#Satellite Syndicate

[dcdreamblog]

The recent question about the Justice League Detroit era sparked a memory and sent me back to my scrapbooks. What many of your readers might not know is that the local kids who signed up with the League weren't the first superheroes from Detroit. Some years before, there'd been a fellow named the Crusader who was trying to be to his city as Batman to Gotham.

He was controversial at the time, with some saying his methods were too violent, while others claimed "the nights were brighter then." Sadly. he tragically died in a fall while in costume.

Any thoughts on short-career superheroes of note?

(OOC: Aquaman #56 (1971); no one brings up Aquaman's earlier visit to Detroit during the JL's stay there. Watsonian: Everyone was being diplomatic about what would be a sore spot. Doylist: The writers of JL didn't remember that earlier story. Heck, I only remembered it because I still had my copy.)

Gotta be honest, folks, I had to LOOK INTO this one. I had never heard of the Crusader before. At least not that one. The name Crusader has been used by at least 4 different people at different points in time. Anyway. I WAS able to dig up a news image of him.

(Taken from the Detroit Free Press)

From what I can tell he was NOT well liked in the general superhero community. A bid for Justice League membership was formally rejected on the grounds of his violent and single minded methods. He was putting people in the hospital with SERIOUS injuries for really minor crimes especially when he seemed to get his heart set on a car theft ring that had been targeting the city's poorer neighborhoods. Generally you don't send people to the ICU for carjacking.

Honestly I have to agree, the news reports I read speak of a man who was more focused on meting out violence than he was in protecting the innocent, a sentiment shared by Aquaman who became embroiled in the man's actions near the end of his life. Eventually having something to do with launching a mysterious satellite into orbit in a geosynchronous orbit over Chicago that had near disastrous effects on the local living standards and ecosystem.

As for the broader question of "short career superheroes" well, all superheroes save lives by nature of doing what they do. Whether they have decades of experience beneath their belts or not. It doesn't really matter how many bona fides your hero has when he's diving out of the night save your from a mugging or a house fire.

Some heroes hang up their masks because their vigilantism was inspired by a specific animating principle. Perhaps a local crime syndicate or evidence of government corruption that, once uncovered and laid to rest also lays to rest their reasons for crime fighting.

Some heroes unfortunately die young in the profession and are remembered with the bitter question of who they might have become if not called before their time to commit the ultimate sacrifice. The example that comes to mind here is the 4th Starman who is still deeply mourned in his native Arizona after laying down his life to help defeat the malicious Eclipso.

Every hero does what they do for their own reasons, reasons many of us would never be able to imagine. Whether their careers are short because they accomplished their goal and have hung up their capes to ride off into the sunset. Or because they were called to the next great adventure before their time it makes no real difference, they were here, they saved lives and we should always be a little thankful for it.

[tacticalhimbo]

" 47, you'll need to eliminate Crest and destroy that control unit—or lock the militia out. The satellite cannot fall into their hands. We'll need a cover story for ICA. Luckily, Akka—the rapacious leader of the syndicate—already has an active ICA contract on her head. Take her out… and we'll even get our expenses paid. "

" Well, I never had you pegged as a rebel. "

" I'm warming to it. "

" … Thank you both. "

[hullygeee]

Thanks for tagging me, @angel-with-an-assbutt22!!

music shuffle game!

Rules: shuffle your ‘on repeat’ playlist and post the first 10 songs, then tag mutuals to do the same. (Actually my YouTube Music "replay" playlist but whatever, same thing) 1. "Steal My Sunshine" - Len 2. "A Praise Chorus" - Jimmy Eat World 3. "Just" - Radiohead 4. "I'm a Teenage Edgelord" - Cheekface 5. "CATFISH" - Doechii 6. "Satellites" - Sugar Ray 7. "Growth Sux" - Cheekface 8. "I Love You, I'm Sorry" - Gracie Abrahms 9. "3AM" - Matchbox Twenty 10. "St. Ides Heaven" - Elliott Smith No pressure whatsoever tags (especially since I have no memory of who's done this already, oops): @annetastic1981a, @idiotic-syndic, @benjineedssleep, @glazedsnail, and @softwarecorruption-exe

[girlactionfigure]

An Excess of Democracy

The State of Israel is more endangered today than at any time since 1948, including 1973. She is tied down in Gaza while her enemies wait their turn in Lebanon, Syria, the PA, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran ��� which may already have nuclear weapons. An unprecedented campaign of antisemitic incitement is destroying popular support for her throughout the world, and government after government is punishing her by recognizing the “State of Palestine” on her territory. The more genocidal her enemies, the more she is falsely accused of genocide. Her decision to position herself as a satellite of the US has borne bitter fruit, as that country’s policies are increasingly decided by elements that want to see Israel disappear; at the same time, the enemies of the US treat her as an outpost of US power that must be eliminated.

Israel’s political, intelligence, and military elites have shown themselves incompetent. They failed to foresee, prevent, or even effectively react to the invasion of 7 October. They have turned the military successes of the war into what appears to be a surrender to all of Hamas’ demands.

Over the years they have projected an image of Israel as a punching bag rather than the proud and powerful nation that she is. Despite our nuclear-armed military, they have allowed Iran to encircle us with terrorist proxies and even to establish a deterrent force in Lebanon that we fear to challenge. They have allowed Iran itself to obtain nuclear weapons.

On 13 April 2024, Iran launched an attack against Israel that included hundreds of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, the largest such attack in military history. All but a few were intercepted by Israel with some help from the US and others; the cost of this defensive operation to Israel was estimated at more than $1 billion. Had the attack succeeded, there would have been great damage to military and infrastructure targets, as well as loss of life. Israel retaliated a few days later by destroying some radar installations in Iran. The weakness of Israel’s response was a result of US pressure and the deterrent effect of Iran’s Hezbollah proxy.

At home, our leaders have allowed the PA to systematically gobble up parts of Area C in Judea/Samaria that are supposed to be under full Israeli control by international treaty. They have allowed, and then legitimized, illegal Bedouin settlement in the Negev. They have allowed the flourishing of Arab crime syndicates in the Negev and Galilee, and in the Arab towns and mixed Arab-Jewish cities.

Tens of thousands of Israeli citizens have fled from their homes: in the south from fear of resurgent Hamas terrorism, and in the north from daily bombardment by Hezbollah with rockets and anti-tank weapons, which have laid waste to cities and towns in the area. As I write this, large fires started by Hezbollah rockets are burning in northern cities.

Our governments are ineffectual, paralyzed by arguments over issues like the judicial reform and the Haredi draft, beset by powerful lobbies and popular groups that are manipulated by political actors. The two largest minority populations, Israeli Arabs and Haredim, maintain autonomous “states” within our state, where the laws and informal understandings that govern the rest of the population don’t necessarily apply.

Many Israeli Arabs, with the notable exception of the Druze and a small number of Bedouins, do not accept the principle that Israel is a Jewish state, do not serve in the military, and in many cases avoid taxation and other responsibilities. Haredim refuse to serve in the military and maintain an educational system in which “secular” subjects like mathematics and modern Hebrew language are not taught.

Because of the war, reserve soldiers are now to serve 90 days a year, which is destructive to family life, jobs, and especially independent businesses. At the same time, tens of thousands of yeshiva students have been exempted from the draft. Attempts to change this have been met by demonstrations which block major roads, and threats by Haredi politicians to bring down the government. Israeli governments have been trying to find a successful compromise to enable the sharing of the security burden for decades without success.

***

What can be done? What must be done to preserve the Jewish state, prevent another Jewish dispersion, and restore Israel’s role as the protector of the Jewish communities of the diaspora? As always, there are short-term and long-term answers. Today our most critical concern must be the war in Gaza. As long as Hamas continues to be in control of the strip, we effectively lose a large chunk of our country that will remain uninhabitable, and the IDF will be tied down and unable to respond to other threats. Even more importantly, if Israel is defeated by the terror tactics of Hamas – and make no mistake, an agreement along the lines of the one announced last week by the US president will be understood by the entire world as a crushing defeat – our enemies on all fronts will bring us more 7 Octobers.

Hamas’ victory strategy depends on two major Israeli weaknesses: the public concern for the hostages (and the manipulation of that concern by political actors that oppose the government), and Israel’s susceptibility to American pressure.

The cruelty of Hamas and the situation of the hostages is tearing at the hearts of all Israelis. But barring a miracle, there is no solution that will bring them home at a price the nation can afford. We must say to their families: we cannot trade the Jewish state for your people. We must do everything that we can to save them, but we cannot surrender to our murderous enemy in order to do so. It’s delusional to think that we can accept a 6-week ceasefire (not to mention the other concessions demanded), given the pressure from America and the other fronts of the war, and then return to finish off Hamas. It will not happen.

The US administration has done and is continuing to do everything it can short of military intervention on the side of Hamas to prevent Israel from achieving a decisive victory. Israeli leaders must understand that we cannot win if we obey the directives from Washington. They must tell the Americans whatever they need to hear, but order the IDF to finish the job, to remove Hamas from power and destroy its military capability.

***

It is painful to write this, but I fear that our present government may be incapable of taking the actions required for the state to survive. Worse, the political structure of our state may be ill-adapted to survival in today’s Middle East.

I would sum up the problem by saying that Israel suffers from an excess of democracy. There are many things that are wonderful about a truly democratic state: in theory, it can behave justly toward individuals with diverse interests and needs. It is a way to align the policies of a country with the “general will” of the populace, in the words of Rousseau. Unfortunately there are some specific situations where democracy is sub-optimal.

One of them is a state of war. In wartime, decisions must be made that will favor victory but which will cause popular suffering, or suffering of influential groups. Such decisions often cannot be made democratically.1 An example is the question of whether Israel should accept a deal that will free some hostages, but also release many imprisoned terrorists and place restrictions on her conduct of the war.

Another problematic case is that of large permanent minorities who utilize democratic institutions like elections to pursue “identity politics” rather than issue-oriented ones. In Israel, in addition to the ethnic and religious divisions, we find entrenched ideological and personality-oriented subgroups. In 2019-21 they combined with our complicated electoral system to produce four parliamentary elections in a period of two years. The tension between the elected Knesset and the independent bureaucracy, which represents Israel’s former ruling elite, guarantees gridlock on important issues. In addition, the almost decade-long attempt to take down PM Netanyahu utilizing the judicial system, and supported by most of the media and the academic establishment, has been a distraction and strain on both sides.

Israel is both almost permanently at war, and blessed with large ethnic/religious minorities. Thus her aspiration to be a democratic state works against the possibility that she will have an effective government. And the challenges to being a tiny Jewish state in the Middle East absolutely require leadership that functions optimally.

Given the power relationships in our political society, it is unlikely that there is a smooth path – for example, a constitutional convention – to a new form of government. But the responsibility of the state to her citizens, and to the Jewish people as a whole, demands that she make this transition in any case, regardless of the disruption of normal life that it is likely to entail. ______________________________________

1But didn’t the democracies defeat the Nazis in WWII? Actually, both Roosevelt and Churchill acted as virtual dictators. And Stalin…

[tennfan2]

One of the local radio stations somehow ended up with the ability to syndicate the old AT40 on Sundays. I used to listen to the countdowns on highway trips back from my favourite place. That's so long ago now, but your Top 40 Countdown file brought me back to that sort of feeling, so thank you.

I like the details you included. The letter, the dedication, the thanking the producers at the end. It shows your commitment to emulating a countdown radio show very well, and I think that's really cool.

I really enjoyed the snaps. They were so clear and certainly effective. The stuff you did with the number 12 really fried my brain, and the rug-pull of the 7 8 9 joke setup and deviation was terrific. I'm still halfway out in the stratosphere from it

I'm very curious about something. The graphic for the youtube video has the station as 93.21 FM. Do those numbers have a special significance? Meaningful numbers are interesting. Did you choose it for a specific reason?

It's a really good file. Thank you for having made it.

Thank you for this!!

First off, the file was 100 percent AT40-coded. Like, debated doing the whole thing in a Casey Kasem voice but couldn’t make that be hypnotic.

I’ve been a satellite radio fan since like… 2003? A long time. Anyway, they used to play old AT 40s on the 70s and 80s channels, but it was just a raw feed of what was sent to stations, so there would be audio cues to the stations, notes on future programs, occasional moments of like… 5 minutes of interstitial music. It was really weird and liminal and I fell in love with it.

This is all to say, it makes my heart happy that you picked up on the many ways in which I was going for that very particular vibe. And your compliments about my tricky stuff also make my day!

The 93.21 thing was actually the “station” for all of the radio shows that we made across the Hypno Collective! If you go to the site, you can hear all of them. There’s a ton of good stuff there.

Thanks again for this message, anon! What a good way to start the day.

[parfait4bunny]

(Once protectors, now tools... unless someone dares to remember who they really were.)

Name:

The Lin Kuei – also called The Iceborn Division

Type:

Assassin Guild / Tech Guild / Corporate Black Ops Arm

Brief Backstory:

The Lin Kuei began as a warrior clan sworn to protect balance. Under Outworld, they were turned into a privatized elite kill-squad. Now they work as contract assassins, tech saboteurs, and black-ops enforcers, targeting resistance leaders and rogue AI experiments.

The clan runs on strict hierarchy and emotional suppression. Children are raised to fight from a young age, fitted with neural inhibitors and cryo-tech enhancements that erase identity. Precision is valued above everything.

But not everyone still believes in the mission.

Some Lin Kuei are remembering who they used to be.

Key Characters:

Bi-Han – former leader, later resurrected as a Netherrealm puppet

Sektor – ruthless leader behind the Cyber Initiative

Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang) – a rogue trying to reclaim the clan’s soul

Smoke (Tomas Vrbada) – kind-hearted operative haunted by what he’s done

Cyrax – the first Cyber Lin Kuei, forced into it before regaining his mind

Frost – brilliant young prodigy who could become their future or their downfall

Leadership:

Sektor is in charge. Cold, efficient, and loyal only to control.

Objectives:

Keep power through targeted assassinations and tech sabotage

Hunt defectors like Kuai and Tomas

Capture advanced AI data, especially Edenian secrets

For the defectors: either redeem the clan or destroy what it’s become

Special Traits / Vibes:

Members are enhanced with cybernetics, emotional dampeners, and ID wipes

Most are known by codenames, not real names

They move silently through networks and buildings, like ghosts

Cryo-tech is their signature; used to kill, disable, or escape

Aesthetic / Visual Feel:

Sleek, cold armor in navy, black, and chrome blue

Glowing masks, tight bodysuits, jagged cryo-gauntlets

Bases hidden in frozen data vaults, underground bunkers, and old satellite towers

A cyberninja clan

[ACCESS MASTER ARCHIVE] all sectors, all syndicates, all stories

[cipher-legal-and-ethics-dept]

17 for colrein as a treat

From the bestie

<3

"I can't see the issue"

"I am worried about you." 

"Why?" 

Ein had to abandon his comfortable position of leaning against Colress to turn his upper body enough to face him. Alas, he was no Noctowl. 

Colress gave him a long, pensive look. "Who would have thought that you, out of all people, would one day find yourself meeting a lover in secret? Because you have also been... close to your boss and fear he might disapprove."

"Don't make it more dramatic than it is. I told you about how nosy my co-workers are, especially that woman, and you know I hate discussing my private life with them."

"Dramatic?" Colress tapped his chin. "Well, then let me summarize. You were approached by a foreign billionaire who wanted to hire you specifically, not only due to your excellent credentials, but also because this man somehow found out about our regrettable little issue with the university’s ethics board, a piece of information he shouldn't have had access to. You were shipped to Orre using "private" methods of transportation that somehow avoided border control. You met your employer who was using a fake name in public and handed you over to another man who took you into a secluded lab in the desert, resulting in me being completely unable to track you without illegally accessing Unovan satellites." 

Ein rolled his eyes. "Are you done?" 

"Not quite. I was also going to talk about how this other man, now your direct superior, and a female co-worker have been invading your privacy."

"They're just bored, I suppose. Perhaps their jobs of being a crime syndicate executive and TV personality respectively — as far as you can even call that a job — don't keep them busy enough. But Venus doesn't like me saying that, of course."

Colress was still smiling, though it had an air of exasperation to it. His yellow eyes fixated Ein, wide and unblinking, as if he was trying to prompt him to react to his own words. 

"Was this when she attempted to smack you with a ring light, Ein?" 

"No, this was when she threw her make-up bag at me. Why?" 

Closing his eyes at last, Colress leaned back and exhaled with enough force to make Ein's antenna-like hair flick sway like grass in the wind. It appeared as though he was counting a handful of seconds, until — 

"And you see nothing wrong with all of this?" 

Ein shook his head. "I have resources and I make good progress with my research. I can't see the issue." 

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Only 45 more years to go!) – October 1955

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

October 2 1955

I like it! That kid gets things done.

October 4, 1955

Why Are they in class together?

Why are they in class together!?

WHY ARE THEY IN CLASS TOGETHER!?!?

October 13, 1955

I actually did a quick dig through the archives to see if Linus had ever interacted with snow up until now and couldn’t find anything. I might have just missed it, but Linus not knowing about snow is actually plausible.

October 16, 1955

This is a bit of a red flag, right? I get that kids like to pretend shoot stuff but flipping out and unloading an imaginary M134 into the nearest source of his frustration seems to be his go-to reaction to stressful situations.

Just saying, if I were his dad I’d probably be keeping an eye on it.

October 18, 1955

Another strip that's pretty cool for historical reasons. It's so weird to think about a world where going to the moon was some sort of fantastical pipe dream.

Also, like with the satellite program, the Soviets beat us to this one as well. The U.S. got the first ~manned~ mission, but the Soviet Union was the first one to to get ~any~ rocket to the moon in 1959 with Luna 2.

October 20, 1955

Nice callback!

October 31, 1955

I love the idea of kids having Halloween turf like some kind of organized crime syndicate.

Wait a minute.

The Peanuts "GANG”, you say?

My God... It's all starting to make sense.

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Book of the War

Synopsis

The Great Houses: Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.

The Enemy: Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.

Faction Paradox: Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage… assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.

The War: A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."

Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past…

Propaganda

Is it about Dr Who? I mean, sort of. Arguably. You could say the Doctor is present in it. Somewhat. Not by name tho because that would be illegal. But definitely there are uh. well. there's definitely stuff in it that's DWesque. It's Dr Who Adjacent. It's Dr Whoish. Strong Dr Who vibes. (@eighthdoctor )

Experimental sci-fantasy that defined the Time War and started a whole series of its own. (anonymous)

This Town Will Never Let Us Go

Synopsis

From up here you can see it all, hear it all, taste most of it and feel the rest when the electric lights and the satellite signals prickle against your skin. The town, from midnight to six, marked out in headlights and the flash-fire of a culture in War-time. Séance-messages written in the patterns of the road signs, and ghost-transmissions scrambled into the background noise of the traffic. Animal scent-signals from the fried food stands. All describing something, buried under the tarmac and the street-geometry.

Down there, a girl in a fake-bone mask is working on a ritual to bring it to the surface. A popular performing artiste with a navel stud and serious identity problems is finding herself stalked — literally — by her own image. An ambulance crewman is about to find his own way of getting involved in the War.

And bringing them all together, in one neat little urban mythology, there's Faction Paradox - part cult, part subculture, part pop phenomenon, and part criminal syndicate, either watching-without-being-seen or simply not existing at all (at least until someone invents it). Assuming they're not wholly imaginary, the archons of the Faction seem like the only ones who know what this town really is - what every town really is — and what's bound to happen when it wakes up.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Of the City of the Saved…

Synopsis

For Humanity, the War is over...

We all remember Resurrection Day. Even now, three centuries later, we cannot forget that awakening: our bewilderment, our terror and our joy. Each of us had experienced death, imagining ourselves bound for oblivion, Heaven or Nirvana, according to taste. Instead, we found, each member of the many human species — from tool-wielding australopithecines to posthuman philosopher-gods — had been harvested, gathered here by the Founders’ unfathomable technologies.

Reborn in our countless immortal bodies, we were given the freedom of the City of the Saved. A single conurbation as broad as a spiral galaxy, she has been our sanctuary from the ravages of the War. That monstrous conflict between inhuman cultures cannot touch us here: we live our afterlives beyond the end of time, in perfect safety.

We may be certain, therefore, that these rumours of a murder (the brutal stabbing of a City Councillor, no less!) are nothing more than lurid fabrications. The supposition that the murder weapon is missing, or that it could have been — as hysterical conjecture has claimed — a "potent weapon", capable of injuring a Citizen within the haven of the City, is equally absurd. The idea that a guerrilla war has already begun in one of our less harmonious enclaves need not be dignified with refutation.

Please go about your business, Citizens, as normal. We are perfectly safe, here in the City. Humanity has never been safer.

Propaganda  no propaganda submitted

Doctor Who and Shada (fan novelisation)

Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana visit Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord living at Cambridge University. The Professor wants to return an ancient and very powerful book to Gallifrey - but the book has gone missing.

Skagra, an evil scientist, steals the book and the Professor's mind - and also takes Romana and the TARDIS.

In order to stop Skagra, the Doctor must discover the secrets of a notorious Time Lord criminal, and a long forgotten prison called Shada...

Propaganda

The first ever adaption of Shada and one of the only fan novelisations (anonymous)

Harvest of Time

Synopsis

After billions of years of imprisonment, the vicious Sild have broken out of confinement. From a ruined world at the end of time, they make preparations to conquer the past, with the ultimate goal of rewriting history. But to achieve their aims they will need to enslave an intellect greater than their own...

On Earth, UNIT is called in to investigate a mysterious incident on a North Sea drilling platform. The Doctor believes something is afoot, and no sooner has the investigation begun when something even stranger takes hold: The Brigadier is starting to forget about UNIT's highest-profile prisoner. And he is not alone in his amnesia.

As the Sild invasion begins, the Doctor faces a terrible dilemma. To save the universe, he must save his arch-nemesis... The Master.

Propaganda

An amazing 3rd Doctor story that feels very much like the typical Delgado!Master stories of the time! Featuring: UNIT, Original Characters, a poster with the Master’s face on it stating to remeber him, and more! (anonymous)

[inkysatell]

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.

I figured I should've made an introduction post on Tumblr so uh.

Hi there! I'm Inky Satellite, better known or called as Inky :] I post both fanart and original work here (mostly art, occasional writing). I also like to reblog a lot...

ENG/IDN/中文/日本語/ESP

Socials: X | Instagram | Toyhouse | Art Fight

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Here are some things you need to know before following

Caution: This Tumblr blog will be a little cluttered since I have so many interests, so please keep that in mind! I'm into TTRPGs and in multiple fandoms (games/anime), and I also have my own OC tags.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Organization details:

: ̗̀➛ TTRPGS: I'm mostly adjacent to popular long-running campaigns/series like CritRole or TAZ, so I will only be posting or reblogging content within my small group. The two hashtags where this will take place are (currently active) in Helvetia Ltd. (Delta Green), and Wayward Effigies (Dungeons & Dragons). : ̗̀➛ Fandoms: This will not be my main focus, as I am in multiple! I will occasionally reblog posts that I like from certain fandoms under specific hashtags. Alongside posting fanart here and there~ (^o^)b Due to the amount of fandoms that I'm in I won't be listing all of them down, I apologize for the inconvenience! : ̗̀➛ OCs: I will likely use Tumblr for organizational purposes, although this will be very slow due to already having used other places such as Toyhouse and Art Fight. However! If you are interested, Vice Syndicate is an original project I created, with the story set in the late 80's-90's that centers around a specific set of characters in a mafia group. Another category you can look into (that's more general) is my D&D roster, where I post about characters I've created for several games.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

If you have any inquiries about commissions, feel free to message me!

༉‧₊˚. Commissions Page [here]

༉‧₊˚. Portfolio Page [here]

[multiversal-fusion-reborn]

Project: Absolute Assimilation

[Only those with the highest ranking within The Syndicate of Steel may see the following details]

Phase 1: Build and launch multiple satellites throughout every corner of the merged universe.

Phase 2: Spread passive yet incredibly contagious version of The Solver to all Machine based Lifeforms throughout the merged universe via Solver hosts, airwaves, and radio waves.

Phase 3: Construct and fortify satellite tower "Absolution" on main exoplanet base (Copper-9).

Phase 4: Initiate the Absolute Solver's update and embrace Absolute Assimilation at last.

[dimalink]

Robotized Police 2100 - case at New Earth IV

Pixel art for today based on videogame Metal Mech - Man & Machine for game console Nes 8 bit. It is a game about a robot. Shooter. About sci fi theme. Sci fi action. You can also to get out of a robot.

And this is my drawing about the same theme. Year 2100. Artificial satellite of Mars. New Earth – IV. It is going to the end last clashes with pirates and outsiders of galaxy. Pirate fleet is broken. There is no more smuggling.  And pirates has no income. Powers of outsiders are defeated. And they are pushed to the most distant asteroids of Kuiper belt.

All that powers of federation are required – it is to enter a robotized police. And eliminate rest of pirates and bandits. You are a pilot of a robot police. And you have landed at New Earth 4.  You are came here from Mars.

Main aim – it is to search for leaders of pirates in every sector of a city. And eliminate. Also, to find the main from powers of outsiders. And eliminate too. It should be some cyborg.

Good news are came just about your arrival. Pirate fleet is run into mine field ahead of Mars. And was destroyed. Powers of outsiders are partially shadowed in Kuiper belt. As it was expected. But they have no resources.

At the New Earth IV it is still exists big syndicates and cartels from pirates and outsiders. So, with them you will have a thing. You are allowed to use rockets, machineguns, blasters. And everything you can to use.

[megamanrecut]

Alright, I've been busy and it's taking me awhile to get the next part of Diamond in the Rough up, so here's a little drabble/teaser for a short Become the Night interlude/sequel. (Note: I am in in a rush so apologies for the roughness/spelling errors lol also possible some details may change later for better continuity with everything)

Become the Night 2 Teaser (Now on Ao3)

It was a warm summer day outside Dr. Light’s laboratory. Dr. Light was away at a work conference, Rock and Roll had taken Rush into the city to go shopping, while Proto had stayed behind to work on the skycycle and be on call if Dr. Wily and Snake Man were to strike.

But the emergency satellite scanner remained quiet. Proto was bored—Dr. Wily hadn’t attacked in over a month, and his armor was sitting unused in a heap in his room, collecting dust. He was wondering if he should have gone into the city after all with Rock and Roll—shopping and malls weren’t his thing, but playing at the arcade with Rock and teasing Roll over her music tastes could be fun—

The doorbell rang.

Normally, Proto hated answering the door. Though Dr. Light’s laboratory was located in the country and didn’t receive many visitors, Proto preferred to ignore the few that came, who were mostly salesmen anyway. But today, Proto put down his tools, put on a pair of aviators, and answered the door.

Outside stood a man with short auburn hair. Despite the heat, he was dressed in a formal, tight-collared suit of black wool with orange embroidery and gold buttons. Everything about him looked extremely expensive, as though he were royalty—a strange visitor for Dr. Light’s boring, quiet laboratory in the country. He glanced around furtively, checking the lawn, then stared at Proto with familiar piercing pale eyes.

“Are you Proto?” he asked in a low voice, his lips barely moving, as though afraid the welcome doormat might be eavesdropping.

“Uh, yeah,” responded Proto without really thinking as he stared back (he was not dressed as ‘Break Man’, his public-facing hero identity, after all, nor did many know who ‘Proto’ was). 

The man (or android, as Proto had instantly figured out, despite the flawless disguise) nodded curtly. “My name is Mr. Turner. We haven’t met—“

“Oh I know who you are,” Proto interrupted, grinning broadly at Turner. There was no mistaking the resemblance of those pale eyes. “You’re Elec Man’s little brother!”

“I—what?” Turner wrinkled his nose. “I’m not—that’s not—“ He gave a small, annoyed cough, then changed the subject. “…Are you alone?”

“Yes.“ Proto opened the door wider. “Here, come in.”

Turner stepped warily over the threshold into the brightly lit foyer. After glancing around with a still expression, apparently listening to make sure Proto was actually alone, he began to walked around with perfect, straight backed grace, hands clasped behind his back.

“Checking for bugs,” Turner informed Proto in a cold, crisp tone as he inspected the dull knickknacks on the perfectly ordinary accent tables.

“Good idea, always forget to do that,” Proto replied, hiding a smirk. He was reminded a little bit of a peacock or a very self-conceited show dog.

Then he noticed Turner’s eyes were lingering on the framed pictures, and grimaced slightly inside. He wasn’t proud of this collection, especially not around a Syndicate member—most were family photos both dorky and domestic, yet it was a bit difficult to tell what Turner was thinking as he stared at them.

“So uh, what brings ya to this neck of the woods?” Proto prompted.

Turner turned his cold piercing stare on Proto. “I have a mission for you from your former employer. Top secret. I heard you used to do work for us…as some sort of assistant, or something.”

“Special asset, in the end—a mission from the Syndicate? Really?” Proto asked keenly, taking a step toward Turner.

A mission from the Syndicate would be dangerous—Syndicate missions were always dangerous. Proto missed the danger—fighting Dr. Wily and his goofy inventions didn’t have quite the same thrill as risking his life battling murderous scrappers and powerful mobsters. Yet, he had been placed in a forced retirement from vigilantism a year ago…still a bit of sore spot.

Turner’s eyes fell away from Proto to glance out a window. “Yes, but you must know, I can’t pay you for your work.”

“No problem. I will do it pro bono.”

“Then you accept?”

“Sure.”

“If you double cross me, I’ll make you regret every day for the rest of your short life.”

At this point, Proto was trying very hard not to laugh. The android was clearly trying to act both as impressively tough and coldly professional like Elec Man—a nigh impossible feat. “Of course. But…listen, junior, me and your older brother go way back. There’s no way I’d do anything to hurt you guys!”

“My name’s not ‘junior…’ Turner replied, bristling.

“Well, until you tell me your real name,” Proto responded with a lazy shrug. “And junior, no offense, while you’re earning extra credit in acting lofty and superior, you’re only a B in intimidation and a D in lying. Honestly I’m afraid if I even touched you you’d break like a china doll. Nice try, but lets can the gangster talk and cut to the chase.”

Turner looked affronted. “What do you mean?”

Lowering his voice, Proto took a step toward Turner, his amusement fading. “Junior…you’re supposed to be on a mission in California. You’re a long way from California. Call me crazy, but I don’t think you’re supposed to have any contact with me at all, least of all giving me orders! What the hell is going on? Where’s Elec Man?”

“I—I—” Turner appeared to be valiantly clinging on to his tough Syndicate facade, but a slight shiver shook his shoulders.  “I don’t know,” he admitted finally.

“…Is he in danger?”

Turner’s head almost made a small jerk, as though he were about to nod, but he quickly controlled it and said, sounding genuinely lost, “I don’t know. We—I—need Cypher’s help.” 

For a brief moment, Turner had looked imploringly at Proto, but then his gaze had darted away again.

Suddenly, the situation seemed much less fun, though Proto gave Turner a reassuring smile. “Well you got 'im. C’mon. We’ll take our air raider.”

Continued in Part 2

[lboogie1906]

Claudia Angela Jordan (born April 12, 1973) is a talk show host, actress, model, businesswoman, and reality television and radio personality. She is known for appearing as a model on the US version of Deal or No Deal and The Price Is Right, and for competing on seasons 2 of Celebrity Apprentice. She appeared on The Real Housewives of Atlanta for its seventh season.

She was asked to return to compete on the All-Star version of Celebrity Apprentice. She was hired by the Apprentice host to co-host the Miss Universe 2009 pageant from the Bahamas. Her first hosting job was for Fox Sports West as a red carpet correspondent for 54321 and appeared on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. She then went on E! and The Style Network as the co-host of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life for two seasons. After that, she was asked to join BET’s late-night sports show Ballers. She was a stand-out on the satellite radio show The Foxxhole, which gave her her weekly show on Sirius/XM Radio on The Foxxhole, called “The Claudia Jordan Show”. She co-hosted “Reach Around Radio”. She was a co-host on Tameka Cottle’s talk show Tiny’s Tonight. The television pilot aired in December 2012 on VH1. She hosted the travel show for AT&T called The Summer of Adventure. She was a co-host on the nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show. She often appears as a contributor on CNN and HLN. She went on to star in TV One’s The Next 15 and lead her morning show in Dallas, The Morning Rush, which was the top-rated R&B Morning Show in Dallas. She hosts two talk shows on Fox Soul: Cocktails with Queens and Tea G-I-F. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 53: Henchman joins heroes for one time only

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! In most cartoons the contrast between the heroes and the main villain is pretty black and white. Good is good, bad is bad, and never shall they be able to find common ground. But what about the lesser villains? The henchmen, the mooks, the hired help? Sometimes those guys are portrayed in shades of grey instead…

Episode 53: Henchman joins heroes for one time only 

There could be any number of reasons a henchman might temporarily team up with the good guys. They could be a victim of memory loss or brainwashing, they might have had a disagreement with their boss that drove them into the arms of the heroes before they decide to go back to being a bad guy, they might need the heroes’ help to defeat an even bigger bad that’s usurped their boss, or they might join up with the heroes while claiming to have been reformed but secretly planning to stab them in the back. 

So what about in ArchieSonic? The best example we have here is a scheming little weasel of a man (not literally) named Colin Kintobor Jr, but who is better known as Snively Robotnik.

Hoo boy, now here’s a guy whose loyalties seemed to change at the drop of a hat in ArchieSonic. Let’s take a look at this guy’s history, shall we? 

During the Great War Snively came to Mobotropolis to join his Uncle Julian, supposedly in service of King Acorn. But they were actually plotting a coup and successfully took over the Kingdom, exiling the King to the Zone of Silence and transforming most of the populace into robotic slaves.

Snively remained in the service of the newly rechristened Dr. Robotnik afterwards as his right hand man, although that role was often seen being fulfilled by the badnik Crabmeat in the early issues before Snively was introduced (and sometimes even afterwards). As the years went by Snively started to become more disillusioned and less trusting of his uncle, as Robotnik suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Freedom Fighters and started growing more abusive towards Snively. Snively longed to take control of Robotnik’s empire and prove that he could do better, and took full opportunity to try and do so in Sonic #30 when Robotnik was accidentally trapped in another dimension called the Void.

Robotnik soon returned though and the status quo returned to normal (aside from Uncle Chuck having regained his free will and joined forces with the Freedom Fighters). Snively started scheming about how to once again remove his uncle from power and was finally given the chance in Sonic #50 when Robotnik tried to use his superweapon, the Ultimate Annihilator.

The device was programmed to erase Knothole Village from existence, but Snively sabotaged it so that it instead fired on Robotnik himself. Snively didn’t have long to enjoy his self-promotion to CEO of All Things Evil though, as he was captured just a few days later when the Freedom Fighters came a-knocking at the front door.

Snively was imprisoned in the Devil’s Gulag, which led to the stuff I mentioned in one of the recent previous episodes. First there was the mysteriously engineered prison breakout, after which the other escapees put Snively in charge as they believed he was one who had freed them. Following that came the kidnapping of Nate Morgan, and Snively’s supposed death from a giant squid explosion when Nate’s rescue team barged in to save the day. However what actually happened was that at the last possible second he was teleported away and ended up in the clutches of none other than his supposed murder victim.

Maybe he would have been better off with the squid.

So, here’s the bit where I get to the topic of the day. In Sonic #73 the Freedom Fighters finally figured out someone was using a series of satellites to wreak havoc on the planet - causing meteor showers, earthquakes, prison breaks, the re-enslavement of all the formerly freed Robians, fun stuff like that - and went into orbit to investigate. This led to them discovering that the satellites had now combined to form a large space station, run by none other than the very much not-dead Dr. Robotnik. Except surprise, it was a trick!

After taking an accidental acid bath and melting off his fake skin, the big bad revealed himself to actually be Robo-Robotnik, the alternate dimensional counterpart of Robotnik who had tried to rule over all of reality with the Giant Borg. The Freedom Fighters were captured in an electric prison forcefield, but to their surprise Snively released them.

He explained that he needed their help to escape, as Robo-Robotnik intended to roboticise him too. The Freedom Fighters weren’t exactly keen on teaming up with Snively, but they let him escape with them before blowing Robotnik’s space station up and heading back to the surface. Once back on the ground, Snively pointed out that their plan to evacuate back to Knothole Village was doomed to failure, as Robo-Robotnik would have escaped the explosion by downloading his memory into a new body back in Robotropolis (giving birth to his modern Eggman design) and would have a file telling him Knothole’s exact location.

In exchange for keeping him safe from Robotnik’s shadowbots, Snively reluctantly agreed to join Sally and Sonic to sabotage Robotnik’s database and infect him with a virus (literally). 

After that Snively disappeared for awhile, going out on his own and not reappearing until after the Sonic Adventure arc. Robotnik’s army recaptured Snively in Sonic #94, and he agreed to go back to working for Robotnik when he was offered the chance to deal with his previously unmentioned daddy issues.

Having gotten that out of his system - and again, I mean that literally, as Snively willingly let himself be robotocised until the Bem intervened and deroboticised him - Snively stayed in his uncle’s employ until the Xorda invasion of the planet in Sonic #124, during which he mysteriously vanished. For awhile it was believed that Snively had been roboticised again, but this turned out to just be a duplicate that Eggman built for… some reason?

He got bored of it pretty quickly though and had the “Silver Snively” project scrapped. The real Snively resurfaced in Sonic #152 though, when Sonic and his “Angels” (ew) were investigating a city made of nanites that had popped up overnight and was rapidly spreading across the land.

Snively had developed some EMP detonators to halt the nanites, and after he explained himself to Sonic he worked with them to try and end the threat. Surprisingly, after this incident he actually joined the Knothole “Brain Trust” and continued his work on nanite experiments with them for a time.

But he soon wondered what he was doing there and felt that it really didn’t suit him that well. So it was no surprise that when Eggman came sniffing around Knothole and offered Snively his old job back that he accepted the offer.

But what was surprising was that this opportunistic, back-stabbing, power-hungry little man actually did have a moment of hesitation, because he was concerned for the well-being of his “step”sister Hope, who had been living in Knothole as a refugee ever since Eggman had roboticised her father and grandmother.

Snively actually caring about anyone other than himself was something that hadn’t really been seen in the series before, but here he was trying to convince her to leave Knothole so that she didn’t get wiped out with everyone else when Eggman attacked, although of course he didn’t tell her that was the reason. After ensuring Hope’s survival Snively returned to the Eggman Empire, and this time he got a spiffy new uniform to go along with his new position.

Snively stayed on the side of evil all the way through the rest of the pre-reboot era of the series, and ended up paying the price for that when he tried to break from the Eggman Empire and begin his own evil regime.

Following the reboot Snively eventually showed up again, now sporting a beard (possibly to prove he could at least grow hair on his face? LOL) and working as a scientist for GUN.

Commander Tower was rightfully suspicious of his motives, as Snively and Eggman had both previously worked for GUN as a step to creating the Eggman Empire and overthrowing King Acorn while trying to prevoke a war between the Kingdom of Acorn and the United Federation. In this timeline Snively left Dr. Eggman’s service much earlier than in pre-reboot. In fact, he returned to GUN right after the events of Sonic and Knuckles, claiming he’d been forced into working for Eggman and that he had in fact been spying on him the entire time and looking for an opportunity to escape.

Commander Tower let him come back to work for them, expecting that he was planning something shifty and that he would try to stab them in the back, but hoping to catch him in the act. Sure enough, Snively did have some sort of evil plan in the works.

Unfortunately the series was cancelled before we got to see exactly what he had cooking.

I would also like to give a brief shoutout to Bean and Bark for this segment. It’s true that they weren’t part of the Eggman Empire, but they did take on jobs for Eggy as mercenaries for hire - in fact, they were working for him for almost the entirety of the post-reboot series. But there were a couple of times where they briefly joined forces with the heroes too. In Sonic #187 Mammoth Mogul put out a bounty on Sonic, and pretty much every scruffy ne'er do well Sonic had ever fought joined forces to try and take him out.

During this battle Sally offered Bean and Bark double whatever they were being paid to take out Sonic if they helped her fight back against the other mercenaries instead. They quickly agreed and started attacking their former allies, but when the mercs managed to capture Sonic Bean and Bark decided to cut their losses and quickly switched sides again, figuring they might as well get paid by someone. Bean and Bark later also briefly joined forces with Blaze, Marine, Amy and Cream in the Sol dimension to take on the dreaded Captain Metal. Having been sent to the Sol dimension during the second Genesis wave that came with the comics’ reboot, Bean and Bark had initially joined forces with Captain Metal.

But after they stole Captain Metal’s Sol Emerald they came into conflict with both his pirate crew and that of Captain Whisker, and so they ended up working with Blaze’s team against their common enemies.

Are there any other instances of henchmen briefly joining forces with the good guys in ArchieSonic that I missed? Let me know in the comments! Next time I’ll be looking at - what is it again? Let me see here… “Random child rescues hero. The episode’s all about him now.” Hmmm, that’s another tricky one. I’ll have to think hard on that one and see what I can come up with.

[dominickeating-source]

What Satellite Issue 228 (2005)

BOLDLY GONE 

Star Trek: Enterprise is nearly over. Elise Harris talked to actors Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer about the end of an era.

After only four series Star Trek: Enterprise, the fifth of the Star Trek franchise series, is over. To slightly misquote the theme song, it hasn't been a long time getting from there to here. The last episode of all is controversial. There is a major character death and, metaphorically speaking, some appearances from the ghosts of Enterprise crews past (or yet to come). It may not be what you want to see. 

Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) and Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) think there was a lot of unexplored potential in the show. Dominic particularly feels there was more to see with his character. "I never got a love interest. I got a couple of fling-ets, that were treated as a joke - and I wouldn't have minded - but Trip Tucker got all the top tottie." 

Connor focuses more on the stories themselves. "I think there was an opportunity to see what they could have done with the introduction of these alien species. They always glossed over the first contact - we never investigated the first contact, which I thought we could have had a lot of mileage with." 

The much-derided theme tune and rather tight all-in-one uniforms were not a problem for either, though. Connor agrees the outfits were "like gas station jumpsuits" but feels they fitted the tone of the show, especially the dark sets. Dominic says: "The idea was it was a sort of retro feel and the whole bridge and the ship itself was Das Boot-ish, that sort of thing. I didn't mind the costumes. Though Monday morning was always a bit tricky because they'd wash them over the weekend." 

He says he really quite liked the theme and the sentiment behind it. "I loved the endeavour and the images that went with the credits, 'It's been a long time getting from here to there...this time I'm going to make it.' Alot of stalwart fans didn't want to hear the captain whimpering about that, though." 

Connor thinks the fans would have preferred a heraldic theme more in keeping with the other shows in the franchise. "Yeah," adds Dominic, "the Third Reich march. We will conquer the space." Altogether, 98 episodes of Star Trek:Enterprise were made - every other Star Trek series but the original made 100. Connor says that is enough to syndicate the series on US TV. "Ultimately, that was what they were looking for. There was no point to go five years - if you were going to go five years you were going to go seven. There's nothing for them - they were going to get their package." 

Dominic says: "I'm disappointed. I would have done three more series probably - I would certainly have done two. We signed for seven, so we're three short of what we signed for. I loved going to work, to be honest, I really did. Lovely camaraderie and great crew and just regular employment with a nice cheque at the end of every 10 days. Can't beat it with a short stick." 

He also feels the show was just beginning to find itself. "The other series that came before really found their stride round about where we found our stride and I think season one and season two are pretty good too - at least 75 per cent of it is." Dominic credits new executive producer Manny Coto with this turnaround. "He was very hungry and ambitious and talented. He was a huge Star Trek fan from his youth and knew all the lore of Star Trek; he righted some wrongs. They'd taken some liberties in the first two seasons with some of our time lines, which certainly ticked of some of the hard-core Trek fans. He tipped some of those around and made it look as though they were intentional. It was clever stuff, man." 

There are no immediate plans (if any) for an Enterprise film, but both actors think it's only a matter of time before there's another Star Trek project in the planning stages. Dominic says: "There is talk about a Star Fleet Academy movie, but I think they got burnt badly on Nemesis, all things considered." 

Connor says he is overwhelmed at how the media is reacting to the show's demise. He says: "They're treating it as though the franchise is over. My instincts don't tell me that. I think they're going to put it to rest for a while." 

Dominic adds: "It's the end of an era for the franchise, that's for sure. It's the end of producer Rick Berman's stint. Then another man will put his paw print on another version four years from now. Try his luck - "Starfleet Academy 90210 In Space" - something like that." 

Source: www.dominickeating.com