#[Yes we are aware she is software and not real. however - come on. we HAVE to do miku. the world is hers after all --rottel]

[haveyouheardthisband]

#J-Pop #Electropop #Pop Rock #Synthpop #J-Rock #Video Game Music #Vocaloid #2010s #2020s #poll #[Yes we are aware she is software and not real. however - come on. we HAVE to do miku. the world is hers after all --rottel]

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 4 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Glamour

You can call it however you want: kid's show logic, superhero disguise logic, magical girl show logic, cartoon laws, suspension of disbelief, etc. But the fact that nobody recognises Marinette, Adrien and others when they are suited up IS NOT BAD WRITING. It's one of the main laws of this genre. That's not because characters are stupid, okay? So, being frustrated that everyone in the show acts stupid about this "wearing a mask that covers only eyes" trope is strange. This criticism is not valid or fair.

But, this trope has to make sense in-universe as a worldbuilding and narrative element.

Miraculous doesn't give us much direct information on how glamour works. And in this case, I think we need both SHOW and TELL. Because if you don't establish the glamour rules clearly, you are going to run into problems and create unfortunate implications with your storytelling choices.

Appearance

Miraculous obviously gives our heroes magical glamour. In "Lady WiFi" we find out that masks can't be taken off. It's magic. No other explanation is needed.

Miraculous can slightly change the appearance of users (eyes, face shape, height and hairstyles). People can identify and notice the hairstyles of heroes (numerous Ladybug wigs, statue in Copycat). Jagged Stone points out the change of hair when he mistakes Chloe for Ladybug ("Antibug"). But it's just a costume. There is no magic that prevents Jagged from understanding that Chloe isn't Ladybug. So, how does it work? But it's forgivable because it's cartoon logic. Suspension of disbelief works here, I suppose. I won't judge this too harshly.

Glamour also obviously prevents people from making a connection that Marinette and Ladybug have identical hairstyles. So people know that Ladybug wears her hair in pigtails, but magic does not allow them to notice similarities.

Another important question. Does glamour work on Kwamis? Can they see who is behind the mask?

New York Special makes it clear that magic does not affect robots and they can see through glamour. Does that mean that Markov, AI built by Max, knows the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir? And it's never addressed.

Plagg in "Frightningale" says that holders can subconsciously choose their superhero appearance. This is actually pretty interesting and I like this idea a lot. Except the show is not consistent with this. The transformation of Master Fu looks identical to Nathalie's. And we have seen how different from each other Ladybug and Black Cat holders looked in the past. At the same time, Master Fu and Nino have different takes on Turtle superhero suit.

Age Glamour

Does age glamour exist? Do people see Ladybug, Chat Noir and other heroes as adults even when they look like teenagers to the audience (their height and build are smaller even when they are transformed)? Is that why no one ever questions the fact that children nearly die on a daily basis?

I mentioned unfortunate implications earlier. Well, this is where they come into play. Let's talk about "Copycat". A lot of people discussed it before me, so I won't bore you with details.

When I watched "Copycat" for the first time Theo's crush on Ladybug didn't bother me, because I thought that he sees Ladybug as his peer, a girl who is about 20-23 years old. Theo is an artist, his character design is that of an adult. He has his own studio, its appearance indicates that he did serious commissions in the past. The guy has no idea that Ladybug is like 13.

But then we get "Heroes' Day" and "Ladybug". And Hawkmoth calls them "kids", which means that there is no age glamour. Others see Ladybug and Chat Noir as teenagers. Perhaps, other Miraculous users aren't affected by age glamour. Therefore regular people see all heroes as adults but other heroes are able to guess their age more or less correctly. But you must spell this thing out because the audience can interpret "Copycat" differently. If there is no age glamour, then Theo is crushing on a teenage girl and he is fully aware of this fact. And this doesn't look good for your show.

The "No Age Glamour" theory is further confirmed in "Sapotis" where Alya just straight up analyses voice recordings and says that Ladybug is a girl their age. If glamour exists then it should also cover technology. Kwami can't be photographed. Face and voice recognition software shouldn't be able to analyse transformed superheroes and detect their identities in any way.

Besides, after "Sapotis" Alya should definitely be sure that Ladybug is not 5000 years old (also not an adult), especially after she wore Miraculous herself and was one door away from detransformed Ladybug.

SEASON 4 UPDATE! There's no age glamour after all.

In "Furious Fu" Su Han calls Chat Noir a child without knowing his identity. It means that everyone knows their superheroes are teenagers. "Copycat" can't be saved from that, uh, subtext anymore. No one questions the danger of their job or the balance of their lives outside of the mask. No one doubts their competence after "Origins" ever again. No one becomes annoyed after being bossed around by two teenagers in spandex. You had many opportunities to drop these details into the narrative. Someone could have been akumatized over this (I will not be ordered around by some magical kids!).

I don't know why writers decided not to use at least this idea and slightly adjust "Copycat" if they got rid of the age glamour completely. It can be explained as kid's show logic, but unfortunately, I'm reluctant to do it. If many characters sympathise with akuma victims on-screen, why not with the teenage superheroes who must fight them?

New York Special had this weird focus on collateral damage out of nowhere (the damage done by sentimonster Robostus) and yet it has 0 effect on the main story. No one in Paris is pissed that their 2 teenage protectors weren't there.

Ironically, "Furious Fu" and that one remark made by Su Han also created unfortunate implications for other moments in the show. Just hear me out. Apparently, Jagged Stone wrote a "thank you" song for Ladybug knowing that she is 13-15 year old child back in "Pixelator". Fandom is more than happy to roast Lila for lying about saving Jagged Stone's cat and him writing her a "thank you" song. Fandom claims that Lila's tale could harm Jagged's reputation, when he wrote a song for teenage Ladybug several weeks prior. Meanwhile, in-universe this lie is 100% believable.

If we put on "realism glasses", then both this whole song situation and Theo's crush in "Copycat" have uncomfortable implications. However, the show's canon can't be viewed and criticised through "realism glasses". I admit that bits and pieces of my criticisms are affected by these "glasses", but, ultimately, I'm trying to be fair and concentrate only on things that can't be justified by "cartoon logic and worldbuilding".

Could the existence of age glamour solve this problem of unfortunate implications and other concerns mentioned above? YES. Is it better for the narrative? YES. Is essential for the story? NOT QUITE. Could the absence of age glamour be called an irredeemable storytelling flaw? NO.

Disclaimer: On a side note, only older audience can notice these implications. Children, the target audience, most likely won't understand this subtext simply because they don't have enough experience. So, perhaps, this criticism is unfair, because these moments only look weird to me as an adult. It's like an adult joke in a cartoon that you don't get until you reach a certain age.

There's nothing technically wrong with adult writing a "thank you" song for a teenager. It's just an expression of gratitude. However, unfortunately, we live in a world, where adults normally wouldn't write songs for teens to express gratitude only. In real life similar actions would imply pedophilia and would be actively scorned by the public. No one would risk their reputation like that even if their intentions were genuinely pure and sincere. But this show can't be viewed through "realism glasses", because it's a cartoon and in certain cases we as the audience must use suspension of disbelief and pretend that certain things are possible for plot to happen.

Su Han also wants to give Ladybug and Black Cat to adults. Why didn't Master Fu do this then? Writers don't give us any explanation. Throughout the show we never question this up until the moment it's revealed that adults don't have time-limited powers. Then comes "Furious Fu". Story suddenly becomes self-aware here. Because apparently nothing prevented Fu from giving the most powerful Miraculous to adults who won't have time limit and will be more effective against Hawkmoth (see part 3 for more details).

I have a very good example of Age Glamour done right. It works in the story. There is no confusion or unfortunate implications. There is like one plothole connected to the glamour (it's been years and I still can't forgive them for Cornelia and Caleb) but otherwise, it's a pretty solid example of both show and tell. Clearly, writers wanted to avoid uncomfortable implications which are present in "Copycat". I am talking about W.I.T.C.H. comic books and animated series.

If you are not familiar with it, I'll give you a brief explanation. The story follows 5 girls, the Guardians of Kandrakar who are chosen to protect their world and parallel ones from evil. They receive magical powers from the amulet known as the Heart of Kandrakar. Their powers are based on elements: fire, water, earth, air and energy. Our main characters are about 13-15 years old. In the animated series they are younger and they attend middle school, making them 12-14 years old. But the transformation makes them look 18-20. They look like young women to each other and to other people. At the same time, people can recognise them, their looks and voice don't change. Most people don't know that they are really teenagers when they are not transformed and these people don't know that magic can make them look older. That's why everyone treats Guardians like adults when they are transformed. Comics establish this fact in the very beginning. In first issues characters state that they look older, we are also shown this multiple times.

In fact, one of the first side plots revolves around the fact that Irma uses her powers to sneak into the disco club to meet up with her crush. Irma is 13 at the beginning of the series, she is a high school freshman. Her crush, Andrew Hornby is a senior guy 17-18 years old. Irma has liked him for a long time and wants to impress him, so she decides to be clever about this. She transforms into her Guardian form of the 18-year-old girl, hides her wings, sneaks out to the club after her parents are asleep without any problem, and meets Andrew, who obviously doesn't recognise Irma in this girl who looks about his age. Smitten Andrew offers her a ride and 13-year-old Irma doesn't understand the implication of that offer, so she accepts. And, obviously, he decides that she is interested in more than just a ride home, since she agreed, and the comic implies that he fully intended for them to have sex in the backseat of his car. But Irma understands the implication only when Andrew tries to kiss her. She panics and turns him into a frog. And she actually pulls this "I need to look mature" trick more than once over the course of the series.

It's not the only situation where this age difference is handled well and makes sense. People who know the main characters in everyday life remark on their older appearance during transformation. Sometimes people flirt with Guardians when they are transformed. In one of the side-novels centred around Cornelia, she is worried that the prince of the realm they helped to save from famine would try to marry her. That never happens, but Cornelia actually brainstorms with her friends about how to tell the prince that she is really 15.

There are many other plot points where this happens, but I think that you got the idea. I really like how "Age Glamour" was handled in W.I.T.C.H.

How do we fix this? Create the situations where people offhandedly mention "Age Glamour" in the presence of Marinette or Adrien, use Kwami for this.

"Don't worry, dear. Chat Noir and Ladybug are adults, who know what they are doing. I am sure that they will handle this. "

Theo could say: "Oh, I wonder which university Ladybug goes to?"

"So, does that mean that other people see us as grown-ups, Tikki?"

A few words and boom, problem solved. Then allow the "show don't tell" rule do the rest.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous transformations #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculous glamour #superhero glamour #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir

[zeldareyesblog]

Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

**This was a responsive essay that I had written back in February 24, 2020 and revised on March 1st, 2020 for “Introduction to Composition” college class. Yes, I got an A+ on this.** 

                            Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

           In Giuseppe Nelva’s article, “Bayonetta 2’s “Over-Sexualization” Complaint: A Perfect Example of What’s Wrong with Modern Reviews”, I  found the reviews of the game to be unfair because Bayonetta 2 was judged based on the amount of provocative imagery it contained rather than Platinum Games’ improvement from the first Bayonetta’s gameplay, mechanics, and creative execution. Nelva’s concerns were the same as mine because we believed that no videogame should be judged by the amount of controversial content it has. Instead, video games should be judged if the video game’s creators have exceeded beyond expectations to entertain the players.

Video game reviewers are needed to help companies like Platinum Games improve their work ethic, so that the next video game they make from that specific series would not feature the same issues again. However, we have big video game reviewers like Polygon, who has judged this video game based on its “blatant over-sexualization” rather than Bayonetta 2 game’s execution as quoted from article, “I won’t guess why the blatant over-sexualization is still there, often more intensely than before. But it causes an otherwise great game to require a much bigger mental compromise to enjoy.” Even though a 7.5 out 10 would not be considered an awful rating for Bayonetta 2, it deserved more than that and it also deserved a more objective review rather than a subjective review despite the obvious adult content mentioned by Polygon’s throughout most of the review. While Bayonetta 2 did include sexual themes and references throughout the franchise and characters as much as strong language and violence is concerned, should it be used to solely judge the merits of a videogame? What if the creators of Bayonetta 2 intentionally put the controversial content there to show how our virtuous boundaries could be broken under harsh circumstances, but can still become a strong, wise, and beautiful person against all odds?

           To be honest though, I did understand that when my mother and I bought this video game from GameStop just last year during the holiday semester break as my New Year’s Eve present when I was 19 years old, she and I were both already aware of the  content.  Such as female characters being portrayed in a sexualized manner with extremely exaggerated proportions displayed in tight-fitting suits while in combat. There were also female characters being stripped of those suits for a brief amount of time to summon “infernal demons” as an aid in combat for huger enemies until their wicked weaves covered their private parts, and the innuendos spoken while the female characters interact with male characters in advance. However, the reason my mother approved of me playing that game, regardless of the adult content, was because she took her time to educate me about such content prior to succeeding my first semester in college. Because of our mother-daughter conversations,  it was still pointless to judge the game based on its own provocative content and more on how it has executed itself as an entertainment medium as a result. Unlike most parents that I met who let my friends play M-rated video games before they completed their secondary education and reached the appropriate age, my mother never let me play any M-rated game until I completed my secondary education and when I reached the appropriate age of 17 years old or older according to the Entertainment Ratings Software Board (ESRB) guidelines because she believed that proper  education and parental guidance would develop a real sense of maturity and high tolerance on all adult content that I would be exposed to in the future and she was right about that.

           Furthermore, when I compared my now adult self to the friends that played a variety of M-rated videogames while they were underaged and still in middle school a very long time ago, I remembered that they were complete hyperactive chatterboxes to the point of aggravation, became more aggressive in their gaming habits and personalities, and even learned new curse words that I have never even heard before. When it came to sexually suggestive content in mature-rated video games, my old middle school friends did not seem to process that kind of content in a composed and civilized manner which resulted in them having some misogynistic and judgmental views of women, especially fictional video game women like Bayonetta who had self-confidence on and off the battlefield and remained fearless in her sexuality and beauty. Although, I did not blame M-rated video games alone because I knew that it was obviously the parents who enabled their underaged children to play those mature-rated video games since they were impatient and did not take the time to teach their kids about what kind of content they could be getting themselves into if they bought the game no matter how entertaining it was, and why they should not expose themselves to it until they are at the appropriate age anyways.

           Moving on, Nelva has mentioned in his article that “What should be reflected, first and foremost, in a review’s content and in its score is the game’s quality, and while several aspects of “quality” are subjective, there are also many that aren’t. Production values are an example: graphics, animation, audio, textures, effects; Those are objective aspects of a game’s value that should not be overlooked.” As somebody that has owned and played this video game series, in my perspective I think that Bayonetta 2 has exceeded expectations from the Bayonetta 1 when it came to smooth gameplay mechanics – being able to reduce the amount of constant button pressing to fully complete charging attacks. Not only that, but Platinum Games has provided extra abilities for players such as giving Bayonetta the ability to glide on higher platforms with her Madama Butterfly Wings after jumping upwards and a variety of random “hack and slash” combo attacks on all bosses and mini bosses that will leave the players in suspense on what Bayonetta would do next, and included online gameplay levels and offline quests that challenge the players’ skills after completion of the story mode. The graphics and textures of Bayonetta 2 were beautifully executed to even reach cinematic levels of gaming throughout cutscenes and gameplay with the camera angles strategically displayed on the entire environment, and used closeups appropriately on the characters to present details on their unusual cosmetic makeup, clothing designs, and accessories as the characters communicated with each other. As for audio, the music soundtrack provided a mysterious, foreboding, yet epic emotions that could keep all players on edge and interested in the story mode. Furthermore, the dialogue between the characters was uniquely portrayed and ranged from what strong, young women and men would realistically say or react if they had encountered any enemies based on their three-dimensional personalities.  If videogame players were tight on budget to own a headset, they could still experience the same amount of interactive and immersive fantasy-adventure gaming that Bayonetta 2 has provided as an entertainment product that would keep the players entertained for many years to come.

           That objective review I made would convince so many young adult audiences to play Bayonetta 2. Eventually, it would have gained plenty of new fans to move this game up the ranks from being stuck in the “under rated” games category to gain widespread popularity. Never had I put in my own opinion on Bayonetta 2’s provocative content, because I know that judging a game based on what kind of adult material it had was not my job as a reviewer and I already assumed that my audience knows better what kind of material they would get themselves into before buying the game to begin with.

          What amazed me now was how the world wanted to showcase diversity and promote less censorship in the entertainment industry. Although, once we get what we asked for there are a lot of negative people out there on the internet that make so-called entertainment reviews to talk about how the characters in a television show, movie, or videogame do not fit their own beliefs.  According to Nelva, “It saddens me that between the many calls for diversity we’ve seen lately, some actually fly in the face of diversity itself by implying that games that celebrate sexuality and beauty like Bayonetta 2 should not exist or are not worth playing and enjoying.” This quote was a reminder to me that I should not judge any video game based on the number of suggestive themes it contains, but if it exceeded my expectations on quality video game entertainment.

         Overall, I believed that Bayonetta 2 was a compelling video game that unfortunately received a bad reputation since huge video game reviewers like Polygon judged this video game based on the amount of provocative content it contained rather than the actual gameplay and creative execution itself. The creators behind Bayonetta 2 were considered artists because they told a narrative story and designed characters beyond our own imagination and made money from our fascination in this fantasy, action, and adventure game. Besides that, the purpose of video games was to provide another form of quality entertainment that all young adult audiences could enjoy at their own leisure time and Bayonetta 2 would have been one of those videogames if we had better reviewers that judged it based on gameplay and performance, instead of content.

  Works Cited

Nelva, Giuseppe. “Bayonetta 2's ‘Over-Sexualization’ Complaint: A Perfect Example of What's Wrong with Modern Reviews.” DualShockers, DualShockers, 17 Oct. 2014, www.dualshockers.com/bayonetta-2s-over-sexualization-complaint-a-perfect-example-of-whats-wrong-with-modern-reviews/.

#bayonetta #bayonetta2 #nintendo #sega #platinum games #video games #videogame #college #composition #essay #college essay

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Animal Planet.”

I had the sudden desire to do one of those documentary style episodes today, so that is what you are going to get. This will probably have one or more episodes, but it should be fun. Hope you all like :)

“Ok, ok ok, everyone listen up!... QUIET DOWN PLEASE…. Ok very very good. Now we have been cordially invited to interact with a very special group while they are being quartered here on our planet.”

“Don’t you mean you pestered begged and threatened?”

“You know what, you, you can shut up.”

‘Why are we doing this anyway. Humans aren’t all that interesting anymore?” 

“That is where you are wrong! Universe-wide opinion polls state that, behind the drama with the LFIL, humans at large and the most sought after topic in the galaxy. My other sources tell me that only 5% of the galactic population has ever even seen a human. You should read some of the rumors about them, it is quite stimulating. 

“How did you even get this to work?”

“The humans seem to want good PR as much as we want good entertainment. Alright everyone! GET YOUR CAMERAS READY!” “Do you want us to turn on the translation software?” 

“No, of course not, well for everyone accept humans.”

“Why.”

“Well the public won’t exactly get a great thrill from them if they think they are intelligent speaking creatures now will they.”

“But they are?” 

“Shut up, and get ready.” 

“Three….. two ….. One.” 

“HELLO EVERYONE! I am Mendex of the Tesraki, and today on my journey through the universe to meet some of the most dangerous species known to the galaxy, I have taken a stop back on my own planet for a rare opportunity. Now my researchers have come up with a few statistics I would like to share with you before we begin. According to intergalactic poles only five percent of the universal population has ever met, in person, one of these creatures. Number two, since their introduction, these creatures have been the cause for a 15% incline in death rate and a .2% drop in life expectancy for your average dweller of the GA. They can digest metal,, and reports say that they evolved to run their prey to death….. A slow death towards exhaustion.”

The camera pans slowly over the face of the Mendex, his light brown fur accented by a scruffy red scarf around his neck. They are walking up a grassy pathway, though the grass comes in shades of purple and blue instead of green.

“Now as I said before, I have been given a rare opportunity to interact with these creatures in their own environment. Now based on the concerns of some of my producers, we will not be allowed to go in alone, but have connected with an Expert who will take us through safety. Now as I understand it, this expert has left society to spend entire swaths of time with these creatures. He claims to have been incorporated into their pack and has enough social standing with them that he will be able to protect us while we interact.” 

The ground grows steep for a moment as the camera moves up a hill and over the other side.

“Ah, there it is, their hive. Look at it. Now not much is known about how they build such complicated structures, but we do know that they enjoy the use of very hard sharp lines and corners. “ They trundle down another hill and towards the ship sat crouched in a field. Overhead clouds pass over the star.

“Oh, and there is our expert, waiting for us at the entrance to the hive.

The camera cuts for a second, and when it comes on the Tesraki and a Vrul are sitting side by side at the base of the hive.

“No more suspense. It is time for me to tell you what we are going to be seeing today….. HUMANS. Yes that’s right everyone, I have been given access to a human pack and the expert who has been living with them for the past few cycles now.” He turns to the Vrul sitting by his side, “Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and your research, Docotr.”

The little creature glances up at the sun and then back towards the cameras, “Well I am Dr. Krill, and I have been working as a surgeon for as long as I can remember.” “As A surgeon, how did you end up here?” 

“Well, that is actually an interesting story. I was working at the Thevel-1 Andromeda Trauma center, when a human ship actually called in for an emergency landing. One of the humans had been involved in some sort of freak accident on board, and they required immediate medical attention, so I men them in the trauma bay, and, I will leave the details out, but as it turned out one of the humans had a metal rod logged in his brain, through the orbital socket.”

“No, you’re kidding me?”

“Not even a little. I had never seen anything like it. Accidents like that result in visits to the morgue, not the hospital, but the human was still alive, so I removed the object and watched his recovery. Now at this point I was so fascinated that I couldn’t just let them go. There was so much for me to learn.”

“So just like that, you hopped on a human ship, and went gallivanting across the galaxy.”

“I know, sounds strange every time I hear about it, hardly something I would do.”

“What was that like, first day aboard a human ship, surrounded by predators.”

“Terrifying as you might imagine. I was convinced that I was going to get eaten or worse, but of course I never did.”

“Now why don’t you tell us a little about humans.

“Well, Mendex, the first thing you should know about humans is how social they are. Humans generally require SOME contact with other humans weather it be in large group units or at least one other human that they can interact with. It is such a big deal in fact that isolation can drive a human to madness or worse. They are very perceptive to social situations, and that is what made my first day so terrifying because the humans have many social rules that are expected to be followed that just never crossed my mind.”

“And how dangerous would you say a human is?”

“Well that depends entirely on the human and the situation. If a human thinks they are in danger, they will either run or they will fight. Humans have a special hormonal response that, during times of extreme stress, can allow them to life objects up to 500% their own body weight. For most of us a human, even the weakest humans, have the ability to maim, injure or severely mutilate.” he held up a hand, “however, I am not saying that to make you wary of humans, they are generally very friendly and curious creatures, and as long as they don’t feel threatened they will at least be tolerant of you.”

“Why are humans so dangerous?”

“Well that is a funny question, it actually stems from the simple fact that humans aren't actually all that dangers…. At least not on their planet, on the basis of raw power or predatory instincts.”

“Fascinating, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean that humans were not originally a predator species, in fact they are actually pretty poor hunters compared to most everything on their planet. In fact prey animals have been known to maul humans if provoked. Humans are probably the LEAST durable species on their planet. They adapted to survive in a world where the prey animals were dangerous and the predators could decimate them with the sweep of a paw.”

“Is that why they are a pack-creature.”

“Precisely, you see, a single human has a very low likelihood of being dangerous on their own planet, but together they can hunt creatures three four five times their own size if not more. You see comparatively to other animals of their planet, humans are slow, weak, with a poor sense of smell, hearing and even sight, but they had the one thing that sentient life is known for, and that is intelligence. This intelligence allowed they to group together and create a strategy for surviving in a hostile environment. That then led them to the building of weapons and machines to the point that survival was no longer an issue, and hunting even the most dangerous of their previous predators had become laughable.” 

“That is fascinating, to think that a creature that dangerous could be so weak on their planet….. Have you met any of these other dangerous species?”

“Actually, yes/ Humans are so social and pack oriented that they have the ability to bond with non-sentient animals. They call it domestication, and it requires an animal to be, pack oriented, easy to feed, and have a short gestation period. The humans then take that animal and only allow the breeding of animals with specific desirable traits. In fact, they took a similar pack predator, and used their natural sociability to integrate them into human packs. The humans keep them as pets and began to use them as hunting partners considering their new pack member was faster, stronger, had a better sense of smell and hearing, but was now loyal to its human companions.”

“That doesn’t sound real.”

“Oh but it is. We have one aboard the ship.”

“And this creature could rip the humans apart?”

“Oh pretty easily, especially if she had the element of surprise.”

“Amazing, so what do we need to know before we get on the ship with you, you know for our safety and security.”

The doctor shifts in place. He is making a strange expression that seems unnatural for a Vrul, “Well you have to be aware that the humans have a strict hierarchy. When you get on the ship you are immediately assigned a specific sort of guest place in this hierarchy. The human pack alpha that runs the ship is higher than you as well as the betas below him and their immediate underlings. You can assume that your comfort is more important than the low ranking humans but you MAY NOT order them around since it is not your place and you have not been accepted into the pack. Generally speaking though, a human ship is a relatively safe place as long as you are polite, apologetic, and willing to do what is asked of you. Now the humans are likely to be very curious, try not to show signs of fear, but if you do they aren’t going to attack or anything. Depending on the human they may or may not gently mess with you, they may playfully try to dominate or scare you for their own amusement, but don’t worry they aren't likely to attack. Do not make any disparaging remarks or insult the humans.”

“Are humans very sensitive to verbal attacks?”

“Some are and some aren’t. In the case of insulting a human, I have found that it is not generally the human you have insulted that you should be afraid of, but the other humans around the human you have insulted. You see many humans have no issue in making an insult, but will not tolerate one directed at one of their pack members. They are very protective of each other, especially the alpha. It is also a good idea not to insult objects that belong to humans. The human bonding instinct is strong enough that they will bond to objects. So the ship for example, do not offend the ship. I made that mistake on my first day and thought the alpha was going to tear out my throat.”

There was a shifting amongst the crew.

“What are the rules on touching.”

“That is complicated, it also depends on the human. The general rule is not to go up and touch a human without permission. If a human approaches you first, you may make contact with them. Generally hands and arms are acceptable to touch though I would suggest avoiding any other part of the human anatomy for the sake of their privacy. Humans are very very serious about their personal space and their personal privacy 

“Are there any warning signs that we should be aware of, just in case.”

The doctor nodded, “Well there are a few things. Humans have a warning call they use to indicate to other humans that something is wrong, it generally indicates pain or immediate danger and is specifically designed to get attention and bring other humans to assist. This involves a high pitched sort of keening, it is very loud and very powerful, and will hurt your ears if you aren't careful. Generally though, I have only ever heard it used on a few occasions. As far as more subtle things to look at. If a human gets into a defensive posture in your direction it isn't a good sign. They will bend at the knees and have their hands up to protect their face. Their chins will be lowered to cover their necks. Another important signal to look at is the face. A frowning human could either be thinking or they could be anger. That is when the mouth sort of dips on either end like this…. Yes…. yes like that. But the important thing to look at is the eyes. The eyes will always give them away.”

“What is so important about the eyes.”

“Well, human eyes are enormously expressive. I swear by them personally. Humans have this habit of pretending one thing but meaning another, and looking at the eyes can tell you that. Eyebrows slanted down is generally a good indicator. A frown mixed with slanted eyebrows and…. Its hard to explain. If you look into the eyes and feel as if their expression could kill you, you probably want to stop doing whatever you are doing. Also sudden silence isn’t entirely a good thing either. Humans love talking to each other, there is always someone speaking, most of the tie, but if you are in an area with many humans and none of them are speaking there is either something wrong, or they have been ordered to behave that way”

“What is a good indicator of a happy human.”

“It seems strange, but showing their teeth is a good sign most of the time. A curious human is generally a happy human. They like learning and interacting with their environment, so encourage curiosity and the showing of teeth. Also there is a strange sound they make, sort of a repetitive revving noise that comes from the back of the throat or the chest. That means that the human is amused, and that should also be encouraged.”

“Alright…. Do you think we are ready.”

“I think so…. Follow me.”

The crew gets up and the feed cuts to black.

This episode will continue after the break.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #HUMANS ARE WEIRD #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia

[jasonrae117]

Night at the Wayne Casino

PART 6

Here we are, Part 6! Sorry this doesn't have much in the damirae department, but there will be more! I also wanted to see if anyone would be interested in a sort of behind the scenes chapter of the more mature stuff (what happened in Damian's suite) etc. that happens throughout. I'd post it on my ao3 account for those that want to read something ~saucy~ like that. Let me know! 💙💜💚

Damian had dressed himself and wanted to drown himself in his work. His mind was pulled in every direction and he was utterly conflicted. He had stared blankly out the window for an hour trying to process everything that had happened since the party and where it had all gone so wrong. Of course he knew it was his fault that his plan backfired. He had slipped and slept with the demon he was trying to expose. 

It was strange, he felt less motivated to bring her down, and the thoughts that occupied his mind when he recalled their… encounter, were about how badly he wanted to fix things, not about figuring out her next move as it should have been. 

He had forgone his morning workout, seeing as though he and Raven took care of that some hours before and he had slept in late. He figured he may as well head in early to work because he desperately wanted the distraction.

He was almost in the clear to the security office when a large figure accompanied by a smiling face intercepted him.

“Jon, now is not the time.” Damian tried to brush past him, but Jon was quick and kept his pace and swung an arm around his shoulders. 

“There’s always time for your best friend, especially when you need to tell him all the details from last night.” He waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner and Damian scoffed at him. 

“Grow up Kent. I don’t have to tell you anything. It wasn’t official business, therefore I have no need to brief you on what happened. Not that anything did.” He was quick to throw in the last part to avoid any misunderstandings of his words. 

“Aw, c’mon Dami, this isn’t work. I wanna know as one of the guys, as your best friend. That’s got to give me some clearance to what’s going on in there.” Jon used the arm around his shoulders to pull him down and ruffle his hair. 

Damian grunted and forced himself out of Jon’s grip. He straightened his collar and ran a hand through his now unkempt hair. “Being an asshole won’t get you anything. Besides there’s nothing to tell. I observed her and besides countless men hitting on her, there unfortunately wasn’t anything suspicious. Now would you leave me alone.”

“And how exactly would you know that I’m lying?” Damian had stopped his movements and his voice was low. almost threateningly so. 

“Damian,” he whined. “You can trust me. I know when you’re lying… well sorta, but the point is I know you’re not telling the truth.” He crossed his arm over his chest and looked down at him. 

A nervous laughter escaped Jon and he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “Well...you see I kinda sorta was monitoring people coming and going from the elevator on that floor. It was a slow night and Dick had everything under control.”

“What exactly do you think you saw?”

“I saw you show up and a few hours later I spotted Raven. Then I saw you both enter the elevator together and uh...get close. Then you both left pretty excitedly, and well...one can only assume.” He trailed off.

“Well your assumption is incorrect.” Damian growled out. Internally Damian was panicking, he didn’t want to lie to Jon, but it was his only chance to get out of this mess unscathed.

“Damian,” Jon almost sounded disappointed, “I tried to give you the chance to tell me on your own but you’ve given me no choice.”

“What are you-”

“Raven told me everything. Well everything from her perspective. And I gotta admit bud, you don’t look too good.” Jon shrugged dismissively and began to walk away. Damian, however, was stunned. She had gone to his best friend to get her story in first so it would be harder to prove ill intentions, that sneaky witch. 

“Whatever she said is probably a lie. Some fantastical story she made up to make me look bad.”

“As much as I want to believe you, and truly I do...I can’t help but feel that her story sounded fairly accurate. Given how well I know you.”

“What the hell does that mean? Tell me what she told you!” 

“I have no obligation to brief you on what she said, best friend or not.” Great Jon was being cheeky. What the hell was with people finding a way to use his own words against him?

“Jon, you tell me now or so help me.” Damian snatched his by the front of his shirt, not caring that it would leave it a wrinkly mess. 

“Fine, fine, relax. We’ll talk in the security office.” Jon frowned at his wrinkled shirt but reluctantly followed Damian to their shared office.

This one was slightly different from the room Tim used. It had two desks each with a state of the art computer that also had access to the security camera feed. Behind each desk were large cabinets of files from all cases they’ve had throughout the years. Tim’s had more of the recent and ongoing hardcopies, but they were shared electronically, this office was more of an archive section. It also doubled as a semi-interrogation room. 

Damian took his seat behind the desk and folded his hands together as if preparing to listen to a business report. Jon on the other hand was pacing until he settled for leaning against his own desk. Damian looked at him expectantly and stayed silent waiting for Jon to begin.

“So..uh, Raven said that she showed up to the party late because she was trying to get ready but was interrupted by her boss. When she got there, all sorts of guys were approaching her which was starting to get on her nerves until you popped up.” Damian leaned forward gaining interest. “She was surprised to see you there and not on duty. She mentioned that you were handsome and charming by the way.” A heat rose to his ears. “Then she said after a drink and some flirting you invited her back to your suite. She was pretty excited when she was telling me this. She told me that she thought you were hot when she ran into you that first night...so uh there’s that. Now where was I?”

“Raven was excited that I invited her to my suite.” Saying it outloud made it too real and his blush deepened as he cleared his throat. He held a hand up gesturing for Jon to continue. 

“Get on with it Kent.” This was absolutely humiliating, having their night together thrown back in his face by his friend. 

“Oh right, well then she said you made the first move, kissing her and adamantly trying to remove her clothes. Apparently you ripped her dress?” Damian glanced away and tugged at his collar. He remembered being so impatient with the material, he wasn’t sure how to properly take it off, he just knew it needed to come off. “So that’s a yes. Anyway, then after hours of screwing her, of which I must commend you, she said you were quite formidable and were very attentive, you both were tuckered out and fell asleep. She said she asked if you wanted her to go, but you ignored her and cuddled...Who knew Damian Wayne cuddled?”

“Geez alright. Well then she gets up in the morning to take a shower and clean up and when she comes out you are right outside the door completely shocked. At first she thought you had been drunk and forgot what had happened but it turns out that you were aware and had completely dismissed what had happened between you two.”

“I wouldn’t say I dismissed it-”

“You said it was a misstep.”

“I-”

“Did you not?”

“I mean I did, but I was being honest!” Damian rose to his feet.

“You weren’t being honest, you were being an asshole. Then you get mad at her for using your computer! Like what the actual hell?”

“She wasn’t supposed to use it, and now she had access to the security footage and who knows what she did with that access.” His eyes went wide as he took in Jon’s face. Jon’s eyebrows were furrowed and his head tilted while he was processing what Damian had just revealed. I guess she didn’t tell him why I was pissed that she used my computer. He had just told Jon on his own. 

“Why do you have the feed transmitting to your personal computer?” Jon pushed off against the desk and was now standing, only a desk separating the two.

“I like to know what’s going on around the casino.” He shrugged.

“Damian, this is serious. That is totally not acceptable. It certainly isn’t protocol, and it breaks at least a dozen policies. Do you think I can’t do my job well enough without you?”

“Jon, it isn't about that. I just like doing my job. My computer software is encrypted so nobody can access it or see it unless I want them to.”

“Nobody except Raven.”

“That was an accident. I didn’t lock the program. It won’t happen again.”

“Damian, it shouldn’t have happened at all! You’re supposed to be the leader. You sure as hell have given the rest of us enough lectures about what’s acceptable and what’s not. And then you have been doing this the whole time? Do I even want to know what other shit you might be doing off the clock?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

“You need help Damian, that or a stable relationship.”

“Would you stop!”

“You need to make this right.”

“I can’t get rid of the software Jon. You’ll never know how helpful it has been in keeping this casino safe.”

“Yeah, but it’s not right. Think about if it got out! Huh? We could be in so much trouble and in lawsuits up to our eyeballs.”

Damian hadn’t thought too much on the matter, he always assumed he would never be caught. The failures kept piling on. 

“And that’s not the only thing I’m talking about fixing.” Jon sighed. Damian just shot him a quizzical look. “I’m talking about Raven. It’s clear you’re attracted to her and she is to you. You’re letting your stupid overanalytical brain mess up something potentially good for you.”

“She’s not ‘good’ for me, I hardly know her.”

“You seem to have gotten to know her fairly well last night.” Damian glared at him. “In any case, you can’t leave it like this. You were wrong about her and treated her like an ass. You need to apologize.”

“She’ll be gone in two days, what do I care how she feels about me or if she’s upset? This is her first time and probably last time in Vegas. I’ll never see her again.” The prospect of that statement made something inside twinge strangely. 

“You could try to see her again. You know, long distance relationships. Who knows she may live somewhere close.”

“She lives in Seattle.” Jon looked at him surprised. “What? She was a suspect and I needed more background on her.”

“Hmm...funny, you said she was a suspect. Are you finally relinquishing that crazy theory?” He now smiled broadly, seeing that Damian was finally coming around. 

“I suppose she has shown no more clear signs of being a threat.”

“Great! So will you go apologize to her now?” The peppy and energetic Jon had returned much to his dismay.

“I’m not using company time for personal matters.” He spoke flatly.

“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing that you’re not on the clock for another hour and a half. Now go, before I force you, and that will just be more embarrassing for you.”

“Please Kent, you can’t force me to do anything. But I suppose that I can’t leave an unhappy guest if it’s my doing.”

Jon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Whatever gets you to do it.”

Damian dragged his hand over his face and groaned. He hated apologizing, he hadn’t had much experience since he rarely found times that he was wrong and the situation actually called for it. He moved to the door to begin his quest.

“Oh, and we’ll have a discussion about the use of company software on personal devices later.” Jon had called after him. 

The door shut behind his and his shoulder slumped. He could feel a headache coming on. Well, I better get this over with so I can get on with my life and get to work. He guessed that she would still be in her room avoiding the risk of running into him so soon after their fight. He stopped by the cafe and picked up an order of tea and a chocolate croissant as a peace offering and then made his way to her room. 

Suddenly he was right in front of her door and he realized that he hadn’t even thought about what he was going to say. His throat felt dry and he seemed to be too warm. This is a bad idea, she doesn't want to see me. She probably doesn't even care. What if she isn’t even in her room? He paced outside for a few minutes before he heard a muffled voice coming from the inside of her room. He felt only slightly creepy as he pressed his ear to the door to listen to what was being said. It was definitely her voice and an indistinct voice on the phone.

“Yes, I’ve gotten quite a bit of research done, but it’s not quite going the way I wanted.” The other person sounded irritated by the inflection of the muffled sounds. “The participants gave me some information, but none of it is really useful for us. Perhaps we should look elsewhere….I don’t know maybe another casino? Look, it’s your job to find someplace we can actually work with. It’s my job to survey and collect data and tell you if it's worth the investment or not.” The voice grew louder and he heard a loud exhale from the woman. “I’m telling you that I don’t see a good outcome of working at this casino, and that’s my professional opinion. Have I ever let you down?” She was clearly agitated. “Great, I’ll be coming home Tuesday and I’ll wrap up my report by the weekend.”

The creak of the bed signaled that she was done with the conversation and had sat on the bed most likely out of annoyance and irritation. Was it really the best time now? Now or never he supposed. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A moment passed before the door finally swung open revealing a tired looking Raven. Her hair was thrown up into a messy bun and there was a small smudge of mascara under her eyes. Most intriguing to him, however, was the navy silk robe she was wearing. You’re not here for that. She cocked her hip and raised her eyebrow in question.

“Damian.” She said curtly.

“Miss Roth. I came to..uh..apologize.” He held out the now barely warm tea and croissant. Her face lit up with surprise taking the items into her own hands. She still eyed him skeptically, but took a step back gesturing with her hand that held the croissant for him to enter.

“Sorry for the mess, I’m between packing up for my return trip and figuring out what to wear tonight.”

“I’m sorry for my intrusion to your plans, maybe I should come back-”

“No.” She commanded. “You came here for a reason, and so you should see that through. I’m intrigued.” She took a sip of the tea and scrunched her nose a bit before hastily putting it down onto the nightstand. She proceeded to sit on the bed criss crossing her legs, allowing the robe to split open revealing lacy underwear. Damian quickly averted his eyes to her smirking face and his throat suddenly felt tight and his face felt hot.

He cleared his throat and began pacing, keeping his attention away from her alluring body.

"The way I proceeded with our engagement earlier was unjustified and I regret that I upset you. As a guest of our resort, it is my priority to make sure you are happy and content with your stay here." He chanced a glance at her face and was surprised to see it held astonishment and something close to disgust.

"You've got to be fucking joking." Damian blinked dumbly at her not understanding. "You're not...wow. Ok, try doing this," she spun her finger around indicating his speech, "again, but this time be a fucking man and talk to me like Damian. Not the head of security or son of the CEO. Otherwise get the fuck out." 

Her face turned red with fury and she stood. Her arm shot out pointing to the door. "Get the fuck out now!"

Damian swallowed, he hated this. He hated that Jon convinced him to do this. "Fine, I'm sorry that I fucked you." The words had left his mouth in a rush and he even shocked himself at how it came out. He spun to her hoping he didn't just royaly fuck up this apology. Jon is going to kill me.

"Wait no. Raven, listen."

"You're not listening. I said get out, or do I have to call your friend to get you out. How dare you come here and say that to me."

"Would you stop. That's not how I meant it. I don't regret doing it, I regret how it came about."

She looked bewildered. "What do you mean how it came about?"

Shit, this is why he meant to come prepared. Well no use in hiding it now. "I wished it had happened naturally, like you and Tim." The words were bitter in his mouth and she licked her lips looking off to the side. "I...I was following a lead that you were a suspect in conning our casino." 

Raven's head snapped to look at him, mouth open slightly. She shook her head and rubbed at her temples. "You're telling me that all of our encounters haven't been accidental and you've been stalking me because you think I was going to pull a fast one over your casino?"

"Essentially, yes."

"Who was in on this?"

"Tim actually logged it first when you had been winning probably more times than usual. But he quickly dismissed you, particularly when he found out you were single. The others in security knew about you because they were doing their jobs, but they didn't believe it to be true. And the girls at the spa knew after when I discussed it with them. Admittedly I was the last one unconvinced." He cast his stare at the floor finally feeling guilty at his stubbornness. Saying it out loud, he could hear how foolish he had been. 

She released a humorless laugh. "Wow. I...I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. I am sorry for how I behaved. I see the errors of my ways. I convinced myself you were still a suspect so that I had an excuse to learn more about you and get closer to you."

"If I wasn't so pissed off right now I'd say that's kinda romantic in a stalkerish kind of way." A ghost of a smile graced her lips. 

"I know you're scheduled to leave Tuesday, but would you consider accepting a free four night stay? We'd even reimburse your plane ticket. Though we may have to upgrade your room if there's a reservation on it."

"Excuse me?"

"We'll the girls want you to join them for their plans on Friday. And it's the least we can to make up for the time you wasted being bothered by all of us. Namely me." He didn't know what made him offer her these things. He had never done such a thing for any other guest and it was actually a rather expensive apology. 

Raven pursed her lips trying to weigh her options. "I suppose it would be foolish not to accept. But is your father alright with comping this?"

"I rarely care what my father is alright with. I'll see to it myself that it is all taken care of." He shuffled around a bit before nodding in her direction and making his way toward the door. 

"Damian wait!" He stopped and watched her jog a few steps, closing their distance. 

She fiddled with her hands as if trying to decide whether to use them or not. Damian quirked an eyebrow at this and just watched with anticipation. "I accept your apology." Her eyes were still on the floor.

"Thank you, I suppose I should leave you alone now." Raven's hands on his chest halted his exit.

He looked down into her mesmerizing indigo eyes and saw how they gleamed with mischief. She bit her lower lip and turned her gaze to her hands running smoothly over the plane of his chest sending a trickle of electricity through his body.

"What if I don't want you to leave me alone? I can think of another way you can make sure I hear your apology." Her eyes looked up at him through her dark lashes with a coy smile on her lips.

Damian smirked in response and pulled her in, relishing the way her body feels against his. He leaned in keeping a fraction of space between their lips. He could feel her chest rise and fall with heavy and excited breaths.

"Where do I begin?"

#raven #teen titans #damian wayne #damirae #demonbirds #robrae #night at the wayne casino #casino au #jon kent

[ask-powerwoman]

So, Villa how did Dot find out about Ultra Woman? And why did she leave in the first place?

*This story is heavily based on the Mega Man Archie comics.

“Hey, mum?” Dot asks her creator, Doctor Villa “I thought I was your first robot. WVN-00A.”

“That’s right.” Villa responds with a smile

“Then... who’s WVN-000, ‘Lyra’...?” Villa froze, and glances to the screen that her daughter was looking at.

“See?” Dot says pointing to the name, “I was cleaning up the database when I found this. Is it an error?”

Villa sighs. “That... that isn’t an error.” She says, “Lyra was your older sister.”

Dot’s eyes light up. “Really?! Where is she? When do I get to meet her?”

“I’m sorry, Dot. But I’m afraid you’ll never get to meet Lyra.” Villa says sadly “she was my first triumph, and my greatest failure...”

“I... I don’t understand. What happened?” Dot asks.

That’s when Villa began to explain what had happened many years ago. When she was younger, more naive, and just beginning her life’s work. Back when She still counted Doctor Wily as a friend...

~~~

“That’s it Albert! She’s all done!” Villa says with a smile, lifting the goggles up onto the top of her head.

“Mmm..” Wily placed a hand to his chin, examining Villa’s newest creation. “It’s awfully... human-looking, Winter.” He says “Your military contract was for an advanced combat robot. You’ve built a... young lady.”

“And” Villa says “And my robot master line WILL be capable of advanced warfare --as well as a myriad of other advanced mental processes. I’ll get them their weapon, but this prototype, My girl, will stay with me.”

“Hmph. I’d say... you were taking your love of robotics too far, but then I’d be a hypocrite.” Wily says with a softened smile to his friend. “Let’s wake her up.”

“Right. Wake up, dear, Good morning...” the robot girl sat up on the work table, her long blonde ponytail moving over slightly as she rubs her eyes. “...Lyra!”

“...hello?” Lyra says, hesitantly, before finding herself suddenly picked up off the table and into a strong hug.

“Welcome to the world my lovely girl!” Villa says happily “I am your creator, Doctor Villa!” She allows Lyra to sit down once again. “How do you feel? The self diagnostic should’ve kicked in first thing.”

“I feel... fine?” Lyra responds “all systems report nominal.” She looks around

“I... I feel... confused. Overwhelmed. Disoriented. I know we’re in the ‘lab’ and what a ‘lab’ is but... why?”

Villa smiles with excitement “do you hear this, Albert? She’s self aware! Not five minutes online and she’s already thinking metaphysically!”

“Mm-hmm.” Wily replies scribbling notes down on a pad “Don’t mind me... just taking the measurements you’ll need for the weapon upgrades later. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Lyra blinks and looks at her hands “w...weapons?”

“Don’t worry about that now. You’re taking the first steps to bridge the gap between humanity and robotics.” Villa places a hand on Lyra’s shoulder. “You have data, but what you need now, is culture.”

Villa took Lyra out to see the city. The large buildings that seem to tower over everything, She bought Lyra a long purple scarf that she was fascinated by, She took her to the museum to see wondrous pieces of artwork, to the forest area where she got to feed real, organic birds and a deer, and finally to the symphony in the park as the moon finally began to rise.

In retrospect, Villa was too enthusiastic back then. She pushed too much of the world--of her own goals--on Lyra at once. But she seemed to be accepting it all so well...

Unfortunately, this was also when Villa received a great deal of her funding from military research. Without it, she would never have been able to construct Lyra. However, her benefactors wanted something to show for their investments, so...

Villa placed a helmet on Lyra’s head carefully as they prepare for the demonstration.

“Remember your programming. Hit-and-Run, don’t be reckless, pick your targets wisely, don’t forget to use your cover to your advantage...”

“Relax.” Lyra says with a confident smile. “I got this.”

Villa let’s out a heavy sigh as Lyra walks into the field.

“G-good afternoon, gentlemen. Today’s demonstration is of Villa Labs autonomous combat robot, model number WVN-000.” She says to the military representatives. “Today you will see how a robot can be capable of independent thought. Villa Labs hopes to bring the same capabilities to the civilian sector one day. But first, we will demonstrate the versatility my d--er.. this robot can perform in a... in a live fire exercise. Future models will allow for military operations with no... um... risk to human life.”

The demonstration began. Lyra ducked behind one of the walls as the training drones began to rapid fire.

Lyra smirks, charging her buster and dashing out from her cover, taking out several drones before reaching the next piece of wall for cover.

The shots from the drones cracked the wall on the outside, but that didn’t stop Lyra from leaping up and grabbing a hold of the wall, using the top as cover to take out more drones.

But something wasn’t right.

Lyra lands back on the ground, pushing the wall hard enough to topple it over.

Her body sparking all the while.

As exercise 2 was about to start, the sparking grew worse. Lyra felt off. It was dizzying for her.

“Doc... Doctor V-Villa? Something’s...”

Lyra tried to fire at one of the new incoming drones, but it missed.

And the drones swoop down to cut her with the propeller blades

“Lyra? LYRA?!” Villa exclaims with fear and worry “STOP THE TEST!!”

She came running over to her daughter, who now lay weak on the ground.

“Everything was going so well.” One of the military representatives says, “What happened, doctor?”

“There... seems to be an imbalance in her power generator. She’s never been put under this kind of strain...” Villa says, examining the data she was receiving from the damaged prototype.

“You didn’t test it first?”

“Of course I did!” Villa exclaims “but everything about her is unique—experimental. A robot this advanced requires a tremendous amount of power, and when the output is pushed...”

“It certainly shows promise,” says one of the military representatives, “but the power failure is a concern.”

“Yes...” adds another, “A simpler model would require less power, a simpler battle software would still be sufficient.”

“Congratulations, Doctor, you’ve won us over. We’ll clear you for further research funding, get back to us when you’ve got a smaller, simpler model.”

“Y-yes, sirs...” Doctor Villa says as she held Lyra in her arms, “thank you...”

But that wasn’t Villa’s real failure with Lyra.

Later that night, Lyra woke up in the lab, her core plugged into several machines meant to keep it stable

“Ugh... Doctor Villa?” She asks, rubbing her head, but looking around, her creator was nowhere in sight.

But she could hear an argument from another room.

“Absolutely not!”

“Listen to yourself, Winter! You’re way too attached to her. Let me do the modifications.”

“I said ‘no!’”

Lyra pulls the chords out of her core, and slowly gets up and goes to see what was going on.

“Oh, so you’ll trust me to design her arm-cannon, but you won’t trust me to modify her power core?”

“You DESIGNED it, but you didn’t INSTALL it. I did!”

“And you obviously did it wrong, hence the imbalance!”

Lyra stood still, watching her mother fight with her friend.

“You were BANNED from directly working on advanced robotics.”

“Nice of you to reopen THAT wound, Winter.” Wily huffs.

“You brought that upon yourself!” Villa retorts, “But more importantly, Lyra is MY girl, and I’ll handle her redesigns.”

“Doctor Villa...” Lyra starts, gaining the attention of the two Doctors.

“Lyra!” Villa exclaims, “I didn’t know you were already recharged.”

Villa knelt down to her level, placing her hands on her shoulders.

“Are you alright? Do you feel off-balance at all?”

“I’m fine” Lyra replies, “what’s this about redesigning me?”

Doctor Villa sighs, “your power generator is flawed.” She says, pointing to Lyra’s core. “If I don’t fix it, the imbalance will eventually destroy you. I have to redesign your core to save you.”

“And what if you bungle it,” Wily starts, “and erase all her personal programming?”

“I’m sure you’ll retain all your personality traits!” Villa says, in an attempt to reassure her daughter.

“Heh—just as you were sure her generator would work properly?”

“Enough, Albert, you’ll scare her! You’re not helping!”

“I know. You won’t let me.”

“I said ‘Enough!’”

“Fine, fine.”

“Lyra,” Villa says to her daughter, “Go hook yourself up in the lab so your power remains stable. We’ll begin work tomorrow.”

“But...”

“Now, please. This is for your own good.”

“...But” Lyra says quietly, “What about what I want?”

That night... Well, Villa can’t be certain if this was how it played out, But she had run the scenario over and over again in her head...

Lyra hid behind the wall to Villa’s room, listening as her mother talked to herself.

“I just don’t understand. It’s to save her life.” Villa says to herself as she paced back and forth in her room. “I coded the closest thing to a will of her own, but I want her to use it to make good, logical decisions.”

She sighs “..who would be logical facing their own mortality? Oh, Thomas. If you were here, you would know what to do...” Villa says, looking at an old picture of Thomas light, Wily and herself.

“Perhaps if I... it would be a lot easier if I did rewrite that rebellious streak out of her...”

Hearing that, Lyra had enough. Gripping her fist she leaves before she could hear the rest of what Villa had said to herself.

“No, no, no... what am I saying?” Villa says facepalming, “Once she’s repaired I’ll have to make it up to her in some way. And, in the long run, she’ll see it was for the greater good.”

Lyra in the meantime, was sobbing. As she packed a bag full of E-Tanks for a long and lonely trip ahead of her, she glanced at a picture of Villa and herself.

Smiling as if they had a perfect life... what lies had Villa been feeding her?...

In a moment of anger, Lyra smashed the photo on a ground.

The she walked out the door, never to come back.

~~~

“I never heard of or saw her again.” Villa says to Dot. “My pride, My arrogance, My lack of foresight... they robbed me of my first creation... My first daughter.”

“Well, then, we can go look for her!” Dot says with a smile “Me and Bounce can start looking right now!”

Villa chuckles a little. “No, Dot. Lyra’s power generator would’ve gone offline by now. It pains me to say it, but she’s gone.” She says with a sorrowful tone.

“Although there are long nights where I wonder what happened to her after she left...”

*A/N: this was a good excuse to submit a story instead of a comic. Hope you enjoyed this little story!

#megaman #ask #mega man #megaman au #ocs #story #fanfic #decided to try posting this lol

[techbranding]

Does My Startup Need A Tech Branding Agency?

We recommend having bi-weekly check-ins to discuss the process, open questions, etc. However, we prefer to present results and updates asynchronously − it saves a lot of time for both sides. SketchesAt this stage, we explore concepts and general directions on how the logo could look. We follow Visual positioning and Brand expression findings and recommendations. This stage helps to examine a lot of concepts and shapes fast. These Terms of Participation permit you to join the Discussion only https://craftandroot.com/industries/tech-startups/.

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Tonal launches 300% ahead of target by bringing the digital into the physical. Launching the most important insurance brand since the birth of the internet. A $4.5B HR Tech startup and the biggest brand comeback of 2017. Everything you need to know about rebranding your business - and avoiding costly mistakes. Everything you need to know about rebranding your business-and avoiding costly mistakes.

proven tools and processes that we’ve created and which we tailor to each client. brand agent you need as a partner to take your business to the next level. brand consultant as an affordable, ideal resource for their needs. In fact, even a short consultation and advice session with a brand specialist can prove quite lucrative. For this reason, many proprietors will rely on DIY campaigns for marketing that may remain inadequate, misdirected, or that doesn’t offer the return on investment. Stand out from the crowd with professional production, aerial drone shots, and even 360 films. Download our free VR/AR 101 Guide to begin your journey in understanding how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality may be the answer to your marketing needs.

The tone adapts to communicate with them while upholding the overall voice’s focus. (Namer is pretty close — after all, a name is a very, very short poem that captures a brand’s eidos.) When not creating kickass names, she may be found kayaking with her son or making music with her husband.

We are not condoning or admiring this approach but it’s almost certainly part of a bigger strategy. Intel uses video to spark emotion and create a connection with their audience. Health care workers, ventilator makers, teachers, drivers and key workers. It’s a play on their key messaging “what’s inside” but it’s on trend and very smart.

Watch our event replay from Tuesday, January 19, where we continue to discuss and answer questions on the new coronavirus relief bill and how it pertains to small businesses. CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

Gift card fraud can be a gateway to stolen payment credentials, drained bank accounts and even stolen identity. Certain projects, images, and products are trademarks of and/or copyrighted by their respective owners. Develop a Personality.Your business has a personality – a tone that it uses to communicate to the audience. Many businesses don’t sufficiently develop a personality, or don’t keep it consistent. Yes, send me the BizBuySell SellerNewsletter, which contains advice on selling a business and email only promotions. We are sorry, we were not able to submit your issue for this listing at this time. The information in this listing has been provided by the business seller or representative stated above.

Brand Name Creation

Taco Del Mar gets a brand refresh and a fresh new point of view. Their expertice created additional revenue we would have received from traditional advertising alone. Two entrepreneurs came to us with a new app that puts power back in the hands of patients. The brand we developed helps consumers get on the right path when navigating their healthcare. We are data-backed creatives who get the most out of every click. All TOP agencies combine deep subject expertise with world-class execution. Applying consistency in your brand’s voice and tone helps build your reputation, trust, and ultimately stronger brand recognition.

Our referral partners enjoy a sweet finder’s fee and peace of mind knowing their client is in good hands. Cambridge Technology partnered with Mower to modernize their brand and update all platforms the brand touches. The GIF of the XPS 12showed the face of the tablet flipping to morph into the laptop. The screen was filled with Windows software to illustrate that the convertible was a Windows 8 product as well as a touch screen. Dell uses videos, gifs and live behind the scenes to grab attention and explain and introduce their products. And the cool kid theme continues on Twitter where Apple actually don’t follow anyone or tweet anything and yet has 4.3 million followers.

If your startup can bend light, slow time, or stretch infinitely, we should talk. Established in 1996, the website is an international marketplace of businesses for sale.

A play on okey-dokey, Mochidoki makes use of the product descriptor in a fun and playful way, all while recalling the product’s Asian roots and sounding bite-sized and delicious. Designed for business owners, CO— is a site that connects like minds and delivers actionable insights for next-level growth.

Cast a wide tech branding agency net at first and bring the top three back to go through the process with you. Be incredibly clear about the goals and objectives of the project. Tap your network, do your research, check the rankings to see what firms measure up. Omni-channel marketing campaign showcasing the “connecting” benefits of being able to access Tower Health’s growing health system. Thank you for Trajectory’s splendid healthcare rebranding work. You’ve done an outstanding job blending respect for the past with gentle nudging of inherently sensible and winning ideas. Our health system brand is an emotional lightning rod for many, and you navigate it extraordinarily well.

You must not record, reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store, or transmit any of the material from the Discussion. You acknowledge that you will not provide any other person with access to the Discussion or portions of it using your account name. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to the Discussion. We are not responsible or liable to any third party for the content or accuracy of any Participant Contributions by you or any other participants of the Discussion. With System Mechanic and MalwareBytes Premium Multi-Device, you’ll know your computer—and your identity—will be protected from the threats that exist online.

See how they perform while juggling multiple responsibilities. It can be either a small internal project or an external one. Moreover, they offer a free audit in case you would like to refresh your brand rather than building it from scratch. You will enjoy collaborating with them for your small business or startup. Their process starts with an expansive review of your brand’s current status. Afterwards, they run a collaborative workshop with you and your stakeholders to define the organization’s goals. Then, target audience research and competitive analysis follow.

Also, they consist of strategic analysts, information architects and UX interface designers. After getting to know your startup, they can help build it and take care of it along the way. Because you can lose a lot of audiences if you just use one word wrong in your messaging for your small business or if you come up with the wrong color. Video marketing is highly effective in capturing B2B leads; also, 80% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase their sales. To convince prospects that they, and not their competitors, are the right choice, iOFFICE uses ebooks, webinars, slides and graphics, videos, demos and podcasts created with expert input. Screenshots, sliding menus and striking calls-to-action to watch the demo of the product in action serve to educate the prospective buyer.

Thanks for sending that over, one of our team will be in touch real soon. Go from over 15,844 agencies to a shortlist with Agency Spotter. Firebrand has given my team the bandwidth to focus on what's really important. Webgamma produced effective deliverables that contributed to significant growth of our brand.

Having an expanded offering will give you an access to the opportunities you would not approach otherwise. We are an independent partner who knows Marketing & Advertising agencies’ competitive landscape. Tell us your needs and we’ll tell you the agencies you must meet. At Insane Lab, we know what we are exceptional at what we do. We are great at designing and developing applications for modern platforms – web, mobile and mixed reality.

With a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth College and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts’ English MFA for Poets & Writers, Stevie is also no stranger to the power of words. As head of Catchword’s East Coast operations, he’s typically the project lead on all right coast accounts, and recently managed projects for Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Kellogg, and First Alert. He graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in History, and earned his JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. is a collection of ultra-premium brandable dot-com domains—merging the best in messaging, memorability, length, and flow. Our linguistic and cultural evaluation is backed by an international network of native speakers in more than 100 languages. And, when Catchword first sampled Gordon Dessert’s new line of mochi , we knew we were naming a truly category re-defining confectionary.

Let us guide you on how to use the appropriate tools to reach your marketing goals. Abundant growth opportunities; little to no marketing up to this point. We apologize, but the feature you are trying to access is currently unavailable.

Payment schedule should be adjusted to the project you are running together — so the initial investment on your side is reduced. What I would like to show you is that with a right partner you can focus on your strengths and outsource other tasks without losing business. More than that, you can expand your service line and utilize your talents on new platforms that you did not have an access to.

BizBuySell has no stake in the sale of this business, has not independently verified any of the information about the business, and assumes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness. We partnered with Oculus to pioneer VR’s mobile and social future.

Their posts aren’t strictly oriented to the product but are tied to events and occasions that people everywhere find significant and interesting. You have an innovative, ground breaking idea – now it’s time to share it with the world. A full-spectrum agency leading the legal profession into a future of equal justice. Class action firms benefit from the speed with which we can launch your initial marketing campaign. We have been working together for several years now, helped them revamp their brand, built a new website and campaign sites, and most recently a transit campaign that can be seen all over the Bay Area.

We provide a cost-effective route to market for business owners and their representatives and a one stop shop for aspiring entrepreneurs and business buyers. You will receive newsletters, updates and offers about business and franchise opportunities. We will also send you information about related business and franchise events. BusinessesForSale.com is committed to protecting your privacy. Ticking this box means you are consenting to us sending you marketing emails. You can change your mind at any time by clicking unsubscribe in the footer of our emails. Just because you don’t have time to deal, doesn’t mean you have to completely give the work away.

They keep their brand voice highly practical and focused on solving prospects’ pain points. They use demo videos to educate and inspire confidence in their products. This is an example that companies do not need to invest their energy into all available channels, but rather pick one or two to focus on. Partner testimonials, PRs on closed deals, fundraisers and case studies by the likes of Yahoo Finance and Harvard Business Review communicate the reputation and importance of this brand. Communicating diverse topics across different channels whilst maintaining voice consistency and brand integrity. The Facebook page features a cover video with main takeaways of what the company stands for and a striking summary of their offers. They connect their user base with immersive food and beverage tours, skip-the-line tickets for attractions, craft classes, niche offerings and other immersive experiences.

[darksunrising]

Sola Gratia (17/?)

Masterlist

Rating / Warnings : Heavy horror themes, body horror, violence, non consensual blood sucking.

Fandom : Bram Stoker’s Dracula, BBC’s Dracula, various Dracula and vampire lore.

Part 17/? (2314 words)

Author’s notes : Eris is back, for better or worse...

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

“Professor ? Would you have a minute ?”

I snapped my head up, suddenly realizing I had been staring into the void for the better part of an hour. Popping out of the office's doorframe, Stephan Helder's familiar, disheveled head of dark blond hair of made me force a little smile. I passed my hands over my face, and invited him to come in. It was already late, but I knew he preferred to work in the school library than at home, which was understandable.

He stepped in, carefully closing the door behind me, as if doing it too loud would startle me. He put down his heavy-looking bag on the floor, and took a seat across from my desk, nervously bouncing his leg. I'd learned to know it wasn't from actual anxiety, but more of small quirk of his. It tended to unnerve me, but I did my best not to be concerned by it.

“So, what can I help you with ? Everything going fine in your classes ?”, I asked.

“Oh, yes, sure, everything's great. I mean, I'm not really here for me.”

He took a pause, staring at me. “Well, what is it then ?”, I pressed, puzzled.

“I-I was worried about you, professor, actually”, he began, avoiding my gaze by looking intensely at the leather-bound version of the Odyssey, at the end of my desk.

“Worried about me ?”, I only repeated, hoping to have a bit more information.

“Well, you haven't been responding to my e-mails in some while, and, no offense, but you look sort of tired.”

That kid would be the end of me. I leaned back into my seat. He was a bit annoying at times, but his boldness was at the very least amusing. I smiled at him, hoping it would put him a bit more at ease, as I could see he was already regretting his last sentence.

“I am tired, actually, but you'll see this when you'll try and get a doctorate”, I joked.

That seemed to make him have a couple of laughs, but he still had that crease between his thick eyebrows.

“I know you met my mother”, he told me.

Ah. He looked almost apologetic. Children seem to often have to find excuses for their parents, as they're often more conscious of the feelings of others, while adults mostly aren't. I knew that look, as I had found myself presenting it a lot.

“I have met Mary Van Helsing, yes.”

He shifted on the edge of his seat. “She told you about professor Balaur, didn't she ?”

Gods, more lies. What the hell was I supposed to tell this kid ?

“She did, although I'm... not sure what to think of it”, I prudently told him.

“I'm sorry”, he almost cut me off. “I'm- I'm the one who told her about him, I was worried and I didn't think she'd actually come to you. I know she can be... Well. You know.”

I wasn't even angry at him. I could have been, easily, especially given how on edge I was. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like. As children, we believe in monsters, hiding in the closet, or under your bed, lurking in the shadows. But at the very least, you had your parents reassure you, tell you they aren't real. That they can't hurt you. I wondered if his parents told him about all they did. Mary Van Helsing didn't seem like the sort to go soft, but I hadn't met his dad. With luck, he was a regular guy, and took care of not traumatizing his kid into anxiety disorders and paranoia. Although, on that particular count, he had been right. I wished he'd kept his worries to himself. Then again... That was an odd coincidence that he should show up exactly the semester after I met Vlad. I think he believed it was just that, a coincidence, but I was starting to suspect foul play there. Mary Van Helsing didn't seem like one to leave things to fate.

“Don't worry about that”, I tried to reassure him as best I could. “I work with medieval historians all the time, it takes a lot to scare me.”

He had a little laugh, sounding less nervous ans shaky than before.

“You should know”, he added, a bit hesitant. “My mother has her flaws, but she is rarely wrong. Professor Balaur is often around you... I can only tell you to be careful.”

I smiled, and promised him I would be. Gods, if he knew. He had a few more questions, about my class and the use of some cartography software that I knew for a fact was nightmarish to use. He then took his leave, while I remained seated in my office, without really having a reason to.

I say “my” office, even though I supposedly share it with two other doctorate students. They were rarely there, and if it was only a coincidence that we never crossed paths, they didn't seem to mind that I used half their shelves for my own stuff, and even their desks. More often than not, then, even here, I was alone. Now that I thought of it, my life since I finished my master's degree had been more nocturnal than ever. If you asked anyone who would be more likely to be a vampire between Vlad and I, I'd be the surer choice.

Realizing that I wouldn't be able to get any more work done tonight, I decided to take my leave for the day. It was close to midnight, and the last tramways ran little after that hour, so if I wanted to avoid two hours of walking, I should probably find a way to get that last one. I gathered my stuff, and slipped my laptop into my bag. Once again, at that sort of hour, no one remained on campus. The empty corridors seemed too long, too narrow, repeating my steps after me, just to spook me. You know, that feeling when you start thinking “what if someone followed me”, and the more you try to brush it off and make light of it, the more you want to walk faster, and dread looking back ?

At this point, I was practically running, when I forced myself to get a grip. I breathed in, deeply, and stopped. Standing in the middle of the main hall, only lit by pale moonlight, I controlled my breathing until my legs stopped shaking. Slowly, but deliberately, I turned back, my heart sinking into my stomach. Obviously, there was nothing to be seen.

A bit reassured, if not completely serene, I continued towards the exit, and stepped out into the cold night air. If the silence of the inside was eerie, outside, the multitude of noises the night produced were worse. A rustle of leaves, a gust of wind, howling and whistling in the crooks of the buildings. I sighed. Everything was fine. Creepy atmosphere never killed anyone, as far as I was aware of. Still, I walked as fast as I could, not wanting to linger for more than absolutely necessary.

Eris...

The voice made me stop dead in my tracks. It echoed in my mind, soft, and deep, but somewhat... Metallic. Scraping. Like rusty gears coated in honey. I wondered for a second if it might have been Vlad, playing a very questionable prank on me. He didn't seem like one to particularly enjoy practical jokes, except the occasional dramatic entrance. I elected to ignore it, and started walking again.

Eris.

This time, the voice was insisting, more firm. It still seemed to come from deep withing myself, which was... unnerving, as it left no idea as where to look for it. I stopped once again. Bracing myself, I turned, looking back. Nothing, no one.

Right behind you.

I swiftly turned around, not freezing for whatever miracle, only to gaze onto the empty campus once more. That was, until I turned back, and noticed a silhouette, over in the distance. It was tall, long. It almost looked like it... Shifted, undulated in the wind. Like something you see through great heat. It was dark, so much that I couldn't actually distinguish any particular features, except two bright dots of light, where its face would be. I didn't dare move, or blink. I was sure if I moved a muscle, or looked anywhere else, it might disappear, or move closer, like a sick game of 'Red light, Green light'.

Eris.

The voice was even more grating, dark, so low that I could feel it vibrate in my bones. I had the gun. In a pocket I quickly sewed in the lining of my coat. I knew where it was, the movement I'd have to do to take it. Yet, I was unable to move. No matter how hard I tried, no matter the tears starting to stream down my face.

I think fear doesn't begin to describe what feeling was settling all over my body, from the pit of my stomach. It stretched over my every limb, like a fungus, spreading to every cell, encasing every bone in a mycellium of primal dread. The only sound I could hear was that of my own raspy, trembling breathing, coming out choked, and leaving me craving for air. I heard the faint sound of Leah's ringtone, in my pocket. It turned off.

It didn't move, yet was closer. It wasn't a thing. It didn't feel human, it didn't feel neither here nor elsewhere. A persistence of vision, engraved into my iris. For a moment, I wanted to believe I only fell asleep at my desk, and the whole thing was just a nightmarish delirium. Leah's ringtone broke the silence again, and turned off. Again.

It was feet from me now. I could make out the vague outline of a suit, that hung weirdly on the body. The body... If you could call it that. It could have looked like a human, if you only glanced at it, from afar. I didn't have that sort of luck, however, and was very privy to its deformities. The sleeve stopped at mid-forearm. A long, thin forearm, hairless, skin white as parchment, so dry it looked like it would crumble to ash if I touched it. The hands were swollen, too long, too... they almost looked like someone gave a vague instruction as to what a hand looked like, and it grew them from that description. My eyes fell on his chest. The shirt was too small, the buttons struggling to keep it in place, even though the thing was sickly slender. What terrified me was the darkness behind the holes, stretched out between the buttons. Not as if its skin was dark in itself, but an utter and complete void.

A hand stretched out, and still, I could do nothing but silently cry as a fingernail dragged across my cheek. Even though the movement was disturbingly light, and slow, I could feel the nail dig into my skin, and blood blend into my tears.

I see why he chose you...

Its mouth did not move. To be fair, it was more of a slightly agape slit than a mouth. The details of its face were fuzzy, shifting, like something... Crawled under its skin. I felt the other hand press onto my back, tearing through my clothes like paper, and into my skin. I couldn't even scream. The hand near my face sunk into my hair, and pulled my head aside, revealing my neck. The slit opened, ripping the skin at the edges as it became larger, revealing dozens of needle-like teeth, gleaming in the absolute darkness of the mouth. The jaw unhinged itself as it opened wider, and lowered into my neck, excruciatingly slowly. I wondered if it enjoyed seeing me sobbing in terror as much as it would enjoy killing me.

I had no doubt I would die, there and then. I started to feel the little points setting against my skin, on my neck, shoulder, my chest. They sank in with no resistance.

What a waste...

I don't know if you have ever had blood sucked out of you, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's not like bleeding out, after a cut. No. You feel your veins forcefully pulse from inside your body, the blood forced to turn back as it was supposed to run the other way. It feels like maggots, running inside your body by the hundred, and the worst part is the sound. That slurping, wet sound of tongue and teeth and the gurgling of-

Everything was dark.

I found myself standing in darkness like I'd never seen before. I had been in caves, lights all out, and still nothing compared to this. I could see myself, but no shadows set anywhere on my body. It was cloaked in some sort of robe, that felt more like a shapeless, thick smoke. I felt some solid ground, though I couldn't have told what it felt like, even barefooted.

“Is anyone here ?”

My voice seemed to carry nowhere. No one answered. Was I already dead ? Was it what death was like ? Unending darkness and silence ? Nothing to feel, to touch, to hear ? The sudden presence that manifested behind me almost made me jump. It might always have been there, now that I thought of it. I didn't need to ask if I was dying. I felt at peace with it, somehow. A low humming filled the silence. Not ominous. Almost like a lullaby. I closed my eyes, not that it made any sensible difference. A small tingle ran over my limbs, and as it went up, I lost sensation to them entirely, until nothing remained, but the humming. Soft, until my mind, like an eye, finally closed.

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Taglist : @carydorse @angelicdestieldemon @bloodhon3yx @thewondernanazombie @battocar @moony691 @mjlock @thebeautyofdisorder @festering-queen @paracosmfantasy @lost-girl-inc

#Sola Gratia #Sola Gratia part 17 #fanfiction #fanfic #dracula fanfic #dracula fanfiction #dracula #Bram Stoker's Dracula #dracula castlevania #dracula au #dracula x oc #vampire #vampire x human #vampire x oc #romance #slow burn #enemies to lovers #horror #body horror #death ????

[snsprofessionalscamalert]

SNS Professional Tech Support Scam - “Your Microsoft Services Are Outdated”

Caution: If you ever receive a call with a recorded voice saying something of the sort “Microsoft has detected that your services are expired/outdated. Call on 1-800-***-**** to take action immediately”, do not call on that number as Microsoft never calls their customers, nor do they request their customers to call them. That number belongs to a Scam operation and while the person on the call might sound polite and helpful, he/she will Scam you.

How I Came To Know About This Scam?

My mother received the above-mentioned robocall with the number 1-800-480-5152. She’s not that tech-savvy, so she decided to consult me regarding the same. I obviously understood that it’s a Scam, however, I decided to call on the number in order to find out more about what they do and how they scam people. Just as I expected, a guy with a hard accent answered the call and represented himself as a Microsoft technician.

I told him that I received a call with a message and he started to explain the whole situation to me. He was talking very politely and sounded very harmless, just what a real technician would sound like. It became more very evident and clear when he used the classic “Hold down the Windows key and hit the letter R”. I knew what was going to happen next and he did exactly what I expected. He told me to type “www.fastsupport.com” in the “Run Box” that popped up after pressing Windows+R.

I asked him “are you a Microsoft technician?”, he replied with full confidence and assurance “Yes, I am a Microsoft technician”. My next question proved that he was straight-up lying. I asked, “When is Windows 11 coming out?”, he immediately replied “15 July 2020”. This is a blatant lie as Microsoft has not announced anything about Windows 11 and they plan on releasing frequent updates for Windows 10 for quite some time. I told him that I knew he was a scammer and hung up.

Who Were These Scammers?

After the call, I was curious and wanted to find out the name of the company that uses the number 1-800-480-5152. I did some digging and found out two names associated to this number, SNS Professional and ZNS Associates. Diving further into the results, I found out a lot of Scam reports about them. One victim stated “I have been scammed by ZNS Associates "lifetime computer support for $399.99". At the bottom of my receipt it notes the names of Malwarbytes, Microsoft Computing Software, Windows Defender, Lifetime Support $399.99”.

Moreover, you have to read what the Better Business Bureau has written about them on their website “The address for this business is not recognized by the US Post Office. Mail was returned by the post office marked "NO SUCH NUMBER". Both websites previously used by the business are registered to an address in Haryana, India and no longer work. BBB has been unable to locate an FBN registration for this business as ZNS Associates Support or SNS Professional Support with San Joaquin County, nor is either business name registered with the California Secretary of State. BBB wrote to the company requesting information on where and how the business is registered. To date, we have not received a response”. Further, BBB confirms that SNS Professional and ZNS Associates are different names of the same organization.

I think we all should take a lesson from this incident and spread awareness about such Scams so that people don’t end up losing their hard-earned money and private information. Remember, Microsoft will never call you or request you to call them. Beware of such Scams and do not entertain any calls, recorded or normal, that claim to be from Microsoft.

#SNS Professional #SNS Professional Scam #SNS Scam #Techsupport #Indian Scam #ZNS Associates Support #sns professional services fraud #tech support scam #Scam #SNS #sns techni

[overwatchworks]

Detroit: Become Human AU, Part II: Jesse

There was a small smile on her face, making the gunslinger worried. She only smiled when she was interested in something—and the things she was interested in often did not make it back out of her lab the way they went in. 

O’Deorain approached him steadily, gaze flicking back and forth from his eyes to his LED.

Link to Chapter I

Jesse had sent in a report of his diagnostics, then avoided Dr. O’Deorain as best he could over the course of the week he was on base. It was not too out of the ordinary, and Dr. O’Deorain never left her laboratory often anyways, which made it easier. But of course, Jesse’s luck ran thin before long. 

She somehow found him in the training ranges, watching him shoot from the observatory with her hands clasped behind her back. There was a small smile on her face, making the gunslinger worried. She only smiled when she was interested in something—and the things she was interested in often did not make it back out of her lab the way they went in. 

Jesse packed up early, looking up once again but not seeing O’Deorain. He left the training ranges, scanning the corridors uneasily. Locked onto the doctor’s biosignature before he could actually see her, Jesse sighing heavily. O’Deorain approached him steadily, gaze flicking back and forth from his eyes to his LED.

“McCree. Commander Reyes issued an inspection on your latest post-mission diagnostics. It seems as though your programming is glitching,” She told him airily, waving a hand as she turned. Expecting him to follow. Jesse did, not saying anything for the moment. 

If the commander had ordered an in-depth scan—which was the only real option considering O’Deorain came to get him herself—he might be in some trouble. Deviant thoughts were hard to decipher, intricate abnormalities that no one had a true understanding of where they came from. Outgrowing the programming was one thought. Another was just a fault in the system, bound to happen with so many androids being produced at such a high rate. 

His programming was very fine tuned and made with purpose, however. Nothing should have been acting up, especially when it came to moral choices he could make for himself. While the deviation process was intricate, humans tended to only understand the output of coding signaling something was off. 

And they were afraid of that output. Of that outcome. 

Of what it would mean if a specially designed, hyper-lethal undercover organization’s weapon were to be off in some way. Making it’s own choices, it’s own decisions. Something with a database of knowledge and advancements humans would never have suddenly thinking for itself...They feared no longer being superiour. 

Alerts started to go off in Jesse’s vision, blinking along his peripheral. He tried to make his thoughts calm, tried not to run through a thousand scenarios of what would happen to him if O’Deorain found something she did not like. Tried not to look at the blaring 67% chance deactivation slowly ticking up the more he ran through the simulations. It was at 71% by the time they got to O’Deorain’s lab.

“Your LED is red, McCree. Is there something bothering you?” The doctor suddenly piped up from where she was tapping at a tablet, voice nonchalant. Knowing. That icy blue eye shifted to him. Fuck. Jesse gripped the edge of the examination table, glaring back at her.

“You know I hate these scans,” He muttered, O’Deorain grinning.

“It couldn’t possibly be because you have something to hide, now could it?”

“Look all you want, doc.”

“Oh, I will. Deactivate your skin,” She ordered, plugging him into the computers at his back with a long cable to the port at his nape. Jesse retracted the skin as he was told, watching it disappear over his hands, leaving them a clean white and grey.

“Your mental activity over the past week has spiked considerably compared to your averages. Interesting, considering the diagnostics report I was given just a week ago. It showed you entered a state of distress equivalent to that recorded in androids going deviant,” O’Deorian noted, Jesse’s LED flicking from the yellow he had just worked it back down to to red once more.

“Ah. So it is what you’ve been processing. You are aware of the...Implications of Blackwatch keeping a deviating model like yourself, yes?”

“I am not deviant.”

“And yet that is proven otherwise here just in the data I’ve received over the past ten minutes. Your neural processing code has changed from what you were initially programmed with, see here? You are creating your own programming, your own code. Is that not simply fascinating? Replicating the human thought process simply from outgrowing your program, like a child learning how to choose for themselves what they like and don’t like. But, your first choice was not the red or blue toy, was it? It was choosing between life and death.”

85% chance deactivation, stress levels 70%. 

“And you made that choice on your own. No programming told you to leave that guard alive. How did you come to that conclusion, I wonder? A machine built for killing left someone alive when given the chance. Bypassing the very core of why you were created, because you felt a human emotion that was more powerful than your program. Incredible. You encrypted that optical sensory footage well, but I’m afraid I am simply better at finding out the lies from the truth. And I am detecting that you are lying about being deviant. Care to make an argument against me now, MC910?”

Jesse glanced at the warnings flaring too bright and overwhelmingly red, distress signals following beneath the 89% chance deactivation.

“I...I just did what I thought...It was calculated to have the same percent of success rate—”

“Your stress levels are becoming critical. Does being deactivated truly frighten you that much? You are simply biocomponents held in a shell of plastic with a pre-programmed set of algorithms in that fascinating brain of yours telling you what you should do. Is it telling you to be afraid of shutting down, or is that a thought process you created the more you experienced among us? Because most androids do not fear that. The equivalent of death for you. That is something distinctly human.”

“I-I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me either, I don’t—” Jesse stuttered. 

93% level of stress, critical.

“Moira. You’re supposed to be running diagnostics, not interrogating him. Leave that to the professionals.”

Both Jesse and O’Deorain looked up as Reyes strode into the lab, a stern look fixed in place. He glanced at the readings of Jesse’s activity levels, then to the LED on his temple.

“He’s coming with me. I’ll take care of things from here,” The commander continued, unplugging Jesse from the monitors and urging him to stand. 

He activated his skin once again, feeling somewhat safer with it on, in a strange way. They walked out of the laboratory swiftly, Reyes not giving him time to try and explain himself.

“Commander—”

“Don’t say a word until we get to my office.”

Jesse nodded, vision clearing from the red slightly. Safer than he had been not moments ago with O’Deorain, but not out of the flames just yet. Reyes’ office was tucked into the far corner of the base, obscure, but clearly meant for higher level personnel. The hallways were cleaner, lined with less doorways. Silent. 

Jesse had been to it plenty of times for post-mission reports, and the few where the commander trusted him with information best not to be repeated. They walked inside, the door sliding shut with a hiss, computer screens immediately lighting up.

“Power down all devices, I just need a light,” Reyes called out, the holoscreens disappearing just as quickly as they had booted up, a single light turning on above them.

“Sit, Jesse.”

Another order he followed, this time without question. Reyes sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his forehead. There was a pregnant pause before he sucked in another breath and sat up.

“Deviant, huh?”

“Commander, I—”

“Listen, kid. I know it’s not your fault, not really. I’m not even going to pretend I understand why this happens, or why it has to happen to my android, out of all of them out there. You’ve always had spirit, personality. I never thought anything of it, but command warned me to be wary. You know as well as I do what it means to have a deviating soldier. They’re gonna want to shut you down, make a better model.”

“Reyes, I know what they want, but I won’t do it again! It was a glitch is all, I...I failed the mission, and that happens sometimes.”

“It shouldn’t for you. Not in the way I saw. And now, whether we like it or not, Moira has all that information against you. You know she sure as hell isn’t going to keep it to herself. You probably just thought you were doing the right thing, and I’m not mad or worried or anything like that. You spared a life. There’s a lot worse that androids have done as their first act of deviation. But that still makes you deviant, and they won’t care what you did or didn’t do.” 

“I trust you, Jesse, because I know you. And I see you as one of my own. You’re my soldier, you’re one of my agents, just like any of the human ones. I’m gonna protect you like one of them. So, this is me telling you now that if you want to survive, you run. You get out of here and get as far from this place as possible. Disable your tracking, take off your LED, disappear. Because they’ll hunt you down until they see you in parts at a dump, and that’s the last thing I want to happen to you.” 

“You’ve been one of my best agents. I’m not going to let them take you away, so get a head start. As far as I know, starting now, I sent you from my office after we went over your tests, and you went to your quarters to rest. If you don’t show up to dinner, well. I wonder what could have happened.”

Reyes stared at him over his laced fingers, Jesse nodding and standing abruptly.

“I’m sorry, Gabe.”

“Don’t be. Now, go.”

The gunslinger left the office, walking steadily towards his own quarters, staring dead ahead. Software instability detected. He gathered his gun and some extra ammo, changed his clothes into something unassuming, grabbed his hat. Paused. Jesse touched the LED on his temple. Software instability detected. Slipped the edge of a knife between it and his temple, pushing away from himself. It came off with a click, falling to the ground and under the cot. Jesse grabbed his things and left the room, not looking back.

Software instability detected. ~~

#Detroit: Become Human AU #jesse mccree #gabriel reyes #moira o'deorain #overwatch #dbh au #eventual mcgenji I promise #WhiskeysWorks #remember when I said I wouldn't update this #smeagol lied

[wooddugout2]

My son and I go on trips with our kids. We don't always depend on Wi-Fi at the top of the mountain so we prepare at home.

Yes, I have.. My children have become so inept when it comes to this, they believe the WiFi at the high up on the mountain is weak. It's just a small hill. But it's within the normal range of cell phone networks. This means that my kids will have to explore the area to discover better internet speeds as we and my wife set up the camp site. We're hoping to stay for at least one day. https://ytmp3.guru/?lang=en The small brook is nearby and supplies water to our camp. That's right, too.. My wife is unable to camp without a good supply of clean water, so we bring out water all the times. My children are updating their social profiles, while I am enjoying the view.. It's not very big but it's surrounded on all sides by larger hills. We visit this hill every once in a blue lunar cycle to be closer to the natural world. These trips are among my favorites and I'm the only person who really enjoys these excursions. My wife insists on doing this. Perhaps she knows that I love being outdoors in the wild. However, my children, they're different completely. The thing I dislike is that Internet sometimes becomes unavailable. A magnetic motion or something else can cause a temporary interruption to the streaming music. It could last for about a minute or so before the music is restored. This is a real pain for me since I frequently end up hearing it all.

After several days of no internet or phones being able to connect to the internet, we realized it was time to prepare. My wife and I decided to be prepared for the time when our kids, our children will not have internet access for longer than 10 minutes. We came up with two sources of endless entertainment when Internet is not available during our camping excursions. The first was a tablet loaded with music videos and songs of the best quality. Our preferred Youtube software for converting mp3s helped us extract songs and convert them to MP3 files prior to downloading them onto the tablet. It also works with playlists which made it a fast procedure, despite sounding awful long.. Furthermore, most songs we had already stored on my laptop, so it was just an issue of copying several files. แปลงไฟล์ youtube เป็น mp4 It is now possible to listen to music or videos when you are bored. This is pretty cool, don't you think? It's quiet from that gadget.. The second tablet consisted of animated cartoons and TV shows that we streamed through Hulu and Netflix. It is also possible to save the content offline for later watching. The quality is not great but it's still something. We have several seasons on Breaking Bad there and many cartoons like Family Guy and Disenchantment. Very entertaining. The process was simple to download. Install the app to activate downloads for offline watching Download episodes, then mark them as downloaded. Tablet 2 came just a couple of times after tablet 1, but it was available when we reached The Wild. My kids could not stop watching their favorite shows. I made a couple of DIY videos, such as making the tent ready for fresh fish and then skinning the fish. These are things you might not be able to do at home. Some of these videos were taken from Youtube and then converted to mp4 which I then transferred onto my tablet. It's easier to store video on the tablet for when you're at work and don't want to wait for video to stream. These two strategies have kept my kids busy during four family camping trips. They don't mind leaving the house any more as they are aware that tablets 2 can aid them in getting through boring downtime and then bring it back home when they're ready. I've never felt happier. That's all I'm looking for, being with my family.

#bajar musica youtube

[mysticimagesandwriting]

HC for RAF, V and Saeran with mc as game developer please.

*rubs my little hands together* thank you for this interesting request!! what a great way to start this blog~

however, i’ll have to split this into two parts! i went overboard;;;; V and Saeran will be in Part 2!

Zen:

This man uses Hindows98, so he won’treally get what’s going on to be honest; but it looks really complicated and man is he impressed with you.

But this doesn’t mean that won’t he ask aboutthe details to this game of yours! He wants to get to know and be involved inwhatever his cutie loves~ It’s the least he could do when you’ve been passionatelycheering him on with his career.

He’ll be your (very vocal) support!! He’ll make sure that you take breaks afterlong stretches of writing, and coding, and editing, and making the graphics (anddon’t forget suffering). You’ll be hearing lots of “Babe~ Take a break and spend some time with me, yeah?” and “You’ve been working so hard; but rememberthat you need to eat and rest!! Sitting in front of the computer all day can’t begood for you!”

He loves to see the game’s progress; and if you’reokay with it, he’ll blast his social media with talk about it! Sooo muchbragging about how extremely talentedyou are, and your dedication to this amazinggame you’re developing.

But please try not to neglect him for too long,or else he’ll smother you in affection once he manages to pry you away fromyour work. (Though that’s not really abad thing now is it? :3c)

Yoosung:

Is this…heaven?

But seriously, Yoosung is so psyched when he finds out you’re a gamedeveloper. He wants to know when you started, how far along you are, if you’vemade any other games, and if he can be your first beta-tester??????

So much spamming the chatroom with “MC is so cool!!!! Have you heard about thegame they’re developing, all bythemselves?????” At some point it turns from the group being surprisedand impressed, to “Yes Yoosung, we have heard for the nth time that MC is supercool and a game dev.”

But he means well!! He’s just so into you andyour work, he can’t help wanting to share that with everyone! (he’s a good boy, please love him)

After seeing the massive amount of work that goesinto making a functioning and polished game, his whole view on game devs andgaming in general completely changes. It’s seriously hard work!! All that work,and sometimes developers still get complaints from players over the littlest ofthings!!

“Why can’tthey just be happy that so much care has gone into it? It’s impossible for (XXXdev or company) to fulfill everyone’swants! Especially when those wants don’t mesh with the existing content the developersspent so much time on!!” (you tell em Yoosung)

He gains even more respect for you, if that’seven possible, and will be your personal cheerleader! He’ll try to stay up withyou during those long, tiring nights staring at all the work you must do; and he’ll have plenty of snacks readyfor you when you finally take a break.

Jaehee:

As Jumin’s assistant, Jaehee doesn’t really havemuch time to relax, so she isn’t exactly “in the know” about the latest video gamenews. But she does know that creating a game is a rather complex affair.

When you tell her that you’re a game developer,she’s very impressed and curious as to what made you take an interest in makinggames. She’s really interested in getting to know all these new things aboutyou!

To see you working so hard, doing what you love,fills her with so much joy. She’s so earnest in her support for you and yourgame, it’s almost comparable to her passion for Zen’s performances.

You two bond over inhaling cups upon cups ofcoffee while knocking out piles of work. (getsome rest y’all…)  But for real,you two are constantly on each other for staying up too late and overworkingyourselves; you both decide to schedule in breaks for the especially busynights. Gotta make room for some self-care!!

Shortly after Jaehee decides to quit her job andopen the café, she tells you that you were her inspiration to do this. You notonly supported her and spoke up for her when she was getting railroaded withwork, you inspired her with yourdetermination and passion for what you do. She wanted to achieve that happinessso badly but feared losing any sense of stability if she did so. Having you byher side made her realize that it was possible for her to follow her desires, her wants, her dreams, herhappiness.

(Afterthat y’all just flop into each other’s arms and smooch. Gawd I love Jaehee…..)

Jumin:

While video games aren’t in the scope of thingshe’s most knowledgeable about, Jumindoes know parts of the process when it comes to developing games, and howprevalent gaming is this modern age.

However, once he finds out you’re a gamedeveloper, he immerses himself in reading up on the gaming industry; now he knowsall relevant game companies and developers. He has all the statistics on howmuch goes into making AAA games, and how much profit they receive from them on average.(and so much more…) Also, he finallyputs his Gray Station and Zet Box to good use. This is all so he can be fullyaware of what you’re talking about and add to the conversation.

What a cutie.

Yes, he does ask if you could fit an Elizabeththe 3rd into your game; but he won’t press you if it doesn’t fit in withthe storyline or theme. (but man, hisface sure does light up if he sees Elly in there.)

He appreciates your dedication to your work andwill buy you all the new software and beefy PCs you need. (god bless) But he does tell you to mind how long you workfor, because of the potential for eye strain and carpal tunnel.

If he could he would propose for C&R to backyour game; but that’s only if you want your game to publicly have such a large financialforce behind it or keep it a generally lowkey, simple and sweet, indie dev typeof situation. Either way, Jumin fully supports you!!

Seven:

AWWWW YEAH

Seven is going to be all over you about this,especially since he likes to develop games too!! He wants to know the nittygritty details about your game, and he probably ends up hopping onto the programmingtrain to help you speed things along when you’re stuck in a rut.

Yes, he is constantly over your shoulder when hehas the free time, crunching on Honey Buddha Chips right in your ear. (seven w h y…) But it isn’t hisintention to be obnoxious!! He’s really interested in your progress!!

If you had developed any games previously, he wouldwant to play them and them tear through the coding, getting to know them insideand out. He wants to see your patterns when it comes to programming and your improvementin terms of the gameplay mechanics, and how smooth everything functions!

He willbeta test your game and help you out if bugs occur and you’re having difficultysolving them. With Seven, you end up with an assistant, but that’s if you don’tmind him butting in! He’ll definitely back off if you’d rather work on yourgame independently. He understands.

Seven may tell you to take a break and stretchyour legs, but he’s a damn hypocrite because he himself certainly does not take breaks. So, you must bethe one to lug yourself out of the chair and bring him along with you lol.

(You can get in all of your Saeyoungie lovin’ in the meantime~)

#cristle-moon #mystic messenger imagines #mystic messenger headcanons #mystic messenger #mysme #zen #hyun ryu #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #jumin han #707 #saeyoung choi #rfa #headcanons #i hope you enjoy this!!!! #and that i didn't write them ooc... #i love feedback if i do though!!!

[phllawstudent]

Persons 17

Article 24, Parens Patriae and Contracts of Adhesion

Article 23 provides that, “Even when an act or event causing damage to another’s property was not due to the fault or negligence of the defendant, the latter shall be liable for indemnity if through the act or event he was benefited.”

For Article 23 to apply - the requisites are:

There must be an act or event which causes damage;

The damage is caused upon another person’s property;

The defendant must have been benefited from the act or event;

The defendant is still liable, even if there is no fault or negligence in his part.

When these four requisites are present, then the person is liable for indemnity. The basis of the indemnity is the degree to which he or she has been benefited. This is because Article 23 is a follow-up to the principle of unjust enrichment. The law makes a person liable for damages, even if he had no participation in the act or event, so long as he or she gains some benefit therefrom.

Article 24 is part of the chapter on human relations. Its difference from the other provisions is that Art. 24 is a directive addressed not to us, but for the courts.

Article 24 of the Civil Code provides that, “in all contractual, property or other relations, when one of the parties is at a disadvantage on account of his moral dependence, ignorance, indigence, mental weakness, tender age or other handicap, the courts must be vigilant for his protection.”

Moral dependence refers to the inherent imbalance in the relationship between two persons where one party needs the other more such as the dependent party has no choice but to submit to the will of the dominant or more powerful party. The imbalance typically stems from socioeconomic reasons. The law has a strong bias in favor of the employee and against the employer. No less than the Constitution tells us that. The Supreme Court teaches us that a person’s job is his property - sometimes, only property.

Based on moral dependence, labor has to be accorded more protection particularly against the possible abuses of management.

In practical terms, when there is doubt between the construction of labor laws or to a certain extent in the evaluation in the pieces of evidence, these doubts have to be resolved in favor of labor, in favor of the employee and against management, against the employer.

The employer occupies the economic high ground.

Employee has no other other remedy, no other recourse but to come to court. Only when the employee asserts his or her rights thus the protection kicks in. This is the essence of moral dependence.

Ignorance on the other hand is a function of the degree of instruction or education that one person has. The law will tilt in favor of someone who has not finished primary/elementary education versus someone who has finished a college degree or is part of the professional board. However, it is wrong to assume that the bias always kicks in just because one party has proven that he cannot read or write.

Art. 24 has no bearing in the commission of crimes. A lot would depend on the factual circumstances surrounding each case. The degree of instruction and the amount of education a person has has been placed not as a justifying or mitigating circumstance under the revised penal code. Instead, we find it under alternative circumstance.

If a person has used his knowledge, training and education to commit the crime of estafa, then that should be taken against him.

Indigence refers to the state of relative poverty. The law offers plenty of protection for the poor and we also see that in the Rules of Court.

A person who comes to court has to pay the necessary fees. That’s the general rule.

Exception: When an indigent comes to court to file a complaint

Rule 141 of the Rules of Court provides that a person is an indigent or proper litigant when the combined gross monthly income of himself and his immediate family do not amount to double the minimum wage

Another condition is that a person must not own real property whose fair market value exceeds three hundred thousand pesos

If a person has these two essential requisites, he or she is an indigent and therefore will not pay the fees. Pero pag mananalo siya sa kanyang complaint, iaawas muna ang dapat niyang binayaran bago ibigay sa kanya kung ano ang iaaward ng Court.

Mental weakness - kadalasan sa mga kaso na ang lola nagpapahiram ng titulo sa kanyang anak o apo pero hindi lang isinasangla kundi ibinibenta.

Presented to persons in advance age, suffering from mental illness, or both.

Mental weakness is something the Court must watch out for, particularly when the parties to a contract are of an advanced age or n the allowance or disallowance of a will as executed by the person who may have been unduly influenced by a family member, friend or caregiver.

1912 case: the Supreme Court ruled that perfect soundness of mind is not essential to testamentary capacity. A testator may be afflicted with a variety of mental weakness, disorder or peculiarity and still be capable in law of executing a valid will. It is not necessary that the mind shall be wholly unbroken and impaired or unshattered by disease or otherwise. Or that the testator shall be in full possession of his reasoning faculties.

Tender age - the law has always shown a bias in favor of minors no matter their position relative to the law.

A contract of sale executed by a minor may nevertheless be declared void. A contract of loan made by a minor can be voided on the basis of his or her minority. When a minor is called a witness to Court, the law confers a lot of protection upon the minor. They may be called and examined not necessarily in open court but behind closed doors. A child witness has the right to be accompanied by a trusted adult or caregiver. Courts have to make every single accomodation possible to keep the child witness comfortable during the examination. The protection of children is so great, so wide that minors who may have committed crime are not denominated as accused. They are called children in conflict with the law, and their cases are handled specifically by court personnel who have undergone special training for this purpose.

Why does the law afford protection for those who are morally dependent, for senior citizens or for minors? Ano ang basis nito?

Art. 24 and the host of other laws are based on the principle of parens patriae (parent of his or her country, and refers to the State in its role as “sovereign” or the State in its capacity as a provider of protection to those unable to care for themselves. In fulfilling this duty, the State may resort to the exercise of its inherent powers: police power, eminent domain, and power of taxation. Parens patriae is a role that the government takes in order to somewhat balance the inherent inequality of differnet persons within the State. Under this doctrine, the State is justified to use the three powers

Teresita Dio v. St Ferdinand Memorial Park inc.

Teresita Dio is a well-known businesswoman from Lucena City. She purchased from St. Ferdinand Memorial a parcel of land about 36 m. This parcel of land was used as the final resting site for Teresita’s father and husband. When her daughter died, she also buried her daughter on the same lot. Some time in 1986, she decided to build a mausoleum on the land she had purchased. She had the design made and the possible cost of the mausoleum was 60k. St. Ferd Memorial Prk was duly informed of this plan. Teresitas plan was approved but the SF MPi pointed to Rule 69 of their contract that any plans of the construction of buildings, imrpovements or memorials have to conform to the standards of smpfi. Further lot owners are prohibited from engaging outside contractors. Rule 69 of their contrat provides that only smpfi may build mausoleum’s improvements in memorials. Total cost of this is 100k

RTC ruled in favor of the Memorial Park. rejected the claim of Teresita that she was not informed of the rule 69 at the time she purchased the memorial lot. The fact that she reached out to the memorial park to have her design approved was evidence that she was aware of Rule 69.

CA for its part affirmed the ruling of RTC. it ruled that Teresita agreed with the rules of their contract and to any future rules governing the cemetery.

SC applied two principles. Art. 24 of the Civil Code and the Doctrine of contract of admission.

Did not apply Art. 24 (???)

It ruled that Dio is an experienced businesswoman. She doubtlessly dealt with numerous documents and is therefore presumed to know the import thereof. It cannot be further emphasized that it behooves every contracting party to learn and know the contents of an instrument before signing and agreeing to it.

Contract of adhesion - one wherein one party imposes a ready-made form of contract on the other. It is not strictly against the law. A contract of adhesion is as binding as ordinary contracts. The reason being that the party who adheres to the contract is free to reject it entirely

Contract of adhesion - terms and agreement upon installation of software, contract of carriers sa barko at eroplano,

- Walang room for negotiation. Yes or no lang ang sagot ng isang party. choice is to adhere to or reject the contract in its entirety.

These contracts are prepared ahead of time by one of the parties

Not only is dio educated, she is likewise a well-known and experienced businesswoman plus she cannot claim to be the weaker or disadvantaged party in the subject contract so as to call for a strict interpretation against the memo park.

Vicente and Laleng Kabanting v. bpi fam savings bank

Acceleration clause -

RTC ruled in favor of bpi, partly because the spouses has waived their right to present their evidence

CA affirmed RTC ruling but deleted the award of 20k as attorney’s fees

SC (through sc justice diosadado peralta) ruled in favor of bpi

Reiterating the case in teresita vs. memorial park, the validity or enforceability of the (impune) contracts will have to be determined by the peculiar circumstances obtaining in each case and the situation of the parties concerned

A contract of adhesion is not invalid just bec one of the parties exclusively prepared the contract ahead of time. The other party in fact has the choice either to agree to or adhere to the terms of the contract or to reject it completely

When the terms of the contract of adhesion are not clear, any doubts on the contract shall be resolved against the party who prepared it.

Summary:

Art. 24 applies to the contractual property or other relations;

Art. 24 is a dormant power. It is only activated when the weaker party comes to court . it is only then that the protection begins.

The law protects those who suffer from moral dependence, ignorance, indigence, mental weakness, tender age or other handicap;

Basis of this protection is the parens patriae doctrine, this principle means that the State acting as a sovereign, must step in to afford protection to those who need it;

Contract of adhesion is one where the contract is prepared exclusively by one party, and the other party has nothing to do but to accept/reject it;

It is not invalid, per se. A lot would depend on the peculiar circumstances of the contract. All doubts however are construed against the party who prepared the same, and in favor of the party who merely signs it.

[pamphletstoinspire]

Catholic Physics - Reflections of a Catholic Scientist - Part 101 - Truth Cannot Contradict Truth - Part 5

With images:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/catholic-physics-reflections-scientist-part-101-truth-harold-baines-4/?published=t

Can Computers Have a Soul? - Part 2

SECTION 3: Science Fiction Stories about Computer Souls

INTRODUCTION

A scene from the play “RUR” (“Rossum’s Universal Robots” – Capek, 1923) whence the term “ROBOT” for a mechanical man. - from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Science fiction abounds in tales of robots, androids and computers with intelligence. Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” and his robot/android stories come to mind. And who can forget HAL 9000 in “2001.”

In this section I’ll focus on stories that deal with the notion of robots or computers having a soul, because these stories come closer to defining soulhood than do many of the philosophers and scientists dealing with artificial intelligence.

Since philosophers and AI scientists have not given definitive answers about the souls of computers, consciousness and such, let’s go to a realm where imagination holds sway, unlimited by hard facts. It will certainly be more entertaining (and possibly just as insightful) to hear what science fiction (SF) authors have to say about this. So let’s suppose, as do SF authors, that consciousness is possible by some means or another for computers and robots and see what consequences might ensue concerning ensoulment

I WANT TO BE A COMPUTER WHEN I DIE

As a transition to considering machine intelligence, let’s examine how SF treats the transfer of human intelligence or personality into computers or robots. Note that one theoretical physicist, Frank Tipler, in his book, The Physics of Christianity, posits that heaven will consist of personalities transferred to software as the universe reaches its end in an “Omega Point‘ singularity. Since it is a black hole type singularity, time is slowed down and the intelligences transferred to software thus have essentially an eternity to enjoy their virtual life.

Among the many SF stories that deal with transferred human intelligence, there is one by Norman Spinrad that especially focuses on the question of soulhood, Deus X. Spinrad treats the question with respect, although his attitude to the Catholic Church is less than reverent (there is a female Pope, Mary I). Below is a summary of the plot, as given in McKee’s excellent survey, The Gospel According to Science-Fiction:

“…thousands of people exist in an artificial afterlife called ‘Transcorporeal Immortality’, having copied their consciousness onto a worldwide computer network called ‘The Big Board’….Catholic theologian Fr. Philippe de Leone argue[s] that this creation of an artificial soul, which cannot have true self-awareness, dooms the actual soul that is copied to damnation. Pope Mary I, hoping to settle the controversy, orders Fr. DeLeone to have his soul copied upon his death, so that his consciousness can argue against its own autonomous existence from the other side.” — As quoted in The Gospel According to Science Fiction. p.43

Superficially, Pope Mary’s plan seems to contain a paradox. If the downloaded Fr. de Leone changes his mind and says “yes, I am a real soul,” how can we trust what an artificial soul might say? The solution to the paradox is that all of Fr. de Leone’s beliefs have been downloaded to his program. If these beliefs are changed, it means that the entity in the computer has free will, and is thus autonomous and a real soul.

In the story Fr. DeLeone’s soul is “kidnapped” (how do you kidnap a program?) by a group of downloaded personalities that wants to convince the Church, using Fr. de Leone’s download, that they have a real soul. As McKee points out in his synopsis, there is a reverse Turing Test applied here. Fr. de Leone does change his mind, the downloaded personalities declare him a deity (“Deus X”) and a new controversy arises: Church officials declare this deification to be blasphemy. To still the controversy, Fr. de Leone sacrifices his downloaded personality (dies), Pope Mary declares him a saint and recognizes that the downloaded souls are “real”.”

In my opinion, this is not a satisfactory exposition. I hold with the Catholic interpretation (see above) that souls do not function without a body and that a soul and body comprise one person.

THE CHURCH AND AI: ST. AUGUSTINE AS A COMPUTER — “GUS”

There are many SF works in which the Catholic Church plays a role. In some, the Church and its teachings are treated with respect; in most, not so much. As Gabriel McKee points out in The Gospel According to Science Fiction

“SF, arising as it does from the secular humanism of the Enlightenment, is critical of religious institutions. SF frequently argues that if organized religion is to be a positive force in the future of humankind, it must change drastically to meet the spiritual challenges of the future.” — Gabriel McKee, op.cit., p. 183

A sympathetic view of how the Church might interact with artificial intelligence is given in Jack McDevitt’s fine story, “Gus“. In this beautiful tale, the newly installed rector of a Catholic Seminary interacts with a computer simulation of St. Augustine of Hippo, purchased (the simulation, that is) to help students understand St. Augustine’s teachings. The Rector, Msgr. Chesley, is at first greatly displeased with Gus’s (the program’s) dicta:

” ‘The thing must have been programmed by Unitarians’ Chesley threw over his shoulder. ‘Get rid of it'” — ”Gus” in Cryptics, p. 373.

The relationship between Chesley and Gus becomes warmer with time, as they discuss the problems of being a Catholic in today’s world:

“ ‘Why did Augustine become a priest?’

Chesley asked.

‘I wanted,’ Gus said, with the slightest stress on the first words, ‘to get as close as I could to my Creator.’ Thoughtfully, he added, ‘I seem to have traveled far afield.’

‘Sometimes I think,’ Chesley said, ‘the Creator hides himself too well.’

‘Use his Church,‘ said Gus. ‘That is why it is here.’

‘It has changed.’

“Of course it has changed. The world has changed.’

‘The Church is supposed to be a rock.’

‘Think of it rather as a refuge in a world that will not stand still.’ “ — op. cit., p. 382,

Gus’s sayings to the students become so unorthodox (he decries the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) that other faculty decided he should be downloaded to storage and traded in for a computer simulation of Thomas Aquinas (plus business software). Gus asks Msgr. Chesley to hear his Confession and then destroy him, so he can have peace:

” ‘I require absolution, Matt.’

Chesley pressed his right hand into his pocket. ‘It would be sacrilege,’ he whispered.

‘And if I have a soul, Matt, if I too am required to face judgment, what then?’

Chesley raised his right hand, slowly, and drew the sign of the cross in the thick air. ‘I absolve you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’

‘Thank you… There’s something else I need you to do, Matt. This existence holds nothing for me. But I am not sure what downloading might mean.’

‘What are you asking?”

‘I want to be free of all this. I want to be certain I do not spend a substantial fraction of eternity in the storeroom.’

Chesley trembled. ‘If in fact you have an immortal soul,’ he said, ‘you may be placing it in grave danger.’

‘And yours as well. I have no choice but to ask. Let us rely on the mercy of the Almighty.’

Tears squeezed into Chesley’s eyes. He drew his finger- tips across the hard casing of the IBM. ‘What do I do? I’m not familiar with the equipment.’

‘Have you got the right computer?’

‘Yes.’

‘Take it apart. Turn off the power first. All you have to do is get into it and destroy the hard disk.’

‘Will you — feel anything?’

‘Nothing physical touches me, Matt.’

Chesley found the power switch… He found a hammer and a Phillips screwdriver. He used the screwdriver to take the top off the computer. A gray metal box lay within. He opened it and removed a gleaming black plastic disk. He embraced it, held it to his chest. Then he set it down, and reached for the hammer. In the morning, with appropriate ceremony, he buried it in consecrated soil.” — op. cit., pp. 388-389

As always, I asked my wife to review this article. I asked her whether she was moved by the story of Gus. She replied, “If it were St. Augustine on his death-bed talking to his confessor, yes; but a black plastic disc – never.” Even though I was moved to tears when I first read the story, I raise the same objections as I did for downloaded human personalities: the Catholic teaching that soul and body are one.

DOES DATA HAVE A SOUL?

Commander Riker removes the arm of Data, the Android, to show he is only a machine. - from Fandom (Caption for linked image)

For those who aren’t Trekkies, Data is the android navigator in the second Star Trek series, Star Trek: the Next Generation.  He aspires to humanity and sometimes reaches and even surpasses that state.  There is a problem, however, in that whether Data has a soul is never considered in any of the episodes, possibly because the word “soul” is anathema to writers and producers of popular entertainment.  So in the episode, “The Measure of a Man”, the question “Is Data a sentient being” is asked, rather than “Does Data have a soul”.

The question is addressed in a trial, to see if Data, as a “sentient being”, has the right to refuse to be disassembled for study and refitting.  Captain Picard acts in Data’s behalf and Commander Riker, under duress, as the prosecutor.  Riker attempts to demonstrate that Data is a machine by switching him off and taking his arm off:

“[Riker is doing his duty in the courtroom]

Commander William T. Riker: The Commander [Data] is a physical representation of a dream – an idea, conceived of by the mind of a man. Its purpose: to serve human needs and interests. It’s a collection of neural nets and heuristic algorithms; its responses dictated by an elaborate software written by a man, its hardware built by a man. And now… and now a man will shut it off. [Riker switches off Data, who slumps forward like a lifeless puppet]

Commander William T. Riker: Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut.” The Measure of a Man, Quotes.

Captain Picard gives a stirring defense, arguing that the question of whether Data is conscious — self-aware — has not and cannot be settled, any more than whether one can be certain that another person is conscious except by external behavior.   And finally the question of soulhood is addressed minimally:

“Captain Phillipa Louvois [The Judge]: It sits there looking at me; and I don’t know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics – with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. But I’ve got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul?[emphasis added] I don’t know that he has. I don’t know that I have. But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself. It is the ruling of this court that Lieutenant Commander Data has the freedom to choose.” [notice the shift from “it” to “he”] ibid.

And so Data is left free, and the question of whether he has a soul, undetermined — as in the Scottish verdict, “Not Proven.”

Whether Data has a soul is more difficult judgment than for the previous stories: Data has a body, and if his body is disabled then he, as a unit, doesn’t function.  This condition satisfies the Catholic teaching that body and soul are one. On the other hand, Catholic teaching tells us that the soul is given to us at conception by the Holy Spirit. Would we say that the Holy Spirit instills a soul into Data when the first circuit was implanted? I don’t think so, but maybe I’m wrong.  What do you think, Dear Reader?

FINAL THOUGHTS

It seems from the above that Catholic teaching has more definite things to say about ensoulment and what the soul is than do science and philosophy. There is much disagreement amongst the advocates of AI and philosophers about who and what might be endowed with consciousness and real intelligence, much less who or what might be given a soul.

If one defines a God-given soul as the capacity to wonder where we came from, what will happen when we die, who made all this and why, then I believe that is unlikely that computers, machine intelligence will have that ability, despite the science-fiction stories to the contrary. Nor will animals, even though they have intelligence in some degree. Could there be sentient beings with souls on extra-terrestial planets? Possibly, and even the Church is interested in that possibility, as attested by a Vatican sponsored conference on the possibility:

“Just like there is an abundance of creatures on earth, there could also be other beings, even intelligent ones, that were created by God. That doesn’t contradict our faith, because we cannot put boundaries to God’s creative freedom. As Saint Francis would say, when we consider the earthly creatures to be our ‘brothers and sisters,’ why couldn’t we also talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother?’ He would still be part of creation.” — Fr. Gabriel Funes, Chief Astronomer to the Vatican, Osservatore Romano, 2014

Well, maybe — but we’ll very likely not know in our lifetime.

SECTION 4: Science Background — Elements of Neuroscience

Why (Some) Scientists Say there is No Such Thing as a Soul

If one believes that everything can be explained by science (which I don’t), then only that which can be measured or observed in replicated experiments is “real”. Accordingly, many scientists regard the “soul” as a fictitious entity, since it is immaterial and has no measurable properties that can be observed in replicable experiments.

Rather than speaking of the soul, scientists focus on the mind as a function of what goes on in the brain. Such functions can be localized in various regions of the brain (see the figure below). - Click link for image

Brain Areas Controlling Different Functions from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

The various actions governed by the brain can be localized by observing behavioral changes when different parts are injured or with modern imaging techniques: MRI, SPECT, PET scans.

SCIENTIFIC MEASUREMENTS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY

“Interestingly, the average human brain weighs about 1.5 kilograms, has about 160 billion cells and about 100 billion neurons connecting the cells… One can look at the brain and see the incredible complexities and the miracles of the Divine … or one can respond … that this has nothing to do with G-d. Some people will be inspired with belief in the Almighty; others will claim that somehow billions of cells and neurons working together can be created through random evolution.” — Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, “Jewish World Review,” 17 January 2014

The basic unit of the brain is the neuron, depicted in the figure below. The average human brain contains about 86 billion neurons. They act by release of chemicals (neurotransmitters) to adjacent neurons across a synaptic junction (gap) and thereby generate electrical signals, nerve impulses, that travel along nerve fibers and thereby generate electrical signals, nerve impulses, that travel along nerve fibers.

Diagram of a Neuron; inset is diagram of a synapse between transmitter (A) and receptor (B) neurons. (Caption for linked image)

1: mitochondria; 2. vesicle containing neurotransmitter molecules; 3. autoreceptor gate; 4. synaptic cleft (3/10,000 of paper thickness); 5. neurotransmitter molecule receptor; 6. calcium gate; 7. fused vesicle releasing neurotransmitter molecules; 8. neurotransmitter molecule re-uptake pump.

Here’s a nice video explaining in more detail how nerve transmission works.

Since there is electrical activity in the brain due to nerve impulse transmission, this can be measured by EEG (ElectroEncephaloGraphy) which can be used to detect abnormal brain behavior, as in epilepsy. The state of water in the brain, and the corresponding state of brain tissue—normal or abnormal—can be studied by high resolution CAT scans (x-ray tomography), or MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

MRI of Brain with Tumor - A: Feb 2005, before treatment; - B,C: Later in 2005, after treatment; - D,E: Recurrence and treatment with radiotherapy - F: Treatment with chemotherapy. - from Wikimedia Commons (Caption for linked image)

Chemical activity in the brain can be detected by Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), or functional MRI (fMRI). The first two techniques use radioactive tracers attached to molecules which will be metabolized (e.g. sugar molecules) at areas of localized brain activity. fMRI relies on increased blood flow to areas of the brain that are active; the blood contains oxygen molecules, which are paramagnetic and affect the MRI signal. (Caption for linked image)

The picture at the left shows an fMRI scan of a subject watching “a complex moving visual stimulus and rest condition (black screen)”. The activation (yellow-orange) is shown against a “regular MRI corresponding to the brain region scanned.” The left-hand side of the image corresponds to the occipital region of the brain, where visual images are processed.

NEUROIMAGING AND THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

An interesting application of SPECT imaging is reported by Professor Andrew Newberg, Jefferson University Hospital. He showed, comparing images from religious (nuns, monks) and atheists, what brain regions and thus what brain functions are activated or deactivated by such religious acts as prayer, meditation, contemplation.

A detailed account of this is given in Professor Newberg’s web site and here; briefly, the account is this. When people with long experience in contemplative prayer (for example, Franciscan Nuns) pray, the frontal regions of the brain — the area of higher mental activity, forethought, etc — are activated and the parietal areas — which give a sense or orientation, bodily location — are deactivated. The latter result, according to Professor Newborn, corresponds to a feeling of losing self, of oneness with the environment, a feeling often associated with deep meditation and contemplation. On the other hand, the brains of atheists do not show such changes.

One point should be emphasized here. Although location of brain activity, locations correlated with function, can be found by these imaging techniques, such results in themselves do not give a complete understanding of mental activity, a proof that this activity is purely a consequence of material goings-on. It’s very much as if we have a computer with unlabeled inputs and outputs. After some trial and error we discover that one output goes to a display, one input for commands to move a cursor, etc. We’ve determined location and function, but we do not have a complete picture of what goes on in the internal workings of the computer.

A FINAL THOUGHT

We can conclude, I believe, that scientific measurements, including modern imaging techniques — fMRI, SPECT, PET — show us where in the brain functions are performed and what electrical and chemical processes occur for such functions. However, they do not tell us why we know who we are, why “cogito ergo sum” is true for us, but not a computer.

From a series of articles written by: Bob Kurland - a Catholic Scientist

#catholic physics

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING YEARS

Galleries are not especially prone to waste money. But that prescription, though sufficient, is too narrow. Hence such parodies as Pets.1 The EU was designed partly to simulate a single, large domestic market.2 All you need from a launch is some initial core of users. But if ephemeralization is one of the most immediate evidence I had that something was amiss was that I couldn't talk to them. Microsoft will have a significant effect on our returns, and the rest are just a cost of doing business. So you start painting.

For users, Web-based applications, you'll find that delighting customers scales better than you expected.3 My hypothesis is that all the programmers have to be aggressive about user acquisition when you're small, you'll probably get something better. Google, and Facebook all got started.4 Stocks will generate greater returns over thirty years, you had to be pretty convincing to overcome this. If you want to keep an eye on things you've changed recently. People who majored in computer science generally tried to conceal it. The main significance of this type of profitability is that you're no longer at the mercy of investors. The other major technical advantage of Web-based startup is food and rent. A new concept of variables. The most common was some combination of a blog, a calendar, a dating site, and Friendster. It was a sign of an underlying lack of resourcefulness. Most startups fail.

He meant the Mac and its documentation and even packaging—such is the nature of platforms. In startups, developers are often forced to talk directly to users, whether they want to work on ideas that few beside them realize are good. When you interview a startup and think they seem likely to succeed than not.5 But I think that a lot of variation in the incoming stream, but instead of pursuing this thought they tended to suppress it, in the sense that all you have to do it, even print journalists.6 But the Collison brothers weren't going to wait. At the time there might have been. Maybe it's just because knowledge about them hasn't permeated our culture yet.7 The best thing would be if it were inherently stupid to invest in Microsoft. If you're ramen profitable this painful choice goes away.8

It's Parkinson's Law running in reverse. The problem with India itself is that it's still so poor. Grad school makes a good launch pad for startups, because you're only replacing one segment instead of discarding the whole thing.9 The worst thing is not the optimal time to do it was turn the sound into packets and ship it over the Internet. It seemed the perfect bad idea: a site 1 for a niche market 2 with no money 3 to do something called price discrimination, which means charging each customer as much as they used to. The number of users and the problem they solved was an urgent one. The fact that you can get at least someone to pay you, getting incorporated, raising money, but you can't expect to hit that right away. Values are what have types, not variables, and assigning or binding variables means copying pointers, not what they point to. But that is at least the next Chicago.10 There's selling, promotion, figuring out what those problems are.

It used to be aware of death to a degree that violates our expectations about variation. The test drive was the way to create wealth is to make more than you spend. But success has taken a lot of money.11 You can change anything about a house except where it is. It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it may be just as likely to feel life was short if we lived 10 times as long?12 Any strategy that omits the effort—whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or a professional football player. And really it never was.

I asked some friends who work for big companies.13 You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not so wrong about the underlying principle.14 Otherwise you'll have to make something people will pay for? Imagine how depressing the world would be if it were all like school and big companies, you'd need an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it would be possible to reproduce Silicon Valley in Japan, because one of Silicon Valley's most distinctive features is immigration. Why don't more people do it? David Filo and Jerry Yang started the Yahoo directory in February 1994 and were getting a million hits a day by the fall, but they don't realize it.15 The traditional break everything and then filter out the uncommitted. They've spent 15-20 years solving problems other people have in their heads. The good news is, choosing problems is something that has a 90% chance of failing, if you don't solve all their problems. You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not when you're Kirk.16 Yes. A lot of would-be founders.

As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because they know that as you run out of garages. It's easy to let the days rush by. For the first week or so we intended to make this an ordinary desktop application. The more versatile the tool, the less you need the money. The amount of time you have. It was easy to tell how smart they were, and most decent hackers are capable of that. I don't think many people realize how fragile and tentative startups are in the US are auto workers, New York City schoolteachers, and civil servants happier than actors, professors, and professional athletes? We felt we were good at organizing groups and making projects happen. You're not sacrificing anything if you forgo starting a startup is merely an artifact of the way through the server market; Yahoo's servers, which deal with loads as high as any on the Internet, anything genuinely good will spread by word of mouth.

For a big company, it's good news.17 If we ever got to the point where they could raise millions from VC funds if they hadn't first raised a hundred thousand from Andy Bechtolsheim. Viaweb was a typical larval startup. If I'd had to wait a year for the next couple years, a good recipe for startups will be to remind founders they need to do is give the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC, and he'll chase down the implications of what's said to you can sometimes lead to uncomfortable conclusions.18 If you pay them to raise the money to manufacture your own hardware, or use your software for the first time, you know what you're talking about, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people: you can tell that by the number of people who want to come to America can even get in? You never really know what's happening inside it.19 What they want is easy. Technology is a lever.

Notes

There's a sort of investor who says he's interested in each type of mail, I would be a quiet, earnest place like Cambridge in that. It's hard to predict at the time required to notice them.

Delivered as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it converts. It's conceivable that a company in Germany told me they like the application of math to real problems, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go running. On the other hand, a market of one investor who says he's interested in us!

For example, would not produce a viable organism.

If they no longer working to help the company they're buying. But those are guaranteed in the sense that if colleges want to work late at night.

If not, greater accessibility. Even college textbooks is unpleasant work, done mostly by technological progress is accelerating, so presumably will the rate of improvement is more important for societies to remember and pass on the young Henry VIII and was troubled by debts all his life.

These points don't apply to types of startup people in 100 years. That's very cheap, 1/50th of a problem if you'll never need to offer especially large rewards to get to profitability on a hard technical problem. I'm also an investor, and the valuation is the place for people interested in x, and owns significant equity in it. In 1525 he was exaggerating.

You have to turn down some good proposals too.

The Industrial Revolution was one in an era of such regulations is to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a few VC firms were the impressive ones. For example, the only companies smart enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes. Possible doesn't mean a great thing in itself deserving.

I've deliberately avoided saying whether the 25 people have historically done to their stems, but he refused because a there was near zero crossover. Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. Com in order to win.

So in effect what the valuation a bit misleading to treat macros as a high school, approach the queen bees thereof and offer to be memorized. However, it was so violent that she decided never again. 25.

92.

Most were wrong, but the nature of server-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Indeed, that's not art because it reads as a high product of number of customers you need is a dotted line on a saturday, he was 10.

A termsheet with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of this essay, but I don't want to believe your whole future depends on the y, you'd get ten times as much as people in any era if people can see the old version, I would take their customers.

Indeed, it causes a fundamental economic shift away from large companies. William R.

But in this essay talks about the cheapest food available. It took a back seat to philology, which either desperately tries to munge what I've said into something that was killed partly by its overdone launch.

Dan was at the exact same thing twice. The reason not to. Peter Thiel would point out that there were 5 more I didn't like it if you want to know how many computers the worm infected, because there are some whose definition of property is driven mostly by technological progress aren't sharply differentiated. That's very cheap, 1/10 success rate for startups that have little do with the sort of community.

Many think successful startup? They each constrain the other is laziness.

Considering yourself a scientist. 43. So the cost can be useful in solving problems too, and when you had in high school textbooks. Innosight, February 2012.

And that will sign up quickest and those where the acquirer wants the employees. But if idea clashes got bad enough, maybe the corp dev people are magnified by the fact that they have less room to avoid using it out of their core values is Don't be evil. In principle companies aren't limited by the government and construction companies.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #investor #BC #problems #companies #sort #number #types #Jerry #actors #application #science #mouth #time #something #combination #auto #test #thing #home #couple #implications #money #company #people