#but how this works is two of the stars act as a binary system

[aredredrosebyanyothername]

You mean to tell me that the video game www.3body.net from the popular science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem is about a planet that has three (3) suns. This is an incredible revelation that I’m frankly not sure I can believe.

[quasarlasar]

A MILLISECOND ROTATION PERIOD IS A RED FLAG

Recently, a paper I wrote about an accreting neutron star got accepted for publication in a scientific journal, and in the process of working on it, I was forced to think about something: how exactly should I interpret accreting neutron stars in the context of the galaxy of Antiocheka? (the fictional galaxy most of my astronomy cartoons/stories with the living celestial bodies are set in)

Black hole accretion is them eating the material; that is obvious. But when neutron stars accrete, they don't absorb the gas inside their bodies. It strikes and spreads across their surface. So an eating metaphor doesn't really work for them. I've seen some people compare accreting neutron stars to vampires, given they are "undead" stars and are sucking the plasma off of other stars. But since they don't absorb the star's "blood" they're not really like vampires. They're honestly more like the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, who bathed in the blood of her victims in order to look more youthful. Accretion increases the neutron stars' spin rates (which normally slow down due to their magnetic fields) and temperatures (which normally decrease due to cooling). The accretion therefore makes them seem more "youthful" in a way.

I have previously stated that the black holes of Antiocheka need to constantly accrete matter to remain conscious, which puts them in conflict with the stars, who are nuclear fusion powered. I don't imagine the neutron stars have it quite so dire. But Antiochekan star society uses an energy currency, and so as a neutron star loses its magnetic field, temperature, and rotation, they start running out of ways to generate energy and maintain their status in stellar society. In that case, maybe it's not surprising some would turn to more brutal methods of generating energy...stripping material from other stars...

More science & character notes below the break:

-X-ray binaries are binary star systems where a black hole or neutron star is accreting matter from a star. They emit tons of X-rays, hence the name.

-The pulsar Chandra here is specifically a millisecond pulsar. Millisecond pulsars are thought to be formed when a pulsar accretes material from another star, spinning itself up so it has a millisecond-long rotational period. Some pulsars, in the process of accreting material from their companion star en route to millisecond status, end up destroying the companion star with the power of their winds and jets. These are called "black widow" pulsars for obvious reasons. I imagine Chandra was one of these in the distant past out of desperation, though she doesn't remember much of the incident.

-A millisecond rotation period is therefore a "red flag" for star dating because it implies the neutron star might have once been a black widow pulsar.

-I draw Astro (a T-Tauri star) as a five-point star because he is the star equivalent of a child, so he looks like a child's conception of a star. His "headband" is really glowing red plasma he ties into his corona with his magnetic fields.

-Astro has a crush on Chandra (the neutron star/pulsar) but Chandra does not have any affection for him, so she acts weird on purpose to drive him away. The pink letters in her shouting speech bubble represent X-ray speech. I imagine that sounds very intimidating to Astro, because stars normally speak in UV-optical-infrared light.

-The stellar black hole eating the rocket in the first two panels is Schwarzschild. Chandra and him have mutual affection for each other, so Astro is kind of jealous, especially since he still is influenced by the whole "black holes are instinctual automatons" paradigm most Antiochekan stars buy into. He feels as though he is losing Chandra to literally nothing.

[haich-slash-cee]

Murderbot TV show thoughts

Looking over the casting choice and also who is making the murderbot TV show and I'm just not excited :/

Rambling post with lots of opinions follows....

"Alexander Skarsgård will lead the series and will serve as executive producer." (source)

:(

All the queer, PoC, ace, aro, agender, non binary actors out there.... All the fascinating choices... who the hell is this. Did the people making this show even read the books, like all the characters in there are PoC. Also, executive producer? To be clear I do not know this actor at all. I am seeing posts that he does deadpan well, and speculation that exec producer roles means he's excited to do the books, which is prob good news.... but as if there's not PoC actors who are also deadpan etc etc?? Also, again repeating other tumblr posts, the effect this will have on fanart, too.

"Martha Wells will serve as consulting producer." Well I'm glad she's getting moneys, but how much influence is she going to have??

although - THIS is why you have to specify if a book character is PoC instead of being vague about it (as white authors seem want to do)! Because otherwise people (esp white people) just assume the character is white! this is just how system racism works, it's not interesting or novel, I'm just parroting what so many PoC authors have pointed out. It means that a character who describes itself in the book as a mishmash of generic human while surrounded by a lot of brown skinned humans somehow gets a casting of Alexander Skarsgård. (even if secunit was explicitly described as having brown skin or being not white in appearance, Paramount might just whitewash the character anyway, but still)

Going on..... "The Weitz brothers will write, direct, and produce under their Depth of Field banner. "

The Pinocchio movie here is a live action disney remake, not the Guillermo del Toro stop motion one. If you're like me and perked up a little, on seeing the title, because you got the Pinocchio wrong.

I guess "Rogue One" was a little interesting if depressing, idk.

The company is also linked to the movie "Prospect" (gorgeous scenery and scifi immersion and really nice soundtrack, but I found the movie rather racist and the characters lacking and I personally didn't vibe with it) and "The Farewell" which I mean to watch because people have told me they liked it.

Well, not much of this combination feels like the Murderbot books, to me, tho. I'm kind of puzzled. Like what are they getting from the books. What am I supposed to expect with "Murderbot diaries" being part of the filmography above.

Well how about the execute producers. " David S. Goyer executive produces alongside Keith Levine for Phantom Four. "

What in the hell?? Noooo! This is like the direct opposite of the core of murderbot! It's like these people skimmed the skin of space dystopian gun pew pew elements and were "yeah this is what the books are about".

Earlier, I was jokingly telling someone "I feel like these people are trying to make James Bond or the Bourne Trilogy in space or something with Murderbot, sheesh" and I fear that is in fact what is happening.

(deep breath)

Murderbot stars an autistic agender aro ace icon character who in the 2nd book hides away in a transport watching TV shows for weeks on end or whatever and then gets called out for that by Pin-Lee in the 4th book. Murderbot and a university space ship bond over the space ship being afraid to watch its fav blorbo die in a fictional show and also the two do their best impression of trying to act like a human.

Also there's fighting and stuff.

Like, that juxtaposition is the fun of the books - like finally, the awkward get-your-gender-stuff-away-from-me a-spec neurodivergent characters have their day in bringing humanity into space dystopia pew pew gun theater. We want to play in this setting, too.

Oh and the books and SecUnit hate corporations and everyone is genderqueer with neo pronouns and polyamory abounds, and there's PoC everywhere.

"the fact that we're getting the corporation rim version of Murderbot and that everyone is kinda bummed about it" is a pretty good summary.

From a specific hurt/comfort whump blog POV -

How are any of these main producer etc people, above, going to grasp the emotional hurt comfort and humor and warm heart of these books? The Tenderness??

Like listen, I need to be clear, I had a blast watching "Blade" with some people a few years ago. It was great. Really fun late night party movie with the right people, A+ experience. However, do I trust Call of Duty Batman vs Superman any of these people to Grasp The Murderbot Books and Handle the Tenderness. No, I Do No, not especially.

. . . . .

Okay fine haich slash cee, who would you cast and hire as directors producers etc. Well first of all a bunch of queer people and PoC and queer PoC. Do you know how many of us want to play in space opera dystopian explosion gunfight theater too. Also I saw someone suggest Tig Notaro play SecUnit - and honestly, that's a fun idea, I would maybe hire a bunch of comedians and also activist types to grab the dry humor and and absolute abhorrance of corporations that permeates the books.

And I'd get a more indie studio production if possible. I know there's the action sequences and special effects and all that IS important in a genre way. Like we are here for all that. We are here for death agriculture robots attacking people and violent robot fights and space kaboom moments. I personally don't immediately know how or which producers studios etc to hire for all that to be included, while keeping slightly smaller studio vibes. Yes SFX action money, but like, more in the spectrum of doctor who budget money and special effects, if that makes sense.

The gunfights and special effects are still more of a secondary feature in my mind. I want to watch the awkwardness of SecUnit and a room full of caring compassionate researchers fully hit the mark but in the most subtle way. I'm here for Ratthi once again saying "what?" in the middle of like the 5th melee situation he's been a part of and Ratthi still is confused as anything. And also, there's some explosions and space travel happening.

As for actors, I'm not really up on actors much, but these tumblr posts have suggestions.

Actually.... Ok, so I like explosions as much as anyone, but what if some small but acclaimed indie character drama creators made Murderbot. Like what if that was one specific flavor of an adaptation. What if the murderbot books were shot primarily as a quirky indie character study tv show set in space. The filmography of the people making it are like: Indie drama - Indie comedy - Murderbot - quirky indie drama - (implying they made murderbot and then went right back to indie movies I guess) I'd be like, "huh, what version of space gunfight drama are we watching here?". Idk, I think it'd be fun.

thanks for reading along in my murderbot ramblings!

[boabel]

wait do u have more modern mentor hcs??

i have many, anon!!

here are some more character specific ones!! (these are all either taken from or inspired by my fic, so england jumpscare warning since its set there 😭)

vipsania sickle:

- went to nursery and primary school with pup, since vip's aunt and pup's mum were friends

- grew up mainly with her aunt since her mum was always so busy with her job, it required her to leave the country all the time and she never really had time to look after vip and vip's siblings

- speaking of siblings!! she has two younger brothers called cassian and fabian, she loves them more than anything and practically raised them herself w the help of her aunt.

- has always been interested in law, and hates that sometimes trials are unjust, she wants to change the system so she becomes a law student

- was always the "smart and grounded" one of the popular girls back at the school she went to (hc that all the mentors went to the same fancy private school)

iphigenia moss:

- i hc them as non-binary (she/they pronouns) in all aus but i think they would have figured it out quicker in modern au

- best friends with dennis fling, they are gossip bitches who hated the main popular group. (creds to @persephoneprice for the vip, livia, arachne and pippa as the popular girlie friendgroup idea)

- dennis is nicer than iphigenia tho, she constantly has to be grounded by him ☠️

- they are also fashion bitches, they're both going to fashion school and are always best dressed no matter what

- genie loves their mother so much, her dad on the other hand..... they DO NOT speak. when they do 34 injured 22 dead.

- genie makes most of their own clothes!! they love getting new materials to use (she does crochet mainly but also other stuff)

- clemmie and her are really good friends due to their similar interests (they also knew eachother in school)

- they meet sol because sol is a tattoo artist who does all of her tattoos

- speaking of tattoos, they have too many to count but here are some i made up off of the top of my head:

- matching tattoo w dennis (he was terrified to get it but really wanted to match w iphi)

- lots of star-related tattoos

- the planet mars

- flowers!! mainly chrysanthemums because they're their favourite

- moths!!!!

pup harrington:

- he wants to be a teacher!! (his dad was not happy with that)

- works as a ta and that's how he met sepphie (they are besties now)

- lamina and him are also besties, they met thru lamina's older brother

- much like genie in the sense that he never talks to his dad but loves his mum very much, he's js defo a mums boy

- if u call him pliny he will not respond. only pup. (he's a his father hater, we've established that)

- is panromantic / ace!!

- this one is england specific but he fucking hates the m25. like who doesn't but he will blame every inconvenience on that fucking motorway.

- dating apollo, they met thru diana!!

- has like 3 dogs, he loves them more than life itself

- friends w festus, but whenever festus and him r in the same room there will be trouble best believe

- again this is england specific but he's a northerner and once he moves to london he says hi to people to be nice and all the londoners act like someone just died (vipsania specifically)

i just realised how long this post is, i may have to make a part 2 if u want!! hope u liked these anon, thank u for the ask!!

[startrekplotnthemes]

Season 5 Episode 17 The Outcast

The Enterprise is assisting the J’naii, an androgynous group of aliens, in finding a shuttle that has ended up in null space. Riker ends up chatting with Soren, a member of the J’naii where they explain that their species lacks a gender as they saw it as archaic, using a pronoun specific to their language. Soren has conversations with Riker interrogating gender politics of humans and how their binary system works. The two end up piloting a shuttle into null space in an attempt to rescue those who have been lost. While on the shuttle the null space causes Soren to be injured with a light concussion. They interrogate Crusher as to what it means to be a woman asking probing questions about roles and the status of women.

Eventually Soren comes to Riker admitting they have feelings for him but a place as a female. She explains how the J’naii have evolved, giving one haunting case of a kid in her school who identified as male and was relentlessly teased until he was later exposed to psycotectic therapy and proudly presented without gender once more. She expresses that she has an attraction to Riker and the two begin a liaison that goes on for a time until her people catch on. Riker attempts to interfere admitting his feelings to be one sided but Soren refuses to keep her truth hidden any longer, passionately rallying against the oppression of J'naii who identify as male or female. The judge at the hearing coldly thanks Soren for making things easier scheduling her to have the therapy.

An outraged Riker plans to help her escape, seeking Picard to see if there is a way to allow her escape. He informs Riker that this would be a violation of the prime directive and that he cannot assist him in the matter. While risking his career and position aboard the Enterprise Riker attempts a daring rescue of Soren but it is revealed that she has already had the surgery performed, informing Riker that she was sick but is better now. A discouraged Riker returns to the Enterprise as Soren returns to her place among her people.

It is working with the fascinating lens of Star Trek that such fascinating points of view can be explored with a lens of science fiction. In the case of this episode there are lots of ways in which the J'naii make fascinating points about gender. The fact that they have only one pronoun is impressive, though looking back on things now they could have easily used they/them as a pronoun. Framing acts of transphobia and conversion therapy through the lens of a gender neutral society that oppresses individuals who stray into the binary is perhaps a little on the nose but still a clever way of tackling the issue. It fails to address certain elements when Riker and Soren have talked about interaction between the sexes and the act of reproduction, framing such interactions as archaic and ignores the fact that homosexuality exists.

While initially off put by the ending, wishing Soren hadn't simply been subject to the conversion therapy, it does function as a condemnation of the act. The audience is left with a lurching discomfort as Soren proclaims herself cured of her sickness. The episode also addresses elements of transphobia and deviates from the norm in her recounting of the school mate who identified as a man. That he was bullied so ruthlessly and all he was met with the institution was a cure was deeply disturbing. One interesting comment from the actor who played Riker was that he thought it would have been interesting if Soren had been played by a man and depicted in a more masculine manner. I think in the ways Shakespeare played with gender knowing that the actors were men playing women at times it would have been an interesting choice that emphasized the gender neutrality of the species.

[fiftysevenacademics]

With dinosaurs entering the private homes of the wealthy, and the wealthy competing with museums for the purchase of certain dinosaurs at private sales and outbidding museums at auction, we must confront a new idea: dinosaurs as high-value goods that are not only bought and sold but that are subject to the darker sides of consumer capitalism. With high ascribed monetary value comes the dinosaur as an asset for speculation and investment, the dinosaur as the subject of civil dispute, and the dinosaur as an accomplice to crime.

It's interesting to analyze dinosaur auctions this way because the desire to own them is usually clothed in the rhetoric of science when, in fact, capitalist motives are very much at play. Interesting and mildly novel, but nothing super exciting.

They're trying to develop a way to analyze objects as having an agency detached from intentionality, and use the metaphor of gravitational pull between stars to get their point across.

Perhaps a useful way to consider the disruptive power of T. rex might be through the metaphor of a massive star that can disrupt the trajectory of smaller space objects, pulling them into their gravity well. The star causes those objects to permanently enter orbit, or to destructively crash into the surface. Pushing the metaphor further, a binary star system would have an even bigger gravitational pull, with the two stars working together to suck more stuff in. The stars are not acting with intentionality, but they certainly are acting on the things they pull in, changing the pathways that the space objects follow and, at times, destroying them.

We should document human pathway changes following encounters with disruptive objects as real and meaningful experiences without getting too hung up on the fundamental questions of “what is reality”. What matters is our experience of reality, and we humans can experience a T. rex as disruptive without the T. rex needing to be executing a calculated plan.

OK, I get their point, but I still don't see why there's a need to extract dinosaurs as an analytical object, other than to show it can be done. I found myself more interested in the legal question of whether fossils were minerals and thus owned by the holders of mineral rights or not...I mean they ARE minerals but the court ruled they aren't basically just because it would open up way too many lawsuits? That shit's fascinating and tells us more about the way dinos alter human trajectories or whatever than their analysis does, it seems to me.

I don't get why they're trying to assign agency to objects. It seems more useful to examine how people exert agency around and through objects. It's one step removed from saying objects have magic powers, which is definitely not what they mean, but i just can't buy the idea of objects having agency.

The concept of desirescape feels redundant to me-- there are already dozens of similar concepts out there.

In 2021 we presented the idea of a desirescape, ‘where a spatial array of myriad agentic objects cultivates desire among people to collect, own, possess, and show off artworks’ and we embedded the concept of desirescape within wider object theory. Where the humanist viewpoint has traditionally seen ‘objects, things, artefacts and technologies’ as essentially ‘quasi-inert “in search of meaning” entities’, the posthumanist viewpoint of the desirescape sits within what has been called ‘the material turn’ in the social sciences, which ‘has questioned the basic assumption of… the ontological priority of the human subject over any other entity in the sense-making process’. We saw desirable objects and their networks as having a form of ‘secondary agency’ in which the objects and their material context generate new patterns of social effects: people, we argued, create object networks that take on lives of their own. These networks develop organic properties that result in a semi-independence from the forces that made and continue to attempt to manipulate them. 

And honestly, the first thing I thought of was Rae Dunn merchandise, Live Love Laugh type decor, and the "MCM" AND "farmhouse" style that have turned interior design into a wasteland of barren floors and uncomfortable gray furniture, punctuated with perky signs proclaiming that, despite the prison or barn-like feel of the home, a happy family lives here.

So I guess in the end, any paper that can take me on a journey from T. rex to Chip and Joanna Gaines is an interesting one. Potentially useful but probably not that useful.

Abstract: In this paper we present T. rex fossils as disruptive objects that can drastically influence the actions and reactions of humans that encounter them. We present a vision of the T. rex as being a key node within a web of human and object associations that ultimately produces, first, extreme desire in humans, and then a breakdown in human relationships resulting in disagreements, disputes, lawsuits, and the committing of crime. From there we bring these T. rex fossils into the concept of desirescape which sees a network of object/object and object/human reactions provoking irresistible desire in humans. We argue that this desire can push humans to violate law or social norms or, in several T. rex cases, sue each other. How then should we humans approach T. rex and other disruptive objects? Cautiously, and with the knowledge that these objects may be more powerful than we are.

Yates & Peacock, 2024.

[jcmarchi]

New paper: AI agents that matter

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/new-paper-ai-agents-that-matter/

New paper: AI agents that matter

Some of the most exciting applications of large language models involve taking real-world action, such as booking flight tickets or finding and fixing software bugs. AI systems that carry out such tasks are called agents. They use LLMs in combination with other software to use tools such as web search and code terminals. 

The North Star of this field is to build assistants like Siri or Alexa and get them to actually work — handle complex tasks, accurately interpret users’ requests, and perform reliably. But this is far from a reality, and even the research direction is fairly new. To stimulate the development of agents and measure their effectiveness, researchers have created benchmark datasets. But as we’ve said before, LLM evaluation is a minefield, and it turns out that agent evaluation has a bunch of additional pitfalls that affect today’s benchmarks and evaluation practices. This state of affairs encourages the development of agents that do well on benchmarks without being useful in practice.

We have released a new paper that identifies the challenges in evaluating agents and proposes ways to address them. Read the paper here. The authors are Sayash Kapoor, Benedikt Ströbl, Zachary S. Siegel, Nitya Nadgir, and Arvind Narayanan, all at Princeton University. 

In this post, we offer thoughts on the definition of AI agents, why we are cautiously optimistic about the future of AI agent research, whether AI agents are more hype or substance, and give a brief overview of the paper.

The term agent has been used by AI researchers without a formal definition. This has led to its being hijacked as a marketing term, and has generated a bit of pushback against its use. But the term isn’t meaningless. Many researchers have tried to formalize the community’s intuitive understanding of what constitutes an agent in the context of language-model-based systems [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Rather than a binary, it can be seen as a spectrum, sometimes denoted by the term ‘agentic’. 

The five recent definitions of AI agents cited above are all distinct but with strong similarities to each other. Rather than propose a new definition, we identified three clusters of properties that cause an AI system to be considered more agentic according to existing definitions:

Environment and goals. The more complex the environment, the more AI systems operating in that environment are agentic. Complex environments are those that have a range of tasks and domains, multiple stakeholders, a long time horizon to take action, and unexpected changes. Further, systems that pursue complex goals without being instructed on how to pursue the goal are more agentic.

User interface and supervision. AI systems that can be instructed in natural language and act autonomously on the user’s behalf are more agentic. In particular, systems that require less user supervision are more agentic. For example, chatbots cannot take real-world action, but adding plugins to chatbots (such as Zapier for ChatGPT) allows them to take some actions on behalf of users.

System design. Systems that use tools (like web search or code terminal) or planning (like reflecting on previous outputs or decomposing goals into subgoals) are more agentic. Systems whose control flow is driven by an LLM, rather than LLMs being invoked by a static program, are more agentic.

While some agents such as ChatGPT’s code interpreter / data analysis mode have been useful, more ambitious agent-based products so far have failed. The two main product launches based on AI agents have been the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI pin. These devices promised to eliminate or reduce phone dependence, but turned out to be too slow and unreliable. Devin, an “AI software engineer”, was announced with great hype 4 months ago, but has been panned in a video review and remains in waitlist-only mode. It is clear that if AI agents are to be useful in real-world products, they have a long way to go.

So are AI agents all hype? It’s too early to tell. We think there are research challenges to be solved before we can expect agents such as the ones above to work well enough to be widely adopted. The only way to find out is through more research, so we do think research on AI agents is worthwhile.

One major research challenge is reliability — LLMs are already capable enough to do many tasks that people want an assistant to handle, but not reliable enough that they can be successful products. To appreciate why, think of a flight-booking agent that needs to make dozens of calls to LLMs. If each of those went wrong independently with a probability of, say, just 2%, the overall system would be so unreliable as to be completely useless (this partly explains some of the product failures we’ve seen). So research on improving reliability might have many new applications even if the underlying language models don’t improve. And if scaling runs out, agents are the most natural direction for further progress in AI.

Right now, however, research is itself contributing to hype and overoptimism because evaluation practices are not rigorous enough, much like the early days of machine learning research before the common task method took hold. That brings us to our paper.

What changes must the AI community implement to help stimulate the development of AI agents that are useful in the real world, and not just on benchmarks? This is the paper’s central question. We make five recommendations:

1. Implement cost-controlled evaluations. The language models underlying most AI agents are stochastic. This means simply calling the underlying model multiple times can increase accuracy. We show that such simple tricks can outperform complex agent architectures on the HumanEval benchmark, while costing much less. We argue that all agent evaluation must control for cost. (We originally published this finding here. In the two months since we published this post, Pareto curves and joint optimization of cost and accuracy have become increasingly common in agent evaluations.)

2. Jointly optimize accuracy and cost. Visualizing evaluation results as a Pareto curve of accuracy and inference cost opens up a new space of agent design: jointly optimizing the two metrics. We show how we can lower cost while maintaining accuracy on HotPotQA by implementing a modification to the DSPy framework.

3. Distinguish model and downstream benchmarking. Through a case study of NovelQA, we show how benchmarks meant for model evaluation can be misleading when used for downstream evaluation. We argue that downstream evaluation should account for dollar costs, rather than proxies for cost such as the number of model parameters.

4. Prevent shortcuts in agent benchmarks. We show that many types of overfitting to agent benchmarks are possible. We identify 4 levels of generality of agents and argue that different types of hold-out samples are needed based on the desired level of generality. Without proper hold-outs, agent developers can take shortcuts, even unintentionally. We illustrate this with a case study of the WebArena benchmark.

5. Improve the standardization and reproducibility of agent benchmarks. We found pervasive shortcomings in the reproducibility of WebArena and HumanEval evaluations. These errors inflate accuracy estimates and lead to overoptimism about agent capabilities.

AI agent benchmarking is new and best practices haven’t yet been established, making it hard to distinguish genuine advances from hype. We think agents are sufficiently different from models that benchmarking practices need to be rethought. In our paper, we take the first steps toward a principled approach to agent benchmarking. We hope these steps will raise the rigor of AI agent evaluation and provide a firm foundation for progress.

A different strand of our research concerns the reproducibility crisis in ML-based research in scientific fields such as medicine or social science. At some level, our current paper is similar. In ML-based science, our outlook is that things will get worse before they get better. But in AI agents research, we are cautiously optimistic that practices will change quickly. One reason is that there is a stronger culture of sharing code and data alongside published papers, so errors are easier to spot. (This culture shift came about due to concerted efforts in the last five years.) Another reason is that overoptimistic research quickly gets a reality check when products based on misleading evaluations end up flopping. This is going to be an interesting space to watch over the next few years, both in terms of research and product releases.

[star-shooters]

Old Team Star Shooters Art

This was an old updated version of the team, I had trouble with drawing them digitally as I had to use an online editing program.

Left to Right: Sky Microscopium, Yellow Andromeda-Eridanus, Copper Cephei, Gold Gemitaurus, Silver Kentaurus-Sirius, Bone Aratumi, Ube Cephei-Sirius, Lapis Asclepius, and Lavender Pink Veloctan

Some older character art. The same online art program but with less trouble.

Coquelicot Cephei, the ex-lieutenant whose paranoia of safety led to the decommissioning to his old base on Stellaron's farthest desert moon, Sauv. The older half-brother of Copper Cephei, Coquelicot blames the other's existence for Blood Cephei's laxer ruling. He is constantly making Copper's life miserable and finding ways to worsen his brother's day. The one thing he likes the most, is to call Copper the illegitimate child between Blood and another uncivilized Stellar, it is not only the truth but also the worse insult Coquelicot has said.

The red orange Star was trained by his late general Icterine on the grueling frozen moon, Icyld. Due to his past training, it was the reason for his harsh treatment of his old platoon, believing that others should suffer as much as he has to come out stronger. His blind paranoia is at fault for how Blood's army turned out, a corrupt system of fixed status and positions for those most loyal to Coquelicot.

Some newer old character art. I believe that I used a tablet for these three, which sadly doesn't work anymore.

Left to Right: Tangerine Geminorum, Dandelion Centaurus, and Blood Cephei.

Tangerine Geminorum and Dandelion Centaurus are an official Stellar binary, finding each other company beyond simple tolerance. The two decided to keep their last names the same, finding it too troublesome to change legal documentation for a last name change. Yet, for the creation of Stars, Tangerine and Dandelion decided to combine their last names Gemitaurus, to reduce the last name's length.

Between the two Stellars, Dandelion is the larger of the two, excluding her horns. Tangerine is the younger of the two, acting older to run their army as effectively as possible, while Dandelion observes from a distance. The two are a power couple who have continued to maintain their territories with the help of their Stars, and see the smaller beings as their biological children.

Many Stellars have tried to court, Dandelion, for being the largest yellow-hued Star so far and the most powerful one as well. Finding that with her assistance, more yellow-toned Stars would be made without donations. Tangerine has chased those suitors off, wanting none to take her binary just for the sake of a stronger and purer Star.

Blood Cephei a Stellar who isn't in a binary but partakes in casual hookups to create specific types of Stars. She is one of the older Stellars on Stellaron, having seen those who ruined the planet the live one. She has numerous Stars in her palace, mainly reds, pinks, and orange Stars; she adopts any Star that fits with her other Stars, taking in Yellow Andromeda-Eridanus in her ranks temporarily. She is referred to by many as unfeeling and cold from the way she treats her Stars compared to her Stellar family.

Despite her stern and mean-looking appearance, Blood Cephei has moments of emotions when the stress is too much to handle. She could only do so much when she is a single Stellar with many Stars to care for and become distant with. Her detachment towards those she cared most for is a result of her great loss eons ago, where more than three-quarters of her Stars were decimated by an extremist group called the Pure Chemical Element. As a result, Blood took it upon herself to not forgive insubordination.

Add onto the fact that on one night, during the millennial celebration to their progenitor's, Hestḗr's, creation of the first Stellars, the Elders, Blood Cephei was taken advantage of by a masked Stellar. Blood doesn't know who the Stellar was, only that her anonymous assaulter got away with putting their hands on her while she was intoxicated. As a result of her assault, Copper Cephei was created and whom she kept without any ill-will. The breaking of her trust with other Stellars caused Blood to take comfort that her Stars were still with her, even if some were a result of a violent crime.

[linkspooky]

White Wolf, Black Wolf:  Yuji and Geto

Dualism, is a common theme in Jujutsu Kaisen. There’s a difference between binary opposites and a completementary pair. Binary opposites supposes that two ideas are complete opposites of eachother, they are enemies and therefore cannot coexist. Death is the opposite of life. However, ideas like the concept of yin and yang suggest that these pairs are not opposites, or even enemies, they just exist alongside one another. The feminine yin contains a single dot of the masculine yang energy inside of it and vice versa. 

This pattern repeats itself with both Geto and Yuji. Two characters who seem like they are complete opposites, enemies, hero and villain and yet have far more in common with one another than one might thing. Each of them represented by a wolf, Yuji the white wolf, and Geto the black. 

Dualism - describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

1. You and the Worst Person You Know Have More in Common than You Thought

Both Yuji and Geto are sharing their body with another existence. Not only that but a sorcerer from the previous era. Sukuna started out as a sorcerer, and one from the golden age of sorcerers. We don’t know who is in Geto yet, but they’ve made it clear several times that they’re not a sorcerer from this era, mockingly referring to the sorcerers of this era as beneath them. The difference is, Yuji is the dominant personality and Geto is the subordinate one. They even fight for control of their body in the same way, by grabbing their neck. 

Both Yuji and Geto have died, and then been improbably brought back to life one time already and had their body healed by the same person who seeks to steal their body. They also both died in front of their other half, their friend, Yuji dies heroically in front of Megumi sacrificing himself so Megumi doesn’t have to call Mahoraga, and Geto dies as a villain after his plan has failed executed by Gojo. Even the days they die are opposites, Geto dies in a clear sky and Yuji dies in the rain. 

They both eat curses. Geto eats them physically in order to store them and use them later. Yuji consumes Sukuna’s fingers in order to grow stronger. Geto’s Jujutsu is themed around his stomach, Sukuna’s is cooking themed. 

Yuji and Geto are both have savior / martyr imagery attached to them. They’re both people who have died, and come back from the dead at least once, and the jesus imagery with Geto is clear and explicitly referenced in hidden inventory. 

Yuji wants to be strong like Gojo, but it’s clear he follows Geto’s philosophy of wanting to save as many people as possible. What motivates him isn’t a clear and strong sense of individualism, but rather the idea that the strong are duty bound to help the weak. Even when Geto’s completely out of his mind he’s still guided by that principle, if he has the strength to do it, then he’s duty bound to try to change the world in the way he sees fit. The thing with Geto is his ideals are warped, but they’re still ideals, he has principles guiding him. These ideals also shockingly sound similiar to what Yuji says, and the burdens he wants to carry. 

It’s something that doesn’t change about Geto from the start to the end of Hidden Invenotry, the strong are obligated to help the weak, it’s just Geto flipped. he sees the sorcerers as the weak and oppressed people, and the masses as the strong ones. 

Geto and Yuji are both people heavily preoccupied with doing the right thing, whereas Gojo and Megumi kind of don’t care (Gojo) / have already accepted the fact (Megumi) that they’re not really saving people with their actions. Geto and Yuji are reckless saviors, they kind of just want to save everybody they see suffering in front of them immediately without thinking through the consequences of their actions. It’s never been seriously analyzed why Yuji feels so deadset on saving others, but from early on he seems to like the idea that it’s a burden that only he can take on himself. It’s something he must duty. The same way that Geto binds himself by the idea of duty. 

Geto and Yuji are just people who will take the whole world on their shoulders, and this isn’t just a parallel I’m making it’s one directly made by the narrative. When worrying about Yuji’s future, Yaga thinks directly of Geto someone who became overwhelmed by everything on is shoulders.

Geto wasn’t able to carry on as he once did, because he couldn’t carry the regret with him. That’s the parallel that the story is making with Yuji, that’s the danger Yuji is in. 

2. Worst Person You Know Makes a Good Point

Chapter 132 there’s a definite change in Yuji’s demeanor. While we haven’t seen the full results of his change yet, not only has he been phsically scarred on his face, but it’s clear the deaths of Nanami, the people killed by Sukuna, all have served to harden him. Nanami wanted Yuji to remain a child a little bit longer, but Yuji has now become a jujutsu sorcerer. However, the words he declares to Mahito have two clear connections to Geto. One, it’s what Geto said to Gojo to stop him from slaughtering the star plasma vessel cult in the moment. 

Gojo has feelings of course, but he’s not moved by them the same way that Geto and Yuji are. Gojo was in need of a tether in that moment and Geto’s words became his tether. Remember Gojo became so powerful as the strongest one he felt like he was capable of anything without feeling it, even slaughtering people on mass, but in that moment Geto became the link that held him back and reminded him he was human. 

What’s ironic is that Gojo was moved by Geto’s words and held himself back, whereas Geto wasn’t. It was Gojo who stuck to those words a year after the fact. He was the strongest, but he doesn’t ever act unless he carefully considers it. He doesn’t just throw power around or slaughter people the way that Geto does. 

What Yuji is vowing to do right now, following his duty as a jujutsu sorcerer without even thinking about it, is exactly what drove Geto apeshit bananas (you see because he loves monkeys so much. It’s a, ‘yknow, it’s one of them jokes). 

Yuji thinks he can just keep going on without thinking and being nothing more than a cog, but it’s exactly that kind of mechanical subservience that completely wore out Geto. Simply going through the motions without questioning it is given to us as the exact reason for Geto’s downfall, it’s one of the most chilling sequences in the manga. 

People aren’t machines, and they aren’t gears, they break down when they try to conform that way. So while it’s understandable Yuji would want to push away all his thoughts in the moment, it’s also not healthy.

The reason Geto became the way he is, is because he realized the laws he was obeying weren’t as fair as he thought they were. He thought it was his duty, and obligation to help the masses, until he looked at his actions with closer scrutiny and realized that wasn’t really what motivated him. Geto thought what he was doing was good, that he would save people, but then Riko’s death was a reality check to him that no one was getting saved by the current system. Yuji seems to have done the opposite of Geto so far. Perhaps I won’t save people. Perhaps I’m just a cog in the machine and my actions truly don’t matter as long as I can keep fighting with my comrades as a jujutsu sorcerer. However, that’s probably not going to work for him.

Yuji’s current comfort in his moment of crisis is that he’s fighting together with all of his comrades, that he carries the wishes of people like Nanami and that’s why he has to keep going, but Yuji also might not have comrades in the jujutsu world after this. We already see people like Kusakabe beginning to turn against him because of Sukuna’s rampage in Shibuya. 

So my intention in all of this is to say it’s not black and white. (Because, get it?? black wolf, white wolf??? Okay, I’m sorry I’ll shut up). Geto wasn’t an entirely bad person, there was good in him too. There was still good in him. This is what Getwo says when he’s beating on Yuji, that if Geto had used his forces more like disposable pawns instead of family telling them to fall back and making sure they all lived he would have won. 

The worst person you know, was still a human being who loved his family with all of is heart. Ideas like this challenge Yuji’s simplified reasons for fighting, and his naive view of the world. 

At the end of the day Yuji and Geto have lots of similarities. They’re opposite colors, Geto black, Yuji white, but they are both still wolves. They’re both moved by deep emotions they feel at the pit of their stomachs. They’re both people who sympathize with others and want to save them, and at the same time get angry and want to kill their enemies. None of this is bad about Yuji in fact it’s what makes him unique among shonen protagonist, he’s not a wholly good person, but just as flawed as anyone else in the story. Nobara’s crazy, Megumi’s crazy, Gojo’s crazy, and then there’s Yuji who should have been the normal one who grew up with a normal life and who is just as crazy as all the rest. 

If anything the parallels between Yuji and Geto show that Yuji is someone who has the chance to grow stronger than Geto by learning from Geto’s fault. Geto tried to carry too much, until the burden of saving the world broke him and he decided he could only save a few people the rest were just monkeys. It’s up to Yuji now to figure out what saving people means, and how he can help others without getting destroyed by the sense of responsibility or just killing himself and dying before he’s helped a single person. However, for Yuji to learn to be better he actually has to think about these things.

That’s also the second parallel to the “I don’t need to think about it’ Scene. (Besides, Sukuna who also declares that he’ll kill for no reason.) In the original Geto fight in the prequel manga Yuta declares this. He doesn’t know whether Geto is right or not, he doesn’t know anything about the world of Jujutsu he just wants to protect his friends. 

Geto calls him egotistical. In the sense that just like a child, he’s only really thinking about himself and his own emotions. Of course Yuta thinks that way because he is a child, a traumatized teenager at that. However, one important detail about this fight is defeating Geto did not cause him to go away. Killing him didn’t actually fix the problem. Geto just came back a year later with somebody else in his body. 

I think this is all leading up to a point for Yuji where he gives some serious self examination as a protagonist. It’s not enough for Yuji to just defeat his enemies. We even see that when after is triumphant moment with Mahito, Geto just wipes the floor with him.

Jujutsu Kaisen presents a very complex world, that’s not  just black and white, not just winning and losing. The next big step in Yuji’s character development is probably going to be realizing this. That he needs to seriously think about his reason. That he needs to think about what he wants to do in the future. It’s not enough for him to sacrifice his life to save someone else, he’s not a hero, or some martryr to a cause. I think the most important thing Yuji has to learn at the end of all of this is to actually live, and find out why he’s alive instead of resigning himself to the fact that he’ll get executed one day. It’s only then Yuji will be able to reach his full potential as both a jujutsu sorcerer and a person. 

He’s just a kid you know? The theme of the manga is kids should get to be kids. Yuji should get to grow up just like everybody else, instead of dying before he’s even old because he ate Sukuna’s finger to help someone else. 

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

Problematic Faves Cliffs Notes: Harvey Dent/Two-Face

Batman (1980) #329

Summary: Once a crusading district attorney that worked alongside Batman and Jim Gordon to fight crime – now the duality-obsessed super criminal known as Two-Face.

Harvey Dent also serves as a dark reflection of Batman's own struggles living a dual life with conflicting identities.

Main Goal: To enact his own justice whilst committing crimes.

Fears: Uncertainty, himself in general [the things he's capable of, specifically], losing control, his loved ones dying, his darker half discovering Bruce's secret identity [Detective Comics (2016) #1021], Renee Montoya's rejection [Batman: No Man's Land, novel], and the Joker [Joker (2008), only].

Mindset: Sees himself bound by fate and its will. As a result of Harvey's black-and-white worldviews, he considers his two-headed (scarred on one side) silver dollar a truly objective instrument of justice due to it only yielding two simple, 50/50 outcomes at the end of every coin toss.

"Some people go to the beach to forget their problems. They can watch the waves for hours. I understand the fascination.

There's a pattern – then there is no pattern.

It's the same with the coin. We want it all to mean something – we want to find the pattern – but in the final analysis, it's just waves."

— Harvey Dent, Secret Origins Special (1989) #1

•••

"He was always interested in the law – some might say obsessed. Man's law gave order to Harvey's world – they delineated the parameters of right and wrong, good and evil. They gave him something to believe in."

— Gilda Dent, Secret Origins Special (1989) #1

•••

Hugo Strange: Let's go back further, you were a rising star, a beacon of light for this city. A white knight riding in to save it with the Dark Knight not far behind.

Harvey Dent: You can leave him out of this. He is wrong. They all are. No one understands the beauty of fate's hand. I am grateful to Falcone. He gave me a clarity; a purity that few will know. Everything boils down to a simple choice, this way or that way, good... or bad.

Hugo Strange: Do you really believe that?

Harvey Dent: How could I not?

— Batman: Arkham City

•••

Batman: If you pull the trigger, how are you different from the Roman?

Harvey Dent: That's Jim Gordon talking. You know the system doesn't work. That justice can be decided like the flip of a coin.

— The Long Halloween

•••

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time... but you were wrong! The world is cruel. And the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair."

— Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

•••

"Life's a lottery, Holman. It's chance that decides who lives and who dies. Who gets cancer. Which kid is born with spina bifida. Who gets run over by a truck.

This [the coin] is what decides whether or not I blow your wife's brains out."

— Harvey Dent, Joker's Asylum: Two-Face #1 

Teen Titans Spotlight (1987) #13

Character Traits:

🌗 Loving • Idealistic • Genuine • Principled • Resolute • Focused • Driven • Workaholic • Passionate • Eloquent • Wrathful • Obssessed • Brooding • Self-loathing • Black-and-white thinking • Dauntless • Fair • Honest (generally) • Man of his word • Learned helplessness (regarding the coin and his choices) • Self-destructive • Unpredictable • Hair-trigger temper • Can be persuaded • Charitable (depends on coin toss) • Takes his pain out on others • Self-enabling • Serious • Harsh • Intimidating • Vengeful • Physically violent • Self-aware • Conflicted • Feels remorse • Tries, but fails to improve as a person • Too Dependent on his coin • Fatalistic • Suicidal • Forgiving • Self-centered, but not selfish 🌗

Key Facts:

Harvey Dent...

• Had mental health issues long before his disfigurement [Batman Annual (1990 #14, Batman: The Animated Series - Episode 10, and Batman: Arkham City].

• His father physically abused him every day as a child. Christopher Dent used a double-headed coin to make Harvey believe he could "avoid" the beatings if the coin landed on the non-existent "tails" [Batman Annual #14].

• Bruce Wayne was his childhood friend [Rebirth universe & Batman: Nightwalker].

• Harvey "Legal Eagle" Dent was the top of his class [Secret Origins Special (1989) #1].

• Paid for his father's nice apartment [Batman: Two-Face (1995) - Crime & Punishment].

• Half of Harvey wanted to love his father, while the other half wished him dead. Despite everything, he tried to make peace with Christopher prior to the acid attack [Batman Annual #14].

• Never stopped loving/thinking about Gilda Dent when she disappeared from his life following the events of the Long Halloween [Batman (2006) #653 & Batman (2011) #712].

What's more, Harvey continued loving Gilda so much that he wound up murdering her second husband's killer in a pre-Long-Halloween continuity [Batman (1980) #329] because the man's death left Gilda grieving.

• Fun fact: The Power of Love helped him resist Poison Ivy's pheromones in the Dark Victory #11!

Begone, thot!

• Blamed Batman for what happened to him with Salvatore Maroni Carmine Falcone and the acid attack that scarred his face [Batman: Arkham Knight].

• Uses his coin to determine whether he should kill or spare his victims. Also, he has been known to perform acts of charity [Detective Comics (1942) #66 & Batman: The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Volume 3 (1969-1972)] sometimes.

• Loves and hates Gotham [Batman and Robin (2013) #23.1].

• Dislikes hypocrites [Batman: Two-Face (1995) - Crime and Punishment & The Spectre (2001) #5].

• Developed strong feelings for Renee Montoya in the Batman: No Man's Land storyline.

• Continued caring about Renee deeply, despite the events of Gotham Central (2003) #10 [Convergence: The Question #1-2].

Received training from Batman [Batman #653] and Deathstroke [Deathstroke (2018) #38].

• Has tried growing better as a person, but he keeps failing [Batman Annual #14 & Batman and Robin Adventures (1995) #1-2].

• Has re-scarred himself more than once [Batman Annual #14, Batman #653, and Batman: Black and White (1996) #1].

• For all his faults and crimes – such as nearly beating Dick Grayson to death in Robin: Year One – he has helped people [The Batman Chronicles (1999) #16], defended Jim Gordon from himself as Jim's defense lawyer [Detective Comics (1999) #739], cares about the women in his life, and keeps his word when the coin comes up good.

He is a complex character, period.

Other Facts:

• Has seen Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" [Batman (1986) #397].

• Knows how to sculpt [Detective Comics (1986) #563].

• Owns a "thememobile" like Batman [Batman (1987) #410]!

• Likes baseball [Batman (1987) #411].

• Likes symmetry [Batman (1989) #442].

Smokes, but also doesn't [Batman (1994) #513].

"My own version of the literary reference mark known as a diesis – more commonly known as a double-dagger! My next pair shall strike to the heart of the matter!" — Harvey Dent, Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #1 – the words of a man who certainly reads a lot!

Batman Annual #14 & Teen Titans Spotlight #13 – A himbo he is not!

• Reads classic books such as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" [Detective Comics #66] and "A Tale of Two Cities" [Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #2].

• Still finds putting criminals behind bars fun [Batman Gotham Adventures (1999) #12].

• Can speak Spanish [The Batman Chronicles #16].

• Doesn't mind hitting women at all. There are so many examples of this; Harvey confirmed it himself [Batman: Streets of Gotham (2009) #7], and beat up Jim Gordon's wife in Batman (1999) #572.

• Made a self-insert comic book in an art therapy program. Yup, he wrote and drew it himself [Detective Comics (2001) #753]!

Called it "The Adventures of Copernicus Dent and His Best Girl and Plucky Assistant R'Nee!" 

• Plays chess with Batman [Gotham Knights (2002) #32].

• Has watched Star Trek [Nightwing (2008) #150].

• Fought and killed a werewolf [The 2008 DC Universe Halloween Special]. Yes, really.

• Was a cult leader [Detective Comics (2020) #1020].

• Rebirth!Harvey is now working as a jailhouse lawyer in Blackgate [Detective Comics (2020) #1024].

• Understands how binary code works, but computer geeks make him sick? [Robin (1994) #11] Yeah.

• Has kids. Twins! [Batman: Two-Faces Strikes Twice]. It looks like they're irrelevant.

• Remembered Renee's birthday and sent her tulips [Detective Comics (2000) #747].

• Has been a judge before [The New Batman Adventures - Episode 24 & Arkham Unhinged (2013) #11].

• Hates odd-numbers [Robin: Year One #2].

[maxineswritingcenter]

Bray Road - Fox Mulder x non binary!reader part 6

Fic Drop 2021

- 

Mulder just finished speaking with the Sheriff when he spotted his partner. (Y/N) looked so tired. They were holding their head in their hands and had been like that ever since the boys in blue zipped up the body bags for Jason, his mother, and the other patient that had been attacked. He walked to them slowly and placed a hand on their shoulder. 

“You alright?” He asked. (Y/N) took a deep breath and looked up. 

“I don’t know. I know everything that happened was real, but it feels...I never thought that I would experience that again.” They shrugged, “On the bright side, the cops believed my story this time.” 

Mulder smiled a little and nodded towards the car, “C’mon, let’s head back to the motel.” They stood and the two began walking towards the rental car. 

“What about Winterfield?” 

“Cops are going to search the office now to find evidence of the albuterol and anything related to the DEA. The courthouse is going to have a search warrant by the morning.” 

“Mulder.” They said as Mulder started opening his door, “The full moon is tomorrow.” 

He paused for a moment and looked up in the dark sky and saw the moon was almost full. He looked back at his partner, “We’ll get him. I promise.” 

- 

The next morning, both agents made their way to the pediatrician’s office where there was already a search in place. They met with the sheriff as he was walking out. 

“Agents,” He greeted them, “We found some research regarding the albuterol in a safe in the crawl space.” He handed some of the paper work to (Y/N). They looked them over. 

“It’s like the scrawling of a mad man.” The sheriff said, "Talking about rituals and turning the weak into warriors. As far as we know, there are two other kids in the reports. Both of which were killed in the last attack. According to their parents, they only used their inhalers for emergencies or not at all.” 

“So the DEA was never able to take hold in their systems.” Mulder concluded, "That also means that Winterfield was trying to make more of him."

"That seems to be the case," The sheriff looked back at (Y/N), who was still reading, their face paler than before. The writings from when they were a child were disturbing, describing their body in great detail and how they were perfect to create the master race of lycanthropes.

"We suspect that he's in hiding, but we believe that he's going to come back for you, Agent (Y/L/N)." They looked up at the sheriff's words.

"What?" Their heart dropped.

"We would like to place you under house arrest at your motel until we can apprehend Winterfield. You will be with the best big game hunter in the area, as well as two deputies." The sheriff motioned to the large camo wrapped pickup truck in the other end of the parking lot.

"I-...Right. of course." (Y/N) looked down at the ground. Their fingers gripping the paperwork.

Mulder took notice to their hesitation, "Sheriff, can you give us a minute?" The sheriff nodded and went to speak with the hunter in the truck.

"(Y/L/N), what is it?"

They finally looked up from the papers to Mulder. He seemed genuinely concerned about them. There was a calming sense about him that made them want to relax, but, in this situation, it was nearly impossible.

"I understand why I need to be under lock and key, I do. But I don't feel right about not going after him too." They felt tears burn at their eyes. They were so emotionally exhausted after years of fear just culminating to this moment and they wouldn't get the resolve they wanted.

"Is this about your parents?" He asked.

They glanced at this eyes again, then stared back at his tie, "Partially."

"Aw, you're not worried about me, are ya?" He chuckled.

They met his eyes again, so green and full of determination. It's what (Y/N) liked about him. Fox Mulder may have been known around the bureau as Spooky Mulder, but no one saw the passion. All they saw were the Xfiles. And (Y/N) thought Mulder liked to keep it that way. He had been ridiculed his entire career. But he believed the weird, he believed the strange.

"Skinner didn't assign you as my partner," They blurted out without thinking much. But the fuel was already in the fire, they had to elaborate, "I made up the case file. I kept it secret from my friends at the office because I didn't want them to treat me like I was a joke. I took the case to Skinner and asked to be your partner. I knew you would take it seriously. I knew you would believe me." (Y/N) placed a hand on his arm and smiled weakly, "Please be careful. I don't want to lose anyone else." Before Mulder could speak, he watched (Y/L/N) make their way to the camo truck to speak with the big game hunter and the sheriff.

-

At the motel, they had been given a box of evidence from Winterfield's home to look through. The big game hunter, Rodger, was in the corner of the room facing the door, cleaning the silver bullets he had been given to him from the local jeweler in town. He was an interesting looking guy, the was tall and lean. But his hair was styled so one side of his head was shaved to the skin, 3 long pink scars ran from his crown to his temple.

He noticed their staring and nodded, "Bear."

"Excuse me?"

He pointed to the scars, "Grizzly in Alberta. Probably stood about twelve feet tall. Smacked me right here but I put three slugs between it's eyes. So I can handle your werewolf just fine." He loaded to shells into his shotgun.

"Bears act on instinct. When they feel their family or their territory is threatened they attack. This werewolf thinks just as well as he does as a human." They looked out the window and saw the sun lower in the sky, making their stomach feel like there was a sack of rocks pulling them down.

"You have nothing to worry about, uh...what are your uhh..."

"It's Agent."

-

The search in the woods around Winterfield's house wasn't showing any sign that he had been there recently. But what they did find was a body. In the basement of his home they found a decaying body shackled to the wall, almost mummified. But the anatomy was inhuman.

Mulder looked was looking over a map of the area that they had already searched, needing to use a flashlight now that darkness was setting in. He looked up when he saw the coroner, Dr. Sherman, making her way towards him and taking her gloves off.

"I've seen a lot of weird things, but nothing as crazy as that." She said.

"How so?"

"Well, when the guy died his bones had grown so much that they were splintering. His teeth were so large they cracked his jawbone. He died in a lot of pain." She said.

"Any similarities to the Mulligan boy?" The sheriff, who had walked up behind Mulder asked.

"Sort of. There were signs of the splintering and the cracks in the jaw but they had healed almost instantaneously. But I'm sure when the lab comes back with the results, they'll show DEA like you said, agent Mulder."

"Any luck?" He turned back to the sheriff.

"None. The dogs can't pick up a damn thing. And the tracks we saw lead off into the woods disappeared about a mile in."

Before Mulder could speak, his mobile phone started going off in his pocket.

"Excuse me," He said, stepping away from the group and standing by his car before answering, "Mulder."

"So we found some info on Winterfield." Frohike began, "Or lack of info."

"I couldn't find any family history on him. That is, until I found these articles from the sixties." Byers said, "His name was Lyle Montgomery. And when he was fourteen he went missing for a month in northern Michigan and when he was found, he was covered in blood but completely unharmed."

"There's another news article a month later from the same area saying that an entire family but one was mauled by a bear. The survivor was relocated, but we can't tell where because the adoption was closed." Langley chimed in, "But it was around the same time that we found the yearbook for Elkhorn high school showing their star quarterback."

"Winterfield." Mulder answered, "Thanks guys."

"You got it, Gunmen out." Frohike signed off and the line went dead.

As Mulder walked back to the group his phone rang again, he answered, "Mulder."

"Hey Fox, I think that uh we're not gonna find this guy. He outsmarted us." (Y/L/N) said.

"When did we start on a first name basis, (Y/N)? And it's not over, we're gonna find him." He said, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion at his partner's use of his first name. Not even Scully called him by his first name.

"No, I think I'm just gonna go home ."

"We can't go now. What happened to you wanting to finally end this? To move on from all this?" He was closer to the sheriff and the coroner now, who gave him confused looks as well.

"Fox, I need to go back home." They said again, more sternly this time.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, "(Y/L/N), is he there?"

"Yeah, I just need to hurry up and get home." There voice shook then, "I've decided to leave the bureau and just go home." They took a deep breath, sounding a little choked up.

"Goodbye, Fox." The line went dead.

"We need to get to the motel right now, he's got (Y/L/N)." Mulder had barely gotten the phone back in his pocket before running with the sheriff to his truck and leading the department towards the motel.

-

(Y/N) hung up the phone, a shaky hand setting it back down on the receiver. They avoided looking in the corner of the room where the majority of Rodger was still in the corner. They looked back at Winterfield. His hands were larger than usual and covered in dark hair. His eyes glowed red. He was spattered in blood from the deputies that he been outside and the big game hunter.

"You know he doesn't believe me." They said.

"Oh I know." There was a gravel to his voice that made it sound more animal, "But he's gotta write something when the FBI starts asking where you are." He grabbed their arm with his massive hand and began dragging them out of the room through the broken doorway.

"Wait!" They shouted, "Let me grab my bag. It'll be more believable for the crime scene photos."

"Fine," Winterfield let go, "Hurry up." He seemed on edge, turning his head from side to side as if he could hear something coming. They went to the side of the bed where their bag laid, there was blood from the hunter on it. Out of the corner of their eye, they saw the silver bullets.

Winterfield began angry, "Come on!" He grabbed them by the back of their neck.

"My bag!"

"Screw the bag!" He growled, pulling them outside. In the distance, they both saw the red and blue lights flashing and the sirens screaming the distance.

-

The cars screeched to a stop, the entire sheriff's department pointing their guns. Mulder called to the others, "Don't shoot, he's got a hostage!"

Then Winterfield seemed to shift before his very eyes, growing a long snout and large animal like arms and legs, all covered in thick dark hair. Still standing on his hind legs, he grabbed (Y/N) by their middle and took off into the woods near the motel.

"MULDER!" They called back, their voice fading into the darkness.

"(Y/L/N)!" He called back, leading the department and the canine unit into the woods after Winterfield.

"Mulder!" Their voice was farther away now.

"(Y/L/N)!" He stopped when he no longer saw tracks, looking around for any signs, "(Y/L/N)!"

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

Likes, Comments, and Reblogs are appreciated! 

Read part 7 here!

Taglist List:

- @theres-a-dog-outside-omg

- @bi-andready-tocry

- @nyotamalfoy

[honey-dewey]

Random Dewey Finn headcanons (?) I came up with while eating my breakfast

Before Dewey wanted to be a big rock star, he wanted to be an astronaut. 

His aunt gave him his first guitar for his 10th birthday, thus sparking his love of rock music. 

One of the major reasons he never quit music was because of that aunt. She passed away early, and was constantly the only member of his family that truly believed in him. 

Dewey’s mum was kind of absent, so he was raised primarily by his dad. 

Dewey and Ned met on the first day of high school, and were inseparable for all four years. 

Despite both of them liking both, Dewey likes Star Wars more, while New prefers Star Trek. They have debates of epic proportion over which of these preferences is better. Dewey somehow always wins. 

One of the reasons Ned let Dewey live with him is because Dewey is an amazing cook. He never eats what he makes though. 

His specialty is breakfast foods

While he may be an amazing home cook, he’s an even better baker. 

Dewey is highly sensitive to textures, especially food and fabrics. 

Because of this, he rarely tries new foods, sticking to a decently firm schedule. (He really likes hard boiled eggs) 

It’s also why he likes sweater vests. The actual sweater doesn’t touch his skin, but he can rub his hands up and down the knit when he gets overwhelmed. 

He’s also sensitive to criticism. Along with that, he cries easily. 

After the whole School of Rock incident, Dewey did some quick online classes on teaching. When a music teacher position at Horace Green opened up, he was the first one contacted to fill it. 

During SoR shows, Dewey has a tendency to get very hyped, and this eventually leads to a collapse, usually on the bus ride home. It happened once on stage, where he just went still and quiet all of a sudden and then began to panic. 

All of his kids know exactly what to do during his collapses. 

They made him (yes made him) a stress doll. It weighs about twenty pounds and looks like a panda. They lay it across Dewey’s chest and let him lie down on a blanket. The kids then surround him to make a protective barrier. It’s a very effective method. 

It took almost thirty years for Dewey to get diagnosed with mild autism, anxiety, ADD, and seasonal depression. His mother was a firm believer that mental illness was a hoax. 

He did try and take medication for it, right when he started teaching full-time. It made him nauseous and tired and so unlike himself that he quit after three months, a decision that was fully backed by his students. 

He eventually did go back and get a new prescription for his ADD. It works surprisingly well and doesn’t make him act any less like himself. 

This isn’t even a Headcanon. It’s straight up actual canon from the Broadway.com Stick it to the Man video! Dewey stims! He knocks his wrists together and does the raptor hands! (I don’t think his hands were truly by his side at any point during the entire show) He taps his feet and shakes his hands! His facial expressions are always on 10 and he scronches his face when he’s excited! His head go bop! He’s a stimming Boi!

Also have you ever seen a neurotypical person dress like that? Ever? Nope. Sweater vests and jeans and sneakers (that look like heelys) is not a neurotypical outfit. 

Dewey doesn’t like rainy weather, nor does he like the cold bite of winter. He has a heater and a happy light in his classroom for rainy and/or cold days. 

His favorite season is fall. He really really likes to step on leaves and hear that satisfying crunch. 

Dewey also has a weakened immune system, and is pretty vigilant about his health. He takes vitamins and vitamin D supplements, and yet always ends up with some kind of illness in winter. Despite this, he refuses to get any kind of flu shot. 

Dewey’s list of phobias includes: needles, heights, clowns, and the dark. 

He’s dead terrified of the dentist. Ned has to practically drag him every time. It’s not even that he has poor dental hygiene or has actual odontophobia, he just hates the experience. The combination of strong smells and uncomfortable touches and horrible noises overwhelms him so much. 

For much of the same reasons as his hatred of the dentist, Dewey dreads getting his hair cut. Social interaction mixed with weird feelings on his surprisingly sensitive head and the constant background noise and the hair spray-y smell make it an experience Dewey’s hated since childhood. Now, Ned usually cuts Dewey’s hair because he’s really not picky about how it looks, and Ned knows exactly how to go about the job without causing Dewey to hyperventilate and cry. 

He uses a night light! It’s the fun kind that projects stars on the ceiling. 

Dewey is the king of field trips. He’s always just as eager as the kids to go, and he loves to learn niche facts. His favorite field trip location is the aquarium. 

Dewey quit drinking after his 23rd birthday, when he blacked out and woke up in some random girl’s bed. She promised they didn’t do it, but ever since then, he’s terrified it’ll happen again. 

Speaking of which, Dewey’s a virgin. 

Once, one of Dewey’s female students came to him and said an older man was following her to and from school every day. Dewey was later suspended from work for a week for punching a man and putting him in the hospital. Once they knew why, the school board unanimously decided not to punish him. 

Dewey absolutely insists all of his kids call him Dewey and not Mr. Finn. 

He’s the most supportive teacher in the entire school. He’s got name tags on every desk with each kid’s preferred name and pronouns. When Billy comes out as non-binary, he makes the pronoun switch immediately and puts a beautiful stained glass-esque progress pride flag in one of his windows. 

Someone hatefully vandalized said pride art project and Dewey actually cried. His kids all banded together to make a new one. 

Sometimes, the kids purposefully ask Dewey to sing certain things because his voice gets so damn tender and beautiful, as opposed to the usual bombastic singing they’re used to. (Think like. Some of the 35MM songs) 

Dewey has a routine with his drinks throughout the day. Two cups of coffee in the morning, one at home and one at work. One water bottle before lunch and one after lunch. A Gatorade or some other fitness drink after school, usually during band practice to make up for how sweaty he gets. And one cup of lavender citrus tea with extra honey after dinner. 

He broke his only water bottle about four months into teaching full-time and started to use a plastic one every day. Ned decided that wouldn’t do, and got him a Mandalorian water bottle. Dewey loves it to bits. 

Dewey doesn’t celebrate any one version of a holiday. He’s equal opportunity for any and all holidays, but he grew up Jewish. That doesn’t stop him from helping Ned put up his Christmas tree every year. Nor does it stop him from celebrating Yule with his online friends. 

Despite being Jewish and mainly celebrating their holidays, Dewey loves Christmas music and starts playing it as soon as he can. The kids dare him to hit those ridiculous Mariah Carey high notes in All I Want For Christmas. He does it. 

He also once sang ‘Little Drummer Boy’ to his kids the day before holiday break. He only played his guitar softly and by the time he was done, each and every kid was fast asleep. (He played Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer as well) 

Dewey absolutely collects soft blankets. He has four halloween ones, two Tim Burton ones (a Beetlejuice and a Corpse Bride), eight winter holiday blankets, and three miscellaneous. He brought them all into class once and built a blanket fort to teach his kids about ancient civilization. 

Speaking of which, his teaching methods are unorthodox at best, and at worst downright crazy. But he always teaches and he always makes it memorable. His class has the highest test scores in the school. 

Dewey usually teaches using music or hands on activities. He plays soft background music during every class no matter the circumstances, and said screw the building’s lights and uses primarily lamps and strings of Christmas lights. 

He also kind of forgets that he teaches essentially middle school, and he swears every so often when he’s super passionate. Like when he taught the kids about the US Presidents and called Andrew Jackson a racist bitch and Richard Nixon a lying bastard. 

After getting bullied throughout all of high school, Dewey came to terms with what his body looked like, and now he really doesn’t care. (He did have a lot of fun smashing the scale his mother got him for his birthday once) 

Dewey was supposed to teach his kids about mental illness for a suicide prevention thing the school did, but got about halfway through before he had a breakdown and the kids declared the rest of the day a bust. They watched cute animated movies instead of learning for the rest of the school day. 

Speaking of animated movies, Dewey really loves Studio Ghibli. 

The first time one of his kids called him ‘Dad’ he cried. Then they kept doing it and now he’s had to accept that he’s basically a father to about 30 11-year-olds. 

If you ask any kid in the school who their favorite teacher is, they will not hesitate to answer ‘Mr. Finn.’ Even if they aren’t in his class, he’s their favorite. 

Dewey’s classroom is always open for lunch. It’s quiet and calm, usually with a movie going in the background. 

He also stays after school for about an hour every day, helping kids with homework. He hates math with a passion but that didn’t stop him from trying to figure out Katie’s math homework with her. 

Even at home, Dewey cannot stand the quiet. He either has his headphones on or the radio going. Silence just isn’t an option. 

Dewey once got pneumonia and tried to come in to work anyway. The kids made him go home. He didn’t really put up much of a fight. 

The first instrument Dewey ever learned to play was the piano. He started to learn when he was super young, and that was how he learned how to read music. His kids didn’t even know he knew how to play until they walked in on him practicing one day. 

Dewey says ‘fuck gender roles’ and wears the girl’s skirts to a few SoR concerts. He likes the way it makes his legs look. 

Some jerk parents constantly tried to get Dewey in trouble for months because they didn’t like him and thought he wasn’t ‘high class’ enough for their kid’s education. Dewey was so stunned when they showed up during one of his classes that he couldn’t speak and just started to cry. Said student stood up and called their parents out. Two days later, those parents were off the school board. 

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, Dewey found out a new kid he’d received was being abused at home because they weren’t getting high enough grades and he yelled at the kid’s parents in front of all the other staff members. 

Essentially, Dewey can’t defend himself at all, but will not hesitate to protect his kids. 

Dewey has said multiple times he would die for his kids. He’s always 100% serious, especially during lockdown drills. 

Once, the school had a lockdown that wasn’t a drill, and Dewey managed to keep his entire class silent and calm while mentally preparing himself to lay his life down for his kids. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. 

Dewey’s also said he’d seriously consider adopting any of the kids if their at-home situation was that bad. 

When he finally could, Dewey moved out of Ned’s house and into his own cramped loft apartment. He’s in love with the apartment, even though it’s tiny and kinda smells. 

Dewey has almost no concept of volume control. He’s slightly deaf from constantly doing very loud shows and sometimes shouts because he thinks that’s a normal speaking volume. 

As one of, if not the actual, youngest teachers at the school, Dewey is universally adored by the rest of the staff. It took a while for all of them to get on board with him, but now they all really like him. 

Dewey’s favorite fruit is pomegranate. There’s just something super cathartic about cutting into a pomegranate and slowly de-seeding it. Plus, it tastes super good. But he only likes them if he can de-seed them himself. 

One of the ways Dewey grounds himself is by pressing things to his mouth. He usually just puts his hand up on his face or the end of a pen in his mouth, but whenever he has a blanket, one corner is up against his lips. The same goes for stuffed animals. They’re always against his face. Most of the time, he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. 

[concussions-and-clues]

Dream Game Challenge... Nancy Drew: Dead on Target

for @nancydrewnetwork​ ‘s Dream Game Challenge!

Plot Synopsis:

Just nicely home from her latest adventure Nancy receives a phone call from the enigmatic Gray Man, the leader of the shadowy Network. The Gray Man informs her that both of the Hardy Boys have been hospitalized due to a car bomb planted in their vehicle. An information leak is suspected at the Network and as such the Gray Man would like Nancy to investigate the incident in Bayport and bring the culprits to justice!

Characters:

Brian Conrad:  Voted most likely to need a good lawyer, Brian Conrad is a bully that has been hassling the Hardy’s since grade school. Rich and snooty Brian is irked by the Hardy’s because of all the positive attention they get… could he do something to try and ruin their squeaky-clean appearance, after all he was at the First National Bank at the time of the bombing (because Brian Conrad is always there).

Callie Shaw: Born and raised in the farm land just outside of Bayport, Callie Shaw has just recently moved into town with her cousin. An intelligent young woman, Callie works at the First National Bank. Still gaining friends, Callie is fond of the Hardy’s since they are some of the only people in town that ‘speak’ her first language: American Sign Language. Callie doesn’t let her lack of hearing stop her from living life to the fullest and rumour is that she may have a crush on a certain tall, dark, and handsome Hardy!

Oscar Smuff: Oscar Smuff dreams big of being a police detective one day. Unfortunately, he has not yet been able to pass the training; however, he hopes that working as a security guard for the First National Bank will give him the experiences he needs to be successful. He was the first responder to the car bomb and hopes that how he acted will help him when he next applies for the police force.

Chet Morton: The Hardy Boys best friend, confidant, and often co-conspirator, Chet Morton is one of the few civilian people who knows that the Hardy’s are spies! Chet’s passions in life are his hobbies and his Queen, a bright yellow jalopy that he fixes enthusiastically if not effectively. Despite being a star football player and power lifter, Chet still often gets bullied by Brian Conrad.

Iola Morton: Iola Morton is the younger sister of Chet and Joe Hardy’s long time (and according to Frank long suffering) girlfriend. Currently Iola is working as a barista at the Meet Locker, saving enough money to fulfill her passion and study Chemistry at MIT when she graduates high school. More introverted than her brother, she has recently been taken under the wing of Callie Shaw and the two are becoming fast friends.

Dr. Carrini: Dr. Carrini is flagged by the Network as a possible agent of the terrorist group the Assassins. Suspicion was raised when he was tangentially tied to a series of missing children cases a decade previously, but nothing could be proven. Currently his is working in Our Lady of Mercy Hospital… is it possible he planted the bomb so that he may have the Hardy brothers under his care, or under his knife?

Ripley Lansing: Another person of interest flagged by the Network, Ripley was found to be blackmailing and threatening contestants on a reality TV show where the Hardys had gone undercover. Money and an influential mother meant that she didn’t serve any jail time; however, her public image was ruined. She knew Frank and Joe as Frank Dooley and Joe Carr, respectively, and now that she is here in Bayport she might be seeking revenge having realized they were the ones who ratted her out to the police.

Fenton Hardy: Fenton Hardy is an ex-NYPD detective and the Hardy Boys father. After his retirement from the NYPD Fenton co-founded the Network (formerly American Teens Against Crime) with the mysterious Gray Man. Currently, Fenton keeps his work for the Network secret by working as a private detective. As is obvious, when it comes to detective work, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

Laura Hardy: Laura Hardy is Frank and Joe’s mother and the heart of the Hardy family. However, Laura doesn’t just use her heart, with a doctorate in Library Sciences Laura is currently working at the Phillip J. Roscoe Community College as their head research librarian. She doesn’t explicitly know about the Network but with her eye for detail it is unlikely that she doesn’t suspect something about what her sons are up to!

Frank & Joe Hardy: Nancy’s long time friend and teen detective contemporaries. They are currently under hospital orders due to being injured in a car bombing. Smart and intelligent the brothers are no strangers to injury but this seems like something more. Just like it would be for Nancy, narrowing down the suspect list for this crime is going to be challenging…

Spud: Chet Morton’s pooch Spud is a very good boy, well most of the time… Spud tends to follow his nose which makes him an excellent tracker although he has ended up in the Morton trash can one too many times.

Phone Friends:

Bess Marvin & George Fayne: Bess is in the process of fixing up her car for the winter. She is getting George’s help although this time it is George who is on the back foot and keeps messing stuff up for Bess.

Ned Nickerson: Since the game takes place at the beginning of December Ned is studying like crazy for his final exams. Being only three hours away from Bayport at Emerson, Ned is constantly debating about putting down the books and visiting his injured friends and Nancy in Bayport.

Vijay Patel: The Network’s tech guy, Vijay is the Q to Frank and Joe’s James Bond. Recruited by the Network when he was 17 he has built a lot of the infrastructure that the Network uses and is upset that a mole may have penetrated his system. An affable young man, Vijay is fond of the Hardys and is willing to do anything within his power to help Nancy find the culprit.

Locations:

First National Bank:

The location of the bombing. One of the oldest remaining buildings in Bayport. It is rumoured that there are tunnels and secret passages throughout the building, the remnants of a meticulously planned 1832 bank robbery.

Phillip J. Roscoe Community College: A school where there can be big fish in a little pond. Most Bayport students make the leap to the larger pond of New York to peruse their post-secondary needs; however, the Phillip J. Roscoe Community College is carving a name out for itself as an excellent research institution.

Our Lady of Mercy Hospital: The hospital where the Hardy’s are currently being housed. It is shiny and clean, smelling of carbolic cleaning agents, like almost every hospital in the world. What is not like most other hospitals is that it was converted from a school into a hospital during WWII since Bayport was one of the first ports when coming back across the Atlantic. Quickly refurbished, there are strange dead end hallways and the possibility of a room long since forgotten being every wall.

The Meet Locker:  A great little coffee shop with a really dumb name, according to the local teenagers. Often just referred to as the Locker, the Meet Locker, is a regular hangout for local teens with its comfy seats, highly caffeinated products, and cheap prices!

The Hardy Forensics Lab: Located in the barn in the Hardy’s backyard, the forensics lab is used equally by the Hardy Boys and Fenton Hardy in their respective cases. Stocked with forensic tools bought second hand from various police stations around the country, the Hardy’s have enough tech to make the Gil Grissoms and Horatio Caines of the world jealous.

Where People Are:

First National Bank (Callie Shaw)

Outside Bank/ security office (Oscar Smuff)

Hospital (Frank and Joe Hardy)

College Library (Laura Hardy)

Forensics Lab (Fenton Hardy)

Meet Locker (Iola Morton)

Meet Locker (Ripley Lansing)

Nurses station in Hospital (Dr. Carrini)

Gym at College (Brian Conrad)

Parking Lot Outside Gym (Chet Morton)

Puzzles:

Find the appropriate clothing to investigate (i.e. going undercover, wearing warm clothing when outside, etc)

Foot Print Matching

Fingerprint matching

Codes and ciphers (i.e. Frank and Joe’s notes and Network communications will all be coded)

Chemical Testing

Ink Chromatography

Using Spud to search for explosive device

Helping Chet fix the Queen

Learn ASL to better communicate with Callie Shaw

Help Iola serve people at the Meet Locker

Types of Codes/ Ciphers I’d Like to Use:

Scytales

Caesar shift

ASCII

Atbash

Binary

Braille

Columnar Cipher

Dice Cipher

Digraph Cipher

Dorabella Cipher

Keyboard Code

Morse Code

Pigpen Cipher

The Grid Code

Vigenere Cipher

Element Abbreviations

Game Features:

Day/ Night Cycle

Read through all previous books at the research library

Multiple Mysteries (i.e. who is the Gray Man, why were certain people at the crime scene, etc)

[theoutcastrogue]

Alignment in D&D

[by Jonathan Tweet, via EnWorld, June 2020. Jonathan Tweet is a game designer who has worked in D&D 3rd Edition, Ars Magica, 13th Age and others.]

Alignment is, on some level, the beating heart of Dungeons & Dragons. On the other hand, it’s sort of a stupid rule. It’s like the hit point rules in that it makes for a good game experience, especially if you don’t think about it too hard. Just as Magic: the Gathering has the five colors that transcend any world or story, so alignment is a universal cosmic truth from one D&D world to the next. The deities themselves obey the pattern of alignment.

On the story side, the alignment rules contain the rudiments of roleplaying, as in portraying your character according to their personality. On the game side, it conforms to D&D’s wargaming roots, representing army lists showing who is on whose side against whom.

The 3x3 alignment grid is one part of AD&D’s legacy that we enthusiastically ported into 3E and that lives on proudly in 5E and in countless memes. Despite the centrality of alignment in D&D, other RPGs rarely copy D&D’s alignment rules, certainly not the way they have copied D&D’s rules for abilities, attack rolls, or hit points. 

Alignment started as army lists in the Chainmail miniatures rules, before Dungeons & Dragons released. In those days, if you wanted to set up historical Napoleonic battles, you could look up armies in the history books to see what forces might be in play. But what about fantasy armies? Influenced by the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, Gary Gygax’s rules for medieval miniatures wargaming included a fantasy supplement. Here, to help you build opposing armies, was the list of Lawful units (good), the Chaotic units (evil), and the neutral units. Today, alignment is a roleplaying prompt for getting into character, but it started out as us-versus-them—who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?

Original D&D used the Law/Chaos binary from Chainmail, and the Greyhawk supplement had rudimentary notes about playing chaotic characters. The “referee” was urged to develop an ad hoc rule against chaotic characters cooperating indefinitely. This consideration shows how alignment started as a practical system for lining up who was on whose side but then started shifting toward being a concrete way to think about acting “in character.”

Another thing that Greyhawk said was that evil creatures (those of chaotic alignment) were as likely to turn on each other as attack a lawful party. What does a 12-year old do with that information? One DM applies the rule literally in the first encounter of his new campaign. When we fought our first group of orcs in the forest outside of town, The DM rolled randomly for each one to see whether it would attack us or its fellow orcs. That rule got applied for that first battle and none others because it was obviously stupid. In the DM’s defense, alignment was a new idea at the time.

Law versus Chaos maps pretty nicely with the familiar Good versus Evil dichotomy, albeit with perhaps a more fantastic or apocalyptic tone. The Holmes Basic Set I started on, however, had a 2x2 alignment system with a fifth alignment, neutral, in the center. For my 12-year old mind, “lawful good” and “chaotic evil” made sense, and maybe “chaotic good,” but “lawful evil”? What did that even mean? I looked up “lawful,” but that didn’t help. 

Our first characters were neutral because we were confused and “neutral” was the null choice. Soon, I convinced my group that we should all be lawful evil. That way we could kill everything we encountered and get the most experience points (evil) but we wouldn’t be compelled to sometimes attack each other (as chaotic evil characters would).

In general, chaotic good has been the most popular alignment since probably as soon as it was invented. The CG hero has a good heart and a free spirit. Following rules is in some sense bowing to an authority, even if it is a moral or internalized authority, and being “chaotic” means being unbowed and unyoked.

Chaotic neutral has also been popular. Players have sometimes used this alignment as an excuse to take actions that messed with the party’s plans and, not coincidentally, brought attention to the player. The character was in the party because the player was at the table, but real adventurers would never go into danger with a known wildcard along with them. This style of CG play was a face-to-face version of griefing, and it was common enough that Ryan Dancey suggested we ban it from 3E.

The target we had for 3E was to make a game that doubled-down on its own roots, so we embraced AD&D’s 3x3 alignment grid. Where the Holmes Basic Set listed a handful of monsters on its diagram, 3E had something more like Chainmail’s army lists, listing races, classes, and monsters on a 3x3 table.

When I was working on 3E, I was consciously working on a game for an audience that was not me. Our job was to appeal to the game’s future audience. With the alignment descriptions, however, I indulged in my personal taste for irony. The text explains why lawful good is “the best alignment you can be.” In fact, each good or neutral alignment is described as “the best,” with clear reasons given for each one. Likewise, each evil alignment is “the most dangerous,” again with a different reason for each one. This treatment was sort of a nod to the interminable debates over alignment, but the practical purpose was to make each good and neutral alignment appealing in some way.

If you ever wanted evidence that 4E wasn’t made with the demands of the fans first and foremost, recall that the game took “chaotic good” out of the rules. CG is the most popular alignment, describing a character who’s virtuous and free. The alignments in 4E were lawful good, good, neutral, evil, and chaotic evil. One on level, it made sense to eliminate odd-ball alignments that don’t make sense to newcomers, such as the “lawful evil” combination that flummoxed me when I was 12. The simpler system in 4E mapped fairly well to the Holmes Basic 2x2 grid, with two good alignments and two evil ones. In theory, it might be the best alignment system in any edition of D&D. On another level, however, the players didn’t want this change, and the Internet memes certainly didn’t want it. If it was perhaps better in theory, it was unpopular in practice.

In 5E, the alignments get a smooth, clear, spare treatment. The designers’ ability to pare down the description to the essentials demonstrates a real command of the material. This treatment of alignment is so good that I wish I’d written it.

My own games never have alignment, per se, even if the game world includes real good and evil. In Ars Magica, membership in a house is what shapes a wizard’s behavior or social position. In Over the Edge and Everway, a character’s “guiding star” is something related to the character and invented by the player, not a universal moral system. In Omega World, the only morality is survival. 13th Age, on the other hand, uses the standard system, albeit lightly. The game is a love letter to D&D, and players have come to love the alignment system, so Rob Heinsoo and I kept it. Still, a 13th Age character’s main “alignment” is in relation to the icons, which are not an abstraction but rather specific, campaign-defining NPCs. 

~ Jonathan Tweet [source]. Jonathan Tweet is a game designer who has worked in D&D 3rd Edition, Ars Magica, 13th Age and others.

From DDB's stats, 2019​

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 340

THE BRAIN: A GALAXY OF NEURONS: Part 2

THE HUMAN BRAIN AND COMPUTERS

The human brain and computers are two different things. One is a living, thinking, learning, feeling, crying, and loving organism. Happiness and sadness, in the form of marginal emotions, are reactions of the brain. Such terminology makes no sense to computers. In that sense, it might be misleading to compare the human brain and computers. However, there are some common functionalities that make such a comparison logical.

Both the human brain and computers have memory. Memory in human brains is defined as "stronger synaptic connections," whereas computer memories are formed by semiconductor chips. Both can adapt and learn. The human brain can learn easier and faster than a computer, which can only "learn" certain tasks by being programmed with special algorithms. The nature of such "learning" is very limited.

On the other hand, computers can perform many complex tasks much faster than human brains. For example, try multiplying two numbers, dividing the result by 7, and then subtracting 9 from that result. The computational speed of a human brain is much slower than that of a computer.

Due to their high speed, computers perform parallel jobs relatively faster. The human brain also can perform parallel tasks at the same time. For example, it controls the heart rate and blood pressure while performing computational tasks. In addition, the human brain is better at interfacing with the outside world and coming up with new ideas; computers only do what they are instructed to do, regardless of the task's simplicity or complexity. The human brain distinguishes itself from computers by its extraordinary capability in the areas of imagination and innovation.

Another common functionality is that both transmit information. Computers use semiconductor switches that are either on or off. Everything inside of a computer is represented by either a one (1) or a zero (0). Although neurons in the human brain are either on or off, meaning that they are or are not firing an action potential at a particular point in time, an accumulated charge that activates neurons gives the human brain more flexibility. Neurons are more than just on or off, for their excitability is always changing as they constantly receive information from other cells through synaptic contacts. As stated earlier, this information is carried through electrochemical polarization. Although this electrochemical process does not always result in an action potential, it may alter the chance that an action potential will be produced by raising or lowering the neuron's threshold.

Another important distinction between computers and the human brain is that the human brain never rests, while computers do after they have been turned off. Even during sleep, the human brain continues to work dynamically. Indeed, it produces distinct signals, called sleep spindles, that may be observed externally while the person is asleep. While an individual's body rests during sleep, his or her brain recollectively refreshes itself.

UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN'S DYNAMICS

All activity inside the human brain is conducted through electrochemical polarization, a process that can be observed by placing electrodes on an individual's scalp. The brain's dynamics can be observed in the form of an electroencephalograph (EEG) or a magnetoencephalograph (MEG). An EEG, which is relatively less sophisticated than a MEG, maps the brain's dynamics into electrically recorded brain waves. Multiple electrodes are systematically placed on the scalp, and potential differences are measured with respect to a reference point. In the case of a multichannel EEG, the number of electrodes may be as high as 64 or even 128. Figure 2 shows a single-channel recorded EEG. Potential differences measured through electrodes are sampled and stored in a computer for analysis.

The challenge presented to researchers is how to read multichannel EEGs and extract the information that really reflects neuronal activity. If the patient is epileptic, brain abnormalities may be easily distinguished in a multichannel EEG. From the location of electrodes, it may be possible to identify the general part of the brain giving rise to epileptic EEGs. In clinics, neurosurgeons usually open the patient's scalp and measure the EEG directly by placing electrode grids over the cortical tissue. Even then, it is a real challenge to identify the defective region and proceed accordingly.

The EEGs of epileptic patients distinguish themselves from other brain activities by their relatively high amplitude. But what about other physical and mental tasks? Can we detect and identify those EEGs that reflect a certain mental task? Scientists from many disciplines are focusing on such questions. Many researchers are combining EEGs, MEGs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and such engineering tools and algorithms as digital signal processing and spectral analysis to identify and understand the brain's dynamics. The clinical need for such solutions are in high demand.

THE HUMAN BRAIN AND INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE

The human brain has been a research focus of scientists from many disciplines. Scientists in medicine, neuroscience, engineering (electrical engineering and biomedical engineering), mathematics, physics, physiology, and computer science have been conducting either sole or interdisciplinary research for many years. The brain has so many dimensions that no single discipline can cover all of its aspects. Some of these disciplines are described below:

Artificial intelligence attempts to build knowledge representation on the hypothesis that intelligent systems act intelligently. Hence, if the human brain's intelligence were represented in a finite domain, this domain could be used by computers to mimic human intelligence. This approach faces a major challenge: human intelligence cannot be represented to the degree that artificial intelligence requires to mimic human intelligence.

Computational intelligence, on the other hand, approaches the problem from the perspective of such engineering tools and algorithms as neural networks, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms. Neural networks and genetic algorithms can learn an underlying task to some degree, whereas fuzzy logic relaxes information representation by providing one more degree of freedom to the binary representation of information: a membership function concept. In this concept, the information has a probability of being a member of a certain class. The human brain's electrochemical process may not always result in an action potential for a certain neuron(s). The binary concept cannot represent this phenomenon, whereas fuzzy logic may be helpful in modeling the chance of a neuron to produce action potential

Engineering provides technical tools and algorithms for conducting research on the human brain. Electrical engineering provides signal processing tools and algorithms for filtering and imaging, and other tools to process EEGs. Many scientists use these tools and algorithms to understand and localize EEGs. It would be very effective to localize human brain abnormalities with the help of engineering tools and algorithms.

Each science and method mentioned above has its own limitations. Combined interdisciplinary research provides more promising results for understanding the brain's dynamics. Many other methods not mentioned in this article also are being used to study the human brain.

SOME FACTS

An average adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1.36 kilograms). A stegosaurus weighed about 3,528 pounds (1,600 kilograms) but had a brain that weighed only about 0.15 pounds (70 grams), or just 0.004 percent of its total body weight. In contrast, an adult human being weighs about 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and has a brain that weighs about 3.1 pounds (1.4 kilograms), or about 2 percent of his or her total body weight. That makes a human being's brain-to-body ratio 500 times greater than that of the stegosaurus.

DISCUSSION

This is only a very brief description of the human brain and its functionality. As scientists and researchers learn more about the human brain, they realize that what they know is very small when compared with how much they still do not know. All scientific efforts undertaken thus far have opened only a small window on a large universe: our own galaxy, located inside our brain, with the neurons as its stars. Let each neuron be a moon. How much do we know about the moon compared with the universe in which it resides? The answer is the same for the following question: How much we know about the human brain's neurons and the universe in which they reside?

[maswartz]

Power Rider Arcade

(Logo by Markolios and @riceyhot)

Years ago a team of programmers working for Magnus Games attempted to create the world’s greatest video game. It would be called EX-AID (Electric Xenosis- Adventure in Datatropolis). Part of what would make it so unique was that the game would learn and adapt to the player meaning no two playthroughs would be the same. Enemies would adapt to player techniques, the player’s characters would level up and adapt to the players style. Even the worlds would subtly adapt to the player. This system was called V.A.I (Virtual Artificial Intelligence)

The plot was that in the world of data and code existed a land called Datatropolis. The various worlds lived in peace with one another until the evil VAI attacked with his viral minions. A call went out from the capital city for help. A group of Heroes answered the call.

From the Hall of Heroes came Vic, the greatest of heroes (Action/Platformer)- “Let’s play a game! *item collection noise*” From the Kingdom of Fantasy came Sir Valor, the noblest of knights (RPG)- “Let us go forth into battle! *swords clash*” From the War Zone came Sargent Sniper, expert with all firearms (Shooting)- “Lock and load! *gun loads*” From the racetrack of Velo City came Speedstar the fastest racer. (Racing)- “Race ya! *car speeds off*” From the Sport Stadium came Athy Lete master of all sports (Sports)- “Let’s make it sporting! *crowd cheers*” From the Institute of Intelligence came Eyeque, the host of the Premium Puzzle game show (Puzzle)- “Have I got a puzzle for you! *game show buzzer*” From the Combat Arena came Champ, the strongest of fighters. (Fighting)- “Step into the ring! *bell rings*” From Terror Town came the Night Mayor, ruler of horrors. (Horror)- “Behold the horrors of the night! *ghostly wail*” From the Harmony Concert Hall came Melody, the most popular pop star (Music/Rhythm/Dancing)- “Time for the big show! *musical scale*”

These Heroes would unite to fight VAI and his forces.

However before the game was completed the budget ran out and the project was canceled. Two of the programmers began to delete the data, however when they tried to delete V.A.I he managed to escape it. Before it vanished V.A.I vowed revenge for being thrown away like garbage. As it escaped V.A.I managed to steal the data of many of the Heroes

When the pair tried to warn the others they were laughed off. So the two transferred the data of the remaining Four Heroes to a new computer should the day come that V.A.I returned.

In the meantime the pair married and opened an arcade. Soon they had a son they named Elliot and the threat of V.A.I seemed so far away.

However one day V.A.I returned with a vengeance. Having gained the ability to create viruses monsters called Virugs he launched his attack. While fleeing the first attack Elliot and two other teens found a hidden base under the arcade containing the computer with the data of the Four Heroes on it.

The programmers revealed the truth behind EX-AID and V.A.I to the teens who volunteered to fight back. And so the teens and the Heroes united to become Power Rider Arcade.

The Heroes act as avatars for the teens, giving helpful hints similar to a tutorial. In battle the teens would head to a location where the Virug virus has emerged and using the Avatars of the Heroes fight a monster until it crossed over into the real world at which point they transform into the Riders to defeat it once more to destroy it.

At first Elliot and the others clash due to conflicting personalities but eventually they unite to fight the true threat.

They would face many dangers including a dark warrior called Glitch who used data from some of the fallen Heroes to fight the Riders. Glitch is soon joined by Coder an enigmatic warrior who serves V.A.I as well.

Shortly after the defeat of Glitch it is revealed that the CEO of Magnus Games, Stan Magnus was behind V.A.I’s rebellion. Stan believed he could use V.A.I to conquer the world and the only ones who stand in his way are the Arcade Riders.

Soon after this revelation V.A.I creates and mass produces cartridges that allows normal people to become Game Riders and Stan sells these through Magnus Games. However in reality V.A.I is merely using them to increase the power of the Virugs by having them use the Game Riders as practice. Furthermore the Game Riders are turned against the Arcade Riders by telling them they were enemies in the “game” and to make matters worse if a Game Rider is defeated they die for real.

Special monsters called Power Up Pals (P.U.P) merge with the Riders to unlock new forms. In game the P.U.P were friends and allies with the heroes.

Energy Items are formed when the Virug emerges into the real world and grant different abilities Speed High Jump Health Confusion Metal Giant Muscle Tiny Invisible Hint

Digital Dragon- In game this mighty beast was the ancient protector of the land however V.A.I’s attack left it weakened so it created Totems for the Heroes to use. The Totems would bestow them with armor and power. However when V.A.I escaped the Dragon was thought lost so the programmers saved the Totems just in case

Arcade Player 1 “Warrior”-Vic Name: Elliot Booth

Age: 16

Personality/Bio: Elliot grew up in an arcade, as his parents were two of the original programmers working on Magnus Games' 'world's best video game', who eventually married and opened up an arcade. As a result of growing up in the arcade, he is a lifelong gamer. Perhaps because of his parents' dedication to deleting the data of the failed video game and stopping the spread of V.A.I., he is the Rider most dedicated to defeating V.A.I. when it's apparent that V.A.I. has returned for revenge. During V.A.I.'s first attack, Elliot and the other Riders discovered a hidden base underneath the arcade. His parents explained everything to them and they agreed to take up the mantle as Power Rider Arcade. As Power Rider Warrior, his personal weapon is the Smasher Slasher. His Hero aid is Vic. Elliot soon gains several new forms to defeat increasing threats.

Face Claim: Nathan Kress Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Moves- Rider Warrior Smash/Slash/Kick/Punch Vehicle: Speedstar

Powered Up Mode- After freeing a P.U.P named Punchbot, Elliot gains an armored form and a rocket fist Finishing Move- Rider Power Punch

Digital Dragon Armor- Gains armor, sword, and blasters. Finishing Move- Rider Warrior Dragon Slash/Shot

Super Mode- Multiplayer Mode- Vic and Elliot each control one Body in both Avatar and Rider mode. Rider mode splits into two, one controlled by Vic the other by Elliot.

Final Mode- Victory Armor/Power - Two modes. Armor gains increased stats and Power grants temporary invincibility and the ability to permanently delete Virugs. Finishing Move- Rider Victory Kick/Punch

Arcade Player 2 “Knight”- Sir Valor Name: Harvey Ritter

Age: 16

Personality/Bio: Harvey is a bookworm and isn't afraid to let others know just how smart he is. He and Tara, Power Rider Soldier, don't get along due to a grudge between them, stemming from years ago. Harvey mostly keeps to himself, his nose always in a book, but Elliot, little by little, slowly brings him out of his more arrogant loner shell, making him a much better person later on. Eventually, due to the efforts of Elliot and Nicole, he and Tara resolve their grudge and patch things up. They don't quite become friends, but they recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses, both on and off the battlefield. His Hero aid is Sir Valor and his personal weapon, as Power Rider Knight, is the Sword of the Frozen Flame. Much like Elliot , he gains access to more powerful forms as the battles get tougher and tougher.

Face Claim: Kevin G. Schmidt Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move- Rider Knight Slash

Powered Up Mode- After freeing a P.U.P named DeeJay, Harvey gains sonic based attacks Finishing Move- Rider Power Sonic Blast

Digital Dragon Armor- Gains armor, sword, and blasters. Finishing Move- Rider Knight Dragon Slash/Shot

Super Mode- King Mode- Can summon an army of Virugs and channel great energy. At first King Mode is corrupted by the Virug virus however in time he manages to erase the virus leading to the True King Mode Finishing Move- Rider King Judgement

Arcade Player 3 “Soldier”- Sargent Sniper Name: Tara Katona

Age: 17

Personality/Bio: Tara is a girl living in the lap of luxury due to the wealth of her parents. Her parents spoil her and treat her like a princess, but in return, she hides her true self from them. Her true self is a tomboy who is quick to anger and who holds a long-standing grudge with Harvey. Eventually, she and Harvey reconcile and become more understanding of each other. She is a fierce protector of her friends, especially Nicole, whom she treats like her little sister. Her Hero aid is Sergeant Sniper and her personal weapon, as Power Rider Soldier, is the Sniper Pistol. As with Elliot and Harvey's powerups, Tara receives her own, allowing her to fight on par with them.

Face Claim: Nicola Peltz Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move- Rider Soldier Blast

Powered Up Mode- After freeing a P.U.P named TakeOff, Tara gains a jet pack and cannons. Finishing Move- Rider Power Blast

Digital Dragon Armor- Gains armor, sword, and blasters. Finishing Move- Rider Soldier Dragon Slash/Shot

Super Mode- Commander Mode- Gains a large amount of guns and blasters and can track and target any foe. Finishing Move- Rider Commander Artillery

Arcade Player 4 “Biker”- Speedstar- Kyle (later)- At first Speedstar fights alongside the teens by being uploaded into a bike however during a battle with Glitch Speedstar’s Rider form is damaged beyond repair and must remain in his bike mode.

Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Finishing Move- Rider Biker Rush

In his vehicle form Speedstar can reach incredible speeds in a short amount of time, however he lacks many of his attacks and cannot interact much.

Powered Up Mode- After freeing a P.U.P named Sammy Rai, Speedstar gains a body to fight with Finishing Move- Rider Power Arrow

Digital Dragon Armor- Gains armor, sword, and blasters. Finishing Move- Rider Biker Dragon Slash/Shot

Name: Kyle Stevens

Age: 16

Personality/Bio: Kyle is a BMX biker and Elliot's best friend. They met on the first day of school and have been friends since. After his friend keeps disappearing, he decides to investigate. His investigation leads him to the Booth family arcade, where he discovers the hidden base of the Riders. Elliot makes Kyle promise to keep everything he's seen a secret, to which Kyle complies. Kyle eventually meets a newly repaired Speedstar, who asks him to fight alongside him as Power Rider Biker V2. At first, Kyle is a bit hesitant, not wanting to give up BMX biking in order to save the world, but Elliot manages to convince him that he can do both. Kyle finally accepts, knowing that if he wants to continue BMX biking, he must have a safe world to do it in.

Face Claim: Jaden Smith Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move: Rider Biker Rush

In this new form they are able to utilize Athy Lete’s data as Glitch once did Finishing Move- Rider Biker Discus

Arcade Player 5 “Dancer”- Melody Name: Ashley Sharp

Age: 17

Personality/Bio: Ashley is a cheerleader at the school Elliot and the others attend. As one of the popular girls, she tends to manipulate those around her into doing things for her, such as carrying her books to class and holding doors open for her. Due to her manipulation skills she is kidnapped by V.A.I. and brainwashed into fighting the Riders as Hacker. She is also used to distribute the Game Rider cartridges as part of V.A.I.'s bigger plan. She is eventually freed from her brainwashing through the great efforts of Elliot, to whom she feels a bit indebted for saving her. She joins the Riders as Power Rider Melody in order to fight against V.A.I. and prove that she's can become a much better person and prove V.A.I wrong.

Face Claim: Ashley Tisdale Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move- Rider Dancer Concert

Arcade Player 6 “Secret”- Tory Name: Drake Magnus

Age: 25

Personality/Bio: Drake is the son of Stan Magnus, CEO of Magnus Games. When he discovered the truth about his father and V.A.I, he stole a Rider Cartridge from him. This cartridge contained a hidden character, Tory, who is a palette swap of Vic. Tory allows Drake to transform into Power Rider Secret. Drake later uses reclaimed data from the Night Mayor game to upgrade his Rider form and can charge his attacks with dark energies.

Face Claim: Milo Ventimiglia Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move- Rider Secret Kick/Punch

When using the data of Night Mayor Drake can charge his attacks with dark powers. Finishing Move- Rider Secret Horde

Name: Nicole Jimenez-Kalea

Age: 15

Rider Designation: Gamer Rider Personality: Headstrong, a little bratty, keeps cool under pressure, wary and shy around things that weird her out, unafraid to show her emotions, especially disgust or contempt

Bio: Nicole is a long time friend of Tara, and treats her like a big sister. She's a genius gamer and proud of it. Any time her winning streak is broken, she locks herself in a room for a few days and trains until she gets them back. But Nicole doesn't her idolization of "big sis" Tara stop her from bullying Tara into doing things like social interaction or beating up people that break her winning streaks. Nicole and Tara were practically glued at the hip since first grade, so when Tara started disappearing with Elliot and co more and more often, she followed them to figure out what they were doing with her "big sis." After learning the weird armored people running around town were Tara's friends, she promised to keep their secret, but she didn't keep her promise to stay out of danger. Nico follows them around on missions, cheering them on from the sidelines. She immediately buys a Gamer Rider cartridge when Magnus Games starts being distributing them. She proves her fighting prowess based on her gaming skills immediately and Tara grudgingly allows her to help out.

Face claim: Auli'i Cravalho

Transformation Device: Gamer Belt Transformation Call: Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Move- Game Rider Kick/Punch

V.A.I’s forces

Glitch- First warrior, as the battles continued V.A.I gave him data taken from Athy Lete and Night Mayor. Eventually destroyed and the data was retaken by the Riders.

Finishing Moves- Glitch Kick/Punch,

When using the data stolen from Athy Lete Glitch gains armor and throwing discuses Finishing Move- Glitch Sport Slasher

When using the data stolen from Night Mayor Glitch gains a new form and the ability to survive mortal blows. His attacks are charged with dark energy Finishing Move- Glitch Horror Assault

Coder- The second warrior created by V.A.I using the data from Eyeque and Champ. In Puzzle mode he can utilize energy items in unique combinations and in Fighter mode he gains fiery punches. He then gains the power to combine the two to form Combo mode.

Eventually he is betrayed by V.A.I and Magnus after outliving his usefulness. He is forced to defect to the Riders and his damage causes him to become an Avatar to assist Perry Peterson, a nerdy teacher from the school the teens attend.Perry then becomes Power Rider Scholar.

Name: Perry Peterson

Age: 30

Personality/Bio: Perry is a rather nerdy instructor at the school the Riders attend. After Coder is heavily damaged and betrayed, he defects to the Riders' side and becomes an avatar for Perry, who uses him to transform into Power Rider Scholar. As their teacher, and oldest of the heroic Riders, Perry watches over them both on and off the battlefield. He originally had no idea his students were the Riders until he received his powers and began fighting with them. His students discovered Power Rider Scholar's true identity after he finished fighting off a group of Virugs attacking a group of people. He de-transformed, but hadn't realized there were people watching him. After his students found out who he was, they were shocked, but Elliot invited him to fight with them, an invitation which Mr. Peterson accepted. If anyone asks what the group is doing, when they go off to fight Virugs and V.A.I.'s forces, Mr. Peterson says they're going to a Gamer's Club meeting, being held at the Booth family arcade.

Face Claim: Ben Savage Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call- Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Moves- Coder/Scholar Quiz/Knockout

Mal Name: Stanley "Stan" Magnus

Age: 45

Personality/Bio: Stan began the war with V.A.I. when he helped the virus escape, intending to use it for world conquest. He was promised power and conquest by V.A.I., but is eventually betrayed after he outlives his usefulness. Stan becomes Mal and outfits his form with cheat codes in order to gain an advantage against the Arcade Riders. His advantage is erased, however, by the arrival of Elliot's Victory Power form. Stan is overtaken by V.A.I. after his betrayal, giving V.A.I. a physical body with which to personally fight the Arcade Riders. Stan is the CEO of Magnus Games and the father of Drake Magnus.

Face Claim: Keanu Reeves Transformation Device: Player Belt Transformation Call- Let’s Ride Transformation: A field of binary code covers them forming the armor Finishing Moves- Mal Crash

V.A.I- Virtual Artificial Intelligence- The virtual enemy that started it all. He was programmed to adapt and learn with each battle with the player, making each play though that much harder. However they programmed him too well and he gained sentience. He influenced Stan with promises of power and conquest only to betray him when he outlived his usefulness. V.A.I then took possession of his body to fight the Riders personally.

V.A.I- After his “rider” form is defeated he absorbs a large number of Virugs to mutate into his true boss form. This form is able to further mutate into a large monstrous form.

Power Rider Phantom/Arcade: The ghost of a video game programmer emerges across the internet and it’s up to the combined forces of the Phantom Rider and the Arcade Riders to exorcise the internet.

(Bios by @rosegrl18 and @highkickin-cylon)

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