#action post

[directactionforhope]

By the way, even if you fully plan to vote for Biden in November (because Trump would be worse and has declared that if elected he would ban Palestinians from entering the US x, x, x, x)...

You can and I would argue should call or email Biden or whatever other Democrats represent you and just straight up lie about it. Tell them "I'm a constituent, and I've voted for you in x number of elections, and thanks to your support for the genocide of the Palestinian people, I will never, ever vote for you again."

Politicians, Democrats, and especially Biden need a fire lit under their asses, because the vast majority of them clearly aren't going to do shit without one. Or, worse, be like Biden and actively be the reason that Israel can continue its genocide on a political, monetary, and military level.

Tell Biden and other politicians that you will never vote for them again. It doesn't matter if it's true. It will help pressure US politicians to stop this genocide, and therefore it's the right thing to do.

Obviously this also applies to other countries where politicians are supporting Israel's genocide, especially countries that have cut funding to UNRWA (list here).

[edgarallen-foe]

==> John: Ascend.

[tekras-iszovh]

====> To the end.

// final plot doc for now! featuring Tekras, Cyonah, Yannik (distractegikon), and the impending end of the universe, manifested as an ever collapsing and intruding void. Written by both me and lago :3

// this also marks the end of the cyonah takeover event, although you never know, he can make more appearances. wheeeww\!!!

[equiuszahhak]

> -- [ After a lovely night with Roxy, you are going to go visit Hyuu. You feel different today, after yesterday's decision. And still, you decide to keep your eyes how they are.

We will see how today goes. You need to see Goldwave, you cross your fingers the that Brass hasn't forgotten about you, ah, And you need to make time for Jill.

Having a social life for the first time in sweeps is exhausting. You only feel a little empty today. ]

[graviconscientia]

>You had visited Cronus, for a smoke, for no reason but to relieve stress. A chat with a friend, a moment where you might be able to speak candidly with someone, anyone...

>But the moment is gone, just as quick as it arrived, and you are left with ash, and embers, and emptiness. He is a kind young man, and you are trying to offer him support and friendship- the sort you hope someone may offer you someday- but it seems so difficult to reach him. (You think, idly, that people might feel the same about you.)

>There is a moment, right before you step on the transportaliser, where you look back to Cronus, to make a promise for another meeting. There's a smile for him, but something creeps into your mind, whispers of threats made long ago, a suffocating haze that puts you back in a darkened room with a single red light, flashes of vicious memories you are not sure are yours...

>You don't know how long you've been standing there. You don't know how long your mind has been toyed with, but it is certainly long enough. You look up, into a vent grate, and are certain you see eyes behind it. Eyes you recognise. Gamzee's eyes.

>Today isn't the day to start a fight. You wouldn't be able to win it. But neither would he- you know it. He gave you his warning, but you are sure he remembers your promise, too. The next time you see him, you will kill him.

>For now, though, with a racing heart and muddled mind and tears burning in your eyes, your throat, you leave, faster than expected. But still not fast enough. The moment you reach your own room, in the home where he found you sweeps ago, you cannot stop yourself from sobbing.

[absylphe]

It's one thing to make yourself up like a fake alien so you can be there for your friend before he goes in for surgery -- Sol had even gone out of his way to get you a little badge that says Medical Advocate, the sweet thing. So sentimental. Unfortunately, you're an 'alien' to these medicullers, and even then you have no papers documenting your experience in the field. Even if you did, they wouldn't hold much weight.

No, the only credential you have is this silly little laminated badge clipped to your blouse pocket, which makes you about as much of a mediculler as an emotional support barkfiend. Less than one, even -- at least the barkfiend has a fake certificate from a website with its name on it.

Your name is Kanaya Maryam, and you have way too many disorders and syndromes to be doing shit like breaking into a secure medical facility.

Sharp ears pin back by your head as you pass a pair of med techs gossiping beside the door to a store room -- someone was stood up on a date, it seems, and their entire perigee has been a solid slog of misery since then. Miraculously, you manage to get by without drawing attention, though your pulse soars as you round the corner.

You shake. Brace your arm against the wall and take a deep breath, pressing forward. A message flashes across the display of your sewing glasses. A flat red tone.

No one's noticed you. It's okay. Calm down.

The one nice thing about having Hal watching cameras for you is you know when there are med techs ahead, and you know that they're going to be too busy to notice you.

The one bad thing about it is the scrutiny, knowing someone is watching your every little move.

Just keep your back straight. You have the professional air.

A deep breath, signing quietly in the air with haptic gloves. It's something to do to get the nerves out, at least.

Yes Sorry

If you apologize to me again I'll hit the fire alarm.

You laugh under your breath, in spite of yourself. A catacomb of a medical facility where you stick out like a sore thumb where everyone towers over you -- your fingers move on their own, idly quipping something back, but you're not really thinking about it. You're thinking about take the next left turn, you're thinking about at your next right avoid the sanitation staff, you're thinking about slow your pace 20% if you want to avoid crossing paths with a pissy mediculler looking to pick a fight.

You stop yourself right before the hallway as said pissy mediculler rasps hoarsely under her breath, practically stomping around the corner -- ships passing in the night, a kayak and a brig of war. Your hands move idly as you move ever closer to your target, a suspicious block Dirk had identified off of the cameras.

Have You Ever Set Up One Of Those Voiceovers For Driving Assist In Two Hundred Feet Feint Left

Hahaha. I should. You miss the turn and I'm like You stupid bitch. You dumb motherfucker.

A last second warning pops up, you duck into a restroom as pair of surgeonnihilators bicker their way down the hall -- something about checking patient records for allergies before using general anesthesia, something about a lawsuit, something about incidental deaths. Fingers twitch nervously as you let yourself back out, trusting Hal enough to keep you safe that you don't bother looking both ways. You don't have time for that.

You reach your destination. The suspicious medblock Dirk picked out -- the one that's a little too small, the one that's a little bit strange. On confirmation from the cameras that it's empty inside, you let yourself in and click the door closed silently behind you.

Totally empty, aside from a bare whiff of that sickly, rotting smell that has been hanging over your friend like a plague. He was here, at least.

You home in on the shelves that were pointed out to you, prod this and that with your hands -- unsurprisingly, a hidden door falls open like an ill-kept secret. It's good that it's there, even though it's maddening that a hospital has such a thing. It just means the way forward is probably a lot more straightforward, from here.

A blip at the corner of your glasses -- an update from Dirk.

There's a ship that's been idle for a hot minute. I don't know what they'd be waiting on this long. Except for some high value cargo.

Your bilesac sinks like a stone as you stalk briskly down the tunnel.

Like maybe, a fuchsia.

So maybe you're not paranoid, maybe you're not crazy, maybe there is a conspiracy hiding behind the guise of this simple procedure.

It should have been a bog standard debridement, nothing in the abandoned files you found in the original medblock point to anything that would complicate the procedure. Sure, her white cell count is down, but her immune system isn't a complete crapshoot! Her vitals aren't in the best condition compared to her baseline, but they're hardly in a malignant state.

Is this an assassination attempt? Unlikely, at least one tyrian needs to be around to keep the great oceanic beast at bay.

A coup, then?

Whatever the case, you're not letting them take her. Not without a damned good reason.

Or a fight.

Oh fuck. Duck behind that barrel fast.

In an instant, you've flash-stepped behind a barrel, forehead tucked tight against the metal rim so your horns don't peek up and over the edge -- you hold your breath to stifle your bioluminescence, waiting to hear something, anything out of place.

One second, two seconds, five.

Nothing happens.

There wasn't any danger, I just wanted to see if you'd do it.

Your head whips around for the nearest camera and you flip it off with a scowl as you sprint by, trying to make up for lost time.

You're A Bastard

GREAT reaction time.

Maybe there's a second bad thing about being watched on the cameras.

[cyberneticlagomorph]

[Several pictures from inside Jack's weird underground dirt mansion.

The first picture is of several dozen children crowded around the hearth in Jack's kitchen, some of them are visibly human while others clearly used to be humans at one point or another, many of them are Jack's actual kids like Egg, Ambrose, or Lottie, all of them are wrapped in thick much loved quilts and are being silently harassed by a crowd of steaming tea pots with various limbs (paws, bird legs, bug legs, one has a pair of thin stick legs ending in tiny sneakers with untied laces) and their matching cups, spoons, and so on. Several of the kids are asleep or halfway there, soaking up the warmth and company. A fox faced child is hauling an inadvisably large platter piled impossibly high various sandwiches, followed diligently by a very familiar brown great dane.

Another image is of Jack's sheep in her barn, similarly snuggled up against the cold. An up close shot of the sheep shows many tiny faces peeking out of the sheeps' wool. A menagerie of gnomes, pixies, hob goblins and other such smallfolk are tucked in safe and warm on the backs of Jack's herd, or are sipping steaming milk from the multiple bowls set out around the barn. There are loaves of crusty bread and open jars of honey, jam, and other spreads for the visitors to snack on. Several of Jack's dogs are also host to the tiny visitors, their fur now intricately braided with beads, buttons, and feathers.

The last image is of Jack's hand flipping the bird at the empty yard beyond, his hand is joined by several of his partners, children, his mother, father in law, and a Goblin who is very happy to be included. ]

[jadeyharls]

And cue a grey blur and a Bones pup running under the bed again. Here we go again. "Hi I'm not here."

Cue a thumbs up from Jade before promptly going back to what she was doing. “Gotcha, not here. Let me know if you need anything.”

Was it weird this was a normal thing at this point? Maybe, but hey. She couldn’t blame the kid for needing a break from his siblings for a bit.

Especially the one that he’d mentioned was after him.

[scarredscales]

In the month since his initial arrival, Khaklos had adapted rather quickly to the dangers of this realm of nightmares -- as much as anyone could really be expected to, in any case. The domain really felt as if it was hostile to life itself outside of the twisted horrors it produced. Every waking hour, the almost colorless and bleak landscape greeted him, dimly illuminated by the baleful eye that emitted light in substitute of a moon -- sunlight did not touch this place.

He'd learned that there were somehow permanent residents of Efialtis in spite of everything that made it appear uninhabitable. The terrain, already treacherous, often shifted when eyes were turned away -- there was never a guarantee that the same paths would persist, that the same destinations would exist at the end of them. So the lizard-man tread with caution, treating his surroundings as if they were just as set on killing him as the wildlife seemed to be.

His vocation was one where he could spend long stretches of time making little contact with others, and he'd initially been wary of the inhabitants -- delaying approaching them for some time. When he did, the encounter nearly ended in disaster due to something he was only able to ascertain later -- the meat here was tainted, and eating it had made him lose his mind for a few hours. Fortunately, he'd stopped before he caused any harm to the pair. Small, scaleless and nearly furless creatures; they were far kinder to him than anything else here had been, even with their understandable wariness.

But he had not been inclined to overstay his welcome, making demands on the kindness of strangers.

Khaklos was not unfamiliar with survival in adverse conditions, in any case, but taking stock of his supplies now painted a grim picture. Even as an overprepared survivalist, he couldn't make his rations stretch much longer. He'd discovered through an exchange with one inhabitant that some flora here was edible, but he'd gagged at the texture and taste of what was given to him. He couldn't imagine a lifetime of eating only this.

All attempts at finding any way home -- or even just out -- had proven futile thus far, and his attention had gradually turned to another puzzle. One of the women had mentioned that she was missing companions -- her 'hoofbeasts'. He'd not seen a certain trace of either, but at times he found a patch of fur caught on a thistle that seemed too fine to belong to any of the night beasts he'd seen -- yet any trail always grew cold. It was as if Efialtis itself was keeping them hidden.

There had been a shift in the past few days. He could not have placed what exactly was different, but it felt as if he hadn't had to scrape to avoid the stalking terrors as much as he usually did. For once, it didn't feel as if they were constantly breathing down his neck. When his apparent change in fortune held, he felt emboldened enough to investigate when an unfamiliar scent caught his attention.

He was soon led to a glade in the seemingly endless barren forest that comprised much of Efialtis. There was a pit within where soft earth quickly gave way to stone, and the jutting rocks lining the interior resembled teeth to an almost unsettling degree.

There were times, while he had been here, that his senses had felt muddled, where he was unsure of what he felt. But this time, he was entirely certain. The scent he'd caught could only belong to an animal, and one quite alive. The thought of meat that wasn't dried and preserved made Khaklos start to salivate in anticipation. He paused at the chasm, sinking to a crouching position and continuing to scent the air with flicks of his forked tongue.

He paused there for a small handful of minutes. Blinking in a specific way into the dark beneath him triggered a change that might easily have been missed by an observer who wasn't watching quite closely -- a thin colorless lens descended from under each of his upper lids to cover his eyes, allowing him to make alterations to his vision. This way it mattered less how quickly the ambient light faded away into complete darkness beneath him. Various blinks allowed different lenses to swap in as he analyzed different traits of the crevice, information filtered to him from technology far more advanced than he'd seen any hint of here.

Entering a cave you knew nothing about was a very good way to die.

Eventually, Khaklos was satisfied with his survey, and with little fanfare, he leapt into the abyss, landing squarely on a jutting bit of rock some twenty feet down, solid enough to hold his weight. There continued to be a generous amount of clearance further down, enough that even with seven feet of height, his muscular tail and considerable bulk, there was nothing stopping his descent other than the need to find proper footholds. In very little time he found himself before a tunnel that proceeded more or less horizontally.

There was another lull in his movement as he investigated the passage ahead, but it didn't last nearly as long as the first. Hesitation held him in place for a moment after that. The space grew cramped rather quickly ahead, and he was uncertain whether the room was enough. Poking around a bit, he found a large stone that gave way when he shoved it, and that there was a decent amount of loose gravel.

With a steeling of nerves, he decided to proceed, finding himself needing to crawl along the ground and scrabble at the ground at the narrowest point to make it through. But make it through he did, and following the tunnel as it ascended gently, he was able to mostly remain standing as he continued, though at times he needed to duck. Thirty yards on it curved suddenly, sweeping to the right, and soon after that it opened into a massive open cavern.

He knew without looking what he'd found, just from scenting the air.

[tgrailwar-zero]

Rider, is your Revelation (False) skill giving you any guidance?

CONSTANTINE: "Not particularly. It's mostly guiding me towards Draco, but it isn't much for situational awareness. We are on the right path, by the way. That being said, this situation isn't particularly complex. You'll just need to carefully coordinate my actions with Invader, and we'll be smooth sailing."

PRETENDER: "Hm? So you're the type of Servant that skulks around, huh?" CONSTANTINE: "...Ignoring Pretender, these catacombs seem to be rather fragile. It would take precision to do so. Invader is certainly precise, but she has a habit of... overdoing things. I may not have her firepower, but that may be for the better. Let's call this an exercise in 'coordination', shall we?"

-

As an 'Action Post', Constantine tends to have less potential moves, but still contributes to the story via your choices!

This means that a careful coordination is key! Two (and potentially three) Servants fighting and acting in tandem can make you an incredibly powerful fighting force... and also quite dangerous.

[sequesteredequine]

💭 :3c

How long has it been since you've had his mouth on you? Way too long. He knows how to use it, and he's almost stubborn to let you do anything else. Sometimes you fantasize about disconnecting his limbs-- Really, does he still need the organic one? You can make him a matching set. He'd be so easy to bob up and down in your lap then.

Then again, it'd be a shame not to feel his fingers inside of you. Too many options-- Are you drooling?

[directactionforhope]

"There is a small panel of regulators in every state that holds a similar power over electricity generation and, by extension, an enormous segment of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. By setting electricity prices, they also have a substantial impact on most people’s lives and pocketbooks. Yet, in Georgia and elsewhere, these groups — known as public service or public utility commissions — get little attention or scrutiny outside of energy wonk circles. Their hearings and documents tend to be long and jargon-heavy, covered in the media by a small group of specialized reporters, making it hard to engage with the process. 

This year, Grist and WABE will try to demystify energy regulation in Georgia and beyond. We’ll bring you stories on not only how your power gets made, but how those decisions happen — and how residents who vote and pay electricity bills can get involved."

-via Grist, March 5, 2024. See link for more details (especially in Georgia) and more ways to get involved.

[edgarallen-foe]

[ edgarallen-foe has blocked @plasticross ! ]

[tekras-iszovh]

>[lockout]

A warning flashes on Tekras' dashboard, indicating something he's long feared, yet never assumed was possible. An interloper brings his long needed influence upon the story. Tekras stumbles into a temporarily undesirable situation. The plot advances - it's been a while.

[equiuszahhak]

> -- [ You remove the blue contact from your eye. Just the one, and that one is jade. You think about Maryam, Kanaya, How her name was stolen and what she has turned into. Sometimes you wonder where in her busy world you still fit.

The reflection stares back, green and blue. You study the lines in your face-- you're so old now. Maryam was one of your first friends here. She knew you before, as you knew her before.

You wander, are you the same people? Are you even trolls anymore? ]

@mysticalseamstress