#it may be difficult to believe how good they are when theyve hurt you so badly but [one of them is] trying to change for the better | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kuromichad · 3 years

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different subject that’s heavy on my mind rn but since i’m already being harsh let’s get into it. i wish it wasn’t automatically presumed to be some kind of truscum attitude when someone tries to express that different parts of The Trans Community have like, different needs and different risk levels and different experiences and that we have the ability to talk over each other, harm each other, etc... like when i put it that way people generally are like ‘of course that’s true!’ but is it ever really understood in practice? a number of people (not a large enough number, but still) are able to loosely understand ‘you can be trans and transphobic’ when it’s applied to the matter of transmisogyny but when a trans person tries to express distrust of or frustration with afab nb people due to how common it is that that category of person will, despite being trans/nb, espouse bioessentialist, anti-medical-transition, radfem-adjacent if not outright cryptoterf rhetoric, suddenly ‘trans people can be transphobic’ gets applied to... the person with a complaint about transphobia.

because he’s clearly an evil truscum man! regardless of if the person making the complaint is a trans man or trans woman, oops, lol. he’s a bad person who is attacking and invalidating and totally hatecriming the heckin’ valid, equally at-risk transgender identity of “an afab woman who isn’t a woman except when she pointedly categorizes themself as a woman because being afab makes them a woman who is ‘politically aligned’ with women but she’s not an icky unwoke cis woman because they don’t like being forced into womanhood although Really When You Think About It 🤔 all women are dysphoric because obviously the pathologized medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria in transgender people is something that equally applies to cis women just default existing under patriarchy 🤔, and no, equating these things totally does not imply anything reductive about or add a bizarre moral dimension to the idea of being transgender, whaaaaat, this woman who isn’t a woman doesn’t think there’s anything immoral or cowardly or misogynist or delusional about being transgender, they would never say that because THEY’RE transgender, except when she feels it’s important (constantly) to make clear that she’s Still A Woman Deep Down Inherently Despite Not Identifying As One, and none of this ever has any effect on how they treat the concept, socially and politically, of people who actually wholly identify with (and possibly medically transition to) a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth, be it ‘the opposite gender’ or abstaining from binary gender altogether or ‘politically aligning’ with the ‘opposite’ gender from their asab. never ever!”

and like maybe that sounds like a completely absurd and hateful strawman to you! but in that case you’re either like, lucky, or optimistic, or ignorant. i’m literally not looking at random nb people and declaring that in My Truscum Opinion they’re ‘really a woman’ just because they’re not medically transitioning or meeting some arbitrary standard of mine. i am looking at self-identified afab nb people, who most often use she/they because, y’know, words mean things, especially pronouns, so people who are willingly ‘aligned with womanhood’ typically intentionally use she/her (sorry that i guess that’s another truscum take now!!! that pronouns mean things!!! the bigender transmasc who deliberately uses exclusively he/him wants it to invoke a perception he’s comfortable with!), who actively say the things listed above (in a non-sarcastic manner).

like, the line between a person who says “i don’t claim to really not be my asab because i know no one would ever perceive me as anything else” because theyve internalized a defeatist attitude due to societal transphobia, and a person who says that because they... genuinely believe it’s impossible/ridiculous/an imposition to truly be transgender (in the traditional trans sense, beyond a vague nb disidentification with gender) and are actively contributing to the former person’s self loathing... is hard to define from a distance! i think plenty of people who are, in a sense, ‘tentative’ or like ‘playing close to home’ so to speak in their identity are ‘genuinely trans’ (whatever that may mean) and just going through a process. they might arrive at a different identity or might just eventually stop saying/believing defeatist stuff, who knows. but there are enough people saying it for the latter reason, or at least not caring if they sound that way, that it’s like, dangerous. it is actively incredibly harmful to other trans people. and it’s fucking ridiculous that it’s so difficult to criticize because you’ll always get the defense of “umm but i’m literally trans” and/or “well i’m just talking about ME, this doesn’t apply to other trans people” when it’s an attitude that very clearly seeps into their politics and the way they discuss gender.

because it’s just incredibly common for afab nb people (most typically those that go by she/they! since i’m aware that uh, i am also afab nb, but we clearly are extremely different, so that’s the best categorization i’ve got) to discuss gender in moralized terms, with the excuse of patriarchy/misogyny existing, which of course adds another difficult dimension to trying to criticize this because it gets the response of “don’t act like misandry is real” (it’s not, but being a dick still is) and “boohoo, let women complain about their oppressors” (this goes beyond ‘complaining’). a deliberate revocation of empathy/sympathy/compassion from men and projection of inherently malicious/brutish/cruel intent onto men (not solely in the justified generalizations ‘men suck/are dangerous’, but in specific interactions too) underpin a whole fucking lot of popular posts/discussions online, whether they’re political or casual/social, and it absolutely influences how people conceptualize and feel about transness.

because ‘maleness is evil’ is still shitty politics even when you’ve slightly reframed it from the terf ‘trans women are evil because they’re Really Men and can never escape being horrific soulless brutes just as women can never escape being fragile morally superior flowers’ to the tumblr shethey “trans women who are out to me/unclockable are tolerable i guess because they’re women and women are good; anyone i personally presume to be a cis man, though, is still automatically evil, and saying trans men are Just As Bad is progressive of me, and it’s totally unrelated and apolitical that i think we should expand the concept of afab lesbianism so broadly that you can now be basically indistinguishable from trans men on literally every single level except for a declaration of ‘but i would never claim to be a man because i’m secure in the Innate Womanhood of the body i was born into, even as i medically alter that body because it causes me great gendered discomfort.’ none of this at all indicates that i feel there’s an immense moral/political gap between being an afab nb lesbian vs a straight trans man! it says nothing at all about my concept of ‘maleness’ and there’s no way this rhetoric bleeds into my perception of trans women and no way loudly talking about all this could keep trans people around me self-loathing and closeted, because i’m Literally Trans and Not A Terf!”

again, if that sounds like a hateful strawman, sorry but it’s not. i guess i’m supposed to be like ‘all of the many people ive seen saying these shitty things is an evil outlier who Doesn’t Count, and it’s not fair to the broad identity of afab shethey to not believe that every person who doesn’t outright say terfy enough things is a perfectly earnest valid accepting trans person who’s beyond criticism’ but like. this cannot be about broad validation. this can’t be about discarding all the bad apples as not really part of the group. we can’t be walking on eggshells to coddle what are essentially, in the end, Cis Feelings, because in the best cases this kind of rhetoric comes from naive people who are early and uncertain in their gender journey or whatever and are in the process of unraveling internalized transphobia, and in the easily observable worst cases these people are very literally redefining shit so that ‘actually all afab women are trans, spiritually, all afabs have dysphoria, we are all Equally oppressed by Males uh i mean cis men <3’ because, let’s be honest, they know that the moment they call themselves trans they get to say whatever they want about gender no matter how harmful it is to the rest of us. and those ideas spread like wildfire through the afab shethey “woman that’s not a woman” community that frankly greatly outnumbers other types of trans people online, because many of those people just do not have the experiences that lead you to really understand this shit and have to push back against concepts of gender that actively harm you as a trans person.

like that’s all i want to be able to say, is Things Are Different For Different Groups. and a willful ignorance of these differences leads to bad rhetoric controlling the overall discourse which gets people hurt. and even when concepts arise from it that seem positive and helpful and inclusive, in practice or in origin those ideas can still be upholding shit that gets other people hurt. like, i don’t doubt that many people are very straightforwardly happy and comfortable with an identity like ‘afab nb lesbian on testosterone’ and it would be ridiculous and hypocritical for me, ‘afab nb who wants to pass as a guy so he can comfortably wear skirts again,’ to act like that’s something that can’t or shouldn’t exist. it’s not about the identity itself, it’s about the politics that are popular within its community, and how the use of identities as moral labels with like, fucking pokemon type interactions for oppression effectiveness which directly informs the moral correctness of your every opinion and your very existence, is a shitty practice that gets people hurt and leads us to revoke empathy from each other.

like. sorry this is all over the place and long and probably still sounds evil because i haven’t thought through and disclaimered every single statement. but i’m like exhausted from living with this self-conscious guilt that maybe i’ve turned into a horrible evil truscum misogynist etc etc due to feeling upset by this seemingly inescapable approach to gender in lgbt/online circles that like, actively harms me, because when i vent with my friends all the stuff i’ve tried to explain here gets condensed down to referencing ‘she/theys’ as a category and that feels mean and generalizing and i genuinely dislike generalizations but the dread i feel about that category gets proven right way too often. it’s just like. this is not truscum this is not misgendering this is not misogyny. this is not about me decreeing that all transmascs have to be manly enough or dysphoric enough and all nbs have to be neatly agender and androgynous or something, i’m especially not saying that nb gender isn’t real lmao or even that it’s automatically wrong to partially identify with your asab; this is not me saying you can only medically transition for specific traditional reasons or that you don’t get a say on anything if you aren’t medically transitioning for whatever reason, now or ever. i just. want to be allowed to be frank about how... when there’s different experiences in a community we should like. acknowledge those differences and be willing to say that sometimes people don’t know what they’re talking about or that what they’re saying is harmful. without the primary concern being whether people will feel invalidated by being told so. because these are like, real issues, that are more important than politely including everyone, because that method is just getting vulnerable people drowned out constantly.

#source on much of this: existing as a transmasc on tumblr for years and years.#i stopped identifying as any sort of 'woman-aligned' pretty much right before the ridiculous 'all afabs are dysphoric' stuff #but it sure did still make me hate myself and feel like a silly cowardly ugly little girl for wanting to transition!#and back when i WAS a she/they i definitely was falling for 'men are bad maleness is bad always inherently :)' rhetoric #not in the modern form outlined above but in the like. brainlessly parroted from 'baeddel tumblr' form #which was still like 'you can escape being a Bad Person by either becoming or admitting you are a girl :)'#and the only acknowledgment of trans men in this ideology was like. 'well i guess they feel like they have to do that :\'#'too bad for them. im not saying they shouldnt transition but you know. men suck though <3'#it was bad for me it was bad for other people so im saying from experience. Fucking cut it out! the end

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wizisbored · 3 years

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What are some of your favorite lines you've written for your fics? (Also I'm sorry things aren't going well right now. Sending love 💜)

right its time to go diggin im using this as an excuse to reread everything because i cant think of any lines off the top of my head even though i know theres a shitton

premptively putting a cut here because this will probably end up long as shit and you know what fuck yea to that because fuck yea to being proud of what youve made

hallelujah, first thing i posted:

If those bastards want to make her part of their shitty musical, then she’s going to make it difficult. Or at least inconvenient.

The hive is not inconvenienced in the slightest.’

- idk if this is as funny as i think it is but i find it funny

"Nobody dies with dignity, Emma. There's no honour in the thing, however you dress it up."

- wrote that to sound creepy and now i cant decide whether i actually think its true

But he’s holding her like she’s his salvation, as if it’s his life hanging in the balance.

- salvation is just a good word tbh

It’s hopeless, but she refuses to be killed by a game of fucking ‘got your nose’.

purgatory, intended to be a shitpost but now i unironically think of it as the best thing ive ever written

After a few years (or maybe seconds, it’s not clear) / it takes a moment (or maybe it doesn’t, who knows?) / An undocumentable amount of time passes. / They might have slipped into an uneasy silence lasting millenia - or milliseconds - if it wasn’t for the jolly tune that suddenly fills the air. / for minutes or years or millenia or maybe even eons / After a brief, indescribably long nap / But the incomprehensible amount of time seems somehow shorter this time.

- 2 in one of fucking with the concept of time and hinting at an unreliable narrator, hell yea. its about the weird atmosphere, baybeeeee

“Does one day of trying the hardest we could outweigh years of not trying at all?” Emma wonders aloud. Paul squeezes her hand.

“I damn hope so.”

He doesn’t ask if she believes in Hell.

- even without context i like this line but in context it really helped set the sombre tone so i could do a full 180 at the end of the chapter

Emma wonders whether they’ve been sent to musical hell for failing to stop the musical apocalypse

- love the implication that there is a hell dedicated to annoying people via musical theatre

“You said- you told her you’d never be in a musical?”

“Yes.”

“And then you died performing a musical number?”

“I- yeah, I did.”

“Brilliant! Now, that is stupid!”

- probably my best characterisation of death, sounds like something that would be said in a stupid deaths bit, i can hear it in his voice

teachers pet

“It’s only blatant if people know about it. So in actual fact this is secret favouritism.”

- hidgens gives absolutely 0 shits about the ethics of the situation good for him

“And if that is kidnapping, well, consider yourself kidnapped.”

- once again ethics simply do not matter

“Oh, where is your sense of adventure? Are you not curious about the results of washing baked beans?”

- this line hants me when im trying to make stew or just have some fucking beans on toast because I am curious about the results of washing baked beans

“Well, if it isn’t, and we both die, then I’ll be quite disappointed. We did spend all evening on this, after all.”

- priorities

finishing what we started, actually originally a scrapped ending idea for igtlt that i liked too much to abandon entirely

“How many bullets?” He eventually asks.

“Enough.”

- they just know what theyve got to do

Only thing left to say is a big ol’ fuck you to… God, everyone else in the fucking world. Oh, and God. Fuck you God, you prick.

- gotta love them tto refs

wildfire, almost 20,000 words of angst that im going to read through because fuck it why not

She doesn't understand the order, at least not yet; a dog doesn't understand the first time she's called to heel. But that can change. Though, from the bared teeth of this dog, the trader guesses it may take a while.

- this is actually something i really like doing in narration, calling a character something in dialogue or comparison and then directly calling them it in the narration

He understands; she doesn't want to show weakness to someone who could exploit her, doesn't want to show gratitude to someone she hates. But the tribeswoman is tired and scared and hurt, and it's obvious. She's broken, at least for today.

The loneliness, however, refuses to wane. It settles in her chest like a physical need, a craving for closeness.

- got inspiration for this description by thinking about hugging my partner while i was stuck in lockdown

"You can say that again," the older woman mutters, shaking her head. "God-fuckin'-damnit, Lauren, why d'you never think about the implications?"

Jemilla turns to her with a questioning look. "Who's Lauren?"

"She-" Molag begins to explain, then pauses. She thinks for a moment, then shakes her head. "I don't even know."

- crossover jokes hell yea

He’s tolerable, she’s decided, at least relatively so, but not trustworthy. If she could truly trust him then he wouldn’t be involved in all this. If she could trust him, she wouldn’t know him.

The thinly-veiled threat in his grin

She stares up at the man, shaking, whimpering, pleading. Wordlessly begging for him to stop.

- gotta love reaching the breaking point

She probably looks insane, bruised and bloody and laughing quietly to herself in a cage. She doesn’t care. They can think she’s insane, just as long as they don’t think they broke her.

laughing as they rediscover half-forgotten days spent as children let loose in a world that seemed so huge and yet so small at the same time

“You know, kids like Zazzalil - scrawny little things born as Autumn died - they’re not supposed to see Spring.”

- i will see any character without a detailed fleshed-out backstory and say ‘is anyone going to make headcannons about that’ and then not wait for an answer

Maybe the pain will shock her out of her head.

im going to live twice

It feels more like a bag of broken crockery than a human.

- this was the only time ive ever had to describe something really gory and decided to make it as uncomfy as possible

she notices with a concerning level of non-concern

Paul Matthews is gone, boy. And if I catch you using a dead man’s name again, well.

- its about the ✨forced disconnect✨

It stares at him, and for a moment he sees the young man that Benny used to be, silently pleading for the agent to tell him he'll be okay.

"In my defence, that was the Colonel's idea.” The man raises his hands in surrender. “I wanted to call you Lauren. I was outvoted.”

- i will take literally any chance to make a 4th wall joke and that is a threat

“I’ll see what can be done,” he assures it, knowing full well that nothing will be.

- xander doesnt flat out abuse emma in the way mcnamara and shaffer do but hes still cruel in subtler ways

“No chance of being hurt?”

Xander nods. “No chance of you being hurt.”

- ✨foreshadowing ✨

If only he was free, free to just get up and go find Blue and tell her - actually tell her, out loud, with words - that she’s going to be okay. If only he could say that and have it be the truth.

She holds onto that piano. Right now, as she kneels crying into the tabletop, it's all she has.

- ‘sir thats my emotional support near-complete stranger’

smoke and feathers

Irony can be a cruel, twisted bitch.

- probably the best opener ive written

There’s a sort of pathetic irony in the fact that she slipped on a stone while wading across a shallow stream and broke her neck.

The stars move across the sky, and she still doesn’t know why.

- sounds poetic and all while also being a fuck you to the chorn twist because i hate it

It seems like every time she looks away the moon goes from waxing to waning and back again, time marching onwards in one unending night, swallowing one unending forest.

Even with her limited view of the person’s face, Zazzalil can see the softness in their expression. She’s hit with a pang of longing for Jemilla.

They share those tender looks that make Zazzalil long for home.

The kind of silence only shared between people who can appreciate the simplicity of each other’s presence

aaand thats pretty much all of em. i know when you said ‘some’ you probably meant less than this but i will give a consice answer to a question when pigs fly. i was going to do the double e au too but its past 1 am now and im going to bed. thanks for this ask because whether intentionally or not you just made me read 48,860 words of fic and thats a damn good distraction when things are getting a bit shitty :)

#igtlt fic #wildfire fic #teachers pet fic #sf fic

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oblio-k · 5 years

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ANYWAYS ive been working on a mila fic whenever im exhausted and here it is. whether it’s love or manipulation is up to the readers

Invitation

As Mila pulls a weed from the little garden she’s started behind her employer's mansion, she finds it hard to keep her mind from wandering. From thinking about how her life is so different now.

She forces herself to use the word different because if she uses another word she fears she may start crying. And if that happens, someone would undoubtedly see her, and her employer would take her aside and ask her if she was alright in a way that would sound kind but could drag any answer out of her that he wanted. She likes working for him and vastly prefers this life, this job to her old one. Crying will just make things difficult.

Master Tain had been cruel and treated her as if she was nothing if he noticed that she existed at all. She’d been on the receiving end of his wrath quite frequently and had been left with bruises more than she cared to admit.

Agent Tain is cruel, but never to her. To her, he’s careful and kind, respectful. He goes out of his way to spend time with her and never raises a hand to her. When he looks at her, he doesn’t look through her, and she’s glad to be acknowledged.

She knows he’s only so kind because she knows who he really is. Who he isn’t, rather. But she likes to think it’s also because they’re friends. Or, at least, are becoming friends.

But when she looks at him when he’s working, she’s reminded of how they met, and she can’t stop her hands from trembling just a bit. Before meeting Agent Tain, she’d only ever seen people die from old age or illness. She’d never seen people be murdered. She’d never seen people be or had been interrogated, never had to learn how to use a weapon-

“Miss Garak.”

When she stands and turns, Enabran is behind her. At first, his ability to sneak up on her, to appear out of nowhere, had scared her. Now, it still frightens her, but she doesn’t worry he will hurt her. He’s had so many opportunities to get rid of her, to eliminate the last person besides his superiors that knew his secret, but he’s never taken them. She is alive and unharmed, save for a scratch on her palm from a tool she’d grabbed the wrong end of while gardening.

Before she can greet him, she sees the wound cutting across his abdomen. It’s as if someone had slashed him with a sharp knife. One hand presses tightly against the large wound, like he’s keeping himself from spilling open, though it does nothing to stop the flow of blood. A smaller puncture wound by his clavicle bleeds profusely. She forces herself to get over her shock after looking at each injury and takes his free arm around her shoulders. He leans against her and she helps him inside.

It’s not the first time he’s come to her with injuries, and she can never tell if he is in pain. Enabran is silent as they walk to the master bedroom, and his breathing is steady. It’s not typical for an Obsidian Order agent to appear immune to any injury, from what she’s overheard and seen.

She’s not entirely sure she knows why that is. Mila suspects he’s not a normal agent, that these assassination and interrogation attempts come so frequently because he is proof of something his superiors would very much like to erase.

He sits on the edge of his bed and she washes the dirt from her hands and retrieves the medical kit he has hidden away. It takes a moment for the wall panel to open when she lets it scan her palm, and when she turns around, Enabran is pulling off his bloodied, torn shirt. There are no wounds on his back, and he lies down as she opens up the kit next to him.

Mila doesn’t understand why he trusts her. Still, she dutifully heals him and when the medical scanner picks up an odd substance in his system, she asks, “Have you been poisoned, sir?”

“It’s a truth serum,” he replies, an odd smile on his face. His voice is completely level, as if he hadn’t almost bled to death. “A very strong one.”

“But it doesn’t work on you.”

“Of course it d-doesn’t.” His voice cracks, and he closes his eyes. But he’s too late to hide it when she’s looking directly at him. His pupils dilate. Bizarrely, he begins to laugh. “Why would it work? I’m Cardassian.”

It means something, that. An inside joke that she’s not privy to the context of. But Enabran glances at her, an invitation for her to investigate. He won’t be upset if she finds out what that means- he wants her to, she’s almost sure. The secret she knows could destroy everything he’s worked for, what’s another?

“Miss Garak, are you finished?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you. Would you get me a cup of tea?” Master Tain had never thanked anyone. Agent Tain never thanked anyone unless he was manipulating them, and even then, only rarely. Enabran always thanks her. She likes to think it’s genuine. He rubs his eyes as she turns, and sits up.

He has a small tea set in his bedroom, a little burner and a few boxes of the different teas he’s collected on his travels. It’s an indulgence of his, and he’ll get a distant look in his eyes for a moment when she hands the cup to him.

She’s thrilled and worried about noticing and knowing these little details about him. It’s an exposure of that part of him from before.

A weakness he would cease if she dared to point it out.

“Make a cup for yourself,” he adds.

“Yes, sir.”

She picks an herbal blend with a pleasant taste she knows will help with his recovery and help relax her nerves. Blood still isn’t something she’s very used to, especially not large quantities of it. Perhaps in a few years, it won’t faze her.

A few years. She’ll be lucky if he lets her live that long, and she’s not sure what she’s feeling when she realizes she only ever thinks about her future being here, serving him.

By the time the tea is done, he’s changed into fresh clothing, a garish orange turtleneck covered by a drab green shirt, with black pants that don’t match the rest of the outfit at all. Fashion is not something he’s good at, but then again, he seems to be good at everything if asked. She’s sure if she requested it, and he was so inclined, he could choose an outfit fitting of his position as heir to the Tain fortune.

As he takes the cup from her and doesn’t even check it for poison, she thinks to herself that he would very likely be inclined to do what she asked. But she won’t. She knows her place.

“Miss Garak, how is your garden?”

“It’s doing quite well. My brother sent me some seeds to try growing, and they’ve finally begun to sprout.”

“Tolan, correct?”

“Yes, sir.” She’d never told him her brother’s name before. “I’m afraid I’ll never quite meet his skill for flowers.”

“I never understood why people enjoy flowers so much.”

“They’re beautiful. People like to look at nice things.” He opens his mouth to say something and hesitates. Perhaps the truth serum is affecting him more than he wants to admit, though she doesn’t know what he could possibly say about flowers that he wouldn’t want anyone to hear. She asks a question that she thinks will be inconsequential, “If there’s anything you would like to see in the garden, I would plant it for you.”

“No. I’m sure whatever you grow will look beautiful.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Though perhaps you should grow more edible plants than flowers. It’s been quite some time since I was last able to eat something that I’d picked myself.” That distant look. Then his pupils grow large and he looks down at his tea as he says, “When I was a boy, my caretakers would take me on walks around the estate grounds after I’d finished my studies for the morning. We’d eat from the garden until lunch was ready. It was nice.” They’re as wide as she’s ever seen on anyone as he finishes.

Before she can offer her own story about her and her brother enjoying fruits and vegetables from their father’s garden, he asks her, “Miss Garak, do you know how to play kotra?”

“I’m familiar with the title, not with the rules,” Mila answers, dropping the sir to see what he hopes to gain by teaching a servant a complicated game.

A smile tugs at his lips, and he gets up and pretends not to have noticed. “It’s a game I quite enjoy. I believe you would be a good player.” He retrieves a board from within his desk and brings back to the bed. “I was taught how to play when I was young.”

She expects to find a knife at her throat in an hour, then. “I don’t expect you to play any way but your best, sir, despite my inexperience.”

“Kotra is a game about bold tactical strategy…”

Sure enough, after having quickly lost two games against him and arguing with him after she realized he was allowing her to win their third match, a disruptor is pressed against her throat, her wrists held tight in his other hand. She hadn’t even seen him grab it.

“I think I need to get back to work, Miss Garak,” he tells her, voice cold.

Enough was enough. He couldn’t risk appearing close to her so soon after an incident. Quietly, she agrees, but he doesn’t let her go.

“You understand, don’t you, Mila?” It was too dangerous for them to be friends. To be whatever they were. Mila wonders which one of them he’s afraid for.

After all, why should he care if something happens to her? Attachment was a weakness. He’d said so himself to another agent, and for once, she was absolutely certain he had been honest. “Yes, sir.”

It’s even more likely that he’s not worried at all, that all this is a game to keep her quiet. Still, she enjoyed their time together and will look forward to the next, if it comes.

Agent Tain releases her, lowering the disruptor.

#uhh warnings for blood and injury and tain being absolutely drugged i guess? though its not like. graphic about those things #ds9 #enabran tain #mila garak #star trek #oblio's fics

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someobscurereference · 5 years

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What do you think the best and worst case scenario would be for the Trio having to reveal their true identities, time travel and all?

My best case scenario reveal is the war is over, the countries are at peace, everyone is happy, and the Trio just decides to go ahead and tell everyone because they want the mages to work on possibly connecting their worlds… worst case scenario: They’re at the final battle, everyone is injured or dead, and Anonkos remembers and calls those yhree put before summoning a revived Grima, who has a major grudge against them for the parts they played in his defeat

This is a super difficult question because there are so many different scenarios for this to happen, and they all can definitely go one way or another! I would say your best case scenario is pretty neat! Your worst case scenario, I’m not so sure about Grima literally coming back to life realistically in-game (Unless it was a post Awakening timeline where Chrom struck the final blow on Grima instead of Robin and the two worlds are connected somehow, which actually!! Would be the absolute Worst Ending for sure!! So I think you win there!)

Hmm. Best case scenario… Probably exactly what you said? The war is over, everyone is accepted, truth is revealed (and also believed!), and maybe there’s a chance the Trio can return to Nohr some day even though dimension travel is pretty difficult/the crystal the Trio has only works once. I like that a lot! I’m weak for happy endings with no real complications, lol

Worst case scenario! Again, I feel like there are way more scenarios were things could go very wrong than I can list here. And some of them would probably definitely be worse than anything I say here. But within the confines of canon, I think… Probably a scenario were the war is going badly/everyone is very injured, like you said. Or at the very least, they’re all in a tight spot. And the truth comes out one way or another, and it doesn’t go well! As in, Xander and Camilla are very upset, and perhaps Leo straight up doesn’t believe anything without evidence?

Because in canon, when Laslow implies that “Laslow” is not his real name, he’s not from Nohr, has no past, etc. Xander does not like that at all.

Laslow: Well, you may have a hard time of it then. There are very few footprints of mine in this world, and none of them are old. Besides, I don’t know where you’d start with a false name and fake appearance.

Xander: What?

Laslow: …

Xander: Laslow… Are you…

Laslow: … Just kidding! I got you, didn’t I?

Xander: So, you think it’s fun to play pranks, do you? Very well. It appears as though you require stricter disciplinary action.

Laslow: What?!

Xander: I had planned to end your confinement today, but I think a change is in order. You are to report to my chambers at dawn tomorrow morning.

Laslow: What?! Please, no!

Xander: The more you protest, the longer your confinement will be. Understood?

Laslow: Yes, milord…

Keep in mind Xander is using the Distressed Character Portrait during this part of the exchange. And these supports are basically all about Xander punishing Laslow for disobeying him/making Xander come across as foolish via Laslow’s behavior. So there’s a good chance if the truth was exposed poorly, Xander would not be very understanding of it. Especially if theoretically this information could have helped Nohr/Hoshido fight against Anankos in the Revelations timeline! That’s technically valuable information they kept secret. (Even if we, the player, know the Trio would really know next to nothing and it’s mostly only their origins they’re keeping a secret). At the very least, he could argue, the Trio should have revealed Valla’s existence sooner since they’ve had a few years pre-war to do so. (Which! There are a lot of reasons why they wouldn’t be able to do that! But I imagine these things are said in anger)

Same with Camilla! She’s very possessive of her loved ones, and again, if the truth were revealed poorly, she might not take very well to being lied to for so long. Camilla has a slightly similar exchange with Selena in her A-Support, though not quite as obvious:

Selena: Of course, Lady Camilla. I would never leave you without fair warning.

Camilla: And I can hold you to that, yes?

Selena: What a question! Do you think I’d lie to you about this? About anything?!

Camilla: Ohohoho…no, never.

Earlier in the support, Camilla makes comments about how devoted Selena is and how good of a retainer she is for Camilla. So Selena’s “Do you think I’d ever lie to you about this? About anything?” vs Camilla’s “No, never” is a double edged sword. Because though Selena probably isn’t lying about telling Camilla if she had to leave and is always working for Camilla’s best interests, Selena definitely is lying about her origins, appearance, etc. So combined with the inevitable hurt of being lied to + the strategic reasons Camilla might be upset listed in Xander/Laslow’s example, Camilla might react very much in line with Xander here!

Leo is a bit of a strange case in that he very specifically doesn’t care about his retainer’s pasts? I tried to find the exact dialogue for that, but I know it’s been said before that Leo couldn’t care less about who Odin or Niles were before they met him.

If Niles or Odin bring something up first (for example, Odin mentioning Risen, Niles talking about his own vague memories), Leo may ask something out of curiosity based on what they’re saying. But he never pushes and straight up doesn’t seem to care in the slightest so long as Niles and Odin do their current jobs well. So this puts him in a slightly different position than Camilla and Xander in terms of how he views Odin not telling him the whole truth/using a fake name and appearance.

However, keeping information about your past is one thing and keeping information about an unknown but real enemy/ways to conquer that enemy are two separate things. I’m sure Leo could be swayed by his own sibling’s feelings, plus the general frustration of the situation they’re in if it’s going badly.

My happy ending loving heart wants to say given a little while to cool off, everyone would eventually understand why the Trio did what they did and how they really couldn’t say anything/reveal to the sibs anything about anything for so long. But! If they were separated at all or things took a turn for the worse before any reconciliation could be had, the friction between the Trio and their lieges could definitely worsen the situation/make everyone feel like real shit all around. Especially if they straight up aren’t believed about some things! “You lied about your name, so how can I trust anything you say?” Even Leo may be in disbelief because Odin is already known for exaggeration and stories. So the humiliation of not being believed even after the anger subsides would definitely bite too!

tl;dr My Worst Case Scenario in canon is the Trio being faced with anger and disbelief at the truth inadvertently coming out

#my text #asks #fe14 #long post #worst case scenario #best case scenario

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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What Are The Republicans Afraid Of

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-are-the-republicans-afraid-of/

What Are The Republicans Afraid Of

What Are Republicans So Afraid Of

Elizabeth Warren: ‘Republicans are AFRAID of voters!

Instead of conspiracy-mongering about an election they did well in, they could try to win real majorities.

By Jamelle Bouie

Opinion Columnist

There was a time, in recent memory, when the Republican Party both believed it could win a national majority and actively worked to build one.

Take the last Republican president before Donald Trump, George W. Bush. His chief political adviser, Karl Rove, envisioned a durable Republican majority, if not a permanent one. And Bush would try to make this a reality.

To appeal to moderate suburban voters, Bush would make education a priority and promise a compassionate conservatism. To strengthen the partys hold on white evangelicals, Bush emphasized his Christianity and worked to polarize the country over abortion, same-sex marriage and other questions of sexual ethics and morality. Bush courted Black and Hispanic voters with the promise of homeownership and signed a giveaway to seniors in the form of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. He also made it a point to have a diverse cabinet, elevating figures like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales.

Whether shrewd or misguided, cynical or sincere or outright cruel and divisive these gambits were each part of an effort to expand the Republican coalition as far as it could go without abandoning Reaganite conservatism itself. It was the work of a self-assured political movement, confident that it could secure a position as the nations de facto governing party.

‘nobody Is Afraid Of Their Grandfather’

Many Republicans expect Americans will become dissatisfied with record levels of government spending and debt, an increasingly crowded U.S.-Mexican border;and new rules and regulations promulgated by the Democratic Congress and the Biden administration.

Pledging to work with the Biden administration on an infrastructure bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is “hopeful” that “we may be able to do some things on a bipartisan basis; but they got off to a pretty hard left-wing start.”

“We don’t intend to participate in turning America into a left-wing,;kind of Bernie Sanders vision of what this country ought to be like,” McConnell told Fox News after the meeting between Biden and congressional leaders.

Fiscally conservative groups are stepping up campaigns against Biden and his spending proposals.

The organization Americans For Prosperity is preparing ads for competitive House districts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia. Biden wrested those states from Trump in the 2020 election, providing him his margin of victory in the Electoral College.

Some Republican criticism plays off Biden’s age and his occasionally mangled syntax, but that strategy has met limited success. Some of the attacks mirror the ones Trump made in 2020 against “Sleepy Joe.”

“Trump never found a salient way to brand Biden, and Republicans continue to struggle after the election,” Republican strategist Alex Conant said.

Opinion: What Are Georgia Republicans Afraid Of

It wasnt so long ago that disenfranchised Blacks and activist Whites were beaten and killed for attempting to secure the right to vote.

Among the better-known victims were civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three young men who were abducted, shot at close range and buried in an earthen Mississippi dam on June 21, 1964. Part of the Freedom Summer, the three had hoped to register Black voters and educate them so they could pass the literacy tests required to vote.

When their bodies were discovered nearly two months later, one of the dead men had red clay in his lungs and clenched in his fist, indicating he was probably still alive when buried. The perpetrators included members of the local Ku Klux Klan and the Neshoba County Sheriffs Office.

This incident was but one of many leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but is illustrative of how bloody and hard-won the right to vote was. Weve come a long way, as they say, but some people are still determined to make voting more, not less, difficult. Georgias recent 98-page voting reform legislation, signed into law on March 25 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, is a case in point. These red-clay legislators dont require a literacy test, but theyve created a host of new regulations that potentially make voting more difficult for minorities.

Also Check: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Opinion: What Are Republicans Afraid Of

Its almost funny, in a twisted sort of way. Election after election, Republicans have based their core political appeal on fear.

And yet as dual gun massacres this weekend starkly illustrate they refuse to offer solutions to any of the mortal threats Americans actually face.

President Trumps closing message;in the midterms was Be afraid, be very afraid; he and his co-partisans have lately doubled down on it for 2020. Of course, the perils that Republicans promise to rescue us from are often fictional, or of their own making.

We must fear the coming scourge of socialism . Trump likewise stokes public anxiety;over;a Market Crash the likes of which has not been seen before if anyone but me takes over in 2020 .

;Trump and allies urge us to cower in trepidation from helpless parents and children seeking asylum, a threat so grave they needed to be separated from one another and caged. We must also fear the supposed Muslim and Latino hordes, who threaten to;wipe out;Anglo-European culture and displace white babies with their own.

These are hardly the only foreigners who should inspire existential dread, according to right-wing fever dreams. Rogue nations should, too, thus justifying enormous increases in our defense budget. Of course, all the nukes and jets in the world wont protect us from the assault our enemies abroad are currently waging against us, and that Republicans;resist;confronting: the one on our electoral system.;;

Senate Republicans Use Filibuster To Kill Jan 6 Commission

Only six Republicans joined Democrats in a procedural vote.

Senate Republicans block Capitol riots commission

In a remarkable political moment, Republicans on Friday blocked the Senate from moving forward on a bill that would establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Six Republicans joined Democrats in the 54-35 vote, but that fell six votes short of the 60 needed to start debate on establishing a commission — which then, normally, would require only a simple majority to pass in a final vote.

“Out of fear or fealty to Donald Trump, the Republican minority just prevented the American people from getting the full truth about January 6,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said right after the vote.

“Senate Republicans chose to defend the ‘big lie’ because they believe anything that might upset Donald Trump could hurt them politically,” he said.

The Senate leader reminded GOP senators they “all lived the horrors of January 6.”

“I was no further than 30 feet from those white supremacist hooligans. Do my Republican colleagues remember that day?

“Do my Republican colleagues remember the savage mob calling for the execution of Mike Pence — the makeshift gallows outside the Capitol? Men with bulletproof vests and zip ties, breaking into the Senate gallery and rifling through your desks. Police officers crushed between doorways?” he said.

“Not so today,” he concluded.

No Republican spoke.

Also Check: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats

Gop Lets Trump Fight Election For Weeks Despite Bidens Win

WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday theres no reason for alarm as President Donald Trump, backed by Republicans in Congress, mounts unfounded legal challenges to President-elect Joe Bidens election victory a process that could now push into December.

Republicans on Capitol Hill signaled they are willing to let Trump spin out his election lawsuits and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud for the next several weeks, until the states certify the elections by early December and the Electoral College meets Dec. 14.

McConnells comments show how hard Republicans are trying to portray Trumps refusal to accept the election results as an ordinary part of the process, even as its nothing short of extraordinary. There is no widespread evidence of election fraud; state officials say the elections ran smoothly. The delay has the potential to upend civic norms, impede Bidens transition to the White House and sow doubt in the nations civic and election systems.

Trump remained out of sight at the White House, tweeting his views, but the social media company Twitter swiftly flagged the presidents tweets that he actually won the election as disputed.

Its not unusual, should not be alarming, McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. At some point here well find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states, and the Electoral College will determine the winner. … No reason for alarm.

What Do Republicans Fear

What do Republicans fear?

Muslims? Political correctness? Taxes slightly higher than zero?

Having to adapt and compete with everyone, not a select few? Fully funded and functional public goods? Obamaphones?

Hearing strange languages? Waiting a little longer at the all-you-can-eat buffet line? Not being able to hunt deer with a rocket launcher?

Equality? Opportunity? Their own aging genitalia? Falafel?

Or maybe they fear for their wallets. Fair enough. I worry about my economic future, too. But, you know what? Economics is a policy question. Economics is not a science. If it were, we’d be doing the optimal thing all the time.

You know what is a science? Medicine. Reproductive health. Environmental studies. Geology. Biology. Meteorology. Science is a frikkin’ science! Believe me!

I think they’re scared of losing a dream of what they could have been. They’re nostalgic for a past that never existed. Norman Rockwell–painter of Great America–was married three times and one of his wives tried to burn his house down with him inside. There was never a perfect world.

“Make America Great Again”? America’s been great forever, but that doesn’t mean it’s been great for everyone.

I would love to be proven wrong. I mock, but I’m eager to learn, because right now, it makes no sense:

Republicans seem to fear being slightly uncomfortable. The rest of us fear being slightly dead.

I’m afraid of nuclear war and having to learn Russian or Mandarin.

Hooray.

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Primary Election Snafus Show Challenges For November Vote

Republicans’ and Democrats’ vastly different starting points help explain why the politics over voting and elections have been and likely will remain so fraught, through and beyond Election Day this year.

Sometimes it seems as if the politicians involved barely live in the same country. It has become common for one side to discount the legitimacy of a victory by the other.

And the coronavirus pandemic, which has scrambled nearly everything about life in the United States, makes understanding it all even more complicated. Here’s what you need to know to decode this year’s voting controversies.

The Rosetta stone

The key that unlocks so much of the partisan debate about voting is one word: turnout.

An old truism holds that, all other things held equal, a smaller pool of voters tends to be better for Republicans and the larger the pool gets, the better for Democrats.

This isn’t mathematically ironclad, as politicians learn and relearn regularly. But this assumption is the foundation upon which much else is built.

The Goal Is To Undermine Confidence In Elections

Why Are Republicans Still So Afraid Of Trump? | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Underscoring the point, Rep. Jim Banks , the chair of the Republican Study Committee, made an extraordinarily disingenuous appearance on Fox News Sunday. Banks had endorsed the Texas lawsuit, which would have invalidated millions of votes in four states based on fictions, and voted to overturn President Bidens electors in Congress.

Pressed by Foxs Chris Wallace to admit Biden won fair and square, Banks kinda sorta acknowledged it, but immediately pivoted to claiming those actions were entirely justified, by insisting that his serious concerns about the election were still valid.

This is not the act of a coward who fears Trump, and would vouch for the integrity of the election if only he could do so without consequences.

Rather, it is the act of someone who is fully devoted to the project of continuing to undermine confidence in our elections going forward.

This is for purely instrumental purposes. Republicans are employing their own invented doubts about 2020 to justify intensified voter suppression everywhere. Banks neatly crystallized the point on Fox, saying those doubts required more voting restrictions after reinforcing them himself.

Indeed, with all this, Republicans may be in the process of creating a kind of permanent justification for maximal efforts to invalidate future election outcomes by whatever means are within reach.

Tags

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No More Distractions Maybe Maybe Not

Republicans said they were distracted in making the case against Biden by a lack of cohesion, including internal disagreements over what to do about Trump.

Some blamed Cheney, the now-former House Republican Conference chair who argued that the party should move past Trump and stop echoing his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She said those claims triggered the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, an incident Democrats would surely use against Republicans when elections roll around.

House Republicans voted Wednesday to demote Cheney from her role as third-ranking Republican. She responded that the GOP would struggle against Biden and his agenda if it continues to embrace Trump and his conspiracy theories.

“To be as effective as we can be to fight against those things, our party has to be based on truth,” Cheney told NBC News.

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who supported demoting Cheney, said voters are disenchanted with Biden and the Democrats. Scalise told Fox News he sees “a lot of really serious concern about the direction that the socialist Democrats are taking us,” and “Biden has embraced that far-left Bernie Sanders;agenda.”

“People don’t want this to become a socialist nation, yet you see how far theyre moving,” Scalise said.

“It’s always difficult to generate a unifying message when you’re the party out of power,”; GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.

New Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Voting By Mail Amid Pandemic

Traditionally, Republicans have tended to support higher barriers to voting and often focus on voter identification and security to protect against fraud. All the same, about half of GOP voters back expanding vote by mail in light of the pandemic.

Democrats tend to support lowering barriers and focus on making access for voters easier, with a view to encouraging engagement. They support expanding votes via mail too.

The next fight, in many cases, is about who and how many get what access via mail.

All this also creates a dynamic in which many political practitioners can’t envision a neutral compromise, because no matter what philosophy a state adopts, it’s perceived as zero-sum.

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Blinken Cracks Up At Hearing Over Gop Senator’s Conspiracy Theory

Days after a bipartisan agreement was reached in the House to form a commission to examine the roots and events of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that he opposes the bill.

) McCarthy doesn’t want to testify under oath about his phone conversation with former President Donald Trump on January 6“What I talked to President Trump about, I was the first person to contact him when the riots was going on. He didn’t see it. What he ended the call was saying — telling me, he’ll put something out to make sure to stop this. And that’s what he did, he put a video out later.” 2) McCarthy wants to be speaker badly.

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mavwrekmarketing · 7 years

Link

UK biomimetic engineering startupAnimal Dynamicsis buildinga microdrone with wings inspired by the flapping flight of a dragonfly. The project, which started in June 2015 with a feasibility study, isbeing funded with 1.5 million from theUK Ministry of Defence, via DSTL, the Defence Science and Technology Lab.

Last fall the companyswitchedfrom researching the feasibility ofthe concept into phase two: actually trying to build the thing.They now saytheyre confident theyll havea flying prototype of their Skeeter drone to demo by this summer with the tech potentially deployed in the field bythe endof next year.

To be clear this microdrone hasnot yet got off the ground. At this point all theyreshowing publicly is the bug-like modelon a stick, pictured above. But Animal Dynamics co-founder and CEO Alex Caccia says hesconfident it will take to theair in two to three months time. One of the challenges with something that flies is that everything has to work for it to work at all but were pretty close to it now. The ah-ha moment of it flying is almost the last thing that happens,he adds.

The team is also lookingto raise around 4 million in Series A funding in the next few months for continueddevelopment of Skeeter but also to fund some potential spin-out technologies theyve created along the way such as a high efficiency linear actuator designed for the drone which they reckon could also be used for other use-cases, such as in medical pumps and for road vehicle propulsion.

Were fundamentally interested in developing commercial products from studies and understanding of how nature reaches these tricks that allow greater performance and efficiency, saysCaccia.

Drones with flapping wings do exist including a DARPA-backed drone that resembles a hummingbird, built by US company Aeroenviroment back in 2010 but its fair to say that flapping dronesare the exception not the rule. A far more typical animal in this space is the buzzing quadcopter.

Yet rotary blades have drawbacks. They dont support stable flight in windy conditions. Theyre noisy. They can even be dangerous. And they can require a lot of power to stay airborne. Hencethe MoDs hope of driving development of amorerobust flight techniquethat can withstand tough in-the-fieldenvironmental conditions.

Its a very extreme challenge, set down from them DSTL came up with the requirements which is can you make something at this scale operate in high wind and difficult environmental conditions, says Caccia, discussing the MoDs requirements for the Skeeter drone.

Theyd been using small drones in Afghanistan and Iraq with quite a lot of success because when the environmental conditions are right they are extremely useful for soldiers on the ground to go out and see whats round the corner they need to be small so that they cant be seen, so that theyre easily carried and so that theyre quiet. However as soon as theres a slight wind anything above5 meters per second they get blown out of the sky So theyve got a frustration.

As Caccia tells it, theusual suspect defence suppliers werent at all confident theycould build anythingto meetthe MoDs microdrone challenge. But Animal Dynamics other co-founder,Adrian Thomas, a professor of biomechanics in the Zoology Department of Oxford, suggested the answer could lie in looking to nature for inspiration given that birds and insects are able to achieve stable flight in turbulent conditions. And, ultimately, Animal Dynamicspitch securedthe DSTL funds.

Adrian was doing some work in his garden during Storm Doris andthere were 50 mile an hour winds and there were bumblebees happily buzzing around the lawns, completely unfussed by the high winds. Which is something insects have solved for a very long time, says Caccia. Its very, very difficult to do but the interesting things is that flapping wing propulsion lends itself to solving this problem very well. Rotary blade propulsion doesnt.

Asked for anopinionon the engineering challenges of flapping, Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Lab at Imperial College London, tellsus: Flapping wing flight has several advantages compared to propeller based solutions, including the ability for highmanoeuvrability and potentially low energy consumption during forward flight. The challenge however is significant and includes the need for a thorough understanding of the aerodynamics involved, as well as the development of the mechanics and wing transmission mechanisms as well as the controller for successful flight.

Commenting onthe Skeeter project specifically, Kovac adds: The mentioned timeline seems possible but it will depend on the size and weight of the vehicle. Bird-sized flapping wing vehicles are partially already available on the toy-market while bee-sized flying robots are still the topic of intense university research. However, I do believe that it is possible to build a flapping micro drone that can provide value in environmental monitoring, smart farming and search and rescue applications.

Cacciasays the biggest remaining challenge to getting Skeeter off the ground at this point is the mechanical design. Flapping, as youd expect, is a lot more complex in engineering terms than spinning especially if you also have relatively littlepower to play with, as its a lightweight, battery-operated device.

The challenge is really around producing a very low friction mechanism. So the wings weve built, the flight control system has been solved, its actually the mechnical design thats very difficult. So were doing some work with some people in the Swiss watch industry to help us out Its really about friction. You need to get the mechanism to be very, very low friction, he says.

Even the slightest friction will cause resistance, and create heat and stop the thing from working properly. Most mechanical systems get around it by putting an unreasonable amount of power in. We dont have that so we have to make things run very, very smoothly.

Thomas also points tofriction and inertial load as the hard problems. The high leverage at the wing hinge means that the motors see about 50 times the wing weight, so driving the wing weight down has huge benefits. Similarly, apart from the aerodynamic loads, almost all the work done by the motors is work against friction in the flapping system, driving the friction in the system down pays huge dividends, he says.

The stability and control systems may seem challenging, but there has been a lot of work done on control and stability in birds and insects, and our vehicle has a huge advantage over any of the other current drones that can hover turn the motor off and it glides, with good passive stability, down to a relatively gentle landing.

On the plus side, the team says its benefiting from the easy availability of electronic components spilling over from the mobileindustry.

The extraordinary thing and one of the factors that has made a project like this possible is availability of components from the mobile phone industry. The access to very low costs MEMS and sensors and tiny antenna and a whole array of electronics is really one of the key factors, says Caccia. Ive noticed that a whole bunch of components have come onto the markets as development boards literally in the last two to three years I think partly also driven by the wearables market Which anyone can have access to. And certainly were using that.

He also suggests this liberal availability of electronic components is providing an added incentive for the MoD to fund projects such as Skeeter.They need to try and keep one step ahead, but also engage with the tech developer world far more to understand how these technologies are being used, he adds.

The dragonfly-esque Skeeter is planned tobe 120mm at its largest; weigh less than 20 grams (packing a camera and the other necessary comms and navigation sensors); and have a top speed of around 45km per hour. In terms of flight time Cacciasays it will be useful qualifying that as not quite an hour though he also notes it depends on wind conditions, andpoints outthat adrone with wings can also glide thereby saving on battery power.

Range will be most limited by the radio signal which he says might be up to 1,000 meters. While the per unit price theyre aiming foris the low thousands so the microdronecan be widely used andin effect almost thrown away though it remains to see if they can keep costs down.

One thing is certain: should Skeeterget off the ground, this is going to be a very bespoke animal indeed a drone made to measure for its military masters. But, while youre in no dangerof receiving an airfreighted Amazon package to your doorstep conveyed via an industrious team of Skeeter dragonflies,Caccia does reckon flapping wing tech holds promise for more than just stealthy surveillance microdrones. Especially as the form factor need not be so small. And its certainly true that military-funded technology has a habit of filtering down to the consumer space after the expensive R&D work isdone as indeed isthe case with drone tech itself.

I think theres a market for it not just in the military but also elsewhere too, and also at different scales. Theres been a very clear focus requirement to make it at this scale, because theyve been using something at this scale but the technology can be scaled up. So one of the reasons were looking to raise funding is wed like to make a bigger one, he says.

Theres all sorts of advantages you can have with a larger, flapping drone. Far, far more efficient flying from A to B. Can still hover. Much less dangerous. You can put your finger in the flapping wings as they flap and it wont hurt you And also with a quadcopter drone, if any of the mechanism fails it falls out of the sky like a brick. Whereas the things that were making glide in their neutral position.

Could a larger flapping wing drone be capable of taking payloads sayfor adelivery use-case?Caccia reckonsit could, though hesaysit wouldneed to have half a meter to a meter wingspan.Which, sadly, suggests theres also little prospectof urban drone delivery via giant dragonflies. Maybe just for some edge cases such as delivering humanitarian aid to remoter areas.

I think delivery drones is a laughable idea, adds Caccia. I dont think its really going to happen. Its a sort of fantasy. But I think there are uses [for a larger-scaleSkeeter] for instance agriculture, for instance surveying large field areas.

A quadcopter type thing is pretty nigh useless for that because the flight times so low. So I think its something thats definitely worth exploring.

Even at the microdrone scale, the team sees potential agricultural use-cases for flapping propulsion.One area Id like to explore is precision agriculture inside greenhouses, saysThomas. Using the drones to deliver precise tiny doses of nutrients or pesticides to the plants that need them rather than dosing the whole greenhouse, that might be a good use for the existing drones once we have them in mass production and have the cost down to sensible numbers.

It is also investigating the potential of flapping in water, for propulsion and hydropower-generation. And is on its third prototype of a human-powered boat, also animal-inspired of course, with Caccia pointing out thatfish swim with far greater efficiency than propeller-based water crafts. He describes the craftas looking kind of like a recumbent bicycle with a dolphin fin behind it.

This isthe activity that Adrian and I first got excited about, he tells TechCrunch. Its something were hoping to be able to get out this summer and have a go at breaking the world speed record. Just as a demonstrator of how you can make something flapping go very fast.

Propeller design efficiency has basically reached an asymptote, theres been no real, materialimprovement in the efficiency of propellers in the last 20 years, Cacciaadds. Of course everyone thinks flapping is a completely ridiculous thing to do but natures way of telling you youre wasting energy in water is a stream of bubbles. And fish dont produce a stream of bubbles when theyre going about So were interested in all sorts of areas. Were making an out-board motor that uses it. Its also very, very quiet And were making our human-powered boat. And it would be wonderful to see larger vessels using it too.