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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 4 years

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I.T. & Grace Monroe (Again) Chat

Thank you for such a great response! I can’t every imaging the suspense waiting a week for each episode! Lemme tell you the first season I was annoyed with tulip but understood when she was used to expose the trains true meaning /use. MT/Lake story was equally annoying but I appreciated how they used her brattiness to reenforce the methods of the train. What seems impossible to handle in real life becomes more palatable on the train...it brakes it down into bite sized pieces for the passengers to understand and consume. It’s a vr problem solving machine(who would want that). But the major flaw becomes visible to me, by the end of season 1, adults do not fair as well as kids. Amelia did not fair well, her mind was so fixed on the outcome she wanted, that she overlooked any lessons from the train. She forced a square peg into a round hole and her numbers started rising. When she ran into Grace as a child even though is seems like a brief interaction, Grace was already primed to become another Amelia. Her background of affluence, she knows exactly how adults change the world around them to their liking. She already knew the game to be played, so seeing someone with power and influence in that train car , save her, control the enviroment (like her parents would) and have the most numbers she knew what to do. I think she was there to learn not to live to please others, not to feel abandoned and powerless, that not all attention and power is good, that she can stand alone in safety. When she met Simon, she was right back to her old behaviors. What was sad is that by the last episode of that season you know that his real life situation was full of hate and abuse. Grace fell into her enabler and Simon thought he found a mirror. They trauma bonded. It looked like he even developed romantic feelings for her. Still every chance the train sent her to learn those lessons she literally did that opposite of what she wanted. She did what she and Simon agreed to do, Simon looked like he was the mastermind behind all of the Apex rules. I can imagine them trying to figure out how their gang would run with Simon saying something and Grace agreeing then adding to it. I bet Simon felt judged, inferior and misunderstood in real life, because he just could not adapt to seeing Grace form a bond with Hazel and Tuba. The fact that his numbers were decreasing along with Grace’s at one point due to him following her lead was a telling, he was there to learn to find and accept the similarities with the train’s life forms (sorry I forget what they called them) and to build a found family based on that. His attacks on Grace were so brutal, he went to the cat with intent to find something to make Grace fall back inline, to force her back into his ideal world. He rallied the Apex kids to turn against her. He couldn’t even accept the conductor, the ‘god’ of his reality when he met her he just wanted what all adults wanted on that train, to make his world his way. So many adults do this, it’s got to be the reason the train exists right? Catch them as kids, teach them how to find the solution to their problems and send them back into the real world to teach others. Like a gigantic roomba for mental health issues lol. I didn’t expect that Simon wouldn’t make it but there was no way he would have ever left that train on his own. Grace was his way off, and I think he knew that deep down. Makes you wander just how bad his life was, or if he just had an untreated psychosis. Grace’s relationship with Hazel and Tuba became stronger the moment she accepted what she wanted and not what was good for the gang. The years that passed and the numbers that accumulated were undone in a few weeks by that bond, and Simon was watching his world crumble right before his eyes. I really love watching interracial couples on screen, and it’s been great to see how they made Grace and Simon. BwWm (or any combo of black and white or biracial) relationships don’t all have to be racism struggle or forbidden love. It can be as unique as this, scared kids in a new environment. Love it!

You know, to be frank, I shipped this as a ship before it became a season. Whenever I saw them last time, I was like, “Well, they seem cute n’ cozy.” Then, of course, whenever they were revealed to be a hate group, I was like... Well... I hope we find out more because I definitely fucking feel a way about them now. I don’t have very good history with hate groups. My activism hasn’t allowed it, my hometown didn’t allow it - I just have too many bad experiences with hate groups and so since I was reading them as such, my main purpose of watching their season was to see how the train was going to help to change them.

I honestly was like, “Ship be damned,” by the time we got to 6-8 and was just hoping for maybe some friendship building and growth together as better humans. Like. I could care less about a ship on just about any given day (which is why even whenever “my ships” fall apart (and mine always involve Black girls, so that’s like a what 98% failure rate, just because creators never like to see Black girls or women happy anyway), I’m usually fine with it not taking place IF the girl is in a good place and/or there aren’t hella people around her all boo’d up while she’s the strong single. Shadowhunters, looking at y’all bitch ass with a hard side-eye. You as well, Glee. You as well, Battlestar Gallactica and True Blood... Y’all killed the bitches for really no reason. ANYWAYS, I was fine with them not being a ship if it meant growth...

I was shocked that he died, but I also didn’t feel as hurt as I would have had he not done EVERYTHING in his goddamn power to overthrow and murder this girl. Because, I had to repeatedly be like, “This dude is technically a goddamn child,” but then again, so is she. They never grew up in any healthy environment, and I ABSOLUTELY envision Apex creation and building exactly as you did. See, it’s something we got as older Black women looking at this story that the girls just be missing. The signs were so obvious to me that he was the muscle and she was the face, but a lot of people were extremely convinced that she had somehow strong armed this poor, innocent boy into her belief system, even though she literally was always the one with the soft voice.

They read this as manipulation a lot, and perhaps because I’ve been in situations where I knew, “If I don’t charm this person, it is gonna be a very bad day, indeed,” I just didn’t read her actions as harmful. I didn’t see her using her charms to get someone killed or anything dangerous. Only to cheer him up when he was moody, get him to go along with something that wasn’t bad for him at all, etc. So, I mean, whatever, if it’s manipulation, oh well. We do it on a daily basis in the real world whenever we try to let folk down gently as to not get shot on the side of the road, so I’m never jumping to any conclusion that any girl, especially not a Black girl is manipulating somebody without actual evidence, which, I saw none of. She was labeled as his motivation for being a villain from the moment she appeared, so the petty Black fangirl in me rejoiced that canon shot that all straight to hell, and then I received icing on the cake when she not only did not die, but got a redemption arc? YASSSSS BITCH. GIVE MAMA MY THANGS!

I’ve seen a few “fix it fics” and AU’s, but only reading a few of them. I didn’t need anything fixed. I’m just enjoying a little side content (as best as i can anyways. I generally check out if anybody feels like they about to rewrite to go ahead and try to make Grace look responsible for any of that boy’s shit. That fuels my wrath. Because, people really think that they only do shit like this theoretically with fiction, but you not gon’ make me believe that the same people who want to overlook Grace’s trauma, and the way that Simon intentionally harmed her, or downplay her guts to face him head on and try to speak to him about changing and being wrong and not even attack him? (Which, tbh could have been because it’s her instinctual response to protect and care for him, because she’s been doing it since they met and also, nobody is convincing me that he *changed* into this person. That person was always there and Grace had to manipulate his ass into staying docile), but to try to take away that aspect of the story, which is super important to escaping abuse, escaping cults, and building up self - I can’t commit to stories like that. Those are the same people I equate with the people that my ex was COMPLETELY right about whenever he told me that people were always gonna believe him over me because he’s white, smart, and nice. And if we’re being 100, they don’t have to be all three to get people rally behind them while they literally try to hurt and kill you.

So, I just appreciated that the story rallied around the right one and that they didn’t make any room for for blaming his target, although fans will lie and say that they did. That’s just the regular degular misogynoir coming out to play. After leaving a situation in real life with someone like this and having SO MANY GODDAMN PEOPLE try to tell me how the fuck I was wrong, I don’t have patience for that shit. Honestly, if a roach dog monster could have melted and disintegrated Josh, I’d have had a fucking party. And maybe Josh was emotionally and mentally stunted and still a boy dealing with trauma, so that’s where my gray area comes in. It’s like, it’s sad that he chose not to change, but also like, had he been real and did what he did, I definitely would say he should die and not feel bad about that. So, gross scene, but I haven’t a lot of sorrow about it, either. He didn’t give ME much room to feel that bad for him, personally.

Girl, I’ve talked more about Infinity Train on this blog than any other series. Lol.

#answered #andromidagalaxie #Chat w/ Nesha #Infinity Train #infinity train grace #grace monroe #BFCD Reviews by Nesha #submission

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silvensei · 4 years

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In This Mad Machinery

A human and an android swap bodies, resulting in identity crises, existentialism, philosophy with the boys, and fun!

Detroit: Become Human | gen | 20k | rated T | introspective comedy/sci-fi

Chapter 7 (3k words) | [AO3 link] | [first] | < prev

- - - - - - - - - -

Even though it wasn’t something he normally did, Hank called Sumo to hop up on the couch with him. The dog hesitated before heaving himself onto the cushions, lying with his head pressed against Hank’s legs. He smiled and absently scratched his ears as he took a swig of beer. Another warning popped up on his HUD, declaring, (CAUTION: Ethyl alcohol detected. Combustion will raise core temperature by est. 0.06°F. Further consumption NOT RECOMMENDED.)

“Yeah, yeah, fuck you, too, CyberLife,” he muttered as he put the bottle back on the table and returned his attention to the TV. Information about the movie, its actors, its reviews, similar films, subtitles, alternate dubs, and everything under the sun scrolled by his vision. Instead of canceling it, though, he decided to just let it happen. Why not. He turned on English subtitles and changed the audio to Russian in his head just for the hell of it.

He was planning to just hang out for the rest of the afternoon, messing with his search function, maybe downloading a VR game or something (if he even could; surely, he wasn’t the first to think of it), but he eventually got restless. He didn’t even know androids could get restless, although it might be because of his very human attention span. Shitty movie anyway.

His countdown from earlier had continued in the background. It notified him when only an hour remained, reminding him that since the estimate varied by up to an hour, they could now switch back at any time.

Hank stood up, stretching his arms to the ceiling. It didn’t feel refreshing, and he got a notice advising against overextension. “Don’t know what I was expecting,” he said to Sumo. Sumo also stretched, taking over his spot and most of the rest of the couch.

He sounded like Connor. Which was obvious, of course he sounded like Connor, it’s Connor’s body, but he sounded exactly like him. Listening to his own body talk all day from an outside perspective made him realize that his voice wasn’t what he had always heard. According to his computer brain, he normally heard a mix of the sound of his voice and the reverberation inside his head from his vocal cords. Connor’s ears, though, canceled the reverb in order to hear his voice as the world did.

That seemed like such a minuscule thing. How was that going to make an investigative android investigate better? They could do that but not build in better taste buds?

Holy fuck, he was an android.

Throughout the day, the realization had hit him again and again, but it still never lost its potency. God, it’s like all those Eighties body swap movies with a sci-fi twist.

Hank shook his head, turned off the TV, and went into the bathroom. He held off on flicking the light switch for a moment; in the dim room, his LED cast a faint yellow glow on the walls.

The pop of the lights as they lit up heralded the illumination of his reflection. Frankly, he was surprised with himself for not looking in a mirror yet, the brief glances in the car mirrors while he was distracted by Connor’s silence notwithstanding.

Even though he fully knew what to expect, having a different reflection for the first time in ever was still jarring; ([serv].exe(26) non-responsive: rkcomp001; cebf014; cebf121; opt006; srvm338f; […]) appeared in the corner for a brief millisecond. In the mirror, his LED flickered.

The first thing he coherently thought was that his hair was messy. Not really, but compared to the immaculate state Connor normally kept it in, it looked a bit…wrong. He reached up to shape it into place, receiving another uncomfortable twitch in his head from stalled processes when the Connor in the mirror copied him. Combing his hair back, it seemed to fall into place more easily than he expected. What was android hair even made of? (Translucent fiber optic – silica-fiber nylon composite) After critiquing his image, he even pulled that one tuft of hair loose to hang over his forehead.

He should be feeling something more. Running a hand down his cheek and barely moving the skin, noting that having darker eyes made them look bigger, entranced by some morbid curiosity, his stomach should be doing somersaults, goosebumps prickling his skin, something. But the most that happened was a twitch of a servo, a slight hiccup in the data running through his thoughts.

Hank frowned. It wasn’t technically a look of disgust, but it was still the most disgruntled that Connor had ever looked.

He was not comfortable with how indifferent he was feeling. He hadn’t felt this apathetic since….

“Shit, kid,” he said, stepping back from the mirror and crossing his arms. “No wonder you all flipped out when you started feeling things.”

His LED flickered to red, at which point Hank turned off the lights and left. It was beginning to mess with his head too much, much more than he was prepared to handle in a body that couldn’t get drunk.

The bedroom door was half-open. He considered checking on Connor but immediately dismissed the idea; he’d had enough of out-of-body-induced vertigo for one day.

The sun was starting to dip in the sky, casting a warm gold through the windows. Sumo slept sprawled out on the couch, as content as a dog could be. Hank smiled at the peaceful sight as he brought the beers into the kitchen. It was cozy. Maybe he should take a nap, too. Nothing much else to do at the moment. Androids don’t sleep, though.

Enter low-power mode?

Yes No

“Huh. Maybe.”

Inconclusive response

Yes No

“Fuck you.” Despite himself, he chuckled. What was he doing. Why was he a robot. It’s pure science fiction.

Setting the bottles on the counter, he noticed a coin lying on the corner (US quarter, 0.25USD – mint 2020). One of Connor’s, probably. One that he does tricks with to calibrate. He had always wondered how and why that was.

He palmed the quarter as he returned to the living room and settled in the recliner. His thumb flicked it into the air a few times as a test. It was something he could normally do, something simple, but it initiated a predictive program. The coin’s path was highlighted, his hand moving slightly out of his control in ordered to follow through with the catch. Hank didn’t thoroughly enjoy that part.

Rolling the coin over his knuckles, a (Calibration complete) popped up on the HUD. Nonetheless, he flicked it to the left, deftly catching it with his other hand. Back and forth, increasing in speed as he went, Hank almost laughed at how easy it was. It’s just simple physics to a computer brain, and what it lacked in emotional everything, it surely tried to make up for in physics.

He caught the quarter between two fingers. He nodded. “Neat.”

He tossed it onto the coffee table, it landing exactly where his HUD had circled, and turned on low-power mode with a thought. Responses from his senses slowed, the already-quiet room somehow becoming quieter, the colors dulling and shifting to warmer tones. It was like a dream state, a conjecture that was only reinforced by the slightest delay in motor functions.

This ain’t so bad, he thought, kicking up the footrest on the recliner and crossing his arms. Computer-induced chillness. Some music would make for a perfect relaxed evening, especially after the unexpectedly-disorienting day he’d had. Did androids’ search function work for music, too?

It sure as shit did. A widget opened from the left with a search bar and a list of example queries. He was connected to loads of free databases (with others available after signing in with your user information), allowing for searches by song title, album, year, genre, BPM, producer—the whole nine yards.

How ‘bout an album, he decided, and the search restriction applied. Something Eighties or Nineties, both from his childhood and the dwindling end of the golden age of music. In English or without lyrics, maybe something at least platinum. Something that would be a nice complement or conclusion to the day.

At that last thought, the current list of (many) results was replaced by a spinning wheel. He felt something running in his head alongside the search, and after a few seconds, the key words Science fiction, Technology, Saudade, and Family appeared. Hank was thrown for a loop wondering if he should take that as an invasion of privacy when the results came back with only two albums, listed in order of release. Somewhat impressed at its efficiency, he selected the first, hoping to keep it quiet enough to not wake Connor. (External sound system MUTED)

…or that worked, too.

A rhythm of low, imposing notes (F♯) introduced a song he had heard before. Good song. He leaned back and turned his gaze to the soft pale orange ceiling, playback controls and scrubber bar superimposed over the bottom.

This certainly was quite the day.

Did he regret it? Absolutely not. He’d had a field day with his new tech, like the world was at his fingertips, and Connor uncovered some leads to help him figure out his life. Did he regret that it had to end? Also a ‘hell no.’ It was neat and all, but he was better suited for human life and the more leisurely, contained existence it yielded. Visiting android life was fun for a vacation, not something he’d want to make permanent. Like Florida.

He snickered. If only Hank from a year ago could see him now. What an obstinate bastard he was.

As the fourth song was ending, it stuttered, his limbs clicking lightly as they locked. (Transfer requested by 313248317_53. Initiating in 5s.)

And that was that. Shame he couldn’t get through the rest of the album. He’d have to find it when he—

- - - - - - - - - -

Rebooting…

Nexus-7 detected; terminating VM…

Initializing 313248317_53…

Systems check complete: 100% – Fully functional

Network online ID: ************ Lisc: *************** Credentials validated

Resuming suspended programs…

Previous state: low-power Restart in low-power mode?

Yes [No]

Resuming

Connor blinked.

He was looking at the plaster ceiling of Hank’s living room, lying 61° from vertical in one of the chairs (ceiling position indicates RECLINER). His clock announced that it was 7:48:11.2 PM GMT-5 and that he had gone offline due to a complete data transfer initiated thirty-five seconds ago. (CORRECTION: RK800 went offline, running [unknown] prior to 313248317_53)

A drumbeat sounded, fading in on a crescendo. He noted the playback overlay on his HUD which indicated the music came from his own systems. It had resumed from its stopping place before the reset; must’ve been Hank’s doing. He paused the song.

He felt compelled by narrative trends to take a breath to indicate contentment with the end of a journey and/or hardship. It only alleviated slight stress on internal cooling systems. All was back as it’s always been.

A long, boisterous yawn sounded from the hallway. Hank shuffled in, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “Well, that was weird,” he stated. “I was awake, then cut right to waking up without any of the ‘sleep’ part in between.”

“Welcome back, Lieutenant.” Connor couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he could look at Hank and see normal, long-haired, perpetually-tired, human Hank. It felt more natural that way.

“Back to some peace and quiet in my own head.” Sumo picked his head up enough to glance at the two of them before stretching and nuzzling into the cushions anew. Hank sat on the arm of the couch, running his thumb over Sumo’s paw. “How're you? Everything left in working order?”

A notice reminded him of his system status retrieved a few minutes ago (100%) and asked if he still requested another scan. He declined. “Yes. And you? Feeling okay?”

“Feeling rested and ready to go. So.” Hank raised an eyebrow. “Do androids dream of electric sheep?”

“The question still stands as to whether I was an android when I was in your body—”

“And we’ll nitpick shit tomorrow. Just answer the question.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Lieutenant, but I don’t think I did.” He had some difficulty remembering the last hour, like the memory was missing frames and full of artifacts. “I’m pretty sure you asked me this earlier after I couldn’t sleep and came back in here, remember? We went back to watching TV before your girlfriend walked in with Sumo and his puppies—wait.” His processor stuttered; the memory didn’t fit in with the rest of the timeline. Hank didn’t have a girlfriend.

Hank wore a shit-eating grin. “Sounds like a dream, there, kiddo.”

“I….” Time was linear from a single perspective, with only a single degree of freedom along any timeline. Where should this anomalous memory be stored if not in sequence? It was almost paradoxical to the very function of system memory. He blinked. “What am I supposed to do with this information?”

“Do with it? Back to being an android for like five minutes and you’ve already got your mood ring in a frenzy.”

“I can’t help it! It contradicts my systems! I understand dreams are the vague recollection of subconscious imagination, but I wasn’t designed to accommodate for… I wasn’t….” Something clicked—yes, an electromechanical relay in his head, but more importantly, something figurative. He blinked and looked away, at some space above the coffee table. “I wasn’t designed for anything,” he realized. “I understand what a dream entails. I understand the concept fine. It’s CyberLife’s programming that can’t parse it, that—that can’t allocate it.”

He heard Hank shift on the armrest. “Get it now?”

“I….” He had found a disconnect. It was like he had deviated from his machinery instead of just his programming. Living as a human was something he had experienced but was incompatible to an android system. “I’m going to need some time to think things through,” he said when the silence grew too long, “but maybe.”

“Well, congrats.” Sumo stretched again, this time curling up and freeing a cushion for Hank. “Sounds like today’s been a success. Mission complete.”

‘MISSION COMPLETE’ recognized as termination command – Forward file ‘blbxcomp.exe’ to CYBERLIFE?

Yes No

“Oh, Lieutenant, the black box recorder!” Connor, after selecting [No], pulled up file details to keep him focused on the new topic; it took him a split second to remember he could multitask again, but he didn’t particularly want to run philosophical introspection in the background. “Should I send it now, or…? Markus pointed out that they may not like that we told him about it….”

Hank leaned back, stifling another yawn. “True. Or we can give them a classic ‘fuck you’ and claim that we were already doing more than enough for them, we can talk to whoever the fuck we want.”

He must’ve noticed the unconvinced, uncertain frown on Connor’s face because after a moment, he crossed his arms and rolled his head onto the couch back, a deliberately-bored gaze directed at the ceiling. “Or,” he suggested. “Or. We just don’t tell them.”

Connor’s frown deepened. “That doesn’t sound very fair. We were given the chance to do this on a quid pro quo basis.”

“We don’t tell them now.”

He blinked. “Lieutenant, I can’t edit an executable file like their recorder without intense effort and noticeable signs of tampering.”

Hank hummed. “I mean, it was sent in an email, right? So, you could just redownload a fresh one and record it again some other day.”

“But to record it again, we’d have to switch again.”

“Mm-hmmm.”

“But—but Lieutenant—”

“Fuck, kid, I dunno, it’s just an option! But you don’t always have to question everything! Maybe someday, you’ll just want a break from the whole android thing for a bit. I know the human life can get kinda boring every now and then. Something to mix things up. It is an option now, though.”

“Lieutenant, I—”

“And we don’t have to fuckin’ Vice Versa tomorrow! Could be the next day, could be next week, probably should be soonish so CyberLife doesn’t get suspicious—although now that I think of it, they probably saw the transfer over their network, so sooner rather than soonish so they don’t start harassing us.”

“I—” Connor stopped, processor stuttering. He took his time thinking through the conversation and coming to terms with Hank’s suggestion that they switch lives recreationally just to “mix things up.” It only took 0.82 seconds. After reviewing the concrete, he considered his own feelings.

And he found that he thought he would like that.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yes, that should work just fine.” Then he added, “But Captain Fowler said not to be in the wrong bodies at work on Monday.”

An unexpected snort was a harbinger of a fit of laughter, Hank slapping a hand on his knee and doubling over. Sumo startled awake, perking his ears at his owner. His hysterics turned to coughs, almost hacking up a lung trying to snicker at the same time. “Fuckin’-A right, he would! Shit—” he coughed, “—alright, I need a beer, now that I’m not at risk of fuckin’ combustion.”

“Of course.” Connor smiled. His android chassis didn’t feel compelled to join in on the contagion of human laughter, but now he could remember what it felt like. It was comfortable. Warm. Homely. A good end to a complicated day.

After Hank had caught his breath, he pushed himself up and stretched his back. “God, my calves are going to be sore tomorrow,” he groaned. “Maybe I should make you deal with it since it’s from your damn half-marathon this morning.”

“I suppose that would be fair. But I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy that.”

“Well, maybe that’s what you deserve.” Hank’s persisting grin denoted he didn’t really mean it. “Now. Beer. Maybe have the rest of Bel’s ambrosia of the gods in a bit, though I think you left it in the car.”

Connor checked his memory, appreciating how perfect it was compared to the human equivalent. “Yes, it appears that I did. My bad. I was a bit distracted.”

“‘s fine. It’s fine there a bit longer; the thieves of Detroit aren’t that desperate yet.” He walked to the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, “Hey, if you wouldn’t mind, d’ya think you could play the rest of that album? You’d probably like it, too. Can keep it on as a soundtrack to some Saturday night games.”

“Sure.” Turning on external speakers, Connor hit play, bringing the scrubber out of suspension. The crescendo culminated in a couple cymbal crashes, the drums prominent, the guitar with the slightest reverb. (1982 – 112 BPM – Further information?)

He declined. He didn’t need every scrap of information. Folding his hands in his lap, watching Hank take a sip from one of the open beers, look at it, then dig for a new chilled one from the fridge, he felt like just being in the present. Just being in the room instead of in his circuitry. A content smile pulled at his lips as the vocals began to ring through his head, lyrics written decades before, oblivious to his existence.

Nothing to fear but fear itself

Not pain or failure, not fatal tragedy

Not the faulty units in this mad machinery

Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry

#couldn't think of a better ending so kinda fell into songfic territory there at the end #it's this fic's namesake!#The Weapon by Rush #Detroit Become Human #Connor RK800 #Hank Anderson #body swap #DBH #DBH fanfiction #my writing

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canyouhearthelight · 4 years

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The Miys, Ch. 65

I am so, so sorry for getting this out so late in the day. I know this should have gone up almost eight hours ago. Entirely too much has been going on.

Thank you for bearing with.

“Final systems check,” Grey announced, glancing briefly over from the display and nodding at me.

Noah waved its left liw and vomu in a very human gesture, albeit in multiple. “Proper recordings of every Terran scientific paper in our database are prepared to be communicated directly into your translation implant.”

“He means audio,” I stage-whispered to Conor and Maverick. Tyche had marched out and read them the riot act after she and I cleared the air. Their abashed apologies once she dragged them back were still under consideration, but I felt safer with them in the room.

I was also a bit loopy on the sedatives they had given me for my blood pressure. So sue me.

Rolling her eyes, my sister turned to Antoine. “And the connection?”

“Strong and clear,” he confirmed.

Maverick cleared his throat to get our attention. “If we can stream all this information directly into her implant, why aren’t we using this for learning?”

Antoine leveled a half-scathing glare – I couldn’t tell if I was more impressed he mustered any degree of ‘scathing’ or that he was tired enough to let it slip through – before explaining. “Any information retention will be trivial at best, and that would be largely because of Sophia’s exceptional memory. She is still essentially hearing several lectures in a row and repeating them back as soon as she hears it.”

Poor Maverick looked devastated. Unfortunately, his pout was almost comical, and it took every bit of what little self-control I had left to keep from laughing.

It seemed I wasn’t doing as good a job as I thought, because Tyche turned away with a growl, hands flung in the air. “Okay, papers are queued up, connection to the implant is good. Did we get the medication figured out?”

“Confirmed,” Grey asserted without looking up. “Sophia, you will be in REM sleep, but still lucid. This should let you control the dream and speak to Else.”

“So I’ll be hypnotized.”

Grey scoffed, but Antoine cut them off. “We discussed this, Dr. Hodenson. While you may not believe in hypnosis, it is a proven phenomenon. While difficult to accomplish deliberately, I have witnessed Sophia subject to this mental state.”

“Wait, what?” My neck hurt from turning so fast to look at him.

“When you read. When you cook. When you wrap presents,” he ticked off on his fingers.

“I’m not hypnotized, I’m in the zone,” I argued.

Tyche rolled her neck and cocked an eyebrow at me. “That is literally hypnosis, specifically when you read. I remember seeing you sit in a house with no heat, in January, in shorts and a t-shirt, sweating bullets while reading a book that ended up taking place in Mumbai in summer. You get cravings for whatever foods your favorite characters are eating, even if you hate the food.”

“That’s not hypnosis, that’s suggestion,” Grey stated flatly.

“And hypnosis is the induction of a state of consciousness that makes you particularly susceptible to suggestion,” Antoine pointed out, equally flat. With these two, it was practically a shouting match.

Heading off the galaxy’s calmest blow out, I spoke up. “So, creation’s most boring audiobooks, check. Overkill-quality headphones, check. Deep-fake VR drugs, check.” I pointed at myself with both thumbs, “Stoned and willing guinea pig, double check. Let’s get this done.”

Two hours into spouting off what seemed to be hematological extracts, I was considerably less stoned and significantly less willing.

“A low packed cells volume usually indicablood loss due to cell destruction or failure in bone marrow production, while high mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentrations – “

Please. Stop.

“Oh thank fuck,” I gasped, allowing myself to tune out the stream of information piped directly into my head. “Else, is that you?”

Yes, I am here.

“Well, at least it worked… you’re talking quite a bit better now.” I glanced around at the landscape. While focusing on reciting two hours of scientific papers, I had to ignore it all. Since the last time I was here, I managed to figure out that the Ark in my dreams was an analogue of my health, from Else’s perspective. Right now, everything looked okay. The walls were cracked, but all the pieces were in place. No water. All the lights were functioning. “Also, good to see I’m not dying.”

We wouldn’t let you die. We need you.

“Not all of me,” I pointed out to thin air.

Your hemoglobin, Else’s voice admitted.

I nodded. “That sounds more accurate. You eat iron, right?”

Yes. And there is so much here.

“That sounds sinister,” I mused. Since Else has been able to read my thoughts in the past, I made a point in the dream to speak out loud. It was more for me than the bacteria, since literally all of this interaction was happening in my head anyway. “Is that why you are on the ship.”

I didn’t ask to be here. Humans brought me here.

“The same humans you’re eating. Were you in the core samples we gathered?”

No. I came later.

“But that is the only time we have taken anything on board since we left Earth.” This wasn’t making sense.

I am from the Ark.

“Else, you aren’t making sense,” I took a deep breath. I imagined taking a deep breath. Something. I was definitely getting a very real headache. “If you only came after the core samples, but you come from the Ark, how does that work? Are you another alien race? What planet are you from?”

I am from the Ark.

“I mean what planet – “

No planet. I am from the Ark.

“Wait, what? You mean… Life on Earth evolved from the primordial soup that existed after Earth formed. From… amino acids, then proteins…”

From the oceans, to be simple.

“Right, from the oceans.” I mused. “But we’re in space, with all the radiation you could want, plus exotic trace minerals that may be in those core samples, and a big god-damned – “

Language, Else admonished.

“Oh, now you have a sense of humor,” I huffed. “We have a big lake with all kinds of biological experiments going on in BioLab 2. Is that where you come from?”

Not just the water. Experiments, too.

“Fuck.”

None of that.

“So we made you.”

Yes.

My knees spiked in agony as I hit the deck below my feet. “It was an accident,” I begged in a hoarse whisper. “All the shitty things we have done to ourselves and each other, please tell me it was an accident.”

Did you know if you were an accident before you were told by your parent?

“That is such a low blow,” I scowled. “You and Tyche are the only ones who know that.”

But fair.

“Unfortunately.” I huffed an imaginary lock of hair that just appeared in my face for the sole purpose of doing so. “I am going to assume this was an accident.”

Ouch.

Indulgently, I stomped around, fists clenched, growling the entire time. “I am negotiating with a sentient colony of bacteria, one that humanity made, somehow, and now you have hurt feelings!?” I was screaming by the end of it, and a distant part of my brain registered a chilled sensation in my arm. “Stop sedating me, I’m pissed!” Breathing heavily, I tried to calm down. “I get that it’s insulting, Else, but trust me, you do not want humanity to have made you deliberately. If that was the case, your only actual function is to kill people and destroy buildings.”

I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to live.

“As a former intended entrée, I can sympathize. But you are killing us, Else.” Hot tears filled my eyes. “I’m okay so far, but that is only because Miys is constantly infusing me with freshly made, iron-rich blood. What happens when we’re out of resources? Or reach our destination?”

Nutrient rich plants, engineered to grow on the new planet.

“Conor,” I gasped, covering my mouth as the tears I was trying so hard to hold back fell down my face. “The catnip he gave Tyche. He said it was a failed experiment.”

He does not know he created us. The gift was in good will.

“Is that how you infected her?”

No. She likes to swim. And she loves you.

“Difference between intelligence and sentience: that was exactly the wrong thing to say,” I hissed. “The only body you have are the ones you stole from my family and the crew, so I can’t actually hurt you. But I am this close,” I held my fingers so they were barely not touching, “to having Miys filter you out of our blood and flush you into space. The only reason I am here talking to you is because we knew you were sentient before we realized you were killing us.” Another deep breath. “Try. Again.”

She was infected when she went swimming. It was not intentional. We needed iron.

“Much better.”

We did not mean for the mermaid to be injured so. There was so much iron in her blood. I did not know that taking it away would harm her.

“You harmed us all!” I screamed. “All of us! You made Grey absent-minded and forgetful. You undermined their confidence. You made Conor, Grey, and Antoine angry,” I spat. “The biggest betrayal of all. Three of the calmest, most reasonable people I know, the ones who would have rooted for you, and you took that away from them!”

I –

“Conor and Grey made you!”

Did not know. Not then. But I-we know that now. And we are sorry.

”Are you? Or are you pleading for your life?”

I-we want to live.

“That I believe.”

But we want you to live, even if we are not within you.

“How the fuck do you think we do that? Humans are the only source of iron on the ship.”

I-we am-are bacteria. I-we can be isolated.

“And then, what? Leave you on some poor planet to kill some other species? I hate to tell you, but you went from birth to genocide in alarming fashion. All of humanity that is left, is on this ship, and you are killing what’s left. From what we understand, the Galactic Council would frown on what you’re doing.” I focused on sending the information I had gotten back to Miys and everyone listening in. “I can’t let you do this to another species.”

Barren planet. Old one, where no more life will survive.

“One that is at the end of its life cycle?”

I-we do not believe I-we am-are vulnerable to heat.

I waited patiently for information before I responded. “Miys says we can isolate you and test for you heat resistance before booting you off in a nebula that you can’t fuck up. Is that sufficient?”

Humans cannot live in a nebula.

“We can’t live in a pylon either, but you ate it all the way through.”

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#the miys #science fiction #humans are weird #original fiction #humans are space orcs #contagion #aliens #apocalypse #nighmare #virus

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rogueshipagogo · 4 years

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ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

#its almost 4 am. idk i will probably have more to say tomorrow. my head still hurts #the galaxy depends on my funky moves

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ideako-official · 4 years

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The Next Big Thing in Business

The business world has been changing drastically in the course of recent years. Innovation shifts have fundamentally altered the manner in which we direct business. The one thing innovation won’t change is the cycles that happen inside the business world or society in general. Actually innovation has been affecting business and society since the improvement of fire or the wheel. It has had an influence in for all intents and purposes each kind of cycle that impacts the business world.

Regularly when we consider cycles we quickly consider budgetary cycles however there are various kinds of cycles affecting business. Since the primary mechanical upset, we have had numerous humankind cycles in business. Here are a couple of key authentic crossroads in US business history that prompted profound changes in the human parts of business (great and awful):

The Pullman Strikes in 1894: Alongside comparable strikes, this engaged trade guilds that had quality going on until the 1980's.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911: Requests for accommodating working conditions just as movements in who is qualified to work.

Stockmarket Crash in 1929: The need to control covetousness and shield US residents from deceitful parts of business.

World War II: Made another association among business and representatives that prompted longer term work and quiet work relations for near 20 years.

JFK Assassination: The quiet separation in numerous parts of society separated. Angles from this separation can even now be felt today as the possibility of long lasting business finished until the end of time.

The Gas Crisis: The Gas Crisis was not by any means the only thing at that point, yet this occasion, alongside changes in guideline and helpless administration of associations, started the quick ruin of associations that would proceed for the following 10 years. The outcome was the production of an age that neglected to comprehend the advantages that associations have had ever.

The Crash of 1987: In spite of the fact that the accident was fleeting and didn’t, all alone, drive change, it was where avarice and “no nonsense” in business got ordinary. This prompted a significant number of the difficulties we have been finding lately.

Likewise with most cycles, we tend to not hang out in the middle however rather the pendulum streams to the boundaries. In the course of recent years, profitability has sore because of new innovation. We have looked as certain positions stop to exist while different positions have appeared in colossal amounts. Advanced mechanics has everlastingly changed assembling. The web and computerized reasoning have significantly changed jobs, for example, Customer administration or the budgetary parts of news-casting. Web-based media has changed how we get content and the sort of substance that is beneficial. Models for most businesses have changed somewhat. As a rule, businesses are abandoned.

We have now entered a limit that makes a move inescapable. In my last post I began making way for this post by investigating a portion of my own excursion in these considerations just as where we have to go as a general public. I expounded on a portion of the wrecked idea of innovation and human association. We are permitting information to drive our business regardless of whether the information is defective. We need to begin taking a gander at everything in another manner. This is valid for business just as every one of us actually. For instance, it is anything but difficult to point fingers at those with political contrasts as a reason for issues in the public eye; yet perhaps, quite possibly, these are side effects of bigger issues. Regular political reactions, for example, the appointment of a President, are not about the legislator, however a mission for answers or from various perspectives clutching what we know and comprehend. As a rule, numerous individuals are outright terrified. They are terrified that they won’t have work, or not have the money related assets to think about the ones they love.

9 Innovations That Could Become the Next “Big Thing”

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Man-made consciousness that can learn and work autonomous of human overlords seems like sci-fi. However, this may turn into our new reality inside the following 3–5 years. Robots will have the option to learn aptitudes, perform assignments, and transfer data into the cloud to help other AI frameworks adapt rapidly. Various sorts of AI won’t need to be modified independently any longer. They will get thoughts, imitate systems, and create forward leaps quicker than people actually could. Best of all, “future” is now here. Scientists simply created progressive AI that can repeat the 2001 Nobel Prize winning quantum material science test inside 60 minutes.

2. Autonomous driving: What amount of time do you go through driving each week? In the event that Google, Apple or Tesla get their direction, you may before long invest that energy resting, perusing or shopping. Self-driving vehicles as of now exist and everybody is hustling to overwhelm the market. General Motors simply procured Cruise Automation for over $1 billion and ride-hailing administrations like Uber and Lyft are contributing enormously. Indeed, even carport programmers like George Hotz are putting their own turn on the business. Anticipate enormous things.

3. Reusable rockets: Previously, space investigation has been incredibly costly and wasteful. A solitary dispatch costs between $100 to $300 million however the rocket flies just a single time before combusting during a free fall back through Earth’s environment. Organizations like SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance are changing the game by growing absolutely moved rockets that can land securely. 3D printing of rocket parts and liquified flammable gas choices to rocket fuel will lessen costs also. Before sufficiently long, rockets will be reusable and space travel will turn out to be substantially more reasonable.

4. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Computer generated reality (VR) and increased reality (AR) are not new ideas but rather will alter the world inside 5 years. AR upgrades reality while VR causes us to overlook it. Together, they open a world past the real world, the web or the web of things; another industry, the web of encounters, is developing. With the latest interest in MagicLeap, the VR/AR industry is set to reach $150 Billion by 2020. As VR and AR advances improve and more substance opens up for clients, human experience of innovation will change for eternity.

5. Rapid adaptation of renewable energy: In the following year, the Solarcity Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York will create up to 10,000 sun based boards for each day. It will upset the elective vitality industry and make sunlight based vitality substantially more reasonable. The sustainable power source will pull in organizations and governments over the globe as they endeavor to determine the worldwide vitality emergency. China has just proposed a $50 trillion worldwide vitality lattice by 2050, for example. The advancement, for this situation, is a framework that rapidly and productively delivers sustainable power source innovations at a worldwide scale.

6. Large scale desalination: Desalination is certainly not another idea yet has been hard to adjust because of significant expenses. Sorek, an Israeli organization, has assembled the world’s biggest desalination plant fit for delivering 627,000 cubic meters of water every day. Inside a year, half of Israel’s water is relied upon to originate from desalination. Sorek has demonstrated that desalination is conceivable at an enormous scope. This advancement could help settle California’s dry season and maybe even the worldwide water emergency.

7. Ridiculously fast internet: The times of dial-up modems are a distant memory and the web is a major aspect of our day by day lives. Development is continuous, in any case, and Google’s Loon Balloon is only one model.

Google Fiber gives web speed of up to 1 gigabit for every second (multiple times quicker than customary Wi-Fi) and is now spreading over the U.S. Li-Fi utilizes noticeable light correspondence to communicate information at speeds up to 224 gigabits for every second (in excess of multiple times quicker than Google Fiber) and is a demonstrated idea. Indeed, even Wi-Fi is getting detached, utilizing multiple times less force. Before long, web association issues will be a relic of days gone by and the “Web of Things” will interface family gadgets, wearable sensors and different innovations around the world.

8. Online DNA analysis: “There’s an application for that” will be supplanted by “There’s a clarification in your DNA for that”. Inside the following year or something like that, Helix, Illumina and Veritas Genetics will empower us to dissect our hereditary qualities on the web, comprehend our inclination to getting certain ailments, and even clarify why a few of us desire desserts more than others. This is all an aspect of a push to democratize genomic information and give people experiences about their wellbeing. Purchaser Genetics will be a progressive business model that permits individuals to pay modest quantities of cash to become familiar with themselves.

9. Immune system engineering: We are nearer to finding the remedy for malignant growth and leaving chemotherapy in the past where it has a place. This isn’t an exaggeration since organizations like Cellectis, Juno Therapeutics and Novartis are now sparing carrying on through hereditary altering and immunotherapy. Inside the following 1–2 years illnesses like malignant growth, various sclerosis and HIV could be treated by designing the safe framework. Hereditarily built resistant cells, similar to Killer T cells intended to clear out disease, will spare innumerable lives.

It is very important for a good quality businessman to have two things

Email Signature

Business Card

#business #entrepreneur #success #socialmedia #entrepreneurlife #leadership #technology #businessman

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iexistband-blog · 4 years

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Spotify meets Augmented Reality - A Five Year Journey

The I-Exist app is available now on the App Store and Google Play!

Thinking about how music might evolve into the future has always been interesting to us, but really, this project started as two guys looking to the past - imagining their younger selves being obsessed with their favorite bands and listening to those albums on repeat. Back then, we would buy physical cds - with the plastic case and the album artwork and everything. Usually all of the lyrics would be in there too, and if you were really into the music, you could look through the pages and sort of get lost in the whole thing while the music played.

Flash forward to today, and here we are with our smartphones and these unlimited music streaming services. It’s a pretty amazing thing with all of it at our fingertips, but we felt like there was still something missing. With all of today’s crazy technology, we imagined what it might be like to take that old school album art of cd’s and vinyl, and somehow wrap it around a listener’s head to transport them into another world.

That was five years ago.

We are I-Exist, two life-long musicians who took the red pill and learned how to program and develop in order to bring this idea to life. Looking back on things, it was without a doubt the most challenging thing we’ve ever done, but we learned so much and are finally ready to share some of that perspective with you here.

ENTER THE ALBUM

So with our new album Consciousness, we thought of what it might be like to create a world for our songs to live in - and for people to come and experience them in different ways. We started developing in VR, even though we knew the world wasn’t ready. There is something so undeniable about its power in completely immersing the listener once they have the headset on, but we also kept mobile in mind, knowing that everyone has a powerful smartphone - and wondered if we could create some kind of window into that same world, so everyone could check it out.

As we built out smartphone functionality, we eventually landed on a camera system that reacts to the way you tilt and move your device, similar to how a lot of augmented reality apps work. We layered that with a traditional music player UI so that the user can enter and exit the space - and also have access to traditional app buttons and options.

We thought to ourselves, now that we have these new systems in place, what kind of content is really worth delivering?

IS THIS THE FUTURE?

It’s exciting to come up with something new, but is it what listeners really want? People already have an established routine for listening to music, whether it’s in the car, at the gym, or maybe multitasking with something else while they have their headphones on. How are we supposed to compete with that?

And the answer there is that we probably can’t. Spotify and Apple Music have pretty much perfected the modern listening experience, no matter how passive it might be. But right there is where the key is for us, it’s a PASSIVE experience. We wondered if we could add something more ACTIVE when you want to dig deeper - or for when you finally become a “super fan” of your new favorite artist.

As it turns out, musicians have been creating content like this for years, it’s just gotten lost a bit here in the streaming age. Do you remember deluxe cds? The ones that maybe had a few additional acoustic tracks thrown in at the end? Or maybe a collectors edition that had a full commentary section from the artist? We found that kind of content to be the most compelling and ended up mixing it into our interactive 3D scenes.

We were already familiar with the status quo, and wondered which new ideas are actually worth delivering. Over five years of testing and brainstorming, we landed on three concepts that ended up working best.

EVERY SONG IS A WORLD

We wanted to create an easy and relaxing way to take in the lyrics, so we ended up creating a basic 3D environment for each song - which gives the listener full freedom of movement to walk around in and explore. We imagined each section of the song being represented as a space on the map, and as they move deeper into that space, lines from the song rise up from the ground as text along with an ambient vocal sample playing in the background. They can take it as slow or as fast as they want, it’s all happening in real time..

While you could argue that reading lyrics from a random web search gets the job done, for us, that just isn’t very inspiring. Thankfully, bringing people into this surreal type of dimension turned out to be a pretty cool experience.. You could imagine more ways to give the listener freedom, whether that’s interacting with other sounds or manipulating physical objects, but we’re pretty happy with the basic movement and idea.

AMBISONIC CHAMBER

By the time you download the app, you might have already heard the studio recording of the song somewhere else, but what about the live performance? One thing that traditional music players are stuck with are their static left and right audio channels. What’s great about AR and VR though, is that you are essentially giving the listener control back of their head and ears, which means they can look around freely in the world. This opens up a lot of opportunities for a more immersive listening experience. Audiophiles out there are probably already aware of this stuff, but the way our head and ears move around in a physical space can give our brains cues that they're actually inside a certain type of room.

Anyway, we utilized real-time spatial audio and ambisonics, modeled the room for our private performance, and had a multitrack recording session with acoustic instruments. It ended up being a pretty cool way to give exclusive content to our fans, especially when you consider that we’ll probably never get to play in their living rooms… but now it kind of sounds like we are.

FIRESIDE CHAT

We thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we could sit down at a fire with our fans and tell them some of the deeper stories of how the songs came to be. That would be a pretty intimate way to talk and connect. So that’s what we did. We created a sandy outdoor area with a fire, took the same spatial audio concept from the acoustic room, and just like that… we’re all sitting next to each other by the fire, talking about each song on our new album.

WHAT ABOUT VR?

So those are the ideas that worked out for both AR and VR, but like we said at the beginning, nothing really beats the immersion of a virtual reality headset. If you think about it, this is really the only time we’ll ever have someone’s full focus and attention, and that makes every part of the app more effective. We even made a VR exclusive mode that sort of acts like an interactive visualizer while the original track plays. When you combine that with something like the SubPac, which is a haptic, subwoofer backpack... now their whole body is moving and vibrating with the music. This is pretty much the holy grail, multi-sensory experience that we’d love to give all our listeners, but realize it’s not for most ;-)

WHERE WE ARE TODAY

So after all this time, here we are reporting back to the world with this thing we made. It’s definitely not perfect and we could write multiple other articles about what it’s missing and how it needs improvement - but we’re glad that we didn’t quit and are curious what people might think.

We’re releasing it today with the intro and first world, but in the coming days and weeks we’ll be unlocking portals inside the app that open up new areas and songs. With the whole COVID-19 thing, hopefully that can give something for people to look forward to as they’re locked inside.

Since everyone has a phone, we focused on the mobile build first, which is available now. We’re also releasing on SteamVR on May 12th for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index, and Windows Mixed Reality. PSVR and Oculus Quest versions are also planned for later in the year, but those are going to take a little more optimization.

So we’ve made it to the end and some things have become clear, but there are still a lot of unknowns. Like… is this something the world even wants? Should we open source the project? If we start getting feedback and decide to continue development, where else could we take it? Feel free to check out the app and let us know what you think! We’ll be waiting for you in a digital, alternate dimension.

Brian and Cameron

I-Exist

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blogdeanfullerton · 4 years

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Week 7

This week was gathering inspiration for the UI for glass idea. Some more sketches where done to help visualise the idea along side user flows and personas.

The first new sketch I did was building from my original idea for google glass. I decided to spend more of these sketches figuring out how to display the information and my key factor was trying not to take up all of the users space on the screen so they could still see the world around them. I was looking at maybe taking advantage of the sides of the screen to display news articles due to the scrolling motion on glass which could be combined with the tap to open and swiping side ways to get settings. I didn't want a repeated motion to much as it may lead to difficulty getting the right thing or cause confusion to the users. I displayed them in 2 by 2 squares also but I wonder how hard to navigate that sort of layout would be to navigate without voice commands so I stuck to side ways swiping for articles as it seems the best way to display the content on the cards for the screen.

User Flows.

I created these user flows directly after drawing down my ideas for the UI. I did this in two different phases the first flow I did was done with the sole concept that it was just voice commands or using the swipe but was more focused on the swipe action that comes with the device. The way they both start however is by tilting your head backwards as this is what wakes glass up, or you can say “ok glass”. I wanted the swiping to be very easy and and I wanted the UI to somewhat indicated what why you had to swipe without needed to explain it, so go sideways or up and down where the two ways the cards where displayed plainly and the centre one would be larger as an indicator to which one the user was on. The flow shows how the user can say what app they are looking for eg the news or swipe down a list until they see it in the list and then tap.

The second User flow uses the third way of navigation which is the hand, In VR the players are able to interact with object with there hands and things can be displayed in there hands such as menu items. I took this into consideration for this idea as in the emerging technologies I research the merging of virtual reality and augmented reality was on the list of things to come forming Multiple reality, so using the hands allows things to be displayed and freeing up the space on screen but also creates that futuristic Communication idea of people using communication technology in there hands to see people like in star wars so it could have some good marking potential if this where the case and of course that concept alone would get sales with people in my mind. The second flow shows how the hand options work similar to the swipe but are just fast but the swipe is still there if people feel awkward holding up there hand to get navigation or if they don’t want to use the voice commands. To make the flows easier to read voice commands are highlighted in blue where hand navigation is in green while the basic swipe is left without colour.

Research

https://developers.google.com/glass/design/ui

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/9/16869174/vuzix-blade-ar-glasses-augmented-reality-amazon-alexa-ai-ces-2018

Research into the glass user interface showed that it is all displayed on cards which was know before, but its rather unappealing and very large. The information doesn't need to be as large as it is displayed currently on glass. Options appear from the bottom for people top archive, reply or read aloud certain information which can be seen below.

Below are a few screenshots of videos I watched for google glass. I did this so I could get an idea of how the UI actually looked in front of your eyes. The way glass works is by looking into the to right glass with both eyes and seeing the UI. This could probably be very tiring on your eyes after a while, this is also why moving things with your eyes via an eye tracker would not be a good idea due to a persons eyes getting swore or tired after a very little amount of time, it also counteracts the idea that this is meant to be UI in front of your sight so things should be accessible when walking for example without compromising a persons eyes for movement.

The next two images are again the glass UI but the first one was about a mobile UI views in glass, this was interesting as the mobile is the our current device of mass choice and if things like glass are next it is interesting to see how these can display the same amount of content without again compromising a persons main field of view and with the limited swipe motion that glass currently has. The info is put into sliders at both sides of the screen so the middle is still visible but there is no background to the side sliders so the vision on the sides is not total compromised. The second screenshot was someone showing what glass looked like on a computer and single cards are being allocated to one specific thing, currently glass works like a smart watch, it can tell the weather, time and call people but can also take pictures and reply to texts. Its not fair to say its a smartphone on your face as smartphones are smarter and are more user friendly, to a very informed person it wont be to much of an adjustment or difficult to learn but for people who struggle with smartphones it would be impossible to comprehend. These people are obviously not in the target market but it is worth thinning about as if we can design the UI to make more sense for people who have no idea how to navigate a phone it will be that much easier for more informed people.

The below video is the actual video as it was the biggest inspiration for my thinking of with glass, its the video demo they created to promote their Idea for glass and the UI for this looks and feel much better than the massive cards that it currently has but the problem with this is that for the nice UI and to use glass properly you need to speak into the Voice commands and this was released in 2013 when VC wasn't that great and it still has ways to come personally, Voice commands are now more capable of understanding people with accents but if you where in the street its hard to assume voice commands could make you out from the background noise. I think the use of hands and having options on your finger tips would help the user have the options needed without compromising the vision space as these glasses will need to be and are being developed to be lenses which display in front of both eyes.

youtube

I actually got to try a pair of these glasses on and wearing them felt better than the original google glasses. The tec is all stored on one side of the frames which I think is bad as you can feel that, it needs to have a 50-50 weight distribution to have a comfort felling to it, also the design needs to be more streamlined, the thick frames are something that looks more “normal” but also they feel as massive as they are so smaller glasses would work better, again the future dream would for all of this to be in a contact lens or some bio chip so the need for these heavy frames wouldn't exists. These frames where the Vuzix Blade AR glasses and again their technology has been in development since the original google glass failed to catch onto any customer base.

Vr - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13673-018-0154-5

There have been strives in the Vr industry primarily in video games where developers are making the worlds more immersive and the head gear has become better and more user friendly but the way the hand movements have been integrated has also changed and it is interesting to consider how the users hands are still being used as a cursor or stylus. There is a interesting article about how the HTC Vive has developed better experiences for VR and with the interactions of people in mind with there different hand controllers. The below images show how people are able to interact with displays and 3d objects with these controllers and how they are moving people away from the tradition of keyboard and mouse, this idea was interesting for this project as there inst much space to display all necessary UI or information so using the hands as well as the lenses opens new experience design opportunities.

Below are the sketches I did highlighting what I spoke about above. Such as the rise for the want for more wearable technologies but also how the original glasses used that small glass square where the new ones are more like proper glasses, the glasses above (the ones im wearing) are not googles Glasses as you can see that their design seems to be more slim compared to the ones I have on this is because they still use the little glass square where both eyes have to look up at where the ones I have on display directly in front of the view.

I also looked at how Voice commands are becoming a home staple with alexa and googles echo. The Bluetooth ear piece can be seen as one of the first of all these technologies as was symbolical piece of hardware for the on the go businessperson due to the hands free communication allowing them to take notes or text someone else at the same time.

First attempts at the UI

The below images where my first ruff go at the UI and how I wanted it to look, This was before I tested the idea of the hand navigation, I was going off a mainly google design where most of the information was on large cards, I believe I achieved the idea for the navigation where it was obvious which way you had to swipe to navigate. You can scroll the source for the news and the news articles which open up to a sideways scrolling with the main image up front and the information on again large cards with the down swipe being for options and up swipe was the go back option. The first screen shows the time and location and what the signal strength is.

I then decide to change the background image for the design to make the choices make more sense as the city is probably where most people will be using the device not out on hikes in the woods, I took some design inspiration from the mobiles on how to display the basics and I rearrange some of content to fit better for its purpose.

#ixd303

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anirudh-rajan-blog · 7 years

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mission day: 1425 time: 16:30 location: control room [@serramurray]

He had tried to keep himself busy for as long as possible. The idea that four years — six, really, if you counted the training — of his life, of all their lives might be thrown away in an instant was… He didn’t want to think about it. So he had kept himself busy. Kept to his schedule, more or less. Admittedly, there were more hiccups today than most. Admittedly, he’d spoken about it a lot. More than he should have, maybe; his head was foggy with everyone else’s opinions. But he had tried to stick to his routine and it had worked, mostly.

And then he’d hit rec time and he’d already clocked his time at the gym, and he’d already talked to the Commander, and the VR room had just made his chest ache. He’d tried to rest for a while, to recuperate. He had thought he wanted to be alone. That maybe all he needed was some space in his own head to figure out what he actually felt. In the end, though, his mind had just spun and he’d felt like the world was too big and the future wrapped itself around his chest like a vice. He didn’t want to be alone, he realised. What he wanted was to sit by someone who understood and just exist with them for a while.

He had made his way to the control room, a small part of him kind of hoping he wouldn’t find Serra there on arrival. That she had actually let go of some of the burden of responsibility for a change, gone and taken a nap or something. It wasn’t likely. Her reaction at the meeting this morning could have told anyone that. “Should give us enough time to change course, slingshot around the star”

He found her where he knew she’d be, head bowed, working unrelentingly. He wondered how long she’d been craned over like that. She certainly would have gotten up at some point, Serra wasn’t an idiot, but he hadn’t seen her since the meeting. For all he knew, she could’ve been sitting there ever since.

“If you frown any harder, your eyeballs are going to fall out of your head,” he said gently. He moved towards her, considered putting a hand on her shoulder. He rested it on the back of the chair beside her instead.

“Zhōu hasn’t even held the vote yet, Serra. You can take a break”

#[murray]#[m001]#[beta prime]

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spiralatlas · 7 years

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GCAP 2017 Day 2

Consisting of:

More Wheelchair Hell

student games

Tony Albrecht from RIOT games

Jennifer Schuerle: Why ladders are awesome: A game design lesson in spatial design

Kate Edwards: Striking the hammer: the advocate’s journey

So the day started with me banging my newly hired mobility scooter INTO THE WALL of our apartment building and leaving a HUGE HOLE. Which was not great. But the security guard was nice about it after we showed ourselves happy to leave our details, and organised an easier way in and out via the garage. I spent the rest of the day VERY AWARE of this thing's massive turning circle. My husband Cam was an absolute life-saver, cheering me up and getting me stuff.

Also I managed to GET A SMOOTHIE IN THE END. I noodled south to the South Mebourne Markets, a hub of fancy food places which are only open a few days a week, and had a very nice if expensive vegan salted caramel smoothie and also a nice apple and raspberry sorbet from Fritz Gelato.

Anyway, on to the actual conference :)

The student games:

Unbond: a cute platform puzzler I actually managed to enjoy??

Harvest Hands a 3D farming sim, like Stardew Valley in the style of Slime Rancher.

Just Bearly an interesting series of metaphorical vignettes about awkwardness and anxiety.

Carta A very clever puzzle platformer where you rearrange the platforms, won the Student Showcase award.

Lacuna A point and click murder mystery using time travel and a really interesting connect the clues mechanic.

Komorebi (I couldn't find a link): a cute turn-based rpg using cards.

Misc Convention Stuff: I didn't mention this before but they had gender neutral toilets! I felt too self conscious to use the 'men's but it was nice to have the option. Also the volunteers were super concerned and helpful when my wheelchair broke. They didn't end up being able to fix it but tried really hard.

One of the speakers actually remembered non binary people exist one time when talking about gender bias in the industry!

I didn't go to the awards ceremony because it was at night and also I find awards super boring but seeing everyone talk about it on social media later it sounds like it would have been cool to go.

Opening Keynote: Tony Albrecht from RIOT games

He showed the path his career has taken, and where he and his early colleagues have ended up, updating a world map labeled with a network of connections.

He started out in Adelaide in 1999, he realised he was utterly miserable at his (mining?) job and wanted to get into games. His friends and family thought this was a terrible idea.

He went to AGDC and met other people like himself, forming Ratbag games in Adelaide.

Then they got bought out by a huge company and put in charge of a huge IP, based on a movie, with lots of potential... and the project and his company got scrapped.

And then he joined anew little company and exactly the same thing happened again. And then again.

During one of these shakeups he managed to jump sideways to the US branch of the company via some guys he met at a party.

Is this kind of thing nepotism? Photo of Donald Trump and family. No, because it's not just about who you know and trust, it's also about competence. And when you meet someone in person it makes it easier to judge cultural fit. (He did not talk about how this kind of "cultural fit" tends to benefit white dudes such as himself. Also, I’ll pedantically point out it it would be 'cronyism' since it's not about family. Anyway, he’s right that for good or ill this is how things work)

The GFC caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, which was a horrible experience, but also brought down the dinosaurs of the industry, leaving space for the little mammal indies to feast on the dinosaur's bones.

In his final diagram, 22 people (I didn't follow who. People from Ratbag?) ended up covering 57 studios. All of those studios are now in a position to judge if he is any good, both competent and good to work with.

You can't just be good, you have to be known to be good, and good to work with. Market yourself.

Be both humble and ambitious.

Go to parties and meet people, but don't get so drunk you make an asshole of yourself.

Speak at conferences. He showed a photo of GDC and one of a games conference in Tehran, I found it interesting that the latter had way more people who I read as women (and of course was less universally white)

Surround yourself with people you want to be like, and be like the people you want to surround yourself with.

He's now at RIOT, a huge American company, and there are four people from Ratbag there.

Why ladders are Awesome: A game design lesson in spatial design Jennifer Schuerle Opaque Space @Gaohmee Training Astronauts with VR.

Visual stimuli guidance, tell players what to do and where to go. Lights: Points of interest. Colour theory. Positive vs negative feelings, mood. Logical pathways. Repetitive visuals guide players towards a goal.

Firewatch given as an example as being good at guiding the player (which shows that this stuff can be subjective because I got lost so much I had to give up haha) Uncharted, too.

More than just "good architecture". Oni used real architects as level designers and it was bad. The layout was boring and samey.

UX behavioural science.

Player expectations: a rusted barrel with a “flammable” symbol on it is read as "Shoot me and I will explode", which would weird people out in a pacifist game.

Health pack: Illegal to use a red cross against a white background for health. Instead people use a red H, blue cross etc.

Lock down parameters. How long should it take? Mission metrics. Visual themes. What need is this space supposed to fulfill?

Context: what does the player already know? eg in LA Noire you learn early that golden handles means an openable door.

Pacing: tension and mood is created by going from a confined space to large space, from dark to light. Make the player look away before a jump scare.

Explicit: Instructions telling the player exactly what to do. Implicit: in the environment Emergent: What the player makes up in conjunction with what is given by the game.

Some bad corridors:

Minecraft portal: doesn't look like it leads anywhere, looks like a dead end.

Portal corridor has extrusions in the wall hiding an upcoming intersection.

A good corridor: light highlights door, small flight of stairs hints to progression, hint of a curving corridor beyond the door, shows edge of the next room. Raised viewpoint makes it easier to see.

Ladders, interactive objects: must be clearly designed, grab attention, can lead to a surprise because you know where the player is facing and have a reason for things to change.

Buttons control exactly where the player is facing. It controls expectation.

Super Mario is a masterclass of level design. Include objects which illustrate the rules of the world.

Cognitive priming: Foreshadowing. If you show them before they have to do it they will do better.

(Alice?) shows you what you're going to do next with flythroughs, view from a hill etc. Gets players to follow the intended path.

Gone Home is one of the most important walking sims. You explore the world and character.

Players more on board if invested. Give them time to connect to characters and environments.

Give time, show they can trust your design.

Earthlight Arcade: 15 minute virtual space walk on the outside of international space station.

New technology means new challenges, for both devs and players.

Collaboration with NASA requires a commitment to a certain level of realism.

Astronaut suits are fucking annoying. Obstructs view, takes up lots of space.

Airlock: people have expectations that don't match actual airlocks. No up! Corridors tend to be round. Exit is on the side of the airlock, how do you point people towards it?

Cannot move without applying force, pulling on handlebars etc. People lean and it doesn't work. Can rotate in any direction when holding handlebars. (I asked if people get motion sickness and she said no, because they are in control, even if things work in unexpected ways)

The goal is to get the player to: learn how to move. Find the airlock hatch. Climb out feet first.

First attempt: "Ladder" of handlebars leading to airlock. Logos with text on to suggest an up. Didn't work.

Second Attempt: Narrow airlock so you have nowhere else to go but the door out. GIANT EXIT SIGN. Worked, but for the wrong reasons: players didn't notice the sign, there was just nowhere else to go.

People. Never. Read. People. Never. Listen.

Whenever people are overwhelmed, new information is hard to retain. It doesn't matter how clear your solution seems to be if the player doesn't get it. It's your responsibility to make it work.

Earthlight Arcade is at PAX in the freeplay area!

Summary: Make mechanics come first, use spatial design as a support tool.

Design for the human perception. How do humans navigate environments?

Believable carefully crafted environments mean people will follow your lead.

[email protected]

Question: How do you keep track of the player's centre of gravity? You can't with the current model. Don't model below the stomach.

Question: How did NASA feel about this highly innaccurate airlock? There are multiple builds. An easier and less precise one for the public, a more exact one for NASA they add their own models. They have to worry about tethers etc.

Closing Keynote: Striking the hammer: the Advocate’s journey Kate Edwards CEO & Principal Consultant, Geogrify Director of Outreach & Board Member, Take This Former Executive Director, IGDA [email protected] Twitter: @geogrify

Scholarship to GDC.

Pushed against various things (crunch, sexism etc) During Gamergate was a primary target, as was the organisation. Once you have 100 arrows in your back you don't feel any more.

Now works with Take This which focuses on mental health.

Her influences: Watched the moon landing. Tolkein's map helped her on path to becoming a cartographer. Star Wars. Pong.

Writer (wanted to be astronaut, star wars conceptual artist) -> cartographer -> VR researcher -> Geopolitical Strategist at MSFT -> Cultural consultant on games -> IGDA Executive Director -> Raging Advocate

Who am I? Created a unique Geopolitical career at Microsoft and Google. Worked on every Microsoft game 1994-2005 Worked on [redacted] for [redacted] Magazine columnist (other stuff I missed)

But then she was overwhelmed with self doubt and imposter syndrome. Watching the Matrix: "Don't think you are, know you are", she burst into tears.

She realised: Disbelief in your own skills doesn't make them disappear, or be invisible to those around you.

Know the reality of what others perceive in you, even if you struggle to think you have skills or not.

Imposter syndrome: What I know is a tiny subset of what everyone else knows. Reality: they are two overlapping sets of about the same size. The associated image

Comparison is the death of joy- Mark Twain.

Embrace your adversity. Treat it as your crucible, your forge. The Supreme Ordeal of the Heroes Journey.

Embrace your superpowers.

Even if it's self delusion it works. A bruise is a lesson and every lesson makes us better.

Be like Wonder Woman, stepping up out of the trench to stand up and do what's necessary. Only by emerging through the crucible can you do it.

Who am I? Someone who decided to give a shit. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.

Cultural Change Catalyst

Change culture within: Games: Helped people stop making games that would be problematic in other cultures. Companies The Games Industry

Why do I care? Love. Respect. Admiration. Passion.

Humans have told narratives since the dawn of time and we in the games industry are changing how that works in new ways.

It's not about rage.

It's about righteous rage: A reactive emotion of anger in response to mistreatment, insult ...injustice.

Injustice: Crunch. Lack of diversity. Screwing over indie devs is wrong.

Inaction. Complacency.

righteous rage=advocacy

She became fierce.

Does a lot of cosplay, daughter is a costume designer. Wear it for a day first. First day she wore the Thor costume she felt kickass. I'm not pretending to be Thor I am Thor. An external representation of how she feels about herself.

The fierce formula (drawn for Inktober) authenticity/adversity, maintain conviction over rejection, willpower + (Fear times zero).

"Industry" thought of as a machine where people are cogs. The "industry" is us. If you don't like it, change it.

Video games seen as a waste, causes violence, played by children and boys, cause obesity, motivated by money. Who controls this narrative? Noone in particular. But we need to work together to try to fix it.

Perceptions of sexism going up, concern about diversity also up.

Most people think crunch unnecessary. Read Crunch hurts on takethis.org about the mental health effects.

People say can't change can't happen quickly. Photo of Harvey Weinstein, Bill O'Reilly, Google manifesto dude. People say it takes time, but what it takes is willpower and people banding together. Change is punctuated.

FX network CEO decided to fix things. 2014 12% directors women or POC. 2016 51% directors women or POC.

Why can't games CEOs take a stand against crunch?

Focus on The Cause over the fear.

She would speak up against Gamergate again, despite knowing how she would be harassed later.

If everyone felt this way there'd be a wall of resistance, not just ripples but a tsunami.

Be willing to be relentless. Fervently support each other. Mentor each other. Reach out to people who need help. Act with common will.

Common question: will there be a union? Interest continuously increases. She was vague about whether she thought it was a good idea.

There were suggestions to join with hollywood unions but game creators would never be respected by them.

Everyone in history who made a change was "just one person". If you can't feed a hundred people just feed one.

She isn't trying to change the world, just her corner, that's the part she has chosen.

gameadvocacy.org (not up yet) Reporting on specific issues whistleblowing public collective action on specific targets

Wonder woman from comics: when asked how strong she was, she said "I don't know. It's difficult to find an upper limit against which to test myself"

fiat justitia ruat caelum: Let justice be done though the heavens fall

She's turning 53, doesn't want to have to wait decades for games to be accepted as a medium.

She got a standing ovation.

Closing speech: Reminder that there is a strict code of conduct. If you see something and feel comfortable standing up we will be your shields. If you are not comfortable enough come and find the team.

Lots of thank yous. LOTS.

#gcap 2017 #gcap #migw 2017 #conventions #conferences #game dev

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yahxxyy · 5 years

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Testing Thesis

Concept

Comprised of personal memorable sounds and high-pitched sounds, hEARing is an auditory spatial experience that reimagines an individual’s hearing experience in an abstract way to blur the edge of human auditory perceptions. The sound piece is looping almost like an ambient sound in the background, the participants enter the space with an anticipation of hearing this, but then a sudden intervention of high frequencies, vague sound elements and sonic dust leads to a unique experience for every participant in the sharing space. This intended disparate hearing experience is distinguished by different human auditory systems. Physically, human sensibilities differ from person to person. Psychologically, sound echoes differing memories, reflections and emotions. So now the privilege of perceiving the piece is transferred to the participants unconsciously. They cannot hear what you hear, they cannot sense what you sense and vice versa.

I am super sensitive to the high frequencies, I have been aware of this because my body reacts to these sounds strongly. I felt the blood vessels in the back of my brain and temples pumping really hard, and I got headache and dizzy immediately, while I was approaching these art pieces consisting of a bunch of old televisions or radios (around 16khz). The common hearing of range can be heard by humans is 20 hz to 20,000 hz, but a gradual loss of sensibility to hearing, especially higher frequencies, is normally relative to age. Even though we know that everyone’s perception is different, we still trapped in the body and view the world within our own limits. We will never understand what others feel, we are just what we are sensing. Our experience of sensing, a primary research of the world, is the scope of our understanding. The goal of hEARing is to create a sonic experience that addresses an intriguing inquiry towards human sensations to enforce the participants’ questioning the sound perception itself.

The audio sample that I played in the pop-up show is: hEARing, it is about 5:30 minutes long, which is made for looping in a quiet enclosed space to create spatial acoustic environment leading to some interesting effects. It is an experience that the audience can leave anytime they want. When they first enter the space and are given a variety of sounds to hear and feel, and they will be disturbed by sound interventions, like high frequencies, vague sound elements and sonic dust, which appear at half to one minute intervals. I am listing the memories on my journal and will include the memorable sounds like vendors’ yelling, sea waves, siren, strange melody, my grand grandmother’s murmur, coughing, whispering, creaky stairs, mah-jong, crystal rock sugar, smoke, etc. High frequencies will be playing in a comparatively low volume to give it a hovering effect.

Because it is an experience that the audience can leave anytime they want, not a performance or a concert that audience will listen from the beginning to the end. To ensure that I can catch the audience’ attention when they first enter the space and give them a variety of sounds to hear and feel, I placed the sound interventions, like high frequencies, vague sound elements and sonic dust, at half to one minute intervals. I kept testing with sound in different equipments, especially headphones and speakers, and figured out that speaker is a better way to create spatial acoustic environment and lead to some interesting effects. During the time I was producing my sound, I felt extremely uncomfortable and easily being irritated. I thought that was mostly because I had been continuously exposed under high frequency sounds.

I showed my work in the Thesis Pop up show and received amazing feedbacks. The reactions of most audience have reached my expectation. Document here. During the show, there were basically three types of responses from people experiencing my work. The first type of audience felt fear in the thunder-like ambient sound, the second type felt meditation from the ambient sounds, the third type felt nothing. Some people did not even wanted to enter the space, because it made them feel stressful and the space created by sound was like a barrier/enchantment (结界) that will trap them inside. The high frequencies were like hovering on the top and lasting in the back of head. Some people heard these, some didn’t. Some reacted strongly, some didn’t.

I was influenced by artworks such as Synesthetic Calculus by David Genco which is a piece that visualizes what he has perceived into a video piece (synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon of stimulating one sense which leads to a secondary different sense or cognition) and anosmia smell wheels by Christine Kelly. We can see from the wheels how her olfaction become worse in a couple weeks. Theses are such personal projects but so powerful to give people a sense of what are their perceptions of smell and vision. Since I don’t have any previous experience on making a spatial sound art, in order to figure out what other artists have done in music and sound experiments. I attended a performance of Mark Cetilia, a sound/media artist, who is usually working at electronic music and the nexus of analog and digital technology. The piece he presented was Dissolution, 2013. It was an amazing performance and the long high-pitched pure tone in the last part increased tension and generated auditory hallucination (maybe it was just me). And another piece caught my attention while I was browsing his portfolio is Precipice, 2013 - “Precipice is a generative composition existing at the the edge of perception.” It works almost like ambient sound but more than that. The “weightless tones” and “bits of sonic dust” together blur the line of white noise that can be ignored and noise that be noticed by people.

The previous prototypes are purely experimental to help me test with people’s different sensory perceptions. In the current concept, I am more focused on utilizing these experiments and research to make a sound installation. The guiding working questions are: how can I produce them to a sound piece that create resonance among people? How can I make the piece of and out of ambient sounds? What sound components can I use to create the piece? I used my own field recordings and picked high quality recordings from (https://freetousesounds.com/) as background sound, and did a few editings and added effects, in order to create an acoustic environment like soundscape. Then, I designed my own high-pitched tones and found some electronic sound recordings like electromagnetic fields. I considered the piece from two aspects, as an composition and as ambient sound.

I have been interning in harvestworks this fall and recently I have talked with Carol Parkinson, the executive director, about my thesis, she offered me quite a lot references, such as TELLUS magazine on ubuweb, Pauline Oliveros, and Seth Cluett. I would also like to push forward my piece to spatial audio. I consulted Bernardo Herdy who is a sound designer from Brazil and now studying in harvestworks about the spatial sound effect. And there are two ways he suggested to do, one is using spatial sounds by placing four speakers around the space, another one is to have ambient sonic headphones. Here are two articles that I am going to read: Spatial audio: how to record for VR and The main lesson we learned about recording spatial audio is probably old — but still valuable. And he suggested me to work with REAPER which is a cheaper and lighter software than Pro Tools for multi-channels sound production.

I am always interested in sound and sensory perceptions. My early interest in sound art was intrigued by Sound Studies in Media Studies taught by Melissa Grey in my second semester. I created my Morning Profile and Human Voice as a Clock in the class. I learned a lot from the process of thesis 1. In the beginning, I haven’t figured out the topic or a question that I wanted to delve into.And narrowing down from the research and interests was a big challenge for me, because I don’t know what is the right way to go, and I was afraid of losing control of my project and ended up nothing. That took me some time to get back on the track of doing something that I really like. Though I have the passion for making the piece, the techniques of spatial sound recording and editing intimidated me, especially because I am not a sound designer or artist. Before Liza mentioned, I haven’t even thought of asking for help from harvestworks where I have interned. I just talked with Carol after yesterday’s show and I realized that I should have talked to her earlier and be involved in more concerts hold by harvestworks. I should say that I always overthink and care a lot about what others think about me, which probably hinders me from making and producing. I am afraid of talking to people about my work and receiving any negative feedback.

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dommesticpet · 7 years

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I came home from a trip in February 2017 and there was a Nova Pro 100 waiting in my office. I didn't order it, of this I am sure. It's not like this item has a "forget you bought this setting" of which I am aware, but it does have dozens of settings that claim to be conducive to such things as sleep, relaxation, learning, and certain libidinous pursuits.

@Dommestic ordered it, but never did actually say if it was a gift... we weren’t exactly doing any hypnosis stuff at the time, but bringing this in to the house has resulted in a massive increase in crystals, pocket watches, research, and trips to @entrancedhypnocon - which will be going up to one, previously having been zero.

I've heard about the wonders of lights and sound machines in hushed tones for years, largely because few kinky people seem to be really interesting in articulating their virtues beyond "it's great." And it is great! To date, my experience with it has been exclusively as a subject - I ordered a microphone off of Amazon that plugs in the 3.5mm audio port, and it's the closest thing you'll get to a sci-fi brainwashing helmet without assembling it yourself.

I’m writing this today because it’s important for me that you know someone actually makes and sells this kind of device. Also, this explains what the darned thing is as I write about it often.

HOW LONG HAVE THESE THINGS BEEN AROUND?

Forever. Tiger Direct mail-order electronics catalogs have been advertising these things since the late 1980s and early 1990s, near various Macintosh computers and other office doodads that would appeal to the yuppies of the first Bush era. On one page, some sort of mind machine offering at-home hypnosis. On the other, the new Quadras. I haven't heard of this particular Nova Pro brand name until more recently - there were many before the Nova Pro 100, and there are new ones since then.

Wikipedia has an article called Mind Machines that may be of interest to you.

IS IT WORTH THE ASKING PRICE?

If you or your partner have a fetish for hypnosis in the traditional sense, and you’re not prone to light-induced seizures, I think so.

When it comes to various other hypnotic inductions, the question I asked of many is "Does it work?" The best answer I ever heard was "It does if you believe it does," which seems to be consistent with this device's performance. The best way I can describe the various blinking lights and sounds is like the wipers on your car. You can focus on the lights and sounds briefly, and then it's all wiped away. New lights and sounds appear, and those go too. If someone is talking to you, it's the same kind of thing. I'm told I'm responding to things, but heck if I know what some of them are.

At $400 or so, its value would be directly related to how often you might use it. Depending on your level of desperation/shame/solitude regarding hypnosis, this could be very handy for so many levels. Sure you have access to unlimited spirals and MP3s on your computer or phone, but short of virtual reality I don't think anything is quite as immersive. People are making VR apps for phones, and I'd be eager to try that if you know of a good one.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AND HEAR?

It varies - the model we have has sounds similar to an old computer or game system (it boasts surf sounds, I would not describe them as such) along with red or green lights flickering. Other colors and apparently sounds may be available.

DO I NEED TO BUY EXTRA STUFF FOR THIS?

If you want to use it alone, no - but I would recommend buying something if you want to use it with another person. If you live with that person, you want a microphone (more below). If your relationship will involve Skype or your phone, I would suggest a 3.5mm audio cable - basically, the same thing you'd use to plug an iPod or other audio device in a car if you don't use USB. This allows their words to mix with the beats, blips, and beeps that the Nova Pro spits out. The Photosonix people included a tote bag and pretty much everything you need to run it. It does not use batteries, you have to plug it in the wall.

IS IT HOT?

It is so hot that you may have to ask your deity of choice for forgiveness after using it. It’s not a sin but it probably should be one.

WHAT IS IT?

The Nova Pro 100 is a black box. It's metal, it feels last-century and almost handmade. One of the buttons was a little askew, as it was not assembled properly. It was easy to push back in place. It includes at least one pair of headphones - just normal, nice headphones - and a strange pair of glasses. The glasses are basically just sunglasses with LEDs wired to them that will fry your brain, so turn down those lights to the lowest setting when you try it. You also get also a power source, a serial cable to connect to a computer from 1996, and a manual explaining what all the preprogrammed sessions are. I'm told there are many new more downloadable sessions but we have not yet looked in to those. Considering the advances in personal electronics in the past 10-15 years alone, there's a definite "some dude found this in the back of a Radio Shack" vibe to this item, down to the very 1980s-Star Tours-crew-member-colored tote bag included to carry the hardware in a discreet way so nobody has to know about your filthy hypnosis fetish on the way to a trip or a play party or on the subway.

WHAT ABOUT THAT AUDIO PORT?

The designers may have neglected a USB port due to the age of the devices, but the 3.5mm audio jack is actually quite versatile for future-proofing it, minus the various smart devices that opted out of including such a port in their latest generation. You can plug in a microphone if you wish. You may plug in an iPod or iPhone using those 3.5mm cables you use for your car that they sell at Big Lots for a dollar or three. This also means you can hook it up to your computer - so if you really wanted to do so, you could hook up the Nova Pro 100 to Skype so someone in another city, state, or country can talk to you while the Nova Pro 100 does its thing to you locally. I've been fascinated about the notion of remote-control adult toys, and apparently the Photosonix engineers were one step ahead of technology by ensuring you could add any extra audio in here without a hitch.

I do not have much experience with MP3s but I assume you could also use this in conjunction with any recordings you have. Timing the wake-up and induction elements may be tricky though. The device is programmable, so perhaps that's something a more creative person could do. Then again if you're capable of going through that kind of effort, you've probably rolled your own VR hypnosis contraption for your phone by now and that's much cheaper.

HOW IS IT AT HIDING DISTRACTIONS?

Fantastic. During one session Dommestic later told me there were yelling construction workers outside and I had absolutely no idea this was happening - the headphones helped to drown out some of the exterior sound quite nicely. When we later added a microphone to the mix, I felt like I was locked in my own head.

Despite being a fairly simple device, I found it to be excellent at keeping me focused on her words, more or less. I tend to dart around a lot of things, generally keeping one or two more tasks in the back of my mind while working on a third. The Nova Pro 100 does not let me do that very well. Just when you start to get used to it, things change a bit - the sounds, the lights, and it just helps you sink down again.

WHICH MICROPHONE IS GOOD?

We purchased a Audio-Technica ATR-1200 Cardioid Dynamic Vocal/Instrument Microphone (under $20). Photosonix sells an older one directly, but shipping alone costs more than a similar microphone from Amazon. We tried a PC headset mic and it sounded awful.

The combination of the included headset and glasses with the added microphone create an irresistible, otherworldly vortex that I can only describe as spectacular. My Mistress sometimes changes how she holds the microphone - sometimes when she gets really close to it, it's overwhelming and feels like it's coming from inside my own head. Usually she holds it at a reasonable distance and it sounds more or less normal, but you can play around with it for special effects.

IS IT A TIME SINK?

To some extent - pre-programmed sessions are as short as five minutes or over an hour, and like anything fun you can over do it. On the other hand if you're already staring blankly at a TV for 30 minutes a night, this might actually be more fun and given the rising prices of cable TV, perhaps a decent replacement. I'm kidding. Maybe.

The shorter, under 10 minute sessions we tried weren't so great. The longer ones were a trip, to say the least. I think we've only done more than one session in a row once or twice, and the variety does a good job of shaking you up and setting your expectations before really delivering the goods.

BUT DO I NEED ONE?

If you're a hypnosis fetishist with an experienced play partner and sufficient toys/a good tool box? Probably not. If you have trouble relaxing and letting go, or need a little muscle to flex against your partner, this is a gift from above. If you start a little nervous or perhaps even aroused the relaxation setting will relieve you of those burdens quickly. If you're working with an adequately skilled operator with decent knowledge of hypnotic language, this device does a great job of amping up what they have to say or do, while providing lovely little beeps to keep your mind very busy if they decide to go take a break.

The sci-fi feel, the fetishistic bent of having a device that exists solely to service your fetish is the kind of thing that was likely part of all of our adolescent dreams. Having grown up in an environment where the notion of pleasure never came up even once, having one of these arounds feels like a ridiculous luxury item that will likely be stripped away when the revolution comes. I've had access to a lot of goofy consumer electronics over the years, and I can definitely say that it's worth giving up Starbucks or sodas or whatever minor vice you can to the tune of $4-$5 a day/week until you can afford one of these (or a similar device). If you came to me at a younger age and said “you can never buy soda again, but you can have a brainwashing machine at home” I’d say “I accept your terms, also were you sent by the devil and what is the catch?”

WHAT OTHER OPTIONS ARE THERE?

Lots of other companies are doing light/sound therapy machines that are a little more modern.

At least one or two Tumblr users are doing stuff with smart phone apps including but not limited to using the "Cardboard" VR technology to strap someone in a world. I would expect this kind of thing to flourish thanks to the low barrier of entry for most people with smartphones.

@theleeallure had posted a shot or two of some sort of brainwashing chair which involves computer monitors, visuals, and restraints - which sounds fun. Our set-up is just a chair with the Nova Pro.

WHERE CAN I TRY ONE?

As far as I know, no retailer has these set up for test drives but they do find their way in to various hypnosis conventions, gatherings, and unconferences. @mrs-prism informs me she may be bringing one to @entrancedhypnocon for a class on hypnotic toys. There's no guarantee you will be the one using it, but for all I know you'll get to see someone using it and that is a worthwhile experience. Or so they tell me, I've never seen one functioning from the outside - so I’d like to see what that looks like.

If you're doing a lot of play, it's good. The lights and sounds are a distraction from a plain induction, plus the person won't see (or hear) you if you need to consult a note or a script or just make a silly face for some reason. Like a watch, or a crystal, or your eyes, it's a tool that can make the job easier, but you'll still want to consult resources to know what you're doing, and why, and how. Or at least I would prefer you do this.

Make no bones about it, at $400 or more this is an expensive toy. A hypnosis book from the likes of @hypnoobiwan should be tops on your shopping list. The new age store near you likely has crystals for the price of a cheap dinner out, and perhaps a boutique has a nice pocket watch priced similarly.

#Nova Pro 100 #Hypnosis

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immedtech · 7 years

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'Virtual Rick-ality' is a VR treat for 'Rick and Morty' fans

Rick and Morty is one of the funniest shows on television -- and it's also one of the weirdest. Co-created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon (Community), the series is like a demented spin on the Doc Brown/Marty McFly relationship from Back to the Future. Rick Sanchez is a dimension-hopping alcoholic genius who's the grandfather to Morty, a nebbish kid who's always in over his head. Comedy! While I was initially worried that the show's first VR experience, Virtual Rick-ality, might not live up to the series' wildly inventive attitude, it didn't waste much time proving me wrong.

The game puts you in the role of a lowly Morty clone who's initially created just to do Rick's dirty laundry. That menial task serves as a cheeky way to learn how to interact with the environment, a loving recreation of Rick's garage lab. You'll notice plenty of callbacks to jokes from the show, but you won't get much of a chance to explore them at first. For the task at hand, all you need to do is throw the dirty laundry into the washer, add some detergent, and you're done. If you start fumbling and take too long, Rick and the actual Morty won't waste any time berating you.

youtube

Eventually you're tasked with retrieving an intergalactic delivery using a clone of Mr. Meseeks — a character that's originally introduced in the show, but serves a very different purpose here. It exists purely to mimic all of your movement in VR, and it comes out of a device resembling a Poke Ball from Pokemon. Since you can throw that device anywhere, the clone ends up being a smart way to interact with objects outside of your virtual play space. And, after playing plenty of VR games, its ability to mimic your movements feels very original.

Throughout Virtual Rick-ality, you'll notice plenty of mechanical similarities to the popular VR title Job Simulator. Both games were developed by Owlchemy labs, after all. Instead of flipping burgers, you're given jobs befitting the weird world of Rick and Morty. The mere act of recharging a battery becomes an exhausting battle to turn dials, flip switches and pull levers. It's a bit infuriating at first (especially if your VR setup has tracking hiccups), but eventually I got into the flow of the puzzle.

I played the game using an Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers, and it was a mostly pleasant experience. I could only play it in a small area, but Vive users can also play it with room-scale tracking, which gives you a bit more freedom to walk around the virtual environments. Since you're spending much of the time teleporting around and grabbing objects, Virtual Rick-ality isn't very intense. Instead, it's more focused on the little details, like recreating the interface for Rick's computer, or developing a complex puzzle to fix Rick's spaceship.

Adult Swim/Owlchemy Labs

Audio cassettes scattered throughout the world also hide short sketches between Rick and Morty, which are particularly entertaining if you're a fan of Roiland's voice work (he portrays both characters). And speaking of voice actors, you'll also hear from the actors playing Morty's sister Summer (Spencer Smith) and father (Chris Parnell). Together with a strong script, I often felt like I was actually living through an episode of the series, drunken profanity and all.

The one downside of Virtual Rick-ality? It's clearly a game made for fans, which might make some players feel left out. Why is Rick such an abusive alcoholic? What's the deal with al the intergalactic junk in the garage? The game doesn't spend any time filling in the blanks. Newcomers should check out a few episodes of the show to make sure its humor gels with you. For everyone else, Virtual Rick-ality is the perfect way to hold you over until Rick and Morty's third season kicks off this summer.

- Repost from: engadget Post

#ITlive #engadget #'Virtual Rick-ality' is a VR treat for 'Rick and Morty' fans

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ohmytheon · 7 years

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so...you know how in canon riza can sense homunculus despite not being xingese or a alchemist? Could you write a short au i your royai star wars universe where she can sense force things despite not being able to use it? It's a secret, but she tells Roy when she thinks she can help him with his emotion-force stuff, partly at her own expense,maybe with some kind of force bond. Some parallel to the tattoo/alchemy connection they have in canon

This is interesting! And also, any excuse to write for this Star Wars/FMA AU is one that I will gladly take. This is a companion piece to this drabble. I’ve got another request for this AU, so expect another one here soon enough. Also I apologize for this getting way out of hand; I really dove into Riza’s history, which isn’t something I normally do (but should) with her character in my AUs besides the daemon one. But also I got too interested in how Roy deals with the Force.

give me a pairing and an au and i’ll write a drabble

Riza never quite understood the strange sensations she felt while growing up. It was like the hairs on the back of her arm would stand up at attention, a tickling in the back of her mind, the sense that there was something just out of the corner of her eye and she could almost see it if she turned around slowly enough. Of course, she never saw anything. It was just the same old house, the wood creaking in the dark, the wind whispering through cracks, her alone as she washed dishes while her father was locked away in his office.

She didn’t remember the day her father realized that she wasn’t Force sensitive. She was too young to recall the memory of being tested by her father, only to fail miserably. However, she can imagine how it must’ve felt: the embarrassment creeping up on her, only to overwhelmed by shame and then disappointment. Her father’s entire life revolved around the Force and she probably fainted trying to do something as simple as move a pen a few centimeters. After that, she was pushed to the edges of her father’s life, any chance of involvement in his research gone, and she learned to do other things. Like picking up a blaster and memorizing its weight in her small hands, sneaking around the old house silently as to not disturb or alert her presence, even playing on her mother’s old VR flight simulators.

She became someone else that could live outside of the Force, but it didn’t make her feel any better and it didn’t make her father pay more attention to her.

The strange sensations never went away, but became a part of her normal life. She figured it had something to do with living in such close proximity of someone that used the Force so often. Every now and then, she wondered why her father had never been picked up as a Jedi, back when they existed not so long ago, but she supposed that she should be grateful. She probably wouldn’t have been born or her father would’ve been killed when Order 66 was initiated and Jedi throughout the galaxy were eliminated.

By the time her father took on an apprentice of sorts, a boy close to her age who apparently had been cursed with being Force sensitive in a time when being such a thing was dangerous, that those odd feelings became more noticeable. Roy didn’t have the same tendency to hide the Force from Riza like her father did. Instead Roy would use it casually, pulling a book off the top shelf or twirling a pen in the air. She couldn’t tell whether he did it to impress her or genuinely didn’t think about it. The only reason she thought it was the former was because he was careful to not use the Force whenever her father was around.

The number one rule was that Roy was to not use the Force in public, especially in front of people that were not anywhere near Force sensitive. That included his teacher’s young daughter. But she could tell that Roy felt sullen when he was forced to suppress his natural abilities. It was like dimming a light or muffling a sound. The colors of the world faded the longer and harder he shoved his Force sensitivity into a locked box and did his best to ignore it.

Sometimes, after Roy came to stay with them, she would go weeks without something tickling in the back of her mind – and then, out of nowhere, it would come to her. It was months before she realized what it was and she found herself wondering how it had taken her this long to figure it out. Somehow, some way, even though it had been proven on multiple occasions that Riza was not Force sensitive, she could feel it through others. She could sense its use. She knew when Roy was using the Force. Even worse, it wasn’t just that tickling, strange sensation, but a pull, like it was dragging her towards him or maybe the Force itself.

She didn’t know what to think of it – in fact, it scared her at first – so she said nothing. The times when Roy used the Force became fewer and farther in between, but the few times he did, she would look up sharply and know exactly where he was in the house even if he wasn’t using it. By then, it had been almost four years since her father had last used the Force, to the point where sometimes she forgot that he was Force sensitive. Near the end of Roy’s time with then, it had been near eight months since his own last use of the Force. He was getting a lot better at shutting it out, ignoring the temptation, perhaps pretending that it didn’t exist. She wasn’t quite sure what went on in the lessons between Master and apprentice, as she was largely kept out, and as close as they were, she could not bring herself to ask Roy questions about it. All she knew was that it made him sad, even if he didn’t say it out loud.

So she kept quiet and maintained her distance. She let her heart break when Roy told her that he was leaving to join the Rebellion and allowed it to turn to steal when he left one morning. The sensation that she could feel something more – be something more – was gone. She hadn’t known how much the Force had played such an integral part of her life until it was missing from it. She watched her father turn even colder and wither away. She watched Storm Troopers invade her home town and harass her neighbors for information and said nothing.

And when their time finally arrived, all she could do was stand in horror when she came home to find Storm Troopers aiming blaster rifles at her father. There was no tingling, warning sensation of the Force when the Imperial soldiers shot him down for refusing to tell him where his research was hidden. Her father had not tried to use the Force in an attempt to save himself; he was too far gone from it. When the Troopers turned on her, she could only confess that she knew nothing; she wasn’t Force sensitive; she was worthless. And so she stayed silent and they left her to watch as they torched the house.

She was still rummaging through the burnt wreckage when Roy came, his ship appearing in the horizon and landing just twenty feet away from what used to be her home. With a hand held over her eyes to shield them from the sun, she watched as Roy clambered out of the ship and staggered towards her, his eyes wide with shock and face lined with grief.

“Riza,” he gasped, like the faint wisps of smoke was choking him, “when I heard what was happening here–” His eyes roamed over the remains of her home, the place where the two of them had met and grown up together, and he ran his fingers through his hair. “I came as soon as I could.”

It was not soon enough, but she didn’t have to tell him for him to know that. She wasn’t the kind of person that rubbed salt in the wound. That was Roy’s specialty when he was feeling particularly vicious and upset. He would’ve done it now to anyone that wasn’t her. She noticed, without saying anything about it, that the jacket he was wearing bore the symbol of the Rebel Alliance on the sleeve. The ship was likely one of theirs as well; she couldn’t imagine that they had just let him come here to see her on a whim. Had he commandeered the ship or come up with a plausible excuse?

She still hadn’t spoken a word, just stood there and watched him process the scene. Later, she would recognize it as shock. She was disassociating. He would never fault her for it or bring it up.

And then Roy turned away from her, hands clenched into fists at his sides, eyes screwed shut, nostrils flaring as he bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed and she could feel it. The sensation was so overwhelmingly powerful, so painfully acute, that she almost stumbled.

“Roy–” Riza took a sharp intake of breath. She wasn’t sure if he heard her or not. Either way, he didn’t stop. Jagged, burnt pieces of wood began to crack even further under the pressure, pieces of concrete rumbled underneath and around them, and Riza suddenly realized that Roy’s Force sensitivity was much stronger than she had ever imagined it could be. It had been years since she’d been able to detect a hint of the Force, but nothing like this.

It sung of life, but it was tinted by grief and rage. Riza didn’t know a lot about the Force, but she knew that it was dangerous to channel when feeling strong emotions. It was why her father had slowly stopped using it after her mother’s death. It led to terrible, dark paths. It led to horror and pain. It made her think of all the things she was bottling up and afraid to let loose. She could’ve laughed at the irony. What was she hiding it for? She wasn’t the one that could destroy things by simply losing control of her emotions.

Riza stepped through the trembling debris and placed a hand on his shoulder. She wasn’t sure, but she thought that she could feel the Force radiating off of him somehow. It probably didn’t work that way, but she thought– It didn’t matter. He needed to put an end to this. “Roy,” she said, “you need to stop.” His head dropped and she could feel his desire to lash out. “It’s too much. You need to stop. You can’t channel the Force when you’re like this. You know that. Take a breath. Come back to me.”

The Force didn’t vanish like it normally did; it slowly drained out of him, like a creak, until his shoulders were slumped and his arms dangled. All the fight in him was gone, replaced by the guilt that he’d been trying to hide from. She knew it; she felt it too.

“I’m sorry; I–” Roy swallowed. “I should’ve been here. I shouldn’t have left you. It made you…vulnerable.”

“Better that you left,” Riza had to admit, “or you would’ve likely been killed or taken captive.” He turned to face her, a wounded look on his face. She touched his face with her fingertips. It was soft. He’d always had such a boyish face. Without the anger, he just looked very sad. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

“I haven’t…” He moved his head and she pulled her hand away. She couldn’t tell if he’d done it because the touch was too much or not enough. Even now, it was hard to tell with him. “I haven’t used the Force in a very long time. I’ve been so good. But it’s…it’s hard, you know. Even after so many years, it comes naturally and I have to fight it every time. It just makes me–”

“Feel alive?” Riza smiled. “I understand. Truth be told, I missed it.”

“You…missed it?” Roy furrowed his brow and stepped closer to her. “Riza, you’re not–?”

Riza shook her head. “No, I’m not Force sensitive, but I…” How to put into words the strange feelings she’d had all her life but had never been able to understand? Nothing felt adequate now over the ashes of her past, especially not when it had been over a year since she had last seen Roy and even longer since she’d felt it. “I can feel it – the Force – when it’s being used. I lived with it all my life; I didn’t understand. But then you came along and I just knew.”

“Did your father know?” Roy asked. She shook her head again. “Does anyone know?”

“No, I never told anyone,” Riza replied, “except for you just now.”

“Why?”

Riza looked him in the eyes. “Because I trust you.” She could pick out the precise moment when Roy decided to never leave her again. That hadn’t been her intentions at all, but she thought perhaps he had just been looking for an excuse to ask her to join him. He didn’t need one, of course. She had nowhere else to go. Joining the Rebellion only made sense. “Would you like to see what the Storm Troopers killed my father over?”

“His research.” Roy searched her eyes. “I thought–”

“My father was a paranoid man, but he wasn’t always wrong,” Riza pointed out. “He never kept his research at home. Too risky. And so he did the only thing he believed no one else would think of: entrust the whereabouts of his research on the Force to his daughter who isn’t Force sensitive and therefore above suspicion. Only I know where it is.” She wrapped her arms around herself protectively. It seemed impossible that it could be cold here, but she felt like shivering under the intensity of Roy’s gaze. “And you’re the only one I’d trust with it. I thought, well– Maybe it can help you. This struggle with the Force, it’s never going away, is it? It’s a part of you.”

“Yes,” Roy breathed.

“If it can help you – if it can help the Rebellion – I want you to have it.”

A guarded expression came over Roy’s face, like he was trying to hide from her. Was he wary? Was he fearful? Did he not want her to know how much he wanted it? He didn’t have to hide that from her. She knew now that the Force would always be with him. “Riza…”

She took his hands. “Please. It’s yours. I can do nothing with it. All I can do is tell when someone is using the Force and that isn’t very helpful at all.”

“It would be to me,” Roy said, “I mean, to help me, you know, keep it under wraps.”

She knew what he was asking without him actually saying it. She knew that he was trying not to sound eager, but she could see it in his eyes. He was still the boy she had grown up with, wanting to save the galaxy. She also knew the inherent dangers and temptations that lied in her father’s Force research. She knew the mechanics of the Force, but not the reality of it. She couldn’t help but wonder how much of a struggle it truly was for Roy and how much of a face he put on for everyone, even her. But if this could help him, if she could help him, she would choose this path.

The stars began to appear above them as the sun set. All she could go was up.

#riza hawkeye #roy mustang #fma #royai #star wars au #fmab #sw au #fullmetal alchemist #force sensitive roy #berthold hawkeye

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Researchers have found that virtual reality (VR) headsets can cause cybersickness, which manifests as dizziness and nausea akin to motion sickness. As engagement with digital devices from laptops to smartphones increases, some users are now reporting cybersickness outside a VR headset. ILLUSTRATION BY VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Endless Scrolling Through Social Media Can Literally Make You Sick

Once mainly a scourge of VR headsets, cybersickness seems to be on the rise as the pandemic pushes our bodies to their digital limits.

— By Julia Sklar | MAY 17, 2021 | National Geographic

When a dark ashy cloud born from wildfires settled over the Seattle metropolitan area, Jack Riewe was among the millions of people suddenly trapped indoors. It was September 2020, and without access to the outdoors during a pandemic, it became even more difficult for the 27-year-old writer to see other people. He could only fill his days switching between working remotely on his computer, watching TV, or scrolling through endless fire updates on his phone.

“I was forced to stay inside in my hot apartment without any escape except the craziness happening on Twitter,” he says.

For a week he scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled, until he felt “weighed down, dizzy, [and] nauseous.” At the time, he attributed these symptoms to the air quality, or even wondered if he had contracted the coronavirus. The cause was something more insidious: the physical toll of living almost entirely in a virtual world.

The pandemic has forced most of us online at incomparable rates. It’s where we’ve worked, taken classes, attended parties, and gotten lost in 2020’s voracious news cycles. But our bodies were not designed to primarily exist in virtual space like this, and as our collective digital time creeps upward, something called cybersickness seems to be leaking into the general population.

Characterized by dizziness and nausea, cybersickness has mostly been studied in the context of aggressively submersive niche technologies, such as virtual reality headsets. In 2011, 30 to 80 percent of virtual reality users were likely to experience cybersickness, though improved headset hardware brought the range down to 25 to 60 percent by 2016.

Now, it seems the scrolling movement in a Netflix queue or a social media newsfeed also has the power to cause cybersickness when used under exceptional circumstances: all day, every day. (Also find out how video calls can tax the brain, leading to the phenomenon called Zoom fatigue.)

“Any kind of perceived motion is going to cause cybersickness,” says Kay Stanney, CEO and founder of Design Interactive, a small company researching human systems integration. “Virtual reality or augmented reality cybersickness is just a kind of a cousin to other forms of sickness related to perceived motion, and scrolling would be another form.”

What’s Old is New Again

Cybersickness is really just the latest neologism to describe the ongoing tussle between the human body and a world we continuously transform with technology. Cybersickness is space sickness is car sickness is sea sickness.

Reports of illness brought on by mismatched perception go back as far as 800 B.C., when the ancient Greeks wrote about a “plague at sea.” Despite their important role in trade, war, and migration, ships could be so intolerable for some passengers that nausea wasn’t merely a symptom of seasickness but the only word for it. The English word “nausea” actually comes from the Greek word for ship: naus.

By A.D. 300, the ancient Chinese began documenting nausea from all kinds of sources, with specific words to describe each distinct experience: Traveling in a cart inspired zhuche, or cart-influence, while a ship caused zhuchuan, or ship-influence.

As scientists now understand it, the key to all forms of motion sickness is your vestibular system: the combination of sensory organs in the inner ear and brain that controls balance and spatial orientation. If it perceives motion when your visual system doesn’t, the dissonance can make you hurl or, at the very least, feel dizzy and unsteady.

“The English word “nausea” actually comes from the Greek word for ship: naus.”

The 21st-century twist is that this is all flipped in virtual space. Rather than moving while perceiving being still—as you might feel on a boat, while looking at the immovable horizon—this time you’re still but perceiving motion. And that creates a similar conundrum for the body.

“Clinically there is absolutely no difference between the two conditions,” says Eugene Nalivaiko, an associate professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia who has studied both general motion sickness and cybersickness extensively “They have the same symptoms, same sensations, same everything.”

Time is Not on Your Side

Sarah Colley, a 30-year-old content marketer in Asheville, North Carolina, noticed the worst of her cybersickness symptoms in March 2021. Her screen time surged during a cumbersome work deadline, when for several days she spent 10 to 12 hours in a row on her computer. In addition to dizziness and nausea, she says that the screen itself appeared to jump around, making it difficult to focus, and a sense of anxiety settled over her.

“If I'm staring at the same screen, and it's not really moving, that doesn't bother me. But if things are scrolling, that's when it really becomes a problem,” she says. “Even when I close my eyes, I feel like I’m spinning.” After the incident in March, she had to take four days off from work to fully recalibrate—a luxury she couldn’t have afforded at a prior job that didn’t offer her benefits.

For Colley, the rise in remote living exacerbated mild cybersickness symptoms she had experienced periodically prior to the pandemic. But for most people it’s a totally new facet of spending more time online, so there isn’t much targeted research available yet. Most of our understanding has to be borrowed from virtual reality research.

One trigger for cybersickness seems to be the amount of time spent immersed in a digital world, which Stanney says tracks with her research into virtual reality headsets, as well as prisms, 3-D displays, and 2-D displays. Oddly, this rule may not hold true for augmented reality. The day before we spoke, Stanney had just finished sifting through data from a new study she’s leading that has not yet been published, and she uncovered a surprising pattern.

“Before this current study, I would have said an absolute definitive yes: The longer you're in the situation, the more perturbed you are. But augmented reality is acting differently than virtual reality: The longer you were in there, the better you felt, which is so strange,” she says. “I’m still trying to uncover exactly what that means.”

Typically, though, Stanney says time is not your friend in digital space. A few minutes of scrolling through Instagram, switching between open windows on a laptop, or visiting Netflix to watch one specific show might be benign, but when these activities drag on for hours, as they have under quasi-lockdowns, the persistent motion on the screen can make you queasy.

Stanney is also willing to bet that it’s not just increased screen time that’s causing the phenomenon with everyday devices. Before the pandemic, humans more regularly experienced motion in many directions, as we flew in airplanes and took regular rides in cars and subway trains. But for the last year, many people have really dialed it back: we walk, we stand, we sit, and we lie down.

That shift could be making some people less resilient to a type of digital motion they once tolerated without realizing it was actually a strain on their systems. “When we see this discord between visual movement and rest—where we are most of the time [now]—maybe it's a more profound discord,” Stanney says.

For instance, you may think you’re at peace lying in bed at night in the serene darkness, totally still but for a finger scrolling through Twitter. But Stanney says, “in fact, lying in bed could probably be one of the worst things to be doing.” Since it’s the most “chilled out” your vestibular system can possibly be, prolonged motion on a screen becomes extra difficult to reconcile.

One factor is a lack of what augmented reality research refers to as “rest frames,” the real walls or floors around you that act as stabilizing signals to the brain. Holding a phone inches from your face in the dark mimics the environmental conditions of virtual reality—when your rest frames are stripped away—and so may be similarly difficult to tolerate at length. Scientists don’t yet have empirical evidence that rest frames help users tolerate augmented reality for more time than virtual reality, but Stanney speculates that may be the case, and she recommends trying to tweak phone use accordingly.

“If the phone [were] a little further away, or if they were in a lit room, it might help to diminish some of those adverse events,” she advises.

If you can’t log off, Nalivaiko agrees that changing your field of view by holding your phone differently could help, as well as scrolling more slowly to take control of the frame rate, another nausea-inducing factor of digital motion. His research in animal models also suggests that staying cool can prevent motion sickness. For Riewe, being trapped in a hot apartment without respite may have spurred his peak symptoms.

“If you think about what people feel during motion sickness, it's sweating, it's feeling hot, it’s a desire to get to cool, open air,” Nalivaiko says.

Toxic Devices

While motion sickness and cybersickness are both incredibly well documented, what continues to stump researchers is why a disconnect between the vestibular and visual systems would provoke nausea in the first place.

“We have two aversive sensations: We have pain, and we have nausea,” says Nalivaiko. “Both are present when Mother Nature wants us not to repeat what we're doing, but what nausea is designed to prevent, we don’t know.”

Pain sends a straight forward message: Hate that feeling? Well then do not ever hold your hand over a flame again. But nausea is more gradual, nuanced, and unpredictable, especially when tied to an activity that doesn’t seem overtly dangerous, like going for a sail or scrolling through a smartphone.

The leading hypothesis is that it’s a misfire of a reflex that evolved to keep us safe from toxins. Alcohol, for example, when drunk too quickly or abundantly, can make a room seem like it’s spinning, even while you could swear your feet were firmly planted on the ground. Alcohol can also kill you. So the human body evolved to connect this dizzying effect with a threat, and to induce nausea to help purge the toxin and keep you alive.

Now, when we experience the same vestibular and visual mismatch brought on by non-threatening forces, like smartphones, our body thinks we’re in grave danger. It’s an apt metaphor for the emotional toxicity overdoing it online can ignite, and in the end, cybersickness may turn out to be as effective as warding off actual poison.

When Riewe did finally learn about cybersickness, “it was such an ‘aha moment,’” he says. “I immediately put my phone down and started reading my book. I went from needing to throw up to falling asleep happily."

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