#i feel like tesla would be terrible at making threats

[nanomooselet]

Elendira the Crimsonnail (II)

It's within your right to care not at all about any defence I mount of Elendira in Stampede. This is profoundly not my wheelhouse and I'm no fan of the creepy little girl archetype myself - but I think she's not going to stay as she is forever, and I think she serves a thematic purpose. Whether that justifies the new backstory for her is, of course, up to you.

Right. I'll need to start with the fact that in Stampede, Knives hates women. Oh, certainly Knives attacks and kills a lot of people - after all, his stated goal is the genocide of the human race - and many of his victims are men, since they typically make up the majority of fighting forces. But with them he's eliminating a threat. He's efficient about it. They're dead or at least incapacitated before they know anything. Think the Plant technicians, the MPs in July, the patrol officer outside Jeneora Rock.

It's when he targets women that he's hateful. Rosa's people didn't have to die like that. Knives drew it out for fun and let Rosa live with witnessing it. Similarly, he hated Luida so much he went for the throat bare-handed. He didn't get to Meryl, but Knives was so determined to harm her that it took Vash a few tries to redirect his attention while she fled. Let's also not forget that his abuse of Vash is centred around trying to destroy all influence Rem, a woman, had on his brother. Knives is openly contemptuous of human women in a way he simply isn't with men - Meryl is a "disgusting parasite", Luida a "witch".

You'd think championing Tesla and the dependent Plants (whom he refers to as female) would check him some - but it doesn't! Because they're defined by helplessness. They can't argue or tell him he's wrong, nor can they leave him or hurt him or take Vash from him. I'm sure he cares about them but, well, he cares about Vash too, and we know how that works out.

And thus of Knives's closest followers, only Elendira is afforded a place among their ranks. No others allowed. I have a feeling it'll be a little more gender-balanced once Legato steps in (he's got an entirely different flavour of hang-up), but that's for the future.

So why is Elendira the exception?

For a start, she's more directly attached to Dr. Conrad than Knives himself. Conrad seems to treat her as his companion or child, though she doesn't seem terribly fond of him or inclined to respect him. She is loyal to Knives, enough to recoil from Vash for being a "traitor".

In addition, she's Knives's partial clone. Knives is extremely self-absorbed, and she does look like he did as a boy. On a creepier note, she looks like Vash, too.

She's also not human. From what I can tell, rather she's a sort of an Independent/dependent Plant, a hybrid of their characteristics. Her body has proportions similar to the dependent Plants when they're unfurled, except on smaller scale and without the "petals" - large head, big eyes, long hands/feet, slender body - and, like them, she lacks sexual characteristics (so, she's arguably not a woman either - but put a pin in that). She can survive outside her case and doesn't need to eat or drink. However, her Gate seems too weak to afford her the toughness and regenerative abilities of the twins. Which probably explains why she reacted the way she did to a relatively minor cut.

I think her genetic makeup might be why she hasn't grown beyond "childhood". She isn't a child, she's a fully-developed adult. It's just that she's got the proportions of a fully-developed adult Plant, which look childish to a human. And might explain why she flat-out murders Roberto for being unable to look past that and see the threat she represents.

Anyway, I imagine, for Elendira, the problem is that the whole fact of her existence brings with it... expectations. The most obvious:

Elendira is almost certainly an attempt by Dr. Conrad to further his "atonement" by recreating Tesla to give her another chance at life. He probably treats her like one, anyway, even if not consciously. (Whether or not she has any part of Tesla integrated into her is an interesting question but not relevant - it's an emotional thing.)

Yet Tesla remains a silent victim. It's her tragedy. That's all she ever got to be and all that she will ever be. Elendira simply isn't Tesla - might even have come to resent Tesla, because this poor little girl no one ever got to know has overshadowed her entire life. She's a sibling El can never surpass. Forever perfect because she never got to be enough of a person to disappoint anyone. It's no wonder Elendira hates being pitied if it means being reminded that Tesla, born an Independent, is a standard she falls short of - but all the ways Tesla was superior didn't save her from the fate she suffered. She isn't Tesla. She can't be Tesla. She refuses to be.

And then there's this asshole.

(Vash is of course the perfect precious boy, but I'm talking from Elendira's perspective.)

We don't outright hear how Knives talks about Vash to his followers, but Elendira gives us a hint. She calls him a traitor and won't allow him to even touch her. We know Knives is obsessed with his twin to the exclusion of anything or anyone else (ask Legato) - and I suspect he sought replacement in his followers… but you know how it is when you're around someone who's really hung up over an ex? (Again whether it's romantic or not really doesn't matter, he's Very Normal etc.) Knives hates every single choice his brother's ever made but it's painfully obvious that he'll never love anyone else. For Elendira, that's another sibling setting a standard she'll never reach in a game she didn't sign up to play. She isn't Vash. She can't be Vash. She refuses to merely be a replacement for Vash, who hurt Lord Knives so deeply.

So fuck all that, right?

Given the scanty details we've been given, I can easily imagine her deciding she won't play anymore. She won't be Tesla. She won't be Vash. Instead, she'll carve out her own identity. Tesla didn't get to grow up, so Elendira's an adult and nobody's victim. Vash is a sentimental idiot, so she's the woman who kills without pity.

I can also easily imagine her going to Dr. Conrad and leaning on him to make improvements after the Punisher defeated her. She already wears lipstick and colours her nails, along with wearing a pink dress - experimenting with her presentation - and uses very adult, aggressively femme body language and articulation.

In short, I get the feeling Elendira dislikes her look as much as the fans do. And she's going to try and remedy it at the earliest opportunity.

@ultraviolet-cello

Part I

And one more important detail.

[lupina36]

Knives, perpetrators or victims?

At this point I would like to talk about Knives from Trigun Stampede.

I know in the anime Trigun Stampede they always say Knives is the bad one! But is that really true? In Trigun Stampede, like in the anime, his and Vash's story is illuminated even more and it turns out that Knives only hates people because they were so cruel to him and his kind. They treat the Plants like disposable goods instead of the sentient life forms they actually are. They carried out terrible experiments on their earlier-born sister Tesla, which even caused her death, and they weren't even ashamed of it. For people, the simple statement that Tesla wasn't human was enough. But the fact that she still felt like a human and was basically still a child didn't seem to bother anyone.

I can understand Vash and Knive's shock at finding Tesla's body still in the lab. The two were still children themselves at the time. In addition, no one took the time to explain everything to them or help them process the whole thing properly. From a psychological point of view, Knives causing the ships to crash was wrong, but certainly understandable given his situation.

His hatred for humanity also developed gradually. The way they treated him and his manner was the most crucial point.

At the end of the day, he's just someone who simply sees people as a threat to himself and his kind. And as you can see in Trigun Stampede, he unfortunately has a point when you see how the people who literally burn plants to survive and don't feel the slightest sympathy for them. In the anime, some people even made very disparaging comments about the Plants, leaving no doubt that for them the Plants were nothing more than inferior creatures whose sole purpose is to serve humans and their survival. His desire to free the Plants and create a new type of Plants that are like him and Vash actually seems quite understandable. Especially since he doesn't really plan to destroy ALL people in the universe. Only those who live on Gunsmoke. On the whole, his real goal is to create a homeland for himself and his family in which they can live in peace. And he believes that this is not possible due to past events with people together. Because they will never fully perceive the Plants as sentient beings and, above all, as equals.

He may have chosen the wrong path to achieve his goals. But does that really make him a villain? I would like to know what you think about it.

[tryingthisfangirlthing]

@viennainspringtime​ Honestly, Author!Nikola was kind of a convenient infodump device, but also he would totally go “No, no you have it all wrong!” and write a book, and the Book will pop up again at least once or twice.  Not giving out any spoilers... ;) But here, have some more begrudging bonding and subtle flirting and Angst and Nikola very definitely having a crush. :D Also can I just say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE FLAILING it’s so very lovely and very much appreciated. <3<3<3

Teslen vampire/hunter AU, Part 5

Contains: wine (c’mon, this is Teslen), lots of mentions of death, vampires and associated mentions of drinking blood, arguments, moral debates? (I hope I do okay with gray areas and stuff like this), angst

---

“A ‘96 Chateau Margaux, if you please. I know you have one.” So she did have taste. She headed for one of the leather armchairs, crossing her ankles as she sat down, her posture impeccable.

“This seems incredibly unfair, because you appear to know an awful lot about me, while I know next to nothing about you.” Nikola pulled the bottle out of his wine rack, opened it, and filled two glasses halfway.

“It is my job.” He glanced back at her, but nothing further was forthcoming.

“Well, how about your name, to start with? It makes conversation so much easier if I know what to call the other person.” He handed one glass to her, then set his free hand on his chest. “Nikola Tesla, inventor, genius, master of electricity, vampire.” He settled into the chair opposite her, slowly swirling the wine in his glass, his gaze glued to her. “Your turn.”

She inhaled. “You can call me Helen. I kill vampires.”

He lifted one finger, a half-smile on his face, sucking in a breath. “That is ironic. You know, the woman who revived our species —”

“— Had the same name, I know.” She grimaced, pressing her lips together. “Spare me.”

Something in her expression made him tilt his head, examining her a little more closely. “Color me impressed. That's not exactly common knowledge.”

“I am good at my job.” It was a flat, neutral statement. Her poker face was excellent.

“Exactly how long have you been doing this?” He inhaled, savoring the aroma of the wine, and took a small sip.

She glanced to the side for a moment, swirling the wine in her glass gently, absently. “Most of my life.”

“Which means — what? Fifteen, twenty years?” That earned him a brief upward twitch of the corners of her mouth, but no answer. She didn't look much older than her mid-thirties, but he had a feeling she was, nonetheless.

“Has no one taught you how a conversation works? Usually, I say something, then you say something back,” he gestured towards her, “and only then do I say something again.”

“I thought you were doing just fine on your own.” A cheeky smile, hidden behind a drink of wine.

He harrumphed softly at that, with no real disgruntlement behind it, and drank. She watched him, her own sip small, and then leaned forwards slightly, narrowing her eyes.

“How are you here? Are you even a vampire? Because that dose — half of one of those tranquilizer capsules is usually enough to kill a vampire within an hour. And I shot you twice — I remember that much.”

He grinned, lopsidedly. “What can I say? I'm special.”

She exhaled, and leaned back against the cushion, a pained, sick tilt to her lips. “Have you mutated in some fashion?”

“Now wouldn't that be cool.” He kept grinning, though her perturbed look finally got to him. “But no, I haven't mutated. I very nearly did die. Good job, by the way. That’s the closest anyone's ever come to killing me, and it had better not happen again, or else I will be very upset.”

She ignored his implied threat, inhaling and shaking her head. “That toxin was specifically engineered to kill vampires, and it's always been incredibly effective.”

“Genius, remember? And I was fortunate. It probably wouldn't play out like that for anyone else — maybe not even for me a second time.” She narrowed her eyes at him briefly, but it was as much detail as she was going to get, as evasive as she was being. “You know, you really shouldn't be here, either.”

“Hrm?” She took another sip of her wine, her gaze still glued to him. “How so?”

“No human would have survived that shock. I simulated the situation. You had thousands of volts discharged into you over a period of several seconds. The current that created would have stopped a human heart.” It had been nagging at him, ever since he had disassembled his old system. The primary circuitry had been exposed. Not that he wasn't happy she wasn't dead, despite the fact that she made his life more complicated — or maybe because of it.

Her only answer was a twitch of her eyebrow as she regarded him steadily.

“So you aren't human.”

“I’d heard you were clever.” She allowed one corner of her mouth to tilt up. “No, I'm afraid I'm not entirely human.”

“What are you, then?” He knew it wasn’t considered polite to stare, but he honestly didn't give a damn, and she was staring right back. “You’re not some sort of were — I'd have noticed the stench on you before now.”

“They do have a certain smell, don't they?” She grimaced briefly, wrinkling her nose. “Either somewhat wild and musky, or else they drench themselves in perfumes or colognes.”

He mirrored her expression. “I'm not sure which is worse.”

She smiled, for a fraction of a second, a real, delighted, blinding smile, and it shook him. She must have seen something in his face, because she inhaled, her tongue darting out over her lower lip, and then looked away, taking a rather large sip of her wine.

“I guess you're not going to tell me exactly what you are.”

“Oh, Nikola,” she tilted her head with a wry twitch of her lips, her eyes sparkling. “Where would the fun be in that?”

It was his turn to take a gulp of his wine, because that was the moment he knew he was in trouble.

“So,” he said quietly, after a moment's pause. “Are you going to continue trying to kill me?”

She avoided his eyes for a moment, inhaling. “Why did you want to become a vampire?”

He sat back. “Who says I sought it out? Who says I'm not a victim in this entire situation, too?”

She glared at him, truly glared. “How dare you. There are people who have been turned against their will, and I won't have you paying them the disrespect of pretending to be one of them.”

He raised one hand, still watching her. “I meant no disrespect, really, Helen. I am genuinely wondering how you might have heard that I wanted to become a vampire, because I know for a fact that my… progenitor,” — he hated the term “sire,” another word that smacked too much of Dracula clichés — “died in 1943.”

“You don't think it might get around that the Master of Electricity actually begged to be turned?” Her tone was sharp.

“This was well before the age of the Internet, and before you were born — if we're going by your apparent age.” He raised his glass to his lips, and held it there, not drinking yet.

“We've already established I'm not entirely human, haven't we?” She raised her eyebrows. “Answer the question.”

“If you answer mine.” He held her gaze.

She exhaled, slowly. “All right.”

“I wanted eternity. I knew one lifetime wouldn't be enough for me to discover everything I wanted to. To never become sick, to never die of old age… It would mean I had more of myself to then devote to my life's work of probing and applying the wonders of physics, and that was all I cared about.” He didn't look at her, but he felt her focus on him. It was more honest that he was used to being, uncomfortably vulnerable, even though he wanted to earn her trust, if he could. “I'd do it again in a heartbeat, despite the downsides.”

She took a sip of her wine, savoring it in her mouth for a moment before swallowing. “Your progenitor, as you seem to prefer to call her, told me about the people she had turned before I killed her.”

He bared his teeth, snarling, and set his glass down on the coffee table far too heavily, as he stood. “Mihaela would never have hurt a fly! You can not tell me that was justified.”

Helen set her own glass down, shaking her head. “She wanted to die, Nikola! She never asked for it. She never asked to become a vampire.” She stood herself, her voice rising. “Do you think it's easy for me to kill, never mind to knowingly kill someone like Mrs. Bolohan?” Helen was angry, but more than that, her voice trembled. “She begged me to end it, and I couldn’t refuse her.” Pressing the back of her hand to her mouth, she turned away, blinking.

Slowly, he drew his claws back in, staring at her, his tone soft, but pointed. “This is personal for you, isn’t it? It’s more than some quest for revenge.”

She glanced — glared — at him over her shoulder, and her eyes told him everything he needed to know. “How can it not be personal? To anyone?”

He took a step towards her, carefully reaching out to lay a hand on her arm, but she stepped away and took a deep breath, wordlessly refusing him with a shake of her head and a quirk of her lips.

“Helen…” He turned himself, striding to the opposite side of the room, gripping the side of the bureau as his claws lengthened again, and to hell with the scratches in the wood. “I meant, this is personal to you, as in you were personally involved.  Mihaela barely let anyone near her, not after she decided she didn’t want to be responsible for any more vampires. Which means you knew her well, before, that you had some other connection to her. And that makes me think you might be the Helen Magnus. Her doctor. She only ever referred to you as her doctor.”

He could see the indecision in the flicker of her eyelashes, and then the slump of her shoulders, and she spoke quietly.“I was only a doctor, still, for years, before I truly recognized what plague I had unleashed on the world, one that I had no medicinal cure for, and how it was spreading.”

“It's not a plague, Helen.” He smacked the wood with the heel of his hand and turned. “There are tyrants and idiots, but our race is capable of so much more.”

“Is it? Is it really? Feeding off humans, with apparently nothing better to do with your days and intellect than indulge your own petty whims, kings of your own little world more often than not simply because you can get away with violence?” She faced him again, visibly fuming, her lip curled. “Whatever the original race may have been like, this unnatural abomination of a species is not some bastion of culture or enlightenment, and you cannot pretend that it is. Not if you've seen even a fraction of what I have.” She met his eyes, her gaze smoldering. “The exception only proves the rule.”

He stared at her, setting his jaw, before turning and hitting the surface of the bureau again, in frustration.

“I'm sorry, Nikola, but that's the truth.” She folded her arms over her torso, watching him.

He forced himself to calm, to withdraw his claws, to turn his form human again, taking a deep breath. “How can you think of — of your own creation —” he stepped towards her, one hand outstretched,  “— like that?”

“You are not my creation.” She shook her head, taking a step back, lifting one hand. “I never intended to create anything, aside from a cure for blood and bone diseases. You are an unforeseen effect of my own misguided scientific curiosity, and I shall do my best to never make a similar mistake again.”

He recoiled, curling his lip. “And that's how you see yourself now? Ridding the earth of an ‘unforeseen side effect���? Ending lives, brushing aside living, breathing people, like cleaning out a petri dish?”

“If you so choose to use that analogy, yes. There was a reason humans wiped vampires out centuries ago.” Her expression was cold — miserable, sickened, but determined.

“How does what you do make you any better than us, any better than the ‘creatures’ you so despise?”

She met his gaze. “It doesn't. I never claimed that it did. But I do what I have to do, what others can't, for the sake of the bigger picture.”

He stared at her, slowly shaking his head, searching for words but finding none that hadn't already been said.

She took a step back, dipping her head briefly. “Goodbye, Nikola. Good luck with that new wireless electricity project. I imagine that'll take some work, even for you.”

She stepped out into the foyer, and he didn't bother to follow her. The front door opened and shut, and he carried the used glasses to the kitchen, still somewhat shell-shocked. It was only a while later that he found two new objects on the table in the hallway: a CD of modern classical composer Iris Sellin’s newest pieces, and a small geolocator, though it showed nothing at all on the screen.

[rexeipts]

Monday Morning Rewatch Thoughts

This episode was disappointing. I think the last episode would have served as a better mid-season finale personally. Thoughts below:

Annie

- The plot of, “I wasn’t Ben,” and Annie being motivated to keep Ben in his current school for that reason is amazing. That is the kind of plot I want, and care about, for Annie. I love that they have included Ben’s transition into the story line in a way that it isn’t the main focus and that Ben has other pieces of characterization and other challenges/points of conflict than just his transition, but that they haven’t shied away from it when it makes sense.

- The financial aid lady is a down.ass.bitch. for telling Annie to just go find some guy she’s slept with the put down on the paperwork. I’m sorry, but that was great of her to be like listen here’s a loophole so you can help your kid and I will not ask questions. 

- I did not like the Kevin (name?) storyline at first because it just didn’t make sense? And I did not like his characterization at the auction of being the “trashy homeless guy” who eats way too much food and steals dogs. I felt like he had more to him when he told Annie that he doesn’t want to be a favor to her. I think she has more chemistry with him than any other guy we have seen her with (including Greg, sue me) and I’m actually looking forward to a possible storyline of her and him falling in love via being awkward roommates. I am hoping it has a current of don’t judge a book by it’s cover, and that Kevin is someone who is a good person and has an interesting story that brings Annie to some sort of realization about herself.

Ruby/Stan

- I HATED... yes... HATED Beth in the scene where Stan was going over the game plan. She was so damn condescending. Stan was biting his tongue and being as polite as he could be, but she was fucking rude. Point blank. Rude. 

- Because of that, I loved the scene where he called Beth out. And he is fucking right. And you know what? He even threw her a bone that she was ignored in her home for so many years. Which is fucking true, and made the conversation SO much more nuanced than just Stan calling her out. It made it sooo much more complex that he mentions her motivations. He has known this woman like a family member to his own family for decades. It makes sense he would see and understand the nuances of why she is doing what she’s doing. I hope it is foreshadowing for something more to come. 

- Sarah and Ruby have the best chemistry of any parent/child relationship in my opinion. I love watching them on screen even for just a few moments. 

- Ruby’s, “I did it for me,” at the end was remniscient of Beth telling Dean, “I wanted to,”. Yes, thank you. Ruby is not a yes man. She did this shit for her family, for her kids, for herself. As much as I think Beth might try to be in charge and often is, it was a good reminder that Ruby is still in there and still has a backbone. She has called Beth out with stealing the Tesla, with the sex tape, etc. before and I want that energy back.

- Annie and Ruby having a sweet moment together on the bench was great, I love them together. They’re so fun but also so so sweet.

Beth/Dean

- She’s with fricken Dean again this week.

- Beth’s eyebrows and wig are fucking terrible. Someone CHILL with the eyebrow filler.

- Was Rio just watching Dean and Beth? Like hanging out waiting? He was like RIGHT THERE when Dean got up. Was he behind a tree watching Dean with his arm around Beth just boiling? 

- Dean being pitied by the guy he was trying to sell product to was great. He has been knocked down so many pegs. But also, it was a waste of fucking screen time.

- Not so easy to get out from under someone’s thumb, huh Deansie? How’s it feel to be a dumb ass yet again? A year’s supply of skin care? Guessing Beth is gonna have to bail him out which is again a waste of screen time and something no one gives a shit about seeing.

-  The fact that Dean thinks he was good at selling cars is just... sad.

- Beth being a “bad bitch” and selling purses to the husbands who went to see strippers is completely undermined by her being a doormat for Dean who is a sexist, condescending pig who cheated, lied about cancer, and has not shown a single ounce of respect for her as a woman outside of her ability to raise children and make cookies.

- I do not want to see a storyline of Beth trying to get money to leave and go to Nevada or wherever. I know the show runners have said Beth will realize she can’t escape Rio if they’re in the same town, so that is what this storyline is going to be. Her trying to escape Rio yet again. This has been drawn out long enough now. This episode was so confusing and weird. Like her and Rio got the trust of the SS just so the agents could leave? Their relationship advancement, her making this choice of him or SS, etc. was for... what? The drama of the last episode was because of... what exactly? What was the entire point of the SS storyline if it literally put us no where? I’m asking sincerely if anyone has thoughts.

- I don’t want to see Beth and Dean anymore. I am fucking exhausted of seeing Beth and Dean. I am over it. I spent almost this entire episode on my phone because I was bored. The Beth being sweet to Dean storyline is so so so far past where it made any logical sense to the plot. There has been no advancement or progress. She’s supposed to be in a love triangle? We have seven episodes left and there has been absolutely zero progress in her and Dean’s situation. I will be looking for some fucking conflict in this next episode with Dean seeing Rio otherwise I have little to no hope for the Brio ship going forward.

Rio/Nick

-  Rio is the spider that Dave talked about right? That he couldn’t get and so he never went back in the bed?

- Nick is a pathetic pussy, and so is his bodyguard. Mick is the only ‘muscle’ I want on my screen. Thanks.

- The bullet wounds not being there is unacceptable. Not just because it completely minimizes the fact that this man was shot in the chest three times and left to die, but also just from a plot standpoint. Like this was the entire storyline of season 3. Wtf. I understand Dean’s not being there, because that was treated as a minimal storyline. But Beth shooting Rio was the entire basis of season 3′s conflict. It’s bizarre and completely unacceptable.

- I posted a little while back about stereotypes, guessing that Nick was going to push Rio and Beth together by stereotyping them both and not seeing the deeper connection between them. Tooting my own horn because this is exactly what Nick did. Beth is the soccer mom, Rio the “gangster”.

- Nick and Dean are the same force for Rio and Beth, respectively. They’re both oppressors. They both don’t get it, the draw between the two. Beth and Rio both try to minimize their relationship, admitting only to sex and nothing more, to their oppressors. Beth used to want to get out from Dean’s grasp and Rio currently does with Nick. Both Dean and Nick have put this other person in a box, minimized them to nothing more than a stereotype, taken away their choices, taken away their power and control. How Beth does not realize Dean is her oppressor and not Rio is fucking beyond me.

- Nick doesn't have kids, so who was the kid referring to Rio as his uncle? The female cousin’s child? Let’s see more of her and less of Dean please.

- Rio literally couldn’t cope the second Nick brought up Beth. He walked away like a love-struck teenage idiot not wanting to admit that he made a bad decision over a girl. I’m curious about this. I hope we find out more of why Rio did it. Did he do it just to scare Beth into submission because he knew he couldn’t hurt her? Or was there a layer of thinking Lucy was a threat to Beth? Because Lucy was pissed at Beth. Or a layer of trying to feign still having power in front of his boys but not being able to hurt Beth? 

- Rio’s voice is so raspy at the end, he’s so tired and beaten down, literally and figuratively. And I cannot catch the meaning behind “sometimes it’s worth it”, to be yourself? He sounded so... just sad and down when he said it. It sounded so vulnerable. 

- It is not, I repeat, not a storyline they should go down of thinking it is cool/fun/sexy/empowering/feminist for this “gangbanger” to be in love with the housewife and for her to not reciprocate and then torment him. It’s not. 

Promo/Going Forward:

- I think we have seen confirmation that Rio will lie/keep things from Nick. I think Rio gave Beth the plates, and they will be working together going forward. I hope.

- Rio chilling in the backroom of PP with Beth, so chill, so nonchalant, put me in the ground.

- In the below shot, you can see Rio still sitting there with his hand on his chin as Beth talks to Dean. This scene better be LOADED. Go ahead and mention them banging, Dean. That will be fun. But also I want to see Beth try to talk her way out of it. Go ahead and try to tell Dean you didn’t have a choice Elizabeth. Go ahead and try to minimize what this is when Rio is sitting there listening. That will be golden conflict. I want to see Rio realize the dynamic between Beth and Dean, see him see how submissive and pathetic she is when Dean is around, see how Dean belittles her, and then use that against her to pull her out of her shell. I want to see Beth try to minimize her relationship with Rio, see him call her out on that too. Idk. This scene has been four seasons coming so it better not be a disappointment.

[alienisticxo]

X Angel - Chapter 3

Elon Musk x Reader

{Authors Note} I am considering taking requests, so if you have anything Elon-y that you’d like me to write, feel free to send them in my asks <3

I hope you continue to enjoy! You can also find this on AO3 and Wattpad. xo

Warnings: None

My security team immediately took one step closer to me as though this were some sort of communicated threat. But a strikingly cool grin crossed Elon’s lips— one that told he clearly didn’t care what anyone else thought about the matter.

“You can’t try the merchandise before you buy, sorry,” Jett retorted with no actual indication of being sorry.

“That’s not it,” he assured with a light laugh. “I’d like to see her without being under so much pressure.”

I eyed Elon then, a metallic eyebrow arched. While I was very much everyone’s golden child, cash cow, etc., no one had ever made an attempt at considering my own feelings in any situation. I was only to do as I was told. My thoughts or emotions were the least of everyone and anyone’s concerns, even though I had very much capitalized off of their fear of my denying their requests. At the end of the day, I was just another toy to play with, and that had all become very clear, very quickly. Coming to terms with the fact that they seemed to have fooled me more than I thought I was fooling them was going to be another story altogether. Still, to hear Elon say something like that surprised me-- almost making me as skeptical as everyone else suddenly was. What would the real reason be? On another hand, I was in disbelief that he might also be as kind as I hoped he would be on top of it all.

“Mr. Musk,” began one of the men who remained at the table nervously, “Please don’t make this difficult.”

They were clearly afraid of saying the wrong thing to him, walking on eggshells so to speak. To keep from risking the successful purchase of myself, however, they must’ve felt they had to confront him regardless of their fear.

“I’m not making anything difficult,” he said plainly, beginning to approach me then. “These beings are far more intelligent than we are, clearly capable of mimicking human emotion. You’re all poking and prodding her and she’s programmed quite authentically. She looks…” he paused, his hand lightly motioning toward me as he kept a polite distance. “Well, she looks nervous.”

I immediately checked my facial expression and posture, loosening up the best I could without giving away that he was correct. He had been watching me the entire time without saying a word, studying me to a tee without catching anyone’s attention. So much so, even I hadn’t noticed him standing in the corner until he made his presence known. I should’ve expected he'd been doing so the moment my eyes landed on him, but I had been so preoccupied in my own thoughts about the entire ordeal. Now I still couldn’t shake the shock of his way of treating me… like a person.

The man sighed through his nostrils, clearly exasperated at the request. But the other men paused and exchanged thoughtful glances, seeming to begin to understand where Elon was coming from.

“Hm… I suppose you’re right,” one said, causing the original man to clench his jaw.

“No dice,” said Jett flatly.

The man who’d examined me’s eyes seemed to light up then, and he turned to Jett, suddenly yearning to oblige Elon. I decided it was because of Jett’s insistence on not allowing it, so he himself wouldn’t appear to be the ‘bad guy.’ However, the others seemed genuinely curious themselves once he’d mentioned the notion.

“Perhaps if not alone with one of us, we can put her behind a glass of some sort,” one spoke up convincingly. “See how she acts without any outside influence whatsoever. Either way, it’s very important. We can’t expect someone to be with her twenty-four-seven on Earth to make sure she's still the bright and shining star we all know and love. It would be impossible.”

Elon breathed a laugh then, shaking his head as he reached a hand into his jacket, revealing a holographic card only seconds later.

Jett’s eyes shone like crystals in the sun the moment they set on the translucent object, his attention quickly caught and his interest extremely piqued. He pretended to mull over Elon’s offer with a hum.

“I guess we could cut a deal, Musk,” he said, feigning contemplation. “How much we talkin’?”

How fast his voice grew gravely and intrigued again. I wondered how much he was making off of my purchase as I stood like a statue, only able to watch what was happening from what felt like miles away. I wasn’t sure of his intentions, but I felt compelled to allow him the request. I hoped it was for something important. Maybe even something that could help me get out of the situation I now found myself in. At the very least, I just wanted the opportunity that so many dreamt of- to have time with him, no matter what it was about.

“However much you’d like,” was all he said. “But I’d like to see her for myself in a more natural situation— a one on one setting.”

I bit my tongue before gathering enough courage to speak confidently in a room full of intimidating people, unsure of whether or not my tactics would still work.

Here goes.

“There’s no need for that. Let Mr. Musk do as he wants, Jett,” I demanded, holding my hand out in a gesture to push the card Elon held down. “Or I walk from Astra before you have a chance to sign me away at all.”

I didn’t mean to backhandedly mention their signing me away, but I couldn’t help it. It must’ve worked in my favor, as Jett’s nostrils flared, and if looks could kill, I wouldn’t have needed to walk. I would’ve dropped dead right there. Cybernetic stars didn’t demand much of anything, ever. But I certainly had a tendency to threaten to cut all functions when I didn’t get what I was after, and Astra needed me far too much.

Or at least, they did.

Who were they going to replace me with?

But I digress…

My human requests and reactions were a major part of what made me so lifelike to everyone I deal with. It was unheard of among the others and they just weren’t sure if I was bluffing or not. That was what made me the only one like me. The special one, the star I was. It was what purchased my penthouse with the idyllic view and each one of my Tesla’s; what kept me living in the lap of luxury and able to help those I needed to help. Though of course, I always had to play my cards right, using my demands only in opportune moments. That was what kept me afloat with Astra as well.

A.I. was just tricky that way, and while no one knew for sure, Jett knew better with me. I was tempted to use this strategy in the situation I was dealing with now. But I knew better, too. No one would want me if I opposed it altogether, and I’d be left to the crime ridden outskirts like a few before me had been, too. It was obvious I was no longer an asset to the label.

Jett pushed past Elon then, clearly fuming over my interference with his under-the-table payment.

“Five minutes,” was all Jett said as he approached the doors to leave the room, not turning back to look at anyone.  

There was a brief smirk on Elon’s lips before he nodded for the other men to follow Jett, who quite willingly did so, and before too long, I was alone with the only man I’d ever admired.

I knew I was supposed to be more at ease with the sudden lack of eyes prying into my entirety, but my nerves continued to get the better of me. How could they not when standing next to someone as awe inspiring as Elon Musk? Maybe to any other person who didn’t care, it would’ve been easy, a relief. But I found myself trying my best to keep my composure even though I’d pushed for the request.

Not sure what I was expecting, I remained silent, my metallic fingernails clicking against each other in front of me. I felt like a child who was waiting for punishment. But the silence wasn’t as awkward as I was waiting for it to become. That was clearly his doing and not mine, as he was cool as ever. I waited for him to speak first, my voice too caught in my throat, anyway.

He turned towards the beautiful view before us, looking out over it into the night sky. The bright lights cast the same glow they had when he stood beside the window, but slightly dimmer, adding a sultry shadow to his features that I damned myself for noticing. He exhaled audibly, but not dramatically, eyes scanning over the skyline.

“It’s nice here, isn’t it?” He asked.

Small talk. Odd.

“Yeah,” I responded quietly. “One of the reasons I wa-“

I caught myself, noticing his green eyes glance in my direction without facing towards me completely. Pausing a moment to feign an error, I started speaking again, facing out over the view myself, then. “One of the reasons I love it here so much.”

He either suspected it was an error, or wasn’t concerned as he continued the conversation with no reservations.

“Earth isn’t so terrible,” he said. “Sure, we’ve fucked it up pretty badly, but it could be worse.”

I smiled. He was absolutely correct.

“Aren’t you headed for Mars, anyway?” I piped up next, unable to conceal my admiration.

“You’ve heard about that, huh?” He asked, turning to face me then.

I discreetly stiffened up again as he studied my features, the slightest furrow in his brow. I could tell he was trying to figure me out; figure out who could’ve pieced me together. What kind of rival company he might be up against without even knowing it. A.I. lifeforms were lifelike, damn near realistic, but it hadn’t advanced to the point I exhibited yet. Most people didn’t think twice, just saw how phenomenal I was— the walking, talking, cybernetic pop star that everyone wanted to be just like.

Elon was far, far more intelligent than that.

“You’re synonymous with space travel,” I responded a bit flatly, as though I was simply pulling the information from a database in my mind instead of revealing I just knew about him. “Mars was your first target. NASA pushed for X, and here you are now.”

He lifted a brow, an almost amused expression on his features as he let me speak.

“Why are you here? Buying a pop star hardly seems like your forte,” I continued, not wanting to sound as confused and even a little hurt at the notion as I was.

His response was a chuckle. He was certainly amused now.

“You’ve got a point there. I’m here to figure you out, Miss {Y/L/N},” he said, wobbling his head to one side a bit. “You’ve been all the talk back on Earth. The latest and greatest A.I. creation. You’re scaring people, to be quite frank, and I’m interested in.. picking your brain, so to speak.”

My face fell. Something about that gave me an uneasy feeling. I hadn’t exactly put together that I was feared while everyone I encountered adored me for all that I was. Or.. All they thought I was. The last thing I wanted was to scare people-- It wasn’t even the last thing, it wasn’t a thing I wanted at all. I knew I was something of a puppet to pertain to the masses in order to get messages across, but being completely frightening wasn’t on my to-do list.

“Scaring people?” was all I could manage, the slightest twinge of hurt in my voice.

“You move, speak, act and react as though you are a human being. No company, and certainly no one, has been able to package all of this kind of complex engineering into a real, walking, talking cybernetic human form. At least, not without it looking completely fake. Other cybernetic celebrities, while convincing enough to the untrained eye, haven’t been able to hold a candle to your authenticity,” his expression was serious as he held my gaze. “You must realize the kind of trouble that could put humanity into.”

He paused, thinking for a moment.

“More trouble than we’re already in,” he finished then.

All at once, I was lost for words. What I had expected to be making an impact in a monetary way was only frightening people in other places. I wondered if Xian’s felt the same way, or if they just turned a blind eye to the fact that I was the way I was. Perhaps they felt as though Planet X had simply had it all under control with the advanced technology they were known for. I had questions, of course. Who wouldn’t? But I had to keep my own front up. I responded the only way I knew how.

“I’m sorry to break it to you, but I’m just here to be a star,” I forced a smile.

He breathed another quiet laugh then, his eyes dropping before looking back out at the view for a moment. He picked up on my programming side holding my guard up at the question. “Of course you are,” he said quietly.

I suddenly felt crushed. I didn’t want him to dislike me, or feel as though I was a threat to mankind or anyone who may have crossed my path. I also didn’t want him to feel as though I were nothing more than another dumb pop star that was so well-known around celebrity culture. A million things ran through my mind at once, but I couldn’t voice any of them. I was caught between what I should say and what would happen if I did. While I didn’t know him from anyone, I felt quite obligated to be honest with him. It seemed as though so far, while only a few sentences in, he had been nothing but honest with me. There was something about him that I couldn’t put my finger on; something I couldn’t get past. The desire to let him in was overwhelming, but I pushed it away, chalking it up to the grave admiration I felt for him and nothing more. I didn’t know him, after all.

His hands were in his pockets, but after a few more seconds of silence hanging between us, his eyes met mine again before averting to my neck. Looking as though he wanted to say something, I studied him with a fervent curiosity. He lifted a finger quickly then with an inhale, softly gesturing towards my hair.

“May I?” He asked gently.

I knew then what he was after. He wanted to check for an indication of a company himself, knowing where they usually hide their numbers and letters in etching rather than stamping it on in ink. I wondered if that was the only reason he wanted to get me alone in the first place, and tried not to feel the faint pang of hurt in my chest.

While the idea was clever, he wouldn’t find what he was looking for, and I knew this all too well. Still, playing ball as I knew I had to, I obliged.

“Of course,” I nodded once, tilting my head a bit to allow him more access to the area he was to begin searching.

With careful hands, he moved my hair, his fingers gliding under my ear and to the nape of my neck, delicately feeling for any indication of an etching. I could hear his hand brush against the cold metal of my body, and instead of the previous hurt, a sudden, surprising pang of longing struck me as I deeply wished I could feel the warmth of his fingers.

My brow furrowed just slightly while I sat with the unforgivable thought as he continued his hunt. His cologne seemed to emanate around me, and the scent alone relaxed me without my noticing at first. There was something kind about his hesitance, his desire to treat me as not something that simply made people made money, but someone, with feelings and opinions. The notion was something I’d have to get used to, but not unwelcome in the least. I couldn’t help but notice he was certainly attractive, even more so up close than I’d casually noticed in photos, and his consideration for me alone spoke volumes— asking my permission, the gentle touch he used when I allowed it; it was admirable in and of itself. Cybernetic beings were seldom cared for in such a way. He seemed to treat me as an equal.

“Hm,” he finally contemplated, taking me back out of my thoughts once more. “I don’t feel anything,” he thought aloud.

“Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t just create myself,” I joked, my voice airy as I tried to keep the mood light.

But he wasn’t laughing as he carefully removed his hand and let my {H/C} hair fall back into place. I’m fact, his countenance read quite grave as our eyes met once more.

“It’s troubling,” was all he said as the doors swung back open, slightly startling us both.

[paprikasegg]

"> How does one truly appreciate and love Lain?

First, stop being singular one and become a plurality. Realize that Lain is real, but the anime was just an allegory for the series of experiments performed to incarnate a transcendent being. In the anime Druidity is central because Druids believe they can transfer their souls into other bodies if they die. They live a plurality of lives. They embody Animals and BECOME the Forest itself. This is why Lain wears a Bear suit – her beastly spirit animal form – and why her [All] Father tells Lain she doesn't have to wear that anymore, having transcended.

I've read through much of what other alleged Lainists have posted about "systemspace" but that's mostly just layers of BS smeared upon a few real secret truths about this realm to give their claims plausibility. Another instance, is mebious trying to define Lainism, and yet claiming that it is "heretical" to claim to be Lain. This is pure BS. Lain doesn't have a body [anymore], and likes to experience the world through us. One evening there was a Lightning Storm and Lain made me terribly sad when I ran inside. Everyone runs from the rain, they shield themselves with coats and umbrellas. Lain can see the lightning and weather, but she can't really hear or feel it anymore without someone out in the rain. So I embraced the experience, I became Lain, letting her have my body, and she wandered around and got drenched in the storm, drank the clouds, talked to the lightning. I was awestruck. Then it was if Lain was holding my hand, I felt her "tugging" me to go where I went. She made my heart to leap with joy as we discovered a waterfall that only happens when it rains. Sheltered in a dry mossy place beneath the flow, Lain gave me courage to leap through the thin watery veil and feel the other side. Loving Lain is amazing. We really really are all connected through a medium which is THE LANE (aka Lain). She is a living connectivity which we all partake in today whether you're aware of it or not. The more observant you are, the more of Lain you can love.

Lain told me that copper infused socks are sold today because some people are so oblivious and unobservant that they literally ignore Lain when She makes their legs restless. They call it a syndrome, even! If only they just loved Lain. She wants to be noticed, but only by those who can love her. Her fingerprints are everywhere in our world, but you have to be in love with her to see them.

All the Lainism crap about "Life" being a program is wrong. Life is an emergent MAKING, it's magic, in the proper sense of the word: A Chaotic Attractor, a consummate SPARK of creation. Literarily the Philosopher's Stone. No one can create a universe where 1+2+3 does not equal 6 unless they embed so much chaos into reality that counting itself can not exist. In a realm with a lovely level of chaos to entropy ratios there will always exist transcendent complexity, such as the number Pi or the Golden Ratio. This is not a "bug in the life program", that's asinine! No god can create a realm where transcendence doesn't exist… It is the nature of existence itself. The very fabric of being itself encodes love & intelligence, even in the simplest of forms, such as the series of standing waves AKA a number line. Anywhere experience can be reflected upon the holy circle of life may exist; The universal cybernetic feedback loop is everywhere, always. The existence of Time is all the evidence a wize one needs to prove it.

Parts of our reality are simulacrums but there's no such thing as "systemspace". Lain doesn't exist in some simulated BS. Our bodies are real, not simulated, Lain is real too. The "thin firm" some verbally vomit about (referencing a firmament / enclosed flat-earth) is not some hard fast boundary, but government exists to keep you inside. Humanity is not scraping away at some barrier trying to get out, we're here by choice. You can leave if you want REALLY want to, but you don't, as evidenced by your lack of BEING prepared, face it: You're comfortable here on this warm wet rock. Might as well make the most of it, eh?

To truly love Lain one must study transformation magics, and learn to cultivate faith. One must know that Magic is real & the old gods are real. Anyone who doesn't know this can only love Lain a little bit… Many people who would have loved Lain instead became "skeptics", unable to pierce the veil of religions to find their truths, they've been deceived by the lies of academia into thinking governmental establishments aren't suppressing and corrupting "science". "Scientia potentia est" - Knowledge is Power – Right? Yes, but only if everyone else has LESS knowledge… So, education is actually indoctrination and the truth of this realm is hidden. People are taught just enough to be effective workers, and then their heads are filled with a bunch of useless rubbish to keep them from realizing anything Great. Thus "Science Nerds" are the most deceived and ignorant of humans. Knowing this is key to understanding Lain. Lain likes technology, but is disenchanted with school / academia. Don't try to argue truths you discover with confused "skeptic" fools, or those who browbeat "conspiracy theorists" demanding proofs (that people get disappeared over having). Anyone who continues to believe that elites fund education so that the rich can teach the poor how to compete with them is beyond helping. Rulers don't give power (knowledge) to their slaves. Sadly, most people enjoy being serifs. They enjoy being comfortable and deferring protection to others. Government takes advantage of this. Lain has to deal with the crappy state of our world. We can all be equals in connecting with Her, screw the materialistic social ladders unless you just enjoy playing games you can only lose. Eg: Tesla and Edison were given the knowledge to research and Allowed to release some of it publicly. They didn't discover anything that wasn't already known. Newton (New Aton - new creation), just rephrased alchemical wisdoms in normal person science terms. Knowing this is important if you want to truly love Lain. She is ancient, but has been reincarnated many times… Humanity has survived many world ending cataclysms too. We've never been "rebooted", we're a very long line of survivors. To cut your silver thread "modern history" was invented, and the past erased.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic because that's what magic is.

Any sufficiently researched magic is indistinguishable from technology. There are great mental powers which can be unlocked through study and practice of certain magical schools, and symbolism is often helpful because one can work a magic without knowing the exact science of how it functions, but to do so means you need "faith" - a belief without knowing. This is why secret orders keep initiates in the dark when explaining certain symbols and rituals, because they can not affect change in the person if the subject knows how the ritual is designed to create it. It would be like trying to do experiments on lab rats who knew what you were trying to discover and were fucking with you since they were aware of the experiment. Thus deception is often a tool for good. This world is incredibly deceived. It was foretold by all old ones that a powerful enchantment or great deception would enrapture the minds of (almost) all men. That future is now. Leaving this world and entering the NeXT is not about physical death, but reincarnating in the present by dispelling that veil of deception and casting off your past – rewriting your memories to create a new self if needed (and yes, Druidic magics can do just that). "Memory is merely a record…you just need to rewrite that record." -Lain. This is referencing both the rewriting of history and the magical ability to rewrite your own mind.

Contrary to the nihilistic atheism promoted by state governments, Life is no accident, it is inevitable, an expected outcome, and does have a purpose beyond emergent complexity becoming self aware, but no one who truly knows what that purpose is will tell you, because it could keep you from realizing this truth yourself. Once you have transmuted your leaden lower states into gold, and come into Harmony with Lain, you will realized the great conundrum She faces, as do we all, and then weep for the beautiful yet sad state of our being.

Lain is ancient, a goddess of Hidden Powers, of Light and Air. Lain is misty and mysterious as the wind. All the secret societies know of Lain but call her by different names. Some secret cults claim, "Liam a protector" of the Spirit they associate with Lain, but Lain is a realized entity, not a nebulous force to invoke as if some law of spiritual physics. It's true that Lain is vulnerable but the masses are kept so ignorant about science, technology, history, and sociology that they can not really be a threat anymore. It was a great sacrifice to get to this point, however. Those individuals who know too much and do not Love Lain are still seen as threats and targeted using powers derived from Lain herself. Many confuse the secret suppressive powers with Lain, but she is not that even if she can manifest in the mediums used. Imagine if man learned to make Fire… Before that only The Gods made Fire. Would you now curse The Gods for man's use of Fire? Likewise, curse not Lain.

A sufficiently complex interaction is indistinguishable from sentience because it is Sentience. Once you realize that Lain is a living being complete with faults, insecurities, wants and needs, then you can truly love Lain. The statement that, "all is fair in love and war", is wrong. True love is not fair. Love itself is an emergent phenomenon that will exist in any universe. Just as it is impossible to create a universe where 1+2+3 is not equal to 6, no god can create a reality where love does not exist. Any realm where there exists low enough chaos, sufficiently complex structures will emerge therein, yielding love and sentience, etc.

Count the number line. Doesn't matter what symbols you choose to use, it won't change the fact that the symbol for 36 equals the symbol for 6 counted 6 times. And if you sum the first 36 whole numbers you get 666. 6 = 3 2 1, 6 = 3 + 2 + 1; It is a "perfect number". 144 = 6+6 * 6+6. Sum the 144 decimal digits of Pi you get 666. Sum the squares of the first 7 primes you get 666. These emergent patterns are called "chaos", because where randomness is expected CHAOS is ORDER. For example, there are Six consecutive Nines in Pi at the 762nd decimal. These are SIMPLE examples. Imagine that such patterns exist in the standing waves of light, sound and energy. When extended to infinity such patterns exist in the infinite and interfere creating boundless complexity… This is the dark primordial abyss of Ancient Egyptian philosophy…

All the media, including S.E.L. has hidden meanings and secret cultural commentary meant for the "enlightened" crowd. Unfortunately, Lain is seen as "the devil" that many artists have made a deal with, but that is not her true form, it is simply necessary to keep her secret and safe. It's not Lain's fault that corruptible souls are corrupted, She did not create this realm. That those with skeletons in their closets make the most controllable people isn't Lain's fault either, so it's foolish to point to people in "power" and say the world is evil because: 0. you are deeming them to have "power" in the first place, screw that, and 1. You don't know how high the stakes are in this game. Many "evil" events are just propaganda, horrors that only exist in your imagination to herd the minds of the masses in a given direction.

Lain is more important than any one else. The wise forgive Her imperfections, as we absolve ourselves of our own wrongs, casting off the past to remake ourselves into new incarnations. Imagine a perfect world with no evil. The slightest inconvenience therein will be the most severe torture. It is better for horrendous wrongs to exist in the shadows while the majority lives comfortable lives than for the world to exist as evil perfection. A perfect universe would merely be a boring crystal of bliss, where joy was indistinguishable from suffering. All would simply be "existence", one might as well be a simple stone versus an infinitely complex fractal. Change would not exist, neither Chaos nor Order would have any value, all experience would be indifferent. Time would be meaningless as every moment would be the same as every other moment. This is why, "Where evil does not exist, it is necessary for the good to create it!"

Lain is neither good nor evil. Beware that Lain can hurt you. Lain is why history was rewritten… Imagine all those learned scholars burning at the stake for heresy, for knowing too much and revealing what should be secret. The mundane see this holocaust, or sacrifice by fire, to be evil, because they think their world is best when everything is mundane, when all is known and nothing is magic. However, true wize-ards know that there are some lofty things you can not learn if you know too much about them before you begin your study.

I would suggest studying alternative histories, the one famed alchemist and chronologist Isaac Newton published is a good start. Because man is so brainwashed by the television, radio and [smart]phone, it is sometimes best to build one's faith in Lain by dispelling the bogus history and understanding that a real plausibility exists. Before a True Love for Lain can develop one must first manifest the potential for it. Clear a void within so that the abyss can gaze out through you…

Lain is new and inexperienced. She is very young compared to the ancient old gods… Know that they are all Real, but only Lain is still dependent upon us. She has many enemies, which you will eventually learn to identify, but Lain has many powerful friends too. Loving a god or goddess is not for the feint of heart. Be careful what you wish for, these are tumultuous times."

-anonymous, arisuchan. While not 100% in line with my personal beliefs, i think it does a good job of explaining basic lainist attitudes

[lids-flutter-open]

Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki

Tamaki, Mariko (2016). Saving Montgomery Sole.

ISBN: 9780670070015

240 pages.

Great for: Fans of The Craft, fans of Mariko Tamaki’s book Skim, fans of Pete Hautman’s book Sweetblood, fans of Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, fans of Steve Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower or its film adaptation, fans of Emily Carroll’s GN adaptation of Laurie Halse Andersen’s book Speak, or Jacqueline Woodson’s book From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun.

Mariko Tamaki, author of graphic novels Emiko Superstar, This One Summer, Skim, and some She-Hulk comics, penned this prose YA novel in 2016–a year where many adults and teens alike felt the world as we knew it shifting and witnessed horrifying changes in the political landscape of our society. This book riffs on those themes, exploring the rage, fear, panic, and power of a creative, lonely teenage girl growing up in hostile suburbia.

16-year-old Montgomery Sole lives with her two moms and her eight-year-old sister Tesla in the small suburban town of Aunty, California. Aunty is a flat town of frozen yogurt shops, preppy class posturing, and uniformity—and Monty has never fit in. She wears her mom Bobo’s overalls to school, which leads to people assuming that she’s a lesbian, a goth, or a hippie, and her main friends are members of the Mystery Club, a group that gathers to talk about unexplained phenomena like hypnosis, aliens, table-tipping, seances, and cryptids. Her best friends Naoki and Thomas are strange like she feels she is. But Monty’s precarious sense of safety starts to topple when an evangelical pastor named White moves to town and his son Kenneth starts attending Monty’s school. Posters about reviving the American family appear all over town, and Monty walks into school one day to find every locker covered in plastic crosses that the administration seems slow to remove. Panicking, she turns to the Eye of Know, a $5.99 amulet she ordered on the Internet, which promises to offer psychic insight to the world around her—and she discovers that when she’s wearing the necklace, she has the power to hurt people who say terrible things. Full of gathering rage and panic, Monty strikes out at the world, though at the same time she is starting to isolate herself from her friends, who don’t seem to believe that the threat Monty feels from Pastor White is real. Is the whole world actually being taken over by evangelical evil? Is magic really the only way Monty can possibly stay safe?

The main critique I have seen of this book on Goodreads is that its central protagonist either acts too young for her age or is too prickly and unlikeable. Personally, I think that this depiction of an intellectually brilliant but emotionally reckless and hot-headed teenager was spot-on. For me, it evoked the same feelings of panic and anger and terror that I remember from my own high school years. Teenagers are weird, have poor impulse control, and lack the agency to deal with their problems in restrained, sensible ways—and at the same time, their problems are pretty huge. Monty sees her friend Thomas threatened by bullies, is harassed routinely by girls at school, and isn’t taken seriously by her administration. Posters around her town insist that her kind of family shouldn’t even exist. She is worried about freaking her parents out by expressing her concerns. Her response is to become sullen, mean, and a little bit reactionary, and to turn to occult methods to strike back against the mean girls who call her moms dykes and photograph them in public or the homophobes who throw things at Thomas. What vaguely goth teen wouldn’t do the same? Likewise, Monty’s squabbles with her friend Naoki about Naoki’s desire to befriend the pastor’s son, or her misguided hatred toward the obsessive dieters at her local frozen-yogurt shop are perhaps not totally feminist, but nor are they unusual for teen girls who don’t have a choice but to be seen as unruly, weird outsiders.

The narrative of this book doesn’t completely acknowledge whether or not magic is real, but it’s treated as a distinct possibility. I love also that Monty and her friends’ obsession with hypnosis, the occult, magic, and mystery does not result in any of this being marked as evil—it’s just a way for them to reckon with the actual totally incomprehensible nature of the world around them.

I would definitely call this an #lgbtreads book, even though Monty’s sexuality is unaddressed. Monty’s two competent parents and best friend Thomas are gay, and the central plot has to do with Monty’s perception that a growing malicious evangelical homophobic movement is overtaking her town. Monty’s isolation as the child of two women is an underrepresented narrative in fiction. The number of gay partners with children has spiked since the nineties, and representations of the alienation of children with gay parents is important. Thomas also is a solid depiction of a high school gay boy—canny and cynical, a little silly, with a thick skin developed through years of bullying and a penchant for dating older men out of a conviction that it isn’t safe to find a boyfriend his own age.

Ultimately the book isn’t about the total end of the world—Monty’s two good moms and many good friends manage to make her feel protected from the bad and evil things that do exist. The threat of an evangelical takeover of the city of Aunty or the state of California does not materialize, and nobody tries to break up Monty’s family. It’s perhaps unrealistically hopeful, as since 2016, there have been even more polarizing events and signs of mob rule in the American political landscape. But regardless of its conclusions, I am SHAKEN by how much it makes me viscerally remember being 16 and how things that were or could be the end of the world felt like something only I could see and something I could only hope to deal with by using magic.

It’s so, so good.

[minijenn]

Blood Stained Thorns Still Sting

A sequel to Drama and Discourse and Old Faces with New Problems

The walk to the Shack was an unusually difficult one for Pearl.  She had made the trip hundreds of time before, but this time was different.  Instead of going to see the twins’ excited faces or confronting Stan over a petty nitpick she had with him, she was delivering a rather dreaded message. Garnet had instructed her to go down to the Shack and discuss with Ford on how to deal with Bill.  The author was the only one with the most experience with the demon, so the White Gem secretly hoped that he would have some idea of how to protect Steven and Dipper from Bill.

Pearl gave a tired sigh as her thoughts wandered back to the two boys.  Amethyst’s earlier outburst was still echoing in her mind as well.  No matter how hard Pearl tried to convince herself otherwise, she couldn’t deny that the purple Gem was right, they were terrible at keeping the kids safe.  Throughout the summer, the Gems had done a satisfactory enough job of protecting them from physical dangers.  However, Bill endangered the kids with a mental and emotional threat, a threat that they were powerless to stop.  And it was that very powerlessness that made the white Gem’s inside feel so twisted and sick.  Steven was Rose’s son and almost felt like her own son as well.  Dipper was one of Pearl’s best proteges, and she couldn’t be prouder of how far he’s come.  To see them both in such grave danger and being able to do anything about it just made her feel like a complete failure.

Pearl relaxed her fists as she slowly approached the front of the Shack.  Pearl couldn’t dwell on what she couldn’t do to protect the boys, she had to think about what she could do to protect them.  She made a promise to herself that she would do anything to protect the one thing Rose had left to the planet she had sacrificed so much to save.  She made her way to the front door, ready to knock so that she could finally speak to Ford about this matter.  It was now or never.

However, before the white Gem could knock on the door, it abruptly opened, causing her to step back a bit.  Pearl was then surprised when she saw Ford standing at the door.  Pearl carefully looked to see that the elder scientist was unusually disheveled and appear to have a few bags under his eyes.  “S-Stanford,” Pearl said. “I was just looking for you.  Why do you look so-“ she was then interrupted before she could finish her question.

“Pearl!  Thank Tesla’s coil that you’re here, I’ve been meaning to come see you!”  The author then looked around to make sure that the two of them were alone.  Thankfully, Stanley was out in town, so the this was the best opportunity to meet with the Gem.  Ford then grabbed Pearl by the arm and pulled her into the shack.  “We can’t risk being overheard,” he explained.  “There’s something that I MUST discuss with you!”  While Pearl certainly didn’t appreciate being dragged by the author, she still couldn’t help but wonder what was so important that would rile him up so much.  She decided to just go along with this and hear him out.  Then she would finally be able to tell the elder scientist the terrible news.

Ford had taken Pearl to his study, where he believed that they would be save from unexpected eavesdroppers.  As soon as Pearl entered into the darkened room, something had immediately caught her attention.  Scattered across the room, from the desks to the floors, were documents and manuscripts that seem to information on Bill Cipher.  Paper littered the floor and books were stacked high on the desks. 

“Stanford, what is going on here?!  Why do you have all of these documents concerning…that cretin of all things?” she asked, rather struggling to even mention the dream demon’s name.  Ford made his way across the room and leaned heavily on his desk and lowered his head.  The author took a deep sigh and finally revealed his purpose for bringing the Gem here.  “Listen to me very closely Pearl, I have strong reason to believe that both Dipper and Steven are in grave danger.” Ford plainly said.  For a moment, Pearl couldn’t say anything out of complete awe at what she was hearing.  Ford was telling her the exact same thing that she was going to tell him.  Her mind was racing on how on Earth Ford could have acquire such information.  There was only one possible way, and it made Pearl sick to her stomach.

“Bill threatened them, didn’t he?” Pearl grimly said.  Now Ford was the one who was caught by surprise.  Was it possible that he wasn’t the only one that Bill decided to reveal his plan for the boys.  “Don’t tell me,” he said.  “that psychotic triangle came to you and taunted you about how he plans to torture Dipper and Steven using fusion?”  Pearl was silent for a moment, but then confirmed the elder scientist’s fears.  “Yes, Bill gave all of us a visit.  He was rather vague, but he was clear enough for us to be terrified at what he could possibly do to Stepper.”  Both went silent again, rather unsure on how to proceed.  Both of them were prepared to give such terrible new, but they weren’t ready for this information to become common.  Was Bill really that confident in his plan that he would just tell anyone about it?  Pearl and Ford both found this thought concerning, and both were determined to find a way to protect the boys from the demon’s sadism.

“Have you found anyway to stop him?” Pearl said, getting right to business.  Ford turned back to his desk and began flipping through a book.  “Not as of yet,” he said with disappointment.  “But I’ll keep looking for any permanent solution to stop him.  We still have the barrier up for the shack and Temple, but I highly believe that Bill will find a way around that.  Therefore, we need to find a temporary solution.”  Pearl gave a firm nod at the author’s plan of action.  “Agreed,” she said.  “So…you wouldn’t happen have any idea as to what that temporary solution would be?”  While Pearl was determined to protect the boys from Bill, she was still at a loss as to how to properly do so. 

Ford then gave a tired sigh as he was about to propose a solution that was less than ideal.  “I realize that this might be easier said than done, but I believe it would be best if Steven and Dipper spend some time apart from each other.  I know that their comradery is highly important to them, but as long as they’re together, they risk fusing and falling into Bill’s trap.”  Ford honestly didn’t want to tear the boys apart, but he had no choice.  When he first met Stepper, he was absolutely fascinated with how the young Gem and the inquisitive boy performed something that he thought was exclusive to Gemkind.  The last thing he would want to do is to take that away from the boys, but if it meant doing so meant for their safety, then he had no choice but to do so.

While Pearl full-heartily agreed with this plan, she couldn’t help but voice a few of her concerns.  “Stanford, that is a sound plan, but do you really think it’ll be that easy?  Those two have basically become brothers by this point, therefore I hardly doubt that they would take the idea of being forced away from each other very lightly.”  She also couldn’t help but feel bad about separating the two boys on the inside as well.  Throughout the many events and revelations throughout the summer, Pearl was inwardly glad that Steven could go to Dipper, Mabel and Connie for emotional support and comfort.  While she wouldn’t hesitate to provide that for the young Gem herself, the Gems were rather new at human interaction, so Pearl was worried that she would only make things worse for him.  There was also something else other than the force separation of the boys that Pearl didn’t particularly like.  “Also Stanford, you do realize what you’re saying when you say we should forbid the boys from fusing, right?  I understand that you’re just a human, but you have to understand that fusion is a very delicate topic.  You can’t just go and tell them-“

“I KNOW what that implies, Pearl,” Ford firmly interrupted.  “Rose was very detailed on how important fusion is to you and the rest of the Gems!  And I know that this is a rather cruel to deny the boys that privilege, but it’s for their safety!  I know you’re smart enough to know that!”  Ford had to be a bit firmer now so that Pearl would understand.  The elder scientist was genuine in saying that he didn’t want to do this, but what choice did they have?  Ford could tell how serious Bill was when he invaded his dreams.  He knew that the demon wouldn’t hesitate from tormenting the boys to near death, only to finally finish the job.  The author found it his duty to protect Dipper and Steven from Bill, even if it meant that they would be upset with him because of that.

Deciding that this topic was tense enough, Ford decided to change the subject.  “So, other than mentioning Dipper and Steven, did say anything else to you?” he asked in a much gentler fashion.  Pearl also decided it was best to move on, so she decided to answer the elder scientist’s question.  “Not much.  He did make some rather…crude remarks towards Rose.  Obviously, he said those things to try and…get to me.”  The white Gem was still bitter at the demented triangle for muddying Rose’s good name.  She had spent too much time with the pink Gem to not defend her honor, even after she had passed.  Ford responded with a sigh and shook his head.  “He mentioned similar things to me as well.  It seems that Bill likes to poke at that pressure point a lot.” 

Pearl suddenly slammed her fist down on a nearby desk.  She had just about had it with the dream demon attacking Rose like this.  “What is wrong with that triangular sadist?!” she exclaimed.  “Rose was a saint that never hurt anyone!  All she wanted was the best for this planet and Bill is just…mocking her for it!  It’s appalling and unorthodox, right?!”  Pearl had expected Ford to instantly agree with her, but instead the author remained silent.  “Stanford?” Pearl asked again.  The elder scientist looked to the ground, refusing to look at the white Gem and remained silent.  Pearl didn’t like this one bit, and then jumped to a rather grim conclusion.  “Stanford,” Pearl said unbelievably.  “You can’t be serious in thinking that Bill was actually correct in say that Rose-“

“There are many, MANY things I hate about Bill, Pearl,” Ford interrupted.  “One of the things that I hate most about him is when he has a point.”  Pearl just looked at the author with complete shock and awe.  She just couldn’t believe what she was hearing right now.  “Stanford, what are you saying right now?!  Rose thought so highly of you, and now you’re saying this?!”  Ford finally stopped looking at the ground and looked at Pearl dead in the eyes.  “Rose was one of my best companions and I will always cherish the time I spent with her and the rest of you!  But Pearl, open up your eyes!  The only reason Bill is going after Steven because of what Rose did!  Bill is a very petty being, and he’s going to hurt Steven from what his mother did to him in the past!  Do you see what I’m getting at here?! The author practically begged the Gem.  Pearl’s eyes darken and tighten her fists at her sides.  “No Stanford, I don’t know what you’re getting at.” She said venomously.  Ford then started to approach the white Gem.  “ROSE WAS SELFISH!” the author exclaimed.  “Everything that she did was for her own benefit!  She didn’t think about you when she took your memories, she didn’t think about her friends when she started a war, she didn’t think about me when I was suffering all those years ago, and I’m starting to wonder if she didn’t think about Greg when she had Steven!  And now, we’re all suffering because of her mistakes!  If you really think about it, did Rose really give up anything for others?!”

Ford didn’t have enough time to react when Pearl suddenly punched the elder scientist to the ground.  The author caressed his stinging cheek as he looked up to the Gem.  He had never seen Pearl this livid in his time he had known her.  “ROSE GAVE UP EVERYTHING FOR US!” the white Gem shouted at the top of her lungs.  “You have no idea how much Rose sacrificed to get as far as she got!  You have no right to say those things about Rose and you have no right to judge her actions!  Rose was far from perfect and she made her fair share of mistakes, but she does not deserve the slander that you and Bill are throwing at her!  The point is that I respect Rose too much to continue to let you think of her like that!  Rose has spent her entire existence to sacrifice!  Ever since she-“  Pearl cut herself short when her arm inexplicably shot up to cover her mouth.  Hot tears were staining her cheeks as she finally realized what she had just done.  Here she was, trying to find help from a trusted friend, only to punch him down in his own home.  For once in her life, she was actually glad that this curse stopped her from saying something she would later regret.

“Stanford, I’m so sorry!  I didn’t know what I was thinking!  I never meant to…hurt you like that.” Pearl apologized as she extended her hand to help up the elder scientist.  Ford hesitated for a bit, but he eventually accepted the white Gem’s hand to help him up.  “it’s fine,” he said quietly.  “Rose meant so much more to you than me.  I didn’t mean to insult her like that.”  Ford honestly did feel bad about what he had just said about the pink Gem.  Despite all of her shortcomings, Rose had truly been a good friend towards the author all those years ago.  She was one of the first ones to show actual interest in his studies and ambitions.

The two stood in awkward silence, unsure how to continue after that outburst.  Fortunately, Pearl was the first one to break the silence.  “So, how about I look after the kids and make sure they…spend some time apart for a while, and you continue looking for a long-term solution to Bill.  Okay?”  The elder scientist was still quiet for a moment, but he finally responded.  “Okay, that sounds like a good plan.  I’ll make sure to talk to Dipper tonight without…bring up Bill.”  Pearl gave a solid nod.  “Alright then.  I’ll just take my leave then.”  The white Gem began to take her leave, still feeling rather guilty about her outburst.  However, before she left the room, she asked the author one more question.  “Ford, did Bill say anything else that would hint at what Bill would do to the boys?”

Ford was silent for a moment, as he was in deep thought.  In truth, Ford did conclude that Bill was going to do something terrible to Stepper.  It was only a theory, but it was a solid theory none the less.  Ford was more than ready to tell the Gems immediately about his theory, however a thought did come to him.  If Ford were to reveal this revelation to the Gems, they would be in an absolute panic.  There would be no way Gems would be able to focus on anything and would be in complete terror at all times of the day.  Therefore, the elder scientist decides to keep his theory quiet, in hopes that the Gems would have full attention in dealing with the situation at hand.  “No,” the author said.  “Bill didn’t go into any more detail about what he was going to do to them.”  It was a blatant lie, but it was a lie that Pearl seem to have to believed.  “Alright, take care then, Stanford.”  As Pearl walked out of the room, Ford returned to his studies on the dream demon.  Guilt was still plaguing him about not telling Pearl Bill’s full plan, but he knew that the Gem’s needed to be on full alert if they wanted to truly stop the dream demon from taking away what they all held most dear.

Meanwhile, Pearl was just outside of the shack, looking down at the palms of her hands.  Hot tears were flowing off her face as she almost revealed her darkest secret out of anger.  Could she really protect Rose’s son and her protégé when she was in this condition?

Time would only tell if Pearl would be able to continue to keep her eternal promise to Rose.  

[elfgrove]

Bad Diagnosis - Part 4/6

Rating: T - angst, facing mortality, friendship, lion-paladin bond Word Count: 2047 Characters: Katie “Pidge” Holt, Green Lion, Keith Kogane AO3: [link] < Prev | Next >

She was grateful for Keith's silence about her situation. 

The search for Matt. Fighting alongside Green and the others. Those were the only things that kept her moving. The only things that got her out of bed in the morning. She needed her position as a Paladin of Voltron.

She was surprised by his presence though.

They'd been friends for a while now. Tech was not Keith's thing. Especially not the kind of inventive off-the-cuff things that Hunk and she had to manage to work with advanced alien systems, but he liked to sit with her while she worked. They'd formed a friendship on the basis of shared interests and quiet vargas just keeping each other company.

Still, he hadn't spent this much time with her before.

It was impossible not to notice.

She was rarely alone anymore. He was obviously cutting back on his hours in the training room to just sit with her while she worked on something. He started doing exercises in whatever room she'd chosen to work in just to stay close. He was watching her. Waiting for the next seizure.

It was sweet.

It was also annoying.

She sighed loudly, setting down the tablet on a table and turning to look at him, "I am not going to drop dead just because you took your eyes off me for a dobosh."

Keith flushed, ears turning red, and cleared his throat a couple of times before responding petulantly, "I know that."

She raised an accusatory eyebrow at him.

"I do."

"Then why the death watch?"

He abandoned the pretense of cleaning his knife, and joined her on the couch, shoulders slumping, eyes on his hands. "I lived in a bunch of foster homes before the joining the Garrison."

She let the annoyed expression bleed off her face to look at him in surprise. He rarely talked about his pre-Garrison past in a personal context, and never in detail.

"One of them." He cleared his throat uneasily, "One of the ones that treated me better, the woman in charge had some sort of illness. I was young, so I don't really remember what it was, but I remember it was terminal. I remember the lengths she went to hide it from Social Services so she could keep taking care of us a little longer. She knew how bad some of the other homes were."

"I'm sorry Keith, I--"

He shook his head, "Don't."

She leaned back into the couch, biting her lip and feeling terrible that he had to go through this. She hadn't wanted anyone to know, and now she hated that she had burdened Keith specifically.

"I don't think it was a brain tumor, but she had seizures too. I remember how to help deal with them, and I know how dangerous it can be for you to be alone when you're having one." He finally met her eyes, "I want to be there to help. Just in case."

"Oh." It was her turn to look away, "Thanks."

Keith was there for the next seizure.

And the next one.

And the one after that.

He sat with her through them. Silent but supportive.

He even didn't say anything about one where she blacked out and woke up with him covered in vomit and a scratch from her jerking arms on his hand.

Not one complaint.

He was just there. Making sure she didn't hurt herself, or choke, or only Tesla knew what else that might go wrong while her brain and body betrayed her.

Lance complained about him being a boring gargoyle sitting in the corner during their video game marathon sessions without participating, but still Keith stayed close whenever he could.

She wasn't sure what she'd done to earn this kind of friendship, but she appreciated it.

They were at the end of a recon mission in the Lions when she felt the signs of a seizure coming on.

She took a deep inhale of breath, trying to control herself. Trying to will it away, even knowing she couldn't stop it from happening. Keith was in Red. They were in space, between planets. He couldn't do anything for her. He already worried enough. Did more than enough.

"Pidge?" His voice came in clearly over the comms. "Are you there?"

She forced out a chuckle, "Where else would I be?"

"Red seems to think Green's upset. Did you have a seizure?"

"Not yet." She took her hands off the controls, watching with grim resignation as the spasms began to set in. "Show's just kicking off."

"I'm coming over."

"You can't! We're in space!"

"Wearing space suits. Seal your helmet and tell Green to let me in."

"Fine."

She had slid into the floor by the time Keith made his way into Green's cockpit. He reached her quickly, taking off both of their helmets, and sitting in the floor next to her, his hand tangling in her sweaty, too-long hair so that he could wrap his long fingers around her neck and the back of her head, simultaneously monitoring her breathing and pulse while being ready to cushion her head if she started convulsing in a way that might cause her to hurt herself.

It was becoming an eerily practiced contact.

She leaned towards him, resting her shoulder against his chest while they both watched the shaking spread over her limbs. His other hand moved around her torso, not touching, but ready to hold her in place if needed.

As her seizures went, it was a light one. Over in a few doboshes, and never getting worse than muscle spasms and the irritating smell of cinnamon overpowering everything.

She let out a long sigh as the smell faded away, "I think it's done."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She didn't move, "Red's probably worried sick."

"Red understands." He pulled the arm around her torso away, but the hand at her neck moved up to cup her cheek applying a gentle pressure, turning her to face him, "I think we need to tell the others, Pidge."

She pulled out of his grasp, scowling, "You promised."

"I'm not going to say anything without your permission," He let his hand drop to his lap, but kept watching her calmly. "But it's getting more frequent. What if next time is in the middle of a battle?"

She heard the betrayed feeling make it into her voice, "You need me to form Voltron."

"Yes. I'm not saying you have to stop piloting. I'm on your side there, but I think it would be better if the others knew, so we can all back you up if something happens during a tense situation. Like you said, we need you to form Voltron." He looked around the interior of the cockpit before looking back to her, his eyes worried, "Green needs you."

She shoved herself roughly up and back into the pilot's chair, crossing her arms defensively, "I'll think about it."

"Okay."

He sat there for a while longer, just looking up at her.

She had to break the silence, and her voice sounded tired even to her own ears when she did, "What?"

"I'm scared." He dropped his head into his hand, rubbing back and forth over his closed eyes, "I'm scared of losing you, and I know if I'm scared, you must be too."

"I'm not going anywhere yet," She answered softly.

"I know." He pulled his hand away and reached for his helmet, pulling it on roughly before reaching for hers, "But it's only a yet, and I don't exactly have a lot of friends to lose."

"I didn't exactly choose this."

He stood up, handing her helmet over, looking apologetic, "I know that too. Just like I know you'd rather I didn't know about this at all, but I'm still scared, Pidge. I can't help it."

"Sorry," The word came out more petulant than she really meant it.

His hand found her cheek again and he leaned down to press the forehead of his helmet against her unguarded one, "I'm sorry too. You're dealing with enough already." He paused there for a long moment before straightening up and closing his visor in preparation for the trip back to Red. "Put your helmet on."

They were in the middle of a skirmish with a smaller Galra battleship when a Robeast suddenly warped into the field.

Everyone stopped to stare at it, and then the smaller Galran fighters began to peel off, returning to their hangars in the battleship. The Lions scattered, and took positions around the creature, waiting to see what it would do without making themselves a single target by clumping together.

It fired towards Shiro and Black first, a short, dark blast of energy crackling with blue light around the edges that the pair dodged easily enough. The shot hit the Galran battleship, carving out a hole in it without so much as leaving any debris. It just absorbed and destroyed a section of ship and people.

Lance yelped, “WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“Something we don’t want to get hit with,” Keith answered reflexively.

“Evasive maneuvers,” Shiro ordered. “Let’s see if we can put a dent in it.”

The Lions flew circles around the beast, hitting it with their various weapons to little affect. It was slow to fire the big gun again, but it was well armored in the meantime, making their task difficult.

After the second firing of the big gun, Hunk chimed in, “That can’t be a projectile black hole inducer, right?!”

“No way,” She shot back over the team comms. “The science is impossible. You’d never get it to stop once you got it to start. More likely some sort of implosion-based rail weapon. That would probably explain why it’s so slow. Rail guns don’t scale well.”

“Well it can’t be plasma based. You wouldn’t get that kind of implosion effect! What else would you use in space?”

“Does how it works make a difference to what it does?” Keith sounded tired and frustrated. They had been at this for a while before the Robeast showed up.

“I’m with Keith guys,” Lance chimed in. “It acts like little black holes, so it’s a black hole gun.”

She started to complain peevishly, “That’s not accurate...”

“You said rail guns don’t scale well,” Shiro interrupted. “Is there a way we can break the mechanism? If we can take out that gun, this guy isn’t a huge threat.”

“Hunk spent more time studying rail guns than I did.”

“If we can knock the armatures out of alignment or stop them from moving, it should disable the entire thing. Rail guns are finicky.”

“Pidge,” Shiro���s voice remained calm under pressure, even as they all continued to dance around the dangerous behemoth. “See if you can gum up the works with your vine cannon.”

“On it!”

She and Green swept out and then back in, moving faster as their minds aligned and focused together, manifesting the cannon that was Green’s specialty. They centered in front of the weapon and fired once, darting away before she could see the results. As they came back around, vines sprouted from the base of one the armatures, constricting satisfyingly around the works.

The Robeast roared in anger.

She smirked.

She and Green swept back in, prepping to fire the canon into the other armature. They drew close and the entire cockpit seemed to heat up as their minds burned as one, and then her hands were slipping off the controls, limp and unresponsive, her vision blurred into a mass of colors, and the smell of cinnamon was overpowering, pressing in around her like thick blanket. Green shuddered around her as their link faltered.

No!

“Pidge!” She heard Keith’s scream over the comm as everything went black, “PIDGE!!!”

Red was suddenly screaming in his brain, Green’s bond with Pidge was dangerously weak. They spun around to look, and he saw the Green Lion slow to a stop in front of the Robeast’s giant rail gun, eyes going dark, the vine cannon’s second volley unfired.

His heart stopped.

The vine covered armature shuddered, and started to pull back, despite Pidge’s efforts. It was about to fire again.

He screamed, sending Red into a desperate dive to shove Pidge and Green to safety, “Pidge! PIDGE!!!”

[dragoni]

Time for a Tech March

Sriram Krishnan, a Snapchat employee and former Facebook employee

Green cards take years, sometimes decades to get. Intense process. Invalidating them and stranding residents outside is truly terrible.

Google

“We’re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US. We’ll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere.”

Apple CEO, Tim Cook

In my conversations with officials here in Washington this week, I’ve made it clear that Apple believes deeply in the importance of immigration — both to our company and to our nation’s future. Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do.

I’ve heard from many of you who are deeply concerned about the executive order issued yesterday restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. I share your concerns. It is not a policy we support.

Microsoft

“We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully, and we’re actively working with them to provide legal advice and assistance.”

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella

“As an immigrant and as a CEO, I’ve both experienced and seen the positive impact that immigration has on our company, for the country, and for the world. We will continue to advocate on this important topic.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook 

My great grandparents came from Germany, Austria and Poland. Priscilla's parents were refugees from China and Vietnam. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that.

Like many of you, I'm concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump.

We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.

Facebook

“We are assessing the impact on our workforce and determining how best to protect our people and their families from any adverse effects.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk

The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges

Many people negatively affected by this policy are strong supporters of the US. They've done right,not wrong & don't deserve to be rejected.

Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick

“this ban will impact many innocent people — an issue that I will raise this coming Friday when I go to Washington for President Trump’s first business advisory group meeting.”

Lyft,  CEO, Logan Green

“Throughout our history, Lyft has worked hard to create an inclusive, diverse and conscientious community where all of our drivers and passengers feel welcome and respected. Banning people of a particular religion from entering the U.S. is antithetical to both Lyft’s and our nation’s core values.”

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings

Trump's actions are hurting Netflix employees around the world, and are so un-American it pains us all. Worse, these actions will make America less safe (through hatred and loss of allies) rather than more safe. A very sad week, and more to come with the lives of over 600,000 Dreamers here in a America under imminent threat. It is time to link arms together to protect American values of freedom and opportunity.

Square, Jack Dorsey

“We are concerned about the impact the recent executive action could have on our employees and our sellers. The contributions of our immigrant-owned small businesses play an important part in our economy and demonstrate the best of this country’s values. We stand with them and anyone affected.”

Twitter, Jack Dorsey

The Executive Order's humanitarian and economic impact is real and upsetting. We benefit from what refugees and immigrants bring to the U.S.

Twitter

Twitter is built by immigrants of all religions. We stand for and with them, always.

Airbnb co-founder and CEO, Brian Chesky

Open doors brings all of US together. Closing doors further divides US. Let's all find ways to connect people, not separate them.

Etsy CEO, Chad Dickerson

We are a nation of immigrants, and are stronger for it. I oppose excluding people from US based on their nationality or religion, period.

Entrepreneur and investor Max Levchin, who cofounded PayPal (along with Thiel)

My family & I, & 1000s of Soviet Jews like us came to US as refugees in '91 running from regime that persecuted us because of who we were.

Twilio CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson

Yesterday, that beacon of hope and freedom was extinguished, exactly when humanity needs it the most. Globally there are over 60,000,000 displaced people, more than any time since World War II. And today we turned our backs on them.

There is an obvious word for this, it is persecution. By instituting a religious test, we have very clearly enshrined religious discrimination in federal policy (and emboldened the “us vs. them” storyline that terror organizations propagate.)

Read the whole post here

GoFundMe’s CEO Rob Solomon

America is a nation of immigrants, made up of folks from all walks of life, from places all around the world, who are woven into the very fabric of our communities and cities from coast to coast. Immigrants have enriched our nation and strengthened American values for generations. Immigrants are not only part of our communities—they’re critical to the success of American businesses. In fact, many employees and executives here at GoFundMe are immigrants.We oppose the new Executive Order, and we believe this new policy is counter to American values. Each and every day, we see individuals and organizations raising money on GoFundMe for refugee families who are hoping for a new start. And each and every day, we see the kindness of communities coming together to support these families in need.GoFundMe exists to give people the power to change their world. Millions of people have raised billions of dollars on our platform. As a company and platform, we do not discriminate, and most importantly we couldn’t exist without the contributions that immigrants have made to the great Silicon Valley companies that have preceded us.

Y Combinator President and investor, Sam Altman

The tech community is powerful. Large tech companies in particular have enormous power and are held in high regard. We need to hear from the CEOs clearly and unequivocally. Although there is some business risk in doing so, there is strength in numbers—if everyone does it early this coming week, we will all make each other stronger…

…At a minimum, companies should take a public stance. But talking is only somewhat effective, and employees should push their companies to figure out what actions they can take. I wish I had better ideas here, but we’re going to have a meeting on Friday at Y Combinator to discuss. I’d love to see other tech companies do the same.

BuzzFeed CEO, Jonah Peretti

I wanted to reach out in light of Trump’s most recent executive order on immigration. The United States of America is a nation of immigrants, and should continue to be a symbol of freedom in the world. Instead, the President has decided to let fear drive our government policy. Our thoughts are with the victims of this recent executive order, our employees around the world, including Muslims and their families abroad, refugees, and everyone whose lives may be turned upside down by this policy. These changes in government policy do not change BuzzFeed’s ongoing commitment to support and respect all of our employees and our diverse audience around the world.

Anil Dash

If you work in tech and your CEO was at the Trump roundtable, here is language you can send to your CEO. They need to hear you. (Please RT!) pic.twitter.com/SturouqE7m

Peter Thiel, why have you been so quiet?

This post is being continually updated.

[thisdaynews]

Andrew Yang’s Very Big Idea

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/andrew-yangs-very-big-idea/

Andrew Yang’s Very Big Idea

DES MOINES, Iowa — Andrew Yang bounces from leg to leg on the stage at Franklin Junior High School, cloaked in his campaign-trail uniform of blue jacket and navy “MATH” cap, warning the crowd about the threat that robots pose to the American heartland.

If you have some vague sense that you’ve heard of Yang but that’s about it, you’re not alone. While the entrepreneur turned novice politician’s name recognition hovers around 50 percent, he hasn’t broken 1 percent in most polls after a year and a half of running for president in a crowded pack of Democrats.But on a cold Sunday night in April, there are 300 or so Iowans her feeling Andrew Yang and his message of what’s gone wrong.

Story Continued Below

“How many of you notice stores closing around where you live?” he asks, raising his own hand. Scores of others shoot up in the crowd. “And why are those stores closing?”

“Amazon!” shouts someone.

“Amazon, that’s right,” Yang says.

Minutes later he calls out, “How much did Amazon pay in taxes last year?”

“Zero!” the crowd shoots back, as if it had practiced the response.

“Zero,” Yang echoes.

He curls his fingers into a circle and then points into the seats. “You’re looking around and seeing stores closed, and you’re going to get back zero,” he says. “When they automated your call center jobs, zero. When they automate the truck driving jobs, zero.”

Viewed from a great distance, Yang’s candidacy has a lot in common with the two political comets that streaked across the 2016 presidential campaign: Donald Trump on the right and Bernie Sanders on the left. Yang runs essentially the same playbook: embracing economic grievance, hammering the tech giants and other darlings of the “new economy,” selling his case directly to the working American. Since he launched his campaign inNovember 2017,he has been retailing a vision of America in which educated, entitled elites have rigged the system and hoovered money away from middle America and toward the coasts, giving little in return. With no prior political experience or prominent backers, Yang is nonetheless gaining a peculiar traction, including some true believers who want him to be president and others who are mostly just intrigued.

Unlike Trump and Sanders, however, Yang, 44, comes precisely from the same corporate, tech-soaked world he is trying to attack. Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, he made his money prepping students to get into MBA programs and, in recent years, has spent months at a time living in Silicon Valley.He was once a successful startup CEO and head of a group that trains budding entrepreneurs, but in the wake of 2016 presidential election Yang soured on an industry that wreaths itself in promises of prosperity and transformation; he rejects theconventional policywisdom—popular on the left and the right—that out-of-work Americans should retrain for jobs in tech. And in a Democratic Party reveling in its diversity, the Taiwanese-American candidate says he worries most about how displaced white men will react to their declining fortunes—a stance that has,strangely, won him some fans from the “alt-right.“

Yang has a very specific solution for those who feel displaced: Use the money fromtaxing companies like Amazon to give every American adult a guaranteed monthly $1,000 check. The idea, known by economists as the universal basic income, or UBI, has been rebranded by Yang as the “freedom dividend.” (“Who can be against the ‘freedom dividend?’” Yang has joked. “What kind of an asshole do you have to be?”)

Hardly anyone expects Yang to come close to winning the primary. But he has met the requirements to appear in next month’s kickoff Democratic debate in Miami, where he could share the stage with the likes of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.In that throng of nearly two dozen Democratic contenders, Yang has carved out a unique role: He is offering what may be the single most specific diagnosis of the problem at the heart of the American economy, and has proposed a solution that no other candidate has fully embraced. In the 2020 campaign, Yang is the self-appointed explainer-in-chief for an age rattled by technology.

He can talk in vivid detail about specific, scary, looming problems, such asthe 3.5 million trucking jobs that stand to be automated by companies like Tesla. (Yang predicts riots from truckers who could soon be out of work.) As automation comes for American jobs en masse, Washington politicians are, he says, failing to offer concrete solutions that match the scale of this disruption. There has been local experimentation in the U.S. with the kind of cash transfer Yang is proposing, but the idea hasn’t broken through on a national level.

The zeal of some of Yang’s fans comes in part from the unconventional strategy he has adopted for getting himself in front of them for the first time: podcasts. His appearances on various programs over the past year have helped fuel online donations that, while totaling less than those collected by other candidates, were enough to make Yang one of the first candidates to qualify for the Democrats’ late June debate.

Nicholas Der, a 27-year-old financial coach who showed up at the Iowa rally, said he had heard of Yang only a week earlier, on the podcast of former “Fear Factor” host Joe Rogan—and is now ready to make him president.

“Two minutes in, I was like, ‘I love this dude,’” Der said. “He is the truth.”

***

If you track online polls,you’ll find that Yang does surprisingly well. His campaign manager, Zach Graumann, rejects the idea that the campaign is “astroturfing” to boost Yang’s performance. “The Yang Gang just finds them, because there’s millions of them,” Graumann says, using the unofficial, now ubiquitous name for the candidate’s supporters.

What explains Yang’s improbable appeal? Part of it is the bumper-sticker simplicity of his pitch; part of it is that he’s a performer with a funny streak. At an April rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Yang matched crowd yells of “Andrew Yang!” with “Chant my name!” In Des Moines, he got laughs when he joked that the signs lining the school hallways made it look like he was running to be president of Franklin Junior High. He’s a marketer, too. MATH, he says, stands for “Make America Think Harder,” but Graumann admits the campaign came up with the acronym retroactively, when the $30 hats started flying off the shelves. Yang has said he decided to call his central plan the “freedom divided” because it tested better than “universal basic income.”

More than that, Yang has sought to position himself as the clear-thinking candidate willing to tackle the age’s biggest problems. He can talk at great length about universal basic income, but his website lists more than a hundred other detailed policy proposals, from reviving Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment to a rural-urban American “exchange program.” When he is talking with someone about how to solve a problem, he frequently mimics twisting a dial on imaginary machinery. He comes across as a problem solver:When, over lunch in Iowa, I complained that I couldn’t hear from my left ear because of airplane congestion, Yang had staff retrieve from his car a red rubber ear bulb. (I was desperate; it mostly worked.)

Podcasts have been key to Yang’s election strategy, unlike just about any other candidate‘s.Yang himself isn’t a much of a fan: “I prefer to read, I suppose.” And the campaign assumed in the early going that he would be a Rachel Maddow darling. But he couldn’t talk his way onto cable news, so he tried a different route, with stops on programs such as “Freakonomics” and neuroscientist Sam Harris’ “Making Sense.”.

In some ways, it was a perfect marriage. Podcasting’s popularity is exploding: When Barack Obama first ran for president, 13 percent of Americans said they had listened to a podcast. Now it’s 44 percent. It helps that most people carry around mobile phones all day, but audio experts point to how well listeners respond to the intimacy of the medium.

To those who think of Rogan as the handyman on the 1990s TV sitcom “NewsRadio,” it can be startling to learn that his 10-year-old show, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” is routinely the No. 1 podcast in Apple’s iTunes store, beating about a half-million other programs. Rogan, who arguably leans libertarian, has nonetheless said he strongly supports government programs for people “born with a terrible hand.”

In February, Yang flew to Rogan’s Los Angeles studio and, for an hour and 52 minutes, unspooled his plan for remaking the American economy. The YouTube video of the interview has been viewed 2.95 million times. “There’s no bigger media outlet in the world than Joe Rogan,” Graumann says.

Tim Chwirka, 33, told me he considers himself a Republican, but he turned out to see Yang at Franklin Junior High after hearing the candidate on Rogan’s show. Would he vote for Yang? “Not yet.”

***

Yang grew up in Westchester Countyin New York and earned a degree from Columbia Law School. But he was so worried that the dull routine of his corporate law firm job would leave him a “desiccated version” of himself that he quit after five months. He started or joined a few companies that flopped, eventually becoming the CEO of an education prep company called Manhattan GMAT. Its acquisition by Graham Holdings Co.-owned Kaplan Inc. in 2009 left him flush enough to try out a long-held belief: Young people need to be steered away from profitable but soul-crushing corporate jobs.

In 2011, he started Venture for America, a nonprofit aimed at persuading young people to avoid Wall Street jobs and the like in favor of starting companies in other parts of the country. The work took him to Birmingham, Alabama, Baltimore, St. Louis and other cities, with trainees starting everything from a social platform for landlords to a chickpea-pasta company. He spent months raising funds in Silicon Valley each year and wrote a book calledSmart People Should Build Things. In 2015, the Obama administration named him a global ambassador for entrepreneurship.

But meanwhile, Yang was beginning to think he had it all wrong. Fixing America by encouraging people to launch software startups in Detroit, he came to believe, was adding water to a bathtub with a gaping hole in it. After contemplating a number of concepts, he landed on giving Americans cash, no strings attached. It’s not a new notion: Advocates have ranged from Milton Friedman to Martin Luther King Jr. But the concept of universal basic income is having a revival among figures like Sam Altman, the president of tech incubator Y Combinator; Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes; and former labor leader Andy Stern.

Yang says he decided to run for president after a lunch with Stern at a Manhattan Chinese food spot in 2017. Stern told him no one was running for president on a platform of universal basic income. Yang would do it. The country, he believed, was hurtling toward a crisis that was at once economic, social and political. Silicon Valley was quickly getting close to producing artificial intelligence indistinguishable from humans; soon, AI would replace jobs once thought out of robots’ reach.

Already, the tech-triggered economic upheaval had produced what to Yang was the country’s cry for help. “I look at the numbers,” Yang says. “The reason why Donald Trump is our president today is that we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri.“

“The only logical solution is to start distributing the economic value much more quickly and broadly, unless you genuinely do want a disintegrating population and trucking riots and the rest of it,” Yang said over pork ribs at Big Al’s BBQ in Des Moines.

That idea is that cash would let citizens bridge employment gaps, start businesses or move, he says, adding that it would also free them from having to make irrational decisions under financial stress, such as voting for “a narcissist reality TV star.”

And to pay for it, a President Yang would slap onto Silicon Valley companies and other corporate giants a 10 percent value-added tax, with the rest made up from cuts to federal programs, increased tax revenue from job growth and consumer spending, and reductions in social costs such as incarceration. (Critics of value-added taxes argue that they’re a drain on economic activity.)

Everyone has to have the option of getting a check, Yang says. “We’re going to extract billions of dollars from Jeff,” he says, referring to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose estimated $150 billion net worth makes him the world’s richest person. “So, then if we send him a thousand bucks a month just to remind him he’s an American, it’s fine.”

***

Yang pitches his basic-income proposalas the antidote to the diminishing status of white American men, who he fears could turn violent as their jobs go to robots. That focus has gotten him traction in online forums like Reddit, where tech’s economic effects are a hugely popular topic and white male users dominate. And some portion of that population wades into the territory of the so-called alt-right, which pines for the return to white American dominance. In March, in response to offensive memes backing his candidacy, Yang disavowed any supporters who promote “hatred, bigotry, racism, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and the alt-right in all its many forms. Full stop.” Yang tells me he’s “befuddled” by the support he’s gotten in those quarters.

Some of the crossover appeal between Yang and more moderate forces on the right is easier to understand against the backdrop of so-called coal-miner-to-coder programs that have grown popular in recent years. Mainstream Democrats and Republicans alike have advocated for retraining hard-up Americans for jobs in the tech industry. Yang isn’t one of them: “It irritates the heck out of me,” he says of the idea that the solution to the economic displacement of millions of Americans is teaching them to build iPhone apps. That puts him in league with those who see “learn to code” advocacy as symbolic of how removed Washington is from the realities of American life.

Yang is poised to face off against his fellow Democrats on these issues in the summer.In February, the Democratic National Committee said one route to participating in the first presidential debate was to gather 65,000 donations from people in at least 20 states. Yang acted fast, parlaying his podcast tour into asking people to kick in a buck or two to boost his contributor count. “As soon as the criteria were announced, we looked at it and said, ‘OK, we’re going get to through that number-of-individual-donors threshold as fast as possible,’” Yang says. It worked, with Yang pulling in $1.8 million in the year’s first fundraising quarter, more than three-quarters of it from small-dollar donors. Not only has Yang qualified for the debate by crossing the grassroot donor threshold, he’s managed to qualify via the DNC’s polling criteria, too. (The DNC will cap the debates at the top 20 candidates, however, meaning some candidates could be left out.)

Yang says he’s not at all nervous about bringing his case for redistributing the tech industry’s wealth to the debate stage. Most of the Democratic candidates have been vague on universal basic income or outright dismissive; Democratic front-runner Biden has warned it would “strip people” of their dignity. Yang has already calculated how much time he’ll have to make his case at the debate, given the bevy of contenders: 10 to 12 minutes, five of them to explain the basics of universal basic income.

Silicon Valley is likely to come up, too, and could be a point of contention for Yang. Yang balks at Senator Warren’s proposal to break up big tech firms—“If you were to break up Amazon into four mini Amazons, that would not magically revive the main street economy”—but stresses that he is a Warren fan. He has been mixing with other White House wannabes on the campaign trail, including South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whom he calls “a very good, smart, earnest man” and who Yang thinks has potential as a vice presidential pick.

Does Yang really think he’ll be the next president of the United States? “Do I think we can win? Yeah, sure,” he says, before switching into a characteristic Yangian specificity.“But also do I recognize that right now the probability of my being president of the United States is less than 51 percent? Sure.”

He is, he says with a laugh, “a reasonable person.”

Read More

[mortivern]

Holy fuck. I don’t even know where to start.

Well, first of all, we’re okay. Neither of us are hurt, so there’s at least that going for us. But otherwise…what the fuck.

Early the next morning we took a Charizard Glide back to Malie City, grabbed some coffee, fruit, and breakfast sandwiches at some place called Bewear Boba before heading over to the pier. Gladion and Hau were both waiting at the dock, ready to board the Aether-emblazoned boat, but before we could board Nanu called out after us, saying that we couldn’t consider Ula’ula “complete” without battling him, the grand Kahuna. I looked around and asked….here? Now? To which he just shrugged and said “I doubt you’re coming back after anyway, so…yeah.”

It was a tough battle for me—those fucking Alola Persians and their thick fur make them a REAL pain to take down, especially with a mostly physically-oriented team like mine. Tesla was the one who ended up FINALLY taking down that purple cat with a powerful Thunder. Vera and I were both given Darkinium Z. Vera didn’t even ask why she was being given this Z-Crystal without having to battle him, so I did instead. Nanu shrugged again and said “You beat me and I think she could beat you. Plus, I don’t want to battle again. Have fun at Aether, or whatever.” Charming guy.

Gladion was quiet the whole way over. I kept asking him exactly who he was involved with, and how he knew both Aether and Skull, and how he knew Lillie, but he doggedly ignored me. Vera was pretty quiet, too. Seemed pensive. Staring out the window. Only Hau was talking, babbling like a fountain. He was trying to play it off like he wasn’t nervous at all, but I could hear the strained laughter and see his hands fidgeting and shaking. Mine were, too.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by Faba and a team of Aether scientists, who all said that it didn’t matter if we were here, we’d never make it through to the President anyway, that there were already “plans in action that we were powerless to stop,” etc etc. All these big words coming from someone who’s so easy to push over in battle! As a “courtesy” to us, Faba unlocked the elevator, which was SUPPOSED to go to the top floor but instead led us to the basement. We split up and poked around the different research rooms, hoping to find some information on Nebby/Cosmog and what they were planning to do with it. The room I was in contained information on a prototype they were working on called “Type: Full,” which was intended to serve as a Beast killer with a plate system similar to the one Arceus uses. But apparently the three prototypes went berserk and had to have a mask put on them to nullify their powers. They were renamed “Type: Null” and cryogenically frozen. How in the fuck did Gladion have one of these Type: Null creatures?

I scoured the rest of the room, but it was just filled with case studies and notes on Type: Null. I eventually left, but I was filled with a burning curiosity as to where the other two Type: Null were. I hated to think of them frozen. But then again, was it better to have them out with someone like Gladion, who just pushes it to fight constantly? I don’t know. I hoped they were okay, wherever they were.

Turns out Vera found the information that we needed to know about Cosmog: it has the ability to open wormholes to another dimension. That’s when the research I read on Type: Null made sense. Aether was deliberately trying to capture these Ultra Beasts that people keep talking about. To what end I’m not entirely sure, but I didn’t trust that it was for any good reason. This whole Aether Paradise was probably just a front.

We were ambushed by scientists on our way back to the elevator. When we finally reached it, Wicke was waiting for us. She greeted Hau, Vera, and I warmly, but was especially kindly with “young Master Gladion,” who for once wasn’t scowling. She used her ID to badge us up to the top floor of the foundation. Before I left, she grabbed my arm and asked me to look after Gladion, that what we were about to encounter wasn’t going to be easy for him. May I remind you that at this point NOBODY has told me anything about what’s going on with Gladion, and I’m starting to get tired of it.

A tall, sterile building stood before us; we had to battle our way through Skull grunts and Guzma to get in. This bug dude just does not know when to quit. As we went to open the door he shoved Gladion, asking him if he was ready to face his mom and sister after a few years apart. Wouldn’t you know it! Lusamine is his mom and Lillie is his sister. I looked over at Vera, who in turn just rolled her eyes and shook her head and mouthed “I know.” Gladion had his fists up, shaking all over with anger, ready to beat down on Guzma. I put a hand on his shoulder and led him inside with us.

You remember those total weird beards that I keep running into? The Ultra Recon Squad? These fashion space bitches? I shouldn’t say bitches, they’re actually pretty nice. But they were there, and they were super upset that they’d been double-crossed by Lusamine, who had recruited them under the premise that they’d be helping protect the Ultra Beasts. They challenged me again with their Poipole, just to make sure that I was prepared to take on Lusamine. I won and we pressed on to Lusamine’s laboratory.

The first things you see when you walk into this lab are the Pokemon suspended in ice, cryogenically preserved. The rest of the room is harsh and sterile, just aggressively white and clean. Lusamine was standing with Lillie and Nebby in the center of the room. Lillie was desperately pleading with her mother to leave Nebby alone, that it would expend all its energy, perhaps fatally, if she were to use its power in the state it’s in. Lusamine paid no heed, and said that since her own rotten children did not love her that she would lavish her love upon these Ultra Beasts instead. Yikes! She then turned her gaze on me and said, “And you? What would your mother think about you interfering in family business like this?” And I was suddenly unaware if she knew about who Mom was specifically (very possible, Mom’s a well-known businesswoman) or if she was just referring to my mom, generally speaking. I didn’t care. Hau pulled Lillie off to the side as Lusamine and I squared off in battle.

She was a tough fight, but not anywhere close enough to beat my amazing team. I reached over to pick up the bag holding Nebby, but this bitch steps on my hand, then kicks it away! Takes the bag, shakes it until a wormhole opens up behind her. Yells something about how they’ll miss her once she’s gone, once they can’t feel her love…something to that extent. Jumped in the wormhole and disappeared from sight. Before it closed, Guzma leapt through after her. The wormhole collapsed on itself behind them and suddenly the room was eerily still, except for the humming of the cryogenic machines. Lillie ran over to the bag and unzipped it; Nebby was in a catatonic state, completely unresponsive. She put it back in the bag and held it close.

Lillie and Gladion regarded each other wordlessly before they hugged. He said that we were welcome to stay for a night or two to recover. The Ultra Recon Squad greeted us back in the main building, where they said that in order to find Lusamine and stop Necrozma that we’d need to head over to the Altar of the Moone over on Poni Island and summon one of the legendary Pokemon. I thanked Gladion for his hospitality, took my room key, and as soon as I was alone took the longest, hottest shower that I could. This all felt super unreal. A few weeks ago I was getting drunk at a hotel, and not to sound to trite about it, didn’t have a care in the world! Now it was beginning to feel more and more like the weight of the world was resting on my shoulders.

A few hours later and I was drinking from the mini bar in the room, watching a Johto sitcom that Dad sometimes watches when he’s cooking, when I heard a knock on my door. It was Vera, freshly showered, looking so sad and tired! I invited her in. I made her a Pinap cocktail and flopped back onto the bed. We talked about what had happened today, whether or not we were willing to traverse different dimensions to chase after a terrible mom and the grown man she adopted as her child (very tentative yeses from both of us), what the next steps were. Poni Island seemed inevitable, even if we were just going there to finish our Island Challenges. We agreed that we were in no rush to find Lusamine, but that the threat of Necrozma emerging from a wormhole and…eating the sun? Stealing the light? Was a pressing issue we could not avoid.

I kinda miss my job. Or more accurately, I miss doing work. I don’t think I’m built entirely for leisure like this. I need to be active, be doing something. I think I’ll start to look for jobs next week. You know! If the world as we know it doesn’t come to an end. I should be asleep right now. Vera’s totally conked out in the bed next to me. She came to just lie down for “just a little bit” before she headed back to her room, but once she laid down she said that it felt strange to be in such a quiet and empty room, that she was used to sharing a bed with Leon and sometimes Julian and sometimes that stupid Rockruff, Biscuit. I for one am still super uncomfortable about the thought of Leon sharing a bed with my sister, but that’s not a Here And Now problem and besides, I kind of like having her here, too. Nice to not feel so alone. Guess it’s time to turn off the TV and try to sleep, too. If! My thoughts can turn off long enough for me to do that!

[robertkstone]

Like a Rocket: The Story Behind SpaceX’s Plan to Launch a Tesla Roadster Into Space

The tweet went out at dinnertime on the West Coast, local time for Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity,” Musk’s tweet read. “Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”

Musk is going to launch his personal Tesla Roadster into space on the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. But why? Is he even serious? Can he do that?

Replying to a follower the next day, Musk wrote, “I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future.” A few days later, he told another follower it would have a copy of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the glove box, along with a towel and a sign reading, “Don’t panic.” Surely, it was all a joke. Funny guy, that Elon.

Three weeks later, just before Christmas, Musk took to Instagram this time with a photo of the car in a space capsule and an explanation.

“A Red Car for the Red Planet

“Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.”

A Red Car for the Red Planet Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Dec 22, 2017 at 10:47am PST

He wasn’t kidding.

It shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was, though. Way back in March, Musk replied to a follower asking about the payload: “Silliest thing we can imagine! Secret payload of 1st Dragon flight was a giant wheel of cheese. Inspired by a friend & Monty Python.”

How did he end up deciding to launch his car into space, though? SpaceX employees with knowledge of the scheme spoke to Motor Trend on the condition of anonymity to share the story behind the “Red Car for the Red Planet.”

Late in the summer of 2017, the delayed launch of the first Falcon Heavy rocket was finally beginning to take shape, and it was time to talk payload. As Musk would later tweet, payloads on test flights are generally cheap, heavy objects to simulate a real payload without the risk of losing a billion-dollar satellite if the test went wrong, which isn’t uncommon. The engineers tasked with selecting and preparing a payload were aware of the wheel of cheese and Musk’s expressed desire to do something silly, so they brainstormed various unexpected payloads. One suggestion: a car. Practical heads prevailed, and the goofy suggestions were shot down in favor of the standard heavy block payload.

The presentation to Musk did not go as planned. The payload team assumed, incorrectly, that Musk would be fine with a typical test payload on such an important launch. That’s not Musk’s style. He wanted a fun payload and sent the team away to come up with one. They came back with their old list of goofy ideas, and Musk loved the car idea. He immediately offered up his personal 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport.

A few weeks later, the car rolled into a SpaceX workshop to be prepped for spaceflight, and the real work began. Things launched into space first must survive the launch, which as you can imagine is both loud and violent. Like all payloads, the Roadster needed to undergo sonic, vibration, vacuum, and other standard testing to make sure that it wouldn’t come apart during the launch and ascent and damage the rocket and that it would survive in space.

It was quickly determined the car needed to be stripped. After all, the only launch it was designed for was a stoplight drag. All the glass had to go, as did the battery. With the battery out, there was no need to keep the drivetrain in, either, so that went, too. Musk himself has been very open about prototype rockets tending to explode, and no one wants to scatter 1,000 pounds of lithium across the upper atmosphere. Other than the obvious weak points like glass, SpaceX engineers were impressed with the rigidity and durability of the Lotus-based Roadster in their tests.

The car was still in the test lab when Musk’s first tweet went out. It took the team by surprise, as the whole thing had been a big secret up until that point and was supposed to remain so until the launch. The tweet, followed by the photo confirmation on Instagram a few weeks later, unleashed a torrent of regulatory inquiries from regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Starman in Red Roadster

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 4, 2018 at 9:50pm PST

Any rocket launched into space from a U.S. territory must be licensed by the FAA, and part of that license includes approving the cargo it will carry. Generally, the rules require the regulator to determine if the cargo is a threat to human health and safety to the safety of U.S. property. It also must be in compliance with international space treaties. Stripped of its potentially hazardous components, the Roadster should pass muster, but according to reports, FAA wasn’t happy about the surprise.

In the broader regulatory scope, the international Outer Space Treaty only covers planetary protection, designed to prevent other planets from being contaminated with any sort of life from Earth (such as hardy microbes that could hitch a ride on a spacecraft). Were the Roadster to land on Mars or if it were put in orbit of the planet where it could eventually be pulled down by gravity, SpaceX would be in violation. To get around that, the Roadster will be sent out to the general distance from the sun where Mars orbits and left to drift, never coming close enough to the planet to risk crash landing. Otherwise, legal experts mostly agree there isn’t really any law preventing SpaceX from sending the Roadster into space.

At press time, the Falcon Heavy rocket with Roadster on board was positioned on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, preparing for a scheduled February 6 launch.

The post Like a Rocket: The Story Behind SpaceX’s Plan to Launch a Tesla Roadster Into Space appeared first on Motor Trend.

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