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Coldplay's recent album Viva La Vida was one of the most high-profile releases of the year, and an impressive showcase for Michael Brauer's unique approach to mixing.
The New York–based star mixer Michael H Brauer has a reputation for eclecticism, both in the wide variety of artists and genres that he has worked with, and in his approach to mixing. His credit list is certainly very impressive and exceptionally wide–ranging, featuring stellar names such as the Rolling Stones, Prefab Sprout, James Brown, Aerosmith, Jeff Buckley, David Byrne, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Ben Folds, Pet Shop Boys, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, KT Tunstall, Martha Wainwright, and many, many others.
As for his approach, Brauer has become legendary for his liberal and innovative use of compression. His room at Quad Studios in New York sports an amazing amount of outboard gear, including well over 40 compressors. Brauer applies some of these in an idiosyncratic multi–bus compression approach that he's developed over the last 20 years; having originally christened this approach 'MBC', Brauer now prefers the term 'Brauerize', which he has trademarked. See the 'Brauerize The Mix' box for a detailed explanation of how the technique works.
Brauer has come to his position at the top of the mix world by studying with the best. He climbed the ladder from the proverbial tea–boy beginnings to staff engineer at Media Sound Studios in New York City between 1976 and 1984, picking up tricks of the trade from the likes of Bob Clearmountain, Mike Barbiero, Tony Bongiovi, Harvey Goldberg and others. He subsequently went freelance and for the last 15 years or so has preferred to work almost exclusively as a mixer.
Despite the massive amount of outboard in his studio, Brauer likes to de–emphasise the importance of technology, and prefers talking about feel and colours. "It always amazes me that people think that it's the tools that make a mix great. Instead, people should understand that mixing is very much like a performance. I used to play drums, now I play an SSL. I don't label the tracks on the desk, I memorise it all and then I just mix. The audience is no longer in front of me, it's now just in my head. I constantly ride the faders, and I will occasionally even vibrato a fader. It's a feel thing. To me, the desk is an instrument, and I have eight million different strings and tunings behind me in my outboard racks.
"When I'm going for a sound, I only think about the end result and pay very little attention to how I get there. It's not about the toy, it's about how you use it. Also, I've mixed some 200 songs so far this year and I kinda wipe the slate clean after every mix to keep my head from exploding. For me it is more important to discuss bringing out the spirit of the song. The tools and toys are simply an extension of that thought process. It's really about being creative and visualising how the song should sound and feel."
The mixer's relationship with Coldplay goes back to their debut album, Parachutes, which earned him and the band a Grammy for 'Best Alternative Album' in 2001. The New Yorker also mixed the band's third album, X&Y (2005), and was involved in the mix of nine out of the 11 songs on the band's fourth and most recent effort, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, released in June of this year.
Singer Chris Martin has declared that Viva La Vida spelled a new direction for the band, and the first single, 'Violet Hill', features Eno–esque soundscapes and heavily distorted guitars, elements that had hitherto not been at the heart of Coldplay's trademark sound. Several people were involved in the mixing, and, unusually, two of the album tracks, '42' and 'Viva La Vida' ended up as hybrids of mixes by Rik Simpson and Brauer.
"The engineer they had worked with, Rik Simpson, did an amazing job on some of the mixes, which were really rough mixes," relates Brauer. "On '42', Rik combined his mix with mine and the combination felt amazing. For 'Viva La Vida', Rik added his mix to mine way low and out of phase, so there's this weird thing going on in the background. But it made sense for them to call me because I had been there from the beginning. I know the kind of things that Coldplay are after. It's not always evident, though. You put up the mix, and it feels great, and yet you can take it a lot further to the point where it just sounds incredible. I don't experience that with many other bands. Chris is usually the only person I deal with when I mix, and he's always the one with the vision. He goes totally by feel and he keeps pushing me."
The mixes for Viva La Vida took place in February and March of this year. "In this case I mixed the record alone," recalls Brauer. "I'd send them a song a day. They lived with it and then I recalled each song and made the changes. Some songs only needed one recall. Others had the arrangement changed or parts added and then I'd recall it again, or I'd remix it again from scratch. I'm not afraid to do that. I might even, after two hours of mixing, simply pull back all the faders and start again. There are times when I have gained a better understanding of where I want to go and I realise that the approach I'm taking is not going to get me there. So I change. The process of getting there during mixing is a whole search thing. If I don't like what I'm getting, I drop it; if I like it and I feel good, I carry on. I don't remember how I got there or the gear I used. I only remember that I felt good. That's all I care about. It's not like: 'wow, I can apply this to every song.' That'd be foolish. What works on one song will, 99.9 percent of the time, not work on another song, even from the same artist.
"I want to feel something great in the first 15 minutes. The first thing I do is try to get a groove going, so I'll search for that. It may be just a vocal and a piano and guitar with a loop. If someone walks in 15 minutes after I've begun mixing they're not going to hear just a kick. They'll be saying, 'Wow, that feels cool!' I still have a long way to go, but it already feels good. I don't have the energy or patience to wait two or three hours until I start to feel good. I want to start feeling good right away; that is why I'm mixing!"
Brauer's focus on feeling good and de–cluttering his mind also extends to limiting the amount of tracks that he mixes. "Some songs come in with a hundred tracks, but I am not going to mix a hundred tracks!" he explains. "My assistant knows my priorities and he knows that whatever the session is, it will be a maximum of 44 tracks. So when he prepares the session for me he comps things down to that. Of course, if there is a part that sounds like it may need special treatment he'll leave it on a separate track, and when I listen to what he has done, I may break things out again. But I tell people that are going to work with me: look, I am not going to mix 200 tracks on the desk for you, so the best thing for you to do is to give me the stereo blends that you like.
"I want it to be as simple as possible. I'm happy to mix 16 tracks. The simpler the better. I don't want to have to fight my way through a mix. Most people are already listening to certain parts mixed down. They may not be printed that way, but the blend will be clear. If you have 18 different synthesizer sounds, and have been living with one particular blend, give me that blend and print it! It is not that I am lazy, I am just not going to spend eight hours trying to match something that somebody else already loves. I am mixing, I have my share of work to do already without trying to retrace what you have been living with."
Michael Brauer: "The hardest challenge for me with this song was finding the right vocal sound. I also really wanted to highlight the edgier side of the band that they obviously wanted to show in this album. So I worked hard to make sure that the guitars reflect the anger in the song, without them being too harsh. It was important to keep the integrity of the band, and they're not a metal or hard rock band. You still have to keep that certain Coldplay sound. I wanted to enhance as much as possible the arrangement, which goes from a power chorus down to an intimate moment where everything just dries up and it's just Chris and a piano. I wanted the listener to easily follow the story. My objective was to simply follow the feel and the lyrics of the song, and not to get in the way. Just enhance and show that Coldplay are a band that have a lot of depth in their songs.
"The Pro Tools file of 'Violet Hill' was actually a pretty small session. I have just 35 tracks on my track sheet. There's kick, snare, stereo hi–hat, stereo toms, three or four mono room [mics] and stereo cymbals rooms. That's 12 tracks for the drums. There are two bass tracks, DI and amp bass. There are stereo chorus guitars, a mono verse guitar, an acoustic guitar, and a guitar solo, so that's five tracks of guitars. Then there's a stereo piano, a stereo keyboard track, and the stereo ambient wash that starts off the track. Finally, there's Chris's lead vocal and some 'church group' backing vocals.
"Like with all my mixes, I mixed 'Violet Hill' almost entirely in analogue, using Pro Tools just as a tape machine. They had printed their plug–ins, so I don't know what they used. I lay the tracks out on the desk, with the most important instruments right in front of me and the things that come in and out of the song elsewhere on the console. Needless to say, I'm a fan of the analogue world, because I grew up in it. It's very immediate, you know what you're getting, the ceilings are soft and musical, the sonics remain intact, and you don't get that digital crap–out sound when you hit the ceiling. I don't have anything against plug–ins, but I have to say that mixing in the box doesn't interest me. I get a great sound the way I'm working now, so why change? But if I hear something that sounds better in a plug–in than on analogue, I go for it. So there are certain plug–in bass compressors that I use, and I'm increasingly using Altiverb as well as plug–in de–essers. The new Sonnox Oxford and the Eiosis are great de–essers."
"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.
"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was fucking explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."
"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."
"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."
"The piano had my regular piano insert, which is two Urei LA3As going into my prototype Focusrite stereo 115 HD EQ. For some additional width I sent it to a Neve Portico 5014 Sound Field Editor. No reverb. I left the intro ambience as it was given to me. The keys had nothing on them either, not even EQ, jut flat, panned left and right. A lot of the tracks had hardly any EQ on them. Again, they did their homework and got the sounds that they wanted and didn't leave me to reinvent the song. What they wanted from me was to get their vision out there. That's my job."
"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.
"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.
"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."
"In addition to all the above effects, all tracks went through my ABCD multi–bus compression system [see 'Brauerize TheMix' box]. 'A' consists of a Neve 33609 going into a Pultec P1A3S EQ; 'B' is is almost always a Distressor going into my Avalon E55 EQ; 'C' is the Pendulum ES8 tube limiter; 'D' at the time was my Inward Connection stereo tube limiter (but currently it's the [TF Pro] Edward The Compressor P8). So the bass and drums went through B, the guitars went through C — sometimes I'll send guitars through A and C, or I'll send them to C and then send them to a mono compressor return, whichever excites them the best — the keyboards went through A, and the backing vocals through A and D. I did not put the lead vocals through my multi–bus system. I stopped doing that three years ago. Instead they went through these five compressors, the Federal, Gates, Fairchild, 1176 and Distressor.
"I mixed down to analogue half–inch, 30ips, no Dolby, +4, on a Studer A820. I love the sound of Studer, and the +4 level allowed me to hit the tape a little harder if I wanted to. Backups are made on Pro Tools or the Alesis Masterlink L2. Before I go to tape I also put the stereo mix through somewhat of a mastering process. On most of the mixes I used a Shadow Hills Stereo Mastering Compressor going into a Chandler Stereo Curve Bender EQ, but on 'Violet Hill' I used an ADL 670 stereo mastering compressor instead of the Shadow Hills. The 670 is a bit darker and it also has a very interesting rhythm. It has a more downbeat feel. The song really came alive when I put it through the 670. It was one more piece of the puzzle that I was looking for.
"When I listened to the song again in preparation for this interview it struck me how important the edgy sound of the guitars is, and I really like how everything dries up at the end for Chris and his piano. That's such a Coldplay signature moment. Most of all, throughout the song you can't help but follow Chris, and that was my objective. I don't care about creating a great backing track and throwing a vocal in there. For me it's always about listening to the story, listening to the singer and holding the listener's hand while going through the song. This particular mix is a perfect example. At the end you've followed the story from the beginning to the end and you're happy to hear the track again.".
Michael Brauer: "My main monitors are ProAc 100s, which I use with the incredible Transparent Audio cables and my Chord SPM1200C, which is a great amplifier. I also have some bigger ProAcs for if I really want to mould the bottom end and to get a good physical feel for the mix. But most of my mixing is done listening to my little Sony boombox. It sits behind me, on my rack number two, about four-and-a-half feet up from my ears and six feet back, and I listen at a medium low level, which is really important to be able to hear accurately what's going on. We once measured it, and it played at 84dB. Because the speakers of the boombox are relatively close to each other, I essentially listen in mono. The Sony is like a magnifying glass, it tells me whether my mix sucks or not. I use it for a similar reason to why most people use the NS10, and I will also sometimes play my mix briefly through a pair of NS10s, just to make sure everything is sitting nicely and is where it is expected to be, and because I want to get several different perspectives. But the Sony gives me a much more accurate picture."
On Michael Brauer's web site (www.mbrauer.com) there's a huge Q&A page where the mixer answers all manner of questions about his techniques. A significant portion of this page is dedicated to Brauer's multi–bus compression technique, for which he has trademarked the term 'Brauerize'. In essence, Brauer creates four stems in order to send the drums, bass, guitar, keys, vocals and other parts of the arrangement to different compressors. These A, B, C and D buses come up in the centre section of his SSL J9000, and go straight into the summing amplifier for mixdown to stereo, with the final stereo compressor barely acting, and relatively little compression employed on individual channels.
"You have to understand that this style of mixing is 180 degrees different to the regular approach," elaborates Brauer. "In the normal approach everything is already compressed when you bring your faders up, so you're mixing with pre–fader compression, but in my approach you are mixing into compression, meaning post compression. Once you get your head and ears around that, and you know how to ride your mix into the sweet spot, it's great. It's critical, of course, that you calibrate your ABCD compressors first — I describe how to do this on my site. At the moment the four sub–stereos are: A, Neve 33609 going into a Pultec P1A3S EQ; B [Empirical Labs], Distressor going into an Avalon E55 EQ; C, Pendulum ES8 tube limiter; D [TF Pro], Edward The Compressor P8."
Brauer began developing his multi–bus compression method in 1985, when mixing the Aretha Franklin mega hit 'Freeway To Love' from her Who's Zoomin' Who? album, which was produced by Narada Michael Walden. "Michael wanted more bottom end, and I was already mixing right at the edge of what the console could do, hitting the sweet spot. I couldn't go any further. When I added more bass, the stereo compressor went wacky and the vocal went down. But if I turned the compression down, the level was too high. It was one of these situations in which I felt like I had no more options, because it was all based on this final stereo compressor. I was up against the wall and it was a feeling I never wanted to repeat. I needed to figure out how to make sure that if I had a great sound on the bass, adding another instrument to it wouldn't destroy the compression. That was the objective. I was working at Right Track in NYC at the time, and they had a new console, the SSL 6000, which had an A, B and a C bus. I soon realised that these three stereo buses allowed me to separate the compression for different instruments out.
"A lot of what I was doing was about feel. I fell in love with the sound of compressors. They weren't necessarily compressing, it was just the sound of them. Very often I would use compressors as an equaliser. Eighty percent of my compressors are used strictly for tone. I also quickly found that I could get extra dynamics and could get the record to pump in a really natural way. It sounded big because there was no stereo compressor holding everything down at the end. I could get internal dynamics going between drums and guitars, or vocals and bass. It was almost like having counter–compression going on. Each compressor has a certain feel associated with it, and as my collection of compressors grew, I had more different kinds of feels available to me."
Brauer kept developing his multi–bus method, trying out various different compressors and EQs on each bus along the way, and moving into an ABCD system when he went over to work on an SSL 8000 at Sony Music studios. It was here that he hit on a way of assigning the instruments that continues to this day, though he may vary it according to the needs of each individual mix. "I assigned B for the rhythm section, bass and drums, C for the centre of the record, usually guitars, A for the more top end, vocals and keyboards, and D was an extra. When I was a drummer, it was all about the relationship between the drums and the bass, and similarly the idea was to compress groups that worked together."
In addition, Brauer has also incorporated a multi–channel send/return method that he learned from producer David Kahne. He applied it, for instance, in Coldplay's 'Violet Hill' with the five compressors on the lead vocals, each of them returning on a different channel. Brauer: "I have 48 bus outputs on each channel. At least 30 of those are always assigned to certain effects, delays and compressors and they all return to the desk. Just about everything in my second rack is assigned to those buses, so if at any point I want to try an idea, it's already patched. The five mono compressors that I use on vocals are also sent from the buses. I control all those with the small fader post the large fader. In addition, I have six auxes. Aux 1 is a stereo left/right on which I have two Neve 1176s, going into two faders and then to the stereo bus; Aux 2 goes to a Lexicon 200, to a submixer, to channels 45 and 46, to the stereo bus; Aux 3 goes to a PCM81 reverb, then to a submixer, and also faders 45 and 46 and the stereo bus; Aux 4 changes a lot between different reverbs or effects, and comes up on two faders before going to the stereo bus; Aux 5 connects to either a Bricasti M7 or a Sony DRE777, coming up on two faders going to the stereo bus; and Aux 6 goes to the Sony DRE777, a submixer, faders 45 and 46 and the stereo bus.
"I have a million options, and that's exactly the point. If one doesn't work, I try another one. I keep hitting buttons until I go 'Wow!' When mixing, I'm searching, searching, searching, until I know I'm on the right track. We have today maybe 2dB of dynamics to play with, and even that gets squashed to 0.5dB. This style gives the impression that you have way more dynamics than you actually do. At the same time, you can't really call it multi–bus compression any more, because I've incorporated so many other styles, and so now I've trademarked it as Brauerize multi–bus compression services."
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text:
Chicken is the ubiquitous food of our era, crossing multiple cultural boundaries with ease. With its mild taste and uniform texture, chicken presents an intriguingly blank canvas for the flavor palette of almost any cuisine. A generation of Britons is coming of age in the belief that chicken tikka masala is the national dish, and the same thing is happening in China with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
'cryptoterrestrial' idea that UFOs may have more to do with a species of intelligent non-humans indigenous to the planet Earth that have 'adapted to our numerical superiority by developing a surprisingly robust technology'.
Name: | Buckaroo "BB" Bucock | |
Address: | He lives together with his Toy Soldier in a Lair or perhaps in his workshop in Kentucky. | |
Born: | 19?? on the Deep Fryer, Chicken Emporium. | |
Died: | ? | |
First appearance: | 1952 in Kentucky | |
Created by: | Nerx | |
Father: | General Anders | |
Mother: | Unknown | |
Siblings: | Unknown | |
Spouse: | None | |
Children: | None | |
Other close relatives: | Unknown | |
Occupation: | An intelligent, but not always successful inventor. | |
Member of: | Gallus but he might have been a member of The Junior Woodchucks as a kid. | |
Drives: | Various, but he is often seen flying the Cluck Rogers he invented. |
Race: GMO chicken mutate
Hynek Classification: CEV
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Profession: Scientist
Feathers: White
Eyes: Red
Height: 6'4
Age: 2
Theme Song: Satsugai DMC
Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg. Then, along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad, to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to hatch. When it hatches, out comes a creature called cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures. A single glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both man and beast. Its power of destruction is said to be so great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal. Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation to wither.
Buckaroo bucock was born in a chicken nugget vat, where it is supposed to be sent to a chicken fast food restaurant. In an odd twist of events the gods decide to play a joke and so they granted one nugget a semblance of sapience. The nugget has the ability to speak, as well as the strength to develop into something totally new. As with the life of a piece of junkfood his beginning started from an American who got the name of Mark Anthony. Mark was an avid foodie, yet on one fateful day he decides to order the last batch of fried nuggets. Buckaroo bucock back then was inert, yet thinking and with this opportunity he nearly died from the deep frying.
Luck and determination had set his destiny in place, where he was served along with other pieces of nugget in the food tray. The hand of the giant dipped it vigorously to the sweet barbeque sauce, half of Buckaroo bucock was coated with artificial molasses. The being had been strong, and this is the ultimate test of his will to live. The nugget is being chewed by the jaws of Mark, the small piece which became chyme. A lump that shifted in its path as it crawled towards the trachea. Selecting the path of the lungs instead of the esophagus that leads to the stomach. Acting as a bud that began as a strain of sentient cancer, evolving into something more sinister.
Mark Anthony died within the span of months, yet his hair began to molt away as they were replaced with chicken feathers. As he was buried something happened inside his body. A strange development that will lead into the genesis of Buckaroo bucock. Arms transforming into wings, bones hollowing out and the mouth transitioning into a beak. The genitalia shrinking, warping and convulsing into a new shape. The soul being taken over by a new form, one existence overlapping the other. As the phoenix did with ashes Buckaroo bucock creates a version in which an obese man became the birthing place of the greatest scientist that will ever come.
One of they few possible futures to happen, at least in the eyes of the newly animated Buck. The chicken man then awoke to figure out about itself, firstly finding out an identity. A book is present, the title became an inspiration of the name after seeing his own reflection on a dark puddle across the street outside the graveyard. Stealing a taxi and heading out towards the suburban area where he began to develop into a higher being, with the virtue of consuming mass quantities of junk food. Eating chicken to become stronger, eating humans to become wiser. He is now ready to face the world. Half chicken nugget half man.
Having found a grounded spaceship and uses it as his shelter. After months of living there, he thinks of pushing any of the colorful buttons or searching through the unearthly objects scattered around the ship. Discovering the "magical" properties of the ship (flying, indoor lighting, etc.). Opening new horizons for this evolution, as he digests a sea of information. Becoming one with the winds of change, transforming into something radical.
He is a part of new initiative by the world food industries to find a cheaper yet more expendable food source. Scientists had developed super GMO's as the end all solve all resource to tackle world hunger. Augmented foodstuffs to tackle the problem of scarcity, it can assimilate anything to add in more nutrients adn chemicals and reproduces by Mitosis. When one of the reactors went awry, some of them are irradiated. Most of them died in the process, but were still sold in china. Yet some had developed a form of sentience, one developed sapience. These ascended forms had escaped from their captivity. Unlike the rest which are recaptured Bucka had escaped into a chicken restaurant in Kentucky.
Fast forward into two years and It had became a hominid being capable of human interaction. The program was shut down after the irradiated specimens caused an outbreak of infectious cancer in mainland china. Factories shelved, and documents burned into ashes. He is a lingering memory of a failed project, one that is secretly being continued and marketed now as vegetarian meat substitutes. He has become a stronger threat to the balance of the world. Establishing a foothold on several key locations in the monetary world as its eyes are set on the financial districts.
It had become ubiquitous, spread across the world as chicken is available to everyone. In charge of subtle manipulations until the day of exposition where it will subjugate all humans, operating off world and underground. Waging shadow wars against other would be dominators. As far as seeding other planets to expand their nefarious goals. Striving to take their place as the rightful dominant species of the planet. While serving and overseeing fast food chains across the world. Spreading the word via manipulated religions, and even converting humans into their flock. Methods unknown and alien to many, there is but one leader. All of them being that singular entity. Posing as the mundane, or the supernatural. Watching as the inheritors of the earth. Japan is a place that they go to, observing the unique occurrences that unfold and learning secrets.
Theriocephaly, beak, large eyes, feathers & taloned hands. A creature of scales, feathers, spurs and talons; fire spurting from its beak'd mouth, it crows to the moon instead of the sun. Torigami is a mountain of muscle. When he talks he is soft spoken with his down-home Southern demeanor. As a character, Buck's looks match his personality; rough, but efficient. He usually wears laboratory-like clothes with white gloves, a white undershirt, and a red tie. But he usually appears in the costume of an English gentleman of the early 20th century: a green cutaway, vest with watch fob, tie, and wing collar.
Crazy is an understatement since it is hard to predict what Buckaroo bucock will do next, as a poultry type humanoid its actions are erratic and can be equated to a cartoon animal. Absurdity is a key element to how it views life, an outlook of weird which blends into its alien sense of science. In terms of ethics it represents himself as a sadistic freak. However when dealing with things Buck likes to go the extra mile to get better results, more often than not he would rather take the time circling his foes to face their backs rather than directly charging forward. Buck became science fiction writer. Misleading them humans with a novel that describes the various alien malevolent cultures and how to improperly approach them. He funds gambling tournaments to watch the destitute of society struggle against overwhelming terror and despair.
On the outside, Buck appears as a very cruel and blunt scientist, who takes no sympathy and gives no pity. He is crude and sometimes his tactics can almost hit on a borderline "evil." This however is all something of a misinterpretation. Deep down, Buck is a wounded and troubled soul who has learned not to trust anyone as they are bound to hurt him eventually as his past has taught him. He is also a businessman, he sell his works to have money. He constructs machines and thinks of intricate plans to counteract Heroes strength. He is also incredibly intelligent as he can make a 100% correct analysis of a person quickly. Buck is described as not right. He is very charismatic, and very ominous.
Despite his demonstrated ability to be both frigid and detached as well as cruel and brutal, Bucka also demonstrated a carefree, charming side, which he used to disarm both colleagues and victims alike. He acted in a caring, concerned manner when confronted with exhausted women and their children on the ramp, only to send them to the conversion pods a moment later. His alluring looks and his confident, authoritative manner made him sexually desirable to the very women that he degraded, tortured and murdered. The totally unpredictable nature of Bucka's personality became his most powerful tool for exerting control over both prisoners and prison personnel, for it instilled a deep-seated primal fear into all those with whom he came into contact.
As rich as he is, Bucka enjoys gambling. However, he doesn't wager unless he knows the outcome, as he doesn't like to be surprised. He often wagers large sums of money or in one case, his own life on a match in order to gain the upper hand in a bet, and is a self-proclaimed egomaniac. He is also a very strong tactical leader, said to be absolutely ruthless and cold-hearted. Bucka likes to downplay his intellectual abilities (he says he doesn't read much) but he has had an excellent education, at an alien spaceship and as an autodidact. He has no regard for life, even his own, and is more than willing to sacrifice his own men and even his own life for cause.
A corrupt businessman, characterised by extreme cruelty and greed. If he had even the slightest chance of getting profit, nothing would stop him. He constantly prioritised financial success over any other motives and emotions. Bucka is very clumsy (he tends to spill coffee on himself during moments of excitement) and short tempered. He is not detached from the idea of exploitation, backstabbing, or the use of loopholes to get his own way.
The Cluck likes his pipe and never goes far without one in his labcoat, his Calabash pipe is made from a gourd with the inside of the bowl being made of Meerschaum. Calabash can be quite expensive because they are hard to make and many are actually made of different kinds of wood instead of real gourd.
Calabash pipes have air chambers on the bottom of the pipe to make the smoke mellower. He smoked "energy" tobacco, to rejuvenate his powers, that he carried in a tobacco box on his belt. To floss his affluence, he rolls his 'energy' cigarettes using 100 dollar bills. He openly enjoys smoking, as he is often seen with a pipe (or rolls) in his mouth during most of his appearances.
When a chicken's head is cut off, its body refuses to recognize death. It fights decay, fights dissolution, fights off the darkness.
In this regard it would be wise to compare it to a deranged Doraemon with bits of Nougami Neuro thrown in, Buckaroo bucock does not directly participate in fighting nor any combative events. It prefers to manipulate things from the background or support other characters with its unique talents. Abilities which are adapted to escape and non-combat uses. Buck is a living anomaly and thus is subject to its own natural laws, by manipulating natural laws inherent to its conception so far Buck is capable of feats such as:
Durability wise Buck is as tough as Big Bird, which is not saying much. Yet its dangers are not limited only to the realm of combat, despite its silly appearance it possesses untapped potential. He can be shot and taken down like anyone else, to destroy a Buck is simple but to remove all of Gallus would be an impossible task. The fact is that the male of the species can be quite a fierce animal, especially when bred and trained for fighting. Nature armed the rooster with a bony leg spur; humans have supplemented that feature with an arsenal of metal spurs and small knives strapped to the bird's leg.
They are beings that feed on human flesh and blood. They can morph into human form that allows them to live among humans. Bucks have strength and speed (but not durability) beyond humans and can repair wounded bodies at amazing pace. Bucks in their true state have octopus-like rectangular eyes, razor sharp beaks and talons, muscular, elongated limbs and torsos, transparent blood and brown, purple, gray or green skin.
Everything he does is reversible thus it can occur in both directions, i.e. A->B and B->A. Reversible processes do not produce any entropy. He can undo what he has caused .
After the Big Fry
The Answer Talker grants the user the ability to know the answer to any question, and it also allows the one with Answer Talker to know the movements and the spells of opponents. It is easily identified by the concentric circles in the user's pupils. Not obtained by any ordinary means, the Answer Talker is obtained when one "dies then returns to life". The Answer Talker can be used for a variety of actions, including, but not limited to, research, training, and combat. Mainly utilize their abilities in combat, where they can instantly learn weaknesses, strengths, special abilities and other useful combat information. Using the ability of Answer Talker in battle allows Buck to completely understand an opponent's attack, how to evade it, and how to effectively counterattack.
Unlike most of his enemies, Buck possesses a terrible asset on his side: His own mind, so developed that his intelligence may be in a far superior level than most humans. Such as that it posses a Hallucinomemic ( An idea that induces hallucinations) effect that can be used in everyday conversations, a natural ability that cannot be negated as it is not a super-phenomena It come to him like how breathing comes to others. Means of communications can create memes (Self-reproducing idea or other information pattern which is propagated in ways similar to that of a gene.) and some times he can even create Memies (a thought which, once out of the mouth, does anything it damn well pleases) as he is a Memius (An effective spreader of ideas), thus capable of converting others into Memoids (True believer in a meme and willing to die for it.). He is known to use Sapper Memes to reach his goals (An offensive meme, intelligently-designed to infect a host, reduce the host's memetic immunity, and prepare the host for infection.). Vaccimes (Any meta-meme which confers resistance or immunity to one or more memes, allowing that person to be exposed without acquiring an active infection. Also called an `immuno-meme.' Common immune-conferring memes are "Faith", "Loyalty", "Skepticism", and "tolerance") are also a tool in his trade as he uses all of them to induce Viewquakes (Insights which dramatically change one's world view.). Creating Sociotypes at a whim (The social expression of a memotype, as the body of an organism is the physical expression (phenotype) of the gene (genotype). Hence, the Protestant Church is one sociotype of the Bible's memotype.)
It even has a peculiar sensory 'flavor' to me (affecting sinuses), inaudile/invisible signals are being broadcast with the audiovisual that's consciously perceived by the viewers. He is able to understand what other are saying by reading their brainwaves. A measly paper scribble by Buck would be classified with several government gag orders. The Rooster's main asset is his ability to inspire people with enthusiastic speeches. He can take almost any situation and spin it into a speech that will strengthen Gallus morale for their next operation.
He has not learned how to fly very well with his lightly feathered arms. It usually results in a clumsy leap.
"They are human in appearance, so much so that they can move among us with ease with just a little effort. If you get a close look, you'd notice something odd, but not if the person just passed you on the street. You never see an alien's "human costume" have hair that looks like a waxy unflowing helmet, arms that have absurdly bulbous muscles (like Popeye's), a mouth with no teeth or tongue, or stiff facial features."
Father Clucker - A brash yet unassuming character that frequents at gala events, or the outskirts of metropolitan areas. Always looking for people to interact and subjects for experimenting. Father has an eye for power, hands to properly manage them along with the sense to exploit them til the last drop. It is a human caricature of Buck's madness. Clucker is politically incorrect and has been known to be extremely racist and homophobic, he's a troublemaker that way.
The chicken has been seen as a mythical symbol of courage throughout many civilizations in the world. The romans associated chickens with Mars, the god of war. These associations are no doubt due to their aggressive and territorial behavior. You only need to think about cock fights to conjure the image of why these birds would be associated with a god of war.
Cockerel - a form rarely used that occasionally glitches its way in the case pf personality quirks, unknown at the time. An appearance taken from the assimilated Kittaiku-seijin race.
The voice of shadows, a veiled figure that speaks of 'Truth' the changing ways to shake the foundations of society itself. Nobody knows what it is or where it came from, but it is very charismatic to the point where it is oftentimes compared to a messiah.
When somebody needs to get dissected or killed off and there are no 'feet' or 'soldiers' to carry out the necessary procedures then Buck would do the deed himself discreetly.
Buckaroo buck may be a scientist but that does not mean that it cannot defend itself, and when trouble calls he pools the entirety of his abilities to instantly craft the rooster armor. This armor is birthed by desperation and thus is a last resort beyond his last resorts, thus in that regard it is seldom used. It activates in the rare event where instead of flight, Buck decides to fight. It acts as a mirror force to his opponent's full capabilities, essentially leveling the battlefield where skill and not raw power/hax determines the outcome of the fight.
A combative specialist armor that can only be activated in conjunction with the Cockerel mode, he has never used it before so at this point capabilities pertaining to this configuration is unknown.
Unused thus far and still experimental, capabilities unknown. It is constructed with AB-Matter.
Many think that the most dangerous capability of Buck is his 'odd' gifts but they are wrong, his most dangerous acumen is his mind. He can and has been known to reverse engineer enemy technology on the go, replicating in perfect detail and making upgrades on their design. There have been plenty of heroes and villains alike who rely on technology to emulate a certain degree of powers, he can mass produce these things for a customer level with utmost impunity. Also he can DIY 2x4 versions from any tech, meaning that he can macgyver his way out of any problem.
The speciality of the Bucks – in regards to human beings, is surgery. They don't just cut up and dissect humans – they remove the brain, intact and alive… and place them inside technologically advanced cylinders where they can remain – conscious but deprived of all sensory input – indefinitely. Quite often the mind contained within the brain will be induced into a sleep-like state to prevent absolute madness; but, depending on the motives of the particular Buck involved, perhaps the mind is left awake. Sensory equipment can be connected to the cylinder – allowing the brain to experience sight and sound, even speech.
He explores the link between nanotech and humans and often uses this relationship as a way to explore other ideas: control, government, individuality.
"Transmutation is mostly a matter of changing protons into neutrons and vice-versa. An atom's nucleus is a bunch of protons and neutrons. Take oxygen, it's got eight neutrons and eight protons. And hydrogen has one proton. If you could change protons into neutrons, you could stick sixteen hydrogens together, flip half of their protons to neutrons and you'd have a molecule of oxygen. Like that. And by the way, when you change the nuclei, the electrons take care of themselves."
"That's the crude old nuclear physics way. Instead of that, we femtotechnologists are going to use quark-flipping. Takes much less energy. A proton is a quark-bag holding two up quarks and one down quark, while a neutron is a quark-bag with two down quarks and one up quark. To change from one to the other, you just need to go into the bag and flip the one quark."
They can control matter to the atomic level (via nanotechnology,teleporters, biotech) curing aging and death. Backing up their minds in case they die. With this he also has the ability to make living things, actually once living things, explode.
Life support and basic necessities to keep his body fully functional, natural order manipulation does have its drawbacks and these are the things to keep Buck in tip top shape. Some are to stabilize, others are to augment. They keep him in work as a cybrarian (Computer Net-oriented information specialist) as it enables seamless Broadcatching (Catching television and other media selectively so that the sum of the collected parts is personalized.)
Bogosity Filter: A mechanism for detecting bogus ideas and propositions.
Its easy to connect a Buck computer to a alien computer and control it (and bucks can learn how to use alien computers in seconds), even if no one knows how it works its no problems to write viruses for it. Buck's cybernetic enhancements have rendered him unable to age or become ill. As long as the machinery powering his life functions is kept in good working order, he is effectively immune to dying of natural causes.
Buckas encountered magic during their stay in the saucer, but the perceive it differently than most sapients do. Seeing it as more as series of code. Being programmers and compulsive numerologists, the standard application is more intellect based.
Using computers used to run cabalistic and chaos mathematical sequences that have a profound effect on the physical world. By creating 'anchors' to particular points in space-time, they are able to download additional supplies, intensify firepower and slow the passage of time for brief periods.
They can be pretty dangerous guys depending on their skill and what they're doing.
Brərē is an organization of the civil wing under the Gallus. They preserved book collections and researched World idea's culture politics, chemistry, fighting tactics and black magic. When the Gallus went off-world fell, they vanished from the world stage. The reappeared in 19??, by restyling themselves as niche book stores and consolidated power under this new front. Brərē is ostensibly a Gallus bookstore chain selling niche books, but in reality, Brərē is an intelligence-gathering operation rivalling the Black Library*.
The Buckaroo is a 65 million year old civilization. Over the years becoming the top predator, and eventually discovered wormholes which he used to travel to other worlds. He eventually learned to control the world around him with his intellect. These extend to controlling others, reading people's needs, and projecting their wants. The Roost Company building is Buckaroo's home. It, and everything in it, runs on the technology of industrialized alchemy. Innumerable stories high, gathering people to work in it who eventually give up their souls to its furnaces.
The Roost Company, from its early days, captured and tortured humanns for their own sick pleasures. They would enjoy watching blood being drained from human bodies, bathe in the demons' blood, and observe humans dying horrible deaths. Also, they would purchase humans to fight for them for money and do their bidding. They would also frequently hire renowned humans to do work for them as assassins or bodyguards. They enjoyed hiring and watching humans fighting for sport in the Dark Kumite.
The building was made to a hierarchical scheme. The bottom levels house the diggers and other workers, kept in line by Toy Soldiers, the Feet. The middle level houses the converted. The top levels sport the 'enlightened' while the topmost level is home to Mr. Bucka himself. Board meetings are held weekly to discuss the killing of key individuals from competing companies to maintain dominance in the business industry.
The powers of the Buckroos are always displayed from under the eyes, directly they are feeble but behind the scenes they are formidable. One they are small, many they are overwhelming. According to some unreliable sources, Buck Buck controls half of the Global economy.
The Financial District is a place in a parallel universe where Entres gather to make a deal. The Financial District is a separate world, like a side-by-side universe to our own. It runs on a special currency that is made by investing people's futures as a collateral. Here, they wager their futures as they battle other entrepreneurs and their "assets" (which take a form unique to their master's destiny) to make it rich.Midas money is black and noticeably different from real money. If you are taken to this would you are dubbed an Entrepreneur and given an asset, It is basically your future. This asset takes a form and then fights for you. You take money from others you beat and as a result their future is damaged by the money loss or, in the extreme case, bankruptcy.
He tracks down debtors, finds them and then makes them do slave labor. Sometimes for the amusement of the bucks the debtors will be pit in life threatening games, fifteen years of slavery with other debtors in a secret underground installations. Life restarts at 05:00 AM and only lunch breaks are given, seven days per week, life is monotonous. Escape is impossible, due to the ubiquitous surveillance, and higher strata workers are also debtors, hostage taking is futile. The only light of hope is to save up money (of which he only gets 10% – the rest goes towards his debts and living costs), and buy reward offered to only the hardest workers: one day's holiday! A whole day of freedom from this underground hell!
This prize costs 500,000 Perica. Turns out Perica are worth a fraction of the value of Yen, they are getting paid about £25 for all his work, of which they gets to keep £2.50. Workers are given the opportunity to spend their hard earned Perica on luxury goods – beer, kebabs, crisps and peanuts! Everybody else spends their money treating themselves.
They are all given the same limitations (impossibility to leave the room, bomb located in the head).
The Company itself is responsible for handing out the letters and postcards to its contestants that illustrate the rules of each game. The cards are usually very well-written and involve white text on a black background with decorative borders.
They don't seem to understand how VAST this earth is. How much of the oceans have not been explored or seen by human eyes? How much of the lands have never been traveled? There's ample space for an unknown entity to live, survive and even thrive!
A house located in nowhere, essentially a haven where all Bucks can go to in a way that there are more than one of these located almost everywhere. Access points are secret but they are ubiquitous. In here are several gadgets as well as supplies for every member of the Buckaroo, also transport hubs for off world travel. They can be created as easily as they can be erased. For non buckaroos the environment will look like the inside of a stomach, everything seemingly biological. It may be caused by the difference in perception. Yet nothing is unsure, several people have wandered in, yet they came out 'different' Buckaroos often pop out of their lairs and steal objects from casual space travelers. Once the victims fall into the Buckaroos' lairs, they are apparently assimilated by the species and turned into Bucks too.
His plains for experimentation and so much more. A sloping pasture in lush, verdant green after the winter rains. There are Buckaroo civilizations that are ingrained within the land. A place so big that they horizon does not end, calculations point the population that approximately numbers across several trillion beings. Operating for multiple planets, not just in the small corner in the milky way. A rather contemporary secret city which involved flying saucers, death rays, and other sci-fi-like elements.
Its body is made up of toy blocks, which enable it to rearrange its body to linking up with fellow Soldiers and create larger forms. Using additional blocks they can create many kinds of constructs including enhancing their own bodies.They work in several tasks like piloting the Cluck Rogers and fighting machines used in missions, cleaning, cooking, help build and repair machines, among others in their schedule. They have great endurance, being able to survive several dangers like flames, spikes, and large explosions, but they aren't indestructible.
A hidden front for their workshop operations in the American continent, back then they make toys but now they focus on videogame and small applications for pericomputers.
The ship generates an Alcubierre wave, which contracts the space ahead of the ship along the ship's axis, and expands the space behind it, letting the ship ride the wave in between inside a region of flat space. Cluck Rogers when exiting hyperspace, warp or slipstream is not always in a horizontal formation and arrives from "below", "above" or upside down. Anytime a crew needs to find someone on a planet, they always seem to beam down to exactly the right city in the correct continent to start looking for them. Spacecraft do not necessarily travel in the direction their nose is pointing. In fact, during an engine burn, the thrust is in the direction of the nose. But once the thrust is off, the ship can turn to any orientation. It can fly "sideways" through space if it wants. The starship computer can inform the crew of the impending destruction of the ship to the nearest second, and use countermeasures whatsoever- such things as cutting the fuel supply to the reactor, using sprinklers to put out the fire, or removing air from the area on fire. This spaceship has circuit breakers. An energy beam attack or sudden energy surge wont cause computers on the ship to explode.
The vacuum of space has no resistance mechanism such as air or water, a starship that loses power wont grind to a halt. Teleporters operate by converting crew members from matter into energy is the same principle of vaporizing people with a ray gun. More like replication. Starships that travel way beyond faster than light may cause crew members to de-evolve or evolve into new lifeforms.
Do we share this earth with non-human entities? Are abductees actually being abducted by non-human terrestrial entities as opposed to extraterrestrials? How do they hide themselves so well? Where did they originate? Are they spirit or solid? Do they use disguises and if so, what disguises to they use? Are they one "race" of being or are there different species of cryptoterrestrials? Are they benevolent, malevolent, or both? They have chosen to live outside of human society, and within huge, cavernous underworlds far below the surface of our planet.
The Gallus is a non-bureaucratic networked organization. Such organizations and institutions must continually readjust to a changing array of projects, each requiring somewhat different combinations of skills and other resources. These organizations depend on many rapidly shifting project teams and much lateral communication among these relatively autonomous, entrepreneurial groups. It is my belief that the Bucks do not have a set caste system, but rather, they are all independent and capable of making these changes to suit a specific purpose at any given time.
The Gallus is intrinsically anti-human. Their very existence fights against all that is human; in physiology, values and power. The Cryptoterrestrials engaged in a process of subterfuge, bending belief systems to their own ends. This has been occurring, in one form or another, for an extraordinarily long time.
They are a hybrid between Man and Fowl, affording them the brute strength of an animal along with the rudimentary ability to follow orders. Because they are hybrid, with a chaotic degree of variation and mixed-ness, some are smarter than others, and these usually hold higher offices in the Gallus chain of command. Humans welcome aliens in their societies, but aliens do not return the favor.
In recent years, Bucks have outsourced some of their assassinations to human crews to further obfuscate their own involvement. Others have started to prefer human aides and assistants who have less to benefit from killing them. They have relationships with siblings or relatives, marry, and have children. They care about advancement in business or society. Pursuing ordinary careers, goals and relationships. The offspring of inter-species unions are always presented as either perfectly normal/healthy or sometimes as examples of hybrid vigor.
The love of copying, and the ability of everything to be copied is one of the fundamental characteristics of Buckaroo and thus his organization is built upon the Xox (an atomically identical copy of a person. A kind of dividual [ A copy of a personality surviving in more than one body]). It is essentially a community of Xoxers. A Borganism (an organization of formerly autonomous beings who have merged their individual wills to create one, collectively conscious being)
Creating a distributed intelligence (an intelligent entity which is distributed over a large volume (or inside another system, like a computer network) with no distinct center. Distributed intelligences have much longer communications lags, but are more flexible in their structure and can survive damage to their parts.)
Gallus operates as a Galaxy Brain a premier distributed intelligence, an intelligent being with parts spread across an entire galaxy. The internal communication lags would be on the order of tens of thousands years, making the top level very slow (but subminds could be much faster). The parts could be jupiter brains or other intelligent superobjects.
When the Leader dies, his surviving henchmen move into the power vacuum; his empire continues. The organization employs and enslaves powerful races, to take over suitable planets so that they can be sold to the highest bidders.
Some of the Xox - bodies and such
Out there in the cosmos there is a prime Rooster, the one that is said to came first before all the other Bucks. It still remains a mystery but this entity oversees progress in other dividuals, up to this day it remains an enigma. A huge alien is able to fit inside the body of a smaller species until the climatic confrontation scene where it suddenly reverts to its gigantic size. It is a flexible cyborg structure, where each manipulator branches off into smaller copies of itself, forming a fractal tree over many scales ( down to the nanoscale). Each branch would contain a distributed system to calculate movement and minimize central processing.
They start out as a small cells that enters the body through the skin. If the host resists, the scale has a sharp spike which allows it to burrow directly under a human's skin. Then, they travel to the head and take it over, controlling the entire body with the central nervous system. Sometimes, they will accidentally take over a different part of the host, where it forms a symbiosis with the host, while both beings retain separate intellects. Which prevents them from aging and heal any wounds sustained, allowing them to quickly recover from nearly any injury.
Despite their fowl appearance and initial claims of their being a "hive mind," Bucks are perfectly capable of disobeying their superiors, though it appears they largely choose to do so by twisting the wording of orders rather than directly refusing to obey.
"A civilization in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy, with energy consumption at ~4 x 10 erg/sec."
Controls the energy of an entire galaxy. Such a civilization can manipulate space-time and possesses almost godlike powers. It would be threatened with extinction only by the death of the universe itself (and even this might be avoided). Energy mastery for a Type 3 civilization marks a 10 billion-fold increase. There begins to be events and things we don't understand at this level and onwards
In attempt to deliver the ever increasing energy to their growing nation, they constantly send out colonization robots which are equipped with a universal constructor and are capable of self replication. Only a single robot would initially be needed to start the expedition and after several robot generations, the replicators would have increased in quantity to millions and then billions as they simultaneously travel to the far reaches of the galaxy, each colonizing a new star, building a Dyson Sphere, and then creating a vast network of energy transport systems to deliver the immense power back to the home planet. Of course humanity believes this process would ultimately be limited by the speed of light, however, perhaps with the growing energy potential as a Type 2 heads for Type 3, a break through will be discovered, allowing faster-than-light travel. Potentially, the super energies of a Type III could be used to warp space (without exotic (little understood) dark energy) to power their warp drives. Or maybe a quantum teleportation trick.
These are incredibly intelligent, sharp, quick and malevolent creatures – most of all, they can carry a large range of technology – even weapons. A fowl race who can use telepathy and grow wings.
As an individual Buckaroo is not that formidable but as a whole collective he is a formidable force, capable of bending time and space to achieve their goals. This space-faring community has progressed through indefinite survival. Its method include the creation of basement universes connected to the original universe with a wormhole or the existence of other cosmological domains. Continually migrating to the new domains as the old grow too entropic to sustain life. This could then be used for living space, computing or as an escape from a decaying universe.
Its cultural practices seek compuforming which involves turning matter into computronium. An optimally efficient matrix for computation, such as dense lattices of nanocomputers or quantum dot cellular automata. Creating Jupiter brains an archetypal form of concentrated intelligenceNanomachines could be used to turn the mass of Jupiter into computers running an upgraded version of himself. Even converting a neutron star used for a densely packed mind (similar to a jupiter brain or a omegon) exploiting neutronium or quark matter for computation.
Additional energies are taken by Star Lifting, removing material from a star for industrial use or for stellar husbandry (control the evolution and properties of stars, especially to stabilize them, prolong their lifetimes, manipulate the stellar wind, lift off useful material or create new stars. Typical methods would be star lifting or mixing the stellar core with envelope material to make hydrogen burning last longer.). Possible methods would involve increasing its rotation until material began to drift off the equator or squeezing it using intense magnetic fields from particle accelerators.
Buck values seem heavily focused around scientific progress and the survival of their race, which they apparently feel is regularly under threat. Their species-wide paranoia for their own survival seems further aggravated by seeing other species of similar strength lost to arcane/arcanotech accidents. One that pops up often in conversation, though they refuse to elaborate upon it, is the destruction of the Shem, apparently former residents of the planet Slugoosi. They have little to no value placed upon human concepts such as freedom or compassion, but seem capable of forming friendships, both within their own race and with humans, though the latter is obviously extremely rare, and more characterized as that of seeing a human as a trusted and reliable subordinate.
Their military uses contemporary military technology. Dropping megaton yield thermonuclear weapons by the hundreds from orbit would have effectively destroyed Planets easily. Small nuke missiles would have vaporized entire armies. Rather of wasting so many resources and so much manpower on the construction and deployment of such large, impractical weapons, they use the same resources and manpower to mass-manufacture traditional weapons (and fleets of ships) that have proven to be successful in the past. Spaceships one fourth the size of the moon have catastrophic effects on earth's tides or climate when they are near earth. They have bullets that are improved (make a piece of metal go really really fast and kill) also plasma weaponry, fiery blobs of death.
Bucks believe believe in ghosts, gods, demons, vampires, and werewolves.
The basic foot soldier sent as 'cleaners' to those who are deemed too close to understanding they myths, human-sized mechs created by Buck scientist for sinister reasons. Created with a great potential for learning, 'Feet' achieved sentience and began to modify themselves and its programming.
The ones off the grid, these are most dangerous as they tend to quickly refocus on the base survival aspects. Timed with natural abilities and characteristics gained from devouring other races they are an extinction level threat. Capable of wiping out dominant species and replacing them in the natural order. These are hunted down by the Buckaroos. Living off their instincts they slaughtered one another for the sake of power. Proned to violence Ferals are aggressive towards all living creatures, including other Bucks.
Bucks are a species of Poultry that appear in the world of Animevice. Bucks are extremely dangerous and are ranked first among poultry to be avoided. A Buck is capable of consuming several times its own weight in food each day.
In every colony there exists a single Empress Hen. The sole purpose of the Empress is to ensure the success of the species. As such, the Empress of a Bucks possesses an extremely unique way of reproduction known as Phagogenesis (reproduction/creation through eating).
By eating other creatures, the Empress can impart the characteristics of the ingested creature(s) onto the next generation of Bucks that it gives birth to. In order to take advantage of the genes of a particularly strong species the Bucks has been known to feed on the fodder species until the species is driven to extinction.
Newer generations of Bucks are capable of using speech and a form of telepathy, similar to a hivemind, to communicate. In contrast, the earliest generations of Bucks (as well as the Empress) are only capable of telepathy, while the Regal Guards are completely incapable of the telepathy. Bucks are also capable of surviving wounds that would be fatal to a human. They are capable of regenerating their body within a day if their heads are not destroyed. Due to the Empress's mostly human diet, many of the later generations of ants possess a great degree of individuality. This can be seen when they request permission from the queen to give themselves names. Several of the Bucks also retain memories from their lives as humans, in the form of their personality or knowledge of language and other subjects.
The Battlefield is one such circumstance where both objects and humans both experience these kind of emotions. A couple of Bakemono particularly associated with these paces include:
It was a recent discovery by Bucka that in Japan existed a being called the Tsukumogami, (付喪神, "artifact spirit") are a type of Japanese spirit. According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become a Tsukumogami. Tsukumogami are considered spirits and supernatural beings, as opposed to enchanted items. Some, originating from paper lanterns or broken sandals, can have tears which become eyes and sharp teeth, thus giving a horrifying visage. Others, such as worn prayer beads or teacups, may merely manifest faces and appendages, giving a warm and friendly appearance. It is said that modern items cannot become Tsukumogami; the reason for this is that tsukumogami are said to be repelled by electricity. Additionally, few modern items are used for the 100-year-span that it takes for an artifact to gain a soul.
As such a Buck's metabolism increase in power when they Tsukumogami foods that suit them and the 'tastes' of their metabolism, causing the cells to "evolve"; this enhances the strength of the user and their abilities. In Buckaroo's case he had acquired a soul that was housed in a katana. This means that he had assimilated a life of at least 100 years as a katana. This gives him some killer arm accessories in the form of razor-wings. This set also features a very stylish set of under-arm wings, ideal for gliding down silently on unsuspecting foes.
He is not a good fighter per-se but the spirit inside his body had over a century of sword existence. The knowledge to kill countless of foes as it has seen plenty of action in its day, its ascendant form learning even more. In this form he uses a sword style that uses no swords, as he has the essence of sword within his very being.
General Anders, the God of chicken. The grand architect of the fast food industry which rivals that of the burger emperor itself, a man of many mysteries that never comes out from his magical factory. There are numerous secrets about his existence, one of them which even says that the man is not even alive and that he is a 7th clone gengineered from a vat of chicken fluids.
Note: Mad Scientist/Corrupt Corporate Executive/Glass Cannon/Squishy Wizard/Fragile Speedster - Buck's a powerful businessman with knowledge spanning a ridiculous number of schools of science, even though he can only use about 10% of what she knows in practice. His preferred method of attack is through the standard hyper-dimensional grab-bag of gadgets, and his preferred method of defense is to avoid getting hit at all by being nimble, and by abusing his ability to multiply at will and zoom short distances. Once he's caught, though, it only takes a few good hits to put him down for the count. Because of his physical weakness, Bucka relies on his natural talents of knowledge and deception, as opposed to actual combat. However, despite his physical weakness, he appears to be capable of enduring considerably high amounts of damage

subset: commoncrawl


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Lewis Kaplan
Patton Boggs settles with Chevron over involvement in Ecuadorian oil lawsuit
Patton Boggs LLP has agreed to pay out $15 million to Chevron Corp., settling a lawsuit filed by the oil company. Patton Boggs has also agreed to drop out of the Ecuadorian litigation as a stipulation of the agreement.
Judge rules massive Chevron damages were the result of unethical practices
While Donziger is expected to try and appeal the ruling, the news could give Chevron an edge in pushing back against international efforts to hold it accountable for environmental issues stemming from oil operations within Ecuador.
2nd Circuit keeps judge in Chevron pollution case
Chevron has seen only a few victories in its decade-long pollution case, but the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has given the oil company a major triumph.
Owner of online poker site gets 14 months in prison
The co-owner of an online poker site was sentenced to 14 months in prison yesterday after he admitted to deceiving banks about processing gambling proceedings.


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Man as Industrial Palace
Videophones from the Future Past Skype? Smartphone? Google Hangouts? |
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DRB Feel-Good DRB Feel-Good Issue #26 Loads of cool and rare imagery |
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6 Comments:
- GrandMaster said...
Ehm, not complaining or anything, but the link to the 'pretty futuristic technology' is part of the iron man 2 movie promotion material. Most definitely not actual real-world technology. Pretty fun to watch though.
- Sigivald said...
That oscilloscope picture is, of course, faked.
But some (many? most?) of the more modern ones do actually run Windows CE as a host for the display, capture, and analysis bits.
You'd never even notice, and they don't advertise it (because who cares?), but it's there.
The scopes are, after all, just computers with some very specialized input hardware and very specialized software... - said...
The photos of the volcano were achieved using HDR (High Dynamic Range) techniques.
- said...
Great as always! however, I must point out that the original yellow sculpture for the Miyazaki-style creature is being exhibited in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, not Santiago de Chile.
- Avi Abrams said...
thank you - info updated
- stephen said...
Amazing collection.
SF ART & BOOK REVIEWS: Don't miss: The Ultimate Guide to NEW SF&F Writers! Fiction Reviews: Classic Cyberpunk: Extreme Fiction Short Fiction Reviews: Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" (with pics) New Fiction Reviews: The Surreal Office |
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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
A technology entrepreneur and health researcher, Ian Eslick considered how to tap unusual revenue sources to build and sustain projects that would have value in the healthcare system. He came up with a solution in Vital Reactor, which keeps track of profit shares for people who contributed to a startup.
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[ * in straight line, not driving distance ] This picnic area lies just before you reach the Tucker Ponds fishing area Activities and Amenities:FISHINGPICNICKING The campground is a single loop in a grove of spruce trees surrounding an open grass field. The campground has a lush tropical feeling but elevation keeps...[more]
Activities and Amenities:AUTO TOURINGCAMPINGFISHINGHIKINGPICNICKING This is a small impoundment right off of US Highway 160. It is frequently stocked during the summer with catchable Rainbow Trout. It consists of a small...[more]
Activities and Amenities:FISHINGHIKING Small impoundment holds Rio Grande Cutthroat and Brook Trout. Has a concrete boat ramp and parking lot, one dispersed camp site. Great place for canoes...[more]
Located at Lobo Overlook, on the Continental Divide Trail Activities and Amenities:HIKING This facility consists of a large parking lot and trailhead signing right at the top of Wolf Creek Pass off US Highway 160. It serves as an approach...[more]
Activities and Amenities:HIKING This overlook area sits right on top of the Continental Divide with excellent views of the San Juan Mountains and west toward Pagosa Springs. It offers...[more]
Activities and Amenities:AUTO TOURINGHIKINGPICNICKING The Wolf Creek Ski Area sits on 1581 acres of Forest Service lands at the top of Wolf Creek Pass. Wolf Creek is a high alpine ski resort, 10,300 feet ...[more]
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World English Bible (WEB) | New International Version (NIV) |
7 Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. | 7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." |
The World English Bible is in the public domain. (The World English Bible Online) | Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |


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The Early Films of 7 Modern Directors
Features By Monika Bartyzel on September 18, 2014 | Be the First To CommentI love looking at filmmakers' early work. Sure, it might be juvenile or lacking the grace of experience, but it's also the artistic eye before fame, celebrity personas or narrowly honed visions. It's the work they made before output was partially (if not totally) influenced by investors, studios and critics. First films can be like cinematic diaries of the directors' vision – like David Lynch's iconic Eraserhead, which is now on Criterion Blu-ray with almost all of his short films – or whiffs of artistry before the mainstream. Some, sadly, are still out of reach to the Internet masses, though they'd be fascinating first glimpses at cinematic themes and techniques. Long before 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen debuted with a revealing video installation, Bear, which only makes the rounds at live events. Kathryn Bigelow "plays down" her first film from 1978, The Set-Up, where Gary Busey and another guy fight each other as semioticians deconstruct the images – a film that certainly speaks to her future work, but hasn't been released for modern audiences. And though someone who thinks they're clever put up a slave scene on YouTube, insisting it was Spike Lee's first film, his debut – the Super 8 film Last Hustle in Brooklyn – is actually about "Black people and Puerto Rican people looting and dancing." Those three might remain out of reach, but here eight filmmakers' early visions that speak to humor, darkness, unexpected twists, and for one – an artistry before an obsession with […]
Who Should Win a Nobel Prize in Cinema?
Features By Daniel Walber on October 8, 2013 | Comments (10)There is no Nobel Prize for Cinema, but there should be. Not that it's anyone's fault, of course. Alfred Nobel put aside the funding for the five prizes (Medicine, Peace, Physics, Chemistry and Literature) in his will, and he died in 1896. It seems entirely likely that the Swedish inventor and philanthropist never even saw a single film projected in his life. Why would he set aside some of his fortune to reward the practitioners of an art form that had been around for less than a decade? I suppose one could leave it at that. Tough luck, cinema. But in 1969 the Swedish Academy began giving out the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. If they can grant an annual award to a fake science, then they can certainly do the same for an entirely real art. What would such a prize look like? It should probably take most of the parameters of the Nobel Prize in Literature, which is the only current award that recognizes artists. The aren't really specific criteria, except that the recipient has to be living. The list of prior laureates is international and interdisciplinary, including novelists as well as poets and playwrights. And, most importantly, the prize is given out for an entire body of work. Individual books have been included in citations, but that's rare these days.
'Top of the Lake' Trailer: Pre-Teen Pregnancy, Elisabeth Moss With a Gun, So Much More
Movie News By Kate Erbland on February 26, 2013 | Be the First To CommentThe news that Jane Campion was debuting a new project at last month's Sundance Film Festival was met with general excitement – until we all realized that the project was not a feature film, but a television miniseries that runs seven hours that would only be showed but once during the festival. Even if you've never been to a film festival, you can probably imagine how impossible it is to schedule a seven-hour chunk on any day, let alone just one set day. Fortunately, Campion's Top of the Lake is a television series after all, and one that will be showing on the Sundance Channel next month. The series features Elisabeth Moss as a detective tasked with returning to her close-knit (and more than a little dysfunctional) hometown, an isolated hamlet apparently filled with guns and drugs and people operating on a real hair-trigger. Moss' Robin Griffin's case is that of a missing girl – a twelve-year-old who also happens to be five months pregnant and who has disappeared after walking into a frozen lake. Campion's trademark style and beauty are already on display in the series' trailer, so just imagine how wonderful that will feel in one, big seven-hour dose. Watch the stunning trailer after the break.
Watch 'Beautiful Creatures' Star Alice Englert in Jane Campion's 'The Water Diary'
Features By Christopher Campbell on February 10, 2013 | Be the First To CommentBoth leads in Beautiful Creatures are relative newcomers, but actress Alice Englert is more of an out-of-nowhere choice for such an anticipated adaptation. She's been garnering raves for her performances in festival favorites like Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa and the recent Sundance debut In Fear, but otherwise this Thursday will really mark her introduction to general moviegoers. And I'll admit, she's excellent in Beautiful Creatures, standing out as a dramatic centerpiece amidst the enjoyable over-the-top stints by Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum. Between that, the other two features I mentioned and Roland Joffe's upcoming Singularity, the 18-year-old could very well be the next big thing, and perhaps the best of such since Jessica Chastain. So, where did she come from? Very literally she came from Jane Campion, the Oscar-nominated director of The Piano. She even had her first real starring role in one of her mother's films, the short The Water Diary, which is part of the feature-length omnibus 8. While IMDb credits this as Englert's first work, she actually made her debut in an earlier short from 2001, Paul Maling's Listen. You can watch that in full over at Alice-Englert.org. After The Water Diary, she appeared in one more short before the hiatus that led up to this year's heavy output. That one, Hannah Cowley's Flame of the West, does not appear to be available online anywhere, but you can check out a trailer that barely features the actress here.
Culture Warrior: Kathryn Bigelow's Next Move
Culture Warrior By Landon Palmer on March 9, 2010 | Comments (4)For an industry that is viewed reductively by much of middle America as being politically left-leaning to the point of being out-of-touch with the rest of the country, Hollywood has shown a stagnant lack of progress in terms of gender equality. Actresses' careers are in jeopardy as soon as they hit 35, it always seems like there's a dearth of good roles for women, and much of the business behind the camera is dominated by a boys' club. Particularly striking are the lack of female directors.
Jane Campion's 'Bright Star' is an intensely romantic film that's never trite or dated, despite its PG rating and early 19th century setting.
Neil Miller
Scott Beggs
Rob Hunter
Kate Erbland
Christopher Campbell