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paienne · 18 days ago

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natalia alianova romanova , eiza gonzalez , mixed canon , mid-thirties , cisfemale , she/hers . a mixture of 616, mcu, and the mowgli canon special.

please note that canonically, all of this information would in fact be, so heavily redacted, it would be akin to reading single words within heavy inked pages. finding information about natalia romanova is the equivalent of trying to locate all of your missing hair ties or socks. you know they should be there somewhere, but they just aren't. natasha romanoff, however, is a different story altogether.

𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇. the exact date of her birth is lost to history, nonetheless, natalia alianova romanova is born in the frigid winter of 1928. her mother is a nameless face to her, burned away in an apartment fire - to the soviet union, her mother is the last of a line meant to be snuffed out already. her father is an unknown man, an alleged ambassador from mexico - marked deceased on his file. natalia is raised by a soviet soldier, ivan petrovich bezukhov, and subsequently brought into the black widow operation.

natasha romanoff claims to have been born on october 3rd, 1989, in the bensonhurst neighborhood of brooklyn, new york. her mother died during labor, leaving behind only her father, ignacio. she attends the school of american ballet, and is an accomplished ballerina. for all intents and purposes, this is the cover story most know her from; including in her mcu verses. ivan, still acting as her handler, has taken up the role of psuedo-father, under the name ignacio.

𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆. she spends roughly thirty years of her life underneath the thumb of handlers and scientists within the red room of the black widow operation. trained to a near perfect degree, an elite spy made to become death to all who crossed the soviets. her memories are not her own, nor is her body - a terrifying science experiment gone correctly. she cannot dictate between what is real memory and what has been crafted for her to remember as truth; she's stopped aging as a forced side-effect of the lyudmila kudrin's tweaked super-soldier serum, a ghost frozen in time with memories that don't exist beyond the scape of her mind. always at her peak performance, in her prime; able to dodge bullets and shrapnel on the turn of a dime, officially rated by director nick fury as power level seven and a level ten s.h.i.e.l.d. operative.

𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒. able to lift 500lbs, runs at speeds averaging around 30mph, enhanced durability and resistance to pain due to cell regeneration rate (wounds heal roughly 5x faster than an average human's), enhanced immune system, reflexes, and stamina - at the cost of infertility. skilled in the following mixed martial arts: aikido, boxing, judo, karate, and savate. master acrobatic and assassin. speaks the following languages fluently: russian, english, french, german, mandarin, and japanese. has an adopted street cat named liho, which means misfortune in russian.

𝐌𝐂𝐔. to most who know her, including the avengers et all, she is natasha romanoff - director fury is likely to be the one who knows the most. she is still a kgb defector, but the timing of which is kept more vague. when, where, how - all things she keeps hidden. generally speaking, the events of the black widow movie are not canon to this blog; however, nat does feel a kinship to yelena - something that does tend to extend to other widows, i.e. survivors of the red room. nat feels an incredible amount of guilt for the fact that she allowed the academy to continue its existence - in the terrible way it churned out and destroyed the innocence of little girls. pre - endgame movies are generally easily slotted into some version of reality with the knowledge that natasha is: old as shit, incredibly hard to kill, and more likely to be working in the background as opposed to being the face of any operation; she understands her position and skills quite efficiently, and unlike the version who is concerned about the red in her ledger, a job is a job - and it must be done. no bruce banner romance here, nat is a seductress who fucks, good luck tying her down. post - endgame is essentially the idea of her just, not dying. it's not fancy, it's not cute. i mean, she'd definitely sacrifice herself for clint, but for the sake of continuation, we move on.

𝐌𝐂𝐔, 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓. following the events of endgame and the like, natasha is essentially back to business as usual for herself. still a well-sought after spy, there's always work to be done. she flits between working for s.h.i.e.l.d. and other various governments, sometimes it's a favor to a friend, or an ex lover, it's not uncommon to smell her perfume on the wind in the wake of an explosion or a death. she keeps tabs on old friends and enemies alike, of course; thunderbolts, new avengers, men taking up the rank of captain america - her opinions don't matter, at least, not anymore, but when she's asked to help, she's there in a heartbeat; no matter the underlying thought that she doesn't belong anywhere near the verbiage or idea of being a superhero.

𝐒𝐘𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐓. because i like it, and because i can; thank you to the comics for giving me symbiote black widow. natasha's symbiote is known as sliver; this adds an ability for web-slinging, and venomous saliva - containing neurotoxins that can be fatal in large enough quantities.

#002. | 𝚁𝙴𝙳𝙰𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳. ﹆ romanova † meta.#this is too long; it might get more added to it after i think more about 616 specifically.#sorry i'm ???? insane.

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deke-rivers-1957 · 7 months ago

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Pacer Burton's Rank

Disclaimer: For my tier list I’m basing this off of a one on one fight with no weapons or no outside interference. If a character has to rely on a weapon to win they’re typically ranked lower. If a character has to fight more than one person at a time, I’ll look at it on a case by case basis. Age, size and general background are factors that will be taken into consideration. Since a lot of those details are going to be up to interpretation as these are characters and not real people, feel free to share your own thoughts.

This is one of the few movies where we get canonical evidence of when this takes place. On the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Burton, they're marked to have died in 1878. What's shocking though is that this town doesn't seem to be placed by any train station. Especially knowing Mr. Burton's a cattle rancher. Cattle ranchers literally made their money by using the rails to transport the cattle to other parts of the country. Realistically, Mr. Burton would've been very well to do. He's the only rancher in that town so he would've been paid handsomely for his cattle. This would've made living in the plains of Texas, quite comfortable for Pacer and his family as Mr. Burton could've easily provided food.

Pacer's age is unknown but we do have one clue. Mrs. Burton was described as leaving the Kiowa tribe's camp 20 years ago. We can assume the reason behind her leaving was so she could marry Mr. Burton. Since Pacer has no memory of being in the camp, that means that he would've been born after she married Mr. Burton. Therefore we could assume that Pacer's one of the youngest Elvis characters at about 19-20 years old.

I know Pacer has a gun, but if you're only holding it like a prop it doesn't count. Pacer has to actually shoot it for it to be disqualified. One punch knocked this first man out so it technically doesn't count as a fight even though there was a clear intent on this man's part to attack Pacer.

It's dark in this scene so I'll do my best to explain what happened. After disposing his gun, Pacer has a classic fist fight with the second man. They climb onto the roof of the horse shed before the man falls off it. Pacer proceeds to hit him into submission. So in the span of about a minute Pacer wins a fight against 2 men. And given that Pacer suffered minimal injury, that's a positive for his case.

Once again because this is all "day as night" so I'll do my best to break down this fight scene. Pacer kills one Kiowa by shooting him which is disqualified. The second one, I don't think he specifically shoots and is instead using his gun as a prop. I'll count this one as a legitimate win. The 3rd one doesn't count as he does shoot him.

This 4th one is weird as at first Pacer isn't using a weapon before grabbing a knife. In this situation, I'll still count this as a legitimate win. Pacer still had to use some physical talent to keep the Kiowa from stabbing him. That gives him extra points for having to fight without any weapons.

Now what isn't seen is Pacer fighting the rest of the Kiowa. I can't say for sure how many he killed but what I can say is that the rifle he has was only a 6 shooter. He likely wouldn't be able to re-load it fast enough to make it effective once he runs out of bullets. He already spent two on Kiowa and a couple more as wasted shots in the air. Having to take on all of those men regardless of the outcome gives him a big boost. Simply not dying right away shows a sign of skill. Pacer was able to fight off enough of them to make it back into town, that makes him a respectable fighter.

Pacer is a fully grown man with a lot of energy. While he doesn't have the experience, he clearly makes up for it in strength. Age doesn't matter in his case, as his background would mean he would've done some physical labor since he was a child. He clearly has lean muscle that and has shown agility along with speed. Both skills are very important in a fist fight. When you consider the amount of people he had to fight in a short amount of time and the terrain he had to maneuver, fatigue would've played a big part in his fights.

Despite his death, Pacer would've just entered his prime. Sure he's still green but in terms of raw talent, he's a sleeper underdog. He is definitely better than the average man and I would say he could beat any Elvis character with military training. Easily in A tier as he doesn't have any professional training but has the raw skill to win a lot of fights. If you think this is enough to have him be on par with Walter Gulick I can understand making a case for him being in S tier. Elvis characters typically don't have fights that are this complex.

Tagging: @southcarolinawoman, @mercsandmonsters, @eapep, @almightybigbrain, @smokeymountainboy,

@thelonelyheart, @ladelinee, @bonjovipresley, @stitchlover0112, and @without-him.

#flaming star #pacer burton #kung fu elvis tidbit #elvis tier list

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snkts · 11 months ago

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Early evening, after dinner, Charles called a meeting in the library. The windows dark and the cicadas crying in the bushes outside, a sure sign of early Spring. Charles sat beside a projector screen and looked over the gathered faces. Whose number included: Scott, Ororo, Logan, Kurt, Rogue, Hank, among others. His expression was serious as he began his presentation.

"I am certain you have all heard of Academy City," he said. He clicked a button on the remote in his hand and the screen switched to its first slide. A marked map and images of a modern city skyline. "It is a special district in Tokyo with a population of 2.3 million people, 80% of which are students from the primary to the graduate school level. Of that population, 320,000 are mutants who are apart of the MCP, the Mutant Curriculum Program. They are an international body with mutants from all over the world but the vast majority are Japanese in origin. The mutants in the city attend special schools, receive training for their powers, and are the subjects in experiments. We have had dealings with the City in the past but its insular nature has made it difficult to breach: it has airtight security, both physical and cyber. It's almost impossible to find accurate information about what it's like inside. What we do know about the city is as much fact as it is rumor."

Charles paused to answer a scattering of questions related to the city and the presentation. Once finished, he went to the next slide. This slide showed a chart. In the far left column of the table were the number 1-5, and each row had a corresponding description. It was a list of power levels and their specifications.

"We know, for example, that the City ranks mutant students by levels," Charles said. "Every single student is ranked, from the Level 0s who exhibit no useful abilities and have physical deformities; to the Level 3s who have noticeable power and control; all the way to the Level 5s who represent the most powerful products of the MCP. There are only seven Level 5s in Academy City and they are all under the age of eighteen. Principle of which for tonight is Misaka Mikoto, the 3rd rank."

Another slide. In the far left corner of the screen was an image of a young girl. Beside her picture was a textbox that recorded her information: she was fifteen years old, a 3rd year student at Tokiwadai middle school, and born in Tokyo, Japan. In her picture, the girl faced the camera, her expression natural but posed with a slight smile. She had shoulder length brown hair, pinned with two hair clips decorated with white flowers.

"Misaka is what the city calls an 'electromaster,' or someone who controls electricity," Charles continued. "Misaka has vast control over the force of electromagnetism. For example, she can use it to… well, I'll let you see for yourself."

The next slide had an embedded video, which Charles played. The video depicted a demonstration in Russia. Misaka, in a school uniform of a tan blazer and blue tartan skirt, stood in the middle of a large arena. For her demonstration she fought a small platoon of mechs, armed with weapons that fired rubber bullets. A curt voice, translated from Japanese into English via subtitles, narrated the video. The voice explained the mechs were piloted by remote operators and were made of plastic, the reasons for which became obvious when Misaka used a steel girder to impale one of the mechs.

Over the course of the fight, the voice provided specifications for Misaka's abilities. Abilities that she demonstrated: generating lightning hot enough to melt steel; throwing and manipulating ferromagnetic metal; creating vibrating clouds of iron sand that cut through the mechs armor like paper. She was a swift and practiced fighter, exuding an easy confidence as she used magnetism to move and position herself in the arena. The narrator even explained that Misaka had extensive combat and strategy training, bragging about her genius for battle. Then, finally -

Misaka flipped a coin, drawn from her skirt pocket. On screen it appeared as an orange arrow, a streak of molten light that lasted only a few frames. The audio crackled as the air constricted in the arena and a peal of thunder echoed. The result were the demolished bodies of the mechs, now chunks of split, melted, and smoldering plastic. It appeared as though a massive hole had been drilled through them. Misaka's hand drifted to her hair and flipped a few strands off her shoulder. Charles paused the video.

"Wow," Kurt grunted.

"What was that last thing she did?" Scott asked, his arms crossed over his chest. "With the coin."

"Misaka is capable of using charges, on the order of millions of ampere, to launch ferromagnetic materials at supersonic speeds," Charles explained. "As you saw, even a small coin of a few grams becomes a powerful force."

"A railgun," Hank guessed.

"Yes," Charles said. "Thus, Misaka's title in the city: The Railgun."

Charles clicked a button on his remote and the screen turned off.

"The reason I have shown you this is because our goal is to recruit, The Railgun, Misaka Mikoto," Charles said. He interlaced his fingers in front of him and leaned forward. "Misaka has been subject of numerous experiments, some published. Others too abhorrent to be written down. Principle of which was the Radio Noise Project, which cloned her over 20,000 times, and then the Level 6 Shift Project, which saw the death of over 10,000 of those clones. We also know that she was the subject of an experiment last September which caused her powers to run out of control in an attempt to breach what the city calls, 'Level 6,' or their idea of ultimate power. During this experiment, Misaka produced the most powerful lightning strike ever recorded on Earth by several magnitude. Ororo remembers this incident."

Charles sighed, the tension releasing from his body.

"I could speak for hours about what you already know, Academy City does not treat its students, especially the ones who happen to be mutants, well" he said. "But we are also aware that there are people who are fighting against the abuses of its system and one of those people is Misaka Mikoto. Misaka appears to have become central in a chain of contacts that are assisting students in the city, whether to escape or fight against abusive experiments. She is an expert, I am told, in hacking and electronics. Because of her power, Misaka is capable of overcoming even Academy City's cybersecurity. If we wish to begin to unravel Academy City, and yes, help its students - including Misaka - then we will need someone who understands it. I believe for this reason, that despite danger and difficulty, it will be worth it to recruit her for the X-Men. We will discuss the details later. I only have one question for all of you."

Charles leaned back in his seat.

"Are there any volunteers?"

These meetings aren’t out of the ordinary. Not quite day to day, but they're not strange. Whenever there’s a person of interest, they get called in. This one definitely has more… Mixed media, than the usual faire. A lot more publicity. That was going to complicate things. It could be messy enough, going out to recruit a kid. Sometimes parents didn't want to accept that their child was different. Sometimes they thought they could pray the mutation away. Some did worse.

This was worse, and to put the shit-scented cherry on top, the media circus was in full tilt. She was known around the world.

Well, no - that wasn’t entirely true. She wasn’t known. It was. The Railgun. None of these displays were about the girl herself. It was all her powers. All what she could do, not who she was. How she could make them money. How they could turn her into a weapon. Yeah, that was familiar. Sure, the posters had her face on it, and she was smiling there. The real girl had no such expression on her face. She looked disinterested at best. When the demonstration was over, nobody went to check in on her. They didn’t even glance her way. Not even a ‘good job’ or ‘congratulations’ for show. They gave her nothing. No food, no water, even though displays like that were draining. He knew exactly why, too - because to them, she wasn’t a little girl. She was a way to make money. She was a showpiece.

She was an experiment.

He’s silent for the entire presentation, sitting back in the armchair he’d claimed, with his arms crossed over his chest. He listens. In some ways, he doesn't learn anything he doesn't already know. The notes on her powers are interesting, at least. Could make for some interesting drills if she gets recruited. He struggles not to roll his eyes when Charles starts talking about her testing history. It’s not that he wants to make light of it, it’s that he can’t even be surprised anymore. Of course they did. Of course they made clones. Of course they were using those clones as fodder. Fuck’s sakes, you dealt with one mad scientist, you dealt with them all. He wondered, idly, if they never got bored. Oh well. He’d be able to get their attention. He’d keep them real entertained.

“I’ll go.” He says without raising his hand. He leans back in his chair and furrows his brow. “I speak the language, and I have the connections to be able to stick around a few days without getting spotted. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.”

…

Well, looks like it’s decided already.

#perditos #perditos ;; mikoto #ic ;; trying to behave ;; asks #verse ;; leader of the pack ;; later xmen

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wool-f · 2 years ago

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Wellness: Through & Through - Pilates and Running Update

Hello friends!

This week I'm going to return to the beginning of my health and wellness experiment that I started last year and talk about pilates.

To the people who know me and who read this blog please forgive me because no I cannot shut up about pilates, but I seriously can't stop.

It's been one year since I began practicing pilates and I am completely embedded in the cult-like practice and seriously can't stop talking about it.

But in any case, I've been doing pilates five times a week for the last 12 months and I've noticed amazing results in that time both mentally and physically.

Since the start of this experiment I have done a lot of things to improve my health and general wellbeing, but pilates is the one thing that has stayed in my routine.

In celebration of this, I've decided to really challenge myself over the next three weeks and run a half marathon while also completing a 5x5 challenge being done by my pilates studio.

If you're interested in my plan and current progress, keep reading here!

Ok so, like I said, I've been doing pilates for 5 days a week every week (except for the period between July - September when I was of course, travelling), and to say I haven't noticed the difference in my body would be a huge lie.

I have said it before and I will reiterate it now, I don't believe in exercising for only aesthetic reasons - I think it's a dangerous way to exist and can easily spiral into disordered eating and other problematic behaviours that can negatively affect health. However, I have noticed a huge difference in my body since beginning pilates. When I started the practice I was in a really bad mental state, I had put on weight and was doing next to no exercise at all. I needed a shock to my system. When I saw my body in comparison to what I looked like a mere eight months prior, I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Taken aback by how much I had let myself go mentally that I didn't notice the physical change in myself. It was like looking at myself with clear eyes again.

I got a really good deal at my studio as they had just opened and started going a few times a week. I slowly upped the days I would go until now where I try to get there at least 5 times, if not more. I have noticed that I am not only stronger, more lean and definitely slightly more muscular, but I have also dropped a significant amount of bloatedness and weight around my stomach, back and arms.

The more important factors of difference for me however, have been the mental health changes I have noticed. I am happier and more focused and have so much more clarity in my daily thoughts and tasks. My sleep is much deeper and of better quality and in general I am just a much more healthy person.

I enjoy the practice of pilates as a whole and the instructors at my studio are amazing, which definitely makes a difference for me.

On to the half marathon.

I began running properly in the Covid lockdowns, despite a lifetime telling myself that I hated running and that I was bad at it. Now I'm fully in the cult of running as well. This year I made a resolution that I would run a half marathon, and I decided to finally bite the bullet and sign up for one in the last month of the year.

I will be running 21kms on December 3rd in Melbourne and I have started training properly (a bit later than I should have but better late than never) while also doing a pilates challenge, which means I'll be doing two types of strenuous exercise twice a day.

I've been attempting to run most days now for two weeks. This hasn't gone off to the best start but I've been trying!

I definitely have had to up my food intake and water intake and I'll be purchasing electrolyte jellies to try out before the big day.

I'll update you all as I go along and if you want to get in the moment or more consistent updates, head over to my instagram and tiktok!

Otherwise, I'll be back next week with another blog post and as always please let me know if there is anything specific you want to hear/read about, I want this blog to be like a conversation with you all.

Love always,

G xx

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sunnyap · 2 years ago

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Here's a character profile for Andrew, an SCP oc of mine I'm very biased towards. I created him in early 2020/late 2019, and he's my little baby boy (despite the information in this bio!)

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GEN.

Full Name: Andrew Jacquelin Griffin

Aliases: 1-1, And (he HATES this one)

Age/DOB: 36 (as of 2020), born on 30 December 1984 Place of Birth: Queensland, AU Spoken Languages: English, French (quite rarely, though)

Gender/Pronouns: Male, He/Him

Sexual/Romantic Orientation: Openly Bisexual

Affiliation: SCP Foundation

Occupation: MTF Nu-7 servicemember (Spec-Ops Combat Team, 1st Squadron, Platoon 2344, 3rd Company)

→ Rank: Task Force Lieutenant

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APPEARANCE.

BODY TYPE: Combination body type; Mesomorph and slight endomorph. Athletic, muscular, tall.

As a former Marine, Andrew has had his fair share of physical activity. He used to frequent the gym (and still goes when he's able to), and that, coupled with military training and other physical activity in his youth, has earned him a strong build.

He's quite tall as well, standing at 6'3", and nearly bordering 6'4". He can thank his father for his height. He also weighs in at around 230 lbs. Unit.

SCARRING: All over his body, pretty much.

Many of his scars are from injuries during his time spent working for the Foundation. However, there are some that are from before that, as he was deployed for combat twice. These include shrapnel wounds on his calves, and very few bullet wounds.

One notable scar is one he has on the left side of his neck; a bullet wound! While his skin wasn't fatally penetrated, a round grazed his flesh enough to result in bleeding and scarring. A scary moment for him!

His knuckles are pretty scuffed, due to some temperament issues resulting in occasional violent tendencies. The boy needs psychiatric help, I think.

NOTABLE PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:

His hair is light brown and either very wavy, or slightly curly. In his earlier years, it was always cut short, but after being recruited by the foundation, he allowed it to grow out, and now maintains it at a length that falls just a few centimetres below his shoulders. When he's working his shift, he keeps it tied back neatly.

He has green eyes, and is the only member of his family with that eye colour (since it's a phenomenon that's the result of a genetic mutation). His expression is almost constantly either sleepy, or irritated!

He has many, many freckles, all over his body. This is due to spending quite a lot of time out in the sun, especially in his childhood. He grew up playing outdoor sports and engaging in a lot of outdoor activities in general.

VOICE:

The man's from Australia; born and raised in Queensland, specifically. Living in the state until about 14 has resulted in a permanent accent when he speaks English. The 'bogan' accent, too, as I've heard.

A slightly gravelly voice. He also often sounds like his throat is sore. He yelled a lot, and continues to do so.

It's very easy to tell how he's feeling through his voice, as there's a lot of emotional tone. He also speaks with the High Rising Terminal; the ends of his phrases and sentences have a higher intonation than the first. This is also due to the fact he's Australian. Uptalk is another word for it.

The volume of his voice entirely depends on the setting, his feelings, the situation, and who he's talking to. Exempli Gratia: If he's calm, and he's speaking to one person in a relatively quiet setting, he's very good at utilizing an inside voice.

FASHION:

He doesn't care much about his clothes. His closet is full of neutral tones. He's not the type of person to wear anything extravagant or stylish, or overly colourful.

Pertinent to the latter statement, his attire when out of uniform consists of sweatshirts, tshirts, or polos, as well as jeans, cargo pants, or sweats.

He's sensitive to cold temperature specifically, so he layers during winter, and is usually found wearing sweaters. Winter coats, too, obviously.

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PERSONALITY.

MYERS-BRIGGS: ENTJ-A

MORALITY ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good

POS. TRAITS:

Strong-Willed: Despite his issues, he's not the type of man to give up on the pursuit of a goal, or on a challenge, all too easily. In fact, I don't think there's anything he enjoys more than a challenge.

Efficient: Andrew views inefficiency as a problem, especially in his field of work. When he has a job to do, he doesn't often procrastinate, no matter the circumstances.

Observant: Due to being in the military, he's learned to always be wary of his surroundings. This trait's only been heightened since being recruited to work for the Foundation.

Protective: Ever since he was young, Andrew's been protective of those he loves and cares about, and has taken on the responsibility to take care of people around him. Though this has dwindled over the years, it still remains.

Serious: Not much needs to be said for this one, other than the fact that if he has a job to do, there's absolutely no goofing-off tolerated.

NEG. TRAITS:

Stubborn: If he's absolutely convinced of something, it's quite difficult to change his mind!

Lack of Restraint: Andrew has a poor handling of his emotions, sometimes allowing them to influence his rationality, and decisions and actions.

Self-Doubting: Despite his position as a leader, he occasionally second-guesses his own decisions and thoughts.

Recklessness: Andrew doesn't see much value in his own existence, resulting in him constantly coming vis-à-vis with danger, willingly.

Ill-Tempered: Andrew deals with much, mentally, and has adopted the habit of transforming all negativity he feels into irritation and anger. He's prone to getting heated, and is no stranger to confrontation, physical or verbal.

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EXTRA.

He's allergic to cats!

He can play the electric guitar, and is a big fan of Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, and many other rock artists.

Before being recruited to work for the Foundation, he held the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-6) in the USMC. He was also deployed for combat twice.

He dislikes hospitals and hospital settings; they make him uncomfortable and anxious.

He's also quite jumpy. He dislikes having his back exposed, and he dislikes not being able to find any exits in an environment. He also isn't fond of thunder.

This aspect of his character honestly started off as a joke, but he's got the most insane luck ever. Survived a bullet graze to the neck, among multiple other injuries that SHOULD'VE killed him. As he realizes this, he becomes increasingly erratic, believing there's something quite wrong with him and his place in reality.

Absolutely despises corn syrup.

Afflicted with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), among other things.

Oddly attached to his equipment...

Here are some doodles of him. Not my full inventory, but these are ones in my current art style, because my old one is stinky. I draw this man very often, though.

Will I ever share his backstory, or tales/events? Maybe, maybe...

#scp #scp ocs #original character #scp original character #scp foundation #scp mtf #oc intro

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redvisionmedia · 1 year ago

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Can Your Brand Afford to Ignore Podcasting in 2024?

Hello there! You know how we're all hustling to reach the right audience, build connections, and make some serious noise?

Well, fasten your seat belts, because there's a new weapon in town, and its name is podcasts.

In India, this tradition started way back when people used to recite stories. We're talking to a young, hungry audience, eager to learn, be entertained, and connect with brands that get them.

So, why exactly should you ditch the tired old blog and hop on the podcast bandwagon? Let's begin, shall we?

Reasons to start podcasting

First things first: Picture this: Gen Z, India's biggest podcast listeners, chilling with their phones, soaking up knowledge like sponges.

Education podcasts are exploding, covering everything from astrophysics to the art of the perfect dosa. Why? Because these folks are curious, driven, and they want to learn on the go.

This is your chance to be their go-to source for inspiring content, valuable insights, and, yes, even a sprinkle of your brand offerings.

Now, as far as the numbers: India is the 3rd largest podcast market, with a listener base growing faster than a bullet train. Imagine: 30.4% growth, meaning more & more people are tuning in every month.

And guess what? The competition is nothing as compared to the blogosphere.

We're talking 4.2 million podcasts versus a billion blogs. That's right, one blog reaches about 8 people, while one podcast grabs the attention of almost 1857. It's a goldmine right now!

But it's not just about numbers. Podcasts are intimate.

On average, people spend 7 hours a week listening the podcasts, hanging on every word. That's way more than your blog post. Because blogs get about 2.6 hours a week of engagement.

Podcasts are almost like having a conversation with your ideal customer, building trust, and creating a real connection.

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akane171 · 1 year ago

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Well, FUCK.

Got interested and started digging more about Cpt. Vernon Kraeger:

Cpt. Vernon Kraeger of George Company, 3rd Battalion, 501st PIR, was killed in action during the operations of the 101 Airborne Division in the vicinity of Eerde, the Netherlands on September 27, 1944.

Cpt. Kraeger is remembered by his men in the book ‘D-Day +60 Years: A Small Piece of History’;

“When you speak of the men of George Company, 501st PIR, there is a constant reference to the man who led them from the training grounds of Toccoa, Georgia, until his death midway through the Holland campaign. If a generational reference can be made, the loss of Vernon Kraeger was similar to the loss of President Roosevelt for the young men of George Company. They had never had another company commander, and most of them did not remember another President.

“When asked to remember their captain, they often speak of his death first, then tell stories that show their respect for his leadership, and for the man. According to Jack Urbank, Kraeger was from St. Louis, Missouri, and began his career in the Army, prior to WWII, as an enlisted man, where he served with a coast artillery unit in Panama. When the war started, Kraeger, like many other bright young men serving in the ranks, was offered the opportunity to go to Officer Candidate School. When Urbank first met his future company commander, in December 1942, Kraeger was a lieutenant serving as the executive of a ‘casual company’ where new recruits to the 501st were administratively brought into the regiment. Eventually, he was promoted to captain and given command of George Company.

“Kraeger was a small man. Virgil Danforth, in his description of the action on the advance to Pouppeville (Normandy, France) describes Kraeger as walking down the road shooting at Germans in the ditch ‘with a carabine that was almost as big as he was’.”

George Koskimaki, in his history of the 101st Airborne Division in the Netherlands, included several references to Kraeger by another George Company runner, Pvt. Jesse Garcia. He quoted Garcia regarding an action that took place in the Netherlands.

“We had a skirmish with Krauts in a woods. The captain was naturally at the front line (if not ahead of it and I was about 20 feet away). He received his first wound (in the Netherlands; as he had been wounded twice in Normandy), a bullet in the arm. The medic told him to go back to the rear medical unit; he refused. I remember he stayed at his position firing steadily with his carbine since we could see the Krauts not very far away.”

According to Jack Urbank: “We were in Eerde, Holland, when Captain Kraeger got killed. The company was set up with the rifle platoons in line and my mortars behind them. Kraeger was in the line with the riflemen and machine-gunners. A mortar round exploded near him and he got a small wound in his temple. One of the medics looked at him, and put a Band-Aid on his wound. Ten minutes later he crumpled over, dead. I helped carry him back to the aid station, where we undressed him, thinking he had been hit more than once. We could not find another mark on him. He must have died from internal bleeding from that small wound.”

Don Castona also remembers this moment: “I was right there when he (Kraeger) got it. It seemed like the bottom just dropped out. He just slumped over and said: ‘Well, goddam’ and died instantly.”

Cpt. Vernon Kraeger, born on April 2, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri, left behind his (divorced) parents, William and Helen, and a brother named Everett. His brother Harry had preceded him in death in 1927. Cpt. Vernon Kraeger was killed in action on September 27, 1944, and died at the age of 33 years old.

Cpt. Vernon Kraeger is buried at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery of Lemay, St. Louis County Missouri (Section 79 Site 2200). He was probably posthumously awarded a Purple Heart.

Post from Facebook, here -> Three of the Last WWII Screaming Eagles

I've searched for Easy Company in Hell's Highway - so you don't have too.

Hell's Highway: A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne in the Holland Campaign, September-November 1944 by George Koskimaki

Just before the jump: “Colonel Sink, who was in plane#1, had been looking out of the door when something shook the plane and he saw a part of the wing whip loose and dangle in the breeze. He turned and said: ‘Well, there goes the wing.’ But nobody seemed to think much about it as they figured by now they were practically ‘in’ it”.

The Son bridge. Oh, look who is here: “A few minutes after the first groups headed on their missions, a Dutchman approached 1Lt. NORMAN DIKE, the assistant S-2 for the regiment and informed him that the two auxiliary bridges had been blown by the Germans several days earlier”.

Eindhoven. T/4 Donald G. Malarkey’s recollection of the advance by the 2nd Battalion is as follows: “We came into the city from the northeast with scattered resistance but rounded up a lot of prisoners on tips from the Dutch people. In fact, at one time, we had so many men going after holed-up Germans that we had to stop following their leads.”

Easy’s 1Lt. Robert Brewer being wounded. Hewas ordered by Capt. Clarence Hester (S-3 for the 2nd Battalion) to flank some Germans. He questioned with his poor French the school kids who asked their parents in Dutch and then translate it to French again about German positions (what a comedy, lol). He’s learnt Germans were sitting in some orchard. As he said, he had a little time to study the route, so he had map and bincons out as they were approaching.

“At the moment I was hit. A round entered my right jaw and exited my left neck. Both holes, just below the third molar from the back, spouted blood immediately and blood flowed from my mouth like a fountain. I knew I was going into shock. (…) I heard one of my men yell ‘Lieutenant Brewer’s dead! Get going to those trees ahead!’ and I remembered feeling good about that order. Someone was taking over.”

Sgt. Al Mampre (surgeon from 2nd Battalion) was the one who patched him along with Pvt. Holland (from E). “I was in the process of administering plasma to Brewer, which was very difficult because his veins had collapsed, when we were fired. Holland shouted that he was hit in the heel and scooted back to E Company in the ditch. Dirt was kicking up around and I heard the sharp crack and thought the plasma bottle was shattered. I looked up and found it intact in my hand, so I lay down beside Brewer. He was yellow in colour and not moving at all. In my best bedside manner, I said to Brewer ‘Are you dead? If so, I’m getting out of here!’ He croaked back , barely audible and just understandable ‘No, but I don’t know why not.’ I said ‘Good, I’ll stay with you”.

Right after he was wounded too. Three Easy men came to help them but they were shot. In the end they were saved and taken to safety by some Dutchmen.

The 2nd battalion was sent to Helmond. Lipton: “When we got there it was seen that we were over-extended and outgunned, so after a forced march of several hours, we were immediately marched back toward Eindhoven.”

Generally speaking, there were a LOT of enemy tanks and they were fucked.

Don Malarkey: “We joined British tanks to attack toward Helmond where major German forces were reported. The German panzers and infantry had set up a semi-circle defence ,well concealed, on the west fringe of the city. The British tanks on the flanks and the 101st infantry were allowed to penetrate deep into the throat of the positions before the Germans opened up. We were well in front when all hell broke loose. We had several people hit – our platoon leader, Lt. “Buck” Compton, the worst. He took machine gun blast through the butt as we were told to pull back to Eindhoven. Compton, who had been a guard on the UCLA football team, was too big for a couple of people to move. He wanted to be left for the Germans and told us to get the hell out of there. However, we tore a door off a Dutch farmhouse, rolled him on it, and four of us dragged him up to the ditch along the road until we got him back to where he could get him on a British vehicle.”

Highway between Veghel and Uden

When the Germans cut the highway between Veghel and Uden, part of E Company was in Uden with Colonel Chase and Regimental HQ. Captain Winters and 1/Sgt. CLIFFORD Lipton (I always forget this was his first name XD) were part of the advanced element. Sgt. Don Malarkey, a member of S/Sg. Bill Guarnere’s platoon, was caught in Veghel during the heavy shelling.

He said “The E Company members wondered about Winters and the rest of Company. The size and depth of the attack was so heavy we thought the rest of the company on the Uden side of the block would be wiped out as we assumed the enemy force had also sent a column to the north. Captain Winters, in Uden, thought a similar fate had befallen us. He had positioned the rest of the company near a street intersection in shop buildings on the south side of the town waiting for the German tanks turn to the north. They had been able to view the assault on Veghel from a towering church steeple located near their position. Winters thought Veghel might be overrun so he discussed the possibility with the remaining elements of the company. Winters then decided they would make their stand, even if it was their last. Although the next 24 hours were tense, the Germans forces were routed and a last ditch defence of Uden did not have to be made”

Lipton recollected: “We set up a defensive plan and set booby traps and kept up fire from different positions so the Krauts would think we were a large force. Some British were there, too. Captain Winters told me to organize as many men I could find into one defensive position. I tried to manhandle one Britisher into the defence when he seemed to be reluctant and he stopped me short by pointing out that he was a major and not accustomed of being ordered by a first sergeant – even American.” – that’s our mama Lipton, people xD

St. Oedenrode

Lipton remembered how they were sent to find main Germans body. They were in a spread formation and were fired on in the middle of large open field. “We hit the ground, which was slightly rolling, and gave some cover to the men. I heard Bill Guarnere yelling and setting ip the 2nd Platoon machineguns and mortar in the middle of the area to fire on the woods. The tank fire was skipping right over me so I crawled for the woods we had just left when suddenly I saw someone standing right by me. I looked up and It was captain Winters, trying to pinpoint where the Kraut fire was coming from. Feeling somewhat foolish, I stood up and together we tried to evaluate the situation.”

Behind Americans, were Sherman tanks manned by British troops.

Lip continued: “The tanks could see the German positions and three of their tanks on the far side of the field, we yelled to our tanks to come up to fire on them. The British lead tank left the road and came forward through the trees.”

They yelled to the British tanks the Germans were right across the field, but for some reason the Shermans continued to move forward to open field.

Lip: “Within 15 seconds, a 76 mm shell from one of the German Panther tanks slammed into the British tank, hitting the shield around its 75mm gun and deflected up without penetrating it. When it hit, I was standing right by the tank and I must have jumped six feet and dove for cover in a ditch. I knew there would be more shells right away. They weren’t long in coming. The second shell came about 15 to 20 seconds later. The Sherman was open throttle in reverse to back into the woods again but it was too late. That second shell hit below the 75mm gun shield and penetrated the armour. The tank’s commander hands were blown off and he was trying to get out of the hatch using his arms when the third shell hit the tank, blowing him out and killing him and setting the tank on fire. It burned all night with its ammo exploding intervals.”

The same situation from Don’s perspective: “We had five tanks attached to us. We got the tank commander and took him to a sandy knoll where the Tiger could be seen clearly through a small opening in the trees. He brought a tank up, spun the tracks into the knoll so they could lower the 75mm cannon enough to get on the turret of the Tiger."

"When that was accomplished he suddenly decided he didn’t want to fire from that position because he would only get one shot and, if he missed, the Tiger would take him. About a hundred yards to the south there was a finger-sized trip of 25-foot tall pine trees. The strip was about 40 yards wide and ran for a distance of 200 yards. The tank commander decided to line his five tanks behind the trees and move through them together with all the Shermans opening fire from the edge of the pine trees prior to breaking out into the sandy field.”

“The 2nd Platoon spaced themselves between the tanks moving through them assaulting across the field to the Veghel road. (…) The Tiger, in rapid succession, poured 88mm shells into the woods, knocking all five tanks out in a minute or so. We were able to pull some of the crew members out of the tanks. Several were on fire and we threw sand and blankets in them to douse the flames. When the first machine gun fire rattled, our new platoon leader stuck his head in the sand and so ended his career with the 101st.”

“Platoon sergeant Bill Guarnere and squad leader Joe Toye controlled the men and completed the crossing. I had the mortar squad and was busy getting fire on a German machine gun position. Once the Shermans were knocked out, the Tiger jauntily pulled out. Its machine guns were of no use as they were below the crown of the road, which was fortunate for 2nd Platoon.”

Lipton concluded: “We set up a defensive position for the night and Captain Winters told us that he would personally see that anyone who knocked out one of the German tanks that night would get a silver star. We couldn’t find them, however, and the next morning when we attacked the German positions, we found they had all withdrawn.”

Meanwhile:

When General Tylor was wounded, after picking himself from the ground he said: “The sonsabitches got me in the ass!”

It was also mentioned when Major Oliver Horton was killed by a shrapnel as he approached the railroad station near Opheusden in the midst of the heavy fighting in the morning of October 5th. I got an impression from the book that he was really liked among the soldiers.

Operation Pegasus

Screaming Eagles were aided by British airborne engineers and Dutch underground members – jfyi.

E Company men were in the most suitable position on the line, that’s why they got the job.

David ‘Mad Colonel of Arnhem’ Dobey was absolutely fucking mad: wounded, taken a prisoner, escaped from hospital, contacted the Dutch underground, crawled the German lines at night and swam across the Neder Rijn to reach allies.

Malarkey: “In mid-October I was taken to Division HQ by my company commander, 1Lt. Fred Heyliger, for a meeting with G-2, the purpose unknown. We were escorted into a room that contained large wall maps and aerial photos. There were several British officers, together with our G-2 personnel, Lt. Heyliger and myself.”

“At the time of the meeting, I was the sergeant of 2nd platoon, having succeeded Bill Guarnere, who had been injured. Part of our platoon responsibility during the period included the night-time out-posting of an orchard and complex of farm buildings on the bank of Rhine, due north of the island village of Randwijk. It was one of the few areas the Division occupied that had Rhine River concealment. I was asked if mall British assault boats could be concealed in the orchard, so as not to be visible by the Germans across the Rhine of from the air. Also needed information on whether these boats could be brought in one night and used the following night. I responded to both questions in the affirmative and explained that there was a deep, high water overflown ditch that circled the south edge of the orchard. It was 6 to 7 feet deep and 8 to 10 feet across. The bordering fruit trees spanned the ditch with their limbs, blocking visibility from the air.”

“Following the preliminary discussion, a somewhat dishevelled red-bearder British colonel was brought into the room and introduced. It was explained that he had worked his way through German lines and swam the Rhine the night before into the Division sector. He related that he had been working with and aided by the Dutch underground. They had a plan to effect the escape of as many as 140 allied soldiers, mostly British paratroopers, from German territory west of Arnhem. He laid out a detailed and elaborate plan that was to culminate in a river crossing through the 2nd Platoon sector a week later.”

“Dobey stated that all the troops were secreted in various Dutch homes, barns and buildings, some as far as fifteen miles from the projected crossing point. They would move each night toward the Rhine, led primarily by Dutch women. The line of direction was to be identified by firing each night, at midnight, of ten rounds from British 40mm gun from atop the dike, across the orchard, into the high ground west of Arnhem. The British assault boats would be placed in the orchard ditch the night before the crossing, which would occur at 0100 hours, the following night signalled by a flashing red light. Two men from 2nd Platoon, with rifles and tommy guns, would ride in each boat in the event German opposition was encountered.”

The following Monday night was set as the rescue attempt. Further precautions called for a machine gunners and riflemen from the 3rd Platoon to be positioned both east and west of the orchard on the banks of the Rhine for additional supporting fire. Two machine gun teams would accompany the rescue craft and set up position on both flanks on the enemy side of the river, to ward off any German troops who might rush forward to interfere with the landing operation.

Don: “All personnel were to be positioned in the orchard before midnight, at which time the Bofors gun would be fired for the final time. Following this, a corps of British artillery would blast the high ground west of Arnhem with incendiaries which would provide background light for the boast making the crossing. Then they were to be abandoned on the bank of the Rhine.”

“Colonel Dobey was asked how many soldiers could be oved in weeks’ period, to a specific assembly point. He stated it would be done by Dutch women travelling at night by bicycle. German forces were apparently not very suspicious of the Dutch women. Driving to our company area, I remarked to Lt. Heyliger that the plan seemed almost too perfect to have a chance. He said the British were exceptionally resourceful when they were concerned.”

Cpl. Walter S. Gordon was one of the machine gunners involved in the flank operation: “One day while positioned on the bank, 1Lt. Fred Heyliger called a company formation and asked, or rather stated, he needed men to accompany him on some sort of mission. I don’t recall him asking for my volunteers but rather pointed to a number of us and that was that. He required two machine guns and a number of riflemen. PFC Francis J. Mellet was designated as one of the gunners and I was selected as the other. I recall we were later transported to a rear area and introduced to the canvas boats which were part of the British equipment. They were fragile and had plywood-like bottoms. We were asked to familiarize ourselves with the operation of the boats by paddling about on a small pond.”

48 hours before the operation the Dutch informed Dobey that Germans had ordered all able-bodied men in the village to report Monday morning to dig defences. For the British and Americans to appear for this detail would mean almost certain discovery and capture. Dobey decided to set the rescue ahead 24 hours.

Malarkey: “So far, all the pieces of the British colonel’s puzzle had fallen into place. ”

“At about 0100, Ed Joint who was with me on the boats, and I were sitting with our backs against a tree on the edge of the orchard, looking intently across the Rhine. Ed remarked that he did not see how everything could work without a hitch. I said he might be right. About two minutes later, Joint said ‘Look Sarge, a light!’ The red light was flashing as planned. I yelled at the crew and we shoved the boat into water. We were the first boat to cross.”

“I was in the bow with my tommy gun, fully expecting that some kind of opposition would be encountered. I was crouched down, so that my eyes could see over the bow. The fires in the distance provided a good background for any silhouette that appeared. About ten yards from the north bank of the rhine, I saw figures milling in the water and above them, a huddled group. I jumped in the river and met a British sergeant. I told him we would take ten men in each boat that was to be in the crossing.”

Sink: “Heyliger was in charge of fanning out his troops after he reached the other side, gathering in the fold, or inside the box, these people that were over there, corralling them toward the boats, putting them abroad, getting them back across the water, then gathering his men and getting them back, also.”

Cpl. Walter Gordon: “The idea was to establish two lateral outposts flanking the route which was to be used by the men rescued. The machine gun I manned was set up and rifle-men were stationed nearby. We lay there quietly and guarded the front which had been assigned to us. I do not recall how long we were posted but eventually we were summoned back to the boats which had transported us over the river.”

Malarkey: “I brought ten paratroopers in my boat. The most interesting one was a sergeant from the British 7th Armoured Division, who had escaped from German prison camp. He said, ‘Sarge, I’m all through. My wife has been a widow five times now, and she is not going to be again. He was from the famed ‘Rats of Tobruk’ and had been reported MIA several times in Africa and for the last time on the continent”

Cpl. Walter Gordon: “In spite of the fact we had been admonished to be quiet, we did a bit zealous on our return and paddled like demons. Each time a paddle made contact with the wood frame of the boat, it had the sound of a kettle drum. I was astonished that we were not heard in Berlin. Not a shot was fired.”

Malarkey: “The next morning all hell broke loose at the orchard and the bank of the Rhine as heavy German artillery devastated much of the orchard, buildings and all of the boats.”

And there is a nice memory of Sergeant Taylor from F Company about Strayer.

Taylor and a few other soldiers were on a patrol that went bad, they ended in the water on cold day and when they rerurned to the S-2 Battalion: “Gosh, it was cold riding back in the jeep as we were soaking wet. Colonel Strayer was back there. He gave us a cup of coffee and I think it was the best cup of coffee I ever had in my life. We were told to take off our wet clothes. Strayer threw a blanket around us.”

And that’s all about Easy and other familiar faces but there are some memories of other paratroopers that caught my attention:

Before jumping. “Pvt. C.D. Kreider had a feeling of impending doom. Sgt. C.D. Edgar related: Kreider gave me his watch and wedding band and told me to send them home to his wife as he was not going to make it. I told him: If you don’t make it, I’ll be with you and I won’t make it either. Kreider responded: Sarge – you are too mean to die!” It seems he was indeed too mean to die, because he survived the war xD

It was never mentioned in BOB, but a lot paratroopers came by gliders. Cpl. Michael J. Friel, medic for the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, was in the co-pilot’s seat of Hillyard’s glider. He wrote: The pilot gave me instructions on how to land a glider in case he, the pilot, was disabled. This lesson occurred while the fight to Holland…

In Eindhoven, memories of Bert Pulles, a young Dutchman. He noticed soldiers passing by and asked ‘Are you English?’ Someone said: ‘No, we are Americans!’ My answers was ‘Even better!’. “I was so excited that I did not notice anything – just so happy to see American paratroopers that I could talk to. I am sure that I never noticed their ranks, if they had any, I just saw 12 or 15 young ‘gods’ who came to liberate us. The only thing I noticed was the proudly-worn Screaming Eagle patch on their left shoulder – a badge I will never forget”.

Cpl. Pete Santini: “Pvt. Floyd Ankeny, a man who has been in the company almost since its beginning, gave his foxhole to one of the new men who had never been under fire before and calmly began to dig himself another hole. I questioned him later and asked him why he did it. His answer was: I thought the new man was a little frightened.” Who wasn’t?!”

Veghel

Cpl. Chester E. Otsby: “I felt a tug on my leg and there was a little boy with a red wagon. He was trying to tell me to put my radio in the wagon and he’d pull it alongside. I was trying to tell him as the best I could that I had to carry the radio. All of sudden it dawned on me that since the radio was broken what the heck,, it wasn’t doing an good on my back so I obliged him by putting it in his little agon and we marched along. He was about the happiest little Dutch boy in entire country”.

Eerde

Pvt. Jesse Garcia, form G Company: “We were dug around a perimeter and I was short distance from the captain Kraeger. Evidently I was dug in too deep. I didn’t hear him calling me. He crawled out of his foxhole and looked down in my position. I remember looking up and seeing the captain. He said: Garcia, if you dig that foxhole deeper, I’ll consider you AWOL!”

Another memory of that Captain. Pvt. Garcia accompanied him to the HQ, where the Captain talk to Colonel Ewell and Colonel Griswold. They came under a fire. Garcia wrote: “I don’t know if we were spotted by a few Krauts or not but they opened small arms fire. I hit the ground immediately. Neither Captain Kraeger or the Colonels ever flinched or jumped. I remember Colonel Ewell saying in his southern twang ‘Well, I guess we better take cover.’ They were real men in combat.”

PFC Monaghan: “Warren Reudy and I were down in a very small ditch when a shell exploded so close it covered us with dirt. After seeing that neither of us was hurt, I looked up and there on the road, just as calm as could be with not care in the world, was Captain Kraeger. I said ‘Hey, Captain, when are we going to get out of this mess?’ He replied very calmly ‘Don’t worry Monoghan, I got you in and I will get you out’. Well, that was all I needed, and he did get us out. He was one of the greatest leaders I ever met.”

And now, my fave story form the entire book:

Sergeant James E. Breier and the most hilarious action during whole Market Garden. He and a few other soldiers were on a patrol and noticed Germans waving a white flag, like they wanted to surrender. The Americans approached them to realize that the flag only appeared in the sun as white, but was orange in reality. They were taken prisoners but… they started to argue that the Germans were the prisoners not them xD Breier even argued with a German lieutenant xD He was even warned they were going to shoot him, if he would not shut up. The best thing? He bitched so hard, the Germans finally decided he came to them voluntarily and was not really a POW. So the next day, they took him to American lines and let him free xD

Conclusion of the whole Market Garden operation:

„The cost had been high again, just as in Normandy where 1,098 had been listed as killed. The KIA’s numbered more than 858 in Holland, 2,151 were listed as wounded and 398 were counted as missing or captured during the campaign.”

It's a very good book and if you are a fan of military non-fiction and memories of soldiers - highly recommended.

I've also read book 1 -> here.

#Vernon Kraeger #screaming eagles #market garden #;_;

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twinkle-with-stars · 3 years ago

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✦Riches from the stars ✦

Aesteroid abundantia (151) in houses

Written by @twinkle-with-stars

Disclaimer: This is written on basis of my learning and observations of astrology, they might or might not reasonate with you. Don not steal or reword my work. None of the pictures or gifs used are mine.

What do you have in abundance?

🌟1st house- your someone who's blessed with alot of beauty and charm,you might be someone who's face looks very innocent. Your appearance is very magnetic. You might have healing energy to you. Also you could be a robust person if their isn't any malefic planet like mars in your 1st house. You're a very ambitious and action-oriented person, new and first experiences often brings you fortunes but you should also be careful with unknown situations and shady people. You might make a big name for yourself in your birth country. You might like to invest in your appearance but you can also make good earings from it.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟2nd house- this person might be someone who's very opiniated, expresses their thoughts and views clearly. Might have a good singing voice or the one that very soothing and calming, smooth and deep, they might be good at cooking or love to eat and surrounded by alot of different kind of foods.they could generate wealth for themselves by being a singer, chef, interior decorator, a lawyer or an activist. Taking stand for themselves brings them fortunes but they should also keep in mind as to how and where to speak and when to keep quite and agree to disagree, they should also watch out for being lazy as it can harm their possibilities of gaining wealth.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟3rd house-someone who's intellectual, full of wit and lots and lots of thoughts running like a bullet train in the haed, your someone who's spontaneous with a youthful energy to them, you might be really funny as well and good with joke timmings, communication is something that takes an important role in your life, you might be an introvert who eventually will become good at it or are just already good at it. You might have alot of siblings and cousins, who are rich/ materialistic, with big goals, you might also have a really lively neighborhood, can even be popular among neighbours, you could generate wealth by becoming a journalist, writer or any profession/job that requires your speaking or thinking skills and problem solving skills too, but be mindful of oversharing about your funds with your cousins, close friends, neighbours and the people you meet during short travels, you should also be careful of things like snatching, pocket picking or thefts also don't promise anyone anything implusively, give it a thought or two but don't overthink it when it comes to your finance and funds.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟4th house- you're someone who might've lived or likes big houses and families, alot of siblings, might live in joint families might have lived in luxury as a child, is a very sensitive and emotional person with lots of emotional intelligence. Someone who has strong sense of protectiveness over what's dear to them, you might have a big legacy, or the maternal side of the family could be rich even your mother could come from a well off family or an emotionally fulfilled one, working as chef, midecal and other similar feilds or simply using your emotional intelligence might help you gain materials, be mindful when dealing with your family, property, close people and people or situations from your childhood while regarding money and finance of yours.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟5th house- super creative! Good in arts, often finds creative and unique ways to entertain the people they love, bright and charming, might be funny, got a rich romantic life, these people are full of love and light, might be surrounded by children or might want alot of children of their own. To generate wealth these people should do things that relate to children, teaching,child therepist, wedding planner, banquet or other party place's owners/managers. Simply, you should do whatever that is entertaining and fun for you, whatever brings you joy will bring you wealth too you could also try the stock market. These are the people who often win lottery. But, watch out for being arrogant, rude, naive and spending to much of your fortunes on things like gambling, parties or pleasure seeking activities. You could be good in sports too or just know how to play many sports, might be a fit person physically.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟6th house- This is someone who focuses alot on their diet be it for fitness or just to enjoy food but they're really focused on their daily diets, someone who likes so invest in hygiene and sanitation, might've dealt with hospitals and prisons, likes to stay fit and healthy, can earn money from focusing on their daily tasks, developing a routine, healing diseases, focusing on diets, may be being a dietitian, jailer, janitor, zoo keeper, medical, gym trainer,yoga trainer, grocery store owners or any service oriented feild. You should keep your health in check, others or yours poor health can make you spend fortunes, living a life without a routine or organization, could cause troubles.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟7th house- you might be someone who's blessed with alot of diplomacy, good interpersonal skills however they also got alot of open enemies or people who are jealous of them in alot of amount,. You're someone who has good judgement and business skills, might encounter partners who are well off financially and alot of them, can earn through using their above discribed skills and can work as lawyer, marriage consultant, politician, host and other professions that put their great judgement, diplomacy and tact to a good use. Might loose or earn through marriage,divorces, business partnerships and their splitting. Should watch out for any sort of partner that can scam them, loosing diplomacy and fighting too much with their enemies or not speaking for themselves at all and becoming a pushover. Balance is the key. Sometimes.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟8th house- might be someone who got inherent property, might as well get alot of abundance and fortunes through wills, bonds, shares, insurance and other things like that, these people are many times proved to be lucky, they might as well get money that isn't earned from the socially accepted means( illegal things, occult and alike), will also get to encounter transformations, is likely to earn through using their skills like, intuition, intelligence, lie detecting abilities, manipulation/convincing power. Can work as real estate agents, detectives, share brokers, business owners, managers, occult works and similar works. Should watch out for theft, people trying to steal their inheritance, try keeping you're money info a bit more private.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟9th house- A pure wise nomad, soo soo wise and mature for their age, happy, handles awkward, hard and tense situations really well. Lucky at times, got alot of stories and philosophies to share. Super curious, bold and adventurous. Can earn from using their, honesty, charm, philosophies, optimism and wisdom. Could generate wealth through publishing books, travelling/working overseas, working with water, teaching, communication and telecome services or similar feilds. Should watch out for spending too much on travelling, lending money, being open about your earnings, not focusing on material world. Don't promise something you won't be able to deliver later.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟10th house- someone with lots of respect in society, great public image, could be famous, respected and loved, noticeable. Got a powerful aura and image also generates many kinds of reactions by different types of people, ambitious and responsible. Could earn wealth from business, govt., Medical feild, judge And working on higher posts. Skills like deligency, modesty, discipline, professionalism, morals and ethics help them in their desired feild. Should watch out for being rigid, dry, too serious, coming off as rude, being a workaholic. Also keep in mind that you need to let loose sometimes being all strict might not work well. Could adopt alot of pets or children.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟11th house- social and smart people, really friendly and amiable has the talent to relate to people who've got different lives than them, smart and witty, got strong opinions on social causes and pretty active about them.they could earn wealth from working in museums, electricity companies, jewellery, silk clothing, import/export, international affairs and similar feilds. Their social skills and ability to connect to all could benefit them. Should watch out for fraud schemes and policies, spending money online, lending money to friends, electronics and technology.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

🌟12th house- this perosn with abundantia in twelth is very much inclined to earning through occult, psychology, healing, spirituality,while they also have the healing abilities, and a very psychology inclined thinking which makes them easy to discover hidden issues, also wealth comes and goes out of now where, like a blind spot or a wave in the ocean. this person should try and keep their plans and strategies hidden otherwise they'll loose their wealth and fortunes. Might even have psychic abilities and interest in spirituality, while their wealth could also be harmed through spells/magic by their hidden enemies.

This is my first aesteroid post and it's based on my understanding of the aesteroid, feel free to like and reblog this also share your thoughts I'd love to know 🤗.

#riches from the stars #aesteroid abundantia #aesteroid 151 #aesteroid 151 in houses #twinkle with stars #astrology #astro notes #astro observations #astrology notes #astrology observations #natal chart #aesthetic #zodiac #kpop #fotd #gold aesthetic

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tunamayojazz · 2 years ago

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my fav flavor of inuokko is older (late 20s-30s) with a lot of regrets and bad memories but who have been together so long and know each other so well that they face all of it head on. there’s a few fics in this vein but i’ve never seen any older inok art!

anon thank you so much for putting older inuokko in my head. it unlocked a new department in my brainrot and i now have so many thoughts about them...

100% agree that older inuokko would have lots of regrets and bad memories, they've experienced all kinds of things in their 20s (and life in general) but it's mostly bad bc lbr the jujutsu world is not pretty and they did not have a kind childhood...but when they're together, it's easy to forget all the bad for just a bit.

one day i'll have a character sheet for both of them (i am very invested in this)! will just post yuta for now bc im struggling with toge haha. thoughts below on how yuta is in his 30s plus some long story rambling bc i cannot be trusted with a keyboard and brainrot...

i'd like to think that yuta grows to be a lot more confident in his skin and becomes the best at looking after his friends as compared to the past when they've had to look out for him and reassure him more. he's not shy or hesitant in his actions at this age and a lot of people around like to say he would have been a great teacher at the school.

at one point (as a 3rd year perhaps) he entertained the thought of becoming a teacher, but the moment he had imagined his students dying, it was an instant no. he knew he wouldn't be able to handle it. it's hard enough that he has nightmares of his friends dying/being hurt sometimes. there's been a lot of close calls over the years. at this point of time, he and toge are both freelance sorcerers and no longer under the school, kinda like mei mei and yuki.

will expand on this in the future but it's due to something that happened and had to do with both the inumaki clan and the higher ups that made yuta swear to never return to the school ever again. he actually had to be stopped from destroying the school after shit hit the fan and that's where he got the scars he has now from. sure he could have healed them easily, but he wanted a physical reminder (he never wants to forget what his foolishness could cost him) of sorts. it's one of the events that i would say was significant to his character development.

they move to kyoto shortly after that. i haven't fully thought out toge's story at this point of time but as yuta is maturing and growing into the person he's always wished to become, toge is crumbling. he has a lot of repressed family trauma that he's always been good at locking away in his mind, but after recent events he just broke.

and of course yuta is there for toge, especially when the latter has been his pillar of strength since they became important to each other. unlike the past, he can read when toge needs space or when he needs someone by his side. over the years he's just been able to sense what toge needs like it's something natural to him.

at toge's lowest points, he reminds him of just how loved he is everyday, as much as he can through words and actions. specifically i think yuta is really good at non-sexual intimacy (pls look at the bottom right sketch)!

one thing that has never changed about yuta tho is that he'll still panic over small things like when maki or toge fall sick. for example when he hears from panda that she's down with a cold, he takes the next bullet train back to tokyo as though she's on her deathbed lmao.

overall i think he'd be pretty stable in his 30s but also it wouldn't take much to make him spiral and lose it ^^

#guess who got carried away again #sorry this is kinda messy #the brainrot coordinator is on leave #will she back? has she ever existed even? idk #sigh the ideas i have for toge's story rn is so heavy like why do i always make him suffer #but its also not my fault the crumbs we have regarding his backstory all point to so much potential angst and despair amirite #its ok yuta is here #and he'll make it all okay again #inuokko #ottoge #inumaki toge #inumaki #okkotsu yuta #yuuta #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #art #hc #au

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nostalgebraist · 3 years ago

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Yesterday, I followed a link to the Metaculus page about forecasting "when the first AGI (artificial general intelligence) will be publicly known."

And their criteria for what counts as an "AGI" struck me as really . . . weird and off?

----

After mentioning that "AGI is rather difficult to precisely define," they lay out an operational definition with 4 parts:

Able to reliably pass a Turing test of the type that would win the Loebner Silver Prize.

Able to score 90% or more on a robust version of the Winograd Schema Challenge, e.g. the "Winogrande" challenge or comparable data set for which human performance is at 90+%

Be able to score 75th percentile (as compared to the corresponding year's human students; this was a score of 600 in 2016) on all the full mathematics section of a circa-2015-2020 standard SAT exam, using just images of the exam pages and having less than ten SAT exams as part of the training data. (Training on other corpuses of math problems is fair game as long as they are arguably distinct from SAT exams.)

Be able to learn the classic Atari game "Montezuma's revenge" (based on just visual inputs and standard controls) and explore all 24 rooms based on the equivalent of less than 100 hours of real-time play (see closely-related question.)

----

This is a really weird list!

Like, what is the Turing Test -- like the actual, famous Turing Test -- doing next to a specific Atari game?

Am I supposed to imagine that, if Alan Turing had lived long enough to witness the advent of Atari, he would have recognized "capacity to git gud at Montezuma's Revenge" as a key aspect of intelligence left out by his original test? That he would have gone back and revised Computing Machinery and Intelligence to remedy the defect?

If you're familiar with deep reinforcement learning research, you probably know that Atari is a standard benchmark task in that field, and that "Montezuma's Revenge" is a uniquely hard game for RL systems to learn. So it's not a mystery that they picked this specific game, conditional on them including some specific Atari game.

But why? Why Atari at all? It doesn't feel grounded in any discernible idea about what AGI actually is.

It feels more like

- They came up with the first 2 bullet points, then got worried they were too "text-heavy" and didn't test enough modalities

- So they tried to shoehorn image recognition into the 3rd bullet point (but only in a very shallow way -- existing OCR systems are already good enough to extract the text from the images, and from there it's another pure-text problem)

- And then they thought "this still feels too supervised-learning-heavy, we need to add some RL flavor to the mix," and they asked themselves "what's an RL benchmark that's still out of reach, but not that far out of reach, kind of like Winogrande but for RL?", and thought "ah, Montezuma's Revenge!"

The second bullet point is totally superfluous, already covered by a Turing Test performed with sufficient seriousness. The judge in the Turing Test can just ask the contestant to do Winograd schemas! They can ask whatever they want!

----

The core thing that feels missing is, uh, general intelligence.

The concept of "AGI," at least as I've always understood it, is not about being good at some finite list of tasks. It's about unboundedness and flexibility.

Being able to "learn anything," not "learn Montezuma's Revenge."

And being able to retain things, once learned. Being able to grow, intellectually, without external help.

The Turing Test is the only one of these criteria that has the right spirit. If the Turing Test alone is insufficient (which is an interesting claim), then the supplements should be tasks of the same magnitude, not a few narrow domain cases, cherry-picked to be on the near-term trajectory of ML research.

Another example of a test with the right spirit is "the system enrolls in a class on a subject it does not know, passes the class, and learns the material."

I came up with that on the spot, while planning this post earlier, but then I went to the Wikipedia page for AGI and discovered I wasn't the only one with the idea:

The Robot College Student Test (Goertzel)

A machine enrolls in a university, taking and passing the same classes that humans would, and obtaining a degree.

Ben Goertzel is a big-name transhumanist who was talking about AGI before it was cool. He was a vocal member of SL4, the mailing list Yudkowsky moderated, back in the early era of SIAI (later renamed MIRI). So if Ben Goertzel and I are on the same page, that increases my confidence that I'm not just misunderstanding what everyone else means by "AGI."

Metaculus does include a nod to generality, after the 4 criteria:

By "unified" we mean that the system is integrated enough that it can, for example, explain its reasoning on an SAT problem or Winograd schema question, or verbally report its progress and identify objects during videogame play. (This is not really meant to be an additional capability of "introspection" so much as a provision that the system not simply be cobbled together as a set of sub-systems specialized to tasks like the above, but rather a single system applicable to many problems.)

But this seems like an admission that their criteria don't actually test for AGI!

We care about AGI because of the things it can do. The question is one of capabilities, not structure. You shouldn't have to peer inside the head of the creature and check that it's doing tasks "in the right way"; simply doing the tasks at all should be evidence enough. If it isn't, your tasks are too easy.

This is the spirit behind the Turing Test. You don't have to include a stipulation that the machine is applicable to other problems too, to guard against narrow machines specialized to only do this one test. A "machine specialized to only do the Turing Test" is (the argument goes) equivalent to an un-specialized machine; even if all you care about is passing this one Test, you end up doing everything else, too, as a prerequisite somewhere along the way. That's the whole point!

----

The really frustrating thing is that I can imagine an ML system passing these criteria in the near future. It will be possible to meet these criteria long before it will be possible to meet them in an interesting, AGI-relevant way.

Like, scaling up LMs will get you a lot of the way . . . Metaculus doesn't explicitly rule out using few-shot prompts specialized to each task by humans, as long as the system is "integrated enough," whatever that means . . . the Turing Test with a serious, savvy judge would be hard for ML, but the Loebner Prize is not exactly known for its seriousness as a Turing Test implementation . . . I dunno much about the RL field but I'm sure they'll figure out Montezuma's Revenge sooner or later, if they haven't already . . . you'll need some more research on using LMs in RL, that's already happening . . . and maybe reframe language modeling as an RL task so you can claim you're doing one "unified" thing, RL . . .

But the system I'm imagining is not an AGI. It's not even "an AI," in the sense of being an intelligent individual being.

It would interact in discrete "episodes," and would not retain memories of past episodes. If it did Montezuma's Revenge after the Turing Test, it wouldn't remember doing the Turing Test while it was playing the game; indeed, there would be no "it" in existence that had experienced those two things, one after the other.

When the system does the Turing Test, the persona seen by the judge would not be "the AI"; it would be an ephemeral character, invented from whole cloth on the spot, and would cease to exist at the test's conclusion.

(You never really "talk to GPT-3," only to collections of attributes that swim up out of GPT-3's notions about linguistic plausibility. You can ask GPT-3 for a conversation with Einstein, and find yourself talking to something that does in fact sound kind of like Einstein; but successive interactions of this kind are not conversations with a single being, "GPT-3's Einstein." There is no such being.)

It would not be able to pass the Robot College Student Test. Even asking the question "could it pass the Robot College Student Test?" would almost be a category mistake. It wouldn't have general intelligence. It wouldn't automate away any single human job, much less all of them. I could, of course, go on.

----

Metaculus does have a second version of the question, with a "stronger operationalization for artificial general intelligence."

But it isn't any more general, just harder, mostly by demanding more embodied capabilities. So while the "weaker" point 2 is Winograd schemas, the "stronger" point 2 is

Has general robotic capabilities, of the type able to autonomously, when equipped with appropriate actuators, satisfactorily assemble a (or the equivalent of a) circa-2020 de Agostini 1:8 scale automobile model.

But again, it's much easier to achieve this in an uninteresting way, without really building AGI. I know lots of people work on RL for robotics, though I don't know much about that subfield . . . I remember reading some Facebook/Meta papers about the problem of policies learned in simulation not transferring well to the physical robot . . . I'm sure you could take the RL/LM thing that does the easy version and add a robot body somehow.

And yet, taking a college class would still be an unthinkable dream -- something to be solved much, much later on, if ever.

#ai tag

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legendary-apex-enjoyer · 3 years ago

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Apex Quirks/Mechanics Explained in Lore (HC)

Neon/Custom Reticles

Bangs and Newcastle knew about some rumours that the standard issue sight reticle colours can be changed when they're in the IMC. Either to compensate for colour blindness or aesthetics, but rumours are still rumours.

The sights brought on to the games are not the ones used during the Frontier War. Most of them are 3rd party copies of the same sights used during the War (hence the ever so slight difference between Titanfall 2 and Apex). These sights came with a built in colourblind setting in them.

Crypto developed a jailbreak kit so the colour customisation become more wide ranged. Thus, neon reticles are born. Bangs stuck with the good ol' red reticle, while most others used Crypto's kit to go wild.

A massive upset when the Syndicate decided to end it and introduced their own customisation kit. Especially Crypto.

Respawn Cards/Resurrecting Teammates

When a legends "dies", they are transported back to the dropship. All of them are still friends and family after all, off the games.

When they did, they left behind a token which can be redeemed in a respawn beacon to call them back in action. Legends on the ground cannot see the cards timers, only knowing whether they are expired or not when reaching the deathboxes.

Off-game Legends are instead in charge of informing their living teammates about the timer on their card, since only the dropship is where the timer is present.

Ex.: "Uh... Bangs, you got 10 more seconds to bring handsome ol' Mirage y'know. So uh... Can you, be a bit quicker? Look, I know I ran into Natal- I mean Wattson's fences but... Hello?" *Bangalore cut the comms*

Shield Swapping

I headcanon that the shields in Apex are generated by their jumpkits. Different levels of shields act as a more powerful capacitor/forcefield generator against bullets and projectiles before bleeding over into health.

Thus, if Legends picked up a higher tier shield/evo shield, theirs essentially just replacing a capacitor with another, more powerful ones. Considering its combat use before the games it's made to be easily swappable by soldier and pilots. Just click a button, pop out the weaker capacitor, fhe pop in the new one.

Essentially, the Legends found a way to optimise the speed where they can swap the shields for a stronger/weaker but fuller shields on the fly.

Finishers

Finishers are just like what they do in WWE, a highly choreographed signature moves to reflect the Legends' personality and kit.

During off time, some Legends trained their finishers for fun with each other. Valkyrie seems rather lost without her jetpack, though.

Some bruises, cuts, and singes are to be expected to happen from time to time. But nothing that Lifeline and the games' medical team can't fix.

No one, absolutely no one, want's to get finished by Maggie since:

She doesn't hold back, at all

Does not go into training. Thus making her even more dangerous.

#apex legends #apex headcanons #apex lifeline #apex mirage #apex newcastle #apex mad maggie #apex valkyrie #just a thought #kinda neat #headcanon #game mechanics

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thecreaturecodex · 5 years ago

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Giff

[The Furtober monsters I’ve been making have all been from 3rd Edition sources, but I made an exception for the giff. The idea of posh, gun-loving hippo men was a delight when I first discovered them in the 2e Monstrous Manual, and I still find them charmingly weird. I can’t prove it, but I feel like the Judoon from Doctor Who owe a debt to the giff for inspiration. Either that, or there’s something about pachyderms that inspires militarism in their humanized forms.

The giff originated in the Spelljammer setting in 2e, although I’ve stripped out references to their spaceships here. They did make a brief official appearance in 3.x with stats as a playable race in Dragon Magazine 339. This conversion hews pretty close to their 5e stats from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes

Edit: thanks to @darling-monsters for pointing out the origin for the imperialist pachyderms from the Babar books.]

Giff CR 5 LN Humanoid This humanoid is dressed in fine military regalia, and has the oversized head of a hippopotamus. It carries a sword and gun.

The giff are mercenaries, fighting for whatever values will give them the most money or valor. Giff are very status conscious and concerned with their reputation. After all, life is short, but the reputation of their company can be bolstered or tarnished for generations. They train with firearms from childhood, and their obsession with guns and explosions borders on the maniacal. They gladly accept payment in gunpowder instead of in coins, gems or other currency.

Giff fight alongside others of their own kind, and rarely against one another. In fact, giff mercenary troops typically stipulate that they can sit out battles that involve other giff, and a giff company that will fight other giff is seen as renegade. They use firearms above all other weapons, strafing foes with bullets and throwing grenades to break formations. Once enemies are scattered and demoralized (or once a giff runs out of bullets), they charge into combat, striking with both swords and their tough fists.

Giff society is organized along military lines. Rank is assigned as soon as a giffling can walk, and promotions occur due to valor and accomplishment (and occasional nepotism). They are found at sea as often as on land, and giff contracts for amphibious assaults are common. Giff rarely practice magic, preferring the use of technology. Giff that take class levels are usually fighters or gunslingers, although giff alchemists are renowned for their skill.

A giff is large for a Medium sized creature, standing seven feet tall on average and weighing 300 pounds or so. They live slightly shorter than humans do, and a giff is considered elderly by 50.

Giff CR 5 XP 1,600 LN Medium humanoid (giff) Init +2; Senses low-light vision, Perception +1 Defense AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, +2 armor) hp 60 (8d8+24) Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +5; +2 vs. emotion and pain effects Defensive Abilities stiff upper lip Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee scimitar +10/5 (1d6+4/18-20), slam +5 (1d4+2) or two slams +10 (1d4+4) Ranged musket +8 touch (1d12+2/x4) Special Attacks bowling charge Statistics Str 18, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 12 Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 22 Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms)B, GunsmithingB, Iron Will, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Reload (musket), Skill Focus (Craft: alchemy) Skills Climb +7, Craft (alchemy) +10, Profession (sailor) +8, Swim +9; Racial Modifiers +4 Swim Languages Common, Giff SQ gun training (musket) Ecology Environment any coastal or urban Organization solitary, pair, platoon (3-12) or company (13-36) Treasure double standard (scimitar, leather armor, musket, 20 paper cartridges, 2 fuse grenades, other treasure) Special Abilities Bowling Charge (Ex) If a giff hits a creature with a charge attack, it can attempt a combat maneuver to trip that target without provoking attacks of opportunity. Gun Training (Ex) A giff chooses one kind of firearm, such as a musket or pistol. It adds its Dexterity to damage rolls when using that kind of firearm, and if it misfires, the misfire value of that firearm only increases by +2 instead of +4. Stiff Upper Lip (Ex) A giff gains a +2 racial bonus on saves against emotion and pain effects.

#giff #spelljammer #D&D #furry #pathfinder 1e

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tsaritsa · 4 years ago

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BEYOND THE WIDOW’S WEEDS: AN INTERVIEW

by Violet Whittaker for PRIMA Magazine (photographs supplied by Riza Mustang)

“I don’t like to hear that I was poised, or maintained a good appearance for the cameras. I am not a movie actress.” On the fifth anniversary of Führer Mustang’s assassination, Violet Whittaker sits down with his widow, Riza Mustang, and listens to her open up about her husband, the horrifying moments leading up to his death, and what the country meant to him.

CENTRAL EVENING TIMES MUSTANG SHOT DEAD Gunned Down During Campaigning In Eastern District

FÜHRER PRESIDENT MUSTANG was assassinated today. The President was shot as he gave a speech at the recently completed Amestris-Xing Railroad Hub. The Governor of East District was also badly wounded, as well as a number of diplomats representing the Empire of Xing. The President died at 3.07pm. After a burst of gunfire that cut down the President, he was rushed to Eastern General Hospital, where emergency blood transfusions were given. He was 47, and was in the final stages of an incredibly popular re-election campaign that likely would have seen him take on a third fifth-year term. He is survived by his wife, Riza Mustang, who was also in attendance today. Preliminary reports suggest she was also injured, but these are unconfirmed as of printing.

On December 3rd, 1932, four days after becoming the country’s most famous widow, Riza Mustang slipped on a mourning veil. The delicate shroud reached beyond her waist, and it moved lightly in the cool winter wind as she followed her husband’s coffin in the cortege that travelled from the official residency of the Führer President to the Philip Andersen Military Cemetery. The veil was sheer enough to reveal her pale, drawn face – though not completely. The widow of Roy Mustang, just as much as she was during his tenure, ensured she was both visible and protected from the public eye.

“I don’t like to hear that I was poised, or maintained a good appearance for the cameras,” she says now, five years later, on a similar, windy December 3rd. “I am not a movie actress. I never have been.”

Although largely withdrawn from the public eye since his assassination, Riza Mustang has not been resting on her laurels. She is heavily invested in projects that focus on economic development in deprived areas of Amestris, as well as increasing the capacity and reach of educational programs for young women. Those who she works with on a daily basis agree with the assessment that Riza Mustang is a hard worker; albeit one who shies away from taking credit, preferring to uplift others over herself.

“People always tell me that he would be proud of me, for the work that I do.” A strained kind of smile graces her face. “There’s no doubt that he would be. It’s just quite funny how people assume to have known my husband better than myself.”

Whether she intended to or not, Riza Mustang’s actions and presentation of herself to the public in the minutes, hours, and days after her husband’s assassination is embedded in the cultural zeitgeist of Amestris, arguably just as much as her husband’s impact on the country. Her quick thinking, reflexes, and experience as the Führer’s primary bodyguard, ensured that the assassin had only moments at best to flee the scene – something they were unable to achieve. Lucas Alexander, a 23-year-old university student with ties to Aerugean intelligence, was apprehended only 11 minutes after the first shot rang out. As Riza was performing CPR on her husband, she was also instructing his service team about the trajectory of the bullets, spray pattern, and likely points of origin. While there have been many enduring images of the two during Mustang’s tenure as leader of the nation, none will ever surpass the visceral impact of her covered in blood, attempting to revive her husband and simultaneously protect him from further harm. The country was torn in two at the violent exhibition in the evening newspapers, but sources close to Riza claimed the embargo on those photos was dropped deliberately at her command. She was quoted as saying “I want them to see what they did.”

I don’t ask Riza who ‘they’ are – widely understood to be the loudest of Mustang’s political detractors, whose divisive rhetoric was thought to directly embolden the attack in the first place. I don’t ask her whether the quote is true or not, or whether she regrets not being officially assigned as her husband’s primary bodyguard for that day.

Instead, Riza explains her frustration that such a large proportion of the attention surrounding her husband’s assassination was rooted in her actions and image, rather than what she believes to be more important. “It was like people wanted to forget the fact that these attitudes – particularly around the projects being implemented in the East – were not coming out of a vacuum. My husband was famously vocal in his defence of all Amestrian’s, regardless of race or creed. To see his name and legacy become entwined with a political circus that serves to undermine his achievements rather than honour them is disgraceful. It should not have mattered that I tried to save his life on that stage. It should not have mattered that I looked ‘the part’ as I watched them bury him in the earth. Roy was the sum of his parts; not mine.”

Although she had come to expect – and anticipate – attempts on her husband’s life, not only for what he personally represented, but for what his station represented as well, Riza agrees that Amestris has a fraught relationship with its leaders. “I don’t think it’s lost on many people that we’ve lost two of the last four leaders by successful assassinations. Roy wanted to address the crevasses in this country that we collectively have gotten very good at ignoring. Establishing the railroad formally with Xing was a decade’s worth of bilateral work, proving not only to our neighbours – but to ourselves as well – that we could forge bonds with one another, rather than break them.”

Her disaffected outlook is perhaps why she has pulled back from the public eye – not that, she admits, she ever enjoyed being there in the first place.

“I don’t have the patience for politics – for people,” she hedges, over a cup of earl grey. “I remember some of our critics complaining about how closed off we were here –” she gestures around us, in the small homestead on the outskirts of Central that the Mustang’s called their home for the entirety of his presidency, the home that she still resides in, five years on, “– saying we needed to be more accessible to the people – namely, my husband needed to be accessible, needed to be available for everyone at any given moment.” Riza laughs bitterly at that, fiddling with her rings, clearly deciding whether or she wants to continue down this train of thought. “He joined the military when he was eighteen. His move into politics immediately followed his retirement as a General. My husband has always belonged to this country, and to her people.”

“On the whole,” she begins after a lengthy pause, “We were happy to play that role. The power and prestige that comes with this kind of position – you have to acknowledge it, make some sacrifices. You have to give to receive in turn.”

“I don’t want his legacy to be reduced to a few, violent moments,” she continues. “But unfortunately, it will remain that way until this country comes to grips with its history in its entirety. We need to see what we’ve sacrificed willingly, and what we’ve taken in return.”

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #royai #roy mustang #riza hawkeye #BOOM BABEY #interview trilogy is DONE #the first quote from riza is shamelessly stolen from jackie #as is the veil photo lmaoooo #look the woman constructed the myth of jfk that's no easy ask #ppl prolly expected royai!kid #sorry. no happy endings in this version #my fanfic

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