#ever consider the possibilities of the neural implant? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ponticle · 2 years ago

Note

Happy friday / dadwc!! For a prompt, I would like to submit: Fenris/ Isabela, cyberpunk AU? With additional mood prompt if desired: delight?

Thank you SO MUCH for this cool prompt. I love a good AU. This is basically a beginning of a story and it didn't turn out delightful, more like sinister... but I hope you like it anyway.

...for @dadrunkwriting... Isabela/Fenris, Cyberpunk AU

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

This is just a pickup — get in and out quick, keep her head down. Isabela’s done a thousand just like it, and yet she’s nervous.

[A series of break-in’s in the upper city have been linked to… ]

[The i-85 is congested after a three-car accident. Police are responding… ]

[…brand new implants from only 12,500.99…]

She hits the radio to turn it off and listens to the sound of the rain, falling in sheets. She grips the steering wheel with her left hand — its silver metal glints in the streetlamp and she moves to cover it with her sleeve. Even after all these years, her upgrades don’t feel like her. She shakes her head, takes a breath. They weren’t her choice; none of this was.

She moves quickly through the alley to the back entrance of the club: The Hanged Man, they called it. A quick glance up at its neon sign confirms she’s in the right place, even if the H is blinking strangely and the last N is busted.

“Hey, you can’t come in this way.” A huge man with a cybernetic eye puts his similarly enhanced arm in her way, as she tries to cross the threshold. The rain drips into her eyes as she inclines her head to look up at him, and she tries to blink it away.

“I’m here to see somebody,” she says quietly.

“Who?”

“Goes by the name of Fenris,” she says, leaning in. “I’m here to pick up a package.”

The man cocks his head to the side, and his eye focuses loudly, spinning in its raw metal socket.

Isabela feels the tension in the moment and wills herself not to speak. She clicks her left thumb and forefinger together, feeling the metal ping.

“Fine. But you speak to no one else,” he says, “You got it, courrier?”

She nods and steps in past him.

The inside is full of smoke and sweat. The smell immediately stings her nose, but she likes it. It reminds her of a place she used to visit, before all this — before everyone lived in the cities… when it was still possible to get to the ocean. Without thinking, she looks back over her shoulder at the rain outside; it’s the closest she ever gets to the water these days.

All the usual suspects are there: a drunk at the bar is singing, while the bartender pours him another, A sad-looking man stares into his empty glass… A few women in the corner leer at her as she passes, eyes lingering over the place where her metal arm joins with her clavicle. It has never healed right, and it itches, but she won’t touch it now — not while they’re looking at her with such depraved fascination.

It’s not as if these kinds of implants are rare — you’d see them all the time in the upper city — but down here in Lowtown… that’s another story… one that might get her dismembered… or killed… depending on the day.

She shrugs further into her coat and scans the room with her neurals. Several people who match the description come up red, and then — there he is: in the back corner, holding an absurdly full glass of red synth-wine.

He seems to recognize her at the same moment and he nods in her direction so she’ll approach.

“Have you got it?” she says, quickly, once she’s within three feet of where he’s sitting.

“Sit,” he says, and gestures to the dark velvet chair on his left.

She doesn’t want to sit; she wants to be back in her car, driving down the i-85 — even considering the multi-car pile-up.

…but she does… sit.

“How’d you get in here?” asks Fenris.

“I walked — what kind of a question is that?” Isabela snaps.

Fenris ignores her. “Do you know what you’re carrying?”

She narrows her eyes and says nothing.

“Well?”

“No, and I like it that way,” says Isabela.

Fenris laughs, then — loud and sinister. “You’d better come with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Isabela says, beginning to stand.

Fenris grabs her arm. Realization dawns as his fingers clasp around the smooth metal of her forearm and he stands to look at her eye-to-eye. “You’re not from here…”

She clenches her jaw, refusing to answer.

“Neither am I,” says Fenris, more quietly, this time, and winks, as the white tattoos on his neck faintly start to glow.

Isabela’s eyes widen. “Neural bioluminescence?”

He nods.

“That’s a neat trick,” she breathes. “Where’d you get that done?”

“Like I said, you better come with me.”

It feels dangerous. Isabela hesitates. There’s a question that she’s had since she walked in, since she got this assignment… hell, since she arrived in this maker-forsaken city… but—

Then Fenris interrupts her train of thought, “There’s more to this than you know…”

She regards him skeptically, but in her mind she knows he’s right; she’s always known.

“...I’m not supposed to say until we’re alone,” he whispers, leaning in impossibly close. “...but… Hawke sent me.”

Isabela suppresses a gasp.

“...he’s been watching you since you came to Lowtown… and… he’s ready to meet you,” says Fenris. “So… are you ready, too?”

Isabela thinks of the rain outside, the smallness of this city, the way she has never fit on its dry land… the questions she holds inside and the way she ignores the gnawing in her gut… and just like that, she decides:

“Take me to him.”

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

#fenris x isabela #isabela #fenris #dragon age 2 #dragon age #dragon age fanfic #fanfic #da drunk writing circle #cyberpunk #cyberpunk aesthetic #cyberpunk au

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thepartyresponsible · 3 years ago

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this soundtrack fill is for kittenlzlz, who i cannot tag because it’s all sabotage all the time over here. also, i'm sorry, i didn’t realize you’d changed your prompt until after i wrote this one, so this is for the first thing you sent in.

anyway, here’s some dystopian sci-fi angst for sam and bucky with a hopeful ending. the song for this one is “achilles come down” by gang of youth.

—

When he was young, Sam spent thirty-seven weeks in New Mexico, learning how to keep people alive until evac. That others may live was a motto they preferred to operationalize rather than idealize, and, without the EMT training, pararescue tended to turn into high-risk body retrieval. So he spent the better part of a year learning how to keep a body breathing, and he learned, also, how to recognize when any effort was likely to be wasted.

Which is how he knows that what he’s looking at isn’t fully human. Because a human would already be dead.

It’s the blood that tells him, more than anything else. The Chitauri bleed a thick, dark blue substance that goes black if their cybernetics are leaking. And there’s plenty of blue and black puddled on the asphalt, but that red is a hemoglobin gift, and that means it’s all human.

“Shit, man,” Sam says, crouching next to the only human at this massacre. “You could keep a blood bank in business all by yourself.”

The man lifts his head and blinks at him, slow and a little dazed. Not dazed enough, though. He can almost focus on Sam’s face. “Not anymore,” he says, after a beat.

More blood bubbles up at the corners of his mouth. Sam can see it between his teeth.

“Yeah,” Sam says. And he laughs, because he might as well. Because he came out here with a team of ten to clean out the aliens, and it looks like one guy did their work for them. “Guess not.”

He’s a pathetic sight, really. Ragged body armor, hair clumped together, skin sticky with blood and ichor. He’s belly down on the cracked parking lot, and there’s a smear of blood behind him, showing exactly how far he’s managed to drag himself.

Sam’s not excited about what he’s going to see, when he rolls this guy over on his back.

“You gonna fight me if I help you?” he asks.

Most of them, these Enhanced, the surviving Super Soldiers, they can’t help it. Sam’s had to put a few down himself, although not for a while now. It’s been almost a year since he had to kill anything with a human face.

The man sighs. He rests his forehead against the asphalt, closes his eyes. His fingers flex and then go still. “I don’t know,” he says.

That others may live, Sam thinks. But the problem has always been that lives are balanced on both sides of the scales, and, sometimes, saving one means sacrificing another.

This man killed fifteen Chitauri, and he did it alone. There are kids back at the base. Vulnerable people.

The safest choice would be to leave him here. Let him save himself, if he can. But Sam’s never really been the safe choice type.

“Okay,” he says, hands curling around his shoulders, carefully rolling the man over on his back, “let’s see the damage.”

It’s enough to kill a human. But that’s not really what he’s dealing with.

—

The Super Soldiers were a desperation play. Sam was supposed to be one of them. The best of Earth’s fighters, dosed with serum, patched up with cybernetics based on Chitauri tech, sent out to face the enemies that had invaded the planet.

Sam’s still not sure exactly how it happened, what level of their defenses failed. He only knows failure by its consequences.

The neural implants were hacked. The soldiers turned against their people. Sam, who’d been four days out from his own procedure, was shifted to a team tasked with hunting them down and eliminating them.

These days, there aren’t many left. There’s not much of anyone left. The Chitauri fundamentally misunderstood their target. Sam could’ve warned them. The species of mutually assured destruction was never going to die quiet.

He thinks about that while the Soldier sleeps, chained to a bed in a locked basement in an abandoned building two miles from the base. Sam keeps watch. He has a radio in case anything goes wrong, but he doesn’t intend to use it for anything other than warning them what’s coming.

“I could’ve been you,” Sam tells him. And then, smiling at nothing, shaking his head, “Hell, you could’ve been me.”

He wonders where he’s from. He wonders what his name is.

He wonders, when he can’t help it, what he did. If he ever killed anyone Sam used to know.

—

The Soldier sleeps for forty hours and then sits straight up in bed, rips the chains off his wrists like they’re pipe cleaners, and then turns to face Sam. “What the hell,” he says.

“Oh, well,” Sam says, too startled to be afraid. “Didn’t want anyone stealing you.”

The Soldiers makes a face at him, an incredulous sneer that twists up his mouth and pulls his dark eyebrows together, and he looks so human, so perfectly skeptical, that Sam starts laughing.

“Well,” he says, with a shrug, “you killed fifteen aliens with a tire iron. You’re a treasure.”

“And I want it back.” he says, immediately. “Where’s my tire iron?”

“Confiscated,” Sam says.

He glares, and Sam‘s probably meant to be intimidated, but he knows – they both know – that, if this guy wanted to scare Sam, he could just start breaking bones. Or walls. “I want it back when I leave.”

“Leave,” Sam repeats. He kicks back in his chair, balances on the back legs as he swings his feet up onto the Soldier’s bed. “Why’re you leaving?”

The Soldier stares at Sam’s booted feet near his knees. “Usually it’s the fact that I’m a timebomb that chases me off,” he says, “but it looks like your manners are the real horrorshow around here.”

Sam grins at him. He’s merciless about it, uses the most charming smile in his arsenal. He expects the guy to soften a bit, but he’s not expecting the doubletake he gets, the there-and-away bounce of his stare, like Sam’s suddenly something he wants to look at but doesn’t want to get caught looking at.

Huh, he thinks.

“When’s the last time you hurt someone?” Sam asks.

The Soldier’s face crumples up and then flattens out. “What is this? Some kinda trial? An interrogation?”

“If this were an interrogation, I wouldn’t’ve given you the soft pillows,” Sam tells him.

The Soldier doesn’t look like he buys it. But, after a moment, he tips his head to the side. “Probably wouldn’t want to get blood on these white sheets,” he acknowledges.

“Christ,” Sam says, because that more or less seems to be the only thing he could possibly say to something like that.

The Soldier shrugs. He brushes his hair away from his face, blinks, and gives Sam a skeptical sideways stare. “Did you wash my hair?”

“With a firehose,” Sam confirms. “Damn near shaved the whole thing off. You were a mess, man.”

He shrugs. “It’s messy work.”

And, sure, it is. Sam knows. His base is the first resettlement outpost in this region. They’ve been clearing Chitauri out of the area for months.

But he still takes a damn shower whenever possible.

“Who were you?” Sam asks. “Before the program?”

The Soldier looks away. Looks at nothing. After a long pause, he recites, careful and rote, “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. 107th.”

“Okay,” Sam says. “James. When’s the last time you hurt a human being?”

He worries at his lower lip, teeth pressing into the skin. He’s quiet for a very long time. “Thirteen months, ten days,” he says, finally.

Sam considers the timeline. “You think it’s over?”

“I think the implant’s in my fucking brain,” he says. “It’ll be over at brain death.”

“It’s just a chip,” Sam says. “It’s not sentient. Someone’s gotta send the message, right?”

The Soldier’s jaw works. “Even if the aliens stay out, there’s gonna be plenty of people who want to use someone like me, as soon as they rebuild enough to manage.”

It’s a hell of thing, and it could’ve been Sam.

He nudges the Soldier’s knee with his boot, and the Soldier stares at the point of contact. He doesn’t look angry anymore. If Sam had to use a word to describe the expression on the Soldier’s face, he thinks he’d use something bittersweet and barbed, something like lonely or longing.

“Gonna be a long damn time before anyone’s rebuilt,” he says.

“Aliens could have reinforcements here at any time,” the Soldier says.

“Maybe,” Sam says, although he thinks they might’ve learned some kind of lesson. At the very least, they’ve probably learned that it’s just not worth the effort.

“Look,” Sam says. “I think you should come back to the base.”

“No,” he says. Immediate and definite, louder then he’s been so far.

Sam expected it. Maybe part of him hoped for it. “Okay,” he says. “Then we’ll stay here. And, when you’re better, I want you to take a radio. And I want you to check in with us. All right? Every day.”

The Soldier stares at him. “Why the hell would you want that?”

Sam smiles, studies the hollows of the Soldier’s face, the scars, the freckles he must’ve earned when he was young, used to play too long in the sun. He has, Sam thinks, beautiful eyes. “There’s not a lot of us left,” he says.

“‘Us,’” the Soldier repeats, scoffing audibly.

“Us,” Sam repeats. He nudges the Soldier’s knee again, and the Soldier cuts his eyes away, glares at the wall. But, a moment later, he shifts, leans his knee into Sam.

—

His name is Bucky Barnes. He’s fussy as hell, stubborn beyond belief, helpful every chance he can get, and fond of cats and songbirds. He doesn’t cheat at cards, and he doesn’t accuse Sam of it either, even when Sam beats him damn near every hand.

He’s a good man. Even now.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Sam says. Because it’s been two weeks, and Bucky’s decided he’s well enough to go.

Bucky ducks his head. “Shut up,” he says.

Sam wonders if he was always this head shy about affection.

“C’mere,” he says. “I’ll give you a goodbye kiss.”

“Shut up,” Bucky says, practically scuttling away, head still ducked. When he raises it, he’s grinning one of his ghost grins, the ones that almost show who he used to be, like a faint echo of a louder, happier man.

“Okay,” Sam says. “But if I don’t get a goodbye kiss, I’m definitely not gonna talk dirty to you on that radio. You gotta put in the work, Bucky.”

“I hate you,” Bucky tells him, and his crush couldn’t be more obvious. Sam would be embarrassed for him, if he weren’t busy being charmed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sam says. “Check in every day, or I’m gonna track you down.”

“Hm,” Bucky says. He adjusts his pack on his shoulders. He’s got that tire iron, an alarming number of knives, and two guns. He’s setting off to kill more aliens. He’s going alone. “That supposed to be a threat?”

He was a Barnes in the Army and Sam was a Wilson in the Air Force, and so Bucky is a Super Soldier and Sam is not. It’s unpredictable, sometimes, the way mercy falls.

“Be careful out there,” Sam says, and he knocks his elbow against Bucky’s.

“Yeah,” Bucky says. He rolls his eyes and then catches Sam watching, and he blinks, falters. “Yeah,” he says, again. Softer, steadier. A promise, not a joke.

Sam considers him, lets the moment hang. Waits. Sometimes, all Bucky needs is the space and time to make up his own mind.

“I’m gonna miss you, too,” Bucky says.

“There it is,” Sam says, grinning, almost crowing in triumphant. “There--”

“Oh, Jesus,” Bucky says, rolling his eyes again, getting theatrical about it. “I already regret saying it.”

“Can’t take it back,” Sam taunts, grinning wide and smug.

“I’m going,” Bucky says, and he starts off, doesn’t look back.

“Hey, Buck,” Sam calls, when Bucky’s just about to break through the treeline, disappear into the woods. “I hate to see you go, but I love----”

“Fuck off, Sam!” Bucky says, but he’s laughing, and Sam can still hear it – surprised and happy, fully human – even after Bucky disappears.

#writing #soundtrack fills

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danganronpasurvivoraskblog · 3 years ago

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The Truth Hurts.

...

*Makoto stands outside the central building as soldiers start patrolling the rim of the building.

...

...!

...

*The air is quiet and Makoto’s state of contemplation and tranquility is only interrupted by Byakuya patting him on the shoulder.

Be warned. Once you go in, you won’t be coming out for a while.

I know. I’m not too worried about that.

Then what does worry you?

You told me that everyone was waiting for me on the inside...I’m not sure how I’m supposed to face them, after everything.

Trust me when I say this to you. Ever since all of this, the one thing that they’ve all been praying for is to have you and Kyoko back.

There’s nothing you need to worry about.

That’s not true...There’s some things...I have to tell them.

...

Yes...So it is as I feared then...?

...

I’m sorry...yes...

...

Very well...If you’re determined to tell them, I will have your back.

But we won’t make any progress by simply standing here.

You’re right...let’s go.

Huh?

*Once inside, Byakuya guides Makoto to the Chairman’s office. They stand outside the door.

It seems...a little quiet...

That’s strange...They should be here?

*Byakuya opens the door for Makoto, and he steps on through.

Um...Hello-

*THUD!*

GUH!

!!!

*Makoto steps through the door, and before he can get a greeting out, he suddenly gets dived on.

Wah!? S-Sayaka!?

Makoto...Oh my god, I thought I’d...! Oh my god...!

H-Hina, hey! What-! Ahaha...Come on guys!

*Teary eyed, just as Sayaka is, Hina also pulls Makoto into a hug, using her one good arm.

Thank goodness you’re ok! I-I was so worried!

Hey ya big bastard.

Yeah, where the hell’ve you been all my life!?

Uhaahaahaa!

Take your time. We have lots of it.

*Taka seems to try to say something, but is so bleary eyed and happy, he’s unable to force the words out. Sakura pats him on the back.

I...can’t exactly find the right words right now. So I’ll just ask how you’ve been, Mr Naegi.

...Despite the circumstances...I suppose it’s a pleasure to see you again Makoto.

Dude! C’mere!

*All of the 78th class take turns greeting Makoto after his absence.

*sniff* How...How are you feeling...?

Well...tired. Definitely tired. Actually, exhausted might be the more accurate word.

Given the circumstances, I can only assume there to be one reason that you’re here.

You really are truly no longer a suspect in the initial bombing, are you?

Not completely. Byakuya, and I hope you guys, believe in my innocence at least, but we still need to prove it to the rest of the Foundation.

I’m happy to go through with whatever plans we have.

*Sayaka and Hina, after wiping their eyes and smiling with joy, finally get off of Makoto, who gets back to his feet.

Speaking of which, what actually is the plan from here on out Byakuya?

Simply put, in the confines of this lockdown, I’m in the process of setting up a closed court.

All things considered, I should have done this from the start. But I had no evidence, and things had become too hectic. It didn’t cross my mind until now.

Well I’m absolutely certain that Makoto will be ok.

Me too. But again, that remains to be seen.

I’m just happy I’m able to reunite with you guys.

I’ve caused you all a lot of problems...I’m sorry...

It’s fine. We’ll forgive you as soon as you beat this case.

But...Makoto. What happened out there? Why do you look so beat up?

Is it because of what happened at the cabaret?

I see you already know about that...but...no, that’s not it.

To be honest, while I was on the run, I’d tried to get some answers myself. It was all well and good relying on the connections I had through Kuripa, but I did end up realizing that we would have to do some legwork on our own.

We teamed up with the Kisaragi Foundation agents, and flew to Shikoku. After the incident, Yukari Koime had flown there to get away.

Then what happened!?

We were horribly unprepared. Koime was far stronger than we anticipated. And for one sole reason, being she has a neural implant containing a strong AI.

A strong AI. You mean...like an Alter Ego...!?

Exactly that.

I-Is something like that even possible...!?

It’s basically unheard of...but logically speaking, it’s not out of the question...

It gets worse. It’s not just any Alter Ego either.

Koime is linked to Junko Enoshima’s AI from the Jabberwock Island Killing Game...!

!!!??

That’s the first I’ve heard of this...!?

Y-You’ve gotta be kidding! You mean Junko’s back!?

Not necessarily. Her AI from Jabberwock is back. And there’s not much she’s capable of doing when she’s not connected to Koime.

Chihiro, if possible, I need you and your father to look further into the possibility. See if there’s a potential weakness contained within it.

I-I’ll do my best.

Shit man...! We really fucked up...!

How so? I mean, we did, but just so we’re on the same page, what do you mean?

I think we took these Zetsubou punks way too lightly.

Oh, you think? Look at all of the stuff they’ve put us through recently! I don’t want to support the guys who’re supposed to be our enemies, but this plan was nothing short of genius!

...But aside from that...um...

Sayaka. Is something wrong?

*Byakuya calls her out, and everyone turns to look at the idol.

...I’m almost afraid to ask...But there’s something I’ve noticed...

What’s that?

...

*Sayaka swallows.

Mukuro left Future Foundation, despite the threat of that protocol hanging over her head, to come and support you.

Did she ever find you? And if she did...where is she...?

...

*The room is completely quiet.

...I’m sorry guys...Let me explain...

...

No...No, no, no, no, no...! No, that can’t be...!

*Makoto explains the circumstances of Mukuro’s death to his classmates. The reactions. He gives time for the news to sink in, but even after a short while of contemplating on it, some of his classmates are unable to accept the truth.

...I don’t believe it...If there was ever a woman in this world who seemed unkillable...!

Hifumi, she’s died before.

I-I know that, but my point stands!

...

Does anyone know if she had any friends? Or even any remaining family members, asides from her batshit crazy sister?

Yeah, she did...She had us...

...

H-Hold on a second! What are you guys talking about!?

What do you mean? Am I not allowed to ask questions of my own anymore?

No, it’s just...! Come on man! You’re acting like she’s dead, why are we acting like she’s dead!?

I’ve looked into the stars just now and I’ve seen the truth! Mukuro’s definitely still alive! She’s just hiding in wait somewhere for the perfect moment to make her return!

Hiro...Your prophecies are only ever 30 to 40% accurate. And the chances of coming back from the dead are basically 0%.

...

But over half of us in this room did exactly that!

And besides, what does it matter in that case! Even if Mukuro is dead, we have the machines! All we need to do is resurrect her with the machines, right!?

Come on everyone! We’re the Future Foundation! We need to pull ourselves together!

Taka, the machines only work once per person. And we already used them to bring Mukuro back.

Once you’re gone, you’re gone for good.

...

I-I’m sorry, I...I need to...

*Sayaka suddenly pushes past everyone and runs out of the room.

Wha-! S-Sayaka wait!

...

B-But we couldn’t know that without possibly trying!

Dumbass! How do you think we even discovered that the machines worked like that! We had to have tried that at some point, right? And that’s how we figured out it doesn’t work.

Look Leon, I appreciate you trying to clear the air, but you’re getting a little too worked up.

What!? I’m getting worked up!? It’s not my fault that you guys are being idiots!

Mr Kuwata, please don’t say stuff like that!

Mondo, please. Do something about this! Can’t you calm them down?

Ngh...

Sorry Chihiro, but I’m with Leon on this one.

Wha-!? What do you mean!?

Look, I get it alright? I get that holding onto whatever hope we have left is kinda the thing with us, but there ain’t no point if that hope ain’t there to hold on to in the first place.

Mukuro’s gone. And we gotta understand that.

No, I refuse to accept it! There has to be another way!

There ain’t another way!

There’s ALWAYS another way!

Hina, you’re grasping at straws! I get that you don’t want to accept the truth; I don’t either, but there’s a different between wanting and needing!

But dude-!

Look, if you’re so sure of yourself, why don’t you go try it!?

What!?

L-Leon...you’re scaring me...!

I’m sure the Acting Chairman will grant you permission! If you’re so desperate to prove your theory, if you’re so desperate to TRY, then why don’t you talk to him!?

RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!!!

*CRAAAAASHH!!!*

!!!!??

*The argument and harsh interactions between the 78th class are instantly cut, when Sakura, who has remained quiet this whole time, picks up armchair in Kyoko’s room and tosses it against the wall, denting the frame and breaking the chair to pieces. The noise is so loud, it cuts out everyone, and the bickering is stopped right there and then.

...*heavy breathing*

S-Sakura...

...

Mukuro isn’t coming back Hina.

...

I’m sorry that of all people, I have to be one of the one’s who tells you this straight away, but as much as this technology escapes my grasp, I understand it enough to know that she isn’t coming back to us...

However...that doesn’t give you the excuse to take your anger and your frustration out on them Leon.

...

You...You’re right...I’m sorry...

...No, I’m sorry. Sakura’s right, I’m being selfish...

I just...I can’t accept it...Any of it.

...Me neither...I-I can’t accept the fact that she died such an unfair death...She made a sacrifice, and it was totally in vain.

No, it wasn’t. I refuse to let it be.

As do I.

And it’s because of that, that we can’t be arguing like this. The only way we’re going to stop Yukari Koime and Organization Zetsubou, is if we work together.

That’s the only way we can avenge our fallen comrade. W-We have to make this work....We have to!

And we will.

*Byakuya stands in front of everyone, and grabs their attention.

We’ve lost far too much already, thanks to Organization Zetsubou. But we have a chance to make a comeback.

They won this fight, but they won’t win this coming war. But I can only say that if I have all of you on my side.

Ultimately, I realize that the vast majority of problems that we’ve been going through as a group lately have been caused by my actions. Which is why I hope to reprimand my mistakes.

...

*Everyone nods in agreement.

If you ask me, Mukuro’s sacrifice was my fault. She wouldn’t have easily allowed herself to die had I not put myself in danger.

No Makoto. It’s Yukari Koime’s fault. No matter how far back you look into the source of a problem, it’s all gonna link back to her and her Zetsubou cronies.

Mr Owada is correct on that front. Please, don’t start blaming yourself.

Too late for that. But Byakuya’s not the only one who’s gonna reprimand his mistakes.

*Makoto turns to Byakuya.

Byakuya. I know I just got back, but may I go and talk to Sayaka?

Permission granted.

...I’ll be back. Then hopefully the rest of us can catch up on a better note.

*Makoto bows in apology, and then leaves to find Sayaka.

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #danganronpa 1 #dr1 #makoto naegi #byakuya togami #aoi asahina #yasuhiro hagakure #leon kuwata #sayaka maizono #chihiro fujisaki #mondo owada #kiyotaka ishimaru #hifumi yamada #celestia ludenberg #sakura ogami #the fugitive arc

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pandora-whowalksbetween · 4 years ago

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Okay so hear me out–

Spoilers for Obey Me! Lesson 9-4, Lesson 26-15, the Devilgram story “The Search for Self,” and Red vs Blue Season 6+

Okay so in Lesson 9-4 we’re told about Satan’s “birth” through his brothers– that he was “born from [Lucifer’s] wrath” and that Lucifer’s relationship with him could be compared to that of “an overbearing father figure.”

So of course people run with this and think that “born” means, like, literally born, like as a baby. They don’t ever really... say that? And outside of this first conversation Lucifer isn’t really referred to as Satan’s father, they keep referring to each other as brothers.

In the Devilgram story “The Search for Self” we get the account from Satan himself, in his own words. He doesn’t refer to is as a “birth” per se, but more of a “split.” He doesn’t call Lucifer his father, he says that they “used to be the same being,” that they “shared the same body.”

“But no matter what I do, I always feel like I’m smaller somehow. Like, I’m just a fragment of him and nothing more.” Remember the fragment part.

Now, y’all are probably wondering: why the hell did I bring up Red vs Blue? What could possibly happen in Roosterteeth’s Halo fanfiction that reminds me of Obey Me?

Okay so a fuckton of stuff happens in RvB but the IMPORTANT thing (which is also huge spoiler) is the deal with the Project Freelancer AI.

Quick explanation for people who didn’t/won’t watch RvB: Project Freelancer was a military project that was attempting to create supersoldiers by giving them OP equipment and giving them an AI via a neural implant to help them fight. The important thing you need to know about this was that they were only granted ONE (1) artificial intelligence unit. So the Director got... creative.

“They split [the Alpha AI]... Like reverse engineering a multiple personality disorder.” They tortured the AI until it split off parts of its personality. For example, to try to protect itself from the awareness of the hell it was going through, it split off the analytical part of its mind. The Director ripped that new personality from Alpha, called it an AI fragment, named it Delta.

Ya might be starting to hear familiar themes. There were nine of these fragments in total– Delta was logic, Theta was trust, etc etc, but the one that’s coming to my mind is this one:

Omega. Rage.

So what I’m getting at is: Satan reminds me a LOT of Omega.

One more thing from the RvB AI that I carried into Obey Me: they don’t refer to Alpha as their “father”– they straight-up SAID in one episode that they didn’t feel right calling it “father.”

In fact, they seem to see the person who created Alpha– the Director– as their father. One of them even refers to the Director’s daughter as sister.

So I guess what I’m saying is that, when Lucifer and Satan call themselves brothers, it makes sense to me.

So, yeah, Satan was created before their fall– before Asmo, he considers himself the older brother there. He wasn’t, like, incubating, he wasn’t a fetus unable to see or feel. He was there... kinda. So when he talks about having some memories of Lilith, having Lucifer’s memories, he lived those memories, he didn’t just inherit them.

#obey me #obey me satan #shay plays #fuck do i want to put this in the rvb tags..... i really dont....#rvb cw #ask to tag #so yeah i've mentioned/joked about this comparison a bunch so for those of you who were confused!! here ya go

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truthbeetoldmedia · 5 years ago

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The 100 6x13 "The Blood of Sanctum" Review

Well, The 100 fans, how are we feeling? Tonight we watched the last season finale The 100 is ever going to give us (the next will be a SERIES finale) and I must say, this is perhaps the first time a finale from this show has left me unsatisfied. Let’s delve into why that is:

Closing Season 6 was always going to be a bit of a challenge. We entered this season with perhaps one strong “A” plot and a minor subplot. We walked out with approximately five more plot lines and none of them are ones I’d consider minor. It’s astonishing to me that The 100 managed to craft a finale that not only didn’t close a single one of it’s existing plot lines adequately but also opened up, quite literally, an entirely new can of worms (anyone remember when worms where a thing on this show?). Let’s run through the list shall we:

Worm Number One: Have You Seen This Boy?

We start the season with the mystery of the Primes, and although we now know exactly what they are and the vast majority of them have been floated, we are left with Russell the Eighth and Priya’s mind drive, clutched securely in the grasp of a now brainwashed Jordan. If it wasn’t obvious enough that Jordan is “under the influence” so to speak, we watch the camera focus on his adjuster while he chats with Bellamy in the finale, proclaiming that he is fine even as he spouts out pieces of information that would make me question that if I were in Bellamy’s shoes. The Prime plot, which could have ended this season, will now make its way into Season 7, where the cult that we were introduced to in this final episode will have a more active role in disrupting the peace. I wouldn’t be surprised if a large part of Jordan’s role next season is finding a new host for Priya and I can’t bring it in me to be upset about that.

In a season where Jordan Jasper Green was one of the most anticipated new additions to the cast he was sorely under-utilized. We listened to various characters recite Monty’s charge to do better all season, but they all failed Monty and Harper where it mattered the most: their son. Shannon Kook is an expert at bringing a Harper-esque zest for life mixed with Monty’s desire to live better and it was a promising combination and one that was lost after episode 5 of this season. While I understand the appeal of first love, especially when you’ve never met anyone who wasn’t related to you or one of your parent’s friends, it is frustrating to me that so much of Jordan’s why is trapped in Priya nee Delilah. It would have been far more interesting to see Jordan take up the mantle Monty and Harper left behind and become the new moral compass of the group, even barring that, I would have been more interested in watching this man-child explore a world that was bigger than the space of the Eligius ship. Opportunity was squandered there and we’ll never get a return on the investment we made.

Worm Number Two: Prime Schmimes

Along with Jordan holding on to Priya’s mind drive comes the need for another host and I have an idea of where he might find one. As I’ve mentioned in my YouTube videos and Twitter threads, they don’t make people Nightbloods for no reason. You need look no further than the Griffin ladies to see that: Clarke, Madi and Abby were all made Nightbloods (born or created) to further storylines and Echo (Ash) will be no different. Although she was spared the privilege of hosting Simone, she is currently the only available Nightblood we know of. Russell is also aware of her status and in the finale he quite clearly states that he wants revenge. He may not be able to bring his family back, but all it takes is one mole in the works to help him achieve that, and he has at least two (Jordan and the adjuster — not to mention the possibility of all of the Children of Gabriel who were brainwashed as well). It would also be revenge for Ryker at the very least — his mother’s mind hosted in the body of the woman who murdered him. While Echo does have the neural mesh (she entered the City of Light as well) and has not been exposed to an EMP, we learned in this episode that Russell was careful to examine Abby before he put Simone’s drive in her — to ensure that there was no failsafe. It’s entirely possible that they can shock Echo with an EMP and implant Priya’s drive and further move Russell’s revenge plot along. After all it was love that drove Gabriel to create immortality, what will love drive Jordan to do?

Worm Number Three: Skynet? Is That You?

Some foreign line of code has managed to find a home in the Eligius ship’s hard drive. While trying to save Madi (and we’ll discuss that in a bit), they essentially crash the Flame, allowing them to remove it without the need for the passcode. While this is happening, Madi and the Dark Commander are fighting a bitter battle for control of her body. I believe that — if one isn’t paying enough attention — it’s easy to say that the reason the Dark Commander disappeared from Madi’s body is because they removed the Flame, but I’m going to hazard a guess that he — like any other virus — realized his removal was imminent and adapted to the situation, leaving Madi’s brain and uploading himself into the Eligius computers.

What does that mean for Season 7 and how will we see him return? Yana Grebenyuk (@yanawrites on Twitter — make sure to watch this space for her finale write up!) postulates that we might actually see him in two places next season! As a rub to Diyoza, who laughed at Gaia teaching Madi how to control the Flame (anyone remember what Gaia says during this scene: “A mind can’t be in two places at once”) Yana speculated that she might actually be trapped with him in the, wait for it, past! We know that the anomaly deals with time and space and we know that when Octavia went in she was gone for some time. Now it seems we have an estimate on how long. Hope is at least 20 years old when she stumbles into the tent and she and Octavia clearly know each other well. As Hope embraces Octavia, stabbing her — much as Clarke did with Finn — she tells her “He still has her” when Octavia asks about Diyoza. Hope’s appearance is very much Grounder-chic and it would also tie into why we learned about Indra seeing the Dark Commander once when she was young.

Further, with his consciousness now uploaded onto the Eligius ship there’s no limit to what the Dark Commander might be able to get up to now. Maybe this is the true beginning of Terminator’s Skynet. With all of that being said: it is rather disappointing that, even with the close of “Book One” a part of the series’ final struggle will still boil down to the Grounders. It’s been 131 years, two nuclear apocalypses, a new planet and a new cult system (the Primes) and we still can’t seem to shake them. It feels like the show should have been called “Grounders” instead of “The 100” for the amount of focus given to them and it’s disheartening. At least for me.

Worm Number Four: The Little Whipping Girl

Clarke, my poor girl. Bradbury may be Bellamy’s middle name, but hers is definitely suffering. This season we’ve watched Clarke be isolated both physically and emotionally from the people she’d once called friends. We watch her put herself out there and have a bit of fun, only to wind up almost kidnapped and taken to the Children of Gabriel. We watch her die, fight viciously inside of her own mind to survive, almost die again, be revived by Bellamy and then realize that while she was dealing with that struggle, her child was losing her own mental battle, and then we watch her lose her mother.

No one person should have to be strong enough to deal with all of that loss and yet Clarke manages it effortlessly every season. We know (thanks to Executive Producer Jason Rothenberg’s Hypable interview with Selina Wilken) that Clarke will be dealing with the grief of losing her mother as Season 7 begins. While I am grateful that she is being given the opportunity to do so, because grief is something that is so often rushed through on this show, I am also concerned about how this will affect Clarke’s issues with isolation. For six seasons now, Clarke has consistently been on the outside of the group looking in, due in large part to her status as lead, forcing her to be the character we follow around to each new location and each new group. Although Jason notes that Clarke will be perhaps even more protective of her family with her recent loss, I don’t necessarily know if the show has the chops to make that work.

It doesn’t help that her best friend (script confirmed) Bellamy now has his own issues to deal with, which leads me directly into...Worm Number Five.

Worm Number Five: We Call That….Regression?

Many of you reading this initially found me via Tumblr or Twitter or YouTube, all places where a huge part of my online persona is my love for and defense of one Bellamy Blake. He has been my favorite character from the moment he appeared on the screen in the pilot episode and I have been in his corner ever since. We’ve watched him, over the course of six seasons, mature, moving past the unhealthy relationship he’s had with Octavia since her birth resulted in both siblings carrying a weight they were too young for, growing into a man who left behind the self loathing and resentment of the past and stepped into the self love. If you’d’ve asked me yesterday what my favorite arc on The 100 is, I would have replied without hesitation “Bellamy’s character arc!”

I’m no longer sure I can do that. After the events of last season, which culminated in Octavia putting Bellamy in the pit alongside Gaia and Indra and forcing them to fight to their possible deaths, burning the farm Monty cultivated and then forcing her people into battle out of necessity, it seemed as if Bellamy was finally ready to separate from the lifelong co-dependent relationship he shared with Octavia. The Season 6 finale has appeared to effectively erase that growth in one fell swoop. Just a few episodes ago we listened as Bellamy told Octavia she was still his sister, but she could no longer be his responsibility and this episode we watched as Octavia was stabbed and misted right out of Bellamy’s arms and into the anomaly. The season ends with Bellamy calling Octavia’s name as the anomaly recedes once more.

In post-finale interviews (again see Selina’s Hypable link above) Jason is clear that finding Octavia is a huge part of Bellamy’s drive in Season 7 (going so far as to compare it to Bellamy’s desire to save Clarke in Season 6), and while I can admire, respect and even understand a brother’s desire to find a lost sibling, it’s a huge walkback (literally almost 360 degrees) on Bellamy’s arc since Season 1. What is the point of watching a show, seeing its characters evolve and grow and change and mature if, in the final season, we watch them revert back to who they were in the pilot episode? Will Clarke always be a girl who’s lost a parent abandoned on a new world? Will Bellamy always be nothing more than his sister’s keeper? Will Octavia always be hidden away somewhere? People aren’t watching television shows to see characters wind up where they began. We watch for the hope that our current situations (whatever those may be) won’t last forever. That growth can be permanent, that who we are now doesn’t have to define who we become, but as we head into Season 7, I’m not entirely convinced The 100 is aware of that.

Worm Number Six: Madi’s Mad as a Hatter...or is She?

Madi’s plot is perhaps the only one that was wrapped up (even as the Dark Commander clearly continues his nefarious deeds elsewhere) but it was done so haphazardly I was left unsatisfied. We have watched Madi deal with the Dark Commander in her head all season, we’ve watched as she’s slowly folded under his control and we watched her break when it’s revealed that Clarke is dead. It does make sense that learning Clarke is alive would bring her back. What doesn’t make sense is how swiftly that’s dealt with. It took the Dark Commander days or weeks (I’m unsure of Season 6’s timeline right now) to successfully set up a home in Madi’s brain and simply seeing Clarke threaten suicide (and also — what a message to send to...lots of people...I understand that Clarke went through a lot this season, but even with the loss of your mother, even with the potential loss of your daughter, you can still fight) was enough to snap his hold on Madi almost immediately.

It’s not realistic. I can understand the need to bring Madi back into the picture, but I think it might have played a bit better if the struggle was more prolonged, perhaps even something they needed to put her back into cryo until next season to discover. Unfortunately the choice was made, and a plot line that bit significantly into others ended with extreme prejudice in about two seconds flat.

Worm Number Seven: Make it Make Sense

(The above image is NOT edited.) The constant will they, won’t they of Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship needs to end now. Even as Jason tells fans that we (as a collective unit) all misunderstood what Bellamy’s drive was in saving Clarke (again see the Hypable interview linked above), he tells EW that "There were a few seasons in the middle of the run where we didn't know, we legitimately were on the bubble and were always trying to engineer something that could possibly be a series ender and a season ender, you know? I have for a while known thematically and like you say, in a general way, what I want the ending to be. I knew what I wanted it to feel like, I knew what I wanted it to say."

When you look back on the middle season finales (which for a seven season run would be Seasons 3-5) Jason has been crafting a very clear endgame, and that endgame is Bellamy and Clarke, together, facing their next adventure.

Season 3 ends with Bellamy and Clarke, in the Polis throne room, standing in front of Lexa's throne. They are united (literally touching), watching their people recover from the effects of ALIE, some wounded (like Jaha), others embracing the people they love (Kabby, Briller, Memori). Clarke delivers the news about the reactors melting down, that they haven't won just yet, and then Octavia kills Pike and walks away. Season 3 ends with Bellamy and Clarke — together — preparing to face their next challenge.

The Season 4 finale is a bit more ambiguous, because Bellamy and Clarke are physically separated but the notes are still there. We come into Clarke making a radio call and she is speaking to Bellamy specifically. She says "I still have hope" — that call back to the "You still have hope?/We still breathing" moment that sent the Bellarke fandom into ecstatic spirals of joy and — as a ship bursts through the atmosphere — Clarke stands, her breathing quickens, she smiles and she says "Never mind, I see you" and "I See You" (Confirmed by Tree Adams to be written for and about Bellarke), plays in the background.

Even as we watch Clarke's joy turn into apprehension when she realizes that's NOT Becca's rocket and instead says prisoner transport — if the series had ended here, in this moment — it's possible that it could have been Bellamy (and the others) walking off of the Eligius ship and in fact, that was the most common theory during the hiatus: that Bellamy and the others had joined up with the Eligius crew to combat the fuel issue, which wasn't far off. The series would have ended on the assumption that it was Bellamy walking off of that ship, reunited with Clarke and together again, facing the challenge of repopulating a barren Earth (after they dug out the bunker of course) and because we didn't have any updates on the Space Squad until Season 5 premiered, we also would have been left without the knowledge that Bellamy and Ash (aka Echo) were a thing.

Season 5 ends with Bellamy pulling Clarke into his side, both crying, both leaning on each other (with Jordan in the background) united and about to take on this journey (the discovery of a new planet) — together — again. And yes, I know a lot of people were upset about this ending because Bellamy and Ash/Echo were still a "couple", but again, I want to point you back to Jason saying that he was writing these as series finales and he knew what he wanted those finales to feel like and what he wanted them to say.

The theme of the Season 3-5 finales has always been "Bellamy and Clarke, together, facing the next adventure." and the feeling has always been that Bellamy and Clarke and their relationship to one another are the center of the story, that if the story ends here, Bellamy and Clarke are together. I'd even go so far as to say that the theme of Season 4 and Season 5's finales specifically has been about hope and renewal. The opportunity to do and be better in a "new" place.

And that’s fine and dandy. What’s not fine is when this relationship is deliberately given romantic beats, framing and lines in an effort to draw or retain an audience with no payoff. Again, people are not watching television for the never before seen plot twists. People watch television for the characters. They stay for the characters. Friends is one of the most successful shows of all time on the strength of the relationships it showcased as an example, and the same can be said for many other great shows. It’s when showrunners forget that, believing that the story they are so desperate to tell is more important than the audience who have given them the ability to tell that story, that everyone suffers. One need look no further than the recent endings of Game of Thrones and Veronica Mars for evidence of that.

Make the story clear. Make it plain. Your audience deserves that.

In conclusion, The 100 season finales work better when they are written as series finales. Given the knowledge that he would have one more season to close out the show the way he wants to, Rothenberg leaned too far into the chaos of Episode 12 (“Adjustment Protocol”) and left audiences with a bitter, unfinished taste in their mouths. With only 16 episodes left to satisfactorily wrap up all of the arcs he opened or left open this season, I’m not convinced we won’t be seeing a repeat of Game of Thrones.

April’s episode rating: 🐝.5

P.S. A Good Worm:

If you’re like me and you need something to look forward to as we enter the long hiatus before the final season of The 100, think about making your way to Conageddon! Located in Boston, Massachusetts, and this year held on April 3rd-5th, it is The 100’s only American convention and as someone who’s been before (and will be back) it’s a weekend packed with fun and friends. Tickets haven’t gone on sale just yet, but make sure you watch this space for more information, including cast information and ticket pricing!

#The 100 #Season Finale #The Blood of Sanctum

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twitchesandstitches · 6 years ago

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The MILF Fleet are way into biomodding themselves up. Really, really into it, to the degree that in-universe it defines them almost as much as their universally torso-sized boobs and ravenous libidos. Several other factions share this trait, most notably the Cobalts.

In general, assume that any named character has at least a few mods on them. Sometimes it’s functional; growing gills developed from seadweller trolls and fish to go exploring underwater. Sometimes its for combat, like subdermal armor that makes you bulletproof, powerful bulging muscles with super strength, or vicious tearing claws. And sometimes its purely subtle, like a longevity treatment that stops aging and permanently restores the user to the prime of health, and they won’t ever die of old age.

The MILFs love mods; the weirder, the better! The fleet is a carnival of strangeness, each giant mom a walking art show of mutation and self-imposed alteration, glowing with biological tattoos and cybernetic limbs, and most often its hard to tell what their original species was. The end results are often monstrous, even disturbing to more straightlaced inner worlds, and the MILFs rather enjoy annoying people with their freak factors. The Cobalts tend to prefer more subtle or elegant ones.

So here are some ways this whole process works!

Casual modding, for minor changes such as unnatural hair color, living tattoo designs that move as you want, or realistic body shapes, are universal and easy, and are common in most of the multiverse, with the MILF fleet making money by selling these mods in space ports and planetside bazaars wherever they go. You can get these from dispensers, whether they come in pill-form or more exotic variants like drinks and snack foods.

Therefore the exact mechanism of the modding varies quite a bit. It can be basically anything that could change a person, though the complexity of the mod will make the procedure more complex, rated further below. It should be noted that magic is a major component of almost any mod, since it adjusts the body more easily and alters the basic ‘template’ of the mod user, changing their body on a fundamental level. Thus, mods will even alter mechanical or other non-organic body parts, and can work on many different species with only minor adjustments for biochemistry.

Artifacts like the Matriatrix and Fountain of Conquest (with the right add-ons and knowledge) can make changes to other people that are, for all intents and purposes, mods. They’re not quite the same thing, since the Matriarchtrix usually does it one on one or requires the user to do things like unbirth the target to edit them into having the modded traits, or imbue them with enough energy to develop the desired traits and let them grow over time. More dangerously, this is just Sierra doing it on purpose. It is fundamentally an artifact of mutation, evolution and magical change, and its possible for its unleashed magic to induce all kinds of bizarre transformations on anything caught in the vicinity. There is a reason they say this thing makes monsters (though the minds of those altered by it are never damaged).

The Fountain can grant such traits instantly, but it loses overall power. The trait isn’t lost, but it becomes weakened. (If giving hyper proportions, the master of the Fountain will lose potential curve sizes, and usually a maximum power limit.) By studying how this process works, new mods can be created, or at least new and interesting ways to make them.

Certain transformations, such as hyper lactation, rebirthing (via the ability to alter someone who has been rebirthed while they are within a broodmother), or creative application of various empowered alterations can also approximate the transformation of a mod. For instance, milk that makes whoever drinks it or bathes in in take on selected traits is ubiquitous in the MILF Fleet. This kind of changes are usually very long-term, or uncontrollable and prone to unexpecting mutations. Those who prefer specific results or are attached to a specific body image are advised to use more conventional mods.

Others can be the result of the application of certain powers, such as the ability to alter other people’s physiology in some way, or forcibly reshaping bodies into weird forms. By studying how those powers work, new mods have been made to replicate their effects, making them efficiently mass produced at the cost of being less effective overall. You won’t be able to pump someone up a dozen times their size with a touch, but you don’t need the original power to do it, either.

Some purely mundane mods do exist, but they’re likely to be based on much older manufacturing means and most likely come from a reactivated ancient factory, or are the result of a lot of dedicated work. Ultimately, the MILF Fleet winds up doing that, developing their mods based off magical research and development, studying various traits that the Matriatrix samples from aliens, monsters and their own fleetmates.

As that implies, the Matriatrix can absorb traits that Sierra wants; just sampling them and adding them to an internal library to be deposited into the fleet stockpile later. Possibly this could cause the target to lose that trait, and with the right powers, Sierra could absorb those traits and get them right there: taking an armorplated foe’s armor hide and getting it herself, while leaving them defenseless. She can do this as a combat action, through a simple touch, or even through intimacy if she wants. The target can simply touch her or the Matriatrix, allowing her to gain the trait for the Fleet.

This trait can be anything; superhuman size, scales, gills, a physiological detail, powerful muscles for great strength… if it is purely physical in nature, it is considered a trait, and can be acquired.

It would be impossible to detail every possible mod, so this just laws down general rules for how mods in general can be classified. But...

Each manufacturer has their own style of mods, and you get different kinds wherever you go. A consumerist culture will offer different mods than one that is all about free love and self-expression, with the latter desiring more extreme ones, for example. Generally, the term mod just refers to any item or procedure that changes the user, permanently or temporarily. This is almost often something that is physically ingested like food or drink, something that is applied to the body such as lotions or bath liquids, but can also mean surgical alterations and cybernetics.

A major factor is time. The more complex or encompassing a change is, the more time it takes. Minor changes can happen within a day and settle in a week. More complex changes can take weeks to just start happening, and the most extreme changes may require years to finish. Some mods cut this down, but they are typically very expensive and have very specific purposes rather than being suites of broad changes.

Minor: Simple changes, such as color change to hair and skin, small height changes, and mostly aesthetic transformations like living tattoos or small claws, are the easiest. If this is strictly visual changes that give no real benefit or disadvantage (non-functional gill slits) or proportion alterations that are within the realm of real life natural sizes, it fits into this category. These are simple drinks, snack foods, and other one-hit changes. Usually permanent, but commercial ones typically fade in time unless you get brand name. If it doesn’t really need to modify you THAT much, it counts. Making ones sexual organs more exotic (ridges, selecting squeezing or a knot) straddles the line between this and the next category, but are very common.

Moderate: Genuine transformations, things like growing body length fur, turning your hair into feathers or poofy scales (or growing hair at all, for reptiles and amphibians), a small tail, or alterations to the skeletal structure for things like digitigrade legs or opposable digits. These are obvious and distinct changes from baseline, but don’t need to make too many changes to your body to adapt to them. Body proportions beyond what is naturally possible, but still not too big. These tend to require consistent applications of food transformatives over time, lotions on the altered area, and other means of consistent use. Implants such as brain connection with the internet or neural interfaces count here. Growing bigger or smaller fits here, but only to about half again as big or small; anything more is too complicated for this level.

Significant: Significant reworking of the body, and requiring drastic changes to the body to make them work or apply to them. Things like boobs bigger than your torso, butt big enough to be a bookshelf and lips thick around as your palm count here. A big theme would be that secondary changes are required for the body to function with the new change, as do mods that induce changes like those. Things like connective breast tissue that acts as a built-in bra, lactation so fast it can fill a bathtub, automatic testicle growth and hyper gene material production. Growing to significant sizes, either smaller or larger, is a common trend with this one. This is where mods tend to get more weird or changing the body; muscle tissue on par with power armor with the force it can put out, as well as completely changing the user’s apparent species. These mods can involve long term application of variou substances and special diets, and sometimes procedures. Most of the more interesting mods fit in this category.

Extreme: Anything more extreme than previous ones; complete digitization or modification into a purely mechanical form, fertility augmentation to make the user into a broodmother, giant-sized size increase, or impossible degrees of physical or mental enhancement. Changes that give a complete unrecognizable body plan (Such as a centaur form for starters, or becoming humanoid if the user was originally a monster-type) fall in here. Total cybernetic refit, extremely invasive procedures, and very long-term regimens can all result from these. Usually only the most wealthy have those, and it can be a status symbol to have used even one.

The major factions the AU focuses around all have their own gimmicks, special varieties and tweaks, due to different living conditions, their own sub-cultures, general philosophies and of course what they actually have available, as stated below:

MILF Fleet - generally they like stuff weird and their modding is very monster-y; they like things like big spikey bits, exoskeletons, huge fangs. More conventionally, most of them have unusual hair colors in vibrant neon colors, full body tattoos that move on their own into new designs, and minor adjustments to suit their own looks. The ones who like fighting are very inhuman in appearance when they want, with biomechanical implants and weaponry integrated into their bodies. The more monstrous and alien this is, the more they like it. Things such as multiple breasts are pretty popular, as are ultra huge proportions, non-humanoid morphologies, natural weapons, wings, tentacles, and gooey forms. Modding their genitals for practicality or more fun applications is almost a must. Many can also shift between mild and extreme forms of their mods, so they can go from being cute to being battle ready by shifting how subtle their more inhuman assets are. A woman with spiky skin and crustacean traits can turn her skin into full-fledged carapace to deflect bullets and her hands into massive crab claws. Their mods are always totally stable, though they take a long time to fully kick in.

The MILF fleet sell their mods freely, usually at local shops and in bazaars, as they move through inhabited space. They have a strict policy against selling their combat mods at all, they flat out don’t want to basically be arms dealers just to make a bit of extra cash, and dread the idea of causing military problems or imbalancing precarious power struggles. Breaking this law is one of their more serious offenses, and ties into some of their notions of a prime directive; giving mods to others that will free them from biological chains and restrictions is an imperative, but enabling murder is forbidden.

Cobalts: They prefer their mods to be more elegant and generally stray away from ones that can hinder their movement and look ungainly. They specialize in combat grade mods that come in several stages, going from completely unobtrusive to increasing levels of obviousness, each with their own utilities, until they hit the maxed out level and fully activate, with things like armor suites and arm-mounted bio-swords. They also favor more obscure additions, such as psionic powers, lending to those being almost ubiquitous among the crew. However, their on-board science squad tends to test new mods freely on whoever is available, leading to a class divide; the higher ups are heavily modded with perfected, elegant mods with no drawbacks and versatile abilities, and an underclass of serfs and crewmates who are tested on with bizarre and highly unstable mods that tend to make them strange monsters or induce odd impulses.

The Cobalts make a lot of money selling their mods for extremely high prices and are in demand among the richer parts of the multiverse, and having a Cobalt mod is a very prestigious thing in some quarters. They do sell their combat-grade mods, though they only do so for the most mild ones. Not because of the moral issues, they just want to keep their advantages for themselves.

Ringers: Prefer combat mods that are very subtle, with a disdain for openly monsterizing themselves. They also tend to choose ones that force the user to acclimatize and ‘earn’ their transformation. Likely to sell combat-grade mods for the express purpose of stirring up violence and conflict, and are constantly looking to expand their arsenal for this purpose.

Well-To-Do Galactic Centers and the like: Mods of all kinds are common, and usually cheap if they’re minor ones. Things like altering hair texture or growing the hair longer, lotions that make skin perfectly healthy forever, and reworking a body into the peak of fitness are all ubiquitous and pretty common. Appearance alterations that alter bone structure, scale shape or chitin growths to make someone more beautiful are also common if expensive, and unfortunately lending to homogeneity in appearances. More drastic changes are rarer, very expensive, and in some places can lead to disdain from those who disapprove of body modification.

Criminal organizations: Catch all for underworld organizations of all sorts, they generally sell mods that are prone to serious issues, unwanted mutations, and even mental complications. Virility enhancements that make users insatiably lusty and pitfully dependant on those who relieve them, hyper lactation that becomes brain-meltingly additive to milk yourself, and proportion enlargements that render the user immobile are all risky and common ones that damage the reputation of mods in general. Less ethically tricky are mods that alter brain chemistry to induce feelings of heightning happiness, low-grade euphoria, and some of the benefits of drug use without actually employing them. More benign organizations are modifying these last for use in therapeutic treatments. Criminal organizations also make heavy use of combat mods, the scarier and more grotesque, the better.

The Cartel antagonists also qualify, though mod distrubition isn’t really their interest.

Multiverse backwaters: In places where mods are available and there are few regulations, you can get all kinds of bizarre mods, often leanings towards a more practical viewpoint; more gills to survive underwater and super-thick fat for cold temperatures, less skin made of fleshy gold. Still, the libertine environments of such places can produce easy-going attitudes similar to the MILF Fleet.

Imperial Commonwealth of Humanity: The use of mods is strictly banned, because these guys are boring like that. Rumors suggest that the aristocratic elite regularly ingests special chemical brews that amplify their psionic powers or even gives them some, though it's unclear if they are aware of this or are simply partaking in rituals without knowing their significance.

#/#//#///#////#/////#queued #crossthicc AU

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poisonheadcrabsalesman · 2 years ago

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every time there's ai bullshit in new halo stuff please imagine me in the background with my arms up yelling "THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAYING!"

#ever consider the possibilities of the neural implant?#crab text

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lilithhawthorne · 6 years ago

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Maiden Phoenix

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types Rating: Mature Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian Cross Posted on AO3 First // Previous / Next

Many thanks to @black-rose4 for providing edits and suggestions! <3

The Lazarus Project has failed and Commander Shepard, long dead to the rest of the galaxy, is declared useless to Cerebus. Miranda Lawson has a backup plan in the form of a smuggler who bears a shocking resemblance to the former war hero. With the promise of a fresh start, Elisha agrees to assume Shepard's identity. She'll have to gather her crew, run her ship, and save the galaxy in the way only Shepard could. What could go wrong?

Or; Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: the Strange AU No One Asked For

The bar was doing a good job drowning out the sound of the Galactic News broadcast, and each time the bartender increased the volume, the drunken and sober alike rose their voice to join the clamor.

Elisha leaned closer to her companion, straining to hear over the competition that was taking place between flesh and technology. She braced her elbows on the table, her chest nearly pressed against the sticky top as she lifted out of her chair. “I can’t hear you,” she shouted needlessly.

Jeks contorted his lipless mouth into what she thought was a scowl and blinked big, black eyes at her. If he meant to harangue her about the location she picked - a favorite of his before they ever got down to business - his quick tongue reply was lost in the roar of another, louder voice.

“Hey!” a big man yelled, two meaty fists the size of Elisha’s head crashing down on his table with enough force to cause the drinks of his companion to slosh. The inharmonious crescendo of voices petered to a murmur. “Look,” he commanded.

The bar followed his gaze to the screen that took up one wall.

“-drive core was breached when an unknown ship-”

Elisha and the rest of the bar watched in silence, the wreckage of the Normandy floating across the screen, the hull ripped apart and pieces of her interior splayed across the void of space. Across from her, Jeks sucked in a ragged breath. All around the bar, patrons offered their own sounds of sorrow, gasps, and murmurs, a forceful but whispered, “ah fuck.”

The human woman on the screen was hyper-focused, her pupils dilated as she read the text that was no doubt being supplied just off-screen. High definition and droid mounted cameras came with their drawbacks; everyone watching could see this woman’s panic, her eyes darting back and forth as she rushed to get the news out.

“Commander Jane Shepard, Hero of the Citadel and the first human Spectre”- a photo of the famed commander appeared in the upper right side, the woman looking smart in her blues -“has been reported dead.”

The woman pressed on, details about the rest of the crew and total casualties, but it was clear no one cared about anything else she had to say. Everyone was speaking at once, the shock of the situation escalating from the silent to noisy kind.

“I met the commander once,” someone began the table over, the boast met with an incredulous snicker by others.

“-the krogan tore about the bar before-“ someone else was saying.

“Wow,” Elisha sighed. She looked at the screen once more and noticed a red banner scrolling across the top of the screen: COMMANDER SHEPARD DEAD it declared. “I guess being a hero doesn’t stop one good shot at your ship from killing you.”

“Yikes,” Jeks moaned, “that’s a little morbid.”

She shrugged and took a sip of the drink she had been neglecting. It was too sweet, sticky and viscous, and she smacked her lips to keep them from sticking together. Jeks squinted one eye at her, then looked at the newsfeed. “Has anyone ever told you that you kind of look like her?” he asked, motioning with his head towards the screen.

They had switched to a new photo, this one less staged than the Alliance headshot. Shepard was wearing a black hard suit, a crisp - it had to be freshly painted, right? - red line on her right arm. She was looking over her shoulder as she stepped onto the Normandy, one hand raised in what could have been a wave or the beginning of a profane gesture. Her expression was blank, carefully neutral if Elisha had a guess at what was going on in her head, her signature red hair pulled high and tight in a bun. There was a turian in blue armor a step behind her, and another human woman was waiting just outside the airlock. The other woman looked grim despite wearing what appeared to be pink armor, her arms crossed and hip cocked as she scowled, presumably, at the camera.

Elisha rolled her head, letting it dip from left to right, her eyes following the motion while he watched her performance, unimpressed and unblinking. “That’s not true,” she tutted. And she had heard it enough times to be unimpressed with the comparison.

“Close enough.” He lifted his thin shoulders into the air and put up a hand before saying, “But hey, what does that matter now? No fame in looking like a dead war hero.”

“Whoa! Talk about morbid,” she teased with a toothy grin.

The mood in the bar had shifted again, and even with the news flashing images from the destruction of the Citadel, the jaunty vibe and shouting had resumed. There wasn’t anyone in the bar who wasn’t in some way touched by what Shepard and her crew had done during the battle of the Citadel, but war heroes could only hold their attention for so long. The news would be on repeat for weeks, there would be public and private ceremonies to honor the commander and any other lives lost this day, and at more appropriate places. The most they could do here was drink to the honor of the dead human.

“Enough talk, period.” Jeks brought his omnitool to life, the orange glow casting his face in an eerie pallor. He tapped on the ghostly keyboard with the nubs of his fingers, and within seconds, Elisha had received an alert. She tapped at her own omnitool, listening with a smile as her companion, Bekir, confirmed the credit transfer.

“A pleasure,” she said with feeling. She rose to her feet, stretching her arms above her head and hearing a pop as her left shoulder protested. “Dock 372.”

Jeks stayed seated, relaxing into the chair and motioning with two fingers for one of the staff to bring him another drink. “Wars never end, and neither does business.”

“You’ve always been my favorite client,” she told him, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial stage whisper. “I’m sure you’ll be in touch.”

She didn’t wait for Jeks response, eager to get to her ship and skitter back to Omega. The cargo had been difficult to procure, and Jeks had rewarded her handsomely for the added risk he assumed she had taken to get it. Even without the bonus, it was a fat paycheck and would get the repairs she and the crew needed. Some of those repairs would come in liquid form, something from Thessia maybe. The team would love her for that. They might even do what she said for once.

The thought brought a smile to her lips. If ever there was a way to a smuggler’s heart, it was alcohol.

Dr. Wilson reran the simulation. He was past the point of denial where he hoped watching it again would miraculously produce a new, more favorable outcome. Now he watched it as a punishment.

The holographic model of Shepard stretched before him, the orange lines that represented the parts of her they could fix intersecting with gaps, black holes in the data where nothing was being transmitted. Her head was missing from the hologram. Well, more specifically; her brain. If he wanted to, he could prop the body up, manipulate the cybernetic implants in her arms and legs to give her the appearance of movement. With the help of someone at the controls, the Shepard puppet could walk across the room, all elbows and knees, lurching forward like she was being pulled along a string. It wasn’t far off from the truth.

The door slid open, the sharp snap of heels giving away Miranda Lawson without her needing to say anything. Wilson changed the view without a word, bringing up the scans of Shepard’s brain and enlarging them across the holo-emitter. There was a small, rectangular mark on the scans, the implant showing up as a black spot where it was attached to her cerebellum, another buried in the prefrontal cortex. Hidden from view were the wires running between the two and branching out into the other areas of the brain, a paltry mimicry of the neural network they had lost.

“She’s useless to us like this,” he said, even though he didn’t need to. He had worked with Miranda long enough to enjoy seeing her disappointed, and he was rewarded when her mouth pressed into a thin line, her frustration gouged deep in the lines of her face. “We have a puppet, and for all the money we spent, we could have built an army of VI programs that can do as much as she can right now.”

“Would you say it’s a lost cause?” She turned to the doctor. It was a dangerous question, one belied by her casual tone. She might as well be asking him if he didn’t like dinner, if they should order something. Only in this situation, there might as well be a gun to his head, because if she didn’t like his answer, she would probably kill him on direct orders from the boss. No, honey, the charring adds flavor.

He considered his words carefully, but there was no use in denying the inevitable. He had been working in the dark, isolated ward for nearly two years, his work too high risk to allow him communications with anyone outside the staff he was provided. He had even been forced to wear their ugly uniform, black and orange. It was unflattering and he hated it.

With the finality the situation merited, he looked at her and gave a curt nod. “It isn’t possible.”

She looked stricken. Perhaps she thought he had a secret ace up his sleeve, or that he would beg for more time and delay the inevitable another six months. True to her nature, she recovered quickly and her expression melted into something almost serene. Her head was one that he would have given anything to peek inside.

“Thank you for your work, doctor.”

The sincerity of her voice touched him, and he was thrown off guard. She reached out a hand, and he took it. They had done good work over the past two years, even if it hadn’t been a success. What they had been able to discover would -

His death was quick. Even if she hadn’t been so close to him, she knew where to aim. She let go of his hand as he dropped to the floor, limp and losing color rapidly as he bled all over the floor. Miranda holstered her gun and tapped her omnitool, allowing it to begin transmitting her voice. “Put in motion Maiden Phoenix.”

This was the longest she had been behind bars, and Elisha was feeling the itch of claustrophobia that accompanied her anxiety. She pressed her face against the transparent barrier that separated her cell from the hallway. There were three, fist-sized holes along the top, just out of her reach, and three more at the bottom. She guessed it was to make her feel like she wasn’t trapped in a coffin, but it only succeeded in making her feel like an insect.

“Hello?” she called past the glass, her nose and cheeks distorted as she looked out.

This was unusual. It had never taken Bekir long to get her out. They had a fund put aside for bribes exclusively, and it was well padded before she had been busted.

Could there be no more corrupt C-Sec? she thought with a sudden chill of horror. She pouted for a moment, breathed on the glass and drew a frowny face in the fog left behind. The thought, as chilling as it was to a well-versed smuggler such as herself, was unlikely. She wiped away the frowny face, huffed on the glass again, redrew a happy face.

Bekir would come. He always had, always would.

Placated, however briefly, she returned to the cot that jutted from the wall and settled herself as comfortably as she could. Across the hall from her, an asari was sleeping, one arm hanging off the bed and the other propped against the wall. Although the bed couldn’t promise a level of comfort the asari had clearly achieved, Elisha made a go of resting. Propped up in the corner, it was almost like sleeping in one of the chairs on the bridge of her ship.

If she managed to fall asleep, she didn’t wake up feeling rested. The loud echo of shoes in the hallway startled her awake, chasing away the benefits of rest with a healthy dose of adrenaline. She had always been a light sleeper, but the feeling of waking up in an unfamiliar bed, blazing white lights overhead, kicked her into overdrive. She tuned her eyes to the door, taking in the two figures that stood there now.

One was slightly familiar, the human who had escorted her to the cell. He was tall and thin, lanky even, with too big hands that seemed peculiar sprouting from his bony wrists. Their walk to the cell had been taciturn and without pleasantries, but he looked frightened half to death now. All the color in his face had migrated to his cheeks, his complexion sallow in comparison to the crimson flush. From a guess at their body language, it was the woman next to him making him so nervous.

“It’s remarkable,” the woman breathed. She was staring at Elisha with a feverishly bright gaze, sizing her up like she was a buffet with too many options.

“What’s going on?” Elisha directed her question towards the guard who was waving his ID in front of the scanner. The device blinked a green light, and the door to the cell slid into the wall.

“Let’s go,” he said, ignoring her question and gesturing with one of his knuckly hands for her to step out. When she made no effort to move, he repeated the motion. “You’re being released,” he said with a barely hidden hint of exasperation, like that explained everything.

She stayed rooted to her cot. “Who am I being released to?” she demanded. Now she focused her attention on the woman dressed in white. The women locked eyes, and Elisha glowered, her shoulders rolling back and her chest puffing out. The other woman’s smile deepened, and without breaking eye contact, she tilted her head to the guard and commanded him: “go.”

The guard didn’t raise a fuss, and he made a hasty retreat, his shoes scuffing the length of the hallway.

“Hello, Elisha Cirillo. My name is Miranda Lawson. I represent a group that is dedicated to preserving humanities interests across the galaxy, and I have need of your skills.”

#shakarian fan fic #shakarian fanfic #mass effect fanfiction #mass effect fan fiction #mass effect au #mass effect #shakarian #fshakarian #long post #my writing #maiden phoenix #first reblog

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phantom-le6 · 4 years ago

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 (1 of 6)

Ok, I’ve been procrastinating on this for a while, so without further ado, let’s renew our look into episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation by warping into the start of the show’s fourth season, beginning with the conclusion to the ground-breaking two-part story “The Best of Both Worlds”.

Episode 1: The Best of Both Worlds (Part 2)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The discharge fired from the Enterprise’s deflector dish has no effect on the Borg cube; Locutus reveals that the Borg had prepared for the attack using Captain Picard's knowledge. The Borg cube continues at warp speed towards Earth, with the crippled Enterprise unable to follow. Upon reporting their failure to Admiral Hanson, Commander Riker is promoted to Captain and makes Commander Shelby his first officer. The crew learns that a fleet of starships is massing at Wolf 359 to stop the Borg. Guinan suggests to Riker that he "let go of Picard", since Picard's knowledge is being used to thwart Starfleet tactics, in order to defeat the Borg and possibly save Picard's life.

The Enterprise arrives at Wolf 359 to find that Hanson has been killed and the fleet destroyed, including the starship Riker had been offered command of in Part 1. The Enterprise then follows the cube's warp trail to an intercept point and offers to negotiate with Locutus. The request is denied, but the communication reveals Locutus's location within the cube. The Enterprise then separates into saucer and stardrive sections. Although Shelby suggested attacking with the stardrive section, Riker does the reverse and orders the saucer section to fire an antimatter spread near the cube, disrupting its sensors and allowing a shuttlecraft piloted by Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Worf to pass the Borg shields and beam aboard the Borg cube. They kidnap Locutus, although the Borg ignore this and continue to Earth.

Data and Dr Crusher create a neural link with Locutus to gain access to the Borg's collective consciousness. Data attempts to use the link to disable the Borg's weapons and defensive systems, but cannot, as they are protected by security protocols. Picard breaks free from Borg control and mutters, "sleep". Dr Crusher comments that Picard must be exhausted from this ordeal, however Data deduces that Picard is suggesting accessing the Borg regeneration subroutines, which are less protected than key systems like weapons or power. Data issues a command to the Borg to enter sleep mode, causing their weapons and shields to deactivate. A feedback loop builds in the Borg cube, which destroys the vessel. Dr Crusher and Data remove the Borg implants and augmentations from Picard.

The Enterprise is awaiting repairs at an orbital shipyard, and Riker, although offered command of his own ship, insists on remaining as first officer. Shelby is reassigned to a task force dedicated to rebuilding the fleet. Picard physically recovers, but is still psychologically disturbed by his ordeal.

Review:

While Part 1 was great for the first season-bridging two-part cliff-hanger of TNG and of wider Trek lore ever to be done, the second part comes to drop the ball a little on delivering follow-through to part 1’s set-up. Granted, we still get some decent character performances and a good plot with what little decent action the episode could afford, but it’s ultimately failing to deliver on the level of action that is at times promised. Anyone coming into this from watching some later Trek productions like DS9’s story lines with fighting first the Klingons and then the Cardassian-Dominion alliance will see just how much this episode falls short on the action front; indeed, it’s not until DS9’s pilot episode that we get to see the infamous Battle of Wolf 359 in any real detail, as opposed to a DS9 episode like ‘Sacrifice of Angels’ which is almost wall-to-wall starship action at times.

The solution also seems to come too quickly and is almost too convenient. Part of this is because the first part was written without a solution ‘waiting in the wings’. If Memory Alpha is to be believe, Michael Piller waited until he knew he would be staying on as TNG’s story editor before trying to write his way out the seemingly impossible-to-escape cliff-hanger he’d created in part 1. Now while I can understand that desire not to tie yourself into a solution to something that might not be your problem, I think in any kind of continual story-telling, early parts should always be written to leave a few options open. Even if you’re not writing the solution because you’re doing a form of writing like TV or film where you’re not guaranteed to write the next instalment, I think it’s just good manners to fellow writers and to your audience not to write a hard-to-solve cliff-hanger.

As it is, I can’t help feeling TNG might have benefited from extending part 2 a bit more and potentially turning this into a trilogy, much as DS9 did with its season 2 opening episodes. Still, I suppose it ends well enough, and I’m glad this episode and later ones gave us a sense that Picard remains affected by his assimilation experience. Not only is this ground-work that later ex-Borg characters like Voyager’s Seven of Nine would rely on simply to exist, but it’s another move by the show away from being just an unending array of one-off adventures with little to no consequences for anyone involved. That kind of overly simplistic and unrealistic story-telling just isn’t Trek-worthy, and I’m glad it was starting to die out here. Overall score for this episode, 8 out of 10.

Episode 2: Family

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise is docked at Earth Station McKinley, undergoing repairs and refitting following its battle with the Borg. The episode follows the interactions of three members of the crew with their family members. Lt. Worf's adoptive human parents, Sergey and Helena Rozhenko visit the Enterprise, having learned about his discommendation some time ago, but also having been unable to support him as they would wish due to being lightyears apart. Worf, though embarrassed and uncomfortable with their doting behaviour at first, but in the end appreciates their concern. Dr Beverly Crusher retrieves a chest, kept in storage on Earth, containing her late husband Jack's mementos, including a holographic recording he made for Wesley when their child was only 10 weeks old. Beverly, though worried that the two of them have only recently truly come to terms with Jack's death, eventually gives the recording to Wesley. Wesley runs the recording and is given some degree of closure by the message.

Captain Picard, recovering from his Borg assimilation, visits his family's vineyard in La Barre, France, which is run by his elder brother Robert along with his wife Marie and son René. Jean-Luc considers a position on Earth with an underwater research project called Atlantis. Robert has always been jealous of his brother's success and is concerned that Jean-Luc's presence will drive René to also join Starfleet. The two have a bitter argument and end up wrestling each other in a mud puddle, eventually culminating in an emotional reunion, with Jean-Luc breaking down and crying, admitting his sense of powerlessness and guilt at the things he was forced to do while under the influence of the Borg. Robert states that Jean-Luc will have to learn to live with what he did, regardless of where he goes. Jean-Luc decides to go back to the Enterprise. The two spend the night getting drunk as they resolve their differences. After Jean-Luc leaves, Robert decides to let René follow his dream to join Starfleet as René sits under a tree and looks up at space.

Review:

This episode really helps the previous one in terms of moving TNG away from being a series without consequence. While Wesley’s storyline is little more than filler covering a bit more screen-time that the other plots could have made better use of, Worf’s part in the episode is our first real sense of follow-on from ‘Sins of the Father’. At last, Worf’s discommendation gets its first notable repeat mention, and at the same time we get to see our first glimpse into the human family that raised Worf. Their part in this episode brings up some great little messages about good parenting, and as Guinnan points out, there are a lot of parents out there who could stand to learn something from the Rozhenkos.

However, the real sign that TNG is starting to take the idea of multi-episode story-telling seriously in this episode is Picard’s story. ‘Best of Both Worlds’ essentially hinted that Picard remained shaken by his experiences with the Borg, but that was as far as it went. ‘Family’ brings Picard down to Earth, literally, by having him go home and be cajoled into dealing with those experiences by the only people who could do that; his family. Ultimately, that’s the role that Picard’s family, or more accurately his brother, has to play in this episode; to be the spur that forces Picard to drop his outer reserve and let himself feel what he needs to in order to better deal with the mental trauma.

In many ways, it’s not unlike the kind of mental cajoling and breaking through a therapist might use in helping a patient deal with mental trauma, and I think the only reason Troi doesn’t provide this is because she’s part of Picard’s crew, and there’s only so far Picard would ever go to open up around those under his command. Ultimately, it has to be Robert that pushes his younger brother into opening up, and who points out that no matter what Picard does, the experience isn’t going to go away whether you avoid anything related to the source of that trauma or not. It’s a great message that I imagine many people suffering with psychological traumas could identify with and take as advice themselves, which adds in what defines Trek at its best; issue exploration through metaphor. Discounting the wasted time on the Wesley plot, I’d give this episode 9 out of 10.

Episode 3: Brothers

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

A misguided prank between two young brothers exposes the younger of them to a toxic parasite that cannot be treated aboard the Enterprise, but Dr Crusher is able to stabilize his condition in a controlled environment in Sickbay while the ship sets out for a starbase that can cure the boy. As Lt. Commander Data escorts the older brother to visit his sibling, he suddenly stops and returns to the bridge where, unseen by the crew, he sets a new course for the ship and triggers a life support alarm, causing the evacuation of the bridge to be ordered. Captain Picard orders navigational control transferred the controls to Engineering while the rest of the bridge crew evacuates, but Data remains on the bridge, mimics Picard's voice and locks down control of the ship with a complex access code, preventing any interference with his actions. The crew discover Data's lock-down and manually disable the transporter's site-to-site function to prevent Data from easily moving about the ship. Once the Enterprise is in orbit about the planet Terlina III, Data creates a programmed sequence of force fields to allow him to move from the bridge to the nearest transporter room without being stopped by security, and then beams down to the planet, leaving the Enterprise still under his lock-down. Picard orders his crew to attempt to override Data's lock-down of the ship, while Dr Crusher attempts to keep the infected boy stabilized.

Data finds himself in the home of his creator, Dr Noonien Soong. Soong states that he called Data to him using a form of automatic recall and makes a manual adjustment on Data to return him to normal. As they talk, they are joined by Lore, inadvertently also drawn by the same recall that Data received, since Soong assumed that Lore was still disassembled. Lore expresses resentment towards his creator and starts to leave, but stops when Soong tells both of his creations that he is dying and wishes to give Data an "emotion chip" he has created. Soong decides to rest before implanting the chip, leaving Data and Lore to talk. When he returns, he proceeds to implant the chip but discovers too late that Lore had managed to deactivate Data and switch clothing with him, so that he now possesses the emotion chip. Soong tries to warn Lore the chip is not meant for him, but Lore instead injures Soong and transports off the planet.

The crew of the Enterprise find a way to beam down an away team to the planet, where they discover the dying Soong and the deactivated Data. After Data is reactivated, he cannot recall any of what he did on the Enterprise to arrive at this planet, until Soong reveals to him where he can find that information stored in his memory files. Data apologizes to Soong that he will not be able to grieve for his loss, but Soong tells him he will grieve in his own way. After Soong states that he wishes to die on the planet, the Enterprise leaves and returns to its course to the medical facility, where the sick boy is successfully treated. Data observes the brothers at play after forgiving each other for the accident, contemplating his own relationship with Lore.

Review:

This episode is the second in a trilogy that covers the concept of family, although this time we’re exploring it through Data being reunited with his creator, as well as fellow android Lore; in essence, the reunification of a somewhat dysfunctional father-and-sons dynamic that bears echoes of the Thor-Loki-Odin relationship of Marvel lore. Not only is this a great little character piece for Data, but Brent Spiner actually plays all three members of this family. It’s a remarkable enough technical feat to see one actor play two roles, such as when Lisa Kudrow would play Phoebe Buffay’s twin sister Ursula in episodes of Friends or the earlier TNG episode ‘Datalore’ where Spiner played Data and Lore. Playing three characters in one episode, however, is all the more remarkable.

The main plot is very good, albeit lacking any real issue exploration because it is ultimately just a character piece. We also get to see some of Data’s more advanced abilities unleashed, such as his voice emulation and higher-level computer programming abilities. For anything close to issue exploration, it’s the guest siblings, or rather the younger one, that makes the closest thing to a salient point about anything of note. When Dr Crusher is trying to convince the kid to forgive his older brother for the prank gone wrong, the lad claims he’s never played practical jokes on anyone, even for April Fools, because he feels “it’s not funny for the person being pranked.”

As someone with autism who can’t generally separate practical jokes from bullying and sees the two of fundamentally synonymous except where the victim has behaved so poorly that a practical joke is equitable punishment, I totally agree with this kid’s assessment of practical joking. Such pranks, outside of punishing truly horrendous people and the slapstick antics of something like Looney Toons, are little more than the cruellest, stupidest and generally most immature of all humour forms imaginable. It’s not funny because it is essentially humour in weaponised form, laughter directed against a victim in mockery and shame, and in any truly enlightened society it simply has no place, save for an occasional punishment of necessity. Likewise, anything that encourages practical jokes as a generally accepted form of humour like April Fools should be banned.

Hell, April Fools only started because some idiots several centuries back refused to shift from an old model of calendars to a new one. How the hell does that justify all the stupidity of April Fools all this time later? The answer is simple; it never has, and the only true fools are the ones who still celebrate the custom instead of opting out. Frankly, the fact that pranks and April Fools haven’t been edited out of society by the time TNG is set is a flaw in the supposedly utopian world of Trek. If humans are still using humour as a weapon like this by the 24th century, if we haven’t grown up properly by then, how the hell have we managed to establish the kind of world that Trek claims to be. To say I am disappointed by this facet of this episode, and Trek as a whole, is to woefully understate things. Because of this, what might have been a top-scoring episode despite an otherwise total lack of issue-depth becomes worth 8 out of 10.

Episode 4: Suddenly Human

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Talarian vessel. They rescue five teenaged crewmembers - four Talarian, and one human, Jono.

Jono keeps to himself, but shows strict obedience to Captain Picard, which together with some unexplained past injuries leads Dr Crusher to suggest Jono may have been physically abused. It is determined that Jono is Jeremiah Rossa, a long-lost Federation citizen. His grandmother is a Starfleet admiral, and he was orphaned ten years ago when his parents were killed in a skirmish with the Talarians.

When the Captain introduces the topic of Jono's human family, Jono becomes angry. After persistent effort by Picard, Jono's memories of the attack begin to return and a friendship develops between Jono and Wesley Crusher.

A Talarian ship arrives. Its Captain, Endar, asks for a status on his son, who happens to be Jono. Ten years ago, Endar claimed Jono after Jono's parents were killed. This is part of the Talarian custom of adopting the children of slain enemies to replace their own children who have died in battle. Endar explains Jono's injuries as the products of a boy trying to impress his father by participating in high-risk activities; Picard seems satisfied and observes that Endar seems to care for Jono. Picard allows Endar to see Jono, but when Jono says he wants to stay with Endar, Picard suspects the boy is afraid to say he wants to stay in the Federation. Endar insists that Jono will come back with him, even if the result is war between the Talarians and the Federation.

Returning to his vessel, Endar calls for reinforcements, as Picard decides to try to convince Jono to stay. After Jono receives a message from his grandmother, Picard takes the boy to play a form of racquetball, where Jono breaks down and cries due to the sounds of the game triggering long-buried memories of his human parents being killed. The crew believes they are making progress with the boy, but that night, Jono stabs the Captain. The dagger is deflected by Picard's sternum, and the wound is minor. The problem of where Jono should live is now compounded as Jono has committed a crime.

When Picard learns that Jono feels he cannot betray Endar by befriending Picard, the Captain realizes he has been trying to impose his wishes on the boy. Just as Endar's patience is about to run out, Picard contacts the Talarians and lets them know he will let Jono go back. Jono bids Picard farewell with a Talarian ritual that is normally reserved for family members.

Review:

This is the third episode on the trot that covers the theme of family, and again we get a different perspective. The apparent intention behind it was to explore something the show normally looks at using Worf, namely if you raise a child of one culture in another culture, can they ever be of their birth culture or do they inevitably revert to the culture they were raised in. However, exploration of this is partly muddled by the fact that the episode raises issues of child abuse regarding the Talarian-raised human teenager that the episode focuses on. Some less observant and more reactionary viewers seem to think the conclusion of the episode effectively condones child abuse, since those the Enterprise crew suspect of abusing the child get custody in the end. However, the episode clearly shows Jono’s injuries result from the physically harsh games of the world where he grows up, and as such are simply accidental injuries rather than intentional ones.

I think if there is a message regarding child abuse and custody cases in this episode despite the intentions of the writers, it’s not to let your suspicions and the personal emotions that stem from those suspicions cloud your judgement. While better safe than sorry is undoubtedly a wise policy for anyone to adhere to, I think that some people can be inclined to wrap their children up in cotton wool for fear that if their child gets injured even by accident, the state will use it as an excuse to label them as abusers to satisfy themselves. Such fears are perfectly understandable, as this episode clearly shows how easy it can be even for the supposedly enlightened and more rational humanity of the 24th century to leap to the worst possible conclusions and act from those rather considering all the facts. As soon as they see Jono is human, and once Dr Crusher finds broken bones and assumes abuse, the crew is hell-bent on winning Jono back to humanity, even when the broken bones are explained away as accidental, all because the Enterprise crew values its own assumptions over actual fact.

I also think the episode is a victim of when it was made; the later TV franchise of CSI shows the medical examiners of their various shows identifying whether certain injuries could be accidentally or deliberately inflicted, and the earliest of those shows began about a decade after this episode. This makes me wonder if forensic medicine had yet to develop this science far enough in 1990 that a show like TNG could capitalise on it in the same way. After all, if early 21st century MEs can determine the difference between an accidental bone fracture and one caused by an act of abuse, you’d think a 24th century doctor like Beverley Crusher could make similar determinations. As it is, this lack of diagnostic accuracy on Crusher’s part only adds to the error committed by Picard, and it’s only at the end when Jono is driven to violence that anyone realises ‘ok, we’ve messed up and mis-read the entire situation.’

What makes the whole thing really stupid, however, is that Jono’s situation is something of a mirror to Worf’s, and yet Worf is among those seeking to insist upon Jono throwing off his adoptive culture for his birth one. That seems very hypocritical coming from a Klingon who has gone into Star Fleet; if Worf were to live by the gospel of this episode, he’d have gone back to the Klingon empire as soon as he was old enough. Has he done that? No, he’s the tactical officer and chief of security for the Federation flagship, for crying out loud. For someone from a race valuing honour so heavily, it’s just stupid and inconsistent to have Worf follow everyone else’s assumption and not argue in Jono’s corner. I won’t even start on the stupid howling ritual that had me muting the episode every time it came on. Bottom line, this episode only gets 5 out of 10 from me.

Episode 5: Remember Me

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The USS Enterprise docks at Starbase 133, where Dr Beverly Crusher greets her elderly friend and mentor, Dr Dalen Quaice. After taking him to his quarters, discussing the loss of old friends, Dr Crusher visits her son Ensign Wesley Crusher in Engineering. Wesley attempts to create a static warp bubble, but the experiment appears to fail. As the Enterprise leaves Starbase, Dr Crusher finds that Dr Quaice is missing, with no record of him coming aboard the ship. As she performs a medical test on transporter chief O'Brien, she realizes that her medical staff is missing; further investigation and discussion with the crew show that she has always worked alone in sick bay.

Dr Crusher continues to try to track down the disappearing people and finds more and more crew members that she remembers being completely unknown to the crew or the computer. At one point, a vortex appears near Dr Crusher and attempts to pull her in, but she is able to hold on to a fixture until it dissipates; the ship shows no record of the vortex's appearance when she investigates. Eventually, no one but Captain Picard and herself remain on the ship, but Picard believes that the situation is normal. Dr Crusher orders the computer to give Picard's vital signs over the ship's speakers so she knows he is still there, but shortly thereafter, even he disappears. Then, the vortex reappears, and once again tries to claim Beverly. She is blown across the bridge, but she manages to hang onto the chair for the Ops position until the vortex disappears.

At this point, it is revealed that the actual Enterprise, where Wesley had successfully created the warp bubble and accidentally trapped his mother within it, is trying to rescue Dr Crusher. With the warp bubble collapsing rapidly, Wesley's fears lead the Traveller to appear and help Wesley attempt to stabilize the bubble. The Traveller recommends the Enterprise return to the Starbase, where the warp bubble was formed and may be more stable.

Within the warp bubble, Dr Crusher attempts to direct the Enterprise to the home planet of the Traveller, but soon finds the ship is unable to set that destination, as it no longer exists. More of the universe she knows disappears, soon leaving only the Enterprise. She recognizes the shape as being that of Wesley's warp bubbles, and determines that she is trapped, the earlier vortex being the Enterprise crew's first attempt to save her. As the warp bubble shrinks, erasing parts of the Enterprise, she races for Engineering, the centre of the warp bubble, and finds a vortex waiting there. She jumps in at the last moment, finding herself back in Engineering along with Picard, Wesley, Geordi La Forge, and the Traveller. She embraces her son and obtains confirmation from Picard that the Enterprise's population is 1,014, including her guest Dr Quaice), which is the correct number.

Review:

Here we have another example of a cost-saving bottle episode made to save money where earlier episodes perhaps involved an over-spend. It’s not up there with the like of ‘The Offspring’ for quality; it’s taking an item that was apparently intended for the earlier episode ‘Family’ and got for time, turning it into a stand-alone episode and then bringing back the Traveller, a guest character not seen since his only prior appearance in TNG’s first season. As a result, we get a re-hash of the ‘thoughts making reality’ premise from the Traveller’s one previous episode, albeit focused entirely around Beverley Crusher. Gates McFadden does a wonderful job taking centre stage for this episode, but there’s only so much she can do to raise its quality; there’s simply not enough substance for her performance, and the performances of the other actors, to bring to life. No character exploration, a recycled issue from a past episode. The only reason I give it 6 out of 10 and not less is that we’re at least getting a break from the kind of stupid we got on the previous episode.

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juliokav · 4 years ago

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From the Human Brain to the Global Brain

~> @ http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/…/10/human-brain-global-brain

Figure 1. Computer-generated image of internet connections world-wide (Global Brain). The conceptual similarities with the human brain are remarkable. Both networks exhibit a scale-free, fractal distribution, with some weakly-connected units, and some strongly-connected ones which are arranged in hubs of increasing functional complexity. This helps protect the constituents of the network against stresses. Both networks are “small worlds” which means that information can reach any given unit within the network by passing through only a small number of other units. This assists in the global propagation of information within the network, and gives each and every unit the functional potential to be directly connected to all others. Source: The Opte Project/Barrett Lyon. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.

From the Human Brain to the Global Brain

By: Marios Kyriazis

Introduction

Human intelligence (i.e., the ability to consistently solve problems successfully) has evolved through the need to adapt to changing environments. This is not only true of our past but also of our present. Our brain faculties are becoming more sophisticated by cooperating and interacting with technology, specifically digital communication technology (Asaro, 2008).

When we consider the matter of brain function augmentation, we take it for granted that the issue refers to the human brain as a distinct organ. However, as we live in a complex technological society, it is now becoming clear that the issue is much more complicated. Individual brains cannot simply be considered in isolation, and their function is no longer localized or contained within the cranium, as we now know that information may be transmitted directly from one brain to another (Deadwyler et al., 2013; Pais-Vieira et al., 2013). This issue has been discussed in detail and attempts have been made to study the matter within a wider and more global context (Nicolelis and Laporta, 2011). Recent research in the field of brain to brain interfaces has provided the basis for further research and formation of new hypotheses in this respect (Grau et al., 2014; Rao et al., 2014). This concept of rudimentary “brain nets” may be expanded in a more global fashion, and within this framework, it is possible to envisage a much bigger and abstract “meta-entity” of inclusive and distributed capabilities, called the Global Brain (Mayer-Kress and Barczys, 1995; Heylighen and Bollen, 1996;Johnson et al., 1998; Helbing, 2011; Vidal, in press).

This entity reciprocally feeds information back to its components—the individual human brains. As a result, novel and hitherto unknown consequences may materialize such as, for instance, the emergence of rudimentary global “emotion” (Garcia and Tanase, 2013; Garcia et al., 2013; Kramera et al., 2014), and the appearance of decision-making faculties (Rodriguez et al., 2007). These characteristics may have direct impact upon our biology (Kyriazis, 2014a). This has been long discussed in futuristic and sociology literature (Engelbart, 1988), but now it also becomes more relevant to systems neuroscience partly because of the very promising research in brain-to-brain interfaces. The concept is grounded on scientific principles (Last, 2014a) and mathematical modeling (Heylighen et al., 2012).

Augmenting Brain Function on a Global Scale

It can be argued that the continual enhancement of brain function in humans, i.e., the tendency to an increasing intellectual sophistication, broadly aligns well with the main direction of evolution (Steward, 2014). This tendency to an increasing intellectual sophistication also obeys Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety (Ashby, 1958) which essentially states that, for any system to be stable, the number of states of its control mechanisms must be greater than the number of states in the system being controlled. This means that, within an ever-increasing technological environment, we must continue to increase our brain function (mostly through using, or merging with, technology such as in the example of brain to brain communication mentioned above), in order to improve integration and maintain stability of the wider system. Several other authors (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry, 1997;Woolley et al., 2010; Last, 2014a) have expanded on this point, which seems to underpin our continual search for brain enrichment.

The tendency to enrich our brain is an innate characteristic of humans. We have been trying to augment our mental abilities, either intentionally or unintentionally, for millennia through the use of botanicals and custom-made medicaments, herbs and remedies, and, more recently, synthetic nootropics and improved ways to assimilate information. Many of these methods are not only useful in healthy people but are invaluable in age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease (Kumar and Khanum, 2012). Other neuroscience-based methods such as transcranial laser treatments and physical implants (such as neural dust nanoparticles) are useful in enhancing cognition and modulate other brain functions (Gonzalez-Lima and Barrett, 2014).

However, these approaches are limited to the biological human brain as a distinct agent. As shown by the increased research interest in brain to brain communication (Trimper et al., 2014), I argue that the issue of brain augmentation is now embracing a more global aspect. The reason is the continual developments in technology which are changing our society and culture (Long, 2010). Certain brain faculties that were originally evolved for solving practical physical problems have been co-opted and exapted for solving more abstract metaphors, making humans adopt a better position within a technological niche.

The line between human brain function and digital information technologies is progressively becoming indistinct and less well-defined. This blurring is possible through the development of new technologies which enable more efficient brain-computer interfaces (Pfurtscheller and Neuper, 2002), and recently, brain-to-brain interfaces (Grau et al., 2014).

We are now in a position expand on this emergent worldview and examine what trends of systems neuroscience are likely in the near-term future. Technology has been the main drive which brought us to the position we are in today (Henry, 2014). This position is the merging of the physical human brain abilities with virtual domains and automated web services (Kurzweil, 2009). Modern humans cannot purely be defined by their biological brain function. Instead, we are now becoming an amalgam of biological and virtual/digital characteristics, a discrete unit, or autonomous agent, forming part of a wider and more global entity (Figure 1).

Large Scale Networks and the Global Brain

The Global Brain (Heylighen, 2007; Iandoli et al., 2009; Bernstein et al., 2012) is a self-organizing system which encompasses all those humans who are connected with communication technologies, as well as the emergent properties of these connections. Its intelligence and information-processing characteristics are distributed, in contrast to that of individuals whose intelligence is localized. Its characteristics emerge from the dynamic networks and global interactions between its individual agents. These individual agents are not merely the biological humans but are something more complex. In order to describe this relationship further, I have introduced the notion of the noeme, an emergent agent, which helps formalize the relationships involved (Kyriazis, 2014a). The noeme is a combination of a distinct physical brain function and that of an “outsourced” virtual one. It is the intellectual “networked presence” of an individual within the GB, a meaningful synergy between each individual human, their social interactions and artificial agents, globally connected to other noemes through digital communications technology (and, perhaps soon, through direct brain to brain interfaces). A comparison can be made with neurons which, as individual discrete agents, form part of the human brain. In this comparison, the noemes act as the individual, information-sharing discrete agents which form the GB (Gershenson, 2011). The modeling of noemes helps us define ourselves in a way that strengthens our rational presence in the digital world. By trying to enhance our information-sharing capabilities we become better integrated within the GB and so become a valuable component of it, encouraging mechanisms active in all complex adaptive systems to operate in a way that prolongs our retention within this system (Gershenson and Fernández, 2012), i.e., prolongs our biological lifespan (Kyriazis, 2014b; Last, 2014b).

Discussion

This concept is a helpful way of interpreting the developing cognitive relationship between humans and artificial agents as we evolve and adapt to our changing technological environment. The concept of the noeme provides insights with regards to future problems and opportunities. For instance, the study of the function of the noeme may provide answers useful to biomedicine, by coopting laws applicable to any artificial intelligence medium and using these to enhance human health (Kyriazis, 2014a). Just as certain physical or pharmacological therapies for brain augmentation are useful in neurodegeneration in individuals, so global ways of brain enhancement are useful in a global sense, improving the function and adaptive capabilities of humanity as a whole. One way to augment global brain function is to increase the information content of our environment by constructing smart cities (Caragliu et al., 2009), expanding the notion of the Web of Things (Kamilaris et al., 2011), and by developing new concepts in educational domains (Veletsianos, 2010). This improves the information exchange between us and our surroundings and helps augment brain function, not just physically in individuals, but also virtually in society.

Practical ways for enhancing our noeme (i.e., our digital presence) include:

• Cultivate a robust social media base, in different forums.

• Aim for respect, esteem and value within your virtual environment.

• Increase the number of your connections both in virtual and in real terms.

• Stay consistently visible online.

• Share meaningful information that requires action.

• Avoid the use of meaningless, trivial or outdated platforms.

• Increase the unity of your connections by using only one (user) name for all online and physical platforms.

These methods can help increase information sharing and facilitate our integration within the GB (Kyriazis, 2014a). In a practical sense, these actions are easy to perform and can encompass a wide section of modern communities. Although the benefits of these actions are not well studied, nevertheless some initial findings appear promising (Griffiths, 2002; Granic et al., 2014).

Concluding Remarks

With regards to improving brain function, we are gradually moving away from the realms of science fiction and into the realms of reality (Kurzweil, 2005). It is now possible to suggest ways to enhance our brain function, based on novel concepts dependent not only on neuroscience but also on digital and other technology. The result of such augmentation does not only benefit the individual brain but can also improve all humanity in a more abstract sense. It improves human evolution and adaptation to new technological environments, and this, in turn, may have positive impact upon our health and thus longevity (Solman, 2012; Kyriazis, 2014c).

In a more philosophical sense, our progressive and distributed brain function amplification has begun to lead us toward attaining “god-like” characteristics (Heylighen, in press) particularly “omniscience” (through Google, Wikipedia, the semantic web, Massively Online Open Courses MOOCs—which dramatically enhance our knowledge base), and “omnipresence” (cloud and fog computing, Twitter, YouTube, Internet of Things, Internet of Everything). These are the result of the outsourcing of our brain capabilities to the cloud in a distributed and universal manner, which is an ideal global neural augmentation. The first steps have already been taken through brain to brain communication research. The concept of systems neuroscience is thus expanded to encompass not only the human nervous network but also a global network with societal and cultural elements.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgment

I thank the help and input of the reviewers, particularly the first one who has dedicated a lot of time into improving the paper.

Várias referências legais:

(2009). Smart Cities in Europe

(2012). Complexity and information: measuring emergence, self-organization, and homeostasis at multiple scales.

(2011). FuturICT-New Science and Technology to Manage Our Complex, Strongly Connected

(1996). “The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: from metaphor to model,” in Cybernetics and Systems

(2007). The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society.

(2012). Foundations for a Mathematical Model of the Global Brain: architecture, components, and specifications

(1998). “Symbiotic Intelligence: self-organizing knowledge on distributed networks driven by human interaction,”

(2011). The Smart Home meets the Web of Things.

(2014). Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks.

2005). The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

(2007). Smartocracy: Social Networks for Collective Decision Making

(2014). The direction of evolution: the rise of cooperative organization. Biosystems

“Distributing cognition: from local brains to the global brain,” in The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity

(2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups.

(2015) Systems neuroscience in focus: from the human brain to the global brain?

_____________________________________________________ @ http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/02/10/human-brain-global-brain

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flannagangladys · 4 years ago

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Tmj Home Remedies And Pain Relief Fascinating Useful Tips

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Bruxism Massage

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Help1 Info Cure Tmj Naturally

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#Tmj Home Remedies And Pain Relief Fascinating Useful Tips #Natural Remedies For Tmj Headaches

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agape-philo-sophia · 4 years ago

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➝ Declaration of Freedom for All Humans.

All is Love. Fear is Illusion. All beings are Free. Truth can Never be Destroyed. I do not consent to the use of military grade psychological operations and false flags that are being deployed against the population to incite division, classification, violence and hatred towards any human being, with the purpose of hiding the crimes made against humanity. I do not consent to the deceptive methods of those intentionally orchestrating a well funded and organized destruction of western society, along with the goal of total annihilation of human freedoms and civil liberties. I choose unity with human beings who truly want to live as free citizens, with the individual rights and protections that are God given in Natural laws, as all humans are made equal under God. I do not consent to have any human being, living being, entity, person, corporation, secret group or representative, or their overlords or off world allies, anyone working for or with any of the above to spy, survey, look into, to watch or in any way intrude upon or invade our personal privacy and right to our own personhood for any reason. I do not consent to planetary harnessing and surveillance structures and methods which track me, collect data on me or seek to predict and influence our consciousness decisions without our knowledge or awareness. Each experience that is for my own consciousness being is for my personal growth and development, this is not for any corporate or organization to seek profit or personal gain from. They are not to be controlled by anyone, any person, entity, corporation, government, religion, machine, being, except directly by my individual and personal self. These experiences which are part of my unique life experience cannot be used by any other being, human, entity, corporation or group or any other example of someone or something that is not me, like a clone, in any way that creates money for profit while demeaning, dehumanizing, degrading or negatively affecting my living being that is myself. The medical anti-life system existing in all reaches of the planet is now and forever expressly forbidden to use or profit from any of my DNA, RNA, soul or spiritual essence, body or body parts, organs, blood or blood record, or lineage of patriarchal or matriarchal connections in past, present and future time. All superimposed karmic loads in the inverted and reversal systems of the AI are now fully terminated. The addition of any negative alien agenda artificial intelligence to any of my bodies, body parts, other selves and stations of identity is now expressly forbidden in this moment for eternity. The prostitution of my personal human body, which houses my unique DNA that is my private domain, for the purpose of buying, selling, owning or controlling is forbidden and banned. The buying, selling and owning of my unique and personal DNA, energy, physical body consciousness anywhere in this universe, dimension, astral level or world is now forbidden and fully banned. The harvesting of our human energy by any negative alien group, organization, corporation, government, religious sect, or cult, astral entity, imposter spirit, AI or anyone who is not directly my single soul occupied being, is forbidden and banned. Whatever form it takes our energy is our own creation and I do not consent to having it harvested for others to use or to profit from for personal gain. Buying, selling, and controlling amounts to consciousness slavery and slavery is forbidden by me under my own God ordained free will in cosmic sovereign law. I do not consent to the use of AI, alien machines, nanotechnology, parasites, or any other type of infectious disease, infectious technology, biowarfare genetically engineered organisms, what-so-ever, when-so-ever, where-so-ever now, in the past or in the future, in this present time, to be used upon my human physical body or mind consciousness, soul, spirit or avatar. I terminate all blood sacrifice and satanic ritual abuse of our body, mind and spirit on all levels of our being now. I do not consent to any type of mind control or the use of artificial intelligence technology implants living or nonliving, to be used on our being, our physical body, our ethereal body, electromagnetic body, astral body, consciousness or my 12th dimensional blueprint which could possibly have any effect upon my physical body, mind consciousness, soul, spirit in any shape or form. I do not consent to the external creation of dreams or manipulating timelines or my consciousness to be manipulated during sleep state. I do not consent to any other human being, corporation, cult, government, religion, entity, fallen angelic, imposter spirit, AI machine, dimensional being or other entity entering or implanting my consciousness on any level at any time. I do not consent to any type of AI frequency waves used for bio spiritual warfare or psychotronic attack against living organic human beings in the past, present or future time. I terminate all targeting and attack of my Christos 12th dimensional blueprint and beyond the human physical, etheric, astral bodies, our unique DNA, our cells, our mind our living consciousness, soul, spirit or avatar in any way that is negative or feeding the Controller mechanism and negative alien agenda. This includes any type of secret covert Earth based off world based AI technology, which includes locations on moons, asteroids, satellites or other undisclosed places being used that project pulses, beams, waves or any unknown frequency which has been identified as detrimental to the human body, human freedom and life form, through mind, consciousness, soul, spirit and beyond. I do not consent to the use of fluoride in our drinking water or any GMO substance including food grown and sold for human use, as well as any soft kill methods used to employ mind control and consciousness enslavement on this planet. I do not consent to any mind control programming or remote neural mapping of my brain, body, mind, consciousness or military abduction or kidnapping on any level of my consciousness being or body, by Controllers, negative alien agenda or Orion group. I do not consent to the use of psychotronic attack or psychospiritual warfare, black occult, false white light beings, black magicians, archons, demons, false angelics or imposter spirits of any shape or form, from using mind manipulation or any form of frequency attack against my living being or consciousness bodies. I do not consent to AI programs of machine-like robotic technology either physically, etherically or astrally implanted, used in any way to track, alter, torment, attack, abuse infect or harm my body, my consciousness, my mind, my astral layers, my soul, my spirit or avatar at any time or place for any reason. Dismantle the AI hive mind cloud of combined neural net brains of targeted individuals in the past, present and future timelines, which are fully commanded in Natural Law as sovereign and free living consciousness beings now! I do not consent to deception and lies of any kind being used on my living being anywhere, which creates negative outcomes concerning the health and welfare of my own personal body, mind and soul spirit, or to impact my free will, my prosperity, my wealth, health, abundance, and happiness also described as within my consciousness life-stream. I collapse and close and seal all negative timelines, clones, anti-life, anti-human, Antichrist, superimposed karmic loads, false memories and holographic insert technology used to control my perceptions and subvert my consciousness now. I invalidate and break any vow, contract, agreement made by myself anytime, anyplace or anywhere, across all time and space and dimension, as well as any treaties or contracts considered to be off world and are interdimensional, or a part of serving the Controller mechanism and negative alien agenda. I remove all consent to deception, harm, enslavement, entrapment or control of my living being, my physical body, the ethereal body, electromagnetic body, through my consciousness and 12th dimensional blueprint of my Avatar Christos. Any previous contracts or perceived consents through form of covert or assumed consent is completely nullified and made void, forbidden and banned. Any pre-birth incarnation contracts by any description are all here and now made permanently null and void, as a result of gross deception, gross violation, trickery, mind control and black magic occult practices being used without my awareness or consent. No contract I have signed or agreed to, either in writing or as an assumed or tacit agreement as concerns incarnations in any way shape or form upon the earth, is valid regardless of any perceived amount of time or space, physical dimensional or otherwise has transpired since that original contract or agreement was begun. No previous consent or contract given, if done under duress in intimidation or harm, as a result of deceptions and without me being fully informed of the possible outcomes is now considered null and void. If any such things as listed above are being done or ever were done, then those acts occurred without my consent and are considered deception and are void and nullified. All tacit or presumed consent by me for any act of doing, done by any other person, entity or being that affects my consciousness and Godself and ascension in any way that is perceived as negative, harming or controlling my free will of self-determination and personhood is hereby now permanently removed and challenged denied. It is denied to any and all beings or entities unless the current contractor treaty has been negotiated with me personally. Any person, being, corporation, government, religion, entity, machine or consciousness that wishes to have a contract or agreement with me, my living being or physical body, my consciousness must do so in complete transparency and truth, with every single piece of consent explained in full detail with absolutely no missing information or obligations left unstated or unexplained, must be written and spoken out in full as my full conscious approval and wet ink signature. The public notice is now given and stated: Hear me now, all Luciferian and Satanic entities and AI hybrid collectives playing the Anti-human and Anti-Christ war game, you are now served an irreversible and irrevocable notice of permanent eviction. The criminally insane self-appointed overlords of humanity, the corrupt leaders including the negative alien agenda and its controllers and minions, any being, entity, corporation, government, cult, religion, machines or person aligned in any way with any of these groups, is similarly given this permanent and irrevocable notice of eviction and termination in access to my mind, body, and consciousness now. Beloveds in the most gentle and loving way possible, please restore human freedom and sovereignty to all human beings on this planet. As we seal our command in the light of truth, unity and wholeness, we claim the sovereign right of all living beings to be restored to all natural laws, in all grid systems, planetary networks and within the law of structure governing all organizations we have permission to represent, through the power and authority of God and Christos Sophia. This is our declaration of freedom from all control and authority structures that interfere with human free will and self determination by inciting malicious pysops and divide and conquer agendas against the populations of the earth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Continue reading here: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1126499074378878976?referrer=MindCom --------------------------------------------------- #Truth #SelfGovernance #NaturalLaw #Sovereign #SpiritualWarfare

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mittensmcedgelord · 7 years ago

Text

Mind Games

After a few days of contemplative solitude and the realization that there was more left behind by his predecessor than just research notes, Morgan goes looking for answers. He heads straight to the one person he thinks understands his predicament as well as he does: Alex.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PREY

Previous: https://mittensmcedgelord.tumblr.com/post/162346148585/april

“Is there a way to implant memories into someone instead of skills?” I’m sitting in front of Alex’s desk, watching him work at his station. He’s got the same expression as always, the one that clearly says he’s sick of administration. When he finally processes what I said he moves to face me and turns his monitor off.

“What kind of memories?”

“Mine.” I pause and amend the statement. “Morgan’s. I only have a few days worth of memory from before Talos. It’s weird.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes.”

“You want to just be human?” He sounds disappointed. His face is easy to read, open and expressive. It makes my life easier. He relaxes as he looks over the top of his glasses at me. “Or do you want to think you always were?”

“I already do. More or less. Typhon don’t have a ‘self’, not the way you think of it.” I’m suddenly acutely aware of the ticking of his antique clock. It’s almost in time with his heartbeat. I’m talking without thinking. My mind is muddled. It won’t filter between thoughts and voice. “They’re a single self. Never an ‘I’. Always a ‘we’. Before I was who I am now, I wasn’t anything. I was shadow and hunger and some vaguely defined anger. That isn’t a lot to really build on. The only ‘self’ I’ve ever had is this one.”

“So you want to be Morgan Yu?”

“That’s who I already am, isn’t it?” I shift in my chair. I can’t read the way he’s looking at me. I think I understand panic now. I’ve gotten used to my new biology, all the little human details. I feel something about them shift. A quickening of movement inside me, like my body is trying to figure out if I should change into something else or move out of the room. I have never felt like this around Alex before, but I’ve also never been inside his office before. I don’t notice I’m tapping my hands against my thighs until I see his eyes drift down to them. Tap, tap, pat. Tap, tap, pat. Fingertips, fingertips, palms. It’s a familiar rhythm, stabilizing.

“Yeah,” Alex finally says. He smiles at me and tilts his head, some emotion I can’t yet identify flickering across his face. “Yeah, you’re right. In a sense, that’s who you already are. You have all the memories Morgan would have after the tests, minus some of the fundamentals. You respond to situations the way he would. The way the original one would. You’re more like he was when we first started this venture than he was at the end of it. Sometimes I forget you aren’t him, go to talk about Ms. Zhou and her damn yappy dog or rib you about video games.”

I don’t know what words to say in this situation. I saw the videos of him and Morgan. They looked like they were happy. The way he acts around me a lot of the time is like a sibling is supposed to act. He still laughs when I take the place of his coffee mug, though I’ve probably done it a few dozen times by now. And now he watches intently as I fumble through my mental lexicon of ‘things Humans say in emotional situations’, unable to pick anything out. It’s absurd that this is so hard when picking up Morgan’s research was so easy. I want to ask him why, but I already know the answer to this one: neural synchronization. I studied all of the parapsychological research for the neuromods and I know that you can pick up bits and pieces of the personality of the one that recorded them. The more pieces of Morgan that are put into me, the more I absorb of who he was. I’ve found the remains of January’s programming in the archives and picked apart all the little things that made the operator what it was. The same goes for December. Turns out, the first Morgan wasn’t very good with words either. So, I sit here dumbfounded and hoping Alex knows where he’s going with this conversation.

“Morgan made some back ups, July through January, but none of them would have what you’re looking for.” Alex takes his glasses off and rubs the bridge of his nose. He doesn’t mention April. I start to ask, but stop. Alex wanted Morgan back more than anyone. If there was an operator, a recent one, that could give him his brother again, he’d have taken that opportunity. Maybe April never got finished. Maybe he heard it and dismissed it, the ravings of a madman slowly being eaten by his own Typhon mods. I try to steady my hands as I watch him. A scream is building in my chest, the kind that comes from not knowing how much you don’t know. He sees it and disarms me in an instant, reaching across the desk to put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. There’s no way to get it all back. I could talk about our childhood or recount Morgan's college hijinks until I’m blue in the face, but all that’d be is me telling you stories. It's not quite the same as real memories.”

“That’s it?”

“That's it. The paranoia set in pretty early during the testing, though. It’s possible that a full copy was made, but even then there’s no way it would’ve made it off of Talos 1.”

“What do I do?”

“What you’ve been doing. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something in his research.” He slouches in his chair and sighs. “Listen, Morgan, you’re you. I don’t care what anyone else tells you. You’re as human as anyone here. Anyone who’s had a neuromod has Typhon in them and that’s most of the people on this station. For Christ’s sake, you’ve got a higher EQ than half the research division. Not that that’s saying much. You’re a good human. More than that, if the sim was any indication you’re also a good person. I’m honored to have you as part of the crew.”

I want to believe him. I want to more than anything. Except his thoughts are completely blocked off. My senses are dull, muted, to something almost less than human. And I want to believe Alex, that he has no idea about April and that he considers me part of the crew, but I swear I’ve felt this kind of neural dampening before.

#prey #prey 2017 #morgan yu sort of #alex yu #mimic morgan #only having five senses sucks #how are you supposed to talk without telepathy? just intuit what people mean?#that's insanity #who can gauge emotions without telepathy?#no one that's who #alex is completely selfless and trustworthy mim #let no one tell you otherwise #especially not Morgan #i tried so hard to get all the typos out #LST read this three times #there are more #i know there are #i'm sorry if you find them

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