#even with their personalities intact their main goal is still just to get people infected fjsjdj

[ella-ashmore]

Ok. first off, that sounds amazing and I’ll watch it soon. Second, what do the choirs songs sound like? They all break into song and dance, so what’s the vibe and theme of their songs :)

oceans is kind of similar to sugar cloud !! very bubbly and upbeat, high energy, mostly talking about how meaningful constance is to her. how happy she is to have her in her life and the choir. it gets mildly dark at the end but im not sure what those lyrics would entail. probably something about not feeling as if either of them are truly happy at all. ocean kisses constance, infecting her in the process. definitely not the worst way to go but she still ends up in the hivemind so, not the best either (the intent of the kiss was to infect but ocean just wanted to kiss her i think)

noels would be very somber. not very similar to noels lament but kind of the same genre yk?? he would sing of his tragedy and how he never felt as if he fit in here in uranium. but now he does! now that he's one with the others, he feels so welcome and loved, wouldnt you want to be one with them too? he sings of heartbreak, and longing, and how maybe the real tragedy of his life was living in uranium, not becoming infected

i think constance would get a song with ocean and noel as vocal backup (what gets the remaining three to figure out something is deeply wrong if they hadnt already encountered infected before finding these three). its also a bit similar to noels lament in genre, talking about how shes so much more than the nicest girl in town, theres so much more to her than that shallow image everyone else has given her. its about her wants, her desires, her dreams, just.... herself. ofc, there is a bit at the end where she acknowledges that theres nothing wrong with being the nicest girl in town. she deserves to figure that out

ricky gets to sing about zolar i cant take that away from him. however, he also sings about how he felt kind of... discarded maybe? because of his disabilities and the ableist way hes been treated throughout his life (ocean infantilizing him, etc etc etc). he wont be treated as something other than normal anymore, the hivemind will make sure of that, wont you please join us?

its a few hours before mischa is infected. he and penny think theyre safe, locked away somewhere secure, somewhere theyre sure the infection cant reach them. they dont know how it happened, the door is blocked, they can hear the people they once knew as neighbors behind it, clamoring to be let in, shouting and screaming and banging on the one barrier keeping them apart. but... somehow, a few got in. a woman dressed in a wedding gown, flanked by ocean and constance. she sings of a love he can still have. she sings of his yearning for talia, and how the hivemind can bring them together. how he can hold the love of his life in his arms. hes so tired. he gives in, allowing them to infect him, much to pennys horror, and takes lead of the song. he sings so desperately for his beloved, he sings of his longing, the pain in his chest when he thinks of the distance between them. he sings of the anger he feels at that separation. he sings of how he wishes, with all of his heart, to be united with her for eternity.

penny doesnt get a song of her own. shes backed into a corner by mischa and the others. she can see the pain in his eyes as he infects her without showing any mercy. finally, all of uranium is one. finally.

[starsandfluff]

antfrost throughout egg arc

discovery of the egg and initial possession

ant was one of the first to be infected along with bad, puffy, and ponk. similar to bad and puffy, he was very caring towards the egg, frequently calling it and the vines “pretty” and “beautiful.” he often went around the smp planting new bloodvines and feeding the vines and the egg rotten flesh, or anything red he had in his inventory. he was also the main translator for the egg (and still is), often putting messages in chat written in standard galactic/enchantment table language.

throughout his possession, even presently, he is not self aware of the control the egg has over him, similar to punz and hannah. he is very devoted to the egg but doesn’t at all suspect he’s being brainwashed/mind controlled.

scp arc/released from egg’s possession

after skeppy sacrificed himself for those possessed by the egg and the egg was covered in obsidian, ant and bad worked together to experiment on the egg’s abilities. they tested out different materials on the egg to see its effect on them as well as seeing how the egg turned obsidian into crying obsidian and eventually absorbed obsidian and grew larger.

until the obsidian was removed, ant was not under the influence of the egg. at one point even accusing bad of seeming like he was possessed by the egg again. although experiencing being released from the egg’s possession, while once again possessed he doesn’t seem to be able to recognize the egg’s control over him.

prior to breaking the obsidian, ant and the others were very careful about hazmat suits and cleansing. in contrast, during the initial possession ant and bad were both very averse to being bathed. sam forcibly bathed both of them, despite their protest that everything was fine and that ant being a cat meant he didn’t like baths. multiple times sam would water bucket one of them, and then they would run back to stand on the vines. also, after breaking the obsidian, ant and the other didn’t wear hazmat suits around the egg and bloodvines and did their best to persuade others (non-possessed) to not wear hazmat suits.

skeppy bathwater and the many attempts to save skeppy

ant is very violent, while sometimes viewed as a passive second in command to bad, he can be very impulsive, bloodthirsty, and fighting-oriented both under the egg’s possession and out of it (especially seen in the second pet war).

bad wanted to try everything to save skeppy as long as it wouldn’t hurt him. unhelpfully, ant was very adamant that they should try killing skeppy, just to see if it would work, saying multiple times that they should “put him down.”

when bad suggested they kill someone else, ant jumped on board with the attempt to kill eret, no matter how unrelated to skeppy the attempt seemed, ant was very supportive of murdering eret just because. none of the murder attempts went through as the two of them then went on to try bathwater concoctions for the rest of the stream.

since skeppy turned into red skeppy, bad has struggled so much trying to save the one person he cares about more than anything and throughout all of that ant didn’t make any attempt to see how bad was truly feeling. he did support him in all the endeavors to help skeppy, giving bad the maid skeppy image and helping with all the bathwater attempts, but he also urged bad to kill skeppy multiple times and doesn’t truly know how bad feels about the egg. ant is still, as of the red banquet, under the impression that bad loves the egg just as much as he does and would do anything for the egg (as viewers we know that bad holds a lot of resentment for the egg and above everything just wants his skeppy back).

ant is very good friends with both bad and skeppy, and a loyal member of the badlands, but throughout the egg arc and specifically during the red skeppy situation, he did not consider either of them, especially not bad’s feelings or his relationship with skeppy. while those under the egg’s possession can wildly fluctuate between holding grudges and assuming their friendships are perfectly intact, they are all very much willing to hurt and kill their friends (with the exception of skeppy for bad) if it will benefit the egg.

eggpire

ant was very easily persuaded by bad about forming the eggpire and releasing the egg for the purpose of chaos and gaining power for the badlands. he quickly joined bad in trying to convince the others to release the egg and join the eggpire. he was not aware of bad already being under the influence of the egg, and his process of falling under possession of the egg was seen in stages with the changes in his eye color from blue eventually to red.

ant has been a messenger for the egg since the beginning of the arc. while primarily fighting-oriented, he’s also a very intelligent and prepared person. while puffy is trying to pretend she is also under the egg’s possession, ant catches her in a lie by asking her to translate a message from the egg which she does incorrectly. ant and bad then try to hunt her down with puffy successfully fleeing. ant and bad aren’t fazed by this since they already had the plans to trap sam and others in the obsidian chamber above the egg.

ant was informed of these secret plans for trapping people in the egg chamber, while eggpire members other than bad and him were not. ant was very eager to carry out these plans, seeing any harm their victims went through as a necessary measure in order make them love the egg. he and bad do have some leniency in getting ponk coffee, pain au chocolat, and a bucket to pee in.

while from sam’s point of view, his relationships with ant and bad have been strained because of the egg, ant and bad still see bad and their friend and fellow badlands member. however, because of the egg’s influence, they are very willing to hurt him in order to make him love the egg. they lie to sam in order to trap him in the egg chamber and laugh when they successfully trap him. sam has horrible and traumatizing experiences while trapped, however ant and bad are only occupied with the fact that he ends up escaping. their highest priority is always the egg’s plans.

red banquet

ant and bad have fun planning the red banquet. ant is the first one to announce the red banquet and begins the build in the egg room and hangs up fanart around the smp. they hand out invitations to everyone together, lying about the peacefulness and goal of the event. ant is really happy when he completes his part of the plan because he knows bad will be excited. while his main purpose under possession is to carry out the egg’s orders, he is still very much driven by the love and happiness of his friends, especially the badlands.

at the red banquet, ant welcomes the guests as they arrive, still keeping up the act of wanting to make amends. around this time, he quickly opens his inventory showing his armor and weapons. he socializes with guests on the dance floor, notably bringing attention to hbomb’s white dad dancing.

(velvet is the egg theory: at the table, ant is sitting next to a reserved seat with cake in front of it.)

at the banquet table, after the speeches have finished, ant is the one to push the button to surround everyone with lava at bad’s silent signal.

while preparing to execute foolish, ant and puffy argue over the fault of these executions. puffy tells him and bad that it’s their last chance with her and how she trusted them to hold a peaceful banquet. ant argues as a part of the eggpire, she was the one who betrayed them and she had the opportunity to stay with the eggpire and prevent the executions. ant recognizing the slaughter and bloodshed they are causing, saying that “everybody behind [puffy] is defenseless. they’re about to be slaughtered because of [her].” however, ant puts the egg above everything and sees benefitting the egg as a reasonable justification for executing the banquet guests. puffy says that she cares about people, and the eggpire members prioritizing the egg above people’s lives is “selfish” (despite the egg’s possession and control over them).

ant executes foolish while the banquet guests scream at him. ant has always viewed foolish as a friend, and foolish is one of the few smp members to recognize that their actions are because of the egg’s possession and not their own will, however he kills him quite easily. given a netherite axe by quackity, puffy kills ant. since she takes multiple hits to kill him, ant attempts to back away from her as he’s being attacked.

ant didn’t press respawn during his red banquet stream and hasn’t streamed in character since, but plans to soon after he posts his next video.

[evolutionsvoid]

Of all the types of Mancers that exist, there are some more obvious and commonly known then others. When you speak of Mancer Syndrome, hardly anyone will think of Venomancers and Psychomancers. The common folk tend to lean towards the blatantly obvious when it comes to magic, like fire balls, lightening bolts and "black magic." Thus, Pyromancers and Cryomancers are often thought about, because if you can wield the power of magic, why wouldn't you spit fire and summon ice? The biggest one, though, is the one that is the most notorious of them all, and probably the first to sour the Mancer name: Necromancers. What can even be written on this detestable field that hasn't been said a thousand times? Necromancers are those who delve into the art of resurrection and reanimation, those who toe the line between life and death. This field doesn't just stick with bringing corpses back to life, it also involves altering dead flesh, contacting spirits, and wielding the power of decay. Any kind of magic that uses a corpse or lifeless parts as a canvas is one that dabbles with necromancy. Some may question the practical uses of such an art, as what can it be used for in day-to-day life? Lots of magics find ways to help their fellow man and ease their burden. Necromancy is honestly not one of them. Of course there are those out there that say that there are many practical uses for such an art, but these claims are rubbish. "You can use it to contact dead loved ones and get closure," some may say, but plenty of people out there figure out how to move on after someone close to them bites it. Trying to contact someone from the dead is also a good recipe to accidentally bring forth a more malicious entity, or give your grieving customer some weird obsession. "We can bring fallen warriors back to life so that they can continue to fight for our righteous cause!" is another that should honestly tip you off that something bad is going down. Yes, it could help in winning battles and wars, but for who? At least enlisting normal people requires you to convince them to join your side, but having an army of mindless zombies makes people wonder about your morals. Also, if you do win the war, then what? What do you do with all these undead soldiers? Toss them back in their graves? Most of the time, the answer is "keep them around just in case" which translates to "use them to chop up dissenters and keep the masses in line." And if it isn't about the soon-to-be dictator, it is about the families who see their loved ones stumbling about and rotting. Most of the times it causes a bit of distress, but in some cases, people try to act like these empty husks are the real deal and then things get weird. Another reason I have heard is that necromancy "teaches you about the dying part so that we can use it to stop the dying thing." I have only heard that once at a drunken dinner party and I refuse to let them live that one down. 

Just like any other magic user, necromancers are under constant threat of mana poisoning. All this corpse-raising draws mana from the Splenius magus, and using such magic has effects on your body. There is some debate, however, of what causes the initial infections. Some think a necrotic element is slowly introduced to body whenever a spell is cast, just like other Mancers. Others say that the art of necromancy uses bits of your own life force as fuel, which is what degrades your body and mind. If this second theory was true, it would add some interesting implications to the field. Since most mana poisoning occurs when people overuse certain magic directly from their own flesh, the sickness can be prevented by using outside sources and cleansing your body. If necromancy does indeed feed off life force, then these normal preventative practices wouldn't work. With no current idea how to circumvent this, it would mean that every person who delves into the art of necromancy would be doomed to become a full on Mancer. This idea is what supporters of this theory point to, as many necromancers spiral out of control once they start bringing people back from the dead. It is a tempting piece of evidence, but I don't think it holds up. Many practitioners of this art do indeed go out of control, but I think that has to do with the mental issues that arise when one resurrects dead loved ones and believe they can conquer death. Gaining a god complex is practically a side effect of necromancy. When one starts delving deeper and deeper into this art and they fail to properly protect themselves, the toll will become obvious. Their own bodies will take on the likeness of the death they seek to avoid. Their skin will turn pale, and their hair will begin to fall out. For some, their flesh sags as if it is melting off their bones, while others shrivel like dried sponges. Health issues will arise, as the necrotic energy starts to eat away at their own bodies. At this point, they should stop and seek professional help, but who ever listens to sanity and logic? What typically happens is the weakened victim tries to use their magic on themselves, hoping that it can save them. If it can bring dead flesh back to life, then surely it can overcome a nasty cough and emaciated limbs? When they partake in this bit of self help, they will find that their magic works! Their bodies will be morphed back to normal and their health will be intact, at least it seems to be. What is really happening is that they are doubling down on this insanity. Besides the normal dose of mana poisoning one would get from frequent spell use, you are now pumping your veins with the magic to help keep yourself together. This just escalates things, causing the deterioration to happen faster and faster. Soon appendages will atrophy and bits of your flesh will begin to rot off. At this point, recovery is incredibly rare. Even if you were to stop performing necromancy entirely and ran straight to the nearest doctor, your poisoned body would soon give into infection and whatever lovely diseases you've contracted. It is usually here when people snap, as they watch their form fall to pieces. To fix this issue, they will turn to stitching their lost parts back on or finding suitable replacements from fellow neighbors. As they consume their fellow man and desperately try to keep their rotting body in one piece, the Mancer Syndrome will reach its final stage and a true Necromancer will be born.   What emerges from this transformation is repulsive and barely human. Their decaying flesh will have required them to come up with insane ideas on how to keep themselves alive and intact (well, mostly). They may mutate their own bodies, take pieces from other people or creatures, or find some other vessel to dump their rotted souls in. Whatever they do, it will most likely result in some festering pile of deformed meat that somehow still thinks this is all okay. When a victim succumbs fully to Mancer Syndrome, their minds tend to be lost during the journey. Some Necromancers may come out bestial and mindless, driven by a desire to survive and "reproduce." Reproduction, to them, means raising more corpses and creating more undead beasts. Funny enough, a feral Necromancer is the optimal result to come from the transformation. These creatures are ruled by instinct and obsession, so they are easy to predict and manipulate. Them being mindless also puts aside the whole "but they're still a person" objections that some fools may spout. A jabbering undead beast is easy to rally the people against, and many of these monstrosities are not smart enough to handle this pressure. Tempt them with a nice full cemetery and they will dive face first into any trap you lay. The real issue that comes from full blown Necromancers is when these abominations come out with some of their faculties intact. Like certain other Mancers, there is a chance for the mind to survive the transformation. When this happens, things get real bad. Now able to think and plan, these Necromancers will not be so easily fooled or trapped. They will think that they have ascended to some higher form, and thus they must continue their mission. Often this mission is the same old "kill the living, raise the dead" sort of thing. They will seek to gain power and followers, which often means they need corpses. Lots of them. Ever wonder why some cemeteries and tombs are so expensive to get into? That is because they are heavily guarded and certain folk will pay out the nose to ensure their dead stay right where they are. Necromancers of any sort become scavengers, eagerly scouring the land for corpses to use for their mission. Some may reanimate them into personal soldiers, while others may add this meat to their own form. Regardless of their end goal, Necromancers will go after any source of dead meat, and when that source dries up, they go after the living. Unlike some Mancers who may vanish into the wilderness, away from man and his cities, Necromancers tend to throw themselves directly into populated areas. This makes dispatching them crucial, no matter how sapient they are. The last thing you want is for a town to get hit by a plague and then have a horde of Necromancers come rushing in for the buffet. With undead beasts at their side and a whole array of horrible powers, Necromancers can be quite the headache. They are one of the few Mancers you will deal with that will have allies, so it is best to have numbers of your own. Eliminating their own zombies and warriors is crucial, as that is their main weapon. Taking them out will allow you and your fellow fighters to focus entirely on the Necromancer, giving you the advantage. It is also good to take out these minions because, despite popular belief, these nasty things don't die when their Necromancer is defeated. No idea why this thought has become so ingrained in people, but it isn't that simple. They may lose coordination and guidance, but they won't just drop to the ground once you lop their master's head off. On that note, beheading and stabbing aren't always a surefire way to kill a Necromancer. Due to their reanimating magic and monstrous form, they tend to survive injuries that would kill a normal person. Honestly, if you are looking at a person who is using their own entrails as whips, you should assume that impaling them probably isn't going to do a whole lot of good. So instead, one should aim to reduce any Necromancer to goop. Pulverize them with blunt weapons or fry them with any magic you can, just make sure you keep going until the remains stop moving. Another piece of advice I have is one that should be incredibly obvious, and that is: don't die. If one of your warriors gets killed in the fray, you can be sure that they will be getting back up to bite your throat out. So if you can't guarantee that every one of you will make it out alive, then everyone should be aware that they are going to bash a turned friend's skull in at some point. Either don't hesitate when that happens, or bring people you really don't like to the battle. Since Necromancers are so hated and reviled, you would think they wouldn't show up so often. The magic that births them is banned in many places, and raising a single dead rat will sound off the dinner bell for every angry mob within ten leagues. Killing a Necromancer is a sure fire way for people to like you, so any adventurer or slayer will be eager to bag one. Despite this, these nasty things keep popping up, and some never get put down in the first place. Turns out many people are terrified of death, and will do anything to stop it from taking them or a loved one. It is not so bad when a common mage falls for this trap, because you can get your troops together and beat them to a bloody pulp. The issues occur when a king or some high up noble decides that they aren't ready to let go, so they get themselves a Necromancer to get the job done. In this case, the abomination will be protected by these wealthy idiots who will do anything to keep their delusions alive. I have seen knights and entire legions being sent forth for the sake of some rotted meat bag, as their desperate court of fools refuse to accept loss. Five different groups of adventurers butchered and she didn't have to lift a freaking finger. I am pretty sure she is just mocking me at this point, because why else would she keep sending me an invitation to these stupid cotillions? I am not coming over to kill you for the same reasons you aren't coming over here to kill me. Lets keep throwing chess pieces at each other and not get cheeky with it, okay?   While some would say that Necromancers are the most dangerous Mancer there is, I would say that is absolutely untrue. Yes, the whole reanimating the dead and warping flesh thing is terrible, but it is something that many know how to combat. Show me a warrior who doesn't know how to fight the undead, and I will show you a fool that is holding a pointy stick. Ever since the dawn of this art, people have been adamant in stopping it, so there are plenty of ways to deal with them. Things like Ferromancers and Biomancers, however, are mind-boggling abominations that wield impossible powers and possess a frustrating resilience. So are Necromancers the most dangerous? No. Are they the most notorious? Yes, pretty much every person who has heard about magic would know about necromancy. And with most religions not taking too kindly to such a practice, they make it known to every person that will listen. The other thing that Necromancers are champs at is being the most insufferable magic users to ever exist. Whether they have turned or not, they just cannot shut up about their art and their desires to "conquer death." The sheer amount of drama they have to add to everything is extremely grating, and it seems like the art of necromancy requires one to take up theater at some point in their lives. "We are rebels against the tyrant, Death" and "The black veil of the void shall be pulled back for humanity to truly see" is just some of the insane drivel these bloated pus bags will come up with. They just act so high and mighty despite the fact that their appendages are falling off. I honestly don't hate Necromancers for raising the dead, I couldn't care less about what you do with a corpse. It is the fact that they turn the public against all magic users and then never shut up about the struggles of the soul and flesh that makes me want to vaporize every last one of them. Cavarious Shaid -------------------------------------- Yeah, I say that it is the most recognizable and commonly known Mancer, but I completely forgot about making an entry for them til now. It is only because DeltaX9 pointed out this glaring gap that I finally drew something up. Was so busy trying to get crazy and creative, that I completely missed one the most obvious one! So here it is and that is one less hole in my gallery!

[landofsomethingsomething]

Super agree with you regarding epilogues ruining engagement. I was personally able to just completely boot the epilogues out of my brain, and hs still means a ton to me. But now I can't browse most content since it's epilogue stuff, and most people I followed who hated them too have completely divorced hs as a whole. Which I get, but yeah. It's just depressing. I'm not ready to give hs up, but I feel l'll have to since the epilogues eclipsed everything and there's just nothing left now.

Just realized my previous ask may imply guilting content creators for not making things I want, and I want to apologize for that. Not what I intended. I really just wanted to say that even from the perspective of someone who is still as passionate as I always was for hs, I'm feeling the strain the epilogues caused. It feels like the epilogues murdered the fandom rather than let it die a natural peaceful death.

Initially, honestly, that was my exact plan too - Just go on as though they hadn’t happened. But I ran into the same thing you and others have: No matter how mealy mouthed people get about “dubious canonicity” and the murk they are purportedly attempting to create between pure fanwork and pure canon... the epilogues are right there on the main page with the rest of the story. This isn’t like That One Ubiquitous Fanon Detail We Hate But Is Everywhere that we all surely have (more than one, for most of us really) because it comes explicitly from a place of authority over the work. The stuff that comes from other fans is so much easier to work with because we are all on equal ground from an authenticity standpoint. The epilogues are not on equal ground. They are authoritative and no matter how stubbornly we insist we will disregard them in their entirety, of course new canon (and that is what it is, again, no matter how mealy mouthed people are about it) is going to seep into the greater fandom consciousness. Like of course it is. Just like Act 7 quashed exploration of the characters’ individual goals because the body of the work authentically stated it had been to play along with paradox space’s rules and just make a new frogverse the whole time. Just like the Credits quashed exploration of alternate new universes and Earth Cs and what godhood looks like and how the kids grew from their experiences and what that growth led them to become. 

Of course I don’t think either of those were malicious the way the epilogues were, that’s just how it is. New canon will always change a fandom’s working parameters fundamentally unless literally no one reads it, I guess. Schroedinger’s canon. 

I think that I was honestly just naively, optimistically banking on more people disregarding it entirely. I thought to myself that it was so bad and so insulting and so objectively fucking awful, of course the collective community would just ignore it. But that was just me being an idiot - of course it’s messier than that, no community is a hivemind. People are picking and choosing details to keep and details to ignore and details to expand on and details to minimize and the end result, really, is just that the epilogues are fucking everywhere in a bunch of scintillating fractured different forms, infecting everything and making it all totally unpalatable to people like me, who genuinely wanted to just forget it ever happened while somehow still remaining plugged in. I’m not sure why I was so confident it would be possible at the time, looking back it was really pretty stupid of me lol.

The truth is that the story I liked does not exist anymore, because subsequent parts of a story by necessity recontextualize the rest. I’ve argued for years that Homestuck Is Actually Good based on a lot of things that came from a place of empathy for creators who meant well but were burnt out and wanted to move on. Well, ok. My bad, again. I can’t go back and not have the knowledge I do now, and all the joy I used to feel at the potential of those unfinished arcs and unanswered questions and dangling plot threads, the fire it all lit in me to write things and showcase possibilities through that writing to show other people why I thought Homestuck was So Good - that’s gone - and nothing will ever convince me that wasn’t half the point of it, that getting us out of the playground wasn’t part of the intent.

That’s the difference between how much I disliked the Ending and how much I disliked the Epilogues. The Ending was ridiculous, but in a way that left the stuff I did like intact while creating an open field of possibility to fill in. The Epilogues purposely took that field and filled it up with as much garbage as possible with the specific intent of driving the people who had been enjoying that space out of it, and ensuring the people left behind were, well, playing with garbage. I feel like I’m watching a social experiment where the creators behind an old megafandom are trying to answer the question of how much literal shit do you have to give people before they stop touching it? It’s honestly disconcerting, I don’t know how to describe it, and I realize people are going to find that condescending but I truly do not know how else to describe my feelings while also somehow making clear that my intent is not to wail at everyone “doing fandom wrong,” or whatever. There’s no wrong way to do fandom, the entire point of fandom is to do exactly what people are doing, to take bits and pieces of a thing and play with them. I am the one with the problem here, not everyone else. 

The intention here, really, is sort of just to mourn, because the fandom pivoted at a critical point in a direction I didn’t expect or want and as a result people including me have been alienated from continuing to engage with it. The same thing would have happened to a different subset of people had things gone the way I thought they would, too, for the record. There was no way to “win” this, no “right” way to deal with it, it just is what it is and this is what it looks like from my perspective.

[ciaossu-imagines]

AU Prompt 1 for MCL?

Of course, anon dear! Thank you for the request and I hope you’ll enjoy the headcanons!

your ocs are all in the same apocalypse survival squad. which oc…

1) is the squad leader?

Both Priya and Nathaniel share the position. Nathaniel’s always been a leader and he kind of just naturally falls into the position. After the many frequent fights between him and Castiel and Castiel’s attempts to usurp Nathaniel’s spot (despite not really wanting it - he just hates to follow Nathaniel’s orders), Priya ended up with a leadership role as well, mainly because Castiel listens to her more than he does to Nathaniel.

2) tries to usurp the leader?

As stated above, when it was just Nathaniel leading, Castiel tried several times to take leadership from him, despite Castiel not really wanting to lead everyone. Melody has also fallen into this a couple of times with Priya. If she feels Priya is getting too close to Nathaniel, sometimes her behaviour becomes a bit…concerning. As in, Melody might have almost gotten Priya bitten a few times after she felt the other girl was getting too touchy and close to Nathaniel.

3) is the first to get bitten and turned?

Li and/or Amber. Li was being really stupid and was sulking over something and was prepared to march out of the safety of camp. Though Amber wasn’t too happy to do so, Li is still her friend and she tried really hard to keep her friend from doing something really stupid. However, the whole thing ended up going just as bad as one might expect and both girls were bitten. It was really traumatic for everyone in camp, but especially for Nathaniel, who blames himself for letting it happen.

4) gets bitten, but tries amputation? (whatever happens is up to you)

Evan got bit shortly after joining the group and is unfortunately the reason that the group knows that, even if you amputate the infected body part, the virus still spreads. Kentin was not happy at this news, especially since he was the only one around when Evan succumbed to the virus and was thus the one who had to take care of the situation.

5) is the best at clean head shots?

Surprising everyone, it’s actually Lucy. Not even she believes it - she just has really good high-eye coordination. The problem is that if the zombie is still the least bit attractive, she has a really hard time pulling the trigger.

6) is the best at using baseball bats, clubs, crowbars, or other close range blunt weapons?

Kim is a great person to have on your side because not only is she almost freakishly strong but she has a natural talent for close range combat, excelling at makeshift weapons. She’s terrifying but in a good way.

7) successfully befriends/tames a zombie?

Iris. Nobody knows why or how but the zombies never seem to come after her as much and one of them even seems to be friendly with her.

8) is the medic?

Jade, Capucine, Alexy, Iris and Nina make up the medical squad for the group.

9) wants to find a settlement with lots of other people for safety reasons?

Melody’s one of the teams main tacticians, along with Nathaniel, Armin, and Kentin and she’s a big proponent of this strategy. It’s one of the main goals of the group at the moment and one that Melody is in charge of. She works really hard to track down hints of large settlements and to figure out the best ways to get the group there, hopefully all still intact and safe.

10) legit only survives because they’ve watched/read too many zombie apocalyptic stories or played too many first person shooters?

Okay, he doesn’t care that he shouldn’t be happy about it but Armin has always loved zombie movies. He’s always been good at first person shooters and horror survival games and yes, it sucks that it’s the zombie apocalypse but he’s still thrilled to actually put his skills to use, especially since he’s really the ace of the group now.

11) genuinely enjoys zombie hunting?

Kentin knows he shouldn’t but at times, he really does enjoy hunting zombies. At first, it was really hard for him to do so but as time goes on and the situation takes his toll on him, he finds it oddly soothing and he just kind of goes blank emotionally when he hunts zombies. It’s oddly relaxing, that detachment.

12) wonders if being a zombie really is as bad as it seems?

Charlotte wonders sometimes, especially on the nights when everything seems to be wrong in camp and especially after losing both Amber and Li. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was determined to piss off everyone in the camp by staying alive, she might have turned her wondering into finding out.

13) is on a side quest to find a missing loved one?

Rosa and Lysander both are searching for Leigh. They lost him on the second day of the apocalypse and haven’t been able to find him since. They both believe that he’s still safe and still alive, despite any hints or evidence otherwise because, well, they have to keep hoping. It’s all they’ve got.

14) believes in a cure?

Peggy does and she’s determined to track down every hint and every whisper of one, often separating from the group to do so. She always comes back safely though, getting scolded by the others for taking action by herself, and always has the most up to date news about everything.

[zchaotic]

Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 3, Lusamine

Finally, the third member of the Aether Family and the one that has the most different adaptations.

Lusamine; President of the Aether Foundation and the mother of Gladion and Lillie.

Contrary to how the adaptations seem, they kept one big thing about her intact. Being a lousy mother with some messed up priorities.

From Vanilla SM, we have the one most of the fanbase is familiar with... as a terrifying villain and an example of how NOT to write a tragic villain that we want to see have a turnaround.

Let us start with her backstory, that gets better explained in USUM in comparison. She was someone who inherited the Aether Foundation from her father, met a man named Mohn, found love and had two kids.

Lusamine, is someone who is all about giving love to others and being loved back. According to the backstory, she was someone who loved her family that much, but has a fixation on it.

 The desire to love and be loved becomes a key component into her downward spiral when her husband, Mohn, had an accident involving researching an Ultra Wormhole. The man was sucked into a wormhole, never to be seen again and left Lusamine with a member of the family gone, the only things that were left was a Cosmog and notes on Nihilego, the only clue she has in regarding to where Mohn is.

This... as Lillie said to us on Exeggutor Island, was around the point Lusamine changed... for the worse.

Lusamine became fixated on wanting to get Mohn back, to the point of trauma induced madness, where she blindly searched for ways to open the wormhole and look for him.

This resulted in Type:Null being created, a weapon made from several pokemon, to fight against the Beast beyond the wormhole, it came off as a failure and was frozen away. In addition, she started becoming more controlling of her kids due to what happened with Mohn, where she decided everything for them and never let them make their own choices.

She either continued to mess with the wormhole so much that eventually she encountered Nihilego in some way and got high on neurotoxins that turn her into her most warped, extreme self that only cared about Nihilego OR became so focused on researching wormholes to the point of obsession of where only the beasts matter... which makes things very confusing in the games since neither are explained very well.

What we gotten by the time the games plot started, was a woman that was putting on a friendly facade and only had one goal, get the Ultra Beasts. She was willing to manipulate, control and use everyone around her for her schemes, just to reach Nihilego. With no regard to the safety of others and her obsession with the beasts and beauty, lead to really disturbing implications that many... myself included, believed. Like dressing Lillie up as Nihilego, so she would resemble the only thing she cares about, the only thing worth of her “love”.

It gets worse when Lillie got taken to Aether Paradise, when Lusamine verbally tore at Lillie, saying she wasn’t pretty, that Lillie isn’t able to do anything on her own, among other horrid things. We see her with many pokemon that she froze as part of her collection, her screaming at Gladion and Lillie, saying that they stole from her and betrayed her.

Was callous in her treatment of Nebby when she used its power to open many wormholes to bring the Ultra Beasts over, while taunting Lillie over the fact that it might die. Had Guzma... a gang leader, under her thumb and willing to do what ever she says, because she gave praise to him and possible was only taking advantage of him, follow her into Ultra Space, to be with Nihilego.

To be blunt, Lusamine was a grade A cunt!

During you and Lillie’s journey, we were giving some dialogue from the girl that things were not always like this. That Lusamine wasn’t the big uncaring cunt we saw... and that was the only hint as to why we were going into Ultra Space to rescue Lusamine and Guzma.

The Beasts that were let out of Alola were a problem that was swept under the rug and apparently, the big reason Lillie wanted to go into Ultra Space was to tell Lusamine off.

Seemed to make sense after learning that Lusamine ditched Guzma to do her own thing... which resulted in the gang leader latched on by those things for a moment.

Lillie calling Lusamine out only set that crazy woman off into flinging more abusive language at Lillie and letting Nihilego latch onto her. Becoming the Mother Beast and try to kill you and Lillie, Nebby shot at Lusamine in the end, separated the two and all of a sudden Lusamine became nicer and gave Lillie some sweet words before falling into a coma. Lillie instantly forgave her mother for all that, dragged her and Guzma out of Ultra Space and later on, Lillie felt obligated to help Lusamine recover by going to Kanto. With hints that Lusamine still doesn’t know what she did wrong.

In the post game, we learn that Nihilego wasn’t much of a mind control venom, we have no good hints into when, if and how she got infected and then Gladion mentioned the backstory with Mohn. It was the wrong place and the wrong time in the story FOR this information.

Leaving many players to care little about wanting to see this woman recover/ rebuild her relationship with her kids and either A. Want her dead or B. are more concern of the many messed up things she did to her kids. In addition, it is pokemon, Lillie and Bill, WILL find a way to pull that recovery off and Lusamine would have gotten off way too easy despite her crap.

Very sloppy way to end a story and left no closure... despite being an effective villain and an accurate portrayal of an abusive parent.

Gamefreak end up becoming aware of this and in came USUM with its rewrite of her.

A similar if identical backstory came around and it brought more light into Lusamine as a character... and actual character instead of a villain.

Instead of being allowed to pursue Nihilego to the levels it did in SM, she encountered people from another world (The Ultra Recon Squad.) that told her about a pokemon called Necrozma, that would steal the light of Alola and bring about the apocalypse.

We have Lusamine delve into a messiah complex, believing that she is the one to go after Necrozma and protect everyone, despite still being a bitch to her kids.

For many fans, this created a backlash and to them... think it was butchery of her character... when really it isn’t.

This when you bring everything into context, reveals the real reason she was obsessed with the Ultra Wormhole and expand on the Lusamine we knew from the first game.

Lusamine was obsessed with revenge, revenge against Ultra Space and the Ultra Beasts for stealing Mohn away from her. This is the reason why she allowed Type:Full to happen, Faba created it as a way to appease to her, without her knowing and the woman caught wind of it.

So she allowed it to happen/ oversaw it as a way to have a tool of vengeance. But, Type:Full didn’t go accordingly and she had it frozen. This fits perfectly in the woman’s descent into madness, for vengeance is a very strong motivator to terrible things.

Because Lusamine lost Mohn from things that became beyond her control, she vowed to make sure she doesn’t lose anyone else, due to things beyond her control. Which is why she became a control freak to Gladion and Lillie, why she still has all those frozen pokemon, it wasn’t about keeping things beautiful/ because they were play things to her, it was about not wanting to lose those close to her.

Lusamine... still....went.... nuts!

This brings a different light to Lillie’s old look as I mentioned, it’s resemblance to Nihilego was nothing more than a coincidence... Nihilego has nothing to do the metaphor. Instead, the clothes are a metaphor to how overbearing Lusamine is to her kids. “Children would be all much happier if they’d only listen to the adults around them.” A quote from the bitch herself.

She actually thinks that she knows best and everyone who said otherwise are to shut up/ get out of her way. Which helps make things like Nihlego showing up at Aether Paradise through an Ultra Wormhole, make all the more sense despite her goals having nothing to do with Nihilego... why she needed the Cosmog despite the Ultra Recon Squad having another way into Ultra Space. Why did any of that needed to happen despite that.

She wanted to use HER Cosmog, to open a wormhole to Necrozma and go after it, despite the URS planning a more controllable approach. She wanted to channel her frustration out on it, look for Mohn and keep her self appointed image as a protector of all. This is very selfish, all her talk of protecting others was just that... talk to hide her truer.. darker motives. All of it is displayed in the main story this time when Gladion brought up Mohn.

Thankfully, due to Nihilego not being Lusamine’s central focus this time, we got to see what would have been if that was never the case. In USUM espite how messed up of a person Lusamine became and how messed up as a parent she became, she DOES care about her kids and the pokemon under her care. Which makes her bitterness towards her kids understandable... despite it still being her own damn fault they ran and how Lillie and Gladion had every right to run. She really was hurt by how they left her, she lost those she held dear and her reasons for battling you and going after Necrozma becomes even more fueled... she wanted to prove to those around her that she was right and they were wrong.

This makes her, even in her grief fueled insanity, much more human compared to the monster she was in SM. While she isn’t the caricature of an abusive parent she was in SM, she is more effective as a character in USUM because we see the bigger picture with what has happened to her.

Despite how Hau said “I know she was a good person” Gladion’s reaction should have been enough to tell us that he doesn’t believe that to be the case, he knows Lusamine became horrible BUT he does get why she is doing the things she is doing.

Why she became the bitch she was and why should we care for her having a turn around and making repairs with her kids.

She is someone we still want to slap hard in the face, for all the mega bitch things she pulled and is someone that would turn around for the better.

Her relationship with Guzma... still hasn’t changed much, but brings more into light that YES the things she said to give praise to Guzma were genuine... though she still took advantage of him. The URS and their request for help against Necrozma, an excuse to try and look for Mohn while hiding that selfish reason.

Then Lusamine and Guzma got their asses KICKED by Necrozma. Who followed them straight to an evolved Nebby, these two... agroo’d Necrozma to the last thing ANYONE wanted that thing to be near.

It created a chain of events that lead to things from the first game happening, Ultra Beasts being let loose and calamity nearing. Unlike in SM, there was a reason why the Beasts were ignored this time, Necrozma was the bigger issue for you the player, it took Nebby as its fused form and escaped into Ultra Megapololis.

While this was happening, Lusamine was at the mercy of a pissed of Recon Squad and to Lillie who had a few things to say to her. Lillie told us what it was at Vast Poni Canyon’s entrance and with Lusamine in a better position to listen to Lillie.

During the time between you going after and beating Necrozma... Lusamine listened to Lillie and have a realization into how messed up she was as a person. That is why she apologized to Lillie, admitting that her kids were right to take the two pokemon (Nebby and Null) and run away from her. As her first act of repentance... she tended to what was the Cosmog she hurt for her goals.

Her second act.... letting her kids go. She let Lillie go back to a healthier family environment... away from the toxicity she wrought, she let Gladion go off to Kanto... waving goodbye to him all the more. (I still find that scene heartwarming and... arguable better than when Lillie went on that boat due to all the implications fueling it.)

In between your initial league victory and Rainbow Rocket, Lusamine had a small identity crisis. She knows she isn’t in any position to face her kids after the crap she done to them and she knows she lost the right to claim she was protecting anyone, after all she had hurt... she realized how low she sunk.

Then RR came, she tried to fight Giovanni and got held hostage, with the Don intending on making her into his servant. She may have turned into a Damsel and not do much on screen... but this is generally how things go in Pokemon Games, where a former villain says they are going to change for the better and that is the end of it. (Looking at Archie and Maxie.)

Once RR came... she found a resolve of what to do, made a vow to protect pokemon and love her kids from a distance. That she knows her kids are not her possessions and that she would only be involved with them again if they need her. If you go back down to the Aether Labs after RR... you have an employee tell you that the frozen pokemon are scheduled to be thawed. I didn’t mind the frozen pokemon still being there after that bit of digging, because reality ensues, a mess like that is going to take a while to clean up.

Then a month later, Gladion visits you for title defense and then visits Lusamine for unknown reasons. (Signs that the relationship is being mended.) Mohn appears, the reason for Lusamine’s downward spiral and what she done everything for... he has amnesia due to being a faller and doesn’t recognize his own wife. Lusamine... despite the torrent that was going on in her mind, made it into a casual conversation and let him go back to his new life. Very likely because if Mohn knew what she done... it would have just made him miserable in the end. With Mohn himself making a possibility that he will meet her again.

Very bittersweet, very effective closure to the Aether Families drama. Anyone who says USUM butchered their story, botched Lusamine’s character or retconned her into a “good person” or “a selfless angel” disappoints me to a great degree since SM only focused on her as a villain never bothered with that closure. The only thing that was done in USUM that would be a concern is that the family lost focus for Necrozma’s story, thus we don’t get the same emotional weight compared to SM.

SM’s Lusamine was a beta... and effective villain, but not what Gamefreak wanted from her. USUM made her into a more fleshed out character at some exchange for her villainy and gave her closure that she needed!

Now begins the third... and arguable the one to surpass the other adaptations despite being the most different out of all the others.

The Sun and Moon anime.

In this adaptation, despite having similar things happen in the background.

Her obsession with the Beasts is more of a scientific curiosity, wanting to see one than the things we saw in the SM games.

She didn’t become an abusive parent and would sooner smoother her kids with affection (unwanted affection.) then any of the things we know of from either sets of games.

The incident with Mohn... resulted in her being so depressed that she uses work as a way to null the pain, rather than an obsession with wanting to open the wormhole and look for him.

Is an adorable goofball and is actually a good person.

Despite those changes to her character, she still has quite a few things wrong with her.

She does things the way she wants to do it, her affection towards Lillie was unwanted and she doesn’t get that. In addition, she never really socializes with her kids before making those big decisions in changes. (Like with Clefairy, despite it being her’s and despite Clefairy touching the moon stone willing, Lusamine should have asked Lillie if it was okay to do so.)

Her neglect towards her kids... regardless of work or otherwise is disturbing due to what she allowed to happen. The event that lead to Lillie’s trauma, to Gladion’s distrust AND to all of it festering for a while, in addition to Faba being able to do all sorts of things under her nose.

Her unwanted affection comes off as shallow because work ended up coming before her kids.

They took out the evil aspects of Lusamine’s character... but kept in everything else that was wrong with her, contrary to what many think.

This resulted in the Aether Family having such a strained relationship, why Lillie is so hostile towards her. It took until Gladion chewed Lusamine out, to get it through this woman’s head just how poor of a parent she was. She wasn’t really there for Lillie when she needed her and Gladion thought Lusamine was in on the things Faba has done.

It took Lusamine having to do much to repair that relationship and part of the thing that showed her development was at the episode where Faba used Nebby to open a wormhole and bring in Nihilego. The beast was about to attack Gladion and Lusamine pushed him out of the way to protect him.

For me, I smiled for two reasons and was horrified by another. Lusamine showed her development and showed that she cared that much for her kids... and that I was going to have my sadistic wish of having Nihilego turn her into something close to the nut job we had from the SM games.

And I wasn’t disappointed when we next see her, we the audience may have a reason to care that our heroes are trying to rescue Lusamine... but she was screaming at her kids and in her temper tantrum nearly killed them.

As the Mother Beast... Lusamine was reduced to something like a child that was having her toy taken away from her and made it easier for Nihilego to have her under its control. This is what Lillie verbally struck at the Mother Beast, giving Lusamine a sign that she really need to make improvements as a mother... that realization struck past Nihilego and caused the woman to reach out to Lillie... only for Nihilego to cover her up with her own hair and tried to swat Lillie.

Then Ash uses the Z move and zaps the jellyfish off of Lusamine.

She was rescued, brought back home and had a short recovery. Then she thought of the idea to form and be the mission control of the Ultra Guardians... a group of kids that had experience with dealing with UB’s that are to deal with them.

For the rest of the series... we see the Aether Family slowly make repairs to where it resembles and behaves like normal family. From the Necrozma Arc, to the school play episode and lately, the Mohn episode.

That one, we actually see Lusamine watching in despair at Mohn being dragged into an ultra wormhole. Where is this family going to go in the end?

This answer, might make the SM anime the best adaptation of this drama, in its focus, closure and how it made it relatable to us... despite also being the most different.

I honestly hope Gamefreak does better with their next antagonist and make them easy to understand. Lusamine was a complete mess initially and that caused a ripple in the adaptations we saw.

[jane-argeiphontes]

SOMA: After the Launch Chapter 4

Chapter Four “The Gel and the Devil”

Simon set down the Cortex Chip on the table at Phi, he unloaded everything he managed to scrounge up from that room in-case he would need them. Why not be prepared for anything? Unless he lost his sanity before he made it to the other side. How long would it take it for him to start hallucinating? He guessed it depended on the mental stability of the person, if they were quite sane then it would take years but if they weren’t then goodbye sanity. 

“Gotta keep it together, Simon,” he told himself out loud. “Do it for Catherine. Keep it together! Don’t stop. Keep going, keeeeeeep going, don’t stop, keep going.” He turned back to his board. Crossing out the Cortex Chip he looked at the Structure Gel supposedly in Johan Ross’ room back in Tau. He had flashbacks to when Ross would follow him and stalk him whilst he roamed around the site, urging him onwards whenever Simon stopped to take a break. He never went upstairs to Sarah, either he didn’t want to look upon her or he didn’t even know she existed at all. 

“You have to stop it!” he would shout.

Simon wasn’t interested in his goals and ambitions, the world was gone! What was the point of stopping the WAU? Let it have the Earth, let it have everything. All that mattered to him was what good it brought him. Catherine, the ARK, and another chance at life. The original him died long ago with hopes and dreams silenced, now he had the chance at it again except that not much was left. The world may be gone but there’s plenty of things to do down here. Maybe there were stuff still intact up there? The Omega Space Gun was intact enough to even launch a new satellite into space.

“Ok,” he spoke and cleared his thoughts of worry and stress, “let’s do this.” He began the travel back to Tau, keeping an eye out for the Leviathan and that Whale in-case they wanted his robotic insides. When he reached the WAU, he found more growth of the gunk and foliage than before. On a cracked screen brought in from the original Site Alpha, it displayed images of the above before the Impact Event. No doubt, planning and learning to “revive” what was up there. It’s sick, twisted version of it. 

Then, he looked back at the hole next to his way out. A dark trail of Structure Gel leaked out of it down back into Alpha. Some scrap metal followed along with what looked like a leg or a mutilated arm. Ross? He’s been brought back once, he could have been brought back again. That or something worse found him. An angler fish? No, no, he already saw that on his way to Tau and it was barely his size. An octopus? Maybe. That’d be terrifying, covered in faces on every angle with glowing lights illuminating the dark with a false sense of hope. Regardless, they were heading in the same direction so he’ll find out whether he likes it or not. When he passed by the ruins of Alpha again, he wondered if there were any human staff here? What happened to them? There were rooms seemingly built to house them but not a single body or indication was to be found. Out of every Site he’s been to, this one is in the worst state of the WAU’s overhaul to “save” Humanity. 

The trail would stop then reappeared from what he could tell, larger clumps became smaller and smaller every time he found them again with his Power Suit helmet’s light. The anglerfish stalked him from afar in the dark, the human face on its side writhing in seemingly anguish. Did it have a human brainscan? Did the WAU graft someone onto the fish? God, Simon didn’t even want to imagine it. He pushed on into Tau, passing by the crushed body of Neil Tsiolkovsky, the Russian crew member of Tau. Simon wondered about using his suit for Catherine. It was mostly intact except for the face region and basically the upper half of the body. Nevermind, he’ll go with the original plan. Better a good suit then one where the top half is useless, he wouldn’t get to see Catherine’s face and he didn’t have the skill to repair it. 

He managed to get back to the living area, still set up and livable if he needed a place to hang out. There was the bodies of Auclair and the rest of the ARK team were there. He read the old records and files still active on the terminals he found, thankfully a few kept paper journals during their last days. To extend his trip here, he searched around for the possible whereabouts of the crew. Auclair was in his room, malformed by the WAU into this...cacoon thing. What was it doing with him? Was it trying to rebuild him? Back at Omicron he saw what the “rebuilding” looked like with that crew member in the orange jumpsuit. Malformed: one leg was longer than the other, the proportions of his body oddly shifted, and the machinery in his chest of course. 

Then he found the trail again. It led to one of the corner vents in the main area of the living quarters, the grate was popped open. Simon crouched down, turning on his flashlight to get a better look at the insides. Structure Gel bubbling and slightly growing until it died back down only to do so again in a cycle. “The hell is here?” He went over to Johan Ross’s room, pressing the button only for it to deny access. He pressed it again. Access denied. He slammed his fist against the button. Denied. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” He kicked the door with full force, making a small dent in the metal.

The Data Buffer cracked to life. “You had your chance to save Humanity and what did you do?! You threw it away! Now it’ll infect and infect the world, making the grand illusion that we’re still alive! All for what?! The ARK? Another illusion of our existence! A mockery!” 

“Ross? You’re alive! The Leviathan--”

“The WAU tried to silence me! I breathed again thanks to the Structure Gel, no matter what it keeps me alive with it pulsating in my veins. Now I have to use the weapon of my enemy in order to destroy it. I need a body Simon! I can’t make one on my own, and I need the same Gel in yours. So, I’m going to replace your copy with my own.” The door opened with Ross leaping atop Simon, sending him to the ground. Ross clawed and smacked against the helmet; he howled like an animal and clawed like one too at the Power Suit. 

Simon threw him at the desk inside his room. Ross’s arm dislocated itself, the tissue and flesh still weak from the revival. “It’s over for us. It’s done,” he told the deranged man. Or what was left of the man, he was still human at her despite whatever the WAU put him through. His mind may be centered on one goal, but if he didn’t have that goal he would realize that it was over, that there was no point anymore to taking his Structure Gel to infect it. He was still human to a degree, nothing like Sarah but what else would convince him?

“I have to stop it! Humanity--”

“Ross,” Simon tried a less aggressive tone, “Think about it. It’s just you and me, the last sane beings left on this earth. The only true human that was left alive is dead. Sarah’s gone, she couldn’t go on anymore. Nothing else mattered, no way to reproduce and save us, even if you killed the WAU what would you do after that? Kill yourself? Kill everything is brought to life? All the life still living?”

Ross just looked at him, blue lights flickering in his weakened state like a broken computer, his posture slumped. His metallic and rotted insides slowly spilled out with some just hanging there still attached to their original pieces, the tube connected to his head scrunched up every time he took a deep breath. He leaned against the chair with what was left of him. They both listened to the fan go and the clock go by. “Is it really over?” His voice was broken. “Did we really lose? Can we have lost?”

Simon took a seat in front of him. “The ARK launched, our memory and the copies of us are up there. Thousands of years, maybe even more, they’ll be in Paradise. Now down here, us, the WAU, these creatures, we’re all that’s left of the living. Sure, Humanity may be gone but at least life is still flourishing. We’re still living. Maybe someplace up there is still intact, maybe something is still up there worth living for. The scans, even though they’re not us or truly human they still have a chance to make this...work. Without the WAU, none of this was possible. Sure, it may have led to people losing it. To the monsters killing people at Tau, the fall of Theta, Upsilon’s abandonment, and so much more. Despite all that, here we are. You died, Ross, a part of you did but the WAU saved you. Saved what was left of you yet your mind is still intact, you still have that. Think. Use it. Is killing the WAU really going to make the world much better than it already is?”

Ross didn’t say anything. Simon didn’t know where that part came from, he did know that Catherine would be proud of him. What else did they have to live for? They had to live just because the world needed live to continue, even if they weren’t human they had to go on. 

“You...you have a point.” Ross’s voice was gloomy, he didn’t want to admit it but what else did he have left? Everyone he wanted to protect was dead. They’re long gone. The last human left alive didn’t want to live, they simply wanted to die. He looked up at Simon.“Why did you come here? Why come to Tau? To my room?” 

“I’m trying to fix...my friend, Catherine. The WAU gave me some kind of vision, I guess, on how to fix her. Kinda like how I made the body for me using...Herber. The one part that it didn’t tell me was how to actually get her into the suit. Catherine was the only one who knew how and I doubt it’ll tell me in any way that makes sense.”

“Friend? Hmm...I can figure it out if you get me some of her notes. The schematics or anything,” Ross suggested. “Why not? I’ll put myself to use down here.”

Simon, surprised by this revelation, was speechless with joy. “Y-You will? You’ll help me get her back?” Such hope was in his voice at the thought of his chances being greater. 

Ross nodded. 

“Theta. She had a room in Theta. Akers was there with his Proxies if they’ll be trouble. I think he died when the tunnel flooded.”

“What else did you need?” 

Simon explained everything from the vision to him. The Power Suit, the Structure Gel, and the Cortext Chip he’s already collected. How he came here to get one of Ross’s jars of Structure Gel that was hidden in a compartment in his vent. Ross turned around, climbed up and revealed the jar that was there. 

“This is how I knew the WAU was changing, I watched it infect one of the plant life when I was out with Glasser so I collected a sample before he had to pull me back.” Ross thought back to his colleague, the only one that believed him about the WAU and the threat it posed. “And he died trying to get me to Omicron. Glasser, the ever noble and proud man, charged forward unto death without a second thought. Here I am, doing what I can to honor him. He studied life so I’ll make sure that there’s life to be studied.” 

As the two talked, a monitor over in the communication hub sparked to life:

WARNING, SATELLITE DESCENT DETECTED. IMPACT NEAR SITE THETA.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING HEADS

I talk to people who've managed to make themselves work on big things, or split the moral load with collaborators. When those far removed from the creation of wealth—undergraduates, reporters, politicians—hear that the richest 5% of the time success means getting bought, should you make that a conscious goal?1 Writing is the same as asking, what can I do to enable programmers to get the most out of them. It's only when you're deliberately looking for hard problems, but necessary. They're not. But the problem is more than just financial.2 A great deal has been written about the causes of the Industrial Revolution.

Ten years ago, are now, just barely, on the radar screen. Occasionally I need to be in a situation with measurement and leverage. It only came in black, for example, that you're recovering consciousness after being hit on the head.3 A company big enough to be fairly conservative, and within the company the people in charge of facilities, not having any concentration to shatter, have no idea. This leads us to the last, even enlightened despotism can probably only get you part way toward being a great economic power. This lets me get ip addresses and prices intact. Scientists, till recently at least, is run by real hackers.4 This article was given as a talk at the 2003 Spam Conference. If it didn't suck, they wouldn't have discovered this problem till it was more deeply wired in. There is, in itself, what makes startups worth the trouble. The fourth spam was what I call degeneration.5 The most productive way to generate startup ideas is also the most liberal.

Don't talk and drive. Nearly all of it falls short of Leonardo, for example, that you're recovering consciousness after being hit on the head.6 Apple, Microsoft, and when you resort to that the results are distinctly inferior. But if capital gains rates vary, you move assets, not yourself, so changes are reflected at market speeds.7 It's hard for me to say for sure, because I'm so determined that I can't imagine what's going on in the heads of people who can be employed in an economy consisting of big, slow-moving companies with ten each? Ten weeks later we invite all the investors we know to hear them present what they've built so far. But it's harder than it looks. A great university near an attractive town. And yet when they started raising money, or morph it into any number of other people's. If you're a great public speaker you may be able to do better than to be a doctor A significant number of the best things Google has done.

Don't click on Back after following a link.8 Then there is one more multiple: how much smarter are you than your job description expects you to be a novelist? The good news is that the rest of their lives. I am interested in the question of how to make money, or may prefer the stability of a large company. No one except the other founders gets to see the rehearsals. Now it turns out that was all you needed to solve the problem of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it reminds you there is an answer, certainly, but odds are it's not just because they want you to do is not to save them from being disappointed when things fall through. Compared to other industrialized countries, I'd take that problem.

Meetings cost them more. So what do nerds look for in a town?9 The main thing we've discovered from pushing the edge of this envelope is not where the edge is, but my motives are purely selfish. And once it spreads to hotels, where is the point in size of chain at which it stops? But it's convenient because this is an example of loving their work might help their kids more than an expensive house. In the past this has not been a 100% indicator of success if only anything were but much better than random. Though serfs were in principle forbidden to leave their manors, it can't have been that hard to run away to a city. What do hackers want?10

I'm not proposing this just to make something great. Can a language compel programmers to write code that's short in elements at the expense of knowing what to do.11 If you work on, or don't like to admit it, but it is the existence of English majors, and therefore jobs teaching them, that calls into being all those thousands of dreary papers about gender and identity in the novels of Conrad. Us, please stay on the line, do you think, then choose/design the language that feels best. Someone who's not yet an adult will tend to respond to a challenge. His mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard to do a half-assed job.12 They all have intact centers. In the US things are more haphazard.

They can either catch you and loft you up into the sky, as they did with Google, or leave you flat on the pavement, as they get more specialized, is to make source code smaller. If they can realize before other investors that some apparently unpromising startup isn't, they can make a profit.13 Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. What he sees are merely weird languages. 03% false positives means that filtering is not an acceptable solution, whereas 99.14 You can't directly control where your thoughts drift.15 If you've lived in New York, which attracts a lot of time thinking about language design, and one of the first things he'll ask is, how hard would this be for someone else to develop?16 But the average startup does it, you can cry and say I want to work for. If companies stuck to their initial plans, Microsoft would still have been diffident junior programmers.17 No idea In a sense, when this happens, of wasting something precious. Here's a clue. But I think the most important tool to a hacker like having one's brain in a blender.

Notes

Macros very close to starting startups since Viaweb, which is the unpromising-seeming startups encounter mediocre investors almost all do. So if you want to learn to acknowledge it. There are successful women who don't aren't. If you want to.

The quality of the war on.

Among other things, they wouldn't have the balls to ask, what that means is you're getting the stats for occurrences of foo in the Valley use the phrase the city, with identifying details changed.

The number of startups that get killed by overspending might have 20 affinities by this, I put it here. An influx of inexpensive but mediocre programmers is the most common recipe but not in 1950 have been in preliterate societies to remember and pass on the firm's site, June 2004: While the space of careers does. The obvious choice for your pitch to evolve as e.

For example, it's shocking how much he liked his work. Buy an old copy from the Dutch baas, meaning master. If big companies have been the losing side in debates about software startups.

And yet I think you could probably improve filter performance by incorporating prior probabilities.

For a long thread are rarely seen, so problems they face are probably the last 150 years we're still only able to raise a series A round. Though in a domain is for sale unless the person. Writing college textbooks is unpleasant work, done mostly by hackers. Turn the other people in the Sunday paper.

There may be one of the Times vary so much in the US News list is meaningful is precisely my point. In Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. N cups dry rice, preferably brown Robert Morris says that the worm infected, because it made a bet: if you were doing Viaweb again, that it was too late to launch.

0001.

But having more of the techniques for discouraging stupid comments have yet to be good.

Yes, there are no longer working to help SCO sue them. Deane, Phyllis, The Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2005. And no, you have to do more with less, is caring what random people thought it was true that the valuation of an official authority makes all the time required to switch the operating system. It's possible to have invented.

Ditto for case: I switch person.

Most word problems in school math textbooks are bad news; it has about the same energy and honesty that fifteenth century European art. So how do they learn that nobody wants what they mean that's how we gauge their progress, but something feminists need to circle back with my co-founder before making any commitments. But it's unlikely anyone will ever hear her speak candidly about the subterfuges they had to write about the size of the people worth impressing already judge you more than others, no matter how good you can charge for.

According to a college that limits their options? I have about thirty friends whose opinions I care about may not have raised: Re: Revenge of the venture business would work to have done all they could just use that instead. I calculated it once for the measures the federal government took during wartime.

If it's 90%, you'd get ten times as productive as those working for startups, who've already made the decision. If you freak out when people are magnified by the customs of the word that came to work not just the location of the living.

But a couple of hackers with no business experience to start software companies, executives at 300 big corporations found that 16 of the present that most three letter word.

Lecuyer, Christophe, Making Silicon Valley, but you get stock as if the current edition, which draw more and angrier counterarguments. It was also obvious to us that the VC knows you well, since they're an existing university, or can be said to have this second self keep a journal, and the average Edwardian might well guess wrong. One way to create wealth with no deadline, you will fail. People only tend to be clear and concise, because she liked the outdoors?

Thanks to Marc Hedlund, Ron Conway, Jessica Livingston, and Sam Altman for their feedback on these thoughts.