#now she can be a big time scientist in india

[shera-dnd]

I try not to be negative here. Like there's just too much negativity in this webbed site as is and I don't wanna add on to it

BUT god it's so hard not to shit on Mihoyo's character designs

Like I could write a whole fucking essay on why Yae Miko maybe has the ONLY good character design in Inazuma, and how Kokomi's and Raiden's designs are an affront to character design

Not to mention how much I could dunk on how pasty white the entirety of their fantasy India is

...but that would take like an ungodly amount of words and effort and ranting, and like I said I wanna keep negativity to a minimum

so instead I'm gonna do a little "bulk dunk" and go for the entirety of HSR in one go

quick disclaimer that I still play and enjoy these games and Jingliu has me by the balls no matter how painfully boring her character design actually is

ALRIGHT LET'S GO!

I guess it goes without saying that the design of any character in a gacha game is created with only a single thought in mind and that is: MASS MARKET APPEAL!

Which means the characters are meant to be PRETTY and their designs are meant for immediate appeal, not to actually inform the character

This results in some...weirdness

Like the fact that the Natasha (girl on the left) raised Seele (girl on the right) from childhood and used to run an orphanage, meaning she's much MUCH older than Seele, even tho they look about the same age

Okay Nat does look a little older, but no one is allowed to look old in this game

Something that becomes extra clear with

Serval! Who you'd be forgiven for thinking is a young adult playing for a rock band, and not a middle aged disgraced scientist who used to be in a rock band.

And yeah she's supposed to be AT LEAST in her 30s, because girl is the same age as Cocolia and that woman is a mother to an adult woman by the time we meet her

Oh and speaking of Nat and Serval, you've now seen 2/3s of all characters with ANY FORM OF BLEMISHES ON THEIR SKIN!

Nat has a spot on her chin, and Serval has a tattoo on her hip

Last one is Arlan

My man has the only two scars in this whole ass video game. He's also the only dark skinned character. He follows a pattern set by Xinyan and Dehya in Genshin, by being dark skin rep, carrying a big sword, and sucking absolute ass

But okay these characters are pretty, but there's nothing wrong with keeping characters pretty. Well, there is when their prettiness goes against what their character is supposed to be

So Belobog's story is one of class struggle in a military state that is holding back a never ending catastrophe. The entire population of the world is just one big walled city holding back the cold.

In it the rich and powerful live in the Overworld, where they have museums and theaters and grand statues, and a massive building from which their rulers can pass judgement.

The Underworld is mostly just a giant fucking mine where the lower class people are forced to work 24/7 in order to get food and medicine from the Overworld in the hopes that they'll keep surviving.

Underworld characters are survivors who have been struggling every day of their lives and have NEVER SEEN SUNLIGHT BEFORE

Yeah guys I can really get hardworking survivor from these two

But I mean that is just ONE planet, it can't be a thing for EVERY world, right? ...right?

So the Xianzhou Luofu is... a lot. Like it would take a long time to explain everything that is up with those guys, but the big themes here are stuff around chronic illness, memories, PTSD, war time trauma, and a whole bunch of stuff about aging

Like here are two characters who are veterans of war. One is constantly overwhelmed by her own traumatic memories, causing her to go into violent dissociative episodes.

The other one lost her copilot/best friend/rival/love of her life (YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME SHE ISN'T GAY, MIHOYO) in battle, and the trauma of that loss has left her terrified of flying again, living the rest of her life in the shadow of this one monumental event

...yeah I don't see it either

But hey don't worry, this game believes in gender equality, and that means the men are also just very pretty and very boring

Like the Luofu's messiest polycule, who are all millennia old pretty boys made with the sole purpose of making the straight women in the fanbase call them "daddy"

Well at least Blade has spider lily symbolism, which is like always a plus for me

Okay

That's it

That's all the dunking I have for HSR. I exorcised the angry grumpy critic from my system, and can go back to being positive and loving things again.

And I mean these games make more money than I can ever even conceptualize, so maybe I'm the one who is wrong

Oh also

Clara is perfect and objectively the best character design in this game, don't fucking @ me!

[ompradeepanand]

Scientists of the world have once again accepted Lord Shiva as the greatest scientist of this universe.

Lord Shiva is the deity of all those who believe in Sanatan Dharma. According to Hindu religion, Lord Shankar is considered the father of the entire universe, Lord Bholenath   is considered the basis of life in the entire universe. The origin and destruction of everything present in this world is under Lord Shankar. Every particle of the entire universe is contained in Lord Bholenath . Be it water, air, fire, earth, space or energy, there is only one source of all these types. And that is Lord Bholenath .

Scientists from all over the world have done research on this issue many times and have given their opinion. And even today, many scientists of the world are still doing their research on the books related to Hindu religion, Veda Purana and Shiva idol and Shivling. Today I am going to tell about such a  scientific research related to religion and science.



Lord Shiva is the world's biggest  and first scientist Lord Shiva is the world's biggest and first scientist

 In the modern era, among all the scientists in the world , most of the scientists are of atheistic ideology. Such people underestimate religion in front of science. But now this change is coming slowly, the main reason of which is that there are many big issues related to religion. Research. One such research took place in India's IIT Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which is mainly research based on Lord Shiva and DNA.

Genetics in Ved Puran research of Hinduism being done in IIT Bombay is being done under the direction of Dr. SB Kale On the research being done on Ved Puran   of Hindu religion and Lord Shiva, he has said that everything written in Ved Puran is complete truth.

Scientists believe that Lord Shankar is the biggest scientist and the first scientist in the world. On the basis of this research, it is said that today's modern scientists are far behind in the work, research and discovery done by Lord Shankar. He also believes that all the discoveries being made in the world.

His direct connection is with the Hindu religious book Ved Puran. Despite this, the scientists of the world do not want to give credit to religion, they also say that today's modern science is not able to match the honor discovered by the gods  . Modern scientists are not discovering anything new but are giving their own name and new form to the things discovered by our gods and sages .

The first   mention of DNA in the Vedas

Many researches are going on here by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on Hinduism, in which they told  Shiva as the first source of DNA . To prove this, geneticist Dr. SB Kale has told a formula mentioned in the Vedas-

He believes that the first mention of DNA is found in the Vedas, to prove which Dr has given an example of a Vedic formula-

Asipindacha cha aa maturasagotracha ya pitah.

She is the proposer of the twice-born and my wife in the work of Muthaini.

And proving the genetic principles through this Vedic formula. And this sutra, which is Vedic, says that this sutra proves that setting elephant's head on Lord Ganesha's head can be the first example of genetics. From human organ transplantation to immortality, everything is included in the ongoing research on genetics.

Read these  also- What is the history of Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi, what is the present dispute of Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple and Idgah Mosque-

Scientists believe. That it is just a matter of few days - today's modern scientists can be successful to a great extent in finding the formula of immortality. He told that Dr. Suman Thakur, Director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, has even given a theory in this regard.

According to him, there are many theory details of ancient Indian science and modern science. But now they need to prove their connection with modern science.

American   scientists are also engaged in research related to this-

This DNA related research which is also going on in America. Among them, American geneticist Dr. French Panter is working on the genetics site, he says that by 2026 it may be possible to work on this subject, which includes keeping human life alive for a long time and keeping it young.

Today's modern science is still discovering what Lord Shiva has done years ago.



Scientists believe that Lord Shankar is eternal, immortal, indestructible, etc., infinity, zero, world, but today's modern science could not find out about this subject till today, how and why, but today's science is still human life and She is doing research work on how to grow taller.

Lord Shankar had made Lord Ganesha alive by installing elephant's head on Lord Ganesha's torso millions of years ago and told that nothing is impossible in this world, which is called organ transplant in the language of science today. and even today organ transplants are performed by our scientific Dr.

Also read- Know the historical importance of Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the controversy over Gyanvapi Masjid

But not the head above the torso, but a small part of it. This clearly indicates that there is no greater scientist than Lord Shankar in the whole universe. Apart from this, Lord Shankar has also taken poison and Kept it till his throat, which is amazing in itself, which no one else could do till now.

Mahadev is the father of wonderful weapons

Some scientists accept that according to the things mentioned in the Vedas, Lord Shiva had some waves which, despite being very small and light, had the ability to coordinate the whole world.

Space agency NASA also accepted that Lord Shiva is a scientist.

The world's largest space agency NASA has also been doing intensive research on every aspect related to Lord Shiva and Shiva for the past many years. In which one of his research is about the first DNA on earth, which is going on continuously even today. NASA actually started this project in the year 2011 after a meteorite fell in Alaska.

And the name of this project was The Shiva Project. And after deep research and study of this meteorite by NASA, it has been told that the first DNA on earth came from a Shivling only. And this Shivling came to earth with a meteorite. Then, later on, NASA scientists, through their study, confirmed that DNA had come on earth for the first time through Shivling. So that it is further proved that Lord Shiva is the biggest and first scientist of the world.

Lord Shiva Scientific View: Creation contained in Shivoham

We all know that Lord Brahma is the creator of this world. And Lord Vishnu is the maintainer of that creation world. But it has been told in our Vedas that this world   is based on scientific rules i.e. it runs no matter what it is. Here you have seen that both the Gods Brahma and Vishnu are committed to their respective duties somewhere or the other. So on the other hand Lord Shiva is beyond all these rules. And this is also a reason that Bholenath has the power to destroy this world, then he also has the power to reconstruct that world. From a scientific point of view, Shiva is the only one in this universe who can convert matter into energy.

While researching on this principle, scientist Albert Einstein once rendered a formula. The formula E = MC2 also proves that the matter present in the world can be converted into energy but that energy cannot be destroyed. And maybe that's why according to the world's modern scientist's point of view, when creation is destroyed, it takes the form of energy and this energy is Lord Shiva. Which we all call 'Shivoham'. In this way, Shiva is the ultimate source of all the energies of the universe. And this also proves that Lord Shiva is the greatest scientist in the world.

Best regards.

Thank you very much for visiting our site!

[amoderngorgon]

Lead Me To Your Door | One Shot

In which Celia makes an important decision

Celia had taken her time to think it over. The pros and cons of leaving, whether or not it was right to go now that she’d sort of settled in as a teacher (despite it never having been her dream career). She wanted to delve more into science. She always had. Her curse had been...a dreadful blip on the radar of her life, though it had allowed her to meet wonderful people. This was never supposed to be permanent.

Making the decision to leave, was in the end, rather simple. Her conversation with her mother had left her shaken up, and it brought forth such longing that it was hard not to think of it. It was impossible not to want to go home and have her favorite dishes and remember a childhood full of warmth and want to rebuild from her messy past. Maybe it was overly optimistic, but she felt like home could really be India once again. Time had passed, and Celia felt stronger than she’d been back then. If not now...when?

It was easy enough to end her lease, to pack up her things and to pay the extra fees to bring her dog with her. She wrote letters to her friends and she informed Secondary’s principle that she would not be returning that year. After that there were no real loose ends to worry about.

Several of her possessions were being sent through the mail, but she did manage to get it all packed up quick enough. Despite her living there for close to two years, Celia had never allowed herself to settle enough to own too much. It had never felt permanent. That made it much easier for her to go. 

Celia took one last look around her flat before she made her way out, her dog in tow as she called a cab. She asked the driver to loop around town once, wanting to capture it all in her memory one last time before it took her out of Swynlake and brought her toward London. 

In what felt like no time at all she had boarded the plane and despite the length of the flight, Celia was filled with a nervous energy that made it difficult for her to rest throughout the journey. That same energy remained as they landed, as she made her way through customs, as she stepped out and caught sight of her Amma and her Abba with a big sign spelling out Chandni.

A smile spread across the woman’s face as she rushed forward to embrace them, dropping her luggage to the side as she was engulfed in their arms and in her family’s love. This was it. This was what she had been longing for. She was home. 

[bluesakura007]

AOS Khan headcanons

I felt the urge to get these ideas I have out into writing because of how little this is delved into in STID, and because the books and comics and things aren’t really canon. I did take some inspiration for his backstory from the Khan comic series and another couple of tiny little bits that I found on Memory Beta though.  ^^ 

Childhood and Origins

- He was born in 1970, his birthday being February the 10th. His mother was Dr. Sarina Kaur, an Indian biochemist living and working in New Delhi, but he has no biological father of any kind because after months of theoretical research, Sarina managed to successfully conceive a child from just one parent. This was because of a project in which she was investigating the possibility of asexual reproduction in human beings like in some species of plants and insects, hence it was dubbed the Chrysalis Project.

- Whilst Khan was still in utero, his mother introduced some adjustments into his DNA such as providing him with the ability to better remember events from the early years of his childhood and adding a few different ethnicities into the mix. The European ethnicity became the dominant one, which is why he has a light skin tone, blue eyes and an English accent despite being born to an Indian parent.

- She named him Khan after one of her grandfathers, gave him his surname after the 15th century poet Singh el Bashir and chose his middle name as Noonien after Noonien Prasad, her boyfriend who died from cancer while she was pregnant with Khan and who would have been a fatherly figure to him.

- Sarina was very caring and benevolent towards Khan, who she would often call her beautiful boy. The fact that her son looked so different to her and that she’d originally conceived him for the purpose of scientific research did nothing to stop her from loving him very dearly.

- She later died when he was four years old due to an accident at her laboratory one day: it started a fire in which she perished as she tried to escape. When the now orphaned little Khan found out about his mother’s death, he felt frightened now that he was alone and ran off into the streets of the city, moving from place to place every night with no other possessions except for his blanket.

- After a few days, he came across a group of half a dozen other street orphans led by an older boy with a heart condition named Tanvir Acharya, who allowed Khan to join them, making him the youngest member. The ragtag seven would go around exploring the city together and would make their days of living homeless feel that little bit less sad, and over the next year Khan and Tanvir became best friends, to the point where they ultimately saw each other as blood brothers.

- After a year, Khan, Tanvir and the others in the group, and several other orphans, were kidnapped off of the streets by men working for a geneticist, Dr. Heisen, and taken to be turned into genetically enhanced “supermen” via DNA-altering experiments.

- Another seven years on, when Khan was twelve years old, he and the others at the facility they were being kept at were now all Augments and were still in the captivity of Heisen and his scientists. Khan and Tanvir hatched a plan for the both of them to escape and then come back to liberate the others later on: they dug their way out of the facility grounds through the floor and fled in separate directions, promising to rendezvous at this time later on when they’d go back for the others, with Khan going off into the Gobi Desert. However, Khan was recaptured five days later thanks to the use of his neural inhibitor implanted in his and the others’ bodies in order to inflict pain at the push of a button. Upon his return to the facility, he found out that Tanvir had also been recaptured, but that he had died due to the use of his own neural inhibitor inadvertently stopping his heart, his condition having “slipped the net” from his enhancements.

- After another three years, the teenage Khan, having become embittered towards Heisen and his scientists, and the others took control of the facility after working together to remove their neural inhibitors, and after Khan killed Heisen by crushing his skull, he and the other Augment children finally escaped and left to see more of the world.

Global Rule

- Khan and the group of friends and comrades he had by then, some of them being other Augments that had also escaped from their own facilities, took control of the Indian government in 1990 and established The Great Khanate, an Augment government power encompassing India, Nepal, Mongolia, the Western half of Russia and the Middle East. The world was also ruled over by six other Augment powers: Alexander Newton in charge of the Empire of Newtonia and Verity Cheng leading the Cheng Federation - these two being the Great Khanate’s allies and respectively encompassing North America and the Eastern half of Asia - along with Asahf Ferris at the head of the Ferris Dominion in South America, Ama Owusu leading the African Caliphates in the entirety of the African continent, and the Khanate’s enemies allied with each other, respectively the Oceania and European powers led by Bernard Maltuvis and John Ericssen called Maltuvisland and Pax Europa.

- While the Cheng Federation and the Empire of Newtonia adopted the same rules of benevolence towards their subjects that Khan did, with the African Caliphates also doing the same, the Ferris Dominion extorted money from its own, and Pax Europa and Maltuvisland committed many executions of human enemies and expanded their territories the most aggressively.

- Verity, Alexander and Khan all promised to back each other up in the event of a war against John and Bernard, as defensive border skirmishes were shared with these two; these were made more difficult by the start of the Eugenics Wars in 1992, which meant that for the next four years every Augment power had human forces working against them as well. Ama and Asahf preferred to stay neutral during Khan, Verity and Alex’s cold war against Maltuvisland and Pax Europa - they both basically sat back away from the chaos sipping tea and saying “This is fine”.

- While the other four’s identities were public knowledge - Ama and the others in the African Caliphates government were greeted as heroes for freeing the citizens of Africa from the poverty and dictatorships that they were living under - Alex, Verity and Khan all kept their faces and voices as leaders a secret, going by false names in public.

Personality Traits and Interests

- Although Khan has a cold ruthlessness towards his enemies who incur his anger, and even then he can still have a merciful side to some of them, he’s benevolent towards animals and children, as he knows that they’re innocents. He’s still also merciful towards people who aren’t directly involved in the activities of said enemies or don’t know what they’re doing, and as a result tries to avoid killing these non-direct accomplices if he can help it.

- He was taught about Hinduism from an early age, but he doesn’t really follow any religions.

- He likes the feeling of riding a horse, because of the freedom it grants of being able to ride through wide open spaces with nothing holding him back.

- He keeps it locked away underneath the surface and keeps himself cold and aloof around his enemies and strangers, but if you’re a person that he really trusts he can let his emotions shine through. Khan’s got a big heart, it’s just been tainted by his experiences.

- What he’s also got is a hidden fondness for chocolates and a disliking for spicy foods, the latter of which being ironic due to the fact that he grew up in India.

- He has a loathing for the scientists who turned him into an Augment, who took away a normal childhood that he could have had and also ended up taking his best friend away from him, as they and the ones working for the other Augment facilities around the world during the 1970s and 80s effectively dressed up their selfish goals of using supermen as human weapons in a facade of idealism.

- However, Khan bears no ill will to the rest of mankind and this is why he committed no atrocities towards his human subjects while leading the Great Khanate - the fond memories he has of Sarina, of the happy days before she died back when he was four, are a reminder to him that not all non-enhanced humans are selfish and that they’re capable of kindness. Khan loves her very much in return, which means that although he may become ruthless and enraged in the heat of battle, he’ll never take out this rage on the human race in general, as doing so would be an affront to the memory of his mother.

[kimpson]

My name is James kim.

This Is How I Came To Know What I Now Know, That I Am helping patients all over the world. Am putting this down now because I have had allot of patients asked how I do came about this protocol.

feel grateful to be able to tell my story that will make you aware of my background and how I arrived here.

Like so many people, I was scared, tearful and very distraught after my mother received her cancer diagnosis. Over the next 6-12 months the medical establishment tried, but nothing the doctors had to offer appeared to stop the metastasized cancer from taking over her entire body. She did what research she could about terms like; how to get rid of cancer naturally, holistic treatments and cures for metastasized cancer, and alternative cancer treatments that work.

Sadly, she never found anything that she thought would work for her.

My Father also had a real scare with a cancerous left kidney. His cancer hadn’t metastasized so his Doctors removed the kidney and he has been fine ever since. Then a day that I hoped would never come, came.

My mother said she did not think she was going to survive her cancer, the thought of which left me terrified and petrified thinking I was going to lose my mother to cancer.

Worse yet, the thought of her spending her last days in a hospice bed paralyzed me with fear and left me wanting to do nothing more than to curl up in a corner somewhere.

But instead of feeling sorry for myself and wanting to do what I could to save my mother, I chose to spend my time Googling terms like; how to cure stage 4 cancer naturally, natural lung cancer cures, natural treatment for lung cancer, natural cure for lung cancer, natural remedies for lung cancer and a whole bunch more.

My wife saw me doing these online searches, and she and the kids pleaded with me to accept the inevitable and to start preparing myself for the worse.

I was a useless wreck!

My Only Options :

(1)Pray, hope and plead while waiting for cancer to kill her

(2)Try to figure out how to slow down or stop her cancer long enough for her to die from old age instead.

As you might have guessed, I chose option 2 and then I aggressively launched a mission to save her life. Fear and desperation are probably two of the greatest motivators there are.

Available on the web were tons of books and hundreds of websites offering anywhere from a single product that cures every disease mankind has ever known, including those trying to tell you how to get rid of cancer naturally. To even more websites offering “2-299 guaranteed surefire alternative lung cancer treatments using the root from some plant that is only found in the Amazon Rain Forest or on a mountain top somewhere in India.

Common sense and research told me that all of these were a waste of time.

Common Sense and Research

Let me be brutally honest with you. I found no magic pill or secret drug out there that could cure cancer or keep her alive.

Especially after you’ve done multiple rounds of chemo and/or radiation. Odds are it’s over! Close the shades, update your will, finalize your funeral arrangements, and kiss your family and friends goodbye. I was seeing this first hand with my mother, and the saddest part is that the only certain thing is WHEN and not IF she would succumb to the cancer metastasis.

Many times I wanted to give up on finding a solution. I had almost come to terms with the reality that she’d be dead in 6 Months. I went through a gamut of emotions like fear, anxiety, dread and anger. But I channeled those emotions and went about the work of saving her.

Please allow me the pleasure of sharing with you the ” Eureka” moment when everything all came together. What I found is:

I quickly concluded that after many decades of waging war on cancer there had to be legitimate, valid and credible studies that revealed an effective alternative cancer treatment protocol.

After hundreds, if not thousands of hours of searching the web and reading hundreds of these research studies, my hard work and relentless efforts were rewarded.

I found several studies that had been rigorously peer-reviewed and which were supported by hundreds more rigorously reviewed university studies. What all of these studies did was to put together for me a genuine, scientifically validated treatment program that was virtually certain, at a minimum, to stop her cancer metastasis in its tracks, if not outright cure it!

The researchers declared this treatment as, likely to be “more successful than current approaches because it is based on the principles of evolutionary biology and metabolic control analysis” and that it could truly be an alternative cancer treatment and cure.

So if you needed an:

-alternative breast cancer treatment

-alternative prostate cancer treatment

-alternative pancreatic cancer treatment

-alternative liver cancer treatment

Then this is your ticket to a real chance to treat and beat your disease!

However, I like to be as close to 100% sure as I can get. So I looked at how The American Cancer Society (ACS) evaluates mainstream and alternative cancer treatments.

They do this by asking three questions:

1) Has the method been objectively demonstrated in the peer-reviewed scientific literature to be effective?

2) Has the method shown potential for benefit that exceeds the potential for harm?

3) Have objective studies been correctly conducted under appropriate peer review to answer these questions?

Fortunately, I was able to answer all those questions with a resounding YES! Every single piece of knowledge reinforced my belief that this truly would give me a great chance at keeping her alive especially since current mainstream protocols like surgery, chemo, and radiation had failed her.

The Well-Known Secret is Finally Available

It’s not a secret that Big Pharma makes some very vicious business decisions. So it should be fairly easy to see there is not a Big Pharma business person that would spend millions to educate MDs or the General Public about a cheap and effective treatment protocol. Even if it has been scientifically validated by elite research scientists time and time again. Just because it has zero potential to add to Big Pharma’s already massive net profits.

But what I learnt earn is the findings scientists have known about for decades.

That you stand an outstanding chance of defeating cancer if not outright curing it, IF the right protocol is used.

What your cancer cells need to kill you, are the nutrients (glucose and secondarily glutamine) that the blood vessels bring to them so that they can continue to grow and metastasize. Because cancer in and of itself won’t kill you. It is the ongoing and uncontrolled growth of cancer that eventually overwhelms your body and kills you.

So the key to not dying from cancer is to be able to slow down or kill enough cancer cells so that they don’t overrun your body.

Research scientists have known and proven this over and over again for decades. This protocol teaches you the specific details of what to do so that you can effectively starve cancer and then eradicate it while ensuring that your normal cells remain very healthy. And the best part is, this protocol does it very quickly, cheaply and most importantly very EFFECTIVELY!

The 70+years of clinical science that supports it, is overwhelming.

If you have cancer of any origin, no matter how aggressive it is, or even if it has metastasized, YOU DON’T have to be DEAD too soon.

Quite the contrary, you will have a plan, that is a whole body and systemic protocol that will suffocate, starve, poison and kill cancer anywhere in the body. It matters not if it has been declared untreatable cancer. Metastasized or still localized. It doesn’t matter the origin (lung, breast, liver, pancreas, etc).

You Won’t Have to Worry to Death Anymore

[grayhouse3]

SJTR is my villain origin story

So I finished Stalking Jack the Ripper.

Originally I told myself that I was going to just stick it out and read the next one (“Oh, it’s about vampires and Dracula. It’s probably more fun. You can forget all about the pain this one inflicted on you"). No. I got 12% of the way through and had to DNF. So here are my messily compiled thoughts on the book, basically expanded from the last post. Honestly, kind of feel free knowing I won’t be writing more about this series. (Also I am adding some TWs down below but don't know if I am doing them right!)

More on the exoticism, weirdness with Audrey Rose's Indian mother, and the British Empire:

In chapter 14, we read, "Dark strands of hair were piled atop my head, my eyes more mysterious somehow with the dark liner, and my lips were the bright crimson of freshly spilled blood … I thought of my mother and the saris she’d brought me to wear from Grandmama’s homeland. I felt just as stunning now as I did then, and the memory warmed me.” I am still trying to figure out why Maniscalco made Audrey Rose mixed race. Why is Audrey Rose’s grandmother from India? Literally, what did it add to the story? Was it nothing more than just a cute lil quirky fun character trait to her? I don’t think I missed any key moments where there were important conversations about race, imperialism, British occupation, etc., mostly because Audrey Rose’s father (a big fancy rich lord) is a white man and because Audrey Rose is white-passing. I can’t recall any moments in the book where she faces the realities/consequences of being a socially mobile POC WOMAN in LONDON IN THE 1880s. Honestly, if someone else can point out a passage I glossed over or explain some nuance I missed I would actually really appreciate it, because this drove me CRAZY.

(Audrey Rose and her brother also go visit a circus in town in chapter 15; of course these events existed purely for England/colonizing countries to exercise and display their power and to exoticize/exploit the communities/cultures that they came into contact with. Audrey Rose sees silks, beads, etc. that remind her of her grandmother’s saris, smells the foods of her family’s “homeland,” etc. Also in the same chapter there’s this great scene where her brother is describing their mother and father’s marriage: “Grandmama told me she’d refused him twenty times just for fun,” Nathaniel replied. “Said he squirmed like a cobra in a basket. That’s how she knew he was in love.” Uhhh … Is that supposed to be romantic?)

On the feminism stuff:

I am too *gestures vaguely* to write much more on this. Yeah, it’s heavy-handed. Yeah, it’s cringey. But at the end of the day, it’s not really that harmful, I guess. Here’s just a fun sampling of some of my favorite lines from the book:A few of my favorite bites from the book:

***“close-minded society” (chapter 21) Okay

***"Why turn a murderer of women into front-page news?” (chapter 15) Bro do you know how the media works

***"But what of her [mother’s] insistence that I could be both strong and beautiful? Surely Father had to be wrong.” (chapter 21) Yes girl you are strong and beautiful!

***"There would be no skirts or bustles to wrangle with anymore. I was through with things confining me” (chapter 22) Ugh down with corsets just another tool of the patriarchy amirite

On the violence against women, weird classism, and stuff about prostitution:

I was bound to be uncomfortable about a lot of this because I have weird feelings about true crime stuff, and this is historical fiction set around the Jack the Ripper murders. It was going to go sour somewhere.

Consistently Audrey Rose wants to be sympathetic, but is unable to connect all the parts of this situation together: she struggles to imagine the women (very real-life victims) beyond their lives of prostitution, poverty, squalor. When she does, we see something like this: "The women he murdered did matter ... They were daughters and wives and mothers and sisters” (chapter 28). Oftentimes she wishes she could continue to cut cadavers open in peace (women in science!) without having to think about how those cadavers came to be on her examination table: “I needed to get away from those women and their tragic lives before my emotions got the better of me” (chapter 25). Perhaps Maniscalco deserves more credit here, and perhaps I’m just being a bitch, because Audrey Rose is a very privileged girl and her actions and thoughts make that clear. It’s just that the conclusions she comes to in the name of feminism, justice, etc. weren’t at all satisfying to me.

Also: OH MY GOD. Oh my god. There is this one moment that is BRANDED AGAINST THE GRAY MATTER OF MY BRAIN FOREVER and I will never forget it. At one point, Audrey Rose and love interest Thomas decide the best thing they can do is go out and—yes—stalk Jack the Ripper. To do this, they know they need to “blend in” with the crowds in East End. So … like … cosplaying as poor people? Audrey Rose manages to find and wear the dress of ONE OF THE MURDER VICTIMS (long story short her medical doctor uncle was in a relationship with this woman and when she died he acquired her worldly possessions). It’s like, so fucked up, I can’t even describe my reaction when I read it. In chapter 25 we read, "The dress was a little too old, a little too ragged, a bit too big. If I were to wear this ghastly dress out, I’d look as if I belonged in the East End, begging for work to feed my addictions … It was absolutely perfect.” Oh my god. And THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART. While they’re “stalking Jack the Ripper” on this incredibly stupid mission, the two main characters just … make out in an alley. Like, okay. People are being murdered and you’re wearing a dead woman’s dress and you suspect your father of being guilty, but yeah, that kind of stuff makes us all a little horny. Super relatable. Absolutely no concept of reality or consequences or anything at all.

Another random note on class: I noticed the only time Maniscalco writes in dialects/accents, she’s writing seedy/working-class characters. Not saying this is a problem unique to Maniscalco’s writing by a longshot, but ... something to think on. (I think it’s ingrained in a lot of author’s writing habits/minds at this point.)

Weird stuff about the dad, the brother, and what justice means to Audrey Rose:

I had to add a whole new highlighting color for this stuff!

Any growth Audrey Rose might’ve shown over the course of the novel—anything about how these women mattered, and how they deserved justice as any “highborn” individual might, simply by dint of being humans—goes away when she and Thomas come to the conclusion that the Ripper murders must have been committed by Audrey Rose’s father. She realizes her moral dilemma when she contends with the harsh reality: if her father is the Ripper, can she turn him into the authorities? Audrey Rose worries how that might impact her own moral virtue: "They’d hang Father. Given who he was, they’d make it as public and brutal as possible. Just because blood might stain his hands did not mean I wanted his on mine. No matter if it was right or wrong” (chapter 24). First of all, BITCH. You have to. You have to report this kind of thing. No ifs, ands, or buts. I HAVE to imagine Maniscalco’s intended audience would feel the same? It’s? Serial murder? Second: Audrey Rose, baby, sweetie, honey. This is just a reminder that ACAB. I actually don’t know a whole lot about how the late Victorian criminal justice system functioned, but something tells me her family's public outlook would’ve been less bleak than she imagines here.

Lucky for Audrey Rose, her dad isn’t guilty in the end—but her brother sure is. He’s a mad scientist, using the brutalized bodies and souvenirs of his victims for Frankenstein-style experiments. Ultimately, he wants to reanimate the corpse of his and Audrey Rose’s long-dead mother, and he believes he can achieve this by transplanting fresh organs into ? Her dead and decomposed body? The thing is that, this moral dilemma persists for Audrey Rose—and her dad, too. He pressures her not to bring the little matter of Nathaniel’s issue—you know, his casual murder of a number of local women—to Scotland Yard: “They’ll have your brother hanged,” he said quietly. “Could you honestly watch that happen? As a family, have we not suffered enough?” (chapter 29). Nathaniel electrocutes himself to evade capture by the authorities, and Audrey Rose and her father feel relief. The book ends by confirming that "Lord Edmund covered up Nathaniel’s involvement, I didn’t ask how. One day I’d let everyone know the truth, but the pain was too raw now” (chapter 30).

((Side note: Listen. I knew Nathaniel had something sinister going on from the GET-GO (I’m not trying to be obnoxious) because he basically started some nighttime vigilante group called the Whitechapel Knights of Justice or whatever bullshit, I don’t know. All I know is that my red flags IMMEDIATELY started going off because that sounds exactly like the terrible and awful Crusader cosplay clubs from my (bad) Catholic childhood, where everyone thinks they’re a knight for Good but really they’re the bad guy.))

Overall, kind of ...

I think one of my biggest issues with this ending was … You have already stepped into a realm of fantastical revisionist history here in writing such a fictionalized version of these real-life events. (I know Maniscalco is far from the first to do it.) That means that the rules you are playing by are essentially your own—evidenced by the liberties she points out in her Author’s/Historical note (dates changed for convenience or storytelling purposes, real-life individuals changed for narrative purposes, etc.). So WHY would you not conclude this fantasy retelling of the Jack the Ripper murders by meting out some form of justice? I hear the counterargument: "Well, because we still don’t know the culprit today. This book would ring hollow if it named someone since historians, forensic scientists, etc. still don’t know who committed these crimes." My question: is that really a problem though? This is a work of fiction. Nothing in history happened the way it is written here. Is it crueler to the women who were murdered and who remain spectacles for true crime junkies and authors like this, less satisfying to readers who want some more concrete kind of closure, to not offer that up? I am asking this in earnest here, because I don’t know. Maybe it is insensitive to make up a murderer, to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the violence that happened. But in my brain it feels almost like a responsibility at this point, since these murders served as the backdrop for the romance between Audrey Rose and Thomas, for the background to Audrey Rose’s empty feminist diatribes, and as inspiration for a book that went on far longer than it needed to. To me it kind of feels like the least an author could do, but I have no clue.

Anyways, I'm just glad I get to put this series to bed. No more.I truly lost sleep over it this weekend. Onto something better, please, for the love of god.

[sketchyracoon]

I may have lost any semblance of control on my life i had before. Among Us AU details under the cut.

Many of them have accents. I had the idea that they were from a big like multi-country space project and fell in love with the idea of the American(s) on the ship just startling the others because of things like the lack of bidets in the US.

Red (Elliot) is 38, is a Texan and you can tell he says Ya'll as a descriptor and many of the others are slightly fearful of the way he mashes words together. his whole personality can be summed up with "I'm a cowboy baby" and the fact that he's angy.

If I'm honest he is the only American on board that really startles the other crewmates even the other Americans are like "hey dude chill".

Orange (Herbert) is 27 probably from France (haven't really decided yet) and he was more confident before shock horror bad things happened to the whole crew. (More on that at five). Herbert is also very easily overwhelmed, he tries to pay attention but is often confused.  I’ve also decided to change the egg on his head to be a hat in the future but I decided that after I drew the egg.

Pink (Eun-Jung) is 29, South Korean but he got some schooling in Britain and has probably traveled a lot. He looks soft but he can and will throw a mean punch. He and Herbert have crushes on each other but they kinda put it to the side when shit went down. There have been many times however when Eun-Jung has sat down with Herbert and calmed him down and dried his tears.

Green (Philip) is one of the younger crewmates being 22, he's a very studious lad he loves adventure novels and always wanted to go to space.

Especially after watching shows and reading books about space. He keeps trying to get together group DND nights but it's very hard for him to cater to everyone's interests cause he's the kind of DM that wants everyone to have fun but he also has a lot planned for a session but nothing ever happens because everyone is always goofing off. He still has fun tho and so does everyone else.

White is Angie, If I'm honest I named her that because of the halo she's wearing, and I thought it'd be funny. She is a not so single once single mother who lost her husband when her kid was born. She used to live in England but moved to Ireland for new scenery and for the space project.

She and black (Jolene) met in school and quickly fell in love. They Are Married! And the whole crew hates (loves) how sappy they are. Angie is stubborn and strong but also very kind and level-headed, she's not easily overwhelmed like Herbert is but when she does get overwhelmed, she doesn't crumble like he does. Doesn't mean her wife doesn't comfort her tho.

They both are in their late forties (Angie is 48 and Jolene is 49) and I named Jolene, Jolene because of the song. Jolene is Irish btw idk if I made that clear. And she is the definition of a chaotic lesbian, Angie tries very hard to keep her air of being a distinguished bi but she's also very chaotic at heart. They both are greying hair-wise but Jolene keeps covering it up with dye. Jolene thinks her wife looks very elegant with the white in her curls. Jolene can be summed up with that one Tumblr post story about a girl who told a girl she liked that "her air must be mad crisp" because of her plants.

Cyan (Tea) is Scandinavian and listen this like Eun-Jung's name is where is gets shaky google wise, and if this name isn't really a Scandinavian than I guess it's just an eccentric nickname. (I’m assuming it’s pronounced like the drink but if I’m wrong sorry) She is NERDY AND PROUD, but like not movie nerdy girl I mean genuinely weird nerdy. I guess technically everyone is a little nerdy in this crew but she's a feral kind of scientist. She is technically the captain of the ship because of her science background and her previous work with the Scandinavian branch of the space mission. Her goggles are prescription. She is 36 and has a little crush on the resident father of two purple (Perry).

Perry is a loving dad and all-around kind dude, he fathers the group sometimes intentionally. Often taking control of making food, and sometimes the group meetings, even tho technically he's not in charge. He's an open ear to the entire crew and he loves his two kids so much. He doesn't talk much about how he and his Ex split up but it's clear that he and his kids are happier without her. He Kinda likes Tea back a little but he's so busy being a good dad that he doesn't know that. He's often found baking for everyone and is in fact the culprit behind the extra five pounds everyone gained when joining the ship. Perry is 32. His family is from India and he visited his extended family there a lot but he was born and raised in the UK.

Blue (Liz which is short for Elizabeth) is not the greatest with people, she tries her best but she often comes off weird she's 51, one of her hobbies is learning and practicing different rules to fighting styles. She’s trying to teach herself taekwondo but the lack of instructor and need to use downloaded videos is holding her back. She's got some skill in boxing and ran a self-defense course back on earth. Her entire class was sad to see her go but the respected her decision and on the off days that the ship gets reception to radio back earth or other ships she makes sure to message them back with well wishes.

Yellow (Zack) is a little shit lord, he is the youngest on crew at age 19. He got in through a series of events up to and including the fact that his parents were exasperated by him and that his Aunt Liz (who he calls Aunt Lizzy) telling them that they were short a crewmate. the previous yellow left and they were having trouble getting a fit for the crew's specific needs, everyone else was on different crews and couldn't leave to fill in their gap. They were planning to leave with nine people when Zack reluctantly signed up. He was 18 at the time he first signed up and after a year of training, he was greenlit just in time for the mission.

He doesn't really get along well with anyone but he slowly opens up to the crew overtime. He got labeled as a problem child because of undiagnosed ADHD and focus problems and by the time he was diagnosed it was too late and all of his teachers had basically given up on him.

The entire crew tho is cool with it because many of them are neurodivergent. Liz and Zack are the other Americans of the crew.  But Elliot is the only one who is not bi/multilingual. Unless you count Texas accent as a language which a many of the crew jokingly do. In which case he is fluent.

But then disaster struck, after a few months of bonding and growing close as a found family people started to die. After some trial and error, they found out that Herbert and Zack were behind it. Liz and Eun-Jung being two of the few remaining both reacted differently Eun-Jung was controlled anger barely keeping it together and Liz was deeply disappointed, she wanted better from her nephew.

What was weird tho was after ejecting the pair their display panels confirmed that they were "imposters" and now that they thought about it it was weird that they were all locked to this one specific floor of this ship. but no matter that was a thought for another day. now able to go to the lower floors the remaining crew mates all went to bed.

The next morning however everyone was back and alive not even a scar remaining, even the imposters. returned. After a lot of shouting (mainly from Elliot who was pissed about being stabbed) the crew started to reluctantly trust what Hubert and Zack were saying that they didn't want to hurt or kill any of them but something made them and it was like they were in a haze.

It was only directly after a kill that they could snap out of it and control themselves briefly (kill cooldown) before they lost control again. Since then they've been stuck in this sick loop where they all keep taking turns being stuck as imposter killing each other. At first when it happened again, they thought it was Herbert and Zack again but once it didn't stop anything and the ship told them that they weren’t imposters.

They realized that it was randomized. Overtime they learned the rules. Only Imposters can access vents, the kill count, that they can then follow around and do things as ghosts after thy get murdered, etcetera. But one thing they didn't realize was the punishments.

Overtime as they each tried to break the rules by, revealing themselves as imposter, trying desperately hard to go pacifist, or any number of other things like trying to remove their helmets, or talk on comms before emergencies on meetings they were punished.

Philip is now growing plants off of himself. Eun-Jung has a similar punishment but it's solely cherry blossoms. Herbert is stuck killing everyone by eating them with a giant mouth from his stomach. I don't know Elliot’s punishment yet but the thought to make him Texan squared did cross my mind.

Angie is turning into one of those rad many-eyed angels from Dante's inferno. Jolene is now growing goat horns and her eyes are now goat-like. And Idk what other punishments to give Tea, Perry, Liz, and Zack, I want them to be related to the hats and stuff you can wear in game like some of the others but how to you punish some one using a banana? Or two kids? Or googles? I’ll probably come up with something later especially since they are all mostly hidden by the suits, that means that conceivably their punishments are hidden by the suits.

[stormcrawler75]

Taking a Different Path (No Matter How Different the Path) Chapter 2

Summary: In the present, Logan and Patton deal with the fallout of Virgil’s decision to go to College. In the past, the Doctors deal with the fallout of their subjects’ escape.

Warnings: unethical experiments mentions, mentions of surgical actions, mentions of death, and dead bodies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 2nd, 2001 12:45 AM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guards and scientists walked around the facility slowly putting things back in order and gathering to help each other bandage each other up. The few dead bodies were dragged off to be dealt with and the injured were put into the medical wing to be treated. And the Doctors in charge walked off to their conference room to discuss the escape of their four most promising subjects.

The head Doctor sat in their chair, staring down at the files on the patients numbly as the others argued all around them. They drummed their fingers against the table and tried their best to figure out how things went so wrong. The subjects had been chipped and stuck in their cells when they had last seen them. Two were literal babies and the other two had their powers controlled through the chip. There was no conceivable way they could’ve escaped.

They stared down at the files on the table, the subjects’ faces looking back up at them, mocking them. The head Doctor sighed and shook their head. They had been so careful with this project. Each move carefully calculated and the subjects had been taken from different Countries so they couldn’t be traced.

Subject #LG5656 had been born in India fourteen years ago and had been taken from a young couple in the dead of night. The couple had been kind and obviously loved their son. They would’ve been the perfect parents. But they were very gullible and very easy to be fooled into thinking that their young son had died an hour after his death. The Head Doctor had been there and had watched as the couple walked away with agony written across their faces.

But the Head Doctor had their first subject.

And they watched their subject grow and take to the chemicals they had pumped through his veins well. Unlike others, subject #LG5656 had gotten through the pain of the treatment and had been the first subject to gain his powers. The Head Doctor had watched him grow and become more and more physically powerful each day. The last time they had seen him, he had long dark hair reaching his shoulders, the same dark skin of his parents, and intelligent brown eyes. With an IQ of 195 and strength that outmatched any Human, the Head Doctor knew that subject #LG5656 would be someone to watch as time went on.

And almost just as impressive was subject #LG5656’s cellmate, subject #MH3453.

Subject #MH34453 had been taken from Russia a year after subject #LG5656 had been taken and with him, the first Lookalike. Subject #MH3453 had been abandoned at the hospital right at birth which had made him very easy to acquire. And subject #MH3453 had survived the treatment laughably easy and, unlike subject #LG5656, had the powers of the mind instead of the muscles.

But unlike subject #MH3453, the first Lookalike had been an utter disappointment and had been shoved to the side. The Head Doctor scowled as he thought of the first Lookalike’s scaly face and shoved the thought of that monster from his mind and went back to reminiscing past events. 

The Head Doctor had been more than impressed to see subject #MH3453 crush cans with his mind and manipulate a person’s emotions with ease. Subject #MH3453 looked like the most innocent person, able to swindle almost anyone. He was Caucasian with bouncy honey-blond hair, freckles all over his face and arms, with bright blue eyes hidden behind a pair of big round glasses.

Pairing him with subject #LG5656 had been a smart move. They had opposite temperaments and personalities but somehow; they seemed to just click and whenever they had partner tests, they always seemed to pass. They wouldn’t have survived this long if they hadn’t.

The Head Doctor had been hopeful with those two in this program. Things would go nicely. But they were someone who looked to the future always. Subject #LG5656 and subject #MH3453 were good and would be amazing in the future. But the Head Doctor needed someone to fall back on who wasn’t the Lookalike.

Which is where he had found subject #RR7897 and the second Lookalike. 

Subject #RR7897 was fascinating. Born to a pregnant teenage mother from Cuba just a year ago and had supposed to be given to an older couple in a closed adoption with the second Lookalike. But the Head Doctor’s research team had found them both first and brought them to the Head Doctor. The Head Doctor had immediately started the treatment to see who would become his third subject and who would become the second Lookalike. And subject #RR7897 hadn’t disappointed, not like the second Lookalike who had promptly been dumped into the cell of the other one as the Head Doctor focused solely onto his latest subject.

With bright white wings, subject #RR7897 had plenty of potential to him already. He was able to complete the small tests Doctors gave him and had started to stretch the little wings that the treatment had given him. He fit right in with the other subjects and the Head Doctor could already see that the little one would be like subject #MH3453. Sweet and innocent and could hopefully be used to get information from others. He had a headful of brown fluffy hair, light brown skin, and hazel eyes and was so cute that he had many of the softer doctors cooing over him and giving him extra treats and rewards.

The Head Doctor quickly put a stop to that.

And then... potential subject #AV9909. They had found the baby when the mother was still in labour and the baby had barely been born before they had grabbed him and was bringing him from Jamaica and back to the Hospital to be brought to the head Doctor. The Doctor had taken one look at the baby with dark skin, fuzzy barely-there hair on the top of the head and face screwed up tight and had told their team of Doctors to start him on the treatment. The baby would either succeed and become subject #AV9909 or he would become a failure. Of perhaps he’d have powers similar to subject #LG5656 and become the third Lookalike.

However.... the Head Doctor didn’t know the result of the treatment now. Because all four of their subjects were now gone.

They were drawn out of their thoughts by a fellow Doctor accusing another of something that made them bristle. “Say that again,” they said calmly and cooly, cutting through the din of screaming. They slowly looked up from the files and glared at the suddenly frozen Doctor. “What did you say?”

The younger Doctor swallowed, nervous with all eyes on them. “I saw Doctor Abe shut off the chips on the subjects,” they said softly. “Right after the last session.”

The Head Doctor’s eyes narrowed, and they slowly turned to look at the Doctor in question, all the blood had drained from his face. “You did what,” he whispered.

“I-I didn’t turn them off,” he stuttered anxiously. That earned him an arched eyebrow and a wave of the hand telling him to move on. “It was just after a series of tests and the tests were interfering with the chips so I, I... I cut them out so I could complete the tests and then I was going to put them back in later on.”

The silence in the conference room was so thick that no knife could even think of breaking it.

“You... cut them out?”

“Yes, Sir,” the Doctor Abe stuttered. “I was going to-“

The Head Doctor stood, a furious scowl on their face. “The chips track the subjects,” they hissed. “They control the subjects’ powers. They can send a controlled shock through them. You could’ve turned them off for a short time but instead cut them out. And where on they now?”

Doctor Abe shrunk back. “I-in a dish on my desk.”

“In a dish on your desk,” the Head Doctor repeated, each word more cold than the last. They looked the shaking Doctor Abe up and down in disgust. “Get out of my sight,” they hissed. “I would deal with you myself but I can’t stand the thought of your idiocy being in the same room of me for a moment longer.” The Head Doctor glared at the idiot until he got the hint and ran out of the room, the door swinging behind him. They glanced at a guard with a pointed look at the guard nodded, following the soon-to-be-dealt-with Doctor out.

“I trust no one else in this room is as moronic as them,” the Head Doctor said, turning to the rest of their team. It was only after they all nodded that the Head Doctor continued. “Good. Now, it’s time to find a way to move forward.”

They looked around and raised their eyebrows. “Thoughts?”

“We focus on getting the subjects back,” a woman doctor said immediately, adjusting her glasses. “We get them back, rechip them, and continue on with the tests. Easy.”

“Easy,” the Head Doctor repeated with an air of incredulous. “You think getting the subjects back will be easy?”

The woman doctor shrugged and said patronizingly, “They’re just children. How far can they get in this world?”

The Head Doctor tapped their fingers against the table. “How far indeed,” they muttered. “What you fail to take into account is that these ... children ... are brilliant. Subject #LG5656’s IQ is just below genius levels and subject #MH3453 can read people exceptionally well. They could elude us.”

“And they’ll be hiding an infant with wings,” she shot back. She pushed her frizzy hair behind her ear and pointed at the files. “We should put out a search team to find them.”

“Obviously,” the Head Doctor muttered. They stared at the files and chewed their lip. The subjects were the best of the best and they would need to get them back if they were to get the best results. And the ideal situation would be to get them back but... just in case... “Send out a search team,” they ordered. They straightened up, clasped their hands behind their back, and said firmly, “And start more tests on the Lookalikes. Until the subjects return, they will take their place.

“But this is only until we recapture the subjects. And then, the Lookalikes will return to their cells and we’ll resume our lives as normal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 13, 2020 8:45 AM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re not focused.” Logan grabbed his younger brother’s arm, very gently twisting it and forcing his brother down to the floor. He avoided the large flapping wings and carefully pinned Roman, making sure not to put too much weight on him. “You know that being distracted in the field could prove deadly, Roman.”

Logan could almost feel the annoyance and wounded pride radiate off of Roman but he kept a firm hold on Roman until Roman smacked a hand against the ground in surrender. Logan let Roman up, patting him on his shoulder gently. “What’s going on, little one,” he asked softly, tilting his head up a little to be able to look Roman in the eyes. “You’re angry, unfocused, and have been for quite a while now.”

“It’s not any of your business,” Roman mumbled, brushing off imaginary dust from his workout shirt. His feathers were puffed up in anger, something that Logan had gotten quite used to seeing lately. “I’m fine, Logan.”

“Are you,” Logan shot at him. He crossed his arms and shook his head. “I will not push, Roman. But you’ve been out of sorts ever since Virgil left to go to -“ he trailed off as Roman left their training ground in a huff. “We shall talk later then,” Logan muttered. 

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes as he walked from the mat he and Roman had been sparing on and grabbed a towel, wiping at his face. That had been an alright training session, he supposed. No arguments and no injuries. Just anger coming from Roman that seemed to come from nowhere, low morale coming from all of his brothers, and a baby brother who no longer attended any training sessions at all.

Lovely.

Logan tossed his towel to the side and started to put the mats away. Their “training ground” was, in fact, their adoptive father’s unusually large basement. It had more than enough room for them to spare comfortably and use any equipment that their father had bought or found for them. It was full to the brim with equipment, sparring mats, and a mini-fridge full of Gatorade and other healthy snacks. Logan had spent hours upon hours down here.

And yet with his youngest brother away at College and his second youngest brother full of anger and resentment, it felt like a stranger’s basement.

“Hey, Lolo? Wanna spar?”

Logan’s lips twitched up into a fond smile as he turned to see Patton standing there in his workout clothes, a flashy headband, and a bright and happy smile. Of course, if there was anything that could put things back into balance, it was his best friend and closest brother.

Logan remembered the days in the Hospital with only Patton at his side, before Roman and before Virgil. Only his friend who wanted more than anything to put a smile on his face and keep him safe. In all that had changed in these past years, those two things hadn’t changed even a little. “Of course,” Logan said, moving over to a sparing mat and shifting into his fighting stance. “Did you complete your solo exercises?”

Patton grinned and copied Logan’s stance. “Sure did!” He wiped away some sweat from his brow dramatically. “And all’s sweats are off on me not having sore muscles later on!”

“Just for that,” Logan grumbled, fighting back a smile, “I’ll make sure not to go easy on you.”

Patton’s laugh echoed through the basement as they spared against each other but with how well they knew each other, not a single punch managed to land. No matter how hard they tried to hit each other, they were just too well-matched and knew each other too well. But it was Logan who eventually bowed out, stepping off the mat with a warm smile. “You win,” he told Patton. 

Patton beamed at him, gasping for breath. Both of them were drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. But they walked upstairs a little more happy than when they went downstairs. 

If only that happy mood would continue throughout the entire week. But with everything that had been happening lately, Logan couldn’t help but have his doubts. He sighed and his smile dropped. “You’re off to meet Virgil this afternoon, correct?”

“Yep,” Patton said, cracking his shoulder and wincing. Logan bit back a grimace of his own. They were not as young as they used to be. “I’m meeting with him for lunch today. You should come!”

Logan smiled at him, for a moment enjoying the thought of seeing his baby brother. But... “I’d love to but with how Roman is right now, I think I should stay here. I’d like to be able to keep an eye on him.”

Patton sighed and shook his head as they reached up to the top of the basement stairs, shifting the bookcase to the side that hid the secret entrance. “He’s so.... irritable lately. And he said to the reporter last night that Virgil’s joining the team when he already said he won’t and,” Patton trailed off and sighed again. “I just wish we could all get along again. You know, like we did when we were kids.”

“Ah, yes, as we were kids,” Logan said with an amused gleam in his eyes. “As I remembered, we all got along because there is no use for fighting on the road. And Roman and Virgil couldn’t talk properly until Father had adopted us.”

Patton giggled. “Okay, you’re not wrong. I just,” he shrugged, “I miss having my brothers around.” His smile saddened. “I’m so proud of Virgil for going to College. The first in the family. But... a part of me wished that he hadn’t left. What if something happens to him?”

Logan nodded, a feeling of nostalgia washing over him. He remembered holding Virgil as a small baby in his arms and wished for a moment that they could go back to those days. But then he remembered the pain and suffering of those early days and pushed it back. Things were better now, no matter how different it was. “We cannot keep him here forever. It was time he started his own life.” Logan smiled at Patton gently. “He will reach out if something were to happen. You know he would.”

Logan started forward, intent on making himself a healthy breakfast. But he froze when Patton said softly, “And what if one of the Doctors find him?” He slowly turned to meet Patton’s scared eyes. “It could happen,” Patton said helplessly. “And Virgil’s powers aren’t aggressive like ours. He would be completely helpless against them.”

“...” Logan’s hands clenched at the thought of his baby brother back in a cell and put through the same tests that he and Patton had been put through. “Virgil will never be helpless,” he said firmly, turning away from the knowing eyes of his brother. “No matter what happens, he will always have us there to help him.”

[frumfrumfroo]

What’s one AU that you’ve never seen for Reylo that you want to? What’s one trope that you wish was more common in fic?

I had a really good one a while back that I can’t think of now. Maybe I’ll remember later lol.

I wish there were more modern royalty AUs with ridiculous romcom tropes, you know Prince Ben and CinderReya (yes, I am proud of that pun). I know of only one. I will also take more royalty stuff at all, period. There is not enough Prince Ben in any form and this is an egregious crime because he is an actual canon prince and I feel like there’s so much potential there for amusing double-fish-out-of-water scenarios with Rey’s socialisation exclusively in seedy underbelly culture vs his Raised by Books and Droids. People tend to make him way more rough and tumble than he actually is and Rey way less so and it’s a waste lmao. They are both impulsive under pressure, but he is a social thinker, he’s curious about people, she’s the one who problem-solves by pretending there are no problems and hitting anyone who looks at her funny.

People do a lot of jokes about her teaching him manners post-redemption like he’s this half-tame bear she brought home, but it’d be the exact opposite. He’s stiltedly formal in canon, he’s solicitous. Meanwhile Rey has zero manners and is blunt to a fault, she is ready to throw down over her sense of justice at any time with no apologies. I feel like she’d be super overprotective of Ben/their relationship and I’d love to see more fics with that kind of Rey the secretive hoarder vs the outside world clash. It feels like such a natural extension of her canon conflicts.

Also set ups which acknowledge how Not Fine, sealed off, isolated and judgey she is. Like she’s a ranger who works with animals, loves animals with such soft compassion, but barely speaks to people, and he’s either a scientist or a developer, someone she can easily think is up to no good and a threat to nature. She thinks he’s an unfeeling brute, but obviously it’s complicated and he has some kind of tree-hugging past he had to abandon etc. etc.

(Back on manners and how they have a complex double-defrosting dynamic everyone tends to simplify into her being his opposite and her defrosting him, sunny well-adjusted social butterfly Rey to a broody Byronic man- which is NOT correct at all. He is emotionally available and immediately compassionate for her, he defrosts her inner self; she seems available to the ‘good guys’ but isn’t. Anyway, subversive swerve: My Fair Lady/Anastasia fusion AU where Ben is Eliza/Anastasia a secret foreign prince lost since he was 10, Rey is Higgins teaching him elocution while he teaches her how to people, F/nn is Pickering an aristocrat who picked Rey up as a foundling in India to be his companion shortly before he was orphaned himself, Han shows up as Mr Doolittle the con artist- he’s actually been in hiding with Ben because of a military coup in their country, Rose is Mrs Higgins, Leia’s the Queen of Transylvania- she doesn’t know where Han and Ben are, Luke is the Hungarian, R2 and 3P0 are both Mrs Pearce, and Poe is Freddy- he’s obsessed with the mystery of Rey’s origins and has always annoyed her deeply because of this but he’s 100% fooled by her Ben project and never questions his origins, annoying her even more.)

Arranged marriage is always great and I will always take more.

My BIGGEST WISH and constant frustration is still the one I’ve mentioned a few times, which is that there’s hardly any fics that actually play their forbidden secret relationship and have them get caught red-handed somehow. The entire set up is BEGGING for this kind of drama and no one does it. Basically, I just want Rey getting caught being in love with Ben by the Resistance and needing to deal with their reactions. I can’t believe how rare this is and I extra can’t believe that even when people do it they almost to a fault completely gloss over the fallout. Aka: the point of doing it.

I’m so big on that huge psychological shockwave of everyone !!finding out!! a person/situation isn’t at all what they thought. I’m super, super big on the melodramatic romance potential of her needing to defend how much she loves him in public. I have a thing about emotional vindication and given one of Rey’s biggest problems is her repression and refusal to face things, where one of Ben’s biggest problems is that he doesn’t believe he can be loved for himself or that anyone will fight for him…………………..

Guys,

the drama

the romance. The humour potential. The perfect character through-lines! WHY.

[brahmachari-girish-ji-blog]

Learning from Time

The learning from Time should be taken on time, it is the guidance of veteran and learned men. It is literally true. The time of Corona has come, there has been an outcry in the whole world. The death toll has crossed two lakh, no one is sensing anything, the market of rumors is hot.

Till now we used to hear, ''as many things as number of mouths'' now are hearing ''thousands of things from every mouth''. Even in times of crisis, number of people does not have sense of wisdom. Frivolous politics is continuing, the blame is on the culmination, the useless people are accusing the sincere, the sincere and responsible leaders are troubled by their responsibilities and worries, there is no one to encourage and support them, they are kind of isolated, days and nights of planning and decision are falling short. It is said that time is very strong, the big Surmas of their time are not known today. In a song heard recently, it says that in their time, without their will or command, not even a single leaf of their kingdom was shaken, the Raja-Maharaja Chakravarti who use to build a grand memorial on the death of every member of their family, no one knows where their own funeral took place. We are discussing about Time here. Nobody could win from Time. It seems that time, history and nature are all very close relatives of a family. Whatever is happening, is happening by these three or in the cognizance of these three. By the way, the blame is given to Lord Brahma that everything is written by him. Opponents of Lord Vishnu are in a good number, everything is happening with his Maya, such blame is put on Lord Vishnu. The interesting thing is that neither Brahma nor Vishnu is seen, nor is there any effect seen on them of our words nor any response comes from them. Regarding nature, she does not leave without showing reaction. The Lord Krishna said in the Gita, ''Mayadhyekan Prakritihi, Suyate sa Characharam''. Lord Vishnu does nothing. He enjoys Yoganidra on the bed of Sheshnaga in the Ksheer Sagar and his nature in the entire world keeps shaping his work - with the Maya created by him.

Time can be considered innocent, as the leela of the Lord, he continues to perform the work. Yes, it might not be wrong to put him in the role of a teacher. Time only plays a big role in teaching. And Itihasa-History? It does not seem to have any special role in the formulation, implementation, education, planning of any of these areas. He simply keeps it on record when the work is done. Therefore, History is not worth blaming.

As it is thought about the role of Time, it is for sure that we learn a lot from Time. It conducts everyone's life remotely, it is not visible but leaves an indelible influence, does not tolerate anyone, does not forgive anyone,perhaps Dharmaraja- Yamraj and Chitragupta are close relatives of Time. It is definitely seen that nature nourishes the person who nurtures nature in his life. In the same way it is also certain that the one who is respectful to the Time, following it's rules, took it along with him, the Time was favourable for him, his days were auspicious, kept on teaching well, gave alertness, and finally kept giving salvation. It has always been an eternal truth, it is still today and it will be tomorrow also, because Time is most powerful. In today's situation,what Time is teaching us, let's take a little thought on this. In my view, Time is reminding one of life's greatest learning that life is fragile. No one knows when to go and for what reason. A small, invisible cause has taken the lives of more than 200,000 people in a short span of time and may take many more, no one knows how many. The top scientists of the world are researching day and night about its nature, structure, behavior, effect and antidote, it has been four months but it is still not possible to reach the final result. Everyone's hopes for life, longevity are eternal, but it is not right to be fascinated by it. Hope and imagination are right, but hope and imagination are real, it is not appropriate for the common man to believe, the matter of wise and perfect men is different.

Therefore, the first thing is to perform the duties of life in such a way that there is never anything pending. When the call comes, just go.

The second important thing is to always do good things in life. Everyone knows the consequences of bad deeds, a doubt always hides in the mind, having the record that one has done these bad deeds and do not know if there will be any time to rectify them. At the last moment of life, the accounts of one's own actions are revealed, but till then it is very late, then there is no opportunity to rectify, then one has to leave the world with that account only.

The third thing is to learn to audit your life in time. Who is closest to us in life, who is far away, who is the enemy and who is the hidden enemy, Time is the best teacher for all this. There has been a lockdown for the last one month, we are just compelled to stay in our homes. Everyone has their own requirements. Some need food, some need regular home supply, some want children's goods, some are craving for restaurant food, some have lost their job, some have lost business, some got stuck thousands of kilometers away from family, some have to postpone their marriage, some lost their close family member and could not attend the last rites. Many individuals, many institutions, governments have come forward to help. There is no scale to measure how much help is really being received. The greatest help we can give is peace of mind, consolation, strength. It is more valuable than all goods. But its lacking everywhere. Actually, at this time we learn who is receiving what and from whom.

During lockdown, everyone is provided opportunity to work from home. The government ordered that everyone should be given full salary. There is no account or record of work people doing at home. Many are not in touch and have not reported at all for the past one month. They are invisible like ''horns from donkey's head''. They did not even try to find out the status of their subordinates, colleagues, officers, or the situation of their organisation. Yes those who received Rs. 50 or 100 less in salary, they immediately contacted the Finance Department to find out the reason. This is the opportunity for us to correct the list of sincere/loyal and useless people. Who is responsible, who is dedicated and devoted or not concert at all for the organisation, this has been tested during this past one month. Time taught, the list is corrected for the future. The scores of the loyal and opportunists are changed in record. Apart from this, Time also taught a lot other things. Today a girl from our school said, ''Sir, it was forbidden to bring mobile phones to school by now, see today the whole school has come to mobile''. It is a fact. Till yesterday we wanted to keep children away from mobile, today the same medium has become the main medium for children's education. If anything is used properly for a good cause, then it proves to be a useful and helpful tool. Since last year, universities were not clear why UGC was trying to stop the distance education offering in large number of universities in India. Universities were being harassed by making new strange rules. All the universities which have prepared programmes for distance education in last several years after hard work and spending crores of rupees, all of them are compelled to just waste their efforts. Now see the how the Time has changes, now the same U.G.C. is singing the song of online education. Time has reminded us of Ashta Prakriti, rise from the ground and see the order of ego. The first prakrati starts from the earth, rises and at the end the mind,intellect goes full on the ego. When the nature of this ego changes from the nature of self-respect, to the nature of pride, when ''swa''-self is left out of it, then the human falls on the first prakrati-prathvi-earth. It should be understood. The balance of the Ashtaprakratees should be maintained,this will happen only when the basis of Ashtaprakrateesis in the 9th Prakrati- Para Prakrati, the transcendental field of prakrati. Otherwise the tree of life, like the tree without good roots or with damages roots, will be ruined at any time.

In addition, time also showed a change in relationships. Till now we use to look at the police with the image having a stick and a gun. Now the police are also seen cooking food, distributing food, raising young children in their lap and holding the hand of an old man or woman across the road, singing and dancing on the road in public interest and even facing attacks.

Charitable was the word of the dictionary for most people, now its experimental meaning is understood. Families with average economic status are also regularly providing food to some needy families. Some of my familiar physicians said that on normal days, they used to experience exhaustion on completing their working hours and use to come home. Now they work for 18 to 22 hours. The realization of responsibility has added unique energy to them. Now there is no more tiredness in working extra hours, they are always refreshed with satisfaction of service.

The teachers of my schools told me that they were not ​​working on holidays earlier. But now they are working seven days of the week. How much more knowledge to give to their students so quickly, this is the only agenda they have. what's all this? This is all the teaching of Time. Apart from this, how should be the thoughts, how should be the behavior, how should be the speech, how to have a happy life in spite of limited resources, how to make extrovert mind introvert, how to generate infinite organizing power from the deep peaceful ocean of eternal knowledge, it is all the teaching of Time. Time has given the so much blessings through teaching in a short period on the pretext of Corona, for that let us give BIG THANKS to TIME, express our gratitude to Time.

Jai Guru Dev, Jai Maharishi Brahmachari Girish Chairman - Maharishi Group of Educational Institutions 

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Humanity’s thirst for groundwater is threatening natural waterways.

Most of Earth’s freshwater sits underground. Tapping this groundwater has enabled farming in drier places. One example is California’s Central Valley. That’s were about one-fourth of U.S. food comes from. Groundwater is what made this region's crop production so bountiful.

Worldwide, about 70 percent of the groundwater pumped to the surface goes for farming. But surface waters — rivers and streams — rely on groundwater, too. Pumping large amounts of groundwater over a short period can be harmful. Natural waterways can begin to empty. And that can hurt freshwater ecosystems. Scientists consider this a tipping point. That’s when small actions can begin having unusually big impacts.

A new study has found that 15 to 21 percent of tapped watersheds have reached this sort of tipping point. Most of those tapped rivers and streams are in dry regions. They include parts of Mexico and northern India. Farmers in these areas use groundwater to irrigate their crops. At current pumping rates,  the study predicts that 42 to 79 percent of watersheds around the world where groundwater is pumped up for use at the surface will reach tipping points by 2050.

The new study appeared October 3 in Nature.

“It’s really quite alarming,” says Inge de Graaf. As a hydrologist, she studies the distribution and circulation of the Earth’s water. She works at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Groundwater and surface waters are closely linked, she says. “Too much pumping creates a ticking time bomb.”

A healthy groundwater aquifer protects ecosystems against seasonal ups and downs in the availability of water. That provides stability for area plants and animals. But if too much groundwater is pumped up from below, surface waters will begin to drain into the aquifer. And that can harm what is living in rivers and streams.

De Graaf and the study team created a computer model. It linked groundwater pumping and water flows within rivers. The model covered five decades, from 1960 to 2010. Then the researchers used climate forecasts to help the model predict what might happen in future years. Throughout, they kept groundwater pumping rates constant. More than half of pumped watersheds are likely to cross this ecological threshold before 2050, the model finds.

“We need to be thinking about this now, not in 10 years,” de Graaf says. "Our study shows us where to target more sustainable efforts.”

[masonjar191]

ThorBruce AU

Pain 

Changed canon- Loki does not cause the battle of New York, it’s all Thanos.

Everyone is born with two letters on their wrist- the initials of their soulmate. Not every soulmate is a romantic partner, many are best friends, the kind you want to spend every waking moment with, and when you are apart you feel as if you’ll never be happy again until you are in their presence. Most are the same age, born days, weeks, or a few months apart. Rarer are the pairings in which the soulmate in question isn’t even a thought. Even rarer yet are when soulmates are decades or centuries apart in age.

Thor, the Asgardian prince, would live over a thousand years before his soulmate, a Midgardian by the name of Bruce would be born. It would be longer still until they met while saving the world from an alien attack.

 8-year-old Thor snuggled into bed as he begged his Mum to tell a story. “About the soulmates, Mummy!” he thought to his own mark, displaying the initials “RB”. He wondered what their name was, what they looked like, when he would meet them and on what Realm…

“Well, Thor,” Frigga began. “Since the beginning of time, there have been soulmates, whose souls were torn apart during the Big Bang that created the Nine Realms. Every being ever born had and will have a soulmate. My soulmate is your Father, yours is RB, Loki’s is GM. You will know when you have met them because you will be engulfed in light and your marks will change color to match their favorite hue. After you meet, you will feel their pain, albeit muted.”

Thor smiled, dreaming of the day he gets to meet RB.

 Bruce Banner was born Rebecca Alice Banner in 1969, a little over 1,000 years after his soulmate. From a young age, he never felt right in his body, leading to him declaring he was a boy at age 12.

“What the fuck do you mean you’re a boy?” Brian Banner screamed that night. “This TO man on your wrist isn’t going to want to be mated to a faggot. God damn it, Rebecca, I won’t raise a tranny!” Brian hit Bruce over the head, knocking the pre-teen unconscious.

When the young boy awoke, he cried, knowing his father would never accept him. Why would Brian? All Bruce had known was abuse from the alcoholic, hell, Brian had killed Bruce’s mother in front of him just a few months prior. Bruce knew if his mom was still alive, she would accept him, she had always been kind and accepting of the “Queers” he saw on television sometimes. Bruce knew he was a queer, liking boys while he knew deep inside, he was one as well. He knew TO was a man as well, although how old, he didn’t know.

 “When will I be king?” the now almost-grown Thor asked Odin. He was physically a grown man. Hel, even his little brother was in his late adolescent years and Thor was 500 years older than Loki!

“When you meet your soulmate, my boy,” Odin grumbled, becoming used to the question being asked from both of his sons. Hela had asked when she would be Queen, as well. At one point she had taken the thrown forcefully, only to be banished. Odin was thankful he had raised his sons to be peaceful rather than seek war. Or at least he thought he had until Thor went to Jotunheim to fight the Frost Giants that had interrupted his coronation.

Odin was to be entering Odinsleep soon, so he temporarily named the boy King, even though neither boy had met his soulmate. Truth be told, Odin had put it off so long that he was afraid the stress would kill him, but he could not force either boy to meet their soulmate. A temporary arrangement would be enough. Until Thor disobeyed him.

“Damn it, boy! This is why I put this off for so long! You are a foolish, cruel, vain boy!” Odin screamed when he rescued Thor from Jotunheim.

“And you are an old man and a fool!” Thor retorted.

“You are unworthy! Unworthy of the crown, of your power,” Odin cried as he stripped Thor of his Asgardian strength. “I hereby banish you to Midgard!” Odin hoped Thor would meet his soulmate on Midgard. He set upon two terms to end his banishment- either Thor gets over his selfishness, or he meets his soulmate.

 After Bruce left home in 1990, he immediately began transitioning. The twenty-year-old scraped together enough money to start hormones, get his breasts removed, and change his name to Robert Bruce Banner. He knew his soulmate would be looking for an RB, so he reluctantly kept the R initial. He had gone by Bruce at school since he entered senior high. Then, he poured himself into his studies, earning seven Ph.D.’s- in Gamma radiation, sexual health, astrophysics, Nuclear physics, philosophy, biochemistry, and medicine.

Bruce had taken up a teaching job at Culver University as Professor of Biochemistry. After the 9/11 attacks, he dedicated his life to helping others, which led him to be recruited by Thaddeus Ross. Unfortunately, it had the side effect of turning the young scientist into what became known as Hulk.

While Bruce had once, and still, hated himself because he was born female, he now hated himself because he turned into a green rage monster if he got angry. He went on the run, sacrificing his testosterone for his safety. Eventually, he was found, but not before he attempted suicide to rid himself of the monster. Looking back, Bruce was thankful he had failed, knowing TO would never forgive himself if Bruce had died before they met.

Years later, after Bruce got back on T, although still on the run from the military, he was focused on providing medical care for others, deciding that even if he could turn into Hulk, he could use his normal, less-of-a-freak self for good rather than the destruction Hulk brought.

Thor didn’t meet his soulmate- in fact, RB was on the other side of the country, but he proved himself worthy by sacrificing himself to save his friends on Midgard.

“Did you meet RB?” Loki asked excitedly when Thor returned.

“What do you think, brother?” Thor snapped, shoving the still black letters to Loki’s face. “Did you meet GM yet?”

“Nay, though I hope I meet them soon, I’m tired of being a child by Asgardian terms,”

“Loki, as the Midgardians see it, you’re a child there too. I am barely an adult.  If RB would hurry up and enter my life, that would be grand!”

“I am sure we will meet our soulmates soon. Now, guess what our dear father bestowed upon me during your absence! I am Jotun! Yeah, I know! He picked me up as a babe, but hey, I can do ice magic now!”

 A few months after Thor’s banishment ended, he and Loki were sent on a quest to Midgard because a group called The Black Order were planning on stealing the Tesseract.

“Perhaps you’ll meet your soulmate!” Loki cheered as they departed from the Bifrost. “We are long overdue, us being over a thousand years old.”

“What about you, dear brother? Don’t you want to meet GM?”

“Yes, Thor, we all want to meet our soulmates. But, let’s face it, you’re older, you are going to inherit the throne first. You proved your worthiness, I haven’t, even if we have not met our soulmates.”

 Bruce was pissed. He had been whisked off from India, where he was doing good for once in his life, back to the United States, back to New York, to find this Tesseract thing. But Bruce knew better. This SHIELD organization just wanted to experiment on Hulk, they always did. Why couldn’t Bruce have been born into a loving family, as a boy, and not turn into a monster?

“H-Hey I’m Bruce Banner,” Bruce stuttered when the quinjet landed and he met the team he would be working with: Tony Stark, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Erik Selvig, the Norse Gods Thor and Loki, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanoff.

 God damn, Thor thought when he laid eyes on Bruce. That guy is stunning!

“Good to meet you, Dr. Banner,” Tony said as he shook Bruce’s hand. I hope that wasn’t weak. “Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled, and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

“Thanks,” Bruce replied sarcastically. At least no one here cared, or hopefully even knew he was trans.

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube,” called Fury. Thank you! “I was hoping you might join him.”

Captain Rogers spoke up. “Let’s start with that stick of his, Thanos I mean. It’s magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I’d like to know how Thanos turned two of our sharpest men into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Thor questioned. Bruce wondered. TO? Could that stand for Thor, Son of Odin, or Odinson?

“I understood that reference!” Steve smiled, while Tony rolled his eyes at the recently defrosted Soldier.

However, before Bruce could test his Soulmate theory, Tony whisked him away to do research.

 Thor decided to do research on Dr. Banner and found out his first name was actually Robert. “Loki! I think Dr. Banner is RB! Look, his first name is Robert!” he cheered.

“Now to get close enough for the soulmate bond to recognize. You have to be touching, right?” Loki asked for clarification.

“Yes! At the end of the battle, I’ll give him a celebratory hug!” Thor hugged Loki for reference, in his signature rib-crushing style.

“Ouch, brother, do you want to kill your soulmate? He is merely mortal!”

“Alas, soulmate Banner is tougher than he looks.”

“He looks like an anxious mess,” Loki pointed out. “I have a point; he is especially fragile! Look at how he stood, playing with his sleeves and picking at his fingers.”

“I will teach him that he does not have to fear, that I will always be there, his soulmate.”

 “That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry,” Bruce calmly said as he transformed into Hulk to take down the Chitauri and the rest of the Black Order.

That’s my fucking soulmate! Thor thought as he continued battling. Eventually, Thor cut off Thanos’ head with a sword he had taken from one of the dead Black Order… creatures. It was official, there was no remaining child of Thanos. They had won.

Thor threw the sword to the side and charged over to Hulk, who was transforming back to Bruce. He was glad his armor that day was sleeveless, he wanted to see his mark change. He didn’t care that Bruce was naked, he was going to hug his soulmate, damn it!

The two were engulfed in a flurry of light for a mere moment, but their arms stung as Thor’s mark changed to purple, while Bruce’s turned red.

“Holy shit,” Bruce swore, then realized he was naked, and moved quickly to hide from the Avengers and SHIELD agents. “Please, don’t look at me!” he yelled as he pulled on some discarded clothing.

“My soulmate! What troubles you?” Thor thundered, causing Bruce to flinch.

“What happened to your penis? Blown off in war?” Steve asked curiously. “I knew a few guys in my time who had that happen.”

“Uh, yeah, I can’t afford the surgery to get a new one.” Bruce lied. The man was from the 40s, who knew how he felt about queers?

“And those lines on your chest?” Bruce blushed, hard.

“Friend, Captain, do not worry my soulmate! He will tell us about his traumas when he is ready, and it is obvious he is not ready!” Thor explained as he held Bruce’s hand to stop him from running. It also served to calm the man.

“Thank you,” Bruce sighed. He’d never had anyone stand up for him like that.

 Thor was back on Asgard. ‘How did I get here? I was with Bruce.’ he thought, several theories firing up as he waited for whatever had him home.

“So, you met your soulmate!” Odin called out, walking over to Thor and patting his son on the back. “Have you completed the final part of the ritual?”

“W-what ritual? We hugged and then our marks changed. Is that not it?” Thor asked with confusion. In all his years, in all the times he had asked about his soulmate and what happened when you met the, neither Odin nor Frigga mentioned a ritual.

“Nay, my son. The final part of the ritual allows you to feel their pain and emotions.”

“Then tell me what it is so I can complete it!” Thor chuckled. Why was Odin keeping it a secret?

“Alright, my boy, I cannot keep this from you forever. To complete the soulmate ritual, the two souls must combine, so to speak.”

“Combine? How the Norns?”

“Thor, you are a young man, surely you have had sex!” Odin laughed as he patted his boy on the back. Thor’s face flushed.

“Yeah, definitely!” he lied. “So, all I have to do is bed my soulmate?”

“Yes, my boy. Now, you need not lie to me, son. It’s fine to wait for your soulmate.”

“Did you, Father?” asked Thor, feigning innocence. He may not have had much action, unlike his little brother, but he knew enough from Loki’s bragging.

“I would be lying if I said I waited,” Odin admitted.

 Bruce almost Hulked out when he realized he and Thor had to have sex if they wanted to fully activate the Soulmate Bond. If he could have been dysphoric about his lack of a penis at only one moment, this would be it. ‘Does Hulk have a dick?’ he wondered, never taking the time to check, or perhaps he never had the thought. Would Thor want to fuck him even if he had… that?

 When Thor awoke, he was glad to find that he had not left Stark Tower, where the Avengers had set up a temporary living space. Much of the building was covered in debris from yesterday’s attack, but Tony’s apartment was safe, and he ha a few guest rooms. Clint and Nat had shared, as they were soulmates and had already bonded. Tony paired Bruce and Thor up, though thankfully their room had two beds- soulmates or not, they had just met. Tony had his own room, leaving Steve to the couch.

He staggered to the kitchen and decided to look for food. Pop tarts! He exclaimed when he saw the delightful treat. He popped two into the toaster and poured a cup of coffee.

“You’re up early,” noted Bruce as he walked into the kitchen soon after Thor sat down.

“A warrior always rises early. That, and I couldn’t sleep any longer. I’ve been thinking about this soulmate bond,” Thor said.

“Yeah, me too. I’ve had one-night stands before, but it feels different when it’s with my soulmate. Especially when he’s as handsome as you,” Bruce paused. “I want to get to know you in other areas than the bedroom before we do that. I’ve always had an interest in mythology, and it’s not every day one of the figures you’ve spent your whole life reading is your soulmate. I’ve only read your stories; I don’t know the man behind them!”

“Which story is your favorite?” Thor asked with enthusiasm, he loved recounting his adventures, now his soulmate was well versed in them. This was a dream come true.

“Probably the one where you had to dress up like a bride to get Mjolnir back!”

“Ah, yes. Now that was awkward. I had never felt such shame in my life, not until Odin banished me to Midgard after I attacked Jotunheim because they ruined my coronation.”

Bruce looked at his soulmate in wonder. “I never read that myth!”

Thor laughed. “That is because it happened last year.”

“It happened last year?”

“That is what I said.”

“Damn, I was, uh, tearing up Harlem at the time.” Bruce blushed as he remembered the last time he had been in New York. “Anyway, can you tell me the story?”

“Why, yes, Banner. So, me and my brother, Loki, have always been extremely close. When my coronation was interrupted by the Frost Giants, Odin forbid me from attacking them. In rage, I disobeyed my father, and me, Loki, my friends the Warriors Three, and Lady Sif traveled to Jotunheim, where we were attacked. Odin found us, and he was pissed that I had started a war with the Jotun. Long story short, he saw me unfit to be king. I must admit that I was arrogant and said some things I regret. He put a spell on my hammer that said only those worthy could lift it, and if they could, they would have my powers. He sent me to a place called New Mexico, where I met a young scientist by the name of Jane Foster.”

“I’ve heard of Jane, she’s a genius on the field of astrophysics! I’ve wanted to work with her for years, you know her?”

“Yes, she helped me to get my hammer back! I saved her from being killed by a being known as the Destroyer. He nearly killed me, but my selfless act proved me worthy and I was saved!”

‘He’s so fucking brave’ thought Bruce as he listened intently to Thor’s story. Of his adventure in New Mexico.

“What about you? Do you have any adventures?” Thor asked.

“N-not any that I would be able to tell, bad memories,” Bruce admitted quietly. “Whether it’s my mom being killed, my dad being abusive, being trapped in this hellhole of a vessel I call my body and my mind, being the Hulk,” he listed, every bad thing that had happened in his life flashing back to him. The only good times he had were in science labs, studying science.

“What’s wrong with your body? You’re incredibly handsome, Bruce. I don’t care I you have a penis or not. You’re still a man in my eyes.”

“It, uh, wasn’t blasted off in war. I never had one. These scars on my chest?” Bruce started, pulling his shirt off as he pointed to the thin lines lining the bottoms of his pecs. “Were from when I had my chest tissue surgically removed. Thor, I was born female.” Bruce’s eyes burned with the beginnings of tears, he could feel Hulk thundering in the back of his mind, begging to be released.

“HULK SMASH” he yelled in Hulk’s voice, before slipping back into Banner-mode. He threw his fists down onto the bed as he flopped onto it. His skin turned green but otherwise, he was still Banner. Hyperventilating, the years of ridicule he had faced at the hands of his father, and later Ross, flashed before his eyes.

“Bruce, you’re okay. I’m totally fine with it! These feelings are common on Asgard! If I could pass as a woman to a Giant, you sure as Hel can as a man. And you are a man, you aren’t pretending like I was pretending to be a woman.”

“Thanks.” Bruce took the compliment, not quite believing it. He hasn’t properly accepted a compliment in years, knowing from experience that trust would lead him to betrayal in the end.

“I mean it, Bruce. I would never lie to you; you have my word.”

  Bruce spits blood as he takes yet another punch. “God damn it, Becca, how many times do I have to beat it into your head that you ain’t a boy?” Brian snarls, before punching Bruce again.

“Gee, why don’t ya punch me again, see if that does it?” Bruce yells, sarcasm dripping from his busted lips. Brian follows the request, breaking his child’s nose. Bruce’s head snaps back, hitting the concrete floor, knocking him out.

Except he doesn’t. Instead of going unconscious, Bruce transforms into the Hulk, growing in size until he stood, seven feet tall, green, still bleeding. “What the hell, girl?” Brian swears before Bruce snaps, forcing his father into the concrete. SMASH. SMASH. SMASH!

“Y-you punch like a girl. Oh wait, you are one, even if you’re a fuckin monster inside.”

 Bruce wakes suddenly. He never was present for his father’s death, being deep in research at that point. He hadn’t even gone to the funeral, knowing his relatives would still see Bruce as the little girl he had always been in their eyes. Even if his curly locks had long been cut, and he had stubble along his jaw, and he had recently gotten top surgery, they would still call him Rebecca.

Yet, his mind, since he had turned into Hulk, liked to show scenes of him Hulking out on Brian, killing him, even though the man had died in real life from old age. Even in death, the man still hated his child. No, hate wasn’t strong enough a word. Brian despised Bruce.

Bruce didn’t realize he was crying until he couldn’t breathe, his sobs choking him, sending him into a panic attack. “Thor! Thor!” he managed to scream, throat dry, closing up, his fingernails clawing at his forearms.

“Banner?” Thor mumbled as he awoke, exhaustion still in his bass voice. “What’s wrong?” he reached over to turn on a light, only to see the smaller man shaking and scratching himself. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s fine. I’m here, you’re not in danger!”

Bruce jumps back at Thor’s fingers touching his bare chest. “Don’t hurt me!” he cries. “Dad, no! Okay, fine, I’m a fucking girl, I’ll never be a man!”

“Shhhh, the sun’s getting low, I won’t hurt you, you’ll never be hurt again. Your father is dead.” Thor reaches out to calm the man the way he used to calm Loki when the God of Mischief woke from nightmares. At first, Bruce flinches but then accepts the soft touch of Thor rubbing his back and brushing his hair from his face. Thor allows Bruce to cry into his chest, let the tears fall as his panic attack fades. “Bruce, my love, are you okay?”

“N-no. My dad,” he stutters. His face burns even harder than it was from his panic attack.

“Is dead, sweetheart. He won’t hurt you; I won’t allow it. If anyone hurts you, I will kill them. I’ve slain more enemies than the number of years I’ve been alive, that bastard won’t be the first nor the last.”

Bruce looks down at his wrists, skin torn and bleeding. He frowns, feeling the sting of his tears and sweat mixing with the wounds.

“Ah, I shall kiss them better,” Thor remarks, before running his lips over each and every mark. To Bruce’s amazement, the blood stops running, and each line turns white before disappearing completely.

“Can soulmates just do that?” Bruce asks.

“No, I don’t think so. However, I can. When Loki and I were small, my mother would kiss our battle injuries away, and by that, I mean the wounds from when Loki stabbed me. I guess I inherited her magic. Ironic, since Loki is the one of us that can perform spells.”

“Kiss all of my pain away,” Bruce smiles as he pecks the God on the lips. Thor quickly deepens the kiss as the two lean back so Thor straddles Bruce.

“Are you okay, my love?” Thor asks with concern. He feels a massive pleasure course throughout his body like lightning, but he can stop if his soulmate is too uncomfortable.

“I’m okay,” Bruce whispers. “I’ll tell you if my dysphoria gets to be too much.”

 Bruce wakes the next morning and smiles at his soulmate, his naked form covered by their comforter. They had officially completed the soulmate bond.  

[mischiefandspirits]

Iron Legion (24/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, Timeline, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Web-Warriors, Part 3

“For the record, if you had just told me Tere-”

“Peter.”

“Peter -- sorry -- was Spider-Man, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“If you had just told me you and Red Widow had concerns, this wouldn’t have happened. I’d have given you what I’ve got on Oscorp and we could have all been on our way.

“Please don’t call her that to her face,” Ross sighed.

“Why not? Her getup has to have been inspired by a red widow spider.”

“She already wants to pick a fight with you, don’t make it worse.”

“Can’t say I don’t feel the same. She’s been stalking my kid and now she attacked him, all while accusing me of human experimentation.”

“If she knew he was yours, she wouldn’t have worried. We all know how protective you are of your undisclosed number of children.”

“Doesn’t matter. And you know how many kids I’ve got,” Tony argued, waving away the statement.

“I know about the legion of robots you claim as children and the two human ones, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve got more hiding in the wings.”

Tony opened his mouth to point out that the AIs were his kids, fuck you very much, when the other part of the statement registered. “I’ve only got one human kid.”

Ross didn’t even look up from whatever he was working on. “Stark, if you didn’t want me to know Ms. Parker was yours, you shouldn’t have introduced her with the same surname as the woman who led to our association.”

“Coincidence.”

“She’s Peter’s sister.”

“You spies are too nosy.” The elevator chimed and Tony turned to face it. “Speaking of nosy spies!”

“Stark,” Drew greeted as she stepped into the penthouse’s living room. Her glasses were once more glasses and she’d ditched the jacket for a simple red tank top.

“Spider-Woman.”

Drew scowled and Ross said, “I warned you not to go at him like this.”

“Are you the reason Vision was able to intervene before I could question the kid?” she shot back at the agent as Tony turned the video screen to face her.

“I’d be insulted you’d think I would let the Spider-Baby out without a babysitter, but I’m too busy being insulted you’d think I would not only try my hand at making a super soldier, but that I would use a child to do it,” Tony tutted.

“Not a child,” Peter muttered from behind her.

“I didn’t go into this thinking that,” she said, coming forward to sit down across from him.

Vision and Peter followed, the former choosing to stand nearby and the latter dropping down next to Tony.

“But then the evidence started piling up. The kid’s decked out in your gear and he was brought into the accords mess by you. His sister is the head of your security’s cyber division and spent some time working with the Avengers. The kid spends practically every weekend here, for feck's sake, and pops in randomly during the week on top of that. What was I supposed to think?”

“That his sister is like family to me so when we found out he was the one running around Queens in a spider onesie I brought him into the fold and made sure he had the gear and training to keep him out of trouble until he either got it out of his system and stopped or was old enough to join the big leagues.” Peter’s eyes lit up and Tony held up a finger. “No Avengers until after college.”

“Nebula didn’t even go to college,” Peter muttered. “And neither did Vision.”

“Nebula’s not an Avenger and Vision still isn’t legally a person yet. I, on the other hand, have three to seven doctorates and Rhodey has three masters. I expect you to at least beat him, though I know you could beat me if you actually tried.”

“Three to seven doctorates?” Ross asked.

“College isn’t a requirement for the Avengers,” Peter said with narrowed eyes.

“Lost track of a couple of diplomas a few years back. I’m sure I could ask Rhodey or look online to figure it out, but I don’t care enough to,” Tony waved the CIA agent off. “I can make it a requirement if you’re going to fight me on it.”

“Are they always like this?” Drew asked and Vision shook his head.

“Only when Peter’s status as an Avenger-in-training comes up.”

“Mr. Stark, Mr. Parker, can we focus please,” Ross pleaded.

“Sorry,” Peter said and Tony rolled his eyes.

“Fri, bring up what we’ve got on the OZ formula.”

“Sure thing, Boss.”

“OZ?” Drew asked, looking over the files that began popping up on holo screens.

“In development at Oscorp. Its a combination of a few things, most of which we think they dug up from the S.H.I.E.L.D. dump. Its main base, though, is composed of Extremis as well as the Araneae serum developed by HYDRA scientists Jonathan and Merriam Drew. No relation, I’m sure,” Tony added sarcastically.

He honestly had thought there was no relation until Vision had informed him of her spider getup.

Peter’s eyes widened, but neither Vision nor Drew reacted.

“This is all you found?” she asked.

“I only looked deep enough to make sure Peter would be okay. I wasn’t going to give Osborn of all people a chance to accuse me of corporate espionage.”

“I’ll look into it,” Drew said. “It looks like they’ve only been working with animals, but I doubt it will stop there.”

“Knowing Osborn, you’re probably right.”

“Please keep me in the loop this time,” Ross requested with a sigh.

He sighs a lot. Maybe Tony should try and get him a vacation.

“So are we still fighting then or can we talk about the explosion we saw?” Peter asked.

Tony bumped their shoulders together. “P.L.A.T.O. looked into it and the FBI is dealing with it. That’s all you need to know.”

“Was it those guys with the weird weapons?”

“Either way, it’s not your business.”

“Take it slow, kid,” Drew said. “You’ll appreciate it once you get to the big time.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And then he fell into the pool.”

Peter groaned as Harley burst out laughing.

“Oh man! Pete, you should have introduced me to your school friends so much sooner!”

“No, I shouldn’t have,” Peter muttered, waving at a man who called out to him as he swung past. “Come on, can’t we talk about something else, like how I got the winning question at nationals.”

“I’m sure Liz found it flattering that you got so distracted by her beauty,” S.I.L.K. offered.

“No offense, S.I.L.K., but I still can’t believe Iron Dork built you as a mom friend AI,” Harley chuckled.

“I still can’t believe Iron Man built Peter a personal AI!” Ned said excitedly. “Could I take a look at the code?”

“NED!”

“Well, I never!”

“I changed my mind. What kind of guy asks to see a lady’s code like that?”

“I-I-What? I didn’t, I mean -”

Peter snickered and flipped over to land on a roof. “We’re kidding. Mostly.”

“Code’s personal. Even D-Tony doesn’t poke around in any of the AIs’ codes once they’re live unless something’s wrong and they can’t fix it on their own,” Harley explained.

“Their code is like their mind and spirit. It’s what makes them who they are.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize,” Ned apologized, sounding sincere, if still a bit confused.

“It’s alright, Ned. You’re still learning,” S.I.L.K. responded in a gentle voice.

“Speaking of AIs, guess who finished the you-know-what for PV.”

“PV?” Ned asked as Peter gasped.

“You got Anapistula working?”

“Yes, I got the stupidly named thing working.”

“It’s a great name! Anapistula is -”

“Yeah, yeah. Did you get the coordinates?”

“Kid, where are you?”

“Who the,” a beep sounded, “was that?” Harley yelped. “Wait, S.I.L.K., did you just censor me?”

“Agent Drew, you do not have the authorization to be on this call?” S.I.L.K. said instead of answering him.

“Agent Drew? You mean Spider-Woman?” Ned gasped.

“There are random children o- Nevermind. Kid, get to Bush Terminal Park as fast as you can. Vision will meet you there. There’s trouble on the Staten Island Ferry and we could use your webs.”

“What’s going on?” Peter asked as he swung off the building.

“Agent Drew hung up. Multiple emergency services have been called out to the ferry’s location. Reports say the ferry is under attack by an enhanced with wings. Agent Drew and a few FBI agents are on the scene.”

“Is it Wilson?” Harley asked.

“There has been no identity given.”

“Which means no. Everyone would know if one of Rogers’ gang showed up.”

“Dude, are you going to team up with Spider-Woman and Vision to fight a supervillain?” Ned cheered.

“Maybe. I’ll call you guys back later,” Peter said as he got near the park.

“Aw, but I wanted to be your guy in the chair!”

“Don’t you dare hang up on me, you runt!”

“Next time don’t sell me out, you traitor!” Peter shot back at Harley. “S.I.L.K., end call, please. Vis!”

Vision turned and caught Peter midair. “Hello, Mr. Parker.”

“Hey Vis,” Peter said, shifting so he was sitting bridal style in Vision’s arms. “I told you, it’s Uncle Peter. Or just Peter if we’re not there yet. What’s up with the Ferry?”

The android turned and flew out over the water. “I’m not certain. Agent Drew just said she needed our help at the ferry. She attempted to reach Mr. Stark, but he is still in India due to his delayed departure so I answered instead.”

A weak shock wave hit them and Vision sped up.

“Woah!” Peter gasped as they came upon the ferry just as it started to pull apart in two. “S.I.L.K., give me an X-ray of the boat and target all the strongest points.”

He let himself fall and started firing webs as soon as he was within reach.

“Great job, Peter,” she congratulated after he’d gone from one end of the ferry to the other. “You are ninety-eight percent successful.”

“Ninety-eight?” Peter asked, watching as she highlighted a pillar.

He heard some people start to cheer for him just before a few of the webs snapped.

Peter immediately dove back in, shouting “No”s as he grabbed a snapped web and shot off another, trying to pull them -- and therefore the halves of the boat -- together.

Spider-Woman dropped down in front of him, grabbing the webs. “I got them, kid. Tie them together.”

Once he’d done that, he helped her back over to one of the sides. “What happened?”

“Later. Just try and keep this thing together as long as you can while Vision and I evacuate everyone.”

Peter nodded and swung away. He shot a few webs then sent Droney up so S.I.L.K. could monitor the whole boat and prioritize the areas based on web instability. With her help, he flipped around the boat laying web after web. He’d occasionally see Spider-Woman flipping around or Vision floating by, but focused on his job unless he needed to swing down and catch someone that had fallen between the halves.

“Alright, that’s everyone,” Spider-Woman said, landing on a web next to him. “Time to go.”

“What about the boat?”

“It’s a lost cause. Damage Control’s sending a team to drag it up.”

Peter nodded and shot a web towards the end of the boat where the emergency boats were waiting.

“Maybe I should get Stark to make me some of those,” she joked as she followed him.

“I, uh, I actually made them. The webs are my formula and I made the original shooters. Mr. Stark just helped me modify them for more web options.”

She smirked as they landed on a rescue boat. “Leave it to Stark to find a supergenius super soldier.”

Peter blushed under the mask. “I wouldn’t say I’m a super genius.”

“Uh-huh. You need some combat training though. Stark showed me some of your fights. You rely too much on the webs and acrobatics. You’re stronger and faster than most of the guys you’re going up against, you need to learn how to use it. You also need to trust in your spider instincts more.”

“Spider instincts?”

She tapped his head. “I know you’ve got them. I saw the way you looked at me when I got your mask off. It’s like a sixth sense, though it’s really just your brain processing the information your other five are giving you faster than your human mind can keep up with.”

“You mean my danger sense? So it’s more like a spider-sense!?”

“Sure,” she snorted.

“Can you teach me? How to use it, I mean,” Peter asked, bouncing slightly. “Vision’s been helping me train, but our powers aren’t exactly the same.”

“Neither are ours. From what I’ve seen, you’re a bit stronger and dexterous, though not as fast and you don’t have venom blasts. I think your healing is better than mine as we-”

“Wait, venom blasts!?” Peter gasped, his bouncing increasing. “Can you shoot venom!?”

“Not exactly,” she chuckled, setting her hands on his shoulders to make him stop. She pulled one hand back and held it up between them.

Lighting crackled across her fingertips.

“Woah!”

“It’s -”

“Bioelectricity!” Peter cut in. “Spider’s use it to give their webs static charges, though I don’t think any can produce that much at one time! That’s so cool! Why can’t I do that? I mean, I can fake it with the taser webs, but that’s it.”

“Right, supergenius,” she muttered. “Probably because of whatever else was mixed into your batch.”

“That sucks.”

“Are you alright, Peter?” Vision asked as he floated down next to them and Spider-Woman dropped her hands and stepped back.

“I’m good. You?” Peter asked.

Vision nodded. “None of the rescue boats have any injuries to report aside from some minor bumps and scratches.”

“That’s good.”

“So what happened?” Peter asked, looking between them.

“The FBI has been tracking those weapons you found and they got a tip that there was going to be a sell on the ferry. They also heard rumors that there was an enhanced with the dealers so they reached out for backup, just in case. Since I was in the area and have signed the accords, I offered to help.

“The arrest was going fine until the enhanced showed up. He had robotic wings like Wilson’s but bigger and bulkier. Probably built for strength over speed. That’s when I called you two in. The wings were bulletproof so we needed air support. I was hoping that between your webs and Vision we could take him down, but one of my blasts caught the weapon he was using and it overloaded causing,” she gestured towards the sinking ferry. “He and his buddy took off during the commotion.”

“Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner,” Peter said.

She smacked his back. “Stop worrying, kid. You did good.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I hate you.”

Peter rolled his eyes as Harley groaned into the phone.

“First Dad lets you be a superhero, now you get to train with a secret agent. I swear, when I finish Gryphon, the first thing I’m going to do is use it to kick your butt.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Did you get the coordinates or not?”

“Uh… Yep, putting them in now. You know, we’re probably going to at least be on a watch list if we do this. Doesn’t that go against your whole pure and innocent aesthetic?”

“If it works like it’s supposed to, then no one but her will even know.”

“And if it doesn’t then we’re going to be hunted down by a fur-”

“Who are you talking to?”

Peter looked up as Michelle pulled one of his earbuds out of his ear. “Oh, uh, hey Michelle. What are you doing?”

“Liz wanted me to remind you about the photoshoot tomorrow for the yearbook. She said if you miss it, she’ll take Flash to the dance.”

“I-What!? Really?”

“No, I just wanted to see what face you’d make.”

Peter blushed as Harley snickered.

Michelle put the earbud up to her own ear.

“So who are you ta-?” she started to ask just as Harley said, “Is that the girl in your nerd club that you called scary?”

“Harley!” Peter hissed, barely keeping his voice down enough not to get the librarian’s attention. “I didn’t call you scary.”

“Can she hear me? Because you did call her scary.”

“A little. I said you could be a little scary sometimes. I didn’t mean -”

“Do I scare you, Peter?” Michelle asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I, uh -”

“Good.”

Harley laughed and said, “I like her. Hey, Michelle, right? Do you have a date for your school’s homecoming dance?”

“Harley, you literally haven’t even met her!”

“Yeah, but I need an excuse to give Dad so he’ll fly me out to New York to beat you up.”

“I’m game,” Michelle said with a shrug.

“What!?”

“Cool.”

“What is happening?”

“I’m going with your phone friend to homecoming so he can come to New York.”

“Keep up, Pete.”

“You two don’t even know each other?” he reiterated, letting his head fall onto the keyboard of the computer he had been working on before Michelle interrupted.

“Calm down. It’s not a date,” Michelle snorted, rolling her eyes. “We’re just lending each other a hand. He wants to come to New York and I want my mom to stop badgering me to find a date for the dance.”

“Glad to be of service.”

“Have Peter give you my number,” Michelle said, dropping Peter’s earbud.

“But I don’t have your number.”

“Yes you do, check your phone.”

Peter checked his contacts. “When did you add yourself to my phone?” he asked, looking up. She was gone. “See, this is why she scares me a little.”

“This is even better than meeting Ned.”

“Harley, you don’t even like dating! Why did you ask her out?”

“Three reasons. One, I can bring you Ana so you can pass her off to Joe for the delivery. Two, I can kick your butt. And three, I get to say I got a date to your homecoming before you did.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Besides, like she said, it’s not a date. We’re just using each other.”

“Please tell me you realize how wrong that sounds.”

“It’s only wrong if both parties aren’t aware and consenting.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Seriously, runt, get a date. Embrace your inner Stark and ask out that Liz girl you’ve been crushing on. I can’t be the only one going to your homecoming.”

Peter ended the call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the record, before anyone can say anything, Harley and MJ are going as friends. As hinted, Harley’s aromantic. He just wants an excuse to come to New York and MJ just wants to mess with Peter.

IDK if Jess's costume was actually designed after a red widow, but it's a heck of a coincidence if it wasn't.

The 3-7 doctorates joke was a reference to the comics where at on point, Tony says he has three doctorates, while at another he says seven. Not sure which is canon so I decided to make Tony unsure too.

[sciencespies]

Eight Things We’ve Learned About Moms Since the Last Mother's Day

https://sciencespies.com/news/eight-things-weve-learned-about-moms-since-the-last-mothers-day/

Eight Things We’ve Learned About Moms Since the Last Mother's Day

We freewheeling humans may be the only species that reliably showers mothers with cards and confections on the second Sunday in May, but all animal moms deserve some serious love and gratitude—probably on more than an annual basis.

From conception to birth and beyond, moms across the tree of life play an indispensable role in their kids’ survival and success. Here are a few things we’ve learned about the many ways the bong between a mother and her offspring manifests since our last Mother’s Day.

We Still Have a Lot to Learn About the Placenta

A mammalian fetus usually spends a few weeks or months or so in their mother’s placenta, an organ that shuttles nutrients, oxygen and waste between a mom-to-be and her embryo during pregnancy. Understanding this bizarre and complicated bit of anatomy is, quite literally, crucial to comprehending life as we know it.

Plenty about the placenta is still puzzling to researchers, including whether it hosts its own collection of friendly microorganisms, or microbiome. Though microbes are known to quickly colonize both the inside and outside of the human body after birth, playing important roles in immunity, digestion, and more, the placenta has traditionally been considered a sterile spot. If the placental microbiome exists—as some researchers argue it does—it could represent a fetus’ first exposure to benign bacteria and play a role in shaping the child’s future health.

But not everyone is on board with the idea. Last July, a group led by Stephen Charnock-Jones of the University of Cambridge published a study arguing against the existence of this mysterious microbial population, suggesting that previous experiments that had detected it had been the result of contamination in the lab, Laura Sanders reported for Science News at the time. The debate will inevitably rage on, wrote Ed Yong for the Atlantic, but highlights how little we understand about the microbes that inhabit our bodies.

Swamp Wallabies Can Get Pregnant While They’re Already Pregnant

Regardless of whether the placenta teems with bacterial tenants, this organ is inarguably a powerhouse—especially in the swamp wallaby, a petite marsupial that romps around Australia. Thanks to a series of weird quirks in their reproductive cycles, female swamp wallabies can get pregnant while already pregnant. These oddball animals boast two separate uteruses, and can alternate embryo implantations between them, allowing some overlap in gestation if they have sex before giving birth.

Female swamp wallabies may spent their entire adult lives continuously pregnant.

(pen_ash / Pixabay)

“As soon as they reach sexual maturity, these females are—perhaps unfortunately—pregnant all the time,” University of Melbourne biologist Brandon Menzies, who led the team that made the discovery, told Smithsonian magazine earlier this year.

Because their offspring suckle in the pouch for many months after birth, female swamp wallabies can end up supporting three young at once: an older joey that’s left the pouch, but still returns to mom for food; a younger joey nursing inside the pouch; and an incubating fetus that has yet to be born. Now that’s some impressive single parenting.

A 306-million-Year-Old Lizard Mother and Her Child Fossilized Together

The scientific community has learned about a few very old examples motherhood. Among them is a 306-million-year-old fossil immortalizing two lizard-like creatures huddled together in a tree stump—presumably, researchers argue, a mom protecting its kid.

If that’s indeed the case, this rare fossil could represent an extremely ancient instance of parental care in amniotes, the group that includes today’s mammals, birds and reptiles. The behavior, which requires an adult animal to invest time, energy and resources into its offspring after birth, might sound intuitive for modern creatures, but may not have come as easily to our egg-laying predecessors.

“Parental care is a strategy with a long antiquity,” paleontologist Arjan Mann told Smithsonian magazine last year. “Clearly, it’s worked out multiple times in evolutionary history. And we should have an appreciation for it.”

Were Ancient Europeans Using Clay Vessels to Feed Their Infants Animal Milk?

Not quite as old, but perhaps at least as impressive, are a set of 3,000-year-old clay vessels that may have been used to feed babies in what’s now Europe, Bruce Bower reported for Science News in September. Spouted and laced with traces of nonhuman animal milk, the containers may represent rudimentary baby bottles used on young kids during weaning, researchers argued in a paper published last year. By this point in time, dairying in Europe had been in place for at least 3,000 years, and women may have used milk from livestock animals to supplement their own breast milk as their children transitioned to solid food. The findings aren’t definitive, but still offer something for us modernites to chew on.

Mama Whales Whisper to Their Young to Evade Predators

Even when offspring stop relying on their mothers for food, they’ll often turn back to them for comfort, protection and companionship. That concept isn’t exactly breaking news, but each passing year offers up new examples of the tender ties between parents and their progeny.

Last July, Carolyn Wilke at Science News wrote of a heartwarming ritual between female southern right whales and their calves, who will listen to their mothers’ soft whispers to evade predatory orcas. These gentle calls—which sound like baritone moos—are too quiet to be picked up by anyone other than an adjacent whale (and, in this case, an eavesdropping scientist), allowing the gentle giants to protect their little ones in the vast and dangerous sea. “This shows us that whales have a sort of intimate communication as well,” Mia Nielsen, a behavioral biologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Science News at the time.

Vampire Bat Moms Persevere Through Illness to Care for Their Young

Moms will also go to great—and probably unsurprisingly—lengths to care for their kids, even when they’re feeling under the weather, a recent find in vampire bats suggests. Despite their vilification as blood sucking antagonists, these flying mammals are intelligent, social and generous, ecologist Gerry Carter of Ohio State University told Smithsonian magazine earlier this year. Sickness and symptoms do change behaviors, but illness-stricken moms will still muster the energy to feed and groom their offspring, highlighting the resilience of these relationships. The flipside of this, of course, is that it may enable infectious diseases to spread more quickly through family groups.

A Dolphin Adopted an Orphaned Baby Whale

A few heroic animal moms will even extend their caregiving to younguns of other species. Such adoptions are extremely rare (and don’t always end well). But recently, scientists have stumbled upon a handful of examples, including a female bottlenose dolphin that spent more than three years caring for a young melon-headed whale—even though she already had her own biological baby.

For mammals, milk production is a costly endeavor, making most moms wary of investing in young they’re not related to, even within the same species. The researchers behind the discovery, described in a paper published last summer, aren’t sure what circumstances bore out this odd cross-species interaction, but suspect it may have been largely fortuitous. Perhaps the little melon-headed whale was particularly persistent in pursuing the bottlenose mom at a time when she was “permissive” to the idea, having just given birth herself, Pamela Carzon of the Groupe d’Étude des Mammifères Marins (GEMM) de Polynésie told Erica Tennenhouse at National Geographic at the time.

A mother lion, her lion cubs and her adopted spotted leopard baby.

(Dheeraj Mittal / Deputy Conservator of Forests in India)

A Lioness Cared for a Sick Baby Leopard

Even more unexpected was a bond that formed between a mother lion and a baby leopard, described in a paper published earlier this year. Natural competitors who typically tussle over space and resources in India’s Gir National Park, lions and leopards are “at perpetual odds,” Stotra Chakrabarti of the University of Minnesota told Cara Giaimo at the New York Times. But a fuzzy, blue-eyed leopard cub managed to manage to melt another big cat’s lion heart. For more than a month, the lioness fostered the little interloper before he sadly died from a condition he’d likely had since birth.

The melon-headed whale and the leopard represent only the second and third cases of interspecies adoption ever documented, following on the heels of 2004 observation of a group of capuchin monkeys sheltering an infant marmoset. In all cases, the adoptee seemed to fit in relatively seamlessly with its new family, sometimes even engaging in playful behaviors and mimicking its newfound siblings.

These events are notably for their scarcity—but they’re also just plain adorable. As Carzon told National Geographic, “We were really excited to be able to witness such a rare phenomenon.”

#News

[newagesispage]

                                                                            MARCH    2020

PAGE RIB

 The Stones are touring the U.S. again.

*****

Paul Reubens is touring with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

*****

Al Franken is touring.

*****

Keenan Thompson and Hasan Minhaj are bringing comedy back to the White House Correspondents dinner on April 5.

*****

Days alert: There is some casting news but most of this won’t show up until the fall. Word is a couple of newbies will be Remington Hoffman who will play Li Shin, son of Mr. Shin and Emily O’Brien may join the cast. Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe) may be on her way back. Let’s bring the original Phillip back for her!!! Brandon Barash (Stefan) will return as well as Louise Sorel ( Vivian )and Alison Sweeney ( Sami). Judi Evans is headed back. Will she play Adrienne or Bonnie?? It looks like Casey Moss (JJ), Freddie Smith (Sonny), Chandler Massey (Will) and Galen Gering (Rafe) mill head out for awhile.

*****

It looks like Friends freaks will finally get their reunion on HBO. I am glad they aren’t bringing the characters back and are just getting together to talk about their time together.

*****

Downhill hit theatres on Valentine’s Day with Will Ferrell, Julia Louis- Dreyfus and Zoe Chao. The film was written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

*****

The more I see of it, the more I LOVE Stumptown, the best show that nobody seems to know about. Please renew ABC!!!!!

*****

So.. Rush Limbaugh got the Medal of Freedom.  Oh my.

*****

Shadow Inc. owned by former Clinton and Obama staffers made an app that thoroughly fucked up the Iowa caucus. It was good at calculating the results but not delivering them.  And hey.. Wolf Blitzer, stay off the phone with people that are trying to get those results. Let them just do their job!!

*****

Brooklyn 99 is back and Vanessa Bayer is there!!!

*****

Rod Blagojevich is out and hitting every show that will have him. Trump pardoned him along with 10 other criminals including Ed DeBartolo Jr., Mike Milken and Bernard Kerik.

*****

Forty thousand kids won’t get free lunch because Trump threw them off food stamps. The two usually go hand in hand. Getting food stamps automatically sets a kid up for the free lunch program.

*****

Over 1000 former DOJ officials have asked Bill Barr to resign.** 70 former Senators have written an open letter to congress to tell them they are not fulfilling their congressional duties.**” Yoo Hoo! Bush, Clinton, Carter, Obama, you’re up.” –Patricia Arquette

*****

Pete Davidson and Kaia Gerber have split.

*****

Indiana Beach is closing after 94 years.

*****

Denny Hamlin won the 2020 Daytona 500.

*****

Can’t we get some real gigs for Rainn Wilson and Curtis Armstrong? Ok, so Cyrtis Armstrong was on Stumptown so thank goodness for that! They can do better than Dominoes and Little Caesars ads. And how funny is it that Dominoes, known for its very Chrustian owners use a Risky Business ( a film about prostitutes) ad for their product. Hmm.

*****Hey.. Comics, quit bringing up Trump and his former womanizing. It didn’t work with Clinton and it won’t work here. People just don’t seem to care. Focus on the real damage he is doing.

*****

Scary Clown is working on opening nearly a million acres of land in Utah for energy exploration that had been a National monument. Redford and Romney can’t be happy about that.

*****

A new animated series from a brand new production company owned by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph looks promising. Look for The Hospital.

*****

Southern Illinois University is giving Bob Odenkirk an honorary degree.

*****

Ukranian immigrants Lt. Col. Vindman and his twin brother are out. Ambassador to the EU Sonland is out.

*****

The Democrats had a debate on Feb. 7 . At Andrew Yang’s first chance to speak, he rehashed his stump speech. I mean, c’mon give us something new. There really seemed to be a restrained nervousness on the stage that night. Klobachar seemed too needy but she got great reviews. Biden called Buttigieg ‘a friend ‘ a couple of times. Mayor Pete did quite well. ** Deval Patrick is out** Andrew Yang is out.**Michael Bennet is out** Another debate was on Feb. 19.** Bloomberg/Yang? Is this true?

*****

Check out the new series, Hunters. It is awesome, funny and terrifying!

*****

Dozens of Native American women and girls have disappeared from Big Horn county, Montana over the last few years. The victims were later found dead and Trump has put a federal task force together.

*****

Grassley and Wyden are trying to get lower prescription drug prices but Moscow Mitch won’t bring the proposal to the floor. Others are looking to get some traction on HR3.

*****

JSW Steel has sued the Trump administration for refusing to exempt it from paying the levies on slabs of steel that the company imports.

*****

64 women have filed sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuits against Mike Bloomberg. I’m not a fan of the guy but it does seem sort of coincidental.  It does not seem to matter cuz all his ads seem to be working, he is picking up steam. Tom Steyer is gaining a bit of momentum as well.

*****

The corona virus has brought us Covid 19. 600 people are being held in quarantine camps that the military has set up.  Italy has new cases and the disease is spreading. Scary Clown is trying to spin it all.

*****

ICE is being sent into sanctuary cities to cause trouble for immigrants.

*****

You have to check out Horse girl with Alison Brie, Molly Shannon and Matthew Gray Gubler on Netflix .

*****

Rapper Larry Sanders AKA LV is letting us in on a miscarriage of justice he has had to live thru. LV, best known for his work on Coolio’s Gangsters Paradise, was approached by police and later put on the Calgang database. The practice put about 80,000 mostly African Americans on a sort of gang list. In a 2016 audit it was found that there were many inaccuracies including the names of babes who could not possibly be gang affiliated.

*****

Nature does not need people. People need nature. –Harrison Ford

*****

The Clark bar is back. The roll out has started in Pittsburgh and will soon spread across the country.

*****

Scientists have found some turtle fossils that are the size of a car in South America.

*****

U can donate to the Trump campaign and may win a yaqut and hunting trip with Don Jr. The Beach Boys will perform.

*****

The Oscars were held Feb. 9. Brad Pitt and the production design team won for Once upon a Time in Hollywood. Woo Hoo! Word is that Pitt has hired a speech writer to write his acceptances. JoJo Rabbit won for adapted screenplay. Little Women won for Little Women and Toy Story 4 for animated film. Laura Dern won best supporting actress. Renee Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix too home the top actor prizes. Parasite surprised everybody and won best pic and got Bong Joon Ho a best director statue. My best dressed were Billy Porter, Antonio Banderes and his date, Janelle Monae ( her opening seemed to make some in the audience uncomfortable), Robert DeNiro, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Geena Davis, Regina King, Charlize Theron, Adam Driver, Joanne Tucker, Cynthia Erivo, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Kathy Bates, I don’t know what Kristen Wiig and Idina Menzel were thinking. Wiig always has a unique style so I have to admire that. ** The ratings were down. I have heard people saying they just don’t watch award shows or late night shows anymore because they are afraid things will get political. Funny, that is part of the reason I watch!

*****

Tom Papa was pontificating about a real dog show that should have REAL dogs. It would make a great weekly show with people bringing on their dogs.

*****

The goalies of the Hurricanes were out of commission and David Ayres, the Zamboni driver was brought in to help and the won against the Maple Leafs. Woo Hoo!!

*****

Hooray for New Hampshire and their use of paper ballots. Things in the campaign got a little shook up with Bernie taking the top followed by Pete and Amy.

*****

2 years of research in Canada has brought the announcement of a new discovery. Skull fragments  that were cleaned and collected about 10 years ago have been named Thanatotheristes or the reaper of death. The discovery helps us all learn more about the early times of Tyrannosaurids, a sub group that includes T.Rex.

*****

New Jersey has a ban on self- serve pumps and another state is talking about getting in on the action.  The gas station attendant act has been proposed in Illinois.

*****

Van Jones was right when he said we shouldn’t give Trump any press coverage for a week. He would hate it. Trump loves the old adage of bad publicity is better than none because he just must have attention. It would never work for they just can’t resist.** Joe Mcguire is out after he warned of Russian interference. If you want to keep your job in this administration, do not tell the truth. Now at the Department of National Intelligence is Johnny Mcentee , a 29 year old former football player who worked on the campaign. He immediately called department heads and said he wanted lists of never Trumpers in their offices. ** And who is in charge of weeding out the people in the government who may be disloyal to Scary Clown? Well, it is none other than Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence. She calls it the list of snakes. Trump is now saying he even wants liberal judges on the Supreme Court to recuse themselves when it comes to “Trump related cases”. It just keeps getting worse.

*****

Trump had fun in India. He should, his business has 5 projects going there right now worth 1.5 billion.

*****

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape and criminal sexual assault. He was not found guilty of all the charges that included predatory behavior.

*****

Andrew Yang is a new correspondent at CNN. He tells us that he is getting word from former donors that Bloomberg is calling those big donors. Allegedly he is telling them they do not have to donate to his campaign because he can afford his own campaign but he still won’t forget them. He would like them to save their money and not give money to other democrats running either.** And I am so sick of talking heads trying to tell us to play it safe. We are not as stupid as we look, thank you!! ** Now there is a firestorm about Bernie telling the world that the education program that Castro implemented was a good thing. I understand the anger and it could not have come at a worse time and he did it to himself. BUT..  We are adults and we have to be able to talk about things as they really are, not in sound bites. Castro sucked and history teaches us that bad people do good things occasionally and good people do bad things once in a while. ** It seems that everyone was in agreement that we would all gather behind the winner of the democratic campaign to beat Trump. Suddenly when it could be Bernie, everybody is bitching.

*****

This month held 2 more Democratic debates. The Nevada debate got pretty heated. I see that Mayor Pete and Bloomberg are lefties (left handed that is). Pete always looked poised and articulate which I appreciate and he got in a good one when he mentioned that the party should choose someone who is actually a democrat.  Bernie seemed a little rattled by that. Later Pete really dressed down Amy Klobuchar and made himself look like a dick. Joe Biden jumped in with his credits occasionally but often seemed a bit lost. He slammed back that they were all talking about the health care plane he helped to create and that he himself had dealt with the Mexican President. His name came up after it was mentioned that Amy could not remember the President’s name. The gloves were off with Bloomberg as Elizabeth Warren called him out on Billionaires and NDA’s. I loved the interaction but realistically Mr. Mike can’t just release people from agreements they made in an NDA, especially if it did not involve him. Bloomberg sounded pompous and clueless about the world outside of his company. He got a moan when he said he couldn’t exactly use turbo tax and when he said he may have told a few jokes that women didn’t like. He brushed off his taxes much like Trump does. The former mayor of NY called out socialists as communists. Klobuchar had the best comeback of the night when she was told her health care plan could fit on a post it. She proclaimed that the post it was invented in her state of Minnesota. Again, there were people shouting from the audience as Joe tried to talk. C’mon give everybody an equal chance.

*****

The South Carolina debate was fiery as well. The CBS debate was hosted by Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell. Bloomberg was booed right off the bat about Russia helping Bernie but he late had many cheers. He and Biden and Steyer had some real support there. Tom Steyer was actually quite impressive and seemed well spoken.  He was the only one who brought up the impeachment. He had a great point that we all know that republicans who did not convict Trump are complicit in the Russian meddling. Then he ruined it all by being alarmist with his fear. He warned us off the former republican and the socialists. I loved Bernie’s ideas about small business’s getting in on the marijuana business and not letting big corporations taking it over. He is also the only one in debates that I have seen consistently bring up Native Americans.  Biden again kept jumping in to tell us that he did this or that. Amy disagreed about a bill he claimed to have written. Warren said “dig in” numerous times. She went for the jugular with Bloomberg when she said a former female employee of his said to “kill it” in response to her pregnancy. He denied it but it sure is memorable. She did make great points that he has given much money to Linsey Graham’s campaign as well as other republican runs including against her. BTW he also gave 2.3 mil to Rick Snyder, the Gov of Michigan after the water crisis was well known.  I love that Amy is always saying that we shouldn’t fight amongst ourselves but she just does not have the votes so she needs to go. Bernie got some boos about guns for he seems the softest in that area.

*****

Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary in a big way.

*****

Dick Van Dyke, Sarah Silverman and Public Enemy among others will be at the Bernie Sanders rally in L.A. on March 1.

*****

Just think what the 400 million that Bloomberg spent on his campaign could have done for the debt of the average American.  Instead of a campaign for a presidency that he can’t win, he could have helped so many get a leg up.

*****

I don’t understand why “respected” journalists like Chuck Todd don’t throw W H reps off the set when they disrespect him or his colleagues with fake news jabs.

*****

Bob Moore of Bob’s Red Mill is giving his company away to his employees. Now, that’s a boss!!

*****

Bone, Thugs and Harmony have made a deal with Buffalo Wild Wings to rename themselves Boneless thugs and Harmony. The publicity stunt is to promote boneless wings.

*****

NASA is hiring.

*****

Scotland has made feminine sanitary products free!!

*****

Is this true? There were pigeons in Nevada with MAGA hats glued to their heads??

*****

The final Criminal Minds has aired. CBS often aired double episodes which made it seem like they really wanted to get rid of it. Kirsten Vangsness and Erica Messer wrote the final episode which seemed to give special attention to Penelope and Reid as they were the originals. The other characters seemed a little overlooked but they all had happy endings. Where was Reid’s new girlfriend?  I was hoping to see Shemar Moore but it was great to see Reisgraf and Howell which are old favorites.

*****

Animal Kingdom returns to TNT on May 28.

*****

So there is a bit of a mess with the Roger Stone sentencing. Trump is hopping mad about the long sentence recommendation, Barr is said to be pretending to spar with the Prez, the DOJ is backing down and people are resigning.

*****

R.I.P. Shirley Jean Cade, Robert Conrad,  Katherine Johnson, Lyle Mays, B. Smith, A.E. Hotchner, Bashir Jackson, Ja’net Dubois, Pat Agee, victims of the Molson Coors shooting and Orson Bean.

[lunasong365]

This article appeared in the July 25, 2019 issue of the Spokane (WA) Inlander.

1. SAVE THE ICE

It's been well over a decade since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth showed many viewers for the first time just how dire the consequences of global warming would be in their lifetimes, with ice sheets melting at an accelerated rate, severe storms likely to happen more often, and heating and cooling around the planet gone haywire.

For scientist Leslie Field, an inventor and electrical engineer, watching that movie when her kids were just 6 and 10 really put things in perspective.

"I've always been environmentally minded, but to see a movie that made it so clear how bad the consequences could be within my kids' lifetimes living here in California was like, 'Wow,'" Field tells the Inlander by phone. "I hadn't realized the extent to which it was going to affect my own family."

Luckily, her then-new job at Stanford allowed her access to some of the best environmental minds around. She learned many people were focusing on solar technology, so instead she dove into fixing another problem: saving the ice.

See, in addition to affecting sea levels, the ice sheets on our planet's poles act as reflective blankets, bouncing a lot of the sun's heat back into space. Without the ice, warming will get far worse, far faster.

For more than a decade, Field has been exploring how to save that ice in the least-damaging way possible.

Her team, Ice911, is currently studying how nontoxic silica microspheres — currently used in things like vitamins, insulation and medical applications — can help reflect the sun's heat, allowing ice sheets to grow thicker and last longer. The material, which looks like a white powder, floats on water, and so far doesn't have any apparent detrimental effects to wildlife or the ecosystem.

"I'm absolutely uninterested in doing something that's going to do more harm," Field says. "We're working with the least amount of intervention, as natural as possible, and we want to make sure it's localized and reversible. With those principles, I'm really comfortable with this material."

Ice911 is currently testing on a lake in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, the northernmost point in America. Between that and testing conducted in Minnesota, the team is hopeful they've shown the material is effective and affordable.

"Think about $1 billion to $5 billion per year to do an at-scale deployment," says Field, referring to the amount needed to cover a targeted 100,000 square kilometers of the Arctic, "and then you compare that to the cost of just one climate devastation-type disaster, like last year was something like $400 billion from the California wildfires."

Field says she's inspired by the results her team is seeing and the work of other scientists trying to tackle climate change problems as fast as possible.

"People are working so hard in very focused ways that are showing some real impacts. There really is cause for hope and action," she says. "It's so much better than to just dwell in despair. Instead it's 'Wait, there's stuff to do!' but by all means we've got to get on it now."

2. TURN PLASTIC INTO FUEL

Despite the growing popularity of recycling, the U.S. sent 26 million tons of plastic — more than 75 percent of what was generated — to landfills in 2015, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

But recently, Washington State University scientists have found a way to efficiently convert common plastics into needed fuels. Using a combination of products like milk bottles, plastic bags and water bottles, ground down to pieces, the team used heat and activated carbon to convert the plastics into a mix that can be separated out into jet fuel and diesel.

"We can recover almost 100 percent of the energy from the plastic we tested," says WSU associate professor Hanwu Lei in an announcement about the project. "The fuel is very good quality."

Just changing how we farm could help us store more carbon in soil and get closer to global carbon reduction goals.

3. SEQUESTER CARBON IN SOIL

Adjusting worldwide farming through methods "such as incorporation of organic manures, cover cropping, mulching, conservation tillage, some types of agroforestry practices, rotational grazing" and other practices could significantly increase the amount of carbon stored in soils, which would help the world get closer to the Paris Agreement goals, according to a 2017 study published in Nature. In particular, North America, Europe and India present large opportunities for storing more carbon in soil, according to the paper, "Global Sequestration Potential of Increased Organic Carbon in Cropland Soils."

4. HUMAN COMPOSTING

Making caskets, filling bodies with embalming fluids, and even reducing a body to ashes using natural gas all comes with a carbon footprint and environmental impacts. Now there's another option in Washington, the first state to allow human composting. The composting process speeds up natural decomposition and is expected to save a metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions per person who opts in, according to the organization Recompose, which fought for the law.

5. CONVERT METHANE TO CARBON DIOXIDE

Stanford researchers acknowledge their newly announced technology for addressing climate change might be counterintuitive: It actually involves the creation of carbon dioxide. But the key is they're taking methane, which is 84 times more potent of a greenhouse gas, and converting it into the less harmful CO2. Because people are likely to keep eating cows and growing rice, both of which produce lots of methane, it makes more sense to find ways to convert the methane into something less harmful, the Stanford researchers note.

"If perfected, this technology could return the atmosphere to pre-industrial concentrations of methane and other gases," says lead author Rob Jackson, a Stanford professor, in a May 2019 announcement.

Researchers led by WSU associate professor Hanwu Lei figured out a good way to convert plastic waste into jet fuel. 

6. DITCH THE CHEMICALS

Remember when the big deal in reducing bad chemicals was telling your mom to stop using that old hairspray because aerosols were depleting the ozone layer? Well, it turns out in some cases we replaced those aerosols and other "ozone-depleting substances" with chemicals that are pretty harmful, too. Some hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) now used in spray foams, refrigeration, air conditioning and other applications are up to 14,000 times more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Under a Washington law passed in 2019, the use of many of those chemicals will be phased out over the next few years, and by December 2020, the state will issue a list of the best substitute chemicals with lower global warming potential.

7. HARNESS THE SUN MORE EFFICIENTLY

When you think of solar panels, the image that likely comes to mind is of the increasingly common smooth black silicon solar panels that are often installed on homes, office buildings and in large solar arrays. For the last decade or so, scientists have been working to improve solar efficiency because most panels now only convert about 15 to 18 percent of solar energy into power. Now, promising new research from the University of Oxford has shown that using a combination of silicon and crystals known as "perovskites" can increase the efficiency of solar panels up to about 28 percent. Better efficiency makes the panels more affordable and worth adopting.

Electrochromic "smart glass" uses electricity to instantly change from clear (on the left) to tinted (right), which can help reduce cooling costs for buildings and eliminate the need for blinds.

8. BUILD WITH SMART GLASS

With more buildings featuring vast glass walls, there are several new types of "smart glass" that aim to help save on cooling and heating costs in buildings suddenly flooded with light. Some smart glass windows can instantly dim and block out sunlight that would otherwise increase cooling costs, or turn transparent when it's beneficial to let more light and heat in. The technology, which frequently requires electricity to work, can be programmed to automatically adjust window tinting based on temperature, saving energy. For example, compared to transparent glass, electrochromic glass reduced the energy required for heating and cooling a model office building by 41 percent in a 2018 South Korea study.

9. USE BETTER BUILDING MATERIALS

One way to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, which contributes 8 percent of the planet's CO2 emissions, is to incorporate carbon capture technology. California company Blue Planet essentially creates limestone rocks by sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and binding it in layers onto junk rock. Those rocks can then be used as fill in the concrete, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of projects.

Another alternative to concrete gaining popularity is Cross-Laminated Timber, or CLT. The wood product is made from gluing lots of smaller pieces of wood together to create incredibly strong beams. And the Inland Northwest is poised to lead in the CLT industry, as Katerra has opened a new factory in Spokane Valley. CLT is lauded for storing carbon, recycling wastewood, and for reducing the need for concrete in smaller multistory buildings.

10. SOLAR ROADWAYS

Imagine if every road, parking lot, sidewalk, highway, tarmac, and paved surface on the planet was able to generate electricity, eliminate the need for shoveling snow and light the way with instantly changeable LED lighting configurations.

"If every walking and driving surface in the U.S. were installed with solar road panels, it would produce three times more energy than we use."

It's an idea that went viral five years ago with an enthusiastically narrated video that let the world know about "Solar Freakin' Roadways," a clean energy idea born in Sandpoint.

The thinking is this: In the U.S., there are millions of square miles of paved surfaces, seeing as we need them for everything from walking and biking to moving around in our cars. Why not put them to better use by paving them with solar panels?

"We believe Solar Roadways implemented on a grand scale is the most viable solution to the climate crisis," Solar Roadways inventors Julie and Scott Brusaw tell the Inlander by email.

With lessons learned from a pilot installation in Sandpoint, a driveway installation at their shop, and testing performed under federal Department of Transportation grants, the fourth iteration of their prototype, the SR4, is closer to being road-ready than ever. The new panels are 50 watts, and that could get even better over time as technology improves.

"Even prior to the SR4 wattage upgrade, Scott calculated that if every walking and driving surface in the U.S. were installed with solar road panels, it would produce three times more energy than we use," Julie writes. "We'll continue to use more efficient solar cells as that industry moves forward, so those numbers will continue to get even better."

The hexagonal panels not only produce electricity, but contain heating elements and LED lighting that enables road lines to be changed in an instant. The road could light up to warn drivers an animal is in their way up ahead, and with heating, the panels won't need plowing or shoveling in the snow.

Now Scott is working to further engineer the panels to include dynamic charging, which could allow electric vehicles to charge on the road while driving.

Solar Roadways, based in Sandpoint, aims to literally pave the way to a clean energy future using solar panels like those shown here. The lighting patterns can make lane lines, warning signs and more.

While they're still in the early stages and working on a second pilot installation across the country this fall, the couple says that the Inland Northwest is expected to be among the first places to see adoption of the new technology.

"We've always planned that roads will be our last application. We are perhaps two to three years away from being ready for roads. First, we'll focus on driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, etc.," the couple writes. "But highways will be our final goal. The city of Sandpoint says it would like to be the home of many more firsts. We also have interested customers in Coeur d'Alene, Spokane and many other nearby cities."

11. MAKE PLANTS TASTE LIKE MEAT

By this point, you've probably heard of at least one of the companies marketing plant-based burgers meant to taste as good as the real thing. Whether it's the Beyond Burger, the Impossible Burger, or another plant-based patty, the common theme is that food scientists are doing their best to make plants taste, and in some cases even feel, like meat, in the hopes that more meat eaters will make the switch to veggies. Meat production accounts for a massive portion of our global emissions: A 2018 study published in Science magazine found that for the U.S. in particular, switching from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our food by up to 73 percent. That's pretty major, considering the overall food system accounts for about a quarter of emissions.

Cross-laminated timber appears to be a promising building material that can replace carbon-intensive concrete in many buildings.

12. HIT 100 PERCENT CLEAN ENERGY BY MIDCENTURY

In order to truly limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, all power plants around the world need to transition to clean energy by midcentury, according to a study published in Nature this month. Without sunsetting power plants that currently use fossil fuels, those plants will use up the rest of the planet's carbon budget. The urgency of those calculations has led states like Washington and even private utilities in Idaho to declare they will be 100 percent carbon-neutral by 2030 and use completely clean energy (with no purchase of offsets) by 2045.

13. EDUCATE GIRLS

What does education have to do with climate change? It turns out, a lot. Education of girls in particular plays a huge role in providing reproductive justice and decreasing a country's overall poverty. Girls with more education tend to lead healthier lives and have fewer children, which is one of the biggest ways to reduce impacts on the planet. That's why Project Drawdown, a research collaboration that ranked 100 of the top climate change solutions, places education of girls near the top of its list. The Brookings Institution think tank also notes that less educated girls are more likely to be disproportionately impacted by climate change events. Ensuring girls have more education not only makes their country more resilient to climate change, but it also helps set them on a path to become particularly effective conservation leaders, Brookings notes.

14. PLANT 1 TRILLION TREES

Splashy headlines this summer pointed out that planting trees could be the best way to fight carbon dioxide pollution. That's because the recent study, "The Global Tree Restoration Potential," published in Science, called reforestation on the scale of planting 1 trillion trees the "most effective climate change solution to date." But it's not quite that simple. As the researchers note, because of the changing climate, it might not be possible to actually plant that many trees and have them survive in changing ecosystems unless immediate action is taken.

"We estimate that if we cannot deviate from the current trajectory, the global potential canopy cover may shrink by about 223 million hectares by 2050, with the vast majority of losses occurring in the tropics," the researchers note. "Our results highlight the opportunity of climate change mitigation through global tree restoration but also the urgent need for action."

15. CAPTURE CARBON TO MAKE GASOLINE

Just north of the Washington border in Squamish, British Columbia, a private company partly funded by Bill Gates has spent the last few years pulling carbon dioxide from the air and converting it into usable fuel. The company, Carbon Engineering, is working on its low-carbon or carbon-neutral fuel along with underground storage that can be used for the indefinite capture of carbon from the atmosphere.

Their work has Canada and private investors excited: The government just invested $25 million Canadian into the company, and private investors put in $91 million Canadian in a recent investment round, according to a June company press release.

"We would like people to be recycling their fuel in the same way as they recycle other things," Carbon Engineering CEO Steve Oldham told VICE in September.

He explains the real innovation is that, unlike a switch to electric vehicles, which globally would be extremely expensive and require massive changes in infrastructure, pulling carbon from the atmosphere to make gasoline or diesel allows for an instantly cleaner transportation system.

"That car you just drove up in, we can make that carbon-neutral tomorrow," Oldham continues telling VICE. "Any performance vehicle, any battered old truck, airplanes, we're compatible with all of those, which is significant because nobody's making any electric tractors or electric planes."

16. SEA WALLS TO PROTECT GLACIERS

Glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica are melting at unprecedented rates, and once they hit a breaking point, they're expected to completely collapse and never return, contributing to sea-level rise and overall warming. But what if you could somehow keep warm ocean water far enough away from the most important glaciers, saving them from reaching that collapse point? That's the subject of research published by Michael Wolovick and others in the journal The Cryosphere in 2018.

Their study used modeling to see what might be achievable, and for now, it kind of amounts to "so you're saying there's a chance."

"The easiest design that we considered would be comparable to the largest civil engineering projects that humanity has ever attempted, it would be located in a much harsher environment than the ones in which those projects were built, and our results suggest that it would only have a 30 percent probability of success," the researchers note in their paper.

That's why they'd advocate a long-term approach in exploring wall construction, improving technology to the point where such an undertaking would be more feasible and more likely to succeed.

17. THINK SMALL

As utilities and environmentally minded developers plan to test the best ways to switch between wind, solar and battery storage in a new clean-energy world, they're also thinking about how buildings and developments can better share electricity and heating with each other. Two of the main concepts that are gaining traction are microgrids and district heating. With a microgrid, a neighborhood or development with its own solar panels and other power generation can be fully in control of its power without interfering with the overall electric grid that we're used to. However, it would still be possible to create tie-ins where those buildings could draw power from the grid when needed. For district heating, a single source — say a furnace burning the biomass leftover from a nearby mill — can provide heat throughout an entire area, eliminating the need for unique furnaces in every unit. Avista will be testing similar ideas and methods in a new eco-district in Spokane anchored by the Catalyst Building, which is designed to be the smartest building in North America when it is finished some time next year.