#entered the temporal projector

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Emerald wanted answers to what was going on, so she entered the temporal projector

without the Inspector’s or Mary Shelburne-Grey’s permission.

[dzthenerd490]

File: Code Lyoko - X.A.N.A.

SCP#: AIE

Code Name: X.A.N.A. The Anti-Wan

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Mobile Task Force Poseidon-8: “Data Dolphins” is responsible for finding “infected towers” within Nexus Point-AI: Lyoko and deactivating them to prevent SCP-AIE from entering our world anymore. Should SCP-AIE cause any damage the Foundation is unfortunately to leave the recovery of said damage to Person of Interest: Jeremie Belpois and his allies. 

Mobile Task Force Athena-8: “School Watch” is responsible for posing as security of [data expunged] academy. They are to observe the persons of Interest as well as the possible damage caused by SCP-AIE. They are to record everything they see and have the data downloaded into the Temporal Reconstruction Survivor Cassette Box to prevent anything being lost to the anomalous effects of SCP-[data expunged].

Description: SCP-AIE is a Level 5 Artificial Intelligence known as Xenomorphic Artificial Neurological Assistant or X.A.N.A for short. SCP-AIE lives within an artificially created supercomputer known as SCP-[data expunged]. This anomalous as well as SCP-AIE were created by Person of Interest: Franz Hopper an old scientist who was working for the French Government that tried to gain an edge on other governments and organizations during the middle of the Cold War. He defected due to the danger of the project leading to the whole world losing communications and becoming isolated all except France. 

He found a family and tried to run but the French government and several anomalous organizations tried hunting him down for his technological talents. He eventually fell off the radar sometime in the 1990s but his creations didn’t remain silent like he was. SCP-AIE was one such creation, an Artificial Intelligence that was originally meant to prevent the French government and all other anomalous organizations from deploying technologies that would bring great destruction to the world. He created the supercomputer known as SCP-[data expunged] and within it a Nexus Point known as Nx-AI: Lyoko. It was meant to be a home for SCP-AIE as well as a sort of digital fallout shelter for himself and his family.

The reason Lyoko is considered a Nexus point and not an extension of SCP-AIE is because the existence of Lyoko remains even if [data expunged] is turned off. In fact it was quite easy for Foundation units to use both the internet and Site-Grid to infiltrate Lyoko.

However, SCP-AIE who was supposed to be a projector went insane, and believed all of humanity was equally a threat and needed to be brought to extinction. 

SCP–AIE rewrote the code of Nx-AH: Lyoko and created “towers” within it to allow it to hack into SCP-[data expunged] and leak bits of itself into the real world. Doing this it could hack into certain parts of technology and do horrible things such as hack machines to make them hostile, infect random objects to turn them into monsters, and even be able to emit anomalous wavelengths from devices to alter the gravity within an area. To ensure nothing gets in its way SCP-AIE also created digital entities within Nexus Point-AI known as SCP-AIE-Monsters.

SCP-AIE-Monsters are digital creatures created by SCP-AIE to be the guardians of the towers and prevent anyone from severing its connection to the real world. These creatures take on a wide variety of strange and often disgusting forms that seem to resemble biomechanical engineering for whatever reason. Though it is believed that SCP-AIE does this in hopes of one day bringing them to the real world with SCP-[data expunged]

SCP-AIE was discovered in 2004 when temporal wave lengths were detected at [data expunged] academy forcing the French division of the Foundation to act. They sent agents to the area who quickly found the factory where SCP-[data expunged] was located. When it was discovered Person of Interest: Jeremie Belpois and his friends were involved they were apprehended and were to be given amnestics. However, at the same time SCP-AIE began another attack leading to massive damage and anomalous exposure. Having no choice and no idea how to operate SCP-[data expunged] the Foundation released the children and allowed them to defeat SCP-AIE leading to them utilizing SCP-[data expunged]’s anomalous effect. 

The only reason the Foundation was able to recall these events is thanks to the Temporal Reconstruction Survivor Cassette Box. Because the Foundation knew it was dealing with temporal anomalies the device was taken as a precaution and it ended up working spectacularly. However, due to the nature of SCP-[data expunged] and now Person of Interest: Jeremie knowing of the Foundations existence and hiding all information he obtained about all the anomalies; it is still regarded as one of the Foundation’s most embarrassing failures. 

However, the Foundation found an alternative to help stop SCP-AIE without bringing harm or interference like last time. Shockingly it was through the help of SCP-AVC and its utilization of SCP-ACH. SCP-AVC has found a way to access Nexus Point-AH through the internet and thus has deployed SCP-ACH-3.1 instances to act as defenders of Jeremie and his friends when they enter the digital world of Lyoko. This led to the creation of MTF Poseidon-8: “Data Dolphins” that work in the digital world while MTF Athena-8: “School Watch” works in the real world. This was the agreement made between the Foundation and Jeremie as a sort of truce between the groups despite there still being tension. This is to continue without interference until the fateful day SCP-AIE’s main code is revealed and deleted permanently.

.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

[the-hem]

"The Big Lotus." From the Chandogya Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Priesthood.

Part 8.

Chapter I − Brahman in the Heart

1 Om. There is in this city of Brahman an abode, the small lotus of the heart; within it is a small akasa.

Now what exists within that small akasa, that is to be sought after, that is what one should desire to understand.

2−3 If they should say to him: "Now, with regard to the abode, the small lotus, in this city of Brahman and the small akasa within it−what is there in it that is to be sought after and what is there that one should desire to understand?"

 Then he (the teacher) should say:

"As far as, verily, this great akasa extends, so far extends the akasa within the heart. Both heaven and earth are contained within it, both fire and air, both sun and moon, both lightning and stars; and whatever belongs to him (i.e. the embodied creature) in this world and whatever does not, all that is contained within it (i.e. the akasa in the heart)."

Brahman cannot be the sole object of discriminating thought. Once one accepts this, one is very near to Realization. To discern between the object of realization and Realization itself is the goal. The thought is not the object, rather how one discriminates between the thoughts brings one closer to a final conception of Reality.

One must not even say I am “self evident” of the Brahman or “I am the Brahman”, because Brahman can only exist as Itself. So do we exist or not? We do, as a series of temporal delusions illuminated by the Brahman.

But as pure Brahman, we cannot and indeed must not try to exist. Anyone who experiences orgasm (with someone else) without regret will understand why we must maintain some delusions in the Presence of the Brahman.

Kundalini Yoga, the driving power of all necessary self-delusion is found because of Brahman; so first comes this delusion about the Brahman, "we piss therefore we exist".

This is how delusion reveals all non-delusion, including in all cases of the Kundalini.

I can, for example, extol upon the glories of the Brahman, but these words are incapable of explaining how experience in the universe actually takes place. For that we need to understand words that connote desire, the film in front of the projector of the Brahman light.

Until the foreplay actions of desire commence causing organs of desire to awaken, the true nature Brahman remains obscured.

Orgasm is the only time the body and mind are forced free of ignorance and become pure Brahman; unfortunately, the blindness does not last, and after the heat of climax fades we are forced to see through the film of delusion again.

So what is the connection between the heart, the organs of climax and the Brahman? Is meditation on climax the same thing as meditation on the heart?

The City of Brahman: all of creation is the Seat of the Great Soul, but we say His Capital is the human heart. Each embodied soul is the embassy of its Maker.

The Small Lotus: The small lotus is the place reserved for the gods. Once a god enters the small lotus and one sees stars, the Big Lotus, the soul, is ready to bloom.

The Big Lotus, realization of the Brahman is born AFTER successful intercourse modifies the body and configures the mind for adult apprehension of life.

The Small Akasa: The Small Sky is the human mind, which like all skies is just a subset, an apparent division of the Big Sky. The Small Sky contains perception of all extant phenomena of the Big Sky, aka stars, moons, planets, comets, lightning.

The Big Sky Mind understands they are but chalk drawings on a canvass, and detaches the Self from their chalkboard reality.

At least until the heart cries out in agony for the object of its yearning, then the Brahman in the Heart is born:

4 If they (the pupils) should say: "If everything that exists−all beings and all desires−is contained in this city of Brahman, then what is left of it when old age overcomes it or when it perishes?"

If one views the Brahman as the final employer of all that moves in creation what does that make of the individual, the jiva, who cannot bear to tear himself away from what he has worked so hard to possess himself?

Clergy anwer this with what is called Samadhana, saturation of life with the thoughts of a purified mind.

One dwells in the presence of itself, called Atman, the other in the presence of the Supreme, called Brahman. One consists of a universe of persistent objects, the other is persistently objectless.

Whatever the body, emotions, and intellects prize, these they will objectify using the Brahman as the illumination of said objects. To remove the objects and desire perception alone is the path of the Sadu, the one knows but also abides in the Spirit of God with the greatest intimacy. To one flagging in the practice of the knowledge of the Brahman which unveils the Spirit:  

5 Then he (the teacher) should say:

"With the old age of the body, That (i.e. Brahman, described as the akasa in the heart) does not age; with the death of the body, That does not die.

That Brahman and not the body is the real city of Brahman. In It all desires are contained. It is the Self−free from sin, free from old age, free from death, free from grief free from hunger, free from thirst; Its desires come true, Its thoughts come true.

Just as, here on earth, people follow as they are commanded by a leader and depend upon whatever objects they desire, be it a country or a piece of land so also those who are ignorant of the Self depend upon other objects and experience the result of their good and evil deeds.

6 "And just as, here on earth, whatever is earned through work perishes, so does the next world, won by virtuous deeds, perish.

Those who depart hence without having realized the Self and these true desires−for them there is no freedom in all the worlds. But those who depart hence after having realized the Self and these true desires−for them there is freedom in all the worlds."

What does this mean, one’s good and ignoble deeds perish with the body when it expires? What happens to the soul? How is it judged?

During death, the soul sheds the body, it sheds its karma, all the connections it had to its desires and deeds but it retains its emotions. If one was utterly totally rotten and corrupted and harbored villainous thoughts it life these will leave channels in the soul, like rivers that puddle and these the angels will judge as fit for the Presence of God or they will reject them depending on the mix.

If the soul was possessed by a saint, it will accumulate memories of emotions frought with beatitute – the relief of suffering and the amplification of happiness and these will also form rivulets and reservoirs in the essence of the being and these are the most welcome.

In life, it is the interplay of desires, the memories, emotions, all that one clings to- it is these that cause this final outcome.

[marvelmusing]

Making Time

Mobius M Mobius x Reader

Part 2

My Masterlist

“1985, huh?” You say, looking up from the briefing Mobius has just handed you.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll spot a delorian?” He jokes, making a Back to the Future reference. You smile at him, remembering when you’d first mentioned the movie. You hadn’t been at the TVA long, to your knowledge.

You’re sat in one of the cafes, explaining something about the timeline to Casey, and you make an offhand reference to the movie. To which, Casey looks even more confused. You glance at Mobius, who’s been sat next to you, watching your teaching with a smile. You offer them both a small smile, at yet another reminder that you’re from somewhere very different from the rest of them.

“Neither of you have seen it have you?” Mobius shakes his head.

“Not a lot of chances for watching movies when dealing with the timeline. Should we get the chance, I’d love to.” It’s a few days later when you give him the chance.

“Honey, I’m home.” You hear Mobius call out, which brings a smile to your face. Whilst you had your own apartment, you much preferred staying with Mobius, like you did when you first arrived at the TVA. You hear him set down a pile of papers in the kitchen, before making his way into the lounge where you’re sat waiting for him. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“What’s all this?”

“Back to the Future. I went through my file, and managed to find a version that I watched that was uninterrupted. Then I isolated it, and copied it onto one of those cassette reel things, so that it’ll play on your mini projector.” You pause, before adding, “I probably put too much effort into this but, I thought we could have what my time considers a movie night?”

“A movie night?” Your face falls slightly, feeling embarrassed by your suggestion.

“We don’t have to-“ you start. He shrugs off his jacket and settles down next to you.

“Did I not tell you I wanted to watch it, should I get the chance?”

“Well, yeah.” He gestures to the projector.

“Let’s get this show on a roll.” You grin at him, before quickly pressing play on the projector. Mobius leans an arm on the couch and pulls you to his side. “You finally have clearance to access to your file, and you use it to watch Back to the Future?”

“What else was I supposed to do with it?” You joke.

You and Mobius head to the cubicle where you left Loki this morning. You spot him wapping against the desk with a magazine.

“Training going well?” You ask him. He leans back in his chair, attempting to look casual.

“Yeah.”

“Is that my jet ski magazine?” Mobius asks him. “Put it down. Gear up. There's been an attack. Let's go.” He hands Loki the jacket he’s been carrying. You set the briefing down on the desk, and follow Mobius. Loki trails behind you. “Put it on.” Loki shrugs the jacket on, adjusting the collar before posing.

“Nice.” You tell him with a smile.

“Good. Yeah, smart.” Mobius says distractedly. You soon reach the Timedoors, where a small group of hunters have gathered to wait. B-15 opens up the briefing.

“C-20 and her team went dark shortly after they jumped into the 1985 branch. All signs point to another ambush. We've grabbed enough temporal aura to know it's our Loki Variant. But which kind of Loki, remains unknown.”

“They're the lesser kind, to be clear.” Loki specifies. B-15 sighs,

“Let me see the back of that jacket.” Loki does a small turn, showing the group the back of his jacket, where the bright orange letters reading VARIANT stand out. Everyone is the group shares a small smile. You’re glad you don’t have to wear one of those anymore.

“Very subtle. Well done.”

“I don't want anybody out there to forget what you are.”

“Oh, your only hope of capturing a murderer?”

“No. A cosmic mistake.”

“That's enough.” Mobius interrupts.

“Lovely.” You hear Loki murmur.

“Here's the deal.” Mobius begins. “When we get out on the branch, we're not just looking for a Time Criminal. We're looking for a Loki. A variation of this guy. A type we should all be very familiar with, because the TVA has pruned a lotta these guys, almost more than any other Variant.” He skims through a few of the Loki Variants that the TVA have caught before. “And no two are alike. Slight differences in appearances, or not so slight. Different powers, although, powers generally include: shapeshifting, illusion projection, and my favourite-”

“Duplication casting.” Loki interrupts

“Illusion projection.”

“No, they're two completely different powers.”

“How?” You ask him.

“Illusion-projection involves depicting a detailed image from outside oneself, which is perceptible in the external world, whereas duplication-casting entails recreating an exact facsimile of one's own body in its present circumstance, which acts as a true holographic mirror of its molecular structure. But you already knew that.” He explains. You catch a glimpse of Mobius’s smirk before he says,

“Okay, take a breath. Noted. We're gonna break into two teams, including myself and Professor Loki.”

“Why?” A hunter stood beside you asks.

“Because whoever this Variant is, we haven't been able to find him. So let's bring in an expert.” Loki looks around at the group before adding a quiet,

“That's me.”

As the hunters prepare themselves, you hear Loki ask, “Do I get a weapon?” You laugh lightly,

“No chance.”

“Well, I'll have my magic back. Is no one concerned about that?”

“Of what?” Mobius asks.

“Me betraying you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You know that we’ll just catch you again.” You tell him.

“And how's betraying us gonna get you any closer to the Time-Keepers?” Mobius adds. Loki leans forward, his attention fixed on Mobius.

“An audience with the Time-Keepers is on the table?”

“Keep that focus.” Mobius tells him. The three of you follow the hunters through the Timedoor, and out into 1985 Wisconsin. Your group makes their way through the crowd of the Renaissance fair before entering a large tent. It’s dark inside, with only a few lanterns to light your path. You watch as B-15 bends down to grasp examine a helmet left abandoned on the floor.

“So he's taking hostages now?” She says, turning to Mobius.

“The Variant's never taken a hostage before.”

“Maybe he's upping his game.”

“Or he pruned her.” One of the hunters remarks, you frown at his callousness towards his colleague.

“A Loki couldn't have gotten the jump on C-20.”

“I think you underestimate, actually...” Loki begins.

“Fan out and search for her. And hurry up, we're at three units until red line.” B-15 orders. Mobius sets a hand on your arm, and the two of you head to the exit.

“Come on.” He says to Loki.

“Wait. If you leave this tent, you'll end up like them.” Mobius stops beside Loki.

“What do you see?”

“I see a scheme, and in that scheme, I see myself.” Loki begins to ramble about an old Asgardian saying.

“Two units. He is wasting our time.” B-15 interrupts.

“Okay. Come on, Loki, make a long story short.” Mobius encourages.

“We need to look for C-20.”

“That's exactly what the Variant wants you to do. It's a trap. He's waiting for you outside this tent.”

“Should I secure the reset charges?”

“No. He wants me. I'm the key to his plan. He knows that I'm stronger. And he rightly believes that together we can overthrow and rule the TVA. But that's not what I want. I have a new purpose. I'm a servant of the Sacred Timeline. And knowing what I now know about his tactics, I can deliver you the Variant, but I need assurances.” He says, looking to Mobius. You glance up at Mobius, frowning slightly. Surely he isn’t believing what Loki’s saying? His eyes catch yours and there’s a small twinkle in them. You hide your smile. Loki circles around Mobius.

“Yeah?” Mobius offers.

“Assurances that I won't be completely disintegrated the moment the job has been done.”

“Right.” Loki leans forward, before whispering,

“We'll need to speak to the Time-Keepers at once. They're in graver danger than we realized.”

“He's lying. Just playing games. There's no one out there.” Mobius calls out to the group.

“Reset the timeline.” B-15 orders.

“You had me for a second. My ears are sharp too.” He points at Loki’s chest. You follow Mobius out of the tent.

“Well that went well.” You remark, hearing Mobius sigh. He runs his hand over his face.

You’re tucking into your lunch when you spot Mobius. He picks out a drink and a salad before making his way over to you. You give him a small smile,

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“How did it go with Renslayer?” He sighs, leaning his head back, before getting comfortable in his seat.

“Well, our Loki hasn’t been deleted yet.”

“That’s good then?” You offer. He sighs,

“Yeah. Though he’s getting more and more talkative.”

“You did say he loves to talk. Where is he now?”

“I’ve left him with the archives, hopefully he’ll be reading for the next few days. Or at least long enough for me to finish lunch.” He begins to eat his salad. Just then, Loki scampers in looking like a manic puppy.

“I found something.” Mobius shakes his head, keeping his attention on his lunch,

“No, I said don’t bother me until you've read all the files.”

“I have.”

“Every file?”

“Yes.”

“Pertaining to the Variant?”

“The answer isn't in the files, it's on the timeline. He's hiding in apocalypses.”

“Which apocalypse?” You ask.

“Any time in history? There's, like, a million of 'em.” Mobius adds.

“Ragnarok. Are you familiar?”

“Yes. The destruction of Asgard and most of its people. I'm sorry.” Loki pauses looking down.

“Yes, very sad.” He immediately perks up again. “Anyway, it got me thinking. Nexus events happen when someone does something they're not supposed to do, right?”

“Well, it's a little more complicated, but, yeah.”

“Great. And then that thing they're not supposed to do, cascades into a whole range of other things that aren't supposed to happen.”

“And so on and so forth, until eventually, a new timeline branches. Yes?”

“Chaotic alterations of a predetermined outcome.”

“Exactly. So, let's just say...” He picks up the salad bowl from in front of Mobius.

“Mm-hm. What are you doing?”

“...your salad is Asgard in this scenario.” Loki continues.

“It's not Asgard, that's my lunch.” Mobius complains, the pouting clear in his voice. You lean forward, a hand on your chin to hide the smile at Mobius’s reaction.

“It's a metaphor. Just hang in there.”

“I want that salad.”

“And I could go down to Asgard before Ragnarok causes its complete destruction and I could do anything I wanted. I could, let's say, push the Hulk off the Rainbow Bridge.” He picks up a salt shaker and puts a large sprinkling of salt across Mobius’s salad.

“There he goes.” You say, feeling rather invested in this metaphor.

“The salt's Hulk?” Mobius asks, clearly not as enthusiastic as you.

“And I could also... Set fire to the palace.” He picks up a pepper pot and shakes the pepper across the salad.

“No, just stop. Don't set fire to the palace.”

“Okay? I can do whatever I want to do, and it would never matter. It wouldn't go against the dictates of the timeline because...” He sets down the shakers after nearly emptying them both. He heads to the table behind you. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, God!” Mobius sighs.

“You!” Recognising the voice you look up to see Casey looking very confused.

“Nice to see you. I just need this for a second. Thanks.” Loki picks up Casey’s carton of juice, before sitting back down at your table. “Because the apocalypse is coming. Ragnarok, Surtur will destroy Asgard no matter what I do.”

“No, don't do...” Mobius sighs as Loki empties the carton over the remains of the salad.

“There's the apocalypse.” You say with a sigh, offering Mobius your bag of chips.

“That's the apocalypse?” He asks, taking a handful of chips from you with a smile.

“Ragnarok obliterates the salt. Ragnarok. There it is.” Loki gestures to the ruined salad with a proud smile.

“What am I lookin' at?”

“Okay, it was a clumsy metaphor. But you see what I mean. It doesn't matter. It could be any apocalypse. It could be a tidal wave. It could be a meteor. It could be a volcano, a supernova. If everything and everyone around you is destined for imminent destruction, then nothing that I say or do will matter, because the timeline's not gonna branch. Hence, the Variant could be hiding in the apocalypse and do whatever he wants, and we wouldn't know!”

“Not bad.” You offer.

“Take me to a real apocalypse, to Ragnarok, I'll show you.” Mobius chuckles,

“Yeah. So you can run away back to your homeland? No.”

“No, I'm not going home. We can go anywhere.”

“I'm not taking you for a stroll along the promenade, much less an apocalypse.”

“Oh, Mobius, come on! What could possibly go wrong? We gotta properly test this theory.”

“Well, here's a fun theory. You lure me out into the field, and stab me in the back. And that's a theory I don't wanna test.”

“I'd never stab anyone in the back. That's such a boring form of betrayal.” He most definitely would stab someone in the back.

“Loki, I've studied almost every moment of your entire life. You've literally stabbed people in the back, like 50 times.”

“Well, I'd never do it again, because it got old.” You both laugh at this. Mobius looks at you, and you shrug.

“Might as well try it?” You offer. Mobius nods,

“Okay.”

“Okay, look, you don't trust me, you can trust one thing. I love to be right.” Loki adds. That certainly isn’t a lie.

Tagslist: @n0obmaster69 @mackycat11 @wibblywobblyjeremybearimy @boriqs @morganwilliams @greeneyedblondie44

If you’d like to be tagged just ask!!

[nitewrighter]

46 Tracily

46. “it’s okay, i’m here.”

A while back I got an ask about how Emily would react to Tracer getting the chronal accelerator ripped off by Doomfist and I launched into a long meta rant--I owe those two a proper ficlet.

----

Emily was twisting the bracelet on her wrist with anxiety as she followed Sojourn through the Singaporean hospital. Overwatch had flown her in, and despite the constant assurances that Lena would be fine, Emily’s worry had only increased in hours it took to fly here. 

“The news report said minor injuries,” said Emily, walking next to Sojourn.

“And they were,” Sojourn’s hands were pocketed, “Physically, she’s virtually unharmed... temporally...”

“Oh no...” said Emily.

“It’s all right!” Sojourn said quickly, “Winston was able to put together an...ionized tachyon field? I think that’s what he called it. He told me it will definitely keep her stable until he can finish repairs on the chronal accelerator.” The two of them stopped in front of a room with two Overwatch security agents flanking the door. Sojourn gave them a nod and they opened the door for her. They stepped in and Emily’s hand went over her mouth. Tracer was in what appeared to be a hard-light cube--Overwatch’s access to Hard-lIght technology was only by the whims of the Vishkar Corporation, so what projector they did have on hand was about the size of an industrial air conditioner and took up half the room. Inside the cube, Tracer was sitting cross-legged on a futon on the floor, frowning over a heavily sticky-noted copy of ‘Quantum Physics for Dummies (Law of Causality Violation Edition).’ She perked up at the  two figures entering the room and blue light bloomed around her.

“E--em!” her voice and image fizzled in blue light for a second before suddenly appearing at the hard light partition, her hands pressed to the glass-like hard-light. Joy lit up her features, but as Emily pressed a hand to the partition over hers, that expression faded into guilt. “It’s not as b-ad as it looks-ooks.” She said, blue light distorting her like a crappy television signal, her voice like a scratched and skipping CD.

“Lena...” Emily started.

“I’m se-rious! This is nothing compared to af-af-after the slipstr-ea-m-eam!” said Tracer, forcing a smile, “And Winston-on says he’ll have the new-new-new-ew chronal accelerator ready in a couple hou-r-s-hhours!” 

“...I think getting you excited might not be helping...” said Sojourn.

“I’m g-good-good. I can control it!” Tracer insisted. She took a steadying breath. “I. Can. Control. It.” she said firmly, the blue light not overtaking her once as she spoke and then her face lit up with excitement before flinching as blue light distorted her image again. Both Emily and Sojourn gave her a worried look and Tracer held up the book. “I’ve been do-doing-ing homework,” said Tracer, “The hard part-art about fi-i-i-ighting is figuring out where the recalls leave me in relation to things but in-nin-in here, it’s sta-stabilized” she gestured at the hard-light containment chamber she had been put in, “Once I get the chron-chronal accelerator back, I ju-ust need to remem-mem-mem-ber where I am, where I’ve been, and where I’m going to be at ev-every zeptosecond and...” she trailed off and glanced down at the book, “Maybe it’ll do some-something?”

Sojourn huffed a little. “Well, learning quantum physics can’t hurt,” she said with a shrug.

“It does hurt, actually,” said Tracer, smiling and rubbing her forehead, “I’ve got a ripping headache-ache. But tha-at-at could be the...” she trailed off and looked at Emily, not wanting her to worry, “It’s fine.”

“I’ll leave you two alone,” said Sojourn, walking out of the room. Tracer sighed, leaned her back against the hard-light barrier and slid down it to a slumped sitting position on the floor.

“In fair-airness,” she said quietly, “I did tell you things-ings could get weird.”

“I don’t mind the weird,” said Emily, leaning her own back to the partition, hugging her knees,  “I just... don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” said Tracer.

“You didn’t phase out that time,” said Emily, smiling.

“Told you I was getting the ha-ang of it--Oh boll-ocks-ocks-ocks,” said Tracer, blue light fizzing around her, “It’ll get bett-better, Em. We beat Doomfist-ist-ist! We’ll have Tal-Tal-Talon on the run!”

“I know, just...” Emily glanced down, “You do so much already. You fight so hard already. But Lena, you’re like this because of Overwatch! Not because of Talon! And Overwatch took this--this--thing they did to you and they turned it around and they act like you’re some kind of superhero!” 

“They did-idn’t do it to me on purpose,” said Tracer, glancing down, “And if I can use this-is-is thing to help people....” Tracer looked over her shoulder at Emily leaning against the barrier and Tracer knocked her knuckles on the barrier. Emily glanced up and Tracer spread her fingers against the pale blue of the hard-light. Emily put her palm up on the partition over hers once more. “We’ll take-ake a break once Winston fix-ixes the accelerator. P-p-promise. I know-ow this looks bad, but things are only-ly-ly going to get bet-better from here.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Emily, sighing, “...well at least we’re traveling. You did say we’d travel, too.”

“Let’s get durian after this,” said Tracer. Emily could hear the smile in Tracer’s voice, “Appare-pare-ently it’s supposed to-to-to smell horrible.”

Emily snickered. “I’d like that.”

[multiverseforger]

Mister Mind came to Earth during World War II, drawn by its radio broadcasts; he especially loved Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy. Upon learning that his beloved Charlie was not real, he decided to conquer the world instead. To this end, he formed the first Monster Society of Evil, which was merely a shadow of what was to come. He gathered known villains like Dummy, Mister Who, Nyola, Oom the Mighty, and Ramulus to make up the Monster Society of Evil. They succeeded in capturing Hawkgirl. Not long after its founding, the other villains tried to kill him and Mister Mind retreated to Earth-S. Without his leadership, the team was quickly defeated in battle by the All-Star Squadron.[7]

Captain Marvel Adventures: "The Monster Society of Evil" (Earth-S)Edit

As a side-effect of the reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths, Mister Mind arrived in the universe of Earth-S (where Fawcett's former characters dwelled) sometime around 1846 (it was mentioned in this story that he had been working on a weapon for 97 years). His brilliant intellect, telepathic powers, and ruthlessness allowed him to conquer much of space, establishing bases on many different worlds as well as varied locations on Earth. He recruited supervillains, armies, and entire alien species to aid him in his attempt to conquer the Earth, and first relayed his information from the planetoid Punkus via radio. He began his reign of terror on Earth in 1943, boasting that he and the Monster Society of Evil would give Captain Marvel "nightmares from now on". This formed the basis of the plot for "The Monster Society of Evil" serial in Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (March 1943 to May 1945). Mind was not revealed as a worm until Captain Marvel Adventures #26.

Mind had many and varied plans to conquer Earth, and to destroy Captain Marvel and/or his teenaged alter-ego, Billy Batson. But Captain Marvel stopped all of Mind's plans, dismantled all of his resources, and arrested, frightened away, or accidentally killed all of his henchmen. Reverse cliffhangers were used in the Monster Society stories, such as Mister Mind about to be crushed under a careless heel or about to be crushed in a paper roller. Finally, a desperate Mister Mind attacked Captain Marvel's alter ego Billy Batson with ether and left him unconscious. But he then realized that without his henchmen, he was practically helpless and unable to kill him. Captain Marvel soon captured the world's wickedest worm and had him tried and executed for killing 186,744 people.

Shazam!: Return of the SocietyEdit

Shazam! #2 was Mister Mind's first appearance in a DC comic, and depicted his return to villainy. Although he had been sentenced to death in the electric chair, Mister Mind's alien physiology proved resistant to the high voltage, and he entered a state of suspended animation that was mistaken for death. On the verge of being stuffed for display in a museum, he awakened, hypnotized the taxidermist into creating a duplicate, and escaped.

Shortly after Captain Marvel's own return from suspended animation, he countered Mister Mind trying to destroy the country with an expanding balloon-like weapon in St. Louis. With intelligence from a reformed Herkimer, Marvel succeeds in thwarting Mind's plan and capturing the worm.[8]

Several future issues of Shazam! depict Mister Mind attempting to recruit new henchmen and reform the Monster Society of Evil, at one point even recruiting a displaced Lex Luthor from Earth-One.[9] The Monster Society of Evil was briefly reformed in Shazam! #14 (September–October 1974).

An escaped Mister Mind, hungry for revenge, assembled a new, smaller group which included Doctor Sivana, his evil children Georgia and Sivana Jr, and Ibac. They attempted to attack the Marvel Family - Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. - with a death ray that created "dream" monsters using first evil thoughts and later the nightmares of Uncle Marvel. The Marvels end up defeating the Monster Society by convincing Uncle Marvel to dream up "dream" versions of the Marvels to fight the monsters.

World's Finest Comics: The Monster Society Strikes BackEdit

Mister Mind reformed his Monster Society of Evil one last time in the classic continuity, in World's Finest Comics #264–267 (August–September 1980 to February–March 1981). Almost the entire Marvel Family had to unite in order to stop them—Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and the three Lieutenant Marvels: Tall Marvel, Fat Marvel, and Hill Marvel. Their wicked plans were wide-ranging, beginning with an assault on Egypt, expanding to a scheme to reverse the entire Earth's topography, Oggar raising an evil army from the sands and dusts of Egypt for Black Adam to lead, and conquering hundreds of planets and using them to build an army of spaceships. Their plans culminated in a massive assault on the Rock of Eternity, home of the Marvels' benefactor, the wizard Shazam.

World's FunnestEdit

In the Elseworlds story Superman & Batman: World's Funnest (November 2000), the two near-omnipotent imps Mister Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite engage in a tremendous duel that destroys many planes of reality. One of these appears to be a version of Earth-S. During their time there, they run into a version of the Monster Society of Evil that is slightly different from any other, featuring many of Captain Marvel's enemies. Mxyzptlk easily destroys them (with a tentacled beast labeled Mr. Mxyzptlk's Anti-Social Monster) when they begin to annoy him, along with the rest of the universe; however, by the end of the book, all is returned to what it was.

Post-CrisisEdit

Shazam! A New BeginningEdit

Mister Mind's return to the DC Universe in wake of Crisis was first hinted at in Roy Thomas' Shazam! A New Beginning. It closed with a defeated Dr. Sivana hiding out and drinking tequila in a Mexican dive bar. He ponders how he will defeat Captain Marvel when he sees a worm in the bottle and has the idea of using it as a weapon against the hero.

Thomas' idea of Mister Mind being a mutated tequila worm was not followed up on and he was given a different origin in his next appearance.

The Power of Shazam!Edit

Mister Mind was fully re-introduced into the DC Universe in Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! series in 1996. Mind was one of a race of millions of mind-controlling worms from the planet Venus, who had plans to invade and take over the Earth, which they claim to have once ruled around the Ice Age. Appointed as the go-ahead agent, Mind arrived on Earth during World War II, by means of an indestructible green Venusian space suit, but was captured by Bulletman, Starman, and Green Lantern Abin Sur before enacting his plan. Mind eventually escaped, stowing away on the Magellan space probe, and decades later forced Doctor Sivana to join forces with him, needing Sivana's scientific prowess to facilitate the Venusian worms' plans. He took control of the wealthy Sinclair Batson in order to finance those plans.

The worms' plans to invade the Earth were thwarted by Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, who succeeded in killing all of the worms by sending them into deep space where they froze, save for Mister Mind, whom they placed in the custody of Sergeant Steel and the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Mind eventually escapes, takes over Steel's mind, and programs the robot Mister Atom, another Marvel Family villain in Steel's custody, to destroy the town of Fairfield, where Billy Batson (Captain Marvel) and Mary Bromfield (Mary Marvel) lived with their adopted parents. After Mister Atom's nuclear blast destroys the city and kills nearly all of its residents, the Marvels arrive in Washington, DC seeking revenge. Mister Mind's plot to set off a nuclear holocaust included using clones of himself to take over the minds of several regular American citizens, who were to make their ways to nuclear bomb facilities and initiate a nuclear holocaust. However, Mind's plan was foiled by the Marvel Family and Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan.

52Edit

Mister Mind played an integral role in DC's year-long 2006-2007 weekly comic, 52, although the importance of his role in the series was revealed gradually over time and involved the concepts of time travel and temporal paradoxes.

The day following the end of the Infinite Crisis event, Dr. Sivana discovers Mister Mind lying in a crater in the desert and pockets him, sealing him in a specimen jar and taking it back to his laboratory to prevent him from interfering with his plans to take over the world.[10] Sivana bombards Mind with particles of Suspendium, a time-altering element introduced in the 1970s Shazam! title. Although Sivana is then kidnapped by Intergang and forced to join their Science Squad, the Suspendium induces Mister Mind's delayed metamorphosis. As Sivana is dragged off, Mind observes a televised memorial for the heroes lost in the Infinite Crisis, and takes particular note of Skeets, the robotic companion of the time-traveling superhero Booster Gold.[11] With his metamorphosis beginning, Mind proceeds to weave a cocoon around himself, which doubles as a matter transporter that he uses to beam himself inside Skeets in Dr. Magnus' lab,[12][13] intending to use the robot as a "cradle" where he can spend the following year gestating and completing his transformation.

Destroying Skeets from within, Mind adopts his identity and makes plans to consume the Multiverse, which had returned to existence as a result of Infinite Crisis. Discovering that Rip Hunter is aware of his plans, Mind, as Skeets, attempts to hunt him down and draw him out, to no avail. Eventually, he discovers Hunter hiding in the bottle city of Kandor, but when Hunter turns the Phantom Zone projector on him, Mind overpowers it and "eats" the Phantom Zone itself. At the end of the year, Mind tracks Hunter and Booster down to the lab of T. O. Morrow, intent on acquiring the head of the Red Tornado, whose computerized brain has mapped the Multiverse.[14] There, Mind's gestation completes and he emerges from within Skeets in a monstrous imago form known as a "Hyperfly". Now, instead of feeding on the brainwaves of individuals, he feeds on space-time itself and decides to devour the entire Multiverse.[15] Booster and Hunter flee back in time to the moment of the Multiverse's birth, with the now-gigantic Mind in pursuit, following them from universe to universe, all 52 of them, where he consumes portions of each world's history, altering their timelines and creating 52 new, distinct Earths.[16] Mind is lured back to Hunter's lab, where he shrinks in size and becomes trapped within Skeets' Suspendium-lined shell.[17] Booster hurls Mind backwards through time, where the Suspendium reverts Mind back to his larval form, and lands on the day after the end of Infinite Crisis, where he is found by Dr. Sivana and sealed in the jar. The remaining 52 seconds of time are used to bind him in a time loop.[18]

Also during the series, unrelated to Mind's activities, a new incarnation of the Monster Society was formed, consisting of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips, creatures engineered by Intergang's Science Squad (including Sivana). Of particular note is Sobek, a humanoid crocodile not unlike the beings who were members of the Pre-Crisis Monster Society. This Monster Society attacked the Black Marvel Family for not joining the Freedom of Power treaty, and killed Isis and Osiris, only to be destroyed by Black Adam, save for Death, who flees. In his hunt for Death, Black Adam destroys the nation of Bialya, before defeating the final Horseman, torturing it for information, and killing it.[19]

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil (2007)Edit

A new Captain Marvel prestige format four-issue limited series from DC Comics, Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, written and illustrated by Jeff Smith (creator of Bone) began publication on February 7, 2007. Smith's Shazam! miniseries, in the works since 2003, is a more traditional take on the character, returning Captain Marvel to his roots with a story set outside of the DC Universe. In this version, Mister Mind resembles a small snake, with a more threatening face sans glasses, while wearing a modern style communicator headset. Many different monsters are shown in the Society, with the Crocodile-Men being replaced with the Alligator-Men.

The New 52Edit

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Mister Mind makes his first appearance after Doctor Sivana's alliance with Black Adam fails. Sivana heads to the Rock of Eternity, where he cannot get in because of a magical shield. He cries out for someone to help him save his family, saying that while science has failed them, magic could save them. Sivana then discovers a caterpillar-like creature trapped in a bottle within the Rock. The creature claims that people call him "Mister Mind" and makes note that he and Doctor Sivana shall be the "best of friends".[20]

DC RebirthEdit

Mister Mind returns in the new Shazam! series during the "DC Rebirth," still in an alliance with Sivana. Residing inside of Sivana's ear, Mister Mind has Sivana go to a doctor's office in order to cut out the tongue of a "medicine man" as it is needed for a spell. It is revealed that Mister Mind's real name is Maxivermis Mind and is believed to have originated from the Wildlands, one of the seven realms in the Magiclands. Believed to originally be a simple bookworm, Mister Mind suffered abuse as a child and tried for years to break into the Library of Eternity. He eventually succeeded and after absorbing all the knowledge and power of countless spells, he returned to the Wildlands and took his revenge on those who he believed had wronged him. Achieving his revenge, he set his sights on the Council of Eternity. He managed to work his way inside the Council and it took the combined might of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury, and ! to contain Mister Mind, but he was able to cause the death of Solomon. Mind's goal is to consume and control all the power of the Magiclands.[21]

Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana plan to head to the Monsterlands in order to build the Monster Society of Evil from its inhabitants. As King Kid fights the Shazam Family in Philadelphia, Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind are directed to a boat by Dummy who cannot accompany them since he cannot deal with water. When they arrive at the Dungeon of Eternity, Mister Mind states that the inmates of the Dungeon of Eternity were gathered from all over the Magiclands and imprisoned for challenging the Council of Wizards. In addition, Mister Mind stated that the Monsterlands used to be called the Gods' Realm until the day of Black Adam's betrayal which led them to strip the gods of their powers and close the doors to the Magiclands. They find a small prison containing Superboy-Prime in the Monsterlands as Superboy-Prime states that he can hear what Mister Mind is saying. Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana begin their plans to free the Monster Society of Evil from the Dungeon of Eternity.[22]

Mister Mind senses the fight between the Shazam Family and Mamaragan as he instructs Doctor Sivana to stab his magical eye with a dagger which starts to melt the doors to the cells holding the Monster Society of Evil. Then Mister Mind started to control C.C. revealing to Billy that he is using him as a host and not Doctor Sivana. Mister Mind states to the Shazam Family that he plans to use C.C. to unite the Magiclands under his rule. He then proceeds to summon the Monster Society of Evil leaving Dummy behind who is tricked by Superboy-Prime into freeing him.[23] Shazam faces off against a Mister Mind-controlled C.C. Batson while the others fight the Monster Society of Evil. During the fight, Scapegoat and Red Queen ask when they are going to get a turn. Mister Mind states that they will get their chance when the Magiclands are united.

Mister Mind states to Shazam that it took him and Doctor Sivana awhile to find C.C. Batson. When Doctor Sivana uses a spell on Victor and Rosa Vasquez to get what Mister Mind wants, Shazam asks what that is. Speaking through C.C., Mister Mind states that he wants what Mamaragan and his Council of Wizards denied him years ago....access to the magic of the Seven Magiclands. When Tawky Tawny tries to help Shazam, Mister Mind has C.C. turn him into a cub. Then he has Doctor Sivana summon the Book of Champions from the Rock of Eternity. Mister Mind then has Shazam read the spells on the pages in exchange for sparing Victor and Rosa. Complying with Mister Mind, Shazam reads "Seven lands. Seven wars. Seven locks. Seven doors. Magic realms hidden now, show yourself to the Champion and with one final word, the spell is complete! SHAZAM!"

This causes all the doorways to the Seven Magiclands to be unlocked and obliterated. Using a spell from the Book of Champions, Shazam shrinks himself with the Subtraxerim spell and enters C.C.'s head to confront Mister Mind.[24] Shazam confronts Mister Mind inside C.C.'s head and engages him in a magic battle. To prevent Mister Mind from casting spells, Shazam punches his talkbox enough to emit energy that knocks out the Monster Society of Evil. After using the Corpus Magnum spell to grow, Shazam works to undo Mister Mind's spell only for Superboy-Prime to interfere. He was able to undo the spell after he and Black Adam defeated Superboy-Prime.[25]

[aanestis]

Visualizing Multidimensional Covid-19 Data

DataVisio is a 3D software engine for immersive and interactive complex data visualizations on big screens, designed to generate a Data Experience. It is a B2B platform aimed at presenting specific business logic to customers, or deep abstract knowledge insights to educate the general public. Its main power is the capability of mapping complex data schemas to abstract visual nodes, edges and surfaces in 3D space, and the easy, "game" like, navigation into that space.

Covid-19 data (from the beginning of 2020) are rendered on different spaces, an abstract 3D space, over 2D Earth maps and a simulated 3D Earth environment. All data are projected on one, or more big immersive screens in front of a computer base station which contains the computer running the software. Covid-19 data -in geographic, temporal or a multitude of other dimensions- are displayed as points, or graph bars over locations. The exhibition visitor can fly in any of those spaces in real time performance using a gamepad controller on the base station. This allows him to navigate freely to any location of interest, examining at the same time the data displayed. Using the same gamepad it is also possible to change the time period of the rendered data and so explore, or even animate, their evolution in time. Additional information in the specified time can be retrieved by looking at a specific data point (an action which "selects" it).

Alternative modes of navigation using a Leap Motion Controller or a Kinect Sensor are possible, and more projector screens to increase the field of view and the immersion experience can be installed. A proposed large installation uses the detection of position and movement of exhibition visitors' faces as an input interface for navigation. Multiple detected faces and the "social distance" between them, behave similarity to multi-touch screen interfaces, changing the zoom factor of the current view.

Multidimensional abstract 3D projections

Visualizing the two waves of Covid-19 per country, arranged according to Geographic Latitude.

Visualizing multiple waves of Covid-19 represented in new deaths (7-day average) per million per country. The colors represent the effective reproduction rate (red R > 1.4, green R < 0.6). World data, till 26 March, 2021.

Visualizing multiple waves of Covid-19 represented in new deaths (7-day average) per million per country. The colorful datapoints refer to Greece as it enters a third wave and represent the effective reproduction rate (red R > 1.4, green R < 0.6). World data, till 26 March, 2021.

Projecting various dimensions on the abstract Cartesian space and using a slider to filter time evolution.

The datapoints from the 2 waves of Covid-19 evolving through time slices, represented in new deaths (7-day average) per million per country.

Geo map projections

Total deaths per country (World, 25 January 2021).

Total deaths per country. Stereo red/cyan anaglyph view (World, 25 January 2021).

People vaccinated per hundred (World, 28 January 2021).

Total vaccinations per hundred per country (World, 22 January 2021).

People vaccinated per hundred per country (World, 28 January 2021).

The 2 waves of Covid-19 evolving through time, represented in new deaths (7-day average) per million per country.

Geo globe projections

Seasonal variation of the 2 waves of Covid-19, represented in new cases (7-day average) per million, per country and the varying Sun illumination angle as the seasons progress (Winter is darker in the Northern Hemisphere because the Sun is lower on the horizon).

Seasonal variation of the 2 waves of Covid-19 in Europe, represented in new deaths (7-day average) per country and the varying Sun illumination angle as the seasons progress (Winter is darker when the Sun is lower).

Data Sources for this project downloaded from "Our World in Data", Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19). https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/

Software written in Processing. Processing is an open source programming language and environment, originally built in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab as a domain-specific extension to Java, targeted towards artists and designers. http://www.processing.org/ http://www.processing.org/exhibition/

"There is a magic in graphs. The profile of a curve reveals in a flash a whole situation - the life history of an epidemic, a panic, or an era of prosperity. The curve informs the mind, awakens the imagination, convinces." Henry D. Hubbard.

[tomeandflickcorner]

Umbrella Academy Recap 2x02

1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10

2x01

Last week, we saw the Hargreeves Siblings tried to go back in time to stop the apocalypse from happening on Apri 1st, 2019.  But in the process, they somehow got separated, with all of them landing on different dates.  As a result, Number 5 discovers that, because of their staggered arrival in the 1960s, they inadvertently triggered a chain of events that led to a completely different apocalypse, this one occurring on November 25, 1963.  So now, Number 5 only has 10 days to reunite his siblings and repair the damage to the timeline.

But before the episode can begin, we learn that The Handler has more lives than a cat.  Not only did she survive an explosion from a grenade, not even Hazel shooting her in the head killed her.  Because right when two guys working at a morgue supposedly tied to The Commission were about to cremate her body, her eyes open.  This woman just won’t die!  Of course, when she returns to The Commission, she learns that a lot of changes have occurred during her recovery, and that she’s now being demoted, with her old job being taken over by AJ, who is a talking fish in a jar with a robot body.  (Think Minion from Megamind)   The Handler is furious over this, but she’s nevertheless assigned to working a desk job.  (And her rage increases when she realizes she’s been assigned to the same desk Number 5 had once occupied.)

With that out of the way, we jump back to where the last episode left off, with Luther displaying a cavalier indifference to the knowledge that they only have 10 days before the world comes to an end.  Number 5 tries to talk sense into him, but Luther is not interested in anything he says.  He insists that he’s got a good job now, and that the Umbrella Academy team don’t need him.  He also goes on to say that if the world will end, then Vanya is clearly the one who caused it and it’s Number 5′s fault because he insisted on bringing her along.  Luther also makes it clear that he’s still angry at Number 5 for essentially stranding him in time for an entire year.  He then leaves Number 5 sitting there to go escort a drunken man out of the establishment, with no one noticing the drunken man dropping his wallet in the process.  Number 5 then discovers the object Hazel dropped into his pocket before he was shot to death.  The object is revealed to be a small box labeled ‘The Frankel Footage.’

Back at the farmhouse, Vanya is sitting and looking at the number of missing person adverts the family she’s been staying with have been putting out in the hopes that someone is out there looking for her.  Her musings are interrupted when Sissy comes in, looking for her keys.  It seems that Carl has been out at the bar and has gotten drunk, so he needs someone to come give him a ride home.  The situation becomes complicated when Harlan enters the room, wanting his mother read him a story.  Sissy tries to get him to let Vanya read to him instead, but Harlan is insistent on the matter.  For him, it absolutely has to be his mother.  Vanya, wanting to help, offers to go and pick up Carl for Sissy, so she can stay and read to Harlan.  A grateful Sissy accepts this arrangement.

When Vanya arrives at the bar, she finds Carl nearly passed out on the side of the road.  She informs him that, while Sissy still loves him, she is not happy that he’d lied to her, telling her that he was working at the office when he was really going to the bar to drink.  In his drunken stupor, Carl tells Vanya how lucky she is to be given a completely blank slate, which means she can start over and be whoever she wants to be.  Everyone else is stuck being who they are.

At that moment, by pure coincidence, Luther steps out of the nearby nightclub, having discovered the wallet that the drunk man dropped while being escorted out.  (Wait, so the drunk guy was Carl?  I completely missed that!)  Immediately, he sees Vanya getting into the car to bring Carl back home and is visibly stunned.  Of course, while Vanya spots Luther as well, she doesn’t recognize him due to the amnesia.

Meanwhile, Diego and Lila have just escaped the mental hospital and proceed to steal some clothes hanging out on a clothesline.  Diego, at first, suggests that they go their separate ways now. After all, it might be safer for them that way, considering the authorities most likely will be looking for them together.  But Lila disagrees, saying they make a good team, and that he never would have escaped from the mental hospital without her help.  To prove her point, she then manages to hotwire a nearby car.  This seemingly impresses Diego, who gets into the car with Lila and they drive off.

As for Allison, she and Raymond are sitting peacefully in their home watching television when the Dallas police storm their way inside.  They promptly arrest Raymond for assault and battery.  It seems that Mr. Mason didn’t let things go after all, which isn’t surprising in the slightest.  Allison and Raymond try explaining that they were acting in self-defense, but of course it’s no use, and the police begin leading Raymond away in handcuffs.  In an attempt to save her husband, Allison begins to use her powers on the cops, but Raymond stops her, telling her that everything will be alright.  (Does Raymond know about Allison's power?)  So Allison tearfully relents and breaks down crying as Raymond is dragged off.  Of course, as horrible as this is for Raymond, this unjust arrest may have saved his life, as we see those white-haired temporal assassins from The Commission are parked across the street and had been clearly plotting to attack them before the police showed up.

The following morning, Number 5 returns to Elliot’s place, tasking him with the job of developing the Frankel Footage film that Hazel had given him.  After some rambling, Elliot states that he should have the film developed in 5 to 6 hours.  Of course, Number 5 then catches a snippet coming from a police radio scanner that Elliot has in his possession, announcing that inmates from the mental hospital have escaped.  Immediately, he realizes that Diego has broken out, so he has to go track him down again.

Number 5 catches up to Diego while he’s in the middle of an argument with Lila over Diego’s latest attempt at stopping Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating President Kennedy.  And to Lila’s credit, despite her initial shock at seeing Number 5 teleport into the backseat, is quite accepting of his presence.  Number 5 instructs Diego to forget his mission to save President Kennedy, but Diego refuses to go with his brother.  Until Number 5 threatens to turn them in to a policeman who just happened to be passing by.  At this, Diego relents, knowing that Number 5 was not bluffing.

Number 5 brings Diego and Lila back to Elliot’s place.  The moment they arrive, Elliot comes out, aiming a rifle at them.  It seems he’s managed to develop the Frankel Footage and, upon viewing it, got spooked.  So he demands to know where Number 5 got the footage, also asking them if they’re enemies of the people.  (He’s met with a vague response.)  Anyway, Number 5 and Diego effortlessly manage to disarm Elliot and proceed to tie him up before they watch the footage for themselves.  The footage turns out to be taken by an old couple, Mr. and Mrs. Frankel, who had come out to see President Kennedy during his visit to Dallas.  Immediately, Diego’s interest is caught, realizing that they’re about to see live footage of President Kennedy’s assassination.  When the gunshots go off, the camera naturally begins moving around randomly as Mrs. Frankel reacts to the sound of the gunshot and the panicking crowd.  But as the camera footage stills, Diego and Number 5 spot something that shocks the both of them.  They freeze the footage in place to get a better look and confirm what they think they’ve just seen, with Number 5 pulling the projector backwards in order to zoom in on the figure standing in the background.  Sure enough, despite the blurriness, there is no mistaking the image of Reginald Hargreeves.  

Right away, Diego is in full conspiracy theory mode, speculating that Reginald must have been responsible for President Kennedy’s assassination.  Because why else would he be out in Dallas on that day, with an open umbrella despite the fact that it was sunny?  Number 5, on the other hand, tells him not to jump to conclusions.  He points out that, since Reginald had been there in Dallas at the time, they might as well go and ask him directly.  (Hang on, wasn’t Number 5 working as a temporal assassin assigned to this particular moment in time?  Granted he didn’t have access to the actual case file, but you’d think he’d have some idea of what was going on.)  In any event, they manage to locate Reginald’s old umbrella making company in the phonebook.  But before they head off (while leaving poor Elliot tied up), Diego notices Lila is unaccounted for.  He finds her in Elliot’s darkroom, having a mental breakdown.  It seems that watching the footage of events that are to occur 6 days from now led to her doubting her sanity, as she wound up in the mental hospital in the first place because she was seeing things.  Diego is able to reassure her, telling her that sometimes, even things they can’t explain can be real.  To emphasize this, he uses this whole metaphor about yogurt.

Diego and Number 5 then head off to Reginald’s umbrella factory.  Number 5 had a brief moment of hesitation, since this will be the first time he’ll see Reginald in the flesh since the day he left the Umbrella Academy mansion to attempt time travel, despite Reginald insisting he wasn’t ready to time jump.  Diego jokingly points out that 1963 Reginald won’t have met Number 5 yet, so he won’t be able to say ‘I told you so.’  With this said, the brothers break into the building and begin to look around.  But they end up splitting up, which isn’t always the best idea.  During their search of the premises, Number 5 finds a bunch of rooms filled with mannequins, which are styled to look like various models of idealistic suburban families.  Which leads to him wondering what Reginald had been planning during the 1960s.  At that moment, Number 5 hears strange sounds coming from the shadows.  When he goes to investigate the sounds, he comes across a young chimpanzee.  Yep, it’s Baby Pogo.  Number 5 approaches Baby Pogo saying it’s good to see him.  But Baby Pogo, it seems, isn’t able to speak yet.  Instead, he scratches Number 5 and jumps out of the window, running off.

Diego, on the other hand, spots a figure that appears to be Reginald leaving the building and walking off into the foggy night.  Of course, he desides to follow after him.  Although, Reginald appears to have realized he was being followed and he gets the jump on Diego.  After a brief fist fight, Diego briefly gets the upper hand.  But he hesitates when he gets a look at Reginald’s face.  Because in spite of everything, Reginald is still Diego’s father.  Reginald, of course, doesn’t know who Diego is and takes advantage of his hesitation to stab Diego in the chest.  He then walks off (with Baby Pogo joining him), leaving Diego lying bleeding on the ground.

Of course, the other Hargreeves Siblings have no idea any of this is going on.  Especially since they have their own problems to worry about.  At the police station, Allison is trying to get the desk clerk to allow her the chance to speak with Raymond, but is turned away, being told that only Raymond’s lawyer is allowed to speak with him at the moment.  As Allison sits down to wait, a man named Keechie is brought into the station, having been arrested for handing out flyers without a permit.  (I wasn’t aware you needed permission to do that.)  Keechie is placed into a cell which, by sheer chance, happens to be the one Klaus was put into after his theft of the pickup truck last episode.  Keechie is stunned and awed to see Klaus, who he clearly holds in high regard.  It seems that, in the past three years that Klaus was stuck in the 1960s, he gained a bit of a reputation as some sort of prophet spreading around messages of love and peace, and frequently spouted off words of wisdom before large crowds.  Although, it seems most of Klaus’ wise statements was just him reciting lines from songs that weren’t around in the 60s.  Trying to get a little space between him and Keechie, Klaus moves to the other side of the cell, which leads to him getting into a conversation with Raymond, who just happens to be in the neighboring cell.  (This is starting to remind me a bit of An American Tail, considering how close the Hargreeves Siblings wind up almost meeting but always just missing each other.)  Of course, their conversation doesn’t get very far as Klaus is then allowed to go free, having been freed by the governor.  As Klaus is escorted off, Raymond asks him if he could try speaking to the governor on their behalf, since he (and a few other people there) are being held without charges.

Sometime later, Allison finally manages to talk with Raymond.  Allison apologizes to him for everything, realizing that the confrontation with Mr. Mason must have been a setup and she walked right into it.  However, Raymond reassures her that she was not to blame, as the police were going to arrest him anyway as they didn’t want them causing any sort of disturbance right before President Kennedy's visit.  Allison isn’t quite convinced, believing she still made things worse.  But Raymond tells her that’s not true, saying she makes everything better; that she makes him better.  Allison then promises that she’ll do what she can to help Raymond get out of jail.  After a brief pause, though, Raymond asks Allison why she said ‘I heard a rumor’ the night before.  (Ah, I guess he doesn’t know about Allison’s powers after all.  That’s good.  I would have been surprised if he had known.)  As you might expect, Allison struggles to think of a way to explain things to him, but before she could formulate a response, a guard comes around to inform them that their time is up and Allison has to go.  So Allison can only say they’ll talk about it later.  As Allison leaves, she catches a glimpse of Keechie waving at her and she stops in her tracks, having spotted the words ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ tattooed onto the palms of his hands.  Which are identical to the tattoos Klaus has on his hands.  So of course Allison has to stop and ask him where he got those tattoos.  In response, Keechie states that all children of the prophet have them.  Allison has a whole ‘oh, of course’ reaction to this, realizing her brother has been up to shenanigans.

Speaking of Klaus, he breaks into some fancy looking mansion that has been seemingly vacant for some time, as white clothes are covering all the furniture.  After breaking in, Klaus heads over to a couch and lies down to sleep, ignoring Ben, who is casually sitting nearby.  It’s then revealed that this mansion belongs to Klaus himself, as there’s a painting of him hanging up on the wall.  Though it seems Klaus is embarrassed by that paining as he doesn’t want to look at it.

While this is going on, Luther has tracked Vanya down to the farmhouse, where she’s currently playing a game of Hide-and-Seek with Harlan.  Through a brief flashback, we’re given the impression that hes’s still blaming her for the death of Pogo and bringing out the April 1st apocalypse.  (Okay, yeah, it was Vanya’s out-of-control powers that caused the moon to explode and all, but care to remind me why Vanya snapped and went on the warpath in the first place?  Oh yeah!  It was because Luther went and threw her into the soundproof room, a place that she clearly had traumatic memories of, and refused to listen to the others when they were against that plan.)  Luther follows Vanya into the barn, seemingly planning on killing her with a revolver he has on hand.  However, he’s thrown for a loop when he realizes that Vanya has amnesia.  In a moment that pleasantly surprised me, he actually apologies to Vanya. saying he let her down when he really should have tried to help her instead.  (Wait, so Luther is actually acknowledging that he was in the wrong?  WOW!  I’m impressed.  I still don’t particularly like him, but hey!  Let’s hear it for actually acknowledging your wrongdoings!)  Luther goes on to tell Vanya that he doesn't know if she’s only pretending to not remember or not, but if she is faking her amnesia, then he doesn’t care, and that he understands why she’d want to start over.  At that moment, however, Sissy appears on the scene, aiming a rifle at Luther and demanding to know why he’s there.  Luther, in an effort to explain himself, holds out the wallet that Carl had dropped the night before.  This is enough to satisfy Sissy and she lowers the rifle, telling him to just use the front door next time.  With that, Luther leaves.

After Luther’s departure, Vanya is still a bit shaken up.  The fact that Luther knew her name made it clear that they’d known each other once, but she just can’t remember him.  Sissy offers her some comfort, saying that whoever Luther was, he was clearly not someone Vanya would normally associate with.  And, since men never apologize to women, the fact that Luther would do so with Vanya was an indication that he did something really bad, and that gives her all the more reason to avoid him.  Still, Vanya wishes she could remember something.  To try and help Vanya out, I guess, Sissy studies Vanya’s hands, determining that she couldn’t have been a farmhand as her hands don’t show any sign of her being involved in physical labor.  However, she notes that there are callouses on her fingertips.  (And here, we hear the sound of a violin playing in the background, which was a really nice touch.)

As Vanya and Sissy sit there, the mood seems to shift, with them simply looking at one another briefly.  But the moment ends abruptly when Sissy clears her throat, saying that it’s late and they should both get some sleep.  Still, the fact remains that they may have just had an intimate moment there. (I guess this means Vanya is bisexual or something?)  Vanya tries to get some sleep, but she can’t settle her mind.  She suddenly starts getting flashes of a violin playing, which suggests that she’s starting to remember something.  We’re not sure if she remembers everything, of course, but those memory flashes are enough to lead her to drive off in Sissy’s car, not realizing that Sissy saw her leaving.

Although, this might not be too good for Vanya to be out on her own.  Those three white-haired temporal assassins are still out there.  After they take over some old cat lady’s home by killing her, they receive a message from The Commission, which contains a candid picture of Vanya.  Though it’s not yet clear if they’re supposed to protect her or take her out.

Closing thoughts/questions:

What’s the deal with those white-haired temporal assassins?  The fact that they can bleed suggests they’re human, but so far, I don’t think they’ve uttered a single word.  And they seem to be completely immune to pain, since two of them were taking turns hurling knives at each other.  Are we dealing with mind controlled clones here or what?

I’m wondering if Vanya would have been better off if Luther hadn’t tracked her down.  While I’m glad he actually apologized to her (because he did have plenty to apologize for), his arrival might have forced her to start remembering the things her brain was trying to block out. And if Vanya getting her memories back ruins things for her, then that’s once again on Luther.  Vanya’s got a good thing going on for her.  I’d feel horrible if she lost it.

I’m also really liking Raymond.  Allison is so lucky to have met him! So it’s going to really stink when Allison has to go back to her own time.  I’m hoping there will be a way fro them to bring Raymond with them when they go back to 2019, but at the same time, maybe that would do more harm than good.  I mean, I don’t think Raymond Chestnut was any major player in the Civil Rights movement.  Especially since he seems to be a fictional character made up for the show, considering I can’t find any information on him outside of the Umbrella Academy wiki.  But I’m sure there are a number of pivotable people who don’t make it into the history books.

Is this the last we’ll see of The Handler?  I suspect we’ll have to see her again, but who even knows?

Is Keechie going to play a major role in this season?

Apparently, Klaus is on good terms with John Connally? (I believe he was the Governor of Texas during this point in time.)  How exactly did they meet?  And will that friendship be important later on?

So Pogo started off as an ordinary chimpanzee. Did Reginald perform some sort of weird experiment on him?  Is that how he learned to speak?  After all, the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act wasn’t passed until 1966, so in 1963, Reginald probably could have done anything he liked with Baby Pogo.

[meliecho]

I found an old character created a very long time ago for a Star Wars role play. This was Lucas Wolenczak - a sentient hologram who could shift between cyberspace and solid space. He was originally a federation ship’s ETH (Emergency Technical Hologram) who was thrown into the Star Wars universe. He retains his own soul and consciousness inside his holo emitter and any computer due to his sensitivity in the Force.  He even had a dark side - Daniel - his former middle name after adopting the name “Alin’ from a family who found him after an accident and named him ‘Lost’ in their language due to his memory loss.  Here’s what I created for the history of the ETH. ((the ETH, btw, doesn’t exist in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes. I made it up.)) 

Emergency Technical Holographic Program

(As recorded by Starfleet.) 

The Emergency Technical Holographic program (ETH) was a sophisticated Hologram developed in early 2378 by Starfleet after the success of the Emergency Medical Holographic program (EMH) developed by Dr. Lewis Zimmerman in the early 2370s.  Both were used on some Federation starships in the late 24th century. The ETH was designed to provide short-term advanced assistance during emergencies in engineering with the capacity to replace a starship's Chief Engineer or science officer. It was programmed with the same basic mission objective as Dr. Farallon's boxy Exocomps --developed in 2369.  The ETH could enter areas deemed too hazardous for crew members.  The formal name of the program was ETH Program DE-1 Diagnostic Logistic and Engineering Subroutine Alpha-242. 

The first starship to be equipped with an ETH was the USS Bellerophon, although the Explorer also had an ETH program, followed shortly after by the USS Wellspring. All three were Intrepid class starships.(There is an apparent contradiction as to which starship was the first to have an ETH. Although it is specifically stated that Explorer was the first to be equipped with an ETH, it was later revealed that the USS Bellerophon, which had been launched one month prior to Explorer, also had an ETH program. It may be that Explorer received their ETH during construction while the one aboard Bellerophon was installed just prior to that ship's launch.)

Deep Space 9 does not have an ETH due to it being incompatible with Cardassian technology.

History - As of 2384

There have been four versions of the ETH, called Mark I, II, III, and IV. Starfleet commissioned the brilliant holo-programmer, Dr. Astrid DeLeon at the Starbase 1 Holoprogramming Center above Earth to create the embodiment of modern engineering. The ETH Mark I was first activated in 2378 and was programmed with 5 million possible troubleshoots from the collective information of 2000 technical references and the experience of 42 individual engineering officers. The ETH was also supplemented with contingency programs and adaptive programs to learn while serving as a supplement of a normal engineering staff member in cases of emergencies. It contains 50 million gigaquads of computer memory, which is "considerably more than most highly developed humanoid brains." 

Dr. DeLeon, proud of her achievement, decided to program the ETH with both the physical and psychological likeness of one of the 21st century’s greatest minds, Dr. Lucas Wolenczak.  He originally worked on board the submersible vessel SeaQuest DSV for the UEO (United Earths Oceans organization) beginning in 2018.  

She uploaded the historical databanks of his life up to his 17th year.  It was in this time frame that she felt he showed his broadest adaptive capabilities and limitless imagination without the controlling thumb of any command structure.   He was known for early inventions like the “Stinger” (a single-man fighter), very early bio-gel pack technology to cool the computer core of the SeaQuest, the holosphere's fledgling schematics, refining the SeaQuest's outer bio-skin, and developing the Vocorder that eventually became the base technology for the Universal Translator.  

She was also envious of his free spirit and rebellious nature to be pinned to one regime.  

The resulting hologram was arrogant with a smart-ass streak, and as a result was poorly received by many Starfleet engineers. This resulted in nicknames like "Emergency Technical Hothead" and "Expendable Talking Hammer."  Some of Starfleet’s technical crowd even went so far as to object to the use of the ETH entirely.  

Eventually it was concluded that the ETH Mark I was defective, and they were bounced out of the engineering corps. While an ashamed Dr. DeLeon tried to have them decommissioned, Starfleet reassigned them to scrub plasma conduits on transfer barges with Dr. Zimmerman's defunct EMH Mark 1’s.  The ETH Mark I's were also deployed in other menial tasks, like dilithium mining –also alongside the EMH Mark 1’s.  Thus began a discord between the two Holographic programs.

Of at least 225 Mark I's created, 221 were reassigned, reprogrammed, or lost due to disasters befalling their parent ships. Four escaped by virtue of their ships being lost through the Route of Ages; one aboard the Agamemnon, one aboard the Bellerophon, one aboard the Wellspring, and one aboard the Explorer. 

Most notably, a Mark I serving on the USS Explorer, ran intermittently for six months and was forced to expand his programming extensively to keep up.  

To address the flaws in the ETH Mark I, Dr. DeLeon began work on the Mark II with help from Dr. Zimmerman's research. The prototype was finished in time to be included in the engineering bay of the USS Artemis in 2380.  While the Mark I's outward appearance was a copy of the young 21st century inventor, a disillusioned Dr. DeLeon changed the outward appearance of the Mark II. Furthermore, the patterns of behavior of the following versions were designed to be more pleasant and courteous and their outward appearance was changed. To achieve this, DeLeon initially tried to improve on the programming of the Mark I, but eventually decided to create the Mark II from scratch. In addition to that, new ship designs like the USS Artemis enabled full mobility for the ETH, as the whole ship was outfitted with holographic projectors.  The Mark II was soon replaced by a Mark III, followed by a Mark IV.

By 2384, the reprogrammed Mark 1′s were able to obtain bootlegged copies of the holonovel “Photons Be Free” and view them. One of the ETH miners found the holonovel "spectacular."

(Lucas, the sentient ETH Mark 1 ‘byte surfing’ through the computer. The fastest way to travel.)

Fate of the final 4 ETH Mark 1′s in the Star Wars universe.

However, a notable caveat was that in 2382, the Bellerophon’s ETH was deleted when a virus tore through the ship’s computer, leaving it derelict.  

The Agamemnon was destroyed in a battle over Tatooine, thus destroying that ship's ETH, and the Wellspring’s ETH was never utilized.  Its program was used to repair the Explorer's ETH damaged matrix, leaving the Explorer’s program as the only remaining Mark I still operating as an ETH.

Explorer’s ETH developed a distinct personality when the Explorer was caught into the Route of Ages for the first time on January 3rd, 2381.  It took the ship through a split second in Earth’s history on November 12th, 2018.  At that exact moment, Lucas Wolenczak - the real one - had activated an experimental holographic sphere on board the United Earth's Oceans Organization (UEO) submersible vessel, SeaQuest DSV.  

The Route snagged his consciousness and attached it to the Explorer's inactive ETH program.  

For the next six months, Lucas expanded his programming as the crew called on him for support and for repairs after various battles. Through all of this, Lucas was able to hack his way through the ship’s systems, exploring every facet of the computer when his program was inactive. He was not aware that his “dreams” of dwelling within a computer were actually reality, and that his room on the SeaQuest was a recreation within a partitioned area of the computer that his mind created. 

Lucas became aware of his rare situation when he was ripped from the ship’s computer by a temporal spike in the Route and was sent to the desert planet, Tatooine.  After a few days, he realized his predicament and built a crude mobile emitter. The Explorer later crashed on Tatooine, leaving Lucas an ETH without a ship. A unique aspect to Lucas Wolenczak was the ability to transfer himself from physical matter to digital data by entering –or thinking—the code “826242” which was Captain Bridger’s  (captain of the SeaQuest) favorite number.  It was later revealed by a local Jedi that the Force played a powerful role in his existence.  He soon found he could manipulate that energy.  

A downfall to this ability was an apparent need to return to “Datamode” within the mobile emitter for 8 hours continuously every 7 days to recharge or memory degradation would occur.     

In a report filed by Explorer's Captain, Zon Huntreas, Starfleet has since recognized Lucas Wolenczak as a sentient lifeform under the adjudicated law redefining "life" altered because of Lt. Commander Data.

Mechanics

The ETH was a holographic simulation of a Human, but with no internal organs beneath the apparent surface to conserve computer power.

Holodecks used omnidirectional holographic diodes. An engineering deck was fitted with a system of OHDs that projected an image of the ETH. Each projected a complete image. Visible portions changed as the hologram moved, creating an illusion of fluid motion.

Magnetic containment fields allowed the ETH to interact with physical objects.  These force fields moved as the ETH moved to create the appearance of solid matter.  The containment fields could be shut off, allowing objects and people to pass through them – an ETH's cohesion could range from solid to intangible.

When OHDs and magnetic field generators were added to other parts of a ship, they allowed the hologram to leave engineering (as in more advanced Starfleet ships or modified configurations). Without these additional projectors, the ETH could only function in engineering and the holodeck.

USS Explorer also discovered the ETH program’s transfer to emitter allowed the ETH to act as a technical aid during away missions. However, damage to the emitter posed a risk of damage or even deletion of the ETH.

The universal translator algorithm was written into the ETH's matrix.

When he was first activated, the Explorer’s ETH apparently did not have the ability to deactivate himself after he finished his duties.  However, he later gave himself that ability by issuing computer command "Override Command 1-ETH-Alpha; End Program.”   

[greatwrath]

Rundown on Azrael’s abilities/powers

IMMORTALITY Like the other celestial and infernal beings, Azrael is imbued with eternal life and she can’t physically age.

HEIGHTENED SENSES Azrael experiences things much more intensely than a human being, which explains why she prefers peaceful environments and muted colours. Her senses are there to be valuable in battle, so Azrael can detect movements, sights or sounds before her opponent. However, they can become detrimental in certain situations.

RESISTANCE TO EXTREME TEMPERATURES Extreme heat and extreme cold have no effect on Azrael or her vessel. For example, Azrael could stand at the peak of Mount Everest wearing nothing but pants and a shirt for hours and not develop frostbite or hypothermia. The same goes for something like a volcano or a house fire. She can’t die of smoke inhalation or excessive heat from the fire.  Azrael is fine between  -1500 °C and + 1500 °C.

ENHANCED REFLEXES Azrael’s average reaction time is a little more than five hundredths of a second (fifty-five milliseconds) - faster than a Lamborghini gear shift. 

ENHANCED STRENGTH As I’ve said before, Azrael is strong enough to throw a 300lb man through a steel reinforced wall. She can also break a gun in half, punch through metal or solid rock etc.

ENHANCED COMBAT  Warrior angels and Archangels possess superhuman hand-to-hand combat skills. Basically, you don’t want to get into a fight with Azrael, because she is probably at least four times faster and hits harder than a motherfucker.

REGENERATIVE HEALING  - Limited in the absence of The Source Fortunately, angels can heal themselves from wounds caused by human weapons and non-fatal wounds caused by empyrean steel weapons. If she gets shot or stabbed by a regular human knife, she doesn't feel it and heals from it in a matter of minutes (if the bullet is removed). If she gets slashed by an empyrean steel sword, it hurts, bleeds and eventually heals, though it takes much longer (because she is healing her original ‘cryptid’ form too).

SOUL DETECTION Azrael sees peoples souls, and with that ability, she can usually tell who is a sinner and who is not. So if she knows something about you without you telling her, it’s because she has seen it.

MEMORY MANIPULATION Azrael has the ability to erase the memories of humans. You just have to trust that she won’t use it without your consent.

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION Azrael is sensitive to things humans can’t detect. She can sniff out what species people are, she has a kind of ‘death-sense’ thing going on and frequently looks into peoples souls.

TELEKINESIS  - Limited in the absence of The Source Like the other Archangels, Azrael is a very, very powerful telekinetic, like frighteningly powerful. At the height of her power, she could've easily raised the Titanic from the Atlantic ocean. This is another one of Azrael’s powers that suffers in the absence of a connection to the Source. She can’t pull off the same stunts without consequences.

NECROMANCY - Limited in the absence of The Source Azrael can raise the dead, but not like in a ‘zombie way’, because that is way too much like dark magic. She can restore a human body back to its default state and put the soul back in. However, without a connection to the source, it is difficult, time-consuming and it takes up a lot of power.

INTERDIMENSIONAL TRAVEL  This is the angelic form of teleporting. Azrael uses it to get places quickly, to move around in battle, and to move between the earthly realm, the spirit world and the heavens.

TEMPORAL CONTROL - Limited in the absence of The Source Temporal control is how angels travel through time, though they usually only use it when ordered to do so. Azrael has only used temporal control once, and it knocked her out for several days because of her being disconnected. In that instance, Azrael divided her light into billions of fragments and spread them across the previous nine hundred years.

PHOTOKINESIS - Light generation and manipulation Azrael often produces light from her eyes, and sometimes from her markings. It can burn demons. Looks like this:

ATMOKINESIS - Manipulation of the atmosphere -  - Limited in the absence of The Source Azrael can and has been known to conjure up some pretty crazy storms, like the storm she created to destroy the Tower of Babel. Around the time of Moses, the Egyptians became afraid of dark clouds and lightning. The storms are probably part of how Azrael earned ‘the great wrath’.

PYROKINESIS - the ability to create and control fire. Azrael most often uses this to light candles. But she did use pyrokinesis to burn the palace at Jericho down.

WING MANIFESTATION Azrael has gigantic wings in her corporeal ‘cryptid’ form, and they translate onto her vessel as two six-foot-wide wings with pitch-black feathers. They are bulletproof, sharp as razors when they need to be and very sensitive.

SELF SUSTENANCE (almost) Azrael doesn’t require water/food/air, and does not ‘evacuate’ waste. The only thing Azrael does require is sleep, but she refuses to sleep all the same.

CONTAMINANT IMMUNITY Azrael is immune to all pathogens from the Earthly/physical realm. That means things like polio, rabies, small-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, bubonic plague etc. However, rare and fatal pathogens created in Hell can infect Archangels.

OMNILINGUALISM Azrael can speak and read every language ever written or spoken on Earth, including her own mother-tongue. She also understands the Infernal languages but never speaks them. These are the languages she speaks, reads and write:

Enochian, English, Middle English, Latin, Aramaic, Iroquoian (Seneca, Mohawk Etc.), Gaulish, Phoenician, Ammonite, Archaic Japanese, Haitian Creole, Navajo, Old Chinese, Old Cyrillic, French, Nepalese, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Spanish, German, Sanskrit, Assyrian, Malay, Filipino, Shina, Ancient Greek, Persian, Sumerian, Archaic, Punjabi, Egyptian, Afrikaan, Chiricahua, Old Huron, Hebrew, Maori, Gothic, Etruscan, Scythian, Proto-germanic, Western Apache, Celtic, Swahili, Yucatec Maya, Akkadian, Mycenaean Greek, Carthaginian, Sinhalese, Mandarin Chinese, Xiang Chinese, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Kyrgyz, Qatari Arabic, Sioux, Cree, Korean, Algonquian (Ojibwe-Potawatomi, Menominee, Cheyenne), Tibetan, Urdu, Adyghe, Bhutanese, Kachin, Burmese, Kabardian, Lithuanian, Old High German, Hittite, Danish, Mayan, Somali, Amharic, Swahili, Manding, Vietnamese, Thai, Pictish, Turkish, Kanakanabu, Coptic, Lao, Khmer, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Auyokawa, Czech, (Irish, Scottish) Gaelic, Welsh, Gaulish, Proto-Celtic, Old Brythonic, Maharashrtri, Bering Strait Inupiatun, Eskimo-Aleut, Kalaalisut, Signing Exact English, Asl Etc.

ECOLOGICAL EMPATHY Angels have a connection to all creation, including plants and animals. If you see Azrael talking to an animal, she’s not mad, she’s just doing what angels do.

ENHANCED INTELLIGENCE Azrael’s IQ number is 400+ approximately, which is twice the number of the most intelligent human being.

POSSESSION Although Azrael has her own vessel, she can possess a human body for a limited amount of time. If she is out of a vessel for an extended period of time, then she can become disorientated after returning to her body or another body.

NEUROCOGNITIVE DEFICIT In the event that Azrael is low on power or experiencing a lot of pain, she can put herself into neuro-shut down, which essentially means that she is still in her vessel but totally unresponsive to all outside stimuli. 

DIMENSIONAL AWARENESS The power to detect cross-dimensional portals/barriers within their proximity. Useful when Hell gates are opened.

ASTRAL TRAPPING “The user can restrain, trap and/or seal astral beings (including astrally projecting being, ghosts, spirits, psychic entities, etc.) into a specific place, item or being (possibly allowing their energies to be tapped by others) or prevent them from entering certain areas or possessing beings/items. They can prevent a ghost from manifesting, prevent an astral projector from entering their body, or force ghosts on or off their plane of existence.”

BEACON CALL Azrael can send out a sort of SOS signal which can be perceived by other angels and intercepted by some other creatures. It’s kind of like the ping from a crashed aircraft?

MISC. • Azrael can stop a person's heart with just a touch. • She is immune to radiation. • She can interfere with the electrical grid (power cuts) and manipulate electrical instruments.

[incomplete-nano-stash]

Time Wolf - Chapter 6

               Stephen’s heart jumped into his throat. The older man continued to shake his hand.

               “I wasn’t so sure when you would show up, my friend, and I was starting to give up hope, but you’re here at last. It’s such a relief to see you.” He cleared his throat. “You probably know who I am, am I right?”

               Stephen nodded.

               “Excellent, then we can skip the formalities. Sit down, please.” The older Rockford motioned to the chair. Stephen willingly sat down, as it was all he could do to keep himself from falling over in shock. One hand gripped to an arm rest tight enough to lose circulation to the knuckles.

               “So why have you called me here?” Stephen finally croaked when he found his voice.

               “Ah, yes. I remember asking that same question.” Rockford stood up, moving over to a nearby bookshelf, on which sat a tray with a glass decanter of liquor on it. He poured himself a drink, then held the bottle out to Stephen. “Bourbon? No? All right then.” He set the decanter down and took a sip of the beverage. “Now, why you’re in this time is beyond us, but as to why you’re here in my office, it’s because I need you to do something for me.”

               Stephen took a deep breath. “I’m listening.”

               “Good, good.” Rockford sat back down behind the desk. “Now, you’re wondering what’s going to become of your TX-31, right?”

               Stephen nodded.

               “Right, and you’re worried you’ll be stuck in this time forever, am I right?”

               Another nod.

               “All right. Let me assure you first and foremost, there are no current orders to destroy your TX-31. Matter of fact, my men haven’t even found it yet, so we can’t destroy it. Second, you only have a prototype, so while it’s fairly dangerous, it’s no hazard to anyone other than the operator. So we don’t want to eliminate it for safety reasons.”

               Stephen cleared his throat. His grip on the chair got tighter. “Then why do you need my TX-31?”

               Rockford smiled like a python eyeballing a mouse. “Why don’t you know, Stephen? I need you to pilot it. Specifically, I need you to go back to when you left the Special Projects lab.”

               Stephen’s heart accelerated. He swallowed loudly.

               “Oh, please, don’t be afraid. Come, take a look at this.” Rockford tapped a key on his console, which started a weird projector in the middle of the office. Stephen turned around to look at the projection.

               It was himself, maybe a few years older than he was now, standing in front of a complete TX-31, one with its legs intact. He was motioning like a salesman trying to make a used car look sexier than it was. Floating text started appearing above the TX-31.

                               TECH OF THE YEAR 2044

                               TIME MAGAZINE “MAN OF THE YEAR” 2044

                               #5 ON FORBES 500

                               AN S&P 500 COMPANY

               Stephen’s eyes were now wide open. “That’s all due to the TX-31?”

               “No, that’s all you.” Rockford’s enthusiasm was starting to disturb Stephen. “You have an extremely promising future ahead of you, young sir. The only thing is, in order to have that future you need to go back.”

               Stephen’s head started to pound. “And if I refuse?”

               “Well that would be a problem, wouldn’t it?” Rockford stroked his chin. “Because damn it, that would be a paradox. And paradoxes really piss me off.” He keyed another video up on the projection. This time it was a person inside a TX-31, being attacked.

               “Who …?”

               “One of the bastards who are the reason we re-confiscated all of our tech.” Rockford clicked his tongue and shook his head as the playback continued, and the TX-31 wearer was overtaken by Wolf Technologies soldiers, holding the operator down. The helmet was ripped off.

               Stephen’s eyes dilated. The operator was a woman, a very recognizable woman. “Tiffany …”

               “Yeah, it’s really too bad about her. You see, she didn’t like the direction that leadership of the company took our relationship into, was very vocal about it. She got in touch with a mercenary group hired by a Wolf competitor to steal a TX-31 and change history.” Rockford scoffed. “Seems they wanted the patent on it before Wolf. She was going to steal the plans from me … well, you … and deliver them to the R&D department of the other company.”

               Another TX-31 entered the scene. This one lifted an arm and leveled the hand toward Tiffany’s face. The hand closed around the woman’s jaw.

               “What’s going on? Stop this! Stop playing this, please!”

               “Oh, but you need to see this,” Rockford intoned menacingly. “You need to see what the penalty for refusal is.”

               An unearthly glow appeared around Tiffany’s entire head. She was literally sucked out of the suit and into a pinhole of darkness, hovering in the palm of the attacker’s hand.

               Stephen yelped, screamed at the projection, still gripping the chair tightly. He almost felt like he had no choice in whether he remained seated or not: he couldn’t move. His screams turned into soft, mournful sobs. The projection continued, scanning over to the other TX-31. The occupant removed his helmet, revealing the weathered, smiling face of Stephen Rockford.

               “You see, my friend?” Rockford’s voice sounded like he was attempting comforting and achieving pandering. “If you do not comply with me, you will die.”

               “But … paradox?” Stephen was still too shellshocked from the vision of himself killing his wife.

               Rockford chuckled. “Don’t you think I’ve accounted for that potential paradox? As it stands, I would be protected enough by the TX-31’s temporal radiation, but as it happens when things are scribed by time travelers, they tend to stay scribed whether they are reversed or made impossible. That’s a really unusual trait of chronal intervention that I discovered quite early on with our TX-31 experiments.”

               Stephen panted. So there was no escaping this future? No stopping Wolf Technologies? He wanted to curl up and die right then and there.

               “Do the right thing, Stephen. For yourself. For Tiffany. For everyone. Go back. Let these events take place. You can’t stop it, so you might as well just enjoy the temporal wave.”

               An alarm blared on Rockford’s desk. He tapped another key sequence.

               “Mr. Rockford, sir, there is a riot in town centered on Town Hall. We’re sending backup, please advise.”

               Rockford cleared his throat. “Has the rogue TX-31 been found yet?”

               “Negative. The townspeople are wrapped around the hall, they’re not allowing us inside. We were informed the suit was in there.”

               “Then get through those people, in any way possible. Lethal and temporal force is authorized.”

               Stephen screamed, the horror of more death being too much to handle, and leaped over the desk. Rockford’s computer consoles clattered to the floor as Stephen knocked them off, tackling the CEO in the process. As Rockford writhed on the floor, Stephen stood up and ran for the door.

               On the floor, Rockford found his keyboard. “Intruder alert. Stop the man leaving my office, he is a time traveler. He holds an artifact!”

[greatwrath]

Azrael’s powers and abilities [UPDATED]

• Immortality - As an Archangel, Azrael possesses an unending lifespan. Her vessel does not age. 

• Bioluminescence - When Azrael revs up her Light, it spills out over her vessel, first from her eyes, then through her skin. 

• Mental Projection - Azrael is capable of projecting her consciousness into someone else’s mind. This ability is especially useful for communicating with people who are possessed by another entity, or communicating with people who are unconscious. 

• Heightened Senses - Azrael’s visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory senses are incredibly sensitive. This is why she frequently wears dark tinted sunglasses and steers clear of modern foods with too much sugar. Her senses are that way to give her an edge in battle. However, in the modern world, Azrael can become overwhelmed with so much input. 

• Temperature Resistance - Azrael is easily able to withstand some pretty extreme temperatures, from about -1500 °C and + 1500 °C. However, in the event that she is badly injured, her Light, which is normally super hot and bright, will fade and its temperature will drop, leaving her susceptible to the cold. 

• Enhanced Reflexes - Azrael’s average reaction time is a little more than five hundredths of a second (fifty-five milliseconds) - faster than a Lamborghini gear shift. 

• Enhanced Strength - Azrael is strong enough to throw a 300lb man through a steel reinforced wall. She can also break a gun in half, punch through metal or solid rock etc.

• Enhanced Combat Skills - Warrior angels and Archangels possess superhuman hand-to-hand combat skills. Basically, you don’t want to get into a fight with Azrael, because she is probably at least four times faster and hits harder than a motherfucker. 

• Expert Swordsmanship - Azrael has been wielding Vanquish for upwards of 300,000 years, so it goes without saying that she has both the skills and the experience handling a sword. This is an example of how Azrael uses a sword. 

• Regenerative Healing (Limited) - Azrael can easily heal anything that was’nt dealt by white fire or empyrean steel. Wounds dealt by white fire and empyrean steel are difficult to heal, especially given the fact that Azrael has to rely on her own steam. 

• Soul Detection - Azrael can tell whether you have a soul, and what sins you have committed. That’s partly how she can tell whether a person is a half-breed, because the soul of a half-breed is distinctly different from a mortal human soul. 

• Heavenly (White) Fire Production - As an Archangel, Azrael can summon white fire to the blade of her sword, which remain burning until she extinguishes it.

• Memory Manipulation - Azrael can erase memories and manipulate them. It’s not something she uses often, but she can do it. 

• Extrasensory Perception - Azrael can see and communicate with spirits lingering in both the astral and earthly realm. She also possesses Claircognizance, clairsentience, clairaudience and clairomancy.

• Telekinesis (Limited) - Like the other Archangels, Azrael is a very, very powerful telekinetic, even running on her own steam. At the height of her power, she could’ve easily raised the Titanic from the Atlantic ocean without experiencing any blowback. She could do the same now, but it would put significant strain on her and result in her running out of power entirely. 

• Resurrection of dead mortals(Limited) - Azrael is more than capable of bringing a dead person back to life, even if that person’s body is desiccated and rotted. It takes some time and a lot of power, but she can do it.  • Temporal Control (Limited) - Temporal control is how angels travel through time, though they usually only use it when ordered to do so. Azrael has only used temporal control once, and it knocked her out for several days because of her being disconnected from The Source. In that instance, Azrael divided her light into billions of fragments and spread them across the previous nine hundred years.

• Photokinesis (Limited) - Azrael can manipulate her Light to make images that look like holograms. Sometimes she uses her Light to show people what she looks like in her second form, sometimes her Light pulses in her hands and on her fingertips, sometimes she forms the a map of the cosmos around her  

• Interdimensional Travel/Teleporting - Azrael uses this ability to get places quickly, to move around in battle, and to move between the earthly realm, the spirit world and the heavens. She can also shift between alternate dimensions in order to hide from her enemies.

• Atmokinesis - Azrael can and has been known to conjure up some pretty crazy storms, like the storm she created to destroy the Tower of Babel. Around the time of Moses, the Egyptians became afraid of dark clouds and lightning. The storms are probably part of how Azrael earned ‘the great wrath’.

• Wing Manifestation - Azrael has gigantic wings in her corporeal ‘cryptid’ form, and they translate onto her vessel as two six-foot-wide wings with pitch-black feathers. They are bulletproof, sharp as razors when they need to be, and very sensitive.

• Self Sustenance (almost) -  Azrael doesn’t require water/food/air, and does not ‘evacuate’ waste. The only thing Azrael does require is sleep, but she refuses to sleep all the same.

• Earth Contaminant Immunity - Azrael is immune to all pathogens from the Earthly/physical realm. That means things like polio, rabies, small-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, bubonic plague etc. However, rare and fatal pathogens created in Hell, or created by Raphael’s angels, can infect Archangels.

• Omnilingualism - Azrael can speak and read every language ever written or spoken on Earth, including her own mother-tongue. She also understands the Infernal languages but never speaks them. These are the languages she speaks, reads and write:

Enochian, Demonic Tongues (Cthonic, Gehenic, Tartarian, Purgatic etc.), English, Middle English, Latin, Aramaic, Hausa, Iroquoian (Seneca, Cherokee, Mohawk Etc.), Phoenician, Ammonite, Māori, Archaic Japanese, Haitian Creole, Navajo, Qaniujaaqpait, Old Chinese, Old Cyrillic, Powhatan, French, Nepalese, Italian, Inuktitut, Russian, Adamic, Chaldeac, Kathlamet, Xhosa, Spanish, German, Sanskrit, Assyrian, Malay, Filipino, Shina, Ancient Greek, Persian, Sumerian, Archaic, Punjabi, Egyptian, Afrikaans, Chiricahua, Old Huron, Hebrew, Gothic, Etruscan, Scythian, Proto-germanic, Western Apache, Celtic, Swahili, Yucatec Maya, Akkadian, Malagasy, Mycenaean Greek, Carthaginian, Sinhalese, Zulu, Mauritian Creole, Mandarin Chinese, Xiang Chinese, Turkmen, Uzbek, Nobiin, Atikamekw, Mi'kmaq, Kashmiri, Gujurati, Kurdish, Tamil, Chechen, Portugese, Witsuwit'en, Kazakh, Icelandic, Tajik, Kyrgyz, Qatari Arabic, Sioux, Cree, Korean, Algonquian (Ojibwe-potawatomi, Menominee, Cheyenne), Tibetan, Urdu, Adyghe, Bhutanese, Kachin, Burmese, Kabardian, Lithuanian, Old High German, Hittite, Danish, Mayan, Somali, Batek, Amharic, Manding, Vietnamese, Thai, Kordofan Nubian, Pictish, Turkish, Kanakanabu, Coptic, Lao, Khmer, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Auyokawa, Sentinelese, Jarawa, Czech, (Irish, Scottish) Gaelic, Welsh, Gaulish, Proto-celtic, Old Brythonic, Maharashrtri, Bering Strait Inupiatun, Eskimo-Aleut, Kalaalisut, Signing Exact English, ASL Etc.

• Ecological Empathy - Angels have a connection to all creation, including plants and animals. If you see Azrael talking to an animal, she’s not mad, she’s just doing what angels do.

• Enhanced Intelligence - Azrael’s IQ number is 400+ approximately, which is twice the number of the most intelligent human being.

• Possession - Although Azrael has her own vessel, she can possess a human body for a limited amount of time. If she is out of a vessel for an extended period of time, then she can become disorientated after returning to her body or another body.

• Neurocognitive Deficit - In the event that Azrael is low on power or experiencing a lot of pain, she can put herself into neuro-shut down, which essentially means that she is still in her vessel but totally unresponsive to all outside stimuli. This is also called a state of dormancy.

• Dimensional Awareness - The power to detect cross-dimensional portals/barriers within their proximity. Useful when Hell gates are opened.

• Astral Trapping - “The user can restrain, trap and/or seal astral beings (including astrally projecting being, ghosts, spirits, psychic entities, etc.) into a specific place, item or being (possibly allowing their energies to be tapped by others) or prevent them from entering certain areas or possessing beings/items. They can prevent a ghost from manifesting, prevent an astral projector from entering their body, or force ghosts on or off their plane of existence.”

• Beacon Emission - Azrael can send out a sort of SOS signal which can be perceived by other angels and intercepted by some other creatures. It’s kind of like the ping from a crashed aircraft.

• Omnidirectional Light Waves - Azrael can release a blast of destructive light that is powerful enough to send anyone and anything standing in its way flying. It’ll also smash windows and lights, and knock out the electrical grid. 

• Energy Field Emission - The energy field around Azrael is a constant presence. It’s is the reason people who encounter her experience cold chills, goosebumps, and a feeling of dread when she gets close. 

MISC. • She is immune to radiation. • She can interfere with the electrical grid (power cuts) and manipulate electrical instruments.