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Posted on February 28, 2012 by wildbow
<Walk!> the soldier barked in Turkish. He jammed his gun between her shoulderblades, hard. He was twice as tall as her, far stronger than her, so there could be no fighting or resisting even if he wasn't armed. She stumbled forward into the shrubbery and trees, and branches scraped against her forearms and face.
One foot in front of the other, Hana told herself. Her feet were like lead weights as she trudged forward. The needles on the trees and shrubbery scraped against her skin. Even the twigs were coarse, almost thorny, catching on her dress and socks, biting through the cloth to scrape her skin and stab at her shoeless feet.
<Faster!> the soldier threatened. He said something else, longer and more complicated, but Hana's Turkish wasn't good enough to make it out. She looked over her shoulder and saw the man back the way she'd come. He made his meaning explicitly clear by waving his gun toward the other children, who were corralled in the midst of a half dozen other soldiers. If she didn't move faster, someone else would pay for it.
Seven years had given her village false confidence, let them believe that they were far enough away, secluded enough in the valley and forest, that they could escape the worst fighting of the ongoing war. That illusion had been shattered just hours ago.
She had been hidden in the cellar beside her house. She had heard the screams and gunfire. Too much gunfire, considering how few working guns the men and women of her village had. Guns and bullets were too expensive when you lived off your garden and what you could hunt, and a trip to the nearest city to buy such things was dangerous. What they had were the leftovers, the handful of weapons taken off enemies by the guerilla fighters and left behind or traded in barter when they passed through the village for supplies and medical care. Those who had the guns lacked the skill or training to use them. The fighters were supposed to defend them against people like this, stop them from getting this far.
She hurried to take another step forward and flinched as a twig broke underfoot. The smallest of whimpers escaped through her lips.
When the enemy soldiers had found her in the cellar, dragged her into a group with the nine other children of her village, she'd known that her parents were already dead or dying. As the soldiers had marched them through the village and into the woods, she'd stared hard at the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks, unwilling to look at the blood, the bodies, that littered her hometown. People who she had seen every day of her life.
Her eyes scanned the forest floor, but she had no idea what to look for. A hump of earth? Twine? A dense patch of dry, brown needles? She took another step forward, waited for disaster. When it didn't come, she stepped forward again, paused.
Only a short while ago, she had watched from a distance as Kovan, the fat older boy that had once called her names, stepped forward and had his leg fall into a hole. He'd screamed, and when Hana and the rest of the children had rushed forward to try and lift him out, they had only increased the volume of his shouts and the ferocity of his thrashing. With the Turkish soldiers watching silently behind them, Hana and the others had used their hands to scrape at the hard, rocky earth, revealing the wooden stakes that were lodged in the sides of the hole. Each was set in the earth so they pointed downward at an angle, with some at the bottom to pierce his foot. Supple, the wood had bent enough to let the leg fall down deep into the hole, but attempts to raise Kovan had only pulled his leg and foot up into waiting wooden points.
It was, she knew, one of the traps that had been placed by her village's hunters or by the guerrilla fighters that defended their village. They were all over, set throughout the woods, around her village, near roads and other important places. She had overheard one of the fighters describing this very trap to her father. She had been told, over and over, that she wasn't to play in the woods for much this reason, that if she had to travel into the woods for any reason, she needed an adult to guide her. The full reality of it hadn't registered until she saw what had happened to Kovan.
They had tried for a long time to dig the boy's leg free, knowing as they uncovered more and more of his pierced leg, saw the injuries and the quantity of blood, that he wasn't going to be able to walk very far. It was hopeless, they knew, but Kovan was someone they had gone to school with. Someone they had seen every day.
A soldier had put an end to their efforts with a bullet through Kovan's head, making Kovan the second of the children to die.
Hana was picked to go next. To test the path.
She clutched the front of her dress, balling the fabric up in hands that were still covered in dirt and scrapes from her efforts to dig Kovan free. One foot in front of the other. Every single one of her senses was on edge. She was hyperaware of the rustle of dirt underfoot, the scrape of pine needles against the fabric of her dress. She could feel the warmth of the sun heating her skin when she stepped into a spot where the light filtered through the pine trees.
She blinked hard to clear her eyes of tears. So stupid. She needed to be able to see. Any clue. Any at all, to see a trap. Crying was the worst thing she could do.
One foot in front of the other.
She stopped. Her feet refused to go any further. Trembling, she looked around.
If she took one more step, she knew, she was going to die.
There was no rationale for it, no reason or clue. This patch of forest was no different from the rest. A bed of red-brown needles underfoot, shrubs and trees pressing in around her.
But she knew. Whether she took a step forward, to her right or left, she would be stepping into a trap. A hole like the one that caught Kovan, or perhaps an explosive device, like the one that took Ashti. At least she'd gone quickly.
The soldier that was watching her called out from a distance behind her, the ever familiar <Walk!> that was a threat and an order at the same time.
Sick with fear, Hana looked around, searching for something that could tell her where to go, how to move.
In that moment, she knew she wasn't going to die right away. She couldn't walk any further, it was physically impossible, as though her feet were as rooted to the ground as the trees were. They would make her watch as they tortured one of the other children to death. Then they would start on the next, maybe Hana herself, until they had another child willing to act as decoy and clear the traps from their way in the simplest, most dangerous manner possible.
<Wal-
She saw something vast.
It wasn't big in the sense that the trees or even the mountains were big. It was big in the way that transcended what she could even see or feel. It was like seeing something bigger than the whole wide planet, except more – this thing that was too large to comprehend to start with, it extended. She didn't have a better word to describe what she was perceiving. It was as though there were mirror images of it, but each image existed in the same place, some moving differently, and sometimes, very rarely, one image came in contact with with something that the others didn't. Each of the images was as real and concrete as the others. And this made it big in a way that she couldn't describe if she were a hundred year old scholar or philosopher with access to the best libraries in the world.
And it was alive. A living thing.
She knew without having to think about it, each of those echoes or extensions of the entity was as much a part of a connected whole as her hand or nose was to her. Each was something this living entity was aware of, controlled and moved with intent and purpose. As though it existed and extended into those possible selves all at once.
It's dying, she thought. The outermost extensions of the creature were flaking off and breaking into fragments as it swam through an emptiness without air, not moving but sinuously adjusting its self through the existences that held the echoes, shrinking away here and swelling there, carrying itself away at a speed that outpaced light. In its wake, flakes and fragments sloughed off of the entity like seeds from an impossibly large karahindiba, or dandelion, in a steady wind. Seeds more numerous than all the specks of dirt across all the Earth.
One of those fragments seemed to grow, getting bigger, larger, looming in her consciousness until it was all she could perceive, as though the moon was falling, colliding with the earth. Falling directly on top of her.
-k!> the soldier finished without missing a beat.
Hana stirred, she was still in the forest, hands stinging with the scrapes, feet sore from the walking. Her heart pounded and she could taste fear like bile in her mouth.
Already, the memory was fading. Had it even happened? As hard as she struggled to retain it, it was eluding her. It was like a dream that escaped her when she woke, but so slippery that even the idea that she'd dreamed in the first place was quickly retreating from her mind.
The soldier shouted something too complex for her to understand, directed at his comrades. Hana let the scraps of the memory slip from her attention. This, here, was the priority. Either she walked forward, and she would die, or she would stand by and watch the others die for her cowardice. With just the vestige of an idea that something had happened, she had been shaken from her paralysis. Maybe she could step forward.
She raised her foot-
And stopped. Something stood in her way. A blur hung in the air at chest level, crackling, shifting with a manic ferocity. She let her foot fall back down where it had been a moment ago and stared at the kaleidoscopic shimmer of black and green.
She touched it, and felt a weight settle into her palm. Her hand automatically closed around it, feeling the warmth of it. It felt almost like when she pet a friendly dog. An odd thought, given what she found herself looking at.
A gun, polished gray steel. Somehow familiar. Identical to the smallest guns she had seen the guerrilla fighters carrying.
I can't use this. The thought was cold in her mind. If I use this, they'll kill the others the second I fire.
The gun shimmered, became that blur of green and black, then settled into a new shape. She'd seen this, too. One of the fighters had been talking to Hana, showing her his English gun magazine, in an effort to get in good graces with her older sister. This was similar to the gun she'd just had in her hand, but there was a metal tube on the front, nearly doubling the gun's length. The tube, she knew, made guns quieter.
The rest of the children and the other soldiers were far behind. It was still nearly impossible, but-
<Walk!> the soldier behind her shouted. <Walk or->
She wheeled around, holding the gun in both hands. She took a second to steady her aim, and the Turkish soldier's surprise bought her just enough time to pull the trigger.
Hannah's eyes snapped open.
This is why I don't sleep.
She was still wearing her costume, she noted, as she rose from her bed and walked to the bathroom. At least she'd had the sense to remove her scarf so she didn't strangle while she rested.
She was the only one who remembered. Everyone else forgot that impossibly huge being, if they were even graced with a glimpse of it. She couldn't be sure. If any others saw it, they would inevitably forget it before they could gather their thoughts enough to speak of it. Like she was supposed to.
But she remembered. She touched the combat knife that was sheathed at her hip, as if to remind herself it was there. She harbored her suspicions about her gift: her powers had taken a part of her psyche and given it concrete form. The angriest parts of her, the most childish parts, the parts of her that dreamed, and those that forgot. The knife at her hip slept for her and dreamed for her, she imagined. She had gone nearly a year at a time without needing to stop and put her head to rest on a pillow.
When she closed her eyes and let herself drift off, it was because she felt it was something she ought to do, not because she had to. Even then, she never dreamed. She remembered, instead, her mind replaying past events in perfect detail. And through some chance of fate, this meant she remembered the entity, and she remembered forgetting it, as paradoxical as that was.
And she would never speak of it to anyone.
She'd killed the soldiers that held the other children of her village hostage. After the first, she had feigned fear, pretended the guerrilla fighters were in the woods. Then she had waited for the moment they were too busy watching the woods and mowed the rest of the men down with an assault rifle. She didn't even feel bad about it, nor did she lose much sleep that one of the children, Behar, had been shot in the skirmish.
She regretted the deaths, that went without saying, but she didn't feel guilty about it. Of the ten of them, seven had made it back, because of her and her gift. They had returned to their village, moved the bodies out of sight, and did what they could to conserve their food until the guerrilla fighters came through once again.
Hana had made the others swear a promise, to not speak of her gift. She knew the guerrilla fighters would recruit her, use her, if they knew. Whatever this power was that she had received, she didn't feel it was for that.
When the fighters had returned, they saw the state of the children and elected to evacuate them. The fighters took them to a city, and a man there saw that Hana and the others were shipped off to the United Kingdom, where many other refugees were going. They were split up, and the others were sent one by one to homes for orphans and other troubled children. Hana's turn came late, nearly last, and she was taken to fly on another airplane to her own new home. It was there she ran into difficulty. She'd moved through the archway – what she would later learn was a metal detector – and it sounded an alarm. Guards had found the weapon she couldn't drop or leave behind, and Hana was carried off to another place. Interrogated, asked many questions. She was taken to the bathroom, patted down on her re-entry to the interrogation room, and they found the same gun on her that they'd taken away just half an hour ago.
Everything else had happened very fast, after that. It was an American in a military uniform that rescued her. He took her to America, saw that she was put with a family there. When the first three Wards teams were established, she was enlisted. She barely knew a hundred words of English, her numbers and the alphabet, when she first went out in costume.
Hannah bent over the sink and washed her face. She found a toothbrush and cleaned her teeth, then flossed, then scraped her tongue. Too easy to forget those things, without the rhythm of sleep to break up the continuity of days. Better to do these things a little too often, than to forget. She gargled with mouthwash, then bared her teeth to see the dentist's work, where he had capped them. Teeth that were perfectly shaped, white. Not really hers.
Her weapon found its way into her hand at some point after she put the mouthwash down, a handgun not unlike the first shape it had taken for her. She spun it around her finger by the trigger guard a few times before holstering it as she left the bathroom. She went to the window and stared at the city across the water. Colors shifted subtly in the refracted light of the PHQ's forcefield, oversaturating the view like a TV with bad picture settings.
Even if she never dreamed, America still had a surreal, dreamlike quality to it. It was so distant from where she had come from, so different. There was no war here, not really, and yet the people here managed to find so much to complain about. Men in suits, trouble in love, medical care and not having the latest touchscreen phone. Such complaints often carried more emotion and fervor than anyone in her village had used to bemoan the death of loved ones or the methodical eradication of their people. When she heard the complaints of her friends and coworkers, she simply nodded and gave the necessary words of sympathy.
Bright lights and conveniences and wanting for nothing and televisions and sports cars and capped teeth and chocolate and the list went on… It had taken her the better part of a decade to even start getting used to it, and everything moved so fast that any time she thought she was getting a grasp on it, there was something new, something she was supposed to know or understand.
She'd accepted without complaint when her adoptive parents told her to start writing her name in the more American 'Hannah'. She'd agreed and signed the papers when they took the last name her parents had given her and replaced it with their own. Small things, so minor, compared to what she had seen and done. It didn't bear complaining about. Everyone praised her for how dutiful she was in school and her training. She never gave up, never quit. Why should she? This was nothing compared to those hours she spent in that forest.
So hard to believe that the events from her dream had occurred just twenty six years ago.
It never felt entirely real. More than once, she had let herself begin to believe she'd died, that she'd taken that step forward and never made it out of the forest. She had made mistakes when she let herself think that way, had put herself in too much danger, back in her earliest years as a hero. Now, when she found herself slipping into that mindset, she often tried to sleep. Her memories as she slept were perfect, unblemished, almost more real than real life, which was why she never did it too often. Ironic, given how necessary it often was, to keep her grounded in reality.
She'd grown to love this country. Truly love it, for what it stood for. She'd had to fight to wear the flag as part of her costume. America wasn't perfect, but nothing touched by human hands could be. There was greed, corruption, selfishness, pettiness, hatred. But there were good things too. Freedoms, ideas, choices, hope and the possibility that anyone could be anything, here, if they were willing to strive for it. As she accepted her new country, she let herself make friends, boyfriends, let herself get close to her parents and their church. By the time she started college, her accent had all but disappeared, and she knew enough to at least pretend to know what others were talking about when they spoke of pop culture, music and television.
People were judgmental, she knew, and so she would never speak of what she had seen in that moment she received her gift.
Even among other faithful, she would be met with suspicion and scorn, were she to say she'd seen God, or one of His warrior angels, such as they existed beyond the scope of human understanding. That He had given her this ability so she could save herself. Others would offer different interpretations, argue that He had given such gifts to bad people, too, they would point to the science of it. Maybe some small part of her suspected these hypothetical individuals were right. Still, she preferred her faith to uncertainty. The notion that this thing she had seen was something other than a benign entity watching over humanity, that it might be malign, or even worse, that it existed with no conception of the effect it had on mankind? An elephant among gnats? It wasn't a comfortable thought.
She glanced at the clock; 6:30 in the morning. She draped her flag-printed scarf loosely around her neck and lower face, then left her room. The energy became an assault rifle hanging at her side, bouncing a comforting beat against her hip as she walked. She made her way up a flight of stairs and down to the end of a hallway.
She heard a male voice, a female one. She paused at the open doorway and knocked.
"Yeah?" Armsmaster called out.
"Am I interrupting?"
"No. Come on in," he replied.
She stepped into the room. It fell somewhere between a workshop and an office. Two spare suits stood at one side of the room, each with minor functional differences. A set of Halberds were placed on a rack behind Armsmaster's desk, one shattered in pieces. One of the spaces on the rack was empty – Armsmaster had the Halberd in front of him.
"You worked too hard and forgot to go to sleep again, Colin?" Hannah asked, though the answer was obvious.
He frowned, reached over to his computer and hit a button. He saw the time, muttered, "Damn it."
"Good morning, Miss Militia," a woman's voice came from the computer.
Hannah blinked in surprise, "Dragon. Sorry, I didn't realize you were there. Good morning."
"You're up early," Dragon commented. "And you were out late, from what I'm seeing on the web. Trouble sleeping?"
"I don't sleep," Hannah confessed. "Not really, since I got my powers."
"Oh? Me either."
Colin leaned back and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, "I'd give my left foot for that little perk."
Hannah nodded. There were others like her? She asked the computer screen, "Do you remember?"
"Sorry? I don't understand," Dragon replied.
"Nevermind." If Dragon did remember, Hannah knew the answer to that question would have been different. Dragon was too smart to miss the connection.
"We were talking shop," Colin spoke. He motioned to the Halberd he had in front of him. "Procrastination through Tinker stuff. I think tonight's project was a success."
Armsmaster stood, seizing the Halberd in one hand. He pressed a button on the handle, and the blade blurred. Without even swinging the weapon, he let the heavier top end fall against an empty stainless steel mannequin that might have held a spare suit of his armor. Dust blossomed where the blade touched the mannequin, and it passed through without resistance. Pieces of the mannequin clattered to the ground.
"Impressive," she told him.
He pressed a button, and the blur around the blade dissipated in a steel-colored smoke, leaving only the normal axehead top of the weapon.
"Only problems are that it's vulnerable to forcefields, fire, and other intense energy, and the apparatus takes up too much space in the upper end. Even with my power, it likely means I'd have to do without some of the kit I've gotten used to."
"I trust you'll figure it out," Hannah told him. Then with mock sternness, she put her hands on her hips, "Now, no more distracting me. Just what are you procrastinating on?"
Colin ran one of his hands over his short cropped brown hair, sighed. "Right. You have as much say as I do, in this."
He walked back to his desk and slumped down into his seat. He kicked a screwdriver and a pair of pliers from the corner of the desk to put his feet up, one ankle crossed over the other. Reaching in the opposite direction, he grabbed a stack of folders and let them fall to the desk.
"Piggot has decided to take action in reflection of recent events. Both the Wards and the Protectorate are being restructured."
Hannah winced, "How bad?"
Shrugging, Colin told her, "As far as the Wards go, we're losing Aegis. Piggot and the PRT want to see how he does leading a different team, and the boy's parents are amenable. He'll stay in the Wards for a little longer, to suggest he's younger than he is."
"A shame. Who do we get?"
"It's a swap. It'll be Weld from the Boston team."
"I don't know him," Hannah admitted.
"He's a good kid with a good record," Dragon chimed in from the computer, "Ferrous biology, absorbs metals through his skin. Strong, tough, good grades across the board, high marks in the tactics simulations. Likable, and a scan of the web shows feedback for him is higher than average, which is impressive, considering he's one of the Case 53s."
"He's got the tattoo?" Hannah asked.
"The mark is branded into his heel, not tattooed, but yes."
Hannah nodded. "What else?"
Colin frowned, "We're supposed to pick two others from our Wards team to transfer to one of the other major teams, nearby. I settled on Kid Win, I'm stuck on the others."
"Browbeat?"
"Too new. Might be able to sell it to Piggot, but my suspicion is that she'll think it looks bad, giving up our newbie."
"Hm. Gallant won't be able to leave for Boston. Too many logistical issues," Hannah glanced at the computer. She couldn't say more.
"You can speak freely," Colin spoke, "Dragon has either read the record in question, or she's reading it as we speak."
"Gallant has local responsibilities, and is expected to start helping with his father's local business enterprise," Dragon spoke, giving truth to Colin's words, "Miss Militia is right, he's a local fixture. And his girlfriend is here."
Hannah nodded, "Painful to give up Vista or Clockblocker. They're our big guns, and they're local heroes after the role they played in that bomb scare. Shadow Stalker?"
Colin shook his head, "There would be more trouble over handing over someone like Shadow Stalker to another team than there would be if we gave away a newbie like Browbeat. Discipline problems."
"Still?" she asked. Armsmaster nodded.
Hannah frowned, "Alright. This is what you do, then. Propose Shadow Stalker and Kid Win. If Piggot does refuse Shadow Stalker, and you should make an argument that Shadow Stalker might need a change of scenery, Piggot will have a harder time refusing Browbeat, right after."
Colin rubbed his chin, where his beard traced the edges of his jaw, nodded.
"If she doesn't agree to giving away either of the two, and you really should play hardball on that, you can offer Clockblocker. He graduates this summer, anyways, and I'd say he's got enough friends and contacts here that he might apply to come back to Brockton Bay to join our Protectorate when he turns eighteen. Best case scenario for us, and it's not like Boston or New York need more capes."
Colin sighed, "You're better at this than I ever was."
Hannah wasn't sure how to respond. Colin had his strengths, but he was right.
He went on, "Congratulations." He picked up the second folder and held it out to her.
"What?" She took it, opened it.
"There's a change to our team, too, according to Piggot and the rest of the oversight. You've been promoted. Within the next two weeks, this building and this team will be transferred to your command."
She stood there, paging through the folder of paperwork, stunned. "Where are you going?"
Hannah broke into a smile, "Chicago! That's fantastic! A bigger city, a bigger team! Where's Myrddin being moved?"
"He stays in Chicago."
Hannah shook her head, "But…" she trailed off.
The hard look on Colin's face was telling enough.
"I'm so sorry," she spoke.
"It's the politics," Colin spoke, leaning back, "I'm good at this. Better than most, if you don't mind me boasting. Everything I bring to the table, I worked my ass off for. But when it comes to shaking hands, managing people, navigating the bureaucracy… I'm not good at it, won't ever be. Because of that, I'm getting demoted, and I can probably give up on ever being in charge of another team."
"I'm sorry. I know how much you wanted-"
"It's fine," he said, but it was clear in the curtness and hardness of his tone that it wasn't. He turned away and touched his keyboard. In the darkness of the room, his face briefly reflected the blue light of the screen. His brow furrowed.
"Dragon. That program you gave me, predicting the patterns of class S threats, remember it? I made a few modifications, to see if I couldn't catch any highlights, I'm running a dozen of them concurrently. One, I called HS203. I want you to look directly at this. I've put it behind some pretty heavy security, but if you wait a second, I'll-"
"I'm already looking over it," Dragon interrupted. "I see what you did. Linking my data to atmospheric shifts. I think I see it."
Hannah walked around the desk and leaned over Colin's shoulder to see the screen. A map of the east coast was superimposed with a rainbow hued cloud. "This doesn't mean anything to me."
"Nothing's truly random," Colin explained, his voice tight, "Any data shows a pattern eventually, if you dig deep enough. Dragon started work on an early warning system for the Endbringers, to see if we can't anticipate where they'll strike next, prepare to some degree. We know there's some rules they follow, though we don't know why. They come one at a time, months apart, rarely hitting the same area twice in a short span of time. We know they're drawn to areas where they perceive vulnerability, where they think they can cause the most damage. Nuclear reactors, the Birdcage, places recently hit by natural disasters…"
He clicked the mouse, and the image zoomed in on a section of the coastline.
"…Or ongoing conflict," Hannah finished for him, her eyes widening. "The ABB, Empire Eighty-Eight, the fighting here? It's coming here? Now?"
Colin didn't have a reply for her. "Dragon? Brockton Bay falls within the predicted zone, and the city is on the list of locations that rate high enough on the sensitivity or negative media scale. Add my data, the correlations between abrupt microshifts in temperature, air pressure and-"
"The data is good." Dragon's voice, synthesized to mask the most telling details about her identity, held no trace of doubt.
"Good enough to call for help?"
Colin moved quickly, spinning in his chair to reach a small console. He opened a glass panel and flipped a switch. Air raid sirens immediately began their ominous whine.
"Dragon, I'll contact Piggot and the Protectorate teams. You get hold of everyone else that matters. You know who's most needed."
"Already on it."
He turned to Hannah, and their eyes met briefly. Much was communicated between them in that moment, and she wasn't sure she liked what she saw in his eyes.
A glimmer of hope?
"Miss Militia. Recruit the locals. And we need a place to gather."
She swallowed her concerns. "Yes sir!"
This entry was posted in 7.x (Interlude) and tagged Armsmaster, Dragon, Miss Militia by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
61 thoughts on "Interlude 7"
ereshkigala on February 28, 2012 at 04:02 said:
This is interesting. A godlike entity dying is what gave powers to mankind in your setting or at least Miss Militia thinks so. I wonder how that fits with those experiments someone is doing that give powers to people.
bleachfreak247 on February 28, 2012 at 07:03 said:
Wow, Armsmaster. Just Wow.
"These Apocalyptic blokes we're all peeing our collective thongs at on the way. Yay! Maybe then everyone still stop bullying me because i'm not good as talking to people and stuff!"
Give him a smiley face and he'll officially be nine years old again.
mc2rpg on February 28, 2012 at 07:47 said:
Well, if the world ending people are coming to town, you might as well be optimistic and plan on how to look your best after thrashing them.
Psycho Gecko on February 28, 2012 at 13:28 said:
He's just focusing on the stuff he's good at. Hell, think about the difference between interfacing with a machine and dealing with people. You tell a machine to do something, it does it to the best of its ability unless there's a flaw in the programming or something's broken, at which point someone can just go in and fix it.
Miss Militia is a good example of how that just doesn't work. Humans, with our wars and ability to compartmentalize them so we never see them, don't work so well. We've got an AI that makes the same mistakes over and over and act like A-holes for no reason.
Most likely, Armsmaster just wants to get his way, like when you use a computer. The influence fo this is being seen more and more in people who concentrate in areas online where they are generally just exposed to like-minded people and what they want to hear. It leaves them lacking when dealing with people they don't like IRL.
Also, I like Miss Militia's patriotism after having immigrated here. The U.S. always seems to mean so much more for immigrants, which can be good or bad. A friend's Cuban refugee in-law I talked to was practically a flag-pin wearing "The U.S. never lies and never does anything bad," Republican. Not meanin to get into politics here, nor am I saying Miss Militia is like that. I like her more palatable, seemingly-balanced view of it. Perhaps it helps that we're one gun-loving folk.
And once again, we see both our friends with the weird markings that Faultline is looking into, and the superpowers having a mental effect.
greatwyrmgold on September 22, 2013 at 18:57 said:
Remember what Tattletale said about why he's jealous of Dauntless–all the time and effort he put into being the best hero he could be, the strongest, the best-prepared. Being one of the big shots in the hero world was his goal. Now? He's lost his only chance…from politics.
And now the Endbringer comes. A potential for glory, especially with that new halberd…it's like giving a cup of water to a man in a desert. He has a spot of hope.
Remember how well stuff like that works out for Skitter?
Horatio Von Becker on November 20, 2013 at 02:33 said:
Indeed. You have phrased it quite well. I'm seeing Armsmaster as a Tesla figure: Good with engineering, extraordinarily persistent in the pursuit of success, terrible at public relations.
greatwyrmgold on November 20, 2013 at 07:33 said:
Also insane.
Depending on your interpretation, yes.
But sympathetic.
Fear The Banjo on June 13, 2017 at 12:40 said:
I realize that basically everyone thinks the opposite but I like Armsmaster. He is one of my favorite characters
Nomen Nescio on February 28, 2012 at 09:40 said:
and here i'd felt like miss militia was among the least interesting of the characters introduced so far. wildbow, i love your character building. great interlude.
Quiet characters are often thought to be such.
Rob on September 9, 2015 at 05:40 said:
Same here. This was really interesting.
Eduardo on February 28, 2012 at 11:47 said:
A nice interlude that helped set the plot. Well tought.
Armmaster still does not recognize that he has made mistakes, not only in diplomacy, but also in the field.
Now we know why an Endbringer this moment, this explains things.
I am starting to think that your superpower settings are similar to those seen in the book "Hard Magic" that I bought in Baen Books (digital version) I really recomend reading it since you are getting close to its plot by accident.
wildbow on February 28, 2012 at 12:07 said:
You can't avoid having a story resemble other stories. There's too much out there, and just about everything's been done before, in some way, shape or form.
So I won't stress about it. If I were to buy & read the book, I'd either agonize over how to make my story different or I'd find I couldn't without ruining something I had in mind, and I'd only get discouraged. I'm much happier simply writing the story that I want to write, and not worrying about that.
it's almost impossible not to duplicate somebody else's plot, since really, there's only so many of them around that both make sense and make for interesting stories. one scholar has famously claimed there's only seven, at heart. it's more in how you tell the story than in which of the ancient, forever-retreaded stories you retell, honestly.
(Worm so far appears to be either "quest" or "rebirth", depending on how the ending will play out, but the individual subplots and side stories may be different ones in their right. it's not where you end up, it's how you get there.)
I'd say there's a good bit of coming-of-age in it.
MisterTeatime on November 1, 2015 at 15:23 said:
Coming from the ending: you were right, but almost certainly not in the way you were thinking.
I still recommend reading Hard Magic. The stile is completely different from yours and, while the basic ideas about powers seem similar (up to this point in your plot), the world created is quite different.
Besides, I really liked the book.
I was not criticizing, just pointing to a very good book that used the idea of an extraplanar powerful creature giving powers to people because … well, lets not ruin the end, but not for free although it looked like it was at first.
It is true, being completely original is very difficult and, perhaps, not even a good thing. Some ideas are succesfull for a reason.
I like where the plot is going. Thanks for the good reading.
Jim Zoetewey on March 2, 2012 at 13:56 said:
@Nomen:
I recall running across a book that had plots divided into roughly 30 different types with multiple variations on each one. Amusingly it was clearly written without the author ever having read any science fiction/fantasy. So while the plot that was basically, "The city is being threatened" did have variations for "the nation is being threatened," it didn't have variations for the planet/galaxy/universe.
That said, it was still interesting to see the patterns you could get if you generalized enough.
@wildbow:
I'm very much with you on the "writing what's interesting regardless of similarities to other things."
Of course as you mentioned, when push comes to shove, everything's similar to something else, so you really don't have a choice.
Thanks to Mark, Erin and Alexander, for their donations thus far. Worm's presently seventeen dollars and five cents shy of the goal. If we get there, everyone gets a bonus chapter.
And a donation from a Mr. Lee gets you guys over the cap. Thank you very much, Mr. Lee.
What do you guys want? Another standard chapter (moving the current story along faster)? Or an interlude?
If you want the latter, I'm totally down to hear suggestions. If I hear a really good interlude idea, soon, I'll see what I can do to get you the bonus update written tomorrow. If you want chapter 8.1, that's also very doable, as I have it written & in the queue.
Catastronaut on February 29, 2012 at 02:42 said:
I personally don't have any preference between the two. Anything that constitutes an extra dose of your writing would please me just fine, so whatever is most convenient for you gets my vote.
If it is to be another interlude, I'd like to see another cape dealing with a divided life, attempting to maintain a "super" and a "normal" identity. I feel as though we haven't seen very many instances of this yet, and I'm curious to see what that's like. Among the characters we've at least met so far, the Wards seem the likeliest for that kind of story.
As a final note, I'd be astonished if you delivered on the extra chapter by this Thursday. I didn't pay too much attention to the details you put up about donation rewards, but I'd thought there'd be a longer gap between meeting the cap and the bonus chapter being delivered. I wouldn't mind at all if we had to wait till next week for bonus Worm Thursday.
I'm thinking it'll have to be the Thursday after next (the 8th). I took one stab at it last night, but felt ambivalent about it, and I don't want to give you guys a chapter I feel ambivalent about.
Pinkhair on February 29, 2012 at 07:23 said:
One small typo- "woods for much this reason reason"
I really liked this chapter. It's 7:20 am, so I'm having trouble explaining exactly why, but I think that it integrates a lot of previous threads very well without dwelling on them.
AVR on March 1, 2012 at 23:04 said:
I'd rather see an interlude than move the story on faster, and I'd definitely rather see it finished than in progress. The 8th is just fine by me.
About the interludes, I like them as making characters which have been part of the background more interesting, without letting them take over the story the way that George R R Martin does in A Game of Thrones (etc.). Of course, he says that's intentional.
Fake Name on May 21, 2013 at 20:37 said:
Fake Name on June 9, 2013 at 01:42 said:
>"Nothing's truly random," Colin explained, his voice tight, "Any data shows a pattern eventually, if you dig deep enough. Dragon started work on an early warning system for the Endbringers, to see if we can't anticipate where they'll strike next, prepare to some degree.
This line actually bugs me. For one, there are truly random things, but that's not important. If Colin's looking at abrupt shifts in pressure due to Leviathan influencing the weather to draw up a storm- that's what should be said. A line like the one above implies that they're looking at random data- say the outcome of 500,000 coin flips- to predict the Endbringers. It doesn't make sense.
Parahuman27 on September 3, 2013 at 01:37 said:
The line makes plenty of sense in the context of the line that follows it:
"We know there's some rules they follow, though we don't know why. They come one at a time, months apart, rarely hitting the same area twice in a short span of time. We know they're drawn to areas where they perceive vulnerability, where they think they can cause the most damage. Nuclear reactors, the Birdcage, places recently hit by natural disasters…"
The program doesn't analyze coin flips or weather patterns (at least not only or primarily weather patterns, since it's a program for predicting all three Endbringers, not just Leviathan), it uses various factors that have been shown to correlate with Endbringer appearance.
As to "nothing is truly random," it's actually the sort of thing I'd expect a Tinker to say. Tinkers aren't necessarily scientists. Their powers let them do things we associate with science and engineering but they're much more idiosyncratic and don't require the same grounding that STEM fields as we understand them do.
The statement: "Any data shows a pattern eventually, if you dig deep enough." is true. Human brains are wired to see patterns even in random data. Understanding the difference between the human tendency to see patterns and the actual presence or absence of those patterns is part of the grounding that someone trained as a super hero might not have received.
Oliver on November 11, 2013 at 00:33 said:
Typo: "its self" instead of "itself"
"The outermost extensions of the creature were flaking off and breaking into fragments as it swam through an emptiness without air, not moving but sinuously adjusting its self through the existences that held the echoes, shrinking away here and swelling there, carrying itself away at a speed that outpaced light."
Franz Ferdinand on November 23, 2013 at 12:54 said:
I've been reading this serial, and just got this far. I found out about this from HPMOR, and have been shocked at the quality of the writing, story, and the cleverness of the worldbuilding and various details. A real pleasure to be reading!
Something really rubbed me the wrong way in this chapter, though – perhaps the first time that my suspension of disbelief really suffered.
It seems that Dragon and Armsmaster both *already know* (or have enough information to know that it's a strong possibility) about the potential Endbringer attack. And yet they casually talk about sleep schedules and which heroes to transfer… only to casually mention later in the conversation that, hey, there might be an Endbringer coming?
Doesn't seem to me to be the way people behave. Surely an impending Endbringer attack isn't just another item on a list of things to discuss, but a more weighty issue.
As a reader, I found this very jarring. Well, now, hang on: is this a big deal, or not? As a reader, I'm supposed to think that it is, but the characters don't seem to act that way at all.
Love the background on Miss Militia – it certainly makes her more interesting!
Looking forward to reading the rest of this serial. Thank you for the great work!
Curious George on November 25, 2013 at 14:00 said:
I quite enjoyed the chapter as it is, but something did feel off at the end. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I think Franz Ferdinand has done so successfully – given the importance of an Endbringer attack, it doesn't make sense that anyone would put off talking about it, no matter what they're in the middle of.
Nice to have a Miss Militia-focused chapter somewhere in here; no complaints about that. And it ties in well to a lot of other things. Also nice to catch a glimpse of Dragon, who I think hasn't come up much before now, except for the Birdcage interlude.
willow on November 6, 2014 at 23:22 said:
Thirded.
I think the problem is with the pacing/tone rather than the actual story. The switch in topic happens rather abruptly in one short paragraph:
It is shown that although the programme for analyzing Endbringer data exists, this is the moment where Armsmaster realizes one is on the way to Brockton bay. That Dragon responds so quickly and without confusion/hesitation is in-character but doesn't provide the reader enough time digest the new development.
I am not sure how but Wildbow could fix the tempo easily with perhaps a couple of sentences to emphasize the tense atmosphere and the suddenness/shock of the incoming
Endbringer.
flumppod on May 2, 2018 at 19:42 said:
We also have the clue that it is around 6:30 am, a little while after the Undersiders had been shown Dinah by Coil.
We know that Dinah's numbers had changed a little before this, so whatever data the program is observing hadn't changed enough before just then for the program to catch it.
David Burns on December 20, 2013 at 03:59 said:
If they're calling the endbringer event based on a prediction from a simulation, rather than from an actual sighting, that lowers the urgency just a bit.
Who gave Miss Militia her name? I can't imagine she chose it herself. Maybe some PRT publicity flak? One that should be fired?
anKLJ on January 23, 2014 at 01:53 said:
"one image came in contact with with something that the others didn't"
Double with there.
"she couldn't describe if she were a hundred year old scholar"
If she was, not were.
"sinuously adjusting its self "
Itself, to be consistent with next mention later in the line.
Must pause reading before things IRL get ugly — can't stop reading! Arrgh!
KatherineW on June 29, 2014 at 23:00 said:
Started reading this story a few weeks ago and just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying it. Impressed with this chapter as it's not at all what I was expected – I assumed Miss Militia was a typical white, Republican American who liked fighting bad guys. Having the most openly patriotic superhero be a Kurdish refugee makes her a lot more interesting, especially with whatever-it-is she saw (creepy, by the way).
Max on September 17, 2014 at 18:46 said:
I really liked this interlude. It was great getting to see a bit of Miss Militia's thoughts since honestly she had seemed a bit dull and uninteresting but this chapter bumped her way up. Getting into quieter characters' heads makes us like them so much more just like what happened with Gregor earlier. It was a little jarring to see Armsmaster like that though because it humanized him a lot more. Granted, Taylor is a bit biased at this point but even during his fights he came off as an entitled asshole while now we can see that it's almost more like he is simply tired of not getting the recognition he feels like he deserves after so much work which I can commiserate with. I also liked the talks with Dragon, I really hope she comes up more later on too. Honestly I'm not sure of what to think of her beyond really liking her. She seems almost robotic in some of her replies both in this interlude and the one with the birdcage. I actually thought she was a computer before she started actually commenting to Canary. Her replies are just so rote and logical like she can't spare the time to be eloquent. It's always interesting reading characters like this and makes you want to get into their heads to see if it's simple genius that causes the social disconnect or arrogance. Dragon strikes me more as the genius type so I'm looking forward to seeing if I'm right in the future!
Can't wait to see what the Endbringer turns out to be! Anything with a name like that is bound to be seriously horrible news for everyone.
Korakys on January 29, 2016 at 07:09 said:
This has got to be the saddest chapter yet, finding out Miss Militia is a Kurdish refugee who suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks and now she praises the Turks closest ally, the United States?
toafan on February 2, 2016 at 14:06 said:
So. Miss Militia's origin story, huh? Very interesting, although what I've seen leaves me wondering how [TRIGGERS SPOILER] ties into it.
I like the description of the vision. I mean, wow. That's easily the best description of a mere human mind trying to comprehend such a thing I've ever seen, quite possibly because you do it by describing the sensations rather than naming the inadequacy and incomprehensibility and horrible-wrongness. So y'know, bravo.
gregb on June 20, 2016 at 17:35 said:
I know I'm really late but are you sure this isn't a setup for a new main character? Because this chapter seemed less like an interlude and more like the beginning to a new book I would love too read
quaelegit on March 9, 2018 at 00:57 said:
That's how most of the interludes read to me. To the point that often times I like the interludes more than the arc chapters. Particularly when an interlude character just "clicks" with me — which is very much the case with Hannah here. I REALLY LIKE so many of the characters in Worm, but I think Miss Militia is near the top.
Nomi on August 4, 2016 at 14:10 said:
The depiction of Miss Militia's trigger event was some of the best written pieces of fantasy I've ever read. Not reading comments because spoilers, but I'd like to leave this to let you know I won't quit reading this until I finish. It's been a great, quality read.
Tim McCormack on September 20, 2016 at 15:23 said:
– In "another child willing to act as decoy" I think "decoy" is the wrong word; not sure what the right one would be.
– As with a couple other readers, I missed the moment Armsmaster noticed an alert or message on his computer indicating a result from the simulation — it just seemed like "well moving on, I also noticed yesterday that the apocalypse is nigh".
Very excited to see what happens next! (But I won't get there for a few days, because I'm using Archive Binge to reserialize all this at a reasonable rate.)
Dread Pirate on January 10, 2018 at 12:32 said:
As the saying goes, the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Shamooga on October 18, 2016 at 01:27 said:
extra space: "much to complain"
Waiting to see what the Endbringers are is nerve wracking!
Buggaboo on March 16, 2017 at 17:45 said:
I still incredibly dislike… more almost despise, dragon, that murderous self satisfying piece of garbage
hopefwlyanonymous on March 20, 2017 at 22:28 said:
You should probably delete your comment. It's probably a really bad spoiler.
It's been frustrating to see the amount of spoilers in the comment section of this series. Like people weren't raised by parents who taught them good Internet manners.
wildbow on March 20, 2017 at 23:41 said:
It's not a spoiler. Bugaboo is frustrated about Canary being in the birdcage and is turning to hyperbole.
Oh, thanks. Was worried I was spoiled of a nasty surprise further into the series. Dragon seems like a really cool person.
Sorry, I misunderstood your comment and accused you of spoiling!
I like Armsmaster. Something about working really hard /despite/ being human. I don't really care about his pride.
Zach on May 25, 2017 at 02:39 said:
Not sure what you mean by "despite being human", since almost all the characters in the story are human. If you mean "not having powers", then that isn't the case; Armsmaster is a Tinker so he *does* have powers (IIRC many Tinkers, Armsmaster included, can create technology only they can use, which is basically indistinguishable from having superpowers themselves).
True, but he doesn't have any physically (or mental powers that help with this, for that matter) enhancing powers. His determination and dedication are all-natural.
Anselmei on April 7, 2017 at 16:28 said:
It's a shame that Taylor didn't end up writing that email to Miss Militia. She seems wise and might have been able to help deal with Taylor's situation tactfully.
I love Miss Militia, but I'm not sure she would have been inclined or willing to take Taylor's side. This would have been right after the Gala fight, which from Miss Militia's perspective looks like the Undersider's provoked them and humiliated them for no reason. Additionally, MM seems very… obedient isn't the right word, but very much a "follow the rules, work within the system" sort of person. I don't think she would have stuck her neck out for Taylor unless she had some reason to sympathize with T, and currently she has rather the opposite.
That said, I really love and respect both Taylor and Hannah, and I really hope that circumstance allow them to eventually be on friendly terms and work together. (I'm re-reading, but I don't remember the details of the plot, so this is not suggesting anything spoilery.) I'd love to see what Taylor and Tattletale can figure out from talking to Miss Militia about her memories of the trigger event.
I first read Worm 5 years ago, in a two week binge with barely any sleeping (it's THAT GOOD), so not a lot of details stuck. One that did was that Miss Militia was one of my favorite characters — and re-reading this interlude reaffirmed that. Her personality, her interaction with Colin, her quiet, earnest, practical-yet-very-moral-feeling view of the world — it just really clicks with me. She's the character I most want to meet and talk with and befriend, at least of the ones we've gotten to know so far.
There's a couple other character's and interludes I also remember really clicking with, so I look forward to re-reading those too. Thank you, Wildbow, for the masterful story. 🙂
Ginga_Ninja on March 27, 2018 at 14:50 said:
Rereading a few years after the first time. This chapter was great with foreknowledge.
Blub on August 8, 2018 at 18:02 said:
That´s why you don´t go to the Heroes.
They don´t even care if you want to go to an city or not.
hejin57 on September 25, 2018 at 17:28 said:
That was incredibly cool. I didn't think Miss Militia would get own chapter, but now all it did was make me want to see more of her.
Really amazing stuff, on par with what you did for Gregor the Snail. I hope we see more of these interludes focusing more on Heroes.
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Home Sports
Two Title Fights Highlight U.F.C.'s Last Pay-Per-View of the Year
Two blue-collar men with mutual respect.
The greatest female mixed martial artist of all time looking to add a win against a chattering rival.
A promoter happy with those differences.
Those draws on Saturday, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold its last pay-per-view card of the year, don't generate the instant mainstream recognition of Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya or Jon Jones. But the matchups offer a diverse showing of fighters whom the company has leaned on for several years, a circumstance that was evident on Thursday as the fighters stared each other down after a news conference.
The U.F.C.'s president, Dana White, said he appreciated the fighters' different approaches. The lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira (31-8-0), and the No. 1 contender, Dustin Poirier (28-6 -0), who will headline U.F.C. 269, looked each other in the eyes intently, but briefly talked.
Amanda Nunes (21-4-0), who will defend her bantamweight belt, wore a Gucci bucket hat while she bickered with her challenger, Julianna Peña (11-4-0). White said each card had a unique dynamic regardless of the common spotlight.
"Fans respect these types of fights," White said in a telephone interview.
These fights conclude a year that heavily featured Poirier, who will be competing for the lightweight title for the second time in his career. In July, he fought McGregor, the brash Irish star, in the U.F.C.'s most heavily marketed event of 2021. He defeated McGregor by technical knockout in the first round of what was their third fight since 2014. McGregor landed awkwardly after a blow and fractured his left tibia, a surprise conclusion to a week of hostility as McGregor repeatedly insulted Poirier and Poirier's wife, Jolie.
Beyond money and elevated stardom, the fight was risky. Poirier, who entered the U.F.C. in 2011, had won six of his last seven fights — the loss coming against the former champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019 — and could have argued instead for a title shot with Oliveira. He jeopardized an essentially guaranteed championship fight and risked having to climb up the ranks again if he lost. But he bet on himself and is now in position to potentially end the year with gold and leather.
"These lessons I've learned, I'm very grateful for," Poirier told reporters. "Being the world champion is forever — 25 minutes until eternity. That's what's going through my head every night when I go to sleep."
Oliveira became the champion in May when he defeated Michael Chandler by technical knockout in the second round. Nurmagomedov (29-0-0) retired in 2020 with an unblemished record and when he competed, he essentially held the division hostage. This will be Oliveira's first title defense, and an interesting matchup for him as a jiu-jitsu specialist against a well-rounded fighter like Poirier. The parity at the top of the lightweight division for the first time since 2018 excites White.
"You never know who is going to win, and there's going to be some exciting fights," White said. "Khabib was incredible and dominating everybody, and now you don't know who could possibly be the champion."
Nunes, similar to Nurmagomedov, has cemented herself as one of the best athletes in the sport. She entered the U.F.C. in 2013 and has lost just once in the company. Women's mixed martial arts grew through fighters such as Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and Cris Justino, known as Cyborg.
Nunes defeated Tate to become bantamweight champion in 2016 and easily dispatched the rest afterward, showing versatility in all of her fights with strong punches, head kicks and submissions. Her knockout of Justino in 2018 for the featherweight belt made her the first woman in U.F.C. history to be a simultaneous champion in two weight classes.
Nunes, who is a lesbian, and her partner became parents last year, and Nunes has been open about motherhood and her sexuality. In a bloody, male-dominated sport like mixed martial arts, White said her identities are important for representation.
"She touches so many different types of people and that's awesome for reaching them and converting them to fans," White said. "But above all that and everything she is, she's an awesome human being and I love working with her."
Nunes contracted the coronavirus in July, canceling an earlier scheduled fight with Peña in August. The delay frustrated Peña, and she has mentioned it frequently during media tours. Peña has for years said she felt Nunes was avoiding her. Now, the matchup is set.
"No matter what she does Saturday, I will finish her," Nunes said. "This belt isn't going anywhere."
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Team Crystal Star
CAN DRINKING TEA HELP PTSD SYMPTOMS?
In the last decade, body-based therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have gained traction as powerful, mind-healing tools. Trauma researchers like Bessel van der Kolk advocate yoga, somatic experiencing, and EMDR, a little-understood treatment that (we think) uses eye movement to help process traumatic memories. Neurofeedback—a guided therapy that helps you cultivate healthier brain wave patterns—is also showing promise, as is LSD, and psilocybin from mushrooms. Since 1996, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has researched the effects of MDMA (a component of the club drug "molly") on anxiety and PTSD. With these studies, MAPS hopes to secure FDA approval for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy by 2021. In short, the PTSD treatments of the future look more diverse and radical than the somewhat-effective antidepressant cocktails many trauma survivors now rely on to sleep, hold jobs, and maintain relationships. But while researchers try to dispel the stigma around psychedelics and trauma survivors wonder whether insurance will cover these new treatment protocols—a full course of MDMA-assisted therapy will run about $12,000—it's worth considering low-cost and accessible adjuncts to PTSD treatment.
Can tea improve your mood?
While PTSD's drastic mood changes can be daunting, the good news is that the brain is surprisingly malleable, a phenomenon that scientists call neuroplasticity. This neuroplasticity means that many of the newer mind-body therapies and psychedelic treatments under development have the potential to permanently shift the brain into a healthier pattern. But while drinking tea to ease PTSD symptoms sounds like putting a bandaid on a broken leg, this small, simple, and low-cost habit can have a helpful, if modest, impact on your mental health. So what's so important about tea when it comes to brain health? Tea contains specific amino acid and polyphenol compounds that act on the brain's neurotransmitters and receptors to reduce fear and anxiety. Read on for a breakdown of what they are and how they work.
What is L-theanine?
L-theanine is an amino acid that's present in all tea from the Camellia sinensis plant, though some varieties contain more L-theanine than others. A 50mg dose of L-theanine (about the amount in a cup of matcha or gyokuro tea) has been shown to increase alpha brainwaves, which are responsible for a feeling of relaxed alertness. L-theanine also has the ability to block L-glutamic acid from binding to the brain's glutamate receptors. People with PTSD have more of a particular type of glutamate receptor (metabotropic glutamate receptor 5) in their brains than non-traumatized people, and higher availability of these receptors is associated with mood disturbances and fear. By blocking the action of glutamate receptors, L-theanine inhibits neuron excitation in the brain, reducing feelings of anxiety. [gallery link="none" size="medium" ids="11655,11656,11657"] L-theanine may also promote the production of feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter responsible for calming the nervous system that is deficient in people with PTSD. While L-theanine content can vary widely by cultivation practices and tea variety, green tea tends to have the highest L-theanine content per gram followed by white tea, and black tea while pu-erh, a fermented tea from the Yunnan province in China, has the least. But while pu-erh isn't rich in theanine, it still has powerful glutamate-receptor-blocking properties that researchers don't yet totally understand. In one study, pu-erh even outperformed green and black tea when it came to inhibiting glutamate receptors.
What is EGCG?
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is an antioxidant polyphenol found in all green tea. It can improve symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as PTSD symptoms. While researchers don't know the exact role EGCG plays in reducing symptoms, one study found that it may help reverse learning and memory-based dysfunction from a traumatic event, such as avoidant behaviors and flashbacks. Some researchers have compared EGCG's effects to those of benzodiazepines—a class of psychoactive drug that is commonly prescribed for insomnia and anxiety or panic attacks. However, unlike benzodiazepines, which pose long-term use risks ranging from dependency to dementia, the EGCG in tea is safe for consistent use.
What is the best tea for PTSD?
While pu-erh tea is a promising research avenue for PTSD, it's the least-studied and understood of the bunch. For that reason, we recommend starting with teas that feature high levels of EGCG and L-theanine, which to date have more evidence backing their calming properties. Shade-grown green teas like gyokuro and matcha from Japan will likely contain the highest amounts of L-theanine. That's because photosynthesis from sun exposure reduces theanine levels in tea plants. Even better? Gyokuro and matcha also tend to have high levels of EGCG.
How much tea is too much tea?
Before you start lugging around a growler full of matcha keep in mind that tea contains caffeine, which is a stimulant that can make your symptoms worse if you overuse it. For reference, a cup of matcha or pu-erh may have about half the amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee at 41-50mg, while gyokuro is a little less at 26-40mg. Find a high-quality matcha powder or gyokuro loose-leaf or pu-erh tea that you like—tea shops will often let you smell the leaves or try a cup before buying, or you can buy a custom tea sample set online. Start with one or two cups in the morning, then wait one-to-two hours for your caffeine blood concentration to peak. If you feel wired, cut back, and if you feel okay feel free to add another cup later in the day with a snack—eating can also temper caffeine's effects. Can't handle caffeine? Chamomile tea has calming properties, and if you're open to trying adding a drop or two of CBD tincture, early research shows that CBD may help inhibit trauma-based memories and behaviors. Just be sure to consult your healthcare provider if you're currently taking medication; CBD can inhibit or enhance the effects of some antidepressants commonly prescribed for PTSD.
PTSD refers to a set of changes that occur in the brain in response to a traumatic event, or series of events. Violence of all kinds, accidents or serious illness, and prolonged or severe emotional abuse can all affect brain function. Most symptoms of PTSD are due to activation in the deep structures of the brain, which are responsible for our reflexive stress, fear, and survival responses (the amygdala) as well as memory formation (the hippocampus). An overactive amygdala results in anxiety, hypervigilance, and a sensitive startle response. These symptoms make it difficult for people with PTSD to relax or fall asleep. Meanwhile, an overactive hippocampus is easily triggered and retrieves traumatic memories in response to even slight reminders of the events, leading to flashbacks and nightmares. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex (which sits directly behind the forehead) is less active. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for planning, expressing personality, controlling impulses, and regulating emotions and behavior. When it's inhibited, the prefrontal cortex is unable to override the traumatic memories retrieved by the hippocampus or calm the fear response of the amygdala. This inhibition can lead to avoidance of potential trauma triggers, irritability, emotional numbing, and personality changes.
What causes PTSD?
While it's true that trauma is a catalyst for PTSD, not everyone who experiences traumatic events will go on to develop it. Since trauma can be cumulative, your childhood and past experiences may also make you more or less vulnerable to PTSD. But the reasons for this are surprising. Some researchers have concluded that early trauma affects the gut microbiome, which in turn can lead to immune system dysregulation and inflammation. And inflammation markers are a strong predictor of who will be most susceptible to developing PTSD. The good news about this finding is that researchers are now exploring ways to manipulate the bacteria in our gut in order to improve resilience and resistance to diseases like depression and PTSD. One promising study showed that rats inoculated with a particular strain of bacteria (Mycobacterium vaccae) were quicker to recover from a conditioned fear response than untreated rats. Until researchers design and validate a bacteria-based therapy for PTSD, incorporating fermented foods into your diet is a safe and easy way to try to reap the mental health benefits of a thriving microbiome.
Be kind to yourself and keep trying
PTSD is a disease with complex biological causes and mechanisms. If you're struggling, blame your biome, not your character. Survival is an act of will, but recovery often means asking for help and accepting what you're capable of right now. Look for mental health providers with experience with PTSD and familiarity with more innovative and recent treatment modalities like neurofeedback, EMDR, and yoga. Take care of your gut health with fermented foods, and try out tea if you want. Most of all remember that your struggles aren't permanent. With the right people guiding you through the right treatments, your brain is capable of radical change and healing.


text:
Q: Getting error Warning: mysqli::query(): Couldn't fetch mysqli in my code Getting error Warning: mysqli::query(): Couldn't fetch mysqli in
  <?php

    include 'includes/config.php';
    include 'includes/database.php';
    ini_set('display_errors', 1);
    ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
    error_reporting(E_ALL);

    if (isset($_POST['sign'])) {
      $name=$_POST['email'];
      $pass=$_POST['password'];
      $query_two="SELECT * FROM admin WHERE user='$name' AND password='$pass' ";
      $runn=$db->query($query_two);

      $row_login=$runn->fetch_assoc();

    if ($row_login['user']==$name && $row_login['password']==$pass) {
      session_start();

      $_SESSION["username"] = $name;
      header('Location: adminpane.php');
      exit();

    }

    else {
      echo "<script>
    check();

      </script>

      ";
      exit();

    }

    }

     ?>

this is in  my database.php file

<?php
$db=new mysqli(DB_HOST,DB_USERNAME,DB_PASSWORD,DB_NAME);
?>

this is in my config.php file

 <?php

define('DB_HOST', 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx');
define('DB_USERNAME', 'XXX');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'XXX');
define('DB_NAME', 'myDB');

 ?>

I am including both at the top,but still it doesnt seems to work!!,
  everything username password is correct and the code was working on
  local host

A: Use something as :
<?php
session_start();
include 'includes/config.php';
include 'includes/database.php';
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

if (isset($_POST['sign'])) {
  $name = mysqli_real_escape_string($db,$_POST['email']);
  $pass = mysqli_real_escape_string($db,$_POST['password']);
  $query_two = "SELECT * FROM admin WHERE user='$name' AND password='$pass'";
  $runn = mysqli_query($db,$query_two);
  $row_login = mysqli_fetch_assoc($runn);

  if ($row_login['user']==$name && $row_login['password']==$pass) {
   $_SESSION["username"] = $name;
   header('Location: adminpane.php');
   exit();
  } else {
   echo "<script>check();</script>";
   exit();
 }
}
?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Don't Mess With Pissarrachampsa
Baurusuchids were badass. If you don't know that, you have been missing out. Just look at how paleontologists Felipe Montefeltro, Hans Larsson and Max Langer described this extinct group of crocodiles by way of introducing a new species into the group earlier this month:
Baurusuchidae is a group of extinct Crocodyliformes with peculiar, dog-faced skulls, hypertrophied canines, and terrestrial, cursorial limb morphologies.
Granted, that's a little technical — the conventions of the technical literature fail us when it comes to expressing excitement about fantastic organisms — but I think you can get the picture; terrestrial, dog-faced crocodiles well-adapted to running down prey and tearing into their victims with big, sharp teeth. Even better, these creatures lived alongside — and probably occasionally fed on — dinosaurs. They were not some early croc offshoot that filled the niche that would later be occupied by predatory dinosaurs. They were right there, competing with the carnivorous theropods of their day. Perfect nightmare fuel.
Montefeltro and co-authors have dubbed their new creature Pissarrachampsa sera. (Say that 10 times fast.) This predator lived during the latter half of the Cretaceous in what is now Brazil, and is represented by two skulls — one more complete than the other. The better skulls is quite impressive. The basic, underlying croc structure is there, but is modified into a shorter, stouter shape, and the size of the teeth differs throughout the jaws. This was a crocodile with big canine-like fangs at the front of the jaw (which makes me wonder if anyone will ever find a truly saber-toothed prehistoric crocodyliform). Maybe it's just me, but I think such a creature deserves a starring role in a horror movie. I'll be standing by to chat with any interested screenwriters.
Top Image: One of the skulls of Pissarrachampsa sera, as seen from the left side. From Montefeltro et al., 2011.
Bottom Image: Croc illustration by McGill Professor, Hans C.E. Larsson
Montefeltro, F., Larsson, H., & Langer, M. (2011). A New Baurusuchid (Crocodyliformes, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil and the Phylogeny of Baurusuchidae PLoS ONE, 6 (7) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021916


text:
National Enquirer's biggest investors include California taxpayers and state workers
By Matt Pearce
Records show that California's public pension fund appears to have owned as much as a third of American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company, in 2016. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)
The National Enquirer has been one of President Trump's most controversial allies, delivering scathing coverage of his opponents to supermarket checkout lines and funneling $150,000 to one of his alleged mistresses to buy her silence.
So it will probably come as a surprise to many California state employees and taxpayers to learn they were helping fund those efforts.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, California's massive public pension fund, CalPERS, was one of the biggest investors in the debt-laden owner of the National Enquirer, according to public records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
Through an investment managed by a New Jersey hedge fund, California's public pension fund appears to have owned as much as one-third of American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company, in 2016. It is not clear whether CalPERS continues to hold a major stake in the tabloid publisher.
Fewer than a third of California voters cast their ballots for Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in the state.
Informed of the investment, Jeremy Bulow, a professor of economics at Stanford University, laughed in disbelief.
"I'm sure lots of CalPERS [plan holders] will be happy to know they were paying hush money to help get Trump elected," he said. "That's going to make them feel real good about their pension fund managers!"
The news organization Maplight reported last year that California was one of three states whose pension funds had invested in the privately held publisher, although it did not detail how much of the company the state fund controlled.
California's pension fund, the largest in the nation, runs on contributions from taxpayer-funded state agencies and their employees. It has long drawn scrutiny over whether its mandate of seeking strong returns meshes with liberal Californians' expectations of ethical investment. Some of its investments drawing recent scrutiny have included oil pipelines, retailers that sell semiautomatic rifles, Russian sovereign debt and coal-producing companies.
Joe Nation, a pension expert and public policy professor at Stanford, said he was surprised to learn about the investment in American Media Inc.: "It's a little bit strange that a pension system that is so concerned about socially responsible investing would invest in AMI, directly or indirectly."
Megan White, a spokeswoman for the pension fund, said in an email that "CalPERS does not align itself with American Media's business actions."
She added: "Our investment or ownership does not represent an endorsement of a particular company or product."
She declined to answer questions about the pension fund's current stake.
The publisher, whose holdings also include Men's Journal, Soap Opera Digest and several other magazines, has not been required to publicly disclose its investors since 2016, and it did not respond to requests for comment.
American Media Inc. has faced a barrage of bad headlines recently over its management practices. The company cooperated with the federal prosecutors in New York and reached a no-prosecution agreement over its hush-money scheme to help Trump, which resulted in a conviction for his personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
But federal prosecutors have since started examining whether American Media Inc. violated its promise in the agreement not to break the law after Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos published a blog post earlier this month alleging that representatives of the tabloid publisher threatened to blackmail him with intimate photos with a mistress. The company has denied wrongdoing.
Its problems also extend to its balance sheet, where the publisher reportedly carries more than $1 billion in debt. And its continual need for cash is exactly how CalPERS came to be invested in the National Enquirer's parent company in the first place.
Starting in 2009, CalPERS invested $607.7 million with Chatham Asset Management hedge fund's Chatham Eureka Fund, which is a "fund of one" — a type of investment created and managed for a single institutional investor rather than for a pooled group of investors.
In a recent disclosure, Chatham Asset Management said that its Eureka Fund technically has two investors. One is the hedge fund itself, which holds a 1% stake, suggesting that the other 99% is held by CalPERS.
Chatham Asset Management snapped up a majority stake in American Media Inc. in 2014, when the publisher was struggling to emerge from a 2010 bankruptcy and needed a financial lifeline.
In its most recent public filings, from July 2016, American Media Inc. reported that four Chatham-controlled funds together owned 78% of the company. The largest single owner, by far, was the Eureka Fund, with a 34% overall stake — suggesting that CalPERS in essence owned one-third of the tabloid publisher.
The Chatham hedge fund has said it is not involved in the day-to-day management of American Media, Inc., though it reportedly holds two seats on the company's board. And when the company's chief executive, David Pecker, attended a dinner with Trump at the White House in 2017, he was accompanied by the head of Chatham Asset Management, Anthony Melchiorre.
White, the CalPERS spokeswoman, said that "as a large institutional investor," the pension fund has a broad array of investments, including stakes in more than more than 10,000 public companies.
"Our primary mission is to invest on behalf of our 1.9 million members in order to deliver the benefits they were promised after a career in public service," she wrote.
The pension fund has been winding down its investments in hedge funds since 2014 as part of a plan to cut costs and simplify the state's investments.
As a result, CalPERS is "ending our relationship with the [Chatham] hedge fund," which represents 0.0006th of the more than $350-billion pension fund, White said.
CalPERS' most recently available public disclosures, from 2018, indicate that the pension fund has closed out a majority of its investment in the Chatham Eureka Fund, with its remaining stake valued at a little more than $200 million.
White told The Times to direct further questions to the hedge fund that manages CalPERS' investment, Chatham Asset Management, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Bulow said that CalPERS had seen an unimpressive 2.3% rate of annual return out of its original investment in the Chatham Eureka Fund in 2009 — far less than if the money had simply sat in an index fund that reflected the aggressive rebound of the stock market since the 2008 financial crisis.
"It seems like the decision to exit from that sort of investment is a good one," Bulow said.
A state pension in New Jersey has also invested in American Media Inc., through investments with Chatham's other funds, drawing some complaints from union representatives on the pension's board of trustees.
After examining New Jersey's stake, officials decided "it actually would harm the fund were we to divest," said Tom Bruno, a trustee who represents New Jersey public employees on the pension's board.
He added: "If it gets to the point where it gives us a black eye ... we'll have to take the hit and get out."
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First an apology as I did this in August 2017. It has taken me a whole year to get round to showing you guys.
I have an Admira classical guitar, which a wordwork-teacher friend sawed in half, depthwise. Having watched him do it I thought I would have a go and removing the back so that I could install a pickup into this thin classical guitar.
Using an iron and a towel I melted the existing glue and inserted scrapers and tri-squares so that the glue cooled with the back apart from the body. It was a long, slow job, releasing the back from the body all the way round.
With the back off I could work on where to place the 4 pickups. As the guitar is too thin to be able to get my hand inside to change a battery I bought a K&K Pure Classic pickup. I then glued a block of wood to the body where I wanted the jack socket to be.
When that had dried I drilled a hole for the jack socket. I read that the cable needs one loop so that it doesn't sit loose inside the body and risk flopping around and making a noise at it slaps the front or back.
Once I was sure that I would not need to have access to the workings inside the guitar it was time to glue the back on using Titebond wood glue, as my friend had done last time. Lots of masking tape strips hold the back in place while the glue dries.
I spotted this short piece of plastic window sill in the bargain bucket in my local DIY shop and its shape reminded me that I have put off making a pedalboard. For the grand cost of €1.50 I thought I would risk it.
Add two strips of velcro.
Add some pedals and drill holes for the mains adapter cables. From left to right: the matching K&K Pure Preamp for my pickup, a Boss CS-3 Compressor, a Neunaber Wet mono reverb pedal and a Samson DI box. The preamp was not necessary but after reading a lot I decided to get it as the pickup does not use a battery and the signal benefits from getting a boost before hitting the compressor and reverb pedals.
A multi-plug extension cable was velcroed to the front of the board and adapter cables are taped to the underside of the board. For small solo gigs I plug the output of the DI box into my Alto TS110 1x10 combo and for larger gigs the DI box provides a feed to the stage box or mixer and I use the Alto TS110 as my monitor.
So how about that: a guitar-specific pedalboard!
That looks like a very nice job and well documented too. Thanks for shareing.
Brilliant job. Well done. I would never have the guts to do that to a guitar!
Wow! Nerves of steel to do that with an acoustic guitar!
A nice piece of work with the pedal board too. Looks the part and great value.


The Do-Good Student Support Group thrives on providing deserving New Jersey students in need of financial assistance, having raised over $500,000 in scholarships over the past 15 years. Take a look at the excitement of all our scholarship dinners in the gallery above.
Considered to be the flagship event that powers our scholarship fund, the Annual Golf Outing and Beefsteak Dinner is held every September. Organized by our golf outing committee, this event boasts over 150 golfers and 400 dinner guests, and features high-end prizes like new cars from our generous sponsors!
The always popular Epicurean's Cigar Night remains a Do-Good House staple in our fundraising efforts. Join us for this annual event, combining dinner, cocktails and fine cigars for all members every April.
The Meadowlands Racetrack welcomes the Do-Good House every June for a Night at the Races, providing all Do-Good members and their guests an outdoor day at New Jersey's premier racetrack. Join now to secure your spot for the first fundraising event of the summer!
Established in October of 2000, The DO GOOD STUDENT SUPPORT GROUP, Inc. is a NJ nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to giving scholarships to deserving students that are in need of financial assistance, so that they may be able to attend the school of their choice, or at the very least, be able to pay for their books and other expenses that may arise during the school year. The DO GOOD HOUSE began as a social club of seven members, who referred to the rented studio apartment as "the Doghouse," where they watched ballgames, played cards and just enjoyed each other's company. As membership grew, the focus of the club shifted and at one of the monthly meetings it was suggested that the club conduct a fundraiser for a local student and raised $500. The rest is history.
Highlights from Do-Good's annual event at the New Jersey Meadowlands Racetrack!


text:
Q: async/await method crash web services response in Android but same code work successfully in Window Phone and iOS apps in xamarin Native Application async/await method crash web services response in Android but same code work successfully in Window Phone and iOS apps in xamarin Native Application.
Xamarin Native Application (PCL)
I have created a Native application using portable Class library.
I request to REST API that gives the following response.
{
code: 200,
status: "ok",
message: "hello"
}

my Portable class library code in xamarin.forms is
test.xaml.cs
public class jsonResponseClass
{
        public string code { get; set; }
        public string status { get; set; }
        public string message { get; set; }
}
public partial class test : ContentPage
{
        public async void getDatas()
        {
            var cl = new HttpClient();
            var result = await cl.GetStringAsync("http://192.168.1.125/apps/jara/web/api/user/test");
            jsonResponseClass des = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<jsonResponseClass>(result);
            lbl1.Text = des.code + " " + des.status + " " + des.message;
        }
        public test()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            getDatas();
        }
}

Main file in Portable class library (PCL)
App.cs
namespace NativeAppsWithWCF
{
    public class App : Application
    {
        public App()
        {
            MainPage = new test();
        }
        protected override void OnStart()
        {
            // Handle when your app starts
        }

        protected override void OnSleep()
        {
            // Handle when your app sleeps
        }

        protected override void OnResume()
        {
            // Handle when your app resumes
        }
    }
}

my Visual studio solution explorer

Using this above code I can successfully show output in iOS and Window Phone Apps.
But when I Run Android apps then crash the apps and not show output.
When I debug Android program then cursor remove after this line.
var result = await
cl.GetStringAsync("http://192.168.1.125/apps/jara/web/api/user/test");

After this line stop the execution of program.
Which means it won't wait for the method to finish executing
See the screen after got error..

How to prevent this error?

A: Finally I have solved the problem after lots of R&D.
Problem in Network Connectivity.
I have solve this issue after setting of Network Connectivity in Android Emulator.
Follow Below step..
Open VS Android Emulator >> Go to Setting  >> Turn ON WIFI >>
There are "Wired eth1"  Network available.
Long Press on "Wired eth1" Network
Then Click on  >> Modify Network >> Change "IP Setting" as "Static" >>
Change IP address of your Network.
After this setting I have Solved my Issue and Get a Response from REST API.
Thank you.


You are here: Home / Wordpress Tips / Did you forget to design your payment forms?
Did you forget to design your payment forms?
Payment forms make or break your sales.
For one of my clients, we've been using Paypal and tracked a 40% dropoff in conversion. So we made a change and the increase in sales is incredible.
Have a read of this article on designing your payment forms from Design Modo.