#my ranger will decimate despite it

[katzirrart]

(ˊૢᵕˋૢ) I'm flatting a commission with armor and just really wanted to draw the spider silk armor...

[s3fka]

Resonance (Jiyan x Fem!Reader x Calcharo) : Chapter 1

Who would you choose in a world where love and duty collided, and where the heart's desires clashed with the demands of fate? The unspoken love of Jiyan, who has known you since childhood, or the fiery passion that Calcharo harbors for you despite the shadows of his past?

Your background :

Class : Mutant

Attribute : Fusion

Weapon : Broadblade

- You and Jiyan had known each other since childhood, but the word "best friend" was never explicitly mentioned between the two of you. However, the undeniable bond you shared spoke volumes beyond mere words. Both of you grew up side by side, chasing dreams together. 

- After graduating from the Military Academy a few years ago, you and Jiyan rarely had the chance to see each other, unless under special circumstances.

- You are the Secretary Of Justice in Huanglong. You administer the government's criminal justice system by investigating crimes, prosecuting offenders and overseeing the correctional system. A position you earned through your undeniable intellect and hard work.

How long had he been awake?

Jiyan wasn't entirely sure. The days had started to blend into one another after the most recent set of battles, with Tacet Discord outbreaks happening more and more frequently. Every day was another day of fighting, of trying his hardest to make sure every one of his fellow Rangers made it through the day and had another day where they might be able to get home.

...Some days though, even his best efforts were for naught.

This was one of those days.

He'd fought fiercely, trying to keep the majority of the TD away from his subordinates. But one of them - a brave, foolish soul who had seen an enemy approaching Jiyan's back - had tried to intervene.

Jiyan didn't notice until he'd heard the choked cry behind his back. But when he'd turned back and saw them crumple, eyes blank...he lost his head a bit.

The next thing he was aware of, the TD were gone, and his subordinates were staring at him with a mix of awe and fear. His Tacet Mark was throbbing, and he was dimly aware of the way his entire body shook with an energy he needed to contain.

"Go back to camp." He'd ordered, all of them scrambling at the chance to return to camp, to rest and try to forget the image of Jiyan's rampage that he was sure was imprinted in their eyes. And Jiyan...had stayed in the valley, channeling the excess energy thrumming under his skin into decimating even the smallest TD that crossed his path.

Now he was trudging back to his tent - exhausted, heart-sore, and numb. But upon entering his tent, he stilled, eyes immediately locking onto Raya sitting on the edge of his bed.

"..Madam Secretary.." Jiyan greeted politely, his voice tired but polite. "What brings you to my quarters?"

You looked up at Jiyan, your expression somber yet filled with a quiet empathy. You knew him well enough to see the weariness etched into every line of his body, the way his shoulders slumped slightly under the weight of his exhaustion.

"I heard about what happened out there today." you said, your voice steady and direct. Your dark eyes met his gaze unflinchingly. 

Jiyan took a deep breath, his broad chest rising and falling heavily as he tried to compose himself. He could feel the weight of the day's events bearing down on him, threatening to crush the air from his lungs. Slowly, he took a step, each pace feeling heavier than the last, until he stood before you. His eyes, usually so sharp and commanding, now seemed to waver with a vulnerability you had rarely seen.

"I should have...I could have..." Jiyan's voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, his confidence crumbling like a castle made of sand before a relentless tide. "I failed them. I failed to keep them safe." He could feel the doubt gnawing at him, eating away at the unshakable resolve he had once possessed. He could feel the weight of his failure pressing down upon him, threatening to crush what remained of his battered spirit.

"I...I don't know if I'm strong enough for this." He confessed, his golden eyes searching yours desperately. "I don't know if I can keep Huanglong safe, if I can protect this place like I swore I would." Jiyan's voice cracked on the last word, raw and broken.

You got up from the bed, your lithe form moving with a suddenness that caught Jiyan off guard. Before he could react, you had flicked his forehead, the sharp sting snapping him out of his spiraling thoughts.

"Ow! What was that for?" Jiyan asked, rubbing his forehead and staring at you in surprise.

You stepped closer to him, your expression changing as you looked up at his towering frame. "Listen to me, General." You said firmly. "You did everything in your power to protect your subordinate. You can't blame yourself for what happened."

"But I..." Jiyan tried to interject, but you silenced him with a sharp look.

"No, let me finish." You insisted. "You're not perfect, General. No one is. There will always be casualties in war, always be lives lost despite our best efforts. But you...you are the foundation that strengthens the defenses of Huanglong."

You placed a hand on Jiyan's chest, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart beneath your palm. "When things get dark during battles, when it feels like hope is lost...the Midnight Rangers look to you for guidance, for strength. And you've always been there, standing tall and unyielding, even in the face of the darkest of times."

You took a deep breath, her voice dropping to a softer, more earnest tone. "I know it's hard, Jiyan. I know the weight of responsibility feels like it's crushing you sometimes. But you have to keep going, for all of us. For all those people who can't fight, for all those who need someone to believe in, to lead them towards a brighter future."

Your words struck a chord within Jiyan, your earnest conviction piercing through the shroud of despair that had settled over his heart. He stared at your eyes, seeing the unwavering faith and loyalty that had always been the backbone of your friendship.

"You...you really believe that?" Jiyan asked, his voice rough with emotion. "Even after all the times I've...failed?"

You smiled softly, your eyes crinkling at the corners as you nodded. "Especially after all the times you've tried your hardest. You can't pour from an empty cup, Jiyan. You need to take care of yourself too, or you'll have nothing left to give to others."

Jiyan closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against your shoulder. He could feel the warmth radiating from your body, seeping into his weary bones and slowly chasing away the chill that had settled there.

"Thank you. Y/N" Jiyan murmured, his deep voice muffled against your shoulder. "You really know how to make me feel alright. I don't know what I would do without you." 

You gave Jiyan's broad back a comforting pat, feeling the firm muscles flex beneath your touch. "You don't have to worry about that, silly. But seriously, you should get some rest." you said warmly. "No matter how swamped I get with work in the capital, I'll always make time for you. We've been through too much together for me to abandon you now."

Jiyan paused, his brow furrowing as a thought struck him. He pulled back slightly to look down at you. "Wait... is everything alright at the capital?" he asked, a note of concern creeping into his  voice.

You sighed,  "It's the usual chaos, to be honest. Petty squabbles between nobles, a constant stream of paperwork and meetings that seem to go nowhere..." You trailed off, biting your lower lip. "But there's this one Mercenary group, they've been making things particularly difficult lately. They think they can just do whatever they want."

You shook your head in disgust "But enough about that. I don't want to dwell on their case right now." you said, changing the subject abruptly. You peered past Jiyan's shoulder to the large map sprawled out on the table behind him. "What's that?"

Jiyan followed your gaze, glancing back over his shoulder at the intricate map. "Oh, that?" he said with a wry smile. "That's just my latest attempt at trying to plan out our next wave of attacks against the Tacet Discords. I know I should call it a day, but...Tacet Discords' activities are off the charts...I need to at least examine the map, make sure the strategic points are still secured..." He admitted. "And that we have enough reserve forces to rotate out. My mind won't rest until it's done, and besides..." Jiyan frowned, "I have to appear in control, or else the rest of the Rangers will lose heart. And I need to, I need to manage, I can't-" He stopped, fingers tightening around his hilt. "Just...give me a moment, and then I promise that I'll rest." He didn't want to overwork himself, but it was their lives at stake.

"General, is there anything I can do to help you with...this?" You asked, walking towards the table, your eyes scanning the complex web of markings and strategic points. You knew all too well how tired the General is at the moment.

Jiyan paused, glancing at you with a mix of surprise and gratitude. "You want to help?" he asked, a flicker of hope sparking in his golden eyes.

You nodded, a small smile playing at the corners of your lips. "Of course." 

"I remember about your strategies when you were still a part of General Geshu Lin's Defense Team. You helped turn the tide of that battle against the Tempest Memphis."

You nodded "I did. It was a long time ago, but I remember the basics of it."

"I could use a fresh perspective, that's for certain." he admitted, gesturing to the map. "The Tacet Discord have been unpredictable lately, and I want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. If you're offering, I'd be more than happy to have you take a look." Jiyan pointed to a particularly dense cluster of marks on the map, his finger hovering over a specific point. "I'm thinking of launching an offensive here, but I'm not sure about the logistics. I want to minimize casualties, but I also need to make sure we can hold the ground once we take it."

You leaned in, your brows furrowed as you studied the map. "Alright, here's what I suggest...We can reinforce the front line with the Elite Squad, but we need to rotate them out every 48 hours to prevent exhaustion. We can also call in the Reserve Forces to provide backup, but we need to be careful not to overstretch their supply lines."

As you and Jiyan analyzed the map, The General found himself relaxing a bit more. He'd always admired your sharp mind, and while you spoke, he found himself absentmindedly staring at you. "So, General, what do you think about my plan?" you abruptly asked, shifting your gaze towards him, which snapped him out of his trance.

Jiyan's cheeks warmed in embarrassment and he hastily looked away. He glanced back at the map, a frown creasing his features. "That's a solid plan. We need to move the Rearguard into sectors with the highest Tacet Discords. Some soldiers seems to have reported multiple sightings of Tacet Discords moving in a particular formation, I want to explore that." Jiyan's voice trailed off in thought as he watched your expressions. "Though it'll be chaotic, but we can make a dent into some of these hotspots...There are some reinforcements camped out a bit south-east. I'll have to consider rotating these additional soldiers in...and perhaps get some fresh supplies to the current Rangers." Jiyan stretched his arms, eyes squinting a bit. "Once we do that, and the replacements are settled in, I think I'll be able to relax." It was said lightly, but Jiyan was acutely aware of how heavy his eyelids were. He glanced back at you, his eyes softened appreciatively. "Your input has helped ease the weight. I'm grateful for it, truly."

"Ha! Admit it, I'm better than you." You teased with a smirk, your arms crossed over your chest as you chuckled.

"Not a chance." The General replied with a light laugh, shaking his head in disagreement.

After a burst of productive strategizing, Jiyan stretched his broad shoulders and let out a long yawn. "What do you say we take a break and have some tea? I could use a warm cup of something right about now." he asked.

You chuckled, a playful glint in your eye as you followed suit, stretching languidly. "Well, since you're asking so nicely...I suppose I could be persuaded to take a tea break with my favorite General." you teased, a smirk playing on your lips.

"Favorite? I'm flattered!" Jiyan exclaimed, pressing a hand sarcastically to his chest. "Well, far be it from me to deny such a distinguished lady her wish. Come, I've got a special blend of tea I've been saving for a busy day like this."

And the rest of the night was filled with conversations that brought smiles to your faces.

[2 hours later...]

As the clock struck midnight, you glanced up from your teacup, a soft sigh escaping your lips as you set it down on the saucer. You looked over at Jiyan, a warm smile spreading across your face. "Thank you for the tea, General. I can't remember the last time I had a normal evening."

Jiyan, who had been in the process of pouring himself another cup, paused and returned your smile. "It's my pleasure, Madam Secretary. Not often I get to unwind like this."

You chuckled, standing up from your chair. "Well, as much as I've enjoyed myself, I really should be heading back to the capital. The criminals won't punish themselves, you know." You said, a wry note in your voice.

Jiyan nodded, setting his teacup down and rising to his feet as well. "Ah, the joys of leadership." He said, a touch of sarcasm in his tone. "though..." He paused, a sudden thought occurring to him. "Say, do you have any plans over the next couple of days? I know we seldom see each other these days, what with you being stuck in the capital and me being...well, me." He gestured vaguely to the war map, now covered in scribbled notes.

"No plans, why? You thinking of paying me a visit to the capital, General?" You asked, a playful lilt in your voice.

"I was hoping I could." Jiyan admitted, a slight grin tugging at his mouth. "I miss having these normal conversations with you, Madam Secretary. It's not often I get to relax and just...talk. With most people, I'm always the strict, scary General." He said, a note of self-deprecating humor in his voice.

You laughed softly, shaking your head. "Well, you're always welcome to come and visit me to the capital."

"By the way, I could escort you back to the capital myself. Just to make sure you get there safe and sound." Jiyan said, a note of protectiveness in his voice.

You rolled her eyes, a playful smirk on your face. "Oh, please. I think I've grown up enough to manage a trip back to the capital on my own." You said, punctuating your words with a light punch to Jiyan's chest.

Jiyan chuckled, reaching out to tousle your hair like he used to do when both of you were younger.  "Yeah, yeah, I know you're all grown up now. But you can still be reckless sometimes, you know."

You swatted his hand away, your cheeks flushing slightly. "What-ever!" You exclaimed, drawing out the syllables in a deliberately childish way. With that, you turned on your heel and strode towards the door, leaving Jiyan alone in his quarters.

Jiyan stood there for a moment, a wide grin spreading across his face as he listened to the sound of your footsteps fading away. "Reckless and stubborn, just like always." He murmured to himself, shaking his head in amusement. "But I suppose that's what I love about her."

End of Chapter 1

[show-stoppin-enby]

Had the wildest D&D session today!!! Here’s some of the batshit stuff that happened, with as much context as I feel like adding:

- Pre-session, I brought some weird off-brand Oreoes from Home Bargains called U KNOW ME. Everyone else hated them, and I feel they really set the tone for the day.

- Our party is mostly a group of travelling orphans, we know each other from growing up in the same orphanage. Our human fighter is hired muscle, our tabaxi ranger is a spy(?) from a kingdom we visited, and our tiefling warlock is just sort of there, I think a long time friend? There are 8 of us in the party, I have no idea how our DM manages.

- The party fought slightly more powerful clones of ourselves, created/ summoned (?) by a necromancer. This combat started last session, so we started today mid-combat.

- The human fighter, and only straight player in the group, had to engage his clone in an extended makeout sesh so he wouldn’t decimate the party

- The tiefling warlock got wine drunk with her clone, during combat

- I (Pjon the halfling bard) (the P is silent) did possibly the best thing I’ve ever done, both in game and out. We were in a quite painful slappy fight with Dissonant Whispers, which I was losing, so I kissed my clone, distracting zir from the gun I drew, shooting zir in the head at point blank range (we visited a cowboy town and all got guns and hats). Our DM, as a bit of fun, decided to add the rogue’s sneak attack damage of 5d6 to the shot (which was 2d8+3 by itself). When they saw that I had nearly, but not quite, killed my clone with this move, they said “fuck it, you get another attack”. I will be riding this high for weeks.

- We tracked the necromancer down to a swamp, guarded by loads of undead. Our tiefling warlock casts purify water on the swamp, thus making the swamp holy and extremely corrosive to undead. Screams are heard.

- Our undead friend, Gregothy IV, stays safe by riding the giant boat I keep pulling from my bag of tricks. The boar can do the Macarena. This is how we befriended Gregothy initially.

- We rolled, placing ourselves on the Slut Scale. This was completely irrelevant to what we were doing.

- Despite doing my best to fill the Horny Bard stereotype, I have given up after being consistently out-hornied by the tiefling warlock. My +2 modifier to Slut, which is a class feat, still only left me with a total of 12.

- We killed the necromancer in less than a round. I suppose wizards aren’t known for their HP.

- it’s worth noting, the main reason we chased this guy down after he ran away and left us with the clones was because he kidnapped the adopted son of the fighter and the warlock (they co-parent). The son’s name is Strudel, he is a Horrible Little Flesh Boy, he was the warlock’s pet stirge that was turned into a real boy because of some god shit (I think the fighter multiclassed in warlock and sold his soul to the tiefling’s patron? And when he killed a guy the human-ness was transferred to Strudel? Idk, I couldn’t make it that week so idk the details)

- The necromancer had control of a town entirely populated with undead. Now that he’s dead, the town is ours. Gregothy IV is elected leader, and is now Gregothy I, as he is the monarch and we are now parliament

- We somehow turned D&D into a game of politics and rollercoaster tycoon, as our business model for this town is to turn it in to a tourist spot and/or theme park. God help our DM next week.

- The theme park will be called Deadpool Pleasure Beach, in honour of the holy swamp which we used to dispose of all the undead no-longer-animated corpses. Rides include The Boomerang, which has a 180° angle, and an as-yet-unnamed ride that has 17 inversions with only a lap bar as restraints

- Half the party went along with the plan because theme parks are awesome, the other half went along with it to make money from the business end. The fighter and the rogue both have stocks in a genasi circus we ran into a while back, which they have made a fair amount of money off.

[khorren]

Despite the fact I don’t actually raid pretty much ever, I still wanted to have a raid group within the guild. I was aiming for 2 of each race for the team but since my charr roster was so small, I could only find a reason to have 1 of them in the raid group, so I got a bonus norn out of it.

The raid group can play multiple roles within the group with the exception of Kaidalis who always plays a Druid healer/support type role, Calixae who plays support roles, and Reyna who will always be DPS and never support.

Top row: Reyna - Elementalist / Aoife - Guardian / Orathali - Elementalist / Viianna - Necromancer / Siobhan - Warrior

Bottom row: Aloreca - Engineer / Kaidalis - Ranger / Kensi - Revenant / Calixae - Mesmer / Amarilis - Thief

Aoife is the guild leader, so she’s the raid leader. Her main function in the story is a sort of bodyguard role to the commander, but during downtime she’ll go off and raid with the guild. Whether it’s for bringing in intel, or good old fashioned spelunking and discovery, the raid group will raid pretty much anything.

Reyna’s with the raid guild as Oxia thought she needed better social skills and interaction with people outside of the warband. Yes, she’s like a feral cat who needs to be socialised. She reluctantly went along for the adventures as long as she didn’t need to play support.

Orathali learned that not one but TWO Ulvstrom sisters were looking for a 10th for their raiding adventures and she begged and pleaded to be let in.

Viianna knew Aoife from the Priory and Aoife asked her along.

Siobhan - Vigil representative for raiding fun times and gets to help out her sister.

Aloreca - Viianna dragged her along, insisting she get out of the lab once in a while.

Kaidalis - Went to keep Amarilis company. Also needed something to focus on after pact decimation.

Kensi - Keeping an eye on all the allies of the Fae family.

Calixae - Since her mother wouldn’t let her go on adventures with the commander, she pestered auntie Kensi into tagging along with her adventures. Not the most experienced fighter but wants to learn.

Amarilis - Needed something to focus on after not so happy fun jungle adventures.

[thespiral]

INTRODUCING THE 80S DOCUMENT... a comprehensive doc on this funny mentioned-only raider faction that is incredibly fucking cool and a crime no one has mentioned them yet

this is more or less a compilation of different canon, semi-canon and fanon references! most of it taken from the hearts of iron 4 mod old world blues, joshua sawyer's simple and sprinkled some fanon from my head in here as well. this is to hopefully make other people aware of these guys!

a MASSIVE thanks to my partner alex for helping me write this up, the tops server members for lore council, esseress and everyone else who i rambled on and on about these guys. thank you so much

you can find the document here!

(and also under the cut!)

The 80s are a gang of raiders that operate along the Northern California 80 Freeway, mostly in the region northeast of the lawless, uncontrolled city of Sacramento. They occupy their own territory stretching between New California and the shores of Great Salt Lake, bordering the land of their longtime enemies the White Legs.

They are known for raiding frontier towns for supplies, kidnapping people, their tireless pursuit of enemies and for their occasional use of motorcycles. They are rightly feared for their ability to cover large areas of land with very few men using said motorcycles. They have recently spread out over a larger area, notably the I-80, due to the collapse of the Nevada Desert Rangers and the NCR's inability to patrol or keep tabs on the territory.

History

After the bombs desolated the country, the 80s began as a group of people that banded together out of necessity and trekked through the I-80, believing that the highway had to lead somewhere safe. The early origins of the 80s are muddled by word of mouth and mostly forgotten, but they fully coalesced into a raider faction when others learned to fear them.

The first peak of the 80s’ was reached when they took Sacramento for their own. For the first time, many 80s began to settle down and build a raiding community, often attacking smaller settlements in the area. These transgressions eventually led to the New California Republic expanding and securing its borders by taking Sacramento back, forcing the 80s out of the city.

The 80s then tore through Nevada, following the I-80 and launching massive raids on almost every community they came across for supplies and equipment, including NCR cities such as New Reno or Vault City. This led to even greater notoriety and, despite having been mauled by the NCR, drove fear into the heart of the Republic as they made their way to Utah.

Currently, the 80s have mostly settled in Wendover, expanding it into a town. Most of their conflicts lie with the neighboring White Legs, and they await the opportunity to strike back at the NCR and reclaim Sacramento.

Culture

The 80s primary philosophies are that other 80s come before all else, that the enemy of their enemy is their friend, and that settling down is the opposite of freedom. They value a wild and free lifestyle, cheap thrills, mechanical and driving prowess, and the road. While some communities support them along the roads, they are their own priority above all, and many relations with other groups are sustained through physical threat.

While all 80s can be defined by a few common traits, most of them are decentralized and spread across various chapters. Each has their own rules, hierarchies and banners. Some chapters are nomadic, while others settle in towns they have conquered, and others live in self-made settlements by the road.

Identification between each chapter varies from chapter to chapter, with the most common traits being tattoos, body art, patches on armour and jackets, and so on. While in-fighting between chapters is common, the 80s are generally extremely close-knit compared to other raider factions. In most chapters, higher-ranking members wear red or blue I-80 road signs, while regular members wear the more common green signs, and initiates and hangarounds have no signs.

While most 80s are born into their respective chapters, the 80s will occasionally take on new initiates that are young or have potential when it comes to driving and repair skills. An initiate, or hangaround, mostly runs errands for fully-fledged 80s until the others have decided they are eligible for an initiation ritual. Most potential initiates have to go through a ritual to prove their worth, such as salvaging a motorcycle and making it their own.

Economy

When the 80s started out, they were disorganized and originally had to rely on raiding to get by. During their early years, raiding was quite profitable in the wasteland, and this time period would later be called the golden age of raiding. As time went on, however, theft and slavery became unsustainable as societies grew, and many chapters of the 80s were forced to turn to other means of survival.

Using their vehicles to travel greater distances faster than any other society could manage, many chapters of the 80s turned to drug trade, gun running, package delivery, caravan running and trading. Many chapters have become their own communities, and some have settled in certain locations to farm. There are still active raiding chapters, but in the present they are few and far between.

Despite no longer solely relying on raiding, some chapters still intimidate weaker communities into giving tribute to them, having no issue doing so with their vehicles. They also charge a travel tax on all outsiders that would cross their roads.

Military and Technology

The 80s are well-known for their expertise in and quantity of vehicles ranging from the common motorcycle to the large semi-truck. The 80s scavenge, repair and even build their own vehicles, and almost every member at least has their own motorcycle, as a common initiation rite requires new members to salvage their own bike. They also find and use old schematics to improve upon their designs, or create their own from scratch.

Most 80s make their own equipment when they cannot scavenge, from tires and tools to homemade fuel. Many bikes have been made to run on ethanol and other biofuels, while others run on energy cells, fusion cells, or any energy source that’s available.

Using these vehicles, the 80s utilize speed to break through enemy walls in battle, and often overwhelm their opponents before they can truly attack. They rely on hit-and-run tactics, and as a result have great offense and poor defense. For example, one common attack involves holding out a machete while driving by the enemy; destructive, but leaves the rider open for many attacks.

The most commonly used weapons are anything close and decimating. Many 80s carry shotguns, automatic guns and throwable explosives that are relatively easy to use while riding.

Politics and Diplomatic Relations

The cultural tenet of the 80s coming before anyone else carries into their politics. Little of the outside world affects their internal politics or laws (or lack thereof). They are somewhat hypocritical in that they believe in freedom for themselves and no one else. The 80s have no one leader, and overall are decentralized as a faction.

Each chapter has their own subset of laws, or none at all. While most 80s are close-knit, there is currently infighting between chapters as they debate on whether to settle down or continue raiding. Some believe that settling down goes against what the 80s stand for and would be abandoning their origins, while others believe they won’t stand a chance against other factions if they continue to raid.

The 80s are relatively cold toward other factions, with few allies and many enemies. They are generally neutral toward other raiding factions, such as the Jackals or the Vipers, but would put aside their differences for the sake of attacking the greater enemy, such as with the Great Khans or the Powder Gangers. No matter what, however, they will make it clear that they are their own priority.

The New California Republic is one of the 80s greatest and most powerful enemies. From the very beginning, the 80s and the NCR have fought each other as the 80s raided civilians and the NCR tried to stomp them out along with other raider factions. This culminated in the NCR taking Sacramento and forcing the 80s to leave for Utah, marking the NCR as the 80s’ worst enemy. Any 80s would not hesitate at any opportunity to get back at the NCR, no matter how petty or who they would have to ally with.

After the 80s were forced to travel to Utah, their territory began to border the White Legs’, and they frequently intruded on their land. This has led to many skirmishes between the two factions as they compete for their own territory.

While Caesar’s Legion does not have much presence in the West, many 80s have heard of this new threat against the NCR, and most who have are eager for any potential ally to get back at the NCR for Sacramento. The 80s know little of the Legion or what would happen to them if the Legion was successful, but are willing to do anything if it meant victory.

References

https://fallout-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Simple_organizations#80s

J.E. Sawyer’s Fallout Roleplaying Game

Hearts of Iron 4: Old World Blues

And all the other people that helped contribute to this document

[seven-oomen]

Love and Monsters Lore/Meta/Headcanons

Spoilers ahead!!!! I feel like I shouldn’t have to say it but obviously this will have spoilers for the movie.

Okay so strap in kiddos because I have spend my entire day rewatching the film, writing down all the little lines I could find and I think I’ve build a pretty decent understanding of its lore despite not having much information to fall back onto from other sources. (I don’t think it’s an easily accessible movie and there’s no wikis or whatever yet.)

Alright so here we go:

Part 1: The apocalypse

The apocalypse in this universe started 7 years before the story starts. An asteroid called Agatha 616 was headed for Earth. And in response Earth send up a bunch of chemical bombs to break up the asteroid.

It worked, a little too well. And those chemicals came back down on Earth and mutated all Cold-blooded animals. (Insects, fish, arachnids, reptiles, amphibians) From what we can tell, that’s all the chemicals affected. Warm blooded animals like Mammals and Birds  don’t seem to be affected. But the source material isn’t very definitive on this.

In the opening story Joel talks about how 95% of humanity basically got eaten to death by the mutated creatures. Even Clyde alludes to humanity being unaffected by referring to a line said by the governments/scientists at the time; “We’re the lucky ones, or so they said.”

To me that makes sense, insects in particular are so vast and so well adapted that if they ever got to the size of a truck, they would dominate pretty much all other species around them. That might also explain why we don’t see many mammals or birds around. I’ve been looking, haven’t found them just yet. Aside from Gertie the cow and Boy the dog.

One of the places were the apocalypse seems to have kicked off is in Fairfield, California. Clyde calls it ‘basically ground zero’ and is amazed that Joel (and Aimee by extension) even made it out of there. Although a part of that may be because I believe the whole “cast” is from the area between Sacramento California and San Fransicsco. I have my reasons for that, which I will explain in headcanons.

Another, based on a news clip in the beginning might be Washington DC and I think it slowly escalated from there, going Global in a matter of days. I think the highest concentration of humanity fell first (cities), which would make sense as more humans generally also means a lot of insects and other scavengers. Conflict would be high in these areas and a lot of people would die at once.

Joel also talks about how the military and the ‘big ones’ basically cancelled each other out and died out after another. Which again makes sense to me, you’d want the most dangerous creatures to be taken out first. A cockroach the size of a tank is definitely a priority. Although how one would kill a cockroach that size is also very questionable, considering what they can survive.

I think humanity held out for several months before they were forced into hiding by the mutated creatures and the news articles that seem to be around throughout the world and in the beginning seem to suggest that as well.

Part 2: Joel’s Journey

Now I am not an American and a lot of places have names that I know nothing about. So I had to Google it, rehear it and figure it out. But Joel’s journey takes him to Jenner Beach, we know based on a sign post that he passes Fulton and is headed off towards Sonoma Coast State Park. Based on those signs I have a made a trajectory of about 85 miles and approximately located Joel’s colony.

I’ve also circled Fairfield here to indicate where he started out. Now as I said, this is guess work based on what the movie gave me from the sign post.

Sonoma Coast state Park (30 miles), Fulton (6 Miles)

And from what the characters in the movie have been saying; Jenner Beach. So yeah, it’s guess work and I might be a couple of miles off, but I like to think this gives a good perspective.

7 days seems to sort of check out though, considering the terrain is rough and hilly/mountainy, you’d constantly have to hide, and you’d need to sleep/forage. But you’d be walking pretty slow still. I think you could make the journey in 5-6 days as well on foot.

Part 3: Clyde and Minnow’s Journey

Now these two are far more difficult to figure out because we don’t know much about them. Wikipedia indicates Clyde is a survival expert, so that’s the official title that I went with as well. He says he had a son named Elliott and that he was in a colony with Elliot, Minnow, and Minnow’s dad. Minnow also indicates that their colony was in a subway station. They were mostly headed North.

I think the most likely candidates for their ‘home base’ were Sacremento, but then why did they cross Joel’s path and didn’t head for Yosemite/ Mt. Whitney if they wanted to go to the mountains?

Or another likely candidate was Richmond. Which is what I went with. This is more headcanony though. Only because they mentioned going to the North as opposed to going East, towards Mt. Whitney. Maybe Sacremento and it’s valley are a no-go zone? That would sense, large open spaces are probably where larger creatures reside.

Part 4: Headcanons

Okay this last section is purely headcanon material and not at based on facts. So please don’t shoot me. (Yes, you may copy the headcanons if you like, I don’t mind.)

Clyde is a survival expert, hunter, and doomsday prepper in the city. He used to lead rich tourist/people onto expeditions into the wilderness of California.

His son Elliott was a State Ranger in one of the local wildlife parks/reservations. He was also very gay,

Clyde is a simple but open minded man who loved his son/family. He really didn’t care his son was gay and supported him.

They lived just outside of Richmond.

Their neighbors was an Indian Transman (as in his ancestors were from India). This was Minnow’s father.

Minnow was one when the Apocalypse hit. (This is somewhat canon actually.)

Her father carried her and gave birth to her, getting a hysterectomy a few months after.

Her father was also a great archer and used to teach people how to use a bow and arrow. He was also a great horseback rider.

When the apocalypse hit they tried to sit it out in Clyde’s shelter but due to circumstance were forced to leave and eventually ended up in a colony in Richmond. Which operated from a subway station. 

Elliott and Minnow’s father fell in love and paired up, raising Minnow together. Clyde became her grandfather figure.

They stayed there for about 4-5 years until an attack decimated the colony, including Minnow’s father and Elliott.

Clyde and Minnow have been surviving out on there own ever since and were slowly traveling up North until they found Joel in a Sandgobblers hole.

Part 5: Creatures

We know the following about the categories of creatures:

Insects: Have terrible peripheral vision

Lizards: Can’t climb for shit

Amphibians: Like to hide and lure in their prey

Sandgobblers: Bad asses, find prey by sound and vibration, their queen is bad news and has a fin.

You can tell if a creature is kind by looking into its eyes.

Bouldersnails are friendly, sensitive, but can crush your ass in a heartbeat.

-

And that’s what I have so far. Feel free to reblog and add to it if you’ve found more or want to enter a counter to some of the things I’ve found.

[christhehoff]

25 Years of Snatcher

An airborne toxin that annihilates half the world's population followed by an invasion of killer robots indistinguishable from actual humans would, in real life, present a pretty rough time for mankind. In the fiction of Hideo Kojima's classic video game Snatcher, however, this scenario provides hours upon hours of fun, danger, and intrigue for the players fortunate enough to have experienced its 16-bit cyberpunk thrills.

Released in North America approximately 25 years ago, exclusively on Sega CD, Snatcher is currently celebrating a landmark anniversary in the West. Yet, for most of those 25 years, the game has flown under the radar, unplayed by most and underappreciated by many due to the Sega CD's minimal audience and the subsequent limited availability of the game. Those who played it, though, discovered that Snatcher was much more than just a point-and-click graphic/text adventure; it was one that made you think, made you feel, and, at the time of its release, altered perceptions of what the video game medium made possible.

At the heart of Snatcher was its incredible world-building. Set in the city of Neo Kobe, Japan in 2047, Snatcher presented a multicultural, neon-drenched world of heroes, villains, and high technology. Certainly, it was heavily inspired by the film Blade Runner, but Snatcher wasn't merely a film homage mixed with '80s Japan. Thanks to the in-game computer database, JORDAN, players could delve into the history of Neo Kobe, learn about the Catastrophe (the release of the aforementioned population-decimating toxin), find out about the era's government, infrastructure, sports, entertainment, and more — you could even get info on ancillary characters that were little more than names in the manual. The handful of in-game environments provided a solid foundation of what the game's world was all about, but by including intricate details about all aspects of society, Snatcher gave the impression of a sprawling universe that went far beyond the confines of the game.

That universe, naturally, would be nothing were it not filled with interesting characters and events. Fortunately, the plot — about the Snatchers ("bio-roids" that killed and copied their human victims) covertly invading Neo Kobe — was a more-than-compelling hook. The JUNKER (Japanese Undercover Neuro-Kinetic Elimination Ranger) agency was all that stood between these robots and the evident destruction of humanity, and amnesiac new recruit Gillian Seed was the JUNKERs' last hope. It was easy to grow attached to the highly skilled yet somewhat goofy protagonist, and his costars — including diminutive robotic assistant Metal Gear Mk. II, enigmatic bounty hunter Random Hajile, grumpy JUNKER engineer Harry Benson, and the suspicious informant known as Napoleon — were no less appealing. Players sat on the edge of their seats when the characters fell into peril, cheered when they overcame the odds, felt sad when their relationships soured, and perhaps shed a tear or two when they made the ultimate sacrifice.

It certainly helped that all of the characters came to life by an incredibly talented voice cast. Back in 1994, voice acting was barely an afterthought in most console games (if they had voice acting at all), and outside of dedicated localization companies like Working Designs, video game voice acting tended to be embarrassing at best. Snatcher, however, was the exception, and the likes of Jeff Lupetin, Susan Mele, Lucy Childs, and Ray Van Steen gave the cast personality and emotions that few games could match, and their work holds up with the best of them even 25 years later.

Additionally, Snatcher helped push interactive storytelling forward with a legitimately mature presentation. Ironically, Snatcher was rated T for Teen (despite having scenes such as a character with his blood-splattered head twisted off and sitting in his lap), but it could be considered much more mature than other M-rated games of its day. There weren't too many console games out there that dealt seriously with the death of a parent or a struggling marriage, and the underlying theme of overpowering humanity through fear and mistrust is perhaps more poignant now than ever. Furthermore, the methodically paced, menu-driven exploration broken up by brief action/shooting segments made the game feel different from the usual kid-friendly, nonstop-action fare of the era.

That's not to say Snatcher was overly somber and serious; quite the opposite, in fact. Perhaps the biggest reason for its enduring appeal is how seemingly effortlessly it managed to juggle action, drama, and comedy in its script, certainly thanks in no small part to the wonderfully entertaining translation/localization by Jeremy Blaustein and company. Despite being a sci-fi thriller, Snatcher gave ample screen time to oft-humorous interactions between Gillian and Metal Gear (as well as between other characters), providing a wit and tone that few games could match, and offering the perfect counterbalance to the impending humanity-ending crisis.

Other noteworthy aspects included a fantastic soundtrack and numerous secret scenes that made the game far deeper and more replayable than other titles in its genre. Unfortunately, Konami has never attempted to re-release the North American version of Snatcher (despite it making appearances on more popular systems like the PlayStation 1 in Japan), relegating this pre-Metal Gear Solid "Hideo game" to cult-hit status at best.

Nonetheless, despite never being the biggest game, the most critically acclaimed, or the most popular, even a quarter-century after its North American release, Snatcher remains a masterpiece in interactive entertainment, and is arguably one of the most entertaining and groundbreaking video games ever published for a home video game system.

[For more on Snatcher, see my 20-year-anniversary interviews with translators Jeremy Blaustein and Scott T. Hards, as well as Gillian Seed's voice actor Jeff Lupetin.]

[scarletsaphire]

Against All Odds

Me, @exxiah and @coin-tricks-and-thirium piece for the April may event in the BPS server! @exxiah did the art, and me and @coin-tricks-and-thirium did the story.

Art is here: https://exxiah.tumblr.com/post/185180352385/enjoy-this-collection-of-krii7y-art-please-go

Soulmates were many things. First off, they were colorful. It was what defined them, after all, the swirling blues and greens and purples and reds that covered those who had met their destined. The colors were taught in health classes, small units covering what the colors meant, where the colors spread. Blues were platonic, blooming from touches of friendship and laughter. Those lucky enough to find their soulmates would see spirals of blue covering their fingers, their hands, from where they had just greeted a stranger, or splashes covering shoulders and arms where they had ran into each other. Red was for romantic love, kisses and dates and crushes and confessions. Delicate pink circles draw out over lips, a complicated and permanent lipstick from a first kiss, or ruby red decorating thighs for a first time. Yellow marked everything else, golden stripes decorating a torso for an anniversary, or neon fingertips from nervous confrontations.

Soulmates were rare. With billions of people in the world, and only one match, it’s nearly impossible to find yours. Out of everyone, there was little over 10,000 recorded at any given time. Because of this, the very few lucky ones, those who were blessed to meet their perfect match, tended to become famous. In olden days, they were renowned as deities, or gifts from them, and given castles and temples and sacrifices in hopes of good fortune raining upon their civilizations. In current times, soulmates made autobiographies and blogs and tv shows, regardless of how much effort they put in. After all, if you can’t have something, you may as well enjoy someone else having it.

Last of all, soulmates were desired. Of course they were; who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of their lives with a perfect match, the one they were destined to love? Before the internet, people would circumvent the globe, spending fortunes on traveling abroad in hopes of finding their match. Nowadays, it was different. Easier communication allowed for distance to not play a factor, and language barriers faded into minor inconveniences because of translator failures. However, it was harder to know when you had found your soulmate, without the colors created from touch. Scientists and engineers and entrepreneurs attempted time and time again to find technology that could create the same reaction as physical touch in soulmates, but it was difficult, for test subjects were practically nonexistent.

John didn’t care about any of that. Sure, it was interesting to hear about, but it wouldn’t affect him. He had given up finding his soulmate when he was a teenager, when statistics had spat on his dreams. Even if he had cared it already seemed impossible. He had been told when he was seven, coming home from first grade with a letter to his soulmate that his teacher had made them write in class. John had brought it to his mother, proudly showing off the six-sentence letter focusing on the most recent episode of Power Rangers happily written in typical first-grade style.

“When will I get to show them my letter?” he had asked her with a wide smile and sparkling eyes. He didn’t pay any mind to the glance she threw at his father, the tightening of her lips and the hesitation in her voice.

“Well,” she began, her voice frank. “Not everyone gets to meet their soulmate. So you might never get to give your letter to her.” The sparkle faded from John’s eyes and the smile fell from his face.

“But Ms. Bregg says that a soulmate is who you’re supposed to be with for your whole life,” John said, crossing his arms and sticking out his bottom lip in defiance. “Ms. Bregg can’t be wrong.”

“She’s not wrong my love,” his mother said, getting down from her chair and giving him back his letter. “But most people never meet their soulmates. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever meet yours, but that doesn’t mean you can’t meet someone and be happy! Just look at your dad and I.”

“But if it won’t work out?” John questioned, hands dropping from their crossed position to flop noisily by his side. His eyes started to well up, brimming with tears.

His mother opened her arms to him, her voice now softer and consoling. “No matter what you happen to do, soulmate or not John, your father and I will always be here for you.”

Without a second thought, he rushed into his mother’s open arms, feeling warmth and kindness embrace him. However, despite the love he felt, it was this moment that sparked the fire within John. The feeling of hopelessness that made it’s home buried within his soul. That maybe everything that he was taught by Ms. Bregg was for naught. That to be united with his soulmate just wasn’t in the cards. He grew to despise Ms. Bregg, and rejoiced when she was fired a few years later because of teaching inappropriate content to children.

These thoughts of hopelessness were only reaffirmed when he entered high school, filled with hormones, attitudes run high, and knowledge he didn’t want to know. John had officially decided that health was the worst class in the world. A teacher who could care less if his students passed or failed and a very strong opinion on the very topic his mother had touched on all those years ago. It had been that part of the year where more of the intimate topics were touched on in the class, which included the topic of soulmates and how truly rare they were.

“Alright. As you know, we’ve started our coverage of our soulmates unit.” Mr. Leaton’s annoying voice echoed through the classroom full of rowdy students. John sat at his desk that day, blue and black painted nails tapping incessantly on the polished wood.

“I showed you guys the importance of the colors yesterday. Today will be a bit different. We're going to be looking at some statistics regarding soulmates! So all my math kids buckle up.” Mr. Leaton gave a half smile, pulling down the big white projector.

John huffed as the projector turned on, the brightly colored background practically burning his eyes. A few clicks of the mouse to get the slides set up before Mr.Leaton had returned to the front of the room. The slide behind him was a very off colored yellow orange with the title, “Soulmate Statistics”. John could already feel himself getting antsy in his seat as the lecture began.

“So most of you might be wondering. How many people actually find their soulmate, and what is the likelihood of you finding yours?” Mr. Leaton declared, the sentence dissolving into the anxious air about the classroom. The button on the clicker was tapped, the slide transitioning effortlessly to the ones after. The final slide depicted a man and a woman, decorated in colors through the screen of a television, smiles lighting up their faces.

“Now that you know a little more about what the statistics say having a soulmate is like, here's a fun fact. There are only 10,000 soulmates who are recorded at any given time in the world. With close to 8 billion people, it seems a little unrealistic to find yours.” Mr. Leaton spoke, pointing to the picture.

John looked at the screen, a sense of dread building up within his stomach. 8 billion people. 8 billion chances wasted. 8 billion possible souls and one impossible chance at finding the one that matched his.

“For those of you who are good at math, what is the approximate percentage of any one person finding their soulmate in today's world?” Mr. Leaton questioned the class. A sea of blank stares were given back. John had his pencil and paper, doing the equations in silence, to figure out the number to the best of his ability.

“There's less than a 1.42% chance.” John responded to the question, displaying his mathematics work on the paper in front of him. The number made his head spin.

“That's correct John. There is less than a 1.42% chance. In fact all of those numbers are moved even more due to a -6 in decimal points.” Mr. Leaton spoke, blabbering on about the subject before moving onto the next slide. John had spaced out, no longer interested in the conversation at hand. Right there, in the middle of that health classroom, John had given up ever trying to find his soulmate. While other people would spend millions of dollars trying, John would be content with where he was at.

He had made peace with that fact long before he graduated high school, long before he started doing YouTube. But as his channel started to grow, and more and more people started watching his videos, his mind drifted back to the idea of soulmates, to statistics and dreams he had long since left in the dust. They came back to him as a sense of curiosity, and that sense only grew and grew as YouTube’s algorithm started recommending videos on soulmates, and as TVs and radio stations drones on about the latest celebrity soulmates.

It took a few months til that curiosity grew strong enough that, as the moon began to set and the sun went to claim back the sky, John sat in his room with his computer, reading article after article about soulmates in modern times. Every one he came across said basically the same thing.

With the rise of the internet, people were meeting more and more folks with similar interests from around the globe, leading to an increase in soulmates being found. Even with the increase, there was a predicted larger number of soulmates being discovered than that, as the soul marks were only triggered by physical touch between soulmates. Technology was being developed to show these soul marks through the screen, but no advancements had been made.

As John scrolled through article after article, some written by moms on their blog posts with about as much credibility as a reddit post, some written by scientists that had words John didn’t know without Google, he started to hope for the first time since he was a child, that maybe there was hope for him to meet his soulmate after all.

He met Smitty not long after that. A friend of both of them got them into a recording session together, and with their similar sense of humor and personalities, they hit it off immediately. John found himself at ease around Smitty, and from the laughter that came freely through the speakers whenever they talked, John assumed that Smitty felt the same.

They kept recording together, and, eventually, they called nearly as much while not recording then when they did. Late night conversations, whether it be about their work or their lives, or topics ranging from games to fashion to politics, became a near nightly thing between them. Even if the calls were just static over their microphones, with brief sentences breaking the silence between them, they just sat in silence and enjoyed each other's company.

Both of their channels started to grow, and the videos they did together were almost always hits, with fans seeming to enjoy their friendship just as much as they enjoyed being friends. (Though John doubted that that could possibly be true; he didn’t think that anyone could enjoy anything as much as when Smitty made stupid jokes that were just between the two, jokes that had him laughing harder than he can remember ever laughing before he met Smitty.) And with the growth of their channels, came invites. Invites to cons and events to get more involved with the community.

The first con Smitty agreed to go to was close to where John lived, and when he heard that Smitty would be going, he offered his house as a place for him to stay. It was what friends were for after all. And a house would be much nicer to stay in than a cheap hotel that was already booked out.

A few days before Smitty was set to arrive was when the panic started to set in. John had a million questions swimming through his mind as he set up the spare bedroom and cleaned the house. What if the house wasn't good enough, or if his jokes fell flat, or maybe his hair would decide not to cooperate when he arrived? Irrational little things poked at the back of the bleach blonde's mind throughout the day, attempting to gain some semblance of organization.

Another part of John spoke differently. Smitty was his best friend, and had been for years! Sure, it would be their first time meeting face to face, but they were still the same people right? They'd played hours of games together from CS:GO to Fortnite and Uno. They'd spent even longer talking to each other when insomnia kept the two from sleeping. He was sure that Smitty could still make him laugh even with the doubts attacking his brain. It wouldn't be so bad after all.

In the hours between the time he woke up and the time Smitty was supposed to land, John had made at least ten panicked discord calls, rebrushed his hair more times than he could count, and was anxiously checking both the digital clock in his bedroom plus the analog clock in the living room. His stomach was in knots and his head was in the clouds as the seconds counted down.

He left for the airport hours earlier than he had to, prepared to settle down near the front desk of the airport to wait for Smitty to arrive. Slowly he moved throughout the airport, til he had made it as far as he could without actually boarding a plane. When he made it to the gate he was fated to wait at, he sat himself in one of the uncomfortable chairs. Not much changed, as he passed time the same way he had been at his house, bouncing his leg nervously and checking from clock to clock. He tried to distract himself with his phone, playing random app games or listening to music. It worked for a little while, til he got a notification from one of the others, asking if Smitty had landed in yet. With a quick “no” shot back to them, he went right back to worrying.

He nearly felt his heart stop when Smitty’s name appeared in his notifications, accompanied by red and blue hearts on either side of his name and a message saying he had just landed and was looking for him. His thoughts started flying even faster than they had been before, to the point where he couldn’t discern any one thought from the others. Shooting a quick text back with which gate he was next to (he didn’t bother to read which gate; he had spent enough time there that he had it memorized, and he was fairly certain he would see B3 in his dreams now) he stood up and stretched his back and neck, all of which were sore from the time he had spent sitting in chairs not designed to be sat in nearly as long as he had.

He remained standing, watching the entrance to the room for Smitty whose face he had seen through video calls enough times that he was pretty certain he could recognize it on sight. Minutes ticked by agonizingly slow, slower than time had crawled for the entirety of the day. And then John spotted him, and he stopped breathing.

Smitty didn’t look different than he normally did. He hadn’t gotten his bags yet, seeing as he wasn’t carrying any with him. His hair was ruffled a bit, probably from the flight, and his eyes scanned over the crowd before locking into John’s. A smile split over his face, and John could feel a stupid grin spreading across his own.

“Hey,” Smitty said once he got close enough to John his to be heard, raising his right hand up in an awkward wave.

“Hey,” John replied, returning the wave. They stood there just kinda looking at each other for a few seconds, neither moving as people passed around them. “How was your flight?” John finally asked, breaking the tense silence that was starting to build around them.

“It was okay,” Smitty answered. “Thanks for letting me stay with you, and for picking me up.”

“It’s no problem,” John replied, moving his hand back behind his head. “D’you wanna go get your stuff?”

“Yeah, we should probably do that,” Smitty said with a little laugh before grabbing John’s hand and making his way out of the room, following signs that said baggage pick up. John trailed behind him, ignoring the spark that went through him when Smitty grabbed him. He ignored his hand clasped in Smitty’s, warm and soft and just out of his field of view, and he ignored his stomach doing flips from the contact. Instead, he focused on the back of Smitty’s head, and focused on keeping the same pace as they both hurried through the airport to get Smitty’s things.

It only took a few minutes and a wrong turn or two to get to the baggage collection area, and in that time, the awkwardness between meeting face to face faded away. Still, their hands were held together, and John was almost sad when Smitty let go in order to grab his bags. Until he didn’t. Smitty stopped, his hand held out in front of him, inches away from his bag but still, and John could see why. Swirls of blue and yellow and greens covered his skin, climbing up his arm and fading away just past his elbow. On the back of his hand was a bright pink spiral, tightly woven through the other colors and prominent, as it spun to his knuckles and faded from sight.

John froze too, looking at Smitty’s hand. He knew Smitty was single; knew Smitty would tell him if he had already found his soulmate. And he didn’t remember seeing Smitty with soulmarks before. Which means that at some point in the airport, Smitty had found his soulmate, and by the number of different shades and density of colors, he had met them before. Somewhere in these halls, John thought, was the perfect match for Smitty, and he had probably gotten in the way of them meeting.

While John’s thoughts had raced, Smitty had turned around to face John with a dopey grin splitting his face. “I didn’t know you were gay,” he said, which caused John’s face to fall into a look of confusion. Smitty started laughing. “Take a look at your hand, dumbass.” He reached out and grabbed John’s hand again, this time pulling it up between the both of them at face level. They matched. The patterns, the colors, and the pretty pink spiral John knew symbolized a reciprocated crush from his high school classes, mirrored on their hands. And if their smiles and bright eyes mirrored each other too? It didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

[aftermathdb]

DEATH BATTLE Review: Dragonzord vs. Mechagodzilla

Robotic Kaiju fight to see who is the true king of them all!

Power Rangers get a third round to see if they can’t net a win. This is the third 3D battle of the season too.

Oh, preemptively: Some of the screenshots might not be that great-looking. I had to use Photobox to get these on here.

Dragonzord′s Preview.

We all know the Power Rangers. Five teenagers that banded together to fight the evil Rita Repulsa and her army of monsters. Things were going pretty well for them, until Rita hatched a plan. She would create her own Ranger with their own powers and their own zord.

Enter: The Dragonzord. A powerful mech that can go toe-to-toe with the Megazord, and has a large plethora of powers.

The hosts go over these powers and note that despite this large arsenal, the Dragonzord is more of a CQC mech than a long-range one.

The Dragonzord’s pilot is Tommy Oliver. A martial arts expert who was so dedicated to Ranger work, that he wore the tights for a long time, and even mentored other rangers. Fun fact: His actor’s birthday is on the day that the episode airs for Youtube.

Tommy controls and summons the Dragonzord with a dagger that he plays as a flute, which leads into this segment:

This goes about as well as you’d expect, and…

I just want to say that Boomstick’s expression there is hilarious, and should become a shirt.

I enjoy this pun unironically.

Anyways, the Dragonzord made short work of Rita’s monsters, and has even fought against the Megazord, which has a power output of over 50k megavolts.

Also worth remembering is that the Megazord once pulled off a feat of 90 Million Newtons

(I don’t know about you, but the whole “As determined in…” parts are really nice callbacks).

So the Dragonzord is in the same ballpark.

Now, the Dragonzord can reach escape velocity. This means that it can move at speeds over Mach 30.

And for the era it was a part of, the Dragonzord is arguably the most durable.

It once survived a blow worth 356.67 Tons of TNT. And shoutout to the guy who made that set piece knowing that it would be destroyed. That’s some quality work.

And what’s a rundown without feats?

The Dragonzord has defeated the technically superior White Tigerzord, and survived a fight with the Thunder Megazord.

And it certainly stands a chance with it’s own fusion of the Mega Thunderzord… Or Dragonzord Fighting Mode… Or Battle Mode- They establish that he never really settled on a name.

But while Tommy has lost his powers in the past, he has still fought the good fight. Even regaining his powers along the way.

And with the powers returned, perhaps one day, so will the Dragonzord.

Mechagodzilla′s Preview.

We all know Godzilla. The rampaging monster that decimated Japan.

And I’m sure we all know the famous story of how he was defeated. By Dr. Serizawa’s (in)famous Oxygen Destroyer, a weapon so powerful, he destroyed himself with it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

And while Japan was subject to many giant monster attacks over the years, their special task force would handle it neatly… Until a new Godzilla showed up and started wrecking them all over again.

Without the Oxygen Destroyer, the defense squad needed a new way to fight  back. So they gathered their top scientists in robotics, microwaves, low-temperature physics, and… Cyber-Necromancy to create their own monster.

Enter: Mechagodzilla.

While it’s not the first one of it’s kind (As Wiz notes), it’s certainly the most unique.

So much so, that it was given it’s own designated codename of Kiryu. A combination of Machine and Dragon. Though, Boomstick opts to just call it Mechagodzilla.

Kiryu is equipped with a wide assortment of weapons. From rockets, to maser cannons, to grappling wires, to spinning claws, a hidden blade, and most famously: The Absolute Zero Cannon. This makes it far better suited to long-range attacks. Making Kiryu a zoner.

The Absolute Zero Cannon robs it’s target of all of it’s energy at once. Meaning that whatever it hits shatters at the atomic level.

Kiryu is also built around the skeletal remains of the OG Godzilla, giving him all the size and strength as the King of the Monsters. It even uses cyber-DNA to give it an edge up, allowing Kiryu to preform some rudimentary actions like a simple AI. exactly like Wiz’s own Cyber-Goos3 (Spelling citationn: The commentary. There were some difficulties getting the screenshots to work, so time was needed).

(Whether or not this is the same goose from the Terry Board Preview is unknown).

Much like the Dragonzord, Kiryu is piloted by Akane Yashiro. A hardened warrior of the Anti-Megalosaurus Force.

According to the hosts, she’s your typical antisocial anime protagonist. Cutting herself off from other people because she has no family left, and got her squad killed on accident. Because I guess that wasn’t an overused trope back then.

Akane pilots Kiryu from a nearby jet plane. The AC-3 White Heron can fly at a speed of 930 km/hr. Together, these two have a perfect track record against Godzilla.

But, as Boomstick warns, Plot twist: Akane isn’t the only pilot for Kiryu. As it turns out, the original Godzilla is also there in spirit… Literally. Godzilla can wrestle control away from Akane, making it a rampaging monster again.

Though, it’s strongly implied that the two have reached an understanding. Which is a good thing. Because the giant mech has some impressive feats. Like tossing a second Godzilla that clocks in at about 25000 metric tons.

Kiryu was even fast enough to dodge the Atomic Breath, which moves at a speed of Mach 2.5.

Speaking of speed, the mech once flew an extremely large distance in a manner of minutes.

Regardless of who is behind the wheel, Kiryu is a powerhouse. No monster has ever fought a battle against it and lived to tell the tale.

The Battle Itself.

Animator (and some of their previous works), Tommy Oliver will be voiced by Nicholas Andrew Louie and Akane Yashiro will be voiced by Hitomi Farrell.  sprite artists, Draconic Robotics by Therewolf. Kristina lead on animation, and Chris Kokkinos on audio.

So the fight is similar to Weiss vs. Mitsuru in the sense that there’s no lead-up to the fight. The fight animation just dumps us in the middle of the battle as it’s going on.

Tommy uses his skills to knock Kiryu down, so Akane gives some motivation.

(For the record, these are subtitles provided by the animation. Not mine).

So Tommy knocks down Kiryu and starts kicking him while he’s down. So Kiryu responds by using that hidden blade from earlier to get Dragonzord off of him.

Akane ensures that all systems are go, and opts to play smart.

Like, let’s take a moment to appreciate this animation. It’s awesome. This is stuff that they could only dream of doing, and now, it’s a reality.

Kiryu gets some distance in, and then goes for a missile barrage. Dragonzord responds by using the head fin to blast them.

However, the jet booster does manage a hit, and it knocks Tommy down.

Tommy isn’t going to let some monster blast him with an attack that has a charge though, and retaliates.

I kinda wish I could make gifsets of these, because they are awesome bits of animation that should be seen to be believed. But, that would take away from the suspense, and I’d rather people go watch the video proper than plagiarize viewership from my review. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to have sound on the gifs anyways. And the music is friggin’ awesome.

Akane comes in to provide covering fire.

Tommy retaliates by bringing her down.

Now, if it weren’t for the fact that Godzilla could take over, Kiryu would be done for. So the battle rages on.

The fight remains close-quarters as both sides make impressive blows and make great counters to one another.

As an example, Mechagodzilla grapples the Dragonzord in his mouth, and starts running and pummeling him.

Can I just say that the Run-and-Pummel is one of my favorite things to see in an action scene? It’s just really cool to see a character carrying their opponent, and either hitting them or ramming them through walls. It’s just so cool.

Tommy then pulls the same trick he did (will do?) from Tigerzord vs. Epyon, and calls the other zords to help him out. If they look familiar, that’s because they’re the same model from Megazord vs. Voltron.

(I won’t be showcasing any screennshots of the combining sequence, because that’s something that must be seen with one’s own eyes).

With Fighting Mode ready, Tommy is ready for round two.

The two do battle, and go at each other. It’s a very close bout, and even over time, it’s hard to tell who has the advantage. Though, given that it’s close-quarters, the Dragonzord has an edge up.

Tommy gets ready for his own finishing blow, so… y’know.

Finishing blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, Tommy had the experience advantage in the bag. Given how long he’s been at the job, that was a given. But experience wasn’t enough to win the day.

In comparison, Kiryu held the advantage in weight, and had more impressive strength.

Take the best feats that both have shown, well, scaled to in Dragonzord’s case.

In direct comparison, the Megazord’s best strength feat isn’t even half as good as Kiryu’s best feat. Meaning that Dragonzord’s best feat is also not as good. It also doesn’t help that Kiryu was also good at fighting at a distance thanks to the wider arsenal of tools he had at his disposal.

They go on to explain that while it’s hard to find the Fighting Mode’s largest output, it’s in the ballpark of the Thunder Megazord and Rita, the latter of whom destroyed an island.

By the size of it, it clocks in at about 2.62 Gigatons of TNT. But still not as good as Kiryu’s best feats.

The Absolute Zero Cannon destroyed the Prince Hotel New Tower building, as well as a few others surrounding it. Using the real-life measurements of the building, this means that the Absolute Zero Cannon’s power output is nearly 130 Teratons of TNT. And since Kiryu was at the center of a blast like that, it’s pretty obvious that he has the durability over Dragonzord.

Which is thousands of times greater than anything that the Dragonzord could potentially do.

Overall impression.

Like I said, the animation and music is friggin’ awesome. And it’s also a nice relief seeing another movie character enter the fight, since we don’t get too much of that these days.

The explanation makes sense too, aside from the Absolute Zero thing, because it feels more like they should have found the amount of energy robbed instead. It’s probably around the same thing, but still.

The jokes are pretty spot-on, and the animated segments between Wiz and Boomstick are pretty funny too.

It took a few years to see it, but it’s well worth the wait if this is the result of having to wait on seeing this matchup.

9.0/10

Next Time…

(Screenshot of the upcoming battle).

… I have no idea as to why these two are fighting.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

Some demon shits.

[cobaltash]

papay-ya replied to your post “I am bored out of my mind. Who of you, wonderful people, would like to...”

HELL YEAH IM ALWAYS DOWN TO TALK DND PCS One of my longest running characters is a dwarf fighter/rogue named Rori, she was the head of security for a mine when her team was decimated by a Purple Worm, and as the sole survivor she took it upon herself to complete their life's wishes and set out into the world where she met the party whom has become her found family :"""") tell me abt one of ur pcs!!

Omg! that’s such a cool motivation for adventuring! 

Now one of my own... Hmmm... let’s talk about Rho then. 

She was a Half Orc Ranger of the Hunter concave when I last played her, but I think I’m gonna respec her into a Horizon Walker and make her my backup for my current campaign if something terrible happens and I loose Wynne.

Now, Rho hails from a swampy land known to its inhabitants as the Shrouds. Magically hidden and rife with dangers, it is no welcoming place to anyone, including its denizens.A system of tunnels criss-crosses the hand, a home for the Shrouds’ mysterious deity and forbidden to all but a select few. Rho had hopes to be one of those chosen few, but she was found inadequate. Instead she was assigned a place as a scout and she excelled there.

One day she happened across a stranger and because she couldn’t recognize any of the usual tricks on them, she supposed they were one of the few who lived in the tunnels, come out on a mission for the nameless deity. She led the stranger to one of the Protector Shrines which housed one of the holy tokens that kept the various dangerous creatures from noticing the village. But the stranger was no chosen, for when they started an unfamiliar ritual and Rho inquired about it, they struck her down. By the time she was again on her feet, the stranger was already fleeing. Rho gave chase and despite the intruder’s best efforts, she could not be shaken.

After a long, close chase Rho found herself suddenly blinded by a painfully bright light and she had to stop. When her eyes cleared she found herself in an unfamiliar place, with no trace of the stranger to be found. She tried looking for them and when that failed, she tried returning home. To her horror, even though she had found the mists of the Shrouds, she was unable to do any more than walk in circles. After a few days of trial and error and no success to speak of, Rho decided that there would be no return for her unless she could find and bring back the stolen token. Thus, the half orc set out in a new world to complete her quest.

[mrmrswales]

Prince William Speaks Out in Film to Fight Illegal Wildlife Trade: 'It Makes You Really Angry'

In The Last Animals, William, 36, discusses the shocking deaths of rangers trying to protect the lives of elephants, rhinos and other endangered wildlife.

The film, which first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 and is now available on VOD in Canada, Australia, Ireland and the U.K., documents the decimation of Africa’s wildlife by ruthless gangs and traces the killing from the savannahs of Africa to the consumers in Asia and around the world.

William, who last month said it was “heartbreaking” that elephants, rhinos and tigers could be gone from the wild forever by the time his three children are grown up, appears in a segment of the film that explores the 2015 murders of a local army colonel and three rangers, all of whom were killed by poachers in Garamba Wildlife Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Over 1,000 rangers have been killed in the last 10 years. It makes you really angry. It makes you very sad,” William told filmmaker Kate Brooks. “We know where the wildlife are that are being poached. We know how the product is moved and we know where it ends up. You’ve got every possible bit of research and evidence you could need to fix this.”

“There’s no question that the Duke of Cambridge has played a critical role in raising awareness about the seriousness of this issue and also unified collective efforts through his passion and concern,” Brooks says.

As president of United for Wildlife, which brings together a coalition of campaigning groups, William has visited China and Vietnam to highlight the trade in areas where there is the most consumption. And he has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping and former President Barack Obama about the issue. Despite this progress, China announced last week that it has partially lifted its 25 years trade ban on rhino horn for medicinal purposes.

“The fact that governments are taking the steps they are shows that it’s on the global agenda,” William says in the film. “People do care, governments do see the seriousness of this problem. But it’s definitely not happening quickly enough. I’d love it to click your fingers and it be like that.”

Brooks, who made her name as a war photographer, was in Kenya on vacation in 2010 when she saw a herd of elephants. “It reminded me that in spite of all the human destruction on the planet, there is still some natural order which ultimately lead me to want to protect it,” she said.

“I saw stories trickling in about the poaching crisis, but the issue was largely underreported then,” she added. “When I learned of an elephant massacre on the border of Chad, in which over 80 elephants were gunned down, I felt I had no choice but to pick up my cameras to help bring attention to the crisis.”

The film won the Terra Mater Factual Studios Impact Award at the Wildscreen Film Festival last month and will be released in the U.S. next spring.

[maddiebiscuits]

Breakdown of Battle for Lordaeron Alliance and Horde scenarios

Extreme spoilers, read cautiously and get ready to be...rustled...

Alliance attacks Lordaeron/Undercity in reaction to the destruction in Kalimdor and burning of Teldrassil

Tyrande Whisperwind, Shandris Feathermoon, Maiev and Jarod Shadowsong, and Malfurion Stormrage do not appear anywhere in the scenario on either side, despite this being a retaliation to the Teldrassil attack - however, night elf forces are present on the battlefield and within Undercity (though Horde players kill these and evacuate the NPCs - the outdoor battle scenario for Horde does not start until Sylvanas confirms all of Undercity has been evacuated)

Also missing from the Alliance side in either scenario outside night elf leaders are are: Turalyon, any Lightforged, Velen, any Pandaren, anyone from the Council of Three Hammers

Missing from the Horde side in either scenario: Mayla Highmountain, any Highmountain tauren, First Arcanist Thalyssra, any Nightborne, Gallywix, any Pandaren

Genn Greymane gives the Alliance speech about the destruction of Teldrassil, instead of Anduin or a night elf

Horde and Alliance clash outside the Lordaeron gate using various tactics

When the Alliance make it to the main gate, Sylvanas calls in a new siege tank running on Azerite, which the Alliance defeat

Sylvanas calls for the use of blight on the battlefield to kill the Alliance and push the others back - Saurfang demands that there must be a better way, but Sylvanas claims that a direct approach is necessary

Horde soldiers who are on the field also die during the blight attack - Anduin and Genn comment on this, before Sylvanas revives the fallen Horde as undead units to attack

Alliance players fall back and try to rescue injured Alliance from the blight and protect Anduin, Horde players are given the choice to put on a gas mask and save Horde soldiers from the blight, or take a mask and a blightsprayer and kill the Alliance - Saurfang encourages players to save the wounded Horde, while Sylvanas demands that players kill the Alliance instead

Jaina appears and uses her magic to teleport a small portion of the Alliance army past the blighted gate and into Lordaeron’s ruins, where players push through a primarily troll-lead blockade with a troll shaman leading the defense

Horde players reconvene inside the gate where Sylvanas tasks Blightcalled Nathanos and Baine Bloodhoof to cut off the Alliance forces in the ruins - Saurfang is commented on being absent

Nathanos tasks Baine with collecting blightsprayers and apothecaries so they can use the reserve blight supplies to cut off the Alliance, Baine says he will do so and then meet Nathanos in the fray, but Nathanos commands Baine to fall back and protect Sylvanas instead - Baine does as told after commenting on Saurfang’s disappearance again and wondering what Sylvanas is planning in the backlines

Lor’themar is tasked to put his rangers on the high ground while blightsprayers are used on the lowground - some of the blightspraying NPCs are tauren

When the Alliance appear Jaina asks if Anduin would like her to safely teleport them out to a retreat, but Anduin says that this would make them easy prey to chase and that they might have to die trying to fight then and there

Alleria and the void elves suddenly appear through a mass shadow portal, along with Mekkatorque, gnomes and gnomish machinery

Lor’themar miserably comments on the void elves, calling them traitors (even though it was Lor’themar who cast all of them out of Silvermoon in the first place)

The Alliance push makes ground and Sylvanas appears and halts the push, calling for a retreat - Horde players reconvene and the Horde is falling back and away, presumably to Orgrimmar

Alliance realizes that Sylvanas has called for all the reserves of the blight to decimate the rest of the ruins, both cutting off the Alliance and essentially trapping them all to die - Mekkatorque has his few gyrocopters fly Alliance players back to the central plaza over the blight while the remaining forces make arrangements for portal routes around the blight

Saurfang finally re-appears in the plaza, where Sylvanas comments on his return. Saurfang seems opposed to Sylvanas’ tactics and an implied planned-forfeit of Lordaeron/Undercity in order to trap and obliterate the snared Alliance within the walls with plague

Keep in mind that Baine is present during all these scenes and blight use and does not say a word, nor does Lor’themar - both seem keen to kill Alliance

Keep in mind that Saurfang lost his son to the blight plague at the Wrathgate, and later had to defeat his son when he was risen by the Lich King

The following occurs:

Saurfang stays behind to face off against the Alliance as Sylvanas enters the main Lordaeron keep and throne room

Anduin tells Saurfang that he is honorable - Saurfang tells Anduin that Varian was honorable and died an honorable death (on the Broken Shore, a warrior’s death), but that Anduin does not know such honor and has not given anything for his people - Anduin retorts by saying Varian gave everything for the Alliance, and asks if Saurfang is willing to do the same for the Horde (”MY LIFE FOR THE HORDE!”)

Saurfang is defeated - Saurfang demands and honorable death but Anduin says that Saurfang is to be spared - Saurfang is taken prisoner by the Alliance, but Anduin demands Saurfang be treated with the respect he is deserved, and that him and Saurfang will speak about “honor”, and perhaps how to reclaim it, later - Saurfang mumbles his doubt that Anduin will return alive from facing Sylvanas

The scenario ends for both Horde and Alliance here, as the final cut scene to close the event is not yet complete

[jakkosisle]

The Battle For Lordaeron:  Part V - Momentum

By the time Jakko and Spritzie made it to the Southern Courtyard, there were plenty of Horde, but no Alliance.  Jakko tapped a random dreadguard on the shoulder.  “Yo - where’s the Alliance?” he asked.

“They haven’t reached us yet.” the dreadguard replied.  “Last I heard, Windseeker Durja and his forces managed to intercept them.  They’re buying us time to prepare.

Jakko nodded and jogged over to where Spritzie was - chatting up with Soozee as the latter powered up her void-buster mech.

“There you are.” Spritzie said as she twirled her rifle.  “You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Jakko said as he withdrew his swords.  He spied Johriah riding up and down the line atop his deathcharger, addressing his troops.

“Stand ready!  The Alliance will be here any minute now!” he shouted.

It was then that a pair of large bats flew towards Johriah on the battle lines, morphing back into troll druids.  “Da Alliance be comin’!” one of them shouted.

“Where’s Durja?” Johriah asked.

“Dead.  His entire force got wiped out.” the druid said.  “We da only ones who got away.”

“He held ‘em back as long as he could.” the other druid said.  “But…Lady Proudmoore is wit’ dem!  She be powerful and she be pissed and she be comin’ our way!” the other druid panicked.  The death knight slapped him with the flat of his sword.

“Get a hold of yourself, man!” Johriah barked.  He turned to the rest of his platoon.  “Do not lose heart!  We still have the advantage here!  This is where we shall stand our ground!  For the Horde!”

“FOR THE HORDE!” the crowd echoed.

The Horde army waited nervously for the Alliance to arrive, checking and rechecking their weapons.  Then, the Alliance poured into the courtyard, charging into the Horde lines.  The Horde charged right back.  The two armies clashed hard in the middle of the courtyard.

Spritzie was in the thick of it, cutting down Alliance troops with her shotgun, howling in fury.  Her riverbeast, Bruce, was impaled by Alliance pikes - a death that did not go unavenged.  She spared the animal’s body a brief glance before whirling around on the Alliance and firing more.  Sorry, Bruce, but I don’t have time to grieve you.  Right now, mama’s got a battle to win…

Elsewhere along the front, Soozee laughed maniacally as her void buster decimated the Alliance soldiers.  Humans and dwarves fled before her as the mech hounded them with bullets and void bolts.  Soozee paused in her megalomania to check her mech’s readings - the Void Buster had never been pushed this far before, so she worried it might overload.  But according to the readings, everything was operating within acceptable parameters.  Satisfied that there was no immediate danger of that, she resumed her maniacal cackling.

As Jakko disemboweled a particularly unlucky kaldorei ranger, he paused and looked around, taking stock of the battle.  He could see massive explosions of fire and ice on the other side of the courtyard - Jaina Proudmoore, no doubt.  Jakko had no intention of getting that close to the legendary mage - she was someone else’s problem as far as he was concerned.  Despite Proudmoore’s presence, the Horde was holding the line surprisingly well.  Maybe this battle could still be won, but Jakko remembered what happened last time he got his hopes up.  He was still ready to grab his sisters and make a break for it the moment things go tits up.

And it seemed that moment was upon them, as a large, dark portal suddenly appeared on the Alliance’s side of the battle, elves leaping out and joining the fray, along with several gnomish war machines.  “Oh fuck, are those what I think they are…?” he muttered to himself.  And sure enough, the way they ‘glowed’ black, as oxymoronic as that sounds, made it impossible to mistake the newcomers for anything else.

“Void elves…” Soozee growled as her mech stomped up to Jakko’s side, confirming the druid’s fear.  Her machine’s wrists twirled and its claws flexed, ready to grab something.  “The Alliance must be getting desperate if they’re calling in THEM.  Damn the High King, he doesn’t realize he’s playing with fire!”

This was bad - between the gnomish ordinance and the void elves’ unnatural powers, the Horde forces were getting torn to shreds.  If somebody didn’t do something about them and soon, it wouldn’t be long before the Alliance breaks through the defenses and wins.

Jakko had to do something.

“Keep those void suckers away from Spritzie!  I got an idea!” Jakko said as he morphed into a bat and flew off.

“Roger that!” Soozee said as her void-buster’s engines revved up.  She’d been meaning to study the ren’dorei for months now, and this was the perfect opportunity to ‘collect some samples.’

“Peekaboo!” Tendalel shouted as he appeared behind a tauren that Marbelma had been locked in melee with, thrusting both daggers into the massive creature’s spine before it fell over like a great felled tree.  “Hey kid - miss me?”

“Tendalel?” Marbelma asked.  “What are you doin’ here?  I thought SI:7 was done with this battle.”

“SI:7 was, but not the ren’dorei.” Ten answered.  “After you guys started assaulting the main gate, Alleria herself rallied the void elves together to form a cavalry force, should things go tits up.”  He then looked around the courtyard.  “Which evidently, they have.”

Indeed, even with Proudmoore by their side, the Horde wasn’t budging an inch.  The Alliance was beginning to run out of steam and the attack would’ve failed.  But with the timely arrival of the ren’dorei, the Alliance forces had been granted a second wind.  They’ll yet win this fight!

It was then that Tendalel noticed a large, modified goblin shredder charing into the ren’dorei forces, trying to grab someone in its claws.  He patted the young dwarf on the head.  “Keep your head down, kid.” he said as he disappeared into shadow - he’d always had a talent for stealth as a blood elf, but the talent was taken to new heights by his recently-granted powers over darkness.

He leapt onto the mech’s back and ripped off a panel, looking inside at all the internal circuitry.  “Okay, uh…..This looks important!” he said as he grabbed a red wire and ripped it out.  The mech didn’t cease its assault, but the canopy DID open to reveal its goblin pilot.  Awesome, now he just needed to climb inside, kill the pilot, and presto - no more mech.  He climbed up the mech’s back…

Only to get hit by a void bolt its pilot had somehow conjured.  The force of the impact knocked him off the mech and tumbling across the ground, but the rogue was quick to recover.  The goblin turned her mech around to stare him down.

“You, my friend, have just volunteered to be my new test subject!” the pilot shouted.  Tendalel didn’t know what that meant, but it probably wasn’t anything good.  This was confirmed by the machine gun on the mech’s wrist unloading on him - he ripped open a spatial rift to get out of the way and into cover behind a fallen pillar.

“You think your void powers will save you?!” the goblin shrieked.  “Well, you void elves aren’t the only ones with power over the Void!” she fired a round of missiles at the pillar, obliterating it.  Ten leapt just before the missiles detonated, but he felt the blast area tinged with an energy that he was, by now, intimately familiar with.

“Were those VOID missiles?” he shouted back.

“Yes!” the goblin replied.

“I didn’t even know you could MAKE missiles with Void!” Tendalel shouted.

“Of course you don’t!” the goblin replied.  “I’ve been studying the Void for YEARS!  I had to WORK for my power over it, while you were just HANDED your power on a SILVER PLATTER!”

“I sense a bit of jealousy.” Tendalel said.

“You void elves are like children with guns!” Soozee replied.  “You’ve no true RESPECT for the Void’s powers!”

“I respect it enough to know how to do this.” Ten quipped before disappearing into another spatial rift.

“Hey!  Stop doing that!” the goblin demanded.

While Soozee was keeping the void elves busy, Jakko flew up to the bastion where Stoneheart landed.  The hippogryph was still there, and even still had those five bombs attached!  Perfect!  He morphed back into his troll form and mounted the beast and snapped the reigns.  The feathermane cried before hopping off his perch and flying back to the courtyard.

Jakko flew over a crowd of void elves firing void bolts at the Horde forces where he dropped one of the bombs.  The bomb detonated in a shower of fire, shrapnel, and bits of purple goo that used to be ren’dorei.  The druid cheered.  “Take that, shadow-suckers!”

Satisfied with having taken a good chunk out of the ren’dorei’s numbers, Jakko flew over to rest of the Alliance front, dropping another bomb, this time on the regular Alliance infantry that were coming in Spritzie’s direction.  Another detonation and bits of armor and gore erupted into the air.  “Spritzie!  Get outta there!” Jakko shouted.

“No!” Spritzie shouted back.  “If I run now, they all died for nothing!  I’m seeing this through to the end!”

The ground shook with the force of the explosions that killed the ren’dorei and Stormwind footmen.  “Up there!” someone shouted, pointing to a hippogryph up above them.  It dropped a third bomb on top of a dwarven steam tank, destroying it.  “Is that friendly fire from one of the Teldrassil riders?”

“That’s no night elf…” Marbelma growled.  It was that troll that escaped her during the bombing run.  The one that killed Cinderwing.  Seems like he decided to finish what he started.  She looked around, looking for an elevated position - she spotted a wall that was partially collapsed.  Perfect!

She ran for the collapsed wall and started hopping up.  One wouldn’t think of dwarves as being particularly agile climbers, but one doesn’t survive long in the mountains without being sure-footed.  The dwarf hopped, skipped, and jumped her way up the pile of rubble onto the battlements, where a squadron of undead archers were giving the Horde covering fire.

Marbelma swung her hammer in a wide, horizontal arc, blasting a wave of fiery light at the archers, reducing them to ash before they even realized she was there.  She stood on top of the bastions and watched the hippogryph.  “Come on…come on…” she muttered as she conjured a hammer of light in her hand.

…Now!

She tossed the hammer at the hippogryph.

Jakko’s little bombing campaign was going well enough.  He only had two bombs left though, so he had to choose his targets-

CLANG!

A glowing hammer flew out of nowhere and struck Stoneheart right on the head.  The unconscious hippogryph began falling like a brick, towards one of the walls that separated the southern courtyard from the rest of the city.  The hippogryph landed on the wall with a crash, skidding across the floor until finally slowing to a stop halfway along the wall.

Jakko growled out a few choice curses in goblin.  He took he landing hard and nearly everything hurt.  He rolled sat up and rolled his shoulders trying to soothe his aching muscles.  He checked on his hippogryph.  “Stoneheart?” he asked.  “You okay?”

He wasn’t okay.

Stoneheart’s beak hung open while his eyes fogged.  He checked his neck for a pulse, only to find the neck was broken.  The flying hammer didn’t knock him out.  It killed him.  It killed a noble beast that had been serving him since the Cataclysm.

“Sorry, buddy.” he said as he closed the beast’s eyes.

Piksap.  Marbelma heard that word before.  The first time she heard this troll said it, she thought it couldn’t possibly be him.  But after hearing it again, clearer this time without the din of battle to drown it out, it was unmistakable.

For the first time in years, her blood ran cold.

The troll stood up and looked over his shoulder, staring down the dwarf paladin, who now had her hammer out.  “…Okay.” the troll said in decent common  In a goblin accent, no less.  No doubts now, he was definitely the one.  “I get it.  I kill your hippogryph, you kill mine.  So, we even?”

“Not even close!” Marbelma shouted.  “Ten years ago, you ruined my life!  And now, as a reward for my faithful service to honor and duty, the Light has blessed me with this - my chance for revenge.”

“…The fuck are you talking about?” the troll asked.

Marbelma forcefully removed her helmet and tossed it aside, staring down the troll with a hate-filled glare.

As soon as the dwarf removed her helmet and revealed her face, his mind suddenly flooded with memories.  Memories of a far more evil life.

It was back when he was a rogue, long before he heard Shirvallah’s call.  He’d been hired to assassinate a captain of the Ironforge Mountaineers.  He infiltrated his cabin in Dun Morogh and killed him.  Two more dwarves bore witness though, so Jakko had to kill them too.

…And there was one more dwarf.  A girl.  Couldn’t have been older than twelve years old.  Scared out of her mind, seeing the big scary troll standing over the corpses of her family.  Paladin came in out of fucking nowhere, and Jakko bailed.  It was one of his messier jobs.

…It was her.  That same girl.  Ten years older and clad in armor, but there she was.

“Just my luck.” Jakko commented aloud.  He pulled down his hood and face mask, figuring that he should return the dwarf’s courtesy and reveal his own face.  “I always figured one of my previous mistakes would come back to bite my ass one day.  Gotta admit though, this isn’t quite how I pictured it.”

“Funny, because it’s exactly how I pictured it.” the dwarf replied.  “You and I, meeting on the field of battle where you and your damned Horde finally meet your end by MY hands…”

“…Have you been practicing that speech in front of a mirror?” Jakko asked as he pulled out his swords.

“I’ve been practicin’ it for ten damn years…” the dwarf snarled before charging.

[theworldofanimals]

Kenya & Tanzania - 2018

When I was a kid, my grandpa decided to take my Dad’s side of 16 to Kenya and Tanzania. We travelled through the East coast of Africa for 21 days. As an avid animal lover growing up, I was quite ecstatic for my first safari and trip to Africa. My expectations were set low as guides and friends kept telling us, you have to go in with low expectations as some people make this trip and see nothing. Luckily, that was not the case for us. On our excursions through the Maasai Mara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro crater, we were able to see the Big Five and about every other animal you could see. Of the many unique encounters, these are some of the ones that stick out. A jaw-dropping scene to witness was a pride of twelve lions, resting under the shade of an acacia tree after their hunt. We also got to see two alpha male lions resting in the plains of the Serengeti.

Another rare sight I was fortunate to experience was walking up to some of the only white rhinos in the world. While we were driving through Kenya, we came across the ranger car guarding the two white rhinos. As a critically endangered species, the rhinos are watched 24 hours by 4-10 guards armed with AK-47s. We were able to pay the rangers and they walked us from our vehicles to the middle of the plains where the rhinos were peacefully grazing. I hold this dear to me as the rhinos we saw have unfortunately passed away.

Another serene experience was driving behind a herd of giraffes as they ran for shelter during a lightning storm. The same storm stranded us in the Maasai Mara for five hours till around 10 pm as the bridge out of the reserve flooded from the heavy rainfall. We eventually had to walk through the jungle, back to our camping site in the dark, leaving the vehicles behind. That was a frightening experience, as you never know what could be slithering around you or lurking in the bushes.

Another highlight of the trip was these baby elephants that were learning how to use their trunks. We watched for about 30 minutes as the calf was twirling, waving, and playing with its trunk.

Another cool sight was seeing two cheetah brothers decimate an antelope they just killed. I did not include the video as it is quite gory, but the cheetahs are pictured as they sit post-meal in the Serengeti. It is absurd to think these beasts are less than ten feet away, and I am just a sitting duck in a jeep with a lot of wide entry points. Despite this, the animals stay unbothered. We ended off our trip at a restaurant called “Carnivore” in Nairobi. My mother, being born in Kenya, told us many stories of this place as they once sold all kinds of meat like lion, giraffe, zebra, etc. They still operate but due to laws only sell things like zebra, ostrich, crocodile, ox balls, and your usual meats. I thought I was adventurous and decided to try everything they brought to the table... unsurprisingly, this ended poorly as I had terrible food poisoning the next day, perfect time for the flight back home.

[stargazer1682]

Star Trek Picard - Season 1

Where to start?

Re-watching the DS9 episode, “Past Tense” recently, a line from Bashir really stood out, which personified everything wrong with Star Trek Picard - “But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Are humans really any different than Cardassians or Romulans? If push comes to shove, if something disastrous happens to the Federation, if we are frightened enough, or desperate enough, how would we react? Would we stay true to our ideals or would we just stay up here, right back where we started?" According to STP, the answer is apparently, no, we don’t stay true to our ideals; and we do go right back to where we started, or pretty damn near close.

There are just so many logical inconsistencies. I mean, Christ - just, everything about Raffi, from her ambiguous chemical dependency, her resentment about her living conditions versus Picard’s, when such things are no longer supposed to exist in Star Trek; or at least not in the Federation and most definitely not on Earth.

The unwillingness of the Federation to help Romulus when their sun was going to go nova. I mean, this is the Federation, for crying out loud; yes, the Romulans had been cold war style adversaries of theirs for centuries, but humanity and the Federation are supposed to have been above such pettiness when it came to actual, desperate need for help. Plus, they had managed to find themselves allies against the Dominion; which would surely count for something.

Of course, one of the chief excuses for the Federation not to help Romulus, was the so-called synth attack on Mars - which turned out to be orchestrated by the Romulans; because when your homeworld is in danger of being destroyed, risking a massive death count of your own people, why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to screw with the people who are in the best position to save your sorry asses?

And why did the Romulans do it? Because of some stupid ass cult/shadow organization within their shadow organization that are afraid of artificial lifeforms, because of some psychic acid trip bullshit they all share. So they need to ensure the Federation bans synthetic life and concocts the most asinine plot to engineer this; and to add insult to injury, it works! The Federation falls for it!

I mean, honestly, the synths were decidedly not sentient; yet there’s not the slightest doubt that they appear to act on their own, which again, they’re not supposed to be able to do, but they do and not only that, they inexplicably and out of the blue frag an entire planet, killing themselves in the process and all for no apparent reason; and the Federation assigns blame to all forms of artificial life and bans them from the Federation? Bullshit. Seriously, how many Vulcans must have died from brain aneurysms trying to wrap their heads around that kind of logic?

Never mind some of the inconsistencies that crop up later; like Rios’ holograms (are those permitted with the Synth ban?), or the bullshit that Riker and Troi’s son couldn’t be cured, because the only cure had to be cultivated in a positronic brain; you know, the thing that successfully existed in only three androids, and they couldn’t possibly go anywhere else or develop the same cure some other way. Nope, this is the darkest fucking timeline, which means all of the characters we love now live shitty, depressing lives.

Speaking of which, 7 of 9 appears; having left behind all of her friends and the promising life suggested by the end of Voyager, because the writers felt the need to torture-murder Icheb, so that 7 could run off and join the fucking Power Rangers, or whatever they’re called.

Then there’s the main plot of the first season, meandering as it is. So Bruce Maddox managed to replicate Data’s programming by using a single positron from Data, which somehow contains everything that made Data, Data? What?? How is that supposed to make any sense? Seeing as he apparently got that positron from B4, why not just say he reversed engineered the programming Data tried uploading to him? And they always come in pairs. WHY?? So the plot can happen, and so one of them can die; and Jean Luc Quixote can put a crew together and go chasing windmills, or rather, borg cubes. But it can’t be the crew he used to have, because why enlist your friends who have the proper resources to help you; when you can contact the burnout who hates you for somehow ruining her career by sticking to your convictions and retiring; and then spend five or six episodes out of a ten episode season just putting the rest of your crew together….

So then we find out the Romulans have in their possession a decommissioned borg cube, because again, the Federation are complete fucking morons now and in addition to their xenophobic policies and stupid laws regarding AI, they’re fine with Romulans having a borg cube… because, reasons…. Why the Romulans, who are supposedly so afraid of artificial intelligence, even want the cube or what they’re getting out it completely escapes me. We also find out the Borg now have space folding technology that makes their ships redundant and should pose the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known, but whatevs…

And now we’re on the planet of the androids, with a large number of Data’s offspring, essentially; and another flippin’ Soong who looks exactly like Arik; making at least two generations of his descendants, and probably more, who apparently got nothing from their mothers - but that’s okay, because my personal theory is that Arik, brilliant geneticist that he was, just cloned himself to perpetuate his work, rather than have kids the conventional way…. But more importantly, it turns out that some aspect of Data is still alive, on a floppy disk or something, chilling in his own personal limbo. Did Maddox’s work bring Data back to life, or would Data have been stuck in this virtual realm within B4 indefinitely? And why, out of all the other new androids that were built, let alone the planned “golem” Maddox was creating to put his own mind inside, did they never give Data a new body? Sure, Brent Spiner is older and looks relatively different from when he originally played Data, but they’ve now established that this new batch of androids can age and are somehow “organic artificial life” - which, in its own right, is the dumbest fraking thing they could have come up with. So why not put Data in an older body, and have him greet his old Captain, instead of introducing yet another carbon copy Soong? It would have been everything Data every wanted, making him as close to being human as possible, but instead, he just wants to be turned off and die… again…

But I get ahead of myself, because they have to have the big climax, where the Romulans that have been chasing Picard and Data’s daughter halfway across the galaxy to find the android homeworld, finally find them! But wait, are the Romulans a decimated, nomadic people; or are they still a strong empire, with a huge fleet of ships? Doesn’t matter. The Romulans must destroy the androids, because of that acid nightmare they all had, about how artificial life will destroy everything. Agnes knows, she’s seen it and it scared the shit out of her too; so much so that she killed her dad, Bruce. Wait. What? She wasn’t his daughter? They were boning? Well, bully for him, I guess, but still, it drove sweet… bland… cardboard cutout Agnes to be a cold blooded murderer; which means she’ll eventually go to jail soon, so it has to be pretty serious. It’s not like they’re just going to ignore that she killed a dude, and move on like it never happened, right?

Data’s children want to know about this vision, and one of them has…. (sigh)… “practiced the Vulcan mind meld”…… (Sigh) Just… seriously, fuck these writers…… So the android leader sees the visions and sees the dimension inhabited by… I don’t know, Doc Ock? And they understand, it wasn’t a vision warning organics about synths, it was a warning to synths about organics. So to prove to organics they aren’t the threat they fear them to be, they are going to become the threat the organics fear them to be; and Picard and his “crew” are under arrest. But of course, they get free, because Agnes sucks and has loyalties to no one and lies with ease, despite her otherwise innocent demeanor. And blah, blah, blah, the synths and organics decide a stalemate is preferable to the machine tentacles that are coming out of the rift in space. Riker has somehow taken command of a ship and gets to the android planet just a few hours behind Picard, and then promptly leaves after going through all that trouble, rather than staying long enough to make sure the Romulans don’t come back; or at the very least, check out this new civilization populated with the “descendants” of a close, late friend….

And now Coulson is alive again as an advanced LMD… I mean, Picard… is an android… but you know, with none of the advantages of being an android….. Because if you’re going to be an android, you might as well be an android who looks, feels, sounds and has all of the same physical limitations of a 90 year old human male… Is Synth-Picard going to have to get up five times in the middle of the night to pee? And the synth ban is conveniently lifted, offscreen, with barely any effort, like it was really no big deal….

But none of it really matters, because let’s face it, the whole thing was a hallucination caused by Picard’s Irumodic Syndrome.

[ezatluba]

George Wittemyer 

COVID-19 is one of countless emerging infectious diseases that are zoonotic, meaning they originate in animals. About 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, accounting for billions of illnesses and millions of deaths annually across the globe.

When these diseases spill over to humans, the cause frequently is human behaviors, including habitat destruction and the multibillion-dollar international wildlife trade – the latter being the suspected source of the novel coronavirus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to impose severe restrictions, such as social distancing, that will have massive economic costs. But there has been less discussion about identifying and changing behaviors that contribute to the emergence of zoonotic diseases. As a conservation biologist, I believe this outbreak demonstrates the urgent need to end the global wildlife trade.

Markets for disease

As many Americans now know, the COVID-19 coronavirus is one of a family of coronaviruses commonly found in bats. It is suspected to have passed through a mammal, perhaps pangolins– the most-trafficked animal on the planet – before jumping to humans.

The virus’s spillover to humans is believed to have occurred in a so-called wet market in China. At these markets, live, wild-caught animals, farm-raised wild species and livestock frequently intermingle in conditions that are unsanitary and highly stressful for the animals. These circumstances are ripe for infection and spillover.

The current outbreak is just the latest example of viruses jumping from animals to humans. HIV is perhaps the most infamous example: It originated from chimps in central Africaand still kills hundreds of thousands of people annually. It likely jumped to humans through consumption of bushmeat, or meat from wildlife, which is also the likely origin of several Ebola oubreaks. PREDICT, a U.S.-funded nonprofit, suggests there are thousands of viral species circulating in birds and mammals that pose a direct risk to humans.

Decimating wildlife and humans

Trade in wildlife has decimated populations and species for millennia and is one of the five key drivers of wildlife declines. People hunt and deal in animals and animal parts for food, medicine and other uses. This commerce has an estimated value of US$18 billion annually just in China, which is believed to be the largest market globally for such products.

My own work focuses on African and Asian elephants, which are severely threatened by the wildlife trade. Demand for elephant ivory has caused the deaths of more than 100,000 elephants in the last 15 years.

Conservationists have been working for years to end the wildlife trade or enforce strict regulations to ensure that it is conducted in ways that do not threaten species’ survival. Initially, the focus was on stemming the decline of threatened species. But today it is evident that this trade also harms humans.

For example, conservation organizations estimate that more than 100 rangers are killed protecting wildlife every year, often by poachers and armed militias targeting high-value species such as rhinos and elephants. Violence associated with the wildlife trade affects local communities, which typically are poor and rural.

The wildlife trade’s disease implications have received less popular attention over the past decade. This may be because bushmeat trade and consumption targets less-charismatic species, provides a key protein source in some communities and is a driver of economic activity in some remote rural areas.

Will China follow through?

In China, wild animal sales and consumption are deeply embedded culturally and represent an influential economic sector. Chinese authorities see them as a key revenue generator for impoverished rural communities, and have promoted national policies that encourage the trade despite its risks.

In 2002-2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS – a disease caused by a zoonotic coronavirus transmitted through live wildlife markets – emerged in China and spread to 26 countries. Then as now, bats were a likely source.

In response, the Chinese government enacted strict regulations designed to end wildlife trade and its associated risks. But policies later were weakened under cultural and economic pressure.

Now repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic are driving faster, stronger reforms. China has announced a temporary ban on all wildlife trade and a permanent ban on wildlife trade for food. Vietnam’s prime minister has proposed a similar ban, and other neighboring countries are under pressure to follow this lead.

Conservation scientists are hearing rumors that wildlife markets on China’s borders – which often sell endangered species whose sale is banned within China – are collapsing as the spread of coronavirus cuts into tourism and related commerce. Similarly, there are reports that in Africa, trade in pangolin and other wildlife products is shrinking in response to coronavirus fears.

However, I worry that these changes won’t last. The Chinese government has already stated that its initial bans on medicinal wildlife products and wildlife products for non-consumption are temporary and will be relaxed in the future.

This is not sufficient. In my view, terminating the damaging and dangerous trade in wildlife will require concerted global pressure on the governments that allow it, plus internal campaigns to help end the demand that drives such trade. Without cultural change, the likely outcomes will be relaxed bans or an expansion of illegal wildlife trafficking.

Africa has borne the greatest costs from the illegal wildlife trade, which has ravaged its natural resources and fueled insecurity. A pandemic-driven global recession and cessation of tourism will drastically reduce income in wildlife-related industries. Poaching will likely increase, potentially for international trade, but also for local bushmeat markets. And falling tourism revenues will undercut local support for protecting wild animals.

On top of this, if COVID-19 spreads across the continent, Africa could also suffer major losses of human life from a pandemic that could have started in an illegally traded African pangolin.

Like other disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to implement solutions that will ultimately benefit humans and the planet. I hope one result is that nations join together to end the costly trade and consumption of wildlife.