#allaince commander

[iruthomlogs]

LGBT Pride: Magic lessions

A World of Warcraft fanfiction featuring my character Amelia Rashwrencher and her girlfriend Celene, whose appear in my story Empty Shell, in a entry for @thepromptfoundry Pride and Promptudice prompt magic.

Celene Treefeather awaken with a scream as she remember the fire that covered Darnassus and close in on her, the nightmare place her soul was taken, and her eyes look around to find herself in a strange location with two Forsaken looking at her as one of them comment, "Wow, I'm surprised that these new Darkfallen are huge screamers. Someone get Amelia. She will get this, while I go check on the other ones." Celene is scared about what they are talking about before she noticed her skin is grey and she can't feel her heartbeat, giving her the realization that Celene is raised as a undead, one of them.

The female Forsaken is wearing some mage adventurer gears and have long hair as she said to Celene, "Greetings, my name is Amelia Rashwrenceher, and I'm your teacher on how to use magic when you has been raised as a undead like me." Celene don't know if she should trust this woman given that the Horde, along with her undead kind, kill her and many Kalodrei.

Over time, Celene start to get better in her studies in maigc under Amelia's watch and the two start to get close. Amelia think she finally find the perfect girlfriend, but Amelia feel Celene wouldn't accept her due to the fact that Amelia was one of the many soldiers under the Dark Lady command to burn down Darnassus, Celene's home, and Celene may not like women the same way as Amelia do.

A few months after the start of their training in magic, Celene noticed a sad look on Amelia's face and the undead Kalodrei ask Amelia, "Is something wrong, Amelia?" and the female Forsaken said to Celene, "Sorry... It's just... I don't know if you had a boyfriend or a husband... I thinking some silly things..." and Celene ask, "Why do you think I'm into men?" A surprised Amelia said, "What.... I thought.... the fact that I hear you Kalodrei get paired..." and Celene reply, "Yeah, it is true that most Kaldorei are paired in a male-female relationship, but we accept same-sex romantic relationship, with a male Kalodrei offer to be the father of a child of two Kaldorei women. We are connected to the freedom of nature and there is no rules about who you can love in nature. When we joined the Allaince, then-leader Fandral Staghelm order us to hide our same-sex romance, even outlaw it, to get in the humans' good side in case they don't accept it. When Malurion return and recalmed his role from Fandral, we can finally choose who we can love, and I hear that some Kaldorei take Worgens, Gilneans, and different species as lovers, no matter if they are the same gender or not. Well, I was free to have a romantic relationship with before I got killed." Amelia said to Celene, "Sorry about that." and then ask her, "D-Do you... want to be my lover?" The undead Kaldorei reply, "Sure. You look sad and need a lifebond compansion." and the two women lock lips with each other, kissing with passion.

[brineffxiv]

Holy hell, that tower.

And it's just there. You can see it. From the opposite side of the bloody map.

Okay, okay. Write a proper post now...

In Limsa we meet with several of the Alliance's leaders. The plan has been made: we are taking the war to Garlemald. A contingent of elite soldiers will use our newly acquired warding scales to invade the Empire's capital and bring aid to the tempered Garlean populace.

While I trust your intentions, Nanamo, I do not in general trust a foreign government invading a nation with which they have been at war, claiming to be bringing "aid." But then, this is a video game and not real life. Perhaps it is what it says.

Our other target is the colossal tower (that tower holy FUCK) that used to be the Imperial Palace. Because that thing... That thing's bad news.

In Ala Mhigo we confer with Raubahn and Aymeric, who confess that our aid mission is not popular with either of their respective populaces. We also speak with Gaius, who wishes dearly to join us but who regrettably cannot due to both being accused of Varis' murder and his position as a former legatus making him a candidate for a new leader. Maxima will instead be accompanying us.

It turns out that Lucia will be the leader of the Ilsabard Contingent! And what a crowd she will be leading; representatives from all five of the Eorzean Allaince nations (many familiar faces from my class quests among them! How delightful!) as well as several of the Eastern Alliance!

Oh it is so wonderful to see so many old friends in the spotlight again. Brings a happy tear to my eye.

Sadu and Cirina are gal pals. I don't make the rules. They make my little shipper heart happy.

Suddenly, a wild Tataru appears! To provide all us Scions with hand-made winter coats to keep us warm in frigid Garlemald.

...Liar. That's the battle light. Trying to trick me, are you? Lull me into a false sense of security? Well joke's on you. The "several cutscenes" warning puts me on guard like nothing else.

Ah, Emet, what do you have to tell me about Garlemald? You would know it best, I'd imagine. At least, as it was before the Telophoroi got to it.

Really fucking cold? Yeah, I got that. Time to freeze my tail off, I suppose.

Our first obstacle on the road to the capital? Tempered Imperials. Comprised of members of both the Ist and IIIrd legions who had been the main instigators of the civil war, the IIIrd supporting Nerva and the Ist... not. (Who exactly was the Ist supporting??) Are we ever going to meet Nerva? I assume he's not dead yet, but is he tempered is the real question...

Anyway.

Thancred's group will disable and explode the magitek in the nearby depot to create a diversion while we guide the supply convoy through.

Unfortunately this means I must play as Thancred again. Oh boy, and it's a stealth mission this time.

I am less than good at stealth.

Alisaie and I are guarding the rear of the supply carriages, when the blizzard clears and we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by Imperials. It's all we can do to disable them without killing them.

I really enjoyed this fight sequence. Very nice and tense, but not as stressfully difficult as Thancred's section was. Perfectly balanced for a story scene.

Once the fight is well in hand for our side I make for the front to join the vanguard where my friends are contending with the main force of Imperials and their commander: Vergilia.

Nice design. I wonder if she'll be in any way important after we cure her of her tempering?

Oof. That's the first good look I get of that tower. That thing is creeeepy. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Fuck. Look at the city.

Wait, that's a road. Like, a modern road. Do the Garleans have cars!? Like. Civilian cars?!

...I find it fascinating that even after living an entire life in Solus' body, Emet-Selch never came to think of himself as Solus. Even now, in reflection, he sees it as playing a role. It makes me wonder... It makes me wonder a great many things... And this is really not the place for them, but you see, I have a one-track mind. And we're in Garlemald. The empire he built and ruled.

...

Here at last.

[lyristano]

Theron knows everytime what to say 😂

[mach-speed-spin]

I fininshed Beywarriors Cyborg and I have a lot to talk about

(spoiler warning for an 8 year old show)

Let’s get the bad out of the way first

The art and animation is sub-par. They did what they could but the low budget affects the animation (the 3d animation is good though). It’s nothing distracting, but gifs of the series would not come out well

The 2 specials, Past and Future, were by far the worst episodes. While I appreciate that they expand on the lore of the series, we already get a condensed version of it before, so it feels pointless if you watch it in release order (with these prequel episodes after the rest of the series). If you plan on watching, I recommend starting with these 2 episodes since they’re prequels (despite Future’s episode title)

The specials focus on Ramon, who as a character desperately needed more screentime to develop, so that’s nice. But the focus on Bran doesn’t work. Bran is a great villain because of how he forces other characters to grow as people. Bran excels at amplifying existing internal conflict, but Ramon has no major character flaws nor any internal stuggle so he faces Bran as a purely physical threat

Zed is my only other complaint. Bran wasn’t interesting but he manipulated other characters by exploiting their flaws which made him an effective villain. Zed for most of the story just seems to be Bran’s servant. The decision to make Zed the final boss doesn’t really work because no one had any personal conflict with Zed, other than him being an ally of Bran who everyone has a vendetta against. It doesn’t help that Zed has even less personality than Bran, and the only interesting thing about Zed is his bey

The good (aka everything else about the series)

With the exception of Hydro, every nation gets introduced very early on and we get to see their relations. They could’ve easily made the democratic nation of Lightning the “good guys” facing an imperialist monarchy and a military dictatorship, but they add more nuance to it. We see how the king of Sunburst is xenophobic, but is also against classism, being the only one in his kingdom to accept a “commoner” as a battler. We learn of how the rulers of Sunburst were overthrown in a coup and fled their planet, with the ones that overthrew them founding Flame. Every nation, despite some sounding horrible on paper, are developed in a way that makes you root for every one of them, and that no matter who wins a battle, it’s sad because the other country lost

Character dynamics within nations are also great. In Lightning, we have the main character Nico, who is very level-headed, and his parnter Al, who rushes into situations without thinking. Flame is in my opinion the most interesting, as we see the changing dynamics, with Commander Homura initially being loyal to General Vargas, before realizing he’s more focused on national pride than actually helping, and forms an allaince with Lightning behind his back. The scene where everyone in Flame turns on Vargas is incredibly satisfying

Battles themselves are varied. At first we start with 1v1 matches and we see the difference in fighting styles. The first battle we see puts Spark Dragoon vs Flame Kerbecs. Kerbecs has fireballs and claws, making it effective at both short and long range. Dragoon can fly and has an extending sword, making it effective at medium range. Then we have Iron Minotaurus vs Saber Lion. Minotaurus is effecfive at medium range with flails and has a smokescreen, while Saber Lion is effective at long range with its many projectile attacks. After a while, we see different environments for the battles, like an area where sand tornadoes occur, or a battle in a dark cave. And then we get team matches, and secondary warriors (summoning another bey mid-battle)

Angst is plentiful and handled extremely well. August’s breakdown is a perfect representation of what a lifetime high expectations can do to a person’s mental state. Seeing Sid and Gai give it their all to be respected by their peers and still failing hurts, but the moment when Gai decides to save people, knowing they don’t like him, and the moment Sid fights alonside Jean and Gere as equals are made so much better because of the failures that came before. And one of my favorite lines is August’s “Can I still start over?” before Marius cries on his shoulder

Characters manage to say things that make me reconsider past actions. And it’s not in a “here’s information regarding a character’s actions that you didn’t know before.” It’s “here’s facts you already know but those facts don’t line up with the presented narrative.” Nico’s verbal beatdown of August was glorious. When August says he joined Bran to save his people and Nico points out that August could’ve made the entire planet (including his people) prosper without Bran, and that August only helped Bran because of his hatred of Flame and how August cared more about his country being better than all the others than he cared about his country’s own quality of life

Bran is a great villain. He only works because others have character flaws that he exploits and amplifies and that makes him great. August’s nationalism is exploited by Bran, who lures him in with “I’ll wipe out the other countries and give your country a whole planet.” Bran also lures in Gai with “I’ll make you invinvible and you’ll never feel powerless again. And with that power, people will start admiring you.” Gai’s need to be seen as a powerful lone wolf who doesn’t need help is a great character flaw that, when amplified by Bran, makes the whole thing even better

The ost is great. It gives Star Wars vibes sometimes

The background art. While the character art isn’t that great, the backgrounds + sound design make the places feel so calming. I’d love to just be inside the beauty that is Sunburst’s throne room, or Hydro’s garden, or even Gere’s training room

Random thoughts

Who the hell was the target audience? Beyblade usually aims somewhere from 7 to15, with seasons like G-Revolution being 13-15 and Burst season 1 around 7-12. Cyborg is clearly meant to be “safe for kids” yet the whole plot is about geopolitics and nationalism and the lack of jokes/gags makes this very likely not “made to appeal to kids.” It’s like someone pitched a series for teens and/or adults and some executive went “put the Beyblade name on it and make it TV-Y7″

The main character is Nico and the planet is Teslandia. Nikola Tesla reference. And Nico’s partner is Al, like Thomas Alva Edison (they could’ve just named him Tom)

All the nations are named after elements (sans Sunburst, which represents light), but also energy sources. Flame’s electricity is likely generated via fossil fuels, since they drill for oil. Sunburst is specified to use solar panels. Lightning has windmills. Hydro is the only place on the planet with water (everyone else buys water from Hydro), so they could use hydroelectric power. Stone is built underground because they rely on geothermal energy

Teslandia’s natives have really long life spans. Bran attacked Teslandia around one thousand years before the first episode. Ramon was a kid when Bran attacked, and is a teenager during the series. So 1,000 teslandian years = 7 human years. Bran showed no sings of aging but he can alter his appearence to look like different species so he can probably hide signs of aging

I never expected Beyblade to do any political commentary beyond the og series and “the European Union team lacks teamwork” which may or may not be an allegory. Here we get themes of how nationalism causes a net loss for everyone and a possible allegory for climate change (possible, but not as explicit as the nationalism themes)

“Can I still start over?” is such an emotional line. The context and delivery make it better, but on its own it’s still so good. It’s like “Is it too late for me to change?” but more hopeful

Fuck you Vargas and I’m glad you were impeached. And the council meeting in the finale having the guy that first stood up to you representing Flame while you’re completely absent was deserved

Gai giving his bey to a kid in the finale is a nice character moment but is highly irresponsible. Minotaurus can cause cave ins

Bran and Zed are canon aliens. Take that Phi and Hearts you possible-but-not-confirmed aliens

[tea-mew96]

On the whole Megatron saying Predacon Allaince will bow down before Rubber Ducky, I can only imagine the Tripedcius Council reaction and conversation to that.

They’re experiencing a lot of emotions.

Angry that Megatron is going against their commands/plans.

Vengeful as they want to make sure Megatron pays the price for his disobedience.

Confused as to where Megatron got a rubber ducky and how/why it got such significance to be bowed down to.

[amollion]

Newcomers Pt 9

Pt 9

Communication with the Gal was strictly forbidden by the Alliance High command, when Humanity had inquired as to why they simply said that the Gal's communicated by a telepathic link that could kill instantly. The Humans though, ever the curious ones and suspicious ones did not quite believe the Elong who seemed to hold the majority of the power in the Alliance. So in secret they captured a number of Gal in an attempt to study and communicate. Some of what the Elong said was true although exaggerated, the Gal's telepathic nature when directed at a Human caused intense headaches and mild hallucinations. Painful and frightening but hardly fatal. Many put this down to Humanity odd resilience to various things the other races in the Alliance were not. Somewhat it was true but no other race really every tried to speak to the Gal and it would seem that not even the Humans could connect their minds with them. But, unlike the other races, Humanity had many forms of communication, speech alone was a very small part of how they communicated, there was tone, emphasis on various words, what context they were used in, who was speaking, who was present, gestures, facial expression, stance and countless more. But also, sign language. The Gal's body was mainly a collection of tentacles and they could easily mimic the shape of a Human hand. They picked up on it quickly and soon were having whole conversations, what they told the Humans was worrying.

The Gal were genetically engineered and created by the Elong centuries ago to be their army, they serve faithfully but mainly because the Elong had the Nerve, which is what bound them all together. Without it they would be lost and mindless, in a sense the Gal had no individuals, they shared memories and experiences, they were all the Nerve and the Nerve was all of them. After so long of the Gal being used as slave warriors the Nerve executed it's own escape and fled into the void. The Alliance having lost their army found a new race, the Benemar to be their army and they hunted them down. But that was not all, Humanity had been told that the Alliance forbid the ownership of other sentient creatures as property. The wording was the key, the Alliance could simply classify a race non sentient and conquer their world and enslave the population.

The Gal, being very empathetic sought their freedom and launched raids into Alliance territory, mainly to keep their attention away from the many other sentient races that surrounded the Alliance's boarders. But Humanity's appearance had been a game changer, the Gal could overwhelm the Benemar with their great numbers unless they were heavily dug in. The Humans though could not only best a Gal but a great many before they were slain.

This revelation of the Gal's true nature came shortly before the liberation of Remer with the Humans and Gal had been in negotiations for some time as the Humans wished to verify the Gal's accusations. It was not to hard to find, Chamo troops who wore heavily advanced armour that could make them almost invisible infiltrated the Alliances core worlds, worlds Humanity had so far been not allowed to visit. What they found appalled them the Alliance was no grand state that protected it's members, it enslaved them. Worse yet, documents were found that betrayed their future plans. They were trying to start a war between the Benemar and the Humans so that the Humans could take their place as enslaved soldiers of the Allaince. This was the final straw, slavery was something Humanity cannot and will not tolerate on any level. Their leaders flew into a rage at this revelation, by this time the Benemar were about to besiege Terra and with a simple yes the alliance between the Gal and the Humans was formed. The Elong and their own “Alliance” would feel retribution.

“Gal?!” captain Clerk exclaimed “Really?” he was speaking to the Admiral over the com, a Gal was also present on the screen.

“We are ready to bring the Elong to justice and to fight alongside Humanity” the Gal signed, all Humans knew sign language as it was taught to them all growing up.

“And you are sure this information on the Elong is correct” Clerk asked.

“I too have my reservations” Captain Kiev added his own voice.

“It has all been verified by our special forces, we have been lied to” Admiral Winston said.

“Then what about the rest of our fleets” he asked “And I assume this is not all of your ships?” he said addressing the Gal.

“Our fleets are joining more Human fleets and gathering on the boarder” he signed.

“If the Admiral if happy with this arrangement then I shall protest no further”

“Well then” Clerk said satisfied himself, shall we burn Bento Prime”

“Race you to the surface” the Gal joked and signed the motion for laughter which made Clerk smile, he suddenly felt very guilty over the battle on Remer where he and his soldiers had killed a great many of them. Oddly though the Gal felt no anger towards the Humans about this or about any of the battles they had against each other. Humans and Gal may not be able to link minds but the Gal were very empathic and could sense the feelings of others often better than they themselves could. They knew that the Humans were truly guilty over what they had done and angry at being manipulated. The Gal knew exactly how they felt.

The fleets began their approach to Bento Prime and the trio of High chiefs all quite literally shit themselves.

The first waves were of bombers and fighter craft they probed the Benemar defences testing their reaction times and trying to find weaknesses. The Gal and their organic based ships would fire seeds which carried their warrior caste Gal. The Humans had been quickly briefed on the nature of the Gal and their different sub species. There were artillery Gal, that were full of combustible chemicals that they could fire over great distances from a cannon like muscle on their backs, These were some of the largest of their kind. Next were the guard Gal, they were not as big as the artillery but their armour was far greater they had huge shields about their heads that could absorb incoming fire as was their role in battle. They were quite effective but once the Gal encountered the Humans found themselves rather useless, the Humans rifles could not penetrate their armour but Humans were just as or even more deadly than Gal at close quarters where their main advantage lies. Next were the grunt Gal, these were the common foot soldier and numbered in the millions, they had little to no ranged capabilities but with their many tentacles, even more so than the others they could overcome most opponents if not by themselves then with force of numbers.

The Gal sent forth their seeds alongside the Human fighters and bombers and the Benemar defences opened up, they had done their preparations well and in the opening volley hundreds of Human craft were shot down and many more Gal seed pods each containing dozens or more Gal.

The fleet came in closer to bring more of their guns to bare and to give their craft more cover fire, now the platforms were torn between engaging the fleet or the incoming craft and pods. This paid off as the Gal seeds impacted the platforms and stations and began slaughtering their crews.  Human soldiers did not like boarding actions and was often considered a major weakness and that they were timid in fleet battles. The main reason was really a simple one, they did not like entering enclosed hostile spaces, this did not mean they wouldn't but they would only do so really if they had at least some knowledge of the ships interior. Since that information was not present to them the Gal took the lead on boarding actions.

“All forward gun concentrate fire on the central station” Admiral Winston ordered his ships. The central station was the largest one in the formation and it's destruction would open a sizeable hole in their defences. The ships then began to converge and direct their fire towards it, it had a spectacular array or heavy guns for fighting battleships but against the smaller fighter and bombers it was found wanting and the Humans bombers reaped a bloody toll on it's systems.

But it was still a vastly powerful station and it opened up it's weaponry onto the approaching fleet. It main cannons struck a number of the Gal's central ships that helped the Gal keep contact with on another through the Nerve. They became disoriented and the Humans moved to help protect these ships.

The stations third weapons array fell first, destroyed by a bomber that got through the stations fighter defence. It had now lost a quarter of it's fire power, without the array the guns could not aim and would fire blind and hit lord knows what. But they fired anyway and some lucky hits were scored. By the time the fleet was within optimal fire range the Human fleet had lost 6 ships and Gal had lost 11. One of the Human losses came when a shell from the station hit it's engine and it flew helplessly into another ship.

Finally it was struck by boarding seeds and the Gal began flooding the station, the Humans halted fire so as not to kill their new allies but the Gal told them it was okay, they do not see death as a problem as their minds would be reborn into another body by the Nerve.

The Gal flooded the corridors and rooms of the station, the Benemar fought back as hard as they could but the Gal's biology meant they were perfectly fitted for this enclosed combat. This along with the fleet continuing to fire meant the station was about to fall.

The Benemar defence fleet tried to intervene but were kept away by Kiev's fleet which was although smaller was blocking the approached with expertly aimed and timed volleys. Clerk was performing a flanking manoeuvre on the other end of the defences, somehow he had manged to get his ships behind them and thus out of range. The defence platforms were large and heavy things, even in the void moving them was difficult and sometimes clumsy so Clerk was managing to pick them off with minimal losses.

The High Chiefs could do nothing but watch as their defences that had been built up for over a century were picked apart one by one. As a whole the defence grid would be considered unbreakable to a single attacker but the combination of the Gal and Humans and how their forces oddly seemed to compliment each other meant that the defence platforms could not as effectively repel them. Across Bento Prime the Benemar began to prepare, this time they would not let the Humans swarm across the planet like last time. This time they would slaughter them as they touched Benemar soil.

The dug their ditches to hinder the Gal and build gun points inside cliffs and on open fields to destroy the approaching Humans, a lot of it was guess work as these two armies had never worked together. How will they attack? Separately letting one army go forth first then one from the other? Or combine their armies which was unlikely as their forms of fighting were different.

The salves were all locked in their pens but some remarked how oddly calm but they quickly dismissed it as below their concerns what their slaves think.

On the horizon the Benemar froze as they saw balls of flame hitting the ground, some thought it was meteors or falling debris. But those who were wiser saw them for what they were. Gal seeds and Human pods.

The invasion had begun.

[lyristano]

Today we begin a new era.The age of the Eternal Alliance!