#If I'd stayed at that school and that lab and got to the level where I could contribute

[maeamian]

When I was a young excited physics student I went down to my advisor and asked for a job in a lab. Those of you who are in the sciences may recognize this as exceedingly common, most schools with science departments will hire undergrads for their labs both to give the undergrads experience and to have someone comparatively cheap to do the least skilled labor in those labs.

For me, the lab I was sent to was one doing cool photonics projects and I was assigned to a guy who was doing the theoretical modeling for them and I got put on a side project for them to develop a method to double check their results using Monte Carlo simulations.

Put bluntly, I toiled away in the little cubicle they had me in for about half a year before I transferred to a different school without ever having produced anything of any particular value other than a Monte Carlo simulation whose temperature readings were not taking into account the existence of a heat sink and therefore got overwhelmed by thermal photons in a completely inaccurate and unhelpful way.

Ultimately, many tasks, farmed out like this in a speculative way to undergrads, fail, certainly it's not exceptional that mine did and I learned a lot about the process in the process, so it wasn't wasted time for me, but it produced absolutely nothing the lab could use to further its results.

This is where it turns from a little anecdote about my work history into a morality tale, because what I have thus far deliberately failed to tell you is that the lab I was assigned to is a provider of radar services to the US Military. Had I produced anything of any value whatsoever the work I did would have been used by the US military to help with its capacity to deliver bombs. This is, unfortunately, as those of you who are in the sciences may recognize, also exceedingly common. Luckily, and through no foresight or moral thinking of my own, simply the inexperience of youth, I produced nothing of value but view the path they tried to set me down as a grim warning of what might have been.

I'm not asking for forgiveness, the harm I might have done was not done by me, although I'm also sure was done without my help. They didn't need it to be me they just needed someone with basic calculus knowledge who wouldn't think too hard about the connection between the work and the world, and they were happy enough that particular warm body was me.

So this is my plea, if you're young and getting involved in the sciences because you're passionate about knowledge and understanding our place in the universe. When you go to get that job in that lab that's such a good stepping stone to the next thing you want to do, take a second and look into where that lab's funding is coming from. If it turns out it's the military, maybe then take another second and really deeply consider what kind of thing your work can be used to do and if you would like some of the most bloodthirsty people on the planet to be able to do that thing because of your help.

I got lucky that I didn't help, but I'm hoping that with this warning you might be able to not help on purpose which is a greater moral good than what I managed.

#IDK been thinking about this a lot recently for obvious reasons #I should've known better at the time too to be clear I was just blinded by excitement #If I'd stayed at that school and that lab and got to the level where I could contribute #They would have happily sent me to the Raytheon office down the street #Where I would've been well paid as my soul chipped away at itself #And I will never not resent the structure of the system that had that future in mind for me #I feel extra foolish for having nearly fallen for it considering my grandfather's history as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists #Which is in part because he didn't talk much about that with us grandkids in large part because we weren't old enough early enough #There's a lot I wish he could've talked to me about now that I'm old enough to really understand it #But back to the point tell your advisor 'I'm not comfortable working in a military lab do you have any other options' #That's what I wish I'd said #Meanwhile my dad (the legend) claims to have cost the military millions of hours of productivity and credibly so

[surveillance-0011]

I am over here cracking up over Mux and Giblets and whatever their deal is... I'd love to hear more if u wanna share

ah thank you... it is a very tentative undeveloped idea so i don't have too much but here's what i have + brainstorming in real time

I think it's funny bc it's like. There's the musk-grimes similarities of weird dysfunctional silicon valley romance just without the music making but there's also kind of a jessica-roger rabbit component. Kind of. ever so slightly, probably the closest you can get with the most esoteric of space biology.

Idk where this happens on the timeline. Certainly before HOL but it has to be after Giblets starts to do the Sort of Stuff He Does but before it gets to its worst + he starts getting as paranoid as he is when we see him.

Also I am assuming Giblets had a wife before hand? Something something timeline I think Giblets had Krimothy before Mux but maybe not?? And idk where the Krubis incident fits in w/ this either.

Unless they met + dated way way back as a little fling at the start of their careers or in college or something. but then it's not as funny. There'd be the awkward ex situation then but what really intrigues me is the G3 and every Muxxalon employee looking on in horror as these two start holdin hands and being mushy as all hell

totally infatuated with each other the sort of couple that's sickeningly sweet they give off the vibes of high school sweethearts who have to be held back from making out in the hallways.

Mux is attracted to the mystique of it all. A super genius scientist AND a gang member? She is living the booktok plot of her dreams!

Meanwhile Giblets appreciates her power/status but is also just very infatuated like in general. And he loves how much she loves him. Pretty woman... thinks he's handsome... and he gets to show off how smart he is yay!!

So he shows off and waxes poetic and she swoons and meanwhile she goes and Girlbosses and dotes on him and he's over the moon about it. They love coming up with awful "genius" ideas together and dreaming of the day they rule the galaxy together

And they like seeing the other obliterate merks/muxxalon employees

And... yeah that's the positives, mostly just the novelty and the wow factor.

Between the both of them being... the sort of people they are... corrupt controlling selfish cruel and out of touch... etc etc etc... they do clash a lot. A lot of fighting then kiss and make up sort of situations...

Im just imagining that "pronouns suck" "nooo baby this isn't your heart!!" tweet but Mux is complaining about translator microbes or something and Gibs starts crytyping abt it

Gibs was totally ok with her screwing Gurgula's packages over tho

Far enough into their relationship there's another major fallout on twitter every other week because Mux and Giblets are at it again everyone!!! Grab yer popcorn!!!

The logic these two run on is almost on the same level but everyone else is fucking flabbergasted.

Everyone watching is like. Please break up. divorce. now. Or maybe it is better if you stay and keep each other in this situation.

Krubis has GOT to be their biggest fucking hater or maybe he is just. Trying to not acknowledge that this is happening bc it rises his blood pressure to concerning levels. Or so that he wouldn't say something dumb and end up in Gurgula's situation. Assuming this is before the whole. Sleeping with his wife convincing her to divorce him marrying her then killing her in an experiment thing.

Douglas thinks the whole thing is funny as fuck totally reading twitter over like the morning paper laughing his ass off.

Totally had a kid or pet or robot/lab grown creation with a stupid fucking name. I mean if Krimothy is their kid then maybe Krimothy is a stupid alien name but I love the idea of him being like. A kid and already aware of how fucked this whole situation is

Actually that's sad. That's not funny I don't love that at all. Krim honey I'm so sorry. His mom probably got custody so at least he's watching from afar.

And I think even in their worst moments they do actually. Get each other. In the end I think they understand each other's way of thinking more than others do. In their better moments they might be able to reel each other in...

Like to get a bit serious both seem like the sort of people who Cannot Help But Fuck Up. Mostly bc they don't care about most others but themselves and their pride. But while Mux is very enthralled by the glamor of living wealthily and all her nice ideas Giblets obsesses over science and how he can maintain safety and some semblance of happiness by sabotaging that of others... and I feel there'd have some moment where it. Clicks that they have this in common.

And they do appreciate each others lil quirks! He likes her Elden Ring builds... she likes the way he talks...

I'm assuming the breaking point would be Mux trying to take credit for something Giblets did or Giblets overstepping in his... Gibletness. Somehow. And then she'd feel disrespected by it. Or maybe their horoscopes said they'd break up.

Giblets is a whole can of worms. Because he's smart academically but near socially incapable and prone to spiraling into these. Fucked up self serving actions that ruin lives and shit. He has the mentality of a fucking Fargo character. So I feel it'd probably be his fault the most in the end

ig if there's anything heartwarming about this it would be that since Giblets doesn't mention Mux during that little speech they ended on good enough terms or were able to reconcile down the line to some extent? At the very least he felt sure she would not try to kill him.

I think it was messy for a while though. Custody over Goimpy Schoimpy Peanut Rendezvous 2000 was a bitch. Everyone was relieved when they actually started being cool w/ each other again or at least decided to leave each other alone.

I should make a little list of every like. Mux-Giblets situation but I will have to brainstorm all the new lows they'd be able 2 reach...

oh my god remember the whole thing with azealia banks. what was that. there's totally like. some adjacent shebang that went down with mux gib and. idk someone else.

#high on life #high on life game #asks #mux x giblets #muxlet? giblux? #headcanon #headcanons

[pinkandgreenarepurpleandyellow]

Writing out my personal thoughts on what Lab Rats could have been. (Disclaimer: I don't own the show, I do like the show but also have my own opinions and thoughts, don't like don't read, etc etc).

So, Season 1 and early Season 2 stay mostly the same because they set up some neat dynamics. The main change is that I would even out Adam and Chase's dynamic a little more so it seems more like they both constantly fight instead of just Adam picking on Chase non-stop (Seriously. As the annoying sibling who would constantly throw their siblings if I had the super-strength for it, I think the bullying gags got too repetitive and seem more malicious than intended). Separate note that I would change a little bit of Katelyn's personality so it's less of her hating Bree and more of her being completely feral (sorta like she was in her first appearance, but more violent and willing to ignore the law).

Now, we have some established character roles. Adam as the dumb strong one, Bree as somewhat inconsistent teenage girl, and Chase as the egotistical nerd.

Beginning around the time that we start seeing more plot-connected episodes in late Season 2 and early Season 3 (as opposed to stand-alones), we start long-term character arcs. Specifically, their individual arc and their adjustment to the world arc.

For Adam, it's the slow (like 2-3 seasons' worth of slow) shifting from constantly teasing Chase and being more rude and annoying to being the protective brother and affectionally bullying Bree and Chase. Unlike the others, he seems to have an easier time with being an outcast at Mission Creek High, so part of his arc would be the steadfast refusal to bully his weirdo siblings at school to humiliate them, and consistently being the rock of the trio.

For Bree, shown canonically to have a very inconsistent personality until the writers nailed down what they wanted, the arc would have her figuring out who she is and slowly embracing that she's allowed to not fit perfectly into any box. She's a fan of girly things, she's tomboyish, she can study, she likes to slack off, her moral compass is not always consistent, and she doesn't have to fit into any of these weird boxes other people shove her into. This would be especially relevant during the "Three Minus Bree" bit of the season, but instead of the show shafting blame onto her, she understands that her feelings were valid, even if she overreacted. I, personally, would also add in the idea that she can quit the team once they're stable and can prepare. The first part of her arc would end with her wanting to stay for now, but also exploring the idea of leaving in the future.

Chase's arc would revolve around his ego being tied to his intelligence. Unlike Adam and Bree, Chase has no hobbies or skills that do not tie into his super-intelligence. Adam doesn't need super strength or heat vision to bake and like dogs. Bree manages to win over friends and collect creepy dolls without relying on her super speed. Chase doesn't have this option or, at least, it doesn't seem like it. The majority of his arc would be around mid-late Season 3 and most of Season 4 as he struggles to balance the power dynamic shifting and reconciling with himself that it's alright if he can't handle everything on his own, which he mostly does to compensate for the fact that everyone else could function easily without bionics, and he cannot.

Leo's arc is both an ego check and a confidence boost. While the initial Mission Specialist position was given to him mostly as a joke, I'd set up more mission episodes and have Leo progress over the seasons from an overexcited rookie to their chill level-headed backup, pulling information over and relaying updates to them in real-time. His work in Season 4 would be growing and stepping up (and instead of a rivalry with Spin, I imagine he and Sebastian would butt heads pre Bionic Rebellion), to the point where he becomes unofficial leader in training exercises because years of missions with the original trio have given him a lot of practice.

Now, for a more detailed breakdown of Season 4 and my personal re-writes:

More Tasha. Tasha's big work in this season is setting up a better program for end of season world (more about this below), in collaboration with her husband and brother-in-law. She's also the one sometimes helping the younger kids handle conflicts.

Sebastian's motive is less just 'you took away my father' and more of anger at being lied to, tricked into their weird little program, or being manipulated by Giselle and Marcus. Seb's betrayal would be a huge blow to Chase's trust and reinforces idea that the cannot rely on other people.

Chase's anger at being taken off the elevator project is less about just ego and moreso the fact that clearly he's been doing okay for years, and right after he trusts someone and messes up, it's taken away and all of his research is given over to some shmuck, so clearly these things are related and it's his reliance on someone else that screwed him over. The next episode features Chase trying (yet again, this would be built up over 3-4 episodes from BR on) to fix something on his own until it nearly kills him/Adam/Bree/Leo, and he tells all of them exactly why he's afraid to trust that they can help him.

Obviously, they all get their sappy little group hug, but it does show that the dynamics shifts a little because over the rest of the season, Chase slowly grows and takes advice and works with people, while Adam Bree and Leo don't rag on him quite as harshly for mistakes/temporary failures.

Giselle shows up a bit earlier. Initially, her plans seem to be roughly the same as in canon, but Douglas had let the Marcus thing slip while they were dating, and this becomes more obvious in the season finale. For the her first fight w/the main team (approx mid-season), we again see Sebastian, working with her.

The final episode features the basic og concepts but Leo takes up Daniel's role. Chase and Sebastian have a big fight, Sebastian says some stuff about Chase needing to take everything on his own or calling him a failure, and Adam and Bree jump in, moving Chase over to fight with a different threat. In the battle, we see all three of them coming into their element. Adam shields them from the blows if they can't dodge. Bree goes where she is needed and does whatever works for the moment. Chase gives orders but also moves back to let Adam take over some parts of the fighting while he focuses on defeating something else.

Now that all of the students have been upgraded, they have no more need for mentors. They do, however, still need some training before they can all safely do missions on their own.

Douglas and Donald offer for Adam, Bree, and Chase to get their chips taken out now that they are no longer the only heroes on Earth. It's their chance to live a normal life.

The trio accepts, but keeps the chips safe and intact so if there's ever an emergency, the Lab Rats can help fight it.

Leo is now officially the Bionic Academy's Mission Specialist. He's promoted to 'mentor' level and is to help the entire class work with missions with the kids from his team as assistants. Tasha, Douglas, and Donald are working on an integration program so the kids can juggle normal lives with being superheroes.

Big family hug with all three parents and four siblings.

We see the trio in college.

Adam is baking and a guy near him asks for help in lifting a table. They work together to lift it and while Adam is still clearly pretty damn strong, it's just what his muscles have built up over the years. He trains with 40 pound dumbbells instead of 400 pound ones now and when he slaps one of his bros on the back, the dude only stumbles forward a little bit instead of flying 20 feet into the air.

Bree is running a track meet and in the final stretch, she speeds up just a little and gets second place. She's not bionic anymore, it's all training and the years and years of habitual motion, but no real super speed anymore. He friends run up to her and hug her, all of them from completely different group (cheer, athletics, geeks, several different guys, etc, etc). We see that she's done shoving herself into one box, and all of these different people are smiling with her and hugging her.

Chase is arguing with three other nerds over a giant whiteboard cover in equations. He writes out a new equation and triple-checks it. His writing is slower than before, he can't rely on super intelligence. But their arguing is more for fun than out of genuine hostility, and they all compare notes and grin at each other and Chase might not be the smartest guy in the room anymore, but he's definitely far happier.

In between these scenes, we see Leo at his desk, assigning missions, getting status reports, and answering student questions. A mission goes wrong and he stands up to go rescue them. He doesn't brag or show off, just gives an ETA and sets out. He's now the oldest, the one they all look up to, and it's clear that he's stepped into the role of unofficial leader fairy damn well.

Taylor slides into his spot, but in parallel talking to Douglas about the integration program. The camera pans to show Tasha and Donald arguing over how much work-life balance the students need. It's clear that they all care about each other and want the best for the kids, they just need to hash out the details.

Ik it's not a perfect fix for everything, but I do wish that Lab Rats had either ended on the third season or built up more to actual plot progression for season 4, and this is what I thought would work.

#lab rats #adam davenport #bree davenport #chase davenport #leo dooley #donald davenport #douglas davenport #tasha davenport #tasha dooley #what if

[kagiura-akira]

thibking about the parent AU and I have headcanons but I've been doing a shit ton of technical writing all day (aka my job - im a technical manager for a chemistry lab so I do a lot of report writing, and I wrote a quality event report today that drained my will to live and my ability to adhere to a certain level of grammatical standard).

So here are some thoughts about Kagihira and their daughter for the purposes of further developing my Kagihira parent AU in the form of rambling under the cut

When Asami is old enough to start looking into high schools, Kagi doesn't say it but he keeps slipping brochures for places near home so she doesn't go off to live in the dorms and leave him sad and alone. 🤣 He also isn't ready for his only daughter to experience love at the tender age of 14-15, so when he thinks of the dorms he equates them to a romantic experience for obvious reasons. LOL he knows realistically that he and Hirano were outliers but he's still got his reservations.

He urges her to go to an all girls school because "All boys are animals! I know that much," to which Hirano replies with an obvious "You know that doesn't mean she won't date, right? *Gestures vaguely to the space between himself and Kagi, in reference to their high school romance*

He adds, "She's in junior high in a coed school now. Kids her age are already dating. What difference does it make if she goes to a coed school in high school too?"

To which kagi's heart very nearly stops when he's reminded that kids date in middle school too 🤣

"No... not my baby." 😱

"She's 14, Akira. She's our baby but she's not a baby." 🥱

For as straight laced as he was growing up, Hirano is the most relaxed between the two when it comes to parenting. While neither are strict, she's self-driven much like Hirano, enough that they don't feel the need to hover much. Kagi will always hover when it comes to boys though (not once does it occur to him that he should be looking out for potential love interests of other genders, despite the fact that he's married to a man), and Asami purposefully talks about fictitious boys from her class that she "likes" just because she likes to mess with him.

Asami stopped calling Kagi "Daddy" when she was around 6 or 7. His heart nearly stopped because she started calling him "Dad" instead, but Hirano got to stay "Papa." He cried on Hirano's lap for an hour while hirano read a book (he was definitely listening, yes, what would make anyone think he wasn't?)

They adopted a puppy when Asami was 4 or 5, then a kitten a few months later. I'm not gonna spend too much time dwelling on their names or breeds but they are exactly the same cat and dog dynamic as I described in the kagihira pet analysis post (aka a cat that loves dogs)

Hirano is an aeronautical engineer (in other words, he designs planes).

Kagi has his own physical therapy practice, where most of his patients are professional athletes.

Kagi coaches little league basketball for girls. He hadn't considered it until Asami wanted to join their local basketball club and he had to step in for the previous coach while they were at an away game without a backup, but he ended up liking it. He ended up taking over the job from said coach and does it part time alongside his PT business now. It means he gets home late a lot, but Hirano doesn't mind if it makes both kagi and asami happy to have the chance to bond over basketball.

From the time she was 6 or so, Asami has begged for a younger sibling. "Asa-chan, because both Daddy and Papa are men, that will be a lot harder. We had to go through a lot just to have you." (Asami wasn't adopted - she was an IVF baby so she is blood related to one of them, I just don't want to pick which one because I don't know myself how I'd want that to work really).

They do discuss having another (baby fever, y'know), but I don't have a sibling planned ATM for Asami.

#kagihira parent au

[enthusispastic]

so what do you teach? why did you choose it? how did you get there? what do you love/hate about it? i’m also a teacher (preschool) trying to figure out my path

I currently teach mostly middle school science, though I have also taught high school biology and other life/earth sciences and high school theater and speech. I chose these subjects because I love them deeply. I chose to teach middle school and high school because teenagers are really cool people and working with them is very rewarding to me. They can connect with the subject on a deep and amazing level and can connect between subjects in a really cool way. Plus they're just cool and fun and funny.

I got into teaching in a really conventional way. I went to college for education and got my BS in secondary ed in my subjects. I was already planning to do science, but I got into theater during college and added that one later in my college career. Since I went to a religious school and started my career in religious private school, they had a call/placement program and that's how I got my first job. After stuff at my first school got shitty and we moved back to my wife's hometown, I applied to my current school and got the job because my arts background set me apart for their program (arts integration focus).

I LOVE working with kids. It's an energy drain to be sure, but the everyday functions of teaching lessons, organizing labs, working with students, and heck even grading are all somewhere between fine and awesome. If that was all there was I'd love it. My current school has a huge community of neurodiverse kids and nerds of every stripe and staying connected to a community of young neurodiverse, queer, and artsy nerd kids by default of the job is heartwarming to say the least. I love seeing kids grow, and the "lightbulb" moments almost make me feel like maybe I don't want to quit at the end of this year. But...

I CANNOT continue teaching though, because that's not all there is. Important and necessary functions of the job that are extraneous to classroom teaching pull me down so bad. I can't keep up with lesson plan documentation, differentiation documentation, constant staff meetings, IEP/504 meetings that pull me out of class, curriculum development, politely kissing admin ass (moreso at my last school than current) to keep my job safe, dealing with parent demands and complaints, keeping up school communication culture, preparing materials for various conferences and showcases, attending school events to "support a culture of school spirit" and every other thing that teaching does to eat your life whole. My disability (ADHD) definitely plays a part here, but even if I did have a typical brain, teaching is a career where you have to give up your own life and individuality, and do it for an audience of people who are VERY often not remotely grateful for it, or only performatively grateful one/two weeks per year. Admin and parents all want to tell teachers how to do their jobs despite limited or no experience, and that's another kind of exhausting. Kids may be cool, but they're also people who are learning their social stuff, and a lot of times that means that they don't know how to be kind or respectful or decent to teachers. I try to be patient and respectful about it and guide them to understanding, but through no fault of the kids' that is not something that a teacher can do 5 days a week for months and not feel like we're dying.

Anyway I hope that helps you. It certainly helped me to put it all out there.

#teacher

[gwenstacy-ghostspider]

🥰Crush On The Second Floor🥰

Part 8-20

Summary: You just recently moved to the second floor of an apartment complex. But too much to you're enjoyment Peter Parker...YOUR CRUSH lives in the same apartment complex but a few floors above you.

Extra:

Andrew Garfield Peter Parker in Tom Holland's Peter Parker's living condition. So apartment instead of an actual house.

Reader gender neutral

Heavily edited because the OG draft of this story was with Tom Holland's Peter but I strongly SIMP over Andrew Garfield so changes have been made😌

Tag List:

@paw-sneeze

Okay so after writing that song, put it in your shoebox labelled 'Pretty Boy'. It was just a box filled with polaroid pictures of you and peter along with every cheesy love letter that you failed to give to him. Now going to school whether walking or skateboarding with him and sharing classes with him was harder. You kept getting embarrassed and when that happens you start to smell like flowers. You quickly learned that wasn't the only strange thing happening to you.

You could run really fucking fast like it was inhuman. You noticed that last week when you ran to peter's apartment. You grew fangs when angry that let out a red fluid you assumed to be Venum seeing as it didn't taste like blood and you've gotten agile and flexible, far beyond a normal person's level of flexibility. Not to mention you could smell Peter, and other things too but you mainly just focused on Peter, you just loved how he smelled.

The sweet smell of apple pie, honey, cinnamon, wet earth, peppers, and the smallest bit of roses. A smell you've come accustomed to and adored. You concluded that this was all because of the lab incident. These were all snake characteristics. snakes can go up to 12.5 miles per hour, release a pheromone to attract a mate, have fangs and Venum, and have a unique skeleton. Have you told Peter about these strange things? Yes, well everything but the pheromone thing.

Like why would you tell him that if it would make him realize you love him. You sigh as your inner monologue came to an end. "Are you okay?" Peter spoke up leaning against his locker, with a black eye from his Spider-man business last night. "Y-yeah yeah fine! Was just thinking about the weird things that happen to me.

"Oh, well think of it this way, you are just as cool and odd as your best friend!" You hold back a laugh and Gwen walks up to you both. "Hey Peter, Y/N." she smiled and nodded to you before her attention was back to Peter. "What happened to your eye?" You stiffened up a bit listening to the conversation but stayed out of it. "I-I uh got a rash" Peter spoke nervously. Gwen held her books closer to her chest and looked worried. "Looks pretty bad have you gone to the nurse?" "mm-hmm" Peter nodded.

"Do you like rendzina? A fish." Peter nervously started to nod and just move his head. "mm-hmm, no no I know" You could guess where this was going and slowly started to shut your locker. "Well if you want, you can come to this address at eight o'clock tonight." Peter quickly glanced at you then back to Gwen. "Actually, I was going to Y/N's for dinner. Their mom makes amazing beef stew." Gwen looked at you then back to peter with a smile before nodding. "Oh, okay well you have fun."

She walked away and you looked at Peter. "I don't remember inviting you over." Peter smirked. "Because you didn't I just wanted to come over and hang out with you is that so bad?" You were a bit surprised but smiled at him. "No, just never thought I'd see the day you gave up your crush on the Gwen Stacy." You laughed and peter just looked at you smiling. "Well maybe someone else caught my eye. Anyway, I really just wanted to show you something I found the other day, it belonged to my dad." This piqued your curiosity. "Well, then I look forward to dinner with you Mr Parker." You laughed and waved goodbye to him as you walked to your second period, leaving behind a very happy Peter.

#andrew garfield #andrew garfield peter parker #the amazing spiderman 2 #positive mental attitude #the amazing spiderman #andrew garfield fanfiction #andrew garfield spiderman #ghost spider #peter parker #gwen stacy

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

Since @heinous-bitch was curious about this, and there's nothing I love more than talking, here is some extra info on the state of italian schools, inspired by this post. I'm by no means an expert, just an italian that went to public schools from the age of six up until university. Sorry this took so long, it was kind of hard to organize all of my thoughts in a somewhat coherent way. Under the cut because it got way too long.

First of all, I personally believe that the problems in italian public schools can be boiled down to three main points:

1) Poor planning in public structures

2) Abismal maintenance

3) General lack of care from students as well

(You might notice that I specified public school. Thankfully, Italy has a somewhat robust public school system, meaning that the vast majority of people goes to public schools. For the record, I think the kindergarten situation is more complex and relies on the private sector more, but let's ignore that for this post).

Let's delve a bit more into these points.

1) Things that are bought with public money need to be cheap. And not just as a rule of the thumb, as in "if I need gloves for the hospital lab and I need to pay them with public money, I need to determine the level of quality I need l, and then ask the price to three different industries, and pick whichever is the cheapest". So, the rule is "pick the cheapest as long as the quality is the same" and I believe this applies to entire buildings as well; who gets to build the school/hospital/whatever? Who made the cheapest project. This is useful to avoid things such as "I purposefully picked the more expensive project so that my buddy who works there will be paid more" but, you might guess, makes it more likely to actually get something that is sub par.

2) If it's public, it's probably drowning in paperwork. Italian paperwork/bureaucracy is notoriously hell. Everything is slowed down. You know that gif from The Good Place "it could take between a week and 11 years"? Yeah, that is an accurate representation of the italian experience when it comes to road work, buildings under repair/construction, etc.

3) Idk what it's like in other countries, but (and this is particularly truefor high school students) many kids/teens just do not care about the damage they do. Why should the school waste money fixing the doors of the toilets if students will puch/kick them in again? Or cause burn marks with their cigarettes.

Now that we've discussed the causes, let's talk about their effects in your day-to-day life: is the state of italian schools this bad? Yes and no. And with that I mean that it does sound insane if you tell it to someone who is not used to it, but it mostly just works fine if you're used to it.

My highschool didn't have locks on the toilets' doors. Soap and toilet paper never existed, nor did we have warm water coming out of the faucets. I think the teacher's toiletwas better, but it was locked. Since it was an historical building it was really hard to heat it up, and the windows in my classroom were shit, so I distinctly remember attending lessons in winter with my coat still on and still suffering from the cold (how was that bloody classroom colder than the outside? Idk). But we did have a computer room and even a small café inside the building where you could buy your breakfast/middday snack, so it's not like we were abandoned to the wolves or something.

I'd say high schools have the worst of it because 1) students are now old enough to cause significative damage to it 2) You generally only stay for 4-6 hours every day, so I guess there's less care put into how liveable the space is. My elementary and middle school were better.

But we do have some tragedies. As I was writing this, I tried to find on google an article on a student who died in his high school because part of the ceiling collapsed and he was his by a metal tube.

This particular case turned out to be from 2008, but by googling "ceiling collapse in school" I realized I got plenty of results from all years. Almost none of them are fatal, many don't even result in injuries, but they do happen.

I didn't initially remember what year this story was from, so I googled "ceiling collapse in school" and I realized (with some horror) that I got plenty of results from all years. Almost none of these incidents are fatal, many don't even result in injuries, but they do happen.

Even more shocking, in my opinion, is what happened to the elementary school in Amatrice (central Italy) after an earthquake in 2016

Thank God this happened in the night in the summer, and no one was there.

Students in the university residence in L'Aquila weren't so lucky in 2009.

8 students died here after an earthquake in 2009. Italy is a seismic country that apparently doesn't know how to build anti seismic structures (also filed under: why I'd never in a million years support the creation of nuclear plants in Italy).

But this problem is not only related to schools; basically, Italy is a state that could work wonderfully in theory (public schools! public healthcare!), but not so much in practice. And yes, schools and healthcare should definitely get more funds, but I do not have the knowledge or skills for that discussion.

Italians feel free to add to any point of this.

#Parole al vento #Italian stuff #long post

[firelonewolf]

Irresistible

Summary: basically the reader like Deadpool and Deadshot and well, Deathstroke. Let's just a few tweaks from all of three of them. And let's say Billy Butcher sort of loves the wild card type of woman as well.

Pairing: Billy Butcher x Supe!Reader

A/N: I figured this might be interesting for Butcher to have. Gonna admit, I used google translator for the Arabic. Sorry if it's wrong. Also remember the reader mainly gonna be like Deadpool, you'll have to expect some dirty language! Not mention I had to, because Deadpool's humor hilarious. Originally I had this edited, but Tumblr messed up, again. And I'm too lazy for it.

Being a product of a lab wasn't the best. Besides the point when they decided to throw you in an orphanage. Where you spent your days hating life because no one ever wanted you. Than before you knew it, you ended up being adopted in middle school. All because you picked pocket the wrong person, a man who was blind. His name was Idris Salah a man from Egypt. Little did you know, he knew from being a US Marines before. A lonely man who took it upon himself to spend time with you. Where you learned self defense, he pushed you to use it for good instead of bad. Even made you learned more skills that were useful. You could say he was your father figure.

It should also be mentioned he didn't force religion on you or anything. But Idris wasn't very religious himself either, but was somewhat. He mainly taught you what it was like to have family, hes a good man. A man who's side you still stick with.

Like when both of you found you were a product of Vought, and than when it came out all superheros were made in labs. And you found out you were one of them. Idris was the one who told you it didn't make you any less of who you were. Which was a superhuman. What could you do though?

Well, you had regenerative healing no matter what. But you had low leveled enhancement, with strength, stamina, agility. But you had enhanced eyesight and dexterity and had excellent marksmanship. Skilled with swords. Immunity to diseases and chemicals. Than on top of it you learned Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Urudu and a couple of others. You mainly spoke Arabic with Idris to not lose that.

And ever since you became an adult, things took a different turn. Before you knew it you became a mercenary somewhat. Which lead you ending up working for other people for money. Paying your and Irdis's bills and groceries and saving for his retirement. And than becoming a parent didn't help.

You had a daughter, and you let her stay with her father. He refused to give you full custody knowing what you can do. Her name was Samara, but liked to be called "Ara." She liked being called that for some reason. Perhaps it had a better ring to her? You're not sure but she was one of the most important people to you.

Today was suppose to be the normal. Normal as in do your usual assassinations of who ever. Send a message to whoever. Anything that was scheduled for your job. This who were, nothing else. After dropping Ara at school you headed to the park apparently a client wanted to disgust a business opportunity.

Wearing a dark gray sweater with black pants and boots. With some makeup to your eyes pop out than there was a backpack on your back. Black shades on your eyes. Sitting on park bench leaning your back against it. In the middle of Central Park in early October. Let's say you looked badass even with casual wear, and you bet your ass you knew it too.

Some sat behind you, you could sense it despite your back turned. "Chilly day isn't it?" You hear a feminine voice say. Shrugging your shoulders in response.

"Indeed. Nothing compare to the weather in a few months" you remark glancing around the area. Making sure no one else was around in a earshot.

"Agree. NYC in winter one of the worst places to drive" she remarks back to you. "If I'm correct, your Death Strike correct?" She inquires to you in response. That makes you laugh pulling a cigarette out not lighting it. Just biting down on it still appreciating the ritual.

"One and only" you remark. Touching the paper of the cigarette. Enjoying the taste of non smoked tobacco. Simply enjoying it to remain less stressed at the point. "Have a job for me sweetheart?"

A chuckle came from her at this point. "Madelyn Stillwell CEO of Vought International, and boy, or should I say boys, do I have a job for you. You might like this one than your usual. You interested?" She inquires to you with a grin.

"Is there money involved?" You remark with a smirk.

"Lots of money," she remarks. "Come back to Vought International with me, we'll disgust." Reluctantly you agreed following her as she made casual conversation with you. Soon enough taking off her coat and bringing you to a meeting room.

Never did you expect yourself to be in the Seven's floor, ever. Moving to the meeting room you than spotted the one, the only, Homelander. Scout boy that Vought tried to present to the world, but you knew it was a lie. No one was ever a good two shoes, especially someone with his gifts. Homelander noticed your presence and made eye contact seizing your up. "Makan jamil" you say in Arabic observing the place.

"You speak Arabic too? Your file never said that." Stillwell comments to you.

"Learned it when I was twelve," you remark back. "Let's disgust business. I'll get it done soon a possible," you say to her.

"Wait a minute before we start. You're the mercenary, Death Strike?" Homelander inquires to you making you chuckle.

"Blondie, what did you expect? A man six foot and bald?" You grin in response. Taking the fake cigarette out of your mouth placing it in your pant pocket. "Sorry to be a disappointment."

Homelander flashed his Hollywood in your direction. "Its just, your too pretty to be a mercenary. Figured you to be a model or well, a bartender something more common." He remarks back to you with a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Flattering will get you everywhere" you turned away to hide your smile. "Don't let me deceive you, I'm quite the wild card type" replying to him. This seem to catch his interest.

"I wouldn't underestimate her," Stillwell pipes up. "Shes never missed a shot. Killing her isn't a solution either" she comments. Before her gaze meeting yours. "I've gone through some old Vought files. You were registered under a different name, I believe it was Wilson or something as your surname. Took a while, but you're basically immortal. Regenerative abilities with immunity to many chemicals and diseases. Everything just grows back, like an axolotl. Others think your a psychopath or not mentally all there. Some believe she had the ability to manipulate bullets. Mind telling me that if that's true?" She shrugged your shoulders again that.

"I'm just here for my contract and money. Now who do you want killed?" You remark getting right down to business. "Need guys balls smacked into reality? How about nice bullet to massage their head?" You inquire to them. "Which one, I have a variety options!" Awaiting the answer. Leaning your waist against the table.

Both of them glanced at each other before Homelander leaned forward. "Perhaps for now, I need you to teach a lesson to someone. Someone named William "Billy" Butcher. We want you to send the guy to message, anything of your picking." Butcher, interesting surname in your opinion.

Must've been the temperamental type, it had to be a trait in the family. Why else would there ancestors gain the surname Butcher? "Got it. He should be an interesting one, Butcher. Twist of his balls should turn change his mind about doing whatever hes been doing to piss you off." You remark, "I'll expect the money to be in my account in about let's say, by at least eight tonight. Won't be long before I have him in my sights." You say heading to the elevator of the tower. About to take a turn at the elevator. "Hope I see you around blondie" winking with a charming smile. Leaving knowing you've caught the interest of the American golden boy.

Having fun with it when you could was great. Might as well take advantage make sure your rememberable, and you know you are. Heading out of Vought International you headed straight to be loft. Idris sat in the recliner listening to the radio with his cane by him. "(Y/N)? What took you so long? Actually, I'd figured you be at the bar by now." Idris says not turning his head.

"Oh you know, I had to go tickle someones ball. Had to put my hand to work, give a little anal" you remark. To feel Idris stare and turning to see the expression on his face. "I'm kidding! Had another business opportunity. Have a date with a Mr. Butcher, give him a nice signal maybe convince him to doll himself up for me."

"Sometimes I question why no orphanage doesn't give a receipt" Idris comments to himself.

"Than who would annoy you?" You remark as you grab your suit and mask and weapons. Only to hear the remark of a annoyed sigh from Idris. "I'll be back" you say to mimick Arnold Schwarzenegger from Terminator. It only takes a few minutes to get the suit on and the weapons.

Your suit was a body tactical that had two colors on it in general. That had gloves and boots that went well, a friend name Ferret designed it. Your suit mostly had a scheme that matched the color of Mars which is an iron oxide color. With some orange on it and dark black on it. Mostly having a belt around you holding your handguns. Than two wakizashi. Let's say your suit matched a certain mercenary that didn't want to join the boy band of the X-men and a hitman part of a Suicide Squad. But you know one thing for sure, you're more badass than those two. Than your mask was plain with those schemes with eye shaped holes. On your right eye was a red scope. Gadgets were even on your belt, that should be mentioned.

Grabbing your backpack with a sniper slinging it on your back. Than hid a knife in your boot just in case. Heading out you called a favorite Uber driver of yours, his name is Deshpande. Why was he your favorite? He never questioned why you had these weapons. Simply drove while making casual conversation.

And let me tell you, this guy was epic for an average joe! As you waited on the sidewalk to see the usual little green car pull up. Getting in the passenger seat of the car. "Hello Deshpande" you say at the scrawny man beside you in the driver seat.

"Hello Ms. Strike, how is your day?" He says as he begins to drive.

"Oh, you know the usual. New job, but today I just have to make a guy shit his pants and its over and done with." You casually say sitting back into the seat. "How was your day?"

"Well my girlfriend is great. She keeps pressuring me to get a haircut" he comments. To where you pull out your found watching the red dot that you've gotten on your target. "She thinks my hair is too long. But other than that things have been great!" He comments with a bright smile.

"Oh! So my advice worked from last time. Told you so" you lightly push him. "Your too cute to resist for her." You remarked to him proudly.

"I am very grateful for your assistance Ms. DS," he remarks back. "My girlfriend and I have been happy ever since I threatened my romantic rival. And I scared him away from ever contacting her," he says with a complete innocent smile. Yes, you gave him advice to terrorize the fellow away, but it worked in his favor. Not like either one of you cared though, not like anyone would stop you.

"I'm so proud of you. I feel like a parent, well I am one. But one towards my own son!" You say with your hand over your heart. A little tear slipped out from under your suit. Than he pulled up to two buildings with an alleyway in between each. "Okay, Deshpande, I need you to wait here. Because I'll need a ride back, and I will give you the money for being my getaway driver and all. Wait here, and do not panic. Be back in a sec!" You cheerfully say before exiting the car. Than climb up on the roof of one building. Sitting down you sit above the alleyway and take your sniper out. Than glance at your phone to see a transaction of around 1,000,000 added to it. With a smirk you relax and adjust your gun in the right position.

While waiting you begin to whistle a song like a bird casually. Than spot a group of men walking out into the alley. "Butcher would you just listen!?" One muscular says trailing after the guy with the long jacket and dark hair.

"Give me a good reason why!" He remarks back in a rough accent. You had to admit, he's cute. And than that accent was the icing on the cake! It was like magic to you. Good thing you didn't have to kill the guy. Beginning to aim you targeted his shoulder and steadied yourself at the target. As they continued on rambling your finger snaked to the trigger. Than at the open opportunity you shot and moved fast. Slinging the sniper around you and racing to the direction of Deshpande and using rope to go down to the ground. Cussing could be heard as you raced to the car.

Deshpande surprised at you holling ass into the car, once you got in stepped on it. Amused you laughed still hearing cussing from the target. But it didn't mean they didn't see you. Kimiko ended up on the roof where you were before, and searched the area. Hughie on the other hand was flipping out while Frenchie was trying to apply pressure on the wound. From the bullet hole it was deep but not deep enough for fatal damage. Blood was covering the shirt though and jacket.

MM raced to find any sign of the car he heard racing away. But that was merely only a couple of hours ago. Frenchie managed to get the bullet out and they cleaned Billy's wound. Billy on the other hand was furious, whoever this person it must've been from the cunts at Vought. Particularly Homelander sending him a message. He immediately was out on a hunt despite the protest of Hughie trying to reason with them. That perhaps Vought forced you to do this, Butcher thought otherwise. A inside job like this was a willing one, if they really wanted someone forced it would've been Black Noir who did it.

Nah, you agreed to it willingly for the money they gave you. And you must've known something about them, he wanted to find out. So when Billy a couple days later found out where he could find you, he took the opportunity. Now he figured whoever this guy was, he was gonna beat them up than get answers. It had to be a guy named Wade or Lloyd some douchebag name like that.

Walking in the bar it was partly empty but somewhat not. Light music played in the background as he walked in. Guys at the bar smoked and talked amongst themselves. Cigarettes filled the air as he began to glance around the area. For some reason he was expecting the guy to show up any time. As he leaned his side into the bar table a the bartender glanced at him. It was some tall guy with long hair and a beard but nerd looking. He also had glasses with somehow a nerdy style. "Give me a scotch will you?" He says to the bartender.

In the corner he spotted a woman. Wearing a dark orange fleece with white fur and long diem skirt and a plain cream fleece shirt could be seen. Than a pair of matching light brown boots. Her hair was (y/h/l) that was (y/h/c) it was a nice style on her, she rocked it better than most woman, well some looked great with it but she owned it in his eyes. Butcher watched as she threw darts at he board all without having to pause for a brief moment. Each one seen out of instinct and well lots of practice.

One last dart glided through the air and hit the center of the dart bored. Chugging the rest of your margarita and took the darts down before heading to bartable. "Instead of a margarita make it something different, surprise me." You remark to the bartender.

"I'm surprised your not a drunk by now" he comments.

"Ferret, my dear good friend, alcohol doesn't affect me and we know this. Not like it could kill my liver either" you remark. Taking the cigarette that was on your ear off of it.

"Right, sort of unfair though. Anyway drink coming up!" He says turning away to make a mixture. You put the cigarette in your mouth and dig in your pocket for the lighter. Than bring it to the tip of the orange strip of it. With a click you attempt to light to which it doesn't after a few tries.

"Im 'arghab fi altadakhiyn ealaa 'ayi hal" you mutter to yourself tossing the lighter in your pocket.

"Need a light, love?" You suddenly hear than turned to see the guy from a couple of days ago, Butcher. What a coincidence, especially since you admitted to yourself you found the target attractive. Did he know who you were? Probably not, no one ever really knows. Taking the cigarette out you keep it tucked between your fingers out to him. He lites it to which you bring it to your lips.

Puffing out a small cloud of smoke soon enough. "Thanks" you remark to him. "I don't really smoke often so I forget to refuel my lighter," you say before placed in front of was your drink. A nice from what it smelt like an New Zealand beer before tasting it.

"No problem," he remarks back to you. "What was that you were speaking? I don't recognize it." He comments facing forward.

"Arabic" you answer. "My adoptive father speaks it, he taught me that." You comment taking in a bit of the cigarette before bellowing the smoke out.

"Really? Must be a swell guy."

"He is for a sassy old man." You remark back in a chuckle. To which Butcher also chuckles at also.

"Billy Butcher, and you are?" He inquires to you.

"Margot Robbie" you remark with a smirk. Than see his facial expression full of disbelief at that. A laugh escapes you, than stop "kidding. Its (Y/n)," you say with a shit eating grin on your face.

"Lovely name" he remarks.

"I suppose." You remark back him. "So" you pause than bit your lip a bit "come here often?" A laugh croaked out the man with an accent.

"Not really, waiting for someone." He remarks back to you.

"Oh?" You say already knowing the answer. With your other hand snaking away and reach near your knife hidden. "May ask whom?" You inquire to him. Attempting to hide your grin and remain serious.

"Some guy who shot me. Found intel that he'll be here any second" he says not paying attention to your expression. Biting your tongue, not too hard to keep a laugh from breaking out. "Wait I until I punch the cunt in the face for the damage he's caused."

He thinks your a man? Why does everyone think your a man? Is this considered sexist or just someone boldly assuming without considering? Did you look guy with a suit on? How the heck was this happening? You'd think they'd thought they'd remember some hot chick like yourself. Oh well, it's easier to deceive them this way. "He must've really made it on your shit list for you want to find him." You comment still trying to hide your smirk from emerging.

"The cunt shot me and ran off" he retorts back. Cunt? He really favored that word apparently, but hey, you've been called worst. "Coward, that's what he wants. And he missed! What a lousy shot. What a bad hitman." He remarks back to which that clicked for you. Immediately snaking your blade out you held it against his throat. Taking in a big sip from your drink finishing it before placing it back down.

Keeping a grip on your knife and put your cigarette in the near ashtray. "I never miss" you darkly comment. "I meant to shoot your arm. To left where purposely missed a major artery an your broken. Could've given you a fatal injury to where a surgeon would have to repair that bone of yours." You explained slyly with a dark glint your eyes. Yeah, this guy was cute but you wouldn't let him down talk you. From how close you were without realizing it, Billy could smell your shampoo and conditioner. Milk and honey scented it over took you entirely making you smell sweet. "By the way, I'm actually a mercenary. I only do a few hitman jobs" you say. Turning your gaze to him to where your eyes met. "But it's not my fault you ended up on my naughty list" you comment.

"I knew you were a girl" he says with a grin. "Rough childhood, love? Oh right, you answered it already. Orphans always have problems, huh? What did mommy and daddy go out for milk?" He says trying to set you off, which your sure is the last thing he wanted to experience.

"They dropped me off at a fire station after trying to leave me high and dry at an hospital. A firetruck almost ran me over, and a homeless man almost peed on me" you remark.

"(Y/n)" Ferret says giving you a look. "If your gonna fight this guy take it outside this time, please? You have that crazed look in your eye, it makes me nervous. Its like for me seeing a bull head to the China shop" he comments. Casually just standing there behind the bartable.

"It'll be fine" you remark back. "I'll be gentle" you reply.

"You talkative, huh? If only I could sow your pretty little mouth shut." He remarks to you that makes you chuckle.

"They've already tried that with someone liked me" before clicking your tongue "it didn't go well." You comment with a light shrug of your shoulders.

"Highly doubt that" he remarks. "It should of been a field for them!" He grins to you.

"Perhaps if you like a sucky movies" you sarcastically say. "The movie was awful" you remark. "Anway, I have way better things to do than sit here and argue with you, Butcher. Lovely accent though!" Before wiping out a fuzzy pair of cuffs. "Don't judge me either" before cuffing him to the bartable with his left wrist. Stepping back off of the bar stool and dropping a few dollar bills for Ferret. "Don't you look lovely with fuzzy leopard printed cuffs!" You grin highly amused at this. To meet the grumpy face of the English accented man.

"You fucking cunt" he growls at you.

"I know honey, I'm great. Catch you on the flip side Billy" you tapped his nose with your finger. "Your adorable by the way" with a cocky smirk overtaking your face. Before walking out with a howl of laughter as you leave the bar. Oh, Billy wanted payback, but at the same time he was sort found you interesting despite the chatterbox in you.

___

When Billy tracked you down once more his blood was pumping. Excitement was sort of in him as at the thought of catching you. Despite most of the other members of the Boys thinking it was over between you two, they didn't know about Billy's slight interest in you. Part of him denied it but found it utterly thrilling the dynamic between you two. Sort of like messing with a forest fire, it was hot and it'll spread but he wanted to fan the flames. Hughie was confused when he saw the sudden spark in Butcher, but didn't figure it out what could cause it. Billy was quick to leave without a second word when he came across something on his laptop.

Soon enough he was dashing out with his heart pumping wildly. Going to the location given he was surprised to end up at some random place. An apartment building? What could you possibly be doing here? He would've head in until he saw a guy fly out. There you were a tight leather orange outfit that outlined your curves. Your hair was pulled back in a ponytail and your mask was up resting on your head. In your hand was a pepperoni pizza with a lot of cheese on it. "You know Dick, ha I can never get over that nickname. Dick. Just so funny," you say almost taunting manner as you walk to the guy on the ground. "I've heard of stalkers before, but your something else. Kiddnapping some poor lady dog! You monster." You crouch in front of him still munching on the pizza. "All because she said no to getting in your car. Aww, what stupid things we do when were young" you grin. "Listen here bub, I'm not here to kill you, unless Kiu calls it. But what I will tell you, since she said no blasting your brains out, I'm gonna do one simple thing. Wanna know?" You inquire with a grin. Shaken the guy let's out a whimper at this side of you. You pull out a knife and direct it at his family jewels. "I will cut off your manhood if I had to, but since she was generous to you, I'll let you go." Moving the knife away the guy was about to run before directed it at his Adam apple. "But know this, if Kiu calls me again about a pest problem, I will not hold back next time. Got it?" You say to just than finish your pizza but still hold a threatening manner in your eyes. The guy nods before you stand up. "Scram, before I change my mind. And give the dog back!" Quickly seeing the guy sprint to car and drive away fast.

Pulling the mask back on you dust your glove off and begin to walk away. Billy was surprised by this, your a mercenary but not only that a person with a heart. From what it hes just seen you protected a young woman from a crazed stalker apparently. Did you do these things often? He shook his head at it though. Now was the time to get you. You weren't paying attention until you were tackled to the ground.

About to fight the person off your wrist were grabbed and slammed to the ground. Than met the cocky grin of Billy fucking Butcher. "Hello love" he remarks back.

Smirking you held back a giggle but if peeked out a bit. "Man, this sucks. I usually prefer being on top," you say with a cocky grin. Billy was quick to grab you by the throat and slam you against the wall. "Kinky." You comment with a shit eating grin. "Could you go a little harder, can't you daddy?" Fake moaning at this predicament you've ended up in.

"For such a pretty face you have its hard not want to punch your fucking lights out" he remarks back to you.

"Trust me, pretty sure you'd love to see my lights get brighter" you remark back.

"In your dreams" he remarks back. "How much did Vought pay you for your hit? Did they know you missed my head?" He inquires to you.

"They paid me a million. All for you to mind your own dang business" you remark back. Than noticed the rain gutter pipe. "Nothing more than that handsome" you grin at the idea entering your head.

"Really? That's it?" He says unimpressed.

"What did you expect from them? There trying to play nice. But hey, I didn't care at first about the job. Than they mentioned money, and well money a nice thing to have to pay bills, you know?" You say preparing legs. "Still glad I didn't have my bullets kiss your brain either, darling." With still a cocky grin wiped on your face. "I really appreciate this cat and mouse dynamic between us. It's sort too irresistible to resist, well like me."

"Really? I think someone like yourself more likely has a thing for being tied up." He says with a victorious grin at you as if he won. You bucked your hips which caught him off guard. Than you kneed him in the junk and punched him across the face. Your hair that was tied in a ponytail fell apart partly getting your face. Than you took a grappling hook and tied his hands to the rain gutter pipe out. Tying his hands to the back of his head to it enough to where he could sit at least. Laughing at this defeat you take his phone and snap a picture of him. "Hey! What do you think your doing?" He inquires to you. Than your quick to send it to recent contact which is marked as Hughie.

"And frankly, I think you have a thing for being tied up in particularly by me" you remark tossing the phone by his knee. Than kneel in front of him. "But who doesn't after all?" You shrugged before packing his cheek and turned on your heels and pull your mask on. "Can't wait until the next time you find me again!" You wave with the back of your hand. Laughing to yourself as you saw Deshpande pulling up in his car. "Hataa almarat alqauidmat, eazizi!" Billy couldn't believe he ended up in this situation again. To think he had you, but fell for your charm, but he couldn't help it, it was hypnotic. Like a drug, but he couldn't wait to chase you down again.

#the boys amazon #homelander #the boys #billy butcher #frenchie #mothers milk #the boys season 2 #black noir #billy butcher x reader #starlight x hughie #hughie campbell #x reader

[dannyphantom-rewrite]

Character ref for; Jack, Maddie and Jazz,

Art by @gally-hin / @gally-hin-phantom

Okay so first off; in terms of Actual redesign, I didn't change a whole lot. I'm actually very fond of Jack and Maddie's design's, my only real issue was with their proportions. Like...look as a lady person who is also thiCC I do not have a fucking wasp thin waist and I'm sure I'm not the only one, lmao. As for Jack? Godamnit he looked like a brick on toothpicks. Just Let him be a fucking Bara man! Anyway of course I asked Gally to do this one bc they're fucking great at drawing different body types

I also cannot and will not take credit for Jazz's outfit. I didn't have any issue with her canon clothes aside from them being a bit plain, so what she's wearing here was literally pulled straight off of her original concept art, which I will link here.

Anyway, getting to the Actual character lore now, let's start with

Maddie Fenton

-Full name is Madeline (I haven't decided on a maiden name yet)

-Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, had a southern accent that she trained herself out of in college bc it was just one more reason for people not to take her seriously. Still sometimes uses "y'all" completely unironically bc old habits die hard.

-She has a really big family, and they're proud of her accomplishments but feel like she's wasting her talent studying ghosts, because really, up until the Fenton portal was up and running there wasn't even any solid proof they existed. Her sister Alicia is the one outlier there, and even if she doesn't understand, it she completely supports her.

-She majored in engineering and minored in psychology at Wisconsin EDU. Her, Jack and Vlad were all in the same engineering class, and that's where they met.

-Maddie is particularly interested in how ghosts think, analysing their behavior, their motives. Not only that, but they aren't just dead people with unfinished business, they've built an entire culture in the Ghost Zone that is completely seperate from humanity, and she wants to understand all of it.

-skilled marksman and 9th degree black belt, (which is. The highest fucking level there is holy shit? I looked it up after I saw it on her wiki page.)

Jack Fenton

-He's from Minnesota (Amity park is in Illinois and him and Maddie didn't move there until after they got married) 

-okay, "but why minnesota specifically" you ask? Because. I crave. Foot ball discourse. 

-minnesota vikings vs green bay packers guys do you UNDERSTAND WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS 

-The funny thing is that Jack only watches football casually while Vlad is a fucking die hard so when these two got together to see a game it was like....

-Jack: Here to chill and have a good time.

-Vlad: Primed and ready to start a fist fight at any given moment.

-I am never not going to be salty about how Canon Jack was portrayed like a complete moron 99% percent of the time. Like no...theres a difference between Actual Stupid and ADHD induced dumbass-ery.

-Am I saying Jack Fenton has ADHD? Yes. why? Because I also have ADHD and I have always vibed So Hard with his Character.

-Jack is loud and easily excited about things that interest him. He's impulsive and fidgety and yeah, a bit absent minded. He has a mouth that clearly runs so much faster than his head. His train of thought doesn't get derailed so much as it stops and takes several different detours on the way to it's final destination.

-and that's only the tip of the iceberg, really, I'd need an entire essay to get into this completely, but I just really relate.

-Jacks skill-set / interests regarding ghosts vary a bit from Maddie's, most notably in the sense that he doesn't believe that they're static entities already set in their ways, completely incapable of change.

-Jack majored in engineering and minored in Biology at Wisconsin EDU.

-Jack's work with tech is a bit hit or miss. He definitely HAS the engineering skills, but the intrest isn't always there and he's constantly jumping back and forth between different projects. He tends to focus on the concept work and schematics and leave most of the assembly to Maddie as a result. It's an arrangement that works well for them, and has drastically decreased the number of unintentional explosions in the lab.

-A lot of Jack's work tends to revolve around ghostly biology and Ectoplasm, figuring out how ghosts are made, what makes them tick, what the hell Ectoplasm Actually Is, how it's used as an energy source, ect.

-and yes, that does also mean he handles the dissections.

-See that facial scar? Yeah, that's not actually there at the start of the series rewrite but it's very important for plot reasons so I had to include it. Can't say much more on the subject because SPOILERs owo.

Jasmine Fenton

-Jazz is a 18 years old, and a senior at Casper high.

-Which means she prepping to go away to college and won't be around to keep an eye on Danny.

-Obviously that doesn't mean I'm just writing her out of the story, oh no. Know why? Because she's also gonna go to Wisconsin EDU. ya know who else is in Wisconsin? Fuckin' Vlad.

-Jazz is autistic, Although she passes for neurotypical in part due to symptoms being completely over looked in girls due to gender stereotyping and also the fact that she doesn't have any special interests that are considered " "too weird.""

- Her hyperfixation with psychology started at a young age in an effort to better understand people, and social/emotional cues and all that.

-Jazz is well liked at school but she's not popular or apart of any specific group or clique. She's very kind and compassionate to people, and just about everyone knows her, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually Considered her a friend. Except maybe Spike.

-I'm gonna have to give spike his own Character ref at some point, but he's this scary looking goth kid that's been held back twice. He's actually super sweet, just really fuckin' quiet and anxious. Him and jazz kinda ended up gravitating towards each other. She might do most of the talking, but they look out for each other.

-its not like jazz doesn't try to socialize, but it's difficult and she's found it much easier and less stressful to just. Keep to herself and let her interactions with her peers stay shallow and superficial. Sure, it's lonely sometimes but it's better than constantly worrying about saying the wrong thing or making some other misstep.

-One of Jazz's other special interests is football, and it's not so much the players or the game as it is the strategy of it? Started out as one of those things you do to bond with your dad, and she ended up getting really into it.

-She absolutley winds up getting into stupidly intense discussions with Vlad about it, too, lmao.

-Her and Danny probably bonded over SBNation bc that shit has both sentient satellites and ridiculously complex football mechanics.

-She's completely oblivious to the fact, but Dash has a massive crush on her bc holy shit this girl understands football (hey bud your toxic masculinity is showing put that shit away)

-I mentioned that Danny was in Cheer for a bit in middle school so it makes sense that she'd also be pushed into doing some kind of extracurricular activity.....so.....she was in a martial arts class for a bit thanks to Maddie and has a good grasp on self defense.

I think that's everything? I feel like I'm leaving things out tho? Idk if I did I'll come back and add on to this later and also pls don't hesitate to ask questions bc it really helps me flesh things out better.

#danny phantom #art #danny fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #ref

[grizzs-garden]

Seeing as I totally failed, and asked you for someone you had already done... :)) I'd love to see you answer for both Clark and Gwen?

Of course! Get ready for a long post!

----------

Why I like them:

Clark -- liking Clark is of course complicated, cause he was kind of this problematic goofy footballer white boy in the beginning, which is admirable in the sense of comedic relief. But then he goes off the deep end (like most white boys in the show jfjskdkd). I just like his interactions with the guard from the beginning of the season for the most part.

Gwen -- to be completely honest I don't like Gwen too much. I think she's strong-willed, which is admirable, and she knows how to cheat the system to get what she wants (pretending to still date Clark in order to have her own room). She's got some smarts in how to get her way, which can be both a good and bad thing.

Why I don't like them:

Clark -- The first time I thought "huh maybe this dude is serious bad news" was when he beat Dewey in the wine cellar. I don't like how violent and power hungry he can be. The once blissful, likable idiot turned into an ignorant, violent asshole pretty quick.

Gwen -- I never really liked the whole "boy-crazy" thing, especially the FMK with someone else's boyfriend?? Anyway I think she's just got a lot of girl drama that I don't care for at all.

Favorite episode:

Clark -- Episode 5 "Putting on the Clothes" is my favorite for him not only because it has the famous raid scene but because it has the scene where he beats Dewey. As much as I hate him for it, that scene reveals a lot about Clark's character and foreshadows his power hungry, defy-the-rules-to-get-what-I-want attitude.

Gwen -- Episode 10 "How it Happens" because it has the scene where she talks with Grizz in his tent during the expedition. Although her motivations were not ideal, they actually both shared some much needed vulnerability with each other. She's not in the series much so it's hard to pick out a favorite episode for her, but I think that's the one.

Favorite season: last time I interpreted this as favorite scene because we only have one season, so I'll pick a scene they're both in! I've always really liked the scene where Clark and Gwen are walking Elle home from movie night and Clark tries to quote Princess Bride (and fails miserably). I've just always liked Clark's goofy "My name... is Undigo Montoya...." and Gwen's laughter with "that's not how it goes!" (even if Campbell has to ruin it be being possessive over Elle).

Favorite line:

Clark -- ok to be honest I don't remember much of what he's said but there's a scene that's giffed somewhere on here where he and Jason are arguing with Grizz about being in charge. He says something like, "We got ideas." To which Jason says, "We do?" And Clark corrects, "We could have ideas." And I've just thought that's one of his many stupid/funny quotes. I never remember anything serious he's said cause tbh its probably mostly problematic.

Gwen -- this is hard cause she doesn't really say much. I think I'm going to go with the line she says at the end of her scene with Grizz in his tent. It's something like, "Well, I'm still cold and lonely. Can I stay?" I think it just speaks volumes about acceptance and shows that Gwen is really just lonely and needs someone to count on and make her feel safe.

Favorite outfit:

Clark -- I dont know why but I think he especially looks like such a dork in that letterman's jacket. I mean yeah they all look kinda funny in them but he especially makes it look dorky. There's also a photo out there from the prom episode where he's got a blue clown wig on and it's quite the fashion statement.

Gwen -- I really like her prom outfit! It's a good color on her and the skirt has a nice floral print. I don't often like florals but she looks cute in it.

OTP: I don't really have an otp for either of them?? Generally because they were dating each other and kept their break up a secret.

Brotp:

Clark -- well obviously Jason. They're like tweedledee and tweedledum. They share half a brain cell. They are the ultimate brotp.

Gwen -- probably Grizz. She's the only person he's confided in with his sexuality (besides Sam). On the same level, he's the only person she's the least bit vulnerable with in the whole show, so I think they could be good friends.

Headcanon:

Clark -- His best classes in high school were science classes! He might've needed some help with the math portions, but he rocked the hell out of labs (even if he refused to wear safety goggles properly).

Gwen -- She's actually really nice and sweet if you make an effort to get to know her. She puts up and icey front to protect aspects of herself she's self-conscious about, but if you make an effort to be her true friend, she'll opens up with time. It's just that she's afraid of sincerity, but once you've gotten past that, she's really a good friend.

Unpopular opinion: I'm sorry but they're both exactly the type of people I would hate if they went to my school. If I saw Clark and Gwen in person, I would despise them on a surface level. It's just that they both hold morals that are not even close to those that I agree with. Seeing them on screen is different because I appreciate them as characters and can dissect them through analysis, but if I saw them in person I'd probably steer clear in the nicest way possible.

A wish:

Clark -- for Clark I wish a major redemption arc. I know he's been kind of a jerk from the beginning but I want him to realize that he doesn't have to be in power to get treated like someone with a brain. Because we joke about these guys being idiots but I think, given the opportunity, they could come up with good ideas an solutions to problems.

Gwen -- for Gwen I wish she would realize that she doesn't need a boyfriend or a hookup to feel good about herself. I think a lot of her personality is stored within being with a man and I just want her to find out that life isn't all about having a romantic/sexual partner.

Oh God please dont.... let Clark go too off the deep end I want my nice goofy guard back goddammit.

Oh God please dont.... make Gwen a villain of any kind?? She doesn't deserve that.

5 words to describe them:

Clark -- Goofy but dangerously power hungry.

Gwen -- hides behind romance, very lonely.

Nickname:

Clark -- I just call him by his name most times. I do like his last name (Beecher) though. Also my dog's brother's name is Clark so there's that.

Gwen -- again I just call her by her name. It makes me think of Queen Guinevere though, so her name sounds very royal to me.

#clark beecher #gwen patterson #the society #maddie replies #evendeathgiveslife #ask game #wow that took forever sorry for the wait! #thanks for asking!

[xtruss]

Biden Poised to Repeat Mistakes that Led to COVID Pandemic, Biosecurity Experts Say

— By Fred Guterl | 08/18/21 | Newsweek

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NEWSWEEK; SOURCE IMAGES BY GETTY

The COVID-19 pandemic may have made a future pandemic more likely. In a terrible irony, nations eager to get a handle on the virus and its variants are building high-containment laboratories at a brisk pace, ensuring that more scientists continue to experiment on dangerous pathogens even after the current threat fades—increasing the likelihood of future lab accidents that could release dangerous pathogens. Regardless of whether the current pandemic got its start in a laboratory in Wuhan or in animals—a mystery that may never be resolved—the mere fact that it's possible is reason enough to take precautions against any future occurrence, biosecurity experts say.

"Without a doubt, COVID-19 has changed the threat landscape," says Peggy Hamburg, former FDA commissioner and now vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonpartisan think tank on global security.

Yet despite the rising risk of a new, future pandemic caused by a lab leak—or one that emerges from a bioterrorist attack or even natural causes, for that matter—the U.S. government, under the leadership of Joe Biden and Congress, seems on course to repeat the mistake made by nearly every one of its predecessors for the past several decades: failing to take all possible steps to strengthen America's response to a future pandemic or prevent one from happening in the first place.

One year ago, as SARS-CoV-2 raged through an unprotected population and vaccines were still months away from authorization, workers were wondering how they'd protect themselves through the long winter months and parents were fretting over how they'd hold down a job while their kids stayed home all day learning in front of a laptop. Now, despite the widespread availability of vaccines, the surge in COVID cases due to the Delta variant is raising fears and uncertainties about the prospects of a second pandemic winter among a war-weary public.

The upside of a nation of people bummed out about new mask mandates and public health restrictions for another school year is a rising understanding of how much pandemics suck and how important it is to prevent them. With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still in full swing, public awareness should be at a historic high. One poll, by the progressive group Data for Progress, shows that 71 percent of the public—including 60 percent of Republicans—supports a $30 billion pandemic-prevention plan recently floated by President Biden.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with senators earlier this year to discuss the infrastructure bill, which did not contain funding for the president’s pandemic prevention plan. DOUG MILLS/POOL/GETTY

The White House's plan hits the right notes. It would improve response time to develop therapeutics and vaccines, beef up the national stockpile and tighten regulations on risky lab research. But just because Biden proposed it doesn't mean Washington politicians are tripping over themselves to implement it. The bipartisan infrastructure package did not include funding for the plan, and it's not clear the $3.5 trillion spending bill that Democrats hope to pass without Republican support will include that money, either—Democrats are reportedly considering paring down funding to 20 percent of the original proposal. On this omission, Biden has so far been silent.

Having resources to regulate hazardous research may be critical. "The discussions about the Wuhan lab underscore that this is a theoretically plausible risk—that there could be a global pandemic that emerges because of work going on in a laboratory," says Dr. Hamburg. "We may never know the origins of this particular virus, but it shines a very bright light on the need to address some broader, very critical biosecurity concerns."

Former FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg, who says, “COVID-19 has changed the threat landscape.” ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG/GETTY

Slow Learners

Keeping the world safe from deadly pathogens isn't something the U.S. can do alone. But the top levels of the executive branch need to ride herd on the disparate departments and agencies of the federal government to prevent a crisis and respond when one occurs.

Past presidents have learned and unlearned this lesson many times. President Bill Clinton appointed a team headed by Kenneth Bernard, a medical doctor and rear admiral, to the National Security Council in 1998. Bernard's office helped coordinate the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis and was instrumental in establishing a national stockpile of vaccines against smallpox, neutralizing the smallpox virus as a potential bioweapon. But George W. Bush eliminated the office early on, only to reverse course after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when anthrax-laden envelopes started arriving in the mailboxes of prominent politicians and media organizations. A year or so later, Tom Ridge, head of the newly formed Department of Homeland Security, brought Bernard back as part of a five-person White House biosecurity team.

The H1N1 influenza pandemic arrived in the early days of the Obama administration, before Kathleen Sebelius could be confirmed as head of HHS. As a result, it was criticized for being slow in developing a vaccine and for its public health messaging. The mildness of the H1N1 virus let the Obama administration off the hook.

Still, when the Ebola crisis arrived in 2014, the Obama White House was caught flat-footed. After being criticized for a slow response, Obama tapped Ron Klain, former chief of staff to vice-presidents Biden and Al Gore—and now to President Biden—to take a high-profile role coordinating the U.S. Ebola response.

A plan is vitally needed to stave off another epidemic, like Ebola (pictured), experts say. JOHN MOORE/GETTY

Klain coordinated the disparate departments and agencies of the federal government. The White House ultimately sent thousands of troops to the front line of the epidemic in West Africa to help contain the outbreak. "I was brought in not because I knew about public health or pandemics but because I had experience in making the different arms of the government work together and making them work effectively and quickly," Klain told Wired in 2015. "That really was the challenge—coordinating between the different agencies.

That lesson was codified after the crisis was over by a junior member of the White House staff named Beth Cameron, who helped draft the Obama playbook for use in future pandemics. Among its recommendations: Create a permanent pandemic office in the White House's National Security Council—a pandemic czar who would sound the alarm about a biological threat long before most White House officials, distracted by myriad day-to-day problems, would typically notice, and then wield the enormous power of the office of the president to force the vast federal bureaucracy to focus on an invisible threat and take swift action.

Obama followed this advice, appointing Admiral Timothy Ziemer, a veteran of AIDS and malaria programs in Africa. Ziemer stayed through the first half of the Trump administration only to be fired in 2018 by John Bolton, the new national security adviser. Bolton disbanded the staff and shifted responsibility for coordinating pandemic response to HSS.

When news of COVID-19 started coming in from China in early 2020, there was no pandemic czar on the White House staff to galvanize the pandemic response or point out how important it was to push China to be more forthcoming with information on the outbreak's origins. "The problem with Bolton eliminating the office was not so much that he disbanded the team but that he fired the pandemic czar," says Bernard. "If you can't advocate for an issue with the boss with a walk-in-the-office mandate, then you are, by definition, lower priority."

Ziemer insists that Bolton's reorganization made sense but allows that a pandemic czar would have helped. "Had I been there," he says, "I'd have been pounding on [chief of staff] Mick Mulvaney's desk saying I needed $8 million to fund this team."

Biden acted quickly upon taking office to correct this omission. He appointed Cameron, the author of the pandemic playbook that Bolton ignored, as head of the National Security Council Directorate on Global Health Security and Biodefense. Cameron is charged with establishing a U.S. center that will act as an early-warning system for disease outbreaks, reduce the time that it takes the government to respond to new biological threats and to review "the existing state of our biodefense enterprise and [determine] where gaps remain," according to a senior government official at the White House. "We must urgently prepare for and ultimately try to prevent the next pandemic by strengthening biopreparedness at home, bolstering health security in every country, and building the international pandemic architecture we need to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to emerging biological threats." (Cameron declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Biden gets high marks for his appointment of Cameron from Bernard and Ziemer. "It shows that the Biden administration gets it," Ziemer says. Gerald Epstein, a physicist who worked in national security in the Clinton administration, says "the White House has hit the ground running and has great people." He calls the Biden plan "ambitious."

The pandemic czar now faces a daunting task. She will have to find a way to effectively regulate the most risky research performed in the U.S. labs and those financed by the U.S. government, many of which take place abroad. And she will have to push to get the commitment of other nations to follow suit and to agree on international mechanisms to monitor for outbreaks and investigate them once they occur.

What to Do About Risky Lab Research

Scientists and policymakers have been issuing warnings of the risk of a pandemic starting with a lab accident for many years. The history of accidents in U.S. labs that perform research with dangerous pathogens, with poor safety practices and minimal oversight, has been well documented.

Cracking down on this research will be tricky, not least because the federal government is not in the habit of policing the work of research virologists, who in turn are understandably reluctant to be policed. For the vast majority of research, this is not a problem. For a tiny portion of research, it is—and all it takes is one incident to start a pandemic.

In recent months, the argument over whether the pandemic started with a lab leak or arose naturally from animals has taken on the characteristics of a schoolyard shouting match—two sides each insisting they're right on the basis of little or no evidence. We may never have clear evidence either way.

Settling the matter would require the discovery of compelling new information—either a genetic trail from bats to humans via some intermediate mammal—a so-called zoonotic origin—or lab notes and interviews with researchers and other employees of the Wuhan laboratories, which could happen only in the event that those records have been retained and that China chooses to cooperate, or copies of those records exist at the Wuhan lab's U.S. collaborators, funders or publishers and that the U.S. chooses to investigate. The 90-day intelligence report that President Biden has requested is not expected to reveal a smoking gun or even anything profoundly new.

A security guard stands by as WHO officials visit the Wuhan lab earlier this year. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/GETTY

What's needed are standards of biosafety for the research on pandemic viruses that could result in trouble if a lab leak occurred—not so much a ban on risky research as an effective system of regulation that would require a consideration of benefits versus risks at the outset of research, says Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers and an expert in biosafety. "This would be put in place for high-consequence research—research that increases the transmissibility, or pathogenicity, or ability to overcome immune response, or ability to overcome drugs or vaccines of a pathogen," he says.

The current structure of oversight is inadequate, says Ebright, mainly because the funding agencies police themselves. After a moratorium on research that involves increasing the infectiousness or virulence of potential pandemic pathogens, in 2017 the federal government required the HHS to establish a committee to review proposals for such "gain-of-function" research to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks. It also required the NIH and other funding agencies to flag such proposals to the committee. The committee cleared three proposals, says Ebright, after which no further proposals were flagged for review, essentially nullifying the policy.

Instead, analysts say, oversight should fall to an independent group that can assess the benefits and risks objectively. "It has to be carried out by a federal entity that does not perform research and does not fund research, with expertise in national security issues, biomedical research and formal quantitative risk-benefit assessment," says Ebright. "And it has to be carried out by an entity that is open and transparent in its membership and its proceedings."

The process would be similar to what now occurs with research involving human test subjects. If risks are found to outweigh the benefits, the research is not simply denied funding. It isn't allowed to proceed at all.

Processes are also needed to deal with the pandemic threats posed by bioterrorism—and by nature, which has shown itself perfectly capable of delivering diseases even nastier than COVID-19. For proof, one need look no farther than smallpox, which kills 30 percent of its victims. Inexpensive genetic tools have made it relatively easy and cheap to manipulate viruses like smallpox to resist vaccines, and even manufacture new viruses from scratch.

An International Response

To prevent an accidental pandemic, it's not enough to get a grip on U.S. research. The Biden administration will have to use its leadership abroad to establish international biosafety standards. It will also have to get other nations to agree to standards of behavior in a crisis, including sharing information about outbreaks and agreeing to allow international inspectors to gather information in the early days of an outbreak.

A COVID-19 patient on a ventilator in a Minneapolis hospital. AARON LAVINSKY/STAR TRIBUNE/GETTY

Cameron is well aware of the need for such agreements. Prior to her appointment in the White House, she was an organizer of an exercise held in 2019 in Munich designed to identify shortcomings in the world's biosecurity. For a few days, she and a broad range of experts from several nations held war games that focused on "deliberate high-consequence events"—in a word, biowarfare. The group wanted to assess how well the U.S. and the rest of the world would fare if, say, a terrorist group were to release a dangerous pathogen on an unprotected population.

The group started with an outbreak of a respiratory ailment in the fictional country of Vestia, riven by civil war. Medicines turn out to be ineffective against the pathogen, Yersinia pestis, a plague bacteria engineered by a terrorist group to resist known antibiotics. The outbreak spreads to Europe and the U.S. The director-general of the World Health Organization declares a public health emergency.

It's not exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic transpired a year and a half ago, but it's similar in many respects. It makes little difference whether or not SARS-CoV-2 was natural or engineered or whether it was deliberately or accidentally released. In both the tabletop scenario and the real event, the pathogen was novel, meaning the nearly 8 billion people on Earth had no immune resistance to it, and there were no known treatments or vaccines against it.

The other similarity between the game and the reality is that the world was woefully unprepared and cumbersome in its response. Having lived through the current pandemic, it's not hard to understand the reasons why: Nations are unwilling to share information and forced to cobble together an ad hoc response and governments lacked transparency and consistent messaging. One prominent obstacle the tabletop exercise didn't foresee was the hyper-politicized environment of public health measures, but two out of three ain't bad.

When the pandemic struck in late 2019 and early 2020, the international scenario played out as poorly in real life as it did on the tabletop. China snapped shut like a trap, silencing clinicians who sounded the public health alarm and destroying early samples that could have helped trace the origin of the virus. The World Health Organization, which the Trump administration had recently abandoned, was left to deal with a situation that was beyond its capacities and its mission.

What the world needed at that moment was a "joint assessment mechanism to investigate high-consequence biological events of unknown origin," says Jaime Yassif, a senior fellow for global biological policy and programs at NTI, who worked for Cameron at the time. That would be an independent agency of the United Nations similar to the International Atomic Energy Commission, which oversees agreements on nuclear proliferation, including supplying inspectors to police the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Had China, the U.S. and other nations put such a group in place prior to early 2020, a team of investigators with the ability to explore the "naturally emerging" and "lab accident" hypotheses would have been at the ready, along with international agreements and protocols to smooth their way in gathering information, working with a network of labs to evaluate samples and conduct a thorough investigation. They might have explored, in a scientific, evidence-based way, all the open questions about origins. The U.S. would have had a way of rapidly deploying an investigative team to get more reliable information about the origins and try to understand the cause.

As it was, the void was filled by the WHO, whose mission is to investigate natural outbreaks. Any notion that the WHO was equipped to investigate the possibility of a lab leak is belied by the fact that it took a year to send a team of investigators, who came to the dubious conclusion that no further investigation into the lab-leak theory was warranted—a claim later contradicted by the U.N. Secretary-General.

Had the outbreak clearly been a biological attack or other deliberate misuse of biological agents, the responsibility for investigating could have fallen to the Secretary-General, under the auspices of the bioweapons convention. Because the origin of the outbreak was ambiguous, it fell through the cracks.

With no responsible organization in place to take action at the moment of crisis, a yawning information gap opened up. It was quickly filled with finger pointing, racism and conspiracy mongering, particularly in public exchanges between the U.S. and China. "If we had had a mechanism in place," says Yassif, "perhaps we could have avoided a lot of the uncertainty and politicization of this question, and perhaps we could have gotten a higher confidence assessment of the origins early on."

That assessment, of course, is hypothetical: There's no guarantee China, even were it to sign on to such a mechanism, would honor it at the moment of crisis. But even so, it would have had to commit a clear violation of a standard of behavior that it had agreed to. The fact of noncompliance would itself have been useful information.

Now that the world has seen what havoc can result from a nasty bug, says Yassif, "they may be more interested now than they were in the past of exploring the prospect of using biological weapons to advance their strategic or tactical aims. It's getting easier and easier for malicious actors to theoretically carry out a biological attack deliberately. COVID has highlighted these risks and may even have exacerbated them."

A Question of Leadership

To have a chance at getting all this done, the pandemic czar has to have a laser-focus on the issue of pandemic preparedness as well as the full support of the president of the United States. The key question is, will Cameron get the support she needs to shake up the administration?

The role of a pandemic czar is as much about national security and policy as it is about science. Questions about closing schools and airports, implementing mask mandates and closing businesses are political decisions that can only be made by somebody who has the ear of the president, as Ron Klain did during the Ebola crisis. It's not clear, says Bernard, that Cameron has that kind of authority.

"Before they named Klain during Ebola, it was a disaster," recalls Bernard. "Our response was disjointed and stovepiped. Defense wasn't talking to Health and Human Services. USAID was arguing with CDC. It was a mess—and then Ron came in and pulled everybody together. That's what's needed. That's what's missing even today at the White House."

Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who won high marks for overseeing the Obama administration response to the Ebola crisis in 2014. RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY

The task requires a leader who can act in the president's name and get senior people from all departments of governing to come to the table. The lack of clear authority has hampered pandemic responses not just during COVID-19 but in other outbreaks as well. A pandemic response requires high-level-policy meetings with the Defense Department, State Department, Health and Human Services, USAID, the Treasury and Commerce.

"They all have to be in the room because if they're not, you miss something because they're all interrelated when it comes to a global pandemic," says Bernard.

Cameron's rank in the White House is Special Assistant to the President. This sounds impressive, but it's lower in the hierarchy than Press Secretary or National Security Adviser, who are Assistants, and lower than Deputy Assistants. Bernard says it is "not senior enough for running a U.S. government-wide process."

The highest ranking science adviser in the White House is not Cameron but Eric Lander, the first science adviser to hold cabinet rank. Lander has a reputation as a brilliant scientist and administrator and has assembled a highly-regarded staff. As the former head of the Broad Institute in Boston, Lander knows as much as anybody about the science and is known to be pushing for better oversight of research on risky pathogens. But as head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, his responsibility is far broader than preparing for the next pandemic, which means he lacks the single-minded focus a pandemic czar needs.

Eric Lander, being sworn in last June as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, making him the administration’s highest ranking science adviser. ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY

Even if Cameron gets the full backing of Biden, Ziemer worries that COVID-19 has been so politicized that it will be difficult for the Biden administration to get anything done. "The current government bureaucracy, the inability to move money quickly in response to a changing landscape, will keep the government handicapped on where we need to go in the next five years," he says. "We need to depoliticize COVID and have an adult discussion about how to plan, fund and remain agile in preparation for the next pandemic."

So far, Biden has taken few steps to address the next pandemic. He made public statements calling China to task for its lack of transparency over the origins of the virus. He signed an executive order to create a center for epidemic forecasting and outbreak analytics that would track viruses and watch for early signs of an outbreak in the U.S. And Cameron is reaching out to other governments to talk about cooperation.

If history is any guide, now is the moment of maximum political will to prevent and prepare for the next pandemic.

The failure of the U.S. government, and those of other nations, to prepare for the possibility of a sudden, catastrophic pandemic—something scientists had warned about for years before the coronavirus struck—arguably cost millions of lives, trillions of dollars in lost wages and ruined livelihoods, and immense human suffering. It would be unthinkable to allow that to happen again.

[cauldronoflove]

Ok so this is really obscure, but I've had this idea for a while now, and I'd love to see you work with it? Headcanons for a time travel AU in which Peter Parker is messing with Stark Tech and gets sent back to the 1940s? He could work with Peggy Carter in the SSR to solve the case and pretend to be her little brother. Plus in 2017 Tony and Steve working together to get him back. If you think it's weird or want to skip it no worries! If not, then thank you so much, I love your headcanons!!

i love this concept so much you dont even know?? but also okay i realized abt halfway through these 2.5k+ words that this wasnt exactly what you asked for and i feel kinda bad about that but i hope you still like it all the same!! also i wanna say thank you for thinking of me for this prompt im super flattered????

- peter wasnt technically supposed to be in the 4th basement of stark tower

- technically he was on his lunch break and was supposed to be using said time to both eat and work on his spanish homework

- but he'd heard these whispers from a couple of the older interns about some of the old stuff that mr. stark had thrown down there because he never had time to finish them and peter had an idea

- see, he's been wanting to move up a bit, have mr. stark trust him a little more, and what's better then maybe taking one of his old designs and making it better and making it work

- so thats why he's in the fourth basement of stark tower, trying to remember if he's had his tetanus shot because some of this stuff is seriously Old

- and then he stumbles onto this little pyramid shaped....doohickey

- its the only thing in 4 floors of Things that doesnt have a label or a file or a crude drawing taped to the front of it so now peter is Officially Curious

- he kinda fiddles with it for a few minutes until his phone beeps with his 'hey pete youre gonna be super late getting back to work again' alarm and he about drops this thing on the floor because like everyday the alarm scares him to death

- but because hes clumsy and because hes pete he actually does drop it and everything goes black

- but everything's fine because he wakes right back up and he's pretty sure that he electrocuted himself but thats happened dozens of times so he picks himself up and brushes himself off and realizes that he may have been out longer than he thought because theres fewer boxes in the room than before and geez his head hurts

- "are you quite alright?"

- oh god he mustve hit his head harder than he thought because that looks like

- "m-miss carter, no sorry, ma'am? oh, oh god i'm so sorry that was so rude, agent? agent ma'am?"

- "this is howard's fault isnt it"

- "howard? as in....oh god oh god"

- "do you know where you are?"

- peter parker loved a lot of things and one of those things was museums and one of those museums in particular had an exhibit on a certain mr. rogers and adjacent to that exhibit was a small plaque about the woman standing in front of him and oh god he was going to hyperventilate and throw up in front of a literal legend and hero at the same time

- "remind me to kill him later. right now lets get you something warm to drink, yes? maybe some new clothes, youre looking a little singed"

- flash forward half an hour and he's sitting in front of the agent carter sipping at some terribly bitter coffee while she pursed and unpursed her lips a few times

- (annnnd time skip back to present day)

- friday: mr stark theres a woman downstairs beating on the door asking for youtony, 47 names going through his head: ...go on

- enter may parker, in her pjs, fire in her eyes, carrying on the legacy of brunette women ready to end a stark's life

- "it is ten o'clock on a school night, i've talked to ned, i've talked to mj and liz, i've talked to every corner sub shop owner, i even had a nice long chat with pepper, yet no one could tell me anything so you better have answers as to where my nephew is anthony"

- and in that moment, tony stark's life flashed before his eyes

- "hey, friday, where is the kid?"

- "peter's vitals havent been detected since 1:32pm on floor D"

- tony: fu-

- (back to pete and peggy)

- so he's quickly caught her up on the gist of whats going on (aka he told her he's from 2017 ny and hed really just like to go home) and she's taking it surprisingly well, all nodding and hmm-ing and cursing howard stark under her breath, kinda how may is when tony does like.. anything

- but now shes leading him through their super secret base and he's trying not to stare because, has he mentioned, hes literally standing next to peggy carter

- "right, well, here's your cot. if you need anything, dugan can help you. he's that one, there, with the cigar. you get some rest and i'll find howard and see if we cant get your...issue squared away. oh, and whatever you do, dont accept anything dernier tries to give you, you've already blown up once today, i dont think you can afford another"

- present day

- tony's been working through the night, a marginally-more-than-slightly disgruntled may beside him, and an even-more-than-marginally-more-than-slightly peeved happy beside her

- ("how do you lose a teenage boy, tony" happy moans to his phone when he wakes up and sees all the missed calls and texts he has)

- good news: it only took like 2 1/2 hours and three shots of espresson for tony to figure out what happened to peter

- bad news: it wasnt even a Tony Stark Exclusive Design, it was a Howard Stark One-Time Use That Was Actually A Malfunction Design, he'd had several more coffees that werent even close to being strong enough, and he had a growing black eye from the punch may landed before happy could pull her away and calm her down (maybe that last part should be in the good news column)

- "so he's just stuck in the 40s alone, then" may surmises, rubbing at the tension headache in her temples

- tony doesnt respond because at this point he needs his other eye for miracle working and depth perception

- "well, probably not alone," happy begins. "i catalogued everything in that level, and that stuff came from one of howard's london facilities, so it was probably calibrated for that time, so he's probably with-"

- tony: "hap, please dont finish that sentence"

- may: "1940s london. so he's with steve, then, safe. with captain america. okay, i can handle that."

- tony: "no, ah, a little later than capsicle, probably"

- may: "so not safe with captain america"

- happy: "safe with agent carter, more likely"

- pete and peggy

- good news: pete made it through the night without being blown up by the howling commandoes

- bad news: once howard was finally located and sobered up, he explained that he hadnt built that particular device yet, so peter was kinda stuck

- peter wasnt coping well

- "i have a spanish test tomorrow! and a trig test on friday! and i'm supposed to hang out with ned on saturday, and then may's gonna kill me when i dont show up for sunday dinner, and shes gonna kill me in general because i never checked in because holy shit i never checked in!"

- howard: peggy he's crying what do i do

- peggy: do i have to do everything myself

- she advances on peter and takes his chin in her hand, locking eyes with him: peter, you know who i am, dont you?

- he nods as best as he can

- "then you must know that i'm going to do everything in my power and then some to get you back home, dont you?"

- "yes ma'am"

- "good. go take a walk while i talk to howard, and if anyone asks, youre my american brother in for a short visit." and then she pats him on the cheek and his soul kinda ascends then and there because agent carter just patted him on the cheek AND gave him permission to tell people he's her brother

- so he goes to take his walk but the thing is when he gets anxious, he likes to fiddle with the loose legos he keeps under his bed, building and rebuilding tiny structures to help ease his nerves

- needless to say, he's an Absolute Nervous Wreck while he waits for some kind of something from peggy or howard and there arent any legos to keep him busy

- so he kind of takes that walk right on down to the lab and starts poking around because even if he is a certified nervous wreck he's also thr most inquisitive little shit that ever did walk the earth

- peggy finds him two hours later with a pair of loose fitting goggles on his forehead, his sweater sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and some . substance on his hands

- "please dont tell me youre somehow howard's long lost son too," she says, taking his appearance in

- he shakes his head as the beakers in front of him emit a puff of green smoke directly into his already scrunched up face "no ma'am; it's just that mr. stark kinda has me on desk duty and never lets me get my hands dirty so i like to take every oppurtunity i can get"

- she nods, "good, because howard needs you to describe what you remember of the device, and then you and i are going to begin the slog through the logistics of it all"

- "ooooookay"

- which is how peter parker ends up sitting across from peggy carter, the both of them scribbling extremely advanced mathematics onto yellowing sheets of paper as howard stark tinkered with some spare parts he had lying around as he tried to construct a crude rendering of the device

- peggy mostly doesnt talk, actually, she hasnt spoken since explaining that shed picked her math skills up on an assignment shed once had where she learned she actually loved numbers and then howard had been letting her do calculations for him in her free time

- peter was too impressed to respond bc from what he gathered she'd only been on that mission for six months and she didnt have much free time which meant she'd had to pick it all up FAST

- anyway, they got at that for hours, until peter cant keep his eyes open and even howard is dwindling; peggy waves them both off to bed but stays and keeps scribbling away

- they repeat that routine for 3 days

- on the 5th night, after she waves them off, peter goes to his cot and he tosses and turns for hours, listening to the commandoes play poker and crack jokes, but he cant sleep

- finally he gets up and just starts walking, anywhere his feet take him

- coincidentally, his feet take him past what he quickly realizes is peggy's room

- "peter why are you still up? is everything all right?" she asks, pulling off these big hulking glasses that made him incredibly homesick because she reminds him so much of may in that moment, big glasses on, hunched over a book in her lap, hair pulled back out of her face

- and he apologizes, but she Knows something's terribly wrong, so she gets up and ushers him away from her doorway, and leads him down a hall or two and then theyre standing in an open space, and she's looking at him like shes trying to solve one of her equations

- "do you know how to throw a punch, peter"

- " whatever youre thinking i dont think its a good idea we dont have any gear and i dont want to get hurt-"

- she shakes her head and asks again, and he finally answers with a kinda

- "'kinda' will get you hurt; watch me" and she begins to demonstrate a few slow punches and he follows her movements and tries to copy them but hes a little sloppy but its ok because she corrects him and finally theyre just standing beside one another counting out punches when she asks "whats on your mind"

- and he doesnt even hesitate he just lets loose everything, how much he misses may and how terrible he feels that he cant get in touch with her, how much he misses ned and mj and liz, how much he misses his fire escape and the deli on the corner and the buildings and then he's crying again, but she gracefully doesnt point it out

- once he's done spitting out everything thats bothering him she gets this kind of sad smile and says, "you remind me of a man i knew. he cared so much about his friends, sometimes to the point of not even worrying about himself, whuch meant he was always in some sort of trouble, as you can imagine. but he always found his way out of a problem, even if he was the one who created it." she laughs slightly then. "i guess what i'm getting at is even if i cant get you back home, even if howard cant, i believe that youll figure it out."

- "are you comparing me to captain anerica right now because i'm already crying and i dont think i can take much more" he says through sniffles, his arms slack by his sides now

- she smiles and nods, keeping her stance, and peter feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this amazing woman who immediately helped him without much of a pause and who's made sure he was okay for the past 5 days and who's up at god knows what time showing him how to throw a punch and being his borderline therapist and he just wants to give her something in return

- "im not sure if im supposed to do this, because for all i know it could tear a hole in the fabric of time and space but i really want to show you this," he begins, pulling his wallet put of his pocket.

- he flicks the little photo holders out and theres may, and theres ned and mj and liz, and theres that cat he found that one time, and theres him and tony, and there, at the bottom, is the time he officially met steve after the whole fight thing and all

- "this was taken a couple months ago; well, a couple months for me, it's decades from now, but here," and he holds out his wallet for her to see and she looks over the photo curiously before she understands and a tear slips down her cheek and she smiles the most grand smile

- "thank you, peter" and she passes the wallet back and puts her hand on his shoulder and says "i promise i'll have you home in time for sunday dinner"

- and she does