#looking for the 'everybody is safe the entire time' tag and getting redirected to the

[actualaster]

there someway to report an incorrect tag wrangling on AO3?

There's a fic with a ship tag that wrangles to "[canon character]/OC" except the "OC" in question is a canonical character.

Like. A minor character, yes, but there is a whole canonical sequence where this is relevant.

(I remember this because it caused a fuss in the fandom about "what the FUCK this is such bullshit, that character would NEVER do this, it's character derailment!" I also checked against the game script, and searched through the fic for context to be sure and the fic is, in fact, referring to this canonical character not an OC)

[buckyreaderrecs]

Bucky Barnes and the Girl With Too Much Power: Chapter 2/?

Summary:  Nobody knows about your power. You’ve never really wanted to use it, let alone hurt someone with it. But, someone has figured you out, and now they’re following you. There’s only one place you can go for help - The Avengers. Good news is they’re good people. Bad news is your power is entirely relevant to soft, sad, recovering, broody Bucky Barnes. Chapter 1. 

Chapter 2:  Bucky checks in on you while you're in limbo, waiting for a decision from The Avengers.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/reader Characters: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Sam Wilson, Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff Additional tags: Bucky needs a hug, recovering Bucky, mostly canon compliant (Infinity War and Endgame didn’t happen, Stark Tower still exists), angst, possible future smut (who knows, not me), mutual pining, reader has powers, she/her pronouns, more tags/characters to be added with future chapters

Bucky Barnes and the Girl With Too Much Power Chapter 2/?

It wasn't a prison cell, that's for sure. It was almost a small hotel suite, only a touch more clinical. Compared to your own bedroom though, it wasn't home. It wasn't comfortable, nor comforting. The room served to detain you while you sat in a background check, moral compass limbo. Somewhere else in the building, deep in the secret spaces of Stark Tower, a group of heroes sat discussing your fate. All you could do was pace from window to ensuite and back again.

Everybody was in agreeance that your story was worth a test of validity. If what you said was true, then someone had a method of seeking out powered people. And, not just those with abilities and faces splashed across the news like themselves, Jessica Jones or Luke Cage. Someone found you. That alone was just the tip of the hypothetical iceberg. It also begged the question… What did they want with you?

As good as they were, it was only one in the group of six that thought all of this only after being concerned for your wellbeing. It took Wanda a good minute to catch up to the others' conspiracy theories and climbing heartrates. She had been the one to walk you to the detention suite, softly spoken and apologetic about the circumstances. When you were locked in, you could hear her on the other side of the door hesitate for a moment before leaving to join the others.

When Wanda sat down at the table, she pulled a tablet close and began to read through the data already being collected on you. The room felt off somehow. Her friends were on edge. Steve, in particular, seemed… something… Wanda couldn't read him. That's when she noticed the absence of Bucky.

Only Steve, Sam, and Natasha were seated around the oval table. Tony was pacing, talking to F.R.I.D.A.Y. about you. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, and his other waved around. Wanda put it together then; whatever Bucky said or did to leave the party, it had unsettled Steve. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing - Steve wasn't sad or angry or worried - but it must have been a rare thing.

Wanda stopped analysing the room and started to flick through digital files. "What was the point?" she asked then. Everybody looked up from their work to Wanda. "Locking her up. What was the point?"

…

You wondered what the point of locking you in a room was. Did The Avengers feel safer that way? Maybe they felt more in control. Really, all that stood between you and getting out was a phone call, getting redirected to Stark Tower and hey presto - magic - bam - confetti - you'd have someone there within minutes.

They'd seen it in your face though. There was abject fear and a lack of options. Each and every one of them had been there, in one way or another. They knew you weren't going anyway.

But someone was coming to you.

The rapping of knuckles on the door startled you. When you squeaked you felt stupid for it. Hopefully, the knocker didn't hear.

He did. He bit back a smile too.

"Uh… Come in," you called, again confused at the point of the locked door.

As the door opened, you stood up, bringing with you a throw pillow from the bed you'd been sitting on between perimeter paces. Hugging it to your chest was a completely unconscious action. It wasn't until Bucky Barnes stepped into the room and you saw his eyes flick from your face to the pillow and back again that you even realised you were holding it. Putting it down now seemed like an even more awkward course of action, so you let yourself keep it.

Bucky left the door ajar, then came to stand in front of you. He knew the exact distance to leave to not be threatening, but not be eerie either. He'd learnt that lingering on the edges unnerved people. It was a habit he'd formed to keep himself safe or unseen, but Steve and Sam were constantly reminding him that he was safe now.

"I'm sorry!" you blurted out before Bucky could say anything. His eyebrows pulled together in confusion, but the floodgates had been opened and you weren't really watching him for a reaction. "I'm so, so fuckin' sorry. I said-I said, like, if I got this far and I got to… show you, that it wouldn't be you, you know? Because… Fuck. I'm just…"

When you waltzed your way in to see The Avengers, you knew you'd have to show them your power. Over and over, you'd made yourself promise that it wouldn't be Bucky or Clint Barton. Honestly, none of them were great options. Their sense of independence and autonomy was paramount to them being… stable… okay… alive. It just seemed cruel to take that away, even for a second. All the way over to the tower you'd had your fingers crossed, repeating over and over, 'don't let Bucky be there, don't let Bucky be there, don't let Bucky be there.'

He let you speak, let you say what you thought you needed to. There were only so many times you could apologise though.

"I'm sorry," you whispered again, voice cracking. You threw the pillow aside, frustrated.

Bucky couldn't remember the last time someone was so considerate of his very specific history. The others treated him with semi-hostile gentleness. It was weird. He was a war hero, the longest-serving P.O.W. in fact. But he was also The Winter Solider. Even The Avengers found it hard to reconcile that into one normal approach to his presence. "It will take time," Steve assured him, "But they'll get there."

"It's alright," Bucky spoke. You watched him watch you. "I… insisted," he reasoned with a shrug of his left shoulder. "And, you weren't in the position to be makin' demands."

He looked sorry for you.

"Have you's decided?" you asked after a few beats of nothing.

"Ah... no, well, maybe. I don't know. I didn’t go with them."

You expected him to explain, but he didn't, so you just nodded.

The world had co-existed with powered people and superheroes for a while now, definitely for your lifetime. You grew up with stories about Captain America, and a dozen other myths and legends. In 2008 Tony Stark outed himself, and from there society just had to get used to the fact humans weren't top of the pecking order anymore. You had turned 18 that year and had finally been granted some relief to the painful alienation you felt. You weren't the only one. Now, you wondered if Bucky had got that moment.

When he came out of brainwashing, when Steve pulled him back into the light, did Bucky finally get to feel like he wasn't entirely alone? Did he look around at the kid spider and talking raccoons in absolute wonder? Or did he still feel that cold isolation?

Another few beats of nothing had gone by. He looked like he was moving to leave, his body turning only slightly but enough to prompt more words from your mouth. "You on babysitting duty then?"

He smiled. His whole fucking face lit up when he smiled.

With a sly tilt of the head, Bucky said so casually, "Don't think I'd be much use against you."

A joke! You grinned and shrugged with a little too much ego.

"Nobody here is really used to that… Feelin' powerless doesn't go down to well," Bucky said.

"I'm not…" but you couldn't find the right word; they all seemed a little too cliché.

"Evil? Tryna' kill us, take over the world and all that?" he offered, serving the exact cliché up on a platter. When you nodded, he mirrored your action. "I know. They do too. Can't always trust your gut though,"

"What does your gut say about me?" you asked, the words slipping straight out of your head from where they had popped into your head. The environment was too foreign, the situation too peculiar for you to be self-conscious. That saved you from being embarrassed.

"That you're dangerous," Bucky answered as quickly as you had asked the question. "But… you're tellin' the truth. You're scared."

Hearing the words out loud forced you into some sort of confrontation with the emotion. You were scared. So, so fucking scared. Tears began to roll down your face and your teeth gnawed at the inside of your cheeks.

He hesitated, but Bucky stepped closer and carefully held your shoulders. The pressure was grounding, even on each side. You looked up at him, sniffling. His expression was soft, neutral, warm.

"You're safe here," he told you. "I know how you feel… Trust me."

You tried to start your sentence, but it kept halting between tears. "I don't know what I'm meant to do now," you finally got out.

Bucky sighed, offered a small lopsided smile, and nodded. "I know, darlin'," he whispered, then pulled you into a hug.

Folding your arms up between your chest and his, you felt enclosed. Safe in a bubble. It didn't occur to you to think about how strange it all was. It didn't even occur to Bucky to think about how out of character he was being. Maybe it was because it wasn't really, not if you were judging him by pre-WWII Bucky standards. This was who he used to be, before it all.

Chapter 3. 

[roinaochieng-blog]

Google I/O Highlights

Ever had those mental trips when you’re watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there? In crazy details, I mean what you’d pack, how you’d feel in the plane en route, the pictures, the people, the experiences? I had that moment a while back in my second year about Google I/O after attending Google I/O Extended at my university.  Watching Sundar and all the updates was great but seeing all the developers coming from all over the world coming together, united in their passion for technology took my heart. I got the ticket came in confirming my attendance in April, major déjà vu hit  me (I’m totally underplaying how excited I was here). I’ll definitely update you more in-depth on the more technical aspects of the sessions that I attended during I/O however this post is simply a first timer’s perspective on the event and all the mind blowing moments I had. Hoping this gives all my readers perspective on the event if you’re planning on attending and are wondering, “Is it all it’s pegged out to be? Is it worth the trip to San Francisco?

How to get there?

First thing’s first, tickets!

It’s always great to be on the lookout for the release of I/O tickets anytime from early April, the range for a couple of hundreds to a thousand dollars. This year’s tickets went for around $700 to $1200. It’s a three day event so when you get the dates, go ahead and sort out accommodation. This year’s was at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, so your best bet is to get a hotel in Mountain View or San Jose to avoid the commute you’d take if you were staying in San Francisco, it’s a pretty long drive. Besides, you have plenty of accommodation options, spend some time on Air BnB checking out shared living options especially if you’re on a budget. I’ll be putting up a separate post on finding a great space on Air BnB and the hostel options and experience.

Up, up and Away!

I’d say that simply put, for any developer, enthusiast or designer, Google I/O is our version of the pilgrimage to Mecca, except it’s mountain view. It’s a 8 to 9 hour trip to Amsterdam, Schipol Airport from Nairobi, Kenya for a 2 hour layover  (you already know how essential a neck pillow and a good playlist and book is for this type of trip). It’s a super busy airport so making your way to the other gates is a trip in itself especially if you have to pick up your luggage before the next flight. Then you hop on a flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco for 4 hours. There’s a whooping 10 hour difference between Nairobi and SFO so brace yourself my friend, THE JET LAG IS SO REAL.  Coming from a pretty predominantly hot country, the wind weather was calm but pretty chilly, have a light jumper in your carry on bag just to be safe.

Views at dusk or dawn from NBO to AMS.

Over the antarctic en route San Francisco from Amsterdam.

Checking In.

I was super blessed to have traveled with a large group of my friends and colleagues in the  developer ecosystem in Nairobi and Sub Saharan Africa. We got there two days prior to the main event because of the Global  Google Developer Summit which was luckily at the same hotel that we were staying at. The hotel was electric with hundreds of developers pumped up about the summit and I/O. That aside, checking in for Google I/O is pretty simple, you’re required to get to Shoreline Amphitheater with some form of identification. They give your tag which is NFC enabled. The tag gets you into practically everything. For the keynote, your sitting rows are on your tag and they’re actually super strict at the entrance, but only from the keynote (unless you have great friends like Anie does 🙂 *inside joke). To check in, you’ll need a form of official identification or the ticket that the send you a couple of weeks before the event.

Pro-tip: There’s a whole bunch of events on the night before I/O officially begins, so keep an eye out on email groups for them. Lots of great opportunities to mingle and network.

That Key Note though!

We happened to sit really really close to the main stage as GDG Leads so we had a really great view of the keynote. My biggest highlight had to be the animation before Sundar’s speech, the idea. An amazing story about collaboration, hard work and determination in making ideas happen. Super motivational, like Life of Pi kind of motivation. It set the tone for the rest of the day for me.

Biggest highlights from Sundar’s speech for me were:

There are over 2 billion Android users as at the day of the conference and the numbers are growing rapidly

He emphasized the use of machine learning in products such as street-view and smart replies in Google Allo. He announced the release of smart reply on Google Search and Gmail too for over 1 billion users. This was great to hear especially because a lot of local tech communities have redirected their efforts towards machine learning. In Nairobi, the Nairobi Women in Machine Learning and Data Science go all out on interactive sessions in the field. It’s exciting to think how they can use the current libraries and come up with other innovative uses of machine learning to solve African problems.

The improvement of the accuracy of voice recognition even in noisy environments. The use of deep learning to recognize multiple different sounds on Google home. This allows us to create very minimal infrastructure to have very accurate results even in Google photos.

He announce Google Lens, an epic feature on Google Photos and Assistant. It’s a computational vision based functionality that understands what you are looking at and allows you to make decisions on that information. So here’s how it works, let’s say you go to the dog show and see an interesting breed of dog that you don’t know. You can simply point your phone at it and it’ll be able to give you information on what it is and more! I couldn’t help but think how deep learning can be such a useful tool for developers to build accessibility functions and learning tools for communities. The potential is truly limitless.

Here’s the entire keynote, let me know what your favorite part was.

Codelabs.

For anyone who’s been to the Google Developers website, you know that codelabs are step by step tutorial on how to use certain functionalities on different Google technologies. Day 1 is definitely not the best day to do codelabs because the lines are outrageously long. I’d advice to go for office hours sessions and talks on day 1 then go for codelabs on day 2. Office hours are sessions where the amazing Googlers who work on specific technologies, take time to give you feedback on your projects and help on how you can make them better.

The best codelabs for me were the Android things codelab which after completing two, you would get a pico maker kit. The tensorflow codelab was also great. The best part about these codelab sessions is that even if you don’t attend all the ones you wanted to, you can access all of them on the codelabs website. You’d want to attend the codelabs that need special hardware or software to access. It’s also great to go for codelabs because you have professionals who can help you when you’re stuck.

Office Hours and Sandbox sessions.

I’d have to say my favorite sandbox was the Android Auto one and the IoT drink serving robot. There was a real life-sized and functioning car at the Android Auto sandbox where you could go and experience first hand the future of the automobile industry. There was also really nifty robots that used IoT and Machine Learning to make and dispense beverages. I got really inspired by on of the office hours sessions during the second day, thus the birth of my start-up Hypo. If you’re working on a project, you should definitely check out the office hours sessions for help and perspective.

Pro-tip. Download the I/O app on Playstore and the IoS Appstore and make sure your register for the sessions that you want to attend. Most of the talks have really long lines so if you want to be on the fast-tracked line, register in advance. They will turn you away if the sessions are absolutely full, which they are in most cases.

The Freebies.

You’ll have to be up super early if you want to beat the traffic on both days of I/O. Trust me the line can be super long. But worry not, breakfast is covered. There’s loads of coffees and teas when you get to the amphitheater, plus massive amounts of pastries and snacks. During the day, there’s snack stations all over the place so there’s really not a moment that you’ll be starving. Make sure you have your tag at all times. This year, we had NFC enabled tags that they scan when you pick you your freebies. Look at me getting ahead of myself with food when I was supposed to be talking about freebies, smh.

So this year, all attendees got a Google home, a nifty little bag and a steel water bottle. You might want to take your freebies towards the end of day one because it can be bulky carrying it around all day when you’re up and down in sessions.

Back to the food, hehe, if you’re a really picky and healthy eater, I’d advice you to sign up for the kosher meals. The breakfasts are super nutritious and healthy but the list is specific for people who are listed. So  pay attention to the regular emails and sign up for that list.

If you have some extra cash on you, you can bag cool merch there too. There’s a whole lot of other freebies on offer so keep an eye out. There was an Android Pay Givaway where you could get Android bot dolls and so much more.

Fun and Games.

There’s something for everybody at I/O. You’ll probably be exhausted after a long day but a great way to unwind is to stay for the after hours stuff. I can tell you for sure it’s completely worth it. You’ll get to play amazing games at the arcade, dance parties, concerts, live performances and drinks galore. It’s a great place to mingle with people across all fields and it’s just the right atmosphere to make friends for life.

The concert this year was by LCD Sound System and it was so mind blowing some people cried! Tears of joy guys, it was awesome!

Tips for new attendees.

Here’s everything I wish someone told me before Google I/O.

Uber and Lyft don’t take debit cards so either carry a credit card or buy a prepaid card. I used the American Express pre-paid card which was great fro the rest of my trip.

Never leave your valuables in the car. My friends and I had an incident on Folsom Street in San Francisco during a Google Launchpad event. We parked on the street and someone busted out the windows of the car and took my bag that had all my travel documents. Trust me, having to take a trip to the police station in the middle of the night isn’t a great start to the trip. It all turned out well in the end. But that’s a post for another day.

Bright and early. Be up at around 7 am and out by 7:30 am on day 1. I can tell you the traffic will be insane all the way to Shoreline. You can grab breakfast when you get to the venue.

Bring business cards! I had a whole stack of business cards but I left them at the hotel. Big mistake because I was stuck writing down my emails on peoples phones Smh.

Embrace cultural liquidity. It was my first time in such a big conference. I learned so much just by allowing myself to be curious about others careers, cultures and challenges. It’s a great thing to be able to do that in a selfless way, without thinking, “what’s in it for me?”.

Hope this article helps anyone getting ready to attend Google I/O in coming years. I know it’ll be changing every year but I’m hoping it’ll give you perspective.

Check out more highlights.

Thanks for reading.

  This has been on my drafts for quite a while. Hope it helps anyone thinking of attending I/O/ Ever had those mental trips when you're watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there?