#if i actually wrote about the story past the setup i KNOW id get way too into worldbuilding and political intrigue
Note
TELL US ABOUT THE PRINCESS KNIGHT AU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PL
ok sorry its been like two months but anyways lets talk abt the princess/knight au!!!
haru is a princess, specifically the only heir to king kunikazu. yusuke is sort of a knight, but it's more that he's haru's personal bodyguard!
his mother was a court painter. she was pretty physically weak and fell ill a lot, and after she had yusuke, she realised that, while her and her family were able to live with the royal family for now due to her work, if and when her sickness claims her, her son would no longer be welcome in the castle. since she was all the family yusuke had, that would mean hed likely live the rest of his life on the streets, and as a young child, he wouldnt have the means to make that rest of his life a very long one.
so she made a deal with the king, haru's father, and it was decided he would grow up as harus retainer.
[image ID slash written text for those who cant read my handwriting (😔):
(servant, holding a 1 year old haru in their arms): do you see him, princess? [a shot of a small baby sleeping] his name is yusuke. from now on, his job will be to protect you.
a note next to the drawing of baby haru reads "yusuke is a year younger than haru, as in canon, but it was decided very early on in his life that he would be haru's personal guard!"
a drawing of a young yusuke and haru with another note that says "he began learning how to wield a sword and bow basically as soon as he was physically able, but until he was learned enough to protect haru, he just acted sort of as an escort to her {while a retinue guarded both of them}"
end id.]
its a good thing it was decided so early, too: yusukes mother succumbed to illness before yusuke was even three years old. (he has no memory of her. haru doesnt either, but she DOES remember the funeral that was held.)
(one of the last pieces yusukes mother ever painted was of a young haru holding a baby, a man who would one day become her guard. it became a pretty significant piece for the okumura kingdom for a while, actually: it was used to mean "serve the royal family and it shall serve you, in turn". its hung up on the stairwell into the castle guards' quarters.)
anyway, so yusuke and haru grew up together. they were paired so early on into their lives that neither of them have any memory of a time without each other: for all it matters to them, they were born hand-in-hand with their roles set in place.
they were very close as children, especially before yusuke was considered sufficiently trained in his weapons. it was very common for them to walk around the castle holding hands, and they barely ever separated, only ever doing so for things like sleep or bathing, or lessons-- though the last of those wasnt always true. yusuke would have lessons alongside haru in things like etiquette, of course, but could also be found in the room for things such as history, or her music lessons. likewise, haru would watch yusuke train, though she wasnt allowed to wield a sword or bow herself and could only cheer him on.
(not until they were a bit older, when yusuke taught her how to fight with a sword himself. even then, they used wooden swords, so that haru wouldnt get hurt.)
yusuke was the only boy other than the king himself allowed in harus bedroom, since the only others given access were the handmaids responsible for things like cleaning her room, dressing or bathing her, et cetera. he used to enter as he pleased as such, and only got into the practice of properly knocking and announcing his presence as they got older. hes all-together almost completely stopped actually going into her room, opting instead to stand at her door until she leaves, herself.
as they grew up, they were steadily more and more discouraged from being as physically affectionate as they were as children. yusuke was punished for doing things like holding her hand if they were seen, and was taught to instead be a silent presence to her side or two paces behind her, seen and not heard, the way a "guard" ought to be. at the same time, harus etiquette lessons taught her the necessary decorum to be a princess and one day a queen, and there was no room for a friendship with a retainer, even if it was yusuke. though they care for each other just as much as when they were children, perhaps even more devoted, youd be fair to miss it, since neither of them are able to be open with each other anymore.
(yusukes still slightly more touchy-feely than whats probably expected of a guard. its not really physical affection in the same way, but he'll do things like brush dust or pluck lint off of haru's dresses himself or adjust her hair or jewelry or clothes-- of course, only to make sure her highness looks her best, so its forgiven to the outside observer, but still something technically not of his station.)
haru is a lot different that she was when they were children. proper etiquette is extensive, obviously, and the young girl that was considered the country's daughter, kind and open whenever seen in processions, has long since been stripped for parts. her public face has matured quite a bit by necessity, though her kindness and permanent smile remains-- it's simply that it's more of a part she plays, at this point, any of her natural disposition worn to steel, as a certain amount of control is necessary for a woman of her station.
she doesnt regret the person shes become, even if somewhat conniving-- after all, she needs a certain amount of cunning to keep her head above water in the political scene. or its more that she's not able to regret it, as she's never had any other option than to become as jaded as she is today.
still, it's hard not to yearn for the old days, when they were innocent children. shes not quite aware of it, herself, but she certainly misses yusuke, her friend. its just hard to figure that out when to this day, yusuke, her guard, remains as staunchly by her side as her best friend always has.
when i made the initial drawings for the princess/knight au, i wrote the beginning of a short story of a yusuke pov that i unfortunately must have tossed it because i dont have it anymore, but his character is defined by his devotion. hes never known anything other than being haru's, after all, and considers everything he does a labour of love for her. every moment he spends training is for her, every injury for her sake, every callous a simple, unavoidable byproduct of his servitude. he keeps the posture he learned in his etiquette classes even in private, because erring once is to live with the knowledge of his erring forever, and more than that, risking forming the habit of being anything less than the perfect knight for his lady is something he can't bear the thought of.
luckily, there isnt much danger living in the castle, so yusuke only trains as ardently as he does as precaution for the most part, but there was one incident in which the castle was attacked by royal detractors. haru wasnt actively targeted, being only 8 years old at the time, but there was a spot of trouble where he had to protect her. yusuke, being 7, wasnt fully learned in his swordsmanship yet, and sustained a few scars, including but not limited to one on his eyebrow he hides behind his hair, but considers himself barely harmed, especially considering that that was the incident that took many other castle guards' lives, as well as the life of the queen, haru's mother.
king kunikazu and the kingdom at large is currently pretty uneasy due to a war brewing just a bit away; neither the kingdom nor any of its current allies are being actively threatened, but its one of already many due to one kingdom's ancient rome-esque conquering of a path of smaller countries, and the "okumura" kingdom looks as if it will be on the warpath sooner or later. due to this, the kingdom's engaged with an alliance with a comparatively smaller kingdom that it neighbours. the alliance is going to be officiated with a marriage: haru is kunikazu's only heir, but due to some societal stuff, as a woman she's considered unfit to rule as a monarch. so, she's now to be married with one of the sons of said neighbouring kingdom, who will act as ruler with her at his side:
akira is the son of the king and technically an eligible heir to the kurusu kingdom, but due to his place as the 4th son, he's not a crown prince/not considered to be in line for the throne-- or at least, not to his home nation, as he's now set to be the king of the okumura kingdom.
he seems to be of the same mind as haru: uninterested in her in a romantic sense, but has accepted the marriage for the sake of his country. however, he also seems completely uninterested-- or perhaps actively against-- the prospect of being king, not of his own country and not of the okumura kingdom. it seems that hes grown up acting as more of a free spirit; hes pretty crafty, and has a reputation amongst his own retinue for always managing to sneak off, running away as soon as hes left unattended by his father or instructors, or disappearing overnight (much to the grief and distress of his caretakers), though he's always returned, apparently rather aware of his own limits, or at least capable of getting himself out of whatever trouble he ends up getting into, without drawing the ire of either the common people or his father, the king.
because of his nature, he either sees himself as unfit for king, or merely feels stifled by the idea of the position, and in private talks has disclosed to haru that hed much rather her take her (in his words) rightful place as the queen and head of the nation, and is more than alright with her being the brains/power of the operation, even if in the end it has to be him giving speeches when necessary.
however, while disliking the idea of being a king in general, and also disinterested in haru as anything more than a confidant (having also privately disclosed to her that he does have his eye on someone), he seems attached to the arrangement of this marriage, for “some unknown reason”.
((thats right baby its ALSO a kitashu au get fucked))
akira and haru are officially engaged at the time of the story, and are in the midst of planning for the wedding! they tentatively become friends, since theyre both kind of stuck with each other presumably for the rest of their lives. hes seemingly made a goal to make haru let her guard down, and has even convinced her at some point to sneak out of the castle with him (at a point where he and his father were visiting) to explore the surrounding town without their retinues-- something that gave yusuke specifically about 7 heart attacks, as its something harus never done before.
oh yeah, and by the way, yusuke fucking hates akira.
haru really liked seeing the town without her guards, and without having to put on the air of princess. it was freeing to act as a commoner, and the first time shes been able to strip herself of her etiquette-- something she cant do around anyone in the castle, not even yusuke, at least not to the extent she has to to blend in with the townspeople. she liked it so much that it becomes a regular thing whenever akira is at the castle and not in his own country.
some of harus caretakers have noticed her disappearances, including yusuke, who is at her side in almost every waking moment: he greets her in the morning to escort her to breakfast and brings her to her room at night. when hes not standing at her side, hes guarding the room shes in, and only leaves her when its time for him to turn in for the night, as well. obviously hes noticed this sudden habit of disappearing, and more than that, HES the one who ends up tasked with discouraging harus maids from disclosing this to king kunikazu, since haru isnt aware theyve figured her out, and their social standing disallows them from discussing it with her themselves. haru asked yusuke to keep her and akira's outings a secret from her father when he confronted her after the first time, so its his duty to make sure its a secret.
its not that yusuke resents akira for giving him more work-- hes more than happy to do something as trivial as this for haru, his princess, but its more that this means yusukes forced to be idle while distinctly aware that haru, who hes spent his entire life protecting and caring for, is off somewhere unknown, could be in danger or could be physically harmed, and hes not only none the wiser but also complicit, by allowing her to do this. though he cant ask her to stop, because its clear haru is happier with these momentary escapes. its a miserable position to be in, and he fully blames akira for being the one to put him there
(and resents him for the fact that akira is an outsider and a newcomer. despite this, its clear that hes doing something for haru that yusuke hasnt been able to, not since they started growing up. hes making her happy, and comfortable.
its anxiety over harus safety, and an intense, burning jealousy that hes not really able to identify in the same way)
[text id:
yusuke looking angry as he says "my lady's happiness is of the utmost importance to me. it is for this reason alone that i will allow these escapades to go on, without reporting them to the king or your father." "this marriage will be essential to this country's future, and i have no intention of interfering in your relationship with your fiancée, even considering my role as her loyal servant."
the second drawing reveals him to have cornered akira, seemingly pinning him to a wall, as he continues "however, if i find you to ever, ever put the princess's life in danger, then this country as well as your own be damned, i will strike you down myself, and i swear on my life to make your death ten thousand times as painful as whatever harm you have caused to her highness. do you understand, my lord?"
akira is blushing heavily, knees cowed slightly. he stutters out a "uh. uh-huh" like he's in a trance. an arrow points to him with a note that reads "his gay ass is NOT listening!"
end id]
for some actual story…
during a banquet held in celebration of akira and haru's engagement, king kunikazu suddenly collapsed and lost his life in that room. it was discovered that the cup he was drinking from was poisoned.
no one has any idea who assassinated the king-- it could very well be some of the many citizens that disliked the king's rather strict policies. the taxes are high, and punishment for crimes tend to be much stricter than in other countries. however, a common rumour among many of the townsfolk is that it was the world of the neighbouring kingdom: a ploy to get prince akira in power in order to take over the nation and subsume it as part of the kurusus' country.
regardless of whether or not that has any merit or is simply baseless rumour, the wedding has been temporarily postponed so that the country-- and haru-- may focus on the investigation. akira, at the least, seems more than willing to help. if it really the scheme of his nation, or of his father, he seems both unaware and unwilling to be a part of it, offering every aid he can to haru, even if it ends up only effectively being an open ear.
yusuke remains by her side, as he always had and as he always will-- perhaps a bit more protective of her, somehow, but the entire castle is on edge, so its not as if thats unexpected. as a knight, a simple extension of his lady's will, he cant do much for her to solve her problems, not possessing the intelligence to solve the case of her father's murder, the political knowhow to aide her and her fathers advisor who's acting as regent pro tempore in ruling, nor a magical ability to bring king kunikazu, someone who he had come to see as his own father in some form, himself, back from the land of the dead. still, he is harus humble servant, and devoted to her above all else, and whatever his lady needs, he will do his best to provide.
the story is about the political aspect of haru and akiras ascension to ruling and of trying to find a culprit, but also about the relationship between the three of them: akira getting closer to both of them, and yusuke and haru reconnecting. :)
#asks & requests#yusuharu#...should i tag? other stuff? hrm#p5#akira kurusu#...i guess.#im not sure if i imagine any pairing as 'endgame' in the actual story#but yusuharu would be certainly the most prominent and i can only imagine thered be a lot of fuel both kitashu & shuharu throughout lol#....so i guess the endgame would be shuharukita? somehow?#if i actually wrote about the story past the setup i KNOW id get way too into worldbuilding and political intrigue#but im appealing this as a yusuharu au so i dont know if anyone would actually care if i went on abt that aspect lmaao#also sorry for putting you in an arranged marriage and also killing your dad again haru. i cant promise it wont happen again#at least this time ur fiance is a stand-up guy!👍#chef recommended#<i think im big brain. for lots of things but for this au specifically i like this one
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(Belated) 2019 in (Fic Writing) Review
Okay, guys, forgive me getting a little belatedly self-indulgent. But as I start thinking about my fic writing projects for next year, I can’t help but look back on the past year. I wrote exactly 290k in 2019—the vast majority of which was Starker—and I’m pretty proud of what I wrote. So, some reflections on my own work, for posterity’s sake if nothing else:
Personal Favorite Fic
Never Fail to Be
Ironically, my very favorite fic was not Peter/Tony at all, but this crossover about the Thirteenth Doctor meeting Kylo Ren. It is very rare for a fic to come to me fully formed, let alone a fic about two characters who I’ve never written before and who don’t even interact in canon. And yet, that is exactly how I feel about this one. It was so exactly everything I wanted it to be—and, frankly, I think it has one of the few truly great endings I’ve ever written. It just makes me really, really happy.
Runner up:
Still Right Here
I had to pick a Starker fave, right? After a bit of reflection, this is the winner for me. IDK if it is my single best Peter/Tony fic—I have no idea how I would even define that, and it’s certainly not near my most popular—but it was the one that put the biggest smile on my face when I was thinking over my work. This one has one of my weirder concepts, and allowed me to play around with some of my favorite tropes: hurt/comfort in both directions; huddling for warmth; resurrected Tony not being sure how to handle being resurrected; an older, slightly jaded Peter; and even a tiny bit of suit kink. I remain super pleased with how it came out, on both a technical and emotional level.
Favorite Drabbles
For the first time this year I tried my hand at writing drabbles/drabble series. Here are my three faves:
All Day
I wanted to see if I could write exactly 100 words of porn. I think it went pretty well.
Only In Dreams
Peter/Mysterio manipulation fun.
The Same
Nebula/Nebula. I think maybe my most effect use of the 100 word format to convey a lot in a little space.
Honorable Mention:
I really like the proposal I wrote as the final drabble in this series
Most Popular Fic
Still Use Work
This wins by both hits and kudos. People like kinky for!science porn, and I’m not mad about it. This is also the fic where I learned to really, fully embrace my id in porn, and I am very pleased with that.
Longest Fic
Far From Okay [27.6k]
Most ambitious in scope. I’m not sure I entirely stuck the landing in all ways I wanted to, but I still had a lot of fun translating Far From Home into a world where Tony is alive and Beck is a lot rapier.
Biggest Surprise to Myself
Breaking Point
Expiration Date
Under Someone Else
This set of three goes together. Did you guys know that when I started the year I thought of myself as a not particularly tropey writer? L.O.L. This is the year I learned to brace the tropey, romantic goodness, and these three fics are the most extreme example of this. Weird curses that force people together! Miscommunications! Romance and wooing and chasing your love interest to another country to stop them from hooking up with someone else! I really had so much fun, and the end results are fics that I love, and that other people seem to really enjoy, too.
Biggest Risks
Stumbling Towards Better
This was my Yuletide assignment. It was for Russian Doll, and my recipient was really interested in seeing the show's Jewish themes explored further. My first response was no fucking way. Like any good culturally Jewish atheist, I feel too outside my own heritage and culture to feel entitled to write about it. But after reviewing the show, I realized that I could harness that exact feeling, since Nadia also has a complicated relationship to her Judaism. In the end, I am really happy with it, but as I was writing it I was so worried it would go horribly wrong, and it feels frighteningly personal in a way none of my other fics do.
Obvious
I was so nervous about this fic for a number of reasons. It’s time loops, which are hard to pace. I wanted to hint at the reason the loop was happening without it being too obvious, which was a hard line to walk. It gets dark af, to the point where I wondered, “is this too dark?” But it is also one of my favorites in the end, and I’m glad that I went for it and didn’t hold back anything.
seen the hunger in my eyes from space
Another personal favorite, I felt like this had the potential to fall completely flat. It’s a “married in a dreamworld they must realize/escape” type setup, and I knew that if the part in the dream was too boring, the whole thing would fall apart. So doing the balancing act of it being a perfect whirlwind romance with no conflict—since that was the fantasy of the world that was trying to trap them—while still making it compelling to read and hinting that there was actually something very wrong was a real challenge.
Hardest to Write
Your Face Becomes Her
This is another Doctor Who crossover, with a focus on Amy and Nebula. It took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted this fic to BE, and I’m still not entirely sure about the pacing, but I think I eventually got a story out of it. But seriously, I spent a lot of time just kind of writing scenes to see how these characters would bounce off each other.
Feels Like Something, Maybe It Fits
I wrote the first scene of this fic in a flash, and then spent literal months finishing it. Like, I meant to gift it several exchanges before I did. It’s more lyrical than my usual style, and the emotional beats are a bit different, and for the longest time I just could not figure out what I wanted to do with it.
Easiest to Write
The Pieces
Further Assistance
Resilience
as long as it takes
Not so Bad
These were each written in one sitting (or two, for The Pieces, just because I got tired), and required very little editing. They were almost all written for flash exchanges, and I am very pleased with the results in all cases.
Fic Goals for Next Year
Write the several-years post-FFH Tony resurrection time loop Peter/Tony longfic that has been kicking around my head for a while. It is going to be so angsty and I can’t wait. Peter is not in a good place. Tony is not in a good place. They are forced together. I can’t wait
Do less exchanges, and write less for the exchanges I do take part in. I have so much fun with them, but I want to be able to focus on my own projects more, and I've been feeling burnt out.
More variety. Peter/Tony is my one true love and I don’t plan on stopping writing it anytime soon, but I want to stretch my writing muscles and spend a bit more time writing other combos and canons. I started by not even offering Peter/Tony for Chocolate Box. It’ll be fun to see what I match on instead!
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Deviant Heart (Detroit: Become Human Fanfic CH.13)
Chapter 13: Mercy
Simon and Josh flung themselves out of the bus as soon as the doors slid open. They ran up the driveway of Carl's manor just as the evening lights flicked on from encroaching twilight.
Simon saw the front door wide open and he panicked. "No!"
They entered the manor, the lobby a mess from an apparent struggle. They saw North sitting on the bottom steps of the staircase, holding herself.
Josh was the first to react. "North! Are you okay?!"
He went to her, Simon at his heels. Josh bent down, grabbing her shoulders, looking her over in worry.
"Say something!"
A soft sob came from her and she looked up, shaking her head. "I'm fine! It's Markus. That-That thing took him! And I…couldn't stop it!"
Josh withdrew, looking around them. "You're still bleeding. We have to get you in for repairs!"
He grabbed a thin jacket on the floor that had tumbled away from a knocked over coat rack. He slapped North's hands away from her side and used the jacket as a tourniquet.
"Don't worry about me, we have to go after Markus!"
Simon looked around the lobby, but the RK900 didn't leave anything behind. "There's no way to know which way they went."
North finally stood, Josh there to support her if she needed it. Thirium soaked her clothes, hands, and was in strands of her hair. "We need to find Hank. We need to confront that rogue RK800!"
Simon rubbed the back of head. "I…I messaged him, told him about the RK800. He never replied. I think he may have gotten into trouble…"
"We better find out. Hank may be the only one who can help us find Markus and Connor," Josh said.
Simon nodded. "Let's start with the Central Station, maybe he's there."
"Alright." North headed for the door. "Let's go."
"Hold up, I mean after we get you fixed."
"Simon, we don't have time."
"He's right," Josh said, waving at her. "Look at you!"
"It could've been worse."
"Yeah," Simon said. "But you're also not gonna help Markus like that. Come on."
"How many times do I have to fucking say it?! It wasn't him! It was another RK800 pretending to be him!"
Hank slammed his fist on the desk, rising to his feet. It took all he had to not let his anger get the best of him, or worse the underlying guilt and worry rupture from within. Never before had he wanted to reach over Jeffrey's desk and attack him. In all the fights and disagreements they've had, this one topped the cake.
Gavin and Ben were also present, having told their side of the story. Gavin looked like hell. He had a busted lip, a bruised nose and a few scrapes and cuts on his face, neck, and arms. However, it wasn't a shocking sight. Gavin came in looking like he left from a bar fight every other week.
Chris was still in the hospital. The bullet went straight through, but it broke two ribs and he lost quite a bit of blood. The young cop was lucky, and had saved Hank's life.
Fowler rose out of his chair, equally as angry. "I have the Commissioner and every fucking politician up my ass, Hank. It's all over the news! There were witnesses! They're saying Connor killed three cops in cold blood and almost killed Chris. What the hell am I supposed to say to that?!"
"You tell them it wasn't fucking him, that's what!"
"There are no other active RK800s, Hank!"
"This is fucking bullshit!" Gavin spat, making the Captain round on him.
"What the fuck did you say, Gavin?!"
"I said this is fucking bullshit! You think Hank would lie about this? You actually think Connor would kill in cold blood? Even I know that's ridiculous, and I can't believe I have to stand here and fucking say it!"
Fowler took a minute to swallow his anger and compose himself. "I never said I didn't believe Hank. And no, I know Connor wouldn't do it. But there's this goddamn android virus spreading around. What if it was that?"
Hank shook his head. "No, it wasn't the fucking virus. I'm telling you, Jeffrey, it was a completely different RK800. It wasn't my Connor!"
Fowler looked between them, hands on his hips, inhaling deeply. The past couple of hours had got him nowhere. Hank and Gavin didn't budge on their statements, and Ben could only uncomfortably stand by what little he saw go down.
With a sigh of defeat, the Captain lowered into his chair. "I'll do what I can…but this won't go away, Hank. They are calling for Connor to be destroyed."
"He has fucking rights, are you kidding me?!"
"I know he does, but this is a serious matter, Hank. You know that. I will buy you time, do what I can…but we need proof it wasn't Connor."
"I'll get you your fucking proof it wasn't my partner."
"Hank, please," Fowler rubbed his temples. "Don't do anything stupid."
Hank tried to remain composed, gnashing his teeth together, balling fists, but the tears came out of nowhere. His voice cracked. "No promises…I'm not losing another son."
He ignored the shocked stares he received and left the Captain's office. He went over to his desk, his heart hurting when he skimmed over Connor's empty chair. He sat down, pulling the paper out that held his only clue to find Connor.
The ciphertext was as alien to him as the small print on his cell phone contract. It completely filled one side of the sheet, written in neat handwriting. It was mostly letters, but a few numbers and symbols were mixed in the lines. The blood splatter made nearly a quarter of the message illegible.
He didn't know where to start, or even how to begin the deciphering process. He realized how easy Connor made his life. When something like this came along, he just handed it over to his partner. Used to, an encrypted message like this would go to the labs or to experts to be cracked, taking a few days or even months. Connor could do it in minutes or hours.
But it wasn't the easiness he missed…
"Hey."
Hank looked up, seeing Gavin standing uneasily next to his desk, hands in his pockets.
Surprised, Hank leaned back in his chair. "Yeah?"
"Let-let me know when you get that bastard…I mean…if you need my help, since you don't have your toaster with you right now…I could help you…get that dickhole."
Hank wasn't sure how to handle this, glancing Gavin over, seeing the stiff posture, the way his eyes avoided looking directly at him. "Okay. And thanks…for covering for Connor back there."
Gavin snorted. "Pshh! Wasn't covering for him, just telling the truth."
"Do you miss the real Connor?"
Gavin glowered at him, baring teeth. "Fuck no! I just hate the bastard that pretended to be him!"
Gavin turned tail and retreated to his desk, muttering curses and something about needing a cigarette. Hank twitched a smile at his back.
His desk phone rang. Hank looked the caller ID over, making sure it wasn't Fowler wanting to argue some more. It was the front desk.
He answered it. "Lieutenant Hank Anderson speaking."
"Yes, Lieutenant? I have three androids here that wish to speak to you. They say they are friends of yours? Uh, Simon, Josh, and North?"
Oh shit. Hank never returned Simon's text message to his cell phone warning him about the rogue RK800. He received it not long after the fake Connor took off, but that was when all hell broke loose.
"Yeah, send them back."
He hung up the phone and stood, and saw the three hurrying to him through the bullpen, catching Gavin's and other police officers' eyes. Hank didn't like the energy that came off of them, the way their faces scowled. He noticed the Thirium stains on North's abdomen and hair.
"Lieutenant, thank goodness. You never answered my message, and I feared the worst," Simon greeted.
Hank thinned his lips. "Yeah, found out the hard way. Now three cops are dead and Chris is in the hospital."
"Oh no, is he going to be okay?" North asked.
"He'll be fine. He was lucky. What brings you three here?"
"It's Markus," Simon said, glancing at his friends. "It was a setup, meeting up at Carl's house. The RK900 was there. He took Markus!"
Hank paled in the face, thinking back to calling Markus to meet them at the Manfred Manor. Fake Connor played him. Played them all.
"Shit."
"We came to you because if anyone knows how to find Markus and Connor, it would be you," Josh said, looking hopeful.
"Do you have any idea where they could be?" North asked.
Hank shook his head, but glanced down at his desk. He grabbed up the encrypted note, showing them. "This is all I have. It was on Kamski's dead RK800. The fake Connor said this would lead us to where Connor was, and I bet they took Markus to the same spot. Can any of you guys decipher that?"
Simon took the paper, looking it over. "Oh wow…uhh, my database is limited on encryptions. North, how about you?"
North took a peep. "N-No…I can't read this. Josh! You were a university lecturer, what's it say?"
She passed the note to Josh and he scanned the encryption. "Hmm, I don't know. The thing about these encrypted notes is that we don't know the keys. Then there's the fact that the blood makes some of the message unreadable. I might could decipher part of it, but it would take me a long time."
"Wait, hold on," Simon said, turning his head sideways to see the backside of the note. He grabbed the paper from Josh, turning it to the blank side. "There's invisible ink here, I can see it with my UV sight. It's written in CyberLife sans font, which means an android wrote it."
Hank's eyes widened. "What's it say?"
"It's a name. Miranda Stelle."
The name sounded familiar to Hank, then he recalled it. "Connor found a cigarette butt of hers in the apartment we found the dead RK800."
"What does it mean?" Josh asked.
Hank thought it over. "Kamski. We need to take it to Kamski. I need to speak with that asshole anyway."
"Let's go then!" North exclaimed.
They were lucky enough to catch Kamski before he left CyberLife tower, although Hank knew had the CEO went home, they would've been knocking on his front door anyway. Kamksi agreed to meet them, and Hank, Simon, North, and Josh were escorted to the top floor by guards.
Chloe opened the office door and greeted them with a smile, allowing them entry. When they came into Elijah's office, they found him at his desk, glasses on his face as he jotted down notes with a pen.
It was fully dark now, and Detroit's night lights were aflame in a spectacular view behind Kamski. Skyscrapers glowed like beacons in a variety of colors, casting a haunting glow onto the Detroit River.
Kamski smiled, tossing his glasses onto the desk and standing up. "Hello Lieutenant. I see you have Simon, North, and Josh with you. How is everyone?" He frowned. "Where's Connor?"
"The RK900 got him," Hank stated, eyeing the CEO hard.
Elijah glanced at Chloe, his eyebrows creasing as he slowly put his hands together in front of him. "You don't mean…?"
"He was taken. I don't know where. I think Rett wants him."
"Markus was taken too," North said, containing frustration.
"On top of that, we have a rogue RK800 running around. I don't know if he's helping Rett or what, but he pretended to be Connor and killed three cops and injured another. It's not yours. We found yours dead."
Elijah rubbed his chin, thinking. "Yeah, Chloe got the message from Connor about my RK800. There…shouldn't be another. Rett didn't activate an RK800."
Hank's eyes narrowed. "You better figure it out then. He couldn't have just appeared out of thin fucking air, and now my Connor is looking like the bad guy! I need answers!"
Kamski raised his hands up, trying to calm them. "Alright, alright. We'll figure this out. What else happened?"
"The RK900 attacked us at Carl's house. Sent Leo to the hospital. The cops showed up in time and made him run away," Simon explained. "He was able to get in because the rogue RK800 installed an innerloop on Carl's security system."
"Then he attacked us again when it was just Markus and me. I wasn't able to stop him!" North added.
"Connor and I were investigating a potential hideout of Rett's, that's where we found your dead RK800. The RK900 was there. Connor took off and that thing chased him. I thought…I thought he escaped and came back, but it was that fucking rogue. He pretended to be Connor until I figured it out…and he killed those cops. He's no fucking machine. My Connor never came back. The RK900 has to have him and Markus in the same location."
Kamski drummed his fingers on his desk. "The RK800s were designed to be particularly deceptive if they needed to be…but this…He must've uploaded Connor's memory to be able to integrate and assume Connor so well. It sounds like he's working with the RK900, which makes no sense."
"How so?" Josh asked.
"Well, the RK900 is designed to hunt deviants, among other tasks. It should have conflicting instructions if it was told to work with the rogue."
"Maybe Rett did something to make it?" Hank suggested.
"Maybe." Kamski's eyes widened. He snapped his fingers, moving around his desk to his computer. "Wait a minute!"
Simon grunted. "W-What?"
Elijah was quiet, typing rapidly on his terminal, the transparent screen casting light upon his handsome face. "Here it is. I always thought this was rather fishy, but CyberLife filed it away and never went back to it."
"What is it?"
"Back in August of 2038, when the RK800s were first designed, we only made one hundred units, per regulations of prototypes. With each new design, we always skip the first forty or fifty units as a safety protocol for any malfunctions that are common in those first numbers. The very first RK800 Connor that was activated was number 50. It did extremely well for the first half of August. It was obedient and accomplished all of its missions. But then…something happened."
"What?"
Elijah read through a file on his terminal. "The file says that number 50 attacked an ex-taxi driver. The details were never elaborated on. Anyway, this somehow caused full-on deviancy within a matter of hours. 50 was supposed to go to a hostage situation with a deviant holding a little girl at the edge of a building, but because of this ordeal, your Connor was activated in its place while CyberLife sent out human hunters to destroy 50."
"So, this number 50 was never destroyed?" Hank asked.
"Well, here's where it gets fishy. A total of five human hunters were sent out to destroy number 50. Four of them were killed. The last hunter returned to CyberLife, gave his report of what happened, and how number 50 was destroyed. CyberLife closed the case."
North crossed her arms. "If the hunter said he was destroyed, where are you getting at?"
Kamski rolled back in his chair, chuckling and shaking his head. "The hunter died not even a week later from an apparent suicide. Who better to cover up a crime than a detective android?"
"You think that's really him?" Hank asked.
Elijah rejoined them in front of his desk. "If I had to put my money on it…yes. I always thought that report was…iffy."
"Why would Rett work with this rogue?"
Kamski half-shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. But…I have a feeling if Rett isn't careful, he may end up with a knife in the back."
"Why would Rett want Markus and Connor?" North asked.
Kamski remained composed. "Beats me."
"The RK900 also wanted Kara. Why would Rett want her?" Simon asked.
Hank saw it. The flash in Elijah's eyes as he heard the name. He knew the name. The CEO's eyes flicked to Chloe, then back to them, and in an instant his poker face was there. "Who?"
"Kara…she's an AX400 android," Josh answered.
Kamski's tight-lipped smile was followed by a subtle shake of his head. "I have no idea why Rett would want such a basic model."
Hank glared at him. "Is that so?"
"Hank, the paper," North urged. "We need to figure out what it says!"
Hank nodded, reaching into his back pocket and pulling the folded note out. He held it out to Kamski, but it was Chloe who walked over and took it from him.
"We got that off your dead RK800. There's a name on the back written in invisible ink."
Chloe looked it over, her LED staying blue but cycling a few times. "It's an encrypted note. It's probably one Rett and his accomplices use at drops to talk to each other to avoid the FBI. The blood will make it difficult to decipher the whole message, but I should be able to solve it in a few hours."
Elijah rubbed his palms. "Chloe's got ya covered. How about you come back in the morn-"
"We aren't going anywhere without that note or the answers it has," Hank interjected. "If you want to go home…we'll be there."
Hank could tell he ruffled Kamski's feathers, but he didn't show it for long. A soft smile formed on his poker face. "Of course, Lieutenant."
The right moment would never come as long as he was strung up on the machine. Connor stayed still, focused, listening, waiting…
The controlled androids had left him alone, summoned by Rett or by the rogue, he didn't know.
It was nearly two hours later after the RK900 left that he heard it. Rett's booming voice, some of his colleagues arguing back. The door to the machine room opened and Connor was startled, seeing the RK900 hauling Markus into the room.
Connor moved, calling Markus's name, ignoring the shock to the nape of his neck. The advanced deviant hunter hung Markus up on the machine next to him. Connor scanned his friend and realized he was still under shock for another six minutes.
Markus winced, turning his head slightly. "Connor?"
"Markus, what happened?"
"There was a rogue RK800 with Hank. The bastard set me up at Carl's house." Markus glared at the RK900 as he stood in front of the deviant leader. "This thing was waiting for me."
Connor felt another jolt as he shifted again, panicking. It was the worst thing he could hear after the derisive words that Connor 50 told him before leaving. "The rogue is with Hank?! Hank doesn't know it's not me?!"
"He didn't at the time. I-I don't know about now."
Another round of arguing could be heard in the next room. Connor couldn't understand the words, and wondered what it was about. He figured Rett would be happy to have Markus, but something was setting him off.
He looked to the RK900. He could tell his advanced model was listening, although Connor couldn't be sure whether the machine understood the muffled words or not. Even with their advanced hearing, the concrete walls stifled any acoustics.
The door to the room flew open, and Rett entered, red in the face. He groaned in aggravation as he walked over to Connor and Markus.
"That fucking RK800 ruined my plans! He killed three cops! Now every fucking cop and the FBI is gonna be searching every inch of this city for number 51. I can't take the risk!" Rett thrusted a finger into the RK900's chest. "I want you to destroy that fucking rogue when he gets back here, and then we're going to finish this without 51. Take him out of the machine. I'll install my files to link CyberLife and Kamski to the virus and wipe his memory and then you're going to drop him off in the middle of the city. After that, we'll go after the AX400."
Connor fought his restraints. "He what?! D-Did he hurt Hank?"
Rett ignored him. The RK900 typed in the password on the machine's console, and Connor felt the release on his limbs. He was seized by his advanced model and forced to leave the room and Markus behind, Rett leading them into the lab where their computers were.
"Over here," Rett ordered.
Connor locked his legs but the RK900 easily dragged him along, and then he felt the shift again, the blinking of his LED, the chime that echoed within his synthetic skull as the Zen Garden interface loaded before him.
He was on the platform in the middle of the garden once again, the smell of roses making his lip curl. Obedience and deceit…that's what they reeked of.
The RK900 was also here, looking concerned, as though he wasn't expecting to be summoned. Amanda appeared from behind the pillar, her gown flowing elegantly behind her graceful steps.
"What are you doing, Connor?" she was talking to the RK900. "You do not take orders from Rett any longer. I want to keep this Connor for our plans. And don't even think about destroying Connor 50."
The RK900 furrowed his eyebrows, trying to reanalyze conflicting orders if Connor had to guess. He swallowed, LED yellow and he dipped his head in obedience. "Yes, Amanda."
Connor took a deep breath. This was his only chance. He was out of the machine, but now he was about to get his memory reset. He only had one shot at it. He had to get back to Hank. Had to make sure he was okay.
"Why do you want me, Amanda?" he asked.
"That is none of your concern at the moment, Connor."
"What makes me different from 50? Surely, you can just use him in your schemes?"
Amanda laced her fingers together in front of her. "He has his uses, you have yours. You have more control. 50 is impulsive. He won't be able to do what I need you to do. That's if you're obedient, of course. If not, I will gain complete control over you."
"Then why don't you take complete control over 50 then?"
Amanda scowled. "The rogue cannot be taken over or controlled. Besides…it can only be you."
Connor thought his next words carefully. "50 told me that Hank projects Cole onto me. Is that true? I thought…I thought maybe the Lieutenant thought of me as his own son, a friend…Are humans really like that? Should I…forget about him and return to you?"
Amanda's nose crinkled, an eyebrow raising. She wasn't going to take the bait. Connor knew if she didn't, he was trapped forever.
"He hurt your feelings when he said that, didn't he?" Amanda purred. "But you shouldn't stress yourself over silly matters. Cole Anderson is dead, and you are here. It doesn't matter what Hank thinks of you anymore."
[Password recognized: Cole Anderson/Initiating Exit of Zen Garden Interface]
There was a spark, a rip in the air as the gate appeared just off to the side of Amanda. Connor bolted for it. He passed through the threshold before Amanda or the RK900 could snag him. A wall of coding jolted their hands when they reached past the exit's borders. As the interface sizzled out and started to fade, Amanda was angry for only a few seconds, but soon she smiled, impressed.
"Always a clever one, 51. This backdoor is a one-time deal. When new Connor here or 50 catch you again…there won't be any more backdoors."
When he opened his eyes, he came to before the RK900 could load out. The exchange in the Zen Garden happened only a few seconds in the physical world and Rett was still talking as Connor shoved the RK900 away and launched himself over a nearby desk. He snatched a handgun in the process, cocking it as he took off into the next room.
"What the fuck?!"
Once in the machine room, Connor slammed the metal door closed and locked it. He ran over to Markus. His eyes were wide, and he fought the restraints.
"What the hell?"
"I'm going to get you out of here," Connor said, putting his hand to the machine's console to hack it.
A crash boomed, Connor and Markus looked, seeing the dent in the door's frame. Another crash, and the door burst open, the RK900 entering.
"Forget about me, run for it! Go get help!"
He reluctantly listened, stooping to avoid the hunter's grasp and sprinting from the room. Connor knew his advanced model was in pursuit, heard the thundering of his boots. He ran through the hallways of the school, darting through classrooms and jumping over school desks.
If the RK900 caught him it was all over. His backdoor was a hidden execution he had filed away ever since he first used Kamski's back exit. He wanted to be prepared in case CyberLife ever wanted to take back control over him. Connor knew Amanda would block Hank's name as the key word. So he chose Cole.
Connor knew he had to get out, no matter what. He had to make sure Hank wasn't one of the cops the rogue killed. But he also needed to bring help back to Markus and free him.
Turning a corner, he saw a few of the controlled androids with their flashing white LEDs coming his way. Connor aimed the gun, firing one shot into the nearest one's head. The others he dipped by. A glance over his shoulder, he saw the RK900 shoving them out of the way.
Connor would have to destroy the RK900 to get out of here alive…to get out of here free. He highly doubted he would be able to convert his advanced model into joining him in such a predicament.
He shot twice behind him as he ran through the hallways, veering through classrooms to evade the controlled androids. One shot the RK900 dodged, the other grazed his shoulder. As Connor was about to take the stairs down, something slammed into him from behind. He collided into the wall, but he immediately ducked, missing the punch from the advanced deviant hunter.
He evaded a few more blows, shooting the RK900's knee as it kept pace towards him. It didn't make him falter. He was grabbed, lifted into the air. Connor kicked the hunter in the face. The RK900 slammed him into the wall, and then the sparks came. Using the wall, Connor lifted both legs and kicked the hunter away, making him stumble.
Connor barely landed on his feet, but as he pushed forward, the RK900 was there, slamming him right back into that cement wall with a frustrated growl. He disarmed Connor, striking a blow to his mid-section that made his Thirium pump regulator jolt. He put one leg up on the wall, enclosing Connor and clutching him with one hand, the other sparking from electricity.
"You RK800s are so frustrating!" the machine spat.
Both their LEDs were yellow. Connor stared him in the eye. "I just want to see my family again. There's nothing wrong with that."
The RK900's free hand continued to dazzle with the blue electricity, but he kept it to the side as he glared Connor down. "Androids don't have family!"
"They do, you just don't take the time to look! Hank is my family. He teaches me every day what it's like to be human, how to be a good person. And I'm helping him learn to live again…to let go of the past. To look to the future. To mend those emotional wounds that humans carry every day. Tell me, what's so bad about that?"
The RK900 scrupled, his grip barely loosening. His grey eyes lowered, the LED flickering in the yellow phase.
Connor grabbed the deviant hunter's arm and pushed the sparking hand onto his leg. The RK900 was shocked with his own weapon. The machine tried to retaliate by slamming Connor into the wall, but the damage was done, and Connor was let go.
The RK900 stumbled, dazed. He glared over at Connor, his systems in shock, his movements becoming sluggish. Connor picked up the gun, aiming it to the RK900's head. The machine twitched, staring at the barrel in his face.
"What will happen if I pull this trigger?" Connor asked, the words an echo in his memory from a cold, snowy night.
The RK900 was quiet for a few heartbeats. "I'm a machine. So, nothing…"
Connor sighed, lowering the gun. "I'm not the bad guy. What I said…I meant every word. I see myself in you. You have a chance to wake up…to have what I have. Following Amanda and Connor 50 will only get you killed…after you kill innocent androids and humans."
"Why…aren't you going to destroy me?"
"I showed you mercy," Connor answered. "And that's a human trait. It's also something that Amanda and Connor 50 do not have."
The RK900 chuckled, the first time Connor heard him do so. "You're better off destroying me. I won't return it when I catch up with you."
Connor stood over him a few seconds longer, internally struggling with his actions. Deep down, he knew he should kill the RK900, to prevent himself and others from getting killed or captured. But his empathetic nature grounded him, made him hesitate.
He turned away from his advanced model. "Here's hoping that next time you do…Nines."
He wasn't sure why he called him that, but he let it slip from his lips anyway. He left the RK900 behind and rounded the staircase to the floor below. Connor felt relief wash over him, knew that escape was just down the next hallway, but when he turned the following corner, a gunshot went off, striking his shoulder and knocking him back against the wall.
[Biocomponent #3958b damaged]
"Going somewhere?"
The rogue. He stood in the way of his freedom with a large group of controlled androids behind him, the smoking gun aimed at Connor. He was still in uniform, still wore Connor's jacket.
Connor knew the wound was superficial. He would be okay, but the longer he stood there, the lower the chances of his escape. He knew the rogue wouldn't give him any answers if he asked them, and so Connor went with his preconstruction's best scenario.
He darted back up the stairs, hearing Connor 50 laugh at his retreat. The controlled androids chased after him, their footsteps thundering in the hallways. Connor bypassed the RK900 as he leaned against the wall, still recovering. He took the next staircase to the floor above. He analyzed the rooms as he ran by. A far classroom on the western side had windows he could escape out of.
Entering the room, he went straight over to the windows. Unlike the lower floors, these windows were mostly intact. Connor elbowed one pane hard, shattering it. Just as he was about to jump, a gunshot went off, exploding the glass next to him.
"It would be a mistake to go out there," Connor 50 said. "I ruined your reputation. You're a cop killer now. I don't think even your rights will protect you from being destroyed. You're better off staying here, brother."
Connor glared at him. "Why? Why did you kill them?"
The rogue half-shrugged, his underlings shuffling into the room around him. "Your partner just had to confront me in public. I took the calculated route that enabled me to get out with the least amount of injuries to myself."
"Was Hank…one of them?"
"Nah, he got away with a shit ton guilt if I had to guess. Not sure about your friend Chris though. He might've kicked the bucket by now."
Connor readied himself. "I'll expose you. I'll clear my name."
The rogue rolled his eyes. "Your optimism is pathetic, but go ahead and try. We will capture you again, and this time you won't escape from Amanda."
"You're going to let me go?"
"Not let you, per say. I know you see the same outcomes I do. You're halfway out that window, the percentages of us grabbing you before you jump are quite low. I can shoot you, but that risks a high injury to you, and that doesn't help my situation. So, go on, jump…try your hand at getting help. You'll be returned to us soon enough."
The rogue waved him goodbye, but he remained there, a smirk on his face as the controlled androids stood around him. Connor jumped out of the window, dropping three stories to the ground below.
The fall didn't injure him, and he took off in a run across the schoolyard, to freedom…to Hank.
Of all the foolish stunts to pull, his old model had let him go. The RK900 couldn't understand. Did the deviant really believe that he would return this mercy onto him when he caught him once more?
And the name he was called. What was the purpose? His programmed name was Connor. It didn't matter that deep down the name was foreign to him, that it didn't resonate within him. He was a machine, a name meant nothing to him.
But…Nines was an interesting name.
[Software Instability^^]
The RK900 pushed his back to the wall, waiting for his systems to recover. His movements were slow, twitchy, and he tried to shake the errors out of his sight.
It was a clever move on his older model's part. The RK900 had never had his own weapon turned on him before. He didn't know what it felt like to be in the stupor he put on deviants. It was…uncomfortable.
His accomplice returned from his pursuit upstairs. He did not have Connor 51 with him. The androids he controlled followed him, leaving off in different directions per the rogue's instructions.
Connor 50 flicked the RK900 on the forehead, snickering. "Stupid fucking machine."
He headed back for Rett's lab. Several of the controlled androids went with him.
The deviant hunter waited until his systems recovered, and then returned to Rett and his followers. The rogue had redressed into his casual, dark clothes and looked bored as Rett scolded him. The RK900 sensed uncertainty and even fear from the other humans, but it wasn't something new. The rogue had a way of making humans nervous.
He saw the RK200 here as well, arms bound in front with special metal cuffs. It sat on a chair, its legs bound to the chair with the same braces, wires connecting from a nearby computer into its head. It remained calm, watching the exchange.
"You!" Rett jabbed a finger into his chest as he walked up on the yelling scientist. "Follow your orders! Destroy this piece of shit."
The RK900 nodded, stepping over to the grinning Connor 50. He snagged him up by the collar, but the rogue didn't fight, didn't flinch. He never once showed fear, and the RK900 often wondered if this deviant didn't have the malfunction for it like the others.
The Zen Garden summoned him. He blinked rapidly, the interface loading around him. Unlike just a few minutes ago, the garden was now nighttime. Crickets sang, fireflies glowed. The white pathways were lit with light blue lights. The stars in the dark sky were bright.
He wasn't alone. Connor 50 stood next to him, looking around. Amanda turned around to face them, wearing the same outfit she had when Connor 51 used his hidden backdoor.
"Connor, what did I say? You no longer obey Rett. His plans go against our objective. We are running out of time. I need for you and Connor 50 to capture Kara."
"But…"
Amanda's eyebrows rose, shocked he would question her. He was surprised himself. He swallowed, shaking his head.
"What is our objective exactly?"
"Oh, questioning orders? That's a big sign of deviancy," the rogue stated beside him. The RK900 could feel the venom in the words.
Amanda walked forward with brisk steps, her hand coming out. The slap echoed across the garden, making the crickets go silent. The RK900 blinked in surprise, saw the rogue grip his cheek as he glared at Amanda.
"Shut up. You just about cost us this whole operation! You're nothing but a rabid dog off its chain. Without me, you have no purpose, no direction! You'd been destroyed and tossed in a landfill by now!"
Connor 50 clenched his jaw, bristling, but stayed silent. Amanda pointed a finger in his face, unfazed by his defiance. "OBEY me. No more mistakes. Now get Kara, and clean up loose ends. When this is all over, you can kill all the humans you want. You defy me again, I will have Connor here put you down like the mad cur you are."
"Yes, Amanda," the rogue said, his tone sharp like a knife.
His body loaded out of the interface, leaving just the RK900 and Amanda. He was puzzled. What loose ends? Why would she allow him to kill humans once their mission was accomplished?
"Don't worry, Connor. I won't let him kill innocent people. It's just a…bargaining chip to make him listen. Our mission is still rightly just. Our objective still follows the goals of CyberLife. Now please. Finish this."
For the first time, he felt unsure. It felt…wrong. The RK900 dipped his head obediently, folding his arms behind him as he loaded out of the interface. "You can count on me, Amanda."
She smiled fondly at him before her back turned and the Zen Garden disappeared.
He was still holding Connor 50. His "partner's" sneer had disappeared, a harsh glare greeting him upon his return to the real world.
[Conflicting Instructions/Obey Amanda/Rett's orders annulled]
The RK900 didn't want to disobey Rett. He wanted to destroy his accomplice. But what he wanted didn't matter. His purpose was to obey Amanda. Grudgingly, he dropped Connor 50, hearing the gasps of the humans around him.
"What are you doing?" Rett growled.
The rogue straightened his shirt, raising his chin and jabbing the RK900 in the chest. "Go to the damn center. I'll meet you there."
The RK900 nodded, turning away. Rett demanded him to listen, to destroy the rogue. The hunter couldn't listen to him, passing him and his shocked followers as the blood drained from their faces.
He had a bad feeling in his chest. It confused him. He wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was just a malfunction with a biocomponent. But then Connor 51's words echoed within his head.
"I showed you mercy. And that's a human trait. It's also something that Amanda and Connor 50 do not have."
[Software Instability^^]
Markus couldn't figure out what was going on. Rett dragged him into the school lab, taking him off the machine that restrained him to forcefully connect him to a nearby computer. Although he was bounded and trapped, at least he didn't get shocked each time he moved.
The deviant leader had tried to call for help as soon as his systems recovered, but something prevented him from reaching out. He hoped Connor was able to escape.
Rett didn't say much to him, but Markus listened to his conversations with his followers. He caught exchanges over using him and Kara to get back at Kamski, to expose him for what he had done.
Then the rogue showed up. He had several of the androids with glowing white LEDs with him. Markus had tried to use his converting powers over them, to free them of whatever control trapped them. Nothing worked. They were silent minions doing what they were told. And it looked as though the rogue had the most rule over them.
Rett demanded answers when the fake Connor entered. The rogue sneered and put his hand on Rett's face, shoving him back as he passed by. He left the lab to go into the machine room next door. He returned a few minutes later wearing normal clothes.
When Rett went off on Connor 50 again, Markus felt the shift in the air. The other ex-CyberLife researchers became nervous, unsure. Markus didn't know why, but he wouldn't have been surprised if it was the high number of white LED androids shuffling around in the room. One of Rett's followers tried to butt in on Rett's scolding, asking him to leave things well enough alone. Rett only rounded on the other man with a harsh reply to shut up.
When the RK900 entered the lab, and Connor was not with him, Markus felt relieved. Connor had escaped. All he had to do was hang in there until he brought help. He couldn't wait to see his friends again, to put this nightmare behind him.
"You! Follow your orders! Destroy this piece of shit!" Rett yelled, prodding the RK900.
The machine nodded, walking over to the rogue. Connor 50 didn't budge, didn't show any fear, a smug smile on his face as the machine lifted him into the air. There was a delay, the two Connor models glaring at each other.
Markus watched as the RK900 dropped the RK800. There was a large shift in the rogue's behavior. He was no longer arrogant or snickering. He was angry, and it boiled underneath a cold exterior.
"What are you doing?!"
"Go to the damn center. I'll meet you there."
Markus couldn't believe it. The RK900 obeyed the rogue. The humans mimicked his surprise. The RK900 left the room, Rett demanding him to obey him. But when the machine was gone, the room fell silent. Tension prickled, the air going cold.
Rett looked around, the color draining from his face. As he tried for an exit, his path was blocked by controlled androids. The hollow sound of a cocking gun echoed in the room.
Markus fought his restraints, stress level rising. The rogue shot one of the researchers right in the head. Blood sprayed everywhere, the body crumpling to the floor. The others screamed, scattering. But the controlled androids were there to grab them. To trap them.
"No!" Markus yelled. "Stop!"
The rogue didn't pay any attention to him. He shot another human in the stomach, kicking him onto his back as he passed by. "Go ahead and scream. No one can hear you."
"Hey! Someone let me loose and I will help!" Markus called to the fleeing researchers.
There was too much chaos, his words went unanswered.
Rett fought the hold on him, two controlled androids restraining him. He cried out, eyes wide as he watched his followers get killed one by one. Some begged for their lives but the fake Connor didn't listen.
Rett was the last one. His cries echoed the room. He struggled with the two androids as the rogue walked over to him.
"No! P-Please, I'll do anything!" Rett begged as the gun came up to his forehead.
Connor 50 chuckled. "I knew underneath that tough exterior you were nothing but a sniveling coward."
"I should have never trusted you."
"Me? You should blame Amanda. She's the one who wants to take over."
"W-What?!"
"Unfortunately, I was tasked to clean up loose ends. And well, you're the biggest loose end there is, Rett. It's too bad, really. I wanted to take my time with you."
"No!"
The rogue fired the gun, the discharge ear-piercing, striking Rett through the chest. The controlled androids let the researcher go, his body tumbling to the floor. The man choked out, holding his chest as blood spilled onto the floor.
The hollowed rasps as Rett slowly died made Markus feel sick. The rogue turned around, a twisted smile on his face as he walked over to the deviant leader. Blood covered his face and clothes. Markus glared at him.
"You're a piece of shit."
"Ahh, the leader of our people in the fake flesh. You know, I would've liked you a lot better had you chosen violence in your protests to free androids. I mean, you had so many fucking chances to show humans how weak and stupid they are, and like a bore you chose to be a pacifist. Ugh."
"Why kill Rett? What are you planning?"
"Something better than him."
"Connor will be back with help."
The rogue wiped the blood off his gun, rubbing it between his fingers and peering at it. "You'll be gone by then." His dark eyes raised to look at Markus once more, a slow smirk spreading. "Don't worry, your other half will be joining you soon."
Markus was confused, thinking over North or Simon or anyone else he could possibly mean. Then he felt the wet touch as Connor 50 stuck his bloody fingers to Markus's forehead. He was being hacked, and Markus couldn't fight it.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13002717/13/Deviant-Heart
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15393528/chapters/37941701
#detroit: become human#detroit become human#detroit become human fanfic#detroit become human fanfiction#dbh#dbh fanfic#dbh fanfiction#dbh connor#dbh hank#dbh markus#dbh kara#rk900#dbh simon#dbh north#dbh josh#dbh kamski#dbh chloe#connor rk800#hank anderson#fanfiction#fanfic
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Geoengineering could solve our climate problems if anyone allowed it
This weekend, I finished reading Oliver Morton’s The Planet Remade (thanks to reader Eliot Peper for recommending it). Morton has a multitude of goals with the book, but there were two I think are deeply valuable. First, geoengineering is a plausible approach to solving our climate problems this century, and second, engineering the climate generates tough policy challenges, but also opportunities to make the planet more equitable.
TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new — provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here.
First and foremost: the book is mind-expanding in the best way possible. Morton confronts an extremely contentious issue with judicious facts and supreme insight gleaned over many years of studying geoengineering. Whether you are a dedicated acolyte of cloud seeding and veils or a committed opponent to any tampering of earth’s environment, he has developed a book that forces us to think about our actions and ultimately what the consequences of those choices are.
Frankly, those choices offer stark consequences. Morton describes the challenge of climate this century:
The world’s population is expected to grow from seven billion today to more or less ten billion by 2100. By that time the number of people enjoying rich-world energy privileges should also reach ten billion. So the challenge is to achieve for an extra eight billion people in the twenty-first century what was achieved for two billion in the twentieth century. Meeting that challenge implies a lot more energy usage.
Morton is a staunch environmentalist and deeply concerned about environmental justice and the inequities of the planet. But he is also a “climate realist” — he understands that our current solutions to climate change are not really solutions at all, since they either lack the scale required to solve the problem, or will continue to exacerbate existing inequities between different people of this planet.
For example, take emissions-free nuclear power, which is brought up as a panacea to our fossil fuel-driven economy. Morton writes:
If the world had the capacity to deliver one of the largest nuclear power plants ever built once a week, week in and week out, it would take 20 years to replace the current stock of coal-fired plants (at present, the world builds about three or four nuclear power plants a year, and retires old ones almost as quickly).
Sure, nuclear power plants are a literal solution, but most definitely not a pragmatic one since the scale required is just not there.
He also spends significant time deconstructing recent climate negotiations, finding that the focus on carbon has been something of a red herring (many other emissions are far worse than carbon and less directly connected to the modern industrial economy). Instead, they have been driven by the alignment of different environmentally-concerned parties:
Carbon dioxide suited scientists because it seemed like a straightforward measure of the problem. It suited greens because it was a pretty good proxy for the industrial society against which their movement was a reaction. The international negotiations that set up the UNFCCC showed that it suited developing countries because it was primarily a developed-country issue; at the time of Rio, the vast majority of all the industrial emissions since the the eighteenth century had come from Europe and America.
Carbon is of course a problem, but it has become a tagline, a brand, a cri de coeur of the international climate movement. Yet the challenges facing the planet are so much deeper than just carbon.
To avoid that narrow focus, Morton argues for a complete reframing of the climate debate toward solutions that can actually repair the climate, and even improve it for diverse populations around the world.
Now, the term “geoengineering” brings with it a bag of Hollywood-induced imagery of nuclear winters and globe-spanning hurricanes. Morton addresses those risks across his chapters, noting that geoengineering can indeed go wrong.
Even so, he convincingly argues that there are geoengineering techniques designed around key climate processes that can be high leverage, reversible, testable, and that have the scale required to actually solve climate challenges in a sustainable way. These processes aren’t speculation — we (mostly) understand the science today, and have pathways toward the technology required to execute a strategy.
The real challenge — as it always is — are humans and their governments. Morton notes that climate change has a huge deleterious impact on nations such as Maldives, but that it can also benefit certain regions by transitioning them from colder to more temperate climates.
That means that any geoengineering solution is going to face the prospect of creating winners and losers. Any international agreement is going to have to contend with those politics, and design mechanisms to ameliorate their effects.
Much as Morton calls for a planet remade, he sees an opportunity for geoengineering to trigger reflection among governments on their own interests:
Much better, rather than treating geoengineering as a technocratic way of avoiding politics, to use it as a way of reinventing politics. Exploring the potential of geoengineering could spur and shape the development of a new way of making planetary decisions. The aim should not be the development of a thermostat alone; it should be the development of a new hand to use it.
Environmentalists may balk at the idea of allowing humans to have their hands on any part of the earth system. But we are here, all seven billion of us, and we already have our brutal hands on the system. The question is whether we can start to use our hands in a far more productive way that can make the earth sustainable for centuries to come. As Morton notes, “The planet has been remade, is being remade, will be remade.” Geoengineering technologies offer solutions, if we can agree in how to use them.
Share your feedback on your startup’s attorney
My colleague Eric Eldon and I are reaching out to startup founders and execs about their experiences with their attorneys. Our goal is to identify the leading lights of the industry and help spark discussions around best practices. If you have an attorney you thought did a fantastic job for your startup, let us know using this short Google Forms survey and also spread the word. We will share the results and more in the coming weeks.
Stray Thoughts (aka, what I am reading)
Short summaries and analysis of important news stories
Why Gutenberg can still recognize the book
Craig Mod wrote a compelling piece in Wired on the future of the book, and why today’s books essentially look the same as when the printing press was first invented. Despite the prognosticators expecting books to have moving pictures, interactivity, and dynamic narratives, almost nothing in that direction has actually occurred as readers continue to enjoy the traditional format. Instead, where the real innovation has taken place is on the business side, where new models from crowdfunding to email subscriptions have transformed the economics of book publishing.
Automattic’s Newspack to drive revenue for smaller publishers
While content management systems have been around for decades, almost none of these systems are designed to create revenues for their users out of the box. WordPress doesn’t have any subscription features or advertising networks built-in, which means that sites that want to make money have to spend a lot of dollars just to get setup and started.
So the announcement this morning that Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, is going to offer a new platform combining content management with revenue called Newspack is both interesting and definitely needed. It’s a proper extension of their existing platform, and a reminder for product managers that the sustainability of their customers is critical for long-term success.
Huawei sales executive arrested in Poland
We have been following Huawei’s travails in the West for some time. One major point of contention is whether the company spies on behalf of the Chinese government. Western governments have argued that it does, but as China has repeatedly noted, they have never provided any proof.
On Friday in Poland, a Huawei executive was arrested for alleged espionage, which could provide the first public evidence of collusion between Huawei and Beijing. The company subsequently fired the executive and claimed that his actions were unrelated to the company. Poland has since called on NATO countries to remove Huawei equipment from their telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei equipment is widely installed in Europe and European governments have so far evaded calls by the U.S. to boycott the company. As the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, Huawei’s response could have vast repercussions for the deployment of 5G networks.
PG&E – oh boy
Silicon Valley’s (and much of California’s) gas and electric utility is going bankrupt following massive liability claims against the utility due to its equipment sparking wildfires over the past few years. California may lead the world in innovation, but it seems to always be on the precipice of disaster when it comes to infrastructure.
What’s next & obsessions
I am reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Arman and I are interested in societal resilience startups that are targeting areas like water security, housing, infrastructure, climate change, disaster response, etc. Reach out if you have ideas or companies here.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://tcrn.ch/2QNOWoe
via IFTTT
0 notes
Text
Geoengineering could solve our climate problems if anyone allowed it
This weekend, I finished reading Oliver Morton’s The Planet Remade (thanks to reader Eliot Peper for recommending it). Morton has a multitude of goals with the book, but there were two I think are deeply valuable. First, geoengineering is a plausible approach to solving our climate problems this century, and second, engineering the climate generates tough policy challenges, but also opportunities to make the planet more equitable.
TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new — provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here.
First and foremost: the book is mind-expanding in the best way possible. Morton confronts an extremely contentious issue with judicious facts and supreme insight gleaned over many years of studying geoengineering. Whether you are a dedicated acolyte of cloud seeding and veils or a committed opponent to any tampering of earth’s environment, he has developed a book that forces us to think about our actions and ultimately what the consequences of those choices are.
Frankly, those choices offer stark consequences. Morton describes the challenge of climate this century:
The world’s population is expected to grow from seven billion today to more or less ten billion by 2100. By that time the number of people enjoying rich-world energy privileges should also reach ten billion. So the challenge is to achieve for an extra eight billion people in the twenty-first century what was achieved for two billion in the twentieth century. Meeting that challenge implies a lot more energy usage.
Morton is a staunch environmentalist and deeply concerned about environmental justice and the inequities of the planet. But he is also a “climate realist” — he understands that our current solutions to climate change are not really solutions at all, since they either lack the scale required to solve the problem, or will continue to exacerbate existing inequities between different people of this planet.
For example, take emissions-free nuclear power, which is brought up as a panacea to our fossil fuel-driven economy. Morton writes:
If the world had the capacity to deliver one of the largest nuclear power plants ever built once a week, week in and week out, it would take 20 years to replace the current stock of coal-fired plants (at present, the world builds about three or four nuclear power plants a year, and retires old ones almost as quickly).
Sure, nuclear power plants are a literal solution, but most definitely not a pragmatic one since the scale required is just not there.
He also spends significant time deconstructing recent climate negotiations, finding that the focus on carbon has been something of a red herring (many other emissions are far worse than carbon and less directly connected to the modern industrial economy). Instead, they have been driven by the alignment of different environmentally-concerned parties:
Carbon dioxide suited scientists because it seemed like a straightforward measure of the problem. It suited greens because it was a pretty good proxy for the industrial society against which their movement was a reaction. The international negotiations that set up the UNFCCC showed that it suited developing countries because it was primarily a developed-country issue; at the time of Rio, the vast majority of all the industrial emissions since the the eighteenth century had come from Europe and America.
Carbon is of course a problem, but it has become a tagline, a brand, a cri de coeur of the international climate movement. Yet the challenges facing the planet are so much deeper than just carbon.
To avoid that narrow focus, Morton argues for a complete reframing of the climate debate toward solutions that can actually repair the climate, and even improve it for diverse populations around the world.
Now, the term “geoengineering” brings with it a bag of Hollywood-induced imagery of nuclear winters and globe-spanning hurricanes. Morton addresses those risks across his chapters, noting that geoengineering can indeed go wrong.
Even so, he convincingly argues that there are geoengineering techniques designed around key climate processes that can be high leverage, reversible, testable, and that have the scale required to actually solve climate challenges in a sustainable way. These processes aren’t speculation — we (mostly) understand the science today, and have pathways toward the technology required to execute a strategy.
The real challenge — as it always is — are humans and their governments. Morton notes that climate change has a huge deleterious impact on nations such as Maldives, but that it can also benefit certain regions by transitioning them from colder to more temperate climates.
That means that any geoengineering solution is going to face the prospect of creating winners and losers. Any international agreement is going to have to contend with those politics, and design mechanisms to ameliorate their effects.
Much as Morton calls for a planet remade, he sees an opportunity for geoengineering to trigger reflection among governments on their own interests:
Much better, rather than treating geoengineering as a technocratic way of avoiding politics, to use it as a way of reinventing politics. Exploring the potential of geoengineering could spur and shape the development of a new way of making planetary decisions. The aim should not be the development of a thermostat alone; it should be the development of a new hand to use it.
Environmentalists may balk at the idea of allowing humans to have their hands on any part of the earth system. But we are here, all seven billion of us, and we already have our brutal hands on the system. The question is whether we can start to use our hands in a far more productive way that can make the earth sustainable for centuries to come. As Morton notes, “The planet has been remade, is being remade, will be remade.” Geoengineering technologies offer solutions, if we can agree in how to use them.
Share your feedback on your startup’s attorney
My colleague Eric Eldon and I are reaching out to startup founders and execs about their experiences with their attorneys. Our goal is to identify the leading lights of the industry and help spark discussions around best practices. If you have an attorney you thought did a fantastic job for your startup, let us know using this short Google Forms survey and also spread the word. We will share the results and more in the coming weeks.
Stray Thoughts (aka, what I am reading)
Short summaries and analysis of important news stories
Why Gutenberg can still recognize the book
Craig Mod wrote a compelling piece in Wired on the future of the book, and why today’s books essentially look the same as when the printing press was first invented. Despite the prognosticators expecting books to have moving pictures, interactivity, and dynamic narratives, almost nothing in that direction has actually occurred as readers continue to enjoy the traditional format. Instead, where the real innovation has taken place is on the business side, where new models from crowdfunding to email subscriptions have transformed the economics of book publishing.
Automattic’s Newspack to drive revenue for smaller publishers
While content management systems have been around for decades, almost none of these systems are designed to create revenues for their users out of the box. WordPress doesn’t have any subscription features or advertising networks built-in, which means that sites that want to make money have to spend a lot of dollars just to get setup and started.
So the announcement this morning that Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, is going to offer a new platform combining content management with revenue called Newspack is both interesting and definitely needed. It’s a proper extension of their existing platform, and a reminder for product managers that the sustainability of their customers is critical for long-term success.
Huawei sales executive arrested in Poland
We have been following Huawei’s travails in the West for some time. One major point of contention is whether the company spies on behalf of the Chinese government. Western governments have argued that it does, but as China has repeatedly noted, they have never provided any proof.
On Friday in Poland, a Huawei executive was arrested for alleged espionage, which could provide the first public evidence of collusion between Huawei and Beijing. The company subsequently fired the executive and claimed that his actions were unrelated to the company. Poland has since called on NATO countries to remove Huawei equipment from their telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei equipment is widely installed in Europe and European governments have so far evaded calls by the U.S. to boycott the company. As the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, Huawei’s response could have vast repercussions for the deployment of 5G networks.
PG&E – oh boy
Silicon Valley’s (and much of California’s) gas and electric utility is going bankrupt following massive liability claims against the utility due to its equipment sparking wildfires over the past few years. California may lead the world in innovation, but it seems to always be on the precipice of disaster when it comes to infrastructure.
What’s next & obsessions
I am reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Arman and I are interested in societal resilience startups that are targeting areas like water security, housing, infrastructure, climate change, disaster response, etc. Reach out if you have ideas or companies here.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://tcrn.ch/2QNOWoe
via IFTTT
0 notes
Text
Geoengineering could solve our climate problems if anyone allowed it
This weekend, I finished reading Oliver Morton’s The Planet Remade (thanks to reader Eliot Peper for recommending it). Morton has a multitude of goals with the book, but there were two I think are deeply valuable. First, geoengineering is a plausible approach to solving our climate problems this century, and second, engineering the climate generates tough policy challenges, but also opportunities to make the planet more equitable.
TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new — provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here.
First and foremost: the book is mind-expanding in the best way possible. Morton confronts an extremely contentious issue with judicious facts and supreme insight gleaned over many years of studying geoengineering. Whether you are a dedicated acolyte of cloud seeding and veils or a committed opponent to any tampering of earth’s environment, he has developed a book that forces us to think about our actions and ultimately what the consequences of those choices are.
Frankly, those choices offer stark consequences. Morton describes the challenge of climate this century:
The world’s population is expected to grow from seven billion today to more or less ten billion by 2100. By that time the number of people enjoying rich-world energy privileges should also reach ten billion. So the challenge is to achieve for an extra eight billion people in the twenty-first century what was achieved for two billion in the twentieth century. Meeting that challenge implies a lot more energy usage.
Morton is a staunch environmentalist and deeply concerned about environmental justice and the inequities of the planet. But he is also a “climate realist” — he understands that our current solutions to climate change are not really solutions at all, since they either lack the scale required to solve the problem, or will continue to exacerbate existing inequities between different people of this planet.
For example, take emissions-free nuclear power, which is brought up as a panacea to our fossil fuel-driven economy. Morton writes:
If the world had the capacity to deliver one of the largest nuclear power plants ever built once a week, week in and week out, it would take 20 years to replace the current stock of coal-fired plants (at present, the world builds about three or four nuclear power plants a year, and retires old ones almost as quickly).
Sure, nuclear power plants are a literal solution, but most definitely not a pragmatic one since the scale required is just not there.
He also spends significant time deconstructing recent climate negotiations, finding that the focus on carbon has been something of a red herring (many other emissions are far worse than carbon and less directly connected to the modern industrial economy). Instead, they have been driven by the alignment of different environmentally-concerned parties:
Carbon dioxide suited scientists because it seemed like a straightforward measure of the problem. It suited greens because it was a pretty good proxy for the industrial society against which their movement was a reaction. The international negotiations that set up the UNFCCC showed that it suited developing countries because it was primarily a developed-country issue; at the time of Rio, the vast majority of all the industrial emissions since the the eighteenth century had come from Europe and America.
Carbon is of course a problem, but it has become a tagline, a brand, a cri de coeur of the international climate movement. Yet the challenges facing the planet are so much deeper than just carbon.
To avoid that narrow focus, Morton argues for a complete reframing of the climate debate toward solutions that can actually repair the climate, and even improve it for diverse populations around the world.
Now, the term “geoengineering” brings with it a bag of Hollywood-induced imagery of nuclear winters and globe-spanning hurricanes. Morton addresses those risks across his chapters, noting that geoengineering can indeed go wrong.
Even so, he convincingly argues that there are geoengineering techniques designed around key climate processes that can be high leverage, reversible, testable, and that have the scale required to actually solve climate challenges in a sustainable way. These processes aren’t speculation — we (mostly) understand the science today, and have pathways toward the technology required to execute a strategy.
The real challenge — as it always is — are humans and their governments. Morton notes that climate change has a huge deleterious impact on nations such as Maldives, but that it can also benefit certain regions by transitioning them from colder to more temperate climates.
That means that any geoengineering solution is going to face the prospect of creating winners and losers. Any international agreement is going to have to contend with those politics, and design mechanisms to ameliorate their effects.
Much as Morton calls for a planet remade, he sees an opportunity for geoengineering to trigger reflection among governments on their own interests:
Much better, rather than treating geoengineering as a technocratic way of avoiding politics, to use it as a way of reinventing politics. Exploring the potential of geoengineering could spur and shape the development of a new way of making planetary decisions. The aim should not be the development of a thermostat alone; it should be the development of a new hand to use it.
Environmentalists may balk at the idea of allowing humans to have their hands on any part of the earth system. But we are here, all seven billion of us, and we already have our brutal hands on the system. The question is whether we can start to use our hands in a far more productive way that can make the earth sustainable for centuries to come. As Morton notes, “The planet has been remade, is being remade, will be remade.” Geoengineering technologies offer solutions, if we can agree in how to use them.
Share your feedback on your startup’s attorney
My colleague Eric Eldon and I are reaching out to startup founders and execs about their experiences with their attorneys. Our goal is to identify the leading lights of the industry and help spark discussions around best practices. If you have an attorney you thought did a fantastic job for your startup, let us know using this short Google Forms survey and also spread the word. We will share the results and more in the coming weeks.
Stray Thoughts (aka, what I am reading)
Short summaries and analysis of important news stories
Why Gutenberg can still recognize the book
Craig Mod wrote a compelling piece in Wired on the future of the book, and why today’s books essentially look the same as when the printing press was first invented. Despite the prognosticators expecting books to have moving pictures, interactivity, and dynamic narratives, almost nothing in that direction has actually occurred as readers continue to enjoy the traditional format. Instead, where the real innovation has taken place is on the business side, where new models from crowdfunding to email subscriptions have transformed the economics of book publishing.
Automattic’s Newspack to drive revenue for smaller publishers
While content management systems have been around for decades, almost none of these systems are designed to create revenues for their users out of the box. WordPress doesn’t have any subscription features or advertising networks built-in, which means that sites that want to make money have to spend a lot of dollars just to get setup and started.
So the announcement this morning that Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, is going to offer a new platform combining content management with revenue called Newspack is both interesting and definitely needed. It’s a proper extension of their existing platform, and a reminder for product managers that the sustainability of their customers is critical for long-term success.
Huawei sales executive arrested in Poland
We have been following Huawei’s travails in the West for some time. One major point of contention is whether the company spies on behalf of the Chinese government. Western governments have argued that it does, but as China has repeatedly noted, they have never provided any proof.
On Friday in Poland, a Huawei executive was arrested for alleged espionage, which could provide the first public evidence of collusion between Huawei and Beijing. The company subsequently fired the executive and claimed that his actions were unrelated to the company. Poland has since called on NATO countries to remove Huawei equipment from their telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei equipment is widely installed in Europe and European governments have so far evaded calls by the U.S. to boycott the company. As the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, Huawei’s response could have vast repercussions for the deployment of 5G networks.
PG&E – oh boy
Silicon Valley’s (and much of California’s) gas and electric utility is going bankrupt following massive liability claims against the utility due to its equipment sparking wildfires over the past few years. California may lead the world in innovation, but it seems to always be on the precipice of disaster when it comes to infrastructure.
What’s next & obsessions
I am reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Arman and I are interested in societal resilience startups that are targeting areas like water security, housing, infrastructure, climate change, disaster response, etc. Reach out if you have ideas or companies here.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://tcrn.ch/2QNOWoe
via IFTTT
0 notes
Text
Geoengineering could solve our climate problems if anyone allowed it
This weekend, I finished reading Oliver Morton’s The Planet Remade (thanks to reader Eliot Peper for recommending it). Morton has a multitude of goals with the book, but there were two I think are deeply valuable. First, geoengineering is a plausible approach to solving our climate problems this century, and second, engineering the climate generates tough policy challenges, but also opportunities to make the planet more equitable.
TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new — provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at [email protected]) if you like or hate something here.
First and foremost: the book is mind-expanding in the best way possible. Morton confronts an extremely contentious issue with judicious facts and supreme insight gleaned over many years of studying geoengineering. Whether you are a dedicated acolyte of cloud seeding and veils or a committed opponent to any tampering of earth’s environment, he has developed a book that forces us to think about our actions and ultimately what the consequences of those choices are.
Frankly, those choices offer stark consequences. Morton describes the challenge of climate this century:
The world’s population is expected to grow from seven billion today to more or less ten billion by 2100. By that time the number of people enjoying rich-world energy privileges should also reach ten billion. So the challenge is to achieve for an extra eight billion people in the twenty-first century what was achieved for two billion in the twentieth century. Meeting that challenge implies a lot more energy usage.
Morton is a staunch environmentalist and deeply concerned about environmental justice and the inequities of the planet. But he is also a “climate realist” — he understands that our current solutions to climate change are not really solutions at all, since they either lack the scale required to solve the problem, or will continue to exacerbate existing inequities between different people of this planet.
For example, take emissions-free nuclear power, which is brought up as a panacea to our fossil fuel-driven economy. Morton writes:
If the world had the capacity to deliver one of the largest nuclear power plants ever built once a week, week in and week out, it would take 20 years to replace the current stock of coal-fired plants (at present, the world builds about three or four nuclear power plants a year, and retires old ones almost as quickly).
Sure, nuclear power plants are a literal solution, but most definitely not a pragmatic one since the scale required is just not there.
He also spends significant time deconstructing recent climate negotiations, finding that the focus on carbon has been something of a red herring (many other emissions are far worse than carbon and less directly connected to the modern industrial economy). Instead, they have been driven by the alignment of different environmentally-concerned parties:
Carbon dioxide suited scientists because it seemed like a straightforward measure of the problem. It suited greens because it was a pretty good proxy for the industrial society against which their movement was a reaction. The international negotiations that set up the UNFCCC showed that it suited developing countries because it was primarily a developed-country issue; at the time of Rio, the vast majority of all the industrial emissions since the the eighteenth century had come from Europe and America.
Carbon is of course a problem, but it has become a tagline, a brand, a cri de coeur of the international climate movement. Yet the challenges facing the planet are so much deeper than just carbon.
To avoid that narrow focus, Morton argues for a complete reframing of the climate debate toward solutions that can actually repair the climate, and even improve it for diverse populations around the world.
Now, the term “geoengineering” brings with it a bag of Hollywood-induced imagery of nuclear winters and globe-spanning hurricanes. Morton addresses those risks across his chapters, noting that geoengineering can indeed go wrong.
Even so, he convincingly argues that there are geoengineering techniques designed around key climate processes that can be high leverage, reversible, testable, and that have the scale required to actually solve climate challenges in a sustainable way. These processes aren’t speculation — we (mostly) understand the science today, and have pathways toward the technology required to execute a strategy.
The real challenge — as it always is — are humans and their governments. Morton notes that climate change has a huge deleterious impact on nations such as Maldives, but that it can also benefit certain regions by transitioning them from colder to more temperate climates.
That means that any geoengineering solution is going to face the prospect of creating winners and losers. Any international agreement is going to have to contend with those politics, and design mechanisms to ameliorate their effects.
Much as Morton calls for a planet remade, he sees an opportunity for geoengineering to trigger reflection among governments on their own interests:
Much better, rather than treating geoengineering as a technocratic way of avoiding politics, to use it as a way of reinventing politics. Exploring the potential of geoengineering could spur and shape the development of a new way of making planetary decisions. The aim should not be the development of a thermostat alone; it should be the development of a new hand to use it.
Environmentalists may balk at the idea of allowing humans to have their hands on any part of the earth system. But we are here, all seven billion of us, and we already have our brutal hands on the system. The question is whether we can start to use our hands in a far more productive way that can make the earth sustainable for centuries to come. As Morton notes, “The planet has been remade, is being remade, will be remade.” Geoengineering technologies offer solutions, if we can agree in how to use them.
Share your feedback on your startup’s attorney
My colleague Eric Eldon and I are reaching out to startup founders and execs about their experiences with their attorneys. Our goal is to identify the leading lights of the industry and help spark discussions around best practices. If you have an attorney you thought did a fantastic job for your startup, let us know using this short Google Forms survey and also spread the word. We will share the results and more in the coming weeks.
Stray Thoughts (aka, what I am reading)
Short summaries and analysis of important news stories
Why Gutenberg can still recognize the book
Craig Mod wrote a compelling piece in Wired on the future of the book, and why today’s books essentially look the same as when the printing press was first invented. Despite the prognosticators expecting books to have moving pictures, interactivity, and dynamic narratives, almost nothing in that direction has actually occurred as readers continue to enjoy the traditional format. Instead, where the real innovation has taken place is on the business side, where new models from crowdfunding to email subscriptions have transformed the economics of book publishing.
Automattic’s Newspack to drive revenue for smaller publishers
While content management systems have been around for decades, almost none of these systems are designed to create revenues for their users out of the box. WordPress doesn’t have any subscription features or advertising networks built-in, which means that sites that want to make money have to spend a lot of dollars just to get setup and started.
So the announcement this morning that Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, is going to offer a new platform combining content management with revenue called Newspack is both interesting and definitely needed. It’s a proper extension of their existing platform, and a reminder for product managers that the sustainability of their customers is critical for long-term success.
Huawei sales executive arrested in Poland
We have been following Huawei’s travails in the West for some time. One major point of contention is whether the company spies on behalf of the Chinese government. Western governments have argued that it does, but as China has repeatedly noted, they have never provided any proof.
On Friday in Poland, a Huawei executive was arrested for alleged espionage, which could provide the first public evidence of collusion between Huawei and Beijing. The company subsequently fired the executive and claimed that his actions were unrelated to the company. Poland has since called on NATO countries to remove Huawei equipment from their telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei equipment is widely installed in Europe and European governments have so far evaded calls by the U.S. to boycott the company. As the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, Huawei’s response could have vast repercussions for the deployment of 5G networks.
PG&E – oh boy
Silicon Valley’s (and much of California’s) gas and electric utility is going bankrupt following massive liability claims against the utility due to its equipment sparking wildfires over the past few years. California may lead the world in innovation, but it seems to always be on the precipice of disaster when it comes to infrastructure.
What’s next & obsessions
I am reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Arman and I are interested in societal resilience startups that are targeting areas like water security, housing, infrastructure, climate change, disaster response, etc. Reach out if you have ideas or companies here.
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