#hey...... why is the background for the cover AI generated | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrdrhenwardhykle · 7 months

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INSERT 25¢ TO CONTINUE : Into the AudoScape- Level 4: "Attack of the Talking Heads!"

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To the common man, the evening host of the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Silverman's flowed flawlessly. There was a slight dimming in the dining room, but the lovely warm theme to the meal was welcoming nonetheless. There were no visible quarrels. Aunts, uncles, a few cousins, and grandparents stomped off the cold frost of the winter with wide open arms welcoming the residential hosts.

Freddie usually got a pat on the back and a conversation about his football team. Allope either got a pat on the head, a smooch on the nose, or a high five from the younger relatives, and Rebecca unusually got a nod, the brief lift of a hand and tightened smile, or a simple and emotionless "hi." The three kids stuck together just out of separate reasons for keeping distance from others.

Freddie was easily exhausted of being framed as just the 'football' guy and hated having to play through the same conversations of pretending to like something he didn't. Relatives would kindly ask him what college he was planning to apply to, to which he would name off a few on his long list of research, but usually being faced with the same reply of "What? Why that one? That team is terrible".

Rebecca kept active for only a little while, but backed out as soon as she caught onto conversations about some unnamed 'distant and ungrateful freeloader,' that her aunt and uncle just couldn't stop gossiping about, other than some weird TV personality that everyone seemed to like.

As for Allope, she was sick to her stomach with the inconsistency that two girls on a commercial couldn't come close to acknowledging her existence, but the artificial man who could clip out of his own body could; even getting to the point where he could possibly see right through the screen. The time for curiosity was behind her; even the thought of walking in front of the TV was like stepping on a minefield. Too bad for Allope, the TV was on all evening,with crowding adults laughing at whatever it said when given the chance.

"Hey, Al. What's up, kiddo?" Reb bumped the kid with her elbow to pull her out of her current habit of spiraling in abstract forms of thought. Sunk deep into her chair, Allope was bursting at the seams of keeping the knowledge of another realm from all those who could listen. "GRAH!-It's that creepy guy on the TV! He's just watching me, I just know it!"

Reb just struck a look of concern while Freddie held in his laughter, "What guy, Allope?" she replied.

Allope performed her sign for the name she forgot, by making an 'm' with her fist and making a 'v' shape around her jawline. They both seemed amused at the charade, but Reb still didn't follow along. "Y'know! The one with the teeth that go-" she clicked her teeth together while making a snarling noise.

Laughter escaped from Fred as he made an attempt to cover his face, "She's talking about Max Headroom. It's these clips of a computer generated AI; basically an artificial person, like a robot. He sometimes shows up between music videos from Channel 4. Allope was sneaking around and got into some troubles with her new headset last night. She just got freaked out when she saw him on the TV right after taking the set off, that's all."

Allope glared at the opposer in the corner of her eye, lifting the brand new Max Headroom-brand dishware that their mother with 'classical taste' so happened to choose for this year. Not only that, but weighing alongside the fact that almost the only brands they chose to use for dinner had the face of Max Headroom in front of his distinctive, shifting background lines right on the cover alongside some corny pun or catchphrase here and there.

"Yeah, that is a little weird", Reb agreed without either side fully catching on to who she believed the most, "Are you kidding? It's a robot. It's programmed to say all those things to please us. Maybe if they like it so much, it's just doing its job. It's in their name, ya know? They're supposed to serve man; we have souls and a consciousness, which always puts us on the top. But even when it comes to those things; we haven't gotten close enough to replicating life like this. It's likely just some guy in a,mask or clay or something-" Freddie argued.

"A-Ah. Yes; it's always just 'my life for you,' isn't it? I mean, what else was somebody like me made for?"

The group's attention turned towards the other room. Most adults were dogpiling on the chairs and couches facing the blaringly-loud TV. The dim lights included the living room as well; however the television emitted a bright, sickly, turquoise radiance that permeated through the darkness.

"A-A-As your entertainer, I serve nothing more than to-... well-[heh]... entertain. But also-But also-But also- as your entertainer, I should serve as a source to find happiness, should I not? [hm!] Th-is holiday season might I suggest helping out our sponsor by beating a bop by Big Burger Bobby's; back to bring a bright and brand-new smile to yo-yo-yo-your face!

Try now their new b-butter?Buh...

[[Oh N-N-N-NO! NO! You somehow managed to mess up the teleprompter, AGAIN! DAMMIT, MARTY!-

'Don't you just know the menu' D-D-D-Does it look like I can eat? Aha-And I tell you if I could,-I wouldn't be at some greasy low-rate-]]

[Ah-hem], sorry about the interruption ; it looks like there's technical difficulties. Bu-but don't worry! This old gun always has a big shot left to fire! [isn't that right, Marty?]"

He looked to the right glaring and smiling passive-aggressively as the intermission closed. The adults chattered and repeated the words everyone else heard as if they didn't, and as if it was their own joke, just before walking away when a music video started to play.

"Allope," Rebecca spoke in a hushed tone as she tugged on the kid's shirt. Freddie was far enough away not to hear them, as he was still distracted by the television.

"Yes?", Allope looked up at her cousin.

"Don't doubt the impossible when it comes to that stuff. You'll wish you knew better if you do," Rebecca allowed herself to reveal a layer of honesty through her hushed tone. Allope was haunted by this sudden change, but nodded and gave a little "okay" anyways. Rebecca propped herself in her chair in a lese tense manner, "Plus, I know we can't really get rid of that box, but Fred said it can change the channels without even touching the tv, right?"

"Right-"

"Right. And then maybe it's of use to us. Just... Be careful for now-with everything. At least until we know a little more about that device, and maybe even where it came from."

The three kids had no idea what to make of the tv's response, but took this as a good sign to stray away from the TV when it was turned on. The tactic worked enough for the afternoon to follow along smoothly once again as everyone decided to return to their houses.

Sleep was never a problem for Allope before, so why would it be now? Though always feeling as if she was not getting enough rest at night, she hardly broke her dream-state; wandering in and out between vivid images of static and collaged photos shifting on a colorful pattern. She would always take naps during the day, but was still absent at night. Her dreams felt almost exactly like the virtual world, but in so many different visual qualities and styles. Minnie accompanied Allope on her exploration across the electrical patterns. The more she dreamt, the more she suddenly learned about her set in real time; even to the point of noticing buttons and switches on her set that she had not noticed before. She at least assumed that these recurring situations were all a fantasy, as she felt like she was somebody much different. She was taller, a little braver, and broke the laws of physics by clipping through as many walls as she could. Unlike her real controls, in her dreams she could go blocks away from her house without climbing down the stairs or even opening a door; it was all through the lightbulb to her Rainbow Brite and Twink shooting-star-themed lamp.

Each dream, though different in location and adventure, would all end with her staring into a lone reflection left into a dark abyss, gazing upon the disfigured and indecisive face of somebody or something else; some nights appearing clearer than others. Allope had no clue of what it meant, but always took note of how odd it felt; as if she died and took the place of somebody from another planet-or even universe! But when she woke up, it always felt as if she was absent from her original state of skin and bones; as if she was resurrected. These dreams cost Allope sleep; daily dragging herself everywhere with one eye pried open more than the other. This feeling of fatigue wasn't natural in the slightest; it weighed like an anchor with the feeling as if her soul was being cut and broken away into little pieces like a pie. Each slice of energy was borrowed rather than eaten up, and would come back briefly in the evening.

Her mother attempted to drag her into shopping in the upper level of the mall during Black Friday. Allope stayed awake by focusing on little things like only jumping on the colored diamond-shaped floor tiles, attempting to make a tune out of the soft echoing speakers, as well as involving herself to whatever the elongated screens stuck onto the walls beneath and between the crosswalks on the upper floor said.

"Hello fellow foodologists, Nation-Wide trusted spokesman, Ma-Ma-Ma-Max Headroom here to inform you the importance of your child-child-child-child's fundamental brain-development . Creativity. We can all agree that CREATIVITY is an important factor in your kid's transition to adulthood. Bu-u-u-u-u–u-u-u-u-ut answer me this; how-how-how-how can your child or a fine adult such as yourself be confined to the horribly bleak concept of minimalism? So why waste your time by EXPOSING you and your children to the con-con-con-con-confinement of boring circles and shapes in their everyday junk food, when they could have the wide open world of cheese crackers in the shape of ASTONISHING HISTORICAL ICONS [such as yours truly] [hah~] Buy now for the greater good [[unless you wish to doom your child to the latter]] Starting at the low-low price of only $9.99 at your local food stores and outlets!"

Allope shrieked loudly, while maintaining eye contact with the disturbing computer man. She tried to run while dragging her mom behind. Her mother stood her ground to stop Allope, tugging her hand; "Allope, what is it, sweetheart? Do you see something you want?"

Allope tucked in her lips and widened her eyes; scanning each shop for an excuse to change their surroundings. A sparkling glimmer of starlight, sprinkles, rainbow, and forgotten children's hopes and dreams filled the coloring of her eyes when taking in the glorious view of a toy store with an endless shelf line of the brand-new 'Advanced' Limby Friends. "What are you looking at, Allope?" her mother asked.

"My Christmas list," she replied.

She barreled into the store with her mother following closely behind. To her relief, the enemy likely didn't catch sight of her presence.

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badassbuchanan · 3 years

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Be Mine?

REQUEST: Could you write something where the reader has never had a valentines so bucky goes all out to celebrate valentines day with her? Like she just feels so loved at the end of it? Thank you💖

Warnings: smut; unprotected sex, fluff, hand job, pussy rubbing, romantic

Word Count: 4884

A/N: I’m sorry, I tried but romance isn’t my strong suit - anyway, happy V day!

I tossed my hand carelessly through my freshly washed hair, trying to make it look somewhat decent as I made my way through the compound. “Meet me by the elevator at six.” That’s what Bucky’s text had said yesterday, and that was the first I’d heard from him since our conversation earlier in the week.

“If you don’t get a better offer by valentines day, we should just do something together.” Bucky suggested as he absentmindedly scrunched up his nose. We’d been chatting over a pot of tea in the kitchen after listening to all of our friends’ special plans for the upcoming romantic holiday. “Otherwise we’ll be the only two in the compound without a date.”

“I don’t really do valentines dates.” I shrugged matter-of-factly, my heart sinking as I felt a soft blush of pink cover my cheeks. Dates in general had always been a touchy subject with me, but especially valentines day dates. I’d never had one. Ever. In my life. And it was embarrassing for me to admit.

My comment didn’t get past the clever brain of the Winter Soldier, a soft frown of curiosity appearing on his chiseled face as he lifted his mug to his lips. “What do you mean, you don’t do valentines dates?” He emphasised the word ‘do’, blowing gently on the hot beverage before taking a sip.

His eyes were fixed on me, patiently awaiting my response as I felt my heartbeat speed up. “I just don’t.” I shrugged innocently under his stare, noticing the little frown lines which appeared on his forehead as he processed my answer.

“You think Y/N’s ever met a guy good enough to take her out on the most romantic day of the year?” Sam’s voice immediately had Bucky’s eyes rolling, turning his head to the side to watch the chuckling avenger stroll into the room. “You’re dreaming, cyborg. Even I wouldn’t try.”

“It’s not that!” I jumped to my own defence, not wanting Bucky to think that was the reason I’d turned him down, because it wasn’t. Bucky and I had been great friends ever since he’d arrived from Wakanda, we felt somewhat connected by the commonality of the enjoyable silence and peacefulness of being alone. Something which people like Sam would never understand. “I’ve just never had a date for valentines.”

Bucky was a selfless guy and I knew he’d only offered to spend his valentines day with me out of kindness. He was an extremely handsome super soldier with a charming personality and a heart of gold. He’d be able to get a valentines date with a beautiful girl with a blink of his eye.

“I guess I’ve never really felt strongly enough about anyone in that way.” I elaborated vaguely, looking between Bucky who was giving Sam a fed up look and Sam, who had grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and was happily leaving the room with a chuckle, knowing he’d done his job of winding Bucky up.

“It doesn't have to be a date.” Bucky pressed his lips together in a small smile, his voice softening as he looked over at me, his steel blue eyes shining bright. “We can just hang out like we usually do.”

I smiled over at him sweetly, thankful for his understanding nature. “Okay, sounds good.” I let out a soft chuckle as his smile widened at my answer, taking another sip of his drink as his heart skipped a beat.

I arrived at the meeting point right on time, deciding to wear a pair of distressed denim shorts with a floral top tucked into them after much deliberation. I was nervous. I didn’t know why, I’d hung out with Bucky hundreds of times before. But it was this damn day putting so much pressure on something as simple as two friends hanging out.

The compound was particularly quiet where the rest of the team had already left for their dates. The silence only made the loud beating of my heart more evident. Bucky still hadn’t shown up. He’d probably found himself a proper date for tonight and forgot to tell me.

“Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y, has Bucky left the compound recently?” I asked softly, fiddling with my hair as I prepared for a lonely night of movies.

“No, Miss Y/N. Sergeant Barnes is currently in the south living room.” The AI answered immediately, the response surprisingly me as I raised my eyebrows. The south living room was an extravagantly decorated room of the compound, hardly ever used other than for special occasions and honourable guest visits.

“Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.” I spoke as I pressed the button for the elevator, my nerves calming a little as I tried to guess Bucky’s reasoning for being in that particular room. I stepped in the elevator, feeling the metal contraption move between floors. So maybe he hadn’t blown off our date - correction, ‘hang out’. Maybe he’d just forgotten where he’d arranged to meet me.

I stepped out of the elevator and wandered down the darkness of the hall, only illuminated by the soft light coming from the living area. I dragged my fingers along the cream coloured wall absentmindedly, the quiet sound of a song playing made me tilt my head questioningly. “Bucky!” I called out as I neared the entrance to where the AI had informed me of Bucky’s whereabouts.

My breath got caught in my lungs as I turned into the doorway, my body completely still as I widened my eyes in shock.

“Bucky, what’s all this?” I whispered softly, my heartbeat speeding up as I looked in at the busy super soldier standing in front of me.

“Crap, is it six already?” Bucky mumbled to himself as he rushed to light the candle in his hand, placing it carefully on the coffee table. He looked up at me with an innocent smile as he shoved the lighter into his back pocket.

He was standing near the roaring fireplace, the floor almost fully engulfed in rose petals. He’d strategically placed candles and flowers on the mantlepiece and the coffee table, a rug thrown down of the floor with pillows and a bottle of champagne ready for us to indulge.

“Y/N, please don’t be mad.” Bucky begged as he saw the stunned look on my face. I tried to process what was going on, why he’d put all this effort in, but instead, I just stood there speechless. “I know you said you didn't want this to be a date but I just-” “Bucky, it’s beautiful.” I spoke with eyes full of tears, my hands shaking slightly as I stepped further into the room. I’d only ever seen such a romantic gesture in movies, I’d never in a million years expected that one day it would happen to me.

Bucky watched intensely as I walked towards him, his eyes softening into a smile as he realised I wasn’t upset with him. He sighed out in relief, holding his hand out to tug me close to him as I continued to admire the gorgeous set up he’d put together.

“You said you’d never had a date for valentines day,” He spoke deeply, shaking his leg nervously as his eyes stayed glued on me. His hand kept hold of mine as I looked up at him, attentively listening to his words. “Well neither have I.”

“Are you telling me that Sergeant James Buchnanan Barnes, even back in the roaring forties, never had a valentine?” I gasped in a playful tone, although I truthfully was surprised to hear his confession. Bucky was a catch, I would’ve thought he’d have been spoilt for choice back in his youth.

He rolled his eyes with a chuckle, reciprocating my gaze as his fingers absentmindedly massaged my palm. “Well at least I didn’t say I’d never had a date because I’d never found anyone good enough!” He raised his eyebrows accusingly, his lips falling into a sassy pout.

“That was Wilson!” I reminded Bucky with a tilt of my head, a small smile playing on my lips as his gorgeous eyes bored into mine. I felt myself get carried away in the moment, tugging him slightly closer as I admired him.

“I made us some chocolate covered strawberries.” He mumbled shyly, a proud smile on his face as his eyes flickered down to my lips absentmindedly.

“You really thought of everything, didn’t you?” I sighed out contently, walking passed him to sit down on the rug. I crossed my legs and looked up at Bucky who followed my lead, sitting down on the soft material next to me.

I watched carefully as he leaned over to grab the flute glasses in his metal hand, his other grabbing the bottle which he sat between his thick thighs. Bucky’s arms tensed as he pulled the cork out with a pop, the soft music still playing in the background filled the silence.

My heart fluttered as I gazed over admiringly, my fingers fiddling nervously with the blanket beneath us. Bucky’s brows furrowed as he focused on pouring the liquid into the glasses without it spilling over the top.

I smiled maybe a little too widely, catching Bucky’s attention as he looked over at me innocently. “What?” He chuckled with a charming smile, placing the bottle down carefully away from where we sat.

“Nothing,” I smiled back at him, too lost in the bliss of the moment to stop and think things through. I could feel myself falling for him, fast. The vulnerability of it worried me, but Bucky made feel safe. “You just get these cute little lines here when you frown.” I spoke sweetly, lifting my hand to touch between his brows delicately.

Bucky smiled as he watched me, entertained by the mesmerised look on my face. “I think you’re the only person in the world that thinks frown lines are cute.” He chuckled softly, leaning over to hand me a glass of champagne.

“I don't think frown lines in general are cute.” I corrected him, rolling my eyes with a cock of my eyebrow, our fingers brushing slightly as I took the glass from his hand.

“Oh, so you just think they’re cute on me?” He smirked teasingly, watching my face blush pink as he caught me out. He lifted his glass to his lips, sitting closer to me now from where he’d handed me the glass of champagne.

“Gosh, you really love making me blush, don’t you Barnes?” I sighed with a shy smile, sipping the fizzy alcohol as I watched Bucky’s smile widen. His eyes travelled up and down my body as I shuffled to sit with my legs sideways, leaning on my hand which moved me closer to him.

“Hey, can I tell you a secret?” Bucky’s voice dropped to a serious tone as his heart started beating a little harder. I detected a slight hesitation from him as he coughed shyly, his eyes glued on mine.

“Mmh hmm.” I nodded sweetly, my eyes softening as I tilted my head to the side, my finger circling around the rim of the glass as I anticipated his confession.

“When I originally suggested we do something for valentines,” He looked down at his lap nervously, a small smile of his lips as he thought carefully about his words. “I wanted to ask you, you know, not just because we were going to be the only two people without a date.”

Butterflies fluttered in my tummy as I shyly looked down into my lap, trying to hide the smile that had appeared on my face. “What was the real reason?” I asked curiously, my voice softening to match his.

“Well, because I think you’re the greatest girl in the whole world.” He answered deeply, his eyes flicking up to my face just for a moment as he smiled at how happy I looked. “You’re beautiful, smart, generous, accepting, funny.”

“Is this just another way of you getting me to blush again?” I cut him off, teasing him accusingly with a raise of my eyebrows. It broke the tension, Bucky scoffing softly as he took another sip of champagne.

“No, that time was an accident.” His ocean blue eyes caught mine as he responded, both of our hearts beating a little faster than usual at the new depths of our relationship we were exploring.

“You could’ve asked me, you know.” I spoke as I watched Bucky lean over to grab the chocolate covered strawberries he’d made from the table. He looked back at me as the plate lifted into his hand, waiting for me to clarify. “On a date. I would’ve said yes.”

“You would have?” Bucky’s eyes softened as he sat back down, strategically sitting so close that our arms brushed together. He offered me a strawberry after throwing one into his mouth, placing the plate and our champagne flutes safely on the marble base of the fireplace.

“Of course,” I nodded quickly as I ate the chocolate covered fruit, catching any of the excess juice with my tongue. “Bucky, you’re the most loving, kind, handsome, brave, loyal guy I’ve ever met.”

Bucky held his breath as he listened to me speak, the both of us feeling so loved in a world of so much pain. “You’re not scared of me?” His voice cracked slightly as he furrowed his brows into a frown.

I confirmed my answer with a shake of my head, my heart aching a little at the thought of him worrying about people being scared of him.

“I could never be scared of you.” I admitted softly as an intense moment started to build between us, which neither of us were able to control.

I felt the tension between us boil over, noticing Bucky’s eyes dropp to my lips as I instinctively leaned closer to him. I let my hot breath linger on him for a moment before I pressed our lips together.

Bucky’s metal hand immediately rose to cup my cheek, keeping me close as he kissed me back, the taste of strawberries on our lips. I felt butterflies in my tummy as his stubble scratched against my skin, tilting his head to deepen the kiss.

I sighed out in satisfaction of his mouth on me, his kisses sweet and gentle as I pressed my palm flat against his solid chest. I felt his pecs move with the rhythm of his breathing, my cheeks flushing a light shade of pink as I felt myself wanting more from him.

He was touching me with such delicacy, as if he was scared he would break me. I shuffled forward as Bucky breathed into the kiss, his hand snaking around to grab the back of my head. He pulled me against his lips harder as my hand slid up to hold the side of his neck.

I parted my lips encouragingly, mimicking his action by tugging him closer by my hand on his neck. Bucky grunted softly into the kiss which was becoming needier with every second.

I whimpered into the kiss, our heads tilting as our lips collided. My palm held onto his strong jaw, his stubble scratching my hand as his metal fingers ran down the side of my body.

I sat up a little straighter which leaned me further into Bucky, the palm of his hand supporting me at my waist. I hummed contently between kisses, Bucky’s eyes falling to where my lips were moving to connect to his again.

I gave him a sultry look as I pulled back from his mouth teasingly, lightly tugging on the thin material of the white t-shirt he wore. Bucky immediately took the hint, removing his hands from me as he pulled the top over his head.

He shook his hair back into place as he threw the shirt carelessly next to him. I couldn’t help but stare at his body in amazement, running my fingers up to where his metal arm fused to his flesh.

Bucky’s lips pressed back onto mine, a small whimper escaping my lips as his tongue pushed its way into my mouth. I felt my wetness seap down onto my cotton panties, sliding my thigh to rest on top of his as he let his hand quickly move over my ass to grab the back of my thigh.

Bucky grunted softly as he tugged on my bare leg, the silky flesh under his metal palm had his cock stirring in his pants. I took the hint, shifting myself to sit straddling the super soldier’s lap.

It was as though all of our built up emotion had exploded in a moment, our touches getting riskier as we roamed each other’s bodies. I let Bucky’s bottom lip sit between mine, sucking on it slowly as his tongue ran over my top lip.

“Is this okay?” Bucky whispered against my lips, our chests heaving as I nodded in response. I closed my eyes when I felt Bucky’s lips travelling across my cheek, leaving little pecks in their path.

I massaged the back of his head, my fingers dug deep in his long hair. I let out a shaky breath as Bucky’s lips reached my jaw, his tongue wetting my skin with his open mouthed kisses.

I tilted my head to the side, granting him more access as my other hand clung to his strong bicep. His metal hand held the back of my neck, supporting me as my body gave in to the pleasure. His flesh hand tugged the hem of my top out of the shorts before letting his palm slide underneath the material.

Bucky groaned against my neck as his hand came into contact with my lacy bra, his kisses getting sloppier as they reached my collarbone. “Tell me to stop.” He huffed out as he tried to control himself, not wanting me to feel pressured into anything.

I shook my head softly as I turned my head to look at him through half closed eyes, overwhelmed by the amount of pleasure and love I felt. “I don’t want you to stop.” I whispered vulnerably, Bucky’s head lifting to look at me with his gorgeous blue eyes.

He leaned in to press his lips back against mine, a whimper escaping my lips as I rolled my hips down onto his. A groan erupted in his throat, his hand travelling back down my body as he gripped the material of my top in his hand.

I leaned back momentarily, balancing myself with my palms on his bare chest as I helped him lift my shirt off of my body.

Bucky panted as he took in my semi-naked body, his hands rubbing the start of my hips needily as he watched me let my top drop on the floor. I leaned my hands back behind my body, making quick work of undoing my bra to let my boobs bounce freely.

I could feel his hardened bulge pressing against the inside of my thigh, his eyes fixated on my tits as he moved his lips onto my chest. I whimpered softly as his hot mouth left wet kisses on my breasts, his tongue flicking over my hardened nipples.

Bucky’s hands hugged my body tightly, pulling me as close as he could as he sucked on my tits. I ran my hand through his soft hair, biting my lip as I closed my eyes in ecstasy.

Bucky’s metal palm slid down to my exposed lower back, holding me against him as he flipped us over. My back gently hit the blanket, Bucky’s large frame hovering above me as he moved his lips back up for another kiss.

My hands slid down his toned chest, over the chiseled abs of his stomach until I reached the button of his jeans. I tugged the waistband away from his skin gently, a little huff escaping his lips as I did so.

I broke the kiss to focus on what I was doing, Bucky’s head dropping into my neck as I popped open the button of his jeans. My head flew back, little moans escaping my lips as Bucky nipped at the base of my throat softly.

My fingers pulled open his zipper, my pussy clenching as I slid my hand into his underwear. My touch was greeted by his hard cock, heavy in my hand. Bucky huffed out softly, his eyes closing as I felt my way down to his balls.

I gasped softly at how big he felt, his lips kissing a strip up up the front of my throat and chin. His lips reconnected with mine as I circled his swollen tip with my thumb, smearing the leaking pre-cum.

I lubricated my hand as much as I could with his juices before wrapping my fingers around his shaft. I tugged on his member gently, feeling his whole body tense at the foreign feeling. I hummed into the kiss, my pussy aching with need as I imagined how he’d feel inside me.

Bucky moaned as my hand jerked him off, his hips bucking to meet my touch as he hovered above me. He kissed me with so much force that my head pressed hard against the floor, softened slightly by the blanket.

I felt his cock twitch in my hand, his hips jolting forward as he tried to control himself. Bucky lifted his flesh hand from the floor and moved it down between our bodies, his fingers tracing down my bare skin.

His eyes immediately dropped to look between our legs, he licked his lips as his fingers came into contact with my shorts. Bucky’s jaw clenched as I squeezed his cock tighter, keeping my eyes trained on his gorgeous face.

Bucky skilfully flicked open the button on my jeans, his lips dropping to kiss me as he snaked his hand beneath the material of my panties. I gasped as he cupped my mound, my wetness leaking down onto his palm.

My fingers dropped from around his cock, clinging to his bicep as he rubbed my pussy. My hips bucked up to meet his touch, needier than ever for his attention. I moaned into the kiss, my tongue flicking his as I arched my back off of the floor, feeling Bucky sit back from where I was.

I looked up at him innocently, all baffled and horny as I watched him hook his fingers into the waistband of my shorts. In one swift motion, but slid my shorts and panties down to my knees. I wiggled my legs, helping him get them off the rest of the way as he sat back on his knees.

“So beautiful.” Bucky mumbled as he looked down at my naked body, his cock standing proudly against his stomach. I bit my lip shyly a I sat up, my arousal dripping down onto the rug.

Bucky crawled closer to me, his flesh hand running up my bare thigh as his cock throbbed desperately for attention. I breathed shakily, my arms wrapping around his neck as he pushes the last of his clothing down his thick thighs before kicking them behind him.

He hovered over my body as I laid back down, now being cradled by the pillows he’d decorated the floor with. I could feel his big member against my thigh, trying to nudge its way into my warmth. I whimpered needily, bending my knees and pressing the heels of my feet against the blanket.

“Just let me know if this gets too mu-“ Bucky cut himself off with a moan, his nose crinkling in pleasure as he felt my hand wrap around his cock again.

I guided him to my entrance, encouragingly rubbing his throbbing tip into my wetness. My hand pulled away when I felt him pushing into me, filling me up with his big cock.

I let out a sensual moan of half pain and half pleasure as Bucky’s lips parted, a shaky breath escaping them as we felt my pussy clench around him.

My thighs clenched too, squeezing around his hips as his thick length slid out from where it was half sheathed inside of me. Bucky was going at a painfully slow rate, sliding his cock a little deeper into me with every thrust.

His lips dropped down onto mine, kissing me gently as he stretched my tight little pussy with his cock. The feeling of his thick length inside me made me dig my fingernails into the muscly flesh of his back.

I whimpered against his lips, my face screwing up in pleasure as he pulls his head back for a moment to admire me before crashing his lips on mine again.

I lifted my legs to wrap around his waist, my hips desperately bucking up to him in need. Bucky used his flesh hand to balance as his metal one ran up my leg, over my waist and up to my boob, squeezing it gently.

I cried out and arched my back into his touch, still in disbelief at how good he felt inside me. His cock filled me up again as he let out a grunt, breathing heavily as his body stilled.

Bucky moaned against my lips as he felt my pussy squeezing his cock, both of us lost in the overwhelming feeling of our bodies connecting. I pecked his lips over and over as he started rocking his hips back and forth slowly, making my tits bounce with every thrust.

His balls slapped against me, the sound filling the room as I let my mouth hang open. Our breaths met in a hot mix as Bucky squeezed his eyes shut in pleasure.

His hips jerked with each thrust, feeling himself rubbing against my walls as my pussy lips hugged his length. Bucky shuffled forward on his knees, deepening the thrusts as he picked up the pace.

I whimpered out softly, the new angle hitting all the right spots as my pussy welcomed his size, his cock soaked in my juices. “Bucky” I breathed shakily as I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly against me. Bucky’s head fell perfectly into my neck, his little grunts intensified in my ear now.

A shiver ran through my body as I inhaled his manly scent, overwhelmed by the emotion and euphoric feeling of the moment. I felt my pussy tingle with pleasure, already close to my high as Bucky fucked his cock into me.

I tugged on his hair lightly when I felt his lips on my neck again, both of his hands pressed into the blanket either side of my head as he nudged his hips forward, sending his cock deeper into me. Bucky moaned into my neck, his cock twitching inside of me as he became overwhelmed with the feeling.

Bucky stopped his thrusting with such a suddenness that my eyes opened, a worried look washing over my face. He panted breathlessly, gripping my hips and supporting my back as he picked me up, sitting back on his knees with me on top of him.

I let out a moan the new angle impairing me on his cock as my arms stayed clung tightly around him. Bucky groaned full of pleasure, kissing me slowly as he started thrusting up into me, using his new position to his advantage.

Waves of pleasure mercilessly washed over me, only being intensified by the way Bucky was watching me fuck himself on top of him. He leaned his head back to watch me, his hips lifting to meet my movements as his arms clung to my body.

His eyes were soft and full of lust, his lips dropped into a pout as he watched me whither on top of him, overwhelmed with pleasure. I moaned with as gasp as my orgasm suddenly took over, my body pulsating on him as I rode out my high.

I leaned forward and kissed him deeply, our tongues playing as he kept me in place despite how my hips were jolting at the throbbing of my clit. Bucky’s face dropped into my neck, his hot breath against my skin as I felt his warm cum spurting inside of me. I sighed out in satisfaction as Bucky grunts, wave after wave of cum filling me up.

He kept me close, our breathless bodies pushed together as we sat there in the afterglow of our orgasms. I’d never cum so hard in my life, the gentleness and love of Bucky’s actions had only topped the experience.

I turned my head and smiled lazily, kissing his swollen lips as my fingers ran through his hair. Bucky reacted by leaving soft pecks on lips over and over, his softening cock still buried inside of me.

“Y/N.” Bucky whispered softly, his breath still warm against my lips as his hooded eyes gazed into mine. “Will you be mine?”

“Your valentine?” I softly asked, holding him tightly as I thought about the coldness I would feel once his body retreated from mine.

“No, forever.” Bucky replied hopefully, making my heart stop as a wave of emotion flooded through my body.

“Forever’s good for me.” I smiled as my eyes filled with tears, nothing but love for the man in front of me as I connected our lips in a gentle kiss. The perfect end to the perfect day.

tag list:

@harrysthiccthighss

@annestine

@bestofbucky

@be-patient-be-good

@nothing0is4here

@velvetcardiganbucky

@sexwithhiddlesbatch

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 3 years

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You know when a character design just, speaks to you? When you see a girl whom you instantly want to own a billion figures of and decorate your entire online persona around? Yeah.

And she’s some breed of magical girl too baby! She did this with a pen, not even an overdecorated magical girl pen or anything, just a regular pen. Fucking poggers.

So Wonder Egg Priority episode 1 made for a damn interesting and exciting time. The show certainly has a weird name and some bizarro elements at play - but I would say it felt very digestible in spite of that. Our delightful main character Ai has found herself in these dream worlds, and if she saves the people in her dream, she may be able to restore the life of her one and only best friend who uh

Had a little oopsy moment. MC’s immortal in the dreams but the injuries transfer over to real life so basically she’s not immortal at all. The one world we spend time in this episode is based on a school more than anything, though it’s made distinct by the presence of

Weird motherfuckers like this.

Already I’m kind of reminded of Flip Flappers, though with what appear to be clearer rules about how the world works, which is fine by me because hey it makes the series more accessible and easy to think about and stuff. But just this general vibe of everything being kinda unusual and the similar designs for the main characters and them feeling in some ways isolated by the world, just gives similar vibes. And I’m very vocal about adoring Flip Flappers so if I’ve not already said I’m into this show that feels like Flip Flappers. then I’m into this show that feels like Flip Flappers.

I think thematically we’re looking pretty simple, basically every theme set up this episode is just “bullying is bad, and pretending not to see bullies is also bad”. The fact that such themes have been done before doesn’t mean they can’t be done again, and this show’s presentation is so fucking strong to begin with that those themes should be elevated by it if they’re further developed. But at the same time I feel like if you have such strong and unique feeling presentation then why not go all in and cover dramatically different themes than the stuff we’ve all gotten so used to hearing by now? Of course, maybe the themes will diversify a bit once we start meeting more characters - we only just meet Tomori Kusunoki’s character at the end of the episode and don’t learn shit about her, but hey whatever her baggage is might be the first step towards covering a wider variety of things and stuff.

As I’ve said, this show’s a fucking stunner. Incredibly high quality artwork that animates in really gorgeous ways, super detailed yet adorable character designs and lots of very appealing backgrounds, it’s pretty wild to me that the funny name original anime written by a guy who’s never worked in anime is not only rivalling but outright surpassing the visuals of several hotly anticipated sequels that were already strong productions airing this season. And lots of the music so far has been pretty poggers too, plus all of these seiyuu are already kinda killing it, even beetle man who deals the exposition for us has a really charming performance. Fuckin, CloverWorks are just a poggers studio.

Yeah I mean, not sure what else to say. This show just exists in such a way that it appeals to just about everything I’m into. Wonder Egg Priority is completely my flavour of anime and honestly more than most other shows this season, I can’t wait for the second episode. This shit’s vibes as fuck.

#wonder egg priority #12.1.21 #flip flappers

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buckysflannelpajamas · 3 years

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Bleeding Hearts

Summary: Being Tony Starks daughter has its pros and cons. One of the pros being you get to live with your best friends, the Avengers. One of the cons you will soon find out is having to deal with the one and only, James Buchanan Barnes...

Takes place during the imaginary time after Civil War where everyone love in the tower and goes through to Endgame.

Trigger warning: Talks of depression/depressing thoughts

Chapter 5

2nd person POV

Fading. That's how you describe the feeling when you start to stoop into a depressive episode. You can feel your emotions fading to numbness, and eventually an all encompassing emotional down. Each avenger has their own way of trying to help you through it. Honestly you want to be left alone for the most part, alone to dwell in the sadness you think you deserve. It was harder when you first decided to move back into the tower after living on your own when you had been released from the hospital. In the beginning, you couldn't even get a moment alone. But eventually everyone got into a pattern of how they help you deal with your depression.

Wanda and Vision make you baked goods. Mainly strawberry cupcakes. Wanda comes to deliver them to your room every morning, and subtly implies she will be going shopping later and hinting at you coming. It worked a total of one time. But after having a mental breakdown in the Gucci dressing room you realized it probably wasn’t best for you to be in public when you feel this way.

Steve and your dad are always the most worried. They check on you multiple times a day. Steve also draws you caricatures of avengers and writes something funny underneath them. This is the closest Steve has ever gotten to understanding memes. Tony on the other hand tries to lure you out of your funk by bribing you with a trip to your favorite Korean food restaurant in South Korea via his private jet.

Pepper sends you flowers. The two of you aren’t close and aren't overly fond of eachother. You assume she mainly sends the flowers to please Tony.

Peter constantly sends you memes throughout the day, which you mostly ignore.

No one knows where Thor and Bruce are so it’s safe to say they don't know when you’re suffering, and no one wants to call Clint just to inform him you’re sad again.

Uncle Rhodey usually finds out because Tony needs to vent to someone about his worries. What he does for you by far one of the coolest things. He has a military buddy of his hack into the computers of major entertainment companies so you can see blockbuster movies before they are released.

Natasha, who is sort of a mother figure to you though the two of you would never admit it, comes to you late at night when your insomnia kicks in. Neither of you speak, she simply sits down on your bed beside you and braids your hair while the TV show ‘how it’s made’ plays softly in the background. The two activities always help you to sleep. And on the nights you can’t stop crying, she’ll lie there with you, rubbing your back like a mother calming her child until her tears stop.

Finally, Sam comes in the moment you need it most, right when you are so tired and drained that you’re ready to open up about how you're feeling.

It’s day 3 of your depression and you have just reached that point. Somehow, Sam always knows when you’re ready.

You’re sitting up in bed, bundled up in an exuberant amount of blankets and staring blankly at the wall in front of you. Your mind drifts through a series of depressing thoughts.

Pathetic.

Worthless.

Burden.

These are the words that are most consistently in your mind.

For a moment you consider no longer taking your meds. Sometimes it feels as though they don't work anyway.

That’s when you hear the knock outside your living room door.

“Friday, tell Sam he can come on in.” You mumble to the disembodied AI, your voice raw from all the crying you’ve been doing.

“Of course, miss.” Even Friday sounds saddened by your less than pleasant mental state.

You don’t bother to wipe your tears away, you would be crying soon again anyway.

You hear Sam make his way through your front door, passing through the living area and opening the door to your room.

You notice Sam holding a steaming plate of eggs, sausage, and hash browns in one hand. He must have found out from Friday that all you’ve really eaten this week is Wanda and Visions strawberry cupcakes.

“I would have brought some OJ too but then I wouldn’t have been able to open the door.” Sam jokes. He takes a quick glance around your room, trying to gauge how bad the episode is. Used tissues cover the floor by the right side of the bed. Worn pajamas are strewn around on the floor and the pile of clothes you leave on your chair hasn’t been cleaned up. You usually clean it once a week. Not to mention your greasy hair makes it obvious that you haven’t showered in a few days.

“Pretty bad, huh?” Sam asks.

“Yeah.” You answer honestly. You don’t need to bullshit with Sam.

He takes a seat by you on the bed, placing the food in front of you. “You hungry?”

“Yeah, but-“

“But you feel like you deserve the pain?”

“You know that.” You sigh.

“Tell me why.”

“You know why too.”

Sam pushes a fork in your hand. “I’m trusting you with this.” He jokes, earning an actual laugh from you before moving on. “I have a general idea, but I don’t like to make assumptions.”

You poke at the eggs with your fork. “I-“ it’s hard to speak. You know at any moment you’re going to break out sobbing. “I feel so weak.” You choke out. “I put the whole team at risk by being naive enough to think a guy wouldn’t try drugging my drink at a crowded party. Even if it is my house.”

Sam doesn't speak yet. He always waits for you to let it all out.

“How could I be so fucking stupid?!” You sob. “I was selfish. Why do you all even keep me around? I’m a liability and a burden to the team. I hate that about myself and I hate that I’m so weak! I hate that no matter how hard I train, I’ll never be strong like any of you! And I know that that’s also selfish because you all went through so much pain to be what you are, but I can’t help but feel insignificant. I’m just some dumb fucking artist that sits around all day doddling while you all are actually doing something meaningfull in the world!” There it is. The root of what triggered your episode. It’s not just about Authur. It's about the fact that you can’t protect yourself. It’s the constant feeling of insignificance that lingers in the back of your mind.

Sam puts a hand on your shoulder and squeezes it gently. “First of all, you’re not just some dumb fucking artist.” He quotes you. “You are a world renowned artist and you should be proud of it. More importantly, you are not insignificant or a burden. Ok? If we didn’t want you around, you wouldn’t be here. We all love you and want you to be here with us. You’re part of our family. You might not be on the front lines, but you do more for the world than you know.”

You roll your eyes. “Yeah I doubt that.”

“I mean it.” Sam Insists. “You said so yourself that you know how much pain we’ve been through. How do you think the avengers would keep it together without their own little therapist.” He laughs lightly.

You furrow your brows. “Um, Sam, I’m not a therapist. I can barely keep myself together.”

“You might not be licensed but you are always there for us. Getting us to talk through our thoughts and feelings. Giving us advice and helping us come to a resolution.”

“That’s what friends are for.” You shrug.

“Yeah well friends don’t usually have to deal with their other friends' war trauma and helping them deal with finding out their best friend they thought was dead is actually alive and actively trying to kill them.”

You stay silent for a moment. “I guess that’s true.”

Sam pats you lightly on the back. “You keep the avengers sane so that we can help the world. Which is just as important.”

Finally, you take a bite of your eggs. “I disagree that it’s just important but I know that argument won’t go anywhere, so I’ll just accept it.”

“I know that this conversation won’t solve all of life's problems, but maybe it helped you feel good enough to to get up out of bed? Maybe get up and take a shower? No offense, but you don’t exactly smell like daisies.” He laughs.

You shove Sam in the arm. “Hey! You should take a whiff of yourself after you come back from a mission.”

“Touché.” Sam pauses, noticing something on your bedside table.

“Sour gummy worms? That’s not part of your usual routine…” Sam trails of, reaching over you to grab the box of candy before you have a chance to stop him.

“Wait-”

It's too late, he sees the note written in scribbly cursive on the piece of paper attached to the back of the box.

“Who’s this from?” He asks curiously, hoping from your bed and moving around as you chase him down, frantically trying to remove the letter from his grasp.

“Sam stop!”

“Dear y/n,” Sam starts to read aloud. “I don’t pity you. I relate to you. When I said I’m sorry I meant it.”

You jump, reaching for the letter but Sam moves it high above his head.

He continues to read. “I meant to tell you sorry before the party. I only blew up at the hospital because I was mad at myself for letting someone on the team get hurt. I shouldn’t have been such an asshole to you. I know it’s a lousy excuse but I was just jealous of your happiness. If you give me the chance, I’d like to make it up to you. I heard you like Star Wars. I haven’t seen the movies… maybe we can watch them sometime? Sincerely, James Buchanan Barnes.”

Sam looks at you with the biggest shit eating grin on his face. “You two got a movie date?”

You finally snatch the candy and letter from his hand. “See this is why I didn’t want you to read it! I knew you would take it that way.” You pout.

“How else am I supposed to take it?” Sam laughs.

“Like a guy with a guilty conscience is trying to be nice to the sad girl.” You say as if it’s the most obvious thing ever.

“You can be so blind to some things.” He shakes his head.

You furrow your brows. “What do you mean?”

Sam takes a seat back down at the end of your bed. “Everyone living in the tower can tell he has the hots for you.” He pauses in thought. “Expect for Tony. Barnes would be as good as dead if he knew.”

“You’ve been talking to Nat and Wanda, haven’t you?”

“And Steve and Vision.” He grins. “We have a whole group text dedicated to the conversation.”

“Great.” You groan, rubbing your temples as you take a seat by Sam on the bed.

“Look, you don’t have to believe me. But you should at least give him a chance to make it up to you. I’m not Barnes biggest fan, but he’s really not a bad guy.”

You open your mouth to protest, but Sam interrupts you.

“Just think about it, ok?” Sam gets up from your bed, making his way to the door. “And take a shower in the meantime! You stink little sister!”

You grab a pillow and throw it at him, the pillow only managing to hit the door as he closes it.

“And eat some food too!”

#sebastian stan #bucky barnes #sam wilson #bucky barnes x stark!reader #bucky barnes x reader

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very-grownup · 3 years

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THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, PART 4

Episode 13.

I did not fully understand what was going on in this episode but I guess it is the requisite '90s episode where it's hacking?

The rest of Episode 13, Episode 14, and Episode 15 behind the cut.

The kids are put in imitation bodies (which are not their giant robots) for testing purposes and the main difference seems to be that the imitation bodies have a blue filter for the scenes instead of orange and the kids are naked. Also the imitation bodies have no heads, just a bunch of cables.

The Angel is a microorganism that somehow gets into the blue testing chamber and infects the artificial bodies and then hacks its way into the three super computers that run the city. (The three supercomputers are Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior but that's not Bible canon.)

The kids are really not appearing in this episode, their plugs get ejected from the artificial bodies and this episode is about Ritsuko and her mom issues? I appreciate this acknowledgement that relationships with both parents can be fucked up, not just dads. Ritsuko's mother is actually the one who invented the Magi (which, let's be clear, will take over the world, it's only a matter of time, Ritsuko's mother was a mad scientist). Where invented is uploaded her brain and personality to the Magi and that's what powers its AI? Uploading your personality into three supercomputers is, for reference, hella mad scientist, by the way. So Ritsuko's job is basically maintaining the supercomputers that are her dead mother (I assume dead? uploading your personality to computers seems like a fatal thing). The supercomputers speak - is that voice the voice of Ritsuko's mother or a general computer voice? I don't know. Fucked up thing to contemplate. Ritsuko's situation seems pretty fucked up but she's not the alcoholic so maybe she's seen the one therapist in Tokyo 3.

Ritsuko talks to Misato about how the three Magi that all have her mother's personality have three different personalities and it's very maiden-mother-crone except it's woman-mother-scientist but probably the same thing. It's an interesting way for Ritsuko to frame for herself the fractured nature of her relationship with her mother. She talks about respecting the scientist, never understanding the mother, and always being at odds with the woman. Describing it as personalities might seem fucky but if we say personas it goes down smoother. How does one upload different aspects of one's personality to a computer? Shut the fuck up, that's how. The first thing is already bullshit and its value is as metaphor, not science.

There's a panel that Ritsuko opens inside the machinery of the Magi that 100% is just brain tissue she puts tiny cable plugs in and I hate that and the Magi defeat the microangel. Someone eventually gets the kids, probably. This concludes my report on Episode 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Episode 14.

Mostly a clip show, giving me an excuse to rate how cute the various Angels so far have been. Least cute is the Pink Floyd album cover shape, obviously. But it's not 100% a clip show and that stuff: whoo boy.

So, there's an internal monologue from Rei which I think is more words than every line in the previous thirteen episodes combined. There's lots of nice background illustrations during this - I really appreciate the beautiful scenery when it happens in the show, there's a tenderness and softness to the art, especially when it's nature, that is a great contrast to the show's general aesthetic. Rei's monologue is disconnected but mostly about identity, realness, not realness, standard teenage identity stuff. She also doesn't like the colour red and thinks of Shinji's father repeatedly. A field of sunflowers which is pretty. At one point a whole wavering line of Reis stretching back into infinity.

Then it's time to put teens in giant robots but, for reasons no one will elaborate on, Rei is put in Shinji's robot (it smells like Shinji which, hey, I was in junior high with boys Shinji's age, I get it). She is very good at being in Shinji's robot. Asuka just goes in her own robot. She is huffy about Rei and Shinji getting special treatment (especially Shinji, who she perceives as being babied because Misato acknowledges that Shinji doesn't like getting in the robot). But she also doesn't really want to go in anyone else's robot and doesn't like the idea of one of the other kids going in her robot? It's complicated being Asuka, because how can you voice jealousy when obviously you're the best and the others suck and are dumb babies. Then Shinji gets in Rei's robot, which seems to be okay but not as good as Rei in Shinji's robot, until suddenly it is not and Shinji has memories of Rei or Rei's memories or something penetrating his skull and Rei's robot goes berserk.

I think Rei's robot is the one that has a history of being a bad robot that goes berserk and like, it's a prototype, right, that's why it's Unit 00? Maybe they should stop using the prototype that goes berserk and build Rei a proper giant robot that won't do this.

It breaks loose from its, uh, restraints? Plugs? Fucking I don't know, the giant robot holding widgets and just starts beating its head and fists against the observation section until they cut its power. Everyone seems to think it was coming to kill Rei although I thought it was protesting having a non-Rei pilot but who knows what GIANT ROBOTS FEEL. Ritsuko thinks it was actually coming to kill her and you know what? Who cares, stop putting teens in the prototype robot! IT'S A BAD ROBOT.

Shinji is, again, in a cool blue hospital room, by himself, staring at the ceiling, with no memory of his bad time in Rei's robot.

Shinji's awful father is having a meeting with the other awful old men about their plans and their backup plans and, you know, the Dead Sea scrolls and then they drop the fucking Spear of Longinus on us and that's too much for me but then it turns out it's not the actual Spear of Longinus, it's just the name of a giant robot spear they gave Rei and her BAD GIANT ROBOT STOP TURNING ON THAT ROBOT IT IS A BAD ROBOT. This concludes my report on Episode 14 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Episode 15.

There is so much going on in this episode and a lot of interesting shot framing and questionable '90s fashion. But it's also the episode about the anniversary of Shinji's mother's death.

A year ago I was preparing and stressing over the trip to scatter my mother's ashes, with my father and brother. I bled heavily for over a month and felt alone in my grief almost constantly. Watching Shinji stand alone in front of his mother's grave as his father gets in a helicopter and leaves, not even returning Shinji's gambled attempt at forging a connection in their shared grief ... I don't really have any takeaways or commentary on the other stuff. A mother's loss is often devastating, at any age, and having another parent who can't acknowledge your grief because of their own is horrible. This concludes my report on Episode 15 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

#neon genesis evangelion report

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milstrim · 3 years

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A Fun Friday

Day 3: Manhandled | Held at Gunpoint

This was embarrassing. Plain and simple.

First of all, it was hot, unbearably hot in the empty warehouse room where he was tied to a chair, and he'd been there for hours. He was sweating a lot as a result, and it especially didn't help that he was still wearing his suit, and he hadn't even been allowed to take off his jacket! He had some pretty rude kidnappers, but they weren't the worst part. No, the worst part was that he hadn't been kidnapped alone, but that he'd been kidnapped with Steve Fucking Rogers.

He hadn't seen the man in more than eight months, their last point of contact being the letter that had come in the mail so long ago, bearing the phone that had been in his pocket, but which had been taken upon being kidnapped. So, he was having a great time sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair, with cheap rope wrapped around his hands and legs, and sweating his mind off in a stuffy warehouse in July.

It was an amazing Friday. He briefly wondered what the kid was doing, since she was supposed to come over to the tower today. Maybe Happy hadn't picked her up, instead telling her to buzz off and hopefully not telling Penny why she couldn't come. Because if that kid knew, he knew that nothing would stop her from trying to find him, and this wasn't exactly the situation he wanted her in.

But luck had never really been on his side, had it?

Tony barely ever spared a glance to the man to his right, chained to the wall instead of tied to chair, though he could tell the Captain was trying very hard to get his attention, probably for some kind of escape plan. But Tony was already working on one, he didn't need Rogers's help, and he certainly didn't want it.

"So, Stark, quite confused to see Rogers here, huh?" one of his kidnappers asked haughtily, jauntering up to the two as the other men set up something in the background. Tony glanced at his old friend, and Rogers stared back for a second, though he ignored the rather sad and closed expression on his face. The man in front of him was clearly young, judging by his stature and lanky skinniness, though the mask on his face covered his features other than his thin lips and green eyes.

"Not really. He always pops up where I don't want him to be. I'm more curious about why we're here," Tony responded effortlessly, much to the chagrin of the young man.

"Duh, money and immunity."

"...That doesn't make much sense. The money, that I get, but immunity?"

"Rogers is a criminal, we turn him in, we get a few favors from the government, we send a video of you to your fiancee, we get some money, easy peasy. Well, a lot of money, I'm sure you have plenty to spare."

"Yeah, on protecting the world, but we generally agree that ransoms aren't more than two mil."

"That's barely a base for us," the man responded, but Tony just shrugged. So, money and favors. Wasn't too bad, they weren't complex or revenge seeking, and chances were nobody was going to die. He'd still like to keep money out of their hands, and Steve out of the government's, but it could be way worse.

"That's it, really?" Steve asked, clearly annoyed. Tony understood the inconvenience, this had been planned to be a fun Friday, but still, he didn't really want to hear his voice at this moment. It felt like cheese graters against his ears, "Just money and a bit of leeway?"

"Nah, Johnny forgot about the last part," a different man said, clearly older and coming up from behind him, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder, "It's whatever, he's knew."

"Oh, yeah!" Johnny exclaimed, excitement clear on his face, "We need Spider-Woman too!"

Tony's blood ran cold, and for the first time since he'd woken up in this stupid place, he was threatening, and he was mean, "What the hell do you need her for?"

"She's getting in the way of business," the older man responded easily, "But that's all you're getting out of me. You're going back, and we don't need you sniffing around."

"Tough luck, you already told me you're looking for, and you're not getting her."

"Well, we're getting her before we send you back, so I don't know how much say you have in this."

"Yeah, how are you doing that? She's at Avengers Tower right now, you won't be able to get her," he replied, lying through his teeth. Technically Penny was supposed to be at the tower, but it was more likely she was patrolling, even possibly looking for him.

"Oh, we'll call her, then," the older man said, turning back to the other goons, "Has anyone got his watch? Or phone?"

"We dropped the phone," replied one, fishing something out of his pocket as he walked over and then handing it to the head goon, "But here's the watch. Do you reckon' the machine is done?"

The man gave it a once over, "It looks like the diagram said it would be, though he did say it would be easier to put together. Into your positions then."

Tony jerked in his chair as he watched them, a deep cold running through his body. If they called Penny, and told her they had him, she would come and check it out, no questions asked, even without proof just to make sure she was safe. She was stupidly loyal like that, and he came to resent her for it a little more each day.

The men moved to another room to make their call, clearly not wanting any interruptions from him, and he took the time to try and work at his ropes. Steve, it seemed, was more incline to start a heart to heart.

"Tony--"

"Not now, Rogers."

"Look--"

"Not. now. Rogers," he enunciated steelily. Steve didn't look hurt at his harsh words however, just disappointed, which really didn't help anything, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking something stupid, don't deny it," Tony quipped, continuing to try and tear at the rope, trying to get it to snap from friction, but it wouldn't be fast enough. He couldn't even hear what they were saying a room over, but if Penny came, he knew how little she cared for her own health, how willing she would be to save him, "Can you break your cuffs?"

"No, I've been trying, but I need more time than we'll have."

Tony swore, "This is bad. She'll be here soon and--"

"Let her," Steve interrupted, and Tony turned on him, fury in his eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"What? Have you or have you not been mentoring that kid for since Germany? You don't think she can save us from an amateur kidnapping?"

"It's not that," Tony muttered.

"What then?"

"Look, I don't know if you know this, but I am not required to share my personal life with you, especially not anymore. I don't care what you say, that kid is brash and stupid and good, and would give her life for mine in an instant. I don't need her down here getting herself hurt when we could very well get out of this ourselves. So, if you've got a plan that doesn't involve Spidey, I would love to hear it."

Steve was silent for a moment, his eyes glancing between the complicated looking contraption sitting in the middle of the room and the billionaire beside him, "Do you know what that thing is?"

"Sure, it's Matter State Stabilizer, a pretty crude one, but it should hold up to about...three thousand pounds, if my math is right, which it always is," Tony answered, glancing up and down at the machine, unimpressed, before turning back to Steve, "What? You gotta plan?"

"You're not gonna like it."

Tony sighed, "I never did like any of your plans."

----

Penny wasn't exactly sure what was going on. She was supposed to be at the tower right about now, but instead she was patrolling, which wasn't bad, but she didn't understand why Mr. Stark had cancelled. She hadn't even gotten a text from him, just a quick 'You can't come today, Tony will reschedule.' from Happy. She was a bit confused, since Mr. Stark usually had an explanation for her that he gave himself, but she assumed he must have a good reason.

She assumed right.

She'd been patrolling for barely two hours when Karen's screen had lit up with an icon of Mr. Stark, and she'd been so surprised she'd nearly let go of her web an fallen.

"Incoming call from Mr. Stark," Karen said, and she told her AI to answer it.

"Hey, Mr. Stark!" she greeted without missing a beat, "What's up? Happy said that you were--"

"A little preoccupied?" cut across a voice that was definitely not Mr. Stark. Her heart skipped a beat, making her flounder in midair, and she barely managed to cling onto the corner of a nearby building. Only Mr. Stark could call her through the suit, or Ms. Potts or Colonel Rhodes or Happy, not whoever the hell this person was.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, "Where's Mr. Stark?"

"Like I said, preoccupied," the man replied coolly, "Now, here's the deal, we have him, do you want him back?"

"What? Yeah. I'd like for my mentor to not be kidnapped. It's a little hard for him to teach me anything like that."

The man laughed dryly, "Well, you want him back you're going to have to work for it?"

"...What do you want?" she asked hesitantly, quietly indicating for Karen to start tracking the call.

"We just want you to stop by, alone of course. You bring any friends and a bullet will go in 'Mr. Stark's' head. Got it?"

"Yep. Bullet in the head. Real original. Where am I stopping by?"

He rattled off in address in...New Jersey. Why? Why so far away. And why New Jersey? Ew. They couldn't just stay in Queens for her? It'd make things so much easier.

The man hung up before she could say anything else quippy, so she was left to make her way all the way over to Ew Jersey, which take much longer than she would've liked. As she swung, eventually managing to get herself onto a ferry that moved much too slowly for her taste, she thought about calling Vision or Colonel Rhodes. Surely they were looking for Mr. Stark too, surely they could handle the situation better than her. But they'd told her to come alone, or else Mr. Stark would die. Though going alone was exactly what Mr. Stark had told her not to do... Whatever, he could yell at her after she'd saved his life. If she was lucky, maybe she'd get shot and Mr. Stark wouldn't say anything.

It took her too long to get to New Jersey, her muscles stiff yet trembling with anticipation and fear, and as soon as she could be, she was moving, leaping off of the ferry and scrambling across building after building, webs shooting from her wrist as she made her way to the warehouse. Because of course it was a warehouse. It was always a fucking warehouse.

Penny landed on the side of it, trying to peer through the mostly boarded up window, the lenses of her mask widening in surprise. Mr. Stark was in there, but not only Mr. Stark. She was like, 80% sure that the super buff guy with a beard next to him was Captain America. How--why did they not mention this to her?? Did they not think it was important? Sure, she didn't really know the guy, but it seemed like important information to her.

The teen debated with herself for a minute if she should sneak in or announce herself, but the guard with a gun standing erect beside Mr. Stark, who was gagged with a string and a gross, old looking sock, reminded her of their threat. She couldn't risk anything happening to him. She couldn't lose him. So, taking a deep breath, she squeezed through the window and then dropped on the floor in the center of the room.

All eyes turned to her, and she dutifully ignored Mr. Stark's glare that was burning a hole right through her, annoyance clear in his gaze, which irked her a little. He would do the same for her, why should she have to leave him hanging?

Focus, Penny. She had to keep this under control. She cleared her throat and gave the men with masks in the room a little wave, "Hey, guys. You called?"

"Hands in the air, you freak," the one by Captain Rogers said, raising his gun and pointing it at her. She lazily complied, her lenses narrowing at the man.

"Nice mask, but I like mine a little better. The black's a little boring," she quipped, and she could practically feel the eyerolls in the room.

"Shut up," ordered a voice, one she recognized. She turned to stare at him, realizing it must be the man she had talked to over the phone, and he, too, was pointing a gun at her, one she recognized and brought back a familiar sick feeling in her stomach, "You've caused enough problems around here. Now, I've heard there's a bounty on your head along with the human embodiment of an eagle over there, so you're going to sit like a good girl and no one gets hurt."

"Um, so if you're just trading us for bounties, what's Mr. Stark for? And how'd you even kidnap him? Or Captain America? Actually--"

"Nope, I don't need a yapper. And the bounties aren't that nice, especially to what a billionaire could offer."

"Fair enough, I guess," she shrugged. She glanced back over at Mr. Stark, not quite sure what to do, especially with the gun that was pressed closer to his head as she looked over. His eyes bored into her, desperate and sad and angry. But then they glanced over to the Captain. She glanced over at him as well, not very surprised to see him watching her closely.

So, they clearly had a plan, so how did she not ruin it? She guessed she'd just have to listen to the men with the guns until they were no longer pointed at her mentor.

"Great," the man said, and then he flicked the switch on his weapon. She flinched at the blue beam that shot out of it, encasing and trapping her. The man laughed ecstatically as he flung her around in the air, clearly trying to make her dizzy, but she honestly just hated the vibrations in the air around her.

"Oh. My. God. Can. You. Fucking. Stop!" she yelled, her voice warped through the stupid gun as the men jeered as she was flung around the warehouse, which was pretty annoying. After a few last laughs, she was dumped from being held in the gun to being held in the machine, though the vibrations and the blue hue didn't change. Huh, it was actually pretty cool. How did these guys even get something this big that could produce this kind of energy it was insane--

"Great, who do we call first?" a man asked as he looked over their haul of three superheroes. Penny flipped over inside her really cool scientific chamber lazily. Now that she was in the bigger thing, it honestly just felt like a massage.

"FBI. The Avengers will haul ass down here the moment we say we have Stark."

"Okay, let me just--"

A tremor ran up Penny's spine, and in a moment that felt like it was forever--a cracking sound from Mr. Rogers's direction, a slight nod from Mr. Stark, and her flipping back over--she flicked out her wrist and clicked.

Immediately a web shot out, grabbing the gun from near Mr. Stark just as Cap broke out of his cuffs, knocking the man next him unconscious. Badass.

There were shouts and cries of confusion at the movement, and she took that as her cue to web the nearest man and launch him towards her, his body hitting the release button, allowing her to fall onto the ground, free of her really nice massage. She wondered if she could convince Mr. Stark to let her keep this thing.

Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

Like a flash, she leaped off of the machine, leaving Captain America to fight while she grabbed Mr. Stark. The bullets raining we enough for her to not bother untying him just yet, instead grabbing him in the whole chair and leaping into the rafter, where they were relatively free of the flying metal pieces of death.

"Hey, Mr. Stark," she greeted, setting him down and quickly snapping the ropes around him, "We're always in the weirdest situations, so I was thinking we get some ice cream later. Less weird, right?"

Mr. Stark tore his gag off, gagging at it before throwing it underneath him in disgust, "Don't think you're not in trouble when we get out of this."

"Am I still in trouble if I get shot?"

"Don't you dare."

"I can leave you up here."

"Put me down and then go help Cap," he ordered, and she rolled her eyes, sighing as she picked him back up and jumped down with him in his arms, which must look pretty funny what with their height difference and all.

The fight honestly didn't last long. It was hilariously short, over in less than five minutes as she dodged and hit and webbed with absolutely no problem. One she'd webbed the last person to the ground, she bounced back over to Mr. Stark, who was looking at her a little disdainfully.

"Oh, pity. I didn't get shot," she greeted, and he just closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"A heart attack. That is what will be the death of me. You giving me a heart attack, I want you to know what when you lay down flowers at my funeral."

"I was thinking about leaving, like, a bagel on your coffin."

"You're the worst, the most awful, snot-nosed kid I have ever met," Mr. Stark accused all while wrapping her in a half hug. Captain Rogers watched them with a politely confused expression, and Mr. Stark tensed.

"Um, nice to see you again, Mr. Rogers. But like, why are you in Jersey? It's gross."

He huffed a laugh, "I didn't really plan to be here. I was actually in Vermont, so."

"Cool, uhhh--"

"You don't have to try and make conversation with the grandpa, kid," Mr. Stark joked, "We'll give his team a call and then I was thinking Thai."

"I think Ms. Potts is going to yell at you tonight, not let you eat takeout with me."

"...We'll eat at your place."

"May will yell at us."

"What's your friend's name? Ted? Ed?"

"Ned," she corrected, smiling so widely her cheeks hurt. She opened her mouth to say something else when suddenly there was a loud crash! and they all turned, standing defensively, to see the Falcon, Black Widow, and Scarlet Witch standing in the doorway, looking over the three of them with confused expressions.

They all stared at each other for a solid twenty seconds before she called, "You're late!"

Honestly, this had been a fun Friday.

#spiderman #iron man #peter parker #tony stark #female peter parker #whumptober #irondad #spiderson #yes i know this was a while ago #leave me alone im uploading all my shit cuz i have some free time

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supersoldierfreak · 7 years

Text

Take It or Leave It 3

I’m just saying another huge thank you for all the support I’ve gotten off this story so far and I really hope you enjoy this.

Also: Pairings. I’m not 100% what pairing this may end up with so please let me know. I’ve received a couple of Tony x reader thoughts but I’m not sure what I’m really doing with their relationship yet. I’m happy with writing any pairing or maybe no pairing? Idek, help me out pleaseee!.

… … … … … … … … … … … …. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Chapter 1 – Chapter 2 – Chapter 3 – Chapter 4 – Chapter 5 – Chapter 6 – Chapter 7 – Chapter 8

You walked into work with a nod to the girls at the reception desk who smiled back at you. There was no one at work who flat out hated you to your knowledge. You mean, sure there were a couple you didn’t get along with but that was to be expected; because everyone had that, no matter who they were. You passed Paulina on your way and she gave you a grimace.

Jogging back you caught her arm. “Hey, Paulina, what’s up?”

“It’s Harvey. You’re late and there was a first thing meeting this morning with one of his clients: Washington Oil.”

“Shit.” You muttered. Harvey Scott, the man who hired you, Senior Partner at Hughes and Wood, was… well… Harvey was Harvey. Best closer in New York, loyal, always there, stubborn, secretly cares but never shows it unless he trusts, trustworthy, dependable, blunt, smart and he was one hell of a poker player.

“You’re his secretary slash my best friend can’t you help a girl out?” She gave you a look.

“I already have.” Paulina, the stunning redhead, told you before walking off.

Groaning, you hurried the rest of the way to your office only to see Harvey sat there, in your chair, facing away from you.

He spoke simply. “It’s 8:30. That’s half an hour after you have to be here. And an hour after when you should be here.”

“Okay, Harvey, since when did we use a time clock?” You joked as you plopped your bag by your desk and hung up your coat.

“What are the new Oil transportation laws instated?” He stood up.

You shook you head and moved around to your chair. “Oh they’re nothing; they’re just a nuisance.”

“Andrew Washington wanted to know about them because he was worried about them.”

You leant back in the chair as Harvey circled to the front of your desk. “Then tell him that he doesn’t need to worry because it’s just another form he has to fill out.”

“What I’m worried about is that I could have told him that in the meeting, had you been there. This morning. At 8.”

“But I checked the calendar! There was nothing on this morning.” You reached for your phone to double check.

“I know. It was spontaneous. And I was there. And you? You were not there.” Harvey stopped and paced slightly. “Did you hear me when I told you to get your shit together?”

You looked at him ludicrously. “Of course I listened and that’s why I’m late this morning.”

“Being late is not getting your shit together.” He picked up a file only to slam it down. “Get it through your head. We’ve just been under attack as a firm and the world knows it. We’re weak, Y/N, and in the law of the jungle the weak get eaten.”

You sighed and spun slightly on your chair. “Look Harvey, I’m sorry about being late this morning. If you’d just ease up and let me explain…”

“Ease up!?” Okay, wrong thing to say. “You’re telling me to ease up!? You’re telling me to ease up when our clients might be leaving? That’s right, David Houston might be leaving me. People don’t leave me!”

You blinked rapidly. “I, I just…”

“ENOUGH!”

You stood up from your chair sharply and Harvey took a step back. “No! Enough you, Harvey! You want to know why I was late! I was signing on fourteen new clients this morning. One of which is corporate. So before you go telling me what to and not to do, make sure you know the damn facts.”

“Y/N, look, I’m sorry. I-”

You gave a slight smile. “Harvey, it’s fine, I understand. I’ll try to be on time next time but right now, I have so much paperwork-”

“That’s generally what happens when you take on 14 clients.” Harvey sarcastically said as he hovered by the door to leave.

Childishly you poked your tongue out at your mentor. Checking to make sure no one could see, he pulled a silly face back at you. You smirked before flicking on the computer. You logged on and immediately started going through procedure and checking your work email. A knock on the glass wall of you office made you jump. You looked up to see the delivery man at the door, which happened seldom to not at all as the receptionists brought around any mail or parcels.

“Hi? Can I help you?” You stood up to walk over when you saw the flower bouquet in his hands. “I’m sure you know it’s not Valentine’s Day nor my birthday.”

The delivery guy, Robert, smiled. “I’m well aware Miss L/N, but this was left downstairs for you.”

You looked at him oddly and spotted Paulina watching from the corner of your eye. “Thanks for bringing them up for me, Robert.”

He nodded and disappeared off again. You studied the bouquet in your hands as Paulina slid gracefully through the door. “I know you can pull anyone but the delivery guy? He’s way out of your league, honey.”

Laughing at the jab you place the bouquet in a vase you kept in the cupboard in your desk for certain situations. “Apparently they were left for me at the front desk.” You removed the decorative wrapping and gently put the flowers in the vase.

“Ohhh, so Y/N has a secret admirer? Okay, we both know it’s not Jim from accounting.” She grinned before coming up for a closer look. Paulina looked at them before plucking something out. “Ah ha!”

In her hand was a small slip of paper which you were quick to snatch before opening it.

Hi Bunny,

The team wanted to say thank you for helping us out and we both know that you office is way to aesthetically perfect so we decided to send flowers. And when I say decided I mean Red said to. Hermione agreed and the guys don’t understand the female mind so then agreed with them.

I was going to send carrots but Legolas said it was too far.

-T

You smiled at the note quietly and grabbed a photo holder to put the note in and placed it next to the flower neatly.

“Y/N, this is gossip time. Because I understood none of that and you’re smiling.” Her hand were on her hips, showcasing the raspberry dress she was wearing.

“Paulina. I’d love to but I can’t I have too much paperwork-”

“Then I’ll go and grab my laptop and join you here.”

As much as you dearly loved your friend, she was so stubborn. You tapped away with your case, adding all the new information to the system and going through any and every paper piece of evidence Tony had given you to make a head start on it. True to her word, Paulina came back with her laptop and sat with you in your Senior Associate office and listened as you explained as much of the story as you could. She was a great listener, only talking when she didn’t understand something or offering drink breaks. Several hours later you had finally explained everything between breaks, hot beverages, pastries, toilet breaks and work.

“So let me sum this up for me. You’re now the official attorney for the Avengers, the corporation and them themselves, to help with the Sokovia Accords and to make sure half of them don’t end up in deeper trouble.” By now, sushi lunch was sprawled out across you desk. You were a huge foodie and there was this one sushi bar that was only a couple blocks over and was incredible.

You nodded, covering your mouth with your chopsticks. “In a nutshell.”

“Damn. Can you get me an autograph or 14?” She joked and you laughed quietly.

“Sorry, no can do.”

She’s groaned dramatically. Paulina flopped back in her chair, hand splayed across her forehead. Rolling your eyes, you tapped quickly away at you computer because, at last, you were almost done. Paulina, knowing the signs of you almost finishing, began a countdown.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3…2..1.”

“DONE!” You shouted and spun a full circle in your chair, arms above your head in triumph.

You laughed happily and Paulina stood up and told you that she was going back to her desk outside Harvey’s office. Finally, it had taken you a good six hours to do all of the work and now you were chuffed that you had it done. You glanced at your phone to see that you had missed calls from Tony. Moving around your desk to shut the door, you tapped the redial button and moved the phone to your ear, pinning on your shoulders. The dial tone played as you started to move onto drafts of potential needed documents so you wouldn’t have to do them in a rush.

“Tony Stark speaking.”

“Tony, it’s me.”

“Hi me, I’m Tony.”

“Tony.” You warned with a roll of your eyes; You could hear the smirk in his voice. “You rang.”

“I did. Ross showed up with his attorney.” You immediately stopped what you were going and grabbed the phone before placing it on speaker on you desk.

“What! Please tell me you didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t no. Romanoff and Barton took care of it with the odd sentence from other people.”

You swore under your breath as Harvey strolled into your office, file in hand. You motioned zipping his lips and nodded; he closed the door and said nothing as he sat in front of your desk.

“Were they diplomatic about it?” Your fingers were crossed.

“As much as they could be, being them.” Harvey stared at you in shock he began mouthing at you. Is that..?

You nodded and motioned for him to shut up. “I need you to give me details, Tony; I can’t work on kinda diplomatic.”

“I’ll have FRIDAY send over a recording and transcript.”

“Sent to Bunny, sir.” FRIDAY’s voice chimed in the background.

“Seriously Tony! You’re AI is in on it too?” You leant back in exasperation of your friend and client.

“That’s irrelevant. Are you coming back later?”

“Of course.” You had nodded before then realising he couldn’t see it.

“See ya later, carrot hater!”

Shaking you head with a smile, you replied. “In a while, Mr Senile!”

“Hey!” He objected but you had already ended the call.

Harvey sort of just stared at you. “Since when was Tony Stark been your client?”

You looked at him weirdly. “Since I got here almost, along with representing Stark Industries.”

“So let me guess, those fourteen clients weren’t any random fourteen.” He gave you ‘the Harvey Scott look’, as you and Paulina jokingly called it.

“Not really.”

“Damn, now I almost feel bad about getting angry at you.”

You snorted and span your chair. “No, you don’t.”

He nodded and stood up. “You’re right, I don’t because if I did, it would mean I cared about you.”

You gasped in mock hurt and grabbed you coat and bag. “Paulina and I both know you care about me really.”

“Whatever you say, kid.”

You got into the elevator and headed down, to meet Rae who was Harvey’s driver. In these situations you generally just trusted Harvey as to where you were going because most of the time, it was to a client and today was no different as you pulled up at Washington Oil’s headoffices thirty minutes later. You and Harvey discussed a brief plan on how to talk to Andrew Washington in the elevator’s rise up. When you did eventually step up, it wasn’t what you were expecting.

Andrew Washington was there, but so was a young boy with red puffy eyes and a box of tissues by his side.

When Andrew saw you, he stood up and moved away from the boy to talk to you. “I’m afraid business is going to have to wait. I know you don’t do pro bono cases but I need you to do this. His… his parents, my brother and sister in law, they were killed by a drunk driver.”

Involuntarily, you sucked a sharp breath in. “How old is he? You nephew.” Your chest was constricting rapidly.

“He’s twelve. He’s going to be staying with me from now on.”

“Of course. We’ll make an exception.” Harvey was glancing wearily at you as you stuttered into a walk towards the boy.

In front of him, you crouched down to be level. “Hi there, I’m Y/N. I’m here to he-”

“To help me. Yeah, I get it.” The boy sniffled.

You let out a small chuckle. “What’s your name?”

“Toby, but Uncle Andrew calls me Tobias.”

“So, Toby, what’s your favourite ice cream?” You asked and adjusted your feet under you.

“I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“It’s absolutely relevant.” You replied. “Ice cream has special properties to make you feel better."

"I don’t believe you.” Toby pouted petulantly.

You put on a grin. “When you come over our office, there’ll be ice cream waiting for you.”

“Strawberry.” He said quietly and you knew you had gotten somewhere.

“Hey, little man!” Harvey came over to join the pair of you and sat next to Toby on the sofa. “We’re not going to pressure you into talking but when you’re ready, let Uncle Andrew know and then he can tell us.” He glanced at you and looked terrified.

You nodded encouragingly. “We’ll see you soon, Toby, okay?"

The young boy nodded. You glanced at Andrew Washington and he nodded to Harvey. They had obviously done all the technicalities whilst you had been talking to the boy. Your heart swelled slightly at the thought he was doing this case so you didn’t have to do it by yourself. So you brought it up on the way back to headquarters.

“Thank you, Harvey, for this.” You were studiously looking out of your window on the left hand side. It was practically a religion that the pair of you always sat in the back and on the left and he sat on the right.

“It’s what we do, Y/N, you know that.” He replied quietly.

“Have I told you the real reason I wanted to become a lawyer?” You moved away from the window to look at him.

“Once or twice.”

You smiled slightly. “Three’s a charm. I wanted to become a lawyer because my parents were killed by a drunk driver when I was only 10. My grandma took me in but it always hard having to explain to other people why I didn’t have parents. The lawyer who was in charge of our case didn’t give a damn, I could tell, and that’s why I wanted to become a lawyer; so it didn’t happen to other people who needed help.”

Harvey turned to look you in the eye. “You’ve definitely helped more than enough people to make up for what he did. You’re a damn good lawyer.”

You smiled. “But not as good as you.”

Harvey chuckled. “That goes without saying.”

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boradcastmonitoringsolutions · 4 years

Text

Q&A | Webinar Sessions: How to Leverage AI for Closed Captioning?

Trance: AI-enabled world of Transcription, Captioning, and Translation; anytime & anywhere

Trance is an enterprise-level, cloud-based web application from Digital Nirvana integrated with cutting edge STT technology and cloud-based architecture, leading to significant efficiency gains. In this webinar we discussed how AI is transforming subtitling, translation, and transcription and covered key concepts around;

Importing media into Trance

Creating, viewing and editing transcripts in a single window

Configuring presets and single-click generation of closed captions in Pro Window and Caption Editor Window

Automatically translating to a secondary language

Exporting caption sidecars in all industry-standard formats

Below are few key important conversations in the Q&A section of the webinar

1.How do customers really use Trance? What are some of your most common use cases?

A- There’s an application again alluded to from a third-party provider perspective, and Netflix was mentioned and I’m going to reference Quibi in this particular case. So we have a client that uses Trance and they struck up a relationship with Quibi. And all of a sudden very quickly they needed to turn around content to Quibi, but the requirements for them to turn this content around are extremely narrow and very exacting, meaning that specifically, the time frame to do this is roughly within the 60-minute window. And this is going on on a rotational daily basis.

So high pressure, short turnaround time, but also with an exacting standards of accuracy based on the Quibi style guideline. And so that’s one particular use case, where the overarching requirement for this customer was speed, accuracy and the enterprise workflow of being able to get this work done and get it done quickly to turn content around, the short form assets to a carrier like Quibi or an outlet like Quibi.

And this would apply for Netflix as well and there are other outlets that just happens to be one that is top of mind and very prominent right now. Another application would be independent caption providers. These would be small companies that have relationships in the broadcast space or sometimes in other areas, other OTT markets or other VOD type of markets.

And they’re looking to leverage Trance to be competitive in these alternate markets, maybe not so much in the live broadcast segment for reasons we’ve already touched on. And so they come to us looking for a solution saying, hey, I need a better tool than what’s out there in the web and the app based marketplace for translation and transcription.

And this is again where Trance fills a really niche or gap in the market from these providers that are sort of a one size fits all, they’re not agile. What you get is, it’s pre-configured, whereas with Trance it can be wide open and we can export in any number of formats and we have all this enterprise flexibility, but yet it’s still approachable and usable for a small shop that, say has three, four, five employees.

So we’re seeing applications and adoption of Trance in scenarios like that. There’s another application. This came up fairly recently where another client has said, we’d really love to take long format assets, typically raw field content or long form interviews. And we see a need to be able to take these assets, automatically transcribe them and take the transcription as metadata and index it back into the asset.

So that it gives the operators and the editors and people producing this content much greater visibility into, say, an hour-long recording. And this is another way in which the product is being used, not just directly captioned something to go to air or some OTT delivery, but they’re using it as a metadata source to index back to the raw content for greater post-production, accuracy and efficiency.

And then I think the last one I would draw your attention to would be CBC or the Canadian Broadcast Company, where they are using us to do conformance. One piece of the product is the ability to conform existing content to again a specific style guideline, like in Netflix, in this case that’s exactly what it is. It’s one of the outlets that Netflix parameter is very rigid and very demanding and exacting.

And so they use Trance to auto conform any inconsistencies in their existing captioning process to make sure that what goes out and gets delivered to Netflix is fully compliant based on those again very exacting style guidelines. So those would be three or four examples of mainline broadcast media sort of in the trenches applications where the product is used today.

2. Would the charge be based on the amount of content or it’s just a license?

A- It’’s another hallmark of the way we operate and do business at Digital Nirvana. So here’s the great news. Trance is user based. It’s based on usage and usage alone. It depends on how much content you push through it and how much content comes out of it and it’s based purely on that factor alone.

So there is no site licensing process. There’s no particular user seat license restriction. It’s purely a consumption model. And you’re charged a rate based on that consumption figure or that consumption number. And that’s it. We want as many people using it and adopting it. And we hope that that policy makes it as easy with a lowest barrier of entry to embrace the product and use it, and we also think it’s the most fair

3. Is there a product installed? Is it browser based? Can you give us some background on the SaaS of your product?

A- It is a SaaS product. There is no licensing or deployment of software. This is entirely browser-based HTML access. So, it’s universally accessible via any browser to any asset, any video audio asset, and the tools are also universally accessible through that browser connectivity to any user wherever they may be anywhere in the world and at any time.

So again there’s no geographic or physical limitation to its access. If you have a broadband Internet connection, it doesn’t even have to be in a corporate land or wide area network. You can — simply based on your credentials to use the system, you can log into the platform and be using the tool just like we demonstrated a few minutes ago in the demo.

And that means there’s no installs, there’s no issues with software versions or version management. There’s no plugins. There’s no software updates that have to be managed across a single site or multiple sites, which is even more difficult. There’s no, again, user licensing or site licensing restrictions, et cetera. It’s purely a remote HTML login process only.

4. Why is Trance so fast? How does it produce these fast, incredibly fast turnaround times for these operators? You’d mentioned the Quibi example before we talked about SaaS, but can you give us some highlights without giving away the secret sauce on how you do it? How do you do it so quickly?

A- Some of the inherent advantages of SaaS and cloud-based tool sets enhance that process. I mean, this is a great example in the current climate that we’re in, where many people are working remotely and they’re not in their physical offices they once were. This type of tool just makes getting access to doing your work that much easier in a sort of social cultural climate that we find ourselves. So that’s the first piece. The other piece that’s huge is the speed and the accuracy of the speech to text technology. And this goes back to what I referenced in I think one of the earlier questions, how we philosophically deal with speech to text and we use multiple engines and we optimize those engines based on their performance and we’re constantly evaluating those engines’ performance.

So not only do you not have to do it manually, which is a colossal savings in time in terms of manual transcribing of content, that’s being done automatically, and the work that’s being done is highly accurate. So again, with good quality content, we typically and very uniformly see results coming from the speech to text engines that are 90%, 95%, sometimes even higher in terms of their accuracy.

So that’s another giant efficiency boosting part of this whole equation. The other piece is of course as we talked about this is an M&E application from the outset. So the tool set and the user interface are all geared towards this specific outcome and the specific people that will use it and embrace it.

So it was designed from the ground up with that type of community in mind. The API that I referenced is another way for large enterprise customers that do not have to create secondary processes even to work within Trance and get all the native stuff in Trance is really cool, right? But if you’re in some giant enterprise and you’ve got all these interconnected media systems, the last thing you want to do is have to create a secondary process in a situation like that.

And so, for those customers, we’ve solved that problem as well. Through these — this open API process, Trance just integrates directly into that existing media workflow environment, which is really great. And then the other piece, I would say, is that again these custom presets being able to define and confirm automatically at the creation of captions or transcriptions, content that’s automatically destined to conform to wherever its final destination is intended.

So if I’m publishing to Netflix, I can set those parameters up ahead of time and be reassured and comfortable knowing that the work that I do is automatically formatted for that final destination without having to go back later and tweak it or make changes or fuss around with it. It’s just completely done from the outset. So I would say those are four or five really good reasons to sort of clarify that speed question.

5. When you’re using these SaaS or PaaS, something that’s not based on-site, data platform security is critical in transfer mechanism. And you also list FTP as a transfer protocol, right. So curious what the security posture is around it?

A- One such customer that uses this product every single day of the week had that same question, taking top-tier content with a high degree of sensitivity and vulnerability quite frankly from a risk perspective evaluated us on that very topic. And we went through a very thorough process of reassuring that customer that those assets in the way that they’re — the way that they’re transferred and the way that they’re stored in the cloud. And the privacy that surrounds and the security that surrounds those assets remain untouched and completely secure and pristine. This was an extremely high mark for us to have to meet. It was something that the product natively does.

I can only tell you that we met that test with flying colors and this major mainline well-known broadcaster again has accepted us based on that and uses it every single day. If there are — I would say that if there’s more detailed technical questions, certainly forward those to us, it may be better to field those more detailed questions around security or anything else offline outside of this session, because I don’t know the specifics of what the questioner had in mind. But we’ve addressed them and our customers have responded in kind believing and trusting us knowing that our security protocols are sufficient for their requirements.

Closed Captioning solutions

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lesbian-diana-cavendish · 7 years

Text

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

words: 1221

A/N: hey guys, here’s my first entry for @dianakko-week ! its set in my light years away AU and it can also be found on ao3, enjoy!

Diana sat quietly in the med-bay alongside the two other doctors, and lifelong friends, Hannah and Barbara. The three had just finished up an exhausting day of dealing with some mass allergic reaction in the agricultural wing. How it started was still a mystery, but Doctor Antonenko assured them the issue would be solved by the end of the week. So, after nearly 8 hours of going through an impromptu physical on every scientist in that branch, the three women were happy to be off their feet.

None of them were actually working, they were just sitting back in silence staring at their blank monitors. Diana was the first to lean forward with the intention of starting one of the many reports, when her comm started buzzing in her pocket. The other two women let out pained groans.

“Relax,” Diana sighed, resisting her own groan, “I'm sure it's not another case.” At least she hoped it wasn't. She quickly fished it out and opened it up, “Hello?”

“Diana!” she recognized the voice immediately, a smile forming on her face as she stood up to leave the room, momentarily looking back to her friends, “don't worry girls, it's just a personal call.”

As the door closed behind her she heard a quiet ‘it's probably her girlfriend’ and a chorus of giggles. Pretending she didn't hear that, she brought to comm back up to her ear, “apologizes Akko, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Diana! Meet me the hydroponics lab! Now!” The woman pulled the comm away with a wince; her friend had always been on the loud side.

Bringing the comm back up to her face, she calmly replied, “Akko, what's this about?”

“Just hurry!"

***

Diana briskly made her way down the hallway, counting the rooms as she passed. She couldn't fathom what Akko could possibly need her in hydroponics for, as Diana didn't think she had any friends who worked in the lab. She supposed her questions would be answered momentarily as she came up to the lab’s door.

When the doors slid open Diana saw a familiar figure standing with her back to the door, facing out into space. Diana quietly made her way behind the petite woman and gently tapped her shoulder. She couldn't help but laugh as the woman let out a shriek, jumping a foot into the air. Upon landing, she whipped around to face the still giggling Diana.

“Diaaaaana,” she whined sticking her lip out in an adorable pout, “you can't just sneak up on me like that”

The guilty party covered her mouth to hide her smile, “I apologize Akko, but you make it much too easy.”

Akko crossed her arms with a huff turning away in mock anger, “I guess you don't want to know why I called you here.”

“Akko…”

“Fine, you convinced me,” Akko grabbed Diana's hand and yanked her to the window, “look!” She waved her hand in the general direction of the window.

Diana followed her hand with her eyes trying to see whatever it was Akko wanted her to see, “yes, it does seem extra dark out today” she drawled.

Akko yelp as she plastered her face against the window, looking for whatever mystery was out there. “No, no, no, no, Alcor!” she called out to the ever-present AI stepping back from the window, “where do we have to go?!” Diana bit her lip in frustration at the cryptic question.

Alcor’s voice crackled to life, “Ms. Kagari, due to the rotation of the Ring, it can currently be viewed at the Agricultural labs.”

Diana wanted to throw her arms up; the answer had been just as cryptic as the question, “Alcor, can you please tell me what’s go-”

Akko grabbed her hand again, yanking her away from the window and back into the hall, “no questions! It’s a surprise!”

“A-kko!” Diana cried in protest, tripping over herself as she was pulled along by the energetic woman.

The two quickly made their way to the other lab, weaving through the rows of crops scattered throughout the room, as Akko made a bee-line to the window. “Ah-ha! Diana, come over here, you can see it!” The woman jumped from foot to foot, like a child on Christmas morning.

Diana shook her head, a small smile forming on her face; Akko was too cute for her own good. Stepping up beside Akko and looking out, she couldn't help letting out a gasp at what she saw, “Akko, is that a-”

“Star? Yup, no one up on the bridge could believe it either!”

Diana shook her head in disbelief, all the sensors suggested that they should see plenty of stars, yet it had been a whole year since they've been able to see even one.

until now.

Dead ahead was a single star shining bright and strong, after so long it was incredible. The two women stared out in awe, neither saying a word.

A pause. Then another. Everything seemed to slow down. Even the ever present hum of the artificial gravity relays seemed to fade into the background.

It was Akko who broke the silence first, hesitantly asking a single question, “do you ever feel homesick?” Diana turned to face the younger woman, who was still looking out into space, a strange look on her face.

She felt a pang in her heart as she considered the question. It was true she had left her mother behind, as well as some other family and an abundance of wealth. But now that her mother was gone? Well, she supposed she really wasn't. Despite leaving those things behind, here on the Luna Nova she had her two closest friends, a rigorous job exploring the final frontier, and of course, she also had Akko.

But what about Akko? She must have left family behind. In all the years Diana had known Akko, she had seen a wide variety of emotions come from the woman, but the ache Diana felt in her chest at Akko’s tone and words was something new. To be frank, she didn't like it.

Without thinking, Diana wrapped her arm around Akko’s shoulders and pulled her in, ignoring the small squeak. “What prompted that question Akko?” she asked softly. She felt the ache in her chest replace itself with a warm fuzzy feeling as Akko relaxed into her.

Akko shrugged, “I don't know I guess I just thought ‘what if that was our sun?’, which I know isn't possible - it couldn't be, but it just came to mind, and I don't know it made me think of home,” her words came out fast and jumbled as she awkwardly looked down at her boots, “it's silly, I know.”

Diana gave Akko’s shoulder a light squeeze, pulling her closer, “I don't think it's silly at all.”

Akko let out an appreciative hum and wrapped her arm around Diana's waist, “Well, whichever star it is, it sure is a beautiful sight.” It was Diana's turn to make a hum of agreement. The two fell back into a comfortable silence, enjoying the closeness.

“Not to ruin the moment, but I think we both need to go to med-bay right now. It’s getting hard to breathe and I’m itching all over.”

“I was really hoping that was just emotions running high...let's go please.”

#dianakko week #dianakkoweek #diakko #dianakko #diana cavendish #akko kagari #lwa #little with academia #my post #My writing #lya au #also let me know if u dont like this format

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dontcallmecarrie · 7 years

Text

Fic Idea: Welcome To The Family

[In Which Natasha Is A Better Friend]

Warnings: Natasha Romanov’s background and POV [which…yeah, be careful because child soldiers are the least of it; plus a different take on what Graduation consists of], canon-typical violence, mental health issues [hi, Tony’s PTSD and Co.], loss of trust, probably OOC in some places, gradual canon divergence [wow isn’t that familiar], not Steve friendly, not Wanda friendly, closer-to-Skynet-than-is-comfortable!JARVIS, dubious morality, some pretty unhealthy things in general [childhoods, coping mechanisms, etc], mercy-killing [mentioned as a past thing, rather brief but in the context of Natasha’s Graduation]

Main changes here from canon: Natasha’s characterization [as in, it doesn’t change on the turn of a dime]. Her relationship with Bruce isn’t something I’ll delve into, because guess who can’t write romance to save my life?

Also, JARVIS lives, because the day I acknowledge his death is pencilled in for never. And in this AU, Zola implied something a bit less specific than he did in canon.

Full thing’s under the cut because you guys know how I roll when it comes to fic ideas [read: very, very, very long outlines]. I’ll get to writing the fic on this sometime in the future, but in the meantime here you go.

Natasha Romanov was a very dangerous person. In more ways than one.

It came with the ‘was raised as a living weapon during one of the most politically terse times in history’ package, after all, only a complete and utter fool would claim otherwise. And with it, came an appreciation for some things other people might take for granted, like the various applications of duct tape, the lifespan of granola bars, and even more fundamental things. Like trust.

No, make that especially trust, and faith in humanity in general; just what kind of childhood did these people have, to just believe someone’s word? To take a known assassin and just…extend their hand like that? [Weird. But strangely adorable, too, there was that.]

…Yeah, years later, and Clint Barton is still very baffling.

Point is, Natasha’s…unique background meant she had a perspective very few people ever got. The Stark Industries/Natalie Rushman mess meant she got a front-row seat as to the show Tony Stark put up. And that was what it was; a front, she knew. [Like knew like, after all.]

The entire fiasco had also been a case of “I know” and “you know I know” and “you know I know you know”, because Stark Industries apparently had a very unique stance on corporate espionage, and SHIELD hadn’t been very subtle in their attempts to get her in.

The “Iron Man yes, Tony Stark not recommended” bit was a convoluted snarl of politics and dynamics and if Natasha hadn’t been born and raised in this, and if Tony hadn’t been a genius with Maria Stark and Peggy Carter as role models, he might’ve missed some of the nuances in what went unsaid. As it was, neither Fury nor Natasha missed the laughter in his voice, when he’d gotten to that bit.

Natasha didn’t blame him; years in, and she still didn’t get why SHIELD loved melodrama so much.

But it wasn’t until the Avengers assembled, that her observations started paying off. Clint’s being compromised had been jarring, to be sure, and none of her training had ever covered huge green monsters, but Natasha had done her best to roll with it.

If anything, Tony’s presence had been a comfort; yes, he was a pain in the ass, but he was familiar, an ally, and tended to come with a side of explosions and breakthroughs. The man was a force of nature, and Natasha sometimes wondered how things might’ve gone if he’d been born to anyone else, or anywhere else…then again, that sounded like nightmare fuel, never mind. [Don’t imagine him as a trainer in the Red Room, don’t imagine him as an enemy operative—no.]

Steve Rogers might have been an icon, might have been a bastion of principles and what it meant to be American—but Natasha was Russian, and she’d known to see past the propaganda to see the dazed and confused man who was still learning how to pick up the pieces when his world turned to ash.

He looked like he needed a friend. [Which…huh. There’s an idea.]

New York had been…interesting, to say the least. But it wasn’t until later, until Tony set about with cleanup after the invasion was over, that their friendship really kicked off.

It helped, that they were very similar to each other; Clint might have noticed, if he wasn’t busy trying to piece himself back together, but as it was Tony tossed her a business card and sauntered away with Dr. Banner in tow, with a faux-careless “keep in touch if you want, Pepper wanted to talk to you about going out for drinks sometime” over his shoulder.

But Natasha had noticed the guarded look in his eyes, even if nobody else did, and she knew, without a word being said, that, despite all his trust issues [which she’d only glimpsed during her stint at SI, but had seen enough of to know it was a beast], this was Tony making an attempt to reach out.

Well…it’d be rude not to, after that, right?

And…Tony looked like he could use a friend, too. Not to knock Happy or Pepper, but this was something few could relate to, trying to atone for past sins [and failing miserably], plus the ‘hey we fought aliens together that one time, now what?’ thing.

So, Natasha did what she could, to keep in touch. It was very off-again-on-again, because of missions and general work-related issues, but she managed. Things were rather rocky and awkward at first, but enough late-night phone calls thanks to time differences and downtime and boring stakeouts meant a very convoluted friendship soon bloomed.

Which…Natasha couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, actually. The man had trust issues and one of the most full-blown cases of PTSD she’d ever seen, and yet he somehow mustered up the strength and kindness to reach out and befriend the person who literally stabbed him in the neck?!

What even.

Tony Stark was added to Natasha’s “Weirdest Humans Ever Met But Would Gladly Murder For” list, because of that. It wasn’t very long, there were only three names, now, because Clint’s wife was just as baffling as he was.

Time passed, and while work at SHIELD meant that Natasha’s social life was 85% work-related [counting Clint and Steve], the other 15% had Natasha glued to her phone while keeping tabs on Tony and Pepper and JARVIS. [Which…she hadn’t known the AI was so sophisticated, before. Actually, she’d be surprised if anyone outside Tony’s inner circle knew, and treasured the show of trust like the rare thing it was.]

Time passed, and Natasha was feeling pretty good about everything; work was going well, Steve seemed to be settling in and making good progress in moving on [now if only he’d let her help him get a date], Clint and his wife were expecting their first baby and had asked her to be a godmother, and though Tony was having a hard time, he looked like he had things well in hand [and she couldn’t exactly visit him while in the middle of an op in Vanuatu].

So, of course, Murphy’s Law struck with a vengeance.

HYDRA hit with all the force of a sledgehammer, and the Winter Soldier had rattled Natasha badly. If she’d trusted her [SHIELD-issued, when’d she gotten so complacent, dammit?!] phone, she would’ve called Tony for help, but as it was she didn’t doubt someone was monitoring his communications, since doubtlessly someone up the chain had noticed his friendship with the Level 7 Special Agent.

The reveal that the Nazis weren’t as gone as the world had hoped, that she’d been working for them, that her efforts to atone for all the red in her ledger had been for nothing, tasted like ash. It was a cold, bitter realization, and Natasha couldn’t imagine how Steve must be feeling. She, at least, had practice with this, after all: with realizing that everything and everyone she’d been surrounded with was an enemy agent, with the feeling of nothing was safe, not when empires crumbled and regimes turned to ash.

Steve really hadn’t taken it well.

In retrospect, she should’ve seen it coming, really.

But Natasha carried on. Though…Zola had mentioned something, back at the bunker, and what he’d implied had left her feeling cold.

And…Tony needed to know.

Natasha had heard him talking about his parents, once, when he’d been running on two carafes of coffee and not much else, mid-way through his 27-hour-long engineering binge, and the mention of how much of an ass Howard had been had stuck with her, nearly as much as how much he’d clearly cared for his mother.

Natasha might not have have the kindest of childhoods [ha-understatement of the decade], but she did her best to be as supportive as possible, even if she went ‘that sounds fake but okay’ to what others claimed were normal childhoods [jury was still out in regards to Tony’s mentions of having built a bomb before puberty, though, no matter how relatable that experience was].

Steve must’ve told him, though, right? Because he might have been understandably hyperfocused on Bucky, there was no way he’d missed HYDRA’s hand in the death of Howard Stark. And though Steve and Tony might’ve had their differences, there was absolutely no way the man Natasha knew would keep something this huge from her other friend.

Not when Steve’s searching for the Winter Soldier, not when Tony’s moving heaven and earth to clean up after them in DC. Not when the team started to regroup, and work together to take down every last vestige of HYDRA once and for all. Time passes, and things continue in this vein.

Sokovia’s where the rose-tinted lenses came off.

Ultron caught everyone off-guard, really. Natasha had talked to Tony often enough to know he hadn’t been remotely close to interface, and while the Iron Legion was intimidating, she approved of its various applications.

And yet the team tried to blame Tony.

No, strike that, they did blame Tony, and that she hadn’t seen the cracks in the team before Thor nearly snapped his neck [because she’d seen that technique before, in the Red Room, and it had never been in a nonlethal application], she tasted bile in the back of her throat because how had she missed this?!

The Red Witch’s recruitment didn’t exactly help, either. Ignoring the dredging up of memories best left forgotten [Graduation and the mercy-killing of the only childhood friend she’d ever had because she wouldn’t stop screaming and wouldn’t have survived the Serum and remained sane], Natasha recognized the look in Wanda’s eyes. She saw it in the mirror, after all, and was intimately aware of her capabilities, of what it felt like to have nothing left to lose.

Of how to use people.

She didn’t get why Steve had recruited her, really; he already had a hard time just adjusting to life in general, why the hell did he invite a viper into the fold?

…again, it was one of those things that were embarrassingly obvious in retrospect.

It was no surprise Tony’d retired, really. Not when the only other friend besides her had flown the coop, not when everyone else had seen him being choked by an ally and hadn’t batted an eye, not when nobody else seemed to care that JARVIS had nearly died.

But at least they were still friends.

Even if Wanda threw a contemptuous look her way whenever Natasha’s phone started to play AC/DC [because Tony’s sense of humor knew no bounds and Natasha didn’t have the heart to say no when he’d offered to program in a few ringtones], or Steve frowned when she laughed at a Snapchat from Tony showcasing DUM-E’s latest attempt at a smoothie. [Sure, it was when she should’ve been sparring, but he’d been running late and she’d been bored.]

It’s not until after he retired, that it came up.

In her defense, Natasha had been busy with cleanup, since depressingly few STRIKE teams had actually been SHIELD rather than HYDRA and she’d been one of the only agents with enough clearance to access the more sensitive areas.

In one life, Natasha never told Tony, had trusted in Steve’s judgement and called it a day.

In this life, however, Natasha was a far better friend.

She’d referred to it in passing, because it’d been months since HYDRA’s fall and weeks since Sokovia and cleanup was still being a bitch for both, when she’d caught the look of confusion on his face.

“What?” He’d asked, and Natasha felt ice at the pit of her stomach.

“Steve didn’t tell you?” She asked, and abruptly realized she didn’t know Captain America nearly as well as she’d though, and that—oh shit. “You don’t know.”

“Know what?” But there was a look of growing suspicion, and…

“You might want to sit down for this, Tony. And call Pepper and James, too. Hey, JARVIS? Gear up, too.”

Natasha didn’t know how to do this. [Why couldn’t she have had to fight a death squad with her bare hands instead? It was so much easier!]

But Tony was her friend. He trusted her, and she refused to betray that trust again.

“Tell me what.”

In this life, Natasha told Tony, of HYDRA’s involvement in murdering his parents.

Tony didn’t take it well, of course.

[Perfectly understandable, what with having nearly made his peace with Howard’s alcoholism having been what killed his mother.]

Natasha ended up being used as a impromptu teddy bear, while JARVIS immediately made arrangement for Pepper and James’ arrival, because Tony’d need all the support he could get. Even though this was way, way out of her comfort zone, and she didn’t know what the hell one did when a friend started crying, she did what she could to support him, and quietly cursed Steve Rogers and Zola to hell and back for putting her in this situation.

And Tony…Tony lost all respect for Captain America, that day.

“You know, he said something about teammates not telling him things?” He managed to get out, after the initial shock wore off. [Pepper and Natasha shared a dark look, at that.] “Looks like he didn’t have much room to talk, after all.”

It was no coincidence, that the Compound’s funding got cut, after that. Or that Natasha’s gear was top-of-the-line while everyone else’s barely got the basics of maintenance, afterwards. Or that team dynamics weren’t so much frayed at the seams so much as ‘even existing in the first place’, because Vision had the same sense of humor as JARVIS and Steve seemed to find that off-putting for some reason, and Natasha never let Wanda at her back.

There’s a few different ways this could go from here, of course.

Maybe Civil War doesn’t even happen, because Tony’s not on the back foot when it comes to all the hurdles life’s throwing at him, not with his friends at his side and JARVIS in his ear.

Maybe Civil War does happen, except Natasha never lets the super soldier duo go, takes them down instead, and Siberia never happens, and reality and consequences ensue.

If, somehow, someway, Siberia were to happen, however, it wouldn’t go down like it did in canon.

Instead, Tony, having been able to wrap his mind around the ‘HYDRA killed my parents’ reveal with enough time and support to be able to cry about something that happened half a lifetime ago and ever-so-slowly start to heal from the still-raw wounds, would take it differently.

Here, Tony would still be horrified and shocked by the video of what happened. But here, Tony’s not on the verge of breaking down, isn’t scrambling for a moment of peace, isn’t desperate for a peaceful resolution. Tony’s doing this in memoriam of the man his father had spent decades and millions on, and…

Here, Tony’s furious.

But, having had the warning from Natasha, he takes it differently. The video’s still shocking, of course, and he’s fighting down nausea as he’s hearing his mother’s screams and his father’s desperation, but…here, Tony’s not on the verge of losing it when he turns to Steve.

“You knew.” But here, it’s not tinged with shock, isn’t colored by the hurt of fresh betrayal. Instead, it’s accusatory, it’s wrathful and Tony knew Steve was an ass but this was beyond the pale.

In one life, Tony might’ve snapped, and lunged after the man who he’d just seen kill his mother. In this life, however, it’s the other supersoldier who gets decked with all the force of a pissed-off Iron Man.

“Son of a bitch, you knew it was him.”

Here, there’s no hurt “He was my friend/So was I”; instead, this might’ve been how it went down:

“He was my friend.”

“And she was my mother.”

But either way, Tony’s not losing it, here. Or, at least, not the way he did in canon. Because, here, JARVIS is a comforting voice in his ear, but he’s also support, and the Iron Legion is at hand to help apprehend these criminals with minimal fuss, so even if he’s repulsed by just how much of a hypocrite Steve turned out to be, he’s not alone in the bunker.

And afterwards, Tony’s not alone either.

Here, it’s a new future, a new day, and with Pepper, James, Natasha, and JARVIS at his side, Tony’s helping forge a new tomorrow.

Here, Thanos arrives to an Earth with a team of Avengers who have been preparing for his arrival for years, and with all the efficiency that bone-deep trust engenders.

…there’s so much more I could do with it, of course.

I haven’t even touched on the shenanigans and puns that ensue when Natasha hears about their newest recruit, meanwhile Spiderman’s leaning back wide-eyed as Natasha takes down a room in less than a minute and tosses a casual “I’ll teach you how, spiders need to stick together” over her shoulder.

Stephen Strange’s low-key terrified by the women Tony’s surrounded himself with [and resolves to either keep Christine and Pepper as far away as possible, or simply lay low for when they inevitably take over the world through sheer competence], and Hope Pym’s very happy to have someone capable of keeping up with her on the sparring mats.

James Rhodes, meanwhile, is sitting back with Vision and watching these dorks and wondering what the hell went wrong with his life choices to lead to movie nights with assassins and sorcerers and teenagers who thought “the new Star Trek movies were awesome” [and thus sparking the movie marathon to teach him otherwise].

Tony, of course, is very relieved to have people he can trust to have his back, and so proceeds along with his plans to take over safeguard the Earth. [Then again, the Accidental World Domination fic’s already in the works, so maybe not.]

Another thing I changed: the Red Room’s Graduation process.

Not sure what canon’s involves, but here it features their version of the Super Soldier Serum. It’s not graceful, it’s not elegant, it’s pure brute force and painful and only the strongest survive the first 12 hours [and renders the person sterile, because of the drastic changes].

The low survival rate is only part of why it’s considered graduation; the other part’s killing the other girls who got dosed with the Red Room Serum, because most of them are halfway out of their minds with agony [and also because the Red Room’s Serum’s effect on sanity is really hit-and-miss, too].

There’s more to this, but cutting it short for now because this is supposed to be the outline only and at this rate the fic’s only going to be a repost of this.

Hammered this out because I’ve got a lot of fix-it/break-it-differently ideas on the brain, and got sick of Natasha’s fluctuating characterization. It also led to my different take on Graduation, because wanting to have kids isn’t exactly every female’s life goals, [hated that scene…I could go on for hours, I s2g] and to consider oneself a monster implies something that goes a lot deeper than that.

#fic idea #fic ideas #orignal outline #now the time is here for iron man to spread fear #if you're going to be evil might as well do it right #welcome to the family #naught rambles

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gigsoupmusic · 4 years

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Y△CHT (Colours Hoxton, London - 13 Feb 2020)

Last night we were absolutely privileged to see one of the most innovative bands of the day perform at the lovely Hoxton venue that is Colours. YACHT (or, to be more exact, Y△CHT) are a band hailing from Portland, Oregon, though now are based in Los Angeles. They have been going strong since 2002; the spelling of their name is not a typo (the A is stylised as a triangle, and evokes the sail of a yacht). The name itself comes from a rather strange science course (no longer in existence) that keyboardist Jona Bechtolt attended at age 16 called "Young Americans Challenging High Technology".

Comprised of Claire L. Evans on lead vocals, the aforementioned Jona on keyboards (and guitar), and Rob Kieswetter (aka Bobby Birdman) on bass and keyboards, Y△CHT have, according to Claire, finally found 'the holy trinity' following a number of permutations.

Y△CHT have been making headlines lately for all the right reasons: they have created a fantastic new album called Chain Tripping, for which both the music and the lyrics were composed via Artificial Intelligence. Last night was, mainly, about showcasing this new album. Yes, you heard that right. A variety of different AI processes were used to write not just the lyrics but the music as well. It should come as no surprise that Claire has a science background. Author of a recent book called Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, she has been very much at the forefront of science-tech, with her own blog Universe (hosted by National Geographic), as well as regular science columns in The Guardian, Wired and many other publications, plus Futures Editor of Vice's 'Motherland' science website. Y△CHT have, therefore, been pushing the boundaries of AI and musical composition to its limits.

The first thing we noticed was that the band decided, for reasons unexplained at the time, to perform the entire Chain Tripping album backwards. By backwards, we mean starting with track 10 ("Little Instant") and finishing with track 1 ("(Downtown) Dancing"), though we wouldn't put it past them to decide to play the actual music backwards one evening as an experiment! Claire has a tremendous amount of energy on stage. She is constantly throwing shapes (think: cover of David Bowie's Heroes album, and vogue it up a bit), so much so that half the photographs we took ended up having to be discarded, as she was a blurry mess. Even Jona and Rob failed to keep still for long, often interchanging mid-song two or three times with one another's keyboards, which were located at opposite ends of the stage.

So, the stage was pretty busy, and the crowd were soon screaming with pleasure. Although a band should of course mainly be about the music, there is nothing more boring than seeing static band-members. We enjoyed the first three songs (the last three on the album), in particular the very cheerful "Stick it to the Station". Our first stand-out song, however, had to be song 4, "Sad Money", which was quite different, and a lot more trancey. We asked Claire later which songs from the album were likely to remain in the repertoire when they perform a Greatest Hits concert rather than an album showcase like we heard last night. We were delighted to hear that "Sad Money" is one of their favourites and therefore likely to make the cut. Following that came a much slower song, called "Death" – which just so happened to be the first track that their software churned out when they started with this AI experiment. This was quite dark, and included some rather violent lyrics, including 'stab, stab, stab a cop' repeated a number of times. We asked Claire later about this, and whether the fact that software coming up with controversial lyrics means that the lyricist can be exonerated, therefore implying that self-censorship is no longer necessary in this future world. She agreed it was a good point, and there would certainly be some plausible deniability. However, at the end of the day, the band were still involved in the selection process of the lyrics from those that were generated. The actual lyrics, nonetheless, were not something they would have come up with themselves, but the band thought it rather delightful that the AI process should decide to suggest such strange phrases.

In between tracks, Claire would often address her audience. This again made the gig appear to be much more intimate (in spite of the fact that the venue was heaving with bodies). What was most obvious was how different each of these new songs actually are, from the very 80s sound of "Loud Light" to the quite bonkers track "SCATTERHEAD". On the latter, we loved the use of the cowbell and great guitar effects, which were also evident on "Hey Hey", another 80s-influenced uplifting track which includes quite a dirty deep-house synth on top of a Kim Dealesque bass-line. The strobes came on for "(Downtown) Dancing", the first track on the album. This was the longest song thus far, and included a funky dance bit that was evocative of the famous section in the middle of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Again, we loved the cowbell. Claire got the entire auditorium clapping at one point, adding to the party atmosphere.

Hearing the album back-to-front, it now made sense why it should be performed that way, as it meant there was a real build-up to that final moment. Of course, this was not the end of the gig. Even with albums as good as Chain Tripping, a lot of people would have felt short-changed had some of the older songs not been performed as well. Y△CHT went on to perform six non-AI songs in total, starting with two from their 2015 album, I Thought the Future Would be Cooler: firstly the track which shares the aforementioned album's name, and then "Hologram". This was followed by "Hard World" from their 2017 Strawberry Moon album, a song about animal rights which was accompanied by the projection of their trippy video featuring a happy foot and a sad foot. This was another song during which the two male components of the band were swapping sides and instruments throughout the song. We share the video in question below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D-Z9rUvlqM Following this came one of our favourite tracks, their cover of Brigitte Fontaine's 1969 utterly surreal French-language song, "Le Goudron". This cover appeared as an online single in 2012 and is well worth downloading. We actually first came across it while watching a superb Italian comedy directed by Paolo Sorrentino about Berlusconi called Loro, in a scene where a rich young scam-artist is trying to entice Berlusconi to an orgiastic party in a villa overlooking the politician's garden. This tune featured in the scene below, and it was a Shazam moment. Thanks to both technology and serendipity, we learnt of this fantastic track, which led us to the band's back catalogue and, ultimately, reviewing them for GIGsoup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJiiVWFozs0 "Le Goudron" really is a splendid tune, and is probably the most psychedelic of the ones they played last night. The irony is, when you translate the French lyrics into English, they are as bizarre as some of the ones that AI has thrown up for their new album! Following one of those pseudo-encores we wish weren't a thing (we can't remember the last time we heard a genuine encore that the band had not already orchestrated), Y△CHT returned with what was probably their loudest (and certainly most new-wave) track, "Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)" from their 2011 album Shangri-La, and then ended with the pure pop funness of "Psychic City" from their 2009 album See Mystery Lights, which was coincidentally the first of their albums to feature Claire.

So, will Y△CHT use this process to make another AI album?, we ask Claire after the gig. 'Yeah, I think some variation upon it. But by the time we sit down to make another record the technology will probably have evolved by leaps and bounds. It already has. Since releasing the album, the tools that we used are obsolete. So, I'm excited to try to find some other cobbled-together mix of futuristic tools for the next record that challenges us in the same way that this one did. I don't want to get stuck in a rut.' We were interested to find out whether, by using AI, they felt that some of the creative process of songwriting was taken away from them, but Claire was adamant that she did not feel that way at all. The process allowed them to end up with tons of song lyrics, from which a small percentage was useful. These would then be rearranged (or 'cut up') following a method which has its origins in Dadaist poetry, was famously used by the author William S. Burroughs, and also employed by David Bowie on some of his greatest and most-loved albums.

These single lines of subsequently rearranged lyrics were generated by inputting into the software not just the lyrics from Y△CHT's entire back-catalogue (to give the process an identity closer to the band's original style), but also lyrics from some of their favourite artists, such as Patti Smith or Bowie himself. We asked Claire whether they had to remove some of the generated lyrics because they appeared to be too close to something Bowie or Smith would have themselves written. 'No, the amount of data that you need to train a machine-running algorithm is so significant. I mean, it's literally like seven-hundred thousand pages of text. So the nuances get lost. It's more like you're teaching a machine English based on only song lyrics.' Last night really was a fantastic show, and when Claire addressed the audience in her effervescent manner it seemed especially intimate. We referred earlier to how Y△CHT are now making headlines for all the right reasons. It wasn't always thus: in 2016 they suffered what amounted to a PR disaster when they pretended that they were trying to stop a sex tape they had made from being leaked on the adult website Pornhub, which generated a lot of negative publicity. We personally found the video to be quite innovative – it has a disturbing sci-fi ending – but the band are very remorseful about the stunt and acknowledge that it was in bad taste and should never have been done.

Now, however, it is all about the future, in more ways than one. Thanks to their scientific knowledge, we know that using AI is really just the start of it. It is marvellous to have innovative standard-bearers in modern music today. We have felt that in recent years, there has been nothing new any more. Previous generations had Kraftwerk, Frippertronics, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound... there seemed to be very little new to be coming out of the studios for the current generation. This is now changing. Thank you, Y△CHT, for making the future of music a little more exciting and a little more cute. Read the full article

#AI #BobbyBirdman #ChainTripping #ClaireL.Evans #ColoursHoxton #JonaBechtolt #musicinnovation #Y△CHT #YACHT

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bffhreprise · 4 years

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Entry 324

After the limousine stopped at what I could only guess to be James’ home, I was guided out. I felt the change in the air as doors opened for us. Then there were popping sounds I couldn’t place immediately. Tiny.. confetti. Confetti and streamers landed on me. The popping was from the shooters.

“Maxine?” questioned someone as I was brought further inside.

“You brought her here?” questioned one of the twins. Ai and Mai were nearly inseparable from Lady Pendreigh, so their voices I knew well.

“Do we get to keep her?” asked the other twin, sounding threatening.

Being kept by them sounded much more appealing than personally watched by Lady Pendreigh. I very much doubted that they shared in Lady Pendreigh’s immortality, and they would certainly be tricked more easily.

James replied by asking “Have you and Portentia been hanging out, Ai? That’s precisely what she had asked.”

“You’re Ai? You said you were Mai!” complained a girl I didn’t recognize.

“Never trust the twins.” muttered someone familiar…

Brandon. I remembered his file, but I hadn’t bothered trying to get a voice profile for anyone employed at Best Friend For Hire. Losing my gear so completely never even occurred to me. My home should have been impregnable.

“She obviously just had me confused with my sister.” replied Ai, probably. The twins had identical voices.

I had once spent a large part of a day trying to find a way to differentiate between the two with no success.

“I can’t believe you were hanging out with Portentia and not telling me.” claimed Mai, having moved closer to where her sister stood. Telling them apart would be impossible without someone saying now.

“Who’s Maxine?” came the voice of a young girl.

“Her, obviously.” stated a masculine voice near the young girl. He sounded protective of her.

Ah. Jemal. He had a younger sister according to his company profile. James plucking him up had been fortuitous, given his dire straits. The poor boy had been on the verge of losing his sister after his father had died. His stepmother had moved down South, but she wouldn’t be useful leverage.

“Yes, but who is she!?” exclaimed Kayla, sounding very excited.

Kayla, however, could be very useful eventually. Children were typically easy to manipulate.

“What does she… like to eat?” questioned a voice that had to be Marco, the chef. He had a thick Italian accent and was very well-renowned by chefs who had met him.

“Who’s she?” asked Portentia, ignoring Marco. Her grip had been tightening on me when Kayla had spoken, possibly meaning she cared for the girl as well.

“Hi! I’m Iris.” replied someone I didn’t recognize. “I started part-time here while you were away.”

Great, an unknown element.

The general chatter suddenly cut off. Then James spoke, saying, “Due to unfortunate circumstances, Maxine will be staying with us indefinitely, so there will be plenty of time for questions later. Let’s just get on with the party for now.”

“Boss-man, sir, we should have Maxine sign her tenant’s agreement before the party.” suggested Aaliyah. Her voice was unmistakable.

“I don’t sign anything without my lawyer.” I informed her.

Placing a hand on my shoulder, Lady Pendreigh said, “I’ll go over the terms with you if you wish, but I can already assure you that there won’t be room for debate.”

“Fine, but I want to go through every detail.” I agreed, confident in Lady Pendreigh’s ability to understand legal code.

“No, you really don’t.” stated James. “That would probably take years.”

Visions suddenly swam through my head, making me see a forest. I could feel the wind on my skin. There were wings on my back! I could feel them. Whoever was doing this had realized James was coming home, spotting the vehicle and racing across the long yard here. This mansion was enormous, but I also could tell this person was very tiny. Leaves seemed far too large through her eyes. Abruptly, the visions ended.

“Boss-man, sir! She hadn’t gotten to finding the cake yet!” exclaimed Aaliya, sounding disappointed.

“Yes, well, we don’t need spoilers.” argued James.

“But it’d be like eating cake without the calories.” insisted Aaliyah.

Calories weren’t something that affected my body. Like Portentia, I could eat all day long. The food would simply be destroyed at regular intervals by some natural reaction of our bodies. There was a time I had attempted to harness that energy quite unsuccessfully.

“I like the sound of that.” agreed a girl I didn’t recognize.

“Me too.” concurred the girl from earlier who had been disappointed that the twins lied about their identities. “Marco, your cooking’s too good. I had to start working out more since I started dating Brandon.”

“Brandon has a girlfriend?” I asked in surprise. That update had certainly not made it into his file. Who would date him? Why?

“You know me?” asked Brandon stupidly. “Wait. Were you interested?”

“Hey now!” exclaimed his girlfriend, sounding like she stepped toward him.

A new vision distracted me. The forest had appeared in my mind again, and I could see some sort of creature I didn’t recognize.

“Maxine does not need help.” stated James, probably referring to the visions.

“I’m not opposed. There was something different in the image that time. How are you doing this? What is it I’m seeing?” I asked in earnest interest.

“You don’t know?” taunted Portentia.

“I wanted to see if you could have a seeing-eye fairy!” exclaimed a girl in a high, playful voice.

“A what?” I questioned, uncertain if she was just messing with me or had a peculiar naming sense for that magic. Surely there couldn’t be… Well, the size might argue the point. I had felt like I was flying with a distinct feeling of wings on my back.

A vision of the assembled group appeared, but the focus was on a tiny, luminescent girl fluttering around.

“I’m getting better, but I can’t keep this up for too long.” commented the playful girl shortly before the vision ended.

“Sight through magic? Camila would be most interested in learning that as well.” I mentioned, wishing again that my friend was with me.

“I love your hair. It’s so fluffy!” exclaimed Kayla from right next to me.

“Sh-She’s… d-dangerous.” warned a new voice, sotto and feminine. Someone timid might be easy to manipulate.

“Wow!” exclaimed Kayla, much farther from me. “Can we do that again?”

What had I missed? How had she moved?

“Dangerous!?” exclaimed Jemal, sounding nervous. “How so?”

“I’m not surprised. Everyone here is dangerous.” commented a boy in a dull tone, as if he was bored with what he was saying.

“But when has Raine ever called someone dangerous?” argued Jemal.

So the timid one was named Raine, but how he spoke of her… Was she actually someone dangerous with a voice like that!?

“Fair point.” agreed the bored boy.

“Maxine has a nefarious background, so you should be wary of her motives, but I doubt she’d try to harm anyone here. She’s like Portentia in that she heals instantly, but she can’t utilize any sort of magic.” explained James. Then he asked “Can she fight?”

“Not really. She needs her gizmos.” teased Portentia. Her sudden ability to fight as she did was still baffling.

“Do I get extra meals?” came another voice, soft and girlish while enunciating perfectly. She might be well-bred.

“No!” exclaimed Portentia. “There’s something weird about how she heals.”

“No. You’re the weird one.” I pointed out. “Don’t think I missed the strange shadows that follow you.”

“Sh-She’s like… l-like… Ariadne’s m-magic.” commented Raine. “I feel it.”

“Really?” questioned Lady Pendreigh in surprise. “What do you feel from Portentia then?”

“M-Myself.” replied Raine.

“Oh!” exclaimed James. “Raine, would you mind doing a few hundred laps around the city for me?” The doors behind us opened.

What was he playing at? Even flying in my suit, doing a single lap would take…

“B-Back.” stated Raine, her voice suddenly by the door.

I sighed, realizing this was some weird joke where they did ventriloquism through magic. Camila could pull something like that off. “Ha ha. Trying to prank the blind girl?”

“No. Raine is that fast.” stated Lady Pendreigh matter-of-factly. “Let’s be off and take care of your tenant agreement before I’m late for the party.

“If we must.” I replied, though my mind was still trying to calculate just how fast someone would have to be to do a few hundred laps around this city in… a second? Less? If they truly weren’t making a bad joke—which Lady Pendreigh joking at all seemed odd—then I had absolutely no explanation for how someone could manage such a feat. From what I knew of Lady Pendreigh, even she would take a good quarter hour to manage a single lap, by my rough calculations.

“Oh, we must! I’m not missing the cake twice in one day!” insisted Aaliyah, coming along with us.

Suddenly, I could taste a delectable, soft cake as if I was enjoying it myself. The feeling was enough to make me salivate.

,,,^._.^,,,

“James, can we talk for a bit?” I asked after Maxine, Alma, and Aaliyah had walked off.

He nodded and followed me out, down the hall, and into… I almost sighed. All of these rooms actually had names, but I never bothered memorizing them all. No one ever used this one to my knowledge.

“What’s up?” asked James once we were inside.

“Are you sure having Maxine here is a good idea?” I asked.

He shrugged and said, “No, but I don’t want to cover her in iron and bury her somewhere either. I doubt a jail would survive her even if they tried keeping her in solitary confinement. Here, Mila will keep tabs on her, and plenty of us can easily overpower her physically if necessary, though I very much doubt she could get around Mila.”

“I understand that, but…” I started, considering what he said. Assuming Maxine shared Portentia’s strength and agility as well as the healing, there wasn’t a cell designed to withstand her, especially not her intellect. She’d probably control the other inmates inside a week. “I suppose you’re right.”

“You might even enjoy chatting with her, given her expertise.” suggested James.

“Yes, I’m sure Ai and Mai will love that idea.” I sarcastically told him. “I will admit that Maxine’s brilliant. I’m surprised you’re okay with this.”

He shrugged again. “I assure you that I’ll be considering other options and will gladly take any from you as well. Portentia didn’t give us warning before bringing Maxine home, but I can understand why when she didn’t feel comfortable leaving Maxine to the police.”

“James, there’s a supervillain in your home.” I told him, unable to keep my smile suppressed. The geek in me was thrilled by the idea of a real-life supervillain. Maxine probably had a low level of super strength, super agility, and definitely a healing factor. Her mind might actually be up there with Lex Luthor or Doctor Doom.

“Crazy to think how much has changed in a year. I keep thinking about it and still find myself amazed.” stated James thoughtfully.

Abandoning my thoughts of Maxine for later, I said, “I know. Dude, I’m married already! You’re going to be married soon. We haven’t even been out of high school for a year. We could have kids in another year. Ever think about that? Some little baby with superhuman powers wanting your attention. How do you even go out with kids like we could have? Imagine one throwing a tantrum in public. Did you know they might not have their parents’ abilities?”

“Hold on.” requested James. “What’s that about their abilities?”

“So the Slayer family has some crazy lore, but Duncan can control air while Ai and Mai control water. That’s not because of their parents, it’s apparently random. The twins showed me some books discussing the abilities from different lines of the family.” I explained, surprised that James had never asked about it yet.

“I wonder what the limits are. Alma seemed interested in Jemal, Kayla, and Dejon’s abilities.” he admitted.

Nodding, I said, “Yeah, but those are from fey magic. People descended from the Slayer family and fey typically get one or the other for magic, not both, but having that fey ancestry gives a high probability for the magic to reoccur.”

“Lovely. I wonder if my magic can be passed along.” he commented, probably picturing children with his natural magic.

I had considered what that’d be like. James could eventually send his kids off to negotiate with outrageous advantages. If they didn’t take after his personality, they might become nigh-unstoppable, political forces. “No idea, but having a kid who’s impervious to magic might be a bit of a pain if he or she also has Alma’s knack for magic.” I pointed out.

“I can’t imagine that I’ll have kids for quite some time yet, so I’ll worry more about it after I see yours.” he replied, sounding too serious about the notion.

“Ever talk with Alma about it?” I asked, hoping he had.

“Well, no, but I don’t really think we need to yet.” he told me somewhat defensively.

“If you start thinking about something, you probably should start discussing it. Seriously, man. Better to find out if they’re ready to discuss something than to make assumptions and have it bite you.” I insisted, rubbing my arm as I remembered some of the discussions with Ai and Mai.

James nodded, looking amused but at least somewhat thoughtful. I didn’t envy him if Alma lost her temper and pummeled him. Even he might bruise for a minute or so if that happened.

#Best Friend For Hire Reprise #Best #Friend #For #Hire #Reprise #Jovial Times #Jovial #Times #Fantasy #Fiction #Story

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midz13 · 5 years

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Running with a theme

Apologies for not being rigorous with my updates; it's been a busy week, and by the time I've gotten home from the bus (I commute to and from uni, Edinburgh to Dundee) I'm rushing home to eat, do house work, then sleep!

I finished somewhat early today, and ran for bus, so I could get home and nap! I'm on the tail end of a cold, and had 3 nights on the trot with 4 hours sleep... So a nap was much needed.

Post nap, I'm currently sitting recovering on the sofa with tea and a blanket, and decided now was a good time to get Tumblr on my phone, to make updating easier, and perhaps a good way to use time on bus. So let me just get up to speed on the last week or so...

Originally I was idly thinking of idea and avenues to take with my final animation. Being very new to this field, I think it's imperial to have a tight narrative and focus early on, so I can really focus in the required skills to create the film; before this course, I'd never imagined myself creating animations.

I think it was the first week, I was on the bus home listening to music. Its usually that, or a podcast (The Blindboy Podcast to be exact)...

I have a habit, and have as long as I can remember, of getting lost in music. Usually this takes the form of imaging the music taking shape/life in the real world, such as imagining it as the soundtrack to an event/movie I'm in/watching (i.e. a movie where I'm sitting in bus looking out, or I'm in a particular era/time/event and the music informs this), or more regularly, I imagine a music video in my head to the song; This is more enjoyable, as it requires more from my imagination, and now that I think about it, a director's eye, camera work, lighting colour composition all that, to create an enjoyable experience. Its also exciting to time and link together the scenes to the music, and anticipate the music's structure, length, and shifts to coincide and inform the song.

This happened naturally on the way home this day. To give more background through, I've been interested in modeling/designing mechs, or robots, for a few weeks now. I found myself really gravitating towards them on Instagram and realised it would be a useful bridge from my hard surface basis in modeling, to character creation and sculpting. With this generally floating around in my head, and listening to music, the following happened;

Angel, by massive Attack came on. A very atmospheric and dark song. My mind immediately conjured a dark scene, cables and wires and an unwilling subject. A mother, or mother to be in an accident, her body salvaged illegally by a mercenary group creating killing machines, that utilizes the human brains capacity as a processor, while simultaneously blocking out the consciousness. The scene starts slowly, examining the robot top to bottom in a very practical and scientific/engineering way. Tags would show and point to components describing them, i.e. 'carbon fibre alloy 490psi leg assembly' etc... The music swells as these become more dramatic and threatening i.e. weapons, and then showing her face; a porcelain juxtaposition to the mechanical menace she now resides in. We would get the 'robots' view as she initiates, examining the surrounding with precision and utter logic. This is when a trigger would appear, perhaps a young female scientists who is pregnant. The mechs vision would show her identity the scientist, identify life signs within her and attempt to identify. The readout would be similar to a targeting system, with a label/readout describing said target. The infant/unborn child would readout ????? Or other garbled computer code. Then slowly spell out where is my baby. The vision becomes static and glitchy, WHERE IS MY BABY. This phrase replaces all text on the HUD. Eventually it covers the entire screen. The mech is no longer a machine, she awakes and assess herself, bound by mechanisms, wires, pipes... She realises slowly what has happened to her 'body'. Grief, anger, pain, horror, fear. This is a commentary perhaps of the common persons reaction when confronted with modern mechanised war. Something we aren't really shown, but usually the destruction and utter horror of war is repulsive to most. Perhaps this was my way of rationalising this within context? She would then use her monstrous military form to unleash utter havoc upon her place of rebirth, and destroy the facility. This is my favourite scene. As the music crescendos, lab ablaze, sirens firing, water streaming from fire systems, and the door to her escape ahead, blown open from her tiny dark laboratory, she stands defiant, camera set behind her huge frame, slightly lower to show his, the lab is dark, rugged, wet, fire, but the opening, which she stands before, dominating, is pure brilliant white and sending out a huge glow, her wings open to reveal this Angel.

This was overwhelming and super exciting for me. The story had structure, depth (if not through cheap means but hey, it's punchy) and meaning. The more I thought about it, the more I could extrapolate and understand why my brain had made these connections.

Is it a commentary on robotics and our fear of Ai? Or a fear of Integration, that were already seeing everywhere? Is it the world's normalisation of brutal, robotic warfare? Where men women and children are torn assunder by drones in the name of freedom? The unstoppable behamoth that is military technology and it's search for the perfect killing machine? All of these things and how it fits in with us, humans, ultimately an animal with primal desires fears and emotions. Something that probably won't change. I fell in love instantly.

Now I'm just terrified how to implement this. I've made a hand full of models in my short 2 years practicing part time alone. I've never properly animated or rigged, and I sure as hell have never made an animation.

Feels good to properly right down, I've discussed several times with some students, but I need more creative/critical feedback. I don't want to get tied down though, I know I'm very passionate already for it, and I feel it has legs, but it's only 2 weeks in, and perhaps further soul searching will find another story. I already have another, which I'll describe another time. But for now, it's serving as a catalyst for themes, imagery, ideas and a massive motivator. The thought of sharing what's in my head with people, if it's as good as I think, would be incredible.

Meeting with Brendan Body tomorrow hopefully to chat about it. Perhaps that will be a good litmus to its complexity and relevance. I made a mood board too after speaking with Lynsey Schaschke and describing my fear around my creative nebulous thoughts which my brain kind of 'fills in blanks' for; / when I need to draw it, it's an amorphous robot with no clear design, shape or even theme. Its like every robot or movie or game has informed my music video as a kind of colour by numbers, but when I try to convert that to paper, it's just blank. The mood board is my starting point for my colour by numbers. To pick and choose elements that I desire and make them my own.

Okay, this post is long enough, but it's got you up to speed. This is roughly where I am.

Yurt.

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

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Facebook launches Portal TV, a $149 video chat set-top box

Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching. If you can get past the creepiness, the new Portal TV lets you hang out with friends on your home’s biggest screen. It’s a fresh product category that could give the social network a unique foothold in the living room where unlike on phones where it’s beholden to Apple and Google, Facebook owns the hardware and operating system.

Today Facebook unveiled a new line of Portal devices that bring its auto-zooming AI camera, in-house voice assistant speaker, Alexa, apps like Spotify and newly added Amazon Prime Video, Messenger video chat, and now end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp video calls to smaller smart screen form factors.

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The $149 Portal TV is the star of the show, turning most televisions with an HDMI connection into a video chat device. And if you video call between two Portal TVs, you can use the new Watch Together feature to co-view Facebook Watch videos simultaneously while chilling together over picture-in-picture. The Portal TV is genius way for Facebook to make its hardware both cheaper yet more immersive by co-opting a screen you already own and have given a space in your life, thereby leapfrogging smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

There’s also the new pint-size 8-inch Portal Mini for just $129, which makes counter-top video chat exceedingly cheap. The 10-inch Portal that launched a year ago now has a sleeker, minimal bezel look with a price drop for $199 to $179. Both look more like digital picture frames, which they are, and can be stood on their side or end for optimal full-screen chatting. Lastly, the giant 15.6-inch Portal+ swivel screen falls to $279 instead of $349, and you still get $50 off if you buy any two Portal devices.

“The TV has been a staple of living rooms around the world, but to date it’s been primarily about people who are physically interacting with the device” Facebook’s VP of consumer hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth tells me at a press event inside a San Francisco victorian house. “We see the opportunity for people to use their TVs not just to do that but also to interact with other people.”

The new Portals all go on pre-sale today from Portal.facebook.com, Amazon, and Best Buy in the US and Canada plus new markets like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, and France (though the Hey Portal assistant only works in English). Portal and Portal Mini ship October 15th and Portal TV ships November 5th.

The whole Portal gang lack essential video apps like Netflix and HBO, and Boz claims he’s not trying to compete directly with Roku, Fire TV etc. Instead, Facebook is trying to win where it’s strongest, on communication and video chat where rivals lack a scaled social network.

“You’re kind of more hanging out. It isn’t as transactional. It’s not as urgent as when you sacrifice your left arm to the cause” explains Boz. Like how Fortnite created a way for people to just chill together while gaming remotely, Portal TV could do the same for watching television together, apart.

Battling The Creepiness

The original Portal launched a year ago to favorable reviews except for one sticking point: journalists all thought it was too sketchy to bring Facebook surveillance tech inside their homes. Whether the mainstream consumer feels the same way is still a mystery as the company has refused to share sales numbers. Though Boz told me “The engagement, the retention numbers are all really positive”, we haven’t seen developers like Netflix rush to bring their apps to the Portal platform.

To that end, privacy on Portal no longer feels clipped on like the old plastic removable camera covers. “We have to always do more work to grow the number of people who have that level of comfort, and bring that technology into their home” says Boz. “We’ve done what we can in this latest generation of products, now with integrated camera covers that are hardware, indicator lights when the microphone is off, and form factors that are less obtrusive and blend more into the background of the home.”

One major change stems from a scandal that spread across the tech sector, with Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook all being criticized for quietly sending voice clips to human reviewers to improve speech recognition in what felt like a privacy violation. “Part of the Portal out-of-box experience is going to be a splash screen on data storage and it will literally walk through how . . . when we hear ‘Hey Portal’ a voice recording and transcription is sent, it may be reviewed by humans, and people have the ability to opt out.”

Facebook will let users disable storage of Portal voice snippets

But if Portal is battling the perception of creepiness, why make human reviews the default? Boz defended the move from the perspective of accessibility. “We say ‘oh they’re good enough’ but for a lot of people that might have a mild speech impediment, a subtle accent, who might use different words because they’re from a different region, these assistants aren’t inclusive.” He claims more voice data reviewed by humans means better products for everyone, though I bet better sales for Facebook wouldn’t hurt.

Instead, Facebook is leaning on the evolution of the smart screen market in general to help its camera blend in. “The more value we can create, not just any one player but as an entire industry, that allows consumers to feel – ‘yeah, I both am comfortable with how the data is being used and why’.”

One reason Facebook is forging forward despite all the criticism about launching a “surveillance” device amidst its scandals: this is its shot to control its destiny, unlike on phones. Facebook has always been vulnerable to Apple and Google since its app lives in their app stores on their devices. “You don’t have a huge amount of influence over what the phone itself is or what the operating system provides. You’re kind of at the mercy of what those manufactures or developers provide you” Boz notes. With Portal, Facebook can ensure communication tech like cameras stay part of the smart home, even if they’re creepy now.

Hands-On With The New Portals

The Portal and Portal Mini work just like last year’s models, but without the big speaker bezel, they can be flipped on their side and look much more like picture frames while running Portal’s Smart Frame showing your Facebook, Instagram, or camera roll photos.

Portal TV’s flexible form factor is a clever innovation, first spotted as “Codename: Ripley” by Jane Manchun Wong and reported by Alex Heath for Cheddar a year ago. It has an integrated stand for placing the gadget on your TV console, but that stand also squeezes onto a front wing to let it clip onto both wide and extremely thin new flatscreen televisions. With just an HDMI connection it brings a 12.5 megapixel, 120-degree camera and 8 mic array to any tube. It also ships with a stubby remote control for basic browsing without having to shout across the room.

Portal TV includes an integrated smart speaker that can be used even when the TV is off or on a different input, and offers HDMI CEC for control through other remotes. The built-in camera cover gives users peace of mind and a switch conjures a red light to signal that all sensors are disabled. Overall, control responsiveness felt a tad sluggish but passable.

Portal’s software is largely the same as before with a few key improvements, the addition of WhatsApp, and one big bonus feature for Portal TVs. The AI Smart Camera is the best part, automatically tracking multiple people to keep everyone in frame as zoomed-in as possible. Improved adaptive background modeling and human pose estimation lets it keep faces in view without facial recognition, and all video processing is done locally on the device. A sharper Spotlight feature lets you select one person, like a child running around the room, so you don’t miss the gymnastics routines.

The Portal app platform that features Spotify and Pandora is gaining Amazon’s suite of apps, starting with Prime Video while Ring doorbell and smart home controls are on the way. Beyond Messenger calls and AR Storytime where you don characters’ AR masks as you read aloud a children’s book, there are new AR games like Cats Catching Donuts With Their Mouths. Designed for kids and casual players, the games had some trouble with motion tracking and felt too thin for more than a few seconds of play. But if Facebook gave Portal TV a real controller or bought a better AR games studio, it could dive deeper into gaming as a selling point.

WhatsApp is the top new feature for all the Portals. Though you can’t use the voice assistant to call people, you can now WhatsApp video chat friends with end-to-end encryption rather than just Messenger’s encryption in transit. The two messaging apps combined give Portal a big advantage over Google and Amazon’s devices since their parents have screwed up or ignored chat over the years. Still, there’s no way to send text messages which would be exceedingly helpful.

Reserved for Portal TV-to-Portal TV Messenger chats is the new Watch Together feature we broke the news of a year ago after Ananay Arora spotted it in Messenger’s code. This lets you do a picture-in-picture video chat with friends while you simultaneously view a Facebook Watch video. It even smartly ducks down the video’s audio while friends are talking so you can share reactions. While it doesn’t work with other content apps like Prime Video, Watch Together shows the potential of Portal: passive hang out time.

“Have you ever thought about how weird bowling is, Josh? Bowling is a weird thing to go do. I enjoy bowling. I don’t enjoy bowling by myself that much. I enjoy going with other people” Boz tells me. “It’s just a pretext, it’s some reason for us to get together and have some beers and to have time and have conversation. Whether it’s video calling or the AR games . . . those are a pre-text, to have an excuse to go be together.”

This is Portal’s true purpose. Facebook has always been about time spent, getting deeper into your life, and learning more about you. While other companies’ products might feel less creepy or be more entertaining, none have the ubiquitous social connection of Facebook and Portal. When your friends are on screen too, a mediocre game or silly video is elevated into a memorable experience. You can burn hours simply co-chilling. With Portal TV, Facebook finally has something unique enough to possibly offset its brand tax and earn it a place in your home.

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technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

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Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching. If you can get past the creepiness, the new Portal TV let you hang out with friends on your home’s biggest screen. It’s a fresh product category that could give the social network a unique foothold in the living room where unlike on phones where it’s beholden to Apple and Google, Facebook owns the hardware and operating system.

The $149 Portal TV is the star of the show, turning most televisions with an HDMI connection into a video chat smart screen. And if you video call between two Portal TVs, you can use the new Watch Together feature to co-view Facebook Watch videos simultaneously while chilling together over picture-in-picture. The Portal TV is genius way for Facebook to make its hardware both cheaper yet more immersive by co-opting a screen you already own and have given a space in your life, thereby leapfrogging smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

“The TV has been a staple of living rooms around the world, but to date it’s been primarily about people who are physically interacting with the device” says Facebook’s VP of consumer hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We see the opportunity for people to use their TVs not just to do that but also to interact with other people.”

The whole Portal gang lack essential video apps like Netflix and HBO, and Boz claims he’s not trying to compete directly with Roku, Fire TV etc. Instead, Facebook is trying to compete where it’s strongest, on communication and video chat where rivals lack a scaled social network.

Battling The Creepiness

To that end, privacy on Portal no longer feels clipped on like the old plastic removeable camera covers. “We have to always do more work to grow the number of people who have that level of comfort, and bring that technology into their home” says Boz. “We’ve done what we can in this latest generation of products, now with integrated camera covers that are hardware, indicator lights when the microphone is off, and form factors that are less obtrusive and blend more into the background of the home.”

One major change stems from a scandal that spread across the tech sector, with Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook all being criticized for quietly sending voice clips to human reviewers to improve speech recognition in what felt like a privacy violation. “Part of the Portal out-of-box experience is going to be a splash screen on data storage and it will literally walk through how . . . when we hear ‘hey Portal’ a voice recording and transcription is sent, it may be reviewed by humans, and people have the ability to opt out.”

But if Portal if battling the perception of creepiness, why make human reviews the default? Boz defended the call from the perspective of accessibility. “We say ‘oh they’re good enough” but for a lot of people that might have a mild speech impedentment, a subtle accent, who might use different words because they’re from a different region, these assistants aren’t inclusive.” He claims more voice data reviewed by humans means better products for everyone, though better sales for Facebook wouldn’t hurt.

Hands-On With The New Portals

If you can get past Facebook’s toxic brand, the new Portals are quite pleasing. They’re remarkably polished products for a company just a year into selling consumer hardware. They all feel sturdy and elegant enough to place in your kitchen or living room. The Portal and Portal Mini work just like last year’s models, but without the big speaker bezel, they can be flipped on their side and look much more like picture frames while running Portal’s Smart Frame showing your Facebook, Instagram, or Camera roll photos.

Portal TV’s flexible form factor is a clever innovation, first spotted as “Codename: Ripley” by Jane Manchun Wong and reported by Alex Heath for Cheddar a year ago. It has an integrated stand for placing on your TV console, but that stand also squeezes onto a front wing to let it clip onto both wide and extremely thin new flatscreen televisions. With just an HDMI connection it brings a 12.5 megapixel, 120-degree camera and 8 mic array to any tube. It also ships with a stubby remote control for basic browsing without having to shout across the room. TechCrunch.

Portal TV includes an integrated smart speaker that can be used even when the TV is off or on a different input, and offers HDMI CEC for control through other remotes. The built-in camera cover gives users piece of mind and a switch conjures a red light to signal that all sensors are disabled. Overall, control felt a tad sluggish but passable.

Portal’s software is largely the same as before with a few key improvements, the addition of WhatsApp, and one big bonus feature for Portal TVs. The AI Smart Camera is the best part, automatically tracking multiple people to keep everyone in frame as zoomed in as possible. Improved adaptive background modeling and human pose estimation lets it keep faces in view without facial recognition, and all video processing is done locally on the device. A sharper Spotlight feature lets you select one person, like a child running around the room so you don’t miss the gymnastics routines.

The Portal app platform that features Spotify and Pandora is gaining Amazon’s suite of apps, starting with Prime Video while Ring doorbell and smart home controls are on the way. Beyond Messenger calls and AR Storytime where you don related AR masks as you read aloud a children’s book, there are new AR games like Cats Catching Donuts With Their Mouths. Designed for kids and casual players, the games had some trouble with motion tracking and felt too thin for more than a few seconds of play. But if Facebook gave Portal TV a real controller or bought a better AR games studio, it could dive deeper into gaming as a selling point.

“Have you ever thought about how weird bowling is, Josh? Bowling is a weird thing to go do. I enjoy bowling, I don’t enjoy bowling by myself that much. I enjoy going with other people” Boz tells me. “It’s just a pretext, it’s some reason for us to get together and have some beers and to have time and have conversation. Whether it’s video calling or the AR games . . . those are a pre-text, to have an excuse to go be together.”

This is Portal’s true purpose. Facebook has always been about time spent, getting deeper into your life, and learning more about you. While other companies’ products might feel less creepy or be more entertaining, none have the ubiquitous social connection of Facebook and Portal. When your friends are on screen to, a mediocre game or silly video is elevated into a memorable experience. With Portal TV, Facebook finally has something unique enough to offset its brand tax and earn it a place in your home.

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