#Strike Vanguard

[iridiss]

[dyketatorshipofthehomotariat]

Just a thaught but one of the highlights of disco elysium to me is how it choses to solve the narrative schism the soviet va guard posed: portray the individuals forming the collective or portray the individuals as Heroes, with all the reactionaries implications

DE choses not only to make us play the absolute parody of what we would expect the Hero of a murder investigation game, but it choses to portray him as a collective of himself. We experience this World through his eyes and it's still a diverse vision. Of course it doesn't have the naive optimism of the russian revolution because it doesn't tell the same story but still it's hela effective.

It tells a story of a world without a revolution but where the workers will still fight back, separated and broken in their unity, it makes sense that the natural outsider to them, the cop, is himself separated and won't get passed his own contradictions

[thefirstknife]

Kind of really wish they'd separate out the vanguard ops Playlist into 2 different ones that both count equally for the pinnacle and earning rep. One for "regular" strikes and one for seasonal Battlegrounds activities. The Vanguard Ops Playlist is going to be completely unplayable for me once they mix Heist in. It's not that they're "bad" it's just the seasonal grind is so over the top that by the time the season ends even when I really enjoy a seasonal activity I'm sick to death of it if I actually try to get a fair chunk of the grinding done... I really wish they'd give you some options around that since I don't see them changing their gameplay model from "Grinding Content: The Game". (I'd probably hate the PsiOps ones way less if I were actually able to take a break from them instead of, even after the season, getting dumped into them 2/3 of the time when I do a Playlist run for bounties, rep, or weeklies...) it's just very tiring...

Yeah, I'm also not a huge fan of these activities being mixed up with strikes. I don't think it's really possible to separate them because nobody would run a battlegrounds-only playlist so there wouldn't be enough population for it, but they need more activities in strikes without making 3 new strikes per season so.

I would personally prefer strikes only and if they made some new strikes. I don't need 3 new ones every season tbh, I'd be fine with a few new ones per year and old ones getting some refreshes like they're now planing to do with Lake of Shadows and Arms Dealer, as well as later with some other ones.

I really love strikes and would love some stuff to be added to them that's specifically made to be strikes. I would love if they returned some cosmetic stuff for strikes as well. There used to be different strike-specific emblems you could collect and hope for while playing them, for example. Weapon ornaments would be cool as well, even armour. Also more alternating dialogues! I'd rather fewer strikes but with more reasons to play them, instead of 50 of them and nothing much to gain.

Personally, I like heists from this season, they're much more engaging to me than the battlegrounds from Chosen, but even then, they're not made as strikes.

With new changes coming to the strike playlist making it more challenging but without any benefits in rewards... It feels really weird. Add in battlegrounds that people don't really like and I bet there will be a lot of players not very entertained by the playlist.

I'm definitely looking forward to new Lightfall strikes tho! So there's that!

[brontios-helm]

Destiny 2: Psion Company

[emzalot]

I just did this random strike and it was so far above my pay grade y’all. I had to revive like 8 times, it was embarrassing. Half the time I couldn’t see who was shooting me y’all. At one point I somehow got yeeted into the stratosphere and I was sitting there like “wAIT-”

I was clearly the baby on board. I delivered some solid hits and final blows, but the other two players did most of the work. I managed to hang in there with’em as much as I could, but Lord… That strike was somethin’ else.

[mahouexo]

Love when I'm playing a game and everything feels so effortless you can basically just zone out at the same time

[knghtlock]

random hotaru headcanon time because i need to make more of these! as one of the top ranked crucible players, sometimes hotaru just likes joining casual matches to help blueberries. she will build the goofiest loadouts known to man and somehow make it work.but the SECOND the enemy team starts getting too big for their britches or hassling her blueberries with unsportsmanlike behavior, she WILL pull out her competitive gear and take on 1v6 fights out of Pettiness and Spite. she is also not above getting behind enemy lines.

her callsign in crucible is "headcrack" because her most common method of murder is punching or kicking guardians Into walls with enough force to crack their helmets. ( she can also crush your head with her thighs but is that REALLY a punishment )

[vulcanhello]

[9jacompass]

ASUU: More Universities Announce Their Resumption Dates

ASUU: More Universities Announce Their Resumption Dates

The University of Nigeria, Nsukka has said it expects students and lecturers to back for academic activities on Saturday, October 22, 2022. ASUU;The announcement follows the suspension of the eight-month industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday, October 14, 2022. ASUU embarked on strike on February 14, 2022, and suspended the strike on October 14, 2022, eight…

[wilwheaton]

Alito and Thomas have told and shown us time and time again that this is the America they want. Alito’s Dobbs opinion cites common law going back to the thirteenth century characterizing abortion as a crime, as if something that was commonly believed 700 years ago should influence us today. Thomas’s infamous Dobbs concurrence warned us that Dobbs was just the beginning, and the court is coming for same-sex marriage and even contraceptive rights. This is not calling balls and strikes, people. This is monomaniacal, steroidal judicial activism. Alito and his cohort are not on the court to interpret law. They are on the court to change society. They are part of a movement dedicated to same. This is what makes them Leninists—vanguard members of a severe and narrow ideological movement that seeks total power for the purpose of fundamentally reordering society. Lenin used cruder methods, early twentieth-century tsarist Russia being altogether more welcoming of crude and violent methods than twenty-first century democratic America. But the impulses are identical.

Alito and Thomas Aren’t Really Jurists. They’re Theocratic Leninists.

[ariadne-mouse]

Still thinking about just how deep in it Liliana Temult is. Like in the eyes of the narrative she went from

absent & possibly dead, very sad -> alive just estranged?? mysterious! -> possibly involved in a cult, tragic, can her daughter reach her? -> uncomfortably high up in said cult -> the cult's goddamn General and striking such terror into the local population of the Ruidus that they are afraid of even her appearance or someone who looks like her

Ordinary people who are trying to resist the dictatorial Imperium/Ruby Vanguard alliance and their iron control of the populace are terrified of her. You don't strike terror just by "being there". Terror happens because of actions. And it leaves us to wonder what exactly Liliana Temult has done during her time on the moon to make the citizens fear her so much.

[forbidden-sunlight]

yandere!thor headcanons with fem!kokushibo!reader

warning: spoilers from the anime or manga, obsessive behavior, violence, explicit language, stalking. Please take caution when reading the content.

The intention of this story is for entertainment purposes only, it is not my personal belief(s). The behavior exhibited here is inappropriate and unhealthy, hence it should not be encouraged.  There are also triggers, so please take caution. You are responsible for your Internet consumption!

Credit for this piece goes to @recreationalfanfics and their phenomenal works, specifically this one. I’d also like to thank @onecantsimply and @dazailover1900 for helping me proofreading this piece!

Thor is bored. Although he was slightly interested in this Ragnarök, he believed his fight would not even last a minute. A single swing of his Mjölnir is an absolute victory for the gods, and his opponent would be wiped away from the arena in a bloodied sack of crumpled flesh. He was not fazed by the revelation of Heimdall’s announcement that humanity’s representative was a six-eyed demon from the Sengoku era, the former Moon Hashira [First Name] [Last Name], or how the other deities claimed the unfairness of the situation. Despite the outcry, Zeus allowed this fight to be the first official match. 

A demon was born from the malice of mankind. It was only fitting that the Thunder Berserker would destroy it. To give an example of the gods superiority over the humans.  Heimdall blew his horn, commencing the beginning of Ragnarök. Thor did not think of it as anything special, nor did he care for the demon or that the demon was a woman because it would do nothing to alleviate his boredom. 

Oh, but what a fool he had been.

From the moment that his opponent unsheathed her sword and released the first form of her sword technique, everything changed. He used his Mjölnir to block the numerous crescent blades, and the demon used it as an opportunity to get close and strike at him. The blade swung vertically, clanging against the hammer. While Thor remained focused on blocking this attack, the crescent blades changed direction and struck his body.

Once on the right, two on the left, and the last one cleaved through his toga. Yet each blade had penetrated his body, drawing blood from the Valhalla’s Vanguard. Blood from a bored god. 

[First Name] blinked. “So…the First Form is enough to cause minimal damage yet your arteries and muscles are still intact. The body of a god is much more durable than I initially thought.” The demon adjusted her stance, twisting clawed hands around the handle of her sword. “Perhaps the Fifth Form would be preferable…then again, Lady Brunhilde would be upset if there is damage to the arena and the crowd.” She murmured. “Oh, well. I will not know until I try.” Six [Eye Color} orbs stared up at him. “Are you ready, Lord Thor?”

The crowd was stunned, as had been Thor…until his shock became excitement. And it only grew with each passing second that his and [First Name]’s weapons, tactics, and agility collided. She was not holding back, and neither would he. 

How could he, after he had finally found an equal? The one person who would make his life exciting again? He wanted this fight to continue if it meant he had another moment to clash against his beloved Moon Hashira. 

Alas, nothing lasts for eternity. 

Their fight ends in a draw, much to everyone’s shock. But Heimdall’s announcement did not deter [First Name] from running towards him with her sword, pushing the last remaining energy into her speed to land one more, just one more strike to give humanity a chance to survive against the gods. 

Such a gesture only made Thor’s heart flutter in adoration as he sidestepped the attack, stopping the blade’s trajectory with his bare hand.

 [First Name] was about to exhale another breath, to release another form of her beautiful fighting style, when Zeus officially (and reluctantly) declared that the first bout of Ragnarök is a stalemate. The two of them will fight later on as a tie-breaker. 

If it had not been for Brunhilde’s interference, [First Name] would have ignored the supreme god in favor of finishing the job. Thor watched the woman reluctantly withdraw herself from him, sheathing her sword and walking back to humanity’s corner with a slight limp in her gait. 

The Moon Hashira was covered in sweat, blood, and burn marks from the backlash of Mjölnir’s attacks, yet she held her head high with a composed expression. Yet the Thunder God could sense her anger. She was upset that their fight had come to an end like this. She wanted to keep going until one of them was dead.  

Yes…there is no doubt in Thor’s mind no longer. [First Name] [Last Name] is his soulmate. And he will do anything to keep her at his side, even betray his brethren to fight alongside the humans. He wanted her, he needed her to feel alive.

He did not want to be separated from the former Demon Slayer for a single moment. He did not want anyone taking his precious person away from him, be it a god or a champion of humanity.

Once he was healed, Thor would seek out Brunhilde. Knowing cunning and desperate she is to save humanity, it would not be too hard to make a deal with the Valkyrie, wouldn’t it?

Bonus Content: 

Following her fight against the Norse Berserker, [First Name] would spend each day training. She had truly believed that her imprisonment in Helheim, battling against other demons in a battlefield made from fire and brimstone before Brunhilde had brought them here to Valhalla, would have made her stronger…yet it still wasn’t enough. 

To reach a stalemate between two warriors would be considered dishonorable when she had been a human woman. But it was even worse to turn your back against humanity and become a demon because you feared death so much. That was what she had done. 

Now…she had a chance to prove that she is much more than a disappointing sibling who would forever live in the shadow of her prodigal little brother. Lady Brunhilde has been given her this opportunity.

And she will not disappoint her new master…or would it be more appropriate to call the Valkyrie a ‘business partner’? Wasn’t the reason that the first fight between her and Thor had gone swimmingly…is because that the gods remained oblivious to what Brunhilde really had planned for this battle?

After all, they still believed that there is no weapon that can harm a god. To know that their strongest god would be defeated by a demon who wasn’t blessed with a Divine Weapon…wouldn’t it make them feel even more inferior?

Taglist:

@onecantsimply

@rukia-writes

@recreationalfanfics

@radioactivesweet

[cryptid-jack]

Sometimes you wind up invested in an au for your already au Mass Effect fic and have to draw something for it X'D

So here's Kaidan and my he/him asari oc, Aera in a timeline where Cerberus fails to bring back Shepard. As a result, it's Kaidan that has to strike out on his own, get the team back together with Aera's help, and try to convince the galaxy that Sovereign was just the vanguard for the Reapers.

Meanwhile, initially unbeknownst to him, Cerberus' clone Shepard is tackling the Collectors and eventually comes looking to recruit Kaidan and the reassembled og squad...

[kaledya]

Hey hey! It's a-me!! The essay writer again!

Lol, sorry.

This time, I just summed up some questions about your AU Exorcists

1. Since Lute's and Adam's personalities are different in Sinners Symphony, I suppose that the morale in the army is different from canon, far closer to "We do what has to be done" instead of the usual "Haha, die you little b@#es. I'm at 261 now, how about you?" Am I correct?

2. How do the Exorcists fight? Now we know that in your AU Blessed weapons are insanely overpowered (sinners are crying for a nerf constantly), I wonder if the soldiers still fight open and without cover just to mindlessly kill a bunch of sinners or if the ladies have more discipline in this?

3. And lastly, two questions in one, do the Exorcists leave behind their weaponry like in canon? Since if not, Carmilla Carmine would probably not become an overlord, or at least have far lower than in canon, since the weapons would be super rare and far more difficult to manipulate with, resulting in less employees, resulting in less deals, resulting in less power.

Have a great day/night. Richard.

And by the way, Sir Pentious in Sinners Symphony when?

Yes the exterminators are a well trained and disciplined unit of soldiers, some lieutenants are even trained by Azrael himself, they do not take pleasure or enjoyment from their work or see it as a game, they do what needs to be done, nothing more and nothing less. There is discipline in the army like in today's armies, the soldiers respect their superiors very much and obey their orders under all circumstances.

Lute is the most skilled exterminator at the moment, in fact she was personally trained by Azrael and is the closest exterminator to Azrael. Lute has the greatest respect for Azrael and will not hesitate to punish anyone who insults him.

War styles:

I haven't designed it yet, but I'll try put a sketch here. Exterminators are divided into 3 different classes

Seraphic Smitebringers (Divine Strikers): These warriors are equipped with heavy weapons that reflect the power of the heavens.

Celestial Swiftwings: This group is known for the speed of their wings, descending upon their enemies like lightning.

Ethereal Vanguard: These warriors combine both powerful blows and swift movement to create a versatile force on the battlefield, but they are neither as fast as Swiftwings nor as powerful as Smitebringers.

Weapons they use

For Seraphic Smitebringers:

Divine Retributors: Great, luminous hammers that echo like thunder with each strike.

Judgment Hammers: Mighty war hammers, adorned with gold and silver, representing fair judgment.

For Celestial Swiftwings:

Heavenly Katanas: Long, slender swords that slice through enemies with speed and grace.

Windscythes: Light and sharp sickles that harness the power of the wind.

For Ethereal Vanguard:

Astral Lances: Spears made of stardust, effective at both near and far range.

Balance Blades: Two-sided blades that offer the perfect balance of power and speed.

The exterminators don't leave their weapons in hell as in the canonü (1. they don't leave a weapon in hell that can kill them 2. the weapons of the exterminators are made in a customized way, they have a spiritual value. 3 even if they leave it, nothing much changes, a sinner cannot touch it)

Carmilla is an arms dealer again. (Like Tony did before he became Iron Man), she is a weapon merchant, her power comes from the quality and uniqueness of the weapons she made in this AU, not from angelic weapons. she is still a 2nd place overlord, after all, Pride Ring is a battlefield and a battlefield needs weapons

+ Carmilla has destroyed all of her rivals, no one else in Pride Ring can enter the weapon trade because they are destroyed directly by Carmilla. so Carmilla's power is still the same, nothing has changed in the level.

I wish you a good day too

and I have no idea about sir pentious right now.

[utilitycaster]

Ok I'm probably going to regret reinventing 17th century European religious philosophy here but:

Ludinus's issue with the gods as stated to Imogen and Fearne (and I will state right now that we know he was lying or deliberately misleading at points in that conversation so I don't exactly take him at his word, but let's assume he does mean this) is that they did not prevent the Calamity. I have the following questions.

Does he have any loyalty/feelings about the Titans given that they would have killed all the people in the era of the Schism, ie, the gods averted that Calamity? My guess is no, which means that whole avenue of discussing the Titans was something of a dead end.

How should Calamity have been averted? The Prime Deities during the Age of Arcanum largely let people do what they wanted, which is what led to one of those mortals releasing the Betrayer Gods. Should the gods have struck down Vespin Chloras before he actually did anything, Minority Report style? Can the gods even predict based on the actions of a single individual or small group, because my guess is they can't, particularly since within the current stream of gameplay they absolutely cannot [ie, the reason the Changebringer can't tell FCG to stay or run is because Matt Mercer is the Changebringer and he doesn't know how people will roll; you do need to consider the medium here]. But if they could: so you think they should strike down mortals on the basis of thoughtcrimes? Or control them? In that case, why is Aeor a problem? There's a lot you can argue is justified once you permit the gods to override free will and kill people over mere potential for catastrophe.

On that note, Laerryn both was an unwitting architect of the Calamity (shorted on energy and then killed the Tree of Names, which served as a core planar defense system) but also averted the worst of it. Did the lives she saved by preventing the rise of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort outweigh the lives she took by destroying the Tree of Names? How should the gods have reacted?

Should, perhaps, the gods have all sealed themselves away earlier - perhaps post-Schism? If so, then the issue isn't the Divine Gate, now is it? Should the gods intervene or not intervene? Should they remove themselves or no? It feels like the issue isn't that they distanced themselves so that they can do less in the world, particularly if you wish to kill them, but that you really want to fucking kill them and they made that somewhat more difficult.

How do we know the gods (for example) didn't save Laudna? She was hanged and she's still alive; Morri would probably count this as saving her and I don't see the same desire to wipe out all Archfey. [real talk I find most discussion of Laudna specifically to be...incomprehensibly ignorant in its refusal to acknowledge that everything about it is player agency related, whether it's the story that the cast played out for Vox Machina or the decisions Marisha specifically made in creating the character, ie, do you think Matt should have said "well you can't play a Hollow One because that would mean the gods didn't save you" not to mention the fact that again, we are playing this within a game system where the existence Deus Ex Machina would in fact fucking suck ass; but even setting aside those reasons why this argument is stupid, it's still stupid. It's like a layer cake of stupid.] Again: do you want more intervention or less? Killing them guarantees less.

I'm assuming the problem with the Calamity is the vast loss of life, in which case, what's the math on how many people have been killed by the Vanguard or Imperium in the pursuit of unleashing Predathos? How many more will die?

If the release of Predathos doesn't result in the immediate demise of all the gods, and the Divine Gate is down, why isn't this a recipe for Calamity 2? What was the motivation for killing the gods again?

Should we kill mortal diviners who do not do all within their power to stop terrible things that may come to pass? If the issue is that some people have power without working for it, why haven't we killed all the sorcerers?

Should we be listening to a single word from someone who consumes random fey to live longer, and that's just the start of the CVS receipt of atrocities?

Is there a point where one's deeply held beliefs due to one's own personal trauma become invalidated due to one's actions as a result of that trauma? If so, why is the limit for Orym "is okay with killing people who are trying, directly, to kill you (which, frankly, isn't even a trauma response, that's just called not wanting to die, which I highly recommend as a personal philosophy), and gets upset when people defend those knowingly collaborating with his family's murderers" and the limit for Vanguard generals "family abandonment/just. buckets of murder of innocents./child soldier recruitment in multiple different contexts/eating fey as biohacking/destroying an entire city and the surrounding forest for hundreds of years (ongoing)/imperialism in multiple different contexts/I was going to make a gallows humor joke about how while neither exist in-world they've violated the Geneva Convention AND the IRB for testing on human subjects multiple times over but actually those both are in fact written in a lot of the same blood/probably some others that I'm forgetting"

[chiakery]

Rewatched episodes 1 and 2 of CR3 and the whiplash of these characters from back then and now (episode 93) is unreal.

good lord they were babies

Fearne stealing a gigantic earring right after they landed in Jrusar, trying to help Ashton cheat in a card game and failing to do so. Fearne having a shard of the Fire Emperor inside her; figuring out the way to hide in the moon city from a terrifying fey dragon.

Laudna trying to play with children who were too scared of her, puppeteering Pate to shake FCG's hand and talking as him in a silly voice. Laudna with her new pact with Delilah, quieter than ever.

Ashton laughing (mostly sarcastically) and cursing every other word; breaking an animated table into splinters while laughing like a maniac. Ashton with his new arm, trying to take care of their friends, self-reflecting on how hurtful his words have been to Evoroa.

FCG getting a bucket of piss thrown at them, being proposed a job of a curio in a bar. FCG sacrificing himself to make sure their friends survived, making it possible for forces on Exandria to know what they were up against.

Orym just trying to figure things out, leading Bertrand back to bed by his finger, hesitating to strike Eshtross first. Orym with his new powers, hexed flowers blooming from his veins, his heart broken again because he couldn't protect everyone, because someone else died doing his job.

Imogen being uncomfortable during cable rides and worrying about dropping a basket of veggies for Zhudanna. Imogen showing off her powers in her hometown, deceiving so many Vanguards, her stone cold "Know what, mama?"

Dorian failing miserably to play at Spire by Fire, strings of his lyre breaking at first note. Dorian arriving with the Voice of the Tempest, grief and a promise of vengeance written all over his heart