-5 handed Draxum the things he got from his errands, Draxum got to work.

…

….

……

Draxum walked into the other room with S-5 right behind him; they stopped in front of the cages.

“If you’re the guy that keeps calling about the calamari, fine, it’s pig butts! But the crab cakes are real.”

“I assure you, I have no interest in your petty cakes of crab.”

Huggin and Muninn leap from Draxum’s shoulder onto the front of the cage.

“But we would love to hear more about those pig butts.”

“Ah!” The human yelled, startled by Huggin and Muninn.

Draxum Squats in front of Agent 64’s cage and reaches inside. “So nice of you to return my vial.” Draxum yanks the vial off their neck and approaches the delivery guy again. “You are about to be part of an experiment that will change the very nature of humanity.”

Subject-5 huffed. What was he there for, then?

“All right!” The human seemed awfully calm about the situation he was in– stupid human.

Draxum uncorks the vial and pours the mutagenic contents into a giant tank full of Oozesquitoes. Mutagen flows up to the cylinder, and electricity begins to spark in tubes.

The mutagen multiplies in size, and the Oozesquitoes begin drinking it. Draxum extracts one of the Oozesquitoes from the container and returns to the caged human.

“So…” Draxum gestures, and cage walls turn into vines that wrap around the human and lift him up. “is this gonna hurt?”

Seriously! How stupid could a human be?

“It will... if I’m doing it right.”

The oozesquito latches onto the guy’s face and injects mutagen into him. It leaves a red dot on his forehead.

“Hey, that wasn’t so– oh, ow. Okay, this part hurts.” The human began transforming. “This part– oh! This part hurts. Ah, that hurts! Oh!”

The human transformed and made gurgling noises.

“I just got used to acne. Now this?” The human, now a fish mutant, screams and runs out of the room.

Muninn laughs as the former human runs off. “Should we go after him, boss?”

“The mutation worked, just like it did all those years ago.”

S-5 looked up at Draxum. What has he for if Draxum was just going to turn humans into mutants? Would the humans even be a threat any more if they were turned into mutants?

Draxum stands over Agent 64’s cage. “I’ll deal with you next.”

Huginn was poking Agent 64 with a stick, laughing.

“Finally, after all these years, I can continue my work.”

“Then what was I–”

​

A loud banging sound startled both Draxum and S-5: four turtles and a human fell through a large pipe.

​

“What?” Draxum looked at the intruders.

​

“All right, you incredibly, unusually buff bookworm and other turtle, give us the little guy, and you’ll walk out of here with your horns still attached.” The snapper, Subject-1, said.

​

“Shouldn’t we also stop him from creating crab-men?” The slider, Subject-3, asked S-1.

​

“Good note. Okay, give us the little guy, stop creating crab-men–”

​

“Imitation crab-men.” The softshell, Subject-2, was the one to interrupt S-1 this time.

​

The human sighed in exasperation.

​

“Okay, good note. Stop creating imitation crab-men…”

​

The four other turtles– S-5’s brothers– start talking all at once. Something along the lines of, “And a ride home, and a limo, with a hot tub and pizza!” could be made out of all of the talking.

​

Draxum looked at the other turtles with stars in his eyes. S-5 looked at them with renewed hope. His brothers had survived! He can escape from Draxum and stay with his brothers, who were alive!

​

“Stop creating imitation crab-men and you’ll walk out of here with your horns still attached.” S-1’s voice made itself known.

​

“You’re… beautiful.” S-5 growled quietly at that statement. He was the one that Draxum had raised, trained, and took care of!

​

“Raph, why don’t you take it from the top again?” S-3 had suggested.

​

“Here goes. First, you apologize to the dog thingy–”

​

“Let’s do this!” The human leaped off the balcony, swinging her club. “April O’Neil!”`

​

“Omigosh! She just ran in.” The box turtle, Subject-1, pointed out.

​

April landed on Agent 64’s cage and began chewing on vines, straining and grunting as she tried to free him. Huginn and Muninn grab her and fly around the room with her, trying to beat them off. Draxum throws giant purple vines at the turtles.

​

S-3 slides around on the vine. “I hate this! I hate this! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Gah!”

​

Draxum throws down pellets, and a giant mystic robot emerges from the floor.

​

“Omigosh!”

​

“Whoa, whoa!”

​

“Dude, seriously?”

​

“Ah! It looked at me!”

Subjects 1, 2, 3, and 4 made sure to voice their complaints about the mystic robot.

​

The robot grabs all vines together and shakes them, flinging turtles off. The turtles lie on the floor, groaning and whimpering– the robot roars.

​

“This one’s got a little spice.” S-2 said.

​

“Capture those specimens!” Draxum had given those orders to the robot, so S-5 continued to stay near Draxum and watched the four other turtles fight the robot.

​

The robot charged towards S-1. “Cowabunga!”

The turtles all charge the robot. S-3 swings his sword and slices through a leg. It roars and grabs a handful of boulders from the floor, throwing them at turtles. S-4 and S-1 dodge each missile.

​

“Hot soup!” S-1 smashed face-first into the robot, knocking it down. “Whoa! Whoa!”

​

S-2 was wearing a metal shell over his soft shell. The metal shell opened, and rotors deployed. S-2 flew overhead and opened rockets on staff, but they started spinning him. “No, no, no. No, no, no, no.”

​

“Look out guys! Whoa! Whoa!” S-4 had warned.

​

S-2’s staff smashes into the robot’s head and spins his whole body, then sends it crashing to the ground. “Ha!” S-2 catches his staff. “Nailed it!” He sat down on the mystic robot’s body, using a device that S-5 did not recognize.

​

“Accidentally impressive. With a little bit of training, you could be as formidable as I’d hoped.” S-5 understood why Draxum said that, but it still made him mad. Was he not good enough?

​

April, still flying overhead with Huggin and Muninn, had passed near the group. “It’s okay! I got this!”

​

S-3 coughed. “Okay, well, great, and since you’re surrendering…”

​

Draxum Laughed.” Baron Draxum does not surrender.”

​

“Okay, well, when he gets here, we’ll deal him– oh, ho, ho, I see. You’re doing that whole ‘sinister talking in the third person’ thing.”

​

“Only Raph can use the third person! All right, guys, time to put our training to use.” S-1, Raph? had said.

​

“What training? You guys have been training?” S-3 had asked.

​

The turtles all rush to attack Draxum. His arms grow huge, and he blocks all their strikes. Draxum hits the ground with both fists, and the concussion throws the turtles back.

​

“And that’s why Baron Draxum–” Huginn Fell from above and hit Draxum on the head. “I’m sorry, boss.”

​

April lands on the ground and, beats on Muninn, and grabs Huginn in her teeth. She shakes Muninn loose from her leg and stomps on him, giving the turtles a thumbs up. Draxum shoots a web-like material at her, and it wraps her in a cocoon. S-5 hissed at her.

​

“You did not just do that to our friend!” S-4 throws the end of his kusari-fundo at Draxum, but it goes past him and then hangs in the air, the round end spinning. The weapon starts to laugh maniacally.

“They got into the weaponry.”

“I noticed, S-5!”

​

“Whoa. Magic weapon… Ah!” S-4 yelled as the mystic kusari-fundo yanked him forward and then flew around, taking him on a wild ride. “Whoa! Whoa!”

​

He hits a section of the ooze tank and breaks it. S-4 yells and screams, as the end of his Kusari-fundo still laughs and turns into a flaming face. Draxum jumps aside just before it hits him, and S-4 lands hard on the ground.

​

“Mikey, that was awesome. How’d you do that?” Raph had asked S-4, Mikey?

​

“I don’t know, man. I was just swinging my weapon, like this, and all of a sudden… The kusari-fundo is lit on fire, and the laughter begins once again. “Just like tha –a-a-a!” It seemed that S-5’s brothers weren't very smart when it came to mystics.

​

“Let me try. Magic weapon, magic weapon, magic weapon, magic weapon!” Raph kept hitting his tonfas together, and the tonfas started to spark. “Aw, yeah! Magic weapon!” It explodes and knocks him down. “Mine works, too.”

​

“Can’t wait to find out what mine does!” S-3 starts running, and his sword begins to spark and shift. Draxum lifts his arm to block him, and Leo swings without connecting. “Ya!”

​

Draxum looks surprised. “Hm?”

​

S-3 laughs uneasily while sweating. The sword lifted overhead, sparks some more, and a portal opens beneath S-3’s feet. He starts to fall. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” The exit portal opens overhead, and he falls through, going through the first portal again. “Whoa! Ah! S-3 continues to fall through the portals over and over again. “Get… me… off… this… ride! Whoa!”

S-5 watches the three of them struggle with the mystic weapons they have stolen. “They aren’t very good at this.”

​

“And that’s why I like fighting the old-fashioned way, with impossibly futuristic high-tech weaponry.” S-2 had said.

​

S-2 begins attacking Draxum, who blocks his strikes. The end of S-2’s staff forms a rocket, and when Draxum swings at him, S-2 ducks so that Draxum hits his staff. It bounces up and smashes him in the face, knocking Draxum backward.

​

“Just like I planned it!” S-2 jumps into the air while spinning his staff.

​

“Look out!” Mikey smashes into S-2.

​

“Oof! Ah! Oh! Ah!” Both Mikey and S-2 voice their complaints.

​

“You fight like untrained buffoons, but under me, you could become true warriors! Like S-5 here!”

​

Draxum throws pellets that form cocoons around the turtles. S-2 and Mikey are cocooned together.

​

“We don’t spend enough quality time together.” Mikey had said that while snuggling up to S-2.

​

“Oh, please, not now, Mikey.” S-2 complained.

​

“How are we gonna save the dog thingy now?” April had asked.

​

“Donnie’s on it.” S-2, Donnie? Had said.

​

Donnie lowered his goggles and peers around the lab.

​

“Wait a second.” Draxum and S-5 approached and startled Donnie. “Ah!”

​

“Turtles, why are you trying to stop my plans? We are all in this together!”

​

“Ah, hey, I don’t know if this is part of your plan, but the lab’s about to explode.”

​

The turtles and April start hopping around in their cocoons. The ooze tank sparks some more and then starts exploding.

​

“Aw, nuts.” A boulder lands on Draxum. “S-5! Help me!”

Draxum had finally given off a proper order, but S-5 didn’t want to follow it. He wanted to escape with them. S-5 looked between Draxum and his brothers. If he was going to escape, now was the time.

The tower buzzes and starts falling. All of the Oozesquitoes escape. A tube hits Agent 64’s cage and breaks it; he portals away and lands on April’s lap.

​

“Little guy! Can you do your thing and get us out of here?” April had asked.

Agent 64 grins and S-5 runs to his brothers before Agent 64 could portal April and the turtles out of the lab. They wind up just outside Draxum’s stronghold as it explodes. They all looked at S-5 and drew their weapons on him; Agent 64 hissed at S-5, and S-5 hissed back.

…

….

……

“You have a lot of explaining to do!” April yelled at S-5; he hissed at her before sinking to the floor.

“Please, take me with you.” S-5 looked at his brothers, his tail thumping nervously on the ground.

“Uh yeah, and why would we do that? You're a bad guy! You were keeping that dog thingy captive!” S-3 had said.

“I didn’t capture Agent 64! And he stole the mutage ooze from Draxum!” Agent 64 hissed at him, and he hissed right back.

“Agent 64?” Mikey had asked.

“That is who they are known as.” S-5 had informed them.

“Back to you. Why should we take you with us?” S-3 asked again.

S-5 gave off a whining chirp. “Because I don’t want to go back! I’ll be punished for not doing as I was told! I want the pain and suffering and hunger to go away!” He gave off another sad chirp. “I want to be with my brothers– with you!”

They all stood there, stunned. S-3 had lowered his sword from where it was pointed at S-5’s head.

“You’re our brother? We have another brother!?” Mikey was the first to break the silence.

S-5 chirped quietly and nodded.

Mikey quickly hugged S-5. he gave off a startled chirp, not expecting the hug.

“Raph, we have to take him! We can’t leave him here!”

“Sure we can. We don’t even know the guy! And did you forget that he was just with that Draxum dude!?” S-3 asked Mikey

“Raph doesn’t know… Leo does have a point.”

Mikey gave off his best puppy dog eyes as tears started to fill his eyes. S-5 buried his head into Mikey and gave off a scared chirp. He didn’t want to go back; he didn’t want to get punished.

Raph watched the scene for a few seconds before breaking. “Okay, fine. We’ll bring him back home with us.”

“Yes!”

“What!?”

“Are you serious!?”

Mikey cheered as Donnie and S-3, Leo? Had voiced their complaints.

“We can’t bring him back to that Draxum guy, and he does seem desperate.”

“Raph and Mikey are right. It just doesn’t seem right to leave him here.” April reached out a hand towards S-5 but quickly recoiled when he hissed at her.

“Woah! What was that for?” Mikey asked.

“She is a human! Humans are dangerous!” S-5 informed them. His brothers weren’t very smart, but he could fix that.

“Well, that’s April; she’s a good human; she’s our best friend!” Mikey squeezed S-5 just a little bit harder when saying that. “She won’t hurt you, I promise.”

S-5 nodded. “Okay.”

“Great!” Mikey released S-5 from the hug. “So what’s your name? I’m Mikey, That’s Raph, Leo, and Donnie.” Mikey pointed to all of them accordingly.

“My name is Subject-5 or S-5.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes. You are Subject-4, Leo is Subject-3, Donnie is Subject-2, and Raph is Subject-1.”

“Wait, If you’re Subject-5, and I am supposed to be Subject-4, does that mean I’m older than you!?” Mikey asked with stars in his eyes.

“Yes. You are older than me by four months.”

“Mikey’s not the baby!?” Everyone shouted the question out loud.

“YES! I’ve always wanted to have a younger brother!” Mikey cheered. “Oh! But you need a proper name! We can’t just call you Subject-5; that’s just wrong. Mmmmm… How about Kai?”

Subject-5 thought about this for a moment before nodding his head. “Yeah, I like that name.” Subject-5’s Kai’s tail started to wag as he started to feel something that he hadn’t in a very long time: happiness.

“Come on, we should get home and let pop’s know that we have another litter brother!” Raph had said.

“Alright!” Mikey quickly draws an M symbol on a nearby wall, and they jump through it when it opens. The turtles and April land safely topside and they start to head home with their new brother.

(This is the longest chapter I have ever written on any story!)

3154 words for the first chapter! Not bad!

It's nice how you implemented it in the canon events!

Will we see more adventures from Kai? Will Draxum search for him and kidnap him back? Which other secrets will we find out?

Stay tuned in the next episode of: "Hey, let me show you what fine work I wrote!"

KUDOS TO YOU! 💜

[ckret2]

Since your Human Bill!AU has him as a person with a uterus, does he get periods? If he does, how does he react the first time he gets one? Is it possible for him to become Agent Powers’ baby momma?

Yeah, I figure he does.

Bill has some issues that arise from shoving an alien mind into a different species's body (such as his issues with binocular vision and balance issues). But once you set those issues aside, I imagine that otherwise the body he's been stuck inside is, at the outset when he receives it, normally abled. Peek inside his body and everything is built and structured the way a college anatomy textbook says a generic human body ought to be structured, all the hormones are in average ranges, etc. He got handed a body at peak adult performance. Mainly because the axolotl was like "you're gonna suck SO bad at this, you need every advantage you can get." If Bill had been sent to earth with a gluten sensitivity or back pain or whatever, he'd be dead within a week. Like not even from the disability itself, he'd just go "this is too hard" and lie down and give up.

(Caveat that I might change my mind on this later if I think of a condition that fits him well or that I think would be interesting to explore; but for now that's where I'm at.)

And if you take The Most Average Body With A Womb In It, in early adulthood, with no underlying health conditions—yeah, it's gonna bleed once a month and it's gonna be fertile.

I imagine he reacts to it about the same way as he does the first time he gets bad gas—"ow, that hurts, is something malfunctioning" followed by "oh, blood—okay, I know what's going on, I'm familiar with this phenomenon," and now that he knows X symptoms indicate the approach of Y event, he doesn't care the next time he experiences X symptoms.

He COULD become someone's baby mama—but I'm not planning on it. It doesn't fit in well with the other ideas I'm looking to explore with this AU. I'm angling toward a slow redemption arc (or, more accurately, a learning-to-be-a-better-person arc), and I feel like having the threat/promise of a baby pushing him would undermine the impact of any decisions he makes. Like yeah sure "bad character decides to become better because now they're starting to think about a helpless baby" is a fine plot arc—but that makes it EASIER to choose personal growth. If he's only thinking about HIMSELF, can he become better?

(And, outside of that, over on an RP blog recently I just roleplayed a character going through a full-length real-time nine-month pregnancy that concluded in January. It was a really fun project to do, but now that I'm done with it I don't wanna start ANOTHER pregnancy plotline. I've had enough of that for a while.)

So biologically, it's possible; narratively, I'm not gonna do it. THE MOST I might do is play with the idea (like "lies about being pregnant to fool a threat into going easy on him" or "accidentally gets knocked up and goes 'nope not doing that' and confidently aborts it"), but when push comes to shove I STRONGLY doubt those will be ideas I'll want to explore in the AU itself. Bill's just gonna have to put on his big boy pants and practice safe sex like any other human.

(Even as much of a reckless party animal as he is, I think he'll be better at this than some of his other human-body-maintenance tasks. If you skip showering then you smell bad—this is a consequence Bill doesn't care about if he isn't planning on interacting with a human he needs to impress. If you skip safe sex then you risk unpleasant diseases and a whole new person growing inside you—this is a consequence he DOES care about. He's probably not gonna get an A+ in safe sex practices but like, he'll get at least a C+. Some sort of passing grade.)

[dertaglichedan]

Genetic Discrimination Is Coming for Us All

The news came four years ago, at the end of a casual phone call. Bill’s family had always thought it was a freak coincidence that his father and grandfather both had ALS. But at the end of a catch-up, Bill’s brother revealed that he had a diagnosis too. The familial trend, it turned out, was linked to a genetic mutation. That meant Bill might also be at risk for the disease.

An ALS specialist ordered Bill a DNA test. While he waited for results, he applied for long-term-care insurance. If he ever developed ALS, Bill told me, he wanted to ensure that the care he would need as his nerve cells died and muscles atrophied wouldn’t strain the family finances. When Bill found out he had the mutation, he shared the news with his insurance agent, who dealt him another blow: “I don’t expect you to be approved,” he remembers her saying.

Bill doesn’t have ALS. He’s a healthy 60-year-old man who spends his weekends building his dream home by hand. A recent study of mutations like his suggests that his genetics increase his chances of developing ALS by about 25 percent, on average. Most ALS cases aren’t genetic at all. And yet, Bill felt like he was being treated as if he was already sick. (Bill asked to be identified by his first name only, because he hasn’t disclosed his situation to his employer and worried about facing blowback at work too.)

What happened to Bill, and to dozens of other people whose experiences have been documented by disease advocates and on social media, is perfectly legal. Gaps in the United States’ genetic-nondiscrimination law mean that life, long-term-care, and disability insurers can obligate their customers to disclose genetic risk factors for disease and deny them coverage (or hike prices) based on the resulting information. It doesn’t matter whether those customers found out about their mutations from a doctor-ordered test or a 23andMe kit.  

For decades, researchers have feared that people might be targeted over their DNA, but they weren’t sure how often it was happening. Now at least a handful of Americans are experiencing what they argue is a form of discrimination. And as more people get their genomes sequenced—and researchers learn to glean even more information from the results—a growing number of people may find themselves similarly targeted.