ross-hollander

[ross-hollander]

I understand the intent of the writing, but I'm choosing to interpret this as Mortarion perceiving like three dozen potential genders specific to Barbaran culture

[ross-hollander]

A small selection...

...of perhaps the least useful Daemon Princes in all the vast armies of the Chaos Gods.

In the court of the Plague Father there is a Daemon named Sluggyrd, although it never said so, it just kind of gets called that. So potent is its virulence, so cataclysmic its rot, that it is capable of decomposing beings even of the Warp. This would be immensely powerful if Sluggyrd were immune to its own aura of decay. As such, its form is a putrid and thick pool of liquefied flesh-rot, and the thing spends most of its time moving around in a creeping, slime-mold-like movement to avoid being bottled for use as weaponry by the plaguesmiths of Papa Nurgle.

In the endless harems of the Dark Prince, there is a Daemon with no name, but which is called Irpid the Deluded. Irpid perfected Slaanesh's art of narcissism to a level previously believed impossible, actually attaining a height of arrogance such that it believes a) it is Slaanesh and b) it is the entirety of the universe. As helpful as this is to serve as a role-model for freshly-spawned Daemonettes who need an example of true arrogance, Irpid has been locked in an immobile trance of blissful self-obsession for the last million years.

In the blood-soaked barracks of the Blood God lives the Daemon Kara'a'ak, who considers itself patron Daemon of Broken Swords. If a skilled warrior ever foreswore violence, Kara'a'ak's sacred task was to hunt them down and slay them for abandoning the path of the sword. Unfortunately, the last time this event happened was several thousand years ago, and thus Kara'a'ak sits around sharpening its hellblade most of the time, to the point that the blade itself is little more than a skewer.

In the infinite halls and twisting mazes of the Changer of Ways dwells the Daemon Zeknak, whose is called the Incarnate of Deception. Zeknak also doesn't dwell there, actually, because Zeknak is an invention of Tzeentch to create a daemon made of pure falsehood; as such, while capable of anything it could boast of, Zeknak would never accomplish anything, because anything it did would by its very nature have been a complete fiction. (It does make a perfect pair with Kankez, a daemon made out of captured and refined truth, for guarding two doorways in one of Tzeentch's infinite halls.)

[ross-hollander]

May everyone find their personal pink cake.

Your daily creative pep-talk

I PROMISE you, someone out there wants to see what you made.

I know it feels like no one does. That feeling is a lie.

Keep creating. You’ll find your people if you keep looking. Just don’t stop making new things.

Comic from here @ross-hollander

➤ Chat with me on Discord ♥ Support me on Patreon ⭆ Check out my books

[ross-hollander]

Wait a moment, is the Fire Moth not the 'mech infamous for being a horribly bumpy ride for Elementals, or was that bug fixed when they removed the transport pods?

POV: You are a Fire Moth pilot.

[ross-hollander]

Exactly, and probably better for quickly blacking out a canopy than a plain spray can. Did not even know that was a registered thing before now, but it goes to show: all the truly great ideas are never thought of just the once.

What I think...

...that Elementals need, could be in addition to their normal gear, would not even weigh that much, is spray paint. I mean, is there a 'mech out there that has a defense against:

Just hop on board with the jump jets and tssst. What are they going to do, open up their cockpit to see? Get out and wipe it off?

[ross-hollander]

What I think...

...that Elementals need, could be in addition to their normal gear, would not even weigh that much, is spray paint. I mean, is there a 'mech out there that has a defense against:

Just hop on board with the jump jets and tssst. What are they going to do, open up their cockpit to see? Get out and wipe it off?

[ross-hollander]

Just think about it. The design will stop enemy pilots cold for a solid two seconds trying to understand who on Earth or otherwise would design that thing. Two seconds is eternity in a firefight. Works the same as dazzle camo.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall for whatever board room meeting had to sell this shit to the Clan Jade Falcon touman.

[ross-hollander]

Plot twist:

Battletech is a time loop.

Alaric's Star League will, indeed, unify the Sphere. There will be the years of relative comfort, punctuated by undercutting and rebellions among assorted Houses.

The Star League will corrode again, sliding downwards, tumbling down the long staircase of time and empire, and meeting at the bottom one more wraith of history with a gold-plated gun.

The Protector who wasn't there when they were needed most avenges the final heir; and then, disgraced of their station, they gather their forces and leave for deep space.

And lastly, putting the cycle in for another go-round, the Great Houses begin to fragment, as an obsessed Founder creates a new institution to preserve- not hoard, certainly not hoarding, just preserving -the sciences of the Sphere.

[ross-hollander]

They say it makes you hear the voice of Kerensky...and no, not as in the famous broadcast.

Is it true what they say about the zaza IIC?

Time senstivie question.

Those were not regular browneis.

Ah, I see someone found the Goliath Scorpion edibles recipe.

Have fun :)

[ross-hollander]

The inexperienced...

...'mech pilots, what they say is, you train hard enough, you can do anything. Enough hours in the simu-games or out in the field on training battles, they'll tell you, and you can simply be good enough that becoming a casualty will be something that happens to other people. They just need to know every situation, train for every crisis, memorize every potential battle plan.

The hardened pilots know better. They know how brittle the best-laid plans can be. They've seen a squadron of war machines turn into smoking wrecks in a moment with an unexpected barrage or a commando squad detonating a thicket of charges. They'll tell you that skill gives you, at best, a one percent chance, when the chips are truly down, of getting out alive.

The veterans, though, they know even better. They might have even witnessed it, what a pilot who is simply that good looks like. They can tell you what it's like to watch a mountain of metal turn on a dime, shoot down an incoming artillery barrage shell by shell like it's skeet-shooting, and then blitz an enemy 'mech squad without more than a scratch in the armor. There is such a thing as a true ace, and when they're on the battlefield, all you can do is hope that it's your side they're fighting for.

[ross-hollander]

The studio that manages Solaris Champion has been investigated by every Successor State and four different Clans' Watch organizations, as well as the Canopians and the Taurians, for the data leaks.

Most of these ended up with more data leaking as well-informed investigators who got hooked on the gameplay found themselves indignant that their favorite 'mech played nothing in-game like its real-life piloting, and slipping the studio documents on the down-low to get them to patch it up.

This has been on my mind: I know the Clans preserved old sporting traditions in the Homeworlds (the Ghost Bears with American football being the famous example, of course, but any team sport is good for teaching team coordination and upkeeping fitness)...were there any new sports invented during those years? Or did that not really rate as a priority for the Clans?

Among the Clans themselves, neg. Admittedly my lens of Clan culture was always through the warrior caste, but I do not recall seeing evidence of much sports innovation. That is not to say that we did not inherit some of the new sports that cropped up in the long time since the 20th century to now.

E-sports are popular among most castes, with Solaris Champion (aff, that one - the semi-simulationist combined arms game with the notorious history of classified document leaks) being the most popular among the warrior castes of the Spheroid Clans. The arguments...

Clan spacers have made the game of Yahn Sun something of a way of life.

And of course the Elemental caste's preferred rules for basketball are just slightly modified Skye rules.

[ross-hollander]

If you've only really got one trick, you've got to do it really well. (Please do not link that Black Pants song, I've heard it enough for a lifetime already.)

[ross-hollander]

can u put a watermark on ur cake post so I can share it with the homies w proper credit?

Of course, thank you for asking.

[ross-hollander]

The location:

A ComStar monastery, some time in the 3040s or so. It's late at night, the place is a dappled mixture of cool, wind-brushed darkness and pools of fluorescent lights where the moths and bugs of this world congregate in swarms. Hardly a sound except the ever-present whir of electronics and the footfalls of patrolling Com Guard.

All who have the privilege of sleeping now are taking full advantage of it- busy is the life for the scions of Blake -except for one. Alone in his monkish cell, Frederick Steiner continues the greatest work of his life, typing away fervently at the next chapter of his immortal magnum opus, featuring what he aims to make remembered as the greatest character ever put to the pages of fiction: Anastatius Focht and the Methods of Pragmatism.

[ross-hollander]

Also includes Foxify music library with a colossal two gigabytes of no-chip song storage!

[ross-hollander]

You gotta. You gotta tell them you like the cake.

[ross-hollander]

The shortest acceptable form of Settra's titles.